[1.12] Extraplanetary Launchpads v6.99.3

[taniwha]

This is the new thread for Extraplanetary Launchpads as skykooler has asked me to officially take over the project. Old thread

A nice quick tutorial writeup by Starstrider42.

Kerbas_ad_astra did up some graphs of kerbal contribution.

A bit of a writeup I did on Direction survey stakes.

Known Issues:

• The micropad does not work well with parts that have switchable attach nodes (via B9 part switch or stock part variants) as the root part. For now, just ensure the root part has non-switchable attach nodes (a fix is planned)
• The EVA Propellant tanks in KIS require 0 MonoPropellant. I am working on a more complete fix.
• Procedural parts stored inside KIS containers may not have the correct masses.
• Resources in parts inside KIS containers inside KIS containers (KISception?) are treated incorrectly and become RocketParts.

 

A review of EL done by TinyPirate:

 

 

Documentation: Manual (note, updated more often than the release).(non-ssl link)
Download: Extraplanetary Launchpads v6.99.3. (non-ssl link)
To download an older version, edit the url for the current release such that the version number matches the desired release.
Support my efforts: 

All versions from 4.0 are still available.

• Version 5.8.2 is the last release for KSP 1.3.0.
• Version 5.7.3 is the last release for KSP 1.2.2.
• Version 5.2.95 is the last release for KSP 1.0.5.
• Required Mods:
• Module Manager to allow pods to become workshops (albeit poor quality). NOW REQUIRED to enable engineers to build stuff.
• Kerbal Inventory System.Required for the use of the survey stakes, but otherwise optional.

Mods I consider essential for getting the most out of EL:

• KerbalStats to track kerbal experience.
• Toolbar to allow control of the VAB/SPH GUI and easy control of the in-flight GUI.
• Kethane. Allows hot-spot mining of MetalOre. old thread (for history).
• Kerbal Attachment System. Connect parts of your base together, or move things around.
• Infernal Robotics. Makes it easier to move things around.

Source code (GPL): github.

Issue tracker: issues

Release notes:

• KSP 1.12:
  • 6.99.3, 6.99.2
• KSP 1.8-1.12:
  • 6.99.1,  6.99.0
• KSP 1.8-1.10
  • 6.8.3, 6.8.2, 6.8.1, 6.8.0
  • 6.7.3, 6.7.2, 6.7.1, 6.7.0
• KSP 1.7.3
  • 6.6.2, 6.6.1, 6.6.0
• KSP 1.6.1:
  • 6.5.1, 6.5.0
  • 6.4.0
• KSP 1.5.1
  • 6.3.5, 6.3.4, 6.3.3, 6.3.2, 6.3.1, 6.3.0
• KSP 1.4.5
  • 6.2.2, 6.2.1, 6.2.0
• KSP 1.4.4
  • 6.1.0
• KSP 1.4.0-1.4.2
  • 6.0.0
• KSP 1.3.1
  • 5.9.0
• KSP 1.3.0
  • 5.8.2, 5.8.1, 5.8.0
• KSP 1.2.2
  • 5.7.3, 5.7.2, 5.7.1, 5.7.0
  • 5.6.0
• KSP 1.2.1
  • 5.5.4, 5.5.3
• KSP 1.2.0
  • 5.5.2, 5.5.1, 5.5.0
• older versions of KSP
  • 5.4.0
  • 5.3.2, 5.3.1, 5.3.0
  • 5.2.95, 5.2.94, 5.2.93, 5.2.92, 5.2.91, 5.2.90, 5.2.1, 5.2.0
  • 5.1.95, 5.1.94, 5.1.93, 5.1.92, 5.1.91, 5.1.90, 5.1.2, 5.1.1, 5.1.0
  • 5.0.2, 5.0.1, 5.0.0
  • 4.5.0
  • 4.4.0
  • 4.3.1, 4.3.0
  • 4.2.3, 4.2.2, 4.2.1, 4.2
  • 4.1.2, 4.1.1, 4.1
  • 4.0.3, 4.0.2, 4.0.1, 4.0
  • 3.7.1, 3.7, 3.6, 3.5
• older versions were prior to me taking over

As an alternative to Kethane, Karbonite is available and there is a Karbonite adaptation available. Note, however, that MKS has built-in support for EL, so you do not need this patch. Also note that MKS hides most of EL's parts as it provides its own versions.

At this stage any pad, the runway or the dock can be used landed, splashed or in orbit. When landed or splashed, operation is exactly as it was before. When in orbit, the new ship is spawned "docked" (docking ports not required) to the construction dock and must be released (the build menu will be unavailable until the new ship has been released). To release the ship, right click on the dock and click "Release". Once the release bug (see below) has been worked around, the new ship will slowly drift away (as expected for two objects in orbit).

Survey stakes (new feature in 4.3.0 and requires Kerbal Inventory System) work only when landed and they need to be carried around in a KIS container or on the back of a Kerbal, and can be attached only to the ground or a permanent feature (such as the launchpad at KSC, or at least they could while I was testing in 0.24.2). To use stakes, attach some to the ground, configure them (details in the release notes), and use a Survey Station (also new in 4.3.0, but for now is a clone (separate part) of the hitchhiker can). As of 5.1.90, survey stakes now require the use of the mallet (new part).

Station before any construction begins.

The hab module has been built and moved over with a little tug.

D'oh, not enough parts to build the tank.

After shipping up some more parts, the tank is built and being moved into position by the station's tug (which was built just before the hab module was).

Checking out the new workshop:

 

Some alternative parts:

Spoiler

 

• Here is an alternative smelter by mossman (now in a parts pack by rabidninjawombat)
• Some very nice drills have been created by BahamutoD
  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by taniwha

[MedievalNerd]

Well best of luck with the take over, and looking forward to what the future holds!

Cheers,

[Majiir]

I'm glad to see you in the primary maintenance role. You've done good work with EL so far.

Would you write a bit about your general goals for EL development? Where do you see the mod in the near and far future?

[sirkut]

Great news. Looking forward to what you have in store.

[Superfluous J]

I got so excited that there was a new update to EL... Oh well!

Congrats on the official change and I'm looking forward to see how things go from here.

As the old thread has been closed I'd like to continue a conversation we had going on it, here. I'm still having issues with the mod though I think I understand the mechanics now. I successfully - by modding a ton of ore into the hex surrounding KSC in sandbox mode - created a base that will mine ore, smelt metal, and then create rocket parts. I then used those 3 resources to build an assemblage on the smaller, newer launchpad.

And then everything exploded and I literally cannot access that save game. KSP freezes and I have to kill it with task manager. Luckily it's in my sandbox game but I simply can't use this mod in my career game if that's a possibility.

Is this common? Was there something I could/should have done to prevent it or at least make it less likely?

[taniwha]

5thHorseman: sorry to disappoint. However, there will be more updates. I'm working on improving the resource section of EL (I got my hands on some fantastic maternial).

Edited July 12, 2014 by taniwha

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Will there be a tutorial? The previous one's biggest fail was that there was no tutorial.

[taniwha]

I do want to do something along those lines. I'm still fighting with getting recording to work (linux), but I've made a little progress and have some ideas along those lines. I also want to do an in-game tutorial like Kethane's.

[Greezy]

Any chance of smaller versions of the Smelter, Auger, and OMD? Like 1/2 or 2/3 scale. Especially the Smelter but they all seem unnecessarily large and cumbersome.

[alacrity]

As someone who managed to fly a wheeled Smelter (the bigger original bastard) to Duna and land it, I concur... Smaller please. And maybe a different shape, just to make it easier to design around. Engineering that thing as a deployable item from Kerbin was nightmarish and used up every parachute in my inventory.

Just sayin,

That said Glad EP will continue and hope you have as much devving it as we have playing with it

Alacrity

[brobel]

the mods great the parts just need new models that fit together better and are easier to use i know they have quiet a few texture problems and attachment problems. but im glad that this mod will get some more love .

[taniwha]

Smaller smelter? Well, I suppose I could do that, but it will cost you... in smelting speed.

[Daniël]

Is it possible to use this mod in career mode? usually you can just add the TechRequired etc, but with this mod I can't get the parts to show up in carreer

[Srilania]

This has always been an issue with the stock EL parts. Large, clumsy, and hard to get around. For instance, the Spherical launchpads, while heavy, were a lot more compact and easy to get around. Kethane drills are easier to deal with, and scanners more in line with the application. The type 2 launchpad is about ok, though can klutz up and trap things on it sometimes. What would work a lot better is using the smaller hexcans or even reusing normal inline or radial mounts. I'd point to the kethane pack to get an idea of sizes and how to handle things a little better.

[DiEvAl]

Can you put it on spaceport?

[Gryphorim]

WRT the construction in orbit "start docked, and disconnect" issues, is it possible to enforce the use of a custom docking port as the root part for any "spacebuilt" parts, and the use of another, matching docking port as the "spacedock". Would this be a good idea? could it be made to work?

[taniwha]

Part of the reason orbital construction works as it does is I do not like the "spacebuilt" part in Orbital Construction Redux (or whatever it is now). I see no reason for requiring such a part. The only reason it ever existed was as a means to get KSP to build the ship in the first place: launch ship, part activates and brings up the warp menu.

The issue with EL's disconnection after construction is caused by incomplete initialization of the freshly spawned parts. This is a bug I need to look into (thanks to attosecond for telling me where to start).

[Gryphorim]

Ah, fair enough. I was just thinking from the perspective that a ship built in orbit would probably be built from an airlock/docking port, and expand from there, allowing interior work to be carried out and pressurised compartments to be brought online incrementally, whilst external features are added through EVA construction. Also, from an ingame perspective, bases could be built with the aforementioned ports on the sides of a hub, and additional modules and such built "from the inside out", spawned directly onto nodes of the hub module (provided the appropriate parts are available.) Not trying to challange your direction, just brainstorming alternative concepts.

[taniwha]

That sounds like where attosecond wants to go with Orbtial Manufacturing.

[taniwha]

Good news: I've just pushed a fix to the release bug

Unfortunately, with the good news comes some bad news: I've discovered that struts (and I assume fuel lines) on vessels built from sub-assemblies break, but all is not lost: I already have a plan for fixing them, but I need to get some sleep. Once I get those sorted out, I think I'll do a mini release (dll only).

[TimMartland]

I think that, as its under new management, EL Is due for a reskin. Personally I think you should make it closer to stock textures and add some smaller pads for rovers n stuff that can fold away and be moved around easy, but that's just my opinion XD

[BigD145]

The bulkiness of the pads and everything are part of the challenge. It shouldn't be easy to set up off planet. If you want it to be easy just use hyperedit.

[TimMartland]

The bulkiness of the pads and everything are part of the challenge. It shouldn't be easy to set up off planet. If you want it to be easy just use hyperedit.

What I meant was their should be small pads that can only build tiny ships like rovers, as well as medium and large ones. Woul help limit construction so you don't just get to launch huge monster rockets from wherever.

[taniwha]

While making construction take time would be a nice addition, I'm not so sure about size limits. For one, size limits are already taken care of by the need to have the required resources on hand. That 2kt rocket has about 1.8kt of fuel (that's a lot of kethane refining) and about 200t of rocket parts (400m³ (160000u) is a lot and will take a lot of mining, smelting and manufacture. Building monster ships requires monster infrastructure, to which the pad is peanuts in comparison.

I actually thought long and hard about size limits while making the model for the orbital construction dock. I was considering what sort of machinery to put into the dock when I realized the dock doesn't do the construction (kerbals do, even if remotely), but rather it acts merely as an anchor point for the ship under construction. Same for the pads and landed construction. Whit that in mind, size limits make little sense.

That said, requiring X kerbals (or better, kerbal-days) for Y tons (dry) of craft makes perfect sense. Those that use life support mods then need even more infrastructure to get things done .

Actually, with the release mechanism on the orbital docks, making the new vessel unreleasable until the construction time has passed would be easy. I could do similar for pads (ie, lock them to the pad until the time elapses).

However, first: bugs.

Edited June 11, 2015 by taniwha

[NotCoach]

While making construction take time would be a nice addition, I'm not so sure about size limits. For one, size limits are already taken care of by the need to have the required resources on hand. That 2kt rocket has about 1.8kt of fuel (that's a lot of kethane refining) and about 200t of rocket parts (400m^{3 (160000u) is a lot and will take a lot of mining, smelting and manufacture. Building monster ships requires monster infrastructure, to which the pad is peanuts in comparison.}

^{I actually thought long and hard about size limits while making the model for the orbital construction dock. I was considering what sort of machinery to put into the dock when I realized the dock doesn't do the construction (kerbals do, even if remotely), but rather it acts merely as an anchor point for the ship under construction. Same for the pads and landed construction. Whit that in mind, size limits make little sense.}

^{That said, requiring X kerbals (or better, kerbal-days) for Y tons (dry) of craft makes perfect sense. Those that use life support mods then need even more infrastructure to get things done .}

^{Actually, with the release mechanism on the orbital docks, making the new vessel unreleasable until the construction time has passed would be easy. I could do similar for pads (ie, lock them to the pad until the time elapses).}

^{However, first: bugs.}

^{I'd like to see queued ships. I don't see the point of warehousing gigantic quantities parts for very large ships of when the parts are made on sight. I think a nice feature would be the ability to queue a ship that needs more parts then you have warehoused, and and new parts made are automatically applied to the ship waiting in the queue. Nobody builds very large anything with all the parts on hand first IRL. And with part fabrication on sight the warehouse should never be a limit to ship size.}