[1.12] Extraplanetary Launchpads v6.99.3

[taniwha]

DivisionByZero: Wow, thank you. I've had trouble finding that information.

However, units for Kethane converter inputs are in resource units, so that 3.484u/s translates to 95.81kg/s of ore. By your figures, that's 13.8MW: nowhere near as scary as if the inputs were in tons, but still a scary amount.

That said, if I make the smelter consume appropriate amounts of liquid fuel (generally assumed to be RP-1) and oxidizer (at a starved ratio, probably half that of an engine), then it should be very achievable. It was just this sort of balanacing that has delayed the "release" of Aeon Phoenix's new smelter.

[taniwha]

Jim3535: right click on your command pod to check its productivity. I suspect it's 0 or negative. If so, you will net to get a smarter kerbal in it.

[DivisionByZero]

Taniwha: I'm happy to help. Without getting farther than your part file for the smelter, the units involved were mysterious to me.

If you want input for other reactions, let me know.

[Jim3535]

taniwha: There is no productivity indicator on the command pod. I tried reinstalling; still no luck. One of my screenshots shows the right click menu on the command pod.

[zephrylia]

Would someone mind clarifying for me the difference between the "Launchpad" and "Launch Pad 2"? I can see that LP2 has engines, fuel, reaction wheels, and EC and monoprop storage. Are then any differences other than that? Put another way - why would I want to use one rather than the other? Does one or the other support larger ship builds? Do people have fewer bugs with one versus the other? Sorry for the kind of basic question - I did try searching the thread for an answer, but didn't really find one. Thanks!

[taniwha]

Convenience and aesthetics. At this stage, EL makes no distinction between any pad or the orbital dock: according to the code, they're all one and the same.

[taniwha]

Jim3535: Ah, sounds like you do not have Module Manager installed. You need it for pods to automatically become workshops (albeit of poor quality). I've updated the first post to reflect this (I forgot when adding mod links before).

Edited March 29, 2014 by taniwha

[BudgetHedgehog]

In its simplest form, you have it all set. Those things just need to all be on the same craft or set of crafts with a ferry to carry the stuff around. There are two ways to do it:

Land everything on your planet, in an ore field. "Everything" is a drill, a smelter, a rocket workshop, and at least one container each for ore, metal, and rocket parts, and finally a launch pad or (my personal favorite) orbital assembly port. You don't need to land one huge ship with all of these things but on small worlds like Gilly or Pol it's not impossible. If you land them sepearately, though, you will need to dock them together on the ground (which frankly is harder than just giving up on the whole thing and resigning yourself to launching everything from Kerbin) or install Kerbal Attachment System and hook things together with pipes. Once you've hooked everything up, start the drills, furnace, and rocket factory and you should start getting rocket parts.

Another option is to land part of the assemblage on the planet, and then truck a resource up to orbit where you do the rest of the job. I personally like to do everything up to rocket parts on the surface and then use a shuttle to bring those parts up to an orbital station where I build my ships. Though in the newest version you may want to truck Metal up instead as recycling turns things into Metal.

Thank you, very helpful. What does each 'thing' require? I read the smelter requires fuel, obviously it all requires electricity.. how does the recycler work? I'm holding off downloading this until the ARM update (as I do with all mods that add parts - wait until the current tree is done. Seeing as ARM update is coming soon, I don't really feel like starting a new save just yet)

[Tex_NL]

Thank you, very helpful. What does each 'thing' require? I read the smelter requires fuel, obviously it all requires electricity.. how does the recycler work? I'm holding off downloading this until the ARM update (as I do with all mods that add parts - wait until the current tree is done. Seeing as ARM update is coming soon, I don't really feel like starting a new save just yet)

Auger uses electricity to produce ore. (Only when you're landed on a spot that contains ore of course.)

Smelter consumes electricity and ore to produce metal.

Workshop consumes electricity and metal to produce rocket parts.

Launchpad consumes electricity and uses rocket parts to construct craft.

Once the recycler is activated ANYTHING!! that comes close to it is converted into metal. Any fuel left in the craft is recovered. The amount of metal you'll get is based on the weight (with a maximum of what you're able to store at that moment).

The recycler effect is instant and definite. Be careful; it also 'recycles' Kerbals! Best to deactivate it after you're done.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Hmm... so if I'm lucky enough to have an ore field overlap with a kethane field.. I could have the kethane drill making fuel to put in the constructed ships, a skycrane to plop things into the recycler, a kethoelectric generator to help power the whole lot.. A steady supply of sacrificial kerbals, maybe? Oh god, I could turn into a monster

Sweet jesus, I could get a whole base up and running.. combined with that modular Kolonisation mod, it's one step towards colonising the entire solar system!

Quick question: how big are these parts, the recycler, smelter and everything.. able to fit under fairings? Playing with FAR poses some interesting challenges.. Oh and regarding the recycler, how close is "close"? I saw the picture earlier in the thread, looks like a hopper on top, do the things go in there?

[taniwha]

The smelter is a cow to work with. I highly recommend building one on-site rather than flying it there. Same for the augers. Everything else works reasonably well.

[BudgetHedgehog]

How would I build one on-site? It appears to be essential to the building process..

[Starstrider42]

How would I build one on-site? It appears to be essential to the building process..

Ship up enough RocketParts to do it. You can launch any resource you like from Kerbin, it's just less fuel-efficient.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Ahhh, I see. No doubt I'll get the hang of it all once I actually start playing it. I can't wait! Thank you for the help, all of you!

[taniwha]

Metal is probably the most efficient resource to ship. Also, if you ship a recycling bin, you can recycle your transports for metal .

[Chaosratt]

So I have an interesting issue. Moved a station to the Mun with about 5k of rocket parts to finish constructing itself. Upon building a few empty fuel cans and a small workerbee/tug I noticed that builds were not consuming rocketparts. I could not build anything needing more than the amount I had (~5k), but they were never removed. Upon building an empty metal can (to being recycling the delivery engines/vehicles) it was spawned full, even though I specifically put the slider to 0.

I recall a popup the first time I loaded the save after I updated to 4.0, but do not recall what I selected.

Here is my config, or at least what I think the EL config is:

	SCENARIO
	{
		name = ExSettings
		scene = 5, 6, 9, 8, 7
		Settings
		{
			ForceResourceUse = True
			TimedBuilds = True
			ShipInfo
			{
				rect = 1285,38,300,409
				visible = True
			}
			BuildWindow
			{
				rect = 0,0,0,0
				visible = True
				link_lfo_sliders = True
			}
		}
	}

Edited March 29, 2014 by Chaosratt

[impwarhamer]

Chaosratt: is kethane installed? i know you used to require it to use up parts

Obsessedwithksp: I'd recommend looking at BahaumoD's parts: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/70325

[BudgetHedgehog]

OK, confession time.. I got so excited to try this out, I installed it and started playing in sandbox with it. Seems fairly simple.. am worried about the part count stacking up though. And I grabbed Baha's models (as well as the other smelter) and I must say, they are terrifically made. Props to him, for sure.

Here's to the start of an era in Kerbol Kolonisation!

[Tinweasele]

Sorry but i couldnt find anywhere in the thread that describes how to cancel a current ship building. Any pointers?

[taniwha]

Tinweasele: It's not yet implemented, but it is on my todo list.

[Tex_NL]

@ taniwha

Not sure if you're already aware of this but I've found a huge possible exploit in this mod:

Launch a small ship capable of reaching a distant destination to low Kerbin orbit. Make sure it is equipped with a small amount of rocket parts and an orbital construction node.

Design a huge, single piece space station. (Anything too big to move will do.)

Start building your huge station in orbit and keep supplying your small craft with the necessary rocket parts.

Pause the build at 99.9%.

Even though you have an nearly complete space station 'hiding' inside the total weight and dV of your small ship hasn't changed. It is still capable of reaching its destination.

At your desired destination continue the build and POOF you have an instant space station.

[taniwha]

Tex_NL: Ah, heh, yeah, that's because I didn't think to conserve mass as rocket parts are consumed. Somebody else pointed out that little issue, but this rather interesting exploit didn't occur to me. It will be fixed in the next version.

[Tex_NL]

Perhaps you could dynamically increase/decrease the weight of the launchpad to compensate.

[Chaosratt]

Chaosratt: is kethane installed? i know you used to require it to use up parts

Yep.

@taniwha:

I've noticed that with Kethane that my ships/stations gain mass as they convert Kethane to LFO. Not exactly thermodynamics friendly, but whatever. Maybe with EL you can make a decision that rocket parts, ore, and metal are x units per ton, then base your conversion ratios around the weight/mass rather than units. That way mass tends to to be converted (or even lost slightly do to inefficiencies) with each conversion step.

[taniwha]

Chaosratt: The lack of mass conservation is purely an oversight.I've already got it fixed locally, but it needs some more tweaks as KSP does not expect vessels to be shifting their CoM while on rails. No nasties have resulted from it yet, but the camera motion does get a little surprising (shifting to the appropriate place after leaving warp).

Also, I already have the resource units setup appropriately. The problem is that as RocketParts is consumed, the corresponding mass goes into hyperspace until it pops out in the form of a ship. I have made the pad adjust its mass directly to represent the mass of the ship, even though you can't see it.