kerbal ftl [Min KSP 1.12.2] Blueshift: Kerbal FTL

[Angelo Kerman]

16 hours ago, Ooglak Kerman said:

@Angel-125 I spent a bit of time yesterday driving in warp around Kerbol between the orbits of Eve and Kerbin with some of your super spiff Bussard Collectors.  In general, they indicate that there is nothing to harvest, but occasionally run into some graviolium.  There don't seem to be any bands to speak of - just random encounters.  Is this expected?  I looked at the resource definitions, but it wasn't clear.

I don't have any of the Nertea mods (near future, far future, etc), or spacedust, or any others that would affect graviolium concentrations.

So, the question is:  What is the expected dispersal in interplanetary space?

Thanks!

You'll find these under Blueshift/Resources/ResourceDefinitions.cfg:

// This is a global resource distribution for interplanetary space.
GLOBAL_INTERPLANETARY_DISTRIBUTION
{
	name = globalInterplanetaryGraviolium

	resourceName = Graviolium
	minAbundance = 0.00000001
	maxAbundance = 0.0000001
}

// This is a resource distribution for interplanetary space around a specific star.
INTERPLANETARY_DISTRIBUTION
{
	name = sunGraviolium

	starName = Sun
	resourceName = Graviolium
	minAbundance = 0.00000002
	maxAbundance = 0.0000002
}

 

[Angelo Kerman]

On 7/16/2022 at 7:40 PM, yoyotam3 said:

oh i just figured it out

 

didnt realise the gate also needed graviolium, thought only the traveler needed it

Yeah, the large jumpgates (the one that the kerbals can make as well as the space anomaly version) require the traveling vessel to pay the graviolium toll. The mini-jumpgate is set up so that the gate itself pays the toll. I did that because kerbals can use the mini-jumpgate while on EVA, and they don't carry graviolium. But since that's causing confusion, I've update Blueshift with the following changes:

- Hid deprecated parts from Community Category Kit.
- Fixed Effects issues on the mini jumpgate.
- If the graviolium toll is set to be paid by the jumpgate, and it can't be paid by the jumpgate, then the jumpgate will check to see if the traveler can pay the toll instead.

You can get the latest Blueshift release here.

[Rakete]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

Hid deprecated parts from Community Category Kit

What does this mean? Which parts are now deprecated?

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, Rakete said:

What does this mean? Which parts are now deprecated?

Parts that were deprecated won't show up in Community Category Kit's categories.

[Rakete]

13 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Parts that were deprecated won't show up in Community Category Kit's categories.

Have parts been deprecated lately? Or are only very old legacy parts in your mod meant?

[Ooglak Kerman]

On 7/26/2022 at 11:30 AM, Angel-125 said:

You'll find these under Blueshift/Resources/ResourceDefinitions.cfg:

// This is a global resource distribution for interplanetary space.
GLOBAL_INTERPLANETARY_DISTRIBUTION
{
	name = globalInterplanetaryGraviolium

	resourceName = Graviolium
	minAbundance = 0.00000001
	maxAbundance = 0.0000001
}

// This is a resource distribution for interplanetary space around a specific star.
INTERPLANETARY_DISTRIBUTION
{
	name = sunGraviolium

	starName = Sun
	resourceName = Graviolium
	minAbundance = 0.00000002
	maxAbundance = 0.0000002
}

 

Yeah.  I saw those settings, but based on them I would expect graviolium to be uniformly distributed around Kerbol.  In over an hour of driving around in warp, the Bussard Collectors only indicated twice (and briefly) that they were collecting particles.  I took note of the altitude from Kerbol thinking that it might be in bands - but no.

I'll keep playing with it.  I've done some back of the napkin numbers and a ship with enough collectors to keep up with usage would be pretty ludicrous.  Must build!

[Ooglak Kerman]

I'm recovering from knee replacement, so there will be a bit of a hiatus on the Adventures With Wild Blue posting - just in case anyone was wondering.

[modus]

Since when do you play KSP with your knees?

Totally kidding ofcourse, get well soon!

[SkyFall2489]

10 hours ago, modus said:

Since when do you play KSP with your knees?

 

Welp, that's going to become the next hardest challenge in the game. Harder than Moho. harder than Eve Sea Level. Harder than anything we have ever done before!

Edited August 2, 2022 by SkyFall2489

[Ooglak Kerman]

On 8/1/2022 at 10:19 PM, modus said:

Since when do you play KSP with your knees?

Totally kidding ofcourse, get well soon!

Heh.  Thanks.  Been a rough last couple of weeks and today is the first day I can sit for any time at my workstation.  An Eve landing is a cake walk in comparison so far.

[skygunner58203]

So, I'm loving the mod.  Still figuring it out as I go, but I had a question.  If I wanted to try to make custom nacelles and the like, what would I need?

[JadeOfMaar]

On 8/12/2022 at 12:17 AM, skygunner58203 said:

So, I'm loving the mod.  Still figuring it out as I go, but I had a question.  If I wanted to try to make custom nacelles and the like, what would I need?

Hi there. Firstly, you would need all the skills necessary for part making overall. Most of this is these two things:

1. To produce decent quality models. Before even thinking of textures the model needs to look clean and speak loudly all by itself.
2. To UV unwrap properly and efficiently so that less repetitive effort is needed to give detail to the textures and less canvas area is needed to hold everything. If your part has a lot of symmetry or repeating geometry then you can get away with unwrapping just 1/8 or 1/12 (or even less) of it then rebuilding the complete model with its updated UV data.

Secondly you would need sufficient understanding of part configs and MM patching so you can tune a part to behave as you expect and have extra features you see fit when you want them, such as a utility part that has flaps that pop open before it can do its job, or it's holding no resources but it clearly looks like it can hold some. It's one thing to configure a fuel tank. It's another to configure something complicated like a tiered resource converter like Blueshift's own integrated warp engines (3 parts in one).

[Angelo Kerman]

As I wind down on the DSEV Refit, I had a chance to reflect on Blueshift and its design goal of offering 3 different modes of FTL for players to choose from: warp drives, stargates, and jump engines. The idea being that the tech nodes are expensive, and players should choose between one of the three FTL methods. Currently, warp tech is done, stargate tech is done, and jump engines have been on hold, partly because of time constraints and partly because I haven't settled on a design that I like. The current iteration of jump engines essentially copies Battlestar Galactica, and is detailed here: https://github.com/Angel-125/Blueshift/issues/3. Last night though, I had a fit of inspiration on a unique way to create jump engines, and it is detailed here: https://github.com/Angel-125/Blueshift/issues/19. I am definitely leaning towards the new Whipcrack design paradigm as I haven't seen it done in KSP, it sheds the random die roll approach from the BSG-style engine, it creates a mini-game for the player, and it gives all three kerbal traits- pilot, engineer, and scientist- a way to contribute to Cracking the Whip (initiating the jump).

The other thing I'm looking at is adjusting the FTL tech nodes. With Community Tech Tree installed, they'll appear after Unified Field Theory (and require it). There will be 2 tiers of FTL tech nodes. Tier 1 will have Warp Technologies, Gate Technologies, and Jump Technologies. The current jumpgate parts will move to Gate Technologies, and the Whipcrack will take their place in Jump Technologies. Given how fleshed out Warp Technologies is, there won't be a Tier 2 node for it. The Tier 2 nodes would be Improved Gate Technologies- which would offer the miniature jumpgate, and Improved Jump Technologies, which would offer the Whipping Post module.

Anyway, I have some research to do on how to draw sinewaves in Unity, but once that's figured out I can build some prototypes. I'm hoping that the Whipcrack will help alleviate concerns about how long it takes to travel between stars via warp tech while offering a new way to travel FTL that still fits in the lore of Blueshift.

[SkyFall2489]

On 8/23/2022 at 1:12 PM, Angel-125 said:

As I wind down on the DSEV Refit, I had a chance to reflect on Blueshift and its design goal of offering 3 different modes of FTL for players to choose from: warp drives, stargates, and jump engines. The idea being that the tech nodes are expensive, and players should choose between one of the three FTL methods. Currently, warp tech is done, stargate tech is done, and jump engines have been on hold, partly because of time constraints and partly because I haven't settled on a design that I like. The current iteration of jump engines essentially copies Battlestar Galactica, and is detailed here: https://github.com/Angel-125/Blueshift/issues/3. Last night though, I had a fit of inspiration on a unique way to create jump engines, and it is detailed here: https://github.com/Angel-125/Blueshift/issues/19. I am definitely leaning towards the new Whipcrack design paradigm as I haven't seen it done in KSP, it sheds the random die roll approach from the BSG-style engine, it creates a mini-game for the player, and it gives all three kerbal traits- pilot, engineer, and scientist- a way to contribute to Cracking the Whip (initiating the jump).

The other thing I'm looking at is adjusting the FTL tech nodes. With Community Tech Tree installed, they'll appear after Unified Field Theory (and require it). There will be 2 tiers of FTL tech nodes. Tier 1 will have Warp Technologies, Gate Technologies, and Jump Technologies. The current jumpgate parts will move to Gate Technologies, and the Whipcrack will take their place in Jump Technologies. Given how fleshed out Warp Technologies is, there won't be a Tier 2 node for it. The Tier 2 nodes would be Improved Gate Technologies- which would offer the miniature jumpgate, and Improved Jump Technologies, which would offer the Whipping Post module.

Anyway, I have some research to do on how to draw sinewaves in Unity, but once that's figured out I can build some prototypes. I'm hoping that the Whipcrack will help alleviate concerns about how long it takes to travel between stars via warp tech while offering a new way to travel FTL that still fits in the lore of Blueshift.

Request for the Whipcrack effects:

Make it something like this. You don't have to actually change part colors, you can probably find a way to put a transparent-blue field around the whole vessel.

Warp begins at 0:14.

(yes, this is the space train I said i'd make a replica of. I have one, but it's not very good yet and I'll probably replace it's current warp drives with a jump drive when that releases)

 

EDIT:

Oh, and after looking through some older trailers from the game that that cutscene is from, turns out my model is also missing the many Soyuz-like boosters that are strapped to the side of the train. My next replica will have that.

Edited August 26, 2022 by SkyFall2489

[Rakete]

On 8/23/2022 at 10:12 PM, Angel-125 said:

the BSG-style

Yeah ! Greetings to Admiral Adama! 

[SkyFall2489]

On 8/23/2022 at 1:12 PM, Angel-125 said:

As I wind down on the DSEV Refit, I had a chance to reflect on Blueshift and its design goal of offering 3 different modes of FTL for players to choose from: warp drives, stargates, and jump engines. The idea being that the tech nodes are expensive, and players should choose between one of the three FTL methods. Currently, warp tech is done, stargate tech is done, and jump engines have been on hold, partly because of time constraints and partly because I haven't settled on a design that I like. The current iteration of jump engines essentially copies Battlestar Galactica, and is detailed here: https://github.com/Angel-125/Blueshift/issues/3. Last night though, I had a fit of inspiration on a unique way to create jump engines, and it is detailed here: https://github.com/Angel-125/Blueshift/issues/19. I am definitely leaning towards the new Whipcrack design paradigm as I haven't seen it done in KSP, it sheds the random die roll approach from the BSG-style engine, it creates a mini-game for the player, and it gives all three kerbal traits- pilot, engineer, and scientist- a way to contribute to Cracking the Whip (initiating the jump).

The other thing I'm looking at is adjusting the FTL tech nodes. With Community Tech Tree installed, they'll appear after Unified Field Theory (and require it). There will be 2 tiers of FTL tech nodes. Tier 1 will have Warp Technologies, Gate Technologies, and Jump Technologies. The current jumpgate parts will move to Gate Technologies, and the Whipcrack will take their place in Jump Technologies. Given how fleshed out Warp Technologies is, there won't be a Tier 2 node for it. The Tier 2 nodes would be Improved Gate Technologies- which would offer the miniature jumpgate, and Improved Jump Technologies, which would offer the Whipping Post module.

Anyway, I have some research to do on how to draw sinewaves in Unity, but once that's figured out I can build some prototypes. I'm hoping that the Whipcrack will help alleviate concerns about how long it takes to travel between stars via warp tech while offering a new way to travel FTL that still fits in the lore of Blueshift.

I just re-read the Whipcrack design post, and I noticed that it said the jump engine would be absolutely massive. Could we get a smaller, maybe jumbo-64 sized one? The big one would have nowhere to fit on my train, but a smaller 2.5m one could be used as the boiler.

EDIT: Oh, and would it be possible to include the auto circularization feature on jump engines too? 

Edited August 28, 2022 by SkyFall2489

[JadeOfMaar]

1 hour ago, SkyFall2489 said:

EDIT: Oh, and would it be possible to include the auto circularization feature on jump engines too? 

He already said no to this. It already adds a fair deal of easy mode to the warp drive and can be taken as a crutch that novice pilots lean on and spoil themselves with.

Quote

Cracking the Whip does NOT change the vessel’s velocity. There will be NO considerations made to change this.

The jump gates have this by default and players begged for it with the warp drive. Wouldn't having it in Whipcrack basically make all 3 FTL techs redundant? Whipcrack would boil down to warp without the road trip, which Angel specifically wants to avoid.

 

2 hours ago, SkyFall2489 said:

but a smaller 2.5m one could be used as the boiler

I'd like to entertain the idea of a 1.25m (not 2.5m) model accompanying the 3.75m. Its accuracy could be higher with less falloff over distance, but it would also have a very limited distance. You don't get to jump further than an equivalent of 2 parent planets with this one for example. This technically introduces and forces a ship design paradigm but so does any mod that introduces a serious gameplay change. Rather than try to build a "smaller" main jump ship, always build your larger ship to be a carrier vessel and have your lesser craft hold two or more 1.25m engines. Think "capital ships and their frigates."

For sublight propulsion and OMS you're going to want the anti-grav drive cones from KFS more than ever.

[SkyFall2489]

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

He already said no to this. It already adds a fair deal of easy mode to the warp drive and can be taken as a crutch that novice pilots lean on and spoil themselves with.

The jump gates have this by default and players begged for it with the warp drive. Wouldn't having it in Whipcrack basically make all 3 FTL techs redundant? Whipcrack would boil down to warp without the road trip, which Angel specifically wants to avoid.

 

I'd like to entertain the idea of a 1.25m (not 2.5m) model accompanying the 3.75m. Its accuracy could be higher with less falloff over distance, but it would also have a very limited distance. You don't get to jump further than an equivalent of 2 parent planets with this one for example. This technically introduces and forces a ship design paradigm but so does any mod that introduces a serious gameplay change. Rather than try to build a "smaller" main jump ship, always build your larger ship to be a carrier vessel and have your lesser craft hold two or more 1.25m engines. Think "capital ships and their frigates."

Ah well.

Tweakscale time then.

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

He already said no to this. It already adds a fair deal of easy mode to the warp drive and can be taken as a crutch that novice pilots lean on and spoil themselves with.

The jump gates have this by default and players begged for it with the warp drive. Wouldn't having it in Whipcrack basically make all 3 FTL techs redundant? Whipcrack would boil down to warp without the road trip, which Angel specifically wants to avoid.

 

I'd like to entertain the idea of a 1.25m (not 2.5m) model accompanying the 3.75m. Its accuracy could be higher with less falloff over distance, but it would also have a very limited distance. You don't get to jump further than an equivalent of 2 parent planets with this one for example. This technically introduces and forces a ship design paradigm but so does any mod that introduces a serious gameplay change. Rather than try to build a "smaller" main jump ship, always build your larger ship to be a carrier vessel and have your lesser craft hold two or more 1.25m engines. Think "capital ships and their frigates."

For sublight propulsion and OMS you're going to want the anti-grav drive cones from KFS more than ever.

Hm, an "in-system" Size 1 Whipcrack for interplanetary jumps? Maybe something that jumps a max of 1AU (the distance between Kerbin and Kerbol). That would get you to the inner planets pretty easily, but going outward will take a couple of jumps.

[JadeOfMaar]

15 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Hm, an "in-system" Size 1 Whipcrack for interplanetary jumps? Maybe something that jumps a max of 1AU (the distance between Kerbin and Kerbol). That would get you to the inner planets pretty easily, but going outward will take a couple of jumps.

Pretty much. Jumps could be perfect only when between a parent planet and its moons. But I wonder for players who might want to go between Jupiter and Saturn (5 AU, but assuming they're lined up). Or in extreme cases, 15 AU max (Jupiter to Saturn is apparently just 5 AU, assuming they're lined up).

(I'm not suggesting the jumps remain perfect beyond the moon-hopping scale. That's excessive.)

Edited August 28, 2022 by JadeOfMaar

[Angelo Kerman]

8 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Pretty much. Jumps could be perfect only when between a parent planet and its moons. But I wonder for players who might want to go between Jupiter and Saturn (5 AU, but assuming they're lined up). Or in extreme cases, 15 AU max (Jupiter to Saturn is apparently just 5 AU, assuming they're lined up).

(I'm not suggesting the jumps remain perfect beyond the moon-hopping scale. That's excessive.)

For longer jumps you'd have a couple of options: wait for your engine to cool down, or load up with multiple engines. A key difference between the Whipcrack and the BSG-style jump engine (again, I'm leaning towards making the Whipcrack instead of the BSG) is that when you initiate the jump, your ship moves forward a number of meters according to the distance that you set. You don't just magically end up in orbit around the target moon or target planet. You still have to use other methods of propulsion to speed up, slow down, and enter orbit around said planet or moon.

[SkyFall2489]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

load up with multiple engines.

Great idea! Adding more engines never caused any harm...

I think Whipcrack would be a good idea too. Could you maybe set up a forum poll or use Google Forms?

I think if we go for an S1, we could limit it to the diameter of Jool's SOI. Maybe we could also have a 1 AU 2.5m whipcrack, and finally the 3.75m super long range whipcrack.

Edited August 28, 2022 by SkyFall2489

[Angelo Kerman]

22 minutes ago, SkyFall2489 said:

Great idea! Adding more engines never caused any harm...

I think Whipcrack would be a good idea too. Could you maybe set up a forum poll or use Google Forms?

I think if we go for an S1, we could limit it to the diameter of Jool's SOI. Maybe we could also have a 1 AU 2.5m whipcrack, and finally the 3.75m super long range whipcrack.

My workload is very high with Buffalo 2, and my plan is to be completely done modding KSP 1 by end of the year at the latest. That means I have a limited time to add the Whipcrack into the game. As I did with warp tech and jumpgates, the plugin will handle a variety of different configurations, allowing others with more bandwidth to make custom parts that use the plugin if desired. Hence, I'm planning to add the 3.75m engine and maybe the 1.25m engine and that's it.

[JadeOfMaar]

12 minutes ago, SkyFall2489 said:

Maybe we could also have a 1 AU 2.5m whipcrack

Between [inside Jool's SOI] and full range, 1 AU is too small of an intermediate range as I suggested earlier. I'd look at 5 ~ 15 AU so you can at least hop between two gas planets when they are near each other. If your suggestion is purely from a "Gradual progression" standpoint then I gotta say I'm against it (as it may be trying to nudge Angel to provide more tech nodes, and that's not happening either). Since you need a 2.5m model, you could ask for a specialty mid-range drive that can go 50 AU at a time (a very capable drive but not interstellar).

[SkyFall2489]

On 8/28/2022 at 3:07 PM, JadeOfMaar said:

Between [inside Jool's SOI] and full range, 1 AU is too small of an intermediate range as I suggested earlier. I'd look at 5 ~ 15 AU so you can at least hop between two gas planets when they are near each other. If your suggestion is purely from a "Gradual progression" standpoint then I gotta say I'm against it (as it may be trying to nudge Angel to provide more tech nodes, and that's not happening either). Since you need a 2.5m model, you could ask for a specialty mid-range drive that can go 50 AU at a time (a very capable drive but not interstellar).

Yeah, that would probably work well. I could MM it in by scaling one model, and Angel would only need to model a 3.75m one. Maybe I could start my own “more jump engines for blueshift” mod.