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Decoherent edited this page Nov 14, 2013 · 103 revisions

KSP Interstellar is a plugin for Kerbal Space Program, designed to encourage bootstrapping toward ever more advanced levels of technology as well as utilising In-Situ resources to expand the reach of Kerbal civilisation.

Players begin with relatively standard technologies like nuclear reactors and electrical generators but have the potential to build up to using fusion and antimatter power for their vessels.

All the technologies included are reasonably realistic, if rather speculative. Antimatter is perfectly real and really is as powerful as the mod suggests, but nobody's ever managed to store even one milligram of antiprotons in one place, let alone whole grams. Also, blithely pumping it around the ship from tank to tank is quite scary.

At the other extreme, the warp drive is based on a mathematically sound idea of how to build a drive that warps the fabric of space-time to move around really fast. Of course, the math requires us to assume the existence of matter that has negative mass (generally called 'exotic' matter) which has never been observed. Exotic stuff indeed.

However, because the warp drive is based on a mathematically-sound idea, it turns out that it isn't over-powered. Because the drive warps the fabric of space-time, but doesn't actually change your momentum, you'll find that navigating with the warp drive is quite a challenge. Just as learning how to deal with orbital mechanics required learning an unintuitive set of rules, so to does the warp drive.

It also includes an upgrade mechanism. Many parts can be upgraded simply by researching a new technology, when you first gain a technology you will gain access to its basic functionality but once you reach a certain level of technological advancement, those components will improve and become substantially better. New parts that you add in the VAB after researching the appropriate technology will be automatically upgraded but older parts on ships already in space require an additional science cost to upgrade to their newer versions.

Fuels

Other Resources

  • UF6 - Uranium Hexafloride, for powering nuclear reactors
  • DUF6 - Depleted Uranium Hexafloride. Eventually your reactors will deplete their fuel, but it takes years (literally)
  • Antimatter - Don't get any of this on you. Not suitable for small children.
  • ExoticMatter - produced by the Alcubierre Drive and consumed on every jump
  • ThermalPower - All reactors produce heat, which you can then use in several ways
  • MegaJoules - Electrical generators consume ThermalPower to produce electricity. This resource represents large amounts of power produced by large power plants, all of which also produce ElectricCharge. (This unit is odd, but it's actually a technical way of hooking into the game engine to improve the way some components consume energy, allowing very thirsty items like the Alcubierre Drive to consume as much energy as you want to feed it, but without starving other components.)
  • WasteHeat - Nothing is 100% efficient; much of the heat produced by a reactor is simply wasted. In space, this heat must be dissipated or it will lead it to overheating, causing ship malfunction and death. Once the WasteHeat bar reaches 95%, reactors, solar panels and microwave receivers will shut down to prevent further heat buildup. At 100%, components may explode.

Parts

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