[1.1.3] AntennaRange 1.11.4 - Enforce and Encourage Antenna Diversity

[toadicus]

Wheefle, thanks, and you're welcome! Glad you're enjoying the mod.

djnattyd, currently there is not. I could potentially add one, or I could look at adding an "urgent" status to the Blizzy icon, which I believe would force the toolbar to show and ensure the icon is visible.

[djnattyd]

djnattyd, currently there is not. I could potentially add one, or I could look at adding an "urgent" status to the Blizzy icon, which I believe would force the toolbar to show and ensure the icon is visible.

That would actually be better since my stock toolbar is getting cluttered as it is.

Second question, now that AR sees the surface of Kerbin as the endpoint rather than the core, it it simply a case of subtracting the radius of Kerbin from the range of the 3rd party antennas I have patches for in order for them to keep the same range they had in 1.6?

[toadicus]

djnattyd, that depends on the effect you're trying to create. The range change only applies when talking back to Kerbin -- ranges to other relays are calculated exactly the same. Also, Kerbin's radius is really quite small in relation to my stock antenna ranges; only the monopole gets an even quasi-meaningful boost, it's 2% of the medium dish and 0.00075% of the long-range dish. I'm not planning to rebalance my antennas. But, if you have antennas that are intended to have a really short range and are intended primarily for use on Kerbin -- maybe for aircraft or something? -- then it might be worth reducing their range by 600,000 m.

[eddiew]

eddiew, yes they would! By default, AntennaRange will not require line of sight, so a single communications satellite in low Munar orbit with an antenna big enough to talk back to Kerbin will provide a consistent connection for your rovers. At the Space Center, though, you can open up the AntennaRange config options (the icon is a little green satellite) and enable line of sight requirements, along with a handful of other options. I strongly recommend the line of sight option; it makes things much more realistic and at least a bit more fun.

Awesome, thanks for the quick answer!

Annoyingly I have just realised that I have "whip-only" probes en-route to Jool and Eeloo (which I have never been to before), so I will have to hold off on using AR for a little while - but I shall definitely build all future probes with an appropriate antenna. Soon as those particular missions have done their jobs, I shall be bringing AR on board and sticking with it

LOS could be interesting, but... tbh, I tried RemoteTech in 0.25 and it just made things so frikking hard xD You'd think in a whole solar system that LOS would be easy and it just isn't! I might play with that option, but honestly, it's nice to know that I can turn it off if I've had a senior moment and got a manoeuvre on the far-side of a planet, I can talk to the darn thing anyway and just get it into orbit without a ragequit

[toadicus]

eddiew, another thing to note is that requiring a connection for probe control is also optional. The only thing that you must have a connection for is transmitting science data. I've written a couple of posts on the topic in the past, but the two-bit summary is that I feel the player is more like a local CPU executing a program on behalf of the probe core, not a ground-based observer driving it in real-time. It's also off by default, and I don't use it personally. There are many who do, though, and that's why it's here!

[eddiew]

Thanks again, toadicus - player-as-CPU sounds like a really nice way to handle things. There's nothing in the game to allow you to automate things sensibly - e.g. land on an airless body, or steer as you fall through atmosphere - so it irks me when I can't drop a probe on anything except Eve, Duna, or Laythe. My inner RP would be happy to consider myself to be the autopilot, but it does make total sense that transmitting data back would require a proper connection

Definitely be giving AR a go; though I may have to turn it off temporarily when my $400,000 multi-part Jool probe arrives! Four landers and an orbiter is too much NOT to get the science from

[rosenkranz]

I'm planning on a 64K playthrough and was wondering if there was already a MM config for adjusting the antenna ranges accordingly. I tried searching the thread but couldn't think of any keywords that worked.

[toadicus]

rosenkranz, I'm not 100% sure of all the details, but if it's something relatively straight forward like "all the distances are 6.4 times bigger", then you could use an MM patch like this:

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter]]:AFTER[AntennaRange]
{
	@nominalRange *= 6.4
}

[SmashBrown]

Downlaoding and installing this now. Here have some rep. Where do i put the source folder?

[Mecripp]

You can delete that folder if you want.

[SmashBrown]

Ok I'll just leave it alone, thanks.

[toadicus]

The source folder does not need to be unpacked at all unless you intend to compile it yourself, in which case you should be unpacking it someplace other than GameData. It doesn't need to be in GameData or anywhere else related to your KSP installation.

[Mecripp]

toadicus have you thought or had time to look in to adding lines for the connections ? And thanks for the update.

[AndrewBCrisp]

Hello: I've been using this mod in my current career save, and I'm liking it so far. I've got a question, which I didn't see covered in the OP documentation and a cursory check of the 41(!) pages on this thread didn't reveal anything, so my apologies if this is qualifies as a "stupid question".

While flying a mission, I've noticed the AntennaRange button/icon and that it has three color settings. Green I've taken to mean the spacecraft has a working, powered, antenna and is in range of either Kerbin or a suitable relay station, and Red means either out of range or no antenna installed (something I've done with static test rigs). But what about yellow? I've seen it on a satellite (communotron-16's only) I put up in an orbit on the outer bounds of keostationary, and noticed the yellow icon. Does yellow mean "in range, just not in optimal" or does it mean something more ominous / mission-threatening? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks in advance. Once again, really liking the mod!

[vardicd]

Hello: I've been using this mod in my current career save, and I'm liking it so far. I've got a question, which I didn't see covered in the OP documentation and a cursory check of the 41(!) pages on this thread didn't reveal anything, so my apologies if this is qualifies as a "stupid question".

While flying a mission, I've noticed the AntennaRange button/icon and that it has three color settings. Green I've taken to mean the spacecraft has a working, powered, antenna and is in range of either Kerbin or a suitable relay station, and Red means either out of range or no antenna installed (something I've done with static test rigs). But what about yellow? I've seen it on a satellite (communotron-16's only) I put up in an orbit on the outer bounds of keostationary, and noticed the yellow icon. Does yellow mean "in range, just not in optimal" or does it mean something more ominous / mission-threatening? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks in advance. Once again, really liking the mod!

I also want to know what the yellow means. Also, I've noticed a bit of weird behavior since I installed this mod, and I think it "might" be responsible, tho I'm not sure. I have a rover design, and its designed to stay out in the field, and I don't recover it. It has a kerbal on it in a command chair, with an antenna on the rover. The issue is sometimes, not always, if I leave the rover to go back to KSC, then come back to it, the rover is frozen, as if it was an unmanned probe out of connection. The reason I suspect this mod, is because if I get another kerbal out to the rover, and with KAS pull the antenna off, and remount it, the rover comes back on line. I'm not sure though, as there's no error log, and nothing shows in the debug menu as far as I can see. I'm just curious if anyone else has seen this, or has any suggestions.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Does yellow mean "in range, just not in optimal"

That. Above nominal, but below absolute limit. The original suggestion, and what was eventually implemented in 1.3 was:

I'm not sure how to code this, but maybe using the toolbar icon to track connections would be a good 'pretty lines' solution?

For example, let's add two new icons; a yellow variant and a red variant of the current green one.

The current green icon symbolizes that your craft is at or below the nominal range; transmissions are as efficient, or better than, Squad's defaults.

The yellow icon symbolizes that your craft isabove the nominal range; transmissions cost more power than normal, but are still possible.

The red icon symbolizes that your craft is out of range entirely; transmissions are not possible at the present time.

If the toolbar icon becomes visible in flight, all you'd have to do is look at the icon to determine your current connection.

tl;dr

Use the Toolbar icons to track how efficient your connection is.

[AndrewBCrisp]

Thank you, Obsessed; that's a weight off my mind.

[SmashBrown]

DO the remote tech satellites work with this?

[Mecripp]

Would think no if you mean one's that you have launched already but if there just craft files would think they would.

[toadicus]

SmashBrown, in order to use RemoteTech parts with this mod you need a patch for them, like MeCripp's here:

https://github.com/Mecripp/AntennaRange-Patch/blob/master/RT2-AntennaRange%20Patch

Just copy the contents into a .cfg file anywhere in GameData. I've never used it, but many others here have.

[Idleness]

toadicus - get little plugin, thanks! Just bought the game during Steam XMas sale and thought the game needed this dimention without too much difficulty as a novice player. Was wondering if you have plans for an early, lower range antenna that doesn't need descrete activation before launch? I see you've just linked a possible response to this issue (Remote Tech has such an antenna) but was hoping to keep mods to a minimum while I'm still learning the ropes. Sorry if this has been answered so far - there's so much to read/know and it's possible I missed it!

[toadicus]

Welcome aboard, Idleness! I'm glad you're enjoying things so far, but I confess I'm not really sure what you're asking for. AntennaRange antennas do not require activation at any point, either before or after launch. For use as a comms link they always "just work", and for use as a transmitter you just transmit data as in stock. What step are you hoping to skip?

[Idleness]

Welcome aboard, Idleness! I'm glad you're enjoying things so far, but I confess I'm not really sure what you're asking for. AntennaRange antennas do not require activation at any point, either before or after launch. For use as a comms link they always "just work", and for use as a transmitter you just transmit data as in stock. What step are you hoping to skip?

Ack, must have been something I mixed up then. I tried launching an unmanned probe but I thought it wasn't responsive until I activated my Communotron whip. Perhaps I was just being fumble-fingered and focus was in a window rather than the spacebar activating my staging. Regardless I took this to mean that the comms devices needed to be activated and extended in order to send/receive. Atmosphere plays hell with things sticking out at odd angles.

[toadicus]

Nope, no such requirement here. Happy to answer the question, though!

[PickledTripod]

Toadicus, this is an awesome mod and I honestly think that it should be stock. It always seemed stupid to me that the higher-tier stock antennas were literally useless, and RemoteTech with its directional antennas, signal processors that don't work with most mods and signal delay is just too hardcore. AR is right in the sweet spot, where it adds some immersive realism and additional difficulty without being annoying, and the difficulty options make it great for both new and experienced players. But there's just one thing I'd really like to see added: a way to see connections between your ships and KSC in the map view and/or tracking station, it would be really helpful when using the line-of-sight option.