New contract pack: Zoological society

[Madscientist16180]

Hello fellow kebonauts.

I'm making my hand at moding by first trying to make a contract pack.

Being myself an entomologist and naturalist, i'm strongly inclined to use that angle to create content. 

Maybe create a non random serie of contract that would first explore Kerbin wildlife and lead to a search for extra-kerbin life or something like this.

Does this sound interesting to anybody but me? Lol

[RA3236]

For extraterrestrial life, yes. For Kerbin life, no.

[wasml]

This is an interesting idea - what mechanic would you use to "find and study" the wildlife?

Anything to make some of the planets seem a bit more alive. (no reflection on Squad - this is far beyond scope for a rocket sim)

[Madscientist16180]

1 minute ago, wasml said:

This is an interesting idea - what mechanic would you use to "find and study" the wildlife?

Anything to make some of the planets seem a bit more alive. (no reflection on Squad - this is far beyond scope for a rocket sim)

For now, my own skill does not allow me to do more than something like "eva", find stuffs. Or collect "surface Sample", find stuff. I'm forced into using the science the game have since i have no modeling skills, and for now could not code new part even if my daughter life depended on it.

On the other hand, if my skills grow more quickly than expected, or if i manage to find a partner who'd be willing to help with what i cannot do, then i have ideas for new science experiment that could be used to find life. Mostly stuff that we do use for this in the real world. First exemple that comes to my entomologist mind, Ulta-violet traps and/or bug nets lol.

Right now, i'm inspiring myself with the "k-files" format. As for now, at the very least the discoveries could be shown in a dialog box with an image and a little funny text.

If anybody got ideas on their side on how i could implement this, i'm all ears!

[wasml]

I've never dug into contract Configurator so have no idea what's possible.

Just thinking out loud here - is it possible to script a contract so an experiment/trap is placed and then collected later in time?

Somehow I've got a picture of a Kerbal running around a field wildly waving a butterfly net in the air - no idea how to implement.

Anyway - Kerbin needs bugs!

[Madscientist16180]

5 hours ago, wasml said:

I've never dug into contract Configurator so have no idea what's possible.

Just thinking out loud here - is it possible to script a contract so an experiment/trap is placed and then collected later in time?

Somehow I've got a picture of a Kerbal running around a field wildly waving a butterfly net in the air - no idea how to implement.

That is exactly what i intend to try and do today. For now, i was thinking of trying to make à contract parameter that would want an research station to produce X amount of science while standing at a precise waypoint. Would kinda simulate spending time in some spot to study what is there.

 

I was also thinking of learning to code parts. Maybe i can create experiment that would have a random completion % chance that acumulate with time.

Like, let say a bug net, KIS part, when used, the Kerbal start fooling around with it. Every minute 1% cumulative chance of the experiment completion actually trigerring. Might work, but as of now, far behind what i know how to do.

[wasml]

A experiment that has a x% chance of finishing in some interval doesn't sound to difficult (says someone who's never messed with science experiment code). Another possibility would be to have it randomly collect science points - the longer you leave it the more you catch and the more likely you'll have caught something interesting. Could tie % chance or rate to Biome. Hmmm - need some non-standard Kerbalized bug traps to keep with the flavor of the game. Some other possibilities would be to add Kerbal Konstuct or Procedural termite mound equivalents in special places.

[Chakat Firepaw]

Perhaps set up the mod to use a series of experiments:

First, a "Biological Activity" experiment:  An instant experiment that can be used in low atmosphere and on the surface by biome.  This experiment will also tell you if the others are worth doing, (e.g. the Mun returns a result of 'totally dead' while Laythe returns 'extremely active').  The other experiments are of zero value on bodies that are dead.

Second, a "Biological Culturing" experiment:  A delayed result experiment, (i.e. you do it and you get the result n days later), that you don't need to keep in place, (however, too many gees will ruin it, say 5X the surface gravity of where the sample is from).

Third, "Biological Observation":  An extended experiment that has to stay in place on the surface.  This experiment will tell you if trapping is worth doing, (e.g. "any life is microscopic" or "you observer a number of small animal-like creatures").

Fourth, "Biological Trapping":  This would be the 'random success' experiment and would only work on the few bodies with motile lifeforms.  Of course, it would have a very poor return for transmission.

Finally, "Environmental Observation":  A manned, extended experiment that also has a very poor transmission return.

 

A contract pack might use the various stages as 'locks':  The first contracts for an area of the system would be to check for activity and to confirm the presence of life by culturing samples.  Worlds where life has been found will get contracts to observe for macroscopic life and/or to directly investigate the environment with those found to have motile life getting contracts to trap things[1].

 

[1] Perhaps even start generating contracts along the lines of "a zoo wants you to trap and recover examples of the native life of...."  Something that could be rather 'fun' if you are playing with a life support mod.  This might require special "biotransport" parts and possibly even require they be transferred from the trap to the transport by hand.

[wasml]

19 hours ago, Chakat Firepaw said:

First, a "Biological Activity" experiment:  An instant experiment that can be used in low atmosphere and on the surface

Or from orbit - like the detection of methane on Mars. Though a follow on surface sample could return a positive result where none was seen remotely. I would question this as the player would only truly discover something unexpected the first play through - after that they would know what/where to look. Could have a plugin randomly place stuff - as in 20% chance of remote detection in Biome A - assigned per play through.

If this gets off the ground I may have to figure out how to make a cage that's empty to start with but when left alone has a chance of containing a 20 Kg cockroach on return.(OK - probably well beyond my meager modeling skills).

[ndiver]

As being myself a naturalist (i described two years ago my first species, and have still several yet unpublished), a way i could see this idea would be to bring your scientist Kerbal at a specific place and use some of the scientific instruments ingame (possible including the DMagic Orbital Science mod) to conduct experiments in this place to measure the environmental conditions of these places that might harbor life, at macroscopic or microscopic level.

There are tons of places on Kerbin and other planets where nobody goes, that could be a good occasion to motivate players to go there. For examples, there are two beautiful rivers along Kerbin's continents, there are some large lakes (even inner seas). On Duna, you have some kraters. Do they host or hosted microbial life? And Laythe with its breathable atmosphere and this large ocean? What about the atmospheres of Eve and Jool?

Some missions might require the use of several instruments, to bring together the clues and determine if these places host or not life, or if there are there potential conditions for life to emerge.

 

Edit: I also realize that the way I propose it looks like Contract Pack: Field Science

Edited May 10, 2016 by ndiver

[Madscientist16180]

Wow, i spent the last days actually playin the game instead of thinking about this. You people all have great ideas! 

You prompted me into going back to it. I'm a John Snow coder, i know nothing lol. Gotta keep going at learning contract configurator. 

As i have to learn every single step from scratch, it might take à long time. So this is an official question: anybody wanna join forces with me on this?

[ndiver]

I'm interested to join.

I also don't know anything in coding. However, the creator of Contract Pack: the K-Files wrote that Contract Pack is quite easy to manage, and the documentation is extremely clear.

[Madscientist16180]

It is. 48 hours from knowing nothing, i have a basic working contract. It's not even real coding.

That i think i can do. But your input will be useful, i'm but an amateur naturalist after all. What is out of my reach at the moment, or should i say out of our reach, is creating new parts to take that to quite another level.

I'll PM you à few Idea i had that i do not want to make public yet at some point today.

[Chakat Firepaw]

On 10/05/2016 at 8:31 PM, wasml said:

Or from orbit - like the detection of methane on Mars. Though a follow on surface sample could return a positive result where none was seen remotely.

I would have any remote chemical scan be a separate experiment.  What I was thinking of was something more like DMagic's Exobiology Core Drill, while any orbital scan would be some mix of the Multispectral Imaging Platform and the Soil Moisture Sensor.

But as an additional experiment?  Sure.  Perhaps even have the Zoological Society mod check for DMagic Orbital Science and use those experiments for the initial Biological Activity surveys.

On 10/05/2016 at 8:31 PM, wasml said:

I would question this as the player would only truly discover something unexpected the first play through - after that they would know what/where to look. Could have a plugin randomly place stuff - as in 20% chance of remote detection in Biome A - assigned per play through.

That's an issue with any "go out and find things" mod.  Plus the list of places in the stock system that can have an ecosystem is rather limited.  It's what?  Four planets, (including Kerbin), and three moons?  With only three of them at all really feasible for anything beyond microbes.

 

[ndiver]

My opinion would be to use first the stock science experiments, and probably the DMagic Orbital Science. The idea to create a new mod necessary for this contract pack is I think too complex, excepted if you have experience in creating a mod.

The DMagic mod provides already a large set of experiments that could be use to track bioindicators, and that can be used for roleplay.
Some examples:
- the magnetometer can be used to identify the magnetic field used by Kerbin animals during their migrations
- the orbital telescope and multispectral imaging plateform can be used to track infrared sources and follow large groups of animal from orbit
- the laser surface scanner can detect carbonated rocks, signs of biological activity
- the core drill can samples rocks and tell us if there are microroganisms and microscopic life form in these samples
- the atmospheric sensors can tell us about the environmental conditions
- the seismic sensor can be used to follow by a second way big groups of animals

I'm sure we can find tons of other ideas linked to biology.