Allow Crew Report from EAS-1 External Command Seat

[SingABrightSong]

The Crew Report is the most basic science experiment, one that can be performed by any manned command module, except for the Command Seat. Why this omission? Does the Crew Report require specialized equipment that the EVA report does not? If you are trying to collect all of the science, certain situations are best visited with the command seat and not a full command pod. Not being able to take a crew report in these situations is, if not crippling, disheartening, and therefore I propose that the Crew Report be allowed for Kerbals using command seats.

Edited July 31, 2016 by SingABrightSong
Used wrong punctuation mark in opening sentence

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Yeah do it

[Snark]

I would strongly vote no on this idea.

I've got two reasons for this:  one "common sense", one gameplay-balance.

My "common sense" reason:  If you're going to allow a crew report from a command chair, then why not allow an EVA kerbal to do a crew report, too?  Answer:  Because when an EVA kerbal does a crew report, we call it an "EVA report".  And a kerbal in a command seat is basically an EVA kerbal.  It's why, for example, entering a command chair doesn't replenish EVA propellant, unlike other command pods.  It's basically just a fancier version of hanging on to a ladder.

My gameplay-balance reason:  The command chair is too easy.  It has a mass of a paltry 50 kilograms.  If you let it do everything the other pods can do... why even bother lugging a 600-kilogram lander can anywhere if a 50-kilogram command chair can do the same job?  Limiting it from being able to do crew reports gives a reason to send the heavier crewed pods places.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Although I agree with @Snark about not doing this in stock for game play balance reasons...I see no reason why you can't mod it in yourself.

It "should" be a relatively simple matter of adding this module to the externalcommandseat.cfg (Note that I haven't tested this, I'm just making assumptions.)

MODULE
{
    name = ModuleScienceExperiment    
    
    experimentID = crewReport
    
    experimentActionName = Crew Report
    resetActionName = Discard Crew Report
    reviewActionName = Review Report
    
    useStaging = False    
    useActionGroups = True
    hideUIwhenUnavailable = True    
    rerunnable = True
    
    xmitDataScalar = 1.0
    
    usageReqMaskInternal = 5
    usageReqMaskExternal = -1
}

[Snark]

46 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

.I see no reason why you can't mod it in yourself.

A side note:  if you do decide to mod it yourself, I'd recommend doing so via ModuleManager rather than tinkering with the original .cfg file itself.  That way you're protected in case you mess it up, and also you won't have to re-do your work every time KSP updates.

To do it via ModuleManager, you'd put the following wrapper around the config that R.i.m.P provides above:

@PART[seatExternalCmd] {
    // put R.i.m.P.'s config here
}

...to make that work, all you have to do is make sure you have ModuleManager installed somewhere (you probably do already, if you're running many mods at all), then create a new text file named with the .cfg extension somewhere in GameData (can go anywhere, doesn't matter where) and put the appropriate config in that file, as described above.

[SingABrightSong]

Fair enough.

 

I admit that I attempted a Module Manager patch earlier, but was unsuccessful. I just tested Rocket In My Pocket's Patch, and while it is successful in adding the Crew Report to the seat, the seat isn't considered to be a crewed module, and thus the experiment doesn't work. No matter, you make a good argument for not including it.

[stibbons]

On 8/1/2016 at 0:40 AM, SingABrightSong said:

Does the Crew Report require specialized equipment that the EVA report does not?

A notepad and pencil maybe?