[WIP] Diaspora - interstellar kolonization mod

[beabop]

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diaspora (n): The movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland star

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The mod's endgoal is to put you in another star system, with a fresh start. A big ship and some workers, something like this:

Or really, a bit more like this:

I think there's a fundamental problem with realistic starships in KSP, with mods that have multiple stars. They take too long to get anywhere! You time warp through a flight lasting decades or centuries, and what does the Type 1.5 civilization you left behind do? They're not mining the sun, building megastructures, or kerbin-forming planets. You can go back to the Kerbol system at any time and your satellites are still in their orbits, your Kerbals are still in their hitchiker containers, and your bases haven't expanded one bit. It breaks my suspension of disbelief.

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The Mod

That's where this mod will come in. The journey to another star is a special voyage. You entire civilization (and your game) has been organized behind a single purpose: build the greatest spacecraft ever built, fill it with tons and tons of the most expensive substances known - Helium-3 or antimatter or Karbondrum - and launch it on the most epic journey in history. Your kerbals wave the starship off, and then...

Diaspora focuses the scope of the game on your colonists. Decades or centuries later, their ship arrives in a new star system. Kerbin is so very far away - your only interaction is tiny, very expensive email packets that take years to arrive. The home system is irrelevant, so it's not even in the game.

Uninhabited worlds await. Launch your construction craft, get mining, and build a new Kerbal Space Program around your new home star. And if you want, build another starship and launch it to another star! Each interstellar trip is a new chapter in the kerbal Diaspora.

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Planned Contents

• Interstellar Navigation Komputer part. "'Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is.' - Doug-Adams Kerman. But that's okay, with the latest, greatest flight komputer from Bebop Rocket (and Dance) Collective. Guaranteed to keep your starship on course for decades and your crew alive (sanity not covered by this guarantee). BFR engines and planet-sized fuel tanks not included."
  
• Interstellar Navigation GUI. Select a star from a list of stars you've discovered (installed), make sure you're ready, and the mod will simulate the voyage to your new home!
  
• An interstellar voyage. While you're in interstellar space, I would like your ship to live in another system that only contains stars: Kerbol and the Local Kluster. On the second pass (after the teleporting from a GUI), the trajectory will be set automatically and the screen will be locked to the Planetarium, as the game timewarps through years. Eventually, I would like to add the option for the player to fly the mission themselves, so you can do your crazy powered slingshot past Kerbol.
  
• KSP without the KSC. KSC is lightyears away. Your new base is your mothership. KSC functions will be tied to specific parts - VAB/launchpad to an Extraplanetary Launchpads part, science to a lab, navigation to a dish (or an epic dish cluster part). Eventually, the main KSC Scene would be replaced with a screenshot, then a Scene of your mothership!
  
• Multiplayer support. Considering how huge a starship is and how much exotic fuel you need to mine to cross light years, I think coop is a natural fit. The diaspora could keep repeating, with a new star system every month or so when the players successfully launch.
  

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Other Mods

Dependencies

• Kopernicus
  
• Kerbal Engineer. Used to calculate vessel deltaV through all the stages and trip time.
  
• Background processing? Used to deplete consumables over the trip.
  
• Time warp enhancement? Used to warp years at a time sensibly.
  

Very Strongly Recommend

You don't have to launch a colony. Building a Project Daedalus-style probe could be interesting. But if you do...

• Extraplanetary Launchpads. Without the KSC, you'll need some way to build things.
  
• A resource mod compatible with EL. Where do you get the resources to survive and grow?
  

Strongly Recommended

• Propulsion mods (Karbonite+, KSP Intersteller). Propulsion is half of why interstellar travel is so hard! Good luck travelling light years on the Isp of the stock nuke. You'll probably also need a mod for stupendously giant fuel tanks and stupendously giant mining equipment to fill them up in a reasonable time.
  
• Life support mods (TAC life support, USI Life Support, Snacks!). Long-term life support is the other half of why interstellar travel is so hard! Whether they're dead on arrival or refuse to work (dooming your expedition to eternal sulking), you won't want to run out of these supplies. DeepFreeze offers you the solution of kerbal popsicles. Mods like USI MKS/OKS and Biomass let you recycle life support supplies so you don't have to pack a century's worth.
  
• Power systems mod. There's not enough light for solar panels between stars; you need nuclear energy. Maybe you can power your life support on stock RTGs, but The Kraken frowns on that many parts.
  

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Development Plan

1. First the voyage GUI. Figure out how to load different Kopernicus/Kopernicus Tech configs without having to restart the game and plop your craft in orbit around the new star. Next version would simulate the voyage - calculate delta V and trip time. Next would be resources - check that your craft has enough power, and it arrives low on life support supplies, reactor fuel, machinery, spare parts, etc (or if you didn't pack enough, the kerbals all die). Either it would be calculated by the mod or some time warp enhancement/background processing would be used.
   
2. Next, the KSC and VAB replacement, bundled as a required but stand-alone mod, Mothership. For the first version, I'd like to find a hack that disables the returning to KSC from flight and replaces the VAB background Scene with a starry skybox. You would now reach the relevant KSC scenes - VAB, science, and astronaut lounge - from part modules.
   
3. Working around the time limit. I've never gotten that far, but apparently after ~60 years the game breaks? It seems simple enough to restart time on arrival.
   

At this point, I would call the mod feature-complete, and everything else is bonus.

Extensions of other mods:

• Civilian Population. Hire contractors to mine fuel for you, because you're going to need a lot of it.
  
• Telescope mods. Launch Kepler-style missions to scout out destinations. You don't want to end up at a crappy star! Build a solar system-spanning telescope to finally get a good look at the exoplanets.
  
• Contracts pack. Kerbal equivalents of the 100 Year Starship project, Tau Zero Foundation, and the British Interplanetary Society guide you through starship construction (and give you money).
  
• Extended tech tree. Another star should have an insane science modifier, so I think it needs to be balanced to feel right. Extending the tech tree with very expensive, overpowered Star Trek style technologies would give you something to spend it on...
  

Enhancements:

• Relativity. Makes the propulsion problem way harder and the life support problem a little easier.
  
• Procedural generation of systems (incorporate and expand Warp Drive).
  
• A way to handle the life cycle of Kerbals over generations. Without the endless supply from Kerbin, how do you get more of the eager green creatures?
  
• An extension of Civilian Population/Kerbal Konstructs that lets colonies grow into full-blown cities.
  
  • Funds and contracts will reappear.
    
  • City generation and terraforming for systems left behind means it *would* make sense to return to the home system. Better bring something rare and exotic to make it worth the trip...
    

  [*]Laser light sail. Possibly the only peaceful use of a death star.

  [*]Rendezvous with fuel from Kerbin. It's been a proposed cheat to the rocket equation... build a mass driver on a moon and launch fuel tanks that rendezvous with the starship. Hey, it worked for exploring the north and south pole. With manual mode checked, you'd have to send a tug after them (unless you have a logistics mod and part).

  [*]A Bussard ramjet. Other intakes are only 1.25m? How cute!

  [*]Honorverse-style hyperspace. Hyper limit = star's SOI. Parts for impeller nodes, inertial dampeners, and Kerhawski sails. Gravity waves are dangerous for craft without Kerhawski sails. With RemoteTech, you have their FTL gravity transmitters.

Difficulty modes:

• RoboKerbals. (Lack-of-difficulty mode.) Aka stock. Without a life support mod, Kerbals are assumed to be in cyborg bodies - that need electricity. A little mod for uploading kerbals and downloading them into new bodies could be fun.
  
• Crappy star. These planets are resource poor and the star's light is wimpy. Good luck!
  
• Star changed since launch. "One of our grad students forgot a decimal point. He had one job!" The star isn't what we expected it to be! It's now a neutron star (radiation, comms interference), dwarf (dim light), or a red supergiant (swallowed the good planets).
  
• Planets changed since launch. A moon escaped, or a moon was captured. Two planets collided, or some planet's atmosphere boiled off, or the pre-radio-when-you-launched inhabitants of the Kerbin-like world nuked themselves to death.
  
• Lapped by the future. "We were secretly hoping that Kerbin would sit and do nothing like they always do on interplanetary missions. But no." A more advanced ship beat us here!
  
  • They are happy to let us use their facilities, if we earn it. You arrive in the system to discover cities and space stations, who give you contracts. Funds becomes a mechanic again.
    
  • They wish we weren't here. As long as we stay away from [planets with kolonies], they won't shoot at us. Let's get enough fuel to keep going.
    
  • [bD Armory installed.] A more advanced ship beat us here! Their technology is superior, but they have forgotten about war...
    

  [*] Generation degeneration. "Kids these days! They just don't make kerbonauts like they used to." Centuries of confinement and inbreeding later, the generation of Kerbals that arrive have high Stupidity, crappy KerbalStats and have lost parts of the tech tree.

  [*] Life support failure. % of Kerbals die.

  [*] Space debris strike. At relativistic speeds, even single particles can be deadly. Your ship has taken damage. Could be mitigated by debris shield parts (using electromagnetics or oil droplets or whatever).

  [*] Computer glitch. We lost much of our old knowledge. Have to go through (most of) the tech tree again.

  [*] Fuel leak. We don't have enough fuel to slow down the entire ship! Use KAS to trim weight and make clever use of orbital dynamics.

  [*] AI rebellion! [bD Armory installed.] "Our mechanical servants ran away with most of our equipment! And invented shooty things!"

Alien things to discover. For fun, science, and terror! (Seperate mods):

• Alien ruins. High-science biomes. Part: Xenoarcheology kit.
  
• A derelict starship/Big Dumb Object you can restore.
  
  • Fetch quests for alien ruins and exotic resources.
    
  • Discworld. Spin it up and stabilize it!
    
  • Endless Space-style wonders
    
  • Stargates! It still counts as hard science if the space magic was made by aliens. Can be moved with the claw/KAS. Need KAS to connect power. First one has a smashed DHD, so
    .
    
  • Interstellar wormhole. Leads to the Gargantua system from Interstellar.
    

  [*]The planet where Krakens come from.

  [*] Reapers. Someone built a Kerbal reaper!

  [*] Zerg/tyranids/xenomorphs. KSP tower defense. Destroy their hives to colonize the planet. Make sure your settlements are fortified!

  [*] Zombie/pod kerbal apocalypse. Something alien is infecting your kerbals - and they've already been found on the Mothership! You need to send science expedition to the plant of origin to find a cure. The expeditions will be very dangerous, but not sending them would be even more so.

Edited June 23, 2015 by beabop

[Beale]

There's something similar to this posted at least once a month.

I wish you the best of luck, but nobody is going to want to collaborate unless you have something, anything, to show beyond ideas.

I'd advise toying around with a few smaller and simpler plugins first! Before upping the scope and scale.

[daniel l.]

So what i see here is a set of kopernicus based presets for the solar system that remove the existing planets and load in a new set then spawns in a starter ship with Extraplanetary launchpads capability to use for building new ships in absence of a proper ksc, And when you discover a new system what you really doing is shuffling the universe around to transform it into a new system then placing the starter ship on the edge of it.

[ChrisSpace]

I am confused. What exactly does this mod do?

[daniel l.]

I am confused. What exactly does this mod do?

Replaces the kerbol system with a new unknown system, Then removes the ksp and spawns in a starter ship with extraplanetary launchpads, So you can try to with limited resources conquer and explore (Or vice versa) the new system, All the while gather resources to move on to the next.

[beabop]

Yes, though the idea is that you can launch a starship from Kerbol in career mode. I guess starting with a starship (from a list that comes with the mod) could be a new New Game option. I could post such a save this week.

My main worry is memory. Kopernicus planets must all be loaded at the monkey load screen and even only a few star systems worth of planets will probably max out a 32 bit install, when you're only ever going to use one system at a time. I have a functioning UI, part module, and multi-"star" mini galaxy. I spent Sunday pretty much just reading Kopernicus's source and the KSP API. I hope there's some native way to unload planets or Kopernicus comes up eve with something. Otherwise, I would try to write a serializer for planetary bodies (which means finding EVERY field needed and cleaning up every single reference to them), cache the unused ones to a binary file, then reload them when needed.

Edited June 22, 2015 by beabop

[Windspren]

Seems more like a brand new game than a mod.

[Tyren]

A conversion mod for KSP? Cant see it coming, yet. Maybe after some more detailed information.

[weeble]

I haven't played with EPL before so I could easily be wrong. But doesn't it just build rockets that were designed in the VAB? You'd have to add in the ability of designing into EPL.

But yeah, I agree with Laythe and Tyren this sounds more like a totally different game. It sounds like a really cool concept but it's pretty ambitious since the game is constantly changing so much with every major update. Will definitely keep tabs on this though.

[regex]

In order to work with EPL in the manner that your OP seems to indicate you would need a VAB/SPH. So the first order of business should be to find a way to launch the VAB/SPH without KSC existing within the game. In theory this really shouldn't be that hard to do but you'll need to override/remove the launch button. Most everything else you want to do should be possible.

My other suggestion RE: Kopernicus is to only generate, say, 5 more stars or something that your Kerbals can reach, but don't put any bodies in orbit. Let the player actually travel to one and then have a button that says something like "Survey", which generates the new star system and dumps them out of the game (with appropriate warning) so that the system can be built properly. Maybe Kopernicus can rebuild all the planets while in game, I don't know, but that would probably be the easiest way to do things. Of course that immediately wrecks any other save they load once the new solar system is loaded, but that's something that's pretty well understood when playing with Kopernicus.

[daniel l.]

To test the idea you should replace the system with a mix of kopernicus planet packs then hyperedit a starter ship into space and see how you do.

[beabop]

To test the idea you should replace the system with a mix of kopernicus planet packs then hyperedit a starter ship into space and see how you do.

That was the first thing I did when I got the mod idea. I had a blast! I was just like early hard career, except instead of never having enough funds, you never had enough propellant or RocketParts. I think interstellar delta-vs naturally make you cut weight until you have the bare minimum to start with.

I haven't played with EPL before so I could easily be wrong. But doesn't it just build rockets that were designed in the VAB? You'd have to add in the ability of designing into EPL.

In order to work with EPL in the manner that your OP seems to indicate you would need a VAB/SPH. So the first order of business should be to find a way to launch the VAB/SPH without KSC existing within the game. In theory this really shouldn't be that hard to do but you'll need to override/remove the launch button. Most everything else you want to do should be possible.

Yes, that's what Extraplanetary Launchpads does. Since it's technically cosmetic, it's my second order of business. The build I have of DevHelper actually does this by accident - when I check the VAB, I end up in a blue skybox where I can edit craft but can't save, load, or launch. I just have to figure out how to do it on purpose.

My other suggestion RE: Kopernicus is to only generate, say, 5 more stars or something that your Kerbals can reach, but don't put any bodies in orbit. Let the player actually travel to one and then have a button that says something like "Survey", which generates the new star system and dumps them out of the game (with appropriate warning) so that the system can be built properly. Maybe Kopernicus can rebuild all the planets while in game, I don't know, but that would probably be the easiest way to do things. Of course that immediately wrecks any other save they load once the new solar system is loaded, but that's something that's pretty well understood when playing with Kopernicus.

Well, I think you'd want to know what you're getting into before leaving - interstellar flight is *hard*. An exoplant-finding PartModule would be cool to add to all the telescope mods we have.

Ways to do this I've thought of, ranked in ascending jankiness:

1. Unload planets, reload them from config.
   
2. Serialize planets into temporary binary file, unload them, reload from binary file.
   
3. Move planets to float.MaxValue, limit camera zoom, and hope nobody launches from Kerbin. (This is the first thing I'm trying.)
   
4. Restart KSP with different Kopernicus config. I really hope I don't have to do this. Games with custom planets and mods (which this game mode would need) take forever to load.
   

If you understand Kopernicus really well, please tell me what you think!

Edited June 23, 2015 by beabop

[Tyren]

Loading issues could be worked around with a load on demand. Somewhere should be a mod for it. Just to tell KSP it has to refer to the EPL and its surroundings could be a tricky part.

[daniel l.]

Heres an example of what your doin