Kerbals in Space (KIS) mission pack. (Development)

[Geckgo]

Just updated to 0.62. You are sooo welcome!

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/kismissionpack/

* KIS 0.51 was resubmitted to the server with the MIT license enclosed for it. The license is also viewable at the bottom of this post.

Current release is 0.62 and 65 missions are included in the pack.

My primary focus was a mission pack that at some point would allow the player to go into a sandbox-type fully funded program. I believe I've done this fairly well, but there is still a little testing that I need to finish up to make sure that everything works well together, and that the prices are right. Upon finishing the SSTO mission, several weight-based missions are unlocked that pay by payload delivered to LKO.

Only MissionController is listed on the page as a requirement, but not installing the Kethane Mod will break some missions (one that is in the pack and others that have yet to be written). However, not installing kethane shouldn't break the mission pack and the end objectives can still be reached. Following is the long data from my release notes. Pack can be searched by typing KIS on kerbalspaceport.

# Kerbals in Space! Mission Pack

# Programmed by: Geckgo (Martin McConnell)

# Email: [email protected]

# Officially Released: 15 August 2013

# Current Release Version: 0.63

# Mod Requirements: MissionController, Kethane

# Reccomended Mods: Engineer Reddox, KSPX, KAS, RemoteTech, RemoteTech Probe Compatibility, TacLifeSupport

# Other Mods loaded on Testing Platform: AviationLights, Proc. Fairings

# Goal: This mission pack is designed around ease of playability to add depth to Kerbal Space Program. As such, running this mission pack to the extremes requires the use of other downloads availible for Kerbal Space Program. My goal with this project is to make a directed game that will focus the development of your KerbalSpaceProgram while still providing funds for independent research missions (as it should be). Thus, crashing a few rockets will not be held against you and you will be more or less free after the initial missions to continue the packs or set off on your own rocket designs for a while, comming back to the mission packs when you need more money. I hope you enjoy the laid-back pace as well as the depth that is added from these packs. Funding will change as you progress through the pack, but the intent is to give you a functional wallet from the get-go, so the first few missions are very generous. This is also explained through the dialogs to make it seemless so that it doesn't detract from gameplay.

# Installation: After mods are installed, put the KIS.mpkg into /KSP main folder/GameData/MissionController/Plugins/PluginData folder and start the game. MissionController will do the rest.

# All testing done with the above modifications installed. Functionality is not testing with other modifications other than parts add-ons. Deviation from the above modification packages may make this mission pack act buggy or unusable. You've been warned.

# DEVELOPMENT HISTORY AND COMMENTS:

# 08/01/2013 - Officially began the KIS (Kerbals in Space!) Mission pack development. I will be focusing on the primary pack and if possible make it the only pack, but it may require some name-changes as I add side-story missions. One story line is not acceptable, and failure is not an option!

# 08/04/2013 - I've removed RemoteTech from the required mods just because the new ASAS is worthless when you have remotetech stuff installed. I hesitated to try it because of the lightspeed lag thing interfering with my rover landings and such, but after testing this mission pack it's become annoying, especially for planes. Use RemoteTech at your own discretion. I have the basic pack finished all the way to a "first kerbal in space" but I'm going to get a mun landing mission in there before I even consider release. Integration of the "Commercial" missions ended up better than I though and I now have a solid blueprint for how to keep these sideplots rolling. Kethane integration was a bit tricky but I think I have mod part issues sorted now. Going back to work tomorrow, do I release now or wait till I have more missions?? Hmmmm, I think I'll wait.

# 08/09/2013 - Removed TacLifeSupport to Reccomended Mods, as it should be up to the user to assess which mods they would like to add. Not having this mod installed is no long mission-breaking. Like RemoteTech, this mission pack is still designed around its use, but it is not required. Beta tested the original pack and expanded the Exploration missions to include all planets and moons.

# 08/11/2013 - Added more missions including spaceplanes. I'm thinking the exploration missions should have a generic "rover" mission that will offer cash for each landing or something, and the spaceplane missions will probably have generic missions based on weight. Bumping the dev to 0.3 tonight. Lots of missions still to be added and AKSF needs some refinement, but 1.0 is at least within sight.

# 08/12/2013 - Version 0.33 - Added extended missions and finished testing SSTO missions.

# 08/14/2013 - Version 0.36 - Fixed the extended missions to be a weight-based "full-sponsorship" for your kerbal space program as a reward for building your first SSTO. As of this revision the KIS mission pack is fully functional, if not a little buggy. I'm releasing this version to KerbalSpacePort, though there are still some kethane missions and possibly more exploration missions to add, so this will not be the final release.

# 08/15/2013 - Version 0.37 - Tested with Mission Controller Extended (0.18.1) and everything appears to be working fine. Started revising the missions because the pack is too "easy" to play and there is no real threat of loss, thus taking away from the need to go beyond the sandbox and into some sort of mission based game.

# 08/19/2013 - Version 0.37 - Did a rekit on the first 10 AKSF missions, added a mission and adjusted the pricing. Still working but hoping to get 0.5 out pretty soon.

# 08/26/2013 - Version 0.50 - Finished tweaking the AKSF Missions. Tested landing requirement with different vessels, seems to be working now, so I got that goin for me. Focused on career funding more, with lots of the missions being modified to have recurring daily stipends as a reward, even considering removing the extra missions, but keeping them in for now. Added some Exploration missions and tweaked the spaceplane missions. I still have plans to add space stations to the AKSF missions and the current changes need to be beta tested. But I think this is ready for update as future revisions should not be game breaking, unless I find a bug. I think you guys will like the modifications. I'm still planning to put space station stuff in, but it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm a little worn out.

# 08/26/2013 - Version 0.51 - Fixed a bug with the space telescope mission.

# 08/30/2013 - Version 0.58 - Starting from the beginning, going through each mission and checking spelling/grammar stuff, adjusting rewards, and cleaning everything up. Most of the mission re-vamps are to increase the difficulty for hardcore mode, which should make the pack pretty tough for a noob but do-able. The total contract payouts are generous but because they are spread out over such a long time (1 year) I figured I could afford to be gererous. Verified that ClientControlled missions are paying out. Added some kethane missions to the commercial packs. Finished making exploration missions for every body in the Kerbol system. Changed the orbit distance on Commercial3 to get better mapping coverage, 200k is retracing itself.

# 09/01/2013 - Version 0.62 - RELEASE - Wow, 65 Missions total and more to come in the future. I didn't get a chance to test the new kethane missions but I want to get this released by midnight, and that only gives me another 20 minutes. I added a couple of bonus spaceplane missions, 3 AKSF missions for building a basic space station, and did a lot more testing. Reformatted the cost structure of the exploration missions, AGAIN. Added landing requirements to several missions. More testing, huf, puf. Up next will probably be space infrastructure but that will be a 0.7 or 0.8 release. Thanks everyone for your input and mission ideas, as well as my bug-finders, you know who you are. I hope you guys will enjoy this release and those to come. Hopefully all missions from here forward will not break the pack anymore.

#09/02/2013 - Version 0.63 - Doing some bugfixes tonight. I'll try to update 0.63 to the server tonight. Changing some mission requirements as a result of some very good input from NathanKell, one of the developers for MissionController. Some other little stuff here and there. Nothing too fancy, no new missions unless I find something easy to work on.

#09/02/2013 - Version 0.63 - RELEASE - Bug fixes and little tweaks to make 0.62 run a little smoother. Onto version 0.7 missions after tonight.

****************************** KIS is licensed with a standard MIT License *********************

KIS (Kerbals in Space!) Mission Pack script.

Granted for use under the MIT License

Copyright © 2013 Martin McConnell

"Software" refers the the script file KIS.mpkg.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of

this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in

the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to

use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of

the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,

subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all

copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS

FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR

COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER

IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN

CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Geckgo
Update

[TinyPirate]

Looks great, does it work with Mission Controller Extended (which is the best and most up-to-date mission controller system right now).

[Geckgo]

Looks great, does it work with Mission Controller Extended (which is the best and most up-to-date mission controller system right now).

Just tested with .18 and everything appears to be working fine. I'm probably going to start a new save file to do a final beta test before I finish the rest of the missions. Maybe the update will have some better scripting commands in it that I can use to make my pack a little better all around before putting in the rest of the kethane missions, and of course checking spelling and grammar and making sure that the missions work as expected, etc. Been a lot more work than I thought it would be but it's fun.

[Ratzap]

Lovely, I could use more missions. I shall get to it and let you know how it goes.

Edit: The first 4 missions gave me a profit of 366,211K which should be more than enough to get started even if people don't use test flights and inefficient rockets.

Edited August 15, 2013 by Ratzap

[Geckgo]

Too easy? I kind-of wanted this to be a stress-free storyline for the most part, so it's to be expected to some degree. You should never need a test flight with this pack unless you are new to spaceplanes, in which case, testing mode may be warranted. I've tossed the idea back and forth a hundred times as to how difficult to make the logistics. It's part of the feedback that I really need, I guess. This is also designed to be used with RemoteTech so a lot of my comms satellites took that into account too, but I still made it pretty easy to not fail. Would like to hear opinions on this so I can make it better. Thank you for your feedback.

As an asside, for anyone who's been playing longer than a couple weeks and knows what delta-v is, most of the missions are going to be pretty simple.

How are you enjoying the storyline?

[Geckgo]

Wow! This new update really IS awesome. Auto-recycle when you recover something! Takes away the Tedium. Taking another look at the money situation right now. First mission is going to stay 100,000, I made that one easy to give a newb a jump-start. Doing a quick run-thru now. My rocket cost 3859 minus the recycled tower struts, and it can definitely be done for cheaper, even less than 3000. A quick rocket for the second mission cost 3377. I'm going to do a run-thru again to test costs and see how it all turns out. I may need to tweak the pricing down to at least give the appearance of a challenge. Perhaps some unpaid missions?

[tygoo7]

The rewards for some missions are pretty big like 100,000 for getting into orbit with a probe. I would suggest making the easier missions pay less and the harder missions pay more.

[malkuth]

Thanks for making another mission pack.. I added a link to your Thread in the Extra mission Packs for the front page of Mission Controller Extended..

Thinking the mods might move this thread somewhere else since its technically not a plugin. Just for your aware... In case you can't find it..

[HoneyFox]

I think it's a little bit too easy. Even for a stress-free style gameplay...

Maybe just tune the income a bit lower and that will be fine. (and that will be around the proper difficulty level for future official career mode IMHO)

[Geckgo]

Thanks Malkuth for the link, and thanks for keeping mission controller alive I appreciate your endorsement and I hope that I can polish the pack enough to show off the effort you guys have put into the mission controller mod for what it's capable of.

I'm already at work on 0.4+ and my first effort was something that simply didn't occur to me before. Takes up the difficulty rating right off the bat but not so much to worry even the newbies, and at the same time deepens the story a bit. Gonna be a lot of work but hopefully the next release will come soon and the changes will shine. I appreciate all you guys taking the time to review the pack and give me your input. Thank you.

[Ratzap]

Wow! This new update really IS awesome. Auto-recycle when you recover something! Takes away the Tedium. Taking another look at the money situation right now. First mission is going to stay 100,000, I made that one easy to give a newb a jump-start. Doing a quick run-thru now. My rocket cost 3859 minus the recycled tower struts, and it can definitely be done for cheaper, even less than 3000. A quick rocket for the second mission cost 3377. I'm going to do a run-thru again to test costs and see how it all turns out. I may need to tweak the pricing down to at least give the appearance of a challenge. Perhaps some unpaid missions?

By all means tune the payouts yes but I see one problem with shaving them too hard: it makes diversity lower but making people seek the one truly efficient way of completing the mission and still make a profit. I'd say a lot are a bit too much atm yes but on the other hand enough slop to let people go nuts with wasteful designs now and again. Then again the hard mode switch can cover that aspect right? Tune the missions so that hardcore is very tight and the normal version will naturally be easier.

PS: Yes, I'm reading the story too

[Geckgo]

Ratzap, I agree. After the spaceplane mission there is plenty of opportunity to get funds for any sized project, so that's kinda the reward for a spaceplane. I'm being careful not to over-tweak them. I'm guessing that when people start disagreeing on whether they are too lenient or too strict then it will be just about right Thank you for the input.

[Ratzap]

I finished the pack yesterday. All the missions seem to work from a basic point of view and even being sloppy I finished up with 3M banked. Then I tried one of my monster loads (built with novapunch) and since I knew the thing worked I launched a 1M cost vehicle with a 147 tonne payload - ka-ching. 5M for that one might be a touch too much.

Also you might want to flesh some of the branches out a bit but I don't know if MC will let you set goals like 'mine 10k kethane on mun' or 'build a refiner and land it'.

[Geckgo]

Thanks for the report. "Fleshing out" the corporate missions is going to be one of my prime goals for the next release, focused directly on kethane. There are too many options with the kethane mod to be very specific in the mission profile without limiting the player, so it will be broken into smaller missions, that if they are not completed correctly will render later missions useless. I would like to put a repeatable mission in which a full keth tank landed safely on kerbin will net a nice sum similar to the cost of fuel. I'll probably also make repeatable missions for each fuel type (comparable to the set costs). Once up and running, xenon gas will probably prove to be very profitable, but it depends on how smooth your mining system is set up. I haven't had time to work on it much this week as I'm on vacation with the wife, but I'll be starting up again soon. My tweaks seem to be working well. I'm basically figuring a difficult way to complete the missions and then doubling that for the base cost on most. Thank you for the input on your heavy launcher, I'm adjusting that code right now, I still want those last missions to be rewards, so even on hardcore it should probably still give you 1.5M for a 1M launch.

My original plan with the off-world probes was to make missions for every planet and moon, but with the end missions allowing exploration, I halted development in that area (because it would be kind of boring to do those missions only to complete the goals). I'm curious what you think about that part of the mission pack.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Geckgo
if my language is off today I'm sorry. Still waking up.

[Ratzap]

My original plan with the off-world probes was to make missions for every planet and moon, but with the end missions allowing exploration, I halted development in that area (because it would be kind of boring to do those missions only to complete the goals). I'm curious what you think about that part of the mission pack.

Oddly enough I really liked those ones and would have liked more for each planet if you can think of useful things to do on them. I'd never bothered going to visit any of the other planets because KSP simply has so much to do and I like trying out various mods. The worst part of the extra planetary ones is the time they take waiting for the warp to finish. Make the long range full planetary exploration thread optional or an unlock?

The least fun part of the whole series IMO was the spaceplane stuff and that is simply because spaceplanes steer so badly atm. Ever with FAR installed it was a major pain getting the damn thing to fly straight and steady while holding speed. I used the FAR stock builds then built my own in the hope that I could maybe get something better but spaceplanes are just a bitch to fly in 0.21

[Geckgo]

Hmm, that's an interesting point of view. .21 actually made them flyable, though the controls are still a bit iffy. I took the landing requirement off because it can be a pain to land a spaceplane if you have the weight balance wrong or too few control surfaces, and RemoteTech doesn't help anything. I wasn't even putting remotetech stuff on my planes because of the annoying stuff it does to ASAS. I haven't used FAR but after tinkering with them long enough I found that I can make them pretty easy now, even larger ones. Right now the exploration mods don't contain dependencies for anything else, so they are kind of their own thing. Specifically because of the long distances, but maybe I'll unlock all of them at once that way you can do the landing missions without needing a probe first, but then, if you put legs and landing engines on your probe you can knock I and II out with the same craft for a given landing spot Looks like I have some time today so I'm going to get back on it. The next update will probably break some saves b/c I plan on adding some more AKSF missions.

[Stargate525]

I've got a problem. Your docking mission, when I attempt to select it, makes the selection window blank, massive, and uncloseable. Any idea what's causing that?

[RuBisCO]

I have a probably unsimple question: how does one go about making their own mission pack?

[Geckgo]

Well meow, I've been away for a few days, sorry for the delay. I guess easiest first, RuBisCO, it's basically a script file. Just make a new text file named yourmissionpackname.mpkg and edit it with a text editor. If you are using windows I suggest notepad or wordpad, just make sure you save it as plain text. If you are using Linux you can use nano, but something like mousepad is much nicer and designed specially for writing code and scripts. The curly brackets each get their own line. Comments are lines that begin with a bash (#) and will be ignored by missioncontroller. There is a little txt file to help you in KSP/GameData/MissionController/missionpackages.txt and you can use other packs for an example.

Stargate525: Thanks for the bug. Don't know what is going on there, I'm trying to repeat the problem without success. Which version of MissionController are you using? What other mods do you have installed? Have you had this issue with other packs? I assume that you have completed the previous mission, if not please note that.

I had some problems with the original mission controller becoming un-usable at random times, but it seemed to be a key combination. Have you tried reloading the pack in mission controller? Of course you have, but I have to ask just in case. I also assume that leaving the game and reloading it doesn't help? Are you playing 0.20 or 0.21 KSP?

Most important question, had anyone else had this issue?

[blspblackdeath]

The last month I was busy playing your missions and they are great. I'm now starting up my KSP with your update. Thanks for your effort to create this awesome mission pack.

A little request though. Could you include more manned mun-missions or make a repeating munlanding-extramission?

[Geckgo]

Thank you for the compliment blspblackdeath. I'm glad to hear that my work is being enjoyed. The repeatable missions at the end of the pack (after spaceplane) should cover the cost of munar missions for now(They were sort of designed for if you wanted to send kerbals to other planets without making it mandatory), but I am planning more missions. I'll be concentrating on the space station and commercial missions next, and the commercial missions will include Kethane missions to Minmus. I'm gonna have to start figuring that out, but I'll try to fit in some more mun missions.

For the XMs to work best, "finish the mission" as soon as you hit LKO. Hope that helps.

[blspblackdeath]

Noticed a bug in Telescope mission.

A horizontal Orbit in KSP is 0° not 90°. 90° is north unlike it is shown by the compass.

[Stargate525]

Stargate525: Thanks for the bug. Don't know what is going on there, I'm trying to repeat the problem without success. Which version of MissionController are you using? What other mods do you have installed? Have you had this issue with other packs? I assume that you have completed the previous mission, if not please note that.

I had some problems with the original mission controller becoming un-usable at random times, but it seemed to be a key combination. Have you tried reloading the pack in mission controller? Of course you have, but I have to ask just in case. I also assume that leaving the game and reloading it doesn't help? Are you playing 0.20 or 0.21 KSP?

Most important question, had anyone else had this issue?

I cross-posted the error into the main plugin thread. It was suggested that I delete the config.xml and let it rebuild when I loaded, which worked like a charm. So, nothing wrong with your pack whatsoever. Sorry for worrying you!

Love the pack to death, btw. Can't wait to see more from you. If I might suggest a fuel depot line of missions? Also... might want to consider making the mun mission require getting BACK to Kerbin... I was astonished that my crash... er... more-than-solid impact on the mun qualified for the reward.

[Geckgo]

Noticed a bug in Telescope mission.

A horizontal Orbit in KSP is 0° not 90°. 90° is north unlike it is shown by the compass.

Can't believe that slipped by me. I'll get on this immediately and get the new upload as 0.51 so you can tell when it's been done. Thanks so much, good lookin out.

[Geckgo]

I cross-posted the error into the main plugin thread. It was suggested that I delete the config.xml and let it rebuild when I loaded, which worked like a charm. So, nothing wrong with your pack whatsoever. Sorry for worrying you!

Love the pack to death, btw. Can't wait to see more from you. If I might suggest a fuel depot line of missions? Also... might want to consider making the mun mission require getting BACK to Kerbin... I was astonished that my crash... er... more-than-solid impact on the mun qualified for the reward.

Right on, I think something similar happened to me when I tried it before. I updated the landing portions of a bunch of the missions for 0.5. I was having a little trouble getting them to work properly before. I had to stop using the submissiongoal{} module to get them to work right. Should be fixed but I will be working on making them all a little tighter now that I figured out the issue.