[Retired] Multipurpose Colony Modules for MKS/OKS (0.4.5)

[Toyotawolf]

Jebus, I go spend quality family time and all heck breaks lose. Let me be clear, right now I am brainstorming ideas on a direction for this mod, if any. One direction is retiring it altogether, which I'm ok with. Multipurpose Colony Modules served a need at a time when we had no custom part categories, no Mk3 space plane parts, and at that time, MKS/OKS didn't have stock textures. All that has changed and change is good. Change happened before with this mod, when the Mk3 MKS/OKS modules were introduced. MCM kept with the spirit of RoverDude's mod by offering new efficiency parts.

With 1.0, new change is afoot. Now, I love the idea of space camping, and I may just create a mod to do that as colony modules in small form doesn't fit the spirit of MKS. The new stock converters make that pretty straightforward. It's the kind of thing you might see before sending down a colony.

Exactly and I love this idea, and I want it to come to fruition, if you need assistance let me know. If I was overbearing in my defense of your mod then I guess I apologize.

This is what you get for leaving us unsupervised. You don't even want to know what rover did to the bathroom.

LOL too funny, but bad form......but funny

[Angelo Kerman]

This is what you get for leaving us unsupervised. You don't even want to know what rover did to the bathroom.

Well, I already know he demoted me to Angel-123... (that's what I get for trying to be cool in my youth...)

So imagine a first steps mission. You scan for a good spot, think you got something, set up camp. Ponderosa provides the portable solution. Set up light poles, unroll a solar array, fire up the mini drill to get some water, set up the greenhouse, crank up the recyclers. 3d print what you need ala NASA's printable habitat.. Do some surveys, find out that down the road is better. Pack up, move, set up camp again. Next spot is good, send a fmore paermanent follow-on mission...

not exactly Multipurpose Colony Modules, but intriguing to me nonethless.

And thanks for the offer, Toyotawolf, I'll definitely need help when it comes time to test things out.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Angel-125

[Edminster]

With 1.0, new change is afoot. Now, I love the idea of space camping, and I may just create a mod to do that as colony modules in small form doesn't fit the spirit of MKS. The new stock converters make that pretty straightforward. It's the kind of thing you might see before sending down a colony.

I'm curious as to why you feel bound by RoverDude's vision of O/MKS when making your own extension of it. After all, you solidly rejected part of it by granting the option to have a surface building uncaged. With the Skydock you rejected both Tanihwa's and RoverDude's vision of how an orbital launch platform should look. You can just as easily reject the notion that the O/MKS framework is only to be used deep into the tech tree for permanent bases.

Where I am going with this is that you are free to make the mod that you find fun and interesting. If you think a first landing on Minmus should include pup tents and hand-cranked drills that can harvest any O/MKS resource, you are completely free to make that mod. You have your own eyes; you are not limited by someone else's blinders. You have your own hands; another's shackles do not bind you.

So imagine a first steps mission. You scan for a good spot, think you got something, set up camp. Ponderosa provides the portable solution. Set up light poles, unroll a solar array, fire up the mini drill to get some water, set up the greenhouse, crank up the recyclers. 3d print what you need ala NASA's printable habitat.. Do some surveys, find out that down the road is better. Pack up, move, set up camp again. Next spot is good, send a fmore paermanent follow-on mission...

For what it's worth, I would play the absolute pants off of a mod with the features you're describing. I can kind of do that now by installing O/MKS, EPL, and ToxicFrog's .dlls that allow the stock ISRU to convert Stock ore into Rocketparts, but that requires one to have almost completely filled out at least one line of the tech tree before even thinking about setting up shop.

[Disposeable]

Exactly and I love this idea, and I want it to come to fruition, if you need assistance let me know. If I was overbearing in my defense of your mod then I guess I apologize.

LOL too funny, but bad form......but funny

Maybe, but then I also didn't mention what you did in the kitchen.

[Whizzkid]

ToxicFrog's .dlls that allow the stock ISRU to convert Stock ore into Rocketparts

Do you know where i can get these dll's? They sound cool

[Toyotawolf]

Maybe, but then I also didn't mention what you did in the kitchen.

given how busy I've been with Fire season, most likely i slept

And i too am going to play the pants off this mod. All we need now is a way to get the family camper and 4x4 to the mun or minmus to haul our camping gear and i think i'm going to be leaving Kerbals behind all over the place.

lol wait a sec, is this still being called MCM

Multipurpose Camping Modules? hehe

oh and i liked the landing legs that clamp on the asteroids

Edited May 18, 2015 by Toyotawolf

[Angelo Kerman]

It will be a new mod, possibly named Pathfinder, with this one perhaps being retired or given a compatibility update for legacy use. It won't have the Ponderosa, as that will be repurposed for Pathfinder and redesigned to fit KIS.

@Edminister: MCM has followed MKS/OKS mostly because the mod is roughly a reskin of the modules. There are differences but not enough to cause significant confusion for people using MKS but who are searching for a different look.

[Edminster]

Do you know where i can get these dll's? They sound cool

They are really cool! ToxicFrog says they're up on CKAN now but I just downloaded directly from their Github thing here:

https://gist.github.com/ToxicFrog/86c8fd788b91af92a019/

Here's ToxicFrog's explanation of them:

Here they are! Download or copy-paste into GameData; the filenames don't need to stay the same and you can even paste everything into one file as long as it ends in .cfg.

There are three files there:

• EPL-fastbuild.cfg: makes all EPL builds happen instantaneously.
  
• EPL-ISRU: adds EPL functionality to the ISRU system. EPL resources are removed and most EPL parts are gone too. The launchpad, runway, spacedock, and workshop remain, as do the RocketPart storage parts, but you can now mine stock Ore and convert it to RocketParts using the ISRU converter.
  
• EPL-MKS: for use with both EPL and MKS installed; hides all EPL parts and resources (except survey stakes), leaving you entirely at the mercy of MKS/OKS for your offworld constructions. If you don't have MKS installed this will break EPL completely unless you have a different mod installed that has replacements for the EPL parts.
  

Note: if you install both EPL-ISRU and EPL-MKS, you'll end up being able to make RocketParts with both the stock ISRU converter and the MKS parts, but none of the EPL parts will appear -- it'll basically be like EPL-MKS but with a new feature in the ISRU converter. If you want an "easymode" setup but also want the fancy MKS lauchpad and spacedock, this is probably the easiest way to get it.

This is my first time doing anything remotely fancy with MM, please feel free to tell me how terrible it is.

[Angelo Kerman]

Neat! I like how the patches tie into the stock system.

[Edminster]

So will Pathfinder use the CRP / be compatible with the USI Suite? You mentioned a drill that brings up substrate and a miniature greenhouse, but there also seems to be an undercurrent that it be considered a wholly separate mod.

Neat! I like how the patches tie into the stock system.

Yeah! It's really great. I'm a big fan of the Stock ISRU so those patches allow me to use it for everything instead of needing a behemoth for fuel and a second behemoth to keep the first one running and make RocketParts. Cuts down on a bunch of launches/landings and simplifies the heck out of my launch systems :-D

[Angelo Kerman]

Nice. So glad they added the stock ISRU, I use a slight variation for DSEV. Anyway, like DSEV and MOLE before it, Pathfinder (working title) will be stand-alone but also integrate via MM patches with other mods for a more consistent play experience. That is standard practice for my mods, with MCM being the exception.

I'm starting to think about Pathfinder as giving some sort of biome research task that ultimately gives you a chance to improve the biome's resource levels... Or worsen them. It won't be guaranteed, so if it doesn't work out then it's time to pack up and move. That could be the core mechanic, with requests for biome research done through the contract system. When used stand-alone, you might have some greenhouse or rocket workshop ability. Let's assume that Pathfinder has a greenhouse. With no life support mods installed, it is a decorative set piece. With USI life support only, it produces supplies. With MKS, it is an efficiency part. It's like how with DSEV, if you install Near Future Construction, you clearly don't need hex trusses, so DSEV will (eventually) ask if you want to disable the hex trusses from your game.

Anyway, it is a backburner idea right now, just tossing ideas around without any firm plans, as I have more work on DSEV to do and some decisions to make with MCM about its future.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Angel-125

[Toyotawolf]

Nice. So glad they added the stock ISRU, I use a slight variation for DSEV. Anyway, like DSEV and MOLE before it, Pathfinder (working title) will be stand-alone but also integrate via MM patches with other mods for a more consistent play experience. That is standard practice for my mods, with MCM being the exception.

I'm starting to think about Pathfinder as giving some sort of biome research task that ultimately gives you a chance to improve the biome's resource levels... Or worsen them. It won't be guaranteed, so if it doesn't work out then it's time to pack up and move. That could be the core mechanic, with requests for biome research done through the contract system. When used stand-alone, you might have some greenhouse or rocket workshop ability. Let's assume that Pathfinder has a greenhouse. With no life support mods installed, it is a decorative set piece. With USI life support only, it produces supplies. With MKS, it is an efficiency part. It's like how with DSEV, if you install Near Future Construction, you clearly don't need hex trusses, so DSEV will (eventually) ask if you want to disable the hex trusses from your game.

Anyway, it is a backburner idea right now, just tossing ideas around without any firm plans, as I have more work on DSEV to do and some decisions to make with MCM about its future.

Dont know why i had this idea, but what about some sort of drop pod.....that could contain all your new kamping gear and be loaded or attached to the DSEV then you get to a planet, eject the pod down to the planet it goes and boom, you got a bunch of gear ready to set up your initial forward base. it could even inflate/deploy somehow lol

[Angelo Kerman]

Dont know why i had this idea, but what about some sort of drop pod.....that could contain all your new kamping gear and be loaded or attached to the DSEV then you get to a planet, eject the pod down to the planet it goes and boom, you got a bunch of gear ready to set up your initial forward base. it could even inflate/deploy somehow lol

Actually I have been working on an idea for DSEV known as the Oasis lander. It is a manned lander that brings all your camping gear, and many of the concepts for Pathfinder are shared by it, albeit in a different form. I haven't settled on a design yet, but I am considering the Mars Excursion Module, a Mars Direct type, or a horizontal lander from Copernicus.

[Edminster]

I'm starting to think about Pathfinder as giving some sort of biome research task that ultimately gives you a chance to improve the biome's resource levels... Or worsen them. It won't be guaranteed, so if it doesn't work out then it's time to pack up and move. That could be the core mechanic, with requests for biome research done through the contract system.

So where in the tech tree do you see Pathfinder as living? Centering it on explicitly known resource levels would imply mid-to-late game which seems directly at odds with the connotations of the placeholder names offered thus far. It would be neat to see early-game imprecise resource scanning! Like perhaps a sensor that only returns presence/absence of a resource on the body as a whole while in orbit, but can also be used while landed to confirm/deny for that particular location. Heck, for extra fun you can require a kerbal (or perhaps a tiny drill part for probes) to deposit a surface sample before it can work properly.

You could even have multiple sensors that return only the Ones digit of the concentration for a given resource; this even ties nicely into the concept of settling in a place only to find a better spot upriver and moving camp and allows that to be a negative outcome! The X2% concentration you abandoned for your spiffy new X7% was in fact a better 52% to a surprisingly dismal 27%. All without needing to build an entire system to change resourcemaps!

If we assume it does [have basic resource harvesting], then when you install a more sophisticated mod like MKS, Pathfinder 's functionality is disabled in favor of the MKS way of doing things, which challenges you with transporting large modules to a site and rewards you with a more fulfilling production chain and more play options.

I must vehemently disagree on this point! Removing your parts does not in fact add more play options, in precisely the same manner that removing the Spark upon unlocking the Skipper doesn't. Instead, it forces gameplay upon a prescriptive path; Voyager analogues must now be built on a 2.5m scale. Yes there is quite a challenge in that but I am quite glad to have both engines available simultaneously! The argument you are making is frankly only valid if you are duplicating the work of another mod rather than supplementing it; removing your 2-meter long truss when another's 2-meter truss is available is copacetic, removing your 1-meter truss in the presence of someone else's 5-meter truss is not so much.

[Angelo Kerman]

Then don't use that feature. Hiding parts/functionality is optional, letting the player decide what's best.

I'd have to decide where in the tech tree the Pathfinder parts would go, but I don't have the time right now. My focus is on DSEV and getting phase 1 finished. I've got more bugs to fix before it is a solid release.

[Edminster]

Then don't use that feature. Hiding parts/functionality is optional, letting the player decide what's best.

Ah, I see where I was mistaken. I read 'when you install a more sophisticated mod like MKS, Pathfinder 's functionality is disabled in favor of the MKS way of doing things' as being an automatic process. Optional is totally cool and I apologize if I was too argumentative (I have been told that I can be a tad acerbic).

[Toyotawolf]

Ah, I see where I was mistaken. I read 'when you install a more sophisticated mod like MKS, Pathfinder 's functionality is disabled in favor of the MKS way of doing things' as being an automatic process. Optional is totally cool and I apologize if I was too argumentative (I have been told that I can be a tad acerbic).

you? never!

[IGNOBIL]

Oh, so sad to see it go, I loved the KAS part of it, carrying the boxes and deploying a full base, I had a 3.75 lander which could land a hole base on Duna with a skeleton crew (1 engineer) and then the rest would follow. I liked it could change function in the terrain. Much easier and practical than MKS.

[Angelo Kerman]

Oh, so sad to see it go, I loved the KAS part of it, carrying the boxes and deploying a full base, I had a 3.75 lander which could land a hole base on Duna with a skeleton crew (1 engineer) and then the rest would follow. I liked it could change function in the terrain. Much easier and practical than MKS.

Oh don't worry, the Ponderosa will be back in Pathfinder. it just needs some rewok to fit the new KIS container form factor.

[Toyotawolf]

i think you should just start and add ons dev thread called pathfinder, i think the name works

[Angelo Kerman]

i think you should just start and add ons dev thread called pathfinder, i think the name works

Good idea, thanks! i'll write something up.

edit: Done

Edited May 21, 2015 by Angel-125

[iDisOrder]

Ya know that feeling you get when you stumble upon an incredible mod you didn't know existed?

Why is this not listed in Community Mods and Plugins Library?

why dear God, why?

Ok so being new here I hafta ask,

is this 1.0.2 compatible and what's the deal here, you splitting off the Pathfinder Ponderosa modules from this?

oh, did I say this is a helluva mod?

Thanks for making it!

[Toyotawolf]

Ya know that feeling you get when you stumble upon an incredible mod you didn't know existed?

Why is this not listed in Community Mods and Plugins Library?

why dear God, why?

Ok so being new here I hafta ask,

is this 1.0.2 compatible and what's the deal here, you splitting off the Pathfinder Ponderosa modules from this?

oh, did I say this is a helluva mod?

Thanks for making it!

This mod is currently being reworked and from what Angel has said, it's future is still yet to be determined, HOWEVER you can go here and find a new mod that he has in development based on a lot of the gear in this mod, it is going to killer.

[iDisOrder]

HOWEVER you can go here and find a new mod that he has in development based on a lot of the gear in this mod, it is going to killer.

sweet, thanks!

put myself on the "watch" list

[Angelo Kerman]

sweet, thanks!

put myself on the "watch" list

Just a heads up, in the process of creating Pathfinder, I have enough to create an update to Multipurpose Colony Modules as well.