ChrisF0001

This is probably a stupid question, but I think I have to ask... I can't find any fuel tanks that will hold Liquid Methane. I have the engines unlocked in the VAB, I have CryoTanks in GameData, and I can build a Liquid Hydrogen based rocket just fine. I can see cryonic fuel tank parts that have a boiloff module that refers to Liquid Methane. I just can't actually find a way to add a part to a rocket that actually contains the stuff. Am I doing something stupid? Or have I stumbled into a mod conflict? (I have read the first post about B9 Part Switch configs, so I was also wondering if there might be a button I could press to change the config... but one possible stupid thing I may be doing is failing to see that button. Or one possible mod conflict might be my insistence on using Modular Fuel Tanks despite the compatibility warning...)

(Ahem, sorry for the delay, I was distracted by some real life stuff...) ...Actually neither, it stayed up there(!). Retracting all the drills (and ladders for luck) and reloading the scene put it back on the ground. I subsequently tried putting in my DummyModuleWSIgnore kludge and it seemed okay...

I tried using this, to keep my Bon Voyage rovers from exploding all the time - and by and large it works fine, *BUT*... ...I eventually noticed that whenever I switched to my Mun base, it got a little bit higher... until one fine munar day I switched to it and the whole base was several meters above the surface, balanced on the tips of the mining drills. Does anyone happen to know a good way of resolving this? I see you can exclude part modules in the .cfg, but not *parts*, and I'm not convinced that I can just make up a 'dummy' module without anything referencing it (or can I? In that case I could exclude the "DummyModuleWSIgnore" or whatever, and have another MM patch file to add that to all the drill parts...)

Following a couple of other comments (...okay, one of them was mine) - I did think there was some problem with some specific parts causing DIY kits to bug out, as today I again had the 'DIY kit on the ground but invisible to the workshop' thing. ...Then, while I was doing some experiments to work out what to say in here, I discovered that if the (ground) DIY kit is actually docked to the (also ground) workshop, it can be built. So that was odd. I'm also thankful that all those years ago I built that first General Purpose Lander with *two* winches on it, as they eventually became KAS fuel hoses and could be used to chain the container onto the base...

Has anyone tried this with 1.12? It's been a while so I might be missing something obvious, but I had my Munar base build a ground DIY container from the assembly line, but in the workshop to do the deploy and build, there's... nothing. I sent out a mechanic on EVA to deploy the thing, which appeared to work, but still no sign of any way to actually do the final build - admittedly this is using an MKS workshop, but the workshop window appears just fine. My orbital station with a dockable kit container in progress *seems* to be unaffected... does even a ground kit need to be 'docked' to the workshop or something? -- Update: After some experimentation... It looks like the build process does in fact work, unless the thing you're trying to build is a KIS container full of Bon Voyage Autopilot Controllers. (Having one actually on the vessel seems fine.) So, mod conflicts for the win, I guess! Today I learned...

The keyboard 'rover' steering controls work fine - after a bit more testing I think it must be the Ground Contact Check that you describe (apparently it's not just tracks, but any KF wheel). Still, it's good to know these things for future reference, thanks!

This may not be something people care about, but I have to ask... So, the Mechjeb Rover Autopilot. Admittedly twitchy at the best of times, but it doesn't seem to understand tracks at all (as in, turning it on does nothing on a tracked vehicle). I'm curious as to why... and if there's a workaround? (I realise that the answer may be unknown or something nobody wants to spend time on, but I thought I could ask!)

Hmm... I guess the problem is just that there isn't any then. I thought my maths / config file comprehension was correct, but maybe not!...

The 'dish' deploys and retracts on command, but when it's open and the 'Open Karbonite Collector' button is present it appears to do nothing when pressed - no animations, no changing to 'Close...', as if the button isn't connected up. Is there expected to be an observable effect even if there's nothing to collect?

I have another quick Rover question... is there any known problem with the loading of routes? Basically if I lay out a route of waypoints it all seems fine. Then I can save it, fine, the waypoints look correct in the mechjeb_routes.cfg file. Then, if I *load* a route, in the actual waypoints list it becomes garbage (right number of waypoints, wildly incorrect positions). (If I actually edit the .sfs file and paste the waypoints from the routes file into the waypoints node in the MechJeb module on the vessel, the correct route comes out...) Is this just me?

So this may be a stupid question, but - does the Particle Collector still work nowadays? Reading the thread and the config files, it sounds like it *should* be possible to collect Karbonite in Kerbin orbit at around (600x0.245=) ...147 km altitude, but once I get a scoop up there, there's Nothing To Harvest. And the 'Open Karbonite Collector' button does nothing. Am I doing it wrong, or is it full of bees?

How do you mean 'near'? The dockable kit container must be docked with the vessel that has the workshop, via the 'construction' docking port on the kit (the end with the circular shape on it IIRC). I can confirm that after @allista's hard work this now works perfectly for me - also of course if the kit has deployed the workshop must have been able to 'see' it for that to have been done? It might also be worth noting that only the Orbital Workshop part can build kits in space of course - there are a bunch of, for example, MKS 'workshop' parts that can build ground kits when landed, but orbital building specifically requires the orbital workshop from GC itself (...I may have made this mistake myself back in the day, so I thought I should check!).

There must be something still locked or the 'some modules are disabled' notice wouldn't be there... Just looking a random part file - MechJebModuleRoverWindow { unlockTechs = fieldScience } ...assuming that exists in the tech tree?

Might I ask if there's been a change to how Rover Stability Control works in the last few versions? While driving forward it seems okay, if a little weak, but if a rover is stopped with Stability Control on it seems to dramatically flip out (for lack of a better description). I suspect that if the velocity is 'backwards' for any reason (reversing, rolling backwards down a slope, rounding error...) it's trying to pull the nose around to comply with the velocity vector by hook or by crook, even if this involves grinding the nose into the ground or scraping off all the solar panels. It seems much more pronounced on the Mun rather than just outside KSC...

Great, I shall have to try it out... Excellent! Well, there's probably some square-cube relation that could be estimated depending on how the field 'works'. As it were. That is, without thinking about it too much and waving my hands a lot, it might be possible to argue that if you multiply the linear dimensions by two the 'plate' on the end is four times larger, so you might get four times the field (assuming it scales with area of course), but the box inside is eight times more massive. So you still get a drop-off. But, you're the mod creator of course!

Ah yes, somehow I must have missed that... Does it play nice with MechJeb? Interesting! Suddenly I find myself speculating about a pusher-ship with a gigantic magnetic forklift on the front as a 'universal freighter' of sorts... is there an attachment node where the docking port is, like kits have?

Nice! Certainly more convenient than just a docking port , assuming the part / kit fits into the cage... I don't recognise the hover controls you're using though, what are they? You seem to be much better at ground-level flight than I am... Excellent

The rover autopilot doesn't seem to understand tracked vehicles, if that's what you mean...

As said, when MechJeb takes control it thinks the Construction port is facing backwards, so - well it's been a while since I first discovered that, but it goes all kinds of wrong. I don't have any idea why this occurs, @DStaal's explanation certainly sounds plausible - MJ is very mysterious and occasionally prone to breaking, but I see myself as an engineer rather than a pilot, so I tend to use it a lot... I'd certainly be interested to see how that works, I can't quite picture it myself... surely you need some sort of vehicle that moves the 'bottle'?

Through the docking port on top of the Ground Container. For assembly purposes - the assembly line, SP-requiring first-stage assembly - it resizes just fine without disconnecting just like a Dockable Container does. The Klaw is only because a Ground Container doesn't have a Transport Docking Port to manipulate it with. As @DStaal says, for MechJeb purposes the Construction port faces 'backwards'. (Personally I solve it by using 'Control From Here' on the docking port on the tug / workpod that's docked to the Transport port - it may have something docked to it already, but MechJeb cares not, and it's always inline with and facing in the 'correct' direction for the Construction port. Seems to work okay... ) Certainly! I have started to wonder if something could be done with USI Konstruction parts - it was a major revelation to realise that things like the Forklift and the Magnetic Arm... thing, while nearly impossible to actually manipulate things with using the robotic controls, increase the KIS / KAS grab strength of Kerbals just by being nearby, as if they were super-strong Kerbals themselves (just saying, in case anyone else didn't know that!...). So it might be possible to build some sort of ridiculous flatbed 'skycrane' type thing with multiple PAL grabbers on it that functions just by allowing a nearby Kerbal to pick up a nearby, full / assembled DIY kit up to 20 tons or so and just 'attach' it to the bed. ...Much easier to just assemble the thing in orbit though. Wonderful, thank you so much!

Ah yes, of course... It's a little large but the entire career save is here (should be a quicksave focussed on the relevant station): https://www.dropbox.com/s/vb7ktfqabeshuxr/GCTest.sfs?dl=0 (I'll try to make a smaller-scale test...) Well, you use a Klaw of course (hence the 'Heavy Workpod' on top of that station - Klaw on the front, docking port on the back, and enough RCS thrust to pull containers out of the assembly space). Once it's docked you can release the Klaw, then it seemed to resize for assembly just fine, then when complete, grab with the Klaw again, dock it to the skycrane (or possibly vice-versa as the ports on containers don't work with MechJeb), deliver to the surface somewhere and build away! (I did a couple of times experiment with vehicles designed to pick containers up and lift off with them, but getting enough clearance while maintaining stability was tricky - then I discovered that you could just do everything in orbit...) Edit - Okay, I have here a slightly simpler test case, assuming it works: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkknxexg5b52h8l/ConstructionTestA.craft?dl=0 That's basically a workshop with a kit on each end, each connected by a battery -> "Part X" -> battery -> docking port -> Kit, where "Part X" is a Universal Storage four-bay service core. (Very obscure compatibilty issue? Well...) The interesting bit is this. When I go into the SPH, load that file and launch, neither kit is visible to the workshop. Revert to SPH. Now, pick up one kit by the quad core part and immediately re-attach it, then launch again. Now, just that kit is visible to the workshop! Revert to SPH and launch immediately, doing nothing. Now it's gone again! I haven't been able to eliminate the quad-core part from my enquiries, as it was a couple of hours before I understood that whether the test 'worked' or not was as dependent on what I'd just done in the editor as it was on the parts involved(!). It may work with just GC and Universal Storage 2, I haven't done that test yet - but this is the simplest / most interesting / most repeatable case I've found so far. Further edit - of course it does strike me that the thing about that quad-core part is that it has four subtypes / 'textures' that change its length. So presuably one of those attach nodes is non-standard in some way, but I have no idea how that's done. (Compatibility issue?) I now wonder if it would all start working if I just turned that part around (so perhaps the 'down-walk' node is the fixed one?). Further testing required, when I'm back from work. (...Now done, and I believe I can confirm. If the part is turned around, the workshop always sees the kit.) Thank you so much for your patience... ^_^;

Interesting... I wonder if there are other things that could break it. Docking ports often seem to behave a bit oddly, particularly right after a version upgrade (since at least 1.6 I've found docked ships 'welded' together after loading a new version...). But really useful!! (Also since the orbital assembly line can make ground containers, I thought for sure it was deliberate!) (...If you're trying to make, say, a base part to be built somewhere where there is no assembly line, only a workshop, it's much easier to build it entirely in orbit rather than trying to land a skycrane on top of a container by hand!) Hopefully this is such a link (first time I've tried sharing links out of DropBox...). https://www.dropbox.com/s/058u7seenkh2iag/modlist.ckan?dl=0 (Not shown, some handcrafted MM patches for a) making KAS cable bracing 50m long, b) fixing an IVA, c) making certain track sounds from KF quieter, d) adding my major bases to the MechJeb landing site presets... Hopefully those aren't relevant!)

Well the mod list is... extensive. ^_^; This is a save that's been ongoing since 2016, so it's seen a few mod versions as well. It is tempting to think that a compatibility issue could be at fault, though I'm not sure what. Does the code now walk the part tree from the workshop to the containers? I'm wondering what other factors might be affecting it. The kit is actually the tenth part away from the workshop, but it is docked at the construction port and I believe it to be complete. When I have a bit more time I'll try some more tests - undock / redock with the new version in place, start with an empty container and see if the assembly line can see it, try using ground containers not dockable ones (because they used to be buildable at the assembly line stage when docked), try docking it to a simpler workshop setup, try some test ships at KSC to just wheel containers around and see if they connect, maybe launch some simple kits and see if *they* work... I may be a little while! ^_^;

I have downloaded from Spacedock with the same (lack of) results... Though the port is admittedly further away (seven parts at least I think). When I have a moment I can try a few more tests!

Unlike the last two posters, having upgraded to 2.5.1 via CKAN, KSP does load successfully! ...But the docked container fix doesn't appear to have worked... ^_^;