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Devnote Tuesdays: The "Can't Spell Kerbal without K" Edition

SQUAD

By SQUAD
in KSP1 The Daily Kerbal

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colmo

colmo

Posted
Posted

So it was Spaceplane Plus. Good news, though I hope it means Porkjet won't stop churning out similar parts in the future - I was hoping for some landing gear.

Once Ferram confirmed it wasn't him, I was hoping it would be KAS to ensure continued support and development. SP+ is quality, though.

SP+ currently uses two plugins - Firespitter and RPM. What will become of the stock variants? The IVA will need reworking as it isn't complete without RPM, and the cargo bays won't animate without Firespitter.

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gmiddlemass

gmiddlemass

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SP+ currently uses two plugins - Firespitter and RPM. What will become of the stock variants? The IVA will need reworking as it isn't complete without RPM, and the cargo bays won't animate without Firespitter.

Agreed 100%, Spaceplane+ needs to come with the full IVA view and the RPM monitors (which also make the other stock command pods so much better too.

Congratulations Porkjet! Please don't stop making awesome parts for us.

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Streetwind

Streetwind

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I'm honestly all for something like NEAR becoming stock. Then FAR can continue existing as an addon that implements all the things it has over NEAR, for those who enjoy raised complexity and realism.

I know the "better aeroydynamics" discussion has been done to death and back to unlife, but one of the points leveled against "let's just make FAR stock" is that it is too complex. But NEAR isn't complex. You don't suddenly get unexpected behavior changes when going transsonic, you don't get people scratching their heads about stability derivates, you don't see your planes break apart on a hard turn... it just works, consistently. It's absolutely mainstream compatible. For a new player, there would hardly be any difference between learning the idiosyncracies of the current system from scratch and learning a NEAR-based system from scratch. It's just existing players who'd have to adjust, and they have the advantage of experience to offset the learning curve.

That's one of the regular problems taken out. I'm sure the rest can be mitigated as well...

Just as a side note (not really to ferram4), if Kerbin were increased in radius by half again to 900,000m and retained the same surface gravity, you would have a 70km orbital velocity of 3440 m/s, which is roughly 1,100m/s faster than stock.

...like so. Or any combination of increasing planet radii, increasing atmosphere heights, lowering sea level Isps or just plain giving Kerbin a more dense atmosphere. Who says the sea level pressure on Kerbin has to be that of Earth? Duna and Eve also have different sea level pressures than the RL planets they are representing. Combining factors means each individual change will be smaller: bringing Kerbin to 637km (one tenth of Earth), increasing the atmosphere ceiling to 80km, increasing sea level pressure by 10% and lowering Isp by 20% (ASL)/10% (Vac) would go a long way toward maintaining the curent stock difficulty even with NEAR implemented.

The problem with increasing planet radii more than a few percent is that the surface detail suffers if the mesh isn't redone. Was glaringly obvious when I played RSS, for instance. Went to the Moon, and the terrain was so stretched out that a normally steeply rimmed crater looked like a flat field from the surface. Of course, RSS makes things a LOT bigger, but I'm fairly sure that if Squad went and resized celestial bodies, they'd also redo the mesh. Which would be a lot of 3D modeling work. Of course, the dev notes speak of the largest 3D modeling effort ever undertaken at once, soooo.... [frantic speculation intensifies] :P

All in all though, I'm quite satisfied with what's being promised for .25 so far. Completely redoing most (if not all) plane parts, adding more through integrating Spaceplane Plus, is great. And I say that even though I am absolutely not a plane person. Also, functionality which will make EnhancedNavBall and Crew Manifest redundant, excellent - less clutter in my GameData folder :P Plus with the administration building and the various hints dropped so far, it seems like the Kerbals themselves will be getting a lot of attention. I don't think I'll be disappointed.

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Volcanix

Volcanix

Posted
Posted

Spaceplane+ should be included? One ticket for the hype train, please! :D

I'm looking forward to the new building, even if I have got no idea what it will bring us. Maybe something for Kerbals like Final Frontier?

And pleeeease, don't remove something from SP+. Especially not the cargo bay doors ^-^

Is there some date when it could come out? This month? Next month? Have I overheard something?

EDIT: Yay, 100th post ^^

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Justin Kerbice

Justin Kerbice

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We still heard about this admin facility, but what's its purpose ? Do kerbals have to fill crazy number of forms, follow more regulations than they can bear, buy insurances, ... ? I don't remember seeing any word on this hidden purpose... or it's just a decor, filled with "kerbals in black" moving arround.

Well, the administration backend got a bit of a rewrite to make it a lot more interesting to modders. It was already very moddable but it’s systems can now be fully config defined which should add a little spice to things

And he modders have to figure out by themselves how to use it like contracts ? Any doc planned ?

Also, nothing about editor/node issues ? Too bad. Is this will be left as it is for a looooonnnnnng time ? Better nodes management would be more than welcome, the sooner the better. Even if the "buggy features addicts" are put away for once.

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Monger

Monger

Posted
Posted

Much, much better. Of course you can't get into every gritty detail, especially regarding features, but we are not only interested in features. A small peak into your daily work is all I want. Something like: "Was modelling on additional parts. Most of my work involved creating a proper material layer, and adjusting the light sources. Needed to read a lot for 3DS Max".

On another note: I am a little tired of reading something like "we are planning the biggest single feature ever". Why? Okay, I understand we are approaching the phase where we are "feature-complete", and a few pieces of the puzzle are still missing. But there is also glory in many small successes, not only the big ones. My worry is that big, unsplittable features also mean they take a lot of time to finish, and other interesting features will be postponed.

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KerbMav

KerbMav

Posted
Posted (edited)

Oh, devnotes. :)

<p><strong>Felipe (HarvesteR)</strong><span><strong>:</strong>

<p><span>Indeed, we are all working frantically towards a very large goal. This is one of the largest, if not </span><span>the </span><span>largest concerted effort to develop a single feature we’ve ever had. We’ll share our plans as soon as they reach a point where they are matured enough to be discussed openly. For now, we have to keep these things under wraps, so please bear with us and try to keep speculation to a minimum, ok? </span></p>

Largest effort for a single feature ... work on multiplayer has already been confirmed months ago, but as we have not been given an ETA yet, we should not push it aside as a possible secret answer here.

Also: Challenge accepted! :cool:

<p><strong>Mike (Mu):</strong><span> I’ve also been plowing on with a new logging system for vessels and kerbals. This will become the basis for a few new systems linked to career mode and will give us a better idea of where our intrepid astronauts have been.</span></p>

Better ways to determine which contracts to offer, I read here, so no omitting Mun contracts should the player go to Minmus first on its own accord?

Also, a mission log for Kerbals, with excited hopefulness? :)

<p><strong>Marco (Samssonart): </strong><span>Now that the cat is well out of the bag, I can disclose that I have been working on a few features. First of all, additional NavBall icons! Now, the Normal and Radial vectors will be visible on the NavBall. An arrow will also indicate the general direction of the maneuver marker when using maneuver nodes. I’m currently working on crew transfer, meaning there will be no more need to EVA kerbals to transfer them among docked crafts. In other news we updated the edu version of the game, so all you <em>KerbalEDU</em> users will now have version 0.24.2.</span></p>

Actually, I cannot remember the features of the unmodded navball anymore ... :D

Just let me say I hope the anti-target marker is in there and the docking alignment marker will be added.

<p><strong>Daniel (danRosas)</strong><span><strong>:</strong> I am deep in the ocean of modeling and texturing. You know, moving vertex, uvs, painting. Trial and error. The pipeline between the artists has been set up, so it’s just trying to oil the machine that’s departed the preparation face. You can also read more about our current status in Maxmaps’ dev note. <em>The life of a game artist.</em></span></p>

Let's google a bit here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_mapping

Can it be? New planet/moon textures and/or surfaces and stable anomaly locations?

<p><strong>Jim (Romfarer)</strong></p>

Thank you - I could only follow half of it, but I am sure the code-savvy players will appreciate it. :wink:

<p><span><strong>Miguel (Maxmaps):</strong> </span><span>Organizing stuff for adding new sounds and overall effects to the game. Looking great so far. Also, our art team is currently sequestered in what is the largest 3D asset endeavor that we have overtaken so far. So much so you won’t see it in .25, so forgive them if they’re not really sharing a lot of info on the matter. We are talking dozens of high quality models that must be made. Oh, I also wrapped up a deal with <strong>Porkjet</strong> to add a modified version of <strong>Spaceplane Plus</strong> to the base game. This mod not only fits the aesthetic of the game perfectly but tackles parts that needed to be remade and did so in the best way possible.</span></p>

"Dozens of high quality models" - well, seems my surface rework theory blows up right here?

So, complete rework of every part in the game?

Looking forward to the new sound effects, some were missing, some the same for lots of parts, some simply not as good as desired.

Also: Could modders of mods like FAR/NEAR, DRE etc. receive a preview version to make sure the new parts work as intended/MM-cfg files catch them all?

Alsoalso: Better keep that cargo bay in! :D

<p><strong>Bob (Calisker):</strong><span> Have a good week everyone - I’m on holiday with the family. </span></p>

Give them our regards for letting you work in this strange business of games and stuff! :D

<p><strong>Ted (Ted): </strong></p>

Good to know the testing team is quite big but still a managable size!

<p><span><strong>Anthony (Rowsdower):</strong> So how are we doing this week? Any better? Any worse? We know the devnotes aren’t always as action packed as you may like and hopefully HarvesteR’s given a better insight as to why, up above. That said, I spent a good deal of time over the last week just scanning reactions, talking things through on our end and created a survey for you to fill out on what you’d like to see, any changes that should be made, so on and so forth. Now, I’d planned to have it ready for you today, but it’s still undergoing edits and approvals so while it’s not here yet, expect it soon. We’ll get some decent mileage with a much more focus stream of thoughts from the community.</span></p>

Yes, that was more like it. :D

And we know you are listening - by the speed you react to critical threads as well as the effort being made to include the community more. :)

<p><span><strong>Eduardo (Lalo):</strong> </span><span>following up with the entire team on deadlines.</span></p>

Do not go to easy on them with the whip(ped cream)! (as Nietzsche did not say) :wink:

<p><strong>Rogelio (Roger):</strong><span> We’ve been modeling, doing uv maps, texturing, and optimizing as much as we can. Before Squad, I was used to modeling and texturing in a more artistic way, but doing it to fit in a videogame has been challenging and I really like it. The production schedule was also finally done between Dan, Nick and myself. It establishes due dates and current status of the models we’re doing.</span></p>

So new (design for) models it is. :)

Also one question - who is Nick?

I am bad with names ...

Of course, RSS makes things a LOT bigger, but I'm fairly sure that if Squad went and resized celestial bodies, they'd also redo the mesh. Which would be a lot of 3D modeling work. Of course, the dev notes speak of the largest 3D modeling effort ever undertaken at once, soooo.... [frantic speculation intensifies] :P

OK, now I am all hooked again! :P

What I am curious about is, will CIMS (crew interior movement system) use an extra UI window or be incorporated in the Alt-Rclick fuel transfer window? (Preferring the latter.)

And will it have rules as to which parts can be traversed? (Preferring not to, as EVA would be possible anyway and it is meant as a facilitation for the player in the first place.)

My worry is that big, unsplittable features also mean they take a lot of time to finish, and other interesting features will be postponed.

I read Harvesters part as "we work on different things, some things being that big, they wont make it into the next update even". So, small improvements will not come later, we will simply have to wait longer to know what that big thing in the background was all about.

Edited by KerbMav
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CaptRobau

CaptRobau

Posted
Posted

This has to be the best devnotes ever. Glad Spaceplanes Plus is coming to stock. There are other stock-a-like mods, but they have HD parts to work off. Porkjet couldn't just copy something, he had to make a new HD style while taking enough hints from the non-HD one to make it look like an update instead of something different.

The coming updates sound like they're going to be awesome.

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blizzy78

blizzy78

Posted
Posted
Jim (Romfarer): The framework (EzGUI) we use for this can’t handle that so i had to come up with a nifty trick to make that work. ...

While a good idea, it sounds a bit fragile to me.

Anthony (Rowsdower): So how are we doing this week? Any better? Any worse?

Definitely better. Also, keep the surveys coming. I love surveys. Especially when I get to read the aggregated results.

Plus, congrats to Porkjet.

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Navy2k

Navy2k

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@Romfarer: Couldn't you just check where the slider is on an event at mouseclickrelease and then snap it to the nearest snappoint? Seems a bit simpler than your approach but its maybe not possible due to API limitations?

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Alguien

Alguien

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Posted

Well, this Dev note seems like a improvement, you actually talk about what you are adding to the game and is long and detailed, more info in the nav ball and crew transfer are wellcome additions, hope we see more of this devnotes in the future

And about the big thing, my money is in upgrading the Space Center buildings as you progress through the techtree using the administrative building

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blizzy78

blizzy78

Posted
Posted
Can it be? New planet/moon textures and/or surfaces and stable anomaly locations?

No. danRosas does not seem to be doing in-game stuff.

Also: Could modders of mods like FAR/NEAR, DRE etc. receive a preview version to make sure the new parts work as intended/MM-cfg files catch them all?

Most of them already do receive preview versions.

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Romfarer

Romfarer

Posted
Posted
@Romfarer: Couldn't you just check where the slider is on an event at mouseclickrelease and then snap it to the nearest snappoint? Seems a bit simpler than your approach but its maybe not possible due to API limitations?

This would mean that the slider moves with 0 increments and then only snaps to an increment once you release the knob. It's easier to implement though and might actually work better for setups with large increments.

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r4pt0r

r4pt0r

Posted
Posted
Heart.exe needs to restart.

Excitement levels through the roof! Let's make a HypeTram!

We will need a bigger train...

No offense to GregroxMun(our official hypetrain conductor), but at this point in the process a train is not needed. any actual update is a good long while away, so I think a hypetram, or hypetrolley would be much better. Maybe a really small hype trolley based off of this super incredible high-speed design

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