[1.12.X] v0.9.1 "The Cervine System." Planet Jam 3: 40 Bodies Made by Friends

[Exo's Lab]

During the first waves of Interstellar Travel, some Kerbals were somewhat... stingier than others. The colonists of the good ship KSS Null Exception had ambition, setting out with no particular target system in mind, they sought to colonize the highest multi-stellar system possible. This didn't work out, they passed the six stars of the Mivel-Agranda System somewhere around three-thousand years ago, and out of frustration and a lot of internal arguments eventually decided to just take up residency in the first star system with more than two suns they could find. That's where they find themselves now, around the young blue-white star, Doe. In their desperation to settle someplace, they've ended up in a rather brutal system, hot off the heels of a local late-heavy bombardment, and some people are beginning to question if some of these stars are actually stars...

Welcome to Planet Jam 3!
Release has been, delayed quite a bit now, that's no secret. We wanted to have this out months ago, but life had other plans. For that I am sorry, but we're here now! Hopefully it will be worth the wait.

The Tuft System
After discussions with other members of the team, it was decided to go for a more "traditional" home planet this time around. Unlike Asite Par in WWPJ (which was small, heavily atmospheric, and had no moons) or Armstrong in PJ2 (which was large, lightly atmospheric, with a couple small moons), Tuft is very similar to Kerbin, only slightly harder, and has a proper system of decently large moons. Overall, this combined with system structure, makes Planet Jam 3 the most accessible pack of the trilogy. When starting out, playing Planet Jam 3 should feel very similar to playing in the stock system, at least until you start going interplanetary.

Tuft and its Moons, Whitetail is the leftmost, Roe is the largest, with Muntjac right beside it. The asteroid moon Pudu is too small to be seen. Tuft itself is a battered and volcanic world, the land is entirely forged of large impact craters.

The Cervine System is rather sparse looking from out here...
Going inwards from home, you will find Andor, a large and hot gas giant, but beyond Tuft you will find a great divide until you reach the innermost brown dwarf Mustooine, and Dantafar is further still. The intention is to use Andor for gravity assists to fling yourself to the outer stars, but in all honesty, the way it works out means the deltaV to reach the brown dwarfs is not that bad, very similar to Jool in stock, and breaking once you get out there is easy. Travel times will be a bit long though, similar to OPM.

Looks can be deceptive however, a closer look at Mustooine and Dantafar would reveal many, many worlds waiting to be explored!

 

Complete System Layout:

Spoiler

• Doe
  • Andor
    • Waive
    • Sutapasu
    • Uldella
  • Tuft
    • Roe
    • Whitetail
    • Pudu
    • Muntjac
• Mustooine
  • Omet
  • Oyst
  • Blast
  • Otto
  • Ember
  • Arida
    • Roffulo
  • Inda
  • Mun Kon Wawa and Mun Kon Tawa (Sometimes referred to as "The Air Moons")
    • Mun Telo Tawa Kiwen Lete
    • Mun Lupa Mute
    • Mun Lete Kon
  • Veladris
    • Peekon
    • Telvalon
• Dantafar
  • Skal
  • Indillio
  • Farnsworth
  • Antether
    • Rachess
    • Maaldach
    • Agho
    • Exakra Din
    • Vemeng
  • Syme
  • Harb
    • Rito

Planet Jam 3 DeltaV Map
Made by Sabine (AKA WarriorSabe)

Spoiler

Spoiler-Lite Astrophotos:

Spoiler

Andor and two of its moons imaged during sunrise. Waive is the large blue one, and Sutapasu is the small dot below it. Andor is known to glow around its poles.

Mustooine and its planets. The "Air Moons" and their shared rings are visible to the left. Arida, Inda, and Veladris appear as bright stars trailing to the right.

Dantafar and its companion Antether. Farnsworth and Indillo are the dim stars aligned next to Dantafar, Syme is the bright star below them. Antether appears very star-like, but recent mass estimations call its true nature into question. Antether itself has never been resolved in a telescope, only its glow and expansive rings.

In-Game Screenshots - Spoiler Warning:

Spoiler

 

 

Additional Content
Previous Planet Jams have come with their own custom alien skins for the Kerbals, with Parbles in WWPJ and a whole bunch of fun aliens in PJ2. Due to time constraints, we opted for something a little less technically intensive.

You'll find some custom flags and three new color variants of the "Vintage" space suit packaged with this mod. These draw inspiration from *another* race of aliens that are prone to crash landings.

Required Mods:

• Kopernicus v141 or later (and its prerequisites). https://github.com/Kopernicus/Kopernicus/releases/
• Niako's Mitchell-Netravali Filtered Heightmap: https://github.com/pkmniako/Kopernicus_VertexMitchellNetravaliHeightMap/releases
• Kopernicus Expansions Continued-er: https://github.com/VabienArt/KopernicusExpansion-Continueder/releases
• Scatterer: https://github.com/LGhassen/Scatterer/releases/
• Environmental Visual Enhancements Redux: https://github.com/LGhassen/EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements/releases/

Note: EVE and Scatterer are here for a handful of visual effects used across the system, and for the purposes of making multi-star lighting look good! I won't hunt you down if you go without them, but they really make a difference!

Download
*SpaceDock will only receive major updates and patches, GitHub is where you can find all of the latest changes, no matter how small.

SpaceDock* - https://spacedock.info/mod/3493/Planet Jam 3 - The Cervine System

GitHub - https://github.com/ExosLab/PJ3Assembled

Update v0.9.1:
 - Fixed Graphical Bug on Muntjac's Surface
 - Fixed Skal Display Name on SpaceDock Branch
 - Fixed Config Formatting to Work with KSPCommunityFixes
 - Added New Scatterer Config for Arida

Known Issues:
- Performance on Tuft can get weird sometimes, particularly in timewarp and when loading into the Space Center screen. Should be fine in-orbit.
- Sutapasu can throw a fit sometimes on certain versions of Kop and KopEx, please ensure Kopernicus and KopernicusExpansion are fully up to date in your install.
- Tuft's clouds are not great looking, this was my first attempt at making EVE clouds! Luckily, we have some new clouds for Tuft in the pipeline, courtesy of Techo.

- Planet Jam 3's stability on Linux Systems is unclear, Linux user experiences may vary

Credits:

• Wolf-Rayet/Exo's Lab: Project coordinator. System layout planner. Doe, Tuft, Roe, Whitetail, Pudu, Muntjac, Sutapasu, Uldella. Loading screens, logo, custom suits, flags.
• Cloverdove: Arida, Biomemap Contributions
• The Orios: Veladris, Inda
• Techo: Mun Kon Wawa, Mun Kon Tawa, Mun Telo Tawa Kiwen Lete, Mun Lupa Mute, Mun Lete Kon, Blast, Ember, Peekon, Telavon, Waive, Inda, Blasteroid Belt, Visual Mod Help
• Mh: Agho
• Interplanet Janet: Farnsworth
• Marshall (Myth): Part of Mustooine Team Planning
• Luna/Gregrox: Andor
• Tholin: Harb, Rito and procedural elements on Indillo and Syme
• Caps Lock: Indillo
• WarriorSabe/Sabine: Antether, Rachess, Maaldach, Exakra Din, Vemeng, Skal
• ElectricPants: Syme
• Minmus: Veladris, Telavon
• Hubb/Cass: Roffulo

Special Thanks to Adstri for the Mun Kon Wawa-Mun Kon Tawa System names, and Apollo for help on Sutapasu.
Special thanks to Funnelton, KAL_9000, and Levana as well for providing play testing and screenshots to use as loading screens.

License

Please provide attribution both to Planet Jam 3, and to the modder whose work you are using. If you do anything to change the mod, at least promise me it'll be cool, don't make it boring.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0.

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Exo's Lab
v0.9.1 Patch

[Clonos]

omgz first

[Leganeski]

Congratulations on the release! There are so many unique and interesting planets that I can't believe they all fit in one system.

Here is an (unofficial) table with all the delta-v information. (This may contain minor spoilers if you haven't yet looked at the physical parameters of all the bodies.)

Edited November 3, 2023 by Leganeski

[Exo's Lab]

First minor update, you can now find a DeltaV map made by our very own Sabine (@WarriorSabe) right here on the page!
Map Here (And Up There Too):

Spoiler

Thank you so much to Sabine for her work yesterday in updating this map for the release version,  navigating the system should be much easier now!

Edited November 4, 2023 by Exo's Lab
I haven't used the forums in awhile sorry

[LittleBitMore]

holy frick i Gotta try this. i might even make this a youtube stream series since i've been meaning to do another one of those and like, this is the perfect opportunity

[Exo's Lab]

First Patch - Version 0.9.1

v0.9.1 Release Download Here: https://github.com/ExosLab/PJ3Assembled/releases/tag/Patch

v0.9.1 SpaceDock Release Here: https://spacedock.info/mod/3493/Planet Jam 3 - The Cervine System

Update includes fixes for Skal's display name (issue on SpaceDock's branch), a visual bug on Muntjac, and most importantly fixes an incompatibility issue between Planet Jam 3 and the latest release of KSP Community Fixes!

This update also includes an update to the scatterer atmosphere for Clonos' world, Arida. Preview in the spoiler.

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/HiCMGr3

Edited November 6, 2023 by Exo's Lab
SpaceDock Link

[LittleBitMore]

I'm loving this planet pack so far! While playing in it, I had a really stupid idea for a shuttle, and the result is an Extremely Wackadoodle Bonkers:tm: launch vehicle, the Sliced Shuttle. It's a terrifying and horrendous and ugly little launch vehicle that somehow can deliver up to 18 tons to LTO (Low Tuft Orbit) assuming your payload fits a 2.5m diameter footprint. These constraints work well for Low Tuft Orbit stations or station modules, larger or longer-range interplanetary probes, clusters of smaller missions, space telescopes, refueling or crew delivery missions, or maybe manned missions within the Tuft system. It was a tricky build, since not only is Tuft slightly meaner than Kerbin, I also had Ferram Aerospace installed, which meant that this awful awful idea had to somehow be actually aerodynamically stable. I figured I might share it here since the PJ3 development team might want to know what sort of silly shenanigans the players are getting up to.

Here's a link to the showcase video of this shuttle launching a small station:

I've also started a YouTube stream series for this planet pack. Due to the fact this shuttle is actually pretty low tech (it's almost made out of caveman tech if not for a few parts), I should be able to start using this abhorrent shuttle in the series soon. Each launch and deorbit takes like 20 minutes though, which might make some missions unnecessarily long, so we'll have to see.

[Exo's Lab]

15 hours ago, LittleBitMore said:

I'm loving this planet pack so far! While playing in it, I had a really stupid idea for a shuttle, and the result is an Extremely Wackadoodle Bonkers:tm: launch vehicle, the Sliced Shuttle. It's a terrifying and horrendous and ugly little launch vehicle that somehow can deliver up to 18 tons to LTO (Low Tuft Orbit) assuming your payload fits a 2.5m diameter footprint. These constraints work well for Low Tuft Orbit stations or station modules, larger or longer-range interplanetary probes, clusters of smaller missions, space telescopes, refueling or crew delivery missions, or maybe manned missions within the Tuft system. It was a tricky build, since not only is Tuft slightly meaner than Kerbin, I also had Ferram Aerospace installed, which meant that this awful awful idea had to somehow be actually aerodynamically stable. I figured I might share it here since the PJ3 development team might want to know what sort of silly shenanigans the players are getting up to.

Here's a link to the showcase video of this shuttle launching a small station:

I've also started a YouTube stream series for this planet pack. Due to the fact this shuttle is actually pretty low tech (it's almost made out of caveman tech if not for a few parts), I should be able to start using this abhorrent shuttle in the series soon. Each launch and deorbit takes like 20 minutes though, which might make some missions unnecessarily long, so we'll have to see.

This is without a doubt one of the most horrifying shuttles I've ever seen in KSP, and this is coming from someone who thought they were doing a pretty good job at making cursed shuttles on their own time! I'm beyond thankful for you sharing this, seeing people play around in the pack and the vehicles they come up with is a joy like no other!

I speak on behalf of the entire team when I say thank you so much for playing our silly little mod!

[LittleBitMore]

Here are a few more silly creations (though significantly less silly than the Sliced Shuttle) which I've done so far during my career stream series:

 

Basalt 1 (a.k.a. The Pillar), a cylindrical science/scanning satellite in polar orbit of Roe, packed into an extremely silly looking payload bay to bring all the science experiments while satisfying Ferram Aerospace while also not having fairings unlocked

 

Basalt 2 (lower left) and Basalt 3 (center) rendezvousing with eachother in Low Tuft Orbit for a contract before splitting up:

Basalt 2 then flew by Roe, dropped off an atmospheric probe, and then returned a science capsule back to Tuft. Basalt 3 flew by Whitetail, had unexpected extra fuel, flew by Muntjac, had unexpected extra fuel, and then flew by Andor*

*(it predictably ran out of comms range immediately after leaving Tuft's SOI, but will fly by regardless in almost two years)

[Sky Kerman]

I cant seem to get the mod to work. I have all the dependencies installed, and the EVE clouds seem to show up, but It says it can't load the planetary system.

[Exo's Lab]

Apologies for the late reply, please ensure your copies of Kopernicus and KopernicusExpansion are fully up to date, on out of date copies of this mod the body Sutapasu has been known to cause the pack to fail during loading.