[1.12] Extraplanetary Launchpads v6.99.3

[Kaa253]

Is there a way to recycle parts in orbit for the orbital construction dock? I would like to tow all the spent staging rockets to the construction station and reused the rocket parts, rather than de-orbit them. Or could I put a recycling bin on a space tug and just get really close to a spent rocket?

Yes. You can do both a recycling bin mounted on your orbital construction station or on a space tug. You will need sufficient empty rocket parts storage tank space of course. Just maneuver any part of the spent stage into the mouth of the recycling bin and activate it. I generally try to poke an antenna into the recycle bin, that works well. (I use the RemoteTech 2 mod so all my craft have a bunch of antenna). If you normally use MechJeb for docking operations then you can place a command pod or a docking port directly behind the recycle bin and use that as "docking" target.

[techno65535]

I do have Kethane, but you just reminded me of a recent update where he changed the name of the plugin from MMI_Kethane.dll to Kethane.dll. Probably what's causing it. Gonna add the dummy plugin file back in to check if that will fix it.

Edit: Nope. The dummy plugin file didn't help and I'm gonna guess it's the EPLP plugin that's looking for the Kethane plugin and not a config file somewhere.

Edited January 14, 2014 by techno65535

[likke_A_boss]

Man, I get really excited everytime I see a new post in this thread, can't wait for the new not-hex cans storage.

[Kass]

I do have Kethane, but you just reminded me of a recent update where he changed the name of the plugin from MMI_Kethane.dll to Kethane.dll. Probably what's causing it. Gonna add the dummy plugin file back in to check if that will fix it.

Edit: Nope. The dummy plugin file didn't help and I'm gonna guess it's the EPLP plugin that's looking for the Kethane plugin and not a config file somewhere.

Bah, well that is a PITA.

[techno65535]

Just tried renaming the Kethane.dll to MMI_Kethane.dll but still same issue. It used to work as it should, at least before I updated Kethane.

[taniwha]

Sorry, school's back in (as such: I teach), and I'm plowing my way through the Extra Credits series, so comms will be a little intermittent.

• Yup, sure enough, EL looks for MMI_Kethane... fix will be in the next update (which should be soon).
  
• Models are ugly... I ain't go no time for that stuff (currently).
  
• Recycling in orbit: yup, works, though you will get very strange results if the recycled ship is the currently active one (it seems to stop dead, with the station flying off, but actually doesn't exist. apparently harmless). Already fixed for the next release.
  
• Docking ports and launchpad 2... yup. Caused by skykooler attempting to make it easy to land on the pad. Again, fixed (but without losing what appears to be his intended feature, he just suffered from some unintended consequences).
  
• Um... did I miss anything?
  

So yeah, new version coming up soon (I expect this week, just need some time for some more testing). It will include Aeon's new tanks and maybe his smelter (I'm pondering balancing issues: 10ku/s EC? That's a lot of kethane generators), lots of fixes, many bugs fixed (so long as you don't have launch clamps, exploding ships should be history), and even some new features , though nothing major at this stage.

Edited January 14, 2014 by taniwha

[Ralathon]

Sorry, school's back in (as such: I teach), and I'm plowing my way through the Extra Credits series, so comms will be a little intermittent.

• Yup, sure enough, EL looks for MMI_Kethane... fix will be in the next update (which should be soon).
  
• Models are ugly... I ain't go no time for that stuff (currently).
  
• Recycling in orbit: yup, works, though you will get very strange results if the recycled ship is the currently active one (it seems to stop dead, with the station flying off, but actually doesn't exist. apparently harmless). Already fixed for the next release.
  
• Docking ports and launchpad 2... yup. Caused by skykooler attempting to make it easy to land on the pad. Again, fixed (but without losing what appears to be his intended feature, he just suffered from some unintended consequences).
  
• Um... did I miss anything?
  

So yeah, new version coming up soon (I expect this week, just need some time for some more testing). It will include Aeon's new tanks and maybe his smelter (I'm pondering balancing issues: 10ku/s EC? That's a lot of kethane generators), lots of fixes, many bugs fixed (so long as you don't have launch clamps, exploding ships should be history), and even some new features , though nothing major at this stage.

Good to hear. I would suggest just cutting down the Ec consumption on the smelter by a factor 50 and maybe tweak metal production a bit. In a vacuum your smelter will be pretty well insulated, so the only energy you really need to add is to melt the ore that goes in. You could probably calculate how much you need exactly. But to be honest, this is a game. If realistic values aren't fun you can always tweak them to something more/less challenging or tedious. You can handwave it by saying you have a very efficient heat exchanger on the ore feed from the molten metal output or something.

[boberts314]

[*]Yup, sure enough, EL looks for MMI_Kethane... fix will be in the next update (which should be soon).

Woops. In that case my own EPL install is probably operating on cheat mode, too. I'm still tooling around with getting to the Mun so I wouldn't have noticed yet.

Looking forward to the update then, it sounds promising.

[Vladthemad]

It seems as if the spawn height of spawned craft is centered on it's master-module (first part built) and not on its lowest part..

YOU SIR ARE A GENIUS!!!! I just tested this by building from the ground instead of the top down and my problems are solved! Thank you!!!

exploding ships should be history

But I just figured out how to work around it with Rotary's help! Hahaha....

Edit: I spoke too soon...after placing a box below my rover to lift the tires off the launchpad, it worked the first few times. Since then, after building a new rover with RCS it keeps ESPLODE'N...I'm checking into this...I watched some of the things I built, and they are clipping through the landing pad when I build them. Just a bit, but I think that's whats causing the explosions and sending everything into low Minimus orbit. Seriously, that's how high things are being thrown!

Edit 2: Tested a bit, this seems to be a problem with the X shaped launch pad only. Also using stability enhancers just cause the pad to explode as it's pushed through the ground instead of everything being thrown into the air. With launch pad 2 (testing only on Kerbin) no problems found as long as I didn't use stability enhancers. I know you're working on this, but I thought the info might help.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Vladthemad

[Vladthemad]

I do have Kethane, but you just reminded me of a recent update where he changed the name of the plugin from MMI_Kethane.dll to Kethane.dll. Probably what's causing it. Gonna add the dummy plugin file back in to check if that will fix it.

Edit: Nope. The dummy plugin file didn't help and I'm gonna guess it's the EPLP plugin that's looking for the Kethane plugin and not a config file somewhere.

I can confirm, doesn't appear to use parts with the new Kethane update. Any chance for a quick fix?

Also, has anyone else noticed that the Landing Pad 2 seems to have attachment points that are meters away from the actual part? When I place it in the VAB, I can see an attachment point off to the far right and another well ahead of he part. What's the purpose of these?

Edited January 15, 2014 by Vladthemad

[skykooler]

Sorry, school's back in (as such: I teach), and I'm plowing my way through the Extra Credits series, so comms will be a little intermittent.

• Yup, sure enough, EL looks for MMI_Kethane... fix will be in the next update (which should be soon).
  
• Models are ugly... I ain't go no time for that stuff (currently).
  
• Recycling in orbit: yup, works, though you will get very strange results if the recycled ship is the currently active one (it seems to stop dead, with the station flying off, but actually doesn't exist. apparently harmless). Already fixed for the next release.
  
• Docking ports and launchpad 2... yup. Caused by skykooler attempting to make it easy to land on the pad. Again, fixed (but without losing what appears to be his intended feature, he just suffered from some unintended consequences).
  
• Um... did I miss anything?
  

So yeah, new version coming up soon (I expect this week, just need some time for some more testing). It will include Aeon's new tanks and maybe his smelter (I'm pondering balancing issues: 10ku/s EC? That's a lot of kethane generators), lots of fixes, many bugs fixed (so long as you don't have launch clamps, exploding ships should be history), and even some new features , though nothing major at this stage.

I thought that it looked for presence of the Kethane resource instead?

[taniwha]

I've released v3.7 of Extraplanetary Launchpads. Links and all in the first post.

I decided to release now as many people are suffering various bugs rather than delay further.

Changes from 3.6:

• All EL resources are now tweakable (I meant to do this for the previous release, but forgot to do so. Sorry).
  
• Landed builds now use the same mechanism as orbital builds, but the new ship is released automatically. This should eliminate exploding ships, but does not guarantee stability.
  
• The recycler PartModule has been renamed to ExRecycler (shouldn't cause problems except for third-party parts (are there any?).
  
• Build resources info panel. No more guessing how much RocketParts resource will be needed.
  
• Optional toolbar support for the info panel.
  
• Launchpad2's NRE spam triggered by docking ports in the vicinity has been fixed. Instead of lying about being a docking port (which it is not), it's now a "targetable" object.
  
• Recycling bins can be set as target, too.
  
• New parts from Aeon-Phoenix (just his tanks for now). Many thanks.
  
• Add Hyratel's welded RocketParts hexcans. Seven times the storage for the same parts count cost.
  
• Kerbals on board recycled ships get recycled too (before, they just died).
  
• Kethane detection fixed for the latest version.
  

Known issues:

• LiquidFuel/Oxidizer link broken. JetFuel is gone.
  
• Focus transition on active ship being recycled is rather jarring.
  
• Launch clamps are a recipe for explosions.
  

[edit]Forgot to mention launch clamps

Edited January 15, 2014 by taniwha

[Superfluous J]

Much appreciated, and just in time! I'm on the cusp of starting my ELP endeavors in my Let's Play series

[Jivaii]

Well, crossing my fingers that this works, since I have a 2,600 ton craft just waiting to be built in orbit. (I've given up on considering launching the bloody thing, it's over 100 meters in length)

[bulletrhli]

Well, crossing my fingers that this works, since I have a 2,600 ton craft just waiting to be built in orbit. (I've given up on considering launching the bloody thing, it's over 100 meters in length)

Good luck. I havent used this mod before but I am considering giving it a try.

[Jivaii]

Good luck. I havent used this mod before but I am considering giving it a try.

If it doesn't work with EL, I'll try to find Orbital Construction again.

[Ambulatory Cortex]

[*]LiquidFuel/Oxidizer link broken. JetFuel is gone.

What do you mean by this?

[boberts314]

What do you mean by this?

My best guess is that it had previously been impossible to load liquidfuel without oxidizer, so there was a jetfuel slider as a workaround. LF and Oxy are separate now so the jetfuel slider is removed.

[taniwha]

The only reason JetFuel got removed is I rewrote the resource handling code and didn't get around to adding it back in. Problem is, my programming and testing time went the way of the dodo* and people needed the other fixes ASAP (or more, I felt terrible for sitting on them), so I figured it might be better to just get EL out there in its current state.

* Not completely, but even this release itself was squeezed in during a rather short break.

Anyway, the optional LF/O slider lock and the JetFuel slider probably will come back.

[Andon]

OK, so one thing I noticed the other day when I was setting up a rocketpart tank for my own use. The ugly green tanks had 20t of resources in them - so it was based on volume/density. You'd have different amounts of rocket parts, ore, or Metal in them. The new tanks have set amounts and are all the same. Is this intentional?

[Deredere]

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Thanks, Novapunch. (and B9)

[Horus]

The idea of EL as a basis for outposts building is really nice.

What it really lacks at the moment - nice models. And by "nice" I mean not only visually, but functionally.

Launchpads should really have some sort of anchoring (as it's implemented in KAS with pylons & grad hook, for instance). Sure think I can do anchoring myself with KAS help, but I think it should be kind of built-in feature. For, in low-gravity it's quite a problem as the launchpad starts wobbling under some rover built on it...

Currently, I'm using launchpad2 as it seems to me more convenient than "gargantua launchpad" or "wtf-runway". However, still have some issues with it:

- when changing focus from L2 & then get it back to L2, "show build options" menu option disappears from the menu. Need to: close L2 (when it's close, the building option appears... quite weird...) -> open it again. Quite uncomfortable when the launchpad has resources attachments to it. A workaround for this is to use action groups for "Show build options" before launching the pad.

- anything built on a launchpad somehow is marked as "*** Debris". Extremely bad when making a debris cleanup.

- still having launchpad explosions from time to time. Example: built a rover attached to stationary skycrane, detached from it (the skycrane stays where it emerged) and drove a bit away, removed by mistake as a debris... the skycrane explodes & launchpad explodes. Sweet...

In general, dealing with launchpad is like dealing with terrorists: if you do smth. we don't like - we'll explode )))

For f**k sake, why does L2 try to jump on reload?! Pisses off...

Edited January 16, 2014 by Horus

[Awesome_Guy]

is there any kind of tutorial for this.

I just downloaded it and i cant seem to get it to work. rather i have no idea what im doing

[Ralathon]

is there any kind of tutorial for this.

I just downloaded it and i cant seem to get it to work. rather i have no idea what im doing

If you installed it correctly you should have a load of new parts.

The most important parts are the Launchpad and the orbital dock. These allow you to actually build things. To build things you right click the Launchpad or orbital dock while and select "Show Build Menu". This will open a window that allows you to select one of your previously saved crafts. If you select the craft you want to build it will show you how much rocketparts, fuel, electricity etc it costs. If you agree with those costs and you have the required resources you can click build and the selected craft will spawn on the launchpad or docked to the orbital dock.

To get rocketparts you need the Kethane mod and the mining equipment that comes with this mod. (If you don't have Kethane I think it allows you to build things for free, although I am not sure on that). You first need to scan a planet from orbit using one of the scanners to find ore the same way you would locate Kethane. Land in a ore rich area and use the Augur to gather it. You then need to convert the ore to metal in the smelter part and then the metal to rocket parts with the Rocket Workshop. So the flowchart goes:

Scan from orbit

Land in Ore rich area

Mine Ore with Augur

Store Ore in a appropriate container

Smelt Ore to Metal with Smelter

Store Metal in a appropriate container

Convert Metal to Rocket Parts with the Rocket Workshop

Store Rocket parts in a appropriate container

Use Launchpad to convert Rocketparts and fuel to your saved constructions.

The Orbital Dock works pretty much the same as the Launchpad except it is intended to be used while in orbit.

As you can see it takes a lot of effort to build a base big enough to sustain this whole production chain (And preferably, also a Kethane operation to provide the fuel). You'll have to dock a lot of modules together, either via careful engineering or the KAS mod. But once you have the whole thing up and running you are going to reap some serious benefits. If you build your base on the Mun it only takes 1/7th the dV to get into orbit and there is no atmosphere to hold you back.

[Horus]

I'd suggest not to use it too much in its' current state.

The idea of the mod is splendid, but the implementation is awful.

I've spent several hours today revealing the problems:

1. NEVER rename the launchpad or change its' vessel type (it's "Base" by default).

2. Same for any command modules that were stages alongside with launchpad.

3. NEVER rename or change vessel type of anything that was assembled on a launchpad.

The above causes launchpad disappear when moving from site to center & back.

Haven't the slightest idea why it can be so. Proly, some mod can also interfere, but no idea what it can be.

UPDATE: tried a simple test on a clean updated client. The problem persists & it's somewhere around EL mod itself.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Horus
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