Angelo Kerman

Yup, there will be dedicated Buffalo 2 underwater engines including a reworked Ebb Tide and a new part specially designed for the Buffalo 2 submarine hull. Hm, well, it should be there, I'll go spelunking...

Today I built the B2 Fuel Cell Module. This part generates Electric Charge from either Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer, or Liquid Fuel and Intake Air. It has a couple of snorkels to pull in IntakeAir (they shut off underwater), and it has an integrated ballast control system (if SunkWorks is installed). It comes in Tapered, Inline, and Station variants. Here's a look: And some context: This part is available in the latest pre-release, along with the updates to the B2 Aquarium Module and the new fish tank part.

There was a bug where, if you put the ship in hover mode and tap on the brakes, the craft would slowly lose altitude. The fix I have keeps the vessel in place. I may have to revisit that and figure out why it slowly sinks.

Sandcastle should have a half-sized smelter now. It fits inside the larger cargo bay module.

No, I run JNSQ and don't know if Parallax works with it.

Another thing I'm working on: next update will make it so that you can catch Fish without the need for Snacks installed. That's because the Bioreactor will need Fish to turn into LiquidFuel. Also, I'm adding a station variant, and the aquarium can breed fish without the need to be in an ocean and catching fish.

They're a nod to Subnautica. Buffalo 2 has a lot of art influences from Subnautica. And yes, there will be a bioreactor part to convert Fish into Liquid Fuel to power the sub's fuel cells...

Today I created the B2 Short Aquarium Module. This will only be available if you have SunkWorks installed. This module works best with the latest Snacks installed. If you have Snacks, then you can turn on the Fishing converter within the module and go fishing. Every 6 hours, your Aquarium Module will attempt to catch Fish as long as your vessel is in the water on a planet with an oxygenated atmosphere (Kerbin and Laythe count). With Snacks Stress enabled, the Fishing activity will reduce Stress. And if you have a B2 Galley installed, you can Make Sushi to turn Fish into Snacks (making sushi will also reduce Stress). Finally, the part has an integrated ballast tank. Anyway, here's a look: The aquarium module kicks off Buffalo 2 v1.5: Sunken Treasures, and you can download the pre-release here.

Not sure what that's all about, I'll have to investigate. I'm not seeing that on my end. Meanwhile, here is a small compatibility update for Buffalo 2.

Today I built the new B2 Jack Lift. This part is designed to help players build rovers in the field. Just drop one of these on the ground, attach a chassis, raise the jack lift, and attach the wheels and such. Here's a look: The last part that I made is the B2 Gripper Pad. It's like the grip strips from the Breaking Ground DLC, but they are sized for the Buffalo 2 rover body, and they have the extra added ability to double as a heat shield (and even shield the part they're attached to). Here's a look: Anyway, that completes Buffalo 2 v1.4: Loose Ends, and completes Phase 2! Here's the breakdown for 1.4, you can download it here: Changes - Added new Alt variants to the B2 Trailer Frame. New Parts - B2 Body Docking Port: This specialized docking port is designed to dock rover bodies together. - B2 Gripper Pad: This part provides grip support for rovers (well, rover bodies resting on the ground) and some heat protection. - B2 Jack Lift: This part helps players build rovers in the field. - B2 Passenger Module: This short-length module seats a pair of kerbals in relative comfort. - Beta 2 Gravitic Engine: This engine combines the GND-00 "Beta" Gravitic Engine from Kerbal Flying Saucers with a short Buffalo 2 body module. It won't be available unless Kerbal Flying Saucers is installed. - Buffalight: This wide-beam light can pivot up and down, change color, and even blink if needed. Phase 3 is the final phase of development for Buffalo 2. It will contain the submarine parts Be sure to adjust the wheel springs and dampers. I find that I get kraken strikes with a lot of weight on the wheels.

No, that's been cancelled. The existing RCS in the game works well enough.

The original Buffalo Command Pod had integrated lights, but they're not practical for Buffalo 2. So, today I built the roof-mounted Buffalight. It is a wide-beam light that can pitch up and down and change color if needed. It can even blink like standard lights. Here's a look: The other part that I built is the B2 Grappler Arm. It's an update to the original. It has Left Handed, Right Handed, and Center variants. Here's a look: These parts are available in the latest pre-release.

If Miners and Depots had inventory slots, you could make cargo parts that provide capabilities like increased mining ability or Shuttles to increase transport capacity. Each Shuttle cargo part gives you one shuttle to provide transport with. Perhaps an engine cargo part upgrades said shuttles. The larger the part, the more inventory slots that it has.

Hm, this is intruiguing. It sounds like a setup and forget, automated system that periodically flings resources to a destination. Pathfinder's existing Pipeline system does a good chunk of this, and the core functionality is implemented in Wild Blue Tools. WBIResourceManifst is used to list what resources to ship and where, WBIManifestScenario handles the logistics, and WBIKisInventoryManifest ships individual KIS inventory items. What Pathfinder's Pipeline does is provide the UI and requirements needed to ship an item through WBT's manifest system. You'd need an abstracted resource harvester that would look at the resources that can be harvested and then calculate how much per hour/day/6hr cycle (the "catch up" time used by stock converters) the abstracted harvester could produce. This would be akin to the Breaking Ground science system's Power Units produced and Power Units consumed: they're just numbers, and no production cycle is actually being run. The harvester would just tell the scenario object what it can produce, and the automated transport would know how much mass it could transport and how often. Converter chains are much harder to automatically calculate outputs from inputs and consolidate them, so I'd just go with the abstracted harvester and transporter, and then use standard converters to convert the resources, and use the automated transportation system to periodically receive shipments. To do something like the Breaking Ground science, you'd need a new "converter" that works similarly to the harvester; it doesn't convert resources like the stock converter does, it just specifies how many input resources it consumes and how many output resources it produces in the hour/day/6hr standard converter cycle. In thinking about the design, you could have something like: ModuleAbstractConverter: specifies INPUT_RESOURCE and OUTPUT_RESOURCE config nodes (the same ones used for stock converters). The total units consumed/produced is multiplied by the standard production cycle time that all abstract converters and harvesters use. ModuleAbstractHarvester: derives from ModuleAbstractConverter. It's outputs come from the local ground resources/ocean/air/exosphere instead of OUTPUT_RESOURCE nodes. Input power could come from an abstracted power generator (a part with ModuleAbstractConverter that produces Power Units/Electric Charge). There are NO actual resources being consumed or produced by the above modules. Storage for the resources is... abstracted. ModuleAbstractResourceSender: This module would specify how much mass it can send to a receiver. Any output resource from a ModuleAbstractConverter (or its derivatives) can be sent by the sender. It works with a scenario module to set up the resource chain. A UI lets you specify the vessel that will receive the resources. Derivatives of this class can impose restrictions such as resource requirements- think of the requirements set up by the Pipeline from Pathfinder. ModuleAbstractResourceReceiver: This module receives the resources sent by a sender. This is the only module that produces traditional resources (LiquidFuel, etc) for the vessel to consume. The amount it produces depend on how long it's been since you last visited the vessel. This module could in fact be derived from the stock BaseConverter; it just pulls its outputs from the scenario module instead of from another source. Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time between now and the end of the year to implement this; Buffalo 2 is taking all my free modding time and way behind schedule. But maybe the above can be a starting point for someone to work with...

Today I built the new B2 Flatbed Hinge. This came about after experimenting with how to deliver mini jumpgates via Buffalo flatbed, and the DLC hinges just didn't fit right. Anyway, here's a look: The next part was originally scheduled for Making Connections but I cancelled it. It turns out there's a use for it... Anyway, this is the new B2 Body Docking Port: Finally, I added a couple of variants to the Trailer Frame to give a nice uniform look in some situations. Here's some context: Anyway, these new additions are available in the pre-release.

Once Buffalo 2 is done, I plan to take that downtime. Meanwhile, you can see some of what I've been up to in my current game, if you'd like. In chronological order: To the Mun! Shuttle Launch System Commercial Space Ventures (ongoing)

We currently have no information about modding KSP 2 other than that it is supported. There's no information on how it's done, what the art standards are, or anything of the sort. I fully expect to start completely over in regards to the 3D models, and the plugins. Based on what I've seen in the trailer video, it's also unlikely that Buffalo 2 will need to be ported over. I've known for awhile that DSEV, MOLE, and Pathfinder wouldn't be needed. And that's fine! There are a lot of good things on the horizon for the new game that remove the need for many mods. For me personally, I don't want to make more than 1-3 mods since I spent far more time modding the game than playing it. I know I want to make submarine parts (SunkWorks, but just the submarine stuff) and have underwater exploration, I'd like to make a version of Kerbal Flying Saucers, and maybe one more, but that's it. But none of that will happen for many months. For now, my focus is to finish up Phase 2, and keep what I do on Phase 3 to a minimum. Meanwhile, the first pre-release of Buffalo 2 v1.4: Loose Ends is now available. You'll need the 1.0 release of Kerbal Flying Saucers to make use of the new Beta Gravitic Engine.

Kerbal Flying Saucers 1.0 is now available: - Added gravitic engine 3D model needed for Buffalo 2 support. Given the announcement for KSP 2 today, and my goal to finish Buffalo 2 and retire from modding KSP 1 by the end of the year, I've made the hard decision to not complete the Excalibur mothership. Buffalo 2 is simply taking too much time to complete. But at least the Flapjack has been completed for months now, and it's fully functional. Will a version of Kerbal Flying Saucers appear in KSP 2? You bet! The parts will be different, but the concepts will carry over to the new game.

I look forward to playing the new game, it looks amazing! I also look forward to seeing what the new art standards are for the awesome looking parts in the game, and learning what steps are needed to mod the game. I have a few ideas from KSP 1 that I'd like to bring over, even if it means starting from scratch. Thanks for the announcement trailer, it looks great!

As cool as that sounds, I'm highly unlikely to have time for that, unfortunately. There is still a lot more work to do, and at the rate I'm going, I'll be hard pressed to finish everything. As it is, I've cancelled Phase 4 (the Puddle Jumper parts), but today I built a consolation prize. See below. I'm debating scaling back or eliminating Phase 3- the submarine parts- but I might have time to squeeze them in next month. End of 2022 is a hard deadline. I really don't want to be modding KSP 1 past the end of the year. Buffalo 2 has taken far too long as it is; it was supposed to be done in March, then June, then September, and those deadlines came and went. Sadly, I don't think I'll have time for these either. I spent a lot of bandwidth making various habitable parts for the rover- much more than a simple cabin- so that they could be used for rovers, stations, bases, and of course submarines. But like I mentioned above, I'm just running out of time. I'd really like to sit back and enjoy my mods before KSP 2 is released. To that end, today I built two new parts. First up is the B2 Passenger Module: The Passenger Module seats 2 in relative comfort, but doesn't offer the same views as the observation module. It has variants for rover, station, and superstructure. Next up is the Beta 2 Gravitic Engine: Since I won't be making the Puddle Jumper parts due to lack of time, the Beta 2 Gravitic Engine is the consolation prize. It combines the GND-00 "Beta" gravitic engine from Kerbal Flying Saucers with the Buffalo 2 form factor. Some context (this should look familiar): These two parts kick of the final release for Phase 2, 1.4: Loose Ends. I should have a release tomorrow after I work through a couple bugs with the gravitic engine.

Putting it all together: Buffalo 2 v1.3: Back To Bases is now available: Changes - Buffed the crash tolerance on all the edncap parts. New Parts - B2 Hub: Like the stock station hub, the B2 Hub lets you connect Buffalo 2 parts in more than one direction. It comes in Rover and Station variants. - B2 Mineshaft: This part is a "Restock-alike" update to the original Mineshaft Portable Crew Tube. If the original Buffalo mod is still installed for some reason, then the updated model will be used in its place. - Buffalo Drill: Admittedly, this is just a half-sized version of the stock radial drill. - Converter Support Unit: This resource converter supports a variety of conversions with Wild Blue Tools installed, and has similar capabilities to the stock mini ISRU without WBT. - Power Support Unit: The PSU is a support unit that provides power to bases and spacecraft that has half the generator capacity of the stock fuel cell array. It can be set up to handle stations and rovers. - RSU (Front): The Resource Support Unit holds Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer, but it supports a variety of resources if Wild Blue Tools or B9PS is installed. - RSU (Mid): The Resource Support Unit holds Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer, but it supports a variety of resources if Wild Blue Tools or B9PS is installed. - RSU (Back): The Resource Support Unit holds Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer, but it supports a variety of resources if Wild Blue Tools or B9PS is installed. - Stilt Lift Module: This part provides an uplifting experience for your bases so that small rovers can scoot underneath and move them around.

Today I finished up the modeling and texturing on the stilt lift module: All that's left is to rig the animation and get the part into the game.

It's no warp drive, but... That really depends on how KSP 2 works...

The stilt lift module is designed to attach to the support units, but the support units have both a rover and station configuration. That means the body components can be built in either rover or station configuration, and be used as bases. And yup, it's been a long road getting from there to here... I started Buffalo 2 in January of this year and working nights and weekends, it's taken me nearly to the end of the year to get this far. While it'll be done by end of 2022, that also means other projects like SunkWorks and KFS aren't going to get the full scope that I originally wanted, since I still plan to retire from KSP 1 modding by end of the year. I do plan to bring at least the concept of Kerbal Flying Saucers into KSP 2, and possibly SunkWorks as well, but it remains to be seen how hard it'll be to mod the new game. I am assuming that I'll have to start from scratch on the 3D art.

I've got a lot of irons in the fire, but today I still managed to block out the design for the stilt lift module: It will fit onto the end of the PSU/RSU parts with room to spare for the adapter pieces. It supports both rover and station configurations. Tomorrow I'll (hopefully) have more time to finish the details and unwrap and texture the meshes.