[Released] Strategia

[nightingale]

30 minutes ago, theonegalen said:

With regard to the planetary programs, how complicated is it to write a new one having to do with Kopernicus-added planets? OPM, for example?

I also wonder how difficult it would be to create a Voyager type program, where the probe(s) are supposed to go to multiple planetary bodies?

The planetary programs are all dynamic.  So OPM, New Horizons, etc, etc. are all supported automatically.

I haven't talked about them yet, but the Planetary Flybys in Uncrewed missions is basically that - send a single probe to multiple bodies.

[Sovek]

I'm kinda worried about people who play with KCT and want to play this as well, on top of 3-6.4x solar systems. It would take a while to get to duna and could easily go past that deadline. Mun, is not hard though.

[nightingale]

10 minutes ago, Sovek said:

I'm kinda worried about people who play with KCT and want to play this as well, on top of 3-6.4x solar systems. It would take a while to get to duna and could easily go past that deadline. Mun, is not hard though.

Nothing is set in stone (especially not at this stage).  Also, it's pretty easy to add Module Manager configs to modify those values in the presence of KCT.  I assume it should also be possible with the various resizing configs, but I haven't looked at their directory structures to know for sure.

[ev0]

This mod is shaping up rather nicely! I was worried at first, because your first couple of posts made the mod seem much more like a copy of your Contract Configurator with the contract packs Initial Contracts and Advanced Progression. But after reading the diary entries (especially #6), you seem to have added many interesting different options

But I am worried; since it sounds like contracts are automatically selected after choosing a strategy, are you expecting this mod to take over both the Strategy building AND the Mission Control building? What's your vision for seeing how the Mission Control building stays a part of the game for people with this mod? Although some might argue that this is what stock KSP should have been like from the start

As for the name, personally several of these sound more like mission programs than strategies. Perhaps a renaming of the final mod? Programia? Akin to the different goals for NASA's Discovery, Explorer, Flagship, and New Frontiers programs.

Also, what do the options for the Science column look like? I couldn't find a diary entry, unless I missed it.

Keep up the awesome work! Will definitely check this out when it's released!

[nightingale]

38 minutes ago, ev0 said:

This mod is shaping up rather nicely! I was worried at first, because your first couple of posts made the mod seem much more like a copy of your Contract Configurator with the contract packs Initial Contracts and Advanced Progression. But after reading the diary entries (especially #6), you seem to have added many interesting different options

But I am worried; since it sounds like contracts are automatically selected after choosing a strategy, are you expecting this mod to take over both the Strategy building AND the Mission Control building? What's your vision for seeing how the Mission Control building stays a part of the game for people with this mod? Although some might argue that this is what stock KSP should have been like from the start

This are like the pre-1.0.5 automatic milestone contracts - they come up automatically (when you have the right strategies) and do not count towards the contract limits (so they won't prevent you from taking "standard" contracts).  They use contracts because the strategy "goals" were getting so complex (example: do a fly by of 3 planets) that I needed a way to inform the player of their current progress.  It was going to be a lot of work to set up notifications or GUIs or something, until I realized that I could implement them with very little effort in Contract Configurator.

If you look at the image from the previous dev diary, the first two columns (Crewed Missions, Uncrewed Missions) are all the ones with contracts and deadlines associated with them.  The other four columns are more like "standard" strategies where you get a benefit while they are active, but they can be activated/deactivated at any time.

44 minutes ago, ev0 said:

As for the name, personally several of these sound more like mission programs than strategies. Perhaps a renaming of the final mod? Programia? Akin to the different goals for NASA's Discovery, Explorer, Flagship, and New Frontiers programs.

Well, 2/3rd of them are "standard" strategies, so I'll stick with the name for now.

44 minutes ago, ev0 said:

Also, what do the options for the Science column look like? I couldn't find a diary entry, unless I missed it.

There hasn't been a dev diary for those specifically.  I'll tease one of them though - To Boldly Go provides financial incentives for doing experiments in previously undiscovered biomes/celestial bodies (so the science benefit is indirect).  I've tried to be really careful with science stuff - I really want to avoid doing something that effectively creates an "easy button" for completing the tech tree.  We'll see what the feedback looks like in beta.

In general that's been the challenge with this mod - I've had lots of ideas for things that a strategy could do that are just not technically feasible in KSP.  Hopefully I haven't ended up with too many elements that effectively work out to "save Funds in a different way".

2 hours ago, ev0 said:

Keep up the awesome work! Will definitely check this out when it's released!

I just finished the final strategy last night (my new favourite one, called Free Ice Cream).  I need to do a pretty serious pass over the strategies to make sure the aren't any gaps, and then a serious balance pass after that.  Then it should be ready for beta.

[ev0]

37 minutes ago, nightingale said:

...

Aha, wasn't sure this mod would count towards contract limits or not either. Glad that they aren't really related to stock contracts Whatever this mod is called, it sounds faaaar more interesting than the standard stock strategy system (which I never use!).

[nightingale]

BETA RELEASE!

Strategia is now in BETA.  The latest release can be downloaded here.

Please report all issues on this thread.  Ideally, you should try this out on a brand new career change (to help with feedback around balance), but it should work on existing career saves as well.  I can't guarantee forward compatibility with future releases (but at worst you will need to delete the STRATEGY nodes in your save file to upgrade from one version to another).

Required Dependencies:

The following dependencies are required:

• Contract Configurator
• Custom Barn Kit
• Module Manager

Current known issues:

• Most of the strategy artwork is not done (the icons for strategies without art is a question mark)
• Tourism Plus integration won't work until I release a new version of Tourism Plus.  In the meantime, you can grab this module manager config to enable it.
• Field Research integration won't work until I release a new version of Field Research.  In the meantime, you can grab this module manager config to enable it.
• The avatars for Gene/Wernher will appear darkened in scenes other than the Admin building.  I just haven't gotten around to fixing this yet.

Planned features before release:

• Ability to "upgrade" strategies from a lower level to a higher level and only pay the incremental cost
• Notifications when a strategy gives you Funds/Research/Reputation (in a lot of cases it just silently happens).

Edited January 8, 2016 by nightingale

[nightingale]

Oops, I totally forgot about dependencies!  The post above now lists the required dependencies.

[smjjames]

Cool, I think I could probably do a new career anyway so that I actually start properly with the historical missions (which btw, often give out big chunks of rep).

Also, going to use those MM config patches and see how those mesh with Strategia.

Edit: Could you increase the font size of the contract names in the buttons a bit? They're kind of tiny for me. They're still readable, just tiny.

edit2: Found a bug. Apparently it somehow thinks that debris and craft whose orbit doesn't go anywhere NEAR Eeloo or Jool are en-route to those bodies. Since it's pretty easy to have a bit of debris get ejected out of Kerbin SoI really early on (getting flung out by the Mun is a common way), anything that is passively heliocentric is going to mess up those strategies. This is with an already well established career save though.

Also, the historical ones get some heliocentric contracts pretty quickly, which would screw with the strategies if theres heliocentric sattelites before you actually go interplanetary

 

Edited January 9, 2016 by smjjames

[smjjames]

*bump*

Uh, I don't know if this is a KSP thing or something from a mod, but I saw I had a three star contract to survey Duna right after I got back from the first manned orbital mission..... haven't gone to Mun or Minmus yet even.

[nightingale]

3 hours ago, smjjames said:

Cool, I think I could probably do a new career anyway so that I actually start properly with the historical missions (which btw, often give out big chunks of rep).

Also, going to use those MM config patches and see how those mesh with Strategia.

Edit: Could you increase the font size of the contract names in the buttons a bit? They're kind of tiny for me. They're still readable, just tiny.

edit2: Found a bug. Apparently it somehow thinks that debris and craft whose orbit doesn't go anywhere NEAR Eeloo or Jool are en-route to those bodies. Since it's pretty easy to have a bit of debris get ejected out of Kerbin SoI really early on (getting flung out by the Mun is a common way), anything that is passively heliocentric is going to mess up those strategies. This is with an already well established career save though.

Also, the historical ones get some heliocentric contracts pretty quickly, which would screw with the strategies if theres heliocentric sattelites before you actually go interplanetary

 

Huh, that's odd. Can you send me your save so I can test with those specific orbits? 

[smjjames]

4 minutes ago, nightingale said:

Huh, that's odd. Can you send me your save so I can test with those specific orbits? 

It's a heavily modded save, lots of different part mods and other stuff.

Also, have you ever had any Duna contracts pop up in the very early career? I've only played one other career save and I didn't see any of that until I had accidentially sent some debris out of Kerbin SoI, I think that's how it triggered.

[nightingale]

Just now, smjjames said:

It's a heavily modded save, lots of different part mods and other stuff.

Also, have you ever had any Duna contracts pop up in the very early career? I've only played one other career save and I didn't see any of that until I had accidentially sent some debris out of Kerbin SoI, I think that's how it triggered.

Doesn't matter what mods you have, I just need to look at some info in it (I never load saves people send me, that way lies madness). 

I think in 1.0.5 you do need to go solar to get Duna contracts. 

[smjjames]

1 hour ago, nightingale said:

Doesn't matter what mods you have, I just need to look at some info in it (I never load saves people send me, that way lies madness). 

What do you mean 'that way lies madness'? Besides having to account for mods and stuff. I'll give you a save soon. Want me to send a a copy without the solar orbiting debris and one with?

edit: Here's both anyway: http://sta.sh/021lvmf060gb

Quote

I think in 1.0.5 you do need to go solar to get Duna contracts. 

That's what I was figuring, which is why it's confusing because I shouldn't even be getting Duna contracts. There isn't any debris flying around and I haven't done anything that could potentially send debris or otherwise on a solar orbit.

Edit: I had another one for the sun. I toggled the CC settings and it turns out that it's a DMagic survey contract. The next time I see one before I actually go solar orbit, I'll screenshot and ask DMagic about it because if it's giving solar contracts before it's supposed to, then something is wrong. I don't have any strategies enabled atm.

Edited January 9, 2016 by smjjames

[nightingale]

2 hours ago, smjjames said:

What do you mean 'that way lies madness'? Besides having to account for mods and stuff. I'll give you a save soon. Want me to send a a copy without the solar orbiting debris and one with?

edit: Here's both anyway: http://sta.sh/021lvmf060gb

I just meant that typically trying to *load* a save from someone is a last resort as all the different mods that people have installed make it extremely difficult.  But in this case I just need to grab about a dozen lines from the file and copy it into my save.

I'll let you know once I've got something on this one.

[nightingale]

New release with a fix for the vessel enroute bug.  Download here.

Strategia 0.1.1

• Fixed problem with vessel enroute checks (thanks smjjames).

6 hours ago, smjjames said:

Edit: Could you increase the font size of the contract names in the buttons a bit? They're kind of tiny for me. They're still readable, just tiny.

I missed this earlier.  I'll look at this when KSP 1.1 comes out (if it's still needed).  Basically, any GUI changes are going to be broken by 1.1, so no point doing it now when I'll have to figure it out again in a couple months.  I'm also hoping to widen the screen somehow so that all 6 departments show without a scrollbar.

[smjjames]

12 minutes ago, nightingale said:

New release with a fix for the vessel enroute bug.  Download here.

Strategia 0.1.1

• Fixed problem with vessel enroute checks (thanks smjjames).

I missed this earlier.  I'll look at this when KSP 1.1 comes out (if it's still needed).  Basically, any GUI changes are going to be broken by 1.1, so no point doing it now when I'll have to figure it out again in a couple months.  I'm also hoping to widen the screen somehow so that all 6 departments show without a scrollbar.

No prob and that's understandable with the GUI. It's something I can live with, so, it's not high priority.

Anyway, another bug report (heh), 0.1.0 still, I got this exception after recovering a ship that returned from a suborbital trip to get some orbital science:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Strategia.ScienceBooster.OnScienceReceived (Single amount, .ScienceSubject subject, .ProtoVessel vessel, Boolean reverseEngineered) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at EventData`4[System.Single,ScienceSubject,ProtoVessel,System.Boolean].Fire (Single data0, .ScienceSubject data1, .ProtoVessel data2, Boolean data3) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at ResearchAndDevelopment.SubmitScienceData (Single dataAmount, .ScienceSubject subject, Single xmitScalar, .ProtoVessel source, Boolean reverseEngineered) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at ResearchAndDevelopment.onVesselRecoveryProcessing (.ProtoVessel pv, .MissionRecoveryDialog mrDialog, Single recoveryScore) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at EventData`3[ProtoVessel,MissionRecoveryDialog,System.Single].Fire (.ProtoVessel data0, .MissionRecoveryDialog data1, Single data2) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at VesselRecovery.OnVesselRecovered (.ProtoVessel pv) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at EventData`1[ProtoVessel].Fire (.ProtoVessel data) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at VesselRetrieval.recoverVessel (.Vessel v) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at VesselRetrieval.recoverVessels () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at VesselRetrieval+.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

The currently activated strategies are 'to boldly go1' and 'local science2'

Full output log: http://sta.sh/08wxu7rg7qw  You can ignore the MJ exception in drive spam, apparently it doesn't like it when I pop a quick EVA to grab science while in the coasting to edge of atmosphere phase.

[nightingale]

New release?  Why not.

Strategia 0.1.2

• Fixed exception with Local Science strategy (thanks smjjames).

[Sovek]

Welp, either this mod doesnt like one of my other mods (unlikely) or is completely unsuseable in x64 bit past the early ones, or ones that require a level 2 building. Due to the bug in the building I kinda have to start new saves with upgraded buildings... I can't manually upgrade the correct ones without editing the save file.

But when I do that, I get this.

Level 0 ? Ok.... weird.

P.S. I do not expect support just pointing out that your ability to use this mod may not work due to the bugs in x64 bit.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Sovek

[nightingale]

8 minutes ago, Sovek said:

Welp, either this mod doesnt like one of my other mods (unlikely) or is completely unsuseable in x64 bit past the early ones, or ones that require a level 2 building. Due to the bug in the building I kinda have to start new saves with upgraded buildings... I can't manually upgrade the correct ones without editing the save file.

But when I do that, I get this.

Level 0 ? Ok.... weird.

Nope, no Win64 support given that stable x64 on Windows is right around the corner with KSP 1.1.

[smjjames]

Do you know whether this exception has anything to do with strategia or maybe the custom barn kit thing? I was right clicking around in KSC trying to decide whether or what to upgrade atm, can't seem to reproduce.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at KSCContextMenus.KSCFacilityContextMenu.OnFacilityValuesModified () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at KSCContextMenus.KSCFacilityContextMenu.CreateWindowContent () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at AnchoredDialog.CreateWindow () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at AnchoredDialog.Start () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

 

[nightingale]

26 minutes ago, smjjames said:

Do you know whether this exception has anything to do with strategia or maybe the custom barn kit thing? I was right clicking around in KSC trying to decide whether or what to upgrade atm, can't seem to reproduce.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at KSCContextMenus.KSCFacilityContextMenu.OnFacilityValuesModified () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at KSCContextMenus.KSCFacilityContextMenu.CreateWindowContent () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at AnchoredDialog.CreateWindow () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at AnchoredDialog.Start () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

 

That one looks all stock as far as I can tell. 

[DMagic]

1 hour ago, smjjames said:

Do you know whether this exception has anything to do with strategia or maybe the custom barn kit thing? I was right clicking around in KSC trying to decide whether or what to upgrade atm, can't seem to reproduce.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at KSCContextMenus.KSCFacilityContextMenu.OnFacilityValuesModified () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at KSCContextMenus.KSCFacilityContextMenu.CreateWindowContent () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at AnchoredDialog.CreateWindow () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at AnchoredDialog.Start () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

 

Did you right-click on the flag? That will trigger an error.

[Sovek]

3 hours ago, nightingale said:

Nope, no Win64 support given that stable x64 on Windows is right around the corner with KSP 1.1.

I'm skeptical in that 1.1 will come with x64 but we shall see.

I will attempt a workaround in seeing if I can get it to take with a save from stock (new save) with upgraded buildings.

Edit: Workaround failed. Anyone wanting to use this in 64 bit Windows will be unable to progress or use strategies at Tier 3, Tier 2 is possible but don't count on it.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Sovek

[smjjames]

1 hour ago, DMagic said:

Did you right-click on the flag? That will trigger an error.

Probably did without realizing it.

Also, I've been noticing some odd strategy availabilities and then non-availabilities that aren't making sense, mainly the one where I land on Kerbin and suddenly the planetary ones are available, but when I go back to KSC, they aren't. Maybe it's strategia not knowing whether the crew actually returned from Mun or Minmus before recovery.

Edit: It also triggers when moving around with the vessel on the ground.

Edit2: I've also been getting notifications that strategies are available which aren't actually available because I only have level 2 admin.

Edited January 9, 2016 by smjjames