[WIP] Coatl Aerospace ProbesPlus Dev Thread [Beta] 10/19/2020 (1.8-1.10)

[akron]

13 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

Thank you!!! Can't wait to see how you implement them

There is a WIP (and a little out of date) part list in the first post that can give you an idea of what I am looking at to make each part and what will be included in all.

[komodo]

Regarding RT: Behind the fold below is a modified MM patch for the 4 dish antennas. The s/m/l fixed antennas I rebalanced by cost, range, and power usage, such that the smallest dish is lowest in range, but should still get to duna. This was a significant buff to the range, actually. Cone massively nerfed from 55 to 3. Energy cost actually boosted to 0.6, in light of a lower tech, but offset by the ease of solar panel usage in the inner system.

The medium dish should get to jool, on close approaches for sure, but is heavier and more expensive. Power adjusted down to 0.29, hopefully to run ok with 0.4 ec/s RTG(s), plus whatever else is running. Suggest wise battery usage on transmission to not loose signal. Cone nerfed slightly from 1.5 to 1.

Big dish has just under twice the range, and an energy cost of only 0.21, but a cone of only 0.3 (unchanged) and a much higher cost. The cost progression now goes 1000, 2000, 8000.

Folding dish I have no idea what to do with, and i've left alone if I recall. Suggestions on balance re: applications versus its fixed brethren?

If someone else could give these numbers a go and let me know how they feel/work, that'd be great. As with most of my KSP-ing it seems, its another 1 AM edit job, and we all know how solid those can be

Thanks much!

Spoiler

//CA-A100 Small Dish Antenna
@PART[dish_S]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[RemoteTech]
{
	@cost = 1000
	// a bit more money.
	!MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter] {}
	@MODULE[ModuleAnimateGeneric]
	{
		%allowManualControl = false
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleRTAntenna] {
		%Mode0DishRange = 0
		%Mode1DishRange = 35000000000
		// should be good to duna, but only just. Needs testing.
		%EnergyCost = 0.60
		// more energy hungry, but we can use solar in the inner system.
		%DishAngle = 3
		// mega-nerf from 55 deg.
		
		%DeployFxModules = 0
		
		%TRANSMITTER {
			%PacketInterval = 0.3
			%PacketSize = 2
			%PacketResourceCost = 15.0
		}
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleSPUPassive] {}
}
//CA-A300 Medium Dish Antenna
@PART[dish_M]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[RemoteTech]
{
	@cost = 2000
	// more monies.
	!MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter] {}
	@MODULE[ModuleAnimateGeneric]
	{
		%allowManualControl = false
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleRTAntenna] {
		%Mode0DishRange = 0
		%Mode1DishRange = 70000000000
		// good to dres always, and jool on closer approaches.
		%EnergyCost = 0.29
		// should fit ok in a 0.4 ec/s budget, but worse than higher tech below.
		%DishAngle = 1
		// nerved slightly from 1.5 deg
		
		%DeployFxModules = 0
		
		%TRANSMITTER {
			%PacketInterval = 0.3
			%PacketSize = 2
			%PacketResourceCost = 15.0
		}
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleSPUPassive] {}
}

//CA-A300 Large Dish Antenna
@PART[dish_L]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[RemoteTech]
{
	@cost = 8000
	// age old balance technique: make the awesome thing expensive.
	!MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter] {}
	@MODULE[ModuleAnimateGeneric]
	{
		%allowManualControl = false
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleRTAntenna] {
		%Mode0DishRange = 0
		%Mode1DishRange = 125000000000
		// should be good out to jool for sure. Unsure what the min range for eeloo is.
		%EnergyCost = 0.21
		// low enough to run on the 0.39 ec/s rtg, better than above.
		%DishAngle = 0.3
		// kept at 0.3, should be a decent trade off.

		%DeployFxModules = 0
		
		%TRANSMITTER {
			%PacketInterval = 0.3
			%PacketSize = 2
			%PacketResourceCost = 15.0
		}
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleSPUPassive] {}
}
//CA-A10 Small Folding Dish Antenna
@PART[dish_deploy_S]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[RemoteTech]
{
	!MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter] {}
	@MODULE[ModuleAnimateGeneric]
	{
		%allowManualControl = false
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleRTAntenna] {
		%Mode0DishRange = 0
		%Mode1DishRange = 90000000
		// I don’t know what to do with this one; unsure what the application is intended to be.
		%EnergyCost = 0.50
		%DishAngle = 20.0
		
		%DeployFxModules = 0
		
		%TRANSMITTER {
			%PacketInterval = 0.3
			%PacketSize = 2
			%PacketResourceCost = 15.0
		}
	}
	
	%MODULE[ModuleSPUPassive] {}
}

 

 

[Doc-Zer0G]

Great work @akron!

Really enjoying your probes, they're a must have add-on in my games.

On a side note, since I almost exclusively play in RSS or 64scale and  use remotetech, I rely heavily on geostationary satellites.
Therefore, I was wondering if there were plans for a bigger satellite bus? I'm currently using a custom scaled up Barquetta with it's own propellant so it can do its own apogee kick.

Keep up the great work! Looking forward to your lander series!

[CobaltWolf]

27 minutes ago, Doc-Zer0G said:

Great work @akron!

Really enjoying your probes, they're a must have add-on in my games.

On a side note, since I almost exclusively play in RSS or 64scale and  use remotetech, I rely heavily on geostationary satellites.
Therefore, I was wondering if there were plans for a bigger satellite bus? I'm currently using a custom scaled up Barquetta with it's own propellant so it can do its own apogee kick.

Keep up the great work! Looking forward to your lander series!

the one he showed on the last page is a 1.25m (iirc) core with built in RCS like Barquetta.

He has a bunch of propulsion stuff in the works.

[akron]

7 hours ago, Doc-Zer0G said:

Great work @akron!

Really enjoying your probes, they're a must have add-on in my games.

On a side note, since I almost exclusively play in RSS or 64scale and  use remotetech, I rely heavily on geostationary satellites.
Therefore, I was wondering if there were plans for a bigger satellite bus? I'm currently using a custom scaled up Barquetta with it's own propellant so it can do its own apogee kick.

Keep up the great work! Looking forward to your lander series!

Thanks! Like @CobaltWolf said, I have larger probes coming. Tatsujin is 1.25m and is a big brother to Barquetta. I also have an even larger probe in that line, but I haven't sized it yet. It is designed specially for bigger satellites/missions.

[Siege]

Hey @akron: is there anything in particular you know of that prevents P+ from being 1.1.3 compatible? If not, could you update your CKAN repo listing to 1.1.3? It seems it's currently showing as 1.1.2 max version, which is why it's not showing up.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Siege

[akron]

1 minute ago, Siege said:

Hey @akron: is there anything in particular you know of that prevents P+ from being 1.1.3 compatible? If not, could you update your CKAN repo listing to 1.1.3? It seems it's currently showing as 1.1.2 max version, which is why it's not showing up.

No, there is nothing in particular. I did not add my mod to CKAN, so I do not know how to update that. I can try and find out though

[Siege]

Not sure how it got on CKAN if you didn't submit it... that's interesting.

AFAIK, it used to have something to do with a file containing a supported version number, but I have no idea if that's still true or not.

[akron]

1 minute ago, Siege said:

Not sure how it got on CKAN if you didn't submit it... that's interesting.

AFAIK, it used to have something to do with a file containing a supported version number, but I have no idea if that's still true or not.

I can't recall who did. I think someone requested it and I said it was ok, but I didn't actually set it up.

[CobaltWolf]

32 minutes ago, Siege said:

Not sure how it got on CKAN if you didn't submit it... that's interesting.

AFAIK, it used to have something to do with a file containing a supported version number, but I have no idea if that's still true or not.

that's the beef that some modders have with CKAN.

[Siege]

Just now, CobaltWolf said:

that's the beef that some modders have with CKAN.

And I can see how that might come about. But then, you probably have no idea how much time I've spent listening to programmers poodle about having to use SVN, git, Mercurial CVS, or similar.

Then again, there's the beef *I* have with having to install and update mods manually, and AFAIK there aren't any other good mod managers out there right now, particularly not that support versioning and in-app downloading.

[akron]

16 minutes ago, Siege said:

And I can see how that might come about. But then, you probably have no idea how much time I've spent listening to programmers poodle about having to use SVN, git, Mercurial CVS, or similar.

Then again, there's the beef *I* have with having to install and update mods manually, and AFAIK there aren't any other good mod managers out there right now, particularly not that support versioning and in-app downloading.

I personally use CKAN. I had not really had any MAJOR issues. Every once in a while a mod is messed up and I install it manually, but it's never a big deal

[akron]

Double post!

small update

I think I am done with all the texture and part tweaks! Next is spending time double checking models and making sure everything is ready for export, as well as making the final specular and normal maps where applicable. I am going to be fairly methodical about it so that I can try and identify areas where save breaking can happen so that I can minimize it. I should have a good chunk of stuff in-game by this weekend. Woo!

I also spent a little time planning the Russian parts and the propulsion parts which will be in the following update. I got sick so I had a little time to work on those.

Finally, Quetzal got its proper "Pioneer" antenna. It features built-in RCS for yaw and roll and will have a Meteorite impact detector compatible with BDB. At first I wanted to minimize antenna parts, but I ending up wanting each probe bus to have its proper one. Quetzal's old antenna will be removed from the next update until I get around to making Cassini. This is so I can be sure to have the right size and to prevent a save-braking issues on a later update. It will probably still be included for compatibility, but will not be in the VAB. All its stats will be passed to the new one. Here, I leave you with some quick renders out of Maya and will continue recent tradition by including a quick little mission patch!

~Cheers

[Jimbodiah]

Wow, looks nice!
 

PS: The last beta release of P+ works just fine in 1.1.3, so start launching those probes.

[CobaltWolf]

you should get sick more often

PS when's that gonna be in game?

[Stone Blue]

2 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

you should get sick more often

PS when's that gonna be in game?

[akron]

3 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

Wow, looks nice!
 

PS: The last beta release of P+ works just fine in 1.1.3, so start launching those probes.

Thank you! And thanks for checking!

2 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

you should get sick more often

PS when's that gonna be in game?

21 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

Lol. My employer would disagree. But Soon^TM is indeed the answer. It's ready to go, so whenever the other parts are imported in-game. I'm hoping by around this weekend

 

[akron]

The long road to getting all this work in-game has begun!

All probes are in-game with texture-switch, although the textures need work. I want to import a few more parts before I do a Github push. Right now all textures except for the dishes and science would break

Stay tuned! The first pass should be up in Github in a day or two.

[Jimbodiah]

Are those stock solar panels I see. Shame on you!

[akron]

1 hour ago, Jimbodiah said:

Are those stock solar panels I see. Shame on you!

Ha! Yes. A little bit at a time. I noticed that I forgot to remove some foil bits from the Pioneer RTG so I gotta do that right quick before I import the electrical parts again with their new texture, including the solar panels.

[akron]

[akron]

[StarStreak2109]

Looks great, I have become a great fan of your probes, which make such a great addon/companion to DMagic!

[akron]

23 minutes ago, StarStreak2109 said:

Looks great, I have become a great fan of your probes, which make such a great addon/companion to DMagic!

Thanks! I appreciate it very much! It's what keeps me going. Here, have another!

The evil fairy told me to build hype

Edited August 19, 2016 by akron

[Drakenex]

Awesome work! pls don't forget about Juno