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

[akron]

48 minutes ago, hraban said:

@Stone Blue

As user and consumer of KSP is already true, but as a modder I would also like to see what changes at which point. It is helpful for subsequent projects to compare the newly created files with the saved ones. I do not speak at this point of the MM files in the GameData directory.
The Phyiscs.cfg are stored in the root directory of KSP and are only re-created when this is forced by deletion. I had the same problem as akron with my mod CONTARES a few months ago.

Thank you! You and @Stone Blue made good points. I will try this first when I get back to my PC later. Then I only have to figure out whats going to be the best way to do the fairing.

[Stone Blue]

1 hour ago, hraban said:

@Stone Blue

As user and consumer of KSP is already true, but as a modder I would also like to see what changes at which point.

Ok... THAT I can see, if you are actually digging into and comparing the "old" with the "new" files... I havent had to go that in-depth with anything..
So yeah, i guess I was just thinking from the point of view of someone mainly doing simple edits, and uninstalling/reinstalling/updating mods, to eliminate any lingering issues that keeping the "old" files around might cause... Deleting all those files and letting KSP regenerate fresh ones, is more like just a way to make sure everything is purged, and fresh... Based on the CURRENT contents of your /GameData...

Edited December 16, 2016 by Stone Blue

[akron]

 

This was a frustrating victory. Thanks for all the suggestions. It turned out that deleting the partDatabase didn't help. The parachute kept getting the drag cube:

	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		procedural = True
	}

This did not work so I had to enter the drag cube (From the Mk1 parachute) directly in the part CFG to force it.

@Shadowmage helped me figure this out from his post here.

 

No progress on issue #2. You can actually see above that the fairing failed to detach with the cap.

[Blackheart KICA-1398]

Is the mod under a different name on CKAN? I can't find it for the life of me .w.

[Fr8monkey]

It's not on CKAN.  Gotta download and install it manually.

[Aelfhe1m]

4 hours ago, Blackheart KICA-1398 said:

Is the mod under a different name on CKAN? I can't find it for the life of me .w.

It's on CKAN as "ProbesPlus!" (no spaces) but is currently listed as compatible with KSP 1.2.1 max so can't be installed to KSP 1.2.2 from the GUI.

[akron]

On 12/18/2016 at 2:53 AM, Aelfhe1m said:

It's on CKAN as "ProbesPlus!" (no spaces) but is currently listed as compatible with KSP 1.2.1 max so can't be installed to KSP 1.2.2 from the GUI.

Yes, this is probably what is going on. Thank you!

свежие новости

Here, I've been trying to get stuff working:

And meanwhile, down in Eve...

Album

The heatshield and its fairing do very weird things when activated... still trying to sort that out... As expected, the parachute is OP for Eve so I may go back and work on a drogue. The heatshield barely made it with about 9 ablator left, may bump it up. Engine and camera not yet done, but stock engine work fine on the orbiter. No techtree placement and very little balancing so far, so it's not ready. I will try to have these on Github by Christmas, but I don't think there will be a full release by then.

~Cheers

Edited December 19, 2016 by akron

[akron]

Update

More tweaks and balancing done! The engine is now in-game but for some reason the gimbal will not Pitch and there is a little texture weirdness I have to fix in the UV. Here are a couple of screenshots, I tried to go for a Venera-15 style:

Also, rejoice as you'll find these parts now on the Github Repo for testing, and yes, @davidy12, it includes Surveyor. I haven't had enough chance to test either of these part sets so expect a lot of weirdness and unbalance. PLEASE post feedback and report issues. From here on out, patches will be done to these parts without notice, so tread carefully before you patch this into an active career save .

As I begin patching and finalizing these parts I was wondering where to go next. I decided to start a poll to see what you guys want to see. If you've got time, here is a Google Poll you can vote on:

Click for poll

Please don't abuse it. Mod direction subject to change, I am just curious and will obviously take votes into account

 

EDIT: Some Surveyor love

 

GO TEST

 

~cheers

Edited December 20, 2016 by akron

[Stone Blue]

@akron I know its already on your roadmap, and I suppose you're holding out on anything with wheels till Squad officially fixes them, but any chance to move Lunokhod to the top of the list? In honor of it being THEEE 1st rover to explore another planetary body?

http://www.space.com/35090-lunokhod-1.html

[akron]

8 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

@akron I know its already on your roadmap, and I suppose you're holding out on anything with wheels till Squad officially fixes them, but any chance to move Lunokhod to the top of the list? In honor of it being THEEE 1st rover to explore another planetary body?

http://www.space.com/35090-lunokhod-1.html

Lunokhod was probably going to end up being the first of the rovers anyway out of the fact that it looks to have the simplest wheel/part setup. I may even be able to take a SSTU approach and combine many parts into the body. Since I've never done wheels, and they look so buggy and complex, I want to learn with the easiest one first and leave the JPL rocker-bogie stuff for later. I'm very hopeful that @Shadowmage's KSPWheel API can help me get started on rovers sooner, but I am currently at a complete loss on how to rig wheels and suspension. I could also take the Lionhead Mod approach to these rovers and have a static suspension, with the dampening done at the wheels. It's easier but less realistic.

This is the challenge of whether I should make a part that is stock-alike and agnostic to a particular craft, or a prettier and realistic part that may look awkward or be less useful in anything other than the craft it is intended to. I'll see what you guys think about the current mostly-replicas of Surveyor and Vega and see how it turns out. Vorona has some parts that can be used in other crafts, but Landvermesser is fairly contained.

Thank you guys for voting in the poll. So far the trend is to move on to Cassini-Huygens which I'm think of naming Meridiani-Draco, for little meaningful reasons. It's a break from the normally unpronounceable names I give my stuff

[Stone Blue]

@akron heh.. perfect timing?
 

 

[akron]

1 hour ago, Stone Blue said:

@akron heh.. perfect timing?
 

*snip* Director's Cut

It's a start, but I haven't made wheel in the old system either. I probably will still try and finish orbiters and traditional landers, but I may experiment with either Lunokhod or another simple rover like Yutu

[akron]

So I've moved on to the remaining parts I want to add to Landvermesser and Vorona. I ended up working on the soil scoop arm thing that flew up in Surveyor. I had a preview of this a while back. I did some mesh tweaks and tried to do an animation, here what I came up with after a lot of fiddling:

The animation is probably 2x faster but the GIF came out slow, and from what I understand of the RL design this is not how it operated. I thought this was visually interesting while less violent than the real one. Some stuff just doesn't translate correctly to KSP without it, for example, dynamically adjusting to the surface under the probe. It would be cool if science research was a little more complex than just click run and profit... If you know how to code plugins and want to tackle some new science modules, let me know. Even something as simple as science failures . Like that one time the Venera 14 camera lens cap landed right under the soil test arm. Yup.

Anyway, up next is a battery/electronics box from Surveyor and work on Venera parts: Orbiter camera/spectrometer, lander hydrometer, and thermometer/barometer. Nothing special on the last two, just another alternate model in a combo part.

Again, thank you for your feedback on the poll for the next project parts. If you haven't voted: Click here. The leads are Cassini and SCANSat/science parts so maybe I can shuffle my roadmap to add those. I'll keep this poll going until Friday.

~Cheers

 

Edited December 21, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

looks ok 7/10 needs more Unity

[Stone Blue]

Nah... Needs more BDB realism

[akron]

29 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

realism

You'd need something like FASA if you want realism

[davidy12]

@akron OMFG!!!!!!
IT'S HERE!!!

(FYI: GREETINGS from Patagonia)

Edited December 21, 2016 by davidy12

[CobaltWolf]

56 minutes ago, akron said:

You'd need something like FASA if you want realism

oww my heart

[davidy12]

@akron: Looks like Prototype is now leading, BIG TIME.

I'm conflicted, I'd like to have a proper probe orbit Sarnus. But on the other hand, I'd like kill to have a good payload for Duna launched on a Sarnus V.

Edited December 21, 2016 by davidy12

[Cdw2468]

12 minutes ago, davidy12 said:

@akron: Looks like Prototype is now leading, BIG TIME.

I'm conflicted, I'd like to have a proper probe orbit Sarnus. But on the other hand, I'd like kill to have a good payload for Duna launched on a Sarnus V.

Why not both...

[akron]

2 hours ago, davidy12 said:

@akron OMFG!!!!!!
IT'S HERE!!!

(FYI: GREETINGS from Patagonia)

Argentina? Visiting or living? Saludos de todas formas.

2 hours ago, davidy12 said:

@akron: Looks like Prototype is now leading, BIG TIME.

I'm conflicted, I'd like to have a proper probe orbit Sarnus. But on the other hand, I'd like kill to have a good payload for Duna launched on a Sarnus V.

I checked and all the votes for Prototype projects came within the same minute. I suspect shady votes (Russian hacking? Too soon?) Anyway, please don't abuse the system. All these parts will be made eventually, this is only helping me gauge interest to decide the order. There are more "legitimate" votes towards Cassini. I think I can compromise and do Cassini along with the prototype/canceled Voyager '73 Mars mission. This is essentially a Mariner 9 orbiter with a re-entry aeroshell carrying a modified and upgraded Surveyor. They wanted to launch two in the same Saturn V launch, one on top of the other, so you guys can go bother @CobaltWolf to make a payload adapter for his S5. This eventually became Viking, so this way you'll get the Viking Orbiter a little earlier than planned, but not the Viking lander. The lander would be a new Surveyor with a hint of Pathfinder (Minus the rover).

There still a couple of days that I'll leave the poll open, so things could change. If further abuse is suspected you will all get nothing but potatoes. And not the miracle "Mark Whatney" potatoes either. Buggy potatoes with lots of n-gons, broken geometry, incorrect normals, missing textures, null exceptions, BSODs, and Zika.

~Cheers

Edited December 21, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

joke's on you I like when my tatoes taste like Zika! also, payload adapter..?

[akron]

1 minute ago, CobaltWolf said:

joke's on you I like when my tatoes taste like Zika! also, payload adapter..?

Something to hold those two

[DiscoSlelge]

I didn't tested the Venera yet but the Surveyor is excellent there's just enough fuel to make a smooth landing, the parts are well made and very neat great job !

[davidy12]

1 hour ago, akron said:

Argentina? Visiting or living? Saludos de todas formas.

I checked and all the votes for Prototype projects came within the same minute. I suspect shady votes (Russian hacking? Too soon?) Anyway, please don't abuse the system. All these parts will be made eventually, this is only helping me gauge interest to decide the order. There are more "legitimate" votes towards Cassini. I think I can compromise and do Cassini along with the prototype/canceled Voyager '73 Mars mission. This is essentially a Mariner 9 orbiter with a re-entry aeroshell carrying a modified and upgraded Surveyor. They wanted to launch two in the same Saturn V launch, one on top of the other, so you guys can go bother @CobaltWolf to make a payload adapter for his S5. This eventually became Viking, so this way you'll get the Viking Orbiter a little earlier than planned, but not the Viking lander. The lander would be a new Surveyor with a hint of Pathfinder (Minus the rover).

There still a couple of days that I'll leave the poll open, so things could change. If further abuse is suspected you will all get nothing but potatoes. And not the miracle "Mark Whatney" potatoes either. Buggy potatoes with lots of n-gons, broken geometry, incorrect normals, missing textures, null exceptions, BSODs, and Zika.

~Cheers

 

WOOOOOO!!!!

Also, just vacation.