[Addon v1.95]Rocket Science v0.89 - flying autominers, missiles, and nuclear fusion!

Darkblock306 wrote:

It's interesting actually, I can't wait to use Rocket Science along with Universal Electricity. Modular Powersuits (a UE mod I use) adds a tinkering table that is similar to what Kentington was considering before. I love the idea and seeing that its possible made me really pumped for the new Rocket Science release

Rocket Science doesn't work with UE. You'll have to convince the lead author for this project to implement UE in order for it to happen.

The challenge with these things is that standards have a way of proliferating, as more and more entities try and implement their standard. However, looking into Universal Electricity more carefully, it does seem remarkably sturdy. Unfortunately, mods like Redpower, IC2, and Buildcraft aren't likely to change their energy systems to suit, so balancing and converting is a HUGE challenge. Here's an XKCD that explains it better:

http://xkcd.com/927/

So many pumps... There's one from each tech mod!!! Augh!

@above: Not railcraft.

wasmic wrote:

@above: Not railcraft.

If you want to get technical, Yeah, Railcraft does have a pump. It's called "The Buildcraft Pump". Railcraft uses parts of Buildcraft's API, and has Buildcraft power engines, Buildcraft fluid system API bits, basically it is a standalone Buildcraft addon. Works on it's own, but is designed to work with Buildcraft by virtue of using Buildcraft API sections.
Many mods have API sections for other mods. They can work without the mod the API is from, but work with it. Very well, actually.

Yeah, I just have a habit of pointing unwanted/unneeded info out. I like to prove people wrong, but i often end up being proven wrong myself.

I cannot install Rocket Science. I've downloaded v0.89. I have minecraft forge v6.6.0, minecraft v1.4.7, and ic2 v1.4.7. Every tutorial I see needs modloader, but this version of forge cannot run with modloader. Can anyone help me?

michael2george, RocketScience v0.89 can only work with Minecraft 1.2.5 and IndustrialCraft 1.95b, and there is no version for Minecraft 1.4

Kentington wrote:

Lots of work done lately, but sadly not of the sort that makes pretty screenshots. So here's my planned release schedule as a consolation prize:

Alpha release (aka, not content-complete but all core systems implemented) will probably come in late February, heavily subject to my work schedule, and will be released to a few testers (more on that in a future post). Features include:

• Research tree covering all of the below, including upgrades to the research equipment itself. Only terrestrial devices (20th-early 21st century) will be available at this point. There will be an in-game crafting guide, so once you've built your laboratory there's no need to check a wiki for crafting instructions.
• New terrestrial ores (aluminum, titanium, tungsten, chromium) and special smelting/alloying equipment
• Tinkering system allowing for customization and upgrades to individual tools/machines/vehicles
• Multi-tier rocketry system including modular construction, targeting, and various payloads
• Fuel processing and storage infrastructure allowing the mixing of thousands of possible combinations, which may prove useful... or explosive.
• Various machinery and tools (unfortunately not even half of what's planned for the full release)
• Electricity/steam/fuel transmission infrastructure (I realize that this duplicates some IC2 functionality, but it was unavoidable. However, one of the design goals for RS electricity is to more closely approach real-world grids - in particular, that means no storage blocks exist, and the number of machines you can have running simultaneously is limited by generation capacity)
• GPS and imaging satellites
• Basic personal space stations, plus oxygen mechanics for airless regions
• Vehicle bay and rover vehicle (with a few upgrade modules)

Soon after I'll release an update to testers which includes all remaining terrestrial tools, machines, satellites, rover upgrades, and the like.

The "Moon Update" will be the first one released to the general public once beta testing is complete. (Your guess is as good as mine as to when that will be!) Features:

• Moon dimension, accessible via rocket once certain research is complete
• Fusion reactors and "Fusion Age" (near-futuristic) gadgets, researchable once you start mining lunar helium-3. New equipment will be available in all categories - you'll be able to double smelting efficiency with the new Plasma Furnace and blow holes in creepers with your Gauss rifle.
• Plasma engines for improved spacecraft, enabling automated asteroid mining and quicker trips to the moon
• Space elevators for cheaper space station access
• Powered exoskeletons (with upgrade modules!) which provide both armor and life support
• API allowing modders to produce add-ons and custom planets
• Official Rocket Science site

Then comes a minor interoperability update which is scheduled to include Industrial Energy Converter blocks to allow exchange between IC2 and RS power. There will likely be some energy lost during conversion for balance reasons. (Interoperability with certain other mods is planned, but not relevant here)

Finally, the last update for which I have concrete plans is the "Mars Project." This one will be probably take a good deal longer than the Moon Update, as it includes:

• Mars dimension, accessible via rocket (with plasma engine) once certain research is completed
• Abandoned alien outpost beneath the Martian surface, crawling with new mobs... and filled with treasures which can be reverse-engineered to unlock new research projects involving exotic-matter physics and nanotechnology. But first you'll have to undertake a quest to retrieve the station's precious data server and translate the alien language...
• Top-tier technology which improves on every existing item and adds several new features. Without giving too many spoilers, let's just say that personal UFOs are just the beginning...

I have a few plans beyond this point, but nothing I'm willing to commit to at the moment.

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any plans for new armor sets besides the exo suit?

first off wow best mod i have ever seen great work Kentington also once smp is working i whould love to to see this in ftb

When I first tried this mod out (shortly after addons became available for IC2 on these forums!), I knew it had big things in store. One cannot simply add a fusion reactor to IC2 and be satisfied.

When I read Kentingtons' last 3 posts my head almost exploded with excessive awesomeness. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be too ambitious and end up like the Aether mod (whose developers vanished without a hint of notification). If you can pull this off, Kentington, you will have many props from the many thousands of players who play IC2!

I take it our first moon trip will be incredibly expensive fuel-wise (because we won't have high tech fuels yet), which means our carry weight will be very limited. I'm guessing for food we'd be starting out with space rations, then with a basic moon base set up we'd be able to research hydroponics to get a slow but existent food supply without having to fly back to Overworld.

I'm just dying to see how everything will come together. I don't think I've ever been so excited in my life.

Is this working with MC 1.4.6? Prob not

I'm a competent spriter...
And these updates... WOW. Just... WOW.

Heh? Whaddya think of THAT?
I made it as a replacement for the mining drill... personal texture pack.
Again, awesome mod, keep up the good work!

I might be able to do some sprites, I'm not by far the best, but I've made some sprites that i think went quite well.

EDIT: The guy above me is probaply better

I would also volunteer for some sprite work. I did some computers for Computercraft a wile bock, and would enjoy a goal to work for.

Good luck on the project my friend, can't wait to try this out myself. Ah, the beauty of space travel...

It's going to be rough getting several small gears to work in a 16*16 area, but I'll see what I can do. Should I include some loose wires in there?

Could I ask for more information about what the functional difference between this drill and the IC2 drill will be? I want to know what I am texturing for before I try for that one. If you don't want to spoil details, you can message me.


I.... may have gotten a bit carried away with the space helmet. I went ahead and made an entire space suit. To try it out, replace the iron_1 in any texture pack or in the Minecraft jar. I'll edit this response with item sprites a bit later.

Since you mentioned having a research system planned, then you should incorporate that into different types of fusion reactor.

The main reason why we do not (as of 2013) have a working, positive gain fusion reactor is lack of knowledge of the specific motion of the fusion plasma in a Tokamak. The ITER (not finished yet) should be large enough to average out most of the instabilities, and supercomputers (like TITAN) are currently being used to attempt to simulate the instabilities to account for them before the ITER is turned on. <-- This is very good for large installations that need to produce and consume large amounts of power, but needs very good computer to run.

The reason why we do not have a Polywell reactor as of 2013 is a combination of lack of funding (we are fairly certain a large enough tokamak will work, polywells are still unconfirmed) and a lack of the required electromagnets needed to generate the field geometry which will contain the electrons in the centre of the chamber, the actual fusion part will be contained electrostatically, which can be done very very easily (can make it work for low power in a bell jar, the problem for higher power is decay of the inner negative grid, hence using contained electrons). <--- This gives good prerequisite technology for propulsion system (see below) but does not scale as well as the above, and requires superconducting electromagnets.

Example: A polywell reactor (electrostatic inertial fusion confinement + magnetic inner electron "grid" confinement) would require more advanced electromagnets (and arrangement thereof) than a Tokamak, but would require much less in the way of computer simulations. Both are scalable, though the Tokamak might be better scaled for extremely large devices, both also have a minimum starting size, though the polywell requires much lower starting energy, and no need for a heating system, just need for a small high voltage power supply to maintain the electric field for acceleration.

Also: the polywell reactor technology will be very applicable to a propulsion system, as utilizing the same electron confinement method one could build a high flux ion drive engine (plasma thruster, but higher specific impulse than the normal kind), and not worry about the current problem of grid decay.

This gives two main types of reactor: The tokamak design for ground based, high power systems and the polywell design for the ship.