phoenix_ca

Well, I now have two wee updates that I'd like to share (assuming the original mod authors get back to me). I edited all of the Kosmos panels so that they produce energy (using SolarPanels_adv_PowerTech). I mean, those are really nice panels, and I wanted to stick some on my DSM ship and have them actually power the ion engines. So, that's done. I based their power values on area, assuming that the panel included in MMI Satellite pack has a value of 1, for reference. (It doesn't make any sense to tweak these values higher or lower until the tech tree and cost is implemented, so for now, things can be strictly based on area.) I experimented with using PowerTech's heat and heat dissipation to make Kosmos' radiators have a functional purpose, but they and the panels just tended to explode...looking into that. Then I changed the small ion engine, external battery, and panels from MMI.S to use the same module and Kreuz's EEP instead of MuMech, and drastically reduced the capacity of the batteries. (1000, really? When the only thing you have to suck energy from it is a little engine?) They're now at 200, which also makes them comparable in size/energy ratio to the battery from the DSM mod...I think. I didn't really look all that closely.

Regarding SolarPanels_adv_PowerTech: "Don't forget to set heatConductivity and heatDissipation parameters of the part, too." What exactly are those parameters, and how do they relate to deployed heatConductivity? Also, could you please add a indication of heat levels in parts, at least in the right-click menu. Edit: More to the point, a module that's just a radiator would be handy. I noticed that any part with isRadiator = true has a "Power" display bar, which really isn't useful if it doesn't produce energy. I edited Kosmos' deployable radiator with the following values: IsRadiator = true heatConductivity = 1 heatDissipation = 20 deployedHeatDissipation = 1.42 RotatingPanels = true panelcenter = 1.5, 0, 0 With just a command pod and a strut, once it begins to deploy, it apparently builds-up heat. It tends to explode before it has a chance to deploy completely (on Kerbin at nighttime). Max temp is 2900 so it makes me wonder where the heck all that heat is coming from. Edit: Hmm, even if only deployedHeatDissipation is set, they go boom. No conductivity or heatDissipation values (commented out). O.o

Indeed, I was thinking more along the lines of power generation. That part is trivial. It's up to Kreuz to add support for parts that simply drain energy when turned-on. (Would certainly be neat if the ISAMap sat or Kethane scanner used power when activated.)

+1 for making a module that just straight-up drains energy at a certain rate.

Unfortunately, you're kinda stuck using English in the code. Typically, English is the standard in software development (it's the language one uses for writing), unless you're in China. The Chinese government (and some companies, I believe) develop their own software from binary up that results in functions, variables, whatever, being written with Mandarin (simplified, I would hope). Question: Regarding the MMI Satellite pack...what are your plans with that? Are you going to nab it's assets and make it part of Kethane so it's all one pack? (If so...any plans to move to the SolarPanels_adv_PowerTech part module and Kreuz's EEP?)

I can't speak for the devs, but given that they seem to indicate that they'll be doing opensource work too, I'd imagine that they'll open anything up to the community before it becomes abandonware. The note about MMI.S also says that it'll be gone once new patches make it obsolete. I share your sentiment that it's an awesome mod one would like to keep, but the satellite pack is stable, works well, and does what it says. However, it's unfair to expect them to support something when they have other priorities (kethane mod) and expect that future patches will make their work obsolete. (I'm assuming they mean patches to Kethane, such that the Kethane mod will borrow assets from the satellite pack, not patches to the game.) Try starting with a new persistence file, if you haven't already. (I have no idea how Kethane actually works, but if the deposits are procedurally added to any celestial object it finds at the start of the game, it might not add deposits to planets if the you're working with an old persistence file. That's just a wild stab in the dark though; take what I say with a dollop of salt.)

Tack on the warp-clamp mod and this should be eminently doable.

You could write a simple script that found any vessel with "debris" in the value for name, and removed it. A for loop in your language of choice would do the trick.

Hmmm, is there any way to make MechJeb burn for a specific delta-v? MechJeb's burns are far more accurate than anything I do by hand. It seems somewhat obvious that the information to calculate a burn is all there already, just lacking any way to tell it what to do. (Unless I'm missing some part of Autom8.)

In very basic terms, specific impulse is a measure of fuel efficiency, in terms of how much delta-v a propulsion system can provide relative to how much propellant it uses. A higher number means the engine will use less fuel per volume of propellant. Specific Impulse - Wikipedia

It is a bug indeed. RCS drainage can be a bit funky sometimes. In particular radial RCS tanks (added by mods) will get drained before any others if they are added early in the build; pulling them off and reattaching fixes it. Person: Fuel lines don't work with RCS tanks.

Well, I said "update" not "make new parts". Any part that is already using PowerTech for animations is trivially easy to update to use any/all of the features of the SolarPanels_adv_PowerTech module (or SolarPanels_PowerTech_MuMech module if they need to be compatible with MuMechVariableTanks...for some reason; there really isn't a good one I can think of though). After reading a bit of the documentation, and using the MMI solar panel's panelCenter value as a guide to where to place new values for the different Kosmos models, I was able to update all the Kosmos panels to generate power within maybe half-an-hour of editing and testing. The longest part of the process was reloading the game to test. Since they produce the Energy resource, that can be fed into any of EEP's battery parts. Ta-da, non-working panels turned into working ones. It's really just a matter of changing the module the panels use, and plugging in the new values. I think next-up I'm going to edit the cfg files for the MMI.S battery and ion engine so they use EEP, not MuMechVariableTanks, and change the panels to SolarPanels_adv_PowerTech. In the case of the battery I think that'll avoid the issue of them being dead if drained of all power as well. I'd share the cfg edits but..."rules".

That's...a neat trick. I might give it a try. I'm indeed using symmetry, but I hadn't considered the cumulative effect that pitch-and-yaw oscillations that are caused by both MechJeb and ASAS would have on roll. Any rocket that I've had roll problems with also suffered from a lot of oscillation-induced-wobble around the center of mass.

Mods. Oodles and oodles of mods. Aside from that, it helps to have a healthy imagination, as at this stage of the game there's no mission structure. Give yourself some targets or goals that interest you. I recently decided I wanted a constellation of eight satellites in GEO for communications, so I went ahead and did it (got them at almost exactly on the longitudes I wanted too). Now that I know how to do that, I'm just waiting for the RemoteTech mod to be updated to 0.17 so that I can happily set-up my interplanetary comms network. >.> Why not go off and collect some ice samples from Minmus? Drop a rover on Duna. Smash a rocket into Mun as quick as you possibly can. Whatever interests you.

I tend toward the NP NERVA if I'm looking at a long mission with a large ship. Then it just makes sense to make the most out of my fuel. (To that end, I much prefer ion engines, if I have a choice.) The stock NERVA is great for smaller ships though. 6 tonnes is a pretty big difference. O.o

Open the persistence file in notepad. Pretty sure it's JSON from there on out (Or...JSON-like...whatever, close enough.).

Try just pulling off the upper one (drop it somewhere where it isn't attached), then put it back.

This is actually a really important project, and my money's on Kreuz's plugin too. Just looking at the cfg files tells you that his is the easiest to interact with from a part creator's perspective. That said, PowerTech has two big things: Animations, and more realistic/accurate calculations of solar panel power generation. (I usually hate the "R" word coming into a game too much, but variable power generation of solar panels is a decent gameplay mechanic.) And on the upside, it plays well already with Kreuz's plugin, as they both are using the same resource ID, "Energy" (and probably other reasons I don't know about I'm sure). I haven't even touched ZOX yet so can't speak to that, but for those wondering, I gladly suggest mixing EEP and PowerTech parts. They work, or at least, I haven't found a time where they don't work together. Purely from the perspective of someone creating a new part, EEP has a much easier format to use for engines. That and a single part is able to fulfill multiple roles easily: A power generator can also be a battery, a battery can be strapped to an engine, and so on. That's a big plus in my books, because the end result is fewer parts required for the same function on a spacecraft. Whatever modders can do to reduce the hit on the player's part budget is a good thing, since the physics is the most computationally taxing part of KSP. For some, asking them to add 12 new parts to a spacecraft just to get your pieces to all work together, might not be in the cards if they want to get off the launch pad. As for the Kosmos panels: With a simple bit of copypasta from MMI.S' panel config, to a Kosmos panel, it's fairly easy to get it to generate power for EEP's batteries (using the SolarPanels_PowerTech_MucMech). Of course it's annoying that I'm apparently not allowed to share this little edit. Such is the pitfall of not working in an opensource environment. :/ To be frank, updating part cfgs to get the best out of PowerTech and EEP is easy to do right now, there just needs to be a bit of will and organization on the modders' parts.

Sure, except I've had symmetrical rockets that had oodles of SAS modules strapped all over the place (from NovaPunch, 3 per stage, plus two per booster), and they still rolled out of control. I had seemingly no control authority for roll, but incredible ability to adjust pitch and yaw. It felt like some external force was acting on the rocket to make it roll.

That cold. But for the advancement of science for the benefit of Kerbalkind, so excusable.

Jeez, let the poor fella at least wait for the documentation on internal environments to come out!

It sounds like you might be concerning yourself overmuch with symmetry. Even a 1m SAS module can deal with inconsistencies (like slapping a single driller on on side of a tank, a scanner on the other, maybe some other doflicky higher up and on the side). As long as you have enough control authority (and some decent foresight), you can make an asymmetrical launch vehicle work. Just look at the shuttle.

Hrm, but is there a way to do that easily so that your satellites end-up near a per-determined longitude? That's the main "benefit" of the method above. Granted, it has absolutely no real use other than saying "I can do that"...or if you have an active imagination and like to think you just hooked-up the TV and satphones for the Kerbals.

I don't have nearly enough knowledge of C to help (nor the workings of KSP), but I just want to offer some words of encouragement. RT is easily one of my favorite mods. Once I learned how to used it, I was so freaking goddamn happy with the results I probably squealed like a schoolgirl (if I did, this memory has been repressed). I hope that you'll be able to get this sorted JDP, or maybe someone else will offer a fix. (I'm just glad to hear that it's only one thing that broke causing these oddities, not the whole thing.) Best of luck fixing this up. (I'm sure we're all looking forward to the day when Squad has their code settled enough that they can offer a well supported mod API.) Edit: When it comes to the inconvenience of a debris piece having it's decoupler stay with it, would it be possible to create a custom decoupler that decouples and then deletes itself when activated? (I'm assuming here that decoupling anything in the other direction is impossible, or it would've already been done.) Sure it's a bit haxxy, but it could be a workaround until such time as there's a better solution created by Squad. Edit 2: Scratch that, that'd require the ability to edit the persistence file and then reload it while the game is running...and that's more than a little crazy.

Yay! I have to ask though: Is the crew module full of Kerbals on launch? Because if it is...an empty version would be nice. Mostly so that it can easily be a nice addition to a fledgling base somewhere, rather than showering the place in Kerbals. (Though if you say "bah, I don't wanna" that's fine; it should be a simple cfg edit and duplication of the part file.)