[WIP] Restricted Fuel Transfer Station (requesting part/offering plugin)

[PrivateFlip]

Hello all,

A couple of weeks ago someone requested a variation of the Davon Supply Mod with the ability to subtract a chunk of fuel from a certain vessel on the surface and, after the delay, bring it to the station. Since there had been a similar request before and I felt like making another mod, I decided to make this variation, which was finished a few days later with a little help from NathanKell and Diazo. I send the alpha to the person who requested it who then evaporated into thin air. This is actually pretty standard up to now when I make mods on request of others. I kinda forgot about the mod after this but I still feel there might be something into it.

The plugin allows the part to cycle through vessels on the surface of the planet below. The plugin can then be requested to take up to a certain amount of fuel from the selected vessel. After a time interval the fuel will be delivered to the station the part is attached to.

Because I don't have a dedicated part (it's currently installed in a constellation upper fuel tank) and not being a very good modeler myself, I'm posting it here.

If you like the premise or have a part lying around for which you have no particular use for let me now.

DOWNLOAD

source code part of download, released under GPL (GNU General Public License)

The resources managed, delay, are all tweakable in the part config file. I've copied and commented the essential parts of the part.cfg below

RESOURCE
{
 name = LiquidFuel
 amount = 0
 maxAmount = 100
}

RESOURCE
{
 name = Oxidizer
 amount = 0
 maxAmount = 134
}


MODULE
{
	name = RestrictedFuelTransferStation
	MaxDeviationValue = 5 //this value determines how much your orbit may deviate between request and delivery

	ManagedResources = LiquidFuel, Oxidizer, MonoPropellant //This comma separated lists the resources the partmodule attempts to transfer

	TransferAmountFactor = 1 //this value determines the amount of fuel which it transfer. This is based on the capacity of the part. It's currently set to 1, so in this case it will transfer 100 Liquidfuel and 134 Oxidizer.

	TransferDelayInterval = 1 //this is the amount of days between initiating a transfer and receiving it.

           BaseTax = 0 // this is the percentage of fuel which is subtracted from you delivery. It can range from 0 to 100%. This is the fuel you 'pay' to get the rest of the fuel up there.

           TaxList = Kerbin, 30, Mun, 40 //Here you can set a planet specific tax. If the planet is not listed the plugin will use the BaseTax. You could for example set the Tax on fuel to 80 or 95% for Eve to reflect the difficulty of taking off from the planet. 
}

Edited April 21, 2014 by PrivateFlip

[KhaosCorp]

I like the idea, can see alot of uses for this. Did you have even a loose idea what the part should look like?

edit: After a bit of testing this is my new favorite thing =) This plugin has potential to support a small line of parts really, a line that would fit in well with career tree.

Could have basic supply part, 1.25m and only able to request LF/O in amount its able to hold. Then the upgraded version, 2.5m and can request LF/O, mono, and xenon in amounts 2 or 3 times its capacity (I can see this part being used for logistics tugs). And then maybe a bigboy version for stations...3.2m (that flare from 2.3m caps) able to request all stock fuels plus a wide array of resources from popular mods in amounts 5 times its capacity.

Taxs rates could be different for each tier of parts to (base tax id think) to reflect discounts when 'buying in bulk'.

Edited November 23, 2013 by KhaosCorp

[PrivateFlip]

I like the idea, can see alot of uses for this. Did you have even a loose idea what the part should look like?

edit: After a bit of testing this is my new favorite thing =) This plugin has potential to support a small line of parts really, a line that would fit in well with career tree.

Could have basic supply part, 1.25m and only able to request LF/O in amount its able to hold. Then the upgraded version, 2.5m and can request LF/O, mono, and xenon in amounts 2 or 3 times its capacity (I can see this part being used for logistics tugs). And then maybe a bigboy version for stations...3.2m (that flare from 2.3m caps) able to request all stock fuels plus a wide array of resources from popular mods in amounts 5 times its capacity.

Taxs rates could be different for each tier of parts to (base tax id think) to reflect discounts when 'buying in bulk'.

I did not have a clear idea of how the part should look like. In this mod, unlike the Davon mod, you have to have a place to get the fuel from so it only has practical utility if you have some fuel generation going on on the planet and don't want to fly all the missions manually. From there it's application will therefore currently be limmited to an addon to mining operation mods, so that basically means Kethane. If it was my call to make, I would make something which fits in with that pack.

Since I already feel you might be gravitating to making these parts Khaos, I do think it's important to point out that writing this plugin only costed me like hours, while making only one part will likely take a much greater time investment from you. This is the one reasons I didn't contact you, because I don't want to be that person who writes a plugin on the side and then tries to dump a much bigger workload on someone else because I can't/won't make parts myself.

If you do like the idea, that's of course great; the above is just something I want to get out of the way.

[KhaosCorp]

I love the idea of this plugin, its really gonna fit in well with how I like to play KSP. I am going to start making parts for this...but I think its been well established that I kinda suck at this whole modding thing, so hopefully someone with more talent than myself likes the idea as well....and plenty of time for that to happen....as I model a ludicrisly low speeds =)

edit: Max deviation value is in degrees of inclination yes?

Also, the delay interval, is 1 the minimum, or would 0.8 work as well. Im assuming higher than 1 day would work as well.

Edited November 24, 2013 by KhaosCorp

[PrivateFlip]

I love the idea of this plugin, its really gonna fit in well with how I like to play KSP. I am going to start making parts for this...but I think its been well established that I kinda suck at this whole modding thing, so hopefully someone with more talent than myself likes the idea as well....and plenty of time for that to happen....as I model a ludicrisly low speeds =)

The Davon model was well received, right? I also believe if you ask some prominent modelers how long it takes them to make a certain part you would be surprised at how you compare.

edit: Max deviation value is in degrees of inclination yes?

Also, the delay interval, is 1 the minimum, or would 0.8 work as well. Im assuming higher than 1 day would work as well.

A max deviation of 1 would equal 1 degree for inclination, 1 percent of the semi mayor axis and 0.01 for eccentricity.

For the delay interval 0.8 would work, as well as everything higher than 1.

[Stage]

Hey!

Does this still work in 23.5?

I put a transfer module on an orbital station part, but I'm neither able to select targets nor to request a transfer (does not show targets/always says no fuel).

I altered ressources in the .cfg file to transfer metal/ore/rocket parts from ExPL. Would be awesome if this works, so I don't have to "waste" time with tedious supply runs

[PrivateFlip]

Hey!

Does this still work in 23.5?

I put a transfer module on an orbital station part, but I'm neither able to select targets nor to request a transfer (does not show targets/always says no fuel).

I altered ressources in the .cfg file to transfer metal/ore/rocket parts from ExPL. Would be awesome if this works, so I don't have to "waste" time with tedious supply runs

Don't know, haven't touched since I made this thread. Will take a look at it this weekend to see if it still works.

[PrivateFlip]

tested it, it does still work for me but there are some issues: There is an issue with getting the target list up initially through which you can scroll, pressing previous and next a few times seems to resolve this. Related to that there a isn't target shown at all if there is only one target on the orbital body below. Hope this helps for now.

I'm working on something way better at the moment, but haven't been able to find a lot of time to progress the project.

[RoverDude]

tested it, it does still work for me but there are some issues: There is an issue with getting the target list up initially through which you can scroll, pressing previous and next a few times seems to resolve this. Related to that there a isn't target shown at all if there is only one target on the orbital body below. Hope this helps for now.

I'm working on something way better at the moment, but haven't been able to find a lot of time to progress the project.

Hey, was just about to work on something similar for MKS, but would much rather leverage something that is already out there (no sense reinventing the wheel). If you're still actively working on a logistics mod, I would love to chat and see if what you're doing is something I could drop into MKS.

Basically I just need the ability to send a configurable resource from one ship to another with a cost (in LFO) based on the mass being shipped, and (ideally) considerations on the body it is being shipped from (i.e. it costs a lot more to send Kethane up from Eve than Minmus).

If this is in line with what you're making, I'd be happy to take a dependency on it vs build my own

[PrivateFlip]

Hey, was just about to work on something similar for MKS, but would much rather leverage something that is already out there (no sense reinventing the wheel). If you're still actively working on a logistics mod, I would love to chat and see if what you're doing is something I could drop into MKS.

Basically I just need the ability to send a configurable resource from one ship to another with a cost (in LFO) based on the mass being shipped, and (ideally) considerations on the body it is being shipped from (i.e. it costs a lot more to send Kethane up from Eve than Minmus).

If this is in line with what you're making, I'd be happy to take a dependency on it vs build my own

This mod takes resources from a vessel on the planet and sends them to a vessel in orbit with a delay. Currently it can be set to tax the resources and the percentage can be set for each planet separately. MKS looks like an impressive project and I wouldn't mind helping out. The resources transferred are not configurable yet, but I could add those features.

[RoverDude]

This mod takes resources from a vessel on the planet and sends them to a vessel in orbit with a delay. Currently it can be set to tax the resources and the percentage can be set for each planet separately. MKS looks like an impressive project and I wouldn't mind helping out. The resources transferred are not configurable yet, but I could add those features.

Excellent - I think this mod is about 90% of what I need! On the MKS side I already use a specific PartModule that I identify as a candidate for stuff that can be shipped and received, so I'd want to, from some central part, request resources from those available on the surface, and schedule transfers.

[JordanL]

Excellent - I think this mod is about 90% of what I need! On the MKS side I already use a specific PartModule that I identify as a candidate for stuff that can be shipped and received, so I'd want to, from some central part, request resources from those available on the surface, and schedule transfers.

Please, please... make it somewhat simple for us to add manged resources. For instance, I run MKS, TACLS, KSPI, Kethane, Orbital Construction and Extraplanetary Launchpads. I want to be able to go in and be able to use one class of parts (maybe preconfigured before launch) to manage the transfer of any kind of resource by editing the cfg file.

[RoverDude]

Please, please... make it somewhat simple for us to add manged resources. For instance, I run MKS, TACLS, KSPI, Kethane, Orbital Construction and Extraplanetary Launchpads. I want to be able to go in and be able to use one class of parts (maybe preconfigured before launch) to manage the transfer of any kind of resource by editing the cfg file.

Yep, the one I am playing with in test can do that.