[0.21] OrbitalConstruction Redux 4.2 (Kethane + EL Compatibility Update)

[Fyrem]

I simply lift the "huge and impossible to stay together in 1g" ship in the VAB to the top of the VAB. then add enough Stability Enhancers to hold the ship while it sits on the pad. Then Launch.

Once Gravity has set in I do the following:

1) Scan for docks,

2) Select the dock

3) STAGE (as in release) the Launch clamps.

4) WHILE the ship is FALLING, I click "Build at spaceport"

5) profit.

The fact that KSP is lagging due to the 100 times a second recalc of mass (which really DOES need to be fixed)... the timing of clicking "build" before the ship crashes to the ground is VERY easy.

[krystar]

yea fryem that's the workaround for now heh.

if we really wanted to super accurate, we'd calc the vessel mass minus all the stability enhancers.

evilC, i added in case BuildMode.Build a foreach(p in vessel.parts)to do vessel.parts.Remove(p) for stability enh...but it seems like it just removed the part while on the launchpad and doesn't jump it into orbit. any idea why? how did you code it up?

[krystar]

i think there was originally a suggestion either in this or another orbital shipyard thread that ships should be launched dry w/o fuel. so should probably calculate dry mass of tanks.

[evilC]

I just noticed that Interfect was not the original author, so this is a mod of a mod already.

Not knowing the whether Interfect got permission or not, I have released this as a binary diff - it is purely byte offsets in the patch, so I am not reproducing anyone's work (Mods are getting tetchy about that lately).

If we get the all clear, I will happily release a DLL.

If authors show up, I will happily give them my code.

http://evilc.com/files/games/ksp/ocmod.zip

Usage:

Place your old KerbalTestOne.dll in the same folder as this file and run the patch.bat

This should create a patched folder with the new KerbalTestOne.dll in it

v1.0

+ Fixed exessive lag at launch time

+ Added status to UI; Prompts on usage etc

+ Added mechanism to deal with Launch Stabilizers

Edited June 4, 2013 by evilC

[Fyrem]

Just for the Record:

Interfect hasn't posted on the forums since May 7,

And, the original Mod Dev Zorkinian was last on the forums on 29th May 2013, according to http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/member.php/3197-Zorkinian however there is NO forum activity at all for his profile..... <odd>

oh, and THANK YOU evilC

[evilC]

Probably got wiped with the forum crash.

Oh well, am quite happy to help out at the moment. I wanted to learn a bit about ksp coding and get some class based language practice and it taught me a bunch.

Please feed back and let me know if there are any problems. I may not use it much myself for now, I test craft capabilities using hyperedit so it's not until I start actually rolling out my fleet (And stop using stuff I consider cheating) that I would start using it. With that in mind, what is the general consensus on balancing?

Also, if I can get it going, what do people think of my "Assembly" idea? I personally think pulling up in an SSTO with a prefab section, dropping it out the bay and bolting it on to your station would be pretty cool. Is it possible to join two craft together via code?

Edited June 3, 2013 by evilC

[UAL002]

EvilC, thanks for the effort. I'm going to check this out tonight.

[csshanks]

Very Good EvilC, you may need to PM the Mod/Dev and see if you can do more with it

[krystar]

well u can do that already with docking ports. which is what they do IRL but i imagine yer thinking about doing in-space welding

you should look into the KAS mod. there's a Part that you can detach from current vessel and attach onto target vessel using EVA mode. i'm looking at the source code now and he's doing some ray cast hit collision between cursor and target vessel. the actual attaching is done by part.Couple(targetVessel's part)

[Fyrem]

also, the Lazor system by Romfarer has the ability for a kerbal to WELD parts while in EVA. I think this would work for want you intended:

use an small robotic arm (the buran one) attached to your station, grab the floating SSTO ship, and position it at the right position, then having a kerbal Weld it there.

however, I just don't see why you don't put a small docking port at the points of contact....

and the KAS system has a method, that if you edit the CFG of a given part a kerbal in EVA can pick it up and 'place' it where they want - while this is AWSOME for things like solar panels, and other "single" parts, it would not work at all for SSTO craft.

[evilC]

I looked at KAS, I do not really like it for refuelling. You need an adaptor which has to be placed in EVA, then removed and placed back on outside of ship else if you forget and leave or go inside ship then your refuel station is useless.

However, I may reconsider now with OC mod - I could make a new adapter on site as I was planning on merging the fuel dump with the orbital construction.

[Fyrem]

You need an adaptor which has to be placed in EVA

true

then removed and placed back on outside of ship else if you forget and leave or go inside ship then your refuel station is useless.

not exactly correct.

there is no need to go eva to unplug and return the connecter, AT ALL.

1) Eva, grab line, rcs to other ship, plug it in. RCS safely back to your command pod.

2) move fuel around using Alt-click, as one would expect.

3) Use the GUI and click "detach" and the << button to wind the fuel line back in.

however, I wasn't reffering to the fuel system in the above post, I was pointing out that with the KAS.dll you can add commands to any part.cfg to make them "pick up-able" and also "place-able".

Ie: you can pick up a solar panel from your supply ship, RCS to the correct location on your huge and under powered spacestation, and ADD/place the solar panel to the station, at exactly the position/orientation you desire.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Fyrem

[krystar]

i have a dream of a shipyard where new ships are spawned at 100-500m. then a lander module with an attached KAS tow line undocks from the space station and RCS's over to the new ship and attaches the umbilical and starts pumping in fuel.

if new ship don't have a docking ring or a fuel port, how are u gonna pump gas in ? heh

[evilC]

For fuel, yes. By default you cannot detach the winch and fuel adapter together - you must detach the winch then pick up the fuel adapter.

Also, you cannot carry the fuel adapter and the winch head at the same time, so you have to make 4 trips back and forth in EVA to complete a refuel.

So yeah, not gonna bother with that, way too much messing around.

[evilC]

Lazor mod will let you "beam" fuel, but it is a bit cheaty.

But yes, I think you should be able to construct the new ship docked to the shipyard

Edited June 4, 2013 by evilC

[Fyrem]

EvilC, I understand your point, It simply didn't occoure to me that you would be refueling a ship that Didn't have the KAS part.

I fully understand it.

I just have used KAS for months now, and I always put the port on my ships. so it wasn't clear to me that you were flying out to a NON KAS equipped ship.

[Psyckosama]

That refueling adapter is only for ships that don't mount one as standard. Just put an adapter on every one of your ships as standard and you remove the step.

[evilC]

Yeah - the thing is that by placing the KAS part onto all your ships, you are locking that save into KAS. I tend to keep non-stock ships to a minimum - eg my SSTO uses B9, but that does not matter as it goes up, delivers load, then gets deleted ("End Flight") as there is no point in landing SSTOs yet.

[krystar]

yea creating that dependecy on KAS isn't ideal for sure.

what if the spacedock part has to be placed attached to a docking port part. and the spacebuilt part also has to be docking port part. then when you launch into space, u could find an empty spacedock docking port on the targeted dock and the attach on the two matching docking ports. the only question then is to make sure that the rotational configuration on the port allows the newly constructed vessel to exist without collision.

[UAL002]

Did I miss a fix for the all black textured part in this thread? I fixed the mass calculation lag with the patch already.

[evilC]

Did I miss a fix for the all black textured part in this thread? I fixed the mass calculation lag with the patch already.

No.

I had a dig and found the problem.

Edit: Parts\OC_Small_Cargo\fuelTank.DAE

Change the line

<init_from>file://W:\GAMES\KSP Silisko Edition\Parts\fuelTank\textures\fueltank_tex.png</init_from>

to (Difference in Bold)

<init_from>file://W:\GAMES\KSP Silisko Edition\Parts\fuelTank\textures\fueltank_text.png</init_from>

[evilC]

A new version will be released that is compatible with the Extraplanetary Launchpads mod. This is basically the same idea as OC, but it spawns the ship on the surface of a body.

This will mean:

SpareParts will change to RocketParts

You will require the appropriate amount of fuel to build a ship (may be optional, may allow partial fills)

The OC resource containers will be abandoned - RocketPart containers will be standardized with Extraplanetary Launchpads

Basically, the next dll patch I release will fork off from Orbital Construction and make OC effectively an extension for Extraplanetary Launchpads.

The next version of EL will release when the author has fixed compatibility with Kethane

The author of Kethane is looking at altering it to allow people to extend kethane by adding their own resources.

So ultimately it is likely to work something like this:

Kethane adds kethane as a resource, plus the converter and the gatherers (ie drills) and detectors for that resource.

EL adds ore, metal etc and the gatherer and detector parts for those resources. It also configures Kethane to recognise those resources and let the converter unit process them according to paremeters it provides.

OC adds an orbital constructor part and a spacebuilt indicator part as now, but that is all. It uses other infrastructure from EL for the parts and hopefully uses EL's routines to decide cost for building a craft.

This should place us roughly where KSP is headed as a game. As parts are released officially by squad, I guess we can phase parts of this trifecta out and make the remaining bits compatible - eg when official resources come in, dump the custom ones and hook everything in to those.

[Weatherman159]

-awesome stuff-

Perfect. Simply perfect. I assume you could still launch containers full of rocket parts, like OC does now, right? I see my workflow as: launch spacedock, construct EL pad at spacedock, land pad, etc., because launching the whole pad atop a rocket looks silly (and atmospherically unfeasible ).

[magnemoe]

Perfect. Simply perfect. I assume you could still launch containers full of rocket parts, like OC does now, right? I see my workflow as: launch spacedock, construct EL pad at spacedock, land pad, etc., because launching the whole pad atop a rocket looks silly (and atmospherically unfeasible ).

it would only be an matter of fixing the cfg file for an fuel tank to contain rocket parts.

Benefit is that this can be launched or created off planet.

I tried to use the launch pad in orbit but it blow things up in one try and killed all orbital speed of the pad in the second.

The rocket is anyway not connected to the pad any other way than gravity or launch clamps who I have not tried.

[Gryphorim]

Please tell me KASPAR is being incorporated here.