[1.3.1, 1.4.3] The Spice v0.8.2 [May 10, 2018]

[JadeOfMaar]

@Stone Blue At this point it doesn't matter if I change the warp drive module. I still have to get acquainted to the new behavior of USI's warp drives, and if I change over (the only working alternative I know of is RealGecko's KSPI-Lite) I still gotta see how that works, or rather than have my own parts, inject my personalization into both warp mods' parts???  

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by JadeOfMaar

[Stone Blue]

Oh.. ok... I was working under the assumption you had already been working with the USI warp drive, and that up to this point, all their "behaviours" were very much the same, since they all seem to have roots in the original IXS WarpDrive, IIRC... And that is was just that you would have to redo/relearn USI, cuz thats what you had alrready been using/working with... vOv

[JadeOfMaar]

@Stone Blue Well I've finally made up my mind about it. I'll set a hard dependency on, and integrate the USI Warp Drives. I no longer have any desire to provide/contain my own since the ZZZ models are my only option and USI now provides so many options.

 

[daniel l.]

As nobody seems to have suggested it yet, @JadeOfMaar, then I shall be the first to do so:

The 'Warp Drive' should be only operable if the vessel has a "Navigator" Kerbal onboard -- a special type of Kerbal who is extremely expensive to hire, and consumes spice, which it would die without.

I'm an avid Dune fan, I've read all of the books by Frank Herbert, and all of the expanded-universe novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. So I know a lot of the lore.

[JadeOfMaar]

@daniel l. Well now. That sounds like a fascinating idea. I can come close to this by having the engines depend on a new kerbal skill, and bundle a new kerbal trait to host the skill, but afaik hiring cost scales only with the number of kerbals hired, not with their trait, and I've only seen life support mods feature a whitelist option to make specific kerbals never hunger (USI and Snacks!) which enters the territory of having Lt Cmdr Data from the Enterprise D among a kerbal crew.

[JadeOfMaar]

Finally finished the main part of the science aspect here. Four LDEF cartridges requiring @Angel-125's MOLE mod. These things require time and some resource samples but will yield so much more science data.

The highlighted non-MOLE science part (see part window) borrows the Karbonite sample kit model (which I'm hoping to replace) but contains two classic style experiments.

I haven't written custom science results for the stock experiments (and possibly experiments from other mods) yet, but lately, I've felt less motivation to write them, and I've been putting my all into the next DS Core and Thor Tech update.

[JadeOfMaar]

I finally got around to assimilating adapting USI's ZZZ warp drives.

I also setup a thing (suggested by @daniel l.) where they require a new kerbal trait aboard the ship in order to function but I'm not getting it to work right so I will keep trying but if I don't figure it out, it's best I delete it. No plugin is necessary here but I need the help of someone with a better understanding of the modules I'm dealing with.

[JadeOfMaar]

There are times when you don't want KS3P to function. In the SPH for demo screenshots is one of those times, and these Japier parts have funky specular settings. Anyway, here it is. This re-texture seems okay to me. I hope it's well received. An open release is finally on the horizon. Maybe during this coming week.

[JadeOfMaar]

The Spice is now compatible with @linuxgurugamer's IFI Life Support.

Compatibility with life support mods is pretty basic. SpiceMelange --> LS Resources. Rather than haul Ore or Fertilizer and dedicated ISRU to strip out and use the good portions, you can haul a few boxes of the Spice Melange and plug some Spice Applicators into your ship. Shown below, respectively.

The boxes can be Tweakscaled.

Spice Melange is lightweight and nearly 100% mass-efficient in conversion into essential resources. It is that rich of a raw resource.

 

Compatibility is present for nearly all major life support mods just as in Airline Kuisine which is a thread of the month for February 2018.  

• USI, TAC, IFI, and Snacks compatible.

No integration with other mods' converters and no recyclers of any sort will be provided.

Edited February 6, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[JadeOfMaar]

Apart from adding LDEF cartridges into @Angel-125 science mod "MOLE", The Spice also adds part upgrades to some of his tank parts. It is disabled by default and must be unlocked in career or science mode. Supported parts are:

• Buffalo "Tundra" series
• The Buckboards
• Pathfinder's Conestoga MBM and Mule MLM
• Pathfinder's Chuckwagon inflatable warehouse

[JadeOfMaar]

Unified Spice Drill, 2/3 the size of the stock drill. It used to be a separate large drill + mini-drill (from Karbonite), the latter alone had the ability to harvest Worm Essence.

It's meant for its niche uses only so (currently) it will not do Ore.

 

[JadeOfMaar]

The last two parts that needed to reach a usable, presentable state are in: the Spice-O-Meter scanner (left) and the multi-experiment Science Junior Sophomore (right).

The Sophomore's experiments are OP and only meant to be used on the spice planet, but there is no mechanism to restrict what planets an experiment can be used on so it can easily be abused. Please don't abuse it.  

At this point, finally, gameplay development is complete except for custom writings for the stock experiments, and a plugin feature coming soon™. Once these arrive, so will a few cosmetic features I have planned and "version 0.8," the first true/full release.

Some hurdles to look out for before installation:

• Kopernicus must be present or this mod will break (on purpose).
• Make sure you have Deep Sky Core. GitHub :: SpaceDock.
• Make sure B9 Part Switch is installed. If you have any of the Near Future mods, all is well.
• The Warp Drives require this pre-release version of USI Alcubierre Drive. They're not expected to work well with the current main release.

Some hurdles to look out for after installation:

• The Spice Gardens are very large and very massive. Unless one is deploying on the spice planet, you're going to need an LFO heavy lifter mod (or Spice Drives in LFO mode) to lift their weights.
• Currently the resources are non-tweakable in the VAB/SPH and will not allow easy tank filling or thrust torque alignment. The idea right now is that you deploy an un-fueled ship, then bring home a Spice Gas delivery vessel and fill up from that. Once I have access to a certain sort of tankage plugin (or I get feedback that it's too much trouble) I can remove this difficulty that was put here.
• This mod adds a kerbal trait. Removal of this mod after deploying kerbals with the new trait can lead to issues.

Get your game on.  

DOWNLOAD v0.7.3

Please don't do a review on this, KottabosGames. I am not yet comfortable with the idea of this mod getting so much spotlight. The way it's configured right now will give you a harder time than Thor Tech did.

Edited March 6, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[TheProtagonists]

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Get your game on.  

Go play

Hey now, you're an rockstar

Get your show on

Get paid

And all that glitters is gold

Only shooting stars break the mold

 

in all seriousness it's finally here!

Looks great, gonna try it ASAP...

Edited March 6, 2018 by TheProtagonists

[JadeOfMaar]

@Norcalplanner @eddiew @CatastrophicFailure I'd like to draw your attention 2 posts up from here for a bit... You guys are as good at play-testing as you are at telling tales.  

[eddiew]

Looks interesting @JadeOfMaar   I feel like it needs a dedicated game though, I... may have crafted a cheaty shortcut around my current solar system(s)  

[CatastrophicFailure]

Interesting indeed. But I’m guessing it’s not backwards compatible to 1.2.2...

[JadeOfMaar]

On 3/7/2018 at 2:19 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Interesting indeed. But I’m guessing it’s not backwards compatible to 1.2.2...

I expect it will work just fine in 1.2.2. But there are two issues that will get in your way.

1. In GPP 1.6, the spice planet is among the several bodies that got new textures and biomes. This mod has biome-specific aspects which break in older versions of GPP. I expect you will not be able to drill up White Spice and use the alternative power sources I provide.
2. There is currently no Kerbalism config. The Spice Melange itself and its LS features will be out of your reach. So for the time being this whole mod is only good to you for fuel.

I should be able to fix this up for you by the weekend if you're still interested.

[CatastrophicFailure]

On 1/26/2018 at 6:27 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

with.

Quick question (and thread plug) I’m only seeing one model of that folding warp drive in my install, are those tweakscaled?

Also, what mod are the greenhouse models originally from?

[JadeOfMaar]

3 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Quick question (and thread plug) I’m only seeing one model of that folding warp drive in my install, are those tweakscaled?

Also, what mod are the greenhouse models originally from?

One folding model, one non-folding model. Yes they have TweakScale options.

The greenhouses are actually "hub" parts. They are "ZZZ Things" (misc unlicensed parts made by ZZZ).

[theonegalen]

If I played with multiple systems, I would use this in a heartbeat.

Maybe once I upgrade from potato to computer.

[JadeOfMaar]

On 4/5/2018 at 12:22 PM, theonegalen said:

If I played with multiple systems, I would use this in a heartbeat.

Maybe once I upgrade from potato to computer.

Take your time, my dude. Spice isn't quite ready yet. I have little things (as small as OCD tweaks) coming every other day.

Edited April 6, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[JadeOfMaar]

I've confirmed a very annoying and very specific bug in KSP 1.4. Any attempt to re-texture the large stock (without copying and packing Squad files in my download) drill causes it to fail to compile and not load in-game. I'm now sorely in need of a replacement drill model and I really don't want to add Spice features onto THE stock drill or have an identical clone of that drill to confuse people.

[JadeOfMaar]

Come and get it. 

[DOWNLOAD 0.8] GitHub only

But then I put it on SpaceDock...

Edited April 10, 2018 by JadeOfMaar
SpaceDock

[CatastrophicFailure]

3 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Come and get it. 

[DOWNLOAD 0.8] GitHub only

1.4x version?

[JadeOfMaar]

4 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

1.4x version?

Of course, my dude. (Still works fine in KSP 1.3 also)