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Reiver

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Posts posted by Reiver

  1. Not to overdo the scope creep, but a few mechanics that could make mobile 'beacons' interesting:

    1) They can have a mass limit (So bigger craft could require more extensive/heavier facilities for recovery)

    2) They cannot recover themselves.

    Those two restrictions alone would grant a whole bunch of interesting implications. How much modeling is done in support of it, of course, is another question... but it would certainly seem like fun. :) Good luck!

  2. This is pretty fantastic, and I'm loving having a mobile launch platform to toodle around the oceans with :D

    A couple tiny thoughts:

    1) Is there a reason the engines have to be separate from the base hull? Actually attaching them is a bit of a challenge. Unless you intend that the part will be reused a lot, is there anything stopping it from being integral to the hull?

    2) Does anyone have/know of some kind of connector to use to grab the ship and not have it hit the ground when using HyperEdit etc for deployment? The timing can be awful tight. :wink:

  3. Oh my goodness, I'd been thinking of doing this exact mod! :D

    My thought for the skill tree was a little less... powerful... though. The idea being that they're less capable than any one Kerbal, thus ensuring you still care about sending a three-man pod to the moon (for that Pilot to land it, the Scientist to research it, and the Engineer to fix it, right?)... but can still be a slightly more versatile 'handyman' for rover work and, crucially, a cheaper source of personnel for life-support dependent bases: Simply rig up contracts that award them, tourist-style, and are satisfied by getting them to their destination!

    0: Tourist with EVA and ability to 'work' for life support facilities (I'm not sure whether this is possible, but is probably worth checking with MKS and the like guys whether it's possible) - if you want them to be much use outside of a moonbase, you'll need to train 'em. :wink:
    1: Vehicle control (sans SAS or other handy help): Basic controls for driving rovers, or piloting craft in a pinch, but you'll really want a pilot for the fiddly stuff.
    2: Repair wheels: Now you can drive your Space Truck, it's time to maintain it. Articulated legs and the like remain the remit of Engineers; this is for the guy that needs to swap a tyre.
    3: EVA Samples: You still need a Scientist if you want to maintain the kit in the back, but he can be trusted to dig 'em out.
    4: Repair solar panels: Gettin' handy round the base.

    If a multiplier could be granted to working in Life Support mod Greenhouses, that'd be even better - but that, again, depends on talking to the Life Support guys. :)
    I wonder if UCS's homesickness rate can have a Colonist multiplier for willingness to stay around a long time? Colonists rapidly lose interest in going home would be... thematic. :wink:

    Whatcha think?

  4. Okay. I'm pondering making a ModuleManager patch to convert the Food supplies from Litres to KerbalDays, the green marshmellow equivalent of man-hours.

    I'd need to divide the volumes of all resources by 16.2, multiply weight and cost by 16.2, and... the volume too, I guess?

  5. Loving that 1.25m cupola! Would there be any chance of it coming as a pure-blue version in future? :)

    As an aside (because the thread is huge), what had you settle on 16.2 Supplies per kerbal per day? I've been half tempted to refactor the supplies ratio (while keeping the ultimate capacities, weights, and costs in line with base balancing) so it's 1 supply per day per kerbal just to let the 'mental math' be easier - a radially mounted Supplies box is then ~6 kerbal-days worth, and you know this just by looking at it... :)

  6. On 02/05/2016 at 4:17 PM, Mechtech said:

    well, the fortunate thing about the license on this is, after all, that it's sufficiently permissive as to allow a level of maintenance by the community.

    it would, however, help if @TurboNisu could drop by the next time he's on the forum and give the okay to update the models that need changing (insofar as I know, only the landing gear needs it,) in order to continue to have this in KSP... or even update himself, I certainly think we've adequately proven we like his work enough to do what we can to keep it running in his absence! :)

    He last visited over a year ago, so I wouldn't hold much breath in having him reappear any time soon.

    I think 1.1 broke a lot of these old legacy mods good and proper, and without modelling support I'm not at all sure we'll see them live again, unless there's a dedicated project to attempt such ventures...

  7. 1 hour ago, Snark said:

    I thought about that, but I'm not sure how useful it would actually be to people. One thing I want to be careful about is not to turn the ship into a Christmas tree with little colored lights all over everything all the time.  Too many indicator lights = distracting, bad.  So I'd like to avoid putting lights on things that don't necessarily need them-- or, at the very least, if I do put them on something that may not need them so much, make it toggleable via an option or something.

    In the particular case of engines, they already have a pretty good indicator:  just look at the fuel bars next to the engines in the staging display.  Given that that display exists, I think it's somewhat marginally useful to add indicator lights to engines, and likely doesn't pass the less-is-more test.

    I'd be more likely to do something like make a separate part that can be an indicator, and provide some way to tie that to an engine, so that if a user especially wants blinkenlights that show engine status, they can place the lights how and where they want them.  But that's a low-priority feature at the moment, I've got other stuff to do first.

    Frankly, I agree with you, at least as a standard, put-it-on-everything type of solution, which is why I haven't done it.  :)

    But I could see it being useful in certain cases for certain people, like the engine status mentioned above.  So I may eventually look at some easy-to-use, optional solution that would allow people to have this if they want it, without getting in the way of the probably large majority who don't.

    Would tank indicators be generic, or fuel-specfic? Generic would be handy in unusual places - tracking food supplies, or ore content, as opposed to simply LFO.

  8. Oh man, an actual release? Congratulations, man! :D

    One small detail I seem to have missed up till now - the central hub is not only the biggest house, but a science lab and a super-efficient recycler too So if I have one I don't really need any of the other pretty parts added to the central core? :P I presume I've gone and missed something, but I do love those RV-style opening bases.

    Also, did you decide against the Modular Storage End having a mount point for landing gear, or have I missed it? Regardless, this is still glorious; one of my favourite part mods ever. :)

  9. I like every bit but the Tier 3 stuff; especially the Pilot and Engineer parts.

    I mean, I get the idea, but messing with ISP and strut strength just seems... off. (If struts aren't strong enough, maybe they should just be stronger, y'know what I'm sayin'?)

    Engineers could, I suppose, get a refinery bonus; it's their primary use in the later game.

    Pilots... well, they obsolete all too easily as-is. But perhaps something to do with the remote control rules coming soon?

  10. 4 hours ago, Nils277 said:

    I hate to double post but here are finally the images of the new garage parts that i promised :wink:

     

    The parts are in the MK3 form-factor, with one side cut. I still consider adding some kind of disposable fairing to them so that they have the full MK3 form-factor during flight and for asthetic porposes.
    Do you think i should add these fairings to the bottom?

    Edit:
    PS: You can also make the garage as long as needed. Somehow the last three images from imgur are not shown here...

    Oh man, I should never doubt your absurd skills, man! That thing is totally and utterly glorious :D

    How does it interact/align with respect to planetary bases in flight? It looks like it aligns neatly when using feet, which is awesome in itself... though I hope the next version of the single-module-end-cap will come with the feet so you can skip the feet mount right beside it, right? ;)

    Judging by its design, it looks like it's a Mk3 part that's horizontal, yes? Hmm. Going to have to get creative with dropping and docking to it, this should be fun to design around :D

    A fairing piece would be pretty handy, yes. Bonus points if it can be mounted to a base as a little mounting platform for stacking stuff onto... if you can pull it off, anyway :) An alternative would be a fairing that somehow has the kit needed to help take a normally-vertical section and ease it over to the horizontal. Either that or we build our spaceplanes sideways, eh? ;)

    Given you've nailed that multi-fold direction, I think I'd love to see a little 'flush' garage too, roughly the same size as the service bay folded, but unfolding to a nice flat landing/driving pad. You know, for mini rovers... or for landing rockets on. :D
    (It's also a handy place to mount bits when using KIS to reassemble rocketships. Not that I've ever had to jury-rig a rocketship on the roof of a science lab before, for wont of any other open, flat surfaces... Nope nope nope. :P)

  11. On 05/12/2015, 02:53:15, Red Iron Crown said:

    @Nils277 If you are open to suggestions, one part I find myself desiring is some sort of nuclear reactor power generator so I don't have to spam RTGs for stuff on the outer planets where solar is not so good. I'm imagining a module about the size of the inline command module and massing three or four tons, with an off/on toggle for power generation and enough heat when running to need some radiators.

    I generally make a point of hooking up self-fueling fuel cells/RTGs. You have to pick the right spot to start drilling, and have the right crews on hand... but it can be done. :D

    @Nils277: Any word on the Science Junior module?

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