[POLL] Kerbal Planetary Base System Split-Up (POLL RESTARTED)

[Nils277]

As mentioned in the main development thread, KPBS has grown big over the time and some users might not want to install a mod that is too heavy/big.

So the result of this thread decides in what form the mod will be delivered when it is released!

Happy Voting! 

 

Ps.: when none of the choices on the poll are the way you want it delivered feel free to suggest another way in a post!

I just added the new question to the poll.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Nils277

[Red Iron Crown]

Voted one big pack. Easier to manage for both users and Nils, and hopefully a stable 64-bit for all platforms in 1.1 will make memory concerns less important (and I don't think merging them back together post 1.0 is a good idea).

[Tex_NL]

As I am probably the one that eventually triggered this poll I can't abstain.

I am torn between the third and fourth option, 'two separate mods: Kerbal Planetary Base System & KPBS Mod Support Pack' and 'four separate mods: Kerbal Planetary Base System & Kerbal Modular Container System & Two Mod Support Packs'. I chose the latter and I'll explain why.

KPBS is one of the best mods and without a doubt the most stock-alike base building mod currently available. But it's getting bigger with each update. The same thing has happened with other brilliant mods and some simply have become too big. Not only is size but also in part count. They offer such a wild variety of greebles and doohickies in able to support as many other mods as possible one looses the forest through the trees.
Bac9 did an amazing job with B9Aerospace. SuicidalInsanity did and equally great job on his Mk2 Expansion. I liked and used both mods with gusto but both packs have become huge and the amount of parts are mind boggling. KBPS is a mod that lends itself ideally to support other mods. Doing so will introduce very specialized parts that do not serve any other purpose, to many people those parts are just clutter. A player not using life support is probably not interested in carbon scrubbers, food storage and waste disposal. Just like storage containers will be useless for people not using KIS/KAS. What good are kethane or karbonite drills and refineries when you only use the stock resources?

What I hope KBPS will become is similar to what was done with Kerbinside. A modular mod consisting or a core and several support packs. This way the user keeps control over what he or she wants or needs.

[sashan]

Just make them separate installs within one download.
Your containers are the only good ones for life support mods, not counting Universal Storage which are RAM-killers.

 

[theJesuit]

1 hour ago, sashan said:

Just make them separate installs within one download.
Your containers are the only good ones for life support mods, not counting Universal Storage which are RAM-killers.

 

I like this idea.  Whilst inapplicable parts don't show up depending on life support mods you have installed I don't know whether they load anyway taking up RAM.  It would be good to have a little pick and choose. The containers and converter models are definitely the best out there.

[Tex_NL]

19 minutes ago, theJesuit said:

I like this idea.  Whilst inapplicable parts don't show up depending on life support mods you have installed I don't know whether they load anyway taking up RAM.  It would be good to have a little pick and choose. The containers and converter models are definitely the best out there.

Parts loading and not showing would be even worse. Then you'll have phantom parts still taking up vital memory. If 'useless' parts show then at least people KNOW they're there and can manually remove them. (If they would bother to know how.)

Separate installs within one download would perhaps be the best option. New, unaware users get access to all the parts. More knowledgable, experienced users will have an easy option to simply remove, or not install, parts they do not want.

[Nils277]

21 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

Parts loading and not showing would be even worse. Then you'll have phantom parts still taking up vital memory. If 'useless' parts show then at least people KNOW they're there and can manually remove them. (If they would bother to know how.)

Separate installs within one download would perhaps be the best option. New, unaware users get access to all the parts. More knowledgable, experienced users will have an easy option to simply remove, or not install, parts they do not want.

I can only speak for myself, but mods that have too many parts do deter me from using them. E.g. i felt totally overwhelmed from all the parts and functionality that MKS/OKS offers. And i know that my mod is on the best way to also have that many parts (if it does not already have).
So separate installs within one download sound like a reasonable option. I think i have seen something like this with USI-LS, it also has multiple folders for the GameData direktory. I just have to figure how how or if CKAN supports this kind of distribution.

Btw....when i add this option to the poll, does it get reset?

[Red Iron Crown]

41 minutes ago, Nils277 said:

Btw....when i add this option to the poll, does it get reset?

Moderators can edit polls without resetting results, let me know the exact phrasing you want for the new option and I'll add it for you.

[Tex_NL]

17 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

Moderators can edit polls without resetting results, let me know the exact phrasing you want for the new option and I'll add it for you.

Depending on that 'exact phrasing' I might want to change my vote. Would that be an option too?

[Red Iron Crown]

@Tex_NL I can't change where your name shows up. I think I can change vote totals, but I'd really rather not get into doing that at all for obvious reasons.

[Nils277]

1 hour ago, Red Iron Crown said:

Moderators can edit polls without resetting results, let me know the exact phrasing you want for the new option and I'll add it for you.

I think i just reset the poll. In that way, all have the chance to vote again when their previous option is not anymore their preferred  But thanks for this proposition!

Uh, @Red Iron Crown i suspect that the poll is not restarted when one changes the options. Would you please reset the counter on the poll?  Thank you!

[Bloody_looser]

I think keeping the mod in one piece is the best option. Simply better folder architecture will do the trick. You've already improved it greatly in the latest release, but some parts are still misplaced (like ISRU snuck into habitat and stuff). Some sort of documentation on folder contents might also help.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Bloody_looser

[ModZero]

Also for one piece — in 1.1 the memory pressure problem will hopefully be lesser, and dropping parts I don't want is easy enough unless you share textures from different parts without keeping them in some clearly shared folder.

[ndiver]

On my side, its depends :

- it it is organized as currently, with the parts linked to other mods (like DeepFreeze) in a different folder easy to delete when you don't need them, a single download file is fine.

- otherwise, I would prefer each mod to be independent.

In both case, the idea is to allow the users to easily select what they want and what they do not need. I know that the 1.1 will bring the 64bits, but it should not be an excuse for the mods to be exponential in term of memory usage.

[daltonater]

I kind of hope that option 3 becomes reality, in large part because my hardware would benefit greatly. Running multiple big mods, such as KIS and KAS tends to slow down the game rather heavily (Laptops suck). So I end up needing to go rumaging around in the mods files to strip out what ever supported content I cant run (since KIS and KAS are just to problamatic for my hardware). This is mainly done to try and speed up the initial load times, and to keep my frame rate at a decent level as much as possible.

[RocketSquid]

I vote you make it either a highly modular file structure, so you can keep what you want (what mods you want to support, etc) and ditch the rest, or, my preferred option would be to make it be one mod, with optional/removable mod support configs, and one expansion with more containers, including some that were previously in the base mod. It's pretty much a combination of options one and two, KPBS is mostly intact BUT people with beefier computers or infinite patience for random crashes, or just very few other mods, can use a expanded version. The expansion could also contain a few other parts. In other words, channel further expansions to the mod into an expansion pack, if necessary. If not, just keep it in one piece!