I don't have COMMNET and I don't know why

[Joe Calton]

I have KSP 1.7 with some mods, all from CKAN.

I have large probes in polar orbits around every stock planet except Jool.  Each probe is identical, bristling with scanners and docking ports.  At the rear of each one is a ginormous JX2 antenna pointing away from the planet.

Back I have several relay satellites that I call "Comm Blossoms".  Each one has a guidance computer, an RCS system, a bunch of RTGs and rechargeable batteries.  Each relay has 2 JX2s, one on each end, and the middle is ringed with 4 JW1s.

I have 3 in geosynch (kerbosynch?) orbit 120 degrees apart.  I have another Comm Blossom in a polar orbit that extends as far out as Minmas.

Yet, I have no CommNet.  In the Tracking Station I can see all of the lines connecting my probes, relays and stations, but none of those lines are green and there is no CommNet interface.  My probes cannot conduct planetary resource scand because there is no CommNet or KerbalNet.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.  Every YouTube tutorial I've watched tells me I should have a very robust CooNet, but I don't.

Help?

[Superfluous J]

Are you playing with ... uh what's the name, the mod that does its own thing for antennas? If so, ask on that thread. If not...

I don't know these antennas, but in the VAB are they listed as Relays? It doesn't matter how many antennas you have, but at least one of them must be a relay antenna. You only ever need one per ship unless you want more signal. A single relay antenna can relay any number of other ships back to Kerbin.

Also, in settings, make sure you have "enable commnet" checked. It sounds like you do as you see the green lines.

[Joe Calton]

OK.  I can go back and make sure everything has a specific relay antenna.  Thanks.

[Joe Calton]

OK, just launched a couple of satellites with relay antennas.

No change.  No CommNet.

[Cavscout74]

The JX2 is also a relay antenna, so that isn't making sense to me.  In fact, a single satellite with a JX2 around Kerbin should be able to provide a commnet for the entire stock system.  What are your comm settings at?

Also, do you have a list of installed mods?  

[Joe Calton]

I'm not sure what my Comm settings are.  Where would I see that?  When I go into Settings, the only Comm related option I see is the brightness of the CommNet lines, which I set at 100% just to make sure I wasn't missing them.

The only mods I have I got through Ckan because I don't trust myself to add things manually.  According to Ckan, I have:

Alcubierre Ward Drive

Astrogator

B9 Part Switch (I get an incompatibility warning about this since upgrading to 1.7)

Better Burn Time

Chatterer

Click Through Blocker

Commnet Visualization (I added this to see if it would fix the problem...it didn't)

Community Category Kit

Community Resource Pack

Community Tech Tree

Deep Sky Core

Diazo's Landing Height Display

Dynamic Battery Storage

Engine Lighting Relit

Extraplanetary Launchpads

HyperEdit

Impossible Innovations

JX2Antenna

Kerbal Engineer Redux

Kerbal Inventory System (also get a compatibility warning on this)

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Continued

KerbalX Mod

Kethane Mining 

Kerbal Reusability Expansion

KXAPI

MechJeb2

MechJeb and Engineer for all

Module Manager

Near Future Electrical Core

Near Future IVA Props

Near Future Launch Vehicles

Near Future Propulsion

Near Future Solar

Near Future Solar Core

Near Future Spacecraft

Near Future Spacecraft - LFO engines

Patch Manager

Physics Range Extender

RasterPropMonitor Core

Remote Tech

SCANsat

Stockalike Station Parts Redux

Targetron

Tweak Scale - Rescale Everything

 

 

[Superfluous J]

35 minutes ago, Joe Calton said:

I'm not sure what my Comm settings are.  Where would I see that?  When I go into Settings, the only Comm related option I see is the brightness of the CommNet lines, which I set at 100% just to make sure I wasn't missing them.

It's in the save settings, not the main game settings. Hit ESC, settings, click "custom" or "hard" or "normal" or whatever your mode button says, and it's in the middle column on the Basic page.

Though like I said, I can't see how that'd be the problem. I'm pretty sure the lines don't show up at all.

Remote Tech is the mod that I was thinking of. It is likely causing the problem or confusion. I've never used it but it's basically the mod we had before they added CommNet to the game. Look into how it works and if it totally replaces comment, or makes it work differently.

[Joe Calton]

Aha!  You are probably right.  I'll go to Ckan and remove it, then fire things up.  If that doesn't fix the problem, I'll check those settings.  Although, I think I looked in there before and nothing jumped out at me as being amiss.  But I'll check again.

 

Thanks!

 

[Joe Calton]

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!

Removing Remote Tech mostly fixed the problem!  By "mostly" I mean my planetary probes are now able to complete their resource scans and transmit data.  Which is the most important part because now I know where to land my mining plants and rovers.  Also by "mostly" I mean I still don't see the green connectivity lines, but that's OK, I'll figure it out.  At least now I know where to land my surface bases.

Thanks!!!

[Joe Calton]

I wound up completely uninstalling 1.7 and reinstalling 1.6.1.

Too many incompatibility problems with previously installed mods.

[IanCanberra]

I found that the setting "Enable Commsnet" is in the Basic setting section --> Middle column --> bottom.

What I do not understand is why you are not able to "build" it once you start deploying relay satellites.

Would be a good upgrade building to go with the tracking center. Once the center is at say level 2 you can then start to build the Commsnet center that allows visualization of the signals to each space object that has an antenna.

Squad are you able to add this in to the career mode for higher difficulty levels please?

[Joe Calton]

2 hours ago, IanCanberra said:

I found that the setting "Enable Commsnet" is in the Basic setting section --> Middle column --> bottom.

What I do not understand is why you are not able to "build" it once you start deploying relay satellites.

Would be a good upgrade building to go with the tracking center. Once the center is at say level 2 you can then start to build the Commsnet center that allows visualization of the signals to each space object that has an antenna.

Squad are you able to add this in to the career mode for higher difficulty levels please?

Ian - I found that uninstalling 1.7 and reinstalling 1.6.1 fixed the problem and restored a lot of work that I had lost when I upgraded.  I play exclusively in the sandbox mode and I have quite a few ckan mods.  I now have ScanSats with J2X antennas in polar orbits around every body in the system.  My CommNet links are now bright and light up the whole system.  Very robust.  But the experience kind of makes me want to stick with 1.6.1 forever and forget about any future upgrades.  I lost entire fleets of ships because the mods I used to build them weren't compatible with 1.7.  It was a lot of work to rebuild.  Are upgrades always like this?