[1.12.x] JX2Antenna v2.0.5: Giant 1000G antenna for big solar systems

[Snark]

It'll likely be a few hours until I can get an update out. In the meantime, though, a workaround would be to temporarily replace your JX2Antenna installation with v1.1, since the problem doesn't occur there. Don't do that, however, if you've already launched any ships with the JU1 or JW1 on them!

(I hasten to add that the above advice is based only on some very rudimentary "try it once, oh look, it worked" testing I did that appears to work, so there's no guarantee it couldn't cause some sort of subtle problem... probably best to keep a backup save until steedcrugeon and I have this sorted out.)

[Chimichanga]

I'm just glad it wasn't just me! I look forward to the update!

[Snark]

Hi everyone,

I've released v2.0.2 of JX2Antenna.  This fixes the bug that causes KSP to hang on ship launch if there's more than one JX2 aboard.  (The "fix" is really just to revert the JX2 back to its original model that it had in the v1.1 release.  Hopefully we'll update it to the prettier model & texture again sometime in the future, once we've had time to figure out what the dickens is going on, here.)

Many thanks to @Chimichanga for catching, isolating, and reporting the bug!  Ya done good. 

[Chimichanga]

Woo, back to instant loads! Thanks for your help with the bandaid and keep up the great work!

[septemberWaves]

This was already a good mod when it just had one antenna. Now with the new ones as well it's a must-have mod. They're all great designs.

[Spaceception]

AHHH HOW DID I ALMOST FORGET TO REDOWNLOAD THIS FOR 1.3!!!???

[cyberKerb]

To people who can't find this antenna in your VAB parts list (I was one):

You might have of installed the mod "hide empty tech nodes" and need to unlock the science node to get the part in the VAB.

Just figured I leave this solution hear for people in the future - Hellooo from the past!

[bcink]

Hey, @steedcrugeon, Can you by any chance share any informational / tutorial resources that might be able to teach how to model the animations similar to the ones here? Ideally, creating the expanding parts and the animation module technical involved? Thanks in advance either way!

[RaceToTheMun]

Is this compatible with Real Solar System?. If not then can you please add this feature.

[Snark]

10 hours ago, RaceToTheMun said:

Is this compatible with Real Solar System?. If not then can you please add this feature.

Have never run RSS myself, so the only answer I can give you is "try it and find out." 

That said, I see no reason why it wouldn't work with a modded solar system.  It's just an antenna part-- as far as the game is concerned, no different from any of the stock antennas, other than happening to have a bigger number for the power rating.

That said, I gather that RSS scales up the size of the planets and their orbits dramatically.  I don't know anything at all about the specifics of RSS, but I'm guessing it probably scales up the power of the stock antennas accordingly?  If so, then the JX2 may or may not come across as "underpowered", depending on how RSS is implemented.  If it boosts each individual antenna, then the JX2 would get left out of the party and wouldn't be scaled up as well, until/unless it has a patch to make it do that.  On the other hand, if RSS does some sort of a blanket "boost every antenna by a power of X" that happens at the end of the ModuleManager patch process, then that would work for all antennas including the JX2.

I'm pretty busy lately and don't have the bandwidth to install RSS myself and test all this stuff out myself, at least not any time soon.  Reports from the field are always welcome, however. 

[RaceToTheMun]

Already tried it out, it can only reach to Saturn

(but I'm using regular RSS btw)

[Snark]

23 minutes ago, RaceToTheMun said:

Already tried it out, it can only reach to Saturn

Okay, so that answers one question:  no, RSS is not just wholesale boosting all antennas across the board.  Next question:  If you look at the stock antennas, what power do they have?  i.e. what's their transmission power displayed as?  For example, if you look at the RA-100, does it say 100G (which is what it has in the stock game)?  Or does it give some other, bigger number?

[McFortner]

OK, I haven't tried to use this mod for about 6 months now, and when I did then it worked OK.  Now, I can't get them to deploy.  First, I don't get the deploy option until I send an engineer out (nothing at all if unmanned), then when I press the now appearing deploy button nothing happens.  If I tell it to send a crew report, it shows transmitting OK but no deployment.  I'm running the latest version on KSP v1.3.1.1891.  Any ideas/suggestions?

[Snark]

17 hours ago, McFortner said:

OK, I haven't tried to use this mod for about 6 months now, and when I did then it worked OK.  Now, I can't get them to deploy.  First, I don't get the deploy option until I send an engineer out (nothing at all if unmanned), then when I press the now appearing deploy button nothing happens.  If I tell it to send a crew report, it shows transmitting OK but no deployment.  I'm running the latest version on KSP v1.3.1.1891.  Any ideas/suggestions?

Sorry, no idea.  It works just fine in KSP 1.3.1, so the mod itself isn't broken.  (Just now verified it.  I can extend, retract, no problem-- with action groups, or via the part's right click menu.  No problem.)

My guess would be that it's perhaps some incompatibility with some other mod you're running (assuming you've got other mods there)?  Do you observe the problem when you run KSP with JX2 and no other mods?

If you do encounter the problem with your current setup, and you don't encounter it if you're running JX2-and-nothing-else, then that would fairly squarely point the Finger Of Blame™ at one of your other mods, and you'd need to use a process of elimination to establish which one it is.

On the other hand, if you see the problem even when you're running JX2 all by itself, then I'm completely at sea, since I can't reproduce that myself.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[McFortner]

On 12/29/2017 at 6:10 PM, Snark said:

My guess would be that it's perhaps some incompatibility with some other mod you're running (assuming you've got other mods there)?  Do you observe the problem when you run KSP with JX2 and no other mods?

Well, I took a wild a** guess and uninstalled Origami Foldable Antennas and everything worked fine.  Origami was for 1.1 and hadn't been updated in a while by the creator.  On the 30th somebody else posted their update to it for 1.3.1 in the original thread (https://www.dropbox.com/s/to44fhjzc42usay/NAU.zip?dl=1 for those who are curious) and they play nice together, with both sets of antennas deploying with no problems.
 

Thanks for the tip!

Michael

[MaximumThrust]

I use the stock planets, but I liked this mod so much that I decreased the range of antennas in settings, just to need to use them 

[Quoniam Kerman]

I shouldn't have dismissed it when I was still playing with OPM back in 1.3.1 (I copied the directory so I can still play it, but then, is the current version compatible with old 1.3.1? Because as of now, no planet pack is 1.4.1 compatible yet and it therefore useless...

Edited March 20, 2018 by Quoniam Kerman

[Snark]

2 hours ago, Quoniam Kerman said:

I shouldn't have dismissed it when I was still playing with OPM back in 1.3.1 (I copied the directory so I can still play it, but then, is the current version compatible with old 1.3.1? Because as of now, no planet pack is 1.4.1 compatible yet and it therefore useless...

Yep, nothing's changed here in quite a while.  The version currently available is the exact same version that's been around since 1.3.1; no changes were made for 1.4.  All I did was mark it as 1.4.1 compatible.

So, you're good. 

[Quoniam Kerman]

Oh nice !

[Benja]

Hi everyone,

I've been using this mod recently mostly to tame the overpowering effects of "Outer Planets Mod" on antenna ranges. That same mod just got updated and the latest version no longer modifies antenna ranges. That would be great if JX2 was updated to take that into account, as now the combination of both mods make the antennas underpowered.

Thanks for making this mod. I haven't had the occasion to use the fat antenna yet but it looks awesome !

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Benja said:

That same mod just got updated and the latest version no longer modifies antenna ranges

Oh, really?  Thanks for the heads up!    Will look into the matter.

[Snark]

Hi all,

I've released JX2Antenna version 2.0.3.  This updates the Outer Planets compatibility patch, since OPM has recently changed how they tinker with antenna powers.

It used to be that OPM boosted all antenna powers by x4, and boosted the tracking station by x8.  Now, what they do instead is leave all antenna powers alone, but tinker with the tracking station upgrades, giving it a level-4 upgrade and reducing upgrade costs.

So, I've updated the JX2Antenna compatibility patch so that what it does is to simply remove OPM's modification of the tracking station.  This way, if you're playing with both JX2Antenna and OPM together, the tracking station will stay at stock power levels and upgrade costs.

Thanks to @Benja for the heads up! 

[Gordon Dry]

@Snark The whole TRACKING entry is just removed? Curious...

[Snark]

1 minute ago, Gordon Dry said:

@Snark The whole TRACKING entry is just removed? Curious...

Yup.  Because they were tinkering with the tracking station, which I don't want them to do, because the reason behind their tinkering was "so that CommNet can reach the outer planets", but that's not needed if one has this mod.  So I removed it.  Which means CustomBarnKit won't dink around with the tracking station, thus the tracking station will simply have stock behavior, which is exactly what I want.

[Benja]

Wow that was quick ! Thanks for providing us with that easy-fix option. I play OPM to make the game harder, not easier. Well I could probably achieve the same playing with the difficulty options, but that would require me messing with numbers I don't want to mess with. And if that ever makes the game too hard, that'll be the occasion for me to mount one of those gorgeous antennas.