0.20 Preparation

[SwagBoiFresh]

What have you gentlemen been doing to prepare for the 0.20 resource update?

I have been trying to set up more permanent establishments around Duna and Minmus, so that I will more easily be able to gather resources from those bodies when 0.20 drops.

Minmus Base (From left to right)

RCS Refueling Module, Fuel transport ship, MUV (Minmus Utility Vehicle), Spider lander (used to land modules), main fuel tank, habitation module, mobile power plant.

All segments/modules are on wheels, and are docked by driving together, then lowering the landing legs for a sturdy set-up. All segments can also be docked to the Fuel Transport Ship (docking port located on bottom side) in order to transfer resources.

My current Duna space station, aka "Zoso". Currently inhabited by 6 Kerbals in the habitation module. Out of RCS fuel at the moment, waiting to be refueled. Soon I will be sending more modules to be deployed on either the surfaces of Ike or Duna itself.

So, what have you guys been up to? I'm hyped about the update!

Also, can someone please confirm that persistence files can be transferred to new versions? Thanks!

Edited April 19, 2013 by SwagBoiFresh
Typo

[CtrlAltEL1TE]

Deciding whether or not to prepare knowing the chances that my save will break.

[ThatBum]

Someone's been watching Scott Manley. Good luck to you!

I'd imagine it would work something like the Kethane mod. Finding where the resources are is a bit of a pain though. Maybe planets and moons will have at least some resources everywhere, but some places more than others? That way it won't be a total waste if you land in the wrong place.

Edited April 19, 2013 by ThatBum

[leopardenthusiast]

Landing in the wrong place isn't a problem if your equipment has wheels - just dock everything together, use some docking ports on top to move anything that doesn't have its own wheels, and off you go!

[swiftgates24]

Like said before, .20 will probably break saves, so you're most likely just doing this for fun

[Yuming]

Yes, I did something like this as preparation or training, but dont expect it to survive the update.

[Naiba]

From my 0.20 preparations thread from before the servers... died:

[SwagBoiFresh]

Someone's been watching Scott Manley. Good luck to you!

Yes! I have also been doing my program in a semi-reusable state, similar to Scott's. I put parachutes on all parts of my lifter rocket, so that, in theory, it always has to "opportunity" to land safely. As of today, I still have yet to have a single piece of debris in space, or on a body

[TinfoilChef]

Knowing that the save will probably break in 0.20 I'm working on basic designs to implement once the needed resource gathering / processing parts are in. I'll probably also go with a "mostly resuseable" program to minimize space junk getting in the way of navigation.

[hugix]

I made a fueldepot design that is very versatile in it's placement, it has

docking ports on all 4 sides

one docking port on top for the tanker craft (read below)

Normal lights to aid in docking multiple tanks together (or to connect to the mining apparatus)

Bright lights to aid in night time landings

Legs to stabilize the tanks docked.

I'm in the process of building a spacecraft that can land on the top docking port, fill up with fuel and take it to a interplanetary ship in orbit to refuel.

[llamatoes]

I should prep, I have a large capacity fuel station in orbit for the hell of it though, I got so much done during the forum blackout.

[The Jedi Master]

On one hand, I like to keep the updates separate, but on the other hand, .20 will supposedly add the things originally planned for .19. Hmmmm...

[TomSawyer1212]

I'm making an Orbiting Fuel Station that gets it's refills from a Tanker of sorts. Didn't want to make a million trips to refill. I would be very interested in opinion on my design.

Now if I could only figure out how to insert an image! Grrrr! So it's a really big tanker - Jool mod, second stage - and I can refill the orbiting fuel station with just 2 trips to orbit.

I put the kethane drilling/processing stuff on rovers that dock with the lander.

Edited April 19, 2013 by TomSawyer1212

[dr_jt]

Kerbals are not well understood

Edited June 6, 2013 by dr_jt

[illectro]

I dunno about breaking saves, now that there are steam users who are going to be forced to upgrade without being asked it's going to be hugely more important for Squad to maintain backwards compatibility.

Of course, it'll probably break all my saves with kethane in it.....

[SkyRender]

I have to admit, the coming advanced resource system has heightened my interest in Kethane-centric missions. Both as practice and as a send-off to an awesome mod that will likely not get much use once that advanced resource system is implemented.

[Spatzimaus]

Then again maybe I'll skip the station and work on getting to another system body.

You should. Land on Mun and Minmus, land on Duna, and THEN worry about launching a space station. Traveling to another planet is actually not difficult, and it doesn't require huge rockets; my Duna trip used only stock parts. Launching a station, on the other hand, requires learning how to make heavy-lift rockets, and is just a lot harder since you can't steer very easily.

Once you get the hang of the basics, you'll learn quickly. I started playing in January, and for the first month I was barely making it to the moons and back. I've now got stations around a couple planets, refueling vessels around Eve, Duna, Vall, and Pol, and I've landed on almost every planet and moon... in a single trip. (Just missing Eve, Moho, and of course Jool itself. I'll land on Eve and Moho this weekend, before bringing Jeb home.)

I dunno about breaking saves,

Saves will be broken. It's not just that they're adding the new resources; they'll also add a new aerodynamics model, change a bunch of part characteristics to account for this, and so on. Besides, a lot of existing designs just won't work any more; any vessels that currently use the LV-N engine (which is a LOT of them) will stop working simply because that engine will now use the new Nuclear Fuel resource, which your current rockets won't have. And there's the question of how fuel tanks will even work in 0.20, since we've heard that we won't need dedicated tanks for each fuel type and can instead just adjust the existing tanks for whichever resources we need.

So expect a full wipe, and you'll probably have to make major adjustments to your existing designs. We're still in an alpha, so maintaining backward compatibility for the users is just NOT a priority, regardless of whether they're using Steam or not. We're a long ways away from the point where the customer's convenience matters.

------------------

As to the original question, I've deployed a Kethane-based network of fuel depots and refueling vessels, to allow me to travel to all of the planets and moons without coming back to Kerbin every time. The 0.20 resource system will be more complex than Kethane's one-size-fits-all approach, but the basic concept remains the same, and it's a good way to fine-tune designs for these refueling vessels. Once 0.20 is out, I'll just swap the Kethane tanks, drills, etc. for the new resource-specific versions, and I'll be done with it.

[SwagBoiFresh]

I'm in the process of building a spacecraft that can land on the top docking port, fill up with fuel and take it to a interplanetary ship in orbit to refuel.

I must warn you, it will be very difficult, nearly impossible, to properly land a heavy fuel tanker on top of those top docking ports. It would be much less time consuming to have a design like my own, where the surface tanks can drive up to the fuel tanker, dock to it, and refuel it. Although it takes a lot of design time and testing to ensure that the docking port on the side is at the correct height, it definitely pays off in the long run.

If you really are set on actually landing a ship on top of your tanks, do some practice testing on Kerbin. You might change your mind

[animalcross]

I don't think we should prepare any actual bases knowing the history of save's breaking with updates, yet I agree that some transport/tug design ideas are warranted. I do tend to sort of design a ship before a release, such as back a few days before .18.

[TriggerAu]

I've been thinking of trying to consistantly use the subassembly saver/loader to get my designs right and saved piecemeal, then I can (reasonably quickly) relaunch entire setups on each version change if my save file doesn't survive.

What do people think if that idea?

[nats]

Nothing as yet, I will probably want to do all the stuff I have done again once the new patch comes out so I am 'waiting and seeing'.

Edited April 19, 2013 by nats

[Bessy]

cool i have something very similar to you

my large kethane converter is badly placed atm as it lifts the mobile base off the ground when the pistons move out lol but it works really well so im happy

i also have a large orbital station at 7km and 1 at a silly high orbit for refueling large craft that need to be in high orbits to save on fuel

Edited April 19, 2013 by Bessy

[Carlbergh]

I don't think we should prepare any actual bases knowing the history of save's breaking with updates, yet I agree that some transport/tug design ideas are warranted. I do tend to sort of design a ship before a release, such as back a few days before .18.

I agree, also designin some "construction vehicle" of some sort wheter it be rover based or a skycrane, but it doesn't matter since working on designs will be my way to prep.

[thetommygunyeah]

All my prep is just making sure I know I can get to every planet on the game

[ROFLCopter64bit]

Anyone have any old 0.16-0.17 persistence files hanging around? I would really like to have a look at those to create a prototype for a 0.19 to 0.20 save converter.