[1.6.1] Chaka Monkey 161

[Seyvern]

OK, perhaps a stupid question, but I downloaded this pack today, and I both love it and hate it.

Its gorgeous. But its so not-balanced with stock, its not even remotely close. I mean there is an engine in there that weighs 2.25 tons, has 480 Vacuum thrust, and an ISP of 470! Its stats are better at sea level than a skipper in vaccuum!

So how do people play with this mod? Do you guys just use these parts and ignore stock? Looking for input here.

-Seyv

[JoseEduardo]

So how do people play with this mod? Do you guys just use these parts and ignore stock? Looking for input here.

that's how I play after I found out mods, RO, Tweakscale, KW, FASA and Chaka for that matter... I recently realized that when I first started in KSP I was all "oh, cool, these 3,75m parts are monstrous" and now I'm like "what the f* am I supposed to do with these tiny 2,5m parts?"

Chaka pretty much can eliminate stock gameplay, it has everything a stock game has and a few extra stuff (like a lander descent module and more station parts)

[YANFRET]

OK, perhaps a stupid question, but I downloaded this pack today, and I both love it and hate it.

Its gorgeous. But its so not-balanced with stock, its not even remotely close. I mean there is an engine in there that weighs 2.25 tons, has 480 Vacuum thrust, and an ISP of 470! Its stats are better at sea level than a skipper in vaccuum!

So how do people play with this mod? Do you guys just use these parts and ignore stock? Looking for input here.

-Seyv

While there are many packs out there that are fun to add to Chaka, the pack essentially takes the point of view that the only stock parts worth using are the Cupola, and a few lights and ladders etc.

Also as a rule parts are included or not within the download based on their need within one of the provided craft files. This helps us keep the size of the pack down, basing its footprint on mission accomplishment only.

Edited July 25, 2015 by YANFRET

[gdshard.morpheus]

Hey, ran into a bit of an issue testing out this mod. So I hope it's just some tiny thing where I am doing something really stupid and nothing more, still: Whenever I install this I don't seem to get the necessary amount of drag on reentry. Even with parachutes I almost don't slow down at all. First I thought it might be reacting with some other mod, so I took a clean 104 install and copied in the folders: same result.

Short demonstration of what I mean:

By the time I recorded the video I had installed Real Chutes because I originally thought it might be an issue with parachutesm but that made no difference at all. Also: While the mod is installed I get the same problem even on stock capsules. Maybe someone can point me towards what I'm missing here

[dresoccer4]

While there are many packs out there that are fun to add to Chaka, the pack essentially takes the point of view that the only stock parts worth using are the Cupola, and a few lights and ladders etc..

So do people remove a lot of the stock parts to save on memory? I basically only have Chaka, stock, and a few other smallers mods running, and I can only get a couple reverts or ship loads in before the game crashes with 3.5GB+ ram utilization. Then I have to load KSP back up again and hope I can continue where I left off. That can get frusterating

[Budgie]

So do people remove a lot of the stock parts to save on memory? I basically only have Chaka, stock, and a few other smallers mods running, and I can only get a couple reverts or ship loads in before the game crashes with 3.5GB+ ram utilization. Then I have to load KSP back up again and hope I can continue where I left off. That can get frusterating

I don't think its a good idea to delete all of stock parts. Instead, go through and cull the parts you think there are good replacements for in CMES. I tried deleting everything once, and I kept getting stuck when creating new vehicles and finding that I do in fact need an I-beam or that stock solar panel would work okay here

[YANFRET]

So do people remove a lot of the stock parts to save on memory? I basically only have Chaka, stock, and a few other smallers mods running, and I can only get a couple reverts or ship loads in before the game crashes with 3.5GB+ ram utilization. Then I have to load KSP back up again and hope I can continue where I left off. That can get frusterating

While every effort to conserve Chaka's footprint has been undertaken, it remains a heavy pack and individual results may vary.

Hey, ran into a bit of an issue testing out this mod. So I hope it's just some tiny thing where I am doing something really stupid and nothing more, still: Whenever I install this I don't seem to get the necessary amount of drag on reentry. Even with parachutes I almost don't slow down at all. First I thought it might be reacting with some other mod, so I took a clean 104 install and copied in the folders: same result.

Short demonstration of what I mean:

By the time I recorded the video I had installed Real Chutes because I originally thought it might be an issue with parachutesm but that made no difference at all. Also: While the mod is installed I get the same problem even on stock capsules. Maybe someone can point me towards what I'm missing here

Okay! So looks like you found the Classic Bobcat Parachute part and it's wrecking your space program ( That's what it does ). We admit that the label " * Danger * " on the part is not sufficient to properly explain what is going on.

Essentially we were supposed to remove that nose cone however as an oversight it was left in the parts bag. With 1.0.4 it not only doesnt work, it breaks things after you try to use it.

SO! Orion has a customized parachute solution which you will find in the craft files. It's pretty easy to make, and we should have included this quick instruction booklet with it however that was left out as well.

An Action ticket for removal of that part and inclusion of the Quick Instructional Booklet has been created and your tracking Monkeynumber is 464-2927A

Until then, here's a quick reference guide to surviving a flight with the Chaka version of Bobcat's Orion capsule in 1.0.4

Chaka Orion Direct Attach Parachute Assembly and Quick Start Guide TM

[Motokid600]

OK, perhaps a stupid question, but I downloaded this pack today, and I both love it and hate it.

Its gorgeous. But its so not-balanced with stock, its not even remotely close. I mean there is an engine in there that weighs 2.25 tons, has 480 Vacuum thrust, and an ISP of 470! Its stats are better at sea level than a skipper in vaccuum!

So how do people play with this mod? Do you guys just use these parts and ignore stock? Looking for input here.

-Seyv

I was a little lost as to how to incorporate Chaka into my game so i started by simply using the sub assemblies and craft files to launch whatever payload you could imagine all over the solar system. After so long i was able to familiarise myself with all the parts and now find myself using them in alot of applications. Try strapping on four Vasmire engines to the upper stage and use a few extra tanks. Amazing ejection stage.

[dresoccer4]

I don't think its a good idea to delete all of stock parts. Instead, go through and cull the parts you think there are good replacements for in CMES. I tried deleting everything once, and I kept getting stuck when creating new vehicles and finding that I do in fact need an I-beam or that stock solar panel would work okay here

cool thanks for the response, ill give it a try. and while i said in my earlier post that it can get frustrating having to re-loap KSP so often, i should have also added it's definitely worth it though because this mod is so great!

[YANFRET]

cool thanks for the response, ill give it a try. and while i said in my earlier post that it can get frustrating having to re-loap KSP so often, i should have also added it's definitely worth it though because this mod is so great!

I really should make a list of stock parts required by the craft files. The cupola, some structural beams, the lights ladders and the remote guidance units are the ones I can think of right this moment.

In other news, I was thinking about getting SLS Block IB involved with the Intermonkey Space Station

Edited July 27, 2015 by YANFRET

[gdshard.morpheus]

While every effort to conserve Chaka's footprint has been undertaken, it remains a heavy pack and individual results may vary.

[...]

Oh boy, I must have really seen the danger sign as an invitation without realizing. Thanks a lot, just tested it with the right parachutes and everything is fine

e:/Seeing this I must have somehow quoted the wrong post ...

Edited August 1, 2015 by gdshard.morpheus

[Wolf Baginski]

I don't think its a good idea to delete all of stock parts. Instead, go through and cull the parts you think there are good replacements for in CMES. I tried deleting everything once, and I kept getting stuck when creating new vehicles and finding that I do in fact need an I-beam or that stock solar panel would work okay here

There's a question of game style buried in this.

I don't use IVAs much, maybe cockpit views only, but they can use a lot of RAM and soak up clock cycles in rendering. It's partly large, sharply-detailed, textures, partly the mesh files.

Similarly, some items have to be more complicated than others. Open girder structures need far more polygons than a simple tube and that increases the rendering cost. The rendering process is also more complicatedâ€â€that open girder has parts blocking the line of sight to other parts of the same component.

I have a few such parts which also switch between different physical fuel tank meshes. I am not sure if the in-flight views are using data structures that include the invisible components, and how the render-engine handles them.

I've been doing some of the CGI stuff for a long time. I still see people using meshes that are so densely structured that, in a wireframe view, lines are so close together as to seem like a solid surface. Maybe you need that to produce a high-res picture of a Mercury capsule in orbit (there are some other techniques that could simplify the mesh for that) but it cripples the live animation for a game.

Anyway, stock parts are created with an awareness of the trade-offs. Some mods use parts that get seriously over-complicated. You can choose not to use complex girder structure, and delete the particular parts. IVAs don't look so easy. The part.cfg can be modified by Module Manager to remove the references to the IVA, but you have to deal with the correct files so they're not loaded by the game. And several IVAs often use the same sub-components.

I've also seen alternative textures in sub-folders that end up in GameData. That's grabbing a bit of precious RAM. It's the downside of using tools such as Texture Replacer.

In the end, I cut down on Spaceplane-oriented Mods for my current game. Disk space is cheap, so I can have a parallel complete install without 5m boosters. And that style/theme choice could allow some of the stock wings and air-breathers to be deleted.

I think I shall have to do such things until a reliable 64-bit Windows version is available. I hear good reports of Linux, but I still seem to need an ancient version of Internet Explorer to reliably deal with the brave new world of government IT my country is entering.

Since CMES is using parts from several different sources, it's a bit of a hostage to fortune. No names, but I have had bad experiences of one of the Mods, and when it reaches a formal upgrade, and likely enters CMES, life could get messy. As you say, CMES is already a heavy pack.

[ebphoto]

I was just going through all the different launch systems in the download and I was wondering if you could tell me what the XLS Transfer Vehicle I, II and III are used for? Am I supposed to connect all these together along with Vehicle Drive system? I'm confused to what all these are for. I went through the charts you have for them but didn't see any of these in there. I'd appreciate any information you can send my way.

Thank you,

E

[YANFRET]

Variety. We may do a poll at some point to ask which one you guys like best, then eliminate the others.

Use alone and combine at target with Transfer Lander and Habitat of choice. Return drive section may be needed for more extreme destinations... product cards pending testing and time availability

@ Wolf Baginski: We will not let it get messy. Expansion of the pack in terms of products or memory footprint is not planned. Any future products will be kept within existing memory and dependency boundaries.

[bigshow281]

Hello, I'm relatively new to these forums and especially new to posting as I've been lurking for a while. First, I wanted to say that all the people that contributed to this parts pack did a hell of a job! I downloaded Chaka a week ago or so and I've been having a blast with it since (pun intended). However, I did want to report a few problems I found. First, the product cards for the premade rockets could use some fine-tuning. There are a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes, not that its a big deal, just throwing it out there. Also, there are no product cards for the XLS line of rockets. I'm assuming they're just XL versions of some of the other ones, but I'm not sure. Clearer instructions on which part goes with what would be spectacular. Also, I've encountered this strange bug constantly when using any of the vehicles that include a rover. This thing keeps appearing floating in space nearby the vehicle that looks like a railing and two astronaut helmets. Sometimes when you time warp, then come out of time warp, you can see the strange object fly away very fast into space. Then after some time, it returns. I'm including three screenshots of this object. I circled the object in question in red. I look forward to future updates to this great package. And please let me know what I can do to resolve this issue.

[Mecripp]

Hello, I'm relatively new to these forums and especially new to posting as I've been lurking for a while. First, I wanted to say that all the people that contributed to this parts pack did a hell of a job! I downloaded Chaka a week ago or so and I've been having a blast with it since (pun intended). However, I did want to report a few problems I found. First, the product cards for the premade rockets could use some fine-tuning. There are a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes, not that its a big deal, just throwing it out there. Also, there are no product cards for the XLS line of rockets. I'm assuming they're just XL versions of some of the other ones, but I'm not sure. Clearer instructions on which part goes with what would be spectacular. Also, I've encountered this strange bug constantly when using any of the vehicles that include a rover. This thing keeps appearing floating in space nearby the vehicle that looks like a railing and two astronaut helmets. Sometimes when you time warp, then come out of time warp, you can see the strange object fly away very fast into space. Then after some time, it returns. I'm including three screenshots of this object. I circled the object in question in red. I look forward to future updates to this great package. And please let me know what I can do to resolve this issue.

http://i.imgur.com/UfLTlPd.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/N2KyP6K.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/q37iVmN.png

Is your debug showing anything spamming the log ?

[bigshow281]

Is your debug showing anything spamming the log ?

Nope, no spam or any error showing up in the debug log. Here are a couple of new screenshots I took of the object on the surface of Ike taken just 5 minutes ago. These are much clearer, zoomed in, and brighter than the previous shots taken from orbit. So far I've only seen this object appear when I'm using a ship that includes the Monkey Rover Pod piece.

[YANFRET]

So if I open my troubleshooting operations manual, it says the first page is intentionally left blank, and then on Page 2 it says "Does issue occur on a clean install?"...

[V8jester]

So if I open my troubleshooting operations manual, it says the first page is intentionally left blank, and then on Page 2 it says "Does issue occur on a clean install?"...

I think its something botched with his install. But on a side note it looks like RPM props hovering out in the distance. Where there any changes to the ALCOR IVA?

[YANFRET]

Could this be what happens when the latest version or RPM is not used?

[Mecripp]

He might have a old JSI PartUtilities and even the news one which is old now is buggy.

[YANFRET]

Okay in other news, a good friend of the program, V8jester, has created a new CFG for the original Bobcat parachutes that appears to sort them out rather well. This would mean that in the next update we could do away with the need for nesting the red parachute. A few tweaks to the final descent rate will make this config simply the best it has ever been.

Please join us in expressing our appreciation to V8jester for sorting this!

YANFRET,

I fixed the triple chute for myself. Here's what I did to make them work.

PART
{
name = OrionDockingPort2Xx
module = Part
author = BobCat
mesh = model.mu



MODEL
{
  model = CMES/Pod/Orion_dockport_X/model
  scale = 1.1872, 1.1, 1.1872
}
scale = 1
rescaleFactor = 1
///CoMOffset = 0, -1.5, 0
///CoLOffset = 0, 3.0, 0
///CoDOffset = 0, -1.5, 0

node_stack_top = 0.0, 0.4932, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 3
node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -0.214, 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0, 3
sound_parachute_open = activate
TechRequired = spaceExploration
entryCost = 1400
cost = 1000
category = Utility
subcategory = 0
title = CHAKA / Orion Dockport Classic Parachute Enabled 
description = * Danger! *
attachRules = 1,0,1,1,0
mass = 5
dragModelType = default
maximum_drag = .2
minimum_drag = .1
angularDrag = 3
crashTolerance = 10000
maxTemp = 3400
breakingForce = 90620
breakingTorque = 90620
fuelCrossFeed = False
bodyLiftMultiplier = 0
bulkheadProfiles = size1, srf
//-MODULE
//{
//name = LazorSystemDockingCamera
//}
//MODULE 
//{
//name = JSIInternalPersistence
//}
MODULE
{
 name = ModuleDockingNode
 referenceAttachNode = top
 nodeType = size1
}
 MODULE
 {
  name = ModuleCommand
  minimumCrew = 0
 }
 RESOURCE
 {
  name = ElectricCharge
  amount = 1500
  maxAmount = 1500
 }
 RESOURCE
 {
  name = MonoPropellant
  amount = 50
  maxAmount = 50
 }

 MODULE
 {
  name = MechJebCore
 }

 MODULE
 {
  name = ModuleSAS
 }
 MODULE
 {
  name = ModuleReactionWheel

  PitchTorque = 5.0
  YawTorque = 5.0
  RollTorque = 2.0

  RESOURCE
  {
   name = ElectricCharge
   rate = 1.50
  }
 }

  MODULE
 {
  name = ModuleTestSubject
  environments = 4
  useStaging = True
  useEvent = False
 }
 MODULE
 {
  name = ModuleParachute
  invertCanopy = true
  autoCutSpeed = 0.5
  capName = cap
  canopyName = canopy
  semiDeployedAnimation = semi
  fullyDeployedAnimation = full
  stowedDrag = 0.22
  semiDeployedDrag = 14
  fullyDeployedDrag = 270
  minAirPressureToOpen = 0.02
  clampMinAirPressure = 0.02
  deployAltitude = 2500
  deploymentSpeed = 0.16667
  semiDeploymentSpeed = 0.5
  chuteMaxTemp = 1800
  chuteThermalMassPerArea = 0.024
 }
 MODULE
 {
  name = ModuleDragModifier
  dragCubeName = SEMIDEPLOYED
  dragModifier = 0.67
 }
 MODULE
 {
  name = ModuleDragModifier
  dragCubeName = DEPLOYED
  dragModifier = 25
 }
}

[YANFRET]

Mystery of the alien space helmet rack confirmed!

We have created an Action Ticket to resolve this issue

Edited August 2, 2015 by YANFRET

[bigshow281]

Mystery of the alien space helmet rack confirmed!

http://imageshack.com/a/img910/5789/WHlH5z.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img673/8678/Remh32.jpg

We have created an Action Ticket to resolve this issue

Sweet! Yeah, I've tried just about everything...starting a fresh install, JUST installing CMES and the newest version of RPM and it still happens, so glad to see this was confirmed. At least it doesn't seem to interfere with any ship mechanics or anything, just seems to be a weird visual bug. Today, I spotted a new one similar to this while I was sending a rover to Duna. Instead of the helmet rack, I noticed a white circle floating in space like the rack did, it just looks like a flat white plate. Usually after warping to a maneuver node, I'll see this white circle object fly away rapidly, then eventually re-appear. I just removed the ASET folder containing the props and the RPM folder because I never use IVA anyway so we'll see if that fixes it.

[YANFRET]

Action Ticket Resolved!

Obviously we will be doing an update, but until then you can replace

CMES/Pod/ALCOR_Monkey_Rover/Spaces/ALCORE_Monkey_Internals/ALCORMonkeyInternals.mu with

this one

Special thanks again to Alex Ustas for supporting Monkey exploration!!