VenDei

Yet another Mun-circumnavigation! Mission report is here: Just the pretty pictures are here: and here: Hope it counts with regards to the less-than-equatorial route, but if anything, it should be longer; also, contains all Mun biomes and anomalies.

The last stretch!

I'm not aware that there's anything that exactly does what you're proposing. I just pointed to Contract Configurator as possible tool. And since we're playing a game here, we are actually not able to waste time, as long as we're having fun.

Something like this? https://github.com/jrossignol/ContractConfigurator/wiki/ExperimentalPart-Behaviour If you THEN also require a certain number of funds https://github.com/jrossignol/ContractConfigurator/wiki/Funds-Requirement ,and set the advance negative, the net result should be that you buy certain parts for the mission (well, the blueprints anyway, as you have to still buy them in VAB/SPH to actually build them), and don't have them available anymore upon contract completion - which can be, as I understand it, be just deploying the craft and nothing else (status Kerbin/landed).

This sounds a lot like something that could be done with Contract Configurator already, I think. Specifically I seem to remember that in the "Giving Aircraft Purpose"-Pack you can(could? It's been a while.) buy into certain useful parts if you have not unlocked them in the tech tree already at the expense of funds.

I'd be cool with that! You picking up any of my suggestions would be great! The reason I asked for the adapter crewtanks is compactness, but I can see how "overloading" a part with various functions might not appeal to everybody. After all, it does put those parts in a very specific niche.

Thank you for the suggestion, @Star-Eagle, but the maintainer of that hasn't been on the forums since january, so I'm not hopeful that it's still in active development. Which is a crying shame. But looking over what's in there it could still work fine. Not to derail this thread, but with the ideas I have amassed in my scribblebook, I might look into modding myself and borrow as licenses permit. If it doesn't involve modelling, I can probably see myself do a thing or two.

Report from the Farside Crater: Next up: an anomaly far to the south!

Before I forget to post the most recent progress: A rock arch at night on the Mun doesn't look like much. Current situation - not quite worthy of pictures is that we're on a heading of about 105° from this point about halfway to the next anomaly, and have just reached the Canyons biome. There isn't all that much on the list anymore, and an end to the not-road is now nearly within reach.

1) Stock... yeah, well, I completely overlooked that, thank you! 2) Interesting, I'll have a look. That would be quite the gem, maybe I'll learn modding KSP just for adding another intended way of not going to space today.

Hello, is there a way to keep users from filling a tank with resource in VAB/SPH? To the effect that a player can not just put in a tankfull of a resource by pulling a slider in the VAB/SPH. In the same vein, is there a way to limit filling up a resource in VAB/SPH, based on a daily production rate and a maximum storage capacity at KSC? Where I want to go with these questions is this: With "scarce" (or what I think what ought to be scarce) resources, I can just pop an unlimited supply into existence by building vessels at home as if it was water from the coast off the KSC. Which kind of defeats the purpose of making an ultra-rare resource that only can be found at hard-to-get-to places and must be refined with some effort. I'd like to change that, so that for the Unobtanium of my choice, I have to put in some more effort. The other item is that even common resources are limited. There are only so many storage tanks around the KSC for Liquid Fuel, Oxidizer, Monoprop, and once they are empty, they'd probably need some time to be filled up again. There is right now no real point to mining on the Mun or Minmus for space-gasstations, because I can better get any amount of fuels right at home and deliver them to orbit from KSC - provided I have the funds, but they are pretty abundant right, left and center. I want to create a situation where money can't buy everything, and a certain degree of efficiency has to be maintained - or some meaningful ISRU at home.

These domes look great! Although, when I look at them, I can't help but think "How about sticking two of those together at the floors, and make them an Extraplanetary Sphere on my next big exploration carrier?"

Hi, do you still take part suggestions? I have some very rough mockups of ideas here, that came to me while mucking around with the inverted cockpit and small orbital passenger vehicles in mk2 formfactor.

I use RCS. I play with quite nerfed reaction wheels, so I have to have it anyway to turn at any meaningful rate. And since I have to carry around monoprop anyway because of that, I design stages that do mostly/excusively orbital maneuvering around monoprop-engines.

That much is obvious, and even said. And here documentation fails. You also handwave over the part that is actually interesting and complex. And that is actually hard to test. Which I did during this exchange. I might have completely missed it, I may never know, but this mod isn't what I'm looking for. And no, software development is not and has never been about just hacking code. It's what I tell my students first thing, and advise them to leave immediately and do something else if they think otherwise - and I'm proven right by the strong correlation of those disagreeing with that statement and those dropping out within two years for bad performance at coding and dissatisfaction. There's a strong correlation between quality of code and ability and willingness to document, and I also see it in KSPs veritable mod graveyard. So, expecting mod developers to document is me taking them seriously at their hobby. Every hobby has their unloved tasks. I'm not asking for illustrated, polished, localised KSPedia pages, but a table like "thingies + whatsernames -> Uber-Transmogrifier -> foobar" for everything the mod touches upon is not really asked much. Oh, and: How about that: Apart from that, the videos concerning this mod seem severely outdated. Which is why I asked here for information.

"Community driven", maybe. But in this case I specifically asked "um, how does this work, it doesn't say anywhere, really", and you propose that I find out on my own and tell everyone else. Not actually constructive.

@goldenpsp While I'm considering doing just that, what could possibly go wrong with someone not knowing the first thing about the mod writing documentation?

Hello, while I find the idea of the mod very appealing (I think), I'm rather put off by the lack of some more documentation? I mean, this isn't just some rather self-explanatory, one-trick-pony parts pack, it adds a complete mechanic, seems to tie in with mods that themselves add complexity and I get the idea it changed somewhat over time so that it's quite hard to glimpse an idea just from the evolution of release notes over time and the list of features. I'd like to estimate, for example, if the flow of materials in this mod matches well with what I currently have in my setup, or if it will be heavyweight in that respect. So, a simple flowchart of how materials and parts interact might give me - and others that haven't tried this mod before - a better idea of what they're getting themselves into.

Further progress to report. A look over the Southwest Crater, where the brave women did some science. On the way north to the Northwest Crater, an anomaly on the scans is revealed to be another monolith. Speaking of anomalies, this monument of undoubtedly alien origin is at the south edge of the Northwest Crater. Pretty much right in the middle of the Northwest Crater is another case of littering to clean up, the remains of the third and final probe-lander. It is now the evening of the second Munar day, with the sun already quite low above the horizon. With only the roof-cells remaining for power-generation, that means they will have soon to call it a day, nearing 12 Kerbin-days mission time so far. Yet there is still enough energy left to make a start to the eastern edge of the Northwest Crater to another anomaly on the map, and maybe even to go further, which will turn the mission towards the Northern Basin.

Don't know, really, the outlook for an update is not so good if the author was away that long. But if you already use KIS/KAS, there's an attachable explosive that can fill a lot of the niche. Not quite all, though - some parts (like landing struts) seem to survive explosions.

First off, I simply love this mod. It makes the mk2-formfactor really something worthwhile to play with. It has a fixed place in my mod-list. There's something, though, I'd like to play more with, and that's the inverted fishhead-cockpit. It is just such an intrigueing oddball. I have wondered how I could put a 1.25m docking-port at the nose. Since I play with CLS, I frequently run into problems with this cockpit concerning structural parts. A short, passable, structural inverter might come in handy, or a mk2-1.25m-adapter in the same vein. Just my design-problems, though - maybe I'm just using it wrong.

@Wallygator Thank you! By the way, why didn't anybody tell me that the pics in my first post were completely borked? They looked fine when I posted them, and I tried to repair the emebedding just now, so that they should be actually visible.

Some progress to report: The rover goes on, these were taken around the East Crater. ... and some not so nice news, the photovoltaic trusses are broken. They just don't look broken, but they are. Might as well take them down, and install some of the landing struts, should we go for another, hm, extended jump. Remember, this Capra has nearly no torque to control those. BUT the 6 roof-mounted small cells are quite sufficient during the day, if one doesn't always put the pedal to the metal. The circumnavigation of the Mun goes on!

While my circumnavigation of Kerbin was more or less "because we can", Mission Control drew up a plan for a circumnavigation of the Mun that serves multiple purposes. Make a comprehensive survey of the surface of the Mun, with the current scientific instruments at hand. Investigate all the anomalies that were found from orbital scanning. Plant flags at the highest and lowest point of the Mun, as per contract from JuggerNaug Mountaineering. Fullfill surface survey contracts as available and convenient (at planning stage, 2). Make a statement against littering by getting rid of the spent descent stages of the 4 prior landings on the Mun. Endeavour to leave no new waste behind. All this should lead to a circumnavigation. The rover is to be left on the Mun as autonomous vehicle, and shall possibly be of use to a later base. Since I am at this point not capable (or willing?) in my career to deliver an unwieldy monster like the Kerbin Explorer to the Mun, a new vehicle comes from the drawing boards at R&D: The A4 "Capra" Mun-Version. Shakedowns on Kerbin are promising, and fit the mission profile well. The idea is a four-wheeled Rover with a Hextruss body structure (Near Future Construction). The crew of 2 will sit in the EAS-316 "Meadowlark" Observation Pod (SXT), additional guidance is provided by both the RoveMate and OKTO2-Cores. An SC-62-Container is meant to carry mission supplies. The rover carries a full complement of available science experiments (stock and DMagic Orbital Science). Energy will be provided by 2 PX-STAT 1x2 Photovoltaic Trusses (Near Future Solar?) and 6 OX-STAT Photovoltaic Panels, and is stored in the Probecores and Batteries, which will hold 3210 EC. Further 6000 EC are stored in 2 CAP-106 Capacitors (Near Future Electric?) to provide generous reserves. The whole thing weighs 2220 kg and fits in width a Mk3 cargobay, so that it fits a manageable aeroshell. (* SETI nerfs the reaction wheels somewhat, so this rover does not really have any meaningful torque.) Including a delivery vehicle it is strapped on an Opal IIIb 4S (the current heaviest, noncustom launcher of this career) and sent towards the Mun. Pilot is Madi Kerman, Engineer is Verjorie Kerman, and last but not least, scientist is Gemline Kerman. To the Mun First leg - the first probe Second leg - an arch of stone Third leg - mountaineering in the south polar region 4th leg - down to the monolith 5th leg - long drive to the second probe ... that's it for now. It's ongoing, though!

It took me pretty much a week (not playing whole days, mind you), and I used time warp for crossing water, as I could just throttle up and let the rover go straight ahead. Unfortunately under that condition time warp was just 4x... so I could set things up, cook some food, eat it, do the dishes and come back in time to see it not yet there. It was definitely fun, in an odd way. With all the micromanagement of manually driving around a planet it's quite something different from the "plan, thrust, warp, repeat" of spaceflight. And the patience/stubborness needed to complete a circumnavigation certainly gives a sense of achievement. I'll surely try some other circumnavigations in the future, as I really like rovers - even if they have not received as much love from the developers as rockets and planes.