Kerbal developers wiki!!! Now Live at kerbalcommunity.com!

[artwhaley]

The new Kerbal Mod Development Wiki is now live at http://kerbalcommunity.com/

It's built on dokuwiki, accepts wiki and bbcode formatting, and allows any registered user to create or edit pages.

I'd really appreciate help bringing any tutorials you may have the rights over to the wiki, and/or filling in what you know. I made a very basic outline of some starter topics, but I really want this to evolve to be whatever the community wants it to be.

The huge advantage here is that it's easy to crosslink info. You can write a basic tutorial on something, then go back and direct links out to advanced info on the various topics. It also supports interwiki, so we can point topics at the official wiki where it makes sense to do so. It also is very easy to maintain and add information as the game, and our knowledge of it, matures.

I'll slowly start filling things in and I'll message the tutorial authors from the sticky for help or permission bringing their tutorials over, but I'm going to try to gauge how much effort to put in by how active other people are... if nobody bothers, I'm not going to break my back on it. I got a great cybermonday deal on the hosting for the year, so if it doesn't take, I won't be heartbroken. But I DO think it could be a great resource to put everything we know in one place. It's very possible to learn to mod from the existing tutorials, then spending weeks importing other people's .mu's into blender and taking apart their .cfg files... but more people would turn out more mods if we make it easier. So that's the spirit I'm starting this in.

I'm also WELCOMING mod authors to use this wiki for their documentation, but I'm not going to try do document any mods that aren't my own there and I'd appreciate if others respect mod author's right to document things as and where they see fit. If you do want to put a mod's documentation there, let me know and we'll figure out a namespace of your own and such. I will be reaching out, eventually, to the folks who've written mods that heavily affect other modders. If they've got documentation I'll just be making sure I'm linking to the right place. If they don't, I'll talk to them about community efforts to get their documentation up. This would be for things like FAR, Firespitter's DLL, RPM, DRE, TAC, MechJeb, etc.

Again, this is a community resource... I'm not going to try to document the whole game on my own... so if you're interested, please get involved and run with it!

Art

Edited December 3, 2014 by artwhaley

[philotical]

I never added to the officil wiki, because of one simple reason.

How do I know/confirm, that what I think is "correct" - I had to realize dozens of time, that what I thought at first, is not how it is at the end.

The only thing I could contribute usually would be

"it might be", "I think", "probbably"

it's sad I know lol..

However - I'd appreciate an updated wiki too - if it's the official or a new one, I don't realy care..

[Akira_R]

I think this is a fantastic idea!

Definitely agree with the feeling on the official wiki, once or twice I have come across something on it that I knew had changed but I didn't feel like it was right for me to change it or something.

I have been playing KSP for a couple years now and have been slowly progressing from casual player, to using ALLOT of mods, to now modding my mods, adjusting cfgs, using part welding, and even in doing that I sometimes have trouble finding info about how some part MODULE works, or what the various attributes in it do and how they change things; and now I have reached a point where I am finding that I have a need for some part that isn't in the game or any of the mods I use and I would like to make it, but I have absolutely zero experience with 3D modeling or anything like it, and it would be awesome if we could get a wiki going with up to date tutorials that range from basic cfg editing, very basic 3D modeling (i mean super basic like how to make a fuel tank, I have no idea how blender works or anything) to more advanced stuff like making animated parts, wheels, landing gear, etc.

It would also be cool if there was a section with Plugin documentation.

Like a section on FireSpitter that lists all the various part MODULEs it adds with all the different attributes for them and what they all do, a section for USITools and all the converters it adds, RT documentation and how to add it to new parts and get the animations and stuff to work, a section for MM, ATM, and EVE documentation and every thing invlolved there, etc. I know allot of plugins usually have documentation of this kind of stuff but sometimes it is a pain in the rear to find, and sometimes it isn't very descriptive due to trying to keep forum posts short. Having a wiki that is organized in a semi-competent manner that provides all of this info and where people can get as in-depth and descriptive as they want would be really cool.

Obviously since it is a wiki anyone could add the above sections, it's just a matter of someone with the appropriate knowledge being willing to take the time to add the page.

[madlemur]

I'd agree with having descriptions of "modder's mods" is a good idea, but documentation should be limited to links to their respective docs. Trying to keep them synced with the mods could be... troublesome. I would think this would be primarily a resource for actually interfacing with/using the core KSP platform (and the rest of the asset toolchain).

[CaptainKipard]

My personal feeling is that the forums are just more active. Now that's not an argument; it's just an observation, but I don't personally feel like being one of the pioneers to get any kind of wiki started. I'm comfortable here, and contributing to a wiki seems like I'd be risking my time for something that may fail.

[Akira_R]

You are entirely right, it would take a group of people who are willing to take the time to maintain the wiki, with out that it dies, the nice thing about a wiki though is that any one can add to it and help keep it updated. I am more than willing to help contribute, however my organizational skills leave much to be desired and I only have a semi firm grasp on allot of the subjects, but a more experienced person could certainly come in and correct the mistakes I make and maybe go more into depth in certain areas where my knowledge is lacking.

The only problem I have with the forums is that it can be difficult to locate information, when things change if the person who started the thread isn't around to update the thread then the info rapidly becomes outdated, which is the issue with most of the current tutorials, with a wiki it's much easier for the community to maintain, IF the community is willing.

I definitely think you should go forward with the way you want to do your tutorials, but in the event that the wiki does get off the ground I sincerely hope you will contribute a little to it.

I just think it would be great to have a nice centralized repository of the collective knowledge present in the community.

[CaptainKipard]

I definitely think you should go forward with the way you want to do your tutorials, but in the event that the wiki does get off the ground I sincerely hope you will contribute a little to it.

I'll probably just let people copy my stuff on a case-by-case basis.

[madlemur]

I'll probably just let people copy my stuff on a case-by-case basis.

Hmmm... Maybe I'll suggest that the wiki accept BBCode...

[Headhunter09]

It would be very important to tag information by date, to make sure people know what is potentially outdated. Also, I imagine the Talk pages would be very useful in sorting out the "I think..." tidbits.

Despite the difficulties in launching a new community platform, I think it would really help cut down on the number of repeated questions and trivial problems people get hung up on. The forum is incredibly hard to search for help; a wiki is an excellent solution.

[wasmic]

ALLOT

Sorry, but I have to go grammar .... on that one. Read this: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.dk/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

[madlemur]

Sorry, but I have to go grammar .... on that one. Read this: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.dk/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

I assumed non-English speaker, told myself the eye twitch was due to the coffee, and moved on... But I like the link. Alot...

[joshuadery]

Something like this?: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Configuration_File_Definitions

[duckofthemoon]

Something like this?: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Configuration_File_Definitions

Yes, but just for every part of modding, and could also cover .cfg info for mods and third-party plugins which the official wiki can't.

(Should steal it for the wiki)

[joshuadery]

Well, I just started it yesterday, so...

And I don't know anything at all about modeling, so...when I get started learning it (and learning it a little bit well), I'll add it.

Third-party plug-ins are a lot to keep up with, but, I was having the same thought. They are going to get added when I finish with the Stock stuff. In fact, it was some particular difficulties I was having making MKS/OKS work that prompted me to delve into modding cfgs in the first place. (SpareParts that were being produced weren't being transferred to the modules that needed them, nor were the modules that needed them able to request them from the producing module. Turns out SpareParts had it's flowMode [or whatever] set to 'none').

[wasml]

I like this idea.

[artwhaley]

First post updated!

[CaptainKipard]

Put this thread in your signature.

[joshuadery]

How do i do that?