DStaal

No problem - that is the craft name after all. It just happens to be named after it's parts pack.

As was mentioned, I have a tendency to name my rovers as 'Parts Pack + Purpose'. It helps me find stuff in the saved ships dialogs. That little guy is mostly based off of RoverDude's new Malmute rover. (With a few extra parts. The camera sticking out the top is from USI's exploration pack, there's a Buffalo segment in there, the round thing on top is a MKerb Science Instruments Micro Radiation Experiment, and there's some mini supply packs visible from USI-LS.) This variant a survey/exploration rover, designed for medium-term trips gathering science and investigating possible build sites. The Karibou variant in this image is a long-term construction vehicle, for building bases and other vehicles off-planet. The first thing it finished was the smaller rover, and it's about to finish my MaterialKits production base. (At which point it runs out of power because I forgot to calculate in the EC spent doing construction into my budget. Thankfully, both the malmute and the new base have RTG power, and I can run some extension cords using KIS.)

Yeah, for a Kerbal to reach it unaided you have to be on nearly level ground with the wheels retracted. Given a chance I'll stick some other hatch on my rover and use that instead. It's almost always easier to reach. So if I have something like this I'll do most of my entering from the sides (even if that means I have to remember to stow my tools before re-entering the vehicle):

Immensely cute. (And can I beg that some part in the pack has an ability I recently learned of from KIS that no one's taken advantage of yet to my knowledge: The ability to increase the amount a nearby Kerbal can lift? It seems a good fit to the look, and to the idea of it being a construction part. Though I know I'm on a roll with requesting parts from you...) Just as a quick note on this - I experimented a bit, and you can make a part with a negative habitation multiplier. (I thought I'd tried that, but I wanted to try again to be sure.) (Oh, and I've put up a PR with the Passenger Cabin I described above. I've got the cost increasing without USI-LS, assuming I've done the MM code correct.)

While I'd love to have such a part, just knowing that it's possible to make one is good. While I don't currently have the capability to make one myself, I might be able to one day - or someone else could, or I can MM patch it in to a part that looks like it might be useful for that. So, thanks for having the ability. I wasn't sure it was available - and that's the first step to having such a part.

It's not that I couldn't find it - I know it exists and knew where to look - but that I think having it in the first post would be useful. It's generally the first thing new or potential users of a mod will look at, and normally a good resource on 'how to use this mod'. Many people likely will never read the rest of the thread, they'll just decide to use it or not based on the first post. So it'd be good to have this info there, where it will do the most good.

As a thought: Is it possible to allow creation of parts that increase the carrying capacity of a Kerbal? (I'm hoping for things like forklifts and powerloaders.) It would seem like it should be possible, since having more kerbals in a location can increase carrying capacity.

BTW: Could we get a link to the wiki in the OP? I think one reason people don't use it much is that it's hard to find out about and to find.

Yep. By default losing communication doesn't mean losing control. There's a setting if you want to change that.

All Y'all adds buttons to do 'everything of similar type' to a few categories of parts - Science being one. So you can click on one experiment, and run every experiment on the ship. (Note that it goes by module, so some third-party science experiment packs don't get included.)

Just wanted to be sure. Thanks.

Just wondering: Do you know if this conflicts with Outer Planets Mod?

If you're using MKS, it changes the production chain to use MaterialKits and SpecializedParts instead of RocketParts. There's a whole production chain to make those, or you can ship them in the containers provided. This does mean that some of the EL parts are useless - but the actual building parts all work, and the build process remains the same. (You just need different resources.) (If you really need to change back to RocketParts, there is a config file in the MKS install you can remove. But you'd be missing a lot of the experience that MKS provides.)

The one problem with this is that the Orion isn't exotic. The tech is fairly pedestrian - you could make a good argument that it should be in the starting node. It's never been deployed because the idea of launching something by setting off lots and lots of nuclear bombs raises all kinds of 'is this a good idea' issues - but the actual technology required is fairly simple. We probably could have built one before the end of WWII, if we'd thought of it. It makes for an odd balance in KSP - it's a drive that's never been implemented, has a monster thrust-to-weight ratio, and a decent ISP, but it's actually simpler to build than many of our current rocket engines. It just has side effects.

My Kerbals are looking forward to it! (I *really* miss being able to rotate my Kerbals in EVA - for some reason I don't seem to have a 'down' command...)

Awesome. And yeah, the Karibu isn't designed to operate out of a base - it's designed to be a mobile base. But I look forward to this being on my next base. All I have to do is decide which rover to put in it.

I'd actually disagree with that blanket statement. The OS tries to guess based on usage patterns what's been used and what hasn't - if you've got a better understanding of what's going to be needed and what isn't at a specific point than you can do quite a bit better than the OS can. The OS also doesn't know things like 'this object spans half of this page file, but we won't need the other half ever again'. That's not to say a naive attempt won't do significantly worse than a well-tuned OS's memory management. But an intelligent attempt can do significantly better.

This sounds exactly like what I was asking for, thanks. I'll have to try it out. (And see if the darker blue is enough of a color difference to be noticeable...) And yeah, I'm still working on the directions-stuff with EL myself. Partly it's a matter of the fact that I can never remember which direction is forward in the two buildings (it's not the same), and partly it's that there seems to be some subtle interactions that don't quite match the description. (I think multiple origin stakes affect the directions, when I don't expect them to...) I'm hoping having this with a directional indicator on it will help me solve that in my head. UKS doesn't change the production chain for rocket parts - it replaces rocket parts entirely with a new production chain. So the 3d printer is useless. Other than that the only issue is producing Metal from Ore in the Furnace, but there's a patch for that in the extras. All the build-site and launchpad functionality works fine, so no problems.

Yum. (Hmm. As a lab, does it have science? Running a couple of experiments on how to get aeroponics working would make sense...)

Yeah, sorry it's not a real release - it's still a bit of a work in progress, and it is just a couple of files. (And the repository I have set up for KSP stuff has quite a bit of other stuff in it.) Raw and then save as, or go up a level and download my entire patch set and throw away the rest.

(And note there are no nukes in base game - the gigantor is the best you can do. Oh, and remember that there's probably *other* EC demands on that ship as well - lights, SAS, command, maybe even life support.) I think you're starting to get to the progression I had with this part: 'Oh, man, that's overpowered!' 'Huh. Not as overpowered as it looks.' I haven't quite gotten to 'It's a useless part', but it definitely has disadvantages. It's clunky to use, it's hard to get in and out of (even the EVA hatch is placed oddly), it doesn't provide the astronomical amounts of production first glance makes you think it does... For the amount of ship it takes up, it doesn't actually provide as much production as you'd think. It's still a good part - but if you have the Kerbals to exploit it, you can build other ships that are easier to work with that'll get you high production levels fairly easily. (And this mod will get you the Kerbals.) And, in the end all any of these save you is building time - If you've got a Workshop or the equivalent full of low-stupidity engineers your chokepoint is likely to be getting them building materials fast enough, not production. As I've said: After a few iterations of building bases around the Kerbin and Mun, I tend to use it as just a low-level building kickstarter. Get the infrastructure started, but then use other parts. That high production bonus is nice (and I'd hate to do without out in my early spacedock, when I'm still Kerbal-constrained), but it's not everything.

Anywhere in GameData. I have a folder for all of my patches, just to keep them organized. (Which is actually on that link at Github... I was transferring it around between computers and found it easier.) I won't say I've enabled all of wear - I just put in some workshops so you can counter it. I believe (but I have to check) that it's enabled by default under UKS without extra work - but that someone needs to have repair kits around, and that's something I need to put in yet.

I think 90% of a reactor is probably overdoing it - you can only get 15 productivity out of the part, after all. Yes, it's a lot per Kerbal, but one Workshop can get you 50 productivity, fully staffed. (Average Kerbals in both - well experienced badasses can do a bit better, but that still only brings you to 30 at max, vs 100 max in the Workshop.) So if you want to get really high productivity from this you'd need a few. A full Gigantor of EC should be enough, in my opinion. Remember, if you're powering it by solar you'll need batteries as well - for when you're not in the sun. (And if they've got nuclear reactors, that's a lot of extra weight and is a late-game part anyway. Let them run it at that point.) Another thought - for career - is the price point to buy it. I'd expect the construction vehicle to be expensive for it's mass. (I didn't think of it earlier because I've been playing science mode, where price isn't a concern.)

UKS has mechanics for wear/repair and for disconnected resource distribution that require part support. My patches have some of that supported. (I should go through and do a more through job, but it has minimal support for resource distribution and repair.) The patches in the first post have some as well. (A couple of other parts have power distribution enabled - which I didn't do at all - and replacement parts are put in for most of the parts.) Much of the time UKS and USI-LS get mixed together as well - that adds food supply, recyclers, and habitation time to the mix. The patch in the first post has most of that enabled. Of course, UKS also has a whole resource chain to work together with EL or OSE Workshops - KPBS doesn't do much to touch that, and doesn't intend to.

Nah, I think you have that right. I tend not to do that, for a couple of reasons. One, they don't fit with my normal base parts (UKS and Planetary Base Systems); two, leaving construction equipment around my base slows down my computer. My construction setups tend to be mobile, so I can move them when I'm done building a base. Three, it doesn't really solve the CLS issue - to move around I have to EVA my Kerbals. (Which is easier on the ground, but still more awkward than an internal transfer.) Four, I can get higher productivity per part count in other ways - and even on ground bases that's important. Where I tend to use it is in my first orbital build station - I only have a couple of usable engineers at that point, so they need all the help they can get. Past that, I tend to go with other parts, even as is. As I said - my inclination to balance it would be to add EC use - it's an automated factory by description, so all of that has to run off of something. Then you have to worry about how to power it, instead of how to staff it. Which is a different challenge, but not necessarily an easier one.