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Mod Idea - In-Flight Procedural Parts


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May I present my idea for the In-Flight Procedural Parts mod, AKA, the Hardlight Parts Mod. As the name suggests, the Hardlight Parts Mod allows users to modify procedural parts outside of the VAB/SPH. This will change the object's mass, resource capacity, aerodynamics, etc. etc.. The mod would work similarly to the existing Procedural Parts mod (maybe it could be an extension/plugin for it?), except it would require a special part to function (if you have that setting enabled), namely, the Hardlight Projector. The HL Projector would require some electric charge to function, and all hardlight parts will shrink and eventually collapse if the charge gets low enough. More about that later


In the VAB/SPH, parts such as fuel tanks, engines, cargo bays, wings, and other stuff can be created, just like the procedural parts mod. They also have some additional "solid-looking" textures, as well as several hardlight textures, such as "tron" (pure outline of a part, able to see the edges but not the inside), "ward" (appears one continuous color throughout, like the Defender titan's Ward of Dawn in Destiny (1)), "bridge" (like a Portal/Halo light bridge), and some others. The hardlight color(s) can be modified like a stock light can. This can also be done in flight

 

A craft spawns on the launchpad and immediately starts using electric charge from the craft's batteries. I don't think it should be a realistic amount of electricity, as it would require such a huge amount of charge that it would be beyond the feasible scope of otherwise stock KSP, and adding a part that can supply this amount of charge would unbalance the entire rest of the game (that's not inherently bad in a single-player game, just undesirable, at least in this case). Instead, the charge needed will be easily obtained with moderate amounts of solar panels or fuel cell arrays.

You may recall that I hinted at what happens if you run out of electric charge with hardlight parts. Well, when you get below a certain threshold (determined on a user-set part-to-part basis), the parts will shrink to the minimum size required to contain the resources inside, or just disappear depending on an individual part preference. Say you're in space with a hardlight SSTO. You could make the wings disappear when you run out of charge, just stay there, or go away until you need them. But what if you run out of charge with a half-empty fuel tank? (Side note - A glass is half full if liquid was most recently added. It is half full if liquid was most recently subtracted) Well, that tank will fully collapse and the fuel will be erased. Gonzo. Done. Outta there. RIP. You get the idea. The safeguards you've put in place should (hopefully) protect you from that, but they might not, so plan in advance.

 

The engines work like the procedural SRBs in the Procedural Parts mod, and are adjustable on the fly, providing massive efficiency in all situations, if you set them wisely. This is ideal for SSTOs, although somewhat-difficult to build due to the electric charge required

 

 

I hope someone picks this mod up, as I have no clue how it works (lol). Maybe @OtherBarry, creator of the Procedural Parts mod. Regardless of who picks it up, if anyone, I'd like credit somewhere in the forum post for the mod.

 

Fireheart318 out

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This isn't possible with KSP. The reason why is, you can't change values in the cfgs on the fly in KSP, which would be required for parts to "shrink" while in flight. It's just not possible to do real time changes like that. Not with KSP at least.

The closest anyone has got to this is turning the flight scene into a VAB of sorts, but it was so buggy it never panned out. Even then, it wasn't on the fly. It would effectively stop the game and all you could do was swap out parts or add parts you forgot. Trying to add support for all of the part mods and mods like tweak scale or procedural part would be tough.

Even if it was possible, it would take so much work and time that I doubt any modder(s) would jump on the project. 

Gotta remember, modders aren't paid and work on their free time. This is a fun idea, but not possible in KSP and needless to say, very ambitious. 

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On 6/10/2017 at 9:00 AM, Benjamin Kerman said:

So basically, parts are there when electric charge is being supplied, and destroy themselves or disappear when not given?

Parts that self destruct when there's no electric charge should be possible, but having them come back would be impossible.

 

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