[POC] In Situ Assembly of Craft (I.S.A.C.)

[Festivejelly]

I'd like to introduce you to In Situ Assembly of Craft or I.S.A.C.

Now to introduce myself. I'm Festivejelly or Nick whichever you prefer and i'm new to the modding scene. I've watched in amazement over the years of the dedication and talent that the modding community has. A result of this is that you have all inspired me to get off my backside and start using some skills I learned.

As a C# developer i've always had a keen interest in programming, especially in Unity. So I figured I should have a crack at writing my own mod.

The idea of this mod is that you would be able to take a sub-assembly that you have lovingly created in the VAB or SPH, and build it on another celestial body, or in space, or wherever you have an engineer with desire to build!

I know other mods exist that achieve the same goal but I wasn't happy with how they were implemented.

I love how Kerbal Inventory System (KIS) deals with items in the game so I figured it would make sense to make it a major component of this mod. I also think OSE workshop would be a great complement to this mod as it allows you to build individual parts out of material kits. These parts are then stored in KIS storage, which is where my mod comes in...

How does it work?

1. Planning stage
    So first you'll need to hop into your VAB or SPH and create a sub assembly for the craft you wish to build and save it. (side note, perhaps I could also allow crafts that are not subassemblies)

2. Parts
    In order to create your craft you'll need to ensure you've got all the parts. These parts will need to be stored in a KIS compliant container and be within X meters of your engineer before you can commence the build.

3. Build!
    You eva your engineer to a site you want the craft built, right click to bring up the eva GUI and click "Assemble Craft", this will bring up a new UI window allowing you to select a craft you'd like to build. Once selected a list of parts will be shown highlighted green if you have them, and red if you dont. If the parts are red you cant build the craft.
You then click the "Assemble" button and a hologram of the ship will be shown at your mouse cursor. This will then allow you to rotate it and raise and lower it etc so that it doesnt clip into the landscape when you build it. When you have chosen a suitable orientation etc and you click the left mouse button, the craft will be built and the items removed from KIS storage.

This is still very much a proof of concept and I will no doubt hit hurdles on the way, but if anyone would like to offer their assistance or suggestions then im all ears.

I'll update this space when I have more progress.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Festivejelly

[njmksr]

1 hour ago, Festivejelly said:

Hello, firstly i'll introduce myself. I'm Festivejelly or Nick whichever you prefer and i'm new to the modding scene. I've watched in amazement over the years of the dedication and talent that the modding community has. A result of this is that you have all inspired me to get off my backside and start using some skills I learned. As a C# developer I figured I should have a crack at writing my own mod. Enter I.S.A.C or In Situ Assembly of Craft.

The idea of this mod is that you would be able to take a sub assembly that you have lovingly created in the VAB or SPH, and build it on another celestial body, or in space, or wherever you have an engineer with desire to build!

I know other mods exist that achieve the same goal but I wasnt happy with how they were implemented.

I love how Kerbal Inventory System (KIS) deals with items in the game so I figured it would make sense to make it a major component of this mod.

How does it work?

1. Planning stage
So first you'll need to hop into your VAB or SPH and create a sub assembly for the craft you wish to build. Then save it.
2. Parts
In order to create your craft you'll need to ensure you've got all the parts. These parts will need to be stored in a KIS compliant container and be within X meters of your engineer before you can commence the build.
3. Build!
You eva your engineer to a sit you want the craft built, right click to bring up the eva GUI and click "Assemble Craft", this will bring up a new UI window allowing you to select a craft you'd like to build. Once selected a list of parts will be shown highlighted green if you have them, and red if you dont. If the parts are red you cant build the craft.

This is still very much a proof of concept and I will no doubt hit hurdles on the way, but if anyone would like to offer their assistance or suggestions then im all ears.

I'll update this space when I have more progress.

Welcome, fellow Nick! Sounds like a lot of fun, and a unique take on the ISA concept. I look forward to seeing your finished product!

[Festivejelly]

Thank you, i'll get some screenshots up soon and tidy up my post a bit. I'm in work at the moment so just wanted to make a quick post while the idea was fresh in my head.

[Enceos]

Welcome to the modding stage, dude! ) You're quite a veteran player I suppose. That's one outstanding idea you've got there. I've been using EPL to print out subassemblies, but that needs a big base to work. Your mod will bring so much more immersiveness and EVA enhancement to the game. Assembling a craft from the parts detected in inventories will be so much more convenient much more fun than doing it part by part. People usually resorted to making extra nodes on parts to let people assemle vehicles via KIS (The Packrat Rover by Roverdude, if you remember that one).

The Hangar mod code won't give you much. As I understand you've tasked yourself with making a vessel spawner hybrid which spawns things like Vessel Mover, but also has a hologram like in KIS.

Since you're in the design stage, you might also want to tie the part count of a buildable subassembly to an engineer's skill level.

We have a lot of knowledgeable people who can help if questions arise.

There's a KSP API Wiki, if you haven't found it already.

I'm cheering for ya!

[Festivejelly]

45 minutes ago, Enceos said:

Welcome to the modding stage, dude! ) You're quite a veteran player I suppose. That's one outstanding idea you've got there. I've been using EPL to print out subassemblies, but that needs a big base to work. Your mod will bring so much more immersiveness and EVA enhancement to the game. Assembling a craft from the parts detected in inventories will be so much more convenient much more fun than doing it part by part. People usually resorted to making extra nodes on parts to let people assemle vehicles via KIS (The Packrat Rover by Roverdude, if you remember that one).

The Hangar mod code won't give you much. As I understand you've tasked yourself with making a vessel spawner hybrid which spawns things like Vessel Mover, but also has a hologram like in KIS.

Since you're in the design stage, you might also want to tie the part count of a buildable subassembly to an engineer's skill level.

We have a lot of knowledgeable people who can help if questions arise.

There's a KSP API Wiki, if you haven't found it already.

I'm cheering for ya!

Thank you, good to be here! Ah thats a really good idea, regarding the engineer skill level. The lower the level the lower the max part count. I figured there should also be some basic stuff too like him having a screwdriver in his inventory. I cant imaging he/she would have much luck building a ship without one.

Looking at the source it seems Vessel Mover has a lot of the stuff i'd need with the KIS api offering the rest. The first challenge for me is to implement the logic to grab the ship information from the sub assembly collection and check whether the nearby KIS containers have the required parts.

No doubt i'll be needing some tips soon so thanks for the information. I have no idea at all how i'd implement the hologram thing like is in KIS so i'll likely need to enlist some help there.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Festivejelly

[Festivejelly]

Just to let you know im not dead yet. I'm working hard at this but understand I have a lot of learning to do so this may take some time

[wasml]

Great idea - I can think of a few uses for this...