How can I start modding?

[Grassland]

I am a student. A serious student. Not so serious as a gamer. But... I’d like to do some serious programming, with this game, the only entertainment for me other than serious studying. With this, I’d like to do some modding, contributing to my and your experience with KSP. 

But I am not so good at programming. Want to learn it myself.

I want to start with two simple(?) mods that:

 

1. Variant Mass Effect. [Utility Mod]

What I want to do: change the mass of engines when switching between variants of bare or shroud. To put it another way, give engine shrouds mass. Optionally, give decoupler shrouds mass as well, based on its height and radius. (Like structural tubes and engine plates)

For example, to make the shrouded Terrier weigh 0.5t, the [whatever-is-in-between-I-forgot] one weigh 0.475t, and the bare one weigh 0.45t.

 

2. Rolling Reaction Wheels. [Utility Mod] Do not mention RO in front of me.

What I want to do: (all of them)

A. Limit reaction wheel torque to roll axis only.

B. Make all reaction wheels radially attachable. So that you can have 3-axis control of the spacecraft.

C. Make an in-game configurable torque limiter. This is because real wheels are weaker than KSP ones.

D. Make reaction wheels more delicate. A whole bunch of (unmanned) spacecrafts failed due to reaction wheel failure. 

To specify:

D1. Lower impact tolerance and max temp.

D2. (in-game configurable) Random reaction wheel failure.

E. Remove reaction wheels from all crewed pods. Why is there a wheel in the middle of the hatch...

( I think Scott Manley has got at least two videos featuring reaction-wheel-related things.)

 

I plan to start writing these mods a couple of weeks later, when I finish all my term-start tests. Also, I will make separate threads in the add-on dev sub forum when I truly get started.

 

 

BUT, What kind of programming/modeling/whatever techniques should I learn?

I want to acquire a brief to-do list from this forum, so that I can get started learning things on the internet elsewhere and then go on modding.

 

PS: Due to political restrictions I cannot access YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, whatever, and imgur and google drive, but I surly can access github and spacedock and many other sites I think modders use.

I suppose that I should learn how to write MM patches, as well as UI coding. Is that enough, may I ask?

Edited August 26, 2020 by Grassland

[Grassland]

Any suggestions?

[Xt007]

Almost all of what you're looking for can be accomplished with module manager patches.  I'd start there, note module manager patches are a "one and done" change.  They're effected on game load and never touched again.

[Grassland]

9 minutes ago, Xt007 said:

Almost all of what you're looking for can be accomplished with module manager patches.  I'd start there, note module manager patches are a "one and done" change.  They're effected on game load and never touched again.

So, I can first try to (learn to) write MM patches for the first mod I want to make.

And... a bit different for the 2nd, you may mean.

I just saw another thread saying that dll files are also loaded only once, or serious issues occur. Maybe I can find a way to let the mod write and read a cfg or some other file multiple times in-game... Perhaps...

 

OK, I’ll learn to write MM patches. I suppose it is considered legitimate to download some patches based on MM and Module Manager itself to get a clue of how patches are written.

 

Thanks @Xt007 !

Edited August 26, 2020 by Grassland

[hemeac]

11 hours ago, Grassland said:

So, I can first try to (learn to) write MM patches for the first mod I want to make.

And... a bit different for the 2nd, you may mean.

I just saw another thread saying that dll files are also loaded only once, or serious issues occur. Maybe I can find a way to let the mod write and read a cfg or some other file multiple times in-game... Perhaps...

 

OK, I’ll learn to write MM patches. I suppose it is considered legitimate to download some patches based on MM and Module Manager itself to get a clue of how patches are written.

 

Thanks @Xt007 !

Most mods have licensed their MM config files under a MIT license so that will be a good place to start, but do make sure to read the licensing requirements for each one first.

I believe that you should be able to accomplish #1 the easiest with MM scripting alongside the B9 Part Switch mod.

Some aspects of your reaction wheels idea will require programming knowledge above MM scripting, particularly the aspects that deal with failure as the game does not natively model reliability.  There are several mods that model part failure including OhScrap! (which is the one that I use), but there is also (BARIS) and I believe Kerbalism has a part failure component.  However, A, B,  D1, and E should all be able to done with just MM configs. 

 

[Grassland]

44 minutes ago, hemeac said:

Most mods have licensed their MM config files under a MIT license so that will be a good place to start, but do make sure to read the licensing requirements for each one first.

I believe that you should be able to accomplish #1 the easiest with MM scripting alongside the B9 Part Switch mod.

Some aspects of your reaction wheels idea will require programming knowledge above MM scripting, particularly the aspects that deal with failure as the game does not natively model reliability.  There are several mods that model part failure including OhScrap! (which is the one that I use), but there is also (BARIS) and I believe Kerbalism has a part failure component.  However, A, B,  D1, and E should all be able to done with just MM configs. 

 

Thanks for the help! I looked into MM wiki and its handbook at Github, and now I consider I should have started the #1 mod

now.

 

I can also start the #2 mod, but put something on the to-do list.

Or, I don't have an adequate time though.

Maybe I can finish #1 first.

 

Thanks @hemeac !