[1.0.x; Part, Plugin] parameciumkid's Jump Drive 0.6 (compatibility update)

[alfalfa140]

I remember there use to be a mod like this in 0.17, which was one of my favourite early mods, though i over used it i feel...

I found it on spaceport, as I too thought of it when I saw this thread. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/hyperjump-system/

I also abused it slightly by just flying massive ships to 2 KM and warping them into orbit XD.

[frizzank]

how about looking into this

the Mass Relay

Mass Relay is intended to be more of a Mass Effect/ Stargate style of travel. This one has no need for an entrance gate, only an exit point. I would be sad if it was exactly the same I worked hard on those models....

[The Destroyer]

Suggestion: Like an old mod that used to exist, allow a limit depending on how much you've sent there before. If you sent 10 tons of ship there before, then you may only warp 10 tons. That way you couldn't put a 1 ton probe there and warp a 100 ton mothership there.

[TJBombard]

xD I didn't change any of the code at all (as far as I know)... glad it worked though ^^

Maybe there had been an error in ZIP compression before...

Actually, as it turns out I discovered what I was apparently doing wrong. I didn't realize that the craft had to be on stage 0 for the drive to work, before knowing this I would put it on a craft with parachutes for landing on Eve so I wouldn't stage all the way to stage 0 so the drive wouldn't work.

Basically I wasn't using it properly.

[problemecium]

It has to be on stage 0? That's odd, I didn't code that... investigation time!

Also, regarding mass limitations, the final version is meant to require jump gates, which would be rather large and difficult to position. I'm bouncing around ideas for using flags as jump beacons, giving flags a functional use, but then again there aren't any space flags. So I'm also considering making a space flag.

[TJBombard]

It has to be on stage 0? That's odd, I didn't code that... investigation time!

Also, regarding mass limitations, the final version is meant to require jump gates, which would be rather large and difficult to position. I'm bouncing around ideas for using flags as jump beacons, giving flags a functional use, but then again there aren't any space flags. So I'm also considering making a space flag.

</cut previous report>

I was wrong, if you have a decoupler in place then it works just fine without going to 0. I had the Dragon 2 capsule from the LazTek Space X pack docked on launch with the Hyperdrive unit so that I could undock, land on a planet and redock to hyperjump back to Kerbin with science. If you have a decoupler in place it works fine so far.

Edited January 31, 2014 by TJBombard
More information

[Mekan1k]

Any new progress?

Oh, and could you make the config file settings be how you set the charging-to-warp time?

It might make debugging easier.

[Mekan1k]

I hope this mod does not die- I really liked the concept behind it.

[problemecium]

Not dead! I've spent the last few days actually playing KSP instead of working on my mod ^^;

Anyway, posting today because I have a preliminary version of the "Jump Gate" working:

The jump drive now scans the universe for ships that contain a jump gate module (I haven't checked yet but this probably will take a while if you have a bunch of giant ships everywhere). Currently you can still jump anywhere you want, but it'll at least hint at where you're supposed to be able to jump.

No, I haven't changed the download yet! I have to make sure it isn't broken first.

Oh! P.S.: It works on the launchpad now. I kind of liked having to launch it into space first, but it turned out that bug, which actually turned out to be a bug, was causing other problems like not being able to jump without first having staged the rocket. Apparently parts don't activate their modules / allow resource transfer until they've been "activated" via staging - or force-activated from code, as I now have it.

Edited February 6, 2014 by parameciumkid

[problemecium]

Update bump.

I've updated the download to a new version. There are now two more parts, the "Jump Beacon" and "Jump Pad". The Beacon is intended to become a space-based jump gate (stargate?), while the Pad is eventually going to be like a beaming pad that works on the ground. They now have configurable precision, so you're less likely to end up a kilometer underground when you jump onto a pad (I still wouldn't trust it though), but at the same time won't end up embedded inside a stargate. The drive itself not only scans the universe for valid targets, but no longer feels the need to rescan every frame and hurt the game's performance. I've also made a few tweaks to the charging sequence, so the drive doesn't give itself free energy, and as mentioned above it should be a lot more reliable.

[Mekan1k]

Now... I will test it to see if it can work with the rest of the mods I use.

IT WORKS!

Now it needs an animation, and to not get so damn heavy when it charges.

Oh, and it does not work if you try to jump from a solar escape path to kerbin's sphere of influence.

Another thing- when firing the drive, it drains the craft of all electricity. ALL OF IT.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Mekan1k

[Mekan1k]

Just a little thing I did when I was testing the jumpdrive.

(if you are interested, it uses ALL YOUR ELECTRIC POWER, and only works in same SOI)

To test it- I built a torch-ship!

(Disclamer- it did not accelerate the whole way anywhere, but it could accelerate at 7.5gs, so it was a bit overpowered.)

Kerbin to duna- 6 days 4 hours.

For amiance, listen to this

while reading.

on aerobreaking approach

This is the ship, the beautiful "Parasitic Hyena"

14 km/s orbit speed. You don't want to know the speed I was relative to the ground.

Note: Periapsis is at 7 km. I really hope I have enough speed, or I am going to plough a crater into duna...

Ground's coming up fast...

Oh. There's the atmosphere.

Rather alot of fire here.

And gimbals are not enough to keep it from flipping.

And tumbling.

Leaving the atmosphere...

And goodbye Duna!

Full throttle for course correction.

I survived, and now... To Jool and a slingshot out of the system!

(Interception in 79 days.)

....

79 days later... Jool is in sight.

Just an idea of what the trajectory is on the map.

Jool is coming up very fast...

Speed is rather high...

Nice shot of laythe

Jool is getting big...

Speed at 10 km/sec

Had to boost because my periapsis suddenly dropped into the planet- speed upon entering: 20 km/s

Hitting the atmosphere was like hitting several walls though a wall factory- 20 g of deceleration for several seconds.

And tumbling. Again.

Also on fire.

And now leaving jool.

Sort of...

With it's speed halved, the Hyena is on an escape trajectory "up" Out of the kerbal system.

Time to test the Jump-Drive!

I left a beacon-equipped station in Kerbin orbit, and I planned this so that the station and ship have a clean line-of-sight for the travel.

Almost ready!!!

Nothing happened. And my only fuel source- electric charge- got drained completely.

Oh, and my trajectory? It is now the direction I was pointing, at the speed I was going- so escape velocity out and away from the sun.

It took a 5-minute burn to set the orbit so it would orbit back to kerbol.

[problemecium]

Hmmm, so it doesn't work on escape trajectories. I do admit, I only ever tested it with landed and orbiting ships, but there may indeed be a loophole in my script that makes it fail on escape trajectories. Could you maybe post your KSP.log and see if it threw any errors?

Also, I made it drain all your charge on purpose for balancing reasons. The excuse is that "we have no known way of transporting electric charge through hyperspace, as it isn't a form of matter". Or something. But thanks for noticing anyway

[Mekan1k]

It does not work if you leave the kerbin soi.

[Maikie_G]

I did a few tests with hyperedit and I jumped from falling through Kerbin's atmosphere to Duna orbit without any incident.

The concept of this mod is obviously pretty cool. I especially like the part where the orbital beacon is named after the cynosural field generator from EVE online.

I have a few feature suggestions that might help make usage of this a little more challenging.

- If the jump beacon needed to be powered to jump to it might add some challenge to designing the beacon crafts.

- If both the jump drive and the jump beacons had a cooldown time of several days to several weeks after a jump it might make mission planning an issue for people using life support mods of any sort.

- Give the beacons and/or the drives a random chance (a very small one, obviously) of breaking down, after which they can no longer be used.

- Insert a random chance of accidentally jumping to the wrong beacon. (Especially cool if the chance could be decreased by having more intelligent kerbals on board, although that might be too hard to realize... )

- Make the beacons require a kerbal on board to operate.

Just a few ideas, feel free to call them bad ones.

Keep up the good work.

[problemecium]

I was thinking the same thing regarding powering the beacon actually. In fact I'm thinking of using the same "Jump Charge" in the gates, which would not be consumed but would need to be at 100% for the gate to function.

P.S.: I ran some tests and it seems to work fine for me in any SOI, even on escape trajectories. I tried putting it in an escape path from Kerbol and jumping to a ship orbiting Dres, and everything went along fine (although I did end up a few kilometers away, probably the Kraken's fault).

EDIT: Never mind. It seems to sometimes work and sometimes derp out completely. I got it to work a couple times in different SOIs, including the Sun's, and on escape trajectories from Kerbin and Eve, but it seems when I jump while orbiting far from the Sun that it causes problems. One time the ship broke, leaving poor Bob to float in space in just a cupola, and another time the drive actually warped another ship along with me, which hasn't ever happened before.

Edited February 8, 2014 by parameciumkid

[problemecium]

Update bump!

I did a few more optimizations and also fixed the escape trajectory bug. Turns out there's this weird thing in KSP called an "OrbitDriver" whose job is apparently to feed ships to the Kraken, and I had to address that with a few extra lines of code.

There's now a new ZIP file including another flag and an improved ReadMe with instructions!

[problemecium]

Update bump again. I've added a safety rail to keep foolish Kerbals from killing themselves, and the model now has an emissive texture. Oh, and it's shinier now.

[CoffeeSE]

Gotta try this, sounds great! I'm gonna go make some Stargates now...

[problemecium]

Another bump, yes, but a necessary warning - there's a weeeeird texture bug occurring that insists on making the rings inside the drive an odd pearly silver color. I'm having trouble resolving it.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

I see your texture ring issue and I note a problem of a different sort with the Jump Drive.

The model seems to be messed up. (Clips through the surface, doesn't let me place components on it, and doesn't allow me to right click on it.) I'm going to try swapping it out with the model from the beacon to see if it behaves.

EDIT:

Yeah, something's wrong with the Jump Drive model. The file size is less than half the size of the Beacon Model (which is otherwise the exact same thing.) And it worked nicely when I model swapped.

Edited February 23, 2014 by AdmiralTigerclaw

[CoffeeSE]

Would it be possible to modify the plugin so that a ship equipped with a jump drive has to be within a certain distance of say, a "hyperspace beacon" to initiate a jump? And only able to jump to another similar "hyperspace beacon"? It'd be neat in that the player has to set up a relay network across the system where the player can only jump from beacon to beacon. Not just anywhere to a beacon.

[problemecium]

Indeed, I actually noticed the same model problem myself. I'm starting to wonder if something went wrong with my PartTools. I definitely put a collider on it in Unity, but it still doesn't show in the game and nothing I do fixes the texture bug. I'm still investigating.

[CalculusWarrior]

I'm afraid that I am suffering from the same bug. The model is very pretty, but I cannot move it around after its been placed inside the VAB, nor right-click on it in flight. Hopefully you can get it fixed, I am looking forward to warping my kerbals all around the system!

[JonoRig]

Then i retract my statement, i obviously missed some pages, as i thought i was up to date on this thread

Edited February 23, 2014 by JonoRig