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[1.2] SpaceDock

Fendrin

By Fendrin
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Fendrin

Fendrin

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SpaceDock

in different sizes, usable as orbital shipyard.

KDEook2.jpg

Content: 6 different sized SpaceDock parts, based on 3 different meshes

rY12yeD.jpg

Combined with a lot of USI and Future Technologies parts.

rc3H2To.jpg

@RoverDude's new Konstruction mod parts fit nicely.

 

  • Credit: This mod is using the meshes and artwork from @Stevie_D's IXS Enterprise.
  • Upstream: The current IXS WarpShip mod features the pure structural parts this mod derives from.
  • License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public
  • Development Thread

New

Replace the regular one with the modified KIS.dll

to enable the KISPickup feature. Kerbal Engineer building with the SpaceDock, use the "g" and "h" shortkeys.

Download

Relationships

Tips

  • Building
    • Needs Extraplanetary Launchpads
    • Be careful to build only vessels which fit inside the SpaceDock...
    • Building vessels with attached launch clamps conjures the Space Kraken.
    • Attach some containers with RocketParts to use the vessel build feature.
  • Attach some inventory containers to store parts.
  • Bring up all kinds of docking ports.

Known Issues

  • The twin nodes on the port and starboard don't allow the passing of Kerbals yet.
  • The light can't be turned off.
  • The light does not consume any charge.
  • The Dock looks like it could be deployed but there is no animation yet.
  • Only new vessels can be build, there is no way to maintain already existing ones easily.

Related

 

Edited by Fendrin
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Fendrin

Fendrin

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7 minutes ago, obi_juan said:

The part is expensive to unlock?

The smaller versions are not that science point expensive. Please note that the latest version depends on the CommunityTechTree, future versions will change that again.

The first one can be unlocked after 2 parents, both worth 300. That is around the half of the CTT.

One of the next releases will introduce more smaller versions, those can be used even earlier then.

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obi_juan

obi_juan

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15 minutes ago, Fendrin said:

The first one can be unlocked after 2 parents, both worth 300. That is around the half of the CTT.

One of the next releases will introduce more smaller versions, those can be used even earlier then.

:0.0: Uh, I just see the price for unlock... 600,000 credits the small one, and 1,600,000 the bigger one... Science is nothing, the problem is the price for my career game...

I will try in Sand Box....

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Fendrin

Fendrin

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4 minutes ago, obi_juan said:

:0.0: Uh, I just see the price for unlock... 600,000 credits the small one, and 1,600,000 the bigger one... Science is nothing, the problem is the price for my career game...

I will try in Sand Box....

Well, I don't have much experience balancing the game. So the cost values are all up to discussion. Having twice the unlock price than the cost for the part itself was not well thought out.

I guess really expensive parts should have only small unlock costs, especially since you usually only launch one of them into orbit.

So maybe I lower the unlock cost to 1/4 of the part costs?

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Enceos

Enceos

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23 minutes ago, obi_juan said:

:0.0: Uh, I just see the price for unlock... 600,000 credits the small one, and 1,600,000 the bigger one... Science is nothing, the problem is the price for my career game...

I will try in Sand Box....

That's a payout for one trio of tourists to Mun and Minmust. You'll be digging up gold by the time you need the biggest dock.

Edited by Enceos
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obi_juan

obi_juan

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56 minutes ago, Fendrin said:

Well, I don't have much experience balancing the game. So the cost values are all up to discussion. Having twice the unlock price than the cost for the part itself was not well thought out.

I guess really expensive parts should have only small unlock costs, especially since you usually only launch one of them into orbit.

So maybe I lower the unlock cost to 1/4 of the part costs?

Oh, I know... the USI parts to make the ships cost 150,000 (unlock)... and 84,000 credits to use that part on one of your ships. Your spacedocs are bigger so I think that the price to unlock your parts are only a little expensive... Probably a 1/2 of the actual cost is perfect, and reduce also the price of it. 

The other problem is the mass... to move 665t (only the SpaceDock) to other planet is a little hard... The lighter is only 60t ... too much.

Until now the mass of my interplanetary ships were between 233t to 389t (dry) with the USI SpaceDock  (less than 10t)

But I like the design of the parts and the utility...

 

Edited by obi_juan
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Fendrin

Fendrin

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10 hours ago, obi_juan said:

Oh, I know... the USI parts to make the ships cost 150,000 (unlock)... and 84,000 credits to use that part on one of your ships. Your spacedocs are bigger so I think that the price to unlock your parts are only a little expensive... Probably a 1/2 of the actual cost is perfect, and reduce also the price of it.

Okay, I will release an adjusted version soon.

10 hours ago, obi_juan said:

The other problem is the mass... to move 665t (only the SpaceDock) to other planet is a little hard... The lighter is only 60t ... too much.

Well, I guess most players would only bring the dock into low Kerbin orbit but I see your point.

The 665t heavy SD 3L, this one would most likely not be launched in a single run.

Imagine a career in progress, you unlock the different sizes slowly one by one. At the time you unlock a bigger one you already have the smaller ones available or already launched. When you look closer at the SpaceDock, it gives the impression of being retractable/deployable. A retracted bigger one fits into a deployed smaller one and thus can be build by the smaller in space. Still you need to get the resources up but that can be done in several launches.

I have no skills with blender and other 3d mesh animators. So some help with that is highly appreciated. I can offer help with coding in return.

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steedcrugeon

steedcrugeon

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1 hour ago, Fendrin said:

The 665t heavy SD 3L, this one would most likely not be launched in a single run.

Imagine a career in progress, you unlock the different sizes slowly one by one. At the time you unlock a bigger one you already have the smaller ones available or already launched. When you look closer at the SpaceDock, it gives the impression of being retractable/deployable. A retracted bigger one fits into a deployed smaller one and thus can be build by the smaller in space. Still you need to get the resources up but that can be done in several launches.

I have no skills with blender and other 3d mesh animators. So some help with that is highly appreciated. I can offer help with coding in return.

Another approach to this would be if you could write a KIS/KAS style addon. Let me expand my thinking.

Scenario: you have in Duna Orbit a small station with fuel/supplies as an outpost and it has one or two tugs docked and a 'X-brand docking port' with will be the parent part for the Space Dock. these tugs have 'X-brand special grapple' part with the KIS/KAS style addon. Now we have a Piecemeal variant of the space dock which maybe 1/4 of a single 'ring' from the original model. The 1/4 ring section can fold in half (so you can put it into t a smaller rocket or just to ship more together) and this rocket arrives in the vicinity of you Duna outpost station. the tugs can then extract the folded 1/4 ring using the 'X-Brand specialised grapple arms', extend it from it's folded state and attach it to the 'X-brand docking port' to begin the construction of the space dock.

By using the tugs in the KIS/KAS style addon means that you would have to be in the vicinity of the parent part but not have to worry about docking precisely. that way you could ensure that the Spacedock is constructed correctly and the final model will resemble the same as a signal regular version. (additionally it mean you could potentially construct even larger spacedocks that currently available and also would allow for retrofit upgrade of existing spacedocks.

I'm happy to have a stab at some modelling if you like (coding is not my forte)

Edited by steedcrugeon
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Fendrin

Fendrin

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@steedcrugeon, nice idea. Can that be done without animations?

edit: A simple animation related thing would be the lights. The SpaceDock's lights are currently always on. If I understand correctly having switchable lights is already a matter of animation modeling. Would you like to give them a try?

Edited by Fendrin
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Fendrin

Fendrin

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6 minutes ago, DStaal said:

Does the custom tech tree node play nice with Community Tech Tree?

CTT is a dependency.

6 minutes ago, DStaal said:

  (And could you switch to using CTT's orbital assembly node when CTT is present?)

94Di0fH.png

Sometimes a picture says more than 1000 words.

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steedcrugeon

steedcrugeon

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are the existing parts/model not retractable?

It would seem not (I've just put it into my laptop here for testing). I'll see what i can do with the plugin that taniwha made for reverse engineering .mu files and see what can be achieved.

Edited by steedcrugeon
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Shadriss

Shadriss

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Forgive me, but I'm still not sure how, exactly, this would be used. The description is somewhat lacking in this department. I'm sure that if I installed the dependencies and played with it, I could figure it out, but since that would require a career restart, I'm not keen on doing that without understanding exactly what this mod will do for me. Specifically:

1) The description makes it seem mostly cosmetic, but the discussion makes it sound like I can build and launch craft from these docks directly. Is the latter true, and if so under what conditions?

2) Getting them into orbit - requires a launching vehicle (for the smallest, makes sense, for the largest, looks very impractical)?

3) You've mentioned a time or two that it doesn't have animations for deployment - does this mean it can be launched in a compact form and deployed in orbit, but it will just go instantly from one form to the other?

Perhaps a video showing the launch and deployment of the smallest one with the minimum number of mods required would help out with this, but as much as I like the idea that seems to be being presented here, I'm not willing to kill my current game to experiment with this... a set of instructions or a better general description of what this makes possible would be much better. Thanks in advance.

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DStaal

DStaal

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7 minutes ago, Shadriss said:

Forgive me, but I'm still not sure how, exactly, this would be used. The description is somewhat lacking in this department. I'm sure that if I installed the dependencies and played with it, I could figure it out, but since that would require a career restart, I'm not keen on doing that without understanding exactly what this mod will do for me. Specifically:

1) The description makes it seem mostly cosmetic, but the discussion makes it sound like I can build and launch craft from these docks directly. Is the latter true, and if so under what conditions?

2) Getting them into orbit - requires a launching vehicle (for the smallest, makes sense, for the largest, looks very impractical)?

3) You've mentioned a time or two that it doesn't have animations for deployment - does this mean it can be launched in a compact form and deployed in orbit, but it will just go instantly from one form to the other?

Perhaps a video showing the launch and deployment of the smallest one with the minimum number of mods required would help out with this, but as much as I like the idea that seems to be being presented here, I'm not willing to kill my current game to experiment with this... a set of instructions or a better general description of what this makes possible would be much better. Thanks in advance.

  1. Both are true.  :wink:  This is a cosmetic addition to the Extraplanetary Launchpads mod - On it's own, it's just a plain part.  With that mod, it can operate as a launchpad, meaning you design your ship as normal, then click on this (and meet some requirements - go read that mod for more) and launch the ship you designed directly from inside/near this part.
  2. Again, depending on EL: If you have EL, you can build it in-place someplace using one of the other EL launchpads.
On 10/27/2016 at 11:49 AM, Fendrin said:

CTT is a dependency.

Ah, sorry.  I'd seen the config file (I'm on 1.1.3, and am back-porting stuff, so I'm reading through the configs more carefully) and assumed that meant you were adding to the base tree.  Since I see no reason why these parts should be in a different node than the other 6 launchpads I have, I'll remove that config and re-parent for my game.

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Shadriss

Shadriss

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4 minutes ago, DStaal said:
  1. Both are true.  :wink:  This is a cosmetic addition to the Extraplanetary Launchpads mod - On it's own, it's just a plain part.  With that mod, it can operate as a launchpad, meaning you design your ship as normal, then click on this (and meet some requirements - go read that mod for more) and launch the ship you designed directly from inside/near this part.
  2. Again, depending on EL: If you have EL, you can build it in-place someplace using one of the other EL launchpads.

This being true, why then is only CTT listed as a dependency? SHould EL not also be listed as required as opposed to recommended?

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