Gordon Fecyk

Alien Space Programs v1.12.0 Released After a long break caused by Real Life[tm] I inspected and corrected problems in Alien Space Programs caused by the updated surface textures. ASP 1.12.0 works on KSP 1.12.3. For releases earlier than 1.12 the older releases of ASP are still available.

@EndAllFilms I uploaded a preliminary version for KSP 1.12.3 to the GitHub repository. I didn't change much, just the HazardousBody configuration for Jool. Speaking of Jool, its placeholder surface is translucent but still walkable. RestoredDuna still doesn't work, but I'm going to try copying a lot of stock Duna's configurations to it to get it to behave. I got Restored Duna working!

That's probably a good idea, isn't it? Using the same adjustments as for Eve?

Sorry for being away for so long. Earth was blessed with an abundance of water. Maybe Eve was blessed with an abundance of carbon, or some other ice. And hydrogen is everywhere. We can always fiddle with the chemistry to use different hydrocarbons than ethane, though from what little I remember the heat values didn't change all that much. If Eve's oceans were a liquid hydrocarbon sludge, maybe there's more than one kind of hydrocarbon chain in there. Eve would've been in that state for quite a long time, and with +140 C surface temperatures some of that would have to evaporate. Or if it doesn't evaporate, it could come from other hydrocarbons. "Cracking" is a process that can break down longer hydrocarbon chains into shorter ones. Real world cracking requires pressures about seven times greater than we experience on Eve (7000 kPa vs 500 kPa on stock about 1000 kPa on JNSQ or Realistic Atmospheres), and temperatures five times greater than Eve's surface (700 C vs 140 C), but Eve would have immense ocean floor pressures and a lot of major geological events at those depths. We get pressures much greater than 7000 kPa in Earth's deeper oceans, and magma can reach over 1000 C, so I could see these conditions present in Eve's ocean depths. Bubble up a bunch of cracked hydrocarbons over a few eons and 1 to 2% in the air seems a lot more plausible. I also found it interesting that we didn't need that much hydrocarbon vapour in the air. Before I played with these engines on Huygen in JNSQ, I tried to see if the chemistry changed much if methane was in the air instead, and it didn't. So while I based the math and chemistry off of ethane, it seemed to apply to methane, and there's less than 2% of that on Huygen. And the intakes don't suck 100% of that either - the circular intake is only 47% efficient, so on a place with 2% methane I'm only getting 1% combustible vapour - the rest would be expelled with the rest of the surrounding nonreactive atmosphere. As long as I have enough oxidizer to burn that, I get energy to run a turbine.

Science Blurbs and Localization for non-stock worlds Sorry for the long delay. I've been away dealing with Real Life. But in between bits of that I just submitted a pull request to add science blurbs and localization for the non-stock worlds.

Part 05: Eve Δv: 1.8 km/s from low Kerbin orbit, 2.3 km/s to capture, 7 km/s to ascend, can land on parachutes I'm very familiar with this place after succeeding in the Purple Space Program series. This version of Eve is actually a little easier than stock Eve, due to a lower atmosphere ceiling and lower gravity. Things only get difficult below 6 km or so in altitude, and if you can land on one of many equatorial plateaus, you will find any Eve lander you designed for stock Eve should work. Or maybe not. The faster low orbit speed causes higher atmospheric entry heat. You could reduce that with a descent stage and bring it down to stock Eve speeds, but you're better off researching the 10 m heat shield and using that. The problem with that becomes, how do you get rid of the thing? At that low altitude and high atmospheric pressure, sepatrons don't work. The second attempt was luckier. Ferram Aerospace adds some chaos to the aerodynamics, allowing giant Frisbees™ to behave more like giant Frisbees™. This Eve also has multiple possibly-copyright-infringing ocean bodies, named after Japanese Kaiju, which makes sense since this Eve is a monster! Even so, hydrocarbon lakes and the Explodium Sea make a return appearance, justifying the use of Explodium Breathing Engines. I didn't visit Eve in a do-over playthrough, so I don't have any bonus images. I have a bonus video though (4 minutes, YouTube), showcasing the ascent without commentary. While this design worked near sea level, you can also use OhioBob's Eve Optimized Engines in 10 atmosphere mode, or the new optional Javelin engine provided with JNSQ 0.10.1. The (very!) warm sun prompted the use of Namco's Horinesian Sundance music. And well, the routine consumption of live kerbals by this monster suggested the rest of the musical theme for this episode. Soundtrack French Lovers - Storyblocks (also unavailable) Mission Control - Víctor Machado, Edú Castillo, Squad (KSP Soundtrack) The French Theatre of Doooooooom! - Storyblocks (unavailable) Peaceful Desolation - Kevin MacLeod Tempting Secrets - Kevin MacLeod Volatile Reaction - Kevin MacLeod O Canada - Allan Gilliland, played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Horinesian Sundance - Namco, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Boss Battle - Namco, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Boss Defeat - Namco, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 (because wow, it sure felt like winning!)

And now you spoiled it! But seriously, GPP and GEP are the only planet packs Team Galileo is supporting alongside JNSQ. With the warp drive I'm hoping to continue the journey, provided the save file survives the migration to the new system.

A lot is happening in real life and I haven't had a chance to start a new project. I was thinking about something involving extensions to the system - JNSQ only supports expansion with other Galileo add-ons, but that might be enough to continue the series with a new generation of explorers. I want to make sure the expanded system is stable and that there are no Kraken-invoked surprises.

@OhioBob Thanks for confirming. Those were the only two fixes needed - the !JNSQ condition for the GPP atmospheres, and the texture fix for Nodens' atmosphere when using the Grannus Expansion Pack. The Kerbin-* clouds used by Gael won't interfere with the Kerbin_* clouds used by JNSQ Kerbin, so that rename isn't necessary as you explained. Thank goodness. EVE is a strange beast in that one configuration mistake breaks all of the clouds, and in this case it was for Nodens when I dumped GPP and GEP in at the same time at first. Did you want to see the video? It's about an hour long, but it covers my whole troubleshooting process. I'd post it as unlisted on YouTube. @SebastianPahlsson Come to think of it, I'll publish the video (53 minutes, YouTube) for your benefit as well as OhioBob's. You can see how I installed everything, though I did skip over the Scatterer install since that was a simple drop-in and it didn't require any configuration editing. These two changes alone were enough to fix the whole installation, along with using the 0.07 Scatterer.

@OhioBob Thanks so much for your patience as I finally get a chance to reproduce this. I'm recording video and keeping snapshots of my KSP log and Module Manager caches as I pile on add-ons and make changes. I'm hoping to get all of the footage recorded tonight and edited tomorrow. Just with JNSQ, GPP, GPP Secondary, GPP Rescale 2.5 and EVE, no Scatterer yet, I managed to make Eve (the planet) purple again, Kerbin have the same dark blue shade as Gael, and have Duna and Laythe look saturated. So far I had to edit EVE_Atmospheres, EVE_StockAtmos, and GPPClouds_HighRes so Kerbin looks like Kerbin, Eve looks like Venus, and have Duna and Laythe look like their JNSQ normal. But they are only the same edits I suggested before; only use if JNSQ is not present, and rename name=Kerbin-* to name=Gael-* if GPP_Secondary is present. I'm going to pile on GEP and GEP Rescale 2.5 just to round things out. I'll then put in Scatterer to make sure nothing else needed to change. The video will have all of the versions I downloaded demonstrated, as of today. I grabbed fresh versions to make sure I had the latest updates. And I know what it's like to test, and test, and re-test, and have someone still find a problem. It's frustrating as [censored]. Don't worry about me blaming you for anything. I just need a few more hours to get the remaining footage, edits, results, and logs. [Update] I found it...! After adding GEP and GEP_Rescale the clouds all disappeared even when they worked without GEP in there. But then I wondered about this line in GEP_Configs/Clouds.cfg: @EVE_CLOUDS:AFTER[GPP] { [...] { name = Nodens-MainClouds [...] settings { [...] _MainTex { value = GEP/GEP_Textures/Clouds/kerbin1 } ...um... there isn't a texture named kerbin1.dds in there, but there is a Nodens_Clouds.dds, which was referenced later on in the first EVE_CLOUDS section there. Fixing that to match the earlier Nodens-MainClouds config finally corrected the clouds for all worlds that were supposed to have them. I have all of the footage I need. I'm going to re-review it though, since it might come down to only two fixes: The above one for Nodens, and the one in EVE_StockAtmos.cfg to add a !JNSQ condition.

I'll try. I have a full week of work this week including 'patch Tuesday' updates, so it might be a while.

It looks like GPP_Secondary is trying to do it though, which might be the issue. If you want, I can revert to the currently published add-ons and reproduce the problem, then post the result somewhere. I'll add a Module Manager cache to the result, as this is where I found something was messing with Kerbin and her sisters. What actually broke was pretty much all clouds - EVE is strange in that it stops processing cloud setup at the point it encounters a problem. Clouds that worked before the fault will work, then subsequent clouds will not work, even if their configurations are correct. This was what I encountered when trying to adapt Stock Visual Enhancements with Alien Space Programs, and as a result, ASP has patches to detect SVE and work around what I ran into.

Science Definitions for Non-Stock Worlds I'm starting to (finally) fill out science definitions for the non-stock worlds, and perhaps add a few for the original ones. Would anyone like to contribute? Just e-mail me some text or fork your own copy: https://github.com/gordonfpanam/JNSQ/tree/master/GameData/JNSQ/JNSQ_Configs/ScienceDefs This won't be ready for a pull request, until at least one unique text is available for each unique experiment, and en-us localization is available for these. Speaking of localization, is it OK if I just add a ScienceDefs_en-us.cfg to the existing JNSQ_Localization folder? Or do the texts need to be part of the existing en-us.cfg? Fixing GPP_Secondary Clouds Another question. I started messing with adding Galileo's Planet Pack as a secondary star system, and of course the clouds broke. I started inspecting the configurations and noticed they seemed to replace the clouds on the reimagined stock worlds. When one cloud config fails, everything afterward fails too. I started experimenting and came up with a possible solution. For a cloud definition for Gael I used this: name:NEEDS[!GPP_Secondary] = Kerbin-Auroras name:NEEDS[GPP_Secondary] = Gael-Auroras body:NEEDS[!GPP_Secondary] = Kerbin body:NEEDS[GPP_Secondary] = Gael This and other checks for [!JNSQ] seemed to work. But I don't know if this is EVE-friendly, as EVE complained that Gael-Auroras was an invalid config. Even though it worked. Any thoughts? I might pull a similar stunt with the sun flares once I learn how the current Scatterer manages multi-star support.

Part 04: Moho Δv: 3.3 km/s from low Kerbin orbit, 4 to 6 km/s to capture, 1.7 km/s to land or ascend I first attempted to launch a ship to Moho's altitude above the sun, and return it, to make sure we could survive the trip. After that, it was a straight-forward engineering problem. The Moho mission craft originally rivalled the Soviet UR-700, and even that required a low orbit refueling. It also required a second launch to get a refueling craft to Moho as well. Looking back I should've added some relay satellites to that second launch. At the time I wasn't as concerned about real life time constraints so I hadn't considered stronger part mods yet. During a do-over playthrough though, I earned enough science on Minmus and the Mun that I could research the Roverdude Orion engines. That made Moho considerably easier: I also paid better attention to thrust torque and adjusted the connections on that rover, so Val didn't have to fight the helm so much piloting the 'pain train.' This was also the rover design that ultimately made it to Hamek, Eeloo and its moons, and Nara's moons. Using the wider decouplers provided a wider wheel base, granting better control on the surface. Using a booster, the rover could also land and ascend back to low Moho orbit, though not without difficulty as JadeOfMaar observed during that playthrough. Continuing the trend from Minmus. I suspect this version of Moho was compensating for something. Soundtrack French Fries - Storyblocks (Hopefully we get past the unavailable ones soon!) Son of a Rocket - Kevin MacLeod Bathed In The Light - Kevin MacLeod (Part of KSP Soundtrack) Descent Level 6, Mercury Solar Lab - Interplay / Parallax Descent Level 7, Mercury Core - Interplay / Parallax (Part of a long series of using Descent music for these worlds) O Canada - Allan Gilliland, played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Brightly Fancy - Kevin MacLeod At Launch - Kevin MacLeod KSP Main Theme - Víctor Machado, Edú Castillo, Squad

For the most part I'm templating the world intended to be the home world. This was supported starting with the "Change My Kerbin" release of Kopernicus. I couldn't just template the Mun or Minmus and put the KSC on it like the others were originally done though. These moons were procedurally generated or something, and if one were to just template one of them, the space center scene wouldn't work. I had to template another small object, in this case Bop, then RemoveAllPQSMods = true and rebuild the body from the Kittopia Dump for it. I also had to hand-replace all of the anomalies. This finally got the space center view to work, even if it didn't always match the correct time of day. Something happened in 1.8 where doing things this way caused the surface to turn transparent. Maybe I have the transition from surface view to scaled space view at the wrong altitude? Something similar was also happening with Restored Duna, except at a much higher altitude. This stopped happening in 1.11.

I'll make the attempt to keep it then, maybe redefine Jool as its own PQS world to replace the Eve clone that's there now. I could probably use JNSQ Nara as an example, if not as a template. They are CC ND so I can't just clone it. Depending how Minmus and the Mun react to Kopernicus for KSP 1.12, the next and future editions of Alien Space Programs might be restricted to later KSP versions. What I found was these places seemed OK in 1.11, but had surface transparency problems on 1.8.

That depends on your play style. FAR works very well with JNSQ but make sure you use the Module Manager and Modular Flight Integrator included with Kopernicus, and not the ones included with FAR. Extraplanetary Launchpads does work - I had to build my warp ship in orbit as Roverdude's engines don't launch well from the surface. From what I've read, CKAN's attempt to install planetary system add-ons doesn't work well with JNSQ. Maybe just avoid CKAN add-ons that require Kopernicus normally. Anything that messes with resources might also conflict with Rational Resources, but the current JNSQ doesn't include it anymore so maybe it's OK now. Get a current Kronometer so 2.5x days and years display correctly.

Ahh, the ro(ll)ver, one of my favourite vehicles in the early game!

Part 03: The Mün Δv: 1545 m/s from low Kerbin orbit, 400 m/s to capture, 910 m/s to land or ascend In JNSQ 0.7 there was a static monolith buried under the münar surface, which you can see in the episode. I had a similar problem at Eve with the random monolith, but this seemed to correct itself with KSP 1.9 and JNSQ 0.8. Or maybe I had the wrong terrain setting, for all I know. We were also, "sending Alberta out to go pick up some moon rocks," if YouTube's captioning is to be believed. In a do-over playthrough I visited the Mün's north pole, and if I did that during the series I would've known this to be a harbinger of oddities to come. And during that same do-over, I drove by hand to the random monolith. During that drive, I thought my nice, new (eBay-sourced - don't ask) RTX 3070 Founder's Edition graphics card was melting down because everything was turning yellow and then orange... nope! That was Scatterer doing its thing: What were the chances of this happening? I was also a lot more thorough on that do-over run, picking up exotic and voroni crater biomes, and bringing a scanning arm and seismometer. Overall, a better science-gathering experience. Soundtrack French Café Romance - Storyblocks (Also no longer available, sheesh) Grove Grove - Kevin MacLeod (Part of KSP Soundtrack) Procession of the King - Kevin MacLeod Out Cause Is Just - Storyblocks (no longer available) Bathed in the Light - Kevin MacLeod (Part of KSP Soundtrack) O Canada - Allan Gilliland, played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Son Of A Rocket - Kevin MacLeod Condorman Theme - Henry Mancini, Disney

If you have a supported Kronometer installed, TriggerAu's Transfer Window Planner uses JNSQ dates and units, including 12 hour days and 4380 hour years. I think leap years are handed by the Kronometer configuration in JNSQ too. I haven't seen that fixed. I found it still too easy to sink into terrain in KSP 1.12, at least on Enon. Try cheating the stock Crater Crawler craft out to Enon and drive around toward the hills to the right, and you'll eventually sink into the ground. Installing Parallax with a JNSQ configuration didn't fix it, and neither did removing the DLCs or adding the Making Less History mod that strips the Making History plugins while keeping its craft parts. Don't know if this is Kopernicus or not, or part of the floating point errors introduced by the extreme distances. I got these working as intended, but I used Blackrack's optimized EVE and his most recent Scatterer to do it. I think I need to make a new how-to-install video.

More is coming, I was just held up last week by Real Lifetm.

Breaking Ground has nuclear jet engines? Or was that recently added?

I think the Nuclear Jet in Near Future Technologies is what you're looking for there, using nuclear power to compress and expel inert gasses. This sounds like a closer match to the theoretical / fictional caterpillar drive from The Hunt for Red October.

@EndAllFilms I have to admit I want to remove some homeworld settings since they are a bit absurd. Jool's one of them, as I think it was originally done as a meme run / meme challenge. I'm also running into problem with both Minmus and the Mun, because these worlds were procedurally generated and this doesn't seem to work well with modern editions of Kopernicus. @GregroxMun Any reason to keep Jool aside from the memes?

Part 2: Minmus Δv: 1575 m/s from low Kerbin orbit, 350 m/s to capture, 315 m/s to land or ascend This is still the easiest place to get to. It's even easier if you have Principia installed, or have a Module Manager patch to put the JNSQ system into Principia mode. That inner ridge around the large crater behind the monolith is no longer present in JNSQ 0.9 or in 0.10.0. I'm not sure why the ridge appeared; I thought it was a distinctive feature of these worlds as I saw it repeated on Moho and Ike. During a do-over playthrough I found the same monolith and it looked like this now: It might be that I picked a different terrain detail setting, or it has to do with the version of Kopernicus I was using here - this was on KSP 1.9.1 with what was then called Kopernicus Continued. This was also my first encounter with one of many "north poles." From what I've read about Kopernicus, these occur when the top pixels of the terrain map image don't match the bottom pixels. The pole, or sink hole, is the height of the bottom edge of the map. And in the episode, I was definitely a fool for not paying attention to my ejection burn. Fortunately, Bob Kerman was able to get out and push. There was one of many mispronunciations near the end of this episode, where "the west of the way" led to congratulating the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Yes, they do play gridiron football up there. I recorded all of these without a script, so there are plenty of slip-ups like this one. YouTube's auto-caption system was comedy gold for this! Soundtrack French Mime Happy - Storyblocks (again, no longer available) KSP Construction Music #3, slightly pitch-adjusted - Víctor Machado, Edú Castillo, Squad Bathed in the Light - Kevin MacLeod (Part of KSP Soundtrack) Wizardtorium - Kevin MacLeod (Part of KSP Soundtrack) Ambient Dreamscape - JDP (I think from Bensound, but I forget - I know I have a license here somewhere) O Canada (one of many, many uses) - Allan Gilliland, played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Brightly Fancy - Kevin MacLeod Batty McFaddin - Kevin MacLeod Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod