[1.12.x] [Planet Pack] Outer Planets Expansion (OPX)

[The Minmus Derp]

  On 3/31/2025 at 11:54 AM, IntellectualTortoise said:

Hey, I'm currently playing OPM+MPE and came across this modpack. I agree that the OPM gas giants could use additional moons to make them more realistic and I really like the looks of some of the new bodies in these mods. I even downloaded InnerWorlds just to check it out and it looks great! Can't wait to explore all of those small asteroids.

I'm a bit on the fence about installing JoolPlus, SarnusPlus, etc. because of the changes they make to the stock or default OPM layout of the systems. Is it possible to disable these changes somehow so that only the entirely new bodies are added? Please don't take this as criticism - I appreciate the thought and effort behind making these changes and I'm just curious if there's a way to do this. 

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JoolPlus' only non-toggleable changes (outside the planet's texture) are moving the moons outwards so they aren't torn apart by where they are now. The new sizes can be turned off if you so desire. NeidonPlus changes nothing whatsoever about the layout except the planet's mass, so it isn't made of styrofoam. UrlumPlus comes with more stable and distant orbits alongside a higher mass, but the order is unchanged and all orbits are moved by roughly the same ratio. The Wal remaster is toggleable also.

SarnusPlus changes the most, so I might put some work into creating a toggle for that one. But other than that there's very little that isn't toggleable and actually substantially changes the game. Does that answer your question?

  On 3/31/2025 at 12:35 PM, arbsoup said:

It's possible to edit configs to place original bodies in the new orbits; for these, you just keep the Orbit{} section of the .cfg and use % to target existing fields. For example, here's one that moves old OPM Ovok to OPX's position for it:
Snippy snip snip

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I could probably implement this as another settings toggle. I'm not sure why I included one for all the OPX moon revamps except this one.

 

  On 3/31/2025 at 7:27 PM, arbsoup said:

There's no dV map for OPX, no.

Most of these bodies are very small, so gravity losses will be tiny, and have no atmospheres, so there's no drag and no need for a steep ascent profile. You can get a crude estimate of dV to orbit an object by reading off your orbital velocity in very low orbit, then adding 10-20% to account for gravity and steering loss on the way up, plus a bit more on the way down for braking inefficiency. (It's more like 40% margin on a large atmospheric planet like Kerbin.)

Neglecting the body's rotation speed, you can calculate (sea-level) orbital velocity from the given surface gravity and radius in the Tracking Station: v = sqrt(surface gravity in gees * 9.8 m/s^2 * radius in meters). Then just add a tiny bit of margin.

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Failing that, the Astrogator or alexmoon's Transfer Window Planner mod would be helpful for such.

 

EDIT to avoid doubleposting: I am currently working on some updates to Sarnus and UrlumPlus, including a remastered Hale with more interesting terrain, a working Ovok toggle, and a mysterious new object near Urlum. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:52 PM by The Minmus Derp
update

[IntellectualTortoise]

  On 4/1/2025 at 2:01 AM, The Minmus Derp said:

JoolPlus' only non-toggleable changes (outside the planet's texture) are moving the moons outwards so they aren't torn apart by where they are now. The new sizes can be turned off if you so desire. NeidonPlus changes nothing whatsoever about the layout except the planet's mass, so it isn't made of styrofoam. UrlumPlus comes with more stable and distant orbits alongside a higher mass, but the order is unchanged and all orbits are moved by roughly the same ratio. The Wal remaster is toggleable also.

SarnusPlus changes the most, so I might put some work into creating a toggle for that one. But other than that there's very little that isn't toggleable and actually substantially changes the game. Does that answer your question?

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Thanks for the info, good to know what can and can't be toggled.  As I said in my last post in this thread, I'll stick to just OPM+MPE+InnerWorlds for now since I have plenty to explore in my game between the stock system and these mods.

In other news, I built a simple probe to familiarize myself with some of the Near Future Propulsion parts, and ended up flying it out to Doppler just for fun. I also landed it on Dyva but forgot to take a screenshot  Not really a legit mission since I Alt-F12'd it into LKO, but still a fun exercise in reaching and landing on these small bodies. Thanks for making it possible!

(Also Dyva's terrain seemed a bit glitchy, with "cracks" as seems common on most small bodies in KSP. Not sure if anything can really be done about it but just wanted to make sure you were aware)

Edited Tuesday at 08:58 PM by IntellectualTortoise

[The Minmus Derp]

  On 4/1/2025 at 8:56 PM, IntellectualTortoise said:

(Also Dyva's terrain seemed a bit glitchy, with "cracks" as seems common on most small bodies in KSP. Not sure if anything can really be done about it but just wanted to make sure you were aware)

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If I knew how to fix that I'd be famous across the game's community. I don't think even Stock knows how to avoid it, happens to me on Gilly sometimes. Nice work with the Doppler mission, though! There are a couple more mods in the works that add more such minor bodies if you're interested, for various comets and the Kuiper Belt. 

[IntellectualTortoise]

  On 4/1/2025 at 9:02 PM, The Minmus Derp said:

If I knew how to fix that I'd be famous across the game's community. I don't think even Stock knows how to avoid it, happens to me on Gilly sometimes. Nice work with the Doppler mission, though! There are a couple more mods in the works that add more such minor bodies if you're interested, for various comets and the Kuiper Belt. 

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About the terrain, I figured it wasn't something unique to this mod, or planet mods in general. Good luck with the comet and Kuiper Belt mods!

Also, a random question I just thought of: Were Doppler and Dyva intentionally designed to resemble a mini version of the Duna/Ike system? Orbiting Dyva and seeing that big red rock in the distance reminded me of looking towards Duna from Ike a little bit.

[The Minmus Derp]

  On 4/1/2025 at 9:14 PM, IntellectualTortoise said:

About the terrain, I figured it wasn't something unique to this mod, or planet mods in general. Good luck with the comet and Kuiper Belt mods!

Also, a random question I just thought of: Were Doppler and Dyva intentionally designed to resemble a mini version of the Duna/Ike system? Orbiting Dyva and seeing that big red rock in the distance reminded me of looking towards Duna from Ike a little bit.

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Thank you! You'd have to direct any Doppler/Dyva questions to @Interplanet Janet, as she created those objects.

[Tartrus]

What would happen to any craft in orbits around the Mun if I used the stock system modifications to push the Mun further out on an existing game?

 

Would those craft move with the Mun or get left behind?

[The Minmus Derp]

  On 4/1/2025 at 9:35 PM, Tartrus said:

What would happen to any craft in orbits around the Mun if I used the stock system modifications to push the Mun further out on an existing game?

 

Would those craft move with the Mun or get left behind?

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Assuming you are referring to craft within the Mun's sphere of influence, they would move with the Mun as their positions in the game are defined in relation to it. Make a backup, though.