I want a mods-focused AMA

[Budgie]

I would love to see the KSP devs do a very unofficial, no-promises mod-related AMA, so the community can ask questions about their favourite mods (that may or may not be plagued with bugs) and hear what the people who know the game best have to say about it. Mods are not central to the game for everyone, but certainly a lot of people love using them and openly talking about them with the devs, getting their opinions on what they find interesting, would be a nice thing.

Personally, I would love to hear what the devs would suggest to get rid of the crazy shaking your craft experiences should you try to lift anything with Romfarer's robotic arms, or any arm built from IR parts. I itch to create a space station built using these arms, and not have to worry about quick saving with every little move of my arm, because if not the station will be shaken to bits, and while going really slowly works, its certainly no fun.

Once again, I think if everyone goes into the discussion with the knowledge that nothing will be guaranteed added or changed to the game and only knowledge is being shared, it would be really successful and useful for mod-makers and mod-users alike.

[Robotengineer]

This isn't a bad idea, however the chance of it being done at all is small, and the chance that it would be done on the forum is smaller.

[keeper]

That would be nice, but knowing my luck they would ramble on about big plans for mods i have no interest in.

Saying that, when i check facebook i am usually pleasantly surprised by the amount of mod spotlightage among other things that KSP post there daily.

[Budgie]

This isn't a bad idea, however the chance of it being done at all is small, and the chance that it would be done on the forum is smaller.

Doesn't necessarily have to be on the forums. I just thought this might be a visible place for the powers-that-be take notice

[thadisjones]

KSP team member: "I am vaguely enthusiastic in a general sense and/or mildly interested in novel development, of this KSP mod." Hypetrain: "They're gonna put this mod content in the next release for sure. If I use this mod already I will see this as validation that I am playing KSP better than everyone else. If I am not a user than this mod is going to ruin KSP."

Edited February 25, 2015 by thadisjones

[basic.syntax]

KSP is incredibly mod friendly, but Squad devs have to prioritize their own ideas first, even where they may take inspiration from mods.

Some problems, like the one Budgie mentions, may come from the Unity game engine and its physics implementation.

Players were talking Robotics and rotators in last week's DevNote post here.

So, the developers have thought about these kinds of features.

FlowerChild tested and noted this problem.

[regex]

Personally, I would love to hear what the devs would suggest to get rid of the crazy shaking your craft experiences should you try to lift anything with Romfarer's robotic arms, or any arm built from IR parts.

This is caused by those parts imparting force, often suddenly. I'll bet you the ISS experiences the same thing when the Canadarm moves, you just don't see it because it moves slower and smoother while the station compensates automatically. Same goes for the STS arm.

KSP team member: "I am vaguely enthusiastic in a general sense and/or mildly interested in novel development, of this KSP mod." Hypetrain: "They're gonna put this mod content in the next release for sure. If I use this mod already I will see this as validation that I am playing KSP better than everyone else. If I am not a user than this mod is going to ruin KSP."

ehehehehe.jpg so much

[White Owl]

Doesn't necessarily have to be on the forums. I just thought this might be a visible place for the powers-that-be take notice

If you want them to take notice, your better options are 4chan, reddit, and twitter. This forum is probably the worst option.

While an interesting idea... I imagine the feelings of the poor mod developer, having spent months or even years creating something that's 95% great but has a few glitches. Imagine those people seeing their mod held up to a more "official" spotlight, and seeing the masses point out the glitches. Or read exactly why the game developers don't like the mod and would never consider adding anything like it to stock. That would be terrible.

[Superfluous J]

I don't see how this could work well. Squad is in most cases the WORST people to talk to about mods, for some of the reasons already posted in this thread.

Better would be to somehow wrangle 10-20 modders themselves in for a group AMA but that would be even harder. Most people use the term "herding cats" to describe getting disparate people to agree on something. When I have to herd cats* I use the term "herding modders."

*Okay I'll admit I don't herd cats all that often.

[thadisjones]

Most people use the term "herding cats" to describe getting disparate people to agree on something.

"Hey let's adopt a standardized company Linux install. We'll get everyone in the company who wants Linux into a conference room and get them to decide on the best flavor."

[khyron42]

While I find everyone else's snarky lack of faith in both the devs and our community's reactions to anything they might say interesting, two things come to mind:

1. SQUAD already does talk about which mods they find interesting officially. It's called Modding Mondays.

2. I'd wager that at this point, the devs are busily testing stock changes rather than playing with mods on the old version.

[Budgie]

While I find everyone else's snarky lack of faith in both the devs and our community's reactions to anything they might say interesting, two things come to mind:

1. SQUAD already does talk about which mods they find interesting officially. It's called Modding Mondays.

2. I'd wager that at this point, the devs are busily testing stock changes rather than playing with mods on the old version.

I know about Modding Mondays, but thats a very unilateral thing. I was hoping for discussion to happen.

[pizzaoverhead]

SQUAD already does talk about which mods they find interesting officially. It's called Modding Mondays.

That's an acknowledgement that the mod exists rather than a discussion. Both modders and Squad have much they could learn from each other. I'm sure HarvesteR and Mu often come across potential ways of implementing fixes, improvements and new features, but don't have the time to spend putting them together only to find that they don't work. There are many more modders than developers in Squad. They can try things out and see what's feasible.

Similarly, Squad's experience with Unity would be extremely valuable not just for modders, but for the developers of other games using the Unity engine. HarvesteR is already succeeding on this front:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/climbing-up-ledges.291382/#post-1923242

[rkman]

I don't see the point of asking Squad questions about mods. The creators of those mods know much more about those mods than Squad does.

OP sounds like a request to Squad to advice modders on how to fix bugs in their mods, specifically to get IR bugs fixed. I don't think it realistic to expect that of Squad.

I suspect the wobbling of robotics parts is due to the same bug/feature that causes attachments between low mass parts and high mass parts to misbehave in stock KSP.

[magnemoe]

"Hey let's adopt a standardized company Linux install. We'll get everyone in the company who wants Linux into a conference room and get them to decide on the best flavor."

To be very evil: Have the meeting Friday afternoon.