[1.2.1] Taurus HCV - 3.75 m CSM System [v1.5.3 - July 1, 2014]

[undercoveryankee]

This. Is. Amazing.

But there is one thing I don't understand; why the auxilliary nozzles around the Nuclear Engine? Is the first time I see such a design in a NERVA, real-lige or KSP, and I'm not sure what its purpose is.

Vernier nozzles to provide roll control during a burn. Cheaper than chemical RCS.

[Coga19000]

Vernier nozzles to provide roll control during a burn. Cheaper than chemical RCS.

Ohhhh, nice. Hadn't thought of that -its just that I expected an RCS to be a bit more angled. Do they have a high gimbal angle, or is control achieved by throttling each nozzle accordingly?

Also, I take it that the engine itself does not gimbal, just like the Nerv doesn't anymore.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Coga19000

[bsquiklehausen]

Ohhhh, nice. Hadn't thought of that -its just that I expected an RCS to be a bit more angled. Do they have a high gimbal angle, or is control achieved by throttling each nozzle accordingly?

Also, I take it that the engine itself does not gimbal, just like the Nerv doesn't anymore.

The vernier thrusters have a fairly high gimbal angle and the center bell is fixed.

[MarcAlain]

The heatshield still tilts upon re-entry, depending on how it enters the atmo. Using the same rocket/service module but stock heatshield, re-entry is fine.

EDIT: Seems I'm having issues with the pod and stock heatshields every few launches, too. Didn't have this issue in the previous version of this part mod.

Edited May 31, 2015 by MarcAlain

[senoiurkabls]

every time i try to launch with a Taurus the rcs escape boosters go off and i'm stuck with them making my ears bleed the rest of the way (which is why i never get to use it). any way to turn them off in the files?

[Tahib]

3.75m Nuclear Engine "rs-2 tiny" seems to be too weak. Max Thrust 110 does not fit to a 15 ton engine; stock nerva has 60 thrust @ 3 ton.

15 ton payload + large mk3 liquid fuel fuselage + rs-2 tiny results in 30 min burn time for 4663 m/s. 4 Stock LV-N nerv instead do 4714 m/s in just under 14 minutes.

since bigger engines should be always a bit better than smaller ones, i would suggest to adjust thrust to ~300.

[bsquiklehausen]

3.75m Nuclear Engine "rs-2 tiny" seems to be too weak. Max Thrust 110 does not fit to a 15 ton engine; stock nerva has 60 thrust @ 3 ton.

15 ton payload + large mk3 liquid fuel fuselage + rs-2 tiny results in 30 min burn time for 4663 m/s. 4 Stock LV-N nerv instead do 4714 m/s in just under 14 minutes.

since bigger engines should be always a bit better than smaller ones, i would suggest to adjust thrust to ~300.

Please make sure you have the latest patch - ISPs were calculated incorrectly (by me) for 1.5.0, and should now be fixed.

[BrutalRIP]

every time i try to launch with a Taurus the rcs escape boosters go off and i'm stuck with them making my ears bleed the rest of the way (which is why i never get to use it). any way to turn them off in the files?

i can confirm this but im running about 50 mods so it could be a compatibility issue

[Tahib]

Please make sure you have the latest patch - ISPs were calculated incorrectly (by me) for 1.5.0, and should now be fixed.

This means something went horribly wrong. I'm using CKAN for most of the mods, yours too.

CKAN tells me, newest version (1.5.1) installed.

Readme in Folder tells me, 1.5.01 installed (with old 110 thrust value).

Downloading 1.5.1 manually from curseforge: the real 1.5.1 (1.5.01 gone in readme like it never existed).

please make a new release to solve this. no problem for me as i know now, but maybe i'm not the only one.

edit: uninstall / reinstall via ckan solved this, so ckan do know the new version. wondering why i got 1.5.01 before.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Tahib

[Tahib]

please convert textures to *.DDS for faster loading times, as squad and most others already did. you may use this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/98672-WIN-KSP-to-DDS-texture-converter

[bsquiklehausen]

please convert textures to *.DDS for faster loading times, as squad and most others already did. you may use this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/98672-WIN-KSP-to-DDS-texture-converter

We are planning on converting the textures to a .dds format as soon as we finish up a major efficiency patch which should reduce the resolution and number of textures by a fairly substantial amount. We were very new when we began this pack, and it shows in some of the UV layouts and models. We are working on re-doing all these parts and making them much more efficient overall.

[Mecripp]

I missed the last update but here they are in DDS REMOVED my bad

Edited June 2, 2015 by Mecripp2

[MarcAlain]

Can't wait for DDS, I think this is one of the things causing my stations to lag, as I use the science bay/8 kerbal bay in my monolithic stations.

[bsquiklehausen]

Can't wait for DDS, I think this is one of the things causing my stations to lag, as I use the science bay/8 kerbal bay in my monolithic stations.

Not having DDS textures should only cause a longer loading time and slightly increased RAM use - any lag in game is unrelated.

[Vandros]

Hi guys, just a quick heads up. Version on CKAN is still showing 1.5.01.

Have not checked if it is or is not the newest version, just installed this mod manually because its so awesome

[bsquiklehausen]

CKAN should now be fixed - thanks to the CKAN devs and jnrobinson.

[Thorbane]

I'm seeing the lab produce far more science than expected. I don't think it should be producing 3 times as much science with 2 one star Kerbals than my LKO science station does with 6 2-3 star ones.

OK it seems like there's a few small bonuses for having a larger lab that seem appropriate, but then there is this

Stock lab:

researchTime = 7	    //Larger = slower.  Exponential!
scienceMultiplier = 5	//How much science does data turn into?

Taurus Lab

researchTime = 5	    //Larger = slower.  Exponential!
scienceMultiplier = 7.5	//How much science does data turn into?

The research time seems pretty unbalanced given that it is exponential, I filled the science storage in about a third of a Minmus day.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Thorbane

[jnrobinson]

I'm seeing the lab produce far more science than expected. I don't think it should be producing 3 times as much science with 2 one star Kerbals than my LKO science station does with 6 2-3 star ones.

OK it seems like there's a few small bonuses for having a larger lab that seem appropriate, but then there is this

Stock lab:

researchTime = 7	    //Larger = slower.  Exponential!
scienceMultiplier = 5	//How much science does data turn into?

Taurus Lab

researchTime = 5	    //Larger = slower.  Exponential!
scienceMultiplier = 7.5	//How much science does data turn into?

The research time seems pretty unbalanced given that it is exponential, I filled the science storage in about a third of a Minmus day.

thanks for the heads up. we'll work a rebalance into the next patch

[microsoftenator]

every time i try to launch with a Taurus the rcs escape boosters go off and i'm stuck with them making my ears bleed the rest of the way (which is why i never get to use it). any way to turn them off in the files?

I've narrowed it down to USI Life Support. I'm gonna post in the USI LS thread as well because I suspect it's a bug in USI LS rather than the capsule.

[bsquiklehausen]

I've narrowed it down to USI Life Support. I'm gonna post in the USI LS thread as well because I suspect it's a bug in USI LS rather than the capsule.

Please make sure you are on the latest version of the Taurus and BahamutoD's plugin. This was previously causing a conflict with USI LS.

Apparently not - we will continue to search for a solution to the issue, though it is likely an issue on USI's end as a mod like that may "activate" the pod in a way that would fire the engines.

Edited June 9, 2015 by bsquiklehausen

[Mapoko]

Planning to implement Keepfit option ?

[ModZero]

I've narrowed it down to USI Life Support. I'm gonna post in the USI LS thread as well because I suspect it's a bug in USI LS rather than the capsule.

It's reported already, and I remember RoverDude acknowledging it ages ago, but he seems kinda busy with MKS right now. It's definitely triggered by USI's presence. BDAnimation etc unrelated.

EDIT:

So, I made a silly experiment. I'm too lazy/sleepy/something to actually properly code, but I did peek into sources, and noticed ModuleLifeSupport inherits from BaseConverter. I'm too lazy/sleepy/something to actually check, I just assumed that the stock ModuleResourceConverter also inherits from it. So, after checking that removing the file "fixes" the bug, I did this, removed USI-LS completely, and sure enough, bug's back.

So, good news everyone! It's a stock bug!

Edited June 9, 2015 by ModZero

[bsquiklehausen]

Planning to implement Keepfit option ?

I've never seen that before! We will look into it, but please be aware that we are trying to remove excess config data (hence no more specific TACLS config included), so it's not likely that we will provide specific Keepfit configs anytime soon.

[microsoftenator]

So, good news everyone! It's a stock bug!

I am I right in assuming that this means that any part using a Module derived from BaseConverter cannot also have staging?

[ModZero]

I am I right in assuming that this means that any part using a Module derived from BaseConverter cannot also have staging?

Yes. Another Githubber popped up after I reported my lazy tests, and peeked into the BaseConverter code (wait, source code of KSP is available?). Turns out BaseConverter activates everything on the part it's on while it's starting (my vague memory tells me that OnStart is called on launch and load). shadowmage45 said - they're using a lot of fused parts - that it's triggering parachutes too, for example. They're also trying to fix this by doing some moderately questionable stuff to ModuleLifeSupport.

EDIT: Hey, is there a way to drop the engine that would keep the engines retracted? It's not much, but it would make for a slightly better look, and dropping engines lets me survive until the issue is fixed (somehow) (or until forever).

Edited June 11, 2015 by ModZero