[ 1.12.x] Everoth star cluster V1.2 [Currently just the Estrela Dobre system!]

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

On 2/5/2021 at 11:38 AM, DunaManiac said:

Looks like this has a lot of potential so far, I particularly like Avon and Xaxt, but I have a few suggestions:

In case you're on Windows or Linux, I recommend using Gaseous-Giganticus for making gas giant textures. If you're not, one thing that would go a long way would be to get rid of the specularity (the white spot facing the sun) on the gas giant. The specularity makes it look more like a glass marble than an actual gas giant, which I had several problems with when doing my own planet pack.

Secondly, Correlate looks strange to me. I don't know if it has oceans, but if it does it's oceans look more like flat rock than an ocean. If you have an ocean, you should have the ocean as a separate map, with transparency for land. You should put that map in ScaledVersion, and the regular map for the land in the VertexColorMap section of PQS. Doing so causes specularity to only be on the ocean and ignore the land, making the oceans look more like oceans rather than flat rock. The color palette of Correlate also doesn't agree with me. As a general rule, vibrant colors always look bad on planets, so I think you should cut saturation in half and readjust the color palette to make it look a little better.

Third, Paxt looks to me what's called a "noiseball." A noiseball is a planet where it's only terrain is rolling hills. I have made a few of those, if you want to see them look at the older versions of the planets in my Japris Stellar Neighborhood. Now they all look much better, of course. Adding craters to Paxt's heightmap would go a long, long way in making the moon nicer.  OystD also suffers from this problem.

Finally, it looks like your gas giants need a normal map. Simply make a normal map using any normal map plugin out of a grayscaled version of your texture, and save that as your normal map in your config.

Also, is adding alien structures floating in the atmosphere possible? It is possible to add easter eggs, but I don't know if it's possible to add one floating in the atmosphere. Even if you did add one, it would be exceedingly hard to pinpoint one of these, assuming your alien structure is 1 km in size, and your planet is 8,000 km in radius, then the surface area of your planet would be 8.04*10^8 km, or your alien structure would take up 1/804000000  of your planet's surface area. I'm going to assume here because I don't know the maximum distance an easter egg is visible, but let's put that at 100 km.  The volume of a sphere with a radius of 100 km is 4.9*10^6 km, or 4190000 km. This sphere is roughly 0.5% of the planet's surface area. So that means that at any given time, you will be able to just barely see one of these 0.5% of the time, if , there are 10, that adds up to a poultry 5% of the time picking at random you will end up in at least one of these spheres. It is possible to randomly find these but the fact that most people just drop probes in the gas giant and do nothing else it's unlikely anyone will find it without seriously searching. What compounds the problem is that there is no easy way to go searching, especially since there is no surface to refuel at and no oxygenated atmosphere.

I have investigated stuff,  and realized that no, adding alien structures floating without a pqs node is impossible as PQScity nodes are part of the PQS nodes and the game dislikes using pqs on a jool template. But I did decide to plan on adding crashed stations on Collait and Culair (their surfaces are visible through their clouds), marked by question marks in kerbnet

[Nazalassa]

On 2/5/2021 at 5:38 PM, DunaManiac said:

Also, is adding alien structures floating in the atmosphere possible? It is possible to add easter eggs, but I don't know if it's possible to add one floating in the atmosphere. Even if you did add one, it would be exceedingly hard to pinpoint one of these, assuming your alien structure is 1 km in size, and your planet is 8,000 km in radius, then the surface area of your planet would be 8.04*10^8 km, or your alien structure would take up 1/804000000  of your planet's surface area. I'm going to assume here because I don't know the maximum distance an easter egg is visible, but let's put that at 100 km.  The volume of a sphere with a radius of 100 km is 4.9*10^6 km, or 4190000 km. This sphere is roughly 0.5% of the planet's surface area. So that means that at any given time, you will be able to just barely see one of these 0.5% of the time, if , there are 10, that adds up to a poultry 5% of the time picking at random you will end up in at least one of these spheres. It is possible to randomly find these but the fact that most people just drop probes in the gas giant and do nothing else it's unlikely anyone will find it without seriously searching. What compounds the problem is that there is no easy way to go searching, especially since there is no surface to refuel at and no oxygenated atmosphere.

I guess KerbNet puts '?'s where there are anomalies so... Now the players just have to scan for anomalies on a gas giant.

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

56 minutes ago, Nazalassa said:

I guess KerbNet puts '?'s where there are anomalies so... Now the players just have to scan for anomalies on a gas giant.

yep! that is what a PQScity does, its the location of the '?'s. I think finding unique anomalies using kerbnet on Temporalis and Coralos would make people want to search for them elsewhere. But also the surface showing through clouds on Collait and Culair would make people want to scan it i think

[Nazalassa]

Maybe I can try to find (or model but I'm not very good at it) anomalies? If I do a model it'll be a blender file though.

Maybe some ruins or something

[Nazalassa]

Just tested for the launch sites: I have Woomerang, the Dessert complex and the KSC.

Woomerang and the KSC are OK.

The Dessert complex however, has three issues:

1. It's not in the desert.
2. It has this big hole, just below the runway.
3. It's surrounded by a circle, 1 km in radius or so, of perfectly level groung, that seems very weird.

Other than that it's fine. I couldn't find the Island Airfield.

 

For easter eggs, I wonder... can you "carve" something into the terrain, like a sinkhole or something?

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

27 minutes ago, Nazalassa said:

Maybe I can try to find (or model but I'm not very good at it) anomalies? If I do a model it'll be a blender file though.

Maybe some ruins or something

sure! you can help with the modeling of the anomalies!
So like.. on Avon, its essentially a huge cave system that is like.. a few levels, a km or so across, its basically a potato shaped boulder that is like swiss cheese.
On Paxt.. hm wait should I do dms instead?

2 minutes ago, Nazalassa said:

Just tested for the launch sites: I have Woomerang, the Dessert complex and the KSC.

Woomerang and the KSC are OK.

The Dessert complex however, has three issues:

1. It's not in the desert.
2. It has this big hole, just below the runway.
3. It's surrounded by a circle, 1 km in radius or so, of perfectly level groung, that seems very weird.

Other than that it's fine. I couldn't find the Island Airfield.

odd... were you able to find the other launch locations? there are several more.. like pirate cove and other stuff

also the circle that is 1km in radius is a pqsmod that is linked to the desert complex that levels the ground.. idk about the hole tho. There are three deserts on Temporalis, near the ice cap, but its more of savannah like locations, just warmer and drier, not full on desert

[Nazalassa]

2 minutes ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

odd... were you able to find the other launch locations? there are several more.. like pirate cove and other stuff

also the circle that is 1km in radius is a pqsmod that is linked to the desert complex that levels the ground.. idk about the hole tho. There are three deserts on Temporalis, near the ice cap, but its more of savannah like locations, just warmer and drier, not full on desert

Actually, I have the "enable other launchsites" option enable (I think it comes with MH)

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Just now, Nazalassa said:

Actually, I have the "enable other launchsites" option enable (I think it comes with MH)

iirc "enable other launchsites' option is stock

[Nazalassa]

I'm trying the surface of the gas giants to see if it's possible to land on them (I think it is, but it's just to be sure).

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Just now, Nazalassa said:

I'm trying the surface of the gas giants to see if it's possible to land on them (I think it is, but it's just to be sure).

Which one are you trying to land on?
Also Oyst just doesnt have a surface as it is not dense enough imo

Tho I MIGHT add a surface that is offset pretty far down and is a global ocean just so it isnt like.. weird bottomless pit but it is still pretty bottomless oceans

[Nazalassa]

Culair's surface looks like Laythe or something, I was expecting a plain surface!

The biome is "Sagan Sea" and I can nearly see the surface from orbit! Perhaps a plain surface would be better

Turns out every gas giant has the surface (and biomes!) of Laythe.

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

1 hour ago, Nazalassa said:

Culair's surface looks like Laythe or something, I was expecting a plain surface!

The biome is "Sagan Sea" and I can nearly see the surface from orbit! Perhaps a plain surface would be better

Turns out every gas giant has the surface (and biomes!) of Laythe.

Yea.. I havent done the biomes yet as I dont know what the biomes should be called, or what the terrain should look like lol

what do you mean by a plain surface? like.. just ocean only with terrain just below?

[Nazalassa]

4 minutes ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

Yea.. I havent done the biomes yet as I dont know what the biomes should be called, or what the terrain should look like lol

what do you mean by a plain surface? like.. just ocean only with terrain just below?

Like a green/blue-like sphere ASL or something, with variations in height and hue so that it doesn't get too repetitive.

Have been fighting with Blender for two hours to apply Temporalis' heightmap to a sphere, I give up :)
I'll just apply the texture on it so that I can see where it would be cool to put textures.

[Nazalassa]

Finally it's finished: now I can get views of any planet!

I think there should be plenty of ruins scattered around the river system at the center of the screen, let's say there has been a civilization that built cities and launch complexes and stuff...
 

Here's a view of the southern hemisphere.
 

Yes, I know, the colors are a bit off, I used the image for the ground color (the yellow-ish thing is water). I could have used the biome map ,but then the rest of the planet would look weird.

(quick addendum: the river system is in the northern hemisphere)

Edited March 6 by Nazalassa

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

 

4 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

Finally it's finished: now I can get views of any planet!

I think there should be plenty of ruins scattered around the river system at the center of the screen, let's say there has been a civilization that built cities and launch complexes and stuff...
 

 

Yes, I know, the colors are a bit off, I used the image for the ground color (the yellow-ish thing is water). I could have used the biome map ,but then the rest of the planet would look weird.

 

you could have used the Temporalis_Color.png, which is the scaledspace color that has the oceans n stuff. Be sure to set the alpha to max for the whole image as kittopia sets land alpha to 0

Also Culair's color file is named "GasGiantTwoB", which was from before I came up with their names

Also, I did make a blender scale model with every planet and moon in the system (Except for Xaxt, Neptheis, Basa, and Altic as those are tiny and irregular and idk how to do irregular deformity in blender)

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

9 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

Finally it's finished: now I can get views of any planet!

I think there should be plenty of ruins scattered around the river system at the center of the screen, let's say there has been a civilization that built cities and launch complexes and stuff...
 

Here's a view of the southern hemisphere.
 

Yes, I know, the colors are a bit off, I used the image for the ground color (the yellow-ish thing is water). I could have used the biome map ,but then the rest of the planet would look weird.

(quick addendum: the river system is in the northern hemisphere)

I added a system map and stuff.. want the blender file for the comparison?

[Nazalassa]

13 hours ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

I added a system map and stuff.. want the blender file for the comparison?

Yeah why not?

18 hours ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

you could have used the Temporalis_Color.png

Oh yes, I haven't realized it existed

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

12 minutes ago, Nazalassa said:

 

Oh yes, I haven't realized it existed

Its right next to the Temporalis_Terrain_Color.png lol..
Anyways..  ima dm you the link to the model on github

[Nazalassa]

I guess we can continue the discussion in the PM ;)

(that way if we talk about easter eggs it won't spoil anything)

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Should I reduce the inclination difference between Temporalis and the rest of the system from 7 degrees to about 2 in the next update? as with some career playthroughs I have had a few weeks ago, I have noticed it is pretty... frustrating to get to Collait and Culair due to the inclination, and despite it being a trojan world, there is about one transfer window a year. ALTHOUGH the binary gas giants are a perfect oppourtunity for some crazy gravity assists and might easily result in being yeeted to any other planet in the with little to no transfer window needed... Tho it is quite.. difficult to get it all lined up n stuff.. maybe I should make the system more fun by having Temporalis orbit 2 degrees off the system plane instead.

[Nazalassa]

36 minutes ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

Should I reduce the inclination difference between Temporalis and the rest of the system from 7 degrees to about 2 in the next update? as with some career playthroughs I have had a few weeks ago, I have noticed it is pretty... frustrating to get to Collait and Culair due to the inclination, and despite it being a trojan world, there is about one transfer window a year. ALTHOUGH the binary gas giants are a perfect oppourtunity for some crazy gravity assists and might easily result in being yeeted to any other planet in the with little to no transfer window needed... Tho it is quite.. difficult to get it all lined up n stuff.. maybe I should make the system more fun by having Temporalis orbit 2 degrees off the system plane instead.

Two degrees may be a bit, um, "not enough"; perhaps 3 or 4 degrees would work quite well.

(Im My Opinion)

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

5 minutes ago, Nazalassa said:

Two degrees may be a bit, um, "not enough"; perhaps 3 or 4 degrees would work quite well.

(Im My Opinion)

hmm I do kinda agree, as I looked in the ksp wiki and Eve's orbital inclination is 2.1 degrees relative to Kerbin's, which is 0 degrees...
yea 3-4 degrees is good I think

 

Although I am in college (and dont have access to my PC which is my only device that has ksp), I think I could just download the mod, tweak the inclination, add some sciencedefs, and upload that

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Ok I updated the mod!
-Temporalis orbital inclination relative to Collait-Culair (which is defined to be the plane of the system) to about 3 degrees from the original 7.
-Added a few sciencedefs
-Increased the SOI of the contact binary stars to appropriate levels
I did make this edit without using KSP, so I am unsure if a config error in the sciencedefs will break the mod.

[Sky Kerman]

6 hours ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

Ok I updated the mod!
-Temporalis orbital inclination relative to Collait-Culair (which is defined to be the plane of the system) to about 3 degrees from the original 7.
-Added a few sciencedefs
-Increased the SOI of the contact binary stars to appropriate levels
I did make this edit without using KSP, so I am unsure if a config error in the sciencedefs will break the mod.

Cool, should I update?

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

2 hours ago, Sky Kerman said:

Cool, should I update?

hm.. sure! I\let me know if it works fine or breaks. I dont know what incorrect syntax in a sciencedef does, in case I accidentally did an incorrect syntax there