Plugin Team- Members wanted!

[OnyxAltair]

Hello there fellow Kerbalnauts! My name is OnyxAltair and I had a cool idea about a plugin/mod. I was thinking of having 2 new items and... DOCKING. The 2 items would be a stack parachute and a docking port. Instead of being able to transfer crews and all that, this plugin would just keep the ships together in an orbit (Or any other sides with a structural frame) Maybe we could also do something like the orbital construction mod of sending fuel to another spacecraft. Personally I am not the greatest at programming, and that is why I need help with the plugin part. I am better at part design thou but not crazy detailed parts. If you would like to join my modding team, just send me a message or comment in this topic.

Many thanks!

OnyxAltair

[Twinky827]

I\'m sorry, even with plugins, this is not possible.

[Monkthespy]

Well, it\'s possible, just very difficult.

[OnyxAltair]

I think it is in a way possible even in a rough idea. Say you get these three mods: Part gravity-orbital construction- and mech jeb. You can sort of use these plugins to dock because 1- part gravity will make sure that they dont fly waay from each other 2- orbital construcion would switch fuel and give fuel and 3- mech jeb would stop any spinning and part gravity again would hold it. Now I know that that wont perfectly dock but thats kind of the best way to do it at this point of time

[Muka]

Part gravity doesn\'t works above 2x warp, so this was is no-go. If You intend to create docking before Team KSP deos it, you should do something like decoupler - except it should work opposite like joining w ship to one, and that the problem (due to on-rail system) ....

Edit: If you want to add transferring of resources.... Well, it\'s better to wait for official docking than to do it itself. Devs doesn\'t wanted to add placeholder docking for reason, does They? I\'m not good at programming, but I know how it works. And docking is a LOT of work

[OnyxAltair]

Yup XD

Im not that good at it eather... mabye Ill get some other people on a team to do a smaller plugin, like customizable pods or an abort button

[Muka]

Both has been done. Check out Kosmos and NovaPunch Remix Pack - there are some customisable pods. There was abort decoupler (worked trough context menu like jet engines do now) in previous release...

[NIN3]

Atually, if one wanted to implement docking the plugin could jet set one ships orbit to the exact same as the other, minus rotation.

[OnyxAltair]

Yay some one who kind of understands what I am trying to get at and sees how its possibl!

[Muka]

Still it\'s impossible to synchronize orbits so perfectly, that ships would be floating next to another without any relative movement due to simplified orbit calculation, different ship masses/sizes etc. (I don\'t want to discourage You from doing it, I\'m just pointing problems, which make it so difficult)

[mixxorz]

In theory, you can make two custom parts that fit perfectly with each other and have collision detection keep them together. I don\'t know how well that would work out though as it depends on the collision detection.

Does anyone know how collisions are handled when using more than 2x simulation rate?

Also, I have no idea what you can do with KSP\'s API so I don\'t know what you can make the plugin do to simulate docking situations. (refuling, transfer of crew members, control of the other spacecraft)

[OnyxAltair]

Yes... I can see how this will be difficult but it is still possible. My team will probably get it out before they actually implement docking. Also we still need some one who is good at programming plugins, seeing how we are currently making models and textures

[OnyxAltair]

I actually have done a sort of ducking thing like this

_ ___

Ship number 1 --> --- l_ l -- l

l l_l <---- Ship number 2

l __l

It was like a lock... and I could time warp it and they would stay together. I might try to make it again and put a picture up ;P

[Muka]

@mixxorz

At warp speeds >2x physics are disabled. Totally. Even collision between ships at higher warp isn\'t simulated. As long as orbit allows You to keep warp speed above 2, there is no point in trying to create collision based docking.

@OP

And no offence, but I honestly doubt it that anyone will join plugin team, which is lead by someone who doesn\'t know much about programming. As long as it\'s non commercial there is no point to try (tho You might surprise Me if You succeed ;P )

[OnyxAltair]

Well I DO know about programming but not porgramming plugins

[NIN3]

Um, although the ships masses might be diffrent, if they are taped togeather with enough ducktape that there momentome does not rip them apart, they would equillize their obit to be about the same (but it would be some where in the middle off their orriginal orbits)

[NovaSilisko]

You could, in theory, accomplish this by completely destroying the inactive vessel, and incorporating its parts into the active one. Then, upon detaching, it would still have a capsule, and be controllable. What becomes of the crew? I don\'t know.

[protagoras]

This is what I was thinking might be a solution to docking. Just do a nose-nose connection and invert all of the parts on the docking ship in the dock\'s part-list in the persistence.

[Meatsauce]

Um, although the ships masses might be diffrent, if they are taped togeather with enough ducktape that there momentome does not rip them apart, they would equillize their obit to be about the same (but it would be some where in the middle off their orriginal orbits)

I like the cut of your jeb.

Duct tape should definitely be a radial part.

[Katratszi]

You could, in theory, accomplish this by completely destroying the inactive vessel, and incorporating its parts into the active one. Then, upon detaching, it would still have a capsule, and be controllable. What becomes of the crew? I don\'t know.

This is how I envisioned docking. Quite literally the two ships become one and the other goes poof, temporarily. Of course to make this work well, the entire contents of the previous vessel need to be serialized to disk somewhere or else it might be tricky to rebuild the vessel -- crew et al. However I think this can be accomplished with the new PartModule/IConfigNode system in 0.15, I might have to give it a shot sometime.

[OnyxAltair]

Soo.... anyone up to program the plugin?

[OnyxAltair]

Here... I dont know if multiple moving parts in one par like the landing leg need a plugin... but heres an idea i ad of docking claw

[NIN3]

Here... I dont know if multiple moving parts in one par like the landing leg need a plugin... but heres an idea i ad of docking claw

Um, enless thats just for show, and the plugin puts the 2 ships togeather (and holds them there) Your not going to get anywhere with that. its too small, and it will just fall apart or explode....... Why not somthing bigger?

[OnyxAltair]

Got any Ideas?