MKS Documentation Development

[Kaa253]

On the subject of professions key skills and bonuses. I think the complete list (at 0.50.7) would be as follows(?);

Pilot
   Required for planetary logistics (within 500 m of Logistics Centre)
   Required for Resource Distribution (extends logistics range to 2 km)
   Gives Kolonization Research bonus
   Gives Reputation bonus   

Engineer
   Required for Power Distribution Unit (PDU) operation
   Required on EVA to switch modes on swappable converters (incl. USI-LS Nom-O-Matics)
   Required in Workshop to perform automated daily maintenance
   Can disassemble parts on EVA
   Can perform parts maintenance on EVA
   Gives Geology Research bonus
   Gives Funds bonus
   * Gives efficiency bonus to Drills (and Convert-O-Trons and same as Stock and Karbonite)

Scientist
   Require at least one for Research Labs operation in Ranger CommPak.
            Additional Scientists / experience stars add bonus to this lab research
   Require a Scientist in the crew to enable the Medical Bay
   Require a Scientist in Pioneer modules to enable KerbNet access
   Gives Botany Research bonus
   Gives Science bonus
   * Gives an efficiency bonus to all Ag modules and Greenhouses
   * Gives efficiency bonus to Ranger Smelter and Crusher
   * Gives bonus to [Workshop] efficiency module

* these bonuses are controlled by the (stock?) ScienceSkill and DrillSkill experience attributes.

@RoverDude I am not sure how these Skills work exactly. Is it that ScienceSkill is best with Scientists but possessed to a lesser degree by Engineers and the DrillSkill is best with Engineers but  possessed to a lesser degree by Scientists? Both increase with experience stars?

Feedback and corrections welcome!

@nottheboboAdded to SiteMap here

Edited November 28, 2016 by Kaa253
missed KerbNet added SiteMap wiki link

[TheRagingIrishman]

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you who are working on this.

[dboi88]

Great work @Kaa253 I'll do some tests asap and include in the KSPedia if all confirm to be correct, looks right to me though. I've added the page you created to the home page on the wiki and given it some love.

[notthebobo]

I'll second the accolades, @Kaa253, that page looks great

[Kaa253]

What a 24 hours! New thread for Tutorials.

First I delved into @RoverDude's work and discovered the wonderful variety he has brought to the kerbal's professions. I knew some but I had not grasped the full depth of this aspect of MKS until I listed it all down. So cool.

Next @dboi88 has given the wiki page some big love - glorious!

Now back to career. I have set sites on Kolonization of much maligned Dres. I am looking to squeeze about 7 "First Fleet" drops into the upcoming transfer window.  A couple of Duna modules, one 2.5 Tundra, several Kontainer drops and next off the rank a Malemute Geo-lab survey rover to scope out a sweet spot. After the window closes rescue or relief cannot come for another 2 and a half years   

[RoverDude]

@Kaa253 - Science skill is scientists only.  You can see a lot of this in the stock configs.  The older system had primary/secondary skills, but I have deprecated that in favor of stock.

[Gilph]

15 hours ago, dboi88 said:

Stuff like this?

I've tried to have an overview page of each 'series' of parts with basic descriptions and then different descriptions and relevant stats in each section. I also hope to put tables of hard stats in another section as well for quick reference purposes. I need someone to come up with some first though. So you could help in that area.

Yes, that looks really good. I was going to add the information regarding profession support and efficiency in a standard bulleted fashion (similar to @Kaa253 post above, but with parts).  For example, in the above, do engineers do more than just auto maintenance? Do they affect load and efficiency? Are they required to be in the part, or can they be resident anywhere in connected parts? Are they even needed for the part to perform conversions, or can that function run unattended? So, something like (for example...might be wrong):

• Unattended Mode: Yes, conversions only
• Profession?: Engineer
  • Auto Maintenance
  • Load increase
  • Efficiency multiplier increase
• Residence: Part only
• Efficiency Part? No
• Efficiency Recipient? Yes - [Workshop]
  • Ranger inflatable Workshop 

I think that the hard stats should be in a separate section from the functional descriptions. As they get affected by rebalancing efforts, it's nice to have them isolated to keep the updates easier. Unfortunately, I am not up to speed on the stats yet or the math behind it. Am working on it.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Gilph
reference Kaa253

[PocketBrotector]

5 hours ago, Kaa253 said:

On the subject of professions key skills and bonuses. I think the complete list (at 0.50.7) would be as follows(?);

This looks great and it reminds me that we need some documentation on how the Colony Rewards mechanic works...

[Gilph]

@PocketBrotector, would it be a good idea to redo the OP and add the various doc locations and links, especially when there will be "official" repositories?

[dboi88]

I’ve added a page for the Konstruction Series of parts here https://github.com/BobPalmer/MKS/wiki/Parts%3A-Konstruction I’ll add in the guides I wrote for using the Servo’s and dock settings tonight.

 

I’ve also made a separate folder here for all the images that I create specifically for the Wiki that won’t be used in the KSPedia entry see them here https://github.com/dboi88/USI-MKS-KSPedia/tree/master/MKS KSPedia/MKSWikiPics

[DStaal]

On profession skill notes: Would it be a good idea to add a passing mention to EL skills?  The mods often get used together, and MKS has a lot of support for EL, even if it isn't required.  If you want that, I'd just add a short note on Engineers being needed for building and Pilots being needed for surveying, and then a pointer saying 'for more info, see Extraplanetary Launchpads'.  (They don't seem to have a wiki.  They probably should...)

[Crabman]

This thread is beautiful.

I would say that Scientists are required to make any supplies self-sustainable base. They are not required really, but without one you can't feed even one kerbal.

Without a scientist you have a greenhouse production at 5% load;
LVL 0: 25% load
LVL 1: 45% load
LVL 2: 65% load
LVL 3: 85% load
LVL 4: 105% load
LVL 5: 125% load

If you are using a Tundra 2,5m Agriculture module set to Cultivate (S) and get it to 100% load, you'll not have enough supplies to feed even one Kerbal, imagine at 5% load, which is what we can get without a Scientist around. 

Edited November 28, 2016 by Crabman

[dboi88]

Konstruction pages are up, we've got a parts page, a basic guide to the controls for the servos, magnets and docking ports and some craft examples. Could all do with some formatting love if someone who is better with Markup than me could assist with that.

Cheers guys

Parts: Konstruction

Konstruction Guide : Servos, Magnets & Docking Ports

Konstruction Guide : Vehicle Examples

edit: i also found some time to put together the tundra module images so they're all up as well.

Edited November 28, 2016 by dboi88

[dboi88]

Also if you're adding new pages can you make sure they get added to the home page I've added two great pages today that could easily have gone unnoticed otherwise.

Cheers

[DStaal]

I did a bit of formatting/Markdown cleanup on the Kerbal skills page.  Nothing else jumped out at me from a quick scan, but if you want me to look things over just point me to something.

[dboi88]

@DStaal these could do with your attention

Parts: Konstruction

Konstruction Guide : Servos, Magnets & Docking Ports

Konstruction Guide : Vehicle Examples

Cheers

[dboi88]

If anyone wants to check out the KSPedia entry still WIP, this will be updated nightly https://github.com/dboi88/USI-MKS-KSPedia/blob/master/MKS KSPedia/AssetBundles/mkskspedia.ksp stick it anywhere in your gamedata folder.

[notthebobo]

I think I've captured where we are on the Site map

Site Map

This page captures the planned/in-progress re-do of the site to align with patch 0.50 and later.

• Home (Last to be updated, including adding this site map)
• Kore Design (DONE)
  • Design Goals
  • Life Support (Supplies, Habitation)
  • Part Series
  • Base Strategies
  • Resource Consumption (Supplies/Mulch, Machinery/Recyclables, EnrichedUranium/DepletedFuel)
  • Shipping-in vs producing supplies (Manufacturing)
  • Agroponics vs Agriculture
  • Logistics and Planetary Resources
  • Landed vs Orbital
• Parts - Use this to find information on specific parts
  • Parts: Ranger Series (done for 0.50)
  • Parts: Duna Series (done for 0.50)
  • Parts: Tundra Series (done for 0.50)
  • Parts: Konstruction (done for 0.50)
  • Parts: Kontainers (done for 0.50)
  • Parts: MKS General Components (done for 0.50)
• Functions - Use this to find information on specific capabilities
  • Logistics (In work by dboi88)
  • Life Support (Needs to be reconciled with USI-LS 0.5.4)
  • Mining (NEEDS TO BE CREATED)
  • Drills
  • Sifters
  • Smelters
  • Crushers
  • Manufacturing (NEEDS TO BE CREATED)
  • Machinery
  • Material Kits
  • Colony Supplies
  • Specialty Parts
  • Electric Charge (Enriched Uranium / Depleted Fuel / Xenon)
• Crew Skills Impact on Parts (DONE)
• Base Construction (NEEDS TO BE CREATED)
  • Inflatables, MaterialKits, and EVA
  • KIS vs integrated
  • Power options
• Helpful Mods (DONE)
• Mod Support (NEEDS UPDATE)
• FAQ (NEEDS UPDATE)
• Changelog (NEEDS UPDATE)
• Glossary (DONE)

 

Have I missed any pages?

[PocketBrotector]

Wow, lots of movement in the last day. It looks like folks are too enthusiastic to wait until KSPedia is finished before they continue work on the wiki, which is fine. I will probably wait until Roverdude releases his balancing guidelines until I update the USI-LS wiki. USI-LS is comparatively straightforward mechanically, so the tutorials there are basically an illustration of how to leverage the various multipliers to minimize payload mass - no reason to do all that math twice.

9 hours ago, Gilph said:

@PocketBrotector, would it be a good idea to redo the OP and add the various doc locations and links, especially when there will be "official" repositories?

Yes, I can take a look at keeping it up to date with the current state of the documentation, time permitting.

What I may do next is make a list of the pages in the wiki currently and note which ones are currently maintained, abandoned, out of date etc. That should highlight what needs to be updated, still needs creation or more detail, deletion candidates, and so on. Hopefully this will lend itself to the coalescence of the docs into an outline like the ones proposed upthread, where there's a logical organization and natural progression of topics.

9 hours ago, DStaal said:

 

On profession skill notes: Would it be a good idea to add a passing mention to EL skills?  The mods often get used together, and MKS has a lot of support for EL, even if it isn't required.  If you want that, I'd just add a short note on Engineers being needed for building and Pilots being needed for surveying, and then a pointer saying 'for more info, see Extraplanetary Launchpads'. 

 

Seconding this. EpL puts its "productivity" stats in the same place as MKS's efficiency/load, leading to lots of questions about which is which when people install them at the same time. MKS used to use a really complex efficiency formula that was almost completely hidden from the user, but that's been largely ejected in favor of a system based on the KISS-esque stock system (with added wrinkles like efficiency parts). EpL productivity is totally different and has a lot to do with kerbal stupidity - the only explanation of it I've seen is here, where someone created 3d graphs using matlab... yeah.

We should probably point to that both on the EpL section of the Mod Compatibility page and wherever MKS efficiency is primarily discussed, just to disambiguate between the two systems.

[DStaal]

I’m working on some formatting for the Parts: Konstruction page right now, but I want to note the summary above is wrong: It is *not* 'done'.  It exists, but could use quite a bit more content on most of the parts, and there are some parts outright missing.  Also, some of the supporting pages need content.(

I'm staying away from entering content myself, even when I think I know it, because I can't actually use any of these as intended.

[DStaal]

Finished my pass at the three pages mentioned - as noted, just formatting.  I wouldn't have said anything, but I did some slightly hidden stuff to the Parts: Konstruction page:

• There's an HTML comment at the top mentioning that reference links exist in the document below.
• At the bottom there's a link reference definition that's referred to multiple times in the document.

Mostly just a heads up for anyone else working on that page who comes across the '[Servos & Magnets][servo-mag]' line which you might think to convert to a link - that's already a link, and *all* instances of it share a common definition, at the end of the raw version of the page.  (In the rendered version the links are embedded and the definition doesn't show up.)

[notthebobo]

17 minutes ago, DStaal said:

Mostly just a heads up for anyone else working on that page who comes across the '[Servos & Magnets][servo-mag]' line which you might think to convert to a link - that's already a link, and *all* instances of it share a common definition, at the end of the raw version of the page.  (In the rendered version the links are embedded and the definition doesn't show up.)

Is that so the tag [servo-mag] can be used by any other page, or only within the page where it's defined?

[DStaal]

1 hour ago, notthebobo said:

Is that so the tag [servo-mag] can be used by any other page, or only within the page where it's defined?

Just the page where it's defined.  It's standard Markdown - a reference link.  Instead of having the link text and the link target next to each other, you can define the link text and set up a reference which is defined elsewhere in the same text.  (There's even a couple of shortcuts on defining the reference, which I avoided using.)  It's often a bit cleaner for long URLs - or as in this case where you have several links to the same target.

You can of course copy the line from the bottom of the raw version of the page to whatever other page you want.  Whitespace between the link label and the link target is irrelevant (as long as you stay on the same line), although the target itself shouldn't have whitespace.   You can indent the link label up to three spaces.

Actually, Github technically doesn't use Markdown - it uses CommonMark (with a couple of grandfathered extensions), which is a group effort by some of the biggest Markdown users to fully define and specify Markdown, because the original Markdown spec was limited and ambiguous in some areas.  (They couldn't call it Markdown because of trademark issues.)

[Gilph]

20 hours ago, Crabman said:

This thread is beautiful.

I would say that Scientists are required to make any supplies self-sustainable base. They are not required really, but without one you can't feed even one kerbal.

Without a scientist you have a greenhouse production at 5% load;
LVL 0: 25% load
LVL 1: 45% load
LVL 2: 65% load
LVL 3: 85% load
LVL 4: 105% load
LVL 5: 125% load

If you are using a Tundra 2,5m Agriculture module set to Cultivate (S) and get it to 100% load, you'll not have enough supplies to feed even one Kerbal, imagine at 5% load, which is what we can get without a Scientist around. 

I think it is better to say it's not required and absolutely highlight the load issue.  Consider the scenario that you want to drop a unmanned greenhouse on a remote place and are OK with the 5% load because you want to start processing Supplies and will be sending Kerbals later. New players may not understand that is an option if you say a scientist is required.

And, yes, the thread is awesome

Edited November 29, 2016 by Gilph

[dboi88]

Does anyone have a solid enough understanding of the Hab explanation page that can give it a once over? It looks mostly right to me but i can't confirm all the numbers are still correct, it also needs the new parts adding, most of the info can be found in the part cfg's

Cheers