[1.4.x] RoverScience Continued - Better, interactive science for rovers!

[Aelfhe1m]

Support for this mod has now (2022-03-17) been passed to @linuxgurugamer  new mod page is -> here

 

@theSpeare has given me permission to continue maintaining his RoverScience mod.

Original post copied below with minor edits:

RELEASE 2.3.5

Plugin is now compatible with KSP 1.4.2.

Download from GitHub or SpaceDock

RoverScience is a KSP plugin that attempts to add more interactive functionality to the science system FOR rovers. You drive rovers to search for science spots which you may then decide to investigate and analyze for science gain.

 

Rover Brain parts made by @akron

Wonderful tutorial/showcase video by youtuber KottabosGames; thank you! There is one discrepancy, however: you do not get more science the farther away you are from the landing spot - you only generate science spots much quicker. What does give you more science (potentially) is scanning for science spots farther away from the rover (this is what the scan range is for): see here for the boost to science potential with distance from the rover.

 

Quick Instructions

Spoiler

[1] Build your rover and attach the appropriate Rover Brain and ensure it is pointing "forward". As long as it is pointing "forward" it can be placed anywhere on your rover. This forward orientation is not critical to the functioning of RoverScience, but it will provide you with a convenient "Control From Here" for driving the rover correctly forward.

[2] Right-click on the Rover Brain in-flight and click "Activate Rover Terminal".

[3] This console will update you with information regarding the Rover Brain. Drive and explore around to search for a science spot.

[4] After driving for awhile, you may detect a potential science spot. This will be shown as a large red transparent sphere waypoint. Drive towards the waypoint to further investigate.

[5] Drive into the marker and it will turn green. You may now analyze for science, but before you do consider the potential science. Every science spot analysis will increase future science loss; be wise with which spots you wish to analyze, and which to abandon. At any point you may click on "Reset Science Spot" to begin search for another spot.

[6] This is the upgrade menu. "Current" shows you what value an upgrade currently has. "Next" will show you the value if you increase the level. "Cost" is how much you will spend in science to upgrade. "UP" is the button to upgrade. An explanation of each of the upgrades is given further below. All upgrades are permanent and work across all rovers!

 

Notes:

• Firstly, RoverScience will not function unless the Rover Terminal is opened. This is done through the right-click menu of the Rover Brain part.
• RoverScience will only search for science spots if your vessel has at least one wheel, and that it is in contact with the ground.
• Upon landing, your rover will establish a landing spot. Driving farther away from where you originally landed will increase chances of finding a science spot.
• Science spots detected far away from the rover will have a bonus multiplier added to them. You are rewarded for exploring and reaching far destinations. Bear in mind that a 50% increase to 10 is only 15 -> carefully consider whether the potential (or the prediction) is worth it.
• Each analysis you commit to will slowly degrade a rover's return of science. For the first 2 analyses you'll get normal values, and anything past that will slowly degrade the amount of science you get back. Soak up those high potentials as much as possible!
• CTRL + R + S will open the RoverScience menu.

Download for KSP 1.3 from GitHub or SpaceDock

Older versions of the mod are available from theSpeare's GitHub, and SpaceDock page.

This mod includes version checking using MiniAVC. If you opt-in, it will use the internet to check whether there is a new version available. Data is only read from the internet and no personal information is sent. For a more comprehensive version checking experience, please download the KSP-AVC Plugin

Everything should be running fine, but if there any issues please post here or, even better, on the RoverScience GitHub Issues page.

Changelog:

Spoiler

 

Version 2.3.5 (2018-03-30)

• Recompile for KSP 1.4.x

Version 2.3.3 (2017-10-10)

• Recompile for KSP 1.3.1 (not compatible with earlier versions)
• German translation by @Three_Pounds
• Minor changes to logging. Fewer messages unless "verbose logging" is enabled in system settings.
• Minor code refactoring and code style updates.

Version 2.3.2 (2017-07-09)

• Spanish translation by @fitiales 
• Read anomaly information directly from game database rather than config file. Should support dynamic and mod added anomalies.
• Module Manager patch to add RoverBrain module to popular rover cabs (Bison, Buffalo, Karibou, Lynx and Malemute) without the need to attach the separate part.

Known Issues:

• Trying to open the rover terminal while there are two (or more) vessels with rover brains in physics range causes exception spam
• Drawing of science spots (red domes) is sometimes a bit glitchy. Can usually be fixed by switching to another vessel (or Space Centre) and then back again.
• Upgrade and anomalies scanned information is not always reliably written to save file.

Version 2.3.1 (2017-07-04):

• Add support for localization (only en-us supplied by default)
• Clicking "Upgrade menu" button in sandbox mode no longer throws NRE spam.
• Update AVC version file to point to my GitHub repository for version checking

Version 2.3.0 (2017-07-04):

• Compatibility update for KSP 1.3

Older versions available here

 

Known Issues:

1. Opening the terminal window while two rovers with Rover Brains are within physics range will throw Null References and will break RoverScience.
2. Drawing of science spots (red domes) is sometimes a bit glitchy. Can usually be fixed by switching to another vessel (or Space Centre) and then back again.
3. Upgrade and anomalies scanned information is not always reliably written to save file.

 

Some more thanks:

• Original mod coding by theSpeare with thanks to malkuth and RockStar04 for testing and assistance
• etmoonshade
• udk_lethal_dose
• akron for Rover Brain parts - modelling and texturing
• Nat Sum for rock models!

This is a wonderful community, and I thank you all once again. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Aelfhe1m
Hand over of mod to LGG

[theSpeare]

Hi! Thanks again for taking over I'm sure you'll take this little mod to great places.

[akron]

10 hours ago, theSpeare said:

Hi! Thanks again for taking over I'm sure you'll take this little mod to great places.

Thanks for the original idea. Good stuff

[etmoonshade]

13 hours ago, theSpeare said:

Hi! Thanks again for taking over I'm sure you'll take this little mod to great places.

I'll second the thanks to @Aelfhe1m, but also thanks to @theSpeare for allowing work to continue on this mod.

Also, my timing is impeccable - this mod gets a continuation the day I decide to dive back into KSP for a bit.

@Aelfhe1m: Would it be useful for me to re-post my idea for how to deal with the scanning confidence from the previous thread?

[Aelfhe1m]

Minor update - version 2.3.1

• Add support for localization (only en-us supplied by default)
• Clicking "Upgrade menu" button in sandbox mode no longer throws NRE spam.
• Update AVC version file to point to my GitHub repository for version checking

=========================

Unfortunately I can't read/write any other language fluently enough to attempt to translate this myself. If anyone who is a native speaker (or very fluent) in one of the other languages wishes to contribute a translation I would be very grateful (PM me).

Also if anyone wishes to contribute flavour text for science results from other bodies/biomes those would also be welcome. (e.g. Minmus: "This rock looks green and flaky but I doubt it's mint flavored").

I'm still familiarising myself with the code but a few things that I have on my ToDo list so far:

• Remove hard-coded "Kerbin", "Sun", "Mun", "Minmus" references for better compatibility with other planet packs that change the home world or parent body/moons
• Move various other hard-coded values into config file / part values for better mod-ability/customisation - examples would include things like upgrade pricing or distance/time between science spots
• Read anomaly information directly from the game rather than a config file for better integration with any mod that adds/modifies/moves anomalies and the random green monoliths that were introduced recently (KSP 1.2 if memory serves)
• ModuleManager patches for integrating rover brains into some popular larger rover mods (e.g. USI Karibou and Malemute, WBI Bison and Buffalo, FUR Lynx etc) - next version probably
• Investigate the various issues on @theSpeare's original GitHub
• Investigate various suggestions and issues from the original thread (including @etmoonshade's post about prediction/actual balancing)

Longer term possibilities:

• Replace immediate mode UI with newer persistent UI
• A couple of KSPedia pages explaining basic features and operation 
• Configuration menu for some settings
• Detect nearby waypoints/structures and interact with them (or avoid them possibly - no science spots within a minimum distance of a base?)
• Contract pack (or collaboration with existing RoverMissions pack by @linuxgurugamer if he's interested)
• Optionally make science spots more likely to spawn ahead of rover than behind (and detect direction of travel)
• Investigate feasibility of "splashed" science spots for Eve/Laythe (and other "watery" worlds added by planet packs) - or submerged spots around the shallow edges of water features?

 

[PmThay]

Thanks for picking up this great mod, it gives real meaning to rovers.  
Great work  
Cheers

[Byolock]

Thank you for work on this mod. I would be glad to help with a translation. Unfortunately I cant write a PM at this time so please write one to me.

[The-Doctor]

Oh thank lord, now I shall play KSP

Will it ever be on ckan?

[Aelfhe1m]

Version 2.3.2 for KSP 1.3

• Spanish translation by @fitiales 
• Read anomaly information directly from game database rather than config file. Should support dynamic and mod added anomalies.
• Module Manager patch to add RoverBrain module to popular rover cabs without the need to attach the separate part.

Known Issues:

• Trying to open the rover terminal while there are two (or more) vessels with rover brains in physics range causes exception spam
• Drawing of science spots (red domes) is sometimes a bit glitchy. Can usually be fixed by switching to another vessel (or Space Centre) and then back again.
• Upgrade and anomalies scanned information is not always reliably written to save file.

[Aelfhe1m]

18 hours ago, The-Doctor said:

Will it ever be on ckan?

I added the mod to SpaceDock a few hours ago. Hopefully CKAN will pick it up soon.

[The-Doctor]

Yaay! 

[Enorats]

Not sure what's going on here, but the "analyze science" button doesn't seem to do anything. I drive up to a red dome, it turns green.. the button appears, but when clicked nothing happens.

I'm using the Kerbalism mod too, anyone know if that could be interfering with Rover Science somehow? It changes a bit about how science is collected.

[Aelfhe1m]

@Enorats I've never tried Kerbalism but from what I've seen mentioned on various other mod threads it makes some very substantial changes to several of the stock game mechanics. I'll take a look at it in a day or two and see if anything obvious pops out as causing the error.

[Aelfhe1m]

@Enorats OK I've looked at Kerbalism and RoverScience in an otherwise clean 1.3 install and I can confirm that they are not currently compatible. Kerbalism seems to remove the science container module that RoverScience expects to find when it tries to generate and store its science result. This throws up a series of errors that prevent it from working.

I also tested with "Science = false" in the Kerbalism/settings.cfg and confirmed that RoverScience is compatible with the rest of Kerbalism. So at the moment I'm afraid your options are to either disable the Kerbalism science module or not use RoverScience.

I'll try to find a solution that will work cleanly but this will probably be rolled into an extensive rewrite of the UI and general module architecture that I've just started and expect to take several weeks to complete.

[Enorats]

I was afraid it was something like that. Kerbalism pretty much tells the stock science system where it can stick it.. or, well maybe not in this case.

I'll probably just disable that module for now as it doesn't play entirely too well with other mods in general. KIS activity of any kind on a vessel carrying science data totally erases all that data, and I'm a bit worried it's not going to play nicely with the surface experiment pack either.

[Drew Kerman]

@ShotgunNinja has been cooperative with mod compatibility so you may not have to work around it completely if he can offer suggestions or changes from his end that can make the two more usable together

[OrganicLife]

After landing my lynx rover, the rover terminal says that there is no landing site. I have tried landing on the mun and kerbin with it, to no avail. I have tried both the terminal open and closed also. Am I doing something wrong?

[Aelfhe1m]

20 minutes ago, OrganicLife said:

After landing my lynx rover, the rover terminal says that there is no landing site. I have tried landing on the mun and kerbin with it, to no avail. I have tried both the terminal open and closed also. Am I doing something wrong?

I'd need to see logs to be sure but I have used this version of RoverScience with the Lynx rover. See link below for how to find your logs. Upload the log (preferably one including the landing of the rover) to a file-sharing site (e.g. DropBox) and post the link here.

 

[OrganicLife]

Here is the log.

Also, I tried to land a stock rover under similar conditions, and it worked fine. The lynx still does not, however.

[Aelfhe1m]

6 hours ago, OrganicLife said:

Here is the log.

Also, I tried to land a stock rover under similar conditions, and it worked fine. The lynx still does not, however.

That's only the first 106 lines. Can you please post the whole log.

[OrganicLife]

Sorry, grabbed the wrong log. Here is the proper one.

[linuxgurugamer]

On 7/17/2017 at 3:54 PM, Enorats said:

I was afraid it was something like that. Kerbalism pretty much tells the stock science system where it can stick it.. or, well maybe not in this case.

I'll probably just disable that module for now as it doesn't play entirely too well with other mods in general. KIS activity of any kind on a vessel carrying science data totally erases all that data, and I'm a bit worried it's not going to play nicely with the surface experiment pack either.

Kerbalism seems to tell everything in the game to go stick it. It's one of the reasons why I don't use it.

[Aelfhe1m]

@OrganicLife There's nothing obvious in the log. All the messages from RoverScience are routine and there aren't any other mods throwing large numbers of exceptions to cloud the issue.

Could you maybe post a picture of the rover and possibly the craft file? Are you using the wheels from the FUR mod or a different set?

[OrganicLife]

Here is the picture of one of my lynx on the mun. This is the craft file for said rover. And yes, I am using the FUR wheels.

Edited August 31, 2017 by OrganicLife

[Aelfhe1m]

9 hours ago, OrganicLife said:

Here is the picture of one of my lynx on the mun. This is the craft file for said rover. And yes, I am using the FUR wheels.

OK. This is an odd one. At first I couldn't see anything wrong but then I realised that there was both the integrated rover brain in the Lynx cockpit and the attached radial rover brain part. If you open the terminal from the radial rover brain part you get the not landed error but if you open it from the cockpit right click menu it works fine:

Spoiler

I'll need to investigate this further (hopefully it'll cure itself as part of the UI rewrite and code refactoring that's ongoing) but in the meantime you should be fine if you always use the cabin right click menu when there is an integrated rover brain module.