MedievalNerd

When working on the new altitudes with Nathan, we concluded that getting further away from Kerbin was the initial challenge, and getting closer to other bodies was the next. Also, we didn't arbitrarily pick the number, Geosynch altitude is the cutoff for High Earth Orbit. And as I mentioned in previous post, I intend to separate low space into LEO/MEO. (in a future update) Don't worry, there will be much more low space experiments in Milestone 19, like 8? something like that, where possible most probes will have 2 experiments. Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Well, the way I saw it was a prerequisite that you'd have to drive at X speed for Y time. And 'then' do the experiment. That or distance from lander to rover. Ultimately though, as I stated previously, I'm not thinking of ways to make this 'cheat' free. If someone wants to cheat themselves out of the potential experience, it's their choice. (IE, do donuts, skip using the roving and doing your displacement with rockets, that type of thing) I'm sure the ones who are enthused by these ideas wouldn't be the types of people to cheat around it. Am I too hopeful?

People should use the Boulder Co. texture compressor, would probably save loads of memory! @OP, Beautiful work and nice video!

Might be a way to force a certain distance between the lander and the rover? Or perhaps going the way of MCE, and make missions to go to a set of 3 locations, close by, and you'd try to land near them.

Tree Edit, may the gods of Kerbal bless r4m0n for making it, without it any of this would be possible. But the interface is very painful to work with, the dynamic re-sizing of the item lists is very hard to deal with. Unless all the items are assigned or not, it'll play tug of war with those 2 fields for display real estate. So you can end up with only seeing the first 3-4 letters of a part. But you can then, just create sorting nodes and dump them, anyway, enough of that. New items will be placed within the tree to their stock assigned node. But, considering the massive changes to the RPL tech tree, I wasn't always able to keep 'stock' nodes in locations that made sense. And there are a very high number of new nodes intertwined, so in some cases you could have parts appear in funky locations which have nothing to do with it's intended use. This is mainly due to the high amount of crossover in the stock tech tree. The lack of definite tech lines causes some ambiguity when you try reorganize the tech lines. That was really fun to do. lol Problem with new parts and career games, is I'm not sure if MM files can alter parts in a tech tree. Since the tech tree basically reassigns nodes based on the tree layout, which is done post MM files. (when you load the tree with mumech loader). But parts not within the tree, i'm curious if they'd appear to a new tech node you set it to? I'm still using TreeEdit a lot so maybe the handling is different with TreeLoader. For the rock samples. It would be more an experiment set to a specific biome, where you have to land rover. 'drill' for rocks. And then "process them" and you have only a % chance that it triggers a discovery. (You found ore, sample, something, wtvr.)

That sounds like a cool idea, but yeah, not that simple to implement i'm afraid. I have ideas on how to make it work without this, with chance based processing of 'rock samples'? Bah, I feel like **** sitting or laying down. I just hate when I have a cold that affects my reasoning, I feel stupid and it's so annoying. And pretty ****ty that it's my 3rd week back at work, and already getting a cold over the weekend. I blame it on the testers at my company, lol, they work hard but have varying levels of sanitation. When you work with hundreds of people, I guess it's just something that happens. Heh... The worst thing that plagues me today, is I have this huge pack of stew meat, that I HAVE TO COOK, or it will go bad... And that's totally not something I feel like doing right now, would rather crawl through my task list for Milestone 19. I mean since I got the chemical release trail thing solved and buttoned up, it's more MM/cfg file stuff. And then the epic sweep of the tree with all the updated mods who added hundreds of cool parts, which I'll have to look up and figure out where to place. Why are people so productive dammit!? /shake fist

That's because of the fact that there is a lot of abstraction with Science in the stock system. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when we land a rover on another celestial body, I don't think it goes on for an epic drive around the entire surface right? That's because even though they land in a single region, there is lots of experiments they can do. It's not like they take 1 sample ah go, ok, this entire region is now surveyed. Need to send the rover hundreds of miles in another direction to get anything useful. With custom experiments, you could easily make experiments requiring the probodyne rover core for example. And that it needs to be landed in a specific biome in order to acquire science. The fact that all 'missions' in KSP are these open ended, change your mind on a whim, don't really make sense. I doubt that half way to Mars they'd change the landing spot they designated years/month before launch. You can make multiple experiments, requiring varying degrees of time to be completed. All within the 'same biome'. The more interesting thing, and this would require huge amounts of work most likely, would be to have a resource system like Kethane, but that would track 'unique samples' or something. Each region could have a very low amount of them, making moving around perhaps worth while on a smaller scale? Then again, I don't recall the size of each zone when it comes to Kethan's map grid. (Probably still a long drive from one hex to another). Maybe have some more interesting requirements, like a specific altitude to get samples (below X) and having to transmit results from a higher ground? (This is all very gamey, but I just got a horrible cold, and I'm rambling) One thing is for sure, rovers do interest me, and i was totally intended of making a Lunakold mission replica for sure. (Not model the thing obviously, just make an experiment to mirror it's achievements... I'm no moddeler) Another Idea I had would be to create a sort of processing pre-science resources and create pre-existing conditions to existing experiments. IE, you send a rover on Mun. And you have to find a specific mineral let's say. So you get your rover on the ground, and 'dig up rocks/dust'. Then when you are full you process it, and you only have X chance that you find said mineral. Then let's say that once you do, then you unlock another experiment... Meh, I think the fever is getting to me. Not sure if that's make sense. This would basically create a sort of series of experiments to carry out on the surface rather than land, click, click, click, all science acquired. Time to go home...

lol, the payload is from FASA if I'm not mistaken. And yeah, It's for flair most likely. I doubt it's an actual warhead. As for these 'reach for the stars' engines, I think Nathan started having people submitting different engine configs for RealFuels. I'm sticking to RftsEngine for now, so I'm not too familiar with alternate configs or installs. Since this is very specific to real fuels, unless Nathan passes by I'd suggest posting that question on the Real Fuels thread. ... OK, I'm starting a cold and my mind is failling. RFTS = Reach For The Stars... ugh... HTP fuel? See, I've been away from playing KSP for 3 months now, and I've lost track of new accronyms? Dammit! lol Is that fuel that requires the cryo tanks? (I have no idea what I'm talking about...)

The only thing 0.23 seems to have done is enabled the 'resettable = yes' field to a default no. That field was already there in 0.22, just set to yes by default. All grinding should be eliminated with RPL. Experiments are either transmittable or not, and base & cap values are matched. (IE, zero grinding.) MS18 might not be properly keeping those values in check since if I'm not mikstaken, Devs played with the payout of certain science instruments, so my tweaks are dated! I hate grinding when it comes to science in KSP, I'd rather have several missions conducting similar experiments, than to just grind something 3-4 times in one go... Meh. EDIT: How come you have the explorer core!? I've been making that for MS19...? Oh, maybe it was released as part of RO... Strange!

Yes true, I'm not saying it shouldn't be considerable. But the fact that there is one main value which is processed through all the multipliers, it has a butterfly effect. Adding 1 point to an experiment that is in Kerbin Orbit, will be worth 4 points on Mun, and 7 on Jool. (With some variations to situations). This is a bit why I started the whole 'body/situation' specific experiments, so that you don't have to worry about the butterfly effect of an 'open' experiment. It's like mods which add new experiments, they bring in a whole load of science points each when factoring that they work around every body. (Well except for atmospheric only experiments)

Howdy palker, Manned experiments/science definitely needs a lot of love! Before I got caught up in this chemical release plugin I inteded to include some of the first manned custom experiments. Given the extraneous delays, I'm going to go for MS19 without adding them just yet. But good point, I could investigate upping the stock science awarded by Crew & EVA reports. The only thing that is dangerous about playing with the stock experiments is that they apply for all bodies, so increasing it to make Kerbin relevant, will make Jool and others give huge payouts because of the way it operates. (via multipliers set for each body and it's situations). Don't you worry, I totally intend to give manned experiments a push! I could even slip in some placholders if it doesn't prove too complicated. This is still in alpha with many facets in progress. So you will get some odd deadends and the likes. In the end we'll make it happen! Thanks for the feedback and trying it out!

WEEE! Most elaborate experiment ever carried out by Kerbal kind... Not really... And don't mind the text, it was a long and frustrating process so I was going a bit mad in the end. EDIT: I've decided to name this screenshot: Around Kerbin when the bars fell, his box wide open!

Most glorious victory! I have no idea what I was doing wrong with the chemical release module, but it's fixed now. I was able to have an experiment that was conditional on having no more of said 'chemical', and it could only be released in a specific situation. FINALLY! Yay! It's not perfect, but it's working. So I won't mess with it too much apart from making sure the error messages are intuitive and make sense. IE, not referring to Data or the Recorder. So I just need to update all those awesome mods, and do another mega tech tree sweep, going over each item. (Epic fun!) Once that is done, I just need to make generic experiments for Venus & Mars to keep you guys busy, and then well... I think we should be done! Ugh, I'm so happy it worked, you have no idea! This was the biggest hurdle at this point, and it's behind us! Sentences that end with exclamation marks! TLDR; weekend release seems like it wouldn't be impossible! Hopefully not Sunday... D:

Here we go, I'll add it to the OP too. The cutoff is MEO. We merged LEO & MEO into Space Low. I might actually split them up in a future update. But much to do till then.

Great idea, but I think that might require some sort of plugin of sorts? IE, scan the existing tree and place any foreign new IDs in a specific node. Hmm... That's probably more complicated than it sounds. :/ But yes, I do tend to put stuff that isn't tweaked or unfinished further down the tree or in that quarantine node you mentioned.

Frizz is adding new parts quite frequently, especially recently with Mercury, Atlas and Explorer 1. Each of those have sub parts as well, which will most likely be all over the place when you load up RPL. As for other mods, multiple updates have been released since my last update. As such, I'll have to go through the entire tree with the most updated versions of each mod to make sure they are still in their intended location, and to find suitable locations for the new parts as well. Just a tad bit of moving parts in this whole process.

Wow, Talk about getting tunnel vision. lol If the problem is what I think it is I'll hate myself pretty badly. But if it is, then it's almost not a problem. I'm just an idiot. Maybe this weekend doesn't seem to far fetch from where I'm standing. The gods of gaming aren't too proud of me right now.

I was on a mega roll this weekend, until I hit a brickwall with the coding of the new chemical release experiment. I pressed on until I was about to go mad, no idea what the hell is wrong in there. I'm going to confer with my fellow programmers to see what am missing here. My data collection experiments still work, so i'm rather puzzled as to why this isn't working. I'm reusing much of the same code except with a few changes, and those seem so trivial that I doubt it mkae the whole thing go boom... Gargh! I'm definitely not a good programmer, or even worthy to use that 'title'. :/ This weekend would be the next release window as I would see it. Being back full time at work and dealing with some very left field request, I have to do a bit of work when I get home at night. So ain't much fuel in the tank for KSP on weeknights for now! So the weekends is where the 'magic' is 'supposed' to happen. EDIT: If there is anybody familiar with coding plugins for KSP and has a bit of time on their hands, would you be so kind to PM me. I'll send him/her the latest code for review, if they find what's wrong well then. Yee haa! I will look at it again this weekend if no one is able to.

Ahh yes, NathanKell was aware that I was working on recreating the bumper project. So I sent him my amazingly resized nose cone, and he created all these extra parts to make a real replica of it! The reason the WAC Corporal cap doesn't do anything, is that it's just a piece for now until I add it's experiments. (The experiments are released as part of RPL, no RO) Hope this helps!

Thanks anqui! And I really, really like easy!

Curses! Having annoying issues with the Chemical Release Module! I'll have to review the code a bit later, getting tunnel vision and I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong! *shake fist at c#*

Hi whorlwind, Nope, those are the ones that were included in the first public release. Milestone 19 brings a complete overhaul of the early unmanned experiments with quasi-historical following of their launch dates and scientific accomplishments. For flavor, experiments have been renamed to match these achievements. I redid them up until Vanguard, so the follow ups will be 'Kerbal' versions of their historical counterparts. Until either someone makes those probes, or I find the time and decided to play resize madness to make one that looks close to it. As for Mechjeb, yes, that's indeed in the plans. But to not delay MS19, I'll go ahead and release it without that tweak. But I'll do a hotfix for it. If you wouldn't mind, how exactly do you go about of setting MJ's additional features within the tech tree? Is it a file you modify in the MJ folders? I'm sure the info is out there, but i'm swiming in plugin land of my own. So any help/tips would be awesome! Thank you, and everyone else, for trying this out! I hope the next release will be a plesant first step towards a more complete experience! But again, forewarning, up until I'm able to create enough custom experiments to potentially have missions for all bodies, and soon-ish, also have biome specific ones, one must be mindful to at least unlock some 'stock or mod' regular modules to make sure you can still get some science when you run out of RPL experiments. For those braves ones who've peeked at my experiment files, or the plugin itself. I would be more than happy to accept submission of completed missions! I'd suggest focusing on Moon, Venus & Mars. As those are the ones that need the most attention for now. Then we can move towards Mercury, Jupiter(and it's moons). I'll skip adding manned experiments to this release, but may add them as a hotfix as well. (MS19 will be like tempered steel with all those hot fixes... ok it's not that funny...) I've spent the day finalizing the plugin, I think the chemical release module is up to spec. Just need to tweak and rename a few methods so that it makes more sense, then I'm jumping back into MM files. To finish it off by a glorious mega sweep of the tech tree, followed by a long session of reading all the involved mods to see if I didn't miss anything in my never ending update for MS19. Sadly NathanKell is away for the day, so hopefully I can snag him tonight to pry all this sweet information from him. I still intend to release development videos and/or tutorial videos showcasing the functionality of the tech tree and the Experiment plugin I've built. So for those who hate my walls of text, and don't mind my ramblings, then you'll be able to get an update here and there on the work in progress and future plans. In the meantime, I had started a series of very casual 10 minute reviews of old DOS games, if you go on Youtube and check The Medieval Nerd, you should find some lightly entertaining material. Disclaimer, all those are pure adlib, and zero prep, so there are extensive sessions of rambling going on. Don't expect a well throught out review. Enough of that! Milestone 19 is coming, I can feel it! Stay tuned!

That thing fills up fast! Go ahead now, but I did receive your last message. I hope I answered it? If not, sorry about that!

Smart man! Thanks for this, I'll have to start figuring out how to make experiments with this new toy!

As I said before, you sneaky devils the lot of you! <3 Another crazy week in QA pre-production land! But tomorrow I intend to spend a good amount of the day working on MS19. I can't wait to bring it to you!!! And.. uhm, I can't wait to play it myself. So you people don't think I'm secretly enjoying it behind the scenes.