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

[Angelo Kerman]

Hi Angel,

I like your Mod a lot. Especially the KIS compatibility is what I was always looking for to finally go for some space camping :-) so much kerbal!

Unfortunately I have some really bad RAM issues because I have way too many mods installed (yeah I know...) I already stripped my game to the absolute necessary - which is still to much to play with Pathfinder without crashing.

So is there a way to install only the Ponderosa module? My Problem here is that it doesn't inflate if I delete the rest and I have no idea which files are needed exactly to make it work (except for those in /Assets of course).

Any help would be much appreciated.

Also please don't be offended by my blasphemic request here :-). I love your mod. As soon as the 64bit version is stable I will definitely enjoy the whole thing but until now I just can't without breaking my save :-\

Keep up the good work!

Hey no worries, not offended. You need the Pathfinder plugin, WildBlueTools plugin, and for assets, you can delete everything except Ponderosa.mu, Ponderosa.cfg, Ponderosa.mbm, PonderosaNRM.mbm, Saddle.cfg, and MiniSlab.mu. You'll also need the Decals and Templates folders. For Decals, you'll need the Pondersa, Pathfinder, Pigpen, and Workshop graphics. For Templates, get rid of Storage and in Production, keep only GeologyLab, Pigpen, Ponderosa, and Workshop. Everything else is a fire sale.

[Angelo Kerman]

Latest update is now available, get it here.

0.8.6

This release fixes a bunch of issues that cropped up in Pathfinder as well as the Buffalo. It also introduces new game mechanics for the Hot Springs geothermal plant- thanks for your input, AdmiralTigerclaw!

New Parts

- Added MC-2000 Buckboard and MC-3000 Buckboard. With colliders and glowing resource decals.

- Added the Auxiliary Electronic Navigator (AuxEN). In the Old West, oxen were frequently used to pull wagons. The AuxEN doesn't pull anything, but it does the driving. The probe core is the same size as a Chassis 1u, and supports RemoteTech, AntennaRange, and kOS.

- Added an adapter that tapers from the Buffalo cab form factor to a 1.25m cylinder.

Buffalo Command cab

- Widened the headlight beams and angled them down slightly for better ground operations.

- You can now toggle the headlights separately from the cabin lights. Both cabin lights and headlights will turn on when you tap on the Lights button.

Buffalo Crew Cab

- Reworked the crew cab to include doors and ladders on its sides.

- Added a small amount of inventory space.

Doc

- Added an ImpactTransform node to the 3D mesh to accommodate drills.

Ponderosa

- Renamed the radially attached Ponderosa to the Casa.

- Increased empty mass of the Ponderosa to 0.35t to reflect its contents.

- Added an ImpactTransform node to the 3D mesh to accommodate drills.

Hacienda

- Increased empty mass of the Hacienda to 0.5t.

- Added an ImpactTransform node to the 3D mesh to accommodate drills.

Clockworks

- Maximum storage will increase to 10k liters when you convert the Hacienda to become a Clockworks. This matches the maximum volume part that you can 3D print.

Fireworks

- Really added EL productivity to the Fireworks, and got rid of ExSurveyStation. There was a mixup when preparing the last release...

Brew Works

- Brought the Autobots in and transformed Xenon into XenonGas.

Hot Springs

- Refactored the power planet to require Water and GeoEnergy as resources before it can operate. The HotSprings has a dedicated "drill" to extract GeoEnergy, called the Geothermal Tap. Right-click on the Hacienda to use the Geothermal Tap, or use the Operations Manager. You can also drill for GeoEnergy using the Gold Digger and stock Drill-O-Matic. Simply right-click on the drill and modify the resource that it drills for. Not all planets are ideal for finding GeoEnergy. Check out GeoEnergyResource.cfg to see how this initial pass is set up. Below is a quick rundown:

Geologically Active Worlds

Eve

Kerbin (duh)

Laythe

Eeloo (!) See See http://io9.com/breaking-geologic-activity-has-been-detected-on-the-su-1718055390

Possibly Geologically Active. (% chance per save)

Moho (70%)

Mun (85%) See http://www.space.com/14632-moon-dead-geologic-activity-monitored.html

Duna (70%) See http://astrogeo.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/4/4.16.full

Ike (70%)

Val (70%)

Tylo (60%)

Not geologically active

Sun

Gilly

Minmus - wiki suggests that it's a captured comet

Jool

Bop

Pol

Dres

If a world is not listed, then it has a base 70% chance of having GeoEnergy.

Bug Fixes

- The Switchback's nodes are now in their correct places.

- The Buckboard MC-1000's decal glows again.

- Fixed file paths for several Buffalo parts so they'll show up again.

- Moved Trailer Hitch to Utility.

- Moved Chassis Decoupler to Structural.

[Downfeather6]

This is a wonderful mod! Thank you very much.

One of my new essential mods

[Angelo Kerman]

This is a wonderful mod! Thank you very much.

One of my new essential mods

Thanks! It's got some growing pains but it's getting there...

By the way, if folks would like to post screenshots of their bases, I'll be happy to put them in the showcase album and credit your work.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Angel-125

[Floker]

Hey no worries, not offended. You need the Pathfinder plugin, WildBlueTools plugin, and for assets, you can delete everything except Ponderosa.mu, Ponderosa.cfg, Ponderosa.mbm, PonderosaNRM.mbm, Saddle.cfg, and MiniSlab.mu. You'll also need the Decals and Templates folders. For Decals, you'll need the Pondersa, Pathfinder, Pigpen, and Workshop graphics. For Templates, get rid of Storage and in Production, keep only GeologyLab, Pigpen, Ponderosa, and Workshop. Everything else is a fire sale.

Thanks a lot! Works perfectly now. Will go for some island hopping on Laythe soon :-)

BTW I kept the Gaslight too. That Thing is just fantastic.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Floker

[Prime flux]

Latest update is now available, get it here.

0.8.6

Lots of nice changes and addons

Sadly the saddle still does not want to play with the switchback.

"allowedPartName = WBI_Switcback" needs to be added to ModuleKISPartMount module

[Enorats]

Thanks for that fix Prime! My engineer was quite dismayed to find that she couldn't attach the base to the ground. Five launches to the Mun dropping containers full of several rovers, a full base, life support for several years, and rocket parts.. along with the sixth bringing the crew.. that would have been so sad to see gone to waste because someone forgot a couple bolts to attach the hab to the bloody ground X_X

Note that the "h" in switchback is missing for a reason there. That's the part's name in the "Switchback" .cfg, so if you add an h to spell it correctly it won't work.

[Prime flux]

Thanks for that fix Prime! My engineer was quite dismayed to find that she couldn't attach the base to the ground. Five launches to the Mun dropping containers full of several rovers, a full base, life support for several years, and rocket parts.. along with the sixth bringing the crew.. that would have been so sad to see gone to waste because someone forgot a couple bolts to attach the hab to the bloody ground X_X

Note that the "h" in switchback is missing for a reason there. That's the part's name in the "Switchback" .cfg, so if you add an h to spell it correctly it won't work.

To be honest:That would be a pretty epic scene in a movie (the martian?). An astronaut going total bonkers because the multi-billion mission to Mars coming apart because someone forget to bring some cheap bolts (or other spare part).

I did discover it by being a thoughtfull engineer and doing a test assembly of my mission base on the runway... They say the devil is in the details, others just blames Jeb !

Edited October 13, 2015 by Prime flux

[Angelo Kerman]

ROFL! Sorry about that folks, I can't speel. I have some ideas this week that I hope will eliminate that type of issue in the future.

[Enorats]

Oh, that was just the beginning of the woes of that particular mission. The crew delivery vessel only had sufficient life support for about a week's time, and on the Mun night was coming when the crew arrived. They couldn't wait out the night and were forced to land just before nightfall. With only a day or so to go they built the rovers and habitat, then realized that they had insufficient battery power. KSC forgot to take into account the length of the Munar night and the crew was in danger of freezing to death. A quick thinking engineer reconfigured one of the rovers for salvaging duty and managed to retrieve the batteries from the supply dropships. Unfortunately, in the process the solar panel of the crew cabin of the Buffalo was damaged and the rover was stranded several kilometers from base. Unable to repair the damage, the engineer was forced to EVA his way back to the nearest dropship and scavenge a deployable solar panel. It was a race against time, but she managed to make the trek back to the rover and return to base in time to beat nightfall. Now, the crew is eagerly awaiting a life support resupply, as they've only enough oxygen for about a month's time.

One thing you might want to rebalance Angel is the storage container for TAC-LS. The current container gives 2700 of each LS product (food, water, oxygen). This gives my crew of three 2551 days of food, 3861 days of water, but only 76 days of oxygen. Three of the TAC-LS containers that come with that mod is about the same size (in volume anyway, not sure about dry mass) and those give 3014 food, 2058 water, and 315,000 oxygen. The consumption rates are all different, so balanced like that you'll run out of each at about the same time. With those numbers my crew of three would probably have ~2700 days of each... which tbh seems a bit overkill to me, but that's how TAC-LS is balanced.

Another thing to consider is making the parts containing solar panels repairable by an engineer. I'm not sure whether they are or not, as my engineer is still only a wee little level 1, but the option didn't pop up after I broke the panel on the crew cab. It just said "Broken!" and had no option to repair it in the menu.

Not sure if this is intended or not, but when set to storage (inflated or not) - the wagon only has four storage slots. Lot's of volume, but no inventory room to speak of.

The backpack you can store stuff in - it's volume is only 250, and it takes up about that much space as well. A kerbal has 300 by default, so there's little point in carrying the pack. Making it something like 500 would be nice, and is probably what I'll do for my own game. It kinda breaks the game in a way though - by placing them inside other containers you're getting "free" storage as I don't think KIS accounts for how much is stored inside a container when it is placed into a container. Ideally the volume of the container (the pack) would be very low when empty, but goes up as it is filled. That way an empty pack takes little to store, but a full one takes as much as what it is holding plus a bit more. Guess that's probably a limitation of KIS though. As is, they're strapped to the outside of my rovers as emergency supplies and roadside repair kits.

Also, the spelling error is in the switchback.cfg (part name = switcback). However, the saddle.cfg is also missing the switchback in it's allowed parts list entirely. I just added the line suggested above and it works fine.

All in all though, loving this mod. First time I've been able to entirely build a base on another planet using EVA. Everything started out in containers (aside from a few larger items strapped outside) and was totally disassembled. Never been able to do that with any other colonization mods, so this one is basically a must have mod for me. Really makes EVA much more useful.. I feel like I'm actually playing as my engineer is spending more time outside the base walking around than inside doing nothing.

One question though - I can't for the life of me figure out how to get organics. The greenhouse says it needs it, but I can't configure a storage container to deliver it. I remember one of the colony mods (USI's MKS/OKS) used organics as part of it's production chain, and you could fill those modules prior to launching.. but without that I don't seem to have any way of sending organics.

Edited October 13, 2015 by Enorats

[Angelo Kerman]

Thanks for the feedback. Loved the story too. Wild Blue Industries is rooting for your Astronauts and are hard at work fixing the design flaws in their hardware before your crew expires. They appreciate hearing that you like the ability to pack up your base for easy transport, and politely remind you to take extra glue to re-seal your modules after stuffing your bulky equipment inside (the stuff that doesn't fit through the airlock).

For TAC-LS, which storage container are you referring to? I though I calibrated the Buckboard MC-1000 to be roughly the same as the 1.25m container, but I could be wrong.

Thanks for reminding me about the solar panel; stock game for some reason doesn't let you fix them, but I don't see why not. Engineers can fix wheels, after all... I will investigate how to do that. I like the idea of increasing the Outback's storage capacity, and the Wagon's storage slots have been fixed and will be available next update (along with other bug fixes).

For Organics, with TAC-LS, you can create some via the kerbal's Waste products and by using the Pigpen. The Wiki (work in progress) has the formulas you need. I'll also add an Organics storage template.

Finally, I think I can safely remove the KISItemPartMount module from the various parts, which will 1) eliminate the spelling error issues/me forgetting to add a part and 2) remove a nasty Kraken bug that happens when you, say select the Saddle and Release the Ponderosa. My intention was to have Engineers assemble the base but at the time I didn't know how to make that work, so the KISItemPartMount solved the problem. I'm also setting things up so that the Buckboards can be mounted onto your vessels/bases by anybody; again, Engineers set up the base, buy anybody can stack crates.

Edited October 13, 2015 by Angel-125

[Enorats]

I was comparing the Constoga multipurpose to three large TAC-LS containers. Your food value is almost identical, but the water is off a bit. Oxygen is the big problem though, as it's off by a massive factor. Kerbals use oxygen at a much faster rate than the other resources, and the TAC-LS system has containers that are correspondingly large in O2 storage. I ended up sending TAC-LS containers up to my base to resupply their oxygen, but ran into another problem. I'm hooking a wagon up to my rover, hauling it over to the lander a few hundred meters away, then hooking up a KAS winch to a KAS connector and docking to enable resource transfer. However.. the TAC-LS containers store something like 486,000 oxygen each.. and the wagon only stores 6075. I'm going to have to go into the .cfg's to modify that and bring them more in line with the TAC system or I'll be making trips all day long.

[Angelo Kerman]

I was comparing the Constoga multipurpose to three large TAC-LS containers. Your food value is almost identical, but the water is off a bit. Oxygen is the big problem though, as it's off by a massive factor. Kerbals use oxygen at a much faster rate than the other resources, and the TAC-LS system has containers that are correspondingly large in O2 storage. I ended up sending TAC-LS containers up to my base to resupply their oxygen, but ran into another problem. I'm hooking a wagon up to my rover, hauling it over to the lander a few hundred meters away, then hooking up a KAS winch to a KAS connector and docking to enable resource transfer. However.. the TAC-LS containers store something like 486,000 oxygen each.. and the wagon only stores 6075. I'm going to have to go into the .cfg's to modify that and bring them more in line with the TAC system or I'll be making trips all day long.

Thanks for the info. I can look at three large life support containers to look at their Oxygen content and Water as well, and recalibrate the system. If you need a quick fix you can edit the LifeSupport template in the TAC-LS module manager patch, and all the storage containers will update their proportinal values.

[Enorats]

No prob. Edited it myself and with the values identical to three of the large TAC containers it seems to be working much better now. Also dropped the wagon's storage from 2.25 times the template down to 1.0. It looks to have about the same volume as the constoga, so it made sense. Might edit that to be more like 1.25 to be in line with its higher KIS capacity though. Thinking about dropping the chuckwagon storage down from 17.4 times to 4.5 times as well, as that's more in line with its KIS storage space as well and it might stop TAC from yelling at me that I'm almost out of resources (the storage is only like 5% full) when I've got like 20 years worth of stuff left. Though.. to be honest, the chuckwagon looks like it's about the same size as the other two as well.. maybe a tad bigger. Maybe they dug a basement?

Edited October 13, 2015 by Enorats

[Angelo Kerman]

Try these values for the TACLS.cfg file, found in Templates/Storage:

RESOURCE
{
  name = Food
  amount = 3114.9
  maxAmount = 3114.9
}

RESOURCE
{
  name = Water
  amount = 2058.9
  maxAmount = 2058.9
}

RESOURCE
{
  name = Oxygen
  amount = 315339.6
  maxAmount = 315339.6
}

When I get more time I'll do some size comparisons between the various modules. Fortunately, 3DS MAX gives me their actual volumes; that's what I based the original values on. FYI, the storage templates are all more or less based around the Conestoga's storage capacity of 5600L, which has a capacity factor of 1.0. Hope that helps.

Edited October 13, 2015 by Angel-125

[Enorats]

Gotcha. One other thing I noted (thought it's probably irrelevant as it sounds as if you're getting rid of it, though maybe not if you're planning on letting anyone stack them) is that I can't attach the double and triple sized buckboards to the flatbeds. They have the buckboard as an allowed part, but not the buckboard2 and buckboard 3. If you plan on keeping part mount to allow sci/pilots to stack crates then that'll need to be addressed. I'm adding it to mine right now so my engineer can load up my truck.

[Angelo Kerman]

Thanks, I'm testing a fix for that as well.

[Angelo Kerman]

OK, quick question: How many folks don't use engineers to stack and move crates around? I can streamline things a bit if most only use engineers.

[MaverickSawyer]

OK, quick question: How many folks don't use engineers to stack and move crates around? I can streamline things a bit if most only use engineers.

I mainly use the other classes for mules, moving stuff from point to point, but I only use engineers for assembly work.

[Randazzo]

OK, quick question: How many folks don't use engineers to stack and move crates around? I can streamline things a bit if most only use engineers.

I'm typically already using an engineer to attach non-Pathfinder parts (as required by KAS/KIS), so they generally do all the work.

[Angelo Kerman]

Hm. Ok, for now I'll keep the flatbeds and Buckboards as is, but next update will require engineers to build the base. This will also fix the krakenbait problem people experience when they accidentally hit that Release button...

[Enorats]

Personally my engineer does everything anyway. If I'm going on a mission where something needs constructing then the engineer is on the crew anyway, and I'll be using them for most all EVA activities.

[TheAnswerIsIsaacNewton]

I use an engineer for assembling to core of the base, but once the basic mining/manufacturing (which requires an engineer to sit in the base) for bootstrapping is up, I use others for secondary parts (storage, Mine shafts, etc).

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

I spend too much time doing 'does it work' checks and tweaks to things, so as long as there is a 'cheat' option to disable limitations, I have no issues.

[MaverickSawyer]

Huh. Possible bug...

Situation: Building a base on Minmus.

Setup: I have a standard KIS concrete base bolted to the ground, to which I have surface attached a Switchback. Attached to the Switchback is a non-boxed Casa, in Ponderosa habitat module mode, to which I have added a Spyglass and a Blacksmith-configured Casa, also non-boxed.

Issue: Upon activation of physical timewarp to 2x speed while focused on a nearby Kerbal (Bill in this case), the Habitat Casa promptly exploded. Bill was walking at the time.

Thankfully, I packed a spare Casa module, so the repairs will hopefully be swift, but the issue remains: Why'd the module explode at physical timewarp? (And before anyone asks, I saved and exited ASAP, and didn't think to inspect the F3 logs until about 10 seconds after I returned to desktop. >.<)