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

  • 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 :D

    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.

    Age: 16. Favourite school subject: Physics/Chemistry.


    The IC2 forums could really use a lot more of [REDACTED], [DATA EXPUNGED] and ████████.


    I'm in a so called "after-school". It's freaking fantastic and nowhere near as boring as normal school!

  • @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.

    Apprentice Redstoner, Professional Slacker

  • 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.

    Age: 16. Favourite school subject: Physics/Chemistry.


    The IC2 forums could really use a lot more of [REDACTED], [DATA EXPUNGED] and ████████.


    I'm in a so called "after-school". It's freaking fantastic and nowhere near as boring as normal school!

  • 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?



  • any plans for new armor sets besides the exo suit?

  • 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.

    • Official Post

    Development update:


    • The launch pad and its associated rocket-assembly mechanics are done. Rocket flight itself is ~80% complete, still having issues with living payloads.
    • No, you can't have screenshots. My spriter has left the project, so it's all half-assed MS Paint placeholders for now.
    • If you know of any competent spriters, please send them my way.
    • My professional life is going to interfere with RS development for the next couple weeks. The new project is great for the company and good for me, but I won't have time for side projects until it's complete.
  • 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 :/

    Age: 16. Favourite school subject: Physics/Chemistry.


    The IC2 forums could really use a lot more of [REDACTED], [DATA EXPUNGED] and ████████.


    I'm in a so called "after-school". It's freaking fantastic and nowhere near as boring as normal school!

    • Official Post

    Development update: I'm still working nights and weekends and will be doing so for the foreseeable future. (Long story short, I had an idea the corporate overlords liked and promptly got stuck implementing it) I might have time before the end of the month to throw together a demo build highlighting just the rocketry aspect.


    Wasmic, engineer404, Javascap, and anyone else interested in spriting: Would you mind putting together a few sample sprites? I'd like to gauge your abilities and see if your art style matches what I have in mind. Maybe create:

    • A generic "Mechanism" item used as a crafting component. Should probably incorporate gears.
    • A mining drill with detailed base and a long enough shaft for palette-swaps (corresponding to different materials) to be immediately recognizable.
    • Space helmet.


    By the way, can any of you model? I'm decent enough with Techne but it would probably be easier from a workflow perspective to have the texturer design their own models.

  • 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.

    • Official Post

    Javascap:
    -The space suit is a nice first draft, but it could use a bit more detail. The back is also a bit asymmetrical. Other than that, nice job!
    -The Mechanism is planned to be a purely mechanical component. There will also be various circuit boards, so there's no need for wires. I can see how multiple gears would be an issue - if that proves too difficult, maybe a gyro or other nice-looking mechanical gadget?
    -The RS drills are intended to be superior pickaxes that consume fuel as a balancing mechanism. They'll still break, unlike IC2's drills, but their durability and mining speed are significantly better than a pickaxe of the same material. When crafted, a drill has no engine, so you'll need to install one using a Tinkering Bench before you can use the drill. Different engines and fuels grant different bonuses. The bench can also be used to install up to four upgrades ("Fragment Vacuum" and "Computerized Deposit Locator" grant Fortune I and II respectively, "Jackhammer Piston" grants Efficiency III, "Superconducting Bearings" grants Efficiency I and Unbreaking II, "Polymer Lubricant" grants Unbreaking II, etc.) with cumulative enchantment effects, plus effects that don't exist in vanilla enchantments (once you unlock nanotech in a future version, you can create self-repairing tools). Engines and upgrades can be retrieved from a broken drill before it's scrapped. Currently there are five drills planned: iron, steel, diamond-tipped steel, superalloy, and hybrid (diamond-tipped superalloy).


    Thutmose: Heh, I appreciate you taking the time to type out that lecture, but I already know all of that. Recently got my recent Master's in nuclear engineering. :)


    (But yes, there will be multiple varieties of fusion reactor in RS, all of which will be large multi-block structures. Once I have time to resume the project in earnest I'll go more into detail about the power plant mechanics I have planned)