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[DEVTHREAD]Pathfinder - Space Camping & Geoscience


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Acknowledgements

Module Manager by saribian

Kerbal Inventory System/Kerbal Attachment System by KospY & Winn78

Community Resource Pack by RoverDude, Nertea, and the KSP community

Portions of this codebase include source by Snjo and Swamp-IG, used under CC BY-NC SA 4.0 license

Contributors

rasta013

ozraven

Edited by Angel-125
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Well, this'll be cool! :) Looking forward to seeing what develops with this idea. MKS seems pretty complicated, BobCat's H.O.M.E. is dead, and ASET's 'Konquest' system is still vaporware at this point, so I'm quite interested in a good turnkey exploration/colonization mod. :D

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Like the concept - barebones to start, rugged prospecting crew on the edge of survival. Start a mining colony, add a saloon, barbershop and next thing ya know you got a town.
I do have an odd love for your naming conventions Angel :D

Im looking foward to seeing this. Seems like a great in between step between Mun landing and full blow Kolonization. :)

Well, this'll be cool! :) Looking forward to seeing what develops with this idea. MKS seems pretty complicated, BobCat's H.O.M.E. is dead, and ASET's 'Konquest' system is still vaporware at this point, so I'm quite interested in a good turnkey exploration/colonization mod. :D

Thanks! :) I'm looking forward to playing with some ideas I have for it. It is more of an inbetween mod than a full on colonization mod, something you'd use before dropping in a colony, but I suppose it could be used as such. And MKS in 1.0.x was simplified so you might take another look. :)

Edited by Angel-125
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Have you given any further thought to the Tech Tree question? It seems to me this whole concept synergizes best with other mods if unlocked as early as possible, before resource-scanning proper is even in the equation. This way prospecting missions can start that much closer to edge of possibility and grasp-exceeding reach as befitting the pioneer spirit.

----

Half-mad, the intrepid explorer curses the spit-and-balingwire sensor suite cobbled together from the remains of her crew cabin. Eight meters a second sounded perfectly fine to her, after all those legs were rated for a thirty kilometer per hour collision. Sure, the manufacturer warned against exposing it to temperature extremes but it couldn't possibly be the problem; space has no temperature after all.

*BDEEDLE-EEP*

Finally! Some good news. That spiraling search pattern taught back in Skouts finally came in handy. She peers at the cracked LED screen, and sighs a slightly-overdramatic sigh. Maybe if she had applied herself a bit more in class she'd be a better Engineer, or maybe if she had switched to Pilot school the landing would have been smoother, or maybe, maybe, maybe...

*BWOoop*

Ugh. She carefully unplugs it from her suit and whaps the device against the ground a couple times. 'Percussive maintenance' the instructor called it. She thought of it as 'teaching misbehaving technology a lesson'. Either way the screen flickers back to life, but the numbers don't look how they used to. It's not like it really matters all that much; the screen's only good for the back half of the readout since her helmet slammed into it during the crash.

Ah well, at least this place has numbers at all. She shuffles back to the wreckage, and pulls hard on the solar panels; one by one they pop off until she has the world's worst dinner service stacked in her arms. Reaching deep under the control panel she fishes out the last few wires that didn't make it into that junk heap of a sensor. Next is the telescoping antenna, which doesn't so much pop off as succumb to metal fatigue from furiously bending it to and fro.

Should have packed better, she berates herself on the slow walk back to where she left the sensor. A few moments of finagling (and one totally busted panel) and she manages to get a cross between a solar array and a welcome mat operating nicely. The dead panel becomes the reflector for the increasingly bedraggled antenna. She reaches into her pack, thankful that it of all things survived unscathed, and withdraws the drill assembly. "Might as well see what we've got" she mutters, preparing herself for the long, awkward conversation with Mission Control about why the followup team will need to arrive sooner than anticipated.

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Have you given any further thought to the Tech Tree question? It seems to me this whole concept synergizes best with other mods if unlocked as early as possible, before resource-scanning proper is even in the equation. This way prospecting missions can start that much closer to edge of possibility and grasp-exceeding reach as befitting the pioneer spirit.

----

Half-mad, the intrepid explorer curses the spit-and-balingwire sensor suite cobbled together from the remains of her crew cabin. Eight meters a second sounded perfectly fine to her, after all those legs were rated for a thirty kilometer per hour collision. Sure, the manufacturer warned against exposing it to temperature extremes but it couldn't possibly be the problem; space has no temperature after all.

*BDEEDLE-EEP*

Finally! Some good news. That spiraling search pattern taught back in Skouts finally came in handy. She peers at the cracked LED screen, and sighs a slightly-overdramatic sigh. Maybe if she had applied herself a bit more in class she'd be a better Engineer, or maybe if she had switched to Pilot school the landing would have been smoother, or maybe, maybe, maybe...

*BWOoop*

Ugh. She carefully unplugs it from her suit and whaps the device against the ground a couple times. 'Percussive maintenance' the instructor called it. She thought of it as 'teaching misbehaving technology a lesson'. Either way the screen flickers back to life, but the numbers don't look how they used to. It's not like it really matters all that much; the screen's only good for the back half of the readout since her helmet slammed into it during the crash.

Ah well, at least this place has numbers at all. She shuffles back to the wreckage, and pulls hard on the solar panels; one by one they pop off until she has the world's worst dinner service stacked in her arms. Reaching deep under the control panel she fishes out the last few wires that didn't make it into that junk heap of a sensor. Next is the telescoping antenna, which doesn't so much pop off as succumb to metal fatigue from furiously bending it to and fro.

Should have packed better, she berates herself on the slow walk back to where she left the sensor. A few moments of finagling (and one totally busted panel) and she manages to get a cross between a solar array and a welcome mat operating nicely. The dead panel becomes the reflector for the increasingly bedraggled antenna. She reaches into her pack, thankful that it of all things survived unscathed, and withdraws the drill assembly. "Might as well see what we've got" she mutters, preparing herself for the long, awkward conversation with Mission Control about why the followup team will need to arrive sooner than anticipated.

Love the story, nicely done! I think it captures the spirit of the mod well. Thanks for writing that. :) I want to have a skin of your teeth feel to it, so parts may break down and require fixing. As for the tech tree, definitely early. I see the Ponderosa showing up on the Space Exploration node, for instance, with the solar carpet (need a Old West-themed name for that...), light pole, and the like showing up in early tech nodes. Early prospecting missions help introduce the concept and let you do geology studies. Later ones focus upon finding a good spot for a base. And in the spirit of the 49ers, Football! Er, a valuable, finite resource with an appropriately vague name that will give you a windfall...

@Gaiiden: Well, it's a working slogan, meaning it'll do until I find something better... :)

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Love the story, nicely done! I think it captures the spirit of the mod well. Thanks for writing that. :) I want to have a skin of your teeth feel to it, so parts may break down and require fixing. As for the tech tree, definitely early. I see the Ponderosa showing up on the Space Exploration node, for instance, with the solar carpet (need a Old West-themed name for that...), :)

Saddle Blanket? :P Im not good at this , heh.

Reguarding breakdowns, planning on including something custom? Or using DangIt? i'll be happy to write up some custom Dangit configs for parts once we have a some parts :) Oh and im sure we'll need plenty of spareparts storage :P

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Saddle Blanket? :P Im not good at this , heh.

Reguarding breakdowns, planning on including something custom? Or using DangIt? i'll be happy to write up some custom Dangit configs for parts once we have a some parts :) Oh and im sure we'll need plenty of spareparts storage :P

Hm... maybe Poncho... I haven't tried DangIt, but that might do the trick. I want to standardize on RocketParts though, so as to cut down on the resources needed. I already do that for the MOLE...

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Hm... maybe Poncho... I haven't tried DangIt, but that might do the trick. I want to standardize on RocketParts though, so as to cut down on the resources needed. I already do that for the MOLE...

Prairie solar carpet.

Hmm a solar tepee.

Hey maybe some of the smaller modules should use Indian names, wigwam command tent.

Buffalo rover.....

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Love the story, nicely done! I think it captures the spirit of the mod well. Thanks for writing that. :) I want to have a skin of your teeth feel to it, so parts may break down and require fixing. As for the tech tree, definitely early. I see the Ponderosa showing up on the Space Exploration node, for instance, with the solar carpet (need a Old West-themed name for that...), light pole, and the like showing up in early tech nodes. Early prospecting missions help introduce the concept and let you do geology studies. Later ones focus upon finding a good spot for a base. And in the spirit of the 49ers, Football! Er, a valuable, finite resource with an appropriately vague name that will give you a windfall...

I'm really glad you like it! I had a blast writing it, and it feels great to know the person who inspired it got a kick out of it.

I absolutely love the idea of a mega-valuable resource; when I finally unlocked the stock mining gear and ran the numbers I was supremely disappointed that I couldn't turn any meaningful profit from off-Kerbin mining. Sometimes you just want to ignore the contracts and remain financially solvent, you know? For balance reasons I understand why Squad implemented it the way they did (if you can mine and refine for beaucoup bucks right next to the launchpad, contract money is meaningless), but still.

--------

"And I am quoting Gene here, 'Kestrel underwent RUD, Daphtris unhurt but requests ASAP support team' which by the way suuuuper messed up I hear it from CAPCOM and not, you know, from you."

"Yeah Izzy I know but you were already over the horizon and besides, the service module isn't designed to land on the-"

"Don't you tell me what I can or cannot land, Dee. I'm a Pilot, and I will land anything I damn well please."

Daphtris has no response, but does pointedly stare at the crumpled service module resting on its side fifty meters from her own wrecked lander.

"Okay, so maybe it would have gone better if it had some legs, but you have to admit apart from the cracked fuel tank and crushed bell I did a damn sight better than you," Isarigh concludes. Knowing there is no way she could win this argument, Daph shrugs and asks, "Everything I left behind still in there?"

Thankfully her lucky wrench hadn't been jostled loose from the velcro pad, but the same could not be said of her power drill. Daphtris mumbles a few expletives as she attempts to navigate through a room designed without gravity in mind, but stops short as a foot catches in the handle to the snack drawer. A terrible question strikes her. Did they have enough for two people to continue on while the rescue ships were en route? She grabs a grease pencil and scribbles some figures on the wall. Even if they were to skip a meal each day, there wasn't quite enough to stretch it. Out of nowhere a second, darker thought hits. Do we have enough electricity to last the night? That carpet of solars she made would be utterly worthless come sundown. With a bit of struggle, she extricates herself from the service module. "Hey Izzy?" she calls, "Can you help me carry some stuff?"

"Could you explain all of this, please?"

Isarigh stands bewildered amid the piles of erstwhile engine parts, RCS gear, and what had been the twin to the Kestrel's antenna but was now... something else entirely. Her little sister had always been interested in how things work, routinely taking apart the toys she received on birthdays and holidays, but this was on a completely different level.

"It's easy, Iz. You know how the alternator works, right? This," she gestures at one cobbled-together mass, "is the exact same thing, but instead of siphoning off exhaust from the rocket I've plugged it into the monopropellant system. It's not a lot of power, but it'll get us through the next few nights assuming it holds." Daphtris is smiling, the hours of grueling reconfiguration apparently paying off.

"Yeah okay, but what's all that stuff?" Izzy inquires, slightly more confused than before. She gestures vaguely at the pipe attached to the exit port of the alternator, which leads to a squat box covered with what had been the cockpit window of the service module. It is nearly impossible to make out the contents as the interior is coated in condensation, but Isarigh puts her helmet to the glass and tries anyway.

"Oh! Uh, remember how I lied about there being enough food to last until rescue?"

"You WHAT??!" Iz bolts upright, almost toppling backwards in the low gravity.

"No it's okay, this is how I fixed that!" Daph frantically backpedals. "The exhaust from the monoprop is basically just steam, and I'm using the excess to heat and water a miniature hydroponics setup like we had in our dorm room closet. Only major difference is this one's germinating those seeds you're always munching on."

Suspicious of the explanation the older sister asks, "So how are you going to keep it growing at night? The docking guidance lamp got smashed when I landed."

"That's what I needed your antenna for!" Daphtris beams. "I turned it into a light bulb on a stick."

Isarigh nods slowly, inwardly convinced that her sister has gone completely off her rocker from the stress. "Soooo... where's the bulb?"

"No imagination at all, I swear!" exclaims Dee. "The bulb isn't just there to stop you from poking your fingers into white-hot metal. It's there to keep the filament in vacuum, so it doesn't immediately burn out. This," she gesticulates wildly at nothing in particular, "is basically vacuum, so we don't need it. Just, you know, don't poke it and it'll be fine."

Edited by Edminster
minor copyediting
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@Edminister: great story. :) I can see Wild Blue Industries, a bunch of Space Cowboys, seeing the disaster as a marketing opportunity to build stuff for prospectors... The real money is in selling the gear, not striking it rich...

speaking of which, there's aurum in them there biomes! :)

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I've been playing with idea to make permanent bases for a while now, though I can't code at the moment, but one of the solutions was to have deploy-able structures that your kerbal put down with KAS, and "inflated". This resembles some of what I was looking at. I'm going to book mark this page and can't wait for release, as I've always wanted more structure looking bases then tubes on their side.

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@Edminister: great story. :) I can see Wild Blue Industries, a bunch of Space Cowboys, seeing the disaster as a marketing opportunity to build stuff for prospectors... The real money is in selling the gear, not striking it rich...

speaking of which, there's aurum in them there biomes! :)

Exactly! I've been noodling over a coda to the story at like a boardroom, where I was going to use the old line about the real money being in shovels, but I'm glad I don't have to take up more of this thread with my poorly-written story. I'm also super duper glad that it's obviously about the First Pioneer; originally I was going to write about an addle-pated old coot using these nifty branded gizmos but I couldn't get it to feel anything close to authentic.

(in case you could not tell, I am looking forward to this mod to a ridiculous extent)

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You could name it after one of the other major currencies of the Old West, the Peso. Kerbalize it and you get Keso, which works as a multi-layered pun (Chile con queso, the currency angle, moons made of cheese) and gives you the option of extending some of the simpler life support mods with an alternate foodsource.

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sooo, just like roster manager this is an awesome concept but nothing to download yet? only asking cos i'm amped to use a mod like this!

I have some models from Multipurpose Colony Modules that I'm reworking. This is definitely not vaporware, I'm in the planning and research stages for the mod. I have to do my homework or else the mod will be a mess.

Pretty, kerbal and unique. Looking forward to a camping trip with this stuff.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to getting the first pieces ready. :)

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You could name it after one of the other major currencies of the Old West, the Peso. Kerbalize it and you get Keso, which works as a multi-layered pun (Chile con queso, the currency angle, moons made of cheese) and gives you the option of extending some of the simpler life support mods with an alternate foodsource.

Or since kerbals speak backwards Spanish, they use Osep.

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Definitely interested, so you use pathfinder to plop down a colony a good point then use MKS to build it up and then if you want build even bigger like with Civ Pop? Also will there be parts for pathfinder that allow you build on asteroids?

Also can mine/refine/build with just Pathfinder? Maybe at lower efficiency?

Oh definitely watching this.

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Definitely interested, so you use pathfinder to plop down a colony a good point then use MKS to build it up and then if you want build even bigger like with Civ Pop? Also will there be parts for pathfinder that allow you build on asteroids?

Also can mine/refine/build with just Pathfinder? Maybe at lower efficiency?

Oh definitely watching this.

Pathfinder is intended as the step after flags and footprints missions but before plunking down a more permanent base. The idea being that with Pathfinder you have a chance to improve a biome's resources... or make them worse. It isn't intended to be a colony mod itself, though it will have support for a variety of different life support mods so you could cobble something together. I do envision tapping into the stock mining system to provide limited production capability, such as the ability to 3D print parts that you could then access via KIS/KAS. It's similar to NASA's 3D printed habitat challenge...

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