RemoteTech or Commnet?

[Just Some Guy]

I have a bit of a dilemma here I could either go with remote tech and have the following mods with it and reasons why I like it. 1) Time Delay,       2) 10km EVA kerbal antenna,          3)Remote Tech Contracts,         4) KOS would work fine for the time delay. For Commnet I would use 1) Science Relay so I can send science to a science lab on a space station orbiting above            2) Commnet Constellations   for better organization of signals          3) Works with my mods kerbal health so I get the perk of being connected to home      Con is there is no time delay so there is no challenge or real use for KOS being used. I would like a second opinion on these thank you. 

[Alshain]

I prefer RemoteTech because quite frankly, it makes sense so it's easy to understand.  I hate to cry "realism" but a certain degree of realism can help with understanding of a concept.  This is where ComNet fails, RemoteTech is an abstracted form of real communications while ComNet is fiction.  Yes, it works, but it is a completely made up rule set based on little reality.  That makes the whole thing insanely confusing (at least for me who has a small amount professional experience working with real radio systems, I suppose results may vary).

 

As for your mods, I have no experience with any of those so I can't really provide a good opinion either way there.

 

EDIT

Just to add, what I mean by little reality, of course it has antenna communications and signal occlusion , that is realistic.  What isn't realistic is having dish antennas behave as omnidirectional, having your antennas more powerful because you upgraded the ground station, and having "partial control" (seriously? What is this, analog computing? It's all or none, it either gets a actionable message or it doesn't.).  Combining antennas isn't entirely accurate either (though this is a thing IRL, called antenna arrays).

Edited June 5, 2017 by Alshain

[DStaal]

Just wanted to comment that Commnet Constellations - as I understand it - is being created by a RemoteTech developer to work out the details of a new mechanic they want to add to RemoteTech.  So it's features will likely get reintegrated into RemoteTech at some point in the future.  (Though I'm hoping/expecting the separate mod will stay around as well.)

[Alshain]

From what I'm reading about Comnet Consteallations, I don't think the feature is as necessary with RemoteTech because of the directional antennas.  Constellations are almost inherent, maybe not as much as the mod adds, but they are there.  If you have a directional dish aimed at Duna, it's not likely to be able to communicate with Moho or Eve for very much of the time.  Alignment will happen, but not often.  So you typically have satellites aimed at different bodies and thus, constellations.

The reason that mod seems necessary is because in ComNet, everything is omnidirectional which means everything in range talks to everything in range.  As I said, it's still abstracted in RemoteTech, in the real world you have communication frequencies so you can make even more detailed constellations, and I think that is what that mod aims to do.  It would probably still work with RT if it were developed,  there are certainly times when I have omni's I would rather not talk to each other (I would prefer my space stations not act as a relay), but it just isn't as necessary.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Alshain

[NSEP]

I used Comnet in my RO install, but Remotetech is better, in my opinion. Comnet fits in with the base game, it is simplified, just like the other things in stock. But RemoteTech just got some of that sweet realism sprinkled over it, wich i like.

[Kerbart]

I love mods but I hate extra parts. They give me a feeling of dependency and "lock in" whenever a new version arrives, and everything breaks when a new KSP version arrives and mods haven't been updated. That's an irrational leftover from the 0.2x days, but I wish I could play RT with just the stock antennas.

[Alshain]

11 hours ago, Kerbart said:

I love mods but I hate extra parts. They give me a feeling of dependency and "lock in" whenever a new version arrives, and everything breaks when a new KSP version arrives and mods haven't been updated. That's an irrational leftover from the 0.2x days, but I wish I could play RT with just the stock antennas.

You could with some MM patches.  You just repurpose the stock antennas and delete the RT ones.  One or two part models might have to be reused but not all the antennas in RT are actually needed for any reason.  I know the biggest dish and the small compacting omni are not required for any particular reason (like range).

Edited June 6, 2017 by Alshain

[Kerbart]

12 hours ago, Alshain said:

You could with some MM patches.  You just repurpose the stock antennas and delete the RT ones.  One or two part models might have to be reused but not all the antennas in RT are actually needed for any reason.  I know the biggest dish and the small compacting omni are not required for any particular reason (like range).

I just deleted all RT antennas and started a new career. Will let you know how it works out!

[Gordon Dry]

Commnet Constellation should hopefully be a part of RemoteTech anytime in the future.

Quote

This mod is a testbed and prototype for one feature proposal of constellations in the RemoteTech project. (I am a member of the current RemoteTech team)

 

[Alshain]

6 hours ago, Kerbart said:

I just deleted all RT antennas and started a new career. Will let you know how it works out!

Simply deleting the RT antennas won't be enough, you would have to re-spec the stock antennas to fill the gap.

[Just Some Guy]

On 6/6/2017 at 5:21 AM, NSEP said:

I used Comnet in my RO install, but Remotetech is better, in my opinion. Comnet fits in with the base game, it is simplified, just like the other things in stock. But RemoteTech just got some of that sweet realism sprinkled over it, wich i like.

I think RO recommends remote tech so its best to use because the delay time to mars is pretty fun to play with.

[Yemo]

I m not a fan of having to use a spreadsheet/calculator every time I want to attach a commnet device to one of my vessels, so remote tech it is.

[Alshain]

On 6/9/2017 at 2:00 AM, Just Some Guy said:

I think RO recommends remote tech so its best to use because the delay time to mars is pretty fun to play with.

I play with signal delay off.  You have a choice, either play with signal delay or be able to land and drive unmanned probes/rovers.  Sadly you can't really effectively do both.  At least not without some pretty advanced KOS scripts, but I'd rather fly myself.

Edited June 10, 2017 by Alshain

[Just Some Guy]

2 hours ago, Alshain said:

I play with signal delay off.  You have a choice, either play with signal delay or be able to land and drive unmanned probes/rovers.  Sadly you can't really effectively do both.  At least not without some pretty advanced KOS scripts, but I'd rather fly myself.

Mechjeb has their own rover autopilot script also bonvoyage is pretty nice.

[Alshain]

1 hour ago, Just Some Guy said:

Mechjeb has their own rover autopilot script also bonvoyage is pretty nice.

Thats nice but it's not landing or driving any more than KOS is.  

Edited June 11, 2017 by Alshain

[Alex1234567890]

In my opinion,CommNet is better.It allows we to connet from Kerbin ground stations,not just KSC.And it makes we can transmit data without a stralight connetion,so we can place anntena on everywhere on the craft.

[darthgently]

Don't forget RealAntennas.  I think the only real question is RealAntennas vs CommNet with RemoteTech a distant 3rd as it seems to create a system load beyond what it provides and it doesn't seem to get as much dev love as it used to.   I've used all three and prefer RealAntennas but still run games on CommNet when I want to focus on other aspects and am thinning out mods to keep things saner

[gonsy]

erm... post resurection?

[darthgently]

5 hours ago, gonsy said:

erm... post resurection?

You are correct.  I was replying to a very recent post, and didn't notice the thread itself was ancient.  bleah

[Alex1234567890]

What is RealAntennas?Give me its thread link,please!

[darthgently]

15 minutes ago, Alex1234567890 said:

What is RealAntennas?Give me its thread link,please!

My understanding is that is the Realism Overhaul blessed successor to RemoteTech, but I could be very wrong in that.  Realism Overhaul is not required to run it.  It is more realistic in propagation, frequency, wavelength, size aspects of antennas.  Far more realistic than CommNet. 

That realism comes with a bit more required planning, but I wouldn't call it tedious at all if you are interested in how radio communications really work. 

And really, the amount of required planning isn't really any more than CommNet now that I think of it.  The planning is actually useful because you are learning stuff that is more like how the real world works.

It is in CKAN if you want to try it out.  CKAN also has a forum link I think for RealAntennas in the lower right on one of the tabs when the mod is highlighted in the main window.  I can't find the forum here for it so here is the link to the wiki (links in sidebar at right will show you what is what)

https://github.com/DRVeyl/RealAntennas/wiki

[Alex1234567890]

I think you are wrong.RealAntennas only add bette antenna/link caculatetions to CommNet.I alerdy read its desc on CKAN and it said that.

4 hours ago, darthgently said:

My understanding is that is the Realism Overhaul blessed successor to RemoteTech, but I could be very wrong in that.  Realism Overhaul is not required to run it.  It is more realistic in propagation, frequency, wavelength, size aspects of antennas.  Far more realistic than CommNet. 

That realism comes with a bit more required planning, but I wouldn't call it tedious at all if you are interested in how radio communications really work. 

And really, the amount of required planning isn't really any more than CommNet now that I think of it.  The planning is actually useful because you are learning stuff that is more like how the real world works.

It is in CKAN if you want to try it out.  CKAN also has a forum link I think for RealAntennas in the lower right on one of the tabs when the mod is highlighted in the main window.  I can't find the forum here for it so here is the link to the wiki (links in sidebar at right will show you what is what)

https://github.com/DRVeyl/RealAntennas/wiki

I think you are wrong.RealAntennas only add bette antenna/link caculatetions to CommNet.I alerdy read its desc on CKAN and it said that.

[darthgently]

2 hours ago, Alex1234567890 said:

I think you are wrong.RealAntennas only add bette antenna/link caculatetions to CommNet.I alerdy read its desc on CKAN and it said that.

Which part is wrong?  Please specify as I'm always trying to learn.    Do you just think I'm wrong or know I'm wrong?  I've played with it for 100+ hours and read more about its history than just the CKAN description.  But I'm certain I am wrong about something because there is always something new to learn.  But what do you think I'm wrong about?  What is something new you have for me to learn?  

If you want to know more specific information about RealAntennas, DRVeyl in these forums can, I'm certain, answer all your questions

Edited April 4, 2022 by darthgently