[Control surfaces and built-in ailerons]

Is this the proper way

For now yes, the control surfaces/winglets are old code, they're expected to get an overhaul in the way they produce lift and drag which is presumably why they haven't been transitioned to the PartModule system like everything else.

[A .cfg package not really a mod, and copyright?]

I don't know where the line lies as to what constitutes something complex enough to be copyrighted but there are plenty of mods that already include modified squad configs on both of squad's sites (here and spaceport) so they don't object at the moment and in future if they want to phase it out they're likely to do so gently and pleasantly - banning everyone who's ever uploaded a modified config file would completely destroy the community.

They have added an override system in 0.20 where you can override specified properties of another config file but I'm not sure if it'll do exactly what you want yet, have a look at the 0.20 stickies.

[Multiple textures help please]

Curious, what was the solution? Was it as Dave7 mentioned?

I guess the solution to the second problem was that each part needs to have a different name.

[CFG variable to make a part reflect over an axis when using symmetry mode in SPH?]

There are mirrorAxis, mirrorRefAxis and mirrorVector properties in Part, although I'm not sure if they actually mirror stuff or just control the rotation in the SPH.

I don't know what text editor you're using, but many do offer keyword highlighting that you could use to ensure your variable names are correct (or use an add-on spellchecker and a custom dictionary).

[First foray into modelling and some questions.]

A picture as well helps, some peoples KSP installs can take a while to start up.

The unity documentation recommends using multiple primitive colliders (box, capsule, sphere) over a single mesh collider, but how much of that is because of fewer faces and how large the mesh collider fixed overhead is I'm not sure.

[I made a small planet sized asteroid and I have some questions...]

So could there be a way to add it to the list of planets

That list you've quoted is just the terrain detail level settings. They're not responsible for anything you're after, and indeed if you're using a solid model rather than a quadtree they won't apply to you anyway.

Try looking at the components attached to the existing planets in game, perhaps something like a celestialBody component would generate the gravity and keep it visible (you'd need a plugin, there's no support for adding planets in config files).

[Rotating solar panels (Unity configuration)]

unknown and unknown.

Powercurve is of type FloatCurve, so the third and fourth numbers determine the shape of the curve (IIRC the incoming and outgoing tangents for each point), and are optional.

[Rigid Joints]

The thing that worries me (about what research may discover) is... why didn't the original DR developer use a different joint type? Is there some huge downside or issue preventing it?

Damned Robotics is very old now, I'm not sure if it was released the same version the plugin system came out but if was one of the ealier plugins. I would think at the time r4m0n had enough on his plate understanding the system to think about making a custom joint type.

A custom joint does raise the possibility of additional problems but I don't think they'd be insurmountable.

[Calculator for determining how many parachutes you need.]

That's handy, it's worth asking a mod to move this thread to the tools forum (a sub-forum of the releases forum) as stuff in general will get swamped quickly.

[Building MODS, how?]

And thank you but I did see that link the other day but I believe it's already obsolete:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/34013-0-20-PartTools-GameDatabase-and-new-features

No, the part tools are up to date. Getting the game to load a DAE file is the old methods of doing things and is now depeciated.

[Is this possible? (A part that outputs to an online writeable file)]

Have a look at Telemachus, it's very similar to what you want to do.

[Advanced display support?]

The plugin system does have access to a lot of unity though, so I would think the sort of things you're asking for may well be possible (have a look at many of the camera mods that bring up a second view on the same monitor as a starting place).

[How to modify sounds]

Not a lot of work has been done on them. The plugin system has access to huge amounts of the game (and can play sounds itself) so it's almost certainly possible, but it's also entirely undocumented so it takes a some trial and error to work out how to do things.

[Default breaking force/torque]

I believe the default value for both is 22

[Using hyperedit to get correct values for AP and PE.]

As far as I know AP and PE come out of the semi-major axis (sma) and eccentricity of the orbit

[Editing config files]

Only resource-wide, the density of a resource determines it's weight and it's defined in resource nodes. (GameData/Squad/Resources for defaults).

Bear in mind that anything that works on mass flow rate will produce the same result if you raise the amount but lower the density to compensate, for example engine fuel consumption.

[Looking for some help with Mods!!!]

This is generally a problem with overzealous security not letting a program load dll files (which plugins are), try adding exceptions to your security software for KSP.

[Help with files]

If it happens with multiple mods then it's likely a problem your end, It could be a whole range of things and without any details about your system (operating system, extractor program etc.) it's difficult to guess. Almost all mods are in an archive package though (e.g. a zip file) so one thing you could try is an alternative extractor/unarchiver program.

[Caterpillar Tracks- NOW OPEN SOURCE, ALL FILES OPEN TO PUBLIC]

So if I place them manually without using symmetry, my idea should work...?

Try this version, it seems to work for me:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=384BA28C8578E539!168&authkey=!ANVlE6WFe4eumlM

Placing them manually all facing the same way should work as well.

I'm off until the end of the month so I won't be updating the plugin side in the mean time.

[Caterpillar Tracks- NOW OPEN SOURCE, ALL FILES OPEN TO PUBLIC]

it was accelerating constantly while cruise was active.

Yes, but for how long? 5 seconds? 30 seconds? 5 minutes? The response is somewhat slow at the moment and it can stay above the targeted speed for a while (at a decreasing rate of acceleration). That'll be fixed as it gets tuned better but if it kept accelerating for dozens of seconds it sounds like a bigger issue.

Also hit action key 3 (reverse gear) but didn't notice anything change?

It only works in general mode where the motor is throttle controlled (rover mode and manual mode have dedicated reverse keys) and it won't apply the brakes automatically so if you're already going at some pace it'll take a while to slow down.

Couldn't the 'forward' direction somehow be determined from the track itself? Maybe as an option? What I'm trying to do here is this

That is how they function, the command pod is only used as a tie break if the combined forward vector of the tracks adds up to a vector of less than 0.1 length. Unfortunately the game's default symmetry tends to put equal number of tracks facing in opposite directions so that case comes up far more often then it should.

[Looking for mods which doesn't "disturb" base game]

Kerbal Engineer is what you're looking for for number 3.

[[WIP] Konsole]

I wish R4m0n was still around.

The last Mechjeb 2 commit was only 6 days ago and he's still on the IRC channel (although currently AFK) so he may well be.

[Code for moving fuel to place center of mass over center of thrust]

It's actually very close to the part transform transform.up, but off by a few degrees, which actually makes a big difference. I wonder if thrust vectoring is part of the issue? I'm guessing thrustTransforms.forward gives the actual (vectored) thrust direction, and balancing the fuel to that has a nasty positive feedback effect -- the engine gimbals to stay balanced, fuel is rebalanced so that is the new set point, drains a little, and the engine has to gimbal even more, so the fuel is rebalanced to be even more uneven. In that case, any thoughts on how to get non-vectored thrust direction?

Yeah, ModuleGimbal rotates the thrustTransform object as it's the engine module that applies the thrust. Starting (neutral) rotations are stored in initRots of ModuleGimbal. Although if it's linear you may be able to simple work backwards; angle = current angle - maximum gimbal * steering (-1 to 1).

[Question about the debug menu]

What about the gravity hack? I don't see that in the code segment you posted.

It may be modifying the current planetary gravity value directly rather than setting a flag (hence the 'hack'?). Try checking the various gravity parameters (and Mass) in vessel.mainBody and see if they change.

[Some lesser-known bits of info for addon developers]

Are there not other methods of loading you could use for PNG? Maybe Texture2D's LoadImage function in conjunction with a BinaryReader?