Rebalanced nuclear rockets?

[Frozen_Heart]

So when the NERVA rocket was added to KSP sandbox was the only available mode to play. As a result its thrust and atmosphere ISP have been massively nerfed to fit with the part balance.

However now that career has come about the parts are balanced with cost and where they are on the tech tree.

Should the NERVA be rebalanced for career rather than sandbox and have these stats moved to slightly more realistic values?

[Xaiier]

While it's performance may not match that of real life, NERVA's nicely fill the role of high ISP low thrust engine. Boosting it's values would make them overpowered in sandbox without really providing that much extra benefit to those in career.

Also worth noting, a lot of the part costs and balance is really really off. Perhaps in the future during a balance pass something like this could be addressed, but for now, "balance" is a somewhat defunct term.

[Random Tank]

Well actually, if you compare the KSP NTR to the NERVA that was gonna be used on the Saturn V, the NTR is basically just a smaller version (with a drop in weight and thrust to compensate the size change); it's stats like TWR and Vac ISP are pretty similar... The only reall efficiency difference being that the Saturn V NERVA had an Atm ISP of 380... which is good, but in KSP Atm ISP hardly makes a difference in most cases, so this doesn't matter as such. The only thing I would like changed is that the NTR should use Liquid Hydrogen (or even just liquid fuel to make it simpler), and of course consumption of LF would be the same as the LFO consumption total...

[Red Iron Crown]

The lower atmo Isp only really matters if you're misguidedly trying to use them on an Eve ascent, on Kerbin they have a higher Isp than any chemical engine in vacuum by the time they reach a bit over 1700m altitude, and they only get better from there.

The low TWR is a bit of a nerf, but I think it's a necessary to keep them from completely dominating all engines other than jets. They're already the best choice for most orbital applications, giving them better TWR would make them almost always the best choice for orbital maneuvering and landers.

[Laie]

The one nerf I would like to see: I want bigger ones. And/or a natively radial version.

Don't know about you, but nearly every craft where I use them is at least rockomax-sized. I also tend to have many of them, and usually in a radial configuration. LV-Ns are directly and indirectly responsible for a good deal of my part count.

[Frozen_Heart]

The one nerf I would like to see: I want bigger ones. And/or a natively radial version.

Well they started adding the KSPX parts for a while but Claira hasn't been around for ages so that seems to be on hold. I'm still using the mod for the 2.5m NERVA.

[xtoro]

The one nerf I would like to see: I want bigger ones. And/or a natively radial version.

Don't know about you, but nearly every craft where I use them is at least rockomax-sized. I also tend to have many of them, and usually in a radial configuration. LV-Ns are directly and indirectly responsible for a good deal of my part count.

Lackluster Labs has larger ones and radial ones. I use them often.