[WIP] ProTech Power - Phase I [Staging/Ideas]

[Cryocore]

So, I've decided on making a mod(Or at least attempting to.). KSP has a few ways to generate power, but not many. The most you have is Solar Power and RTGs, as well as slight generation from firing your engines. That gave me an idea. What about a module that has it's own supply of solid fuel and gave no thrust. But, it would give out electricity. It also sparked ideas of Solid Fuel/Electricity to LFO but it seemed unrealistic. In the end I came up with making a series of parts that would generate electricity in return for LFO or Solid Fuel.

There would be a few problems though, which could end up making this idea/addon go nowhere. I can model, but can't texture or use unity. Which means that if I don't learn how, or find someone who does know how, I will get nowhere. So, I'll accept volunteers if anyone wants to help. And finally, I am open to any ideas or suggestions you may have. Now, onto the more interesting stuff.

I made a few concepts and made them look as good as I could just to show what I was generally thinking of. For KSP, the textures will have to be much simpler and probably be made to fit the theme of the game. As a note, I did not make the textures, they came from a texturing kit I got.

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Solid Fuel to Electricity:

This will be used as a "last resort" kind of thing. It is a fire-and-forget generator, meaning once it is out of fuel you decouple it and de-orbit it. It burns for around two minutes outputting a total of 4k units of power in this time. This module will weigh about 1-2 tons. But, all measurements are subject to change.

LFO to Electricity:

This is more of a long term source of power. This can be refueled as much as you need. It is recommended that you attach it to a docking port and prevent cross feeding so it doesn't suck the fuel the rest of your craft. This module weighs about 1-2 tons. It outputs 15 units per second but that is subject to change.

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And finally, all artwork and possibly models are subject to change. Feedback is appreciated.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Cryocore

[DragonShadow]

Wish I could help you get these in, but I will say that it looks like you've got a good start. I like your concepts, and more options for power is always better.

[Cryocore]

Thanks, I think I am going to skip texturing and models for now. I may just use a modified stock part just so I cab get the parts into KSP and balance everything. I am going to start by simply modifying a fuel tank to be a power generator.

[sidfu]

yeah these sound good they about like the future tech capacitors. another good one would be say a waste burner for tac that burns waste but consumbes oxygen. it can be uses mutiple times but uses alot of oxygen. textures can come later get parts working how u want now then u can work on textures how u want. what u should do is make a whole set of parts called last ditch parts for emergency use.

another part would be similar to small rockets for sepration but are added for a boost for say when u 100dv short of deorbiting. it would attach right under your reentry payload and u could fire it similar to a solid booster and cant control its thrust. a part like that would be nice cause help manage your fuel and maybe keep u from carrying to much for more percise rockets.

Edited March 5, 2014 by sidfu

[Ravenchant]

It burns for around two minutes outputting a total of 4k units of power in this time. This module will weigh about 5-7 tons. But, all measurements are subject to change.

The models look really good, but the power output is rather suspect. The largest stock battery supplies 4k of charge and is reusable while weighing 200 kg. Now I know solid fuel is inefficient and all, but 5 tons is still a lot of weight and would probably only be used for roleplaying reasons.

[Cryocore]

I'm still getting used to KSP weight, I meant to say 0.5 t. Maybe higher. Right now, I've just modified two Hitchhiker Storage containers to do what I need, but it's not easy. To make them burn fuel, I used parts of the CFG for an engine and just removed the thrust vector point(I don't know if that harms it or not. Secondly, Is there a way to make it burn fuel and produce Electricity without being an engine? Also, I set the output of electricity to like 15 but it only produces 4 or 5 I'm trying to work around that. And finally, the SF Generator is not working at all and Im looking for a fix.

[Cryocore]

UPDATE: It seems that they have to be considered an engine to burn fuel, I can't find a way around that. Secondly, the SF Generator is still doing nothing.

[NathanKell]

ModuleGenerator with alwayson = true (see the RTG for an example) should work. You can add as many resources to it as you like. Or if you want it toggleable, leave alwayson off...

[biohazard15]

10-ton generator that burns fuel and outputs 15Ec\sec? Thanks, but no thanks - I'll just use NFPP nuclear reactors.

[Cryocore]

ModuleGenerator with alwayson = true (see the RTG for an example) should work. You can add as many resources to it as you like. Or if you want it toggleable, leave alwayson off...

Thanks, it seems that it isn't working for me. I need them to burn fuel and release power, in KSP the RTGs don't require fuel.

10-ton generator that burns fuel and outputs 15Ec\sec? Thanks, but no thanks - I'll just use NFPP nuclear reactors.

Everything is subject to change, plus I got my units wrong, weight is definitely adjusted

[SkyHook]

Hey just wanted to say that this is a great project. Alternative methods of energy production are always welcomed with me.

[kiwiak]

This might be usefull for rafinery extracting water in KSP interstellar.

[NathanKell]

You can use as many INPUT_RESOURCE and OUTPUT_RESOURCE nodes as you like in a ModuleGenerator. Just note that ModuleGenerator is broken under warp.

[Cryocore]

UPDATE: I got everything working as needed! The rates are a little shaky but I can patch that up in the future. Now that I have the base two parts done, Im going to attempt to launch both of them into orbit and see the difficulty. I think they weight like 2 units when they have no fuel now. So, if anyone has suggestions I'll gladly see what I can do. Now, I am going to try and get models going, but no promises on that part.

[Nerei]

The idea is interesting but in the currently suggested setup I have a hard time finding any practical usage for it. An electric generator that puts out 4K ec is basically useless as I could just put on any kind of combination of batteries that would weigh 0.2 tonne. Even at half the weight I would probably go for the batteries simply due to them being rechargeable (I might still drag it along for the RP value, but that is not something to balance a part around).

To me a better usage would probably be to make it give a very low power output (say 2ec/s or less), but let it be able to run for an extended period of time, like say a week. If you put it really early in the tech-tree it could serve as a power module for say a Mun expedition that will allow more data transmissions etc. That way you also have it before the player gets photovoltaics which given how insanely overpowered they are will basically kill it no matter what. For in atmosphere usage where photovoltaics might not work (like say during a launch) a say Z-1K (1000 ec) battery is still a way better option.

Not really going to consider it for sandbox as you have to say RTG's from the start.

The LFO generator is a bit harder. It will never be practical for mods like KSP interstellar. That mod basically deals in the 10.000 to 100.000.000.000 ec/s range. NFPP is closer, but it would still pretty much be orders of magnitude too weak to work there. If you design it for those mods you have to fight against nuclear reactors. That fight cannot be won.

15ec/s really scream for usage on an ion powered spacecraft. Problem with that is you will probably kill it with weight if you drag along say a LF-T100 or LF-T200 to fuel it (IMO anything much above 1 tonne is too much for ion propulsion which a LF-T200 breaks alone). Except for ion engines (and potentially large scale data transmissions, but batteries will probably serve you better there) 15ec/s also feels like overkill, you can run a lot of reaction wheels, or regular wheels on 15ec/s.

Stacking up on photovoltaics or RTG's for ion engines (they are tech level 8 and ion engines are 7 so they are close enough to consider them being unlocked fairly close to each other) to me feels like the stronger choice. Really except for part count a generator and a LF-T200 would probably always lose to RTG's in effectiveness, especially considering the RTG's infinite duration. Not that I would power it with RTG's. Photovoltaics like the OX, SP or gigantor combined with a bit of planning seems like a much better option to either of those.

Again I could see it as a specialized power unit to power say rovers or landers on the dark side of a planet. Probably as a supplement to photovoltaic panels (I have had landers, rovers and shuttles where such a part would have fitted in just fine). It would probably have to be small and able to run on a small fuel source like an Oscar-B for some time then. Again it would have to come early to get some usage before RTG's are invented.

Having it as an early data transmission power source is an option but then you probably fight the solid fuel generator and once photovoltaics roll around you are probably better off with just sticking on 12K ec batteries and a few photovoltaic panels. It will probably not weigh more and it will probably give you all the endurance you need (and probably more than a limited fuel power source).

Sorry if I ramble a lot but I like the idea and I would use it if it can find a niche to fit into but with the current design this game has for photovoltaics and RTG's I cannot see it fitting in as a large scale power source.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Nerei

[Cryocore]

The idea is interesting but in the currently suggested setup I have a hard time finding any practical usage for it. An electric generator that puts out 4K ec is basically useless as I could just put on any kind of combination of batteries that would weigh 0.2 tonne. Even at half the weight I would probably go for the batteries simply due to them being rechargeable (I might still drag it along for the RP value, but that is not something to balance a part around).

To me a better usage would probably be to make it give a very low power output (say 2ec/s or less), but let it be able to run for an extended period of time, like say a week. If you put it really early in the tech-tree it could serve as a power module for say a Mun expedition that will allow more data transmissions etc. That way you also have it before the player gets photovoltaics which given how insanely overpowered they are will basically kill it no matter what. For in atmosphere usage where photovoltaics might not work (like say during a launch) a say Z-1K (1000 ec) battery is still a way better option.

Not really going to consider it for sandbox as you have to say RTG's from the start.

The LFO generator is a bit harder. It will never be practical for mods like KSP interstellar. That mod basically deals in the 10.000 to 100.000.000.000 ec/s range. NFPP is closer, but it would still pretty much be orders of magnitude too weak to work there. If you design it for those mods you have to fight against nuclear reactors. That fight cannot be won.

15ec/s really scream for usage on an ion powered spacecraft. Problem with that is you will probably kill it with weight if you drag along say a LF-T100 or LF-T200 to fuel it (IMO anything much above 1 tonne is too much for ion propulsion which a LF-T200 breaks alone). Except for ion engines (and potentially large scale data transmissions, but batteries will probably serve you better there) 15ec/s also feels like overkill, you can run a lot of reaction wheels, or regular wheels on 15ec/s.

Stacking up on photovoltaics or RTG's for ion engines (they are tech level 8 and ion engines are 7 so they are close enough to consider them being unlocked fairly close to each other) to me feels like the stronger choice. Really except for part count a generator and a LF-T200 would probably always lose to RTG's in effectiveness, especially considering the RTG's infinite duration. Not that I would power it with RTG's. Photovoltaics like the OX, SP or gigantor combined with a bit of planning seems like a much better option to either of those.

Again I could see it as a specialized power unit to power say rovers or landers on the dark side of a planet. Probably as a supplement to photovoltaic panels (I have had landers, rovers and shuttles where such a part would have fitted in just fine). It would probably have to be small and able to run on a small fuel source like an Oscar-B for some time then. Again it would have to come early to get some usage before RTG's are invented.

Having it as an early data transmission power source is an option but then you probably fight the solid fuel generator and once photovoltaics roll around you are probably better off with just sticking on 12K ec batteries and a few photovoltaic panels. It will probably not weigh more and it will probably give you all the endurance you need (and probably more than a limited fuel power source).

Sorry if I ramble a lot but I like the idea and I would use it if it can find a niche to fit into but with the current design this game has for photovoltaics and RTG's I cannot see it fitting in as a large scale power source.

WOW. GReat feedback, I really appreciate it. The amount of detail you included is amazing. Im going to send you a message so I can discuss some things about my addon with you, if you are okay with helping me with ideas.

[Cryocore]

Update: Still some tweaking and testing. Trying to get to a point that feels right. I've got both generators working though.