[Min KSP: 1.12.2] Pathfinder - Space Camping & Geoscience

[dresoccer4]

2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Be sure to equip an engineer with a power tool or wrench. Then, you will need to press R to set the node up, and if it appears that the part is clipped into the destination, rotate it around. Finally, press X to attach the part.

i have an electric screwdriver in my kerbal's inventory. do i need to equip it somehow? 

what i'm doing is: with screwdriver in inventory, grabbing the ponderosa with 'G', tapping 'R' until it says "bottom", i try and rotate no idea which side is up, i press 'X' and it just says "cannot use equipped item because nothing is equipped"

 

 am i the only lame duck who is struggling with the tutorial?

 

UPDATE: i'm making slow progress, but i think i finally equipped the screwdriver. now when i press 'X', the Ponderosa turns red and it says "target object is now allowed"

Edited July 23, 2016 by dresoccer4

[Angelo Kerman]

Be sure to attach the part to one of the circular crew ports.

[dresoccer4]

by george, i believe i've done it!

i re-set everything and started from scratch. when i press 'X', it finally turned blue! whoop. however the Ponderosa is hovering a foot off the ground, is this normal? not a big deal, just wanted to make sure i'm doing it correctly. 

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Another question: Did your Old Faithful cooling towers run out of water?

No, they were still 100% full.  They were in closed cycle mode.

BTW, just got done messing with the new version.  It managed to refuel my ship from 93.9m away without needing hoses   YAY!  That is definitely the best thing since bottled whiskey

 

EDIT @Angel-125 take note (didn't see this the 1st time)

2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Do you by chance have a save file that recreates the disaster? I would like to see if there is any way that I can tweak the FlightIntegrator and dump the excess heat.

No, I'm afraid I don't.  But I'm sure it will happen again, so I'll try to remember you want to see it.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Angelo Kerman]

10 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

No, they were still 100% full.  They were in closed cycle mode.

BTW, just got done messing with the new version.  It managed to refuel my ship from 93.9m away without needing hoses   YAY!  That is definitely the best thing since bottled whiskey

 

Great to hear. All MOLE, DSEV, and Buffalo fuel tanks can now participate in the distribution system. Great suggestion! Also, I checked the code for the lights, the ops manager no longer hides the context menu button. That said, the inconsistencies you're seeing could be the result of the game remembering what state the buttons should be in (visible or not) so new vessels won't hide the button but older ones potentially will.

I am also adding an "Opt-In" option to the Pathfinder settings menu so that you can set all your fuel tanks to consumers on the active vessel so that you don't need to go to individual tanks.

Finally, someday I want to make resource distribution work in real-time. That will take some improvements to KSP itself though. Once I get that, I can create a fuel pump system similar to GPO Fuel Pump.

Meanwhile, I'm working on improving the rendering speed of the operations manager and resource distribution system (the "de-LINQ" you may be reading about in the game's dev notes applies to Pathfinder), and I'm thinking of revamping the geology lab to use my new science system so that science is done consistently across my mods. With the geology lab, you wouldn't need to send experiments home or load them into the geology lab. The lab would let you select experiments to run, and even when you get no science rewards, you will get efficiency improvements like you do now with the existing system. It's also less code for me to maintain. Any thoughts on that?

I'm crossing my fingers that I've fixed the overheating issue for the time being. But if anybody gets into a jam again, and has a save that can reproduce it, please let me know.

-Katniss Kerman, "The Kerbal On Fire," WBI's tech support

15 minutes ago, dresoccer4 said:

by george, i believe i've done it!

i re-set everything and started from scratch. when i press 'X', it finally turned blue! whoop. however the Ponderosa is hovering a foot off the ground, is this normal? not a big deal, just wanted to make sure i'm doing it correctly. 

I'd have to see pictures of your base to see what's going on.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Angel-125

[Geschosskopf]

1 hour ago, dresoccer4 said:

 am i the only lame duck who is struggling with the tutorial?

No, KIS takes a little getting used to.  I recommend always packing one of those little blue books (the instruction manual) for quick reference.

Also, when assembling Pathfinder stuff, ALWAYS have KIS in node mode, not surface mode.

[dresoccer4]

3 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

No, KIS takes a little getting used to.  I recommend always packing one of those little blue books (the instruction manual) for quick reference.

Also, when assembling Pathfinder stuff, ALWAYS have KIS in node mode, not surface mode.

thanks for the encouragement and advice   

[Angelo Kerman]

Ok, found an issue with using the Pathfinder Settings window to set up the vessel-wide distribution mode. It'll be fixed next update. On the upside I've improved the rendering performance of the Operations Manager.

[Angelo Kerman]

And here is 0.9.34

Flex Fuel Power Pack
- Flex Fuel Power Pack can now run on LiquidFuel & IntakeAir. It produces as much ElectricCharge as LiquidFuel/Oxidizer. Thanks for the suggestion, @Geschosskopf!
- Added exhaust effects.

Buffalo Crew Cabin
- Added a node on the top to help facilitate mounting the Flex Fuel Power Pack.

M1-A1
- you can now decouple the OmniWheel when it is surface attached as well as when node mounted.

Rendering Performance
- Improved performance and reduced memory footprint for resource distribution.
- Improved rendering performancs of the Operations Manager.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Angel-125

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

And here is 0.9.34

Very nifty  Thanks!

[Angelo Kerman]

Now here's something I just thought of: WIth the latest Pathfinder, you have to be landed to distribute resources. But since all my fuel tanks can now participate in resource distribution, and since resource distribution is not just between vessels but between parts in the same vessel, I've got the makings of a fuel balancer with just a few tweaks!

Edited July 24, 2016 by Angel-125

[DStaal]

On the overheating+exploding thing, I have a theory...  (Even though I know it's been addressed.)  What it sounds like is happening to me is that KSP is playing catch-up with the heat generated while you were gone.  It then distributes the caught-up heat, cools the part that was generating heat for the time away, and finally applies heat effects.

Note the sequence: Generate all the heat for the entire time away, then push it to the rest of the ship, then apply cooling to the original part, then finalize.  The problem is that the two middle steps are backwards - since the heat is distributed first and then canceled out, the super-high heat from the entire time away gets distributed.  Since cooling is then applied to the original part, it stays intact - even though the rest of the ship overheats.

Anyway.  Just a thought on what appears to be going on.  If this is the case, it's a stock bug.  (Though I don't know if there's a way to test or work around from here.)

[Angelo Kerman]

0.9.35

- Fixed an issue with the editor locking up when using the M1-A1 Mountain Goat.
- The M1-A1 can now self-destruct in addition to decoupling (both when surface attached and node attached).
- Reduced the ejection force used when the M1-A1 is decoupled.
- The Buffalo Command Cab window lighting now toggles on/off with the headlights.
- If fuel tanks are arrayed symmetrically, you'll no longer be able to reconfigure them. It's either that or let the game explode (ie nothing I can do about it except prevent players from changing symmetrical tanks).

[Geschosskopf]

36 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

0.9.35

And now, having just gotten the latest versions of all your stuff in alphabetical order, I must again thank you for all your hard work.

[Geschosskopf]

@Angel-125, things seem to be going swimmingly with the new batch of updates.  Everything works great, nothing is getting hot on physics load, etc.  Even the waiting until the ship is on the ground before refueling it worked  Yay!  Thought you'd like to know.

I have a log for you anyway.  It might help just to double check the fixes to the overheating thing, but I'm not sure.  In this log, I landed 3 times at my Mun Base (once with a base module, twice with a lander).  Each time the lander came down, the flag marking the LZ exploded, although the F3 report says it "crashed into Mun" instead of overheated.  Nothing else had any problems.  So I dunno.  But anyway, the log also shows various resources getting shuffled around, so it might prove useful in other ways.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s3q6v1assc9ec1l/Flag Destruction.zip?dl=0

 

[Angelo Kerman]

24 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

@Angel-125, things seem to be going swimmingly with the new batch of updates.  Everything works great, nothing is getting hot on physics load, etc.  Even the waiting until the ship is on the ground before refueling it worked  Yay!  Thought you'd like to know.

I have a log for you anyway.  It might help just to double check the fixes to the overheating thing, but I'm not sure.  In this log, I landed 3 times at my Mun Base (once with a base module, twice with a lander).  Each time the lander came down, the flag marking the LZ exploded, although the F3 report says it "crashed into Mun" instead of overheated.  Nothing else had any problems.  So I dunno.  But anyway, the log also shows various resources getting shuffled around, so it might prove useful in other ways.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s3q6v1assc9ec1l/Flag Destruction.zip?dl=0

 

Glad to hear that the builds are stable. In case you haven't seen it yet, there is a pre-release of WBT that fixes the symmetry issue when reconfiguring tanks. If that works then I can release another batch of updates. Things should be pretty stable at that point.

[Geschosskopf]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

Glad to hear that the builds are stable. In case you haven't seen it yet, there is a pre-release of WBT that fixes the symmetry issue when reconfiguring tanks. If that works then I can release another batch of updates. Things should be pretty stable at that point.

OK, I'll give it a go.  Meanwhile, take a gander at my latest episode.

[Rafael acevedo]

Angel-125 believe I found a bug when using pathfinder and kpbs. Specifically with the scienc lab. Here is how to reproduce go to the vab, and usin Kbps central hub attach for Kbps labs. Now configure the labs as follow, one regular commercial, the other two one as sunburst and the other as whatney. Know look at the required crew. The commercial lab will remain with a minimum crew of one to be operational which is normal, however the other two labs will need a crew of 2000 to operate.

[shuggaloaf]

Hi Angel,

I know someone else had mentioned the wheels making the craft kind of boat-like in the way that it steers, and I think you said it was that or wheels don't work. This may be related to that fix. I'm seeing what I guess you could call a drift in the steering. Seems like no matter how I build the craft, it will eventually start to steer to one side when driving straight. I've tested with as simple a craft as possible, using only pathfinder parts and made sure that the CoM was dead center. No matter what the craft starts to drift. Correcting it varies in effectiveness. Sometimes a little arrow tap sets it back on course, sometimes that same little tap sends him over-steering in the other direction. Sorry if I missed it and you're already aware of this.

Also wondering if there was any news on being able to put parts over the grizzly wheels? Without adding additional height I mean.

Thanks for all you do!

[Angelo Kerman]

2 hours ago, Rafael acevedo said:

Angel-125 believe I found a bug when using pathfinder and kpbs. Specifically with the scienc lab. Here is how to reproduce go to the vab, and usin Kbps central hub attach for Kbps labs. Now configure the labs as follow, one regular commercial, the other two one as sunburst and the other as whatney. Know look at the required crew. The commercial lab will remain with a minimum crew of one to be operational which is normal, however the other two labs will need a crew of 2000 to operate.

Thanks, I'll take a look

 

1 hour ago, shuggaloaf said:

Hi Angel,

I know someone else had mentioned the wheels making the craft kind of boat-like in the way that it steers, and I think you said it was that or wheels don't work. This may be related to that fix. I'm seeing what I guess you could call a drift in the steering. Seems like no matter how I build the craft, it will eventually start to steer to one side when driving straight. I've tested with as simple a craft as possible, using only pathfinder parts and made sure that the CoM was dead center. No matter what the craft starts to drift. Correcting it varies in effectiveness. Sometimes a little arrow tap sets it back on course, sometimes that same little tap sends him over-steering in the other direction. Sorry if I missed it and you're already aware of this.

Also wondering if there was any news on being able to put parts over the grizzly wheels? Without adding additional height I mean.

Thanks for all you do!

Well, I wanted to retire the Grizzly wheels but got a lot of feedback on that. So you all get to live with the wheels as they are. Maybe KSP 1.2 will fix things. Meanwhile, try building a similar rover using stock wheels and see if you get the same boat-like steering. Also, try disabling steering on all but the front wheels.

[shuggaloaf]

40 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Well, I wanted to retire the Grizzly wheels but got a lot of feedback on that. So you all get to live with the wheels as they are. Maybe KSP 1.2 will fix things. Meanwhile, try building a similar rover using stock wheels and see if you get the same boat-like steering. Also, try disabling steering on all but the front wheels.

Yeah I had read that but I didn't catch that you weren't working on them anymore. It looks like the boat/over-correction issue is happening on stock wheels when added to pathfinder/buffalo parts as well, have not had a chance to test on a stock part rover as I haven't built one since like .90. So I'm saying the boat effect is KSP itself.

I did not get any drift with the stock wheels however. It keep straight the whole time. I had already tried disabling the steering (as I mostly do anyway) and even the motors but it doesn't help. I'm getting that on all the pathfinder wheels though not just the grizzly. I tried the next size down (can't think of name) and they actually were worse. It's like my rover needs an alignment bad! But maybe that has something to do with the wheel fix you implemented. So yep, it sounds like we need a big wheel fix on KSP 1.2

 

[shuggaloaf]

Another question for you if you don't mind. When I attach the JetWing to the side/back/top of the buffalo (haven't tried with other craft), as well as additional RCS attached, I get an error message "RCS deactivated, no engine thrust available". I see that is from the JetWing but should it be working like that? I don't see how you would fly some craft with them attached if that's the case (but I'm guessing it's not). How am I gonna make an awesome JetWing Mini Carrier to launch dozens of little Kerbals into battle now!?

Btw, not sure if you intended it, but when you flip the jetwing upside-down and attach it to the top of the buffalo cab it looks smooth as hell.

Edited July 27, 2016 by shuggaloaf

[Angelo Kerman]

On 7/26/2016 at 7:28 PM, shuggaloaf said:

Another question for you if you don't mind. When I attach the JetWing to the side/back/top of the buffalo (haven't tried with other craft), as well as additional RCS attached, I get an error message "RCS deactivated, no engine thrust available". I see that is from the JetWing but should it be working like that? I don't see how you would fly some craft with them attached if that's the case (but I'm guessing it's not). How am I gonna make an awesome JetWing Mini Carrier to launch dozens of little Kerbals into battle now!?

Btw, not sure if you intended it, but when you flip the jetwing upside-down and attach it to the top of the buffalo cab it looks smooth as hell.

Yup that's normal. JetWing's RCS needs engine thrust in order to function.

[shuggaloaf]

48 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Yup that's normal. JetWing's RCS needs engine thrust in order to function.

Sorry, let me clarify what I meant. When I attached the jetwing to a craft (like surface attach for example so I can eva, board and then detach from craft), the whole craft's RCS doesn't function. In fact I don't even want the JetWings RCS to function at that point as it is just attached to the ship as a means to transport it and use it later. So if I have it attached to a ship, go to the launch pad and hit "r", I get that message. So I'm not actually boarded into the JetWing and "control from here" has been verified to be the ship's cockpit and I have even disabled everything on the JetWing (RCS, torque, etc. all disabled). But yet the whole ship's RCS is disabled as long as the JetWing is attached. Once I detach it then the ships RCS works fine.

So from what I see there is no way to operate the main crafts RCS with the JetWing attached. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, I know you're a busy guy making all these fun toys for us, but I also responded to the wheel issues too. See above.

Edited July 28, 2016 by shuggaloaf

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, shuggaloaf said:

Sorry, let me clarify what I meant. When I attached the jetwing to a craft (like surface attach for example so I can eva, board and then detach from craft), the whole craft's RCS doesn't function. In fact I don't even want the JetWings RCS to function at that point as it is just attached to the ship as a means to transport it and use it later. So if I have it attached to a ship, go to the launch pad and hit "r", I get that message. So I'm not actually boarded into the JetWing and "control from here" has been verified to be the ship's cockpit and I have even disabled everything on the JetWing (RCS, torque, etc. all disabled). But yet the whole ship's RCS is disabled as long as the JetWing is attached. Once I detach it then the ships RCS works fine.

So from what I see there is no way to operate the main crafts RCS with the JetWing attached. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, I know you're a busy guy making all these fun toys for us, but I also responded to the wheel issues too. See above.

That sounds like a bug, I'll look into it. Thanks for the report. :)