[Min KSP 1.12.2] Buffalo: NASA Inspired Modular Space Exploration Vehicle

[Angelo Kerman]

Buffalo 0.2.9 for KSP 1.1

Get the latest here!

CAUTION: Due to major changes to wheels in KSP 1.1, you will probably need to rebuild your rovers if upgrading from a previous save. Seems like such a small update, but there was a lot of effort to get it all to work.

- Recompiled for KSP 1.1
- Storage containers now use a new part module; you might need to hyperedit resources back in.
- M1-A1 Mountain Goats now have an eject feature. They're particularly useful for moving Pathfinder's new Multipurpose Base Module into position before discarding the wheels. By default staging is disabled to avoid /ragequit.
- Reworked the ladder animations so that they'll be angled when fully deployed. This should help kerbals get in and out of the crewed parts.

KNOWN ISSUES
- The M1-A1 is no longer able to be animated to narrow its wheelbase. This is due to the new wheel system in KSP. However, if you use the half-chassis, you can attach the Mountain Goat in such a way that your rovers can still drive out of a Mk3 cargo bay. Hopefully I can find a new solution in the future.

[Geschosskopf]

Yay!  Onwards through the fog!

[Geschosskopf]

On 4/23/2016 at 9:40 PM, Angel-125 said:

Buffalo 0.2.9 for KSP 1.1

Seems to be working OK.  Just noticed 1 issue.  It is now impossible to radially attach anything to the Buffalo cab (although you can to the passenger cabin).  This is a bit inconvenient now due to the need to hang a large fuelcell array somewhere to power the wheels.

[Angelo Kerman]

33 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Seems to be working OK.  Just noticed 1 issue.  It is now impossible to radially attach anything to the Buffalo cab (although you can to the passenger cabin).  This is a bit inconvenient now due to the need to hang a large fuelcell array somewhere to power the wheels.

Ok, I'll fix that next release. Meantime in the BuffaloCab.cfg:

attachRules = 1,1,1,1,0

 

[Geschosskopf]

59 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Ok, I'll fix that next release. Meantime in the BuffaloCab.cfg:

attachRules = 1,1,1,1,0

Thanks for the quick reply but I'm afraid that didn't work.

Both the BuffaloCab and the CrewCab currently have the same attachRules:  1,0,1,1,0.  Despite this, you can radially attach stuff all over the CrewCab but not to the BuffaloCab.  When I changed both to 1,1,1,1,0, it had no effect on the BuffaloCab and made it impossible to radially attach stuff to the CrewCab.  So I'm thinking it's something else.

[Angelo Kerman]

3 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Seems to be working OK.  Just noticed 1 issue.  It is now impossible to radially attach anything to the Buffalo cab (although you can to the passenger cabin).  This is a bit inconvenient now due to the need to hang a large fuelcell array somewhere to power the wheels.

What about

attachRules = 1,1,1,1,1 does that work?

Also try reorienting the cab.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Angel-125

[Geschosskopf]

8 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

What about

attachRules = 1,1,1,1,1 does that work?

Also try reorienting the cab.

That actually made things worse.  It had zero effect on the BuffaloCab (still unable to radially attach anything to it) plus it made it impossible to radially attach parts to any other parts connected to the BuffaloCab via stack nodes.

BUT.....  That was trying this on an existing rover I had already made (new in 1.1, not a carry-over).

So then I noticed your last line about re-orienting the cab and started over with a new design.  It went like this:

• Left the BuffaloCab.cfg alone, attachRules = 1,0,1,1,0
• Began new rover in SPH starting with BuffaloCab
• In default orientation (facing door), nothing would stick to the cab radially.
• Rotated BuffaloCab 90^ in any direction (tried them all).
• Now parts could be radially attached to it.
• Removed the radially attached parts.
• Rotated BuffaloCab back to default, door-facing orientation.
• Parts could still be radially attached to it.  This included parts not previously attached prior to rotating the cab.

So, the default attach rules work but only after re-orienting the cab in any direction, and it remains working after returning the cab to its original orientation.

[Angelo Kerman]

Thanks for the detailed report.  It sounds like my WheelCollidersIgnore cheat has some side effects. I didn't notice the issue on other parts such as the flatbeds, and will double-check when I get home. I may have to redo how I set up the colliders again. Dang KSP 1.1 definitely threw a monkey wrench into things...

[Geschosskopf]

5 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Thanks for the detailed report.  It sounds like my WheelCollidersIgnore cheat has some side effects. I didn't notice the issue on other parts such as the flatbeds, and will double-check when I get home.

The BuffaloCab so far is the only one that refuses to accept radially attached parts, and now there's a workaround for that.  Haven't found any Pathfinder parts with this problem, either.

 

5 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

I may have to redo how I set up the colliders again. Dang KSP 1.1 definitely threw a monkey wrench into things...

I keep having this vague ambition to get into modding myself, but things like this keep deterring me   Still, I really should at least learn more about the process so I can be of more help by looking at things in more detail.  However, I don't even know where to start looking on learning the trade.

[Gristle]

17 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

...I keep having this vague ambition to get into modding myself, but things like this keep deterring me   Still, I really should at least learn more about the process so I can be of more help by looking at things in more detail.  However, I don't even know where to start looking on learning the trade.

My other favorite modder, Beale, has prepared a step by step tutorial on part modding located here: 

 

[Geschosskopf]

Some results from testing....

The "Traction Control" slider that is now part of all wheels is what absolutely kills the ability to climb hills.  The default setting is 1.0, which will cause all rovers (stock or mod) to crap out on even slight inclines.  Turn this down to zero and you can climb fairly steep hills no problem.  Definitely don't increase this slider if you want to go up a hill.  I haven't seen a downside to reducing traction control to zero.  I only see traction control being useful for all-wheel-drive sportscars racing on flat tracks.

Another general (stock or mod) wheel thing is that locking the suspension greatly reduces the odds of tires blowing just when turning on level ground or when crossing slight terrain irregularities such as driving off the runway to the regular ground.  It also significantly reduces the odds of another tire blowing due to the rover twitching when you repair the 1st blown tire.  OTOH, you're more likely to blow tires in high-speed jumps and will have much more difficulty negotiating very rough terrain due to the vehicle being high-centered with fewer wheels providing push.

Anyway, some Buffalo-specific stuff.... 

The M1-A1 Goat wheels seem capable of safely carrying only about 1.25 tons per wheel.  Much more than that and the wheels start popping during turns and on slight terrain irregularities, even with traction control at zero and suspension locked.  6 Griz wheels can carry twice as much as 8 Goats.  Is that intended?

Edited April 26, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Angelo Kerman]

I expected that the Buffalo wheels would need performance tuning, I'm just glad they're working. The Mountain Goat is supposed to be as rugged as the stock TR-2L and as fast as the M1. The Grizzly is as fast as the TR-2L, and its durability in between the T2-2L and XL3. Next update will reflect that philosophy.

Pretty neat about the Traction Control, I found the parameter in the module definition and set it to 0 on the Buffalo wheels. You can still mess with traction control in game, of course. They might need additional tuning in the future. Mass Effect's Mako comes to mind...

And thanks for the info about the cab, I'm working through some ideas.

Edit: Unfortunately the CAB not accepting surface attachments will have to become a known issue for the time being. It's a trade off between having wheels that work and not having wheels that work. There appears to be a WHEEL_CLIP_OFFSET in settings.cfg that @nli2work found, but I can't expect players to mess with that. I wish individual wheels had that clip offset, but so far I haven't found any.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Angel-125

[Angelo Kerman]

Get the latest here.

0.2.10
- Grizzly has moved to the Advanced Motors tech node.
- Retuned the durability and default traction of the Buffalo wheels. Thanks for the testing, Geschosskopf!

KNOWN ISSUES
- You're unable to surface attach parts to the command cab until you change its orientation after spawning the part. Just change the orientation, and change it back to the desired orientation as a workaround.

[GingerNinja]

Can I have some help because I have the mod installed and in my game data file but the tab for it does not show up. I can see it load when I start the game so it is definatley installed. Also it is a sandbox game.

Edited April 30, 2016 by GingerNinja

[SpaceBadger007]

wow 1.1.2 has been released so fast! will this affect the mod?

[Angelo Kerman]

3 minutes ago, SpaceBadger007 said:

wow 1.1.2 has been released so fast! will this affect the mod?

Not really, but I will have updates this weekend so everything is in sync. I'm in the process of getting the latest CRP and ModuleManager, and rebuilding the plugins.

[nobodyhasthis2]

15 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Not really, but I will have updates this weekend so everything is in sync. I'm in the process of getting the latest CRP and ModuleManager, and rebuilding the plugins.

Sounds good. We might have to test the wheels all over again with the new tweakable options. The new automatic creation of wheel reinforcement struts to the center of mass could screw things up .

[Angelo Kerman]

Latest Buffalo is available, you can find it here.

[Kuansenhama]

Woo! Released for 1.1.2! *Le Download*

Could you please un-bundle the mods, have the CCTV cameras and the Jetwing be separate? (At least in separate folders so that when you download the mod you can easily install/uninstall only the thing you need, since the jetwing and CCTV screens/cameras are more for sandbox play than career, but the rover parts are more useful in a career game.)

[Angelo Kerman]

20 hours ago, Kuansenhama said:

Woo! Released for 1.1.2! *Le Download*

Could you please un-bundle the mods, have the CCTV cameras and the Jetwing be separate? (At least in separate folders so that when you download the mod you can easily install/uninstall only the thing you need, since the jetwing and CCTV screens/cameras are more for sandbox play than career, but the rover parts are more useful in a career game.)

The Jetwing is already in its own separate folder: Buffalo/Parts/Jetwing. You can also delete 000WildBlueTools/Parts/Science to remove the plasma tvs.

[Kuansenhama]

So they're already in separate folders? Thanks.

[rasta013]

@Angel-125 I feel like the bearer of NREs this week...this is what I get for spending 2 days to track down a single problem with one antenna...LOL

Anyway, found another drag cube problem, exactly the same as the one you just finished correcting for Pathfinder - same ED message, same log file message.  Looks like it's happening the Wagon2u...

Drag Cube NRE

Spoiler

DragCubeSystem: Creating drag cubes for part 'WBI.Wagon2u'
 
(Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/UnityEngineDebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 64)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at ModuleDeployableSolarPanel.AssumeDragCubePosition (System.String name) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at DragCubeSystem+<RenderDragCubes>c__IteratorC.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine_Auto(IEnumerator)
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator)
<RenderDragCubesCoroutine>c__IteratorB:MoveNext()
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine_Auto(IEnumerator)
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator)
<SetupDragCubeCoroutine>c__IteratorD:MoveNext()
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine_Auto(IEnumerator)
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator)
<CompileParts>c__Iterator4A:MoveNext()

And since WildBlueTools doesn't have it's own thread I might as well post this one here as well.  I honestly don't remember if I've reported this one already or not.  I've been hitting so many of these this week across my enormous install that I'm getting lost trying to keep track of them all.  Wild Blue is still one of my favorites though so I will do whatever it takes to try and help get anything right that I can.  Just as a side note to this report...KIS did just update today so I don't know if this is related to that or not.

Spoiler

AddonLoader: Instantiating addon 'WBIKISSeatInventoryConfig' from assembly 'WildBlueTools'
 
(Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/UnityEngineDebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 64)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at WildBlueIndustries.WBIKISSeatInventoryConfig.Awake () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
UnityEngine.GameObject:Internal_AddComponentWithType(Type)
UnityEngine.GameObject:AddComponent(Type)
AddonLoader:StartAddon(LoadedAssembly, Type, KSPAddon, Startup)
AddonLoader:StartAddons(Startup)
AddonLoader:OnLevelWasLoaded(Int32)

As always, thanks for all your work and let me know if there's anything else I can help with.  I did remember to save a copy of the logs this time in case you need them again.

[Angelo Kerman]

1 minute ago, rasta013 said:

@Angel-125 I feel like the bearer of NREs this week...this is what I get for spending 2 days to track down a single problem with one antenna...LOL

Anyway, found another drag cube problem, exactly the same as the one you just finished correcting for Pathfinder - same ED message, same log file message.  Looks like it's happening the Wagon2u...

Drag Cube NRE

  Hide contents

DragCubeSystem: Creating drag cubes for part 'WBI.Wagon2u'
 
(Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/UnityEngineDebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 64)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at ModuleDeployableSolarPanel.AssumeDragCubePosition (System.String name) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at DragCubeSystem+<RenderDragCubes>c__IteratorC.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine_Auto(IEnumerator)
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator)
<RenderDragCubesCoroutine>c__IteratorB:MoveNext()
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine_Auto(IEnumerator)
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator)
<SetupDragCubeCoroutine>c__IteratorD:MoveNext()
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine_Auto(IEnumerator)
UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator)
<CompileParts>c__Iterator4A:MoveNext()

And since WildBlueTools doesn't have it's own thread I might as well post this one here as well.  I honestly don't remember if I've reported this one already or not.  I've been hitting so many of these this week across my enormous install that I'm getting lost trying to keep track of them all.  Wild Blue is still one of my favorites though so I will do whatever it takes to try and help get anything right that I can.  Just as a side note to this report...KIS did just update today so I don't know if this is related to that or not.

  Hide contents

AddonLoader: Instantiating addon 'WBIKISSeatInventoryConfig' from assembly 'WildBlueTools'
 
(Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/UnityEngineDebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 64)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at WildBlueIndustries.WBIKISSeatInventoryConfig.Awake () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
UnityEngine.GameObject:Internal_AddComponentWithType(Type)
UnityEngine.GameObject:AddComponent(Type)
AddonLoader:StartAddon(LoadedAssembly, Type, KSPAddon, Startup)
AddonLoader:StartAddons(Startup)
AddonLoader:OnLevelWasLoaded(Int32)

As always, thanks for all your work and let me know if there's anything else I can help with.  I did remember to save a copy of the logs this time in case you need them again.

I don't see either one of those in my latest builds. Be sure to install from GitHub if you are using CKAN. I did a check this morning and did not see the NREs you are reporting.

[rasta013]

16 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

I don't see either one of those in my latest builds. Be sure to install from GitHub if you are using CKAN. I did a check this morning and did not see the NREs you are reporting.

Will do...right now even.  

@Angel-125 CKAN is really beginning to irritate me with all the problems it keeps causing.  It's especially irritating since managing a 160+ mod install across two different setups I swap in out for playing is stupendously difficult to maintain completely manually.

Ok, well installing from GitHub solved the drag cube issue so that's gone but that second NRE on KIS is still there.  The decent part is that it's not spamming the log file so at least ED isn't blowing up on me.  But, I can feel my bug hunting OCD starting to kick in so I'll start trying to isolate this in my install.  If you're not seeing it then it has to be something on my side somewhere and I shall find it and stomp on it...hopefully.

Edited May 3, 2016 by rasta013
Test results...

[Angelo Kerman]

Here is 0.2.13:

- Added drag cubes to all parts.