[1.12.x] Alcubierre Warp Drive (Stand-alone)

[helaeon]

I think a class E would extend outside the range of the bubble, I'm not sure as I haven't tried it. So you'd want your claw as close to the center of the sphere as you could get it.

But, just like why you can't back into a claw without causing terrible bugs, I wonder how it would behave with how the warp drive uses Krakensbane to create the warp effect. Should be better than before though. I think it should be fine, but I don't know. Some of the strangest bugs in KSP relate to the claw. For example, I had the bug once where I docked with an asteroid and timewarped... picked up 4km/s. Pretty much all claws have bugs mod or stock.

Short version is... it's the claw it's buggy... +WarpDrive. No idea what will happen. Curious though.

[Ricardo79]

Thank you. I can understand what you described. I didn't know that is a bug. Thinked always as a sideffect of the round() functions or too long floats.

I did have (not tried any more) a serrious bug with the inline laser and the regolith excavator (which is a claw also). I thinked you pointing about that in the mention of the claws.

The bug was simple attached to an asteroid and start mining switching ship or just changed back to KSC allways desintegrated anything nearby but the claw itself. Even the potatoroids are gone.

I thought you think about something simillar. That's why I asked.

Thank you for the answer.

[Cdr_Zeta]

Hello,

Got this one...I will probly keep the old and try em both !

Cmdr Zeta

[Serino]

Hello again Helaeon. By measuring the size of the warp drive using my mobile colony, which is bigger than the warp sphere, against the E class I currently have orbiting Kerbin I can safely say that the warp bubble is just big enough to get the E class inside it. Unfortunately by that I mean you would have to place the warp drive inside the asteroid at least in the case of the E class I have since the bubble only covers about 1/2 to 3/4 of the asteroid from outside. As for the claw in use while warping.... No just no. I am not sure if it is how we did our version, still using that while waiting for the official roll in from rover, or the claw itself but I get weirdness and explosions at random times. I suspect it is the claw and the fact that placing your ship directly aligned with center of mass is near impossible that is causing it all.

[RoverDude]

heh, concur on the claw.

Also will be adding you and Helaeon to the credits because your contributions are awesome

[Serino]

Yea after doing some more testing it is definitely the claw. That thing is unstable even when under high thrust.

On a side note: Rover I know you plan on making a 5m drive for use with your FTT Starlifter parts so may I recommend that the warp bubble outline thing in the VAB be allowed to be toggled on/off in orbit so that we have an idea how big of a Starlifter we can build. This would also be useful for people now with those that want to build warp ships in pieces.

[RoverDude]

Good point - I can light up the warp guide GUI

[Sampa]

I am going to put this onto my future space battleship fleet

[Ricardo79]

I am going to put this onto my future space battleship fleet

Just make sure that fleet is never travelling as a group.

I just get Reckless, Bloodbath (Achievements) because of an accidental keypress

Reproduction:

Get a full training modul.

Dock a ship which have this drive onboard with it.

shift crew (just for killing the newbies instead. Sidenote: use the stupidest Kerbals possible for fun and profit)

Undock, float away a otherwise safe distance and accidently press 9 instead of 8 (if you set 9 up for shut down all your engines and start the alcumbierre, and 8 for toggle solarpanels)

Garantied desintegration of the training station also the opened S.Panels.

So a failsafe message like: "You are about to kill everything nearby. So don't be stupid to fire that monster!" could be handy if there is something nearby. Just like with the planets. I don't know what considers to be a failsave distance about vessels (maybe 2.3 Km???)

I am sure get that lesson. But tend to forget things like this Just like the babyelephants... : Learn fast, forget even faster.

[Serino]

I think the safe limit is the physics limit as soon as the other ship goes on rails your good to activate. Best bet is to do all docking within the planetary limit and then do a burn to bring you up to activation distance.

[RoverDude]

Yep - should be in the config, but rule of thumb is physics range.

[Ricardo79]

Thank you.

Anyway I needed to get that achievement tooo

But sure after the 2.3km away it is not lethal any more.

It is a good to have thing. Thank you RoverDude.

Is it intended or may I missconfigurated something somewhere?

Because at launch all my EM tanks are fullfilled by default FROM Kerbin. The first few try was created with EL that worked fine No EM was present in the ship at launch .

I didn't messed with the config files yet I am almost sure of it.

RoverDude: just a question I am know you want to create a 5m drive too and I want to encouraging you for that.

But do you intend to make a 1.25m? (or better: An MK2 especially for mid sized spaceplanes this one should open top-bottom style only)?

Edited March 18, 2015 by Ricardo79

[RoverDude]

1.25 is not on the list at the moment, I'm skipping 1.25 and 3.75 for now.

[Angelo Kerman]

I appreciate the asteroid test, thanks for taking a look. Too bad about the claw. Makes me think that if you could attach a KAS pylon to the asteroid and then attach a KAS modified docking port to the pylon, maybe you could then release the claw and dock to the asteroid. If that works then I have a suggestion for RoverDude's asteroid mod that involves a KAS attachable docking port that auto-pivots to the asteroid's center of mass...

Edited March 18, 2015 by Angel-125

[RoverDude]

Or just attach a docking port straight on with KAS, dock, then strut reinforce it and I expect you'd be in good shape.

[helaeon]

IIf that works then I have a suggestion for RoverDude's asteroid mod that involves a KAS attachable docking port that auto-pivots to the asteroid's center of mass...

You know a great way to do that is use the new SAS follow target mode. Before you dock with the asteroid (but are inside physics range) select "target center of mass" then the nose of the claw will be aligned even before you hook up.

This is also handy for those times you unhook and reposition the ship rather than rotating the asteroid to make a maneuver. You just line up the maneuver node indicator, target indicator and the nose of your craft. but two of those are automatically aligned!

[Serino]

Helaeon be careful with that. That has been around since ARM came out and it still isn't too good cause of the shapes of the asteroids. Also careful with using docking ports and warp drive since accidental disconnects cause booms and docking ports aren't exactly the strongest connections so turning could cause it to snap and then boom.

Honestly your best bet for asteroids is, if you need one around a planet/moon, build a ship with 4 engines in a square then lock on as close to CoM as you can then pivot to the best alignment and lock the pivot. Then just using low thrust to find your rotation point and make adjustments to the thrust limiters to make sure it flies straight. If you are doing it for the mining then just warp a mining ship out then mine and warp home.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Serino

[Tarheel1999]

Can someone point me to some tips on efficiently using the Warp Drive? I've been playing around with it but I haven't yet figured out how to get my orbital speed to a manageable level when transferring from Kerbin to another planet (like Duna).

[goldenpsp]

Can someone point me to some tips on efficiently using the Warp Drive? I've been playing around with it but I haven't yet figured out how to get my orbital speed to a manageable level when transferring from Kerbin to another planet (like Duna).

Browse thru this thread. I'm pretty sure someone had a sort of tutuorial with pictures.

[Ricardo79]

Can someone point me to some tips on efficiently using the Warp Drive? I've been playing around with it but I haven't yet figured out how to get my orbital speed to a manageable level when transferring from Kerbin to another planet (like Duna).

Guideline for that:

Jump there to as close to the given planet as possible. No matter how many dV needed if you have a bit of patiente.

position your ship nearside and the other side of the planet with extra low warp "trust".

So just a bit ahead and a bit side according to your speed vector and the planet itself.

if you can position yourself in a way that you will cross the atmosphere just warp towards retrograde till your engine shuts down near enought the planet.

Beware not to go too deep into the atmosphere.

Wait till you almost reach soi change on the other side of the planet if not enought speed lost occured. Then with a little round about the planet just warp back to the position near the planet where you were before and do it 2-4 more times if necessary.

While you wait for the SOI change you can recharge your exoticmatter. Just don't forget to turn off EM creation before engaging your wdrive

While you are traveling further from the planet it's gravitational forces "deccelerates you". While traveling forward to the planet it "accelerates" you. (standard force driven travel I mean.)

So before PE you will "accelerate" after PE you will decelerate relative to the given planet even if no atmosphere is present. But that could add a lot to it.

While you use the wdrive your relative speed is not changing.

Beware when position yourself: Not to get close to the planet while your trajectory is crossing it. So position normal or antinormal while your trajectory is just near the planet (and count for atmosphere too)

In this way you only use a rechargeable drive so any kind of dV is achievable.

After you lost enought speed you may need to use your rockets to achive the orbit of your desire.

Edited March 28, 2015 by Ricardo79

[Tarheel1999]

Browse thru this thread. I'm pretty sure someone had a sort of tutuorial with pictures.

I looked before posting but couldn't find it.

EDIT - Found a couple of tutorials. For posterity:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/100798-0-90-Alcubierre-Warp-Drive-%28Stand-alone%29-v0-1-0-2014-12-16?p=1557397&viewfull=1#post1557397

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/100798-0-90-Alcubierre-Warp-Drive-%28Stand-alone%29-v0-1-0-2014-12-16?p=1559987&viewfull=1#post1559987

Edited March 28, 2015 by Tarheel1999

[helaeon]

Also keep in mind that when you do decide to engage your engines you can keep warping back to periapsis to maximize their efficacy. You don't have to do that burn all at once, maybe 60 or 120 seconds worth at a time.

To bleed off the velocity difference with only the warp drive and gravity, I usually warp back to periapsis after traveling about 5 minutes away from it. The effect of gravity is strongest the closer you are to the body. I do it this way so I don't have to keep re-activating the drive. I've also had a few mishaps where I miss the cut-off distance and warped into the planet.

This is more convenient as you can warp directly to the periapsis and no further if it's outside of the drive's cutoff. If you warp past periapsis you will gain velocity and have to re-lose it. This method is not as efficient as warping so that you are traveling away normal but still pretty good.

You can use Kerbol to change your momentum and direction if you as well which can make things much simpler for capture. For example you'd warp close to Kerbol (well outside de-activation distance!) and set it up so when you are falling at it, you are traveling the same direction Jool is and then warp away for Jool when your velocity is about 3900-4000 m/s. Go directly to Jool and you should find yourself requiring very little dV to capture or you will end up in orbit immediately (you need to take up the correct position though so your velocity is in the right direction).

I tend to fly in map mode with the navball up. Also have a HUD from Kerbal Engineer Redux with readouts that help quite a bit. Especially now that we can usually turn while warping! It takes some practice though.

When the next version comes out and we have both momentum conservation options I will probably make up a user's manual / guide to put on the USI wiki.

[AtilaElari]

I have a question - it may been addressed already but I suck at finding stuff at forums. I apologize if it is the case.

When I try to use the WarpDrive all that happens is a green warp-bubble flashing for a moment, warpdrive part unfolding into a ring and folding back immediately as if the engine was out of fuel. However it has full ExoticMatter and Xenon as well as plentiful energy supply. Any tips?

Edit: Alright, I failed attentiveness test and noticed "failsafe distance" only now. Though I am sure it woud be a great idea to add a line about it in a description!

Edited March 29, 2015 by AtilaElari

[Serino]

The most efficient way to kill or gain velocity using the warp drive while in an orbit is to wait till you hit apoapsis, to lose velocity, or periapsis, to gain velocity, then warp back towards the halfway point between the two, assuming your orbit isn't inside the failsafe distance. Hyperbolics you only have to worry about losing speed so for that you wait till you are almost out of the SOI and then warp back to the planet. Doing this will net you the most gravitational gain/loss per jump.

Edited March 29, 2015 by Serino
had a brain fart and switched apoapsis and periapsis

[Imaginer1]

I've been looking for a standalone warp drive for so long! Thank you!