johnkeale

@theonegalen Thanks! I hope I can release before your next playthrough I haven't played with Kerbal Health, but yeah, maybe the Kerbals can post shouts when they don't feel well. Once I finalize(or simplify) the properties of shouts and stories, I'll work on mod-compatibility next. Oh yeah, I guess you're right. I'll make it configurable then. It's also useful when debugging

Oh. I wasn't able to catch that haha. Hmm maybe I should increase the priority of this todo? I always love it when the mods are compatible and sync well with each other, and making this mod compatible will really be awesome. I'll think about it. Anyway, here's a quick update. Some of the shouts are now based on your reputation level. I made it so that 60% of the shouts on the feed pertain to your rep level, while the remaining 40% are just random shouts. The 60-40 ratio is chosen arbitrarily, and I'm thinking of making this a setting, though making it one would make it seem that there might be too many configurable settings. I'm also thinking of having outlier rep level shouts that don't correspond to your current level. For example, if you have a very high reputation, there will still be 1 or 2 shouts that are as if you have low reputation, or vice versa. Something like: Aside from adding more shouts and stories, this is I'm planning on making stories and shouts situational, as well as adding a 'required milestone' to them. If the player has already achieved some milestone in the past, some shouts will be about that milestone, and the Kerbals will be talking about it in shouts postively/negatively depending on your reputation. For example, if the player has already landed on Gilly before, some of the shouts will be: Maybe we could step it up and have a milestone achieved, and another not yet achieved. For example, if the player has landed on Gilly but not yet on Eve, Situational shouts will work just like Chatterer. IIRC in Chatterrer, chatters get activated once you cross an SOI, or achieved an orbit and the like. I'm thinking of adding shouts that work like that as well. For example, you have a probe that has just entered Eeloo SOI, depending on your reputation, Kerbals will talk about it positively or negatively. And I'm thinking of having this happen instantly. i.e. just before crossing the SOI, the feed will be normal, but after crossing, there will be a lot of shouts talking about the crossing. What do you guys think? Man, @ensou04's idea is just too awesome, I really like it. If you have any opinions about the things I'm thinking of going forward, please do let me know. I'm also thinking of developing the stories alongside shouts. If some aspects are also applicable to stories, I'm planning on adding them as well. Oh yeah, I'm still asking for suggestions for shouts and stories. This is the part that I'm not really confident because I don't use social media that much and I'm not really a creative writer. I'll be sure to add you in the credits if you suggest one, and as the author of that certain story/shout. Thanks and cheers!

:O Really? I probably have it turned off since I use Snacks!, but I play in super easy mode so I might have turned it off.

@Krakatoa Thanks. That wasn't solely my idea though. We also have ensou04 to thank for that @Bottle Rocketeer 500 I'm actually planning on having interconnected stories. For example: Then the messages/shoutouts gradually get more demanding. Something like: But that's it. The issue will be resolved in the background. As @Benjamin Kerman says, my vision is to just have some storytelling effect. Though I do admit it is a good idea. For example, IIRC, USI-LS has the same sort of feature, if the hab time/space (i'm not sure what's the correct term) is not enough for the crew, they'll turn into tourists and you, the player will not be able to control the ship. I thought that I could create some sort of interface that USI-LS can call, so that it can post some stories/shoutouts before the crew can turn into tourists. But yeah, that'll be further down the road. I added it in my TODO list just in case. So yeah, I finally had the time to update the first post, but I felt that the write-up is still lacking, particularly the part about Shoutouts. I will probably be updating it again. I will also update the screenshots with the latest version when I get home.

Just a quick update before I sleep! So I've been having so much fun building the shoutouts feed. When I make this situational and based on your reputation, it's gonna be 1000x more awesome! @ensou04's idea was really cool! Here's a couple of screenshots: And here's how I envision the stories to look like: As you can see, it's supposed to mimic a browser. I'm still working on that. I've actually finished creating a github repo. It can be found here. I have not chosen any license yet though, I'd like to have more time to decide on that. Lastly is the first post on this thread. I'll be honest, I had too much fun coding so I haven't gotten around to doing it properly yet. I would like to consolidate information properly on the first post, as well as compile a TODO list or roadmap. But I promise I'll do it soon. Cheers~

@Benjamin Kerman thanks! I'll look into that. Btw, I've setup github. I will be fixing the first post soon.

@Benjamin Kerman Ooh that will be a big help. I've yet to setup github, but I will do so soon. I have only used git in my personal projects, and I have no experience using it with other people (we use different version control at work). As such, I actually don't know how to handle pull requests and the like. Though I think it's nothing that a simple research and study cannot solve. Anyway, I will be setting up the github once I finalize the name. The name. I'm getting stuck with the name and I think I'm really overthinking this. To be able to proceed, I have decided on a name, and if I think (or someone could suggest) a really good one, I will just change it down the road. The name I have decided on is: "Kerbal Stories and Shoutouts", or Kerbal SNS for short. So the official reports will be known/called as stories, and the tweets will be called as shoutouts. I think the name captures what this mod is about, and I like that its abbreviation is SNS, which could stand for social networking site, which is what twitter is. With this, I will be updating this thread to a WIP one, as well as creating a github repo for this. @Benjamin Kerman I'll pm you once the setup is complete. Thanks! Edit: Oh sorry, please point me in the right direction first. If all else fails, I'll just ask for you to make a pull request. I got excited about the pull request since it will be the first time that I'll be handling that

@DStaal For now I just put them into one file. That's actually a really good idea! I'll look into that, but for now I'll just add it to my TODO list. @FungusForge That's a good idea too. Since my vision of this is that it shouldn't change the game whatsoever, nothing should happen if the player ignores the prompt. If the player chooses to explore, what will happen is just another event is unlocked. I'll add it to my TODO list too! Though I imagine that that would be implement further down the line. Hmm, now that I think about it, can this be done via Mission Builder? Anyway, to officially start the development of this mod, I have to come up with the name that will serve to identify this mod. Random Kerbal Events is just a placeholder, and I thought that a more unique, snappy name would be better. I thought about @ensou04's suggestions. "Kerbal Social Network" is a good one, and I'm building from that, as well as "Kerbal Report!" and "Kerbal Log". I also liked how snappy "Ping!" sounds. With this, I thought of "Social Networks and Archived Reports of Kerbals Installed on Encampments (SNARKIE)". But on hindsight, it looked really long and cumbersome, so I won't use it. I really liked the twitter idea, and as I said it complements well with the reports part. It is the perfect place for meme-y messages, or those corny jokes and lame puns, as well as some more official news headlines. The mod can detect milestones the player does and have some Kerbals tweet about it and it will be really cool. I also like the fact that it can be tied to the reputation! As such, I'm thinking of including it on the name. I would like to capture the name (Twitter)'s essence in the name. As you might know, tweets are supposed to succint, as there is a character limit when posting a tweet. Since there are no animals on Kerbin (that we know of), I thought of using the Kerbals instead. I really liked Chatterer's name, as it captures what that mod is about. Real life audio are kerbalized to make it sound just simple 'chatter' while playing, but it really increases immersion. For me, playing the game without chatterer would seem like an entirely different game. When Kerbals speak (e.g. on Squad's trailers), they really seem to be nonsensical chatters. And some (or most) of the time, tweets are also nonsensical, I thought of calling tweets something synonymous to chatter, like maybe ramble, babble, yap, etc. Then the official reports are more like stories, so I thought of capturing that in the name too. With this, I thought of the following names (prefix Kerbal can be ommitted): (Kerbal) Reports & Rambles (Kerbal) Random Reports & Rambles (Kerbal) Reports & Rants (Kerbal) Random Reports & Rants (Kerbal) Stories & Shoutouts (Kerbal) Myths & Mumbles (Kerbal) Tales & Tattles I thought having similar words start in the same letter is kind of 'snappy'. I personally like "Kerbal Random Reports & Rants" though, where twitter will be named ranter, but it still doesn't seem to quite fit. I think I might be overthinking this. :v

So I now have built a very very very rough prototype mod illustrating the basics of the idea I had. You can download it here. What it does is it gets all of your stations and bases currently in flight, matches their crew to a random event listed on a cfg file, and sends a message via the MessageSystem like so: You can also add your own events to the eventList.cfg file. The format is the following: Since this is a rough prototype, I would advise against using it in your own save file, unless you know what you are doing. If you want to try the prototype though, I will also provide the save file that I used in testing right here. The frequency of the messages can be adjusted in the settings like so: Once I finalize the name of this mod, I'll update this thread to a WIP one, as well as provide more links, and probably a license as well. But for now, here's the prototype containing my vision. Cheers!!

@Benjamin Kerman You're right! Thanks for the comment. Whether some mod or the stock uses an 'EVENT' or not, it's still better to use a more unique node name to avoid future problems. I'll fix that. @BRAAAP_STUTUTU Yep, BARIS has something similar, but the focus is different.

@Benjamin Kerman Yeah! That's one of the objectives of the MVP I'm planning to build. To be able to change the frequency of the messages in-game To be able to get the crew of vessels, and use their names appropriately on the messages To be able to add/edit/delete events just by editing the cfg file That's why I'm also considering how the cfg file will be structured, i.e. what the properties of the 'Event' object will be. For now, it's a simple as: I actually plan to post the MVP once I achieve the above objectives, so as to make my vision more 'concrete'. From there I will proceed. Anyways, I was just really glad to make it work for the first time. This is my first time building a mod for a game, and also my first time with C#, so there are many things that were new to me. And honestly, I thought I would bump into lots of problems early on. Turns out it was easy to start coding since there is a wealth of resources here and there, and I'm really thankful for that! @ensou04 Thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep those in mind while considering what the name will be! And yeah I'm excited to build the twitter part too! I actually plan to build it right after the MVP, because it will really blend well with the reports. Though I imagine that building it will take longer time, since I will need to create its own UI. But that part actually also excites me, I can't wait to get onto it! Edit: A name idea came to me just as I was about to sleep. I thought of posting here so I won't forget. It's a bit of a stretch, but "Social Networks and Archived Reports of Kerbals Installed in Encampments", or SNARKIE, seems cool hahaha

It's already taking shape! With this, I think I can really proceed. I now have to seriously think about important stuff. First and foremost is the mod's name! I'm thinking of a Social Networky name, since I'm planning to incorporate ensou04's twitter idea in the future. If you have suggestions, please let me know. For now I'll just call it Random Kerbal Events. Lastly, I think creating the code is the easy part. The hard part is actually the events. The more events, the more the variation, the more fun and interesting it will be. If you have any suggestions please also let me know! I'll be thinking about these events a lot and I hope I can think of some funny ones. Thanks again everyone for the support and interest. I really appreciate it. Cheers~

OK! Will do that once I have something to show. Thanks a lot!

@wasml Thanks! I've been browsing mods for quite a while now too, and I thought that similar mod did not exist. But I was actually wrong. It was pointed out to me on reddit that a similar mod did really exist, though it is not the main focus of that mod. The similar mod I'm talking about was Angel's BARIS mod. If you are familiar with that mod, you'll know that my idea is not the main focus of that, but it was some sort of mini-feature. I use Angel's mods, mainly Snacks!, and I have seen BARIS before, but because my gameplay skills are still not up there, I didn't really pay attention to it that much. BTW, the BARIS mod, simply speaking, allows for some of your parts to fail during flight, allowing for some unpredicted events to happen while you're playing the game. In line with this, BARIS also has a mini-feature(?) called 'Event Cards'. This mini-feature is the one that's similar to my idea here. The spirit is the same, but the idea I have is more lightweight, and is not meant to change your game whatsoever. So the focus and/or specifics of my vision is different. Nevertheless, I plan on at least notifying Angel that I have this idea and I will be taking inspiration from their work. @Benjamin Kerman Thanks a lot! I will be needing all the help I can get since this will be the first time I will be doing this, so I really appreciate the support! I will be visiting and asking questions that's for sure. My first goal is to develop the minimum viable prototype containing my vision, and hope that I don't get into feature creeps early one. BTW, here comes my first question haha. Once I start developing this one, should I transform this thread into a WIP thread, or create a whole new thread? Thanks everyone for the support! Cheers~

That's my line of thinking as well. Since it is a feed, it should be viewed on a small window that can be scrolled. Now that you mention it, the player should also be able to view past 'official' reports too. Thanks for the permission! I'll incorporate your idea going forward with this.

@ensou04 Ooh, that's a nice idea as well! It won't fit with the event message system though, since I am thinking of that to be infrequent. But a twitter-like idea is really cool and fits entirely with what I want, which is to have some sort of 'story' and personality with the Kerbals. I actually really like your idea, so I'm asking permission if it's possible to include it in my idea (with credits of course). My idea and yours are counterparts, but complement each other. Mine is something more 'official', as I envision it to be 'reports', albeit silly ones. Yours is something more 'unofficial', and would be frequent (it's a social media feed after all). I'll try asking around on Reddit if my mod idea already exists. If not, I am thinking of making it myself, and I would like to add your idea down the road. It would be really cool!

Seems like fun right? I think having a prototype will Illustrate what I want better, so I'll try making that first. But before that, I want to research if a similar mod already exists. It seems pretty simple for me that no one has thought of it before.

Kerbal Stories And Shouts (Kerbal SNS for short) is a plugin that is aimed at increasing immersion in your game. Ever wonder what your Kerbals do when you leave them on their bases? Ever wonder what your crew thinks of Jebediah? Ever wonder what the citizens of Kerbin really think of your space agency? Is Minmus really made of ice cream?? Kerbal SNS aims to give some 'personality' or 'story' to your Kerbals stationed on bases or space stations by answering silly questions like those above. Stories Building a base or deploying a station on another body is difficult, that's why being able to do so is really satisfactory. But after doing so, you're essentially left with nothing. Sure you can gather science and probably perform contracts if you are in Career or Science mode, but after that, you almost always move on to another mission or another body. Wouldn't it be fun if something random happened to these bases/stations and you get notified about it? Maybe Jeb saw a red craft being pulled by 9 more weird crafts below the station. Or that Bob finally confirmed that Minmus really is made of ice cream. Wouldn't it be fun to receive funny reports like this while you're on another mission? This mod aims to do such that. By crafting random stories (retrieved from an editable cfg file), you the player will be notified of random stories happening on your previously deployed bases or stations. The stories would be simple and are not meant to be game-changing, and are just something funny you get while doing time warp or executing a maneuver node, etc. The stories will take into account the crew on the base, so only their names appear on the story text. The stories will appear randomly and this can be configurable on the Settings screen. Stories would also include easter eggs, and you the player can add stories yourself by editing the cfg file. Images speak better than words, so here are some screenshots: You can reminisce past stories by reading them again on the 'browser' via the SNS button on the toolbar as shown above. Shouts Your space program has its reputation, but it's just a boring colored bar on the top of the screen, just a number. We all know that reputation is more than just that. Wouldn't it be more fun if you could really know your reputation by knowing what the netizens of Kerbin think? Maybe they don't want the bodies you are planning to visit? Maybe they think your rockets are ugly, or that you should focus on Dre- *ehem* I mean Eloo. What if Kerbal has its own social platform where you could read the Kerbal's thoughts? This mod aims to let you do that. By generating random shouts(tweets) (retrieved from an editable cfg file) and dispaying them on a 'browser', you can read shouts from Kerbals just like you would on a real social media webiste. Think of this more like a KSP Version of twitter. There will be shouts based on your current reputation, random nonsense, easter eggs, lame space jokes, and anything else under the Sun (but mostly space-related). The shouts are supposed to be funny just like the stories. Since IRL news feed only feature the most recent posts, shouts are planned to be the same. The shouts to be displayed will only be from the most recent hour, and are designed to be temporary. If you timewarp to an hour or more later, all of the previous shouts will be gone and new shouts will be displayed. The same with stories, you the player can add shouts yourself by editing the cfg file. Here's more screenshots! TODO List So here's some things that I plan to include in the future: MOAR STORIES AND SHOUTS more configurable plugin settings a way for other mod makers to add stories and shouts to support my mod interface for other mods to post stories/shouts dynamically situational stories stories with connected narratives stories connected to Kerbal's traits unlocking stories by exploration stories based on milestones situational shouts shouts based on current events (e.g. vessel changing SOI, kerbal going on EVA) shouts about current vessels shouts responding to other shouts shouts connected to Kerbal's traits shouts based on milestones If you have story or shout suggestions, please don't hesitate to suggest them here. The more stories/shouts there are, the more variations there could be, the more fun it would be! Links Github License (GPL v3) Credits @ensou04 for the Twitter idea Thank you very much! Original post:

This is so cool, I can't wait to try this out! As per the IVA, does the license allow the usage of SXT or KSOS or even Grounded's IVA? Of course it's not really a big deal, I just wanted to ask

Oh wow this is so cool! I absolutely love the interiors. Will be eagerly awaiting the release!

@Omega482 Oh sorry, I meant about the layout, not the statics. I can't uninstall Kerbin-side because it will mess up with my headcanon, though I'm still thinking of a 'story' that could fix that to allow me to uninstall Kerbin-side and install the remastered one. I got sidetracked there, but yeah, eagerly awaiting for the release! Thanks for all the hard work!

Have you seen the Capsule Corp mod? It might just be what you wanted, though afaik it's currently in wip mode right now. @Omega482 Really really beautiful statics you've made here. I have been following this thread for a while now and I absolutely love your work. Will be eagerly and patiently waiting for the release! Just one really quick question though. ^Will this be compatible with Kerbin-side (or Escandre's Remastered one)? I assume not, but I just wanted to ask.

Besides movies, I think this is really great with base assembly along with KIS. Have Jeb equip the the default KIS container and have him follow Bill while Bill goes along with base assembly, occasionally getting items from Jeb or having Jeb assist in lifting heavy parts. Of course you can have more Kerbals follow you for more assistance!

Yep. But asking for permission, even if just for formalities, is I think a nice courtesy to do.

Oh wow that was quick. I honestly didn't expect it to be changed because of licenses and such and I thought replacing IVAs would be hard. From checking the diff on github though, it seems easy (?). I hope I find time myself, maybe I could fix/add IVAs to some mods that I like but don't have one. (I would ask permission from the author first of course) Anyway, thanks a lot @linuxgurugamer! No, really! I always see you maintain/revive a lot of mods and it really makes my game much more lively and interesting. Thank you very much! Cheers~