No xenon tanks when you choose to test a ion engine?

[miceliux]

I have choosed to do a contract about testing the ion engine, but they haven't given to me any xenon tank. Is this a failure in the contract? I've not yet researched that technology.

Edited November 14, 2014 by miceliux

[r_rolo1]

No, it is not ( exactly ) a failure in the contract. While the game does not say that explicitly, most of the engine tests are actually "ignition" tests, where you simply check if the engine can start, and for that you don't need fuel tanks ( or even any fuel at all, to be more precise ). In other words, if the game is asking for a ion engine test, you are just supposed to activate it at the correct location and for that you don't need the xenon tanks.

OFC that could had been made clearer ingame , but ... :/

[miceliux]

No, it is not ( exactly ) a failure in the contract. While the game does not say that explicitly, most of the engine tests are actually "ignition" tests, where you simply check if the engine can start, and for that you don't need fuel tanks ( or even any fuel at all, to be more precise ). In other words, if the game is asking for a ion engine test, you are just supposed to activate it at the correct location and for that you don't need the xenon tanks.

OFC that could had been made clearer ingame , but ... :/

I'll try to ignite it without fuel.

Thank you.

[tsotha]

The same thing happens with jet engines, which you have to test before you get air intakes.

You just have to stage it. It doesn't have to work. Note this is true with regular LF engines as well - you set up your engine under test such that there's no way for fuel to get to it and the test will complete just fine when it's staged.

[capi3101]

By the same token, you can take an engine, turn its thrust limiter down to zero, activate it at the right time and still get credit. Which is sometimes handy for when they want you to test those big rocket engines...

The key thing is that the part must be activated via the staging controls. Try to make it work via an action group and you won't get credit for it. Further, you can't shut off a part and try to reactivate it via staging - the game won't let you (at least, that's the way it was in 0.24; if that's changed for 0.25, I'd sure like to know...).

[Kryxal]

If you need to stage the part, you CAN use it beforehand if you activate it the FIRST time with right-click or action groups.

For that matter, re-staging parts for the activation tends to work eventually if you add a few extra stages along with what you need staged.

[SRV Ron]

For testing SRBs, you can tweak all the fuel to zero and still complete the test. You can even use the fuel in the tanks for testing some liquid boosters by attaching radical engines or fuel lines to external booster engines. No need to boost all that extra weight in order to meet test conditions.

[bakanando]

By the same token, you can take an engine, turn its thrust limiter down to zero, activate it at the right time and still get credit. Which is sometimes handy for when they want you to test those big rocket engines...

The key thing is that the part must be activated via the staging controls. Try to make it work via an action group and you won't get credit for it. Further, you can't shut off a part and try to reactivate it via staging - the game won't let you (at least, that's the way it was in 0.24; if that's changed for 0.25, I'd sure like to know...).

You can shut it down and activate it again, even in 0.24. What you need to do is add an empty stage below your engine (which has been turned off) and hit the staging button. I haven't tried this with a SRB, but it works with normal engines.

Edit: Oops, Krixal mentioned it beforehand. Sorry, didn't read it completely.

Edited November 18, 2014 by bakanando
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