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[First time I've made a thread so please let me know if I need to do anything differently or post somewhere else ] So here's a suggestion - functional simulated Space Elevators and Skyhooks not as vessels but as KSC pseudo-Structures that can be upgraded like any other. I don't know if I'll ever get around to making this myself so I want to put the concept out there for feedback and for anyone with more modding experience than me. I'll start with Space Elevators since they're simpler to use and implement. Using one would go something like clicking on the structure in the KSC, seeing the same menu you get when you click on the Launchpad and Runway, selecting a vessel to "launch", and then loading to a floating "structure" in geostationary orbit above the KSC. We basically render the station at the top of the space elevator, not the elevator itself, so it just floats there acting as a launchpad. There could be multiple such structures at different altitudes up the length of the elevator, from LKO up to GEO, although you'd only find yourself in a circular orbit if you set off from the GEO point since you wouldn't be starting with enough orbital velocity. From your chosen launch point you detach and off you go. You can use this method to put entire spaceships (subject to mass limits determined by structure upgrade level) into orbit, or put individual modules of a ship or station into orbit one at a time and then dock them. You could even bring canisters of material kits or rocket parts up if you're using Extraplanetary Launchpads, up to a waiting shipyard, enabling you to construct HUGE ships very easily for some seriously cool late-game stuff. This is my reason for wanting this mod, I'm tired of launching from the KSC or from EL bases on the moon and I want ways to streamline the process while remaining grounded in realistic futurism. For balance we can use the stock building upgrade system to incrementally increase how much mass the elevator can accommodate in one "launch" - you'd start with a few tons, and work your way up to tens or maybe hundreds. I don't think it should ever be unlimited as with the fully upgraded Launchpad and Runway. That would be too easy, you may as well just use Hyperedit at that point. For optimal functionality with EL, we'd need some way to have at least one vessel "docked" to the orbital launch point, otherwise we'd have to manually ferry cargo to a nearby station every time we brought it up, largely negating the whole point of the mod. I'm not sure how achievable this is in KSP. If it can be done, I'd like any vessel docked to the elevator to be able to receive unlimited resources from the surface, for a price of Resource Amount * Resource Cost * Operating Cost per Unit of Mass. If we can't dock with the structure in any traditional way, perhaps we can treat the shipyard as being in an unlaunched state on one of several staging points. Ideally that would mean there's a main "Launchpad" from which vessels brought up by the elevator are deployed, surrounded by one or more dummy launchpads where vessels can be placed, used and recovered but are unable to launch. This could get buggy though. Still trying to think of an ideal solution. Finally, if we wanted to make this REALLY awesome, it would be pretty great to place such pseudo-structures on any body in the Kerbin System and beyond. This could be used with out EL but it would be much more useful if you were using it as part of some serious extraplanetary shipbuilding or resource-moving infrastructure. This would entail a special part which, in the case of the Space Elevator, acts as a sort of "setup kit" which can be deployed on, say, the Mun to create a Space Elevator endpoint. It would need to be placed at the equator of a body to work and would take time and resources to complete setup. Upgrades to the new elevator would be managed through the right click part menu, but I think the best solution would be a dedicated menu at the KSC and Tracking Station where we can manage all our launch structures throughout the system in one list, without having to load in and visit them. We could also create skyhooks in the same way. The idea with skyhooks is they're cheaper to operate and in many ways simpler to build than space elevators. These would require you to fly a spaceplane to a specific speed and altitude eastwards over the equator. A toolbar menu would then enable you to "attach" to the skyhook, which would teleport the craft to a specific orbit depending on the skyhook.It would be fun to make even more narrow criteria and try and intercept the skyhook at exactly the right time and place, but it wouldn't be much use if you wanted to use the thing regularly. It would be nice to attach only the cargo somehow, but I don't know how realistic that is or how we'd achieve that in the mod since KSP only sees one craft irrespective of what's considered "cargo". Conceivably this would work offworld as well. Alright, that's it. I think what I've outlined here would be quite achievable, if I or anyone else gets around to making such a thing, and it would be tremendously useful and immersive for builds like mine where I'm spending most of my time in the late game playing with mods like Interstellar Extended and USI Colonization. I'd love to hear what the rest of you guys think

SIMPLEX Living Seeing the coding among the stars... Now released https://spacedock.info/mod/2067 Please see the release thread https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/181681-161-simplex-living-11/ Resources with Simplex Ores and EPL recipies now part of separate mod SIMPLEX Resources. Tech Tree and engine nerf part of separate mod SIMPLEX Techtree. An extension of the Engine Nerf with fuel changes now part of separate mod SIMPLEX Propulsion. Simplex Kerbalism Profile LifeSupport that combines food and water into Consumables, with a waste product of OrganicSlurry. Breathable Air and non breathable BadAir replacing oxygen and CO2. A simplified system when 1 unit of Air or consumables equates to 1 day of usage per kerbal. Masses remain the same as vanilla Kerbalism (i.e. realisitic) although Air is heavier that O2. Air is used instead of Nitrogen to maintain atmospheric pressure. A buildup of BadAir will result in asphyxiation of kerbals, but can be scrubbed the same as vanilla Kerbalism (scrubbers no longer convert BadAir to Air). Rocket Surgeons as a tourist style kerbal that will be used in construction Kerbal Konstructs instances placement of additional stock launchpads at the KSC. ResearchBodies style laboratory contracts Kerbalism and Life Support changes: Kerbal Konstructs: Please let me know what you think. Peace.

When I am using extraplanetary launchpads and I want to build. my build is stuck at 0%, I have all the materials I need, and I also have a construction workshop, filled with engineers. my productivity is also stuck at 0, I am using ksp 1.1.3 and it is a new ksp install without any mods.

Alright, so I'm now at the point where my MKS-oriented munar base is almost self-sufficient (The crew shuttles bring a small amount of materials now and then, which is enough to keep life support running for years). The goal was to have this be a staging ground for crewed interplanetary explorations, and with time I'm hoping to do the same on Duna and Laythe with time. These bases will also be where I build the required hardware (ships, additional base structures, etc). So now that I've gotten the base up and running, i'm having some problems wrapping my head around Extraplanetary Launchpads and how it integrates with MKS, so my questions are: * What materials do I need (produced or flown in) to build ships? I've accumulated a lot of MaterialKits from recycling leftover dropships while building. How do I turn these into rocketparts? (From what I've understood, RP is what I need to build and launch the ships) * Which structures do I need? I see that both MKS and EPL comes with launchpads, so I must admit I'm at a loss what to bring to my base. * Any other pointers/tips?

Greetings, So I am working on resource implentation for all the BIOMES, Planets, Moons, in KSP, OPM, maybe one or 2 extra planets/moons for OPM. We are using STOCK resource generation now, and only basic resource implementation is provided. This game is going places, but players such as myself and modders especially make it go further. A premise or 2 for resources in this game is to add realism or extra challenges; survival, building things in space, like more spacecraft ! So I was thinking..."ORE??" Scan and drill for ore and convert it to rocketparts; there are mods that get into this, some of which are either pretty basic and others which involve a level of logistical thinking that boggles the mind ! Well since we are going down this wabbit hole, why 'ORE' now? Let us drop ORE and define the basic metals needed to build spaceships and provide survival needs (the survival needs are provided by chemicals to grow hydroponically for example and are pretty straight forward; however even here...); in drilling for basic metals, we also get rock which contains limited amounts of various chemicals; carbon for one. We could even have silicon. In some of my processes I use 'chemicals' as a broad term for needed extras to complete water purification for example. There may be some chemicals, like liquid chlorine, I use to clean water; we could get this and remove the chemicals if we wanted; we could be more specific in our processes. ORE is not very specific. There are many kinds of ORE (and some drillable materials that are not ORE): iron, bauxite, gold, etc. Rocketparts would then be replaced by iron, aluminum, gold...yes there is a rabbit hole here; why not start diggin ! There probly isnt much ore out there to build spaceships with; maybe some planets/moons have alot of a specific material though. We could use iron altho it is very heavy; we can make steel or alloys in processes to make the materials less dense. I am going to drop ORE completely from the resources list !! Where ever it is used I am going to simply replace the process with an alloy ! I havnt a clue what the best space ship material is; so I am going for an alloy; I note that a material called karborundum is out there; I dont like how it is probly implemented; it sounds like one of the hardest materials out there (and less dense too I think) called carborundum; this could be an endgame material. Metals could have a shelf life; after a certain amount of time it succombs to raditiation leakage; the parts have to be salvaged. The only problem is the resources dont deplete as far as I know. I opt for dropping ORE as a resource material for building anything, but maybe leaving it for the primary source game resource. The new resource system now shows percentages of any resource so why have ORE (from a 'vet game player's' point of view). An easy option would be to drill for ORE and have processes extract the materials based on the presence of the resource on the planet/moon (!); well I just had this thought now! Say we scan for ORE and other materials; say bauxite is at 5%; this would mean we have a 5% extraction rate of Bauxite from ORE; or we drill specifically from Bauxite present on the planet/moon. Do we keep the ORE and extract material presence in it (more processes code), or do we mine for specific materials? Looks like mining for specific materials is better as it drops out one process. So I am dropping ORE as a drilled resource...what do you think !? Commander Zeta