metalpoetza

I appear to have discovered a bug - putting in a dock objective fails if the docking ports are attached via girder segments - despite these being fully fuel transferable. I haven't got the slightest idea why this would be... I should add - this is a ground-based mission docking rover parts together - not sure if that can have an impact.

From my point of view, the feature I would most like is to be able to give finer control of required mission orbits - setting different min/max values for periapsis and apoapsis (for when eccentric orbits are required) and being able to require a given inclination (which should match within about 2 degree tolerance I think).

That would be really awesome

The use of the return vessel as a ferry was an interesting approach - and a good one, I like seeing innovative ways to deal with the rules I put in place My version was quite similar to yours, except for more fuel on the lander and without the ferry system.

The changes suggested by chlue turned out to be quite quick to do - and I've released an updated beta with them applied. I didn't change the storyline or mission structure but I did make all the budget changes and remove the requirement for a command-pod on the lander mission as discussed. https://github.com/ajventer/ksp_stuff/releases/tag/0.0.7

Thank you - this was very useful feedback -I'll definitely incorporate some of it into the next update. The budget here may be a tad on the generous side - depending how good you are at building budget lifters, mine had come in just below the budget but I had arrived with way too much fuel - so I thought I'd see what the feedback was before altering it - I think I'll alter the budget here to 50K. I'll add a note not to bring extra fuel in this one. I already planned on the possibility that some people may forget to bring the Kerbals - this is why I left the refuel ship mission open-ended so you could bring them in that stage if needed. The player has quite a bit of freedom of design here - you can bring more fuel in this stage and do more trips on the basic station - or bring less (saving money) but risk having to send up another later - Minmus only has about 8 biomes though so generally you should be fine. The budget was based on my refueling ship - but that ended up being far more than what I needed, I'm sure this can be safely adjusted down to about 60K ? I had also over-estimated the lander mission fuel - though it's somewhat higher for the biomes with the worst inclinations (around 120 units for the polar biome). Still you could probably get more than enough with a about 1200 units of refuel option and maybe 300 units of monoprop. Based on your experience - the budget here seems fair. I used the pod purely because previous missions up to the same rank from the official set all used it - I didn't want to leave players in the lurch if they hadn't unlocked the lander can yet. It's possible to change it, or even to leave it un-forced and just require crew. I suspect my version, including any missing crew with the refuel ship, is actually a bit better as doing it in this stage may force players to put extra room on the lander which will add weight (and thus cost) to something intended to be very lightweight. The budget here is meant to simply be a small reward for completing the mission (and make up any shortfalls) - I'm aware it costs nothing, this is one reason this mission is only available once - I could reduce it down to 1000 or so, or even remove it entirely however. I'll have to think about that. There isn't a way to force the biome you land in, in KSPStoryMissions (at least - none that I could find) so I can't really force you to do different biomes - but I can give you an open-ended state where you can choose which ones you want to do. On my version I did everything except the slopes and highlands biomes at this stage, I skipped slopes entirely as they are a nightmare to find a feasible landing site in - and highlands was the one I did just before the final mission and didn't transmit.

I believe you're right - it went up a little when I shut down everything else drawing power - but the message is clear - to give the 1.25m thruster full power you need a LOT more than 1.25m generator+reactor, which means a lot more weight, which means a lot less TWR. I redesigned my probe with an LV-N instead - so I'll just be farming up some science now to start unlocking the next tier and start writing new missions from there, I honestly can't seem to find a suitable mission to showcase the pre-upgrade plasma-thrusters since they seem to be virtually useless.

I'm not so sure I agree... I just built a massive science farming probe to Dres - it has an SC-9001, 4 Mystery Goo's, 3 SCANSat parts, a Magnetometer and an antenna. My previous designs for such probes usually used the LV-909 mini engines or since it was unlocked the LV-N motor. But those SCANSats in particular are truly power hungry so I started building them with generators and nuclear power ... on a whim I stuck an argon container and a plasma thruster on this one instead (all Interstellar parts on this one are 1.25m versions). The only annoying thing I found is that the plasma thrusters won't let you change the fuel type in the VAB - though it automatically switched to Argon as soon as I launched so according to Engineer-Redux I had no delta-V in stage-0 at all in the VAB. As soon as I was launched though - I saw the numbers. 14600+ delta-V with a starting TWR of around 0.69 on a 12-ton probe. I have never been able to match that with an LV-N - hell to get 14K delta-V out of an LV-N I would need so much fuel that the thing would end up weighing at least 30 tonnes, and thus my TWR would be in the 0.0x range (meaning massively long burns to get anywhere). This makes it, unupgraded, by far the best probe engine I've ever had. I suppose the pure-liquid mode rocket nozzles may beat it (it will beat it on TWR - but even then not by much) but while I meant this probe to go to Dres I could send it anywhere - heck a variant of this could easily do a magnetometer scan anywhere in the Kerbol system including Kerbol itself. Update: erm - okay - found the catch - once it started firing on the plasma thruster the TWR dropped to 0.035 - and just finishing my insertion orbit is estimated to take 11 hours of real-time. It will work, but it's going to take some careful planning and observation (nasty side effect of slow burns are they can actually take so long that you end up on the other side of your orbit and burning prograde when you started out retrograde or vice versa). For a science-farming probe this is a fantastic engine already... and it may be worth designing a mission or two around that if only to help players unlock the next tier.

Thanks those were very helpful - I've altered the ranges to cover the full areas of the graphs for each of the three bodies in this mission pack.

And this is why I am doing prerelease versions I hadn't realised that the ideal for kerbin is that far out. I'll fix it by adding that as a target. The others may be closer already as their targets work from the outside in (since you aren't taking off from them). Currently KSPStorymissions has no concept of resources so while I can write a mission to put collectors up (once they are unlocked for me) I cannot control their actual use. I have one more item in the current tier to unlock before starting the 550 tier.

Hi Again - my quest to develop a full scale mission pack for KSP Interstellar to help players learn the abilities of the various parts is coming along nicely - covering each set of parts as they open up I've done basic nuclear rocketry, magnetometer scan missions and now a long range thermal jet mission. The next major part to be unlocked is the plasma reactors - there's a lovely guide on the wiki to using them with a microwave power network (and that guide would make an excellent mission pack I think) but I'm struggling to work out how best they could be applied (preferably in a science-gathering mission) before microwave power is unlocked ? Just a standard propellant for basic probes ? Something more ? Their many fuel options are a bit confusing too (the wiki explains them to a degree at least). Basically - if you had just unlocked the plasma thrusters - how would you use them to in a space flight to score some science points ? Because whatever your answer is - is probably what my next mission should be.

Just a small progress update on the KSP_Interstellar Story Missions I'm developing - I've put out a new pre-release today which adds a second mission chain entitled "Magnets - how do they work" in which the player gets to use the dual magnetometer to scan for antimatter around Kerbin, Eve and Jool. I'm expecting some guests soon so I won't be working on this further today but I will be back and working on the next chain (thermal jets based) over the weekend. https://github.com/ajventer/ksp_stuff/releases/tag/0.0.5

Hi guys - I've finished a first pre-release of my KSP_Interstellar missions for KSP_StoryMissions. https://github.com/ajventer/ksp_stuff/releases/tag/0.0.4 this is still very early WIP - currently comprising a single mission chain built around using the thermal rockets with nuclear reactors (on the basis that they were the first major parts I unlocked) it currently ends with using one to do a fly-by of Duna. I have been looking in more detail at these rockets (and how their values change if you swap fuels) and I suspect it's possible to use them to build a single rocket that can take off from Kerbin (using LFO most likely) ditch the extra fuel, use pure liquid to get to Duna and then use LFO to land and take off - and pure liquid to get back again. This may take a great deal of skill and planning and thus far I haven't managed to do it myself even in Sandbox mode (and I don't want to write a mission for something until I'm sure it can be done - and how feasible it is). The biggest difficulty being the weight of the reactor+rocket for landers (if you don't undock from your liquid fuel tank - it's even worse of course). That said - I thought I would release the current work as a pre-release for comments and suggestions from the players and developers - this may be as far as this chain goes - the next may be focussing on antimatter detection instead. If you would like to help with these or contribute some missions to it, please feel free to send me a pull request with your changes. If you have ideas you think would help, please feel free to reply to my post and let me know.

New version of Romancing the Green Stone now available: https://github.com/ajventer/ksp_stuff/releases/tag/0.0.3 This release fixes some spelling errors and a few minor balance issues in the earlier missions, and most importantly adds a new final mission to retrieve your Kerbals from the science space station once they are done exploring Minmus and bring them back home.

Thanks - that gives me a good idea of where to start at least, I'll stick the first mission set (using the magnetometer as BD48x has suggested) on my github when it's basically done (probably sometime tomorrow) and share a link. If anybody wants to help expand or get involved - I'd welcome pull requests.

I'm sure you're right - which is why I asked for help. The idea is to basically write them as I go - documenting what I learn about the process, then refining it - and publishing the results to help others in turn. I'm under no delusions about the scale of what I've taken on - I just need some pointers, what would one do with the early parts (and hopefully earn some science in the process).

I've begun to work on writing a custom mission pack for KSPStoryMissions built around KSP Interstellar - well, I say "begun" what I've actually done is started a new career save and played it with KSPStoryMissions (along the way writing two smaller mission packs of my own to get the hang of it one for building a mobile science lab space station 0.23 style around minmus and one to put SCANSat satelites around a few bodies for science points) - now I've reached the points where the first few parts from interstellar are about to be unlocked (beyond the basic radiators) - nuclear reactors and the magnetometer are all in the part of the tree I'm currently working on - so it's time to write the first missions - but first I need some idea what to actually *do* with these parts. So I'm asking for a bit of help - what would be a good introductory thing you can do with these parts - which I could script as a mission (I'm hoping to ultimately have the mission pack take you all the way to a mission to build and use the warp drive) - which should be done in such a way that other players can also use it as a guide. But since I'm completely new to the interstellar pack myself I have no real idea how to start with these parts ? What do you do with them ? Where do you get fuel for the reactors ? If they breed tritium - how would you get this to a later fusion reactor ? Through docking transfers ? What about the magnetometer ? Would it make sense to have a mission to go scan Kerbin's poles for antimatter with a probe ? What would you do with this information ? What next ? Is there a bit of a beginners guide to getting started with the parts I could work from ? And what does it say about me that at 2am on New Years day I'm playing KSP and posting on the forum ?

Oh dear, my bad. Well I hope others will enjoy the missions though and that the author is just on Christmas holiday. I wont be up to taking it over either as I've never used c# python and bash are my bread and butter.

Announcement: Romancing the little green stone - new custom mission pack for KSPStoryMissions Link: https://github.com/ajventer/ksp_stuff/releases/tag/0.0.2 This is a mission pack built around the design of science in KSP 0.23, and making use of the new mobile science lab. It requires *only* stock parts. It lets you set up a permanent science and refuel station in orbit around MinMus - then build a small manned science vessel. The small vessel can then visit the various Minmus biomes and return the data for processing to maximize the gain you can get without return missions. It's designed to fit in with the budget system of KSPStoryMissions as subsequent research trips don't involve building new rockets - they therefore don't impact your budget. I successfully played through all four missions and were able to complete all four of them with ease and achieve the desired final status - however I would like some other people to test and comment before considering it stable. landeTLS: I honestly believe that these fit the science model in 0.23 better than the Probing the System series (basically I set out to fix the problem I ran into last night). If you agree with me - please feel free to include them (edited as you see fit - it's GPL'd) in the official KSPStoryMissions. I don't believe they ought to replace the Probing missions - but I think the combination is an improvement over just the one with 0.23's restrictions on transmitting science. This is written to do things the way Squad wants them done. I also made a public pre-release of my SCANSat missions though these are very much WIP and shouldn't be considered ready for prime-time. Since they require mods to operate they are not suitable for the main KSPStoryMissions mod. https://github.com/ajventer/ksp_stuff/releases/tag/0.0.1 Please note: since they are built from the same git tree, the source links contain BOTH sets (but the source link under the SCANSat zip file is to a much older copy of the mission file which was not working at all yet).

Hi again Fractal_UK: Ok - so I decided to chase my hunch about memory hogging being the reason 64-bit was aborting on load, and it turns out I was right, specifically - texture sizes - I launched it in 64-bit mode while monitoring ram usage - it skyrocketed and then aborted as the system ran out. I then did another test, launched KSP in 32-bit mode again, went into the settings and adjusted them rather massively downwards - specifically I adjusted the texture res down to the lowest level (1/8th), exited and relaunched 64-bit:cool: and suddenly - it loaded just fine. I suspect that means this is not a bug in your code at all - it just means that if you are running KSP on a 64-bit linux like I am you really should invest in more than 4Gb of RAM before running interstellar That said - if anybody else runs into the same issue - the solution is to scale down texture resolution. No other mod I've used has required this but I'm tempted to put that down to interstellar just being a rather large mod with lots of parts.

Looks like Probing the system will indeed be very low-yield science wise due to the massive penalty for transmissions in 0.23 and the fact that you can't do unmanned science stations to reduce that. In theory you could put one down first and dock before transmission but this adds new complexity (and a requirement to have unlocked docking ports). Another option is to build retrieval probes, land them and recover them (making the antenna requirement rather superfluous) but that adds it's own complexity (building them with enough fuel to return. I would highly recommend these be reworked for 0.23. Right now I've done the first Wing and a Prayer mission but can't do the next one as I haven't yet unlocked the radial intake. Need about 110 to unlock the docking ports for the Two is bigger than one series and whole lot to unlock rover wheels... basically there's a gap here where the next logical mission set is no longer very workable and the ones after that not yet reachable without going off-script (i.e. doing some science missions on your own without starting a mission because if you do it ruins the budget).

I took that approach for now - though I suspect that SCANSat and ISAMapSat differ too much to be easily interchangeable here. That said, the current mission rewards can build adequate scansats and cover their costs if you're a bit clever (I've played it through). I know LandeTLS doesn't want Mod-requiring missions in the main distribution but if others would like, I'd be happy to share my mission set with you. This is still a fairly small and simple one - just covers Kerbin, Mun and Minmus (though I have in the past done Duna with a similar design). I don't think doing further out as early as these can be done is wise since that would unlock a massive chunk of the tree and remove the fun from the rest of it. My main goal is actually a complete custom mission pack for KSP-Interstellar but I used SCANsat as a starting point because it's much simpler and I wanted to learn the mission structure and find out the pitfalls.

Not true on Linux. Unity (and KSP) has native and full 64-bit support on Linux. What you're saying is still true however on Windows (and I believe on Mac) since unity doesn't yet support native 64-bit on either. In the Linux version there are two different executables ksp.x86 and ksp.x86_64 - natively compiled for 32 and 64-bit respectively. This may explain why it wasn't picked up before - there are fewer linux users, and this could only happen on linux right now since KSP doesn't support native 64-bit operation on any other platform. I can tell you that, other than the interstellar bug, my KSP is in fact far stabler with the native 64-bit version with fewer crashes and video-glitches (which I attribute mostly to having more ram available).

Thanks Fractal - I must admit it surprised me as well. Best guess - the 64-bit removes the 3.2G memory limit - could something in interstellar be causing a memory leak without that limit (my current system only has 4G so not much beyond that is available).

Right, I started by trying to create a small custom mission set to use the early available SCANsat parts to map Kerbin, Mun and Minmus - but no matter what I do the part requirement isn't working. I've tried both the name and title fields from their part.cfg files, but when you attach them to the vessel they still refuse to show as added. What do you have to do to add mod parts as requirements (for missions that are intended to be done with mods) ? UPDATE: In case it helps - here is the file so far: MissionSet = Mapping The Neighbourhood SetAvailableRank = 3 MISSION = Part 1: Kerbin { From = KSC Geographical Sciences Dept Description = We had a great idea ! We could draw really accurate maps if we did it from space... or at least pretty ones. ! Description = So what we're thinking is - let's put a satelite in a polar orbit around Kerbin, with mapping gear on it, map the planet and transmit the data back for science. Description = So go do er... what we just said. Success = Mmm... wait, what's that big white place up here ? SuggestedVesselName = ScanSAT Kerbin Part = Stayputnik Mk. 1 //TODO: Add required SCANsat Parts Part = Comms DTS-M1 Reward = 15000 OBJECTIVE = LaunchKSC OBJECTIVE = ReachAltitude { Target = Kerbin MinAltitude = 250000 } OBJECTIVE = Orbit { Body = Kerbin MinAltitude = 250000 //TODO - This line does nothing right now - is there a way to require a polar orbit ? Inclination = 0 } //TODO: Objectives to SCAN, analyze and transmit data ? }