iamaphazael

Nothing new to report at the moment. I'm still away from my home base, and I've been crazy with trying to visit people here and get ready for the trip back home. I will get back to work on the pack once my life settles back down again. When exactly that will be, I can't say for sure right now. Rest assured though, the project is not dead,

Yes, I have noticed that behavior with the legs. I've actually been thinking I might merge a couple of sets of things that are currently separate parts, including the legs on the Lunar Module. I think that will solve a couple of problems, as well as reducing part count and looking better. It's going to take a lot of work to make it happen, so it will take a while, but I think that's the direction I want to head in.

I agree with this idea, and I'm sure the devs are thinking about it, as it fits in with the idea of game progression following the development progression. Perhaps at the very beginning of a career game, you don't have access to maneuver nodes, orbital prediction, perhaps even map mode is disabled, and you have to unlock those things by flying a few missions by the seat of your pants.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to apologize for not having updated the pack yet. My summer has not come together as planned, and I just do not have any free time. (A word of advice: trying to simultaneously get married, write a dissertation proposal, and work to make money to keep gas in the car, all while not having a place to live during that time and having to bounce around from place to place, is a bad idea. Don't try it.) I really have no idea when I'm going to have a chance to sit down and do anything with the fantastic models that Razorcane has given to me. I will try to make some time for it over the next few weeks, but honestly it may not happen until I get back to my house in October. Just wanted to keep everyone updated, and let you know that I haven't completely disappeared, and that the project isn't abandoned. It's just going to be slow going for a while. But have no fear. It will keep going, and will be completed eventually. Thanks to everyone for your support.

Yeah, I've seen that mod. In fact, if you look in the comments section on the spaceport page for it, you can see my interaction with him, and see how much of a dick he was to me. Basically, he lifted the Saturn parts directly from a pack that I had released that was just an update of the original Saturn parts to work with 0.18. That was subsequently removed, and then he republished it using the original .dae models, but still trying to use the cfgs that I had written, which is why the textures didn't work and the engines didnt generate lift. The kid clearly doesn't know what he's doing, but seems to have someone working with him now to convert stuff in Unity. Since all the parts in his pack are lifted from other mods, I'm not too concerned about it. Ours is going to end up looking much better, and it will also, you know, actually work (edit: Also, that "do you even lift, bro" image is hilarious!)

So, there are all of those truss parts that have the word "strut" in their name (eg "cubic octagonal strut"). The word strut has a very specific meaning, that involves being attached to two objects, and keeping them stationary with respect to each other (like the original "structural strut" does) I propose that the parts in question be renamed to be either "truss" or "girder", to more accurately reflect what they actually are. Thanks

Like just about everything else in life, you don't need to know any math to do it, but the more math you know, the more it will make sense and the more fun you can have with it

Nothing else is going to happen with the internals right away. Once both command pod models are set in stone, I'll redo the internals to match geometrically. At that point I'll add a few dials and switches, but other than that I'm not going to do much with them until the IVA system is completed (unless I find myself with a bunch of free time and nothing to do, but that's unlikely) As far as the flight computers, there was a guy who was starting to write a plugin that created a sort of "assembly language" to be able to write programs that would control the craft. I'm not sure what ever happened with that project, but if it or something like it continues to develop with the game, it would be fun to try to implement the actual functions of the flight computers into a set of IVA switches and lights in the command pods. But that would be a far-down-the-road project if it ever happened

Hey that looks awesome! Glad to see you had some fun with that. I see you set up the resources to use real-world components. I have been pondering doing that for AMP. I haven't had a chance to play with your parts yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Cheers!

This is what I intend to do for them. I'll just build that function into the interstage parts. It will just mean that some of the staging is going to have to be done with action groups so that the two actions don't fire at once.

Yes, the pod torque that we had on the LM pod was way too high. All the pod SAS and torque values are going to get reworked on the next release because they will use the new system introduced in 0.21.

I'm glad to hear things are working fairly well. I haven't even gotten a chance to download 0.21 yet, but hopefully this weekend. Putting SAS into the Command Pods should be as simple as copying the correct MODULE{...} block from a part that has them. Then you can change the part type field from "AdvSASModule" to "Part" on the LM and SM tanks, which should make them display more appropriate icons in the stack. I'll do all that stuff properly as soon as I can, then release an updated pack which will include all of Razorcane's models. About that staging problem you're having: is it something that you were experiencing in 0.20 as well, or is it new behavior with 0.21? Thanks, and I'll look into it.

You're playing a game that is still in heavy development. You should expect that your save games will get broken at least once every few updates. That's just the nature of the beast. Either get used to the idea, and don't get too attached to your work; or don't play the game until it's finished. As for your suggestion, development decisions should not be made based upon saved games being broken or not. Period. Decisions should be made based on what will be best for the final product, and for what the best way to get from here to there is. What is best for us players at any particular moment should not be a major factor in the development timeline.

Sorry. Life happens sometimes. I arrived where I am last week with my fiancee, expecting to have a place to live in for the summer. That fell through, though, and so we're currently staying with some friends of hers while we figure things out. I'm trying to find a place to set up an office for myself so I can get back to work on my dissertation, which is top priority for me. Once I have a place set up, though, I can start to put some spare time towards work on the mod again. Sorry it's been longer than I expected, but this is what my life is like right now. I have weeks when I have time to work on stuff, and weeks when I don't. I'm not really too concerned about people losing interest, and it seems clear that they're not (and thank you, all, for the encouragement). I'm playing a long game here. KSP still has a lot of growing to do, and I plan to keep this mod alive through all of it, so it will continue to be the definitive Apollo mod right until KSP 1.0 is released. From that perspective, it doesn't matter to me if things move slowly, and it's okay if some people get tired of waiting for something and move on: the mod will still be there next time they go looking for it. That said, I know you're anxious to see your work go into a release. I really want to get out a new version with the latest models too. It will really help drum up interest again. But for one thing, it really doesn't make sense to do it until 0.21 comes out and I can adapt the parts to take advantage of some of the program changes being made, and like I said, I just am not in a situation where I can do anything about it right now. I'm hopefully going to be setting up a workstation tomorrow, so it shouldn't be too much longer before I have something to show for my efforts. Stay tuned.

I'm still trying to find a place to set up shop for the summer, and there is a stack of CSM models that Razorcane has done that are waiting for me to run them through Unity. After I get settled, and after 0.21 hits, I'll release an updated version of the pack with all of the latest parts. probably won't be for a week or two, though

RShift+F12, actually

When you start to get into the kinds of fuel masses required to do a performance accurate version, even with kerbal-scaled values for thrust and stage timing, the game can't handle the part masses involved. Hopefully at some point the part connections will be fixed so that you can have parts with those masses. In the meantime, the only real solutions are to use unrealistcally high ISPs, or to make new resource types with a higher energy density and use those instead. Sometime soon I'll try playing around with that. In other news, I've survived my trek, and am now on the coast I belong on, but it will still be a little while before I can get my workstation set up. So, I still won't be getting any work done for a little while longer, but my radio blackout is over. Hope you're all well.

Ugh. That really sucks, man. It's so frustrating when stuff like that happens. I'm sorry to hear it. Hope it doesn't turn you off from the project entirely

Just wanted to check in with everyone and let y'all know that I'm still alive. My conference just ended and I'm about to hit the road for a week or so, so I haven't done much on the mod lately, nor will I for a few more weeks. However, sometime after 0.21 comes out (and when I get set up at my summer digs), I'll release an updated version of the pack that will include the new textures that Razorcane has done, and any that he is able to do between now and then; and that also includes some minor 0.21 related tweaks (like asas being integrated into the command pods rather than on the fuel tanks). I'll keep you posted once I get to the other coast. Cheers

Glad to hear that you've at least 'turned the corner'. Hope your recoverry is quick. Take as much time as you need

Yes, unfortunately the game does not look for .craft files inside the /GameData/ folder, so they have to be moved to the correct place by hand. I'm hoping that in the future, they will add a function that detects .crafts within the new folder system, as it would make sense to have everything that goes with a pack be in the same place. Glad you were able to get it working. Happy flying! Let us know what you think.

Wilywampa, please let us know if you had the parts in the old /KSP/Parts/ folder, and if moving it into /KSP/GameData/ fixed the problem as Reddragon suggests. I'll look into it and try things both ways. It seems strange that having it in the legacy folder would allow everything to work except for the staging (and that only in the flight scene), but I'll look into it. Please keep me posted. Thanks

That does look awesome Bobcat. I'm amazed you were able to get that far in just a few hours. If I were to do it, it would take weeks probably, and look not even half as good. I would love to include it in the pack if you'd still be interested in letting us use it. PM me if you want. Thanks!

Of course, those are the dimensions for the real-world vehicle. The parts in this pack are approximately 2/3 scale, so if you make something that's roughly 2m x 1.5m x 0.75m, that should fit nicely on the LM. You do great work, Bobcat. If you want to tackle the LRV, I would be thrilled to have it as part of this pack. If we can avoid using plugins, so much the better. I want to try to keep things as simple as possible. Can't wait to see what you come up with. Cheers!