[Mission Builder] Game Settings VS Save Settings

[Li0n]

Hi

I'm on the process of updating my mod to KSP 1.4.1 and making sure they work on the expansion too.

The biggest change I've found is about the settings. In KSP there is 2 types of settings : Game-wide (graphic, key binding, etc...) and Save settings (difficulty and mod's settings).

This paradigm works good with regular KSP but it has some issues with Making History :

You can't use mods settings in the Mission Builder. As the mission builder is not in the KSP universe, it make sense for most mods. But, there will be mods for the mission builder, to help you design mission. And most likely they will need some settings.

So I guess we need a Mission Builder's settings screen, or a way for mods to hook up to the Game-wide's settings screen.

 

I hope the Modders's Note for KSP 1.4.0/1 will shed some light on this ( @JPLRepo ?)

(It's also 100% possible I missed something in the new API that make this thread irrelevant, if so please forget about it. (And point me to what I missed ))

[JPLRepo]

You can. The difficulty settings are available. They can be accessed in a mission in the mission builder on the start node settings action pane.

[Li0n]

8 hours ago, JPLRepo said:

You can. The difficulty settings are available. They can be accessed in a mission in the mission builder on the start node settings action pane.

I didn't see that, obviously Thanks.

And it brings more questions :

• Can I set my mod's settings to be available to the player (who play, not build, the mission) ? Currently all the difficulty/mod parameters are unavailable in mission, or did I miss something again ?
• In Start node I set the parameters for a mod. This mod is not in the Mission's mod list. When I play the mission the settings for the mod are the one I set in the Start node, not the default. Is there a way around this ?

 

[JPLRepo]

15 hours ago, Li0n said:

I didn't see that, obviously Thanks.

And it brings more questions :

• Can I set my mod's settings to be available to the player (who play, not build, the mission) ? Currently all the difficulty/mod parameters are unavailable in mission, or did I miss something again ?
• In Start node I set the parameters for a mod. This mod is not in the Mission's mod list. When I play the mission the settings for the mod are the one I set in the Start node, not the default. Is there a way around this ?

 

No the difficulty settings are intended for the mission creator to setup and define as they wish their mission to operate. Therefore they are not something the mission player can change.
The missions mod list is a freeform text field. It does not functionally change whether a mod is operational in a mission or not. That is as always dependent on whether you have the mod installed or not.
No as stated. The settings set by the mission creator for overall KSP difficulties - and for mods. Are defined by the mission creator. Not something the mission player can change. That is the way it was designed. Missions are intended to be that way - as challenges I guess. Wtih scoring etc. So everything is in the hands of the creator of the mission to set it up they way they intend their mission to be played.
 

[Li0n]

8 hours ago, JPLRepo said:

The settings set by the mission creator for overall KSP difficulties - and for mods. Are defined by the mission creator. Not something the mission player can change. That is the way it was designed. Missions are intended to be that way - as challenges I guess. Wtih scoring etc. So everything is in the hands of the creator of the mission to set it up they way they intend their mission to be played.

I understand the challenge idea and therefore the unavailability of difficulty option for the mission player. My issue is for mods hooking into the difficulty settings screen, some (most ?) show settings that are not difficulty settings, and so should be available to the mission player.

As an example : I maintain a little mod call Real Time Clock, it adds a clock to the game and has a setting to set the time to 12 or 24h format. To me it don't make sense to force this setting on the player.

I realize this issue is not exactly related to the Mission Builder (but it wasn't a problem before). It's more about mods using the difficulty screen for stuff not related to difficulty. But what are the alternatives ? Either using a .cfg file or writing a setting's UI. Both are not very intuitive/user-friendly. So I wish there's a way to set some parameter to always available, or a mod settings menu separate from the difficulty one.

I can understand that this issue being 100% related to mods @SQUAD may not consider it very important, and the Mission Builder is too new to know what players/modders need to take the best of it.

Anyway I'm not worried, KSP being KSP, even if @SQUAD don't do anything about it someone else will

9 hours ago, JPLRepo said:

The missions mod list is a freeform text field. It does not functionally change whether a mod is operational in a mission or not. That is as always dependent on whether you have the mod installed or not.

I realized that. I wish it be a little more proactive, at least parse Mission Creator's ship for mod's part and show those mod as required.

 

@JPLRepo will you write Modder's Note this time ? No rush but it will stop me from asking questions.*

* at least for the time it will take me to read the notes