[0.23] Beastly Science - Scoop-O-Matic and more! (JAN0214)

[BeastofChicken]

Hey everyone, the part has been updated. The weight has been changed to .15 (same as the goo experiment) and the size has been reduced by 25%.

[Muka]

Future plans:

(...)

Collision detection to make sure you are hitting the ground. (right now, you can actually put the part anywhere)

(...)

You can use function ray-cast (You can find it being used in landing gear) to detect distance to the ground on part activation

[jfull]

Well, it certainly looks like something Kerbals would build for surface sampling

[Carcharhinidae]

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments! The Slurp-O-Matic idea sounds hilarious, I'm going to have to look into what it takes to make unique science ID's and see if I pull something like that off. I have a few more science parts I'm cooking up, so stay tuned.

maybe try contacting fractalUK from interstellar. I think he added a liquid chromatograph part to his mod that allows you to determine the components in a liquid ocean, perhaps he'd be willing to share how he determines if the craft is in an ocean or not.

[axelman]

Could you make it fold back into initial position ? Like in the grey prototype ? After analyzing, it just stays there, halfway deployed, and half buried if it's positioned too low ...

Otherwise (maybe it exists somewhere else) you could build some Kerbal version of the ChemCam and get a lazor arm shoot the crap of the ground to see what it's made of ... Maybe some silly toygun-ish-onna-stick design...

[celem]

determines if the craft is in an ocean or not.

That itself isnt too tricky since the game already separates splashed and landed and every ocean currently in the game is a biome (or a fake surface-only approximation of one).

Great mod, love the idea, it's going into my default catalogue, cheers!

[Frostiken]

I've got an idea - what about dedicated liquid sampler?

- Scoop-O-Matic work only on solid ground,

- "Slurp-O-Matic" works only in ocean biomes

- idea for model: Same as Scoop-o-Matic, but "mouth" is always closed and holds a pink bendy straw

I'd rather not see 'joke' parts.

I'm not sure on the weight issue right now. I'm contemplating making it weigh the same as the Mystery Goo container, mostly for gameplay purposes of being able to balance the two parts with each other on opposite sides of a craft. Not the most realistic weight imo, but it might make the most sense for the game.

With the size, yeah I'm going to be making it smaller, at least for now until I get a second digger. I'd like to make a smaller Scoop-O-Matic Jr. that would fit well on small rovers.

Problem is the goo container is stupidly underweight to begin with...

[Gaius]

Problem is the goo container is stupidly underweight to begin with...

What a bizarre comment. You know what the Mystery Goo is? You know it's density? You know how much of it is in the container, vs. other space and materials in the experiment? I'm wondering how you determined 150kg is "stupidly underweight"? It has more than a quarter of the weight of an FL-T100 fuel tank, while having less than a quarter of its volume, and we know from what we see when the door opens that it's not completely filled with goo. So we know the goo is more dense than fuel, but how much more? Without knowing that, we don't know if it's underweight or, as it would otherwise seem, actually a bit too heavy for what it is.

150kg for a small robotic arm with a scoop at the end is stupidly overweight. The entire Curiosity rover, larger robotic arm and all, only weighs 899kg. A single smaller robotic arm with a scoop on the end weighing 150kg is utter madness. A simple little experiment like this one weighing over 20kg is just silliness in the extreme... Kerbals will be kerbals, but at some level of incompetence, someone needs to be fired and a competent engineer hired to who knows how to build a pole with a scoop at the end out of something other than spent uranium.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Gaius

[Frostiken]

What a bizarre comment. You know what the Mystery Goo is? You know it's density? You know how much of it is in the container, vs. other space and materials in the experiment? I'm wondering how you determined 150kg is "stupidly underweight"? It has more than a quarter of the weight of an FL-T100 fuel tank, while having less than a quarter of its volume, and we know from what we see when the door opens that it's not completely filled with goo. So we know the goo is more dense than fuel, but how much more? Without knowing that, we don't know if it's underweight or, as it would otherwise seem, actually a bit too heavy for what it is.

150kg for a small robotic arm with a scoop at the end is stupidly overweight. The entire Curiosity rover, larger robotic arm and all, only weighs 899kg. A single smaller robotic arm with a scoop on the end weighing 150kg is utter madness. A simple little experiment like this one weighing over 20kg is just silliness in the extreme... Kerbals will be kerbals, but at some level of incompetence, someone needs to be fired and a competent engineer hired to who knows how to build a pole with a scoop at the end out of something other than spent uranium.

I would expect nothing less from someone named 'Gaius'.

[6.forty]

150kg for a small robotic arm with a scoop at the end is stupidly overweight.

What a bizarre comment. You know what the scoop is made of? You know the material's density? Things etc. and such. Tungsten is quite dense and I could believe Kerbals making the arm and scoop from tungsten hoping that it could be used to get a sample from Kerbol itself.

I love this mod. It gives more (and much needed IMO) purpose to unmanned probes and rovers.

[BeastofChicken]

Glad to know you guys are enjoying the mod. I'll be releasing an additional part (Kerbal Kam) near at the end of this week (hopefully) that will allow for EVA reports and crew reports. It'll fit well on top of rovers.

[Kinglet]

The example picture is quite derpy. "Fun to play with using a surface sampler".

[Voidi]

I like the idea of the mod, but with the to parts, there will be no need for a manned capsule. i would better if the science with these robotic parts have a different (lower) value the with real Kerbals

[biohazard15]

Glad to know you guys are enjoying the mod. I'll be releasing an additional part (Kerbal Kam) near at the end of this week (hopefully) that will allow for EVA reports and crew reports. It'll fit well on top of rovers.

I think that EVA and IVA (crew) reports should be left to Kerbals only. The Kerbal Kam is a good idea for another Science part wit its own experiment (probe report)

[DasBananenbrot]

Glad to know you guys are enjoying the mod. I'll be releasing an additional part (Kerbal Kam) near at the end of this week (hopefully) that will allow for EVA reports and crew reports. It'll fit well on top of rovers.

Well it is the question, who is faster now I suppose xD http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/64336-Probodobodyne-MastCam%E2%84%A2-Remote-Crew-Reports

[DomDiaemus]

Superb mod.

But is there a chance of reducing its size somewhere between 25-50%? Because it looks oversize for a small probe (FL-T200 Fuel tank size) packed with scientific instruments, solar panels and landing gear. Many thanks

[FlexGunship]

Could this be a "stow-able" part? Perhaps the actual part could be a surface-mount hatch and, when triggered, it opens and the scoop comes out? I only suggest this because of the relative size of the component.

Honestly, though, this is brilliant.

[cpottinger]

Terrific!

I just found out about this when I saw the new MastCam addon (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/64336-Probodobodyne-MastCam%E2%84%A2-Remote-Crew-Reports).

Just in time for my first 0.23 unmanned explorers.

Edited January 2, 2014 by cpottinger

[DomDiaemus]

Superb mod.

But is there a chance of reducing its size somewhere between 25-50%? Because it looks oversize for a small probe (FL-T200 Fuel tank size) packed with scientific instruments, solar panels and landing gear. Many thanks

[RemoTec] Mariner II - 1st Mun landing

I'm going to have some trouble fitting that arm on this rover... if possible a 2nd arm but smaller then great

[BeastofChicken]

Hey everyone, I've updated the first post. I've added the Kerbal Kam, and also the Scoop-O-Matic Jr.

I've kept it to just Crew Reports, to still give manned missions an edge. The crew report can only be generated once before you have to clean the part. It also gives less science per transmission.

Also a note about the Kerbal Kam, the attachment node is rotated incorrectly, and for some reason I'm having trouble correcting it. I'll get it fixed probably tomorrow, but in the mean time, just rotate the part until it fits on there nicely.

[BeastofChicken]

Could this be a "stow-able" part? Perhaps the actual part could be a surface-mount hatch and, when triggered, it opens and the scoop comes out? I only suggest this because of the relative size of the component.

Honestly, though, this is brilliant.

Right now to save time, I just made a smaller one, but next week I plan on making a new model for the Scoop-O-Matic Jr, that will fit more inline with the rover body model. It'll be a stowaway thing that pops out when in use.

[BeastofChicken]

Hey everyone, I've updated the part again. The Kerbal Kam was generating surface sample reports, instead of crew reports. It's fixed now. :|

[CaptRobau]

Great mod. I'm really impressed by the stockness of the modelling. Do have a few suggestions though.

-The bright colors of the Scoop-o-Matics don't match well with the stock parts. A light blue or pale yellow would make it fit in better.

-The Kerbal Kam would look better on tight probes if its not-in-use state would be more compact. Juts out too much at the moment.

-The Scoop-o-Matics and the Kerbal Kam when used really stick out quite a lot. Perhaps you could have the Scoop-o-Matics' jaws be open when clean and closed when full. That way it could retract after getting the surface sample but still look different enough to indicate its state. The Kerbal Kam could also retract, but for example when clean it'd have a lens cover in place and when full it'd be open.

-The descriptions of the EVA reports fit the Kerbal Kam's use as a lander/rover camera much better. Perhaps it'd be a better fit than the Crew Report.

Edited January 3, 2014 by CaptRobau

[BeastofChicken]

Some very good suggestions, I appreciate it.

Yeah, the colors are a bit bright. The Jr. is purple right now for example, but that will change once I get a new model for it, it'll look very similar to the Kam in appearance to match the style of the rover body.

Some good points on the models sticking out, and the states they are in when used/unused, I'll take those into consideration when I do another pass on them all. Keeping the Jaw open when it's clean would be really good, especially if I bring the scooper back into normal position when its been used.

I've been going back and forth on Crew Reports and EVA... still not sure which one to use for good. Ideally, I'd actually like to create another report entirely, but I haven't had the time to do it. At higher tech levels I was also thinking of adding in thermal imaging and other experiments into the camera.

[CaptRobau]

The problem with doing a separate report is that you're unbalancing the game by adding more science to the universe. Unmanned parts doing EVA reports or crew reports (with limits) only adds different ways of getting the same science.