[1.8.x] DMagic Orbital Science: New Science Parts [v1.4.3] [11/2/2019]

[DMagic]

Version 1.2 is out; get it on SpaceDock.

Warning: Contracts from previous versions (anything before 1.2) will not load correctly; complete or cancel all contracts before updating - Otherwise use the Contracts tab of the Alt+F12

This version adds three new related parts and a new contract type that uses those parts. It also, as the warning above implies, makes many changes to how existing contracts save and load data, unfortunately breaks existing contracts, but should not affect any other active, offered, or completed contracts.

There are lots of behind-the-scenes changes in this update, so I'm looking for any new bugs that show up in old systems, new or old bugs for the seismic sensors, and any bugs with the new parts.

See below for the complete change log; here are some of the updates.

Thanks to @Dragon01 for the suggestions and feedback that led to these parts and new contract type.

Three new large science parts:

• 1.25m, single-camera telescope
• 2.5m, dual-camera telescope
• Grossly over-sized radio signals intelligence dish
• All based on real-world surveillance satellites

New contract type

• Asks for one of the new parts
• Similar to magnetic field surveys; long mission duration
• Asks for a specific orbit using the stock orbit parameter
• Is a prerequisite for anomaly survey contracts
• Focused more on Funds rewards, rather the Science-focused magnetic field surveys

Extensive new contract configuration options

• Based on the stock Contract config file
• Adjust rewards for all contract types
• Adjust numerous parameters for each contract type
  • Limit of active contracts
  • Number of science reports requested
  • Specific parts asked for
  • Duration of contracts
  • Many more

Fixes for seismic sensor parts

• Removed minimum distance check for seismic hammer
• Fixed most cases where the hammer pushes through the surface and fails the distance check
• Reduced the size, cost, mass, and decouple strength for the seismic sensor pod; increase its crash tolerance

The RPWS was moved in the tech tree so that the wait for magnetic survey contracts isn't so long, and its science reports made slightly less valuable

 

Some images of the new parts:

 

Changes:

Spoiler

v1.2
- Added three new parts based on orbital reconnaissance satellites
   - All parts have pseudo-biome support; northern and southern hemispheres
   - Each part conducts an anomaly scan of the planet; used for anomaly contracts and the anomaly instrument

- Single-Camera small recon satellite
   - 1.25m telescope
   - Two film canisters
   
- Two-camera stereo recon satellite
   - 2.5m telescope
   - Four film canisters
   
- Radio signals intelligence dish
   - 2.5m instrument; expands to 3m in the center
   - ~100m diameter radio dish
   - Dish cannot be retracted
   - Dish will break if open in the atmosphere
   - These settings can be altered in the part config file
   - Fully re-usable
   
- New recon contracts
   - Contracts ask for a specific recon part and a specific orbit
   - Contracts are long-term, using the same system as magnetic survey contracts
   - Anomaly contracts are dependent on new recon contracts
   
- Overhaul of all contracts
   - Existing contracts will not load correctly and will not be able to complete
      - Use the Contract tab in the Alt+F12 menu to force contracts to complete
   - Extensive contract configuration options
   - Contract config file found in GameData/DMagicOrbitalScience/Resources/DMContracts.cfg
   - Config file based on the stock contract config file
   
- Fixes for seismic sensor parts
   - Seismic impact hammer no longer makes a minimum distance check
   - Impact hammer collider removed; no longer a threat of catapulting your vessel
   - Seismic sensor pod crash tolerance increased; decouple strength lowered
   - Seismic sensor pod cost, mass and size reduced
   - Seismic settings found in GameData/DMagicOrbitalScience/Resources/DMSeismicSettings.cfg
   
- Fix scaling issues for all parts
- New science results text for new parts
- New science results text for OPM planets for all parts

 

 

Edited March 4, 2016 by DMagic

[Wren]

Wow!

 

I always like new science things to do.

[eberkain]

AWESOME!

[Svm420]

Great update to the greatest science mod. Always showing what science experiments should have been! I am curious are any of the new experiments based around MOL? Seems at least similar.  Thanks again  

[DMagic]

@Svm420

The two telescopes are modeled after the KH-7 Gambit, and the KH-9 Hexagon satellites, which the NRO has been very open about recently.

The radio dish is based on the Magnum/Mentor/Orion series of satellites, which the NRO and CIA have been a bit less open about. Some of the these satellites were launched on classified shuttle missions; later launches have used the Delta-IV Heavy (which has also been used for several KH-11/Hubble-type satellites) and Titan IV rockets, since those are the only options for such enormous spacecraft.

The radio dish as it's shown in my part would probably, as @Dragon01 pointed out, never actually be stable by extending it like that to the side on the end of a long boom. But I don't like the idea of having a big dish like that come out of one end or extend directly from the side. It would limit design possibilities too much and get in the way too often.

Also, those film canisters do act a bit like film return pods. If you transmit (which I rationalize by saying the parts have some limited on-board film processing capabilities) or collect data the canisters simply disappear; they will reappear if you reset the part.

Edited March 4, 2016 by DMagic

[Delta_8930]

Dat SIGINT Dish doe...

Also, a very quick question: I've used this mod along with ScanSat, and I came across a few things that said that some of the DMagic science parts could interfere with SCANSat equipment. How do they interfere with ScanSat? Can this be prevented (with a simple MM config or something like that)

[DMagic]

@Delta_8930 They don't interfere, they interact. A few parts can be used as SCANsat sensors:

• The Multi-Spectral Imaging Platform can be used as a SCANsat biome/anomaly scanner
• The Anomalous Signal Scanner can be used as a SCANsat BTDT scanner, the anomaly detail scanner
• The magnetometer can be used as an Ore scanner from very low altitudes
• A few other parts can be used as SCANsat resource scanners for Community Resource Pack resources

 

[CobaltWolf]

8 minutes ago, DMagic said:

Also, those film canisters do act a bit like film return pods. If you transmit (which I rationalize by saying the parts have some limited on-board film processing capabilities) or collect data the canisters simply disappear; they will reappear if you reset the part.

How did you manage that?

[DMagic]

@CobaltWolf It's a bit of a pain, in that, it requires very specific handling for those parts, and specific handling for how the transforms that you want to remove are named.

That said, it might be feasible to add a feature like this to other plugin. It is basically an extension on how parts that allow for multiple samples already work.

Edited March 4, 2016 by DMagic

[CobaltWolf]

Just now, DMagic said:

@CobaltWolf It's a bit of a pain, in that, it requires very specific handling for those parts, and specific handling for the transforms that you want to remove are named.

That said, it might be feasible to add a feature like this to other plugin. It is basically an extension on how parts that allow for multiple samples already work.

Yeah it sounds pretty cool. It basically just amounts to showing / hiding transforms for sames, rather than playing specific animation frames, correct?

[DMagic]

@CobaltWolf Correct, the canisters don't have any animation component.

[CobaltWolf]

Just now, DMagic said:

@CobaltWolf Correct, the canisters don't have any animation component.

I'm sure if you pushed it to your generic module it would find other uses. I'm not the only person that uses it anymore.

[DMagic]

I'd also be interested in any feedback regarding the mass of the new parts and the science value. I don't have a very good sense of how heavy large parts should be, so let me know if you think they are too heavy or too light.

As for the science value, I didn't want to make full biome support for the new parts. For one thing it requires a lot of science results which I don't feel like writing. I also don't really like the idea of full biome support for orbital experiments in general. It's a hassle to collect all of the data, and extremely tedious if you aren't using Science Alert or For Science. There is an additional wrinkle when using non-repeatable experiments that require more than one sample to collect all of the science, it would require an absurd amount of trips to each planet to get all science.

That's why I went with making two pseudo-biomes per planet. It's enough so that you can't just collect a few results and be done, but it's not overwhelming. It will screw up those science helpers, they will either think you have lots of biomes to cover, or think the experiments don't use biomes, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue. At least the parts are big so right-clicking isn't quite so painful.

[JPLRepo]

@DMagic What do the telescopes do? If you like I can look at changing my TST mod to allow adaption of your telescopes for TST camera use. (currently has specific transform requirements) but been meaning to make them config file parms. And if I did that, could supply some MM configs to add TST to them. If you are interested.

[Blue_Eagle7]

I'll try the new science system tomorrow. I think one of the biggest problem of the biome-specific science report is also the shore biome that can be difficult to catch even if it's the most easy to physically see (can't remember of stock kerbin but surely on modded planets).

One question: reducing the reports avaible for planet from orbit means that the single emishere report value as been increased so the total science for planet is the same?

[smjjames]

Just now, Blue_Eagle7 said:

I'll try the new science system tomorrow. I think one of the biggest problem of the biome-specific science report is also the shore biome that can be difficult to catch even if it's the most easy to physically see (can't remember of stock kerbin but surely on modded planets).

Also that dang Craters biome on Duna

@DMagic When I read about the new experiments, I thought maybe making them repeatable so that just one ship would be needed for the Jool system for example, or for use in multiple missions. So, how would you go about using them around, say the Jool system?

[DMagic]

@JPLRepo It's just a standard science instrument, for now, I've been continuing to mull over a more complete overhaul of science collection, but that's a long-term thing.

The Telescope has transforms that would probably work for TST, the aperture is a separate transform, so depending on its rotation it could work with relatively few changes, which would be great.

@Blue_Eagle7 Thanks. The science values weren't really adjusted for two-biome vs. full-biome support, there was never a full-biome version to balance against, and the existing parts don't help much either because they are so small and light. The science results are pretty high though, even when transmitting you'l be able to get a lot from a single planet, because the data levels are high though, it does take a lot of power to transmit.

@smjjames Carry a scientist.  The radio dish is fully repeatable, but the others are something that would benefit from some extensive infrastructure when visiting distant planets.

Edited March 4, 2016 by DMagic

[Blue_Eagle7]

Thank you for the answer. I haven't played stock for a while and i get used to things like full return with transmission and different scale of power consumption

[smjjames]

What if I don't want to carry a scientist though?

[DMagic]

@Blue_Eagle7 You can always change things in the part config files. 

One thing I forgot to put in the change log is that I updated all of the parts to show the transmission % in the editor info window.

@smjjames Then suffer the consequences. 

[Matuchkin]

I really do like those parts. I do, however, suggest a re-texture. I'd like a more NASA "gold-foil" style paint scheme.

[smjjames]

Also, the giant radio dish being fragile in atmosphere? It survived re-entry just fine.

edit: Oh, I can't right click it anymore, the breakage needs to be more obvious @DMagic because it otherwise looks intact and not-broken.

Edit2: OR, my craft us out of electricity.....

Edited March 5, 2016 by smjjames

[DMagic]

@Matuchkin Not that I think highly of my own texturing skills, it's basically what I consider the bare minimum in terms of quality and it's consistent and recognizable, but I really hate the gold mesh look. I know it's what actual satellites almost invariably look like, but I've thought it just looks boring in KSP.

@smjjames Hmm. Its fragility is dependent on orientation with respect to the air stream, which I should probably change. Trying to tweak that was a real pain because it's so much trouble to test.

[Brigadier]

6 hours ago, DMagic said:

Warning: Contracts from previous versions (anything before 1.2) will not load correctly; complete or cancel all contracts before updating - Otherwise use the Contracts tab of the Alt+F12

Some I'm clear, do you mean all contracts or only those associated with previous versions of Orbital Science?  If I can finish all of my OS contracts w/o getting anymore, could I update then?

[DMagic]

@Brigadier Just contracts from Orbital Science.

Yes, if you finish all active contracts you will be fine. Contracts that are being offered when you update will be messed up, but you can wait them out or decline. 

By messed up I mean that the contract parameters will not load properly. Some of my contacts will just show no parameters, others show a few, but still won't be able to complete.

The record of finished contracts will also show contracts with no parameters. That won't affect current contracts, but it does mean that certain contracts will be offered again. For instance, only one magnetic field survey is offered for each planet per difficulty level (so a max of three per planet), that will reset and those contacts will be offered again.