[1.11.x] Snarkiverse v1.2: Rearrange the solar system for challenge & variety.

[Superfluous J]

I finally have a consistent way to get to Dres from Kerbin. I don't know how efficient it is but it can get you to orbit of Minmus in 10 days so hey. I'm thinking of making a video on it with all that spare time I have but here's a quick image with all the steps from top left to bottom right (except the last 2, the maneuver is before the Minmus periapsis) The 3 maneuvers are prograde to eject from LKO, then normal to adjust the Dres encounter, and finally retrograde to encounter Minmus. They total just about 2000m/s. Any less (I think) will lengthen the time. Timing it right could get you to Minmus in about 10 days, but here it took 13 because I orbited Dres once, which would be the most common thing without planning.

 

Oh and if I did memes, I'd totally post one here:

MOVES DRES RIGHT NEXT TO KERBIN TO VISIT IT MORE

STILL GOES TO MINMUS INSTEAD

[HansonKerman]

On 6/3/2018 at 7:45 AM, The Minmus Derp said:

I AM GOING TO DO THE KERBIN THREE WITH THIS!

What?????????????????

[The Minmus Derp]

Dres is (TECHNICALLY) a moon of kerbin, and has minmus as its own moon. Mun, Dres, Minmus. 333333333333333 (not THAT many 3s tho)

[Black-Two-]

Does this work with 1.4.5?

[Snark]

4 hours ago, Black-Two- said:

Does this work with 1.4.5?

Yes. That's why it says "1.4.5" in the thread title, and also why it's explicitly labeled as compatible with KSP 1.4.5 on the SpaceDock download page.

[Kerbalstar]

@Snark, just wanted to let you know that this works fine with 1.5.1, as far as I can tell.

[Snark]

Ah yes, thanks. Had been waiting for the Kopernicus update and then forgot to update my Kopernicus-dependent mods.

[Snark]

So, everyone talking about Kerbol Origins piqued my interest-- and when I saw that KO has a very wide-open license (MIT), that makes it an even more attractive target.

So I've started peeking at that mod a bit, and I think I'll be adding a Kerbol Origins compatibility patch after all. 

I've already got it set up and working on my machine in a (hopefully) final form-- I need to do a bit of playtesting to make sure it makes sense, is playable, and is functioning as expected.

Thank you to @The Minmus Derp for calling my attention to that mod (which I'd never really been aware of before), and to @Aria_of_skittles and @Alaygrounds for stepping up with some suggested config!

I'll go ahead and say now that my Kerbol Origins rejigger is entirely my own ideas-- I haven't actually used any of your suggestions at all.  (Not 'coz they're bad suggestions, since they aren't.  I just like to do things my own way.)  I hope to have it released Soon™, and I hope you'll like what I've done with it.  (And if you don't, you can always delete my compatibility patch and put your own in place.) 

Some of the minor details may need tweaking as I playtest it a bit, but I can go ahead and say the following, which won't change:

• Snarkiverse will work with Kerbol Origins.
• Snarkiverse will work with OPM.
• Snarkiverse will work with both of them (the OPM patch is adjusted to account for when KO is also there).
• The Kerbol Origins patch puts Sarvin where Jool used to be.  It becomes the outermost planet (unless OPM is also installed).
• Keelon's not outermost anymore, because I have moved it... elsewhere. 
• Unlike the base Snarkiverse patch-- which doesn't touch any physical parameters of the stock bodies, but merely rearranges them-- the Kerbol Origins patch does in fact make some significant tweaking to the physical parameters of some of the bodies, to provide a different gameplay experience.

Other than that, I'm gonna stay mum on details until I ship it, so don't bother asking.  Rationale:  1. details are subject to change when I playtest it, and 2. to build suspense. 

Anyway, just a little heads-up that this is coming down the pike!  Hope you'll enjoy it.

[Alaygrounds]

Cool!

[Snark]

Hi everyone,

I'm pleased to announce the release of Snarkiverse v1.2, now with Kerbol Origins compatibility patch!

(And yes, it works if both KO and OPM are installed.)

The patch significantly rearranges Kerbol Origins bodies, and changes the physical characteristics of several of them.  Details & gallery below.  Enjoy!

 

Overview of solar system layout

1. Sarvin moves inwards, to where Jool's orbit used to be in stock KSP.  (You can see Sarnus' orbit in the background, here-- I took this screenshot with OPM installed, too.)
2. Corolet's orbit shrinks, with an apoapsis just past Jool's orbit.  This gives it an orbital period of exactly two Kerbin years.  It passes very close to Kerbin on each orbit-- more on this below. 
3. Keelon moves to an identical orbit with Kerbin, but exactly 180 degrees away from it on the opposite side of the Sun.
4. Harvest becomes a moon of Sarvin, occupying exactly the orbit that Eeloo used to have (since Eeloo's no longer a Sarvin moon).
5. Rega becomes Keelon's innermost moon.

 

The Keelon system

Keelon gets a major overhaul. 

Spoiler

• Rega's extravagant rings now move to Keelon (and are scaled up).
• Keelon now has a new moon, Rega (visible above as the innermost light-gray moon).

Keelon's physical properties are significantly tweaked, to give it a very different gameplay experience:

It now has an oxygenated atmosphere.

Also... it has a freakishly fast rotation speed, just over half an hour.  This extremely fast rotation speed effectively lowers gravity at the equator to only about 2g, as compared with 3g at the poles.  It also means that the surface-relative velocity of ships in low equatorial orbit is now well under 2 km/s, meaning that reentry heating is quite manageable without a heat shield.

Combine those two factors, and Keelon is now actually quite friendly to SSTOs... as long as they stick near the equator.  Head away from the equator, and life gets significantly harder.

In recognition of the "easy mode" of equatorial Keelon, I've rejiggered the biome map so that it now has a new biome, "Equatorial Zone", which covers a wide band all the way around the equator.  So... if you want to collect juicy science from a variety of Keelon biomes, you'll have to venture into the more difficult regions away from the equator.

Manai stays mostly unchanged, but I've tweaked its orbit slightly to make it play nice with Keelon's rings and give it some nice views.  A sample:

(No, I don't know why the atmosphere coloring cuts off abruptly halfway up the image. Go talk to Scatterer.) 

 

Corolet

Corolet is now on a smaller, swifter orbit that takes exactly two Kerbin years.  It passes very close to Kerbin on each orbit, just outside Kerbin's SOI.

^ Here you can see Corolet approaching its closest encounter with Kerbin.  Dres is visible at right.

Spoiler

^ A Corolet orbiter says hello to Kerbin and Mun, as Corolet goes screaming past Kerbin at over 9 km/s relative.

^ Corolet at periapsis, just 1.7 million km from the sun.

Bring radiators! 

 

Anyway, hope you all enjoy the new playground to play in! 

[Aria_of_skittles]

Quote

Keelon's not outermost anymore, because I have moved it... elsewhere. 

By this I had assumed that you were going to stick it in Moho's orbit with Moho becoming a moon, but this is interesting too.

[Eaten by Black Hole]

Haha 250years remaining to transfer point of Dres

[Eaten by Black Hole]

I installed and uninstalled it but system isnt changed!

[RealKerbal3x]

12 minutes ago, Eaten by Black Hole said:

I installed and uninstalled it but system isnt changed!

Do you have Kopernicus installed? It’s a dependency for all mods that change the stock system or add new planets.

Though I’m not sure if Kopernicus is updated to 1.5.1, if that’s the version you’re using.

Edited November 24, 2018 by RealKerbal3x

[Eaten by Black Hole]

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Do you have Kopernicus installed? It’s a dependency for all mods that change the stock system or add new planets.

Though I’m not sure if Kopernicus is updated to 1.5.1, if that’s the version you’re using.

It happens when i add kopernicus into GameData

[Snark]

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Though I’m not sure if Kopernicus is updated to 1.5.1, if that’s the version you’re using.

Kopernicus is, indeed, updated to 1.5.1.

1 hour ago, Eaten by Black Hole said:

I installed and uninstalled it but system isnt changed!

The most common reason why this might happen would be if Kopernicus is not installed (or not properly installed).

Got a screenshot of your GameData folder?

 

[OHara]

There is a lot to like about this re-arrangement.  I am still playing with the various ways to cheaply slip into the Mun's SOI.

Another popular request that is fulfilled by Kopernicus is to make rocks and trees solid.
Thinking that Snarkiverse users will have Kopernicus and might be interested in this, and realizing that it is hard to find the relevant documentation (second link), I'm sharing the .cfg that let me climb on rocks and plant flags there. (We can still walk and drive through grass.)  I notice no performance loss.  

Spoiler

@Kopernicus:AFTER[Snarkiverse] {
 @Body[Eve]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Gilly]  { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Kerbin] { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters {
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //maple
    Scatter { %Components { } } //grass
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //boulder
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //pine
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //cactus
} } } } }
 @Body[Minmus] { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Mun]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Duna]   { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters {
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } // boulder
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } // iceboulder
} } } } }
 @Body[Ike]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Laythe] { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Vall]   { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Tylo]   { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Pol]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters {
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //boulder
    Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //stalactite (sic)
} } } } }
 @Body[Bop]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Eeloo]  { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
}

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by OHara
make secondary scatters like cactus and other things solid, too; better link to appropriate kcopernicus documentation

[Black-Two-]

Now that Kopernicus is up to 1.6.1, will this awesome mod be getting some updating action soon too?

[Snark]

3 hours ago, Black-Two- said:

Now that Kopernicus is up to 1.6.1, will this awesome mod be getting some updating action soon too?

Doesn't need it. Works already.

Bear in mind that Kopernicus-based mods such as planet packs (or this one) tend to be very KSP-version-agnostic, and therefore they themselves almost never "break" when there's a KSP version update.

The only disruption is the dependency on Kopernicus itself, since Kopernicus is version-locked by design and therefore goes belly-up on every KSP update, until the Kopernicus team has a chance to certify it for the new KSP.

Therefore, all you need to do is wait for the updated Kopernicus, and then things "just work".

[Tonka Crash]

@Snark I just started a new career game with this. My first attempt at a planet pack. Any tips on modifying contracts to account for the different planet arrangement? I'm seeing contracts pop for Minmus as if it were still in the Kerbin SOI, but really Dres should be there too.

[Snark]

17 minutes ago, Tonka Crash said:

@Snark I just started a new career game with this. My first attempt at a planet pack. Any tips on modifying contracts to account for the different planet arrangement? I'm seeing contracts pop for Minmus as if it were still in the Kerbin SOI, but really Dres should be there too.

Actually, in my experience, it just "does the right thing" already.  Dres contracts do pop up, similarly to Minmus and not long after the Mun.  I was pretty impressed that the game auto-adapted to the rearrangement.  If you're not getting Dres contracts, it may just be the luck-of-the-draw.  Give it time.

When I was first setting up Snarkiverse, I was thinking "oh, jeez, I'm gonna have to go and re-farble the contract bodies, too, what a drag" ... and then I did a career play-through and was pleasantly surprised that it's actually already up to snuff and I didn't have to do anything at all.    (All I needed to do was to rejigger the science values of the various bodies to reflect the new arrangement.)

[Queen Cassie]

On 1/22/2019 at 3:40 PM, Snark said:

Actually, in my experience, it just "does the right thing" already.  Dres contracts do pop up, similarly to Minmus and not long after the Mun.  I was pretty impressed that the game auto-adapted to the rearrangement.  If you're not getting Dres contracts, it may just be the luck-of-the-draw.  Give it time.

When I was first setting up Snarkiverse, I was thinking "oh, jeez, I'm gonna have to go and re-farble the contract bodies, too, what a drag" ... and then I did a career play-through and was pleasantly surprised that it's actually already up to snuff and I didn't have to do anything at all.    (All I needed to do was to rejigger the science values of the various bodies to reflect the new arrangement.)

Actually for me it was giving me contracts to explore Sarvin after I finished with the Mun. I thought it was rather strange and was concerned it was messed up in the sense that I'd have to do the explore contracts for Sarvin first, which... isn't happening.

[OHara]

It is generally not advised to move an existing save into a re-arranged planetary system, but Snarkiverse is mildly rearranged so I did it anyway, and enjoyed it.

My pending contract for a base on Gilly, to support 20 kerbals, was suddenly much more difficult with Gilly being around Moho. The existing mining operation on Gilly was needed to support the colony on Eve, so it needed to move to Ike and adapt to lift ore out of Ike's stronger gravity.  The orbital station around Duna was thrown into deep space, and bringing the crew home was a challenge.

To re-establish a presence at Duna I wanted ScanSAT maps. Bop and Pol get in the way, but I thought I would simply put scanners in resonant orbits.  However, by accident or design, Bop and Pol are also resonant with the rotation of Duna.   Whatever ratio I use, my mapping satellites miss certain patches of the surface because I need to be out of the way of the moon that repeated crosses that patch every time that patch cross my orbital plane.  A satellite is now on a non-resonant orbit, threaded through the orbits of the moons, to map Duna for me.

(I think the resonance with Duna's rotation was an accident.  Stock KSP has Duna and Ike mutually tidally locked , with Ike in a 3200-km orbit and Duna's rotation tuned to match.  Snarkiverse Pol has a 800-km-SMA orbit, a nice round number that happens to be 1/4 of Duna's former moon.  4^1.5 = 8 so Pol orbits Duna 8 times per day, and 4^1.5=8 happens to be an integer.)

[Snark]

On 4/30/2019 at 12:20 AM, OHara said:

I think the resonance with Duna's rotation was an accident.

Nope, just as it's no accident that the Mun is resonant with Kerbin's rotation.  You're the first person to notice this, though. 

Part of what motivates me when arranging things is, I like to set up "sky tableaus" so that if you're in the right spot, you get a consistently impressive sky show.  Putting Pol in resonance with Duna means that if you're on the right spot on Duna, Pol's largest and most impressive appearance (i.e. when it's at periapsis) will always go right over your head.  If they weren't in resonance, then the "longitude of optimum sky show" would migrate around Duna over time, and it would be harder to gauge where to land if you want the show.  This way, once you've got it figured out, you can always just land in that spot. 

The fact that it also happens to make it more of a pain in the butt is just a happy accident.  (I'm not a Scansat user, so that aspect of the arrangement hadn't even occurred to me.)  The whole point of the Duna / Pol / Bop arrangement is to be as amusingly inconvenient as possible by denying any "safe" low-altitude orbit, so making Scansat a pain, too, is completely in line with what I was aiming for.

(Another thing I like about the arrangement is that it gives me another use case to play with a feature that I recently added to BetterBurnTime, which makes it more straightforward to set up an orbit that's synchronous with a given target.  So this means that I can do a low Duna orbit reasonably... if I'm careful to make it Pol-synchronous and am not where Bop will clobber me when it comes around.)

[Mangu]

Oooh! That is some serious eye candy! I’m absolutely gonna try this out with Kerbol origins and outer planets installed!

Edited May 8, 2019 by Mangu
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