WuphonsReach

It's a bug in stock KSP with shrouds (you can see it on the stock engines like the 909).

So, after doing some testing in KSP 1.2.2, I'm about 90% certain that if the ModuleDataTransmitter is "DIRECT" on the base unit, changing it to "RELAY" using the upgrade system in KSP does not work properly with CommNet. KSP will not use it as a relay to find a path back to home. I think the better approach is going to be to remove the upgrade node from the tech tree and replace it with duplicated versions of the same parts (with a new part ID), which contain relay functionality.

I would suggest not using StockAntennaBalance (as it is currently) with Kerbalism, as Kerbalism also majorly overhauls the CommNet system and SAB is not designed to work within that framework.

Yes, looks like Kerbalism https://github.com/ShotgunNinja/Kerbalism/blob/92dd7e6dbccb9072398d02e5a016eb329a6ed91c/src/Modules/Antenna.cs#L166-L169 I don't personally use Kerbalism (it changes some game mechanics that other mods like USI/MKS depend on).

Yeah, I always plan on direct radiators attached to the nukes, then also have some expandable radiators on the vessel so that the radiators run at about 20-25% under full load of everything.

It would require a visit by an engineer, even with machinery storage on the same vessel. Unless you use some other mod like Ship Manifest, which lets you move machinery around. The 1.25m MPU holds 180.0 machinery and the reactions use 0.04/day = 4500 days The 2.5m MPU holds 1300.0 machinery, and each segment (2 segments) uses 0.28/day = 2321 days 3.75m MPU holds 4000.0 machinery and the (3) separators consume 0.86 each per day = 1551 days

My current automatic miners have: 2.5m MPU (or four 1.25m MPU) configured to convert an input to an output 1.25m USI reactor for power (2) large non-extendable radiators attached to the reactor (2) medium extendable radiators (extended after landing for extra cooling) probe core, antenna, small battery capacity (2) Karibou saddle tanks / cargo (with PW=on in right-click menu) to hold the input and output (2) drills (the "automated" -100 series) When landed somewhere with a ~5% concentration of the input, the drills will harvest more then what the 2.5m MPU can process. Because both input/output storage tanks have PW turned on, the excess gets pushed into planetary storage. Note: I figure it will be a few years before the machinery wears out (have not done the math yet). In which time, I should be able to harvest/convert enough for whatever purpose I had in mind. And if I just want to harvest the input and stuff it into planetary storage, then a few drills and the MPU installed (but not doing any work) would likely not consume any machinery, so it would run until the reactor runs out of power.

Possibly the curse of using Firespitter as the swapping tool. When writing the configurations for the parts, it's not as straightforward as being able to specify the cost of the empty part. You have to do a bit of fun math to figure out what the part should cost when empty and it's really easy to get wrong. It took me a bit of trial and error when doing one for something else. Source: Me (while writing up a Firespitter configuration for Phoenix Industries)

Ideas: - Scale the font sizes using the values in the options for UI scaling? I play on a 4k display, so that's always a concern of mine. - Satellite coverage weighting maybe needs to be split into "comms" / "science" / "surveillance", possibly weighted based on whether the parent body is unlocked. Maybe certain "experiments" count towards surveillance (DMagic has a few parts) or a surveillance module could be added to any part using a MM patch. - Maybe higher opinion based on number of unlocked planets and moons out of the maximum - KCT alarms that auto-delete / don't stop warp / don't pause at the end of each quarter, just provide a small reminder in the KCT window of when the next quarter ends. - Present a brief summary of end-of-quarter results as an alert message (similar to how stage-recovery gives you results about stages) in the stock KSP alert system

Wish item - if I load a vessel from another save and the "start sim" button is greyed-out / blocked, please give me a list of what parts are not yet unlocked. (Sometimes KRASH, when I load a vessel from another save, will let me attempt to start the simulation and will then show me what parts are not yet unlocked. Other times it figures out that it's an invalid vessel and won't give the the "start sim" button at all. So I can't get feedback on what parts I'm missing.)

yeah, the new MPUs are pretty nice (other then the bug with 2.5m MPU making chemicals when set to Fertilizer(G)) for automated drilling landers. They're not fast, but that's okay, if it's automated then it's not time-sensitive (other then RTG/nuke wearing out or machinery). I haven't decided yet what I'll do when mine wear out of machinery. They've only been on the surface for 300-500 days.

Try this post over in USI-LS

I think I'm happy with the reward values in the current master branch. Not sure what would happen if planets got added out past Plock. The reward would be okay, but I'm not sure about the deadline. Neptune = 4,504 Gm SMA, 30.1x farther then Earth's SMA. About 30 years with a Hohmann transfer. Not too different then Neidon. http://ccar.colorado.edu/asen5050/projects/projects_2001/parker/Interplanetary.html So I'll be curious to see if anyone uses this with RSS.

85km target Ap from Kerbin launch, 45% turn, 1 degree final angle, 2.5km / 250 m/s initial turn. Lots of heating at 30-35km, fairings get kicked at 50-55km. First stage gets dropped at 65km (I'm coasting by then with an Ap of 85km), SRBs got dropped back at 14-18km altitude. Once it gets above 65km or so, the tail wagging goes away.

Some fins at the back (or some draggy parts) behind the CoM (center of mass) are also important. Vernors or linear RCS at the base of the rocket also helps. I generally put a 1.25 or 2.50 meter reaction wheel at the base of the rocket, with verns/linear-RCS, fins, and the main engine strapped to it. That lets me swap out the first stage fuel tanks without fiddling with fins or the RCS. I'll usually auto-strut that to the "root" or "grand-parent" part for stability. ------- I'm currently trying to figure out why my rockets fly well from 0-50km altitude, then start tail wagging as the trajectory flattens out in the upper atmosphere. The main stage is almost empty of fuel, so it's lost a lot of its mass. The thrust value is still in the 1.0-2.5 TWR range. I'm thinking that maybe it's MJ trying to get back to inclination zero, but I'm not sure. F12 to show aerodynamics doesn't show much at 50-60km altitude.

Been playing around with OPM the last few days. Looking at the delta-V map, I'm going to need to adjust some things in the contract deadlines and mission rewards. Jool is about a 3 year transit plus another year or so to do the orbit and Eeloo was a 4.5 year transit (optimal ballistic), with another year to do the orbit. Jool has a SMA ratio with Kerbin of 5.06 But then there's the OPM planets, and my calculations need to take into account the much longer transfer windows. Sarnus - 5 years (9.2x SMA ratio) Urlum - 16 years (18.7x SMA ratio) Neidon - 24 years (30.1x SMA ratio) Plock - 35-100 years (39.4x SMA ratio) I think if I use a calcuation of '2.5 * pow(ratio, 4/5)' I will get something reasonable for the number of years for a contract deadline. And if I go with the pow(ratio,3/4) * 1M for scaling the reward I get about 1.37M at Duna and 15.73M for Plock. The original reward calculation used the cube-root and you can see that it doesn't scale right (too conservative). While 15.7M sounds like a lot for Plock, it's a 35-45 year transit time.

Yay. BTW, "Static Confidence" should be "State Confidence" in the first post.

v1.2.2.10 - Feb 27 2017 - Use :FINAL to undo JX2Antenna/OPM Changes (@Erebus1 and @canisin) - Boost HG-5R / HG-55R from 5G to 10G (better balance for larger systems) - Contract rebalancing (rewards, reputation, penalties, advances) - Increase number of simultaneous contracts to 8 - Add a tier 1 home world polar relay contract (@Apocryphus)

@Apocryphus Mmm, I'm playing with CTT now as well. Which antenna was not yet unlocked that you didn't get the polar relay contracts? I'm guessing the RA-2? Possibly I should add a polar contract that can be completed with the HG-5R. Currently experimenting with OPM. I'll make a note to look at Coatl's parts.

I'm not 100% certain there is a bug, and it may have been weirdness because I unlinked a long flex-o-tube to connect something else in the middle and the lights hadn't cycled yet (through a day/night transformation) after hooking things back together.

I'm pretty sure that it varies by the type of radiator. The fixed (unextendable) radiators are very location-sensitive and will only draw heat from "nearby" parts (whether that means the parent part + grandparent part, or is a range in meters, I'm not sure). The extendable radiators, OTOH, will cool parts anywhere on the vessel.

Does this mean that the AgronomySkill is going to be deprecated? (See this list over in the USI-LS thread.)

Or maybe that's what the X-37 series could be used for.

I wasn't a fan of "disable contract payouts" in Monthly Budgets, so I wasn't that interested in the MB mod. (but I see that is now tweakable in v2.0)

CTT (Community Tech Tree) also does a decent job of spreading them out (more so then in the default tech tree).