winn75

Well yes. The only thing you'll need is a surface to drop/spawn the part. Ships, containers, even Eva kerbal body are valid surfaces for part spawn. However, Eva kerbal body are not valid surfaces for part attachment.

Ok, here are the GUI icons I created for the mod. I'll let you guess their meanings : I also finished the user guide. I tried my best to answer to as many "how to" questions as possible and keep a clean design. Hard work and not the funniest thing to do but we did it for the players and I'm sure it's gonna be a big help to use the mod and understand all the possibilities. I'd love to show everything Kospy and I created right now but we want save some for the release (aren't we?)

For the first release, we'll have only small containers (1 cubic meter) because we want to test core system of our mod (part manipulation with eva Kerbals, coherent and clean UI design, drag and drop system...). Bigger container for bigger parts (even Jumbo 64 fuel tanks) will come later as we want to make field large constructions need more than only eva Kerbals (And its a lot of thinking and work to make this hard enought but still fun). Until then, if you want to try big crazy things, you'll can easily modify containers volume or EVA kerbal MaxMass limitations. Just remember, our mod is also limited to Stock game limitations (2Km physic calculation, colisions engine, etc.). I'm not sure how a >2km railway can be done but that is part of the fun modding KSP : get impressed by creative peoples who beat laws of (KSP) physic and common sense. So I'm sure you'll find a way

Playing around with my new Munrunner II Heavy VTOL Cargo. This ship is 170t but is perfectly balanced. The crates are custom ones I made by duplicating parts and editing .cfg to make them bigger. I'll work on 1.25m and 2.50m containers a bit later but I already have cool designs in mind. Here I tried to build a full crane just by assembling parts on field from my 3 containers. Kerbin's gravity doesn't help so I had to add ladders to build higher. Part volume is based on their x,y,z size and long but thin part can fit in smallerbut wider containers (It's a gameplay focused choice, so let's say part are dismantled when they are in containers to save space ). Another feature of KIS is that you can move heavier parts if you have many Kerbals in range (prepare to send large construction teams!).

Well, I was trying things wis KAS and i had the same "the winch is blocked by...." problem. Did you attached a part directly to the winch? I placed a stack connector port (not the yellow radial one, the grey flat one) between my rover and my winch and it worked fine. We'll have to update KAS after releasing KIS anyway as we have many things to rethink and add in this mod

Thanks, I tried my best to make my part look stock and realistic even smallest object as... The E-SD80 Electrical Screwdriver. Your future engineer's best friend as you'll need that to attach or detach part to ships.

You are right indeed. I ment "repairs" but i can't update my imgur album as I wasn't logged in when I uploaded it. Excusez mon français

Hey guys, I have a good new! Kerbal Inventory System (KIS) is almost ready for a first release. Kospy and I are finishing working on bug tracking an the user guide to help you using the mod. It was a looooot of work on little free time but we finally have something we are happy with We will make a dedicated thread soon ! until then, I made a little Imgur teaser album with some nice screenshots : Enjoy!

Does your model lights correctly in Blender when you display material in your viewport shading? Here's my Blender check list when I have this kind of shading problems : - Check normal orientation (but you did that already ) - Check if you don't have overlapping vertices, edges, or full extruded and unmoved faces. (use "remove double"). - Check lighting with flat shading. - Check lighting with smooth shading. - Check your edge flow (triangles or very acute angles = weird shading effect when smoothed*) - Check your EdgeSpilt modifier (Edge Angle) if you use one and your Sharp Edges assignment. - Check your EdgesCreases if you used a unapplied SubSurface modifier (but you didn't, right? ;) ). * Weird shading effect with a "coplanar inward extrusion" with smooth and no Edge Split : I hope all those checking will fix the problem

If I need to extrude a cube out of a quad surface, or a 32 cylinder out of a 32 vetices circle then i'd use the second method. For 32 cylinder out of a quad... i'd use the third method and extend the edge a bit inside the geometry as its more time saving than complex connexions. Imo work time is one of the most costly element in modeling, so keep it simple Also, if you use smooth shading, second method can sometime generate weird shaped shadow unless you planned to use edge split modifier.

I hope you'll post some screenshots of your creations once we'll release KIS Ho and...I finished modeling and texturing most of the parts we wanted for the first release btw.

Well, containers won't be cylindrical as I wanted to make them look like...containers. However, cylindrical openable cargo bays witch you can store containers in, is something we thought about. here's some references images I used for my design (I tried to make something realistic but couldn't find any real word lunar boxes photographies ): Now, if you read Tintin : Explorers on the Moon, remember how the characters unload the rocket to assemble the lunar tank. If not, then do (really, it's awesome!) or take a look at this great CG art : http://www.thescifishow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/DestinationMoonGregBroadmore.jpg That is something we'd love to implement in KSP mixing KAS/KIS features. but there is still much work to do. Also, a cool (and fun focused) thing with KIS is : how will you manipulate those containers? For the small ones, Kospy's drag and drop system will give a lot of ease to speed up a ship unloading with an EVA Kerbonaute. But for the larger ones, we don't want it to be so easy and want players to use their engineering skills to do it

Kerbal Inventory System (KIS) is a new mod/submod we are woking on. It is focused on some actual KAS modules not related to attachement. All i can say yet is that Kospy showed me the work he did on visual inventory GUI and drag and drop features and... it is really user(player)-friendly and enhance the fun using inventories feature. Right now, I am working on different container sizes. Instead of having container Type A or B (wich are actually almost the same) you will have a small container for 0.625 part (and smaller), a medium one for 1.25 and even a huge one that should be able to hold some of the 2.50m parts and fit into the Mk3 cargo bay... Enough to solve that problem and bring most of your favorite spare parts anywhere you want I didn't discussed with Kospy about this yet. IMO new 0.90 Specialization and experience are great features that can help balancing KAS/KIS and avoiding OP features

Hey guys, One more WIP of new models for the small containers and container bay that will replace the actual ones. We planned to have 3 size of them and this one should be able to contain most of the 0.625 parts and fit in 1.25 cargo bays : There were not many real world references for those but i tried to keep a realistic design. Stock-alike texturing wasn't easy neither but I think (hope) I'm getting good at it I also realised that my own KSP game is getting very long to load as I have so many mods (mods with many parts and neat but oversized textures). That is why I tries to improve my edgeflow and UV unwrapping skills in blender. Now both of those models are less than 140 triangles with 256px textures, which is almost half of what i was used to do before. Anyway, work goes pretty well and Kospy showed me many great features he's working on (but i'll let him talk about that ).

This is a very small model. Here, 0.5 is the height of the cylinder, not the diameter (aproximatly the same size as current radial winches). If you look at the attachement nodes, there are squares with an X shaped pattern. Thoses square will fit the size of the stock small struts.

Good news guys. I'm working on a new concept for the 0.5 radial winch and here a wip i'm sharing with you. This single new part will replace and merge 3 curent placeholders : the vertical stack winch, vertical radial winch and horizontal radial winch. You will be able to attach it radially and rotate it the way you want but it also has attachement nodes (on the top and the back) if you want to use it inline or with struts. I hope you'll enjoy this new (and way more versatile) design

Hey everyone. Got back in touch with Kospy today and I planned to rework some models I did and make some other to replace the placeholders. Here is a WIP of the winch I'm retexturing to make it as stock as possible. It still need to be improved but I think it will fit better than the actual I did a few time ago. What do you think?

Yeah that's true, every screen is different. It can be a good idea as planet hue and saturation can change with some other mods as Better Atmospheres. It will also make it easier for you if you want to make some global adjusments

Great mod making pretty realistic illumination. I just noticed it seems to simulate bounce light hue only and sometime at low orbit its seem a bit dark (imo). So thanks to your explainations in your .cfg, I managed to make the effect way brighter (baseReflectiveIntensity x 2) but had to desaturate the CelestialBodies colors to avoid something too...colorfull Anyway, this mod is awesome. Just a question : Do you think it is possible to darken the skybox when you are getting close to something bright as a daylight planet from space to simulate photographic aperture & plain black space effect?

I hope Squad will release this soon too. Until then, there is a nice mod designed by Synapse : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/53952-Research-Development-Overview-%2APermanent-Update-Thread Very useful.

Nice idea, and i'm pretty sure it's on the way. If you look at the ScienceDefs.cfg file, you'll also notice that there is a sismic activity device planned too

Time base rewards can seem a bit irrelevant to a game in wich time means nothing as you can time warp. The player should never be rewarded by being passive. However, orbit completion or surface scanning would be nice way to get science (for instance: surface scanning could unlock the biome map to help the player to know where to land). I also agree to say that science should take some time to be collected. For now science gameplays seem like : go somewhere, click on all the science device (or actiongroup them), send/bring them back. Its pretty quick. Maybe some science based well thought mini-games inside the game should do the trick by adding choice and reflexion to the player about how to make efficient science.

Thats why i suggested the autoaim that doesn't nee to be overprecise (I was imagining a mobile dish that could rotate by itself). I'm actually playing with RemoteTech but i edited the .cfg to make all the dishes omnidirectionnal so they auto aim any other communication relay in rage to keep contact. It may make it sighlty easier but i don't have to spend hours reseting ther com path in menus anymore (now I just have to focus my attention on range and blackout zones.)

I heard the KSP dev's say like this once: "we don't like the idea of random space danger in KSP cause then the player won't be able do anything to avoid them". I admit i agree with them. KSP gameplay is about choices, reflexion and finding solution, not luck. Giving the choice to the player is always the best solution for this kind of gameplay. So this is a great idea but (there is always a but): Is jeb playstyle choice is a real choice? Actually, as time doesn't mean nothing in the actual gameplay why would the player take risks when they can timewarp and avoid them. Because its long and boring? I think its not a good answer. It give us different type of gameplay with Jeb's choice and it depends on how random are your random elements : FULL RANDOMNESS (bad cause player can re-roll the dices to cheat): Player choice: "Anyway, i decide to go jeb style and take the risk > Boom, my ship explode in deep space, 3 dead Kermans > quick load, lets try again. > this time i survived, no damage." Player thoughts: "lol "; "that was easy rolf"; "i beated you, gamedesigner!"; "danger is no so stressful in this game" Or MEDIUM FATAL RANDOMNESS (bad, because even if the player can't cheat here, a random and fatal constraint can be frustrating as the player can be stuck in a bad position because of his unawareness) Player choices: "Anyway, i decide to go jeb style and take the risk > I survived, no damage." Player thoughts: "I guess i have been lucky"; "that was stressful" -Later in the game - Player choice: "Anyway, i decide to go jeb style and take the risk (again) > Boom, my ship explode in deep space, 3 dead Kermans > quick load, lets try again. > Boom, my ship explode in deep space, 3 dead Kermans. Player thoughts: "Damn there is a real a real game constraint here."; "It worked last time and now i have my ship in Kerbin orbit and i spent 3 hours to design it and get it there"; "now i'm stuck"; "I won't do that again"; "Lets wait and do it Bob or Bill style, Jeb style a a too risky choice" Or NO RANDOMNESS (good, cause player is aware of what he is doing and the repercutions his choices will have) Player choice : "Anyway, i decide to go jeb style but i don't "take" risk cause i know there are present >. I survived but my ship is damage, I knew it would be. Player though: "I had it comming but it was my choice and its not as fatal as death"; "challenge accepted, I can finish the mission with a damaged ship" ----------------- Those are juste example. You can aslo have a medium non-fatal randomess (damage or no damage but never death) wich would be the best gamedesign solution as the player can make new choices after a random constraint event. Poker for example: you can be the unluckiest player in the world but make the good choices that will make you win. (the random constraint his a bad hand here but its not fatal). This game wouldn't be fun if you couln't win because you are too unlucky.

The idea of communication system is great and should be implemented in the stock game. However communication delay would make long distance missions unplayable. Also automated manoeuvre would kill the fun as you won't operate your vessel yourself (that why there is no and maybe never will be autopilote in the stock game). I had some ideas about how to make it rather realistic and fun to play: The problem here it : "How to simulate distante communication backdraws you have in real life and keep it hand playable?" Well, the idea it to add a ressource simulating communication data. As electricity, you'd consume it to operate your vessel but the main difference is you can't recharge it and only KSC can provide it (through direct contact or satellite network). When you are in contact with KSC your vessel receive this ressource and you use it to have control : No problem. But the longer the distance is, the lesser you get this ressource (Lets say the speed you get it is calculated in Kilobits/second and drops according to the distance until it reaches 0). If you are manoeuvering the vessel too far from KSC, then you'll consume it faster than you'll receive it and you'll lose control. Antena and dishes improve the reception of this ressource but uses a constant amount of electricity and they loose efficiency over distance (and maybe thick atmosphere or other perturbations as reentry heat, cosmic ray, radiations, scpace monolith... if implemented : i don't really know how this work in real life) : - Antenas would be omni directional but receive less ComData than dishes over distance. They are electric cost-effective on short distance but not on long ones. However they can sightly boost reception on long distance if your vessel can provide enought electricity to support many of them. - Dishes receive more ComData over distance but consume much more electricity and are eavyer. Not very electric and weight cost-effective on short distance. They also have to point the right direction: Let's automate this to avoid always have to reconfigure your communication network. Dishes auto-target the closest "in network" avalaible object but can point a specific target if needed. This don't need to be over precise cause if you make this too realistic then if you rotate 1° on long distance you'll loose contact Other idea: Maybe the communication data ressource can be stored in the probe core (with a very limited amount) and could bed used when you're not in direct contact. This would simulate autopilote as in "it's not in contact but it can manoeuvre" (but the player keeps enjoying playing with his beloved probes ). For instance : a landing would be very hard cause you'd have to be faster and more precise in your manoeuvres. So keeping contact is preferable. Another fun exemple : "damn, my probe is too far and I definitly loose contact with it. Ok i'll send a maned vessel full of data close to it and make contact to download them into the probe to get control back." Last thing : In real life, why does manned vessel keep contact if they just can be autonomous for manoeuvre? Actually they may use some informations given by space center, right? Ok let's do the same in KSP. If your maned ship loose contact with KSC you still can control it but... All the orbit informations on the map and manoeuvre node tools are hiden until you get contact back. so, you may keep full control but try to make an planetary transfer now ^^... Last last thing : Maybe if you leave a vessel with no contact and go back to KSC, then you can't go back to this vessel. You'd see it in the vessel list as : "Vessel name - Last known position : Eeloo orbit - Not controlable -" Your are now ready to send a rescue mission to the unknow