Craft File Editing: Back In Time

[Hotel26]

Overview: A fresh Sandbox world was created; Commnet activated; nine (9) expeditionary missions dispatched to a selection of bodies ranging from Moho out to Eeloo; creating a total of seventy (70) assets far out into a (highly-warped) future.

Objective: Splice the 70 assets (relays & surveyors) into a) a Lab world (with Commnet) and b) an Orbit world (with Commnet) to provide both worlds with full relay capability, end-to-end.

Problem: A small sample of assets shows they operate and are controllable in the Lab world but not in the Orbit world.  Specifically, an M700 Surveyor, equipped with battery and OKTO is able to Toggle Overlay on demand in both worlds, but [T] will not activate SAS in the Orbit world.  The Orbit world is showing Full Probe Control and 96% Signal Strength relayed to Kerbin.  It is expected to work.

Insight: current UT in the Lab world (which is a highly-warped system) may be in advance of the original, fresh world in which the missions were run.  By comparison, the Orbit world UT has only advanced to Y3, D304.  The spliced craft are finding themselves suddenly in the Far Antiquity.

Comments: I suspect this problem is related to splicing craft far back in time.  One effect of inter-world splicing I expect and have verified/confirmed is that the EPH (epoch) orbital parameter for the craft in question will get set to a near-current value (with a concomitant shift in orbital position for the craft) and that lastUT will also be updated sensibly.  There should be no problem there.  Crew members were removed in the operation.  Science commentary, for example, has also been omitted.  Only the VESSEL object itself in the craft file was beamed across.  I am unable as yet to identify any specific failure related to the time-shift.  The problem may be something else, e.g. difference in how the three worlds are configured?

I will get to the bottom of this, I hope, but if anyone meanwhile is able to offer some clues or insights, I would be deeply appreciative.  (And, yes, I do know this is a self-inflicted wound.  In the name of Mad Science, you see...)

Edited September 29, 2021 by Hotel26

[Hotel26]

About the OP, the mission is not being counted a failure at this time.

Each targeted body (9) has received:

1. 3x pBeep RA-2 polar relays
2. 3x eBeep RA-2 equatorial relays
3. 1x RA-100 'Meerkat' relay, polar elliptic
4. 1x M-700 Surveyor, polar

(with a couple of exceptions).

All of the Commnet relays are operational with no further need for maneuvering.  The M-700 Surveyors are able to Toggle Overlay (requirement).  They do not need to maneuver.  An Orbital Survey is to be re-performed in the new world (oversight), but my new Tardis ship is able to beam out (we are doing time-travel here, after all, folks) and dock to perform rectification.

A number of those worlds have Scout Prospectors (M-4435 Surface Scanner equipped) which were expected to perform bonus missions and those are, sadly, unserviceable, although also considered dispensable.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Hotel26

[Mythos]

I think you are talking about save / persistence files here, not about craft files.

If you talk about making a split, you probably just did an exact copy of your save? And then maybe deleted some vessels in one or the other version?

[Hotel26]

I can now report some success.

The shot below shows a Scout Prospector in the foreground that I have now been able to revive.

I deployed a Scout Mk2 expedition to LKO and stripped it down to just a similar Prospector component.  Extracted that VESSEL from the save file.  Diffed it with the broken one.

First interesting difference was 'ctrl = False' in the broken one, which was 'ctrl = True' for the operational one.  I don't know how it got that way, but possibly a ramification of the Time Travel.

Yet to confirm that this is the case, the only case, for all of the rest of the 70, but I'm happy for the moment.  If there's more to report, I'll post again here.

21 minutes ago, Mythos said:

I think you are talking about save / persistence files here, not about craft files.

You are correct; my error.

The fresh save file contained all the assets contiguously, as I expected.  (There were Space Objects in there, but not interspersed.)  I selected those 70 in one slab and wrote them into an assets file.  Those contents were then simply inserted into the Lab and Orbit save files at the end of the FLIGHTSTATE section for VESSELS.  Copy-and-paste from one save file to two other save files.

Just another day in the Operating Room -- until you slip with the scalpel and nick an aorta...

Edited September 29, 2021 by Hotel26

[Mythos]

1 hour ago, Hotel26 said:

Those contents were then simply inserted into the Lab and Orbit save files at the end of the FLIGHTSTATE section for VESSELS.  Copy-and-paste from one save file to two other save files.

The only reason I can think of, why this might not work, is crew. But I think you excluded that by using probes only. And then no reason comes to my mind, why this shouldn't work.

[Hotel26]

22 minutes ago, Mythos said:

no reason ... why this shouldn't work.

Right.  The Prospector had crew but the crew lines were deleted.  The M700 Surveyor, for another example, was only a probe.  Neither worked.

I thought I had restart because the engines responded, but still no SAS.  So, no cigar.

What I've done instead is thrown in the towel and simply moved a replacement vehicle into position a few meters away.  Now transferring crew and refueling from the ORB miner (pictured above).  I'll destroy the dud and then Carry On Dauntless, as we say in the Space Force.

(I do have to check it wasn't something to do with GUIDs somehow...)

Edited September 29, 2021 by Hotel26