[1.4] StageRecovery - Recover Funds+ from Dropped Stages - v1.8.0 (March 11, 2018)

[magico13]

I will make sure to open them up in GIMP and re-export them for the next release. That will likely fix any issues with the icons that people are having.

I'm not sure when the next release will be, but I already know of one issue that I need to fix that may manifest as getting caught in the tracking station or editor without being able to exit. The workaround for the time being is to go into the settings and disable powered recovery from a different save first, then enter the messed up save. It should clear out the issue after going to the tracking station or editor, then you can re-enable powered recovery if you want it.

Edit: Also, this is my 404th post. Post 404: Not found.

[KerbMav]

What happens if the co-pilot bails it while Jeb continues to land the burning spaceplane?

Is he picked up by a cab driver or deleted as junk?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25305-0-23-Vanguard-Technologies-EVA-parachutes-23!-Sry-4-not-fixing-earlier-%28Dec-30%29

[forsaken1111]

What happens if the co-pilot bails it while Jeb continues to land the burning spaceplane?

Is he picked up by a cab driver or deleted as junk?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25305-0-23-Vanguard-Technologies-EVA-parachutes-23!-Sry-4-not-fixing-earlier-%28Dec-30%29

Presumably he'd be picked up.

Edited August 22, 2014 by forsaken1111

[magico13]

If kerbals are in a stage they should be picked up, but if they're on their own they (currently) won't be. I can do a little work to see if I can make it so individual kerbals are recovered in the next version. For now, don't go dropping kerbals by themselves if you want them to survive!

Edit: Unfortunately I wasn't able to get that working just yet. I'm going to probably have to do some special checks for that, since it likely uses a different module. I had to upload a new version because I had forgotten to include the license in the download, which is now fixed. This version also removed a majority of the debug messages and added some additional error catching that should hopefully make it so the recovery code won't mess up saves if it encounters a bug. Instead it just won't recover the stage.

If you want a stage recovered, make sure to stay in the flight scene until it gets deleted by the atmosphere, otherwise there's a chance it will be destroyed instead of recovered!

Edited August 22, 2014 by magico13

[somnambulist]

magico - would it be possible to add an ignore list to StageRecovery? It'd be nice to optionally ignore things like fairings, jettisoned/expended LES towers, etc.

[magico13]

magico - would it be possible to add an ignore list to StageRecovery?

It's certainly possible to do, but I'm not sure of an easy way to add things to the list. Do you want it to ignore stages that contain those items, or ignore things that are just that by itself? Probably the latter. Before I try tackling that, could I offer a suggestion? In the settings menu in the Space Center (accessible by clicking the SR button on the toolbar) you can disable failed recovery messages (and success messages too). Then you can check the in-flight GUI for the status of any failed recoveries if you're concerned about them (and also successful ones). At the very least, you won't be overwhelmed by messages then.

I could have a list of words (like "fairing") where if the name of the part contains that then it will ignore it (or at the very least just not post a message about it). That list could be easily edited out of game, but I may be able to add an in-game way to edit the list too.

[The Pink Ranger]

Love the mod Magico! Anyway does it have any issues with custom launch sites like the ones in Real Solar System?

[magico13]

Love the mod Magico! Anyway does it have any issues with custom launch sites like the ones in Real Solar System?

I have not used that myself, so I cannot say for sure. I'm assuming your concern is with the amount of funds you get on recovery (since it's based on distance to the launch site). Assuming that RSS doesn't manually override the stock recovery code, it should work the same (this calculates the distance from the Space Center, so if RSS sets the Space Center location then it would work perfectly. If RSS overrides the stock code to check for a custom location instead of changing the Space Center location, then there will be issues).

My suggestion would be to try it for yourself by launching something straight up and dropping a stage along the way. When it gets destroyed for being on rails you should be alerted to it (check the SR GUI) and you can check the recovery percentage (separated into speed and distance on the Info tab). If the distance percentage is about 98% then it is working fine (98% is the maximum for stock, except for the launchpad or runway which net 100%).

I also don't know the height at which things will be destroyed in atmosphere with RSS. The code here requires an altitude of less than 35 km (why? It's stupid and I should change that. It was something I added waaay back in KCT and then never changed). If it gets destroyed (not the same as being dropped. Stock altitude for destruction is about 23km) above that it won't try to recover it at all.

[The Pink Ranger]

Alrighty. I tested it out and no issues with RSS.

[somnambulist]

Before I try tackling that, could I offer a suggestion? In the settings menu in the Space Center (accessible by clicking the SR button on the toolbar) you can disable failed recovery messages (and success messages too). Then you can check the in-flight GUI for the status of any failed recoveries if you're concerned about them (and also successful ones). At the very least, you won't be overwhelmed by messages then.

Argh I completely missed that setting. It certainly helps but, yes, a long term solution would be partname or description matching, much like Ferram does to exclude certain parts from FAR

[magico13]

Alrighty. I tested it out and no issues with RSS.

Good to hear! Thanks for the info.

Argh I completely missed that setting. It certainly helps but, yes, a long term solution would be partname or description matching, much like Ferram does to exclude certain parts from FAR

I'll see about adding at least a file that can be modified outside of the game that includes a list of blacklisted words. "fairing" will definitely be in there by default (same with "escape system") but it will only work for single parts that have that name. If you still have the LES attached to something then it will still track the recovery.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Hey just to throw this out there... Stage recovery doesn't handle the FASA launch towers right. I keep getting messages that they're destroyed like dropped stages, TVs like 250ms or something.

[magico13]

Hey just to throw this out there... Stage recovery doesn't handle the FASA launch towers right. I keep getting messages that they're destroyed like dropped stages, TVs like 250ms or something.

I'll take a look at it and see if there's anything I can do to fix that, but I'm not sure that I will be able to do anything about it. If StageRecovery is seeing it, then that means they're getting destroyed by something in the game (generally the atmosphere).

[Alvin853]

I got a piece of debris (used launch stage) in an orbit of about 25km Pe 80km Ap around Kerbin, and I'm constantly getting messages that the vessel was recovered or destroyed (deadly reentry no heatshield), but the vessel doesn't actually disappear, so it keeps sending messages.

I have the persistent.sfs and the output_log.txt here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/40qshvvr0z37h3k/stagerec.zip?dl=0 (using a lot of mods, but the only ones on that vessel are realchute and deadly reentry.)

[magico13]

It looks like there's two vessels with the problem (a minmus life support vessel and this one). They should be getting destroyed by the stock game, but I don't know why they aren't. It also looks like you're being refunded for it even when it burns up, so that's a bug too.

Figured it out after copying the vessel into my save. The messages pop up whenever you change scenes (go from Flight to Space Center, Tracking Station to Flight, etc) because KSP calls the "destroy" event at those times. Since it's less than 35km SR thinks it's from the atmosphere destroying it, thus it's giving the message. I think I have to actually check the altitude to make sure it's being destroyed and it's not just a scene change.

To get those to stop in the meantime you'll have to either terminate the debris or follow it down manually (until it gets a periapsis below 22 km or so, but at that point you're probably going to be forced to watch it the whole way).

Edit: The new update that I just pushed should fix this. Instead of just checking if the altitude is below 35km it instead checks if the pressure is above 0.1 and the altitude is above 100 meters.

Will someone double check that things coming down from above 22km will be recovered? I didn't think to check that until right now.

Edit2: Doesn't work. I'm going to have to do another update, damn it.

Edit3: Ok, fixed. Sorry about the all of a sudden hotfix. It should have been 0.01 pressure instead of 0.1 pressure. HUGE difference. Tested and should be working, hopefully without issue. I'm sorry again :/

Edited August 31, 2014 by magico13

[Alvin853]

There should be 2 debris vessels in the save, the 2nd one doesn't get low enough to trigger anything, but the Minmus Command Center Debris is causing the problem (as you probably have figured out by now).

I did have another problem though, maybe you can find it in the log, one of the "station" vessels "Minmus life support" suddenly got destroyed on its way to minmus via the stage recovery system. I reloaded immediately and problem didn't happen again.

Edit: And even though the messages say I'm getting money back, no money is showing up on my bank account. So I'm not getting infinite money from this bug.

Edited August 31, 2014 by Alvin853

[TranceaddicT]

magico - would it be possible to add an ignore list to StageRecovery? It'd be nice to optionally ignore things like fairings, jettisoned/expended LES towers, etc.

Damn, ninja'd again. Yeah, this. Maybe a MM config that adds something for SR to check for?

{

Module=exceptionStageRecovery

}

Hey just to throw this out there... Stage recovery doesn't handle the FASA launch towers right. I keep getting messages that they're destroyed like dropped stages, TVs like 250ms or something.

While I agree that the towers should not be destroyed, I do think they should be included in "Launchpad Reconditioning". Even if you can't capture them before hand, would SR still be able to add them to it's internal part catalogue and treat them that way? Maybe once added they are always present, but require added build time based on previous rocket tonnage; i.e. more tonnage more exhaust damage.

[magico13]

Damn, ninja'd again. Yeah, this. Maybe a MM config that adds something for SR to check for?

Since this is a plugin I don't need to mess around with Module Manager (since I have access to everything it does). I'm going to have a text document (maybe even just in the existing config file) with a list of strings which, if all the parts on a stage have names that contain any of those strings it gets ignored. So one piece fairing debris will be ignored, but you could also setup multiple words since ALL the parts must contain at least one of the words (so imagine a 2 part stage with an "Escape System" and a "Decoupler". If those words are in the list then it will be ignored, but another two part stage with a "Solid Rocket Booster" and "Decoupler" won't be ignored since "Solid Rocket Booster" isn't in the list).

I will probably make it so you can add/remove words in-game, since I hate having to make changes out of game.

While I agree that the towers should not be destroyed, I do think they should be included in "Launchpad Reconditioning". Even if you can't capture them before hand, would SR still be able to add them to it's internal part catalogue and treat them that way? Maybe once added they are always present, but require added build time based on previous rocket tonnage; i.e. more tonnage more exhaust damage.

You're mixing up this and Kerbal Construction Time a bit I think With the latest update SR shouldn't attempt to recover the launch towers at all (they're below 100 meters) so they will do whatever they would do without SR installed. It's possible they weren't even being destroyed in the first place and it was similar to the issue Alvin853 was having (which also was fixed in the last update). KCT will add them to the inventory if they are recovered upon a new launch already, so no issues there You'll often end up with a surplus of launch clamps in your inventory if you ever do builds without using inventory parts (after some duplication bugs I ended up with over 50 once...)

[Angelo Kerman]

This is a cool mod, and helps me conserve funds as well as design for reusability. I do have an issue where StageRecovery keeps giving me reports of the same spacecraft being destroyed over and over again even though its long gone. Has anybody seen this? If so, is there some way to clear out SR's database to stop the recurring reports?

[magico13]

This is a cool mod, and helps me conserve funds as well as design for reusability. I do have an issue where StageRecovery keeps giving me reports of the same spacecraft being destroyed over and over again even though its long gone. Has anybody seen this? If so, is there some way to clear out SR's database to stop the recurring reports?

SR doesn't really have a database, it just comes into play whenever the stock game tells everyone that it's destroying a vessel (SR then limits the criteria some more to try to figure out when the vessel is being destroyed by Kerbin's atmosphere from being unloaded, but this function is called A LOT by the stock game so there are occasionally mistakes). Which means if you're seeing recurring reports then the vessel must still exist (and isn't being permanently destroyed, such as during a scene change where KSP destroys everything, changes scenes, and then brings them back to life).

If you're not using the absolute latest version (1.4.3) then try that out and it may fix the issue. If you are using 1.4.3 then it might be a scene change related issue (do you get a message only when changing scenes? Like from the space center to the tracking station) in which case you could temporarily disable success/recovery messages and just use the in-flight GUI (in space center scene, press SR button on toolbar. Disable Recovery Messages and Success Messages and save. To access the flight gui press the SR button when flying a vessel. Only things recovered/destroyed since switching to the flight scene are displayed).

If the issue is with the latest version then I may be able to come up with a way to ignore anything being destroyed by the scene change, which will hopefully fix that. I'll probably add that anyway with the next update.

[Angelo Kerman]

SR doesn't really have a database, it just comes into play whenever the stock game tells everyone that it's destroying a vessel (SR then limits the criteria some more to try to figure out when the vessel is being destroyed by Kerbin's atmosphere from being unloaded, but this function is called A LOT by the stock game so there are occasionally mistakes). Which means if you're seeing recurring reports then the vessel must still exist (and isn't being permanently destroyed, such as during a scene change where KSP destroys everything, changes scenes, and then brings them back to life).

If you're not using the absolute latest version (1.4.3) then try that out and it may fix the issue. If you are using 1.4.3 then it might be a scene change related issue (do you get a message only when changing scenes? Like from the space center to the tracking station) in which case you could temporarily disable success/recovery messages and just use the in-flight GUI (in space center scene, press SR button on toolbar. Disable Recovery Messages and Success Messages and save. To access the flight gui press the SR button when flying a vessel. Only things recovered/destroyed since switching to the flight scene are displayed).

If the issue is with the latest version then I may be able to come up with a way to ignore anything being destroyed by the scene change, which will hopefully fix that. I'll probably add that anyway with the next update.

Thank you for taking the time to look into my issue. I'll do some more testing and give you more specifics. But what I've noticed is that it happens upon scene change.

[magico13]

Thank you for taking the time to look into my issue. I'll do some more testing and give you more specifics. But what I've noticed is that it happens upon scene change.

Ok, I should be able to fix it then, thank you I'll probably start working on the next update sometime this week and will hopefully have something out by this weekend at the earliest (it also depends on how much I want to do for the update. Powered recovery needs a few improvements that may take a while and there's at least one other feature I'd like to eventually add [extrapolation of landing site based on current trajectory]).

[Angelo Kerman]

Ok, I should be able to fix it then, thank you I'll probably start working on the next update sometime this week and will hopefully have something out by this weekend at the earliest (it also depends on how much I want to do for the update. Powered recovery needs a few improvements that may take a while and there's at least one other feature I'd like to eventually add [extrapolation of landing site based on current trajectory]).

That's great news, thanks for your help.

[Nori]

Thanks for this mod. Really like it and it works very well.

[magico13]

Small update to 1.5.0. Here's the changes for just this version:

1.5.0 - (09/06/2014)

- Added Ignore List. Any stages made up entirely of parts in the ignore list won't attempt to be recovered.

- Reworked the flight-GUI a bit. Made it smaller, draggable, and minimizes to just the list until a stage is selected. Hopefully even less intrusive now.

- Found a general solution to the fuel use problem for powered recovery. Can now handle engines that require any fuel amounts without being CPU intensive.

- Forced no checking on scene change. Should fix erroneous messages appearing on scene change for some users.

The ignore list can be edited in-game in the space center scene. If a stage is ENTIRELY made up of ignored items then it will be completely ignored by SR. It just matches the names of the parts to the names on the list, and only a partial match is required. By default, "fairing" and "escape system" are on the list, but you may want to add "decoupler" or things like that.

The flight GUI has been tweaked a bit too. It's draggable now and a bit smaller. It's also just the list until you click on a stage, then it shows the full info. Hopefully this is a nice change and less intrusive than the previous version (which is still WAY less annoying than constantly getting messages. I still recommend disabling them unless you really like the messages)