[1.12.x] ResearchBodies V1.13.0 (15th May 2022)

[Brigadier]

Do you have the Tarsier Space Technology (TST) mod installed, and if you do, have you aimed a telescope at any of the discovered planets, taken pictures and transmitted them to KSC?  IIRC, you might not be able to do that with the TB-75M.  You'll have to use one of the 'scopes provided by TST.

If you don't have the TST mod installed, have you launched the IR scope into orbit to scan the discovered planets (as described in the OP under Researching a Celestial Body)?

[gamerscircle]

I would like to ask a question I am sure has been asked and answered, will this work with OPM mod?  [Outer Planets Mod]

 

edit:  I saw on the OPM page, that this mod was supported.

Edited August 22, 2019 by gamerscircle

[Sandriell]

On 8/13/2019 at 10:45 PM, Skarlinger said:

Went easy through to hard, no change to gameplay

I had this issue as well. I was using CKAN so I uninstalled it there and installed it manually.

However I had issues that way too until I noticed unzipping the mod (from within the "GamaData" folder) resulted in nested "GamaData" folders, i.e. "/GameData/GameData/REPOSoftTech/ResearchBodies" So I simply copied the "REPOSoftTech" folder into the real "Gama Data" folder, and no more issues.

[crowsnose]

Been a while but I'm back, after doing some tweaking. For some reason, ResearchBodies is only partially blurring out the planets when undiscovered.

https://imgur.com/a/8rIHi7G

Not 100% sure why this is happening. Output log below. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hf7mg40vvchrrmn/output_log.txt?dl=0

[gamerscircle]

When I used this MOD with a vanilla install and select hard, Minmus doesn't show up. 

[JPLRepo]

8 hours ago, gamerscircle said:

When I used this MOD with a vanilla install and select hard, Minmus doesn't show up. 

Good. Then it's working as designed. on Hard level you should only see The Sun, Kerbin, Mun.

[gamerscircle]

7 hours ago, JPLRepo said:

Good. Then it's working as designed. on Hard level you should only see The Sun, Kerbin, Mun.

Ok ... yes.. I guess I was remembering incorrectly... and thought that Sun, Kerbin, Mun and Minmus... I thought perhaps I was missing a mod.  thanks!

[horngeek]

@JPLRepo I'm not at all certain whether this is a problem with RemoteTech or this mod, but when I use one of the telescopes provided by this mod (the TB-75M) as the core of a probe, RemoteTech thinks it's a manned ship (which is to say, the RemoteTech flight computer says it's being controlled locally.  

[bunjatec]

Hi, probably a dumb question, I'm playing science mode, how do I find bodies (without just flying past them, which I did with Ike)

a few seem to have randomly populated themselves (jool, sarnus and another star system's barycenter).

I have telescopes around eve and on their way to sarnus (OPM) but the Eve one doesn't spot gilly.. and I'm not 'getting' how to make this mod work..

 

[Shiolle]

Hi. What is supposed to happen when you point a Tarsier Space Technologies telescope at a discovered (has icon on the map) but unresearched (0 progress) body? Should you see it in the telescope?

Edit: The answer is "yes", you can take their pictures although they will have their textures blurred (because the bodies are unresearched). Additionally, when you transmit or recover the resulting experiment data, it will add 20% progress to this body research and will charge you proportionally to the progress, so this route may be quicker, but is not cheaper than going through telescope contracts. It is not mentioned anywhere that you will have to pay for recovering the experiments, so you can waste a lot of money in this manner before you notice something is wrong, or pushed into negative balance if you are not careful.

Edited September 11, 2019 by Shiolle

[gamerscircle]

Hi there.. me again...
I discovered eeloo,  [cool, in orbit around another planet] and now Plock, but it seems like the research is stuck on 10% and I have upgraded the observatory all the way.  I have not seen a new "research bodies" contract lately.. 

I also have not put the telescope up in orbit [which does seem a likely thing I should do] , just curious if this is normal or might have I have a mod conflict?

[Brigadier]

6 hours ago, gamerscircle said:

Hi there.. me again...
I discovered eeloo,  [cool, in orbit around another planet] and now Plock, but it seems like the research is stuck on 10% and I have upgraded the observatory all the way.  I have not seen a new "research bodies" contract lately.. 

I also have not put the telescope up in orbit [which does seem a likely thing I should do] , just curious if this is normal or might have I have a mod conflict?

@gamerscircleI believe that by putting a suitable RB/Tarsier scope into orbit, you can take pictures using the scope's UI and transmit them for science (at least initially) and then for incremental increases in research.  It takes funds to take each picture so, as Shiolle says, pay attention to when and how often you do this.  I think what you're seeing is normal.

I also have a question:  KSP 1.7.3, GPP+GEP planet packs.  I have the IR scope in solar orbit looking for asteroids.  The scope's PAW states "Misaligned with Tellumo" which is odd since a) I have no contract for the scope's deployment (I did it on a whim) and b) I can't control the scope's target.  There is no "Control from here" on the PAW, as there is on the Space Telescope, so pointing with the SAS or MJ doesn't work at all.  How can I align the scope with the target?  Am I even supposed to?

Edited September 13, 2019 by Brigadier
Added question

[Shiolle]

A little bit of feedback, if I may.

Background: I have started a new campaign recently with ResearchBodies, Tarsier Space Technologies and Other Worlds reboot (which adds Cersani system) as well as other mods which won't be relevant. I am using default settings as I thought to use the mod as it was intended. Difficulty is custom, but based on Hard. I have even written a ResearchBodies config for Other Worlds. Here is my experience with Research Bodies in this context.

1. By far the most efficient way to discover bodies is sending probes to them. Never bother with anything but discovery through probes. Send them out as early as possible. It is the fastest and cheapest way, and quite easy too. Note that you don't need to have communication with Kerbin at the time of flyby. If you have done all your maneuvers at your home planet, the probe itself could be quite cheap.
2. The rest of the mod is basically penalties disguised as features. If you cannot send probes and don't have Tarsier Space Technologies, you are penalized by having to pay both huge amount of funds (850k per body with a space telescope that comes with the mod) and wait a lot of time (900 days with telescope contracts per celestial body). If you have Tarsier Space Technologies, the penalties in both time and funds are cut, but it is still by far more efficient to just send probes.
3. Non-telescope contracts and search the skies contracts are a complete waste of time and money. There are zero reasons to do any of them.
4. There is also no reason to upgrade the observatory as it only affects the contracts and not the space telescope. If you scale the solar system you may have to, but not in the default game.
5. Furthermore, if you are using TST with research bodies and don't want to waste money on researching the bodies, your telescopes will just sit in orbit, until your probes get to their destination, which is not great for immersion.
6. As the result of all the above, progression with research bodies is broken: instead of discovering the bodies, researching them and then sending missions to them, you just send probes. If you decide to play by the book, you are in for a whole lot of pointless time-spinning and contract grinding to pay for those telescope contracts, even with mods like Kerbal Construction Time that limit your abilities to launch rockets in rapid succession.
7. Documentation is abysmal. Maybe I am spoiled by the likes of Kerbalism and kOS, but if I knew what using this mod entails, I wouldn't have installed it in the first place.
8. There might be an exploit which allows you to make money through this mod. It requires sending a probe to a celestial body waiting for it to get there and get the body instantly researched, then going to the observatory and stopping the research plan for that body. You recover 200k funds, then switch back to your probe and get the body researched again. The option to end the research plan should be disabled for fully researched bodies.

Sorry for the negative feedback. I just don't enjoy the experience and I don't want to remove it either this late in the game because I will have to edit the save file. Since my campaigns are Frankensteins relying on getting just the right mods working with a specific version of the game and never updating them, I don't want to change anything when I have already researched almost all 300 science nodes in CTT.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Shiolle

[FrancoisH]

Hello there,

As Contract Configurator seems to be broken in 1.7.3, how can I use this mod? THank you.

[Shiolle]

Contract Configurator 1.27.1 is working with KSP 1.7.3 for me. I've seen there was a problem with one of the Fine Print contracts on the latest version. Not sure if this is your case or not.

[Dante80]

Hello, a question. I I'm using this mod together with OPM and Outer Kerbin. I want to start a career where the researchable objects are Sun, Kerbin, Mun, Minmus, Phybe and Iszmi. In other words, a career where we only know the Kerbin system. How can I do this? Cannot seem to get the exact configuration I want via playing with the difficulty levels.

[JPLRepo]

On 9/28/2019 at 7:51 PM, Dante80 said:

Hello, a question. I I'm using this mod together with OPM and Outer Kerbin. I want to start a career where the researchable objects are Sun, Kerbin, Mun, Minmus, Phybe and Iszmi. In other words, a career where we only know the Kerbin system. How can I do this? Cannot seem to get the exact configuration I want via playing with the difficulty levels.

Change the IGNORELEVELS in the OPM_RsearchBodies.cfg file included with that mod.

The format of each line is:
<body> = easy normal medium hard
where <body> is the body name and then a true or false for each difficulty level if that body is already discovered at the start of a game at that difficulty level.

[JPLRepo]

On 9/17/2019 at 8:40 PM, Shiolle said:

A little bit of feedback, if I may.

Background: I have started a new campaign recently with ResearchBodies, Tarsier Space Technologies and Other Worlds reboot (which adds Cersani system) as well as other mods which won't be relevant. I am using default settings as I thought to use the mod as it was intended. Difficulty is custom, but based on Hard. I have even written a ResearchBodies config for Other Worlds. Here is my experience with Research Bodies in this context.

1. By far the most efficient way to discover bodies is sending probes to them. Never bother with anything but discovery through probes. Send them out as early as possible. It is the fastest and cheapest way, and quite easy too. Note that you don't need to have communication with Kerbin at the time of flyby. If you have done all your maneuvers at your home planet, the probe itself could be quite cheap.
2. The rest of the mod is basically penalties disguised as features. If you cannot send probes and don't have Tarsier Space Technologies, you are penalized by having to pay both huge amount of funds (850k per body with a space telescope that comes with the mod) and wait a lot of time (900 days with telescope contracts per celestial body). If you have Tarsier Space Technologies, the penalties in both time and funds are cut, but it is still by far more efficient to just send probes.
3. Non-telescope contracts and search the skies contracts are a complete waste of time and money. There are zero reasons to do any of them.
4. There is also no reason to upgrade the observatory as it only affects the contracts and not the space telescope. If you scale the solar system you may have to, but not in the default game.
5. Furthermore, if you are using TST with research bodies and don't want to waste money on researching the bodies, your telescopes will just sit in orbit, until your probes get to their destination, which is not great for immersion.
6. As the result of all the above, progression with research bodies is broken: instead of discovering the bodies, researching them and then sending missions to them, you just send probes. If you decide to play by the book, you are in for a whole lot of pointless time-spinning and contract grinding to pay for those telescope contracts, even with mods like Kerbal Construction Time that limit your abilities to launch rockets in rapid succession.
7. Documentation is abysmal. Maybe I am spoiled by the likes of Kerbalism and kOS, but if I knew what using this mod entails, I wouldn't have installed it in the first place.
8. There might be an exploit which allows you to make money through this mod. It requires sending a probe to a celestial body waiting for it to get there and get the body instantly researched, then going to the observatory and stopping the research plan for that body. You recover 200k funds, then switch back to your probe and get the body researched again. The option to end the research plan should be disabled for fully researched bodies.

Sorry for the negative feedback. I just don't enjoy the experience and I don't want to remove it either this late in the game because I will have to edit the save file. Since my campaigns are Frankensteins relying on getting just the right mods working with a specific version of the game and never updating them, I don't want to change anything when I have already researched almost all 300 science nodes in CTT.

Thanks for your feedback.
1. - How do you send probes to CBs when you don't know their orbit? or where they are? are you guessing? Or you first find them then send a probe to complete the research?
2. - Suggestions for contract costs are always welcome.
3. - The intention is to find them over time. Sounds like this is related to 1. in the way you are finding them without knowing where they are.
4. - Reviewed the observatory and the telescope ranges.
Observatory:
level 1: 80,000,000km
level 2: 184,000,000km
With Kopernicus installed:
level 1: 700,000,000km
level 2: 5,000,000,000km

TB-75:
40,000,000km
With Kopernicus installed:
540,000,000km

Sentinel:
40,000,000km
With Kopernicus installed:
324,000,000km

This means at level 1 you can see roughly to Jool from kerbin in stock. Upon review, I may change this in the next update, but you can configure these to your liking via the cfg files supplied.

5. - Not sure what you're saying here. Don't do research contracts? just send probes? same as 1?
6. - Sorry you feel that way.
7. - It's a free mod. Built in my free time.
8. - Change coming that fixes this. Thanks.

[Friznit]

As a counterpoint to the feedback above, my view is it's just fine how it is.  I've been playing with Galileo's Planet Pack scaled up to 2.5x and research bodies has been a great addition.  Like you point out above, there's no way you can send a probe to a planet that you don't know is there, so unless you're using mechjeb or KER to 'magically' target them and compute a trajectory, you have to do the research and gradually upgrade both observatory and space telescopes as your career progresses.  It's unfortunate but I guess unavoidable that those other mods don't hide the undiscovered planetary bodies so a little self-discipline is needed to avoid cheating the system.  For what it's worth, I think the balance feels fine - a reasonable expense forces a strategic choice between investing in planetary discovery vs the space programme.  And the OP is more than sufficient to figure out how to use the mod!

[JPLRepo]

On 9/1/2019 at 3:22 PM, horngeek said:

@JPLRepo I'm not at all certain whether this is a problem with RemoteTech or this mod, but when I use one of the telescopes provided by this mod (the TB-75M) as the core of a probe, RemoteTech thinks it's a manned ship (which is to say, the RemoteTech flight computer says it's being controlled locally.  

Hmm. I’ll have to take a look. Thanks.

On 9/6/2019 at 5:42 AM, bunjatec said:

Hi, probably a dumb question, I'm playing science mode, how do I find bodies (without just flying past them, which I did with Ike)

a few seem to have randomly populated themselves (jool, sarnus and another star system's barycenter).

I have telescopes around eve and on their way to sarnus (OPM) but the Eve one doesn't spot gilly.. and I'm not 'getting' how to make this mod work..

 

It’s meant to be played in career mode. But still works in other game modes. You have to point the telescopes at the bodies and keep trying to gather science about them.

its definitely a better experience using the contracts in career mode..

On 9/14/2019 at 3:42 AM, Brigadier said:

<snip>

I also have a question:  KSP 1.7.3, GPP+GEP planet packs.  I have the IR scope in solar orbit looking for asteroids.  The scope's PAW states "Misaligned with Tellumo" which is odd since a) I have no contract for the scope's deployment (I did it on a whim) and b) I can't control the scope's target.  There is no "Control from here" on the PAW, as there is on the Space Telescope, so pointing with the SAS or MJ doesn't work at all.  How can I align the scope with the target?  Am I even supposed to?

Interesting. Thought it had SAS etc. you’re talking about the stock sentinel IR telescope yeah? I’ll have to check it out.

[Brigadier]

 

On 10/13/2019 at 12:16 PM, JPLRepo said:

Interesting. Thought it had SAS etc. you’re talking about the stock sentinel IR telescope yeah? I’ll have to check it out.

Much appreciated.  Yes, the IR 'scope is the one in question.

I'm also seeing inconsistency across the different views for the same contract.  Fundamentally, if I check Mission Control, it reports the contract as mostly incomplete whereas in the flight scene it's just waiting on the duration to complete.  Is this RB or Contract Configurator?  Admittedly, the first and second views are basically the same since the tasks show as complete even though the sub-tasks aren't marked.

Spoiler

Flight Scene

Tracking Station Scene

Mission Control Scene

Edited October 15, 2019 by Brigadier
Added last sentence

[JPLRepo]

8 hours ago, Brigadier said:

 

Much appreciated.  Yes, the IR 'scope is the one in question.

I'm also seeing inconsistency across the different views for the same contract.  Fundamentally, if I check Mission Control, it reports the contract as mostly incomplete whereas in the flight scene it's just waiting on the duration to complete.  Is this RB or Contract Configurator?  Admittedly, the first and second views are basically the same since the tasks show as complete even though the sub-tasks aren't marked.

  Reveal hidden contents

Flight Scene

Tracking Station Scene

Mission Control Scene

I'm guessing that's a Contract Configurator thing... 'cause this mod uses it for it's contracts.

[JPLRepo]

Update published for KSP 1.8.x

Make sure you get version 1.28.0 of Contract Configurator.

V1.11.0
*Re-compile for KSP 1.8.x
*Code Garbage gneration improvements.
*Add Remote Tech antenna to TB-75.
*If you encounter a planet without having discovered or fully researched it it will now no longer set it to fully discovered.
Instead it will initially set the discovery to 30% and then over time whilst the vessel stays in the SOI of the planet it will slowly increase the discovery percentage.
 

[IceCube]

First of thank you so much for this mod! I am playing a heavily moded career mode on hard and research bodies makes it definitely more interesting in term of choices about where and when to invest in a new body.

thank you for the remote tech integration for the TB-75. Nice addition although I was just making ships as if they needed antenna anyway (unlikely to get that beast unlocked and in orbit before your comm network is in place).

I am very interested in the progressive discovery you have set for the 1.8 update. I am thinking about how to go for minmus. I am still at the early stage of the career, mainly probing the Mun. I have identified Minmus but not sure I want to invest the 300k to research it. Funds are tight and I’d rather invest into Duna, where for sure I can’t just bet on luck to get an encounter! I was considering sending a probe to Minmus but I would like to benefit from the 30% discovery increasing over time rather than have it researched right away.

would the latest update work with ksp 1.7 if I get the proper contract configurator version too?

[Stone Blue]

1 hour ago, IceCube said:

would the latest update work with ksp 1.7 if I get the proper contract configurator version too?

You can *try* it, but I wouldnt expect any support if it doesnt work. IMHO, backward compatability *is* a good question to ask, so long as you're not asking/pestering for a mod dev to specifically *add* or make changes so its backward compatable, if it is not already by the luck of the draw, backward compatable. And make sure to try it on a seperate KSP install, or at least one that doesnt have a very important to you saved game.

KSP 1.8.0 introduced an big update to the base Unity game engine KSP uses. Generally, Unity updates *can* and usually do break mod plugins (.dlls). While *any* KSP update can break plugins, Unity updates have a greater chance of doing so.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Stone Blue