[1.12.x] NOT RO - Kerbal Construction Time - Unrapid Planned Assembly

[linuxgurugamer]

@magico13 has retired(?) from modding, and I have adopted this mod.  Previous thread here: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/83342-141-*

 

 

Kerbal Construction Time

Attention!  As part of my adoption,  MagiCore is now being released separately and must be downloaded separately.

Magicore Downloads

KCT Downloads (SpaceDock)

KCT Downloads for KSP 1.7.3 (SpaceDock)

KCT Downloads (GitHub)

 

Important Notice

KCT has been upgraded for KSP 1.8.

In order to support the RO people, there is now a new entry in CKAN for KCT-1.7.3.

For CKAN users: If you are using KSP 1.7.3 and wish to get updates for 1.7.3, you will need to uninstall KCT and then install the 1.7.3 version of KCT.

Updates will be applied to both versions at the same time, until RO upgrades to 1.8

Dependencies

ToolbarController

ClickThroughBlocker

Magicore

SpaceTuxLibrary (new dependency)

 

About

Kerbal Construction Time is a plugin which, at its core, is designed to make vessels take time to build rather than being able to constantly launch new vessels one after another. This core feature is expanded upon to create a larger system for managing your space center. Build your vessels, upgrade your facilities, research new technologies, and make decisions where you never had to before (Do I upgrade the VAB further or start upgrading the SPH? Do I want to build single vessels quickly, or multiple vessels at once? Is getting new tech faster worth building ships slower? Do I use these old parts to be ready for the transfer window, or do I use new parts with better stats?) When combined with other realism based addons, especially life support addons, the experience is even better. No longer can you send out a rescue mission without consequence, making planning that much more important.

 

 

Features

• Vessels take time to build, dependent on vessel complexity (cost), how many times the parts have been used before, if any of the parts are in your inventory, and your Build Rates.
• Unlock multiple build rates to build multiple vessels at once (2 rates = 2 vessels being built simultaneously), or just upgrade your first build rate to be lightning fast.
• Tech nodes take time to research. No more instant part unlocks.
• Earn or purchase upgrades which you can spend to build ships faster (or more at once), research technology quicker, or earn science for building ships.
• KSC building upgrades also require time to complete.
• After each rocket launch the launchpad must be reconditioned and repaired before the next launch can occur, based on the vessel's mass. Additionally, rockets must be rolled out to the launchpad from the VAB.
• Recover and reuse the EXACT same plane or rocket. SSTO's and planes now can be refuelled and reused in much less time than building a new one. Just open up the KCT menu after landing and click the Recover Active Vessel button. Not all parts may work properly, so you may need to add to the list of modules to get reset. Warning: KSP isn't really designed for this, and weird things can happen. Report them, with logs, and I'll see if I can fix it. Here is a list of known issues related to this and causes: https://github.com/magico13/KCT/issues/82
• Highly customizable. Don't want tech unlocks to take time? Disable it. Want builds to take longer or for inventory parts to have a bigger effect? Easily changed. In fact, nearly every formula used by KCT can be edited in-game or through a config file!
• Automatic creation of Kerbal Alarm Clock alarms for the next ship/tech to finish.
• An awesome icon made by diomedea, who I feel bad about not crediting anywhere for the longest time for some reason.
• Multiple launchpads!(gfycat link) Build and upgrade several launchpads so you can launch your rescue craft right away! Don't get stuck waiting for reconditioning to finish.

Availability

• Download: https://spacedock.info/mod/222/Kerbal Construction Time
• Source: https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/KCT
• License:GPL-3.0

Available via CKAN

Recommended Companion Mods

ScrapYard - Adds a part inventory that can greatly reduce build times.

KRASH - Allows you to simulate vessels before you spend time building them (KCT no longer has built in simulations)

StageRecovery - Recover dropped stages to help reduce build times when used with ScrapYard.

Crew R&R - Adds time elements to crew, whereas KCT only acts on vessels and KSC.

Oh Scrap! - A part failure mod built upon ScrapYard.

A life support or part failure mod. These types of mods add additional challenges that mesh well with the build time limitations of KCT.

Known Issues

• You cannot launch with kerbals in command chairs, so if you assign a KIS inventory to that kerbal in the editor then it definitely won't be there when you launch.

 

If you're in need of help, don't forget the getting started guide, originally written by @guto8797  with updates by @magico13  (last updated for v1.2.1). A fairly in-depth set of documentation for KCT covering everything from building a vessel to the details of every option in the Settings menu. It is written somewhat satirically, but contains a treasure trove of information and is also included with each release.

I permit the use of KCT in mod packs or other forms of distribution, but ask that I be notified. I would prefer there to not be derivatives made unless I give permission directly or I am completely out of contact for over a month. While none of these are requirements of the license, it is respectful that you honor these requests (and I'll be way more willing to provide help if you do).

Some words of inspiration:

Check out OverloadUT's (KSP-TV livestreamer) epic story of rescue, due in part to KCT:

Spoiler

Hey magico, I wanted to pop in here and thank you profusely for this mod. At first I didn't think the construction time would add much to the game, but after only a few weeks in to my career I can tell that I was wrong. It makes contract deadlines mean so much more, among other things.

I also wanted to share a story of your mod in action in the best way.

Last night on KSP-TV (Squad's official Twitch channel) I had what many viewers were saying was the most exciting mission I've ever done. I think I agree with them.
 

It was a situation resulted by the combination of TAC Life Support, Remote Tech, and Kerbal Construction Time: While orbiting around Mun, I hit spacebar by accident, separating my reentry pod from the rest of the craft. The pod only has 18 hours worth of food, water, and oxygen. No way to get the life support supplies from the separated section, even with KAS. No docking ports, so can’t re-attach in any way. Kerbal will die in 18 hours. Every craft I have built thus far in the career has taken far more than 18 hours to build. I'm early-on in my career with only around 20 unlock points in KCT.

I pulled out all the stops. Nearly bankrupted my space program by buying as many construction time upgrades as possible. Unlocked new science just for the construction time boosts. Spent ages iterating on how to build as simple a craft as possible such that it will be built in time. We’re talking trying to shave off 15-30 minutes here and there. Eventually got it to 12.5 hours construction time. It takes about 6 hours typically from launch to Mun orbit. It’s going to be close.

Next problem: I’m looking at a BARE minimum craft here. It is NOT manned and I do NOT have satellite signal at Mun. I desperately wanted to do a manned rescue, but it just plain couldn't be built in time. This means that I am going to have to do the transfer burn and then pre-plan a Mun circularization burn that perfectly rendezvouses with the stranded craft, ALL FROM KERBIN ORBIT. The margin or error on maneuver nodes that far away is typically too high to go without corrections, but I have no choice. Once this probe leaves satellite range, it’s going to do what I told the flight computer to do with no way to adjust.

I did it. Had to do an inefficient high-speed transfer in order to get there in time. Timed it for the rendezvous perfectly. EVA’d over to the emergency pod, and now the stranded kerbal has 30 days of supplies. Plenty enough to mount a proper rescue.

While RemoteTech is responsible for the white-knuckle no-room-for-error maneuver planning at the end, even that would not have happened without KCT. Without KCT I would have just tossed two pods on the craft and called it a day.

 

autumalequinox said:

Spoiler

now on year 8 of my super-career game. [-snip-] my space program has gone from mercury to apollo and beyond. the time span feels realistic, think how much we accomplished in a decade? and now, for the first time... my game has a sense of HISTORY. there have been failures (thanks dang it!) and engineering screw ups (all me). famous astronauts (thanks final frontier) An entire interplanetary cruiser turned out to be a horrible design, and barely got the crew back alive (thanks TAC life support). but most of all, thanks to KCT, there is that feeling of history. The game is telling a story now, and that story will be different for everyone.

Media

A review by Scott Manley. It doesn't quite catch the fun parts of KCT, but does a good job of showing off some of the basic features.

 

 

A short (~12 minutes) video by me (magico13) explaining some of the features at the time of release, without going too much into details.

 

A longer video (~31 minutes) by PTTGRW explaining, in detail, the features as present in PR7.2.3 (right before release)

 

---

Kerbal Crush Saga: Rocket Fire Age Daily Challenge Leaderboard
(This was part of the April Fools Day 2015 build)

• CalculusWarrior - Through the power of MechJeb, infinite fuel, and pure determination fought through the onslaught of KCS:RFA advertisements to be the first (and currently only) to complete the daily challenge. (also proving to me that the popup will indeed appear, since I couldn't test that myself)

 



 

Edited July 16, 2020 by linuxgurugamer

[Raccoon]

Another fantastic mod adopted, thanks for all the work! Any chance for an addition of being able to directly add vessels to the build queue from the KCT menu instead of having to go into VAB/SPH and add them? A real bother when the VAB takes 20 seconds to load in.

[linuxgurugamer]

An interesting idea, could  you add it to the issues list on Github?

Just an FYI, I'm not sure it can be done, there is a lot of stuff which happens in the editor

Edited March 15, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[BlackHat]

On 3/15/2019 at 5:25 PM, Raccoon said:

Another fantastic mod adopted, thanks for all the work! Any chance for an addition of being able to directly add vessels to the build queue from the KCT menu instead of having to go into VAB/SPH and add them? A real bother when the VAB takes 20 seconds to load in.

You currently can add crafts to the build queue without having to enter the VAB or SPH.

BUT you must have an existing craft, that is already in your KCT build queue, or in the storage hanger ready for roll out. It duplicated and another of the same craft can be added to the Build Queue without having to go to the VAB or SPH. I do this frequently, for example I have a Rescue craft ready to roll out. I get a contract to rescue a Kerbal, or need to swap out a crew member of the Kerbal Space Station, I will add another copy of the Rescue craft to the Build Queue, and then roll out and launch the first one. In a few days the new one is built and ready to roll out.

Its great if you have a standardized craft you use might use frequently.

[Raccoon]

2 minutes ago, BlackHat said:

You currently can add crafts to the build queue without having to enter the VAB or SPH.

BUT you must have an existing craft, that is already in your KCT build queue, or in the storage hanger ready for roll out. It duplicated and another of the same craft can be added to the Build Queue without having to go to the VAB or SPH. I do this frequently, for example I have a Rescue craft ready to roll out. I get a contract to rescue a Kerbal, or need to swap out a crew member of the Kerbal Space Station, I will add another copy of the Rescue craft to the Build Queue, and then roll out and launch the first one. In a few days the new one is built and ready to roll out.

Its great if you have a standardized craft you use might use frequently.

Yeah I know about this method but it's extremely limited to just being able to add them if one is already in the build queue. Of course I still use it a ton but I'd muuuuuch prefer actually being able to directly add vessels from a list!

[Stone Blue]

Oh!... huh... well, in the master, the Restock whitelist file is in the JSI folder... vOv

And I dont see the file at all in the release package...

Edited March 16, 2019 by Stone Blue

[linuxgurugamer]

4 hours ago, Stone Blue said:

Oh!... huh... well, in the master, the Restock whitelist file is in the JSI folder... vOv

And I dont see the file at all in the release package...

Are you posting in the correct thread?

I think you meant to post this in the CCTV folder, the short answer is that there aren't any parts in the CCTV mod itself which reference any files in the Squad folder

Edited March 17, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[linuxgurugamer]

For anybody interested, I am pleased to announce that as of now, the codebase of the RO fork of KCT and this release are up-to-date with each other.  

[linuxgurugamer]

On 3/15/2019 at 5:25 PM, Raccoon said:

Another fantastic mod adopted, thanks for all the work! Any chance for an addition of being able to directly add vessels to the build queue from the KCT menu instead of having to go into VAB/SPH and add them? A real bother when the VAB takes 20 seconds to load in.

Ok.  After reviewing the code, I think it's going to be difficult to be able to add any random craft to the build queue.  However, I have a couple of  different ideas which may make more sense from a gameplay point of view, and makes it easier from a modding point of view

1. Assume that any craft you go into the VAB/SPH and add to the build queue is a one-off order.  There would be a new button (on the top row, to the left of the "New" button ) which would add the vessel to a standardized list in order to be able to schedule builds from anywhere else.
2. A second way, which I'm not sure would be as good, would be to simply add any vessel that was ever built to a standardized build list.  This has the potential of becoming overly full

Edited March 17, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[Raccoon]

10 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Ok.  After reviewing the code, I think it's going to be difficult to be able to add any random craft to the build queue.  However, I have a couple of  different ideas which may make more sense from a gameplay point of view, and makes it easier from a modding point of view

1. Assume that any craft you go into the VAB/SPH and add to the build queue is a one-off order.  There would be a new button (on the top row, to the left of the "New" button ) which would add the vessel to a standardized list in order to be able to schedule builds from anywhere else.
2. A second way, which I'm not sure would be as good, would be to simply add any vessel that was ever built to a standardized build list.  This has the potential of becoming overly full

Being able to directly open a list of all saved craft is the absolute ideal dream which would save a lot of time and trouble, but if that's not an option then I think the first option works well. You can create rockets you use for multiple purposes and save them to the list to build whenever you need them, plus it would work well with the reduction in build time as you build more and more of them. Plus if you save a launcher to the list, you can add it to the build queue from the list, click Edit and add a payload and you're done.

[linuxgurugamer]

44 minutes ago, Raccoon said:

Being able to directly open a list of all saved craft is the absolute ideal dream which would save a lot of time and trouble, but if that's not an option then I think the first option works well. You can create rockets you use for multiple purposes and save them to the list to build whenever you need them, plus it would work well with the reduction in build time as you build more and more of them. Plus if you save a launcher to the list, you can add it to the build queue from the list, click Edit and add a payload and you're done.

That's my preference as well, although the 2nd option would essentially be the same as showing all the saved craft.

[Stone Blue]

On 3/16/2019 at 10:40 PM, linuxgurugamer said:

Are you posting in the correct thread?

I think you meant to post this in the CCTV folder, the short answer is that there aren't any parts in the CCTV mod itself which reference any files in the Squad folder

You are... absolutely correct... somehow I crossposted on the wrong thread

[Beetlecat]

On 3/16/2019 at 8:11 PM, linuxgurugamer said:

Ok.  After reviewing the code, I think it's going to be difficult to be able to add any random craft to the build queue.  However, I have a couple of  different ideas which may make more sense from a gameplay point of view, and makes it easier from a modding point of view

1. Assume that any craft you go into the VAB/SPH and add to the build queue is a one-off order.  There would be a new button (on the top row, to the left of the "New" button ) which would add the vessel to a standardized list in order to be able to schedule builds from anywhere else.
2. A second way, which I'm not sure would be as good, would be to simply add any vessel that was ever built to a standardized build list.  This has the potential of becoming overly full

#1, for sure. Being able to create / maintain a list of standard craft for "order from the KCT panel" convenience would be great. A QOL bit at least--- and save a lot of time for anyone that suffers huge time sinks when going into the VAB/SPH like Raccoon mentioned.

I should really test this/experiment before asking, but I'm hours away from getting home --

How does KCT handle multiple launch sites at the KSC? I'm playing with the awesome KSC Extended, and the half-dozen launch pads at the KSC are targetable with the launch site picker. Does roll-out and reconditioning target individual launch pads, or is it that literal?

Edited March 18, 2019 by Beetlecat

[Tybot]

An interesting bug that if I remember right has existed for quite some time but just hit me again. If I edit a recovered vessel but add zero or remove some build points as to give a negative number, such as only filling the fuel tanks or removing cargo from a bay, instead of adding those edits to the build list it simply deletes the vessel entirely. I'm guessing KCT isn't a fan of a vessel having negative build points, and BP calculations are relative to the state the vessel was recovered in. A quick fix may be adding a minimum BP to any edit, chalk it up to cost of hoisting it up in the VAB.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Tybot

[linuxgurugamer]

23 hours ago, Tybot said:

An interesting bug that if I remember right has existed for quite some time but just hit me again. If I edit a recovered vessel but add zero or remove some build points as to give a negative number, such as only filling the fuel tanks or removing cargo from a bay, instead of adding those edits to the build list it simply deletes the vessel entirely. I'm guessing KCT isn't a fan of a vessel having negative build points, and BP calculations are relative to the state the vessel was recovered in. A quick fix may be adding a minimum BP to any edit, chalk it up to cost of hoisting it up in the VAB.

A log file, please.  I haven't seen this in my development & testing

[Svm420]

.

Edited March 23, 2019 by Svm420

[Freshmeat]

On 3/17/2019 at 4:11 AM, linuxgurugamer said:

Ok.  After reviewing the code, I think it's going to be difficult to be able to add any random craft to the build queue.  However, I have a couple of  different ideas which may make more sense from a gameplay point of view, and makes it easier from a modding point of view

1. Assume that any craft you go into the VAB/SPH and add to the build queue is a one-off order.  There would be a new button (on the top row, to the left of the "New" button ) which would add the vessel to a standardized list in order to be able to schedule builds from anywhere else.
2. A second way, which I'm not sure would be as good, would be to simply add any vessel that was ever built to a standardized build list.  This has the potential of becoming overly full

I have mulled this one over a bit before chiming in, but I do not think it would be worth developer time implementing, and we all got to prioritize. Most of the time you are going to add a new payload anyway, or just a slight tweak, necessitating going into VAB anyway. But in the end it is your time and your mod we are discussing, I am just a happy user.

[linuxgurugamer]

2 hours ago, Svm420 said:

@linuxgurugamer

Just updated to the newest version on a 1.5.1 install I am not getting the option to select a KerbalKonstuct launch site when I clock the * next to a craft in VAB storage.

Before I look into this, I gather that the older version was able to do so?

[Svm420]

.

Edited March 23, 2019 by Svm420

[linuxgurugamer]

4 minutes ago, Svm420 said:

Yes. it had a button labeled select launch site saving the trouble of always going into thee VAB to select. I appreciate the help.

Ok, please tell me which Kerbal Konstructions mod is installed

[Svm420]

.

Edited March 23, 2019 by Svm420

[linuxgurugamer]

Just now, Svm420 said:

@linuxgurugamer

1.4.5.60

While I don't think it's related, that is a prerelease version.  Can you please test using 1.4.5.59

[Svm420]

.

Edited March 23, 2019 by Svm420

[linuxgurugamer]

I looked at the code, the Select LaunchSite button only appears for vessels instorage, not those under construction.  In your picture, the vessel in question is under construction.  Warp to complete and see if it appears then

I just tested it, and it is working

Edited March 23, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[Svm420]

.

Edited March 23, 2019 by Svm420