Upgrade Party

[JadeOfMaar]

Upgrade Party

Putting shiny things in the display cases in the item shop!

Spoiler

They're not gym badges. Poop on you if you think so.

Continuing my little tradition of infectious "party" mods (cheers to those of you who know of my one-shot mod Panel Party, and my pet project Plume Party, used by BDB, benjee10's Shuttle Orbiter, and Tundra Exploration), I bring you this new animal. The few times I've played a progression game I've always found myself triggered by how the part upgrades utterly fail to stand out from, and have to borrow the first part that they apply to. I don't know about you but I want a power-up in KSP to look like a power-up.

I've done a lot with part upgrades since B9 Part Switch started allowing to expand on them, and I've wanted for a very, very long time, to have something flashy to represent them. The decal artwork represents categories and there will be many of them. The artwork itself is a little sloppy and will be sharpened up some, but it aren't intended to get fancy and highly detailed. They need to stay basic and legible in a tiny size.

*The level of detail shown in the sample OPT spaceplane upgrade is meticulously, manually written. It's not auto-generated, sadly.

There are 5 palettes for the "LED" of the upgrade token. The palette will let you see at a glance what level the upgrade is, before you mouse-over its tiny thumbnail and see this larger icon in its PAW in R&D. Simply: cyan is level 1, green is level 2, yellow, red, "black." Just like with Rational Resources (to some degree, it's also a party mod), owners of tech trees and owners of part mods and that feature upgrades will easily be able to mix and match the templates in patch configs (the upgrade level, and the upgrade category decal) to create every upgrade icon they will desire, if it's in their interest to have this mod and hence, compatibility.

The rules I impose for use of the upgrade levels are few and easy and as follows:

• Use the upgrade level colors as appropriate and in the order they are designed and listed: cyan (1); green (2); yellow (3); red (4); black (5). They are not a free-for-all like if they were different shapes of boxes.
• If your part has less than 5 upgrade levels, then each level is still whatever number lower than 5. Do not give the level 5 frame to them. This rule is to prevent misuse and overuse of the level 5 frame.

The list of category decals is in the spoiler: I've anticipated 22 and drafted 11 already.

Spoiler

1. Aerodynamic
2. Atomic power - RTG
3. Atomic power - fission plant
4. Atomic power - fusion
5. Communication
6. Computer
7. Electric - battery
8. Engine - atomic (NTR)
9. Engine - fusion
10. Engine - ion
11. Engine - turbojet
12. Engine - liquid
13. Engine - solid
14. Intake / harvester
15. Life support
16. Propfan
17. Reaction wheel
18. Research
19. Structural
20. Tank
21. Thermal - coolant
22. Thermal - heatshield

Let me know if there are others you might want to see and use. Intended release date is wherever between May 18 and Jun 1, 2020.

Edited May 16, 2020 by JadeOfMaar

[KerboNerd]

GOOLD

[Nightside]

those look great!