DStaal

Just got a chance to play with these - you may have solved a long-standing problem I've been trying to find a good solution to in my current playthrough... One request: Could we get versions of the storage wedge and the landing frame with a centered attachment node? The paired nodes are nice, but it'd also be nice to have a center node for when we want something a bit bigger. (Or just want to adjust the weight a bit.)

Quick note: I was troubleshooting today, and found three instances of ':FOR[RealPlume]' in the latest version of MOLE. These need to be changed to ':NEEDS'. (Corvette and Sledgehammer engine configs.)

MKS has one - but it's not a simple parts mod. I think there's a revival of some of Porkjet's models around someplace, but I can't recall if that included a ring or not off the top of my head.

OK, been a bit busy so haven't been posting - and a lot of our missions have been fairly 'routine' as missions go at the moment, as we're in a base-building phase. There is still some debate over a couple of the designs above, and the rover concept may get a complete overhaul, but the current focus is to set up the logistics base. Which means the life support essentials, and production for LFO, Enriched Uranium, and Fusion Pellets - which is our fuel for the mothership and the various support craft. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to our first Kerbal to set foot anywhere besides Kerbal: Gregdorf Kermin: Gregdorf landed during the Minmus night, as part of a crew of three. Their job was to open up access to the logistics base, attach a power plant that was landed just before them, and get things running. This he preformed with moderate success, destroying one of the radiators for the power plant while setting things, and flipping over the base construction vehicle that they had been sent up in. (Seen behind Gregdorf in this photo.) The construction vehicle wasn't a major issue: It was able to right itself using on-board reaction wheels intended for control during the flight over. He was thoroughly chewed out over the loss of the vital radiator though, before he was allowed to rest for the night. Perhaps we should have paid more attention. Come sunrise on Minmus when mission control checked back in, he, a fellow engineer, the two miners, and the base construction vehicle were all gone. Their pilot who had been left behind in the logistics base babbled something about a great space kraken, but the prevailing theory back at the KSC is that he absconded with his girlfriend, believing that with the equipment he left with they had the makings of at least a semi-permanent habitat. Of course, officially he's been declared killed in action, to prevent bad PR. Which leads us to his replacement for chief base building engineer - Trixy Kerman: Trixy so far has been an exemplary employee, working long hours, and finding ways to work around issues as they come up. She's expressed some disappointment that the Akita sent up proved to be less than stable in the low-gravity environment of Minmus, but has not let this stop her. Her immediate first project was to replace the destroyed radiator - and deploy a third radiator as well - on the power distribution unit, and expand the logistics base using materials sent up separately: Without the base construction rover this all is being done by hand, but Trixy has said that in the low gravity of Minmus this does not appear to be a problem. Our science community successfully petitioned to have a small base set up as well, and Trixy aided in setting up their long-term experiments: The scientists are sending back an amazing amount of data - which is making us all wonder what else we might learn, once we're able to finally leave Kerbin SOI? And of course with all of that we are also sending up drills and production capability - the two mining bases Gregdorff made off with have been replaced, and some basic mining pods have been sent up as well: Several other ships have been sent up as well, though not all have been individually documented. The survey sat snapped this picture of the whole base as it passed over before being sent back to Kerbin for recovery and post-mission analysis: (Feel free to ask questions about any of the vehicles, if you wish.) Back on Kerbin, one of the prototypes of the science rover has been sent out to explore. It's autopilot has gotten it into some amazing locations, in search of uncovered anomalies:

No problem - I actually expected that there would likely need to be some discussion, but in case the response was 'submit a PR', I wanted to start there. You can always ignore/decline a PR, after all. Main reason I thought about it was that the current situation technically conflicts with EL: There are no working, non-depreciated, launchpads with just MKS+EL. (There are still stakes, of course.) So it's time to transition to community patches - which means time to figure out what that will look like. Personally, I'm fine with having non-useful production parts in the game; they can be ignored or blocked in other ways, and this was the easiest patch to make. I'll do another PR that's just unblock the launchpads, and if I have time I'll look into doing one that unblocks and redoes the EL production parts to the MKS chain. Define 'official'. They come with MKS, so they are official in that RoverDude ships them. However, he doesn't write or test them - they are community supplied.

As another non-modler, but reading the above: As an interim solution, you could try welding several of the current rings together, making one longer part. That would give you the ability to play with lengths at the very least.

Honestly, given that as far as I can tell there's *no* in-game UI for the scienceMultiplier, so you can't compare except by opening their config files, I feel that every lab in the game should have the same multiplier. Differentiate in some way that lets the user compare.

Just wanted to note that since the official MKS EL parts are now depreciated, I've sent in a PR to allow EL's parts through. I propose the rest of that file (the recipes, requiring MKS resources) be treated like TAC-LS support: Present, and if anyone submits PR's it'll get updated, but RoverDude will make no effort himself to make sure it still works.

This isn't the separator itself, but you can add it to the separator or the stage it's attached to:

One thought on the rear texture: It should have a Kerbal-sized door someplace. Not a working door, of course, but a spot where it mates with the main freighter and they can connect the hatch.

No problem. It's part of my current grand-ambitions mission: To fully explore OPM. That can land, refuel, and takeoff on any airless world in OPM - provided of course that you can get enough Karbonite in the few days your Kerbals can stand being cooped up in those pods. Really, it's designed for light-gravity worlds: Land, collect science, refuel if possible, then take off and return to the mothership. On anything about Mun-sized or smaller it should be able to hit several biomes that way before having to worry about hitting a good refuel point.

Give it a few hours. Or a day or two. CKAN isn't always immediate, and may require some manual work in this case, since Ground Construction has been reconfigured.

USI Core's parts should be included in the MKS download - as you've discovered. It's a separate thing because it's also required by USI-LS, and several other of RoverDude's mods, that don't require MKS, and that MKS doesn't require. So they are abstracted out as a common dependency. It's similar to the Configurable Containers 'core' and Configurable Containers thing that's been going on: Not everyone wants the full mod, but Alista was dependent on some of the base features of it for Ground Construction and some of his other mods. So he's breaking out the 'core' into a separate piece that can be referred to on it's own.

That would be why most mod authors use more permissive licenses. Bobcat used a CC no-commercial, no-derivatives license - You could probably distribute it with a patchpack without breaking the license. (But you can't change the originals.)

With that layout, I'd go with tying it in to Configurable Containers, especially if it's going to be a dependency. Then you can set multiple different resources into the container.

What, you can't think of a use for an orbital one-person pod? Here's a recent one of mine: In general it's good for small space-tugs and such. (Vs. the AES which is better suited for ground operations.)

And I'd argue for Science Mode over Career mode - you're likely going to make some expensive mistakes your first time, and then you'll be able to pull out parts just to play with them without worrying about your budget.

I doubt the new engines are close enough, really - the new ones are monoprop while the old were LFO.

Interesting - I'd asked because I tried a Technician and didn't get them to work. (Might have something to do with the 'not seeing transferred Kerbals' issue I'm having. Further investigation shows that they do properly transfer *out* of their old location - just not *in* to their new one.)

Thanks. Now I know what to look for in the long list of different professions MKS adds. (Well, and at least one other I've found around here...)

BTW: Does this use the Kerbal trait system? That is, does it literally require 'Engineers' or does it require a Kerbal with a specific amount of 'repair' skill (which only engineers have in the base game)?

I believe they come with the stock lights, and they may not actually do anything in this case.

That's hilarious. (And BTW: Fish actually seem to do less well in space than humans, from same recent NASA study that I ran across.)

Yes. Currently yes, but that's expected to change - it's a dependency moving forward, but hasn't been integrated enough to actually cause problems if removed yet.

I say go for it. You may even be able to grab some of RoverDude's code to help you start, if you go digging. If people want additional science experiments that can only be run by Kerbals, there are several options. (SEP, MOLE, Station Science, off the top of my head.) But this would be something different.