[WIP] Nert's Dev Thread - Current: various updates

[WarriorSabe]

Are there plans for bigger fusion or antimatter fuel tanks? Getting enough to realize the full potential of something like the Cascade or Frisbee ends up needing a lot of tanks and looks kinda janky with tons of little ones, and there aren't any that even fit on the Hammertong.

Also, is the antimatter storage ring supposed to be massively worse than the containers? I get it's a lower tech one and is cheaper, but I feel like it should have some advantage - better energy efficiency comes to mind as a potential option. Like, it's heavier, bulkier, and less efficient than all the other ones so even if you're just using it for a Casaba you'd be better off using one of the high-capacity tanks and just not filling it much, aside from cost.

Edited December 15, 2020 by WarriorSabe

[toric5]

so I just tried to use a fusion reactor to sustain AM containment. I seems like the fusion reactors dont save their running status through save/load.

build a craft with a fusion reactor (I did use adequate cooling), charge it, and turn it on. f5/f9, and the reactor is now off and needs charging again.

[wafflemoder]

Two things I noticed about the FX-2 and FX-3 fusion reactors that may not be the intended behavior:

1) D-He3 mode consumes 10 times as much fuel as D-D mode, but only puts out twice as much power.

2) Assuming I did the math correct, the specific energy of the D-D and D-He3 fuel cycles are less than that of enriched uranium in the NFE reactors. 

For this, I used a two part formula. One for finding the energy per unit of fuel (generated power/ fuel use), and the other for converting in game units to kg (mass/units)

- The NFE reactors give fuel specific energies between approximately 78 to 131 GJ/kg, varying between the reactors (which interestingly gives electrical efficiencies of around 3-5% for 3.5% enriched uranium)

- In D-D fusion mode, the FX2 and FX3 have fuel specific energies of 23 and 28 GJ/kg respectively, between a third and fifth that of NFE reactors. Interestingly though there is still a use case for the D-D reactors despite their lower specific power (not counting radiators) and fuel specific energies than the NFE reactors, and that is that their fuel is comparatively inexpensive.

- In D-He3 mode, the FX2 and FX3 have lower fuel specific energies of just 7.3 and 9.1 GJ/kg, although the high specific power makes them useful either way.

Hope this helps

Edited December 15, 2020 by wafflemoder

[Nertea]

12 hours ago, toric5 said:

so I just tried to use a fusion reactor to sustain AM containment. I seems like the fusion reactors dont save their running status through save/load.

build a craft with a fusion reactor (I did use adequate cooling), charge it, and turn it on. f5/f9, and the reactor is now off and needs charging again.

Good find - that's been around for a while, but it looks like an easy fix. 

16 hours ago, WarriorSabe said:

Are there plans for bigger fusion or antimatter fuel tanks? Getting enough to realize the full potential of something like the Cascade or Frisbee ends up needing a lot of tanks and looks kinda janky with tons of little ones, and there aren't any that even fit on the Hammertong.

No not really. Just... more work. Don't want more work right now when I'm trying to hand off the mod. 

16 hours ago, WarriorSabe said:

Also, is the antimatter storage ring supposed to be massively worse than the containers? I get it's a lower tech one and is cheaper, but I feel like it should have some advantage - better energy efficiency comes to mind as a potential option. Like, it's heavier, bulkier, and less efficient than all the other ones so even if you're just using it for a Casaba you'd be better off using one of the high-capacity tanks and just not filling it much, aside from cost.

I can look at it again but yes, it is really meant only be used for entry-level. 

2 hours ago, wafflemoder said:

1) D-He3 mode consumes 10 times as much fuel as D-D mode, but only puts out twice as much power.

Good find! This used to be automatically normalized to mass, when I rewrote the module I think I neglected to adjust it. 

2 hours ago, wafflemoder said:

2) Assuming I did the math correct, the specific energy of the D-D and D-He3 fuel cycles are less than that of enriched uranium in the NFE reactors. 

Ehhh... you're probably right but if you look at that kind of thing across my mods, you're going to find far worse realism issues. The initial rates were chosen to allow a certain amount of runtime off a small tank that didn't seem too arduous. 

[coyotesfrontier]

[WarriorSabe]

4 hours ago, Nertea said:

No not really. Just... more work. Don't want more work right now when I'm trying to hand off the mod. 

Alright, I get that. There's just also a problem with partcount - I tried to actually make proper use of a Frisbee and my computer just completely hates me now because I had to stick 660 antimatter tanks on. You need 36 of them for each of the big round hydrogen tanks.

Also, separate issue, my heat production isn't going down as I increase the length of the thing, though I think I'm a version behind right now.

Turns out, laptops and 1260 part ships don't mix

[toric5]

4 hours ago, Nertea said:

Good find - that's been around for a while, but it looks like an easy fix.

developing the same craft (switched to nuke reactor), and found another one. the bussard scoop doesnt seem to work. screenie and log attached.