nvm...

[Dani-Sang]

nvm... too busy XD

[TheRoland]

Hey Dani-Sang,

Are you still offering to help-out art-starved plug-ins in this manner?

Background

I\'m currently contributing some code to the Orbital Construction Plugin. This plugin allows you to place space-docks in orbit (or landed), supply them with resources, then use them to 'build in space' vessels that otherwise might not be practical.

I added to it a 'jump-drive' which allows teleporting to space-docks (which is really what\'s happening when you 'build in space'), removes the requirement to manage resources, and adds cheesy particle effects. Because this breaks the 'SpaceBuilt' theme, I\'m going to branch this part into its own mod. Working title of this new plugin is:

The Hypergate Network

Concept

This new branched plugin, as currently envisioned, will allow players to create a network of hyperspace 'gates' (actual name pending) to teleport around the Kerbal solar-system using a hyperjump 'drive'.

Current Status

This concept is all-but implementation complete. Since this functionality was inspired and implemented in Zorkonian\'s SpaceBuilt plugin, one can go and fire up a playable jump-drive right now. The changes necessary to branch this into its own plugin are mostly administrative and in GUI creation.

The way I see it, fun mods have two major components: functionality and flavor. This mod already has 90% of its 'functionality' (largely due to Zorkonian\'s great work on SpaceBuilt and partly my laziness managing resources when using that plugin). This is a mod that needs 'flavor'; models, textures, cool names for its parts, and maybe some science-fiction rules. I\'m hoping you might be interested in helping with that!

Parts:

This plugin really only requires two (possibly three) parts, at least for its first incremental release.

1. A Hyperspace Gate: When mounted on a vessel, this allows the ship to act as an 'endpoint' for hyperjumps. To jump, a ship must be within a certain distance of a Gate, and must select another gate to jump towards. Unlike a true 'gate' from previous science fiction shows, it\'s not necessary to pass through anything; only to be in local space.

In my head, this mounts radially, and could resemble a futuristic solar-panel, or a large antenna of some kind. However, I\'m very open to alternate thoughts. I can contribute concept art, but it\'s going to be on the order of kindergarten crayon drawings.

It should not be necessary to 'deploy' the gate to use it (as I don\'t want to track gate deployment status in the persistence file).

2. A Hyperjump Drive: When mounted on a vessel, this allows the ship to jump from local space of its current gate to any other available hyperspace gate. It is limited only by certain sci-fi rules: for example, a maximum range to select a gate and a minimum altitude to activate. This part may have a 1 meter scale version and a larger scale version (with larger range).

In my head, this part mounts like a fuel tank, and has a central spindle with a torus (or more than one) around its midpoint. Cheesy particle effects (which I can add) stream from the center of the part. No nozzle of any sort should be required: this drive need not be at the end of the rocket and generates no thrust. I can provide concept art, but it\'ll be bad. I\'m also very open to different ideas!

Conclusion

With the next version set to include many new planets to explore, being able to create larger ships, or specialized landers is going to be very helpful.

Interested? As I\'m a complete idiot with any sort of art, I could use the help!

SpaceBuilt probably could use the help, too, but one thing at a time .