Add Surface Sample Function to Stock Drills?

[derbleifuss]

The Bahamuto Science Drill certainly is a very handy Part for Probes. Unfortunately that Thing is MASSIVE and doesn't really fit onto most Probe Cores; not to mention the RoveMate Rover Body (I like Rovers). It can't be scaled down by TweakScale either, what would make Sense in my Opinion since a lot of Probes carry Experiments like that-just reasonably sized. I know that the Interstellar Mod includes this Drill in a tweakable and rerunnable Version but I am a bit reluctant to install Interstellar now because it wrecks the Dawn Engine which I am using in some Probes that would the become useless. So I've been trying a bit to either way make the "stock" Bahamuto Drill tweakable or "extract" it from Interstellar. None of that really worked. I then came up with the Idea to add this Sample Extraction Function to the Drill-O-Matic (Junior of course) stock Parts instead.

 

So here is my Question: Can I just copy the "Science Module"-Section from the Bahamuto to the Stock Drills .cfg-Files or is there anything else I have to keep in Mind? I did some minor Tweaks to the Game Files before, like increasing the Stress Tolerance of Wheels after they kept mysteriously breaking evenwithout much Stress on Eve, un-hiding the Mk 1-2 Pod from the Tech Tree or increasing the Mass of some OP lightweight Parts (Big Khleb...). But I wasn't succesful at adding "new" functions to Parts, as said above.

[zer0Kerbal]

in theory - yes, best to use a module manager patch instead.

SpaceDock is down - so this might be a bit off

Spoiler

// SuraceSampleDrills.cfg v1.0
// Squad patches
// created: 23 Sep 19
// updated: 23 Sep 19

@PART[MiniDrill,RadialDrill]:AFTER[Squad]
{
    %MODULE[ModuleScienceExperiment]
    {
        experimentID = surfaceSample
        experimentActionName = Extract Surface Sample
        resetActionName = Discard Surface Sample
        useStaging = False
        useActionGroups = True
        hideUIwhenUnavailable = True
        xmitDataScalar = 0.2
        FxModules = 0
        dataIsCollectable = True
        collectActionName = Collect Data
        interactionRange = 1.2
    }
}

// CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
// zer0Kerbal

 

Edited September 24, 2019 by zer0Kerbal

[derbleifuss]

6 hours ago, zer0Kerbal said:

in theory - yes, best to use a module manager patch instead.

SpaceDock is down - so this might be a bit off

  Reveal hidden contents

// SuraceSampleDrills.cfg v1.0
// Squad patches
// created: 23 Sep 19
// updated: 23 Sep 19

@PART[MiniDrill,RadialDrill]:AFTER[Squad]
{
    %MODULE[ModuleScienceExperiment]
    {
        experimentID = surfaceSample
        experimentActionName = Extract Surface Sample
        resetActionName = Discard Surface Sample
        useStaging = False
        useActionGroups = True
        hideUIwhenUnavailable = True
        xmitDataScalar = 0.2
        FxModules = 0
        dataIsCollectable = True
        collectActionName = Collect Data
        interactionRange = 1.2
    }
}

// CC BY-NC-SA-4.0
// zer0Kerbal

 

So this just needs to be copied into the .cfg of the drill?

And I guess

// SurfaceSampleDrills.cfg v1.0

instead of

// SuraceSampleDrills.cfg v1.0

i hiess.

[zer0Kerbal]

it is a separate file. create a file, name it whatever you wish.cfg, and store it in a folder under GameData. You need to have module manager installed. This will patch the stock drills and add the science experiment to them. should work.

[derbleifuss]

It worked. Next thing to do is make it rerunnable. Can I somehow copy the Module: Experiment from the Interstellar Drill (which is rerunnable) .cfg?

[zer0Kerbal]

5 hours ago, derbleifuss said:

It worked. Next thing to do is make it rerunnable. Can I somehow copy the Module: Experiment from the Interstellar Drill (which is rerunnable) .cfg?

add the following line to the file

Quote

IsRerunnable = true

https://anatid.github.io/XML-Documentation-for-the-KSP-API/class_module_science_experiment.html

[derbleifuss]

1 hour ago, zer0Kerbal said:

add the following line to the file

https://anatid.github.io/XML-Documentation-for-the-KSP-API/class_module_science_experiment.html

Came up with that and tried it in the meantime. I just usually try to double-check my Ideas on the Forum because KSP takes awfully long to load.

[derbleifuss]

On 9/24/2019 at 2:33 PM, zer0Kerbal said:

it is a separate file. create a file, name it whatever you wish.cfg, and store it in a folder under GameData. You need to have module manager installed. This will patch the stock drills and add the science experiment to them. should work.

Just came back to this. I'd like to upload this sas a mod with one or two additions:

1. Also give it an extension animation when extracting the sample.

2. Rerunnable only as upgrade, meaning to say at first it is a one-time-experiment like the mystery goo and becomes rurunnable by researching an upgrade. I think this would make it more balanced and not OP.

[zer0Kerbal]

1 hour ago, derbleifuss said:

Just came back to this. I'd like to upload this sas a mod with one or two additions:

1. Also give it an extension animation when extracting the sample.

2. Rerunnable only as upgrade, meaning to say at first it is a one-time-experiment like the mystery goo and becomes rurunnable by researching an upgrade. I think this would make it more balanced and not OP.

1. well beyond my ability
2. might be possible to write an upgrade for these using the upgrade system, but beyond my ability and time available.

I like.

 

[derbleifuss]

For the first one I could use the ModuleAnimationGroup and pack it into the patch File but haven't really an Idea how.

For the second one I searched a bit in the upgradeable parts from the Interstellar Mod but the only hint I found was some UpgradeTechReq which shows the Required Tech Tree Node for upgrading but that of course helps even less. Maybe I'll ask in the Interstellar Thrad about it, even if it's a bit offtopic.