General Propulsion mod feedback thread.

[Galacticruler]

Well, why?

Its not a mod for everyone, but anyone who has it should at least be giving me feedback...there is only so much I can do...

[BananaDealer]

Well, for one- your download link doesn't seem to be working...

Otherwise, don't expect people to say "THANKS!" (though they should), or even come up with feedback... Just appreciate each download...

Also, you can't expect people to just look into your thread... Just because it's out there doesn't mean everybody looks into it...

Lastly... Don't whine... Just thread on and make what appears to be a fairly intriguing pack of parts and even resources!

I am assuming you do have the permission from Kethane developers to use their stuff...

[frizzank]

Its unfortunate but its a cruel world. If no one is looking or giving feed back then that usually means a thumbs down. Or they are just not interested enough to post a reply. Also asking why no one comments on your thread is not a good way to get constructive feedback. If you want real art feed back, try posting on some of the 3d art forums like polycount.

You also need to learn to be your own worst critic. Analise your own work by comparing it to others that you like or enjoy. As far as KSP, look at your work and look at the work done by Squad. How is yours different from theirs, what are they doing that your not, and which parts do you think look the best, out of yours and theirs? Also what is it about them you like?

Pick a small part you really like someone else did. Try to copy their style and everything. Learn there technique, practice it, and then learn a new one. After that, then you can start on your own part in a new style. Remember stay SMALL! Your worst mistake is taking on something too large, getting frustrated and giving up.

[Galacticruler]

Well, for one- your download link doesn't seem to be working...

Otherwise, don't expect people to say "THANKS!" (though they should), or even come up with feedback... Just appreciate each download...

Also, you can't expect people to just look into your thread... Just because it's out there doesn't mean everybody looks into it...

Lastly... Don't whine... Just thread on and make what appears to be a fairly intriguing pack of parts and even resources!

I am assuming you do have the permission from Kethane developers to use their stuff...

1. Define "Not working"...it works for me.

2. Kethane was dropped, does NO BODY read the changelog?

3. know anyone willing to teach me unity stuff and/or modeling?

[BananaDealer]

1. Define "Not working"...it works for me.

2. Kethane was dropped, does NO BODY read the changelog?

3. know anyone willing to teach me unity stuff and/or modeling?

The dropbox link doesn't work... Shows a 403 error...

If you're not using Kethane any more, you should discard any sceenshots showing Kethane-related assets...

There's lots of Unity tutorials on YouTube...

[mcrbradbury]

1. Define "Not working"...it works for me.

Well it seems that I'm getting a "Error (403) - It seems you don't belong here! You should probably sign in. " when trying to download.

I'd give it a go if i could download it.

[regex]

Its not a mod for everyone

E: I realize what I wrote was pretty harsh. Let me just say that a lot of people may come through, look at a mod, and just decide that it's not for them. They don't leave feedback because a modder usually has some audience they're working for and it's kind of rude for someone to come in and demand that the mod somehow change to fit them. Or they may download it and check it out, and figure out that they're not really into what you've made. There's no reason to leave a note in that case because they have no plans to use it, improved or not. Your audience may actually be smaller because you have a fairly niche mod.

Edited October 21, 2013 by regex

[lincourtl]

Yep. You need to right click on the file in your Dropbox folder, and choose 'Share Dropbox link.' That will copy a publicly accessible link to your file that looks like https://www.dropbox.com/s/longstringofnumbersandletters.

Alternately, plop it in your Public folder inside your Dropbox, right click on the file, and choose 'Copy public link.' That will give you a link that looks like https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/bignumber.

[togfox]

You mean the 'yet another rocket engine' thread?* Sorry - glossed over it.

No offensive. It's great that people do this - mods make the game imo, but when your rocket part is just more of the same then it's hard to get excited.

What would be great is if the community got organised so we don't have a dozen authors all doing the same thing. I'm not sure if you did those models yourself. If so, perhaps you might want to not make yet another rocket engine and offer your modelling skills to others that are creating unique - 'first of breed' parts no one has conceived before.

I'm sure this will sound harsh but its not intended to be.

(* yes - I know more than just engines are in the pack, but you get my message)

[blizzy78]

FWIW, my advice would be this: Get used to it. Yes, it's pretty darn frustrating if you get down and do something, and share it with the world, only to find out that only a minority is interested in it. Or even if you get quite some thread views, only a minority of those readers actually posts on the thread.

Do recognize that the KSP community is quite large. This means the actual audience "share" for a single mod author is only so small. It will get even smaller the more "niche" your mod is. That's just the way it is. Get used to it.

[Galacticruler]

Well it seems that I'm getting a "Error (403) - It seems you don't belong here! You should probably sign in. " when trying to download.

I'd give it a go if i could download it.

Alright, its fixed.

FWIW, my advice would be this: Get used to it. Yes, it's pretty darn frustrating if you get down and do something, and share it with the world, only to find out that only a minority is interested in it. Or even if you get quite some thread views, only a minority of those readers actually posts on the thread.

Do recognize that the KSP community is quite large. This means the actual audience "share" for a single mod author is only so small. It will get even smaller the more "niche" your mod is. That's just the way it is. Get used to it.

I get this, what I don't get is why a few of the people I know use it are not giving feedback.

Also, its partly that it appears people glance at the title and keep moving, this is just maddening.

[blizzy78]

I get this, what I don't get is why a few of the people I know use it are not giving feedback.

That's just how players (and people in general) are: Lazy. If there's nothing to contribute, they won't. If the barrier to contribution is too high, they won't.

You could get a million downloads of your mod, and if everything is fine and dandy, you wouldn't get a single feedback post.

Also, its partly that it appears people glance at the title and keep moving, this is just maddening.

Time to come up with a "catchy" title then. You can also always try and improve the overall presentation.

[Talisar]

This is probably going to sound very critical, but my intention is to be be helpful so please read it with that in mind.

Your mod has a very interesting premise, but it fills a very distinct niche and there are several other mods that offer (gameplay-wise) much the same thing, but look much more polished. If you are going to compete against similar mods, you really have 2 options:

1. Offer something that the others doesn't, that greatly enhances the gameplay.

2. Look way better than the other mods, in model and/or texturing. If your parts are beautiful as well as useful, people will run their game up to the memory limit in order to have them.

Using my Spherical Tanks pack as an example, when I first released it there were few other options to get a round fuel tank. In all actuality, there still aren't many out there, and the ones that do exist are one or two specialized parts contained in other packs. Although my modelling and especially texturing skills were (and remain) well below those of some other mod makers out there, it seems to remain popular because it fills that particular niche well.

My next point pertains to your comment here:

I get this, what I don't get is why a few of the people I know use it are not giving feedback.

Also, its partly that it appears people glance at the title and keep moving, this is just maddening.

If people are using your mod and not commenting, that tells me that they are happy with it are are actually playing the game instead of spending time on the forums. If people want to use your mod, but are unhappy with some detail of it they WILL let you know (trust me )

As for your thread, the title is fairly non-descriptive. Consider changing it so that it gives a blurb of what your pack actually contains rather than your corporation name. That may draw views from people who would otherwise skip over it. Also consider re-making your first post and going into detailed descriptions of what your pack offers. Break it down for people and sell it to them.

Lastly (and a comment that I hesitate to add, because I don't want this to sound harsh, especially since my skills in this area are decidedly lacking) I would take the time to search out tutorials on modelling, texturing, and use of unity. Practice them, refine your parts, and improve the overall look. When you put up new features and/or parts, put a lot of detail about them, not just a list in changelog form. Ask people for feedback on specific things.

Anyhow, I hope you take this in the spirit it was intended. In no way was I trying to be offensive with this reply.

[DYJ]

Just asking people to look at your thread is a form of bumping and not really okay, but as this has turned into a feedback thread I'll just change the title for you and it'll be good.

[sharpspoonful]

I derped and thought this was talisar's thread for some reason. Apologies everyone!

Edited October 21, 2013 by sharpspoonful
Man, not sleeping kills my grammar.

[Greys]

I have specific reasons I have avoided the General Propulsions part set at first glance several times (generic name makes it easy to forget, as others have said you should change/augment that)

The textures look bad.

I think it's pretty obvious what's wrong here; the big problem is the heating effect of the nozzle, it does not go to the edge of the face for one, but for two, it's currently visible. If you're going to have a heating effect on the part it absolutely needs to be part of an emissive animation that is bound to heat level so that it fades in when the engine is running. This looks like a kid drew on the part with a crayon to make it look faster. Beyond that the nuke icon is blurry and looks slapped on, why is it there at all? Going to the mesh for a moment, the "engine bell" and the mounting plate look like they have nothing to do with each other, they clip into each other oddly, those little finger struts are a cop-out, the base plate itself has no character whatsoever, they're exactly the same color and material, and that's not even going into my complaints about the overall design concept, the thing looks like it should be a jet engine but you're saying it's some kind of nuclear ion drive. I'm willing to ignore that last part but it annoys me, an engine's functionality should be vaguely suggested by the design. If you go to google images and search for impulse engine or impulse drive there are a good few concepts for how an engine like that might operate, in reality or otherwise.

First of all, what is this? it says Omega Battery but it looks like a cylinder of expanding closed cell foam with windows. Overall this is just lazy. There's nothing that can be done to fix this because there's nothing here to be fixed, there's no concept, there's no design, it's a cylinder of foam with yellow bits that stores... Omega...?

Last and by far least problematic are your resource storage tanks. My problem with these is that they're very very slightly retextured very old stock KSP fuel tanks.

http://www.straferight.com/forums/attachments/gaming-general/20711d1341436615-kerbal-space-program-kbs_bojingles2_1.jpg

Squad replaced these parts and textures because they're just not very good. The resolution is considerably lower, the definition is considerably lower, and the mesh is not set up quite right so it's tris are really obvious in common lighting situations. Resource containers are super easy to make, you make a cylinder with a fairly standard number of faces, and you add surface details to it to make it look neat; then you give it a simple texture that is congruent with the rest of your pack.

The final problems I'm going to mention are that your parts visually have nothing to do with each other, and look cartoony. Having them look cartoony would be fine but you don't provide everything necessary to play with just your stuff so you have to mix it with stock parts and other mods that also don't look cartoony and you just end up with this disjointed amalgam of conflicting visual styles.

[Galacticruler]

The textures look bad.

Understandable, they are Orbitus II's textures for the engines though, I just tossed some radioactivity warnings on it.

I think it's pretty obvious what's wrong here; the big problem is the heating effect of the nozzle, it does not go to the edge of the face for one, but for two, it's currently visible. If you're going to have a heating effect on the part it absolutely needs to be part of an emissive animation that is bound to heat level so that it fades in when the engine is running. This looks like a kid drew on the part with a crayon to make it look faster.

---

Beyond that the nuke icon is blurry and looks slapped on, why is it there at all? Going to the mesh for a moment, the "engine bell" and the mounting plate look like they have nothing to do with each other, they clip into each other oddly, those little finger struts are a cop-out, the base plate itself has no character whatsoever, they're exactly the same color and material, and that's not even going into my complaints about the overall design concept, the thing looks like it should be a jet engine but you're saying it's some kind of nuclear ion drive. I'm willing to ignore that last part but it annoys me, an engine's functionality should be vaguely suggested by the design. If you go to google images and search for impulse engine or impulse drive there are a good few concepts for how an engine like that might operate, in reality or otherwise.

1st off: That is a throttle emissive, to visually display the power level of the engine corresponding to throttle as there is no visible exhaust. If I actually get around to doing models textures and unity work, I might toss some sort of heat indicator on to a newer model(with new colors).

2nd: Model is also Orbitus II's design, actually the only thing I can really do at the moment is cfgs, he did the models here a few versions back. Also, the impulse engine model happens to be his interpretation of a sketch I did.(I don't have the steadiest hands in the world...)

First of all, what is this? it says Omega Battery but it looks like a cylinder of expanding closed cell foam with windows. Overall this is just lazy. There's nothing that can be done to fix this because there's nothing here to be fixed, there's no concept, there's no design, it's a cylinder of foam with yellow bits that stores... Omega...?

the description of that part in the imgur album clearly states that it was scrapped. Also, I agree with you.

Last and by far least problematic are your resource storage tanks. My problem with these is that they're very very slightly retextured very old stock KSP fuel tanks.

http://www.straferight.com/forums/attachments/gaming-general/20711d1341436615-kerbal-space-program-kbs_bojingles2_1.jpg

Squad replaced these parts and textures because they're just not very good. The resolution is considerably lower, the definition is considerably lower, and the mesh is not set up quite right so it's tris are really obvious in common lighting situations. Resource containers are super easy to make, you make a cylinder with a fairly standard number of faces, and you add surface details to it to make it look neat; then you give it a simple texture that is congruent with the rest of your pack.

I've dumped those tanks if favor of some more updated cylinders by Snjo as of 0.13(?).

Also, you'd know some of this stuff if you bothered to download and play test it before giving a review/feedback/criticism.

The final problems I'm going to mention are that your parts visually have nothing to do with each other, and look cartoony. Having them look cartoony would be fine but you don't provide everything necessary to play with just your stuff so you have to mix it with stock parts and other mods that also don't look cartoony and you just end up with this disjointed amalgam of conflicting visual styles.

Once again, Orbitus II did the models, textures and unity rigging for the engines and the (no longer existant) OB.

The rescaled stock panels are soon to be dumped due to their OP-ness, ridiculous size and strength.

Honestly, all I really did was the .cfgs and edit some .pngs.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Galacticruler

[hoojiwana]

Why are you showcasing parts that are scrapped exactly?

[Greys]

Galacticruler, I didn't download and try your mod because what your mod shows in your thread for your mod is a bunch of ugly cheat parts. And now you say that you didn't make them and most of them aren't even there anymore?

I think we've found the basis of your problems.

[Galacticruler]

Galacticruler, I didn't download and try your mod because what your mod shows in your thread for your mod is a bunch of ugly cheat parts. And now you say that you didn't make them and most of them aren't even there anymore?

I think we've found the basis of your problems.

Well, I AM looking for someone to do high res screenshots, as I cannot run above bare minimum settings.

And yes, a lot of those have been scrapped, altered, or changed.

I'll see about possibly trying to match the engine and fuel tanks, but no guarantees.