Long-term Laythe Mission (pic heavy) - ^_^ With Part 45 ^_^

[Brotoro]

How is it looking whit the writing? I'm hoping you also take some time out to enjoy career, and do other things in the game.(Which we also wouldn't mind reading about)

Edit; Yay 100 Posts

I've been developing the next set of equipment to send out to Laythe. I have no interest i playing with career mode as yet (but I enjoy watching what other people are doing in it). Career mode will change yet again when they add budgets, and then you'll all have to start over again anyway... so I'll join in at a later date.

For now I'm encountering a weird bug: When I deploy chutes on a ship I'm working on, everything works great. But when I REPACK the chutes and try to use them later (I have action groups set up to deploy them, since they no longer deploy with the staging setup), they sometimes cause violent explosions of some parts of the ship. Very strange. This doesn't happen when I deploy the repacked chutes by right-clicking on them in the same situations...only when using action groups. And it doesn't happen when I deploy the cutes for the FIRST TIME (a non-repacked chute) using an action group.

[Geschosskopf]

For now I'm encountering a weird bug: When I deploy chutes on a ship I'm working on, everything works great. But when I REPACK the chutes and try to use them later (I have action groups set up to deploy them, since they no longer deploy with the staging setup), they sometimes cause violent explosions of some parts of the ship. Very strange. This doesn't happen when I deploy the repacked chutes by right-clicking on them in the same situations...only when using action groups. And it doesn't happen when I deploy the cutes for the FIRST TIME (a non-repacked chute) using an action group.

Damn, that's a MAJOR problem. Besides the staging issue, I use action groups on repacked chutes because I almost always have some chutes off-center and if I open them 1 at a time with right-click, the ship usually starts spinning so fast I'm unable to right-click the rest. Fortunately, I've never had the explosion problem with action groups here, but then again I haven't repacked any chutes in 0.23 yet....

I'd definitely turn in a bug report on this. If you can't use action groups on repacked chutes, then the whole repacking thing is pretty useless

[Brotoro]

Damn, that's a MAJOR problem. Besides the staging issue, I use action groups on repacked chutes because I almost always have some chutes off-center and if I open them 1 at a time with right-click, the ship usually starts spinning so fast I'm unable to right-click the rest. Fortunately, I've never had the explosion problem with action groups here, but then again I haven't repacked any chutes in 0.23 yet....

I'd definitely turn in a bug report on this. If you can't use action groups on repacked chutes, then the whole repacking thing is pretty useless

I can't turn in a bug report until I test things more. Is it happening because of something peculiar about my ship? Is it because I have jet engines running (albeit on idle thrust)? Is it happening because of some mod I have installed? I don't know yet...so it will take time to run this down. But I mentioned it here to see if anybody else has seen this problem (because I'd never noticed it before). I need to run a test in a mod-free game setup.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Brotoro

[Danish_Savage]

I can't turn in a bug report until I test things more. Is it happening because of something peculiar about my ship? Is it because I have jet engines running (albeit on idle thrust)? Is it happening because of some mod I have installed? I don't know yet...so it will take time to run this down. But I mentioned it here to see if anybody else has seen this problem (because I'd never noticed it before). I need to run a test in a mod-free game setup.

Well, its nothing that I have ever encountered before, however whit that said, I tend to pop repacked chutes before I hit the atmosphere, 'cause I don't trust those small bastards.

[Scotius]

Brotoro, i know you are not big on mods - but you might want to take a look at this:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57988-WIP-0-22-x-RealChute-Parachute-Systems-realistic-parachutes-v0-1b-16-11-13

This plugin does have an option to return repacked chutes to staging bar. I tried it on Duna, and it seems to work. I will know for sure when my lander comes back to Kerbin, and i'll hit the spacebar to pop the chutes Anyways, it might be useful as a stopgap fix.

[Brotoro]

After a bunch of experimenting, I found out the following things:

The parachute icons change color, indicating something about their status (which may have been more obvious to you non-colorblind people):

The first color (white) shows that the parachute is ready to be deployed.

The second color (green, I guess…I can tell from the RGB of the pixels, and from having seen a few greens in my day) shows that the parachute is out and operating.

The third color (red, I'll bet) shows that the parachute has been disconnected (this shows after landing).

The fourth color is the odd one… a darker green… and its what you see after repacking your chutes. Chutes displaying this color will not deploy in the staging sequence, and these are the chutes that have been causing weird explosions when I deploy them with action group keys.

BUT…(and the reason I had some difficulty in getting the exploding effect to repeat) …IF you do a quicksave and then reload the save, these darker green chutes turn white again! AND they work in the staging sequence. So apparently I just have to remember to quick save/reload after packing chutes before I attempt to use them.

I'm not sure what the darker green color is supposed to represent (I presume it wasn't meant to indicate "amusing exploding mode active!").

[TimMartland]

There's also yellow when the chute is semi-deployed

[Brotoro]

There's also yellow when the chute is semi-deployed

Ah…well, you see, I'd never notice the difference between yellow and that bright green (which looks yellow to me).

Is there an indication when you have activated the chutes but they haven't yet deployed? Say, if you open them in space before reentry?

[Patupi]

Plus Blue (Cyan I think) isn't there, when you've staged or used action groups to deploy them, but you aren't in air yet for them to actually deploy

(And I should have finished reading your post Brotoro... then I would have realized I was actually answering a question of yours! *lol*)

[Brotoro]

Plus Blue (Cyan I think) isn't there, when you've staged or used action groups to deploy them, but you aren't in air yet for them to actually deploy

(And I should have finished reading your post Brotoro... then I would have realized I was actually answering a question of yours! *lol*)

Ah! OK…I could easily miss the color change from white to cyan as well.

I guess colorblindness is more of a hindrance when playing KSP than I realized.

Back when I was a kid, I didn't even aspire to being an astronaut because of my colorblindness.

[Scotius]

Yeah, that sucks. I have no sense of smell. It's not a biggie, huh? Unless there is something burning, yet producing no smoke (yet ), or someone forgot to turn off gas stove. Not to mention fun moments when you are staring at a piece of food - there is no obvious signs of spoilage, you are afraid to taste it, and you can't sniff to check if it's gone bad or not. If there is no one around, your options are: throw it away, or risk food poisoning. Yes, i know how you feel sometimes. At least your problem can be fixed by Devs - they just have to add changing icons to indicate current status of the parachutes. You should suggest it, BTW - you are not the only colorblind player in this community.

[Patupi]

Snap! Well, OK I have some sense of smell, but barely any, so not complete anosmia. Saps taste too, which could be a good thing. I'm not a food-aholic.... except for chocolate (And lemon! )

[Danish_Savage]

Yeah, that sucks. I have no sense of smell. It's not a biggie, huh? Unless there is something burning, yet producing no smoke (yet ), or someone forgot to turn off gas stove. Not to mention fun moments when you are staring at a piece of food - there is no obvious signs of spoilage, you are afraid to taste it, and you can't sniff to check if it's gone bad or not. If there is no one around, your options are: throw it away, or risk food poisoning. Yes, i know how you feel sometimes. At least your problem can be fixed by Devs - they just have to add changing icons to indicate current status of the parachutes. You should suggest it, BTW - you are not the only colorblind player in this community.

Oh, just like I have no social skills

[Patupi]

Wow, what a coincidence. Me too... wait... should I not have said that?

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Also, Brotoro, you really should install the Clouds and City Lights mod. It doesn't changes the "important" classes, it just adds city lights to Kerbin and clouds to Kerbin, Eve, Duna, Laythe and Jool, and they all look really pretty(except for Jool, which looks like a mess, so make sure to disable Jool clouds by deleting the string in the cloudLayers .cfg file), especially Eve, which makes it look even more like a Venusian planet. That, and it isn't much resource-intensive, unlike it seems to be.

Just figured I'd suggest this because it'd improve the quality of the pictures, being able to gaze at the bluish clouds of Laythe(though they might look white to you since you're colorblind, but still doesn't removes the prettiness). I know you said you try to run the game as stock as possible, but the mod doesn't changes any game behaviors or adds new parts, just adds aesthesical features, so I think this one should be allowed to pass. It's your call, though.

[Scotius]

About this mod: it crashes my game. Consistently My copy of KSP just refuses to load at all if Clouds and City lights is installed. So be careful.

[Brotoro]

Also, Brotoro, you really should install the Clouds and City Lights mod. It doesn't changes the "important" classes, it just adds city lights to Kerbin and clouds to Kerbin, Eve, Duna, Laythe and Jool, and they all look really pretty(except for Jool, which looks like a mess, so make sure to disable Jool clouds by deleting the string in the cloudLayers .cfg file), especially Eve, which makes it look even more like a Venusian planet. That, and it isn't much resource-intensive, unlike it seems to be.

Just figured I'd suggest this because it'd improve the quality of the pictures, being able to gaze at the bluish clouds of Laythe(though they might look white to you since you're colorblind, but still doesn't removes the prettiness). I know you said you try to run the game as stock as possible, but the mod doesn't changes any game behaviors or adds new parts, just adds aesthesical features, so I think this one should be allowed to pass. It's your call, though.

I might do that. I've been impressed with how cool these clouds look in some YouTube videos I've seen. And, after all, with the excess number of ions in the atmospheres after the recent magnetic storms, a sudden appearance of clouds might not shock my kerbals too much.

[Danish_Savage]

I might do that. I've been impressed with how cool these clouds look in some YouTube videos I've seen. And, after all, with the excess number of ions in the atmospheres after the recent magnetic storms, a sudden appearance of clouds might not shock my kerbals too much.

And Kod said: ''Let there be clouds!'' And clouds came to be, and Kod saw it was well. Meanwhile Aldner almost crashes as a enormous cloud apperates in front of his Birddog in 10 km's height

[Commissioner Tadpole]

I wonder how the kerbalnauts will react if on Thunderstorm 0.23, cryovolcanism is added to Laythe. (NovaSiliko stated he plans to add that feature to Laythe, alongside radiation, so it's possible that it may be included, though maybe not on 0.23)

[Brotoro]

Why in the world would Laythe have cryovolcanism? It's not a low-temperature world.

And if the devs make the environment around Laythe and other near Joolian moons intensely radioactive, I simply would not go there with my kerbals at all (assuming kerbals were susceptible to radiation), and KSP would become a much less interesting game.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Why in the world would Laythe have cryovolcanism? It's not a low-temperature world.

Well, I'm not sure, the wiki page states it's either Volcanism or Cryovolcanism.

And if the devs make the environment around Laythe and other near Joolian moons intensely radioactive, I simply would not go there with my kerbals at all (assuming kerbals were susceptible to radiation), and KSP would become a much less interesting game.

Makes sense, but I think they wouldn't add MUCH radioactiveness.

Also, which page you posted the BirdDog's craft file again? By the time I saw it I either still had the demo or I still lacked the proper computer needed to withstand KSP, so I ignored it.

[Brotoro]

...Also, which page you posted the BirdDog's craft file again? By the time I saw it I either still had the demo or I still lacked the proper computer needed to withstand KSP, so I ignored it.

I don't think I posted a BirdDog craft file since version 1 (during development…not even the version sent to Laythe).

The craft file link here is the most recent version (BirdDog3), AND it has the modified version of the GasStation that is designed to sit on girders at the correct height for refueling after the landing legs are retracted. That version of the GasStation was designed for the mushy legs of version 0.22 which (along with ground clipping of the legs in 0.22) made the old version not work. (This version of the GasStation has not been used on Laythe…only tested on Kerbin. In my continuing game I am still using the old GasStations and the config file for the old landing gear…which solves the mushiness problem, but which still have problems with ground-clipping of the legs in version 0.22.)

Below: The modified version of the GasStation being tested at KSC.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Any previsions for Part 21, or Part 20 was the finale to this series? (And no, I'm not forcing you to add the next part, I'm just asking because Part 20 looked like it was the finale)

[Brotoro]

Part 20 is not the end... but I did rush to get Part 20 out quickly because of the cliff hanger of Part 19.

I have been making new stuff and sending it out to Laythe... but it takes a while: Launch. Dock. Launch. Dock. Launch. Dock. Transfer burn. Targeting burn. All stuff I've done before, so I haven't been in a big rush to do it again. Also, as the end of semester approaches I have a lot more stuff to do other than play KSP.

[Jaxal1]

Emilynn is going to be dangerous if she gets into the cockpit of a BirdDog.