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[1.12.x] Space Dust - Atmospheric and Exospheric Harvesting (24/06/2022)


Nertea

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KSP 1.12.x  

Space Dust [0.4.4] 
Last Updated June 24, 2022

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Space Dust is a framework for expanding the atmospheric and exospheric resource prospecting and harvesting experience in KSP. Currently the framework exists in stock but is a little lacking and buggy, as well as not well supported by Squad. Space Dust provides a number of resource distributions for stock planets, plus parts to discover and harvest them. 

Resource Bands

Resources are distributed in Bands, which are areas of usable resource concentrations. Bands can be shells, rings, all those fun kind of things. Bands can be in atmospheres, parts of atmospheres (eg, upper or lower atmospheres), exospheres or both. Broadly, you prospect to find resource bands, and harvest things from them. 

Prospecting

Bands typically start out undiscovered, with the exception of homeworld common resources. You'll have to Discover and then Identify bands around other planets to find out where the best resources are.

Discovery is all about locating the resources. Use a scanner part or a telescope part to find a band around a celestial body.

  • Scanners: Scanners are parts you place on a vessel like a probe, then fly to you destination. Different scanners operate differently, some may need you to fly into the resource band, others can detect things from a distance. Make sure to consult the Part Info window to see how a scanner works . 
  • Telescopes: Telescopes function at a distance. Target Celestial bodies you are interested in and start surveys - eventually, depending on distance and the target, you will start discovering things - as long as they aren't too far away or too difficult to find. There is no substitute for actually sending a probe in!

Identification is about refining knowledge. Use your scanner parts to further look at Discovered resource bands to Identify them and reveal information on their concentrations and precise extents. Most scanner parts can also Identify resources but generally need the part to be closer to the band.

Harvesting

Use dedicated Space Dust harvester parts to collect resources. Two harvesters are provided for long-term processing operations. Other mods can easily build atmosphere scoops and more interesting processing options.

Framework

Although this mod is useable by itself , it does provide a framework for modders to use to :

  • Add more resource distributions for other planets
  • Add more resource distributions for resources
  • Add harvester and scanner parts 

I've started documentation efforts, they can be found on the wiki and cover how to add distributions, how to configure harvesters and the like.

Roadmap

The mod is mostly complete, but the roadmap is on Github here.

Screenshots

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: TBA?
A: TBA.

Dependencies (Required and Bundled)

  • Module Manager 
  • B9 Part Switch

Licensing

  • All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License
  • All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under a CC-BY-SA-NC-4 License.
  • All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses.

Download 
Mirrors


Primary (SpaceDock)
Secondary (CurseForge)
Tertiary (GitHub)

Issue Tracking and Source

If you appreciate this project, please consider contributing to my caffeine addiction! I really appreciate it, and also helps justify this time sink to my wife :wink:, which results directly in more models. btn_donate_SM.gif

Edited by Nertea
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17 minutes ago, hemeac said:

In terms of mod support, are you looking for Space Dust to be a repository for patches or is there an expectation that any part mods/planet packs supply their own configurations?

Here's what I'd like:

  • Mods that define new resources to harvest define their distributions here for the stock system (e.g. NFP wants argon, argon is defined here)
  • Mods that add new planets hold their own distributions
  • Mods that patch SpaceDust parts to harvest or detect resources do it there.
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So cool! I installed this mod right away. It'll take a rebuild of my scanner satellites but totally worth it if I can get that sweet sweet xenon I crave!

 

I found a simple issue and have uploaded it to GitHub with a description and logs. Please let me know if I'm doing this wrong, this is my first time using git: https://github.com/ChrisAdderley/SpaceDust/issues/15

 

As always, thanks for sharing your cool mods & ideas with us!

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1 hour ago, Wait- Was That Important? said:

So cool! I installed this mod right away. It'll take a rebuild of my scanner satellites but totally worth it if I can get that sweet sweet xenon I crave!

 

I found a simple issue and have uploaded it to GitHub with a description and logs. Please let me know if I'm doing this wrong, this is my first time using git: https://github.com/ChrisAdderley/SpaceDust/issues/15

 

As always, thanks for sharing your cool mods & ideas with us!

Thank you for the detailed bug report and reproduction steps, I will take a look at it as soon as I have time. 

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Update 0.1.1

  • Added missing B9PartSwitch to distribution
  • Added Science integration: in Science or Career mode, identifying or discovering a resource band will add science to your space program
    • This is configured by a base value in SpaceDustSettings.cfg, which is scaled by the Hight Orbit scale of the body in question
    • Configurable per-band by specifying discoveryScienceReward or identifyScienceReward in the band's configuration
  • Fixed an issue where a part with ModuleSpaceDustTelescope would brick the game in a new and fun way
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The science integration is a great idea.  I have just been reading about the LADEE mission that analyzed space dust particles from the moon and like the idea that not only can you get "science", but that there is also a practical use to running the experiments outside of unlocking bigger engines.

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7 minutes ago, TheMultiVitamin said:

I'm assuming at the moment that this doesn't do much of anything for planet packs until their creators/a third party makes appropriate files? Mainly asking so I can know if this will work with JNSQ or not.

It should work now in JNSQ for the stock planets that are revamped with the exception that some of the resource bands may not be distributed in exactly the expected places and doesn't currently support any planets that were created for JNSQ that were not in stock.  Think Jade is involved with creating some of the configurations, so I am guessing full JNSQ support should happen at some point.

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2 minutes ago, hemeac said:

It should work now in JNSQ for the stock planets that are revamped with the exception that some of the resource bands may not be distributed in exactly the expected places and doesn't currently support any planets that were created for JNSQ that were not in stock.  Think Jade is involved with creating some of the configurations, so I am guessing full JNSQ support should happen at some point.

Cool, thanks for informing me!

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@Big Katz @hemeac Space Dust's configs will work in JNSQ but since the measuring system uses meters from sea level and not fractions/multiples of the body radius,  any atmosphere presences that are made need to be precisely measured per planet, and exosphere placements will become misfits (the wrong heights and spans) since the bodies are bigger. And JNSQ's added planets get no support at all since there's no means to magically place resources in every atmosphere with one node or switch. (For the experienced, "GLOBAL_RESOURCE{}" does not apply.)

I'm working on support right now, to learn all that I need to touch, and fill out the stock planets. After that comes OPM...and JNSQ since you asked.

 

Edited by JadeOfMaar
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2 hours ago, The_Arcitect said:

Does anyone know if this mod is/will be compatible with Tarsier Space Technologies?

They won't conflict. They're perfectly safe to use together.  And you can even go ahead and add the SpaceDust telescope features to Tarsier's telescopes, or Tarsier to the SpaceDust telescope. I do see a possible glitch happening where modules from one telescope might not respect the lens cap animation being controlled by a foreign module, if they depend on the lens cap animating.

I haven't tested it but I'm entirely confident in it.

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SpaceDust 0.1.4

  • Fixed harvesters harvesting in t/m3, when they should have been using u/m3
  • Fixed the UI showing t/m3 sometimes, should always be u/m3
  • Distributions
    • Adjusted all exospheric resource distributions, were far too high
  • Fixed large atmosphere processor's loop and activate animations
  • Decreased static intake speed for processors to more realistic values
  • Tuned efficiencies for processors
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  • 3 weeks later...

How long should one expect to wait to identify resources using the telescope? Ive had a trio (with 1 of each module between them) looking at eve for several days now, and Im wondering when I should move on and decide that eve is devoid of resources.

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