[0.21.1] KAS v0.4.3 - Struts, pipes, part storage, containers, merged winches & more

[firerider521]

I love this mod. I know the main features are the winches, but I especially love the capability to connect a Kerbal. Now I can finally make a personal parachute system!

[KospY]

ok i found a bug in the GUI aparently when u have 2 or more vertical or horizontal motors with either grappling hooks or magnets when ever you try to extend one magnet the gui will dissappier in to the top left coner can u please fix that immedatly.

I am unable to reproduce this problem, even with multiple winch and hooks. Can you send me your save or craft file ? Maybe something related to the ship design.

That said, I do have a question: The 'Stack Connector Port (0.5m)' part... I assume this part is not meant to be placed in hook bays, or even be dropped at all? When I undock it from the winch it simply goes through the floor, and when I put it in a hook-bay I cannot retrieve it. Again I imagine it's simply not meant to be used as the other parts but if so, the question would be 'Why?' The reason I figured it could go in a hook bay is because it fits perfectly in them, so I'm a little confused.

The stack connector port are not a hook, it's a connector port, so the hook bay are not compatible.

I don't think that will be usefull to grab and attach this stack port, as there is already a smaller and radial mountable connector port ?

Ya what caused this slow down? It was annoying

Also, how do we update a mod? Re-download it and replace old files?

My mistake, I was searching at each frame all the winches in the scene. As I didn't use a low-end computer, I didn't see that performance problem.

A.G. pointed this and help me to fix it. Winches are now only searched once when the GUI is opened.

About updating, please remove all files from the older version before upgrading. (when you upgrade from 0.1 to 0.2 only)

You were lucky hojiwana - when i encountered similiar bug i was in orbit, and my EVA'ing Kerbal was catapulted towards Mun (along with a piece of his ship) . Today i encountered another bug - this time on my orbital tug, during orbital junk removal mission. I used vertical winch/grapple combo placed on the nose of 1-man capsule. After ejecting the grapple it apparently shot INSIDE - towards the capsule. Only 1 meter of the cable uncoiled, and grapple was not visible outside of the ship. I released the cable, retracted it, and grapple appeared again on the nose, but the cable was still not retracted. So i clicked the release option again...and bad things happened Winch and grapple were torn off, and fell towards the Kerbin as another pieces of debris, and my ship started dropping like a stone straight down - at least in map mode, because in main screen everything was frozen. No change in altitude or speed. I could use staging, and decoupled parts fell down normally - but my capsule remained frozen in space, totally unresponsive. I couldn't even end the flight. Luckily Quickload worked, and returned me to launch pad. Weeeeirrddd...and kinda scary. I love this mod and possibilities it gives, but i'm afraid to use it

I've actually had something similar happen when I was trying the grappling hook out. I ejected one from a rover towards a fuel tank sat on the launch pad, there was an explosion and nothing connected, and things bugged out. I couldn't move the camera, and my rover magically floated straight backwards away from where the fuel tank was, with no control what-so-ever.

That was in the version before the latest though, and I've not tried it out since updating.

I was right-clicking during both of those screenshots. Absolutely nothing.

Thanks for the advice, any help is appreciated.

-As far as I know I have the latest version : 0.19.1

-I saw the updated mod and tried it with a clean install of KSP. No change.

-I have re-read all of the documentation and I can't see anything I missed before.

-First time I just extracted the whole mod into KSP and merged the folders. I retried by copying each one into the correct folder. Neither way made any difference.

Might be something funny with my computer. Wish I had another computer to try this on, seems to be working for everyone else.

Thanks for all the help.

Didn't happen to me. If you can reproduce the problem easly, please don't hesitate to send me your save. It help me a lot for debugging.

Edited May 1, 2013 by KospY

[Scotius]

Well, it definitely was not a fluke for me. I used another ship with vertical winch/grapple combo - this time not mounted straight on the capsule, but on a small cubic strut. I went up, shot the grapple at spent upper stage of another rocket and it connected this time. So i started tugging (gently) backwards with RCSes at first. Junk started swinging badly around, but i figured it was due to grapple attached in 1/3 of the piece, so i was not worried. I tried to reduce swinging with RCS pulses, and it seemed to be working...until the piece of junk broke in half. Great, now i had two pieces to deorbit instead of one. I tried to catch closer of the two, and bug struck again. My ship was literally torn to pieces, with capsule again frozen in space and unable to end flight. I got Jeb out into EVA, and he was able to change his orbit and end flight. It looks like an issue with some kind of weird kinetic energy transfer between the target and winch-equipped ship.

[KospY]

New update 0.2.3 :

- Fixed collisions between plug docked parts leading to unwanted explosions

- Fixed some functions not working properly when winch and connector are reverted from the root part order

- Switching to docked mode will now correctly switch vessel and set neutral control to it

Big thanks to Kif how send me his save game so I was able to track down the collision problem

[MAKC]

could it be possible to add things other than a connector to the removable connector port? im thinking work light and solarpanels and things like that, so you could place them in EVA.

edit: how about some kind of connector hub part for when attaching to only one part is not enough to do a stable pull?

red: connector hub

blue: direction of pull

Edited May 1, 2013 by MAKC

[brienne]

Is there any video tutorial(s)?

Kospy, bravo et merci. C'est du super boulot. Et ça s'annonce extrêmement utile.

(Pour l'instant je fais des test sur le Launchpad).

Edited May 2, 2013 by brienne

[SneakyBastd]

Edit: nevermind. I restarted the game, and for some reason it is now locked in place....

I spent about 45 minutes beating my head against the wall lol. Awesome mod btw! Thanks for sharing with us.

Original post:

I'm trying your mod, and have a skycrane with a winch under it, hooked up to a rover. But the link is "floppy", even though the cable is fully retracted. I need a solid non flexible link. It just falls over otherwise. How do people design around this?!?

I've tried all connector ports, no difference. Am I doing it wrong? Or is it only possible to get this all hooked up by using kerbals in eva?

I really just want to put my skycrane/rover onto a lifter and go, or can this not be done? Thanks.

Edited May 2, 2013 by SneakyBastd

[Ariellus]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/quantum-strut/

if it is in docked mode it should work set the quantum struts in a action group to put them on and off and no more wobbling

[ATG]

Thank you for this excellent mod...I consider it an essential part of the game for me now.

Just one thing to clarify: When towing other objects, should I be doing it in docked or undocked mode? Both ways work however I did notice that when in docked mode it is easier for me to tow large, heavy objects. Just want to make sure I'm doing things the proper way.

[Runescope]

First, I gotta say I love this mod. I would expect at some point the developers will contact you and this becomes stock, as so many of the other absolutely amazing mods have.

That being said, I have a request.

Can you add in the "Show GUI" or "Toggle GUI" to the action group choices in the VAB and SPH? This will let us have all the controls without filling up our action groups

Thank you for your time and consideration of this request! Great Work!

Edit: just noticed my signature didn't survive the GFC13 (Great Forum Crash of '13). I'll have to re-upload that later

[katateochi]

Just quickly tried out the new KAS (yeah I'm slow on the up-take, only just realised this new version was out). Really nice job, big improvement on the previous version and that's saying something cos the previous version was great too. It did take me a little while to edit out all instances of the previous KAS from my persistence file but that's not really a problem. New textures are very nice, really like the ability to change hook part and the storage bay idea is fantastic. Makes the whole thing even more versatile.

Being able to refuel with it is AWESOME and the docked mode opens up a whole load of mad possibilities. I do miss the radial winch, but I see in the OP there are plans to bring it back so I'm happy!

Great work, keep it up. This should become part of stock KSP, is just so darn useful.

[Faulcan]

Fixed my problem, I had the program installed in the wrong spot, so the game couldn't write now files there.

Moved it to the desktop and everything works. Great mod, thanks.

[King Jareth]

I didn't use lazor cam, but maybe it's possible to add the docking cam module to the grapple in the part.cfg ?

A stand alone camera module usable on any part will be nice for modularity. But I will not do it as I know nothing about camera coding.

Ive added the Lazer docking camera module to the connector and the magnet but its always facing the wrong way on the part, you get a good view of the magnet flying away from the winch though.

Does anyone know how to reorient the camera/part, the Lazer module has nothing on positioning ?

Edit - Romfarer answered this on the Lazer thread, basically it cant be done as the camera aligns with the part which it thinks are pointing the opposite way to the one you need to aim. You can still use a Lazer camera mounted nearby to aim but no crosshairs.

Edit2 - If you put the winch onto a docking port you can see through the winch with the docking camera so its kinda win.

Edited May 3, 2013 by King Jareth

[Tw1]

I've used Hubbazoot's zoom camera to line up things in the past. It uses its own plug in, but doesn't have any crosshair for accuracy.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/telescoping-hull-camera-2/

[Hooligan Labs]

The Airship mod has been updated to use the new grappling hooks, etc. A work-around until the anchors are back!

Download here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/hooligan-labs-airship-parts-and-plugin/

[closz06]

New update 0.2.3 :

- Fixed collisions between plug docked parts leading to unwanted explosions

- Fixed some functions not working properly when winch and connector are reverted from the root part order

- Switching to docked mode will now correctly switch vessel and set neutral control to it

Big thanks to Kif how send me his save game so I was able to track down the collision problem

This happens when I connect in dock mode in the mun, the wheels are retracted so is not the 1G mod in the rover, is fine in undock mode. seam to do it less if vehicle is lil bit heavier. ( is disconnected in pic but happend when in dock mode) the winch is in the lower back of vehicle.

[Pulstar]

Ooh I missed the 2.0 update! Good job from the KAS mod team. Really loving the new connectors and ports, always wanted EVA fuel lines and you guys delivered! No more land undocking making my tankers do backflips on Ike, no more tedious docking to refuel in orbit. Truly a most astounding improvement of Kerbal Space Exploration.

[closz06]

Ooh I missed the 2.0 update! Good job from the KAS mod team. Really loving the new connectors and ports, always wanted EVA fuel lines and you guys delivered! No more land undocking making my tankers do backflips on Ike, no more tedious docking to refuel in orbit. Truly a most astounding improvement of Kerbal Space Exploration.

Work Beautiful in Kerbal and in space but glitchy in the Mun

[ahappydude]

Hey i got an question kas team^^ I got the motor, flame exaust working but is there a way to enable throttle from eva when you have grabbed a part? Would be cool to have a jetpack in case of emergancy haha, making it using kas instead of making it a commandpod makes the kerbal free to walk,jump etc I also got another design sketched up, more in the nasa way cheers

[Tsuki]

The problem i have with the version 0.2.3 is that sometimes after using KAS on my ship i will be unable to go back to space center, or end flight, and the game will not autosave. When pressing [,] it kindof looks like the ship is doubled, where one ship is controllable and the other is not (ex: i press [ vessel is switched, but i still see the same ship, however i am unable to control it, pres ] and i switch back to the actual ship, which is controlable). I am not 100% sure is KAS fault, i also have FAR and kerbal engineer mod. But this only happens on the ship that has KAS and after using the KAS. Any ideas about it?

[brienne]

Why did u make a connector part? It could have been part of the winch.

I just tried this nice mod. Main interest imho: fuel transfer. Main difficulty: find place to stick winches.

[KOCOUR]

KospY. You just won the ****ing internet with this mod.

[Videogama]

Hmm..

Neat mod, if a bit confusing now~ But I think I get it enough to use it.

Question, though.

Is the 50m cable length hardcoded in somehow? Because I can't actually get cables to extend beyond that, even if I edit the .cfg. (Using 'instant cable stretch' does not count, mind, although that sort of works, but doesn't actually let you extend normally any more. And it tends to rush back to 50m and lolsplode in the process if you press Release.)

Edited May 10, 2013 by Videogama

[MAKC]

The problem i have with the version 0.2.3 is that sometimes after using KAS on my ship i will be unable to go back to space center, or end flight, and the game will not autosave. When pressing [,] it kindof looks like the ship is doubled, where one ship is controllable and the other is not (ex: i press [ vessel is switched, but i still see the same ship, however i am unable to control it, pres ] and i switch back to the actual ship, which is controlable). I am not 100% sure is KAS fault, i also have FAR and kerbal engineer mod. But this only happens on the ship that has KAS and after using the KAS. Any ideas about it?

are you using Lazor System as well?

[cameroon]

Loving KAS .2 - it struck me as the perfect way to build an auxiliary mining unit to help keep those Kethane thanks full! Though I think I need to send an aux power unit, too - turns out 6 drills is a little more power than those panels + a few RTGs can actually support

Edited May 11, 2013 by cameroon