Quick mod to increase rebuild mass limit?

[dew111]

I have a craft nearing Dres. The original plan was for it to land and create fuel for a return trip. Unfortunately it is way too massive and the in-game delta V calculator was not showing what I thought it was. Anyway, I would like to be able to do some serious editing of the ship to save weight and reconfigure to still do a halfway decent mission. Otherwise this is either going to turn into a fly-by or maybe I keep them in orbit at Dres until I can mount a rescue mission

 

Is there a config file I can edit to allow my engineer to rebuild bigger/more massive parts?  Thanks

[BadOaks]

If you're not averse to cheats, you could rebuild the craft in the VAB. From the launchpad, ALT-F12 -> Cheats -> Set Orbit-> Rendezvous  and then rendezvous with your existing craft. Transfer the crew over, and then go into the tracking station to delete the old ship.

[dew111]

Yeah I guess that works. I could just use the parts the current craft has and pretend I did it lol. Increasing the weight limit is kind of a cheat anyway.

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, dew111 said:

Increasing the weight limit is kind of a cheat anyway.

I'd still (and also) like to know hiow. Orbital Construction is way too nerfed for my tastes.

[dew111]

Yeah I think it would be more fun to do it in flight.

[theJesuit]

@dew111 welcome to the Forums!  Ive wondered this myself... ill have a look at this tonight or tomorrow morning. 

Peace.

[Bej Kerman]

17 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

19 hours ago, dew111 said:

Increasing the weight limit is kind of a cheat anyway.

I'd still (and also) like to know hiow. Orbital Construction is way too nerfed for my tastes.

Bug in the game is preventing me from undocking my landers from a space station, unfortunately I can't break the connection manually because of 'part connections' or some silly arbitrary reason like that. Devs, why?

[dew111]

2 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Bug in the game is preventing me from undocking my landers from a space station, unfortunately I can't break the connection manually because of 'part connections' or some silly arbitrary reason like that. Devs, why?

Yeah I think it would be cool to be able to move around chunks. But I suspect that is a larger undertaking, as far as making a mod to allow it. I'm more looking for something to make it possible in the next day or two, even if it is tedious  

 

I also saw a bug in the game where two landed Mun bases that I had docked were still technically docked, even though the docking port broke off one of them and they were creeping across the surface separately. I ended up having to attach a docking port to an L-hinge because when I tried to place it on the body of the base, the whole thing would just blow up. That's gotta be a bug lol

 

I haven't used KAS. I started playing again around the time Some Reassembly Required was released, and I figured KAS might interfere or collide with the new game functionality. Does KAS allow for moving around subassemblies?

[peteletroll]

Moved to Add-on Discussions.

[theJesuit]

27 minutes ago, dew111 said:

That's gotta be a bug lol

Before I welcomed you to the Forums.  

This is more welcome to KSP.  Bugs are much fewer now than in yesteryear.

KAS might be what you are looking for.  

My thinking is adding much larger storage capability parts by MM patch and +PART the n stripping away whatever is in it and adding appropriate cargo storage.  Then patching more items that will fit.  I'm thnking of using the mk3 cargo bays as an example but remove the opening door.  Then patcjing all the 2.5m parts.

I think in kerbalEVA and the female equivalent that there is a mass linit that could be patched too.

 

 

[dew111]

1 hour ago, theJesuit said:

I think in kerbalEVA and the female equivalent that there is a mass linit that could be patched too.

I am not very familiar with modding this game. Is this something I can change in a config file? Could you point me to those files if you can?

[OHara]

With Module-Manager the text 

@PHYSICSGLOBALS { %constructionWeightLimit = 1200 }

in a *.cfg file placed in the directory /GameData/ will change that limit, or you can change the corresponding line in the file Physics.cfg directly.  This weight limit is in units of Newtons --- the default is 588 N = 60kg × 9.8m/s² to correspond to the weight of a 60kg part in Kerbin's gravity (a.k.a. "60 kilogram-force" )

 

One other related parameter is "EVA_CONSTRUCTION_RANGE = 7" in the file settings.cfg.  Increasing it to the length of your longest craft helps by making the attachment nodes available, when you do EVA construction to move  node-attached parts, as opposed to the ones that attach to any surface. 

The construction range also changes the 7-meter reach of a Kerbal doing EVA construction.  You don't really have to increase that, though, if you are willing to move around with the Kerbal RCS-pack.  The Kerbal has to drop the part in order to operate RCS and then quickly grab it again, so it requires some practice, somewhat like dribbling a soccer football.

There is a bug report arguing that it makes no sense to have the EVA_CONSTRUCTION_RANGE determine which attachment nodes appear.

[JadeOfMaar]

4 hours ago, dew111 said:

Yeah I think it would be cool to be able to move around chunks. But I suspect that is a larger undertaking, as far as making a mod to allow it. I'm more looking for something to make it possible in the next day or two, even if it is tedious  

Actually, you can increase a kerbal's weight lifting limit (and hopefully his reach for faraway parts) in KIS, and KIS allows you to break off and move chunks of a ship already, so what you're looking for can already be done, so you don't need to wait on Squad. If you have multiple engineers on the ship you can be liberal and pretend that they're all helping out, and raise your limits by a lot.

Self-discipline with "cheaty" game features is more important to me than whether a thing is inherently cheaty.

@OHara oooooh. you can change lift strength and range in stock too! Sweet.

[dew111]

5 hours ago, OHara said:

With Module-Manager the text 

@PHYSICSGLOBALS { %constructionWeightLimit = 1200 }

in a *.cfg file placed in the directory /GameData/ will change that limit, or you can change the corresponding line in the file Physics.cfg directly.  This weight limit is in units of Newtons --- the default is 588 N = 60kg × 9.8m/s² to correspond to the weight of a 60kg part in Kerbin's gravity (a.k.a. "60 kilogram-force" )

Hmmm. The construction range works, which makes things more convenient for sure. But I don't see a difference from increasing the weight limit.

Edited January 28, 2021 by dew111
typo

[theJesuit]

15 minutes ago, dew111 said:

Hmmm. The construction range works, which makes things more convenient for sure. But I don't see a difference from increasing the weight limit.

I'm not sure if mass is conserved with this.  An ant trying to move a 5 kilo bag of sugar would struggle on its own, and in space would likely find that momentum the issue.

[OHara]

10 hours ago, dew111 said:

But I don't see a difference from increasing the weight limit.

Well, I checked that my typing was correct, but there are several other things that could go wrong.  The mode ModuleManager.4.1.4.dll needs to be in GameData and see the *.cfg file and read it; that's where you have to read the log files to look for errors.  Editing Physics.cfg directly is simpler, but you can still make a typo, and it only lasts until you reinstall a new KSP.

The number I suggested, 1200N, would be the weight of 122kg on Kerbin, or of 1 tonne on Dres.  That's more than my arms can lift, but you might want to make your Kerbals stronger.

Edited January 28, 2021 by OHara
That 1 t on Dres is a bit less than a full FL-T200 fuel tank, but that tank 3/4 full would be lift-able.

[dew111]

Editing the game constants alone won't allow me to move the larger pieces. So I downloaded KIS and edited its constants to increase reach and weight limit. KIS is allowing me to move larger pieces.

[OHara]

I might have completely misunderstood the OP.  I thought the question was about the message "exceeds the weight that a Kerbal can construct with in this gravity."

Even in space with zero gravity, Kerbals can move only some of the larger parts.   The other large parts simply fail to respond if you try to move them in EVA construction.

The module-manager patch below (link to explanation) puts every part on the list that Kerbal engineers can  move around on EVA construction in space.   Moving crewed parts is dangerous, though, because you can lose any Kerbals inside.

Spoiler

@PART:NEEDS[Squad/Parts/Cargo]:HAS[!MODULE[ModuleCargoPart],@MODULE[ModuleInventoryPart]] {
  MODULE,0 { // insert before ModuleInventoryPart
    name = ModuleCargoPart
    packedVolume = -3
  }
}
@PART:NEEDS[Squad/Parts/Cargo]:HAS[!MODULE[ModuleCargoPart],!MODULE[KerbalEVA]] {
  MODULE { // insert at end
    name = ModuleCargoPart
    packedVolume = -2
  }
}

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by OHara
add link

[dew111]

17 hours ago, OHara said:

I might have completely misunderstood the OP.  I thought the question was about the message "exceeds the weight that a Kerbal can construct with in this gravity."

Even in space with zero gravity, Kerbals can move only some of the larger parts.   The other large parts simply fail to respond if you try to move them in EVA construction.

The module-manager patch below (link to explanation) puts every part on the list that Kerbal engineers can  move around on EVA construction in space.   Moving crewed parts is dangerous, though, because you can lose any Kerbals inside.

  Reveal hidden contents

@PART:NEEDS[Squad/Parts/Cargo]:HAS[!MODULE[ModuleCargoPart],@MODULE[ModuleInventoryPart]] {
  MODULE,0 { // insert before ModuleInventoryPart
    name = ModuleCargoPart
    packedVolume = -3
  }
}
@PART:NEEDS[Squad/Parts/Cargo]:HAS[!MODULE[ModuleCargoPart],!MODULE[KerbalEVA]] {
  MODULE { // insert at end
    name = ModuleCargoPart
    packedVolume = -2
  }
}

 

Thanks. This works