[PLUGIN] Surface Survey: Science for Rovers & Planes (Proof of Concept)

[a.g.]

I've seen a number of discussions in the suggestions forum about time-based science, and they mostly seem to ignore one case where the time warp counterargument doesn't apply: specifically, you can only use physics warp when moving on ground or in atmosphere. In my opinion that may make it a viable approach to reward actually flying planes and driving rovers, which currently have no in-game purpose. Thus some time ago I made this plugin, which implements a new part module that checks a number of conditions on the current velocity, and gradually generates science if appropriate.

Since I have no skill or talent in any kind of graphics design, there are no parts; instead I just use Module Manager to add the module to manned pods, EVA seats and for good measure all parts that use the Hull Camera module. The code appears to work as intended, but the science rates need tweaking for balance.

Experiments:

• Aerial Survey: Added to manned pods and intended to adequately compensate the investment of time and science points into planes, especially in the earlier part of career tree when you can't actually make useful spaceplanes. I tested this with Yargnit's tree however, so it may be too much science for stock tree. The plane must be in flight within 10 degrees of level, at subsonic speeds near ground, or lower supersonic at altitude. The science rate is different for Kerbin compared to other planets, so it hopefully does not produce an insane amount of points if you get a plane to somewhere else with atmosphere.
  
• Ground Survey: Added to EVA seats and generates science when driving around at normal rover speeds. Doesn't handle Kerbin specially, so is rather useless there. The science is stored directly in the seated kerbal.

To use, activate the experiment via the right click menu. When conditions are right it will consume electric power and store science reports in the same part. Unlike some other mods, it immediately creates the report when entering a biome, but initially it contains zero data and thus science. Over time more data is added, until the full size is reached. The baseValue of the experiment definition thus specifies how much data can be stored before you have to recover or transmit to collect more.

Since the transmit efficiency is controlled by the module generating the report, and not the experiment, the values in modules added to hullcam parts are changed so that they generate science slower, but it can be transmitted better.

Technical details:

The module requires the part to also contain either a stock ModuleScienceContainer or a KerbalSeat with a kerbal in it, because otherwise it won't have anywhere to store the science data. The intent was to keep it as simple as possible, and using the stock module to keep reports in helps with that.

Manned pods are detected by the MM config by the presense of the container module: all stock manned ones have it, and unmanned ones don't.

Files:

Downloads and source at GitHub

License: GPL

Includes the Module Manager dll, and a bit of code based on GPL code in Station Science. Previously also used a GPL function by Toadicus, but it became unneeded in 0.23.

[kiwiak]

I like this idea, taking rover with you suddenly woudl make sense... I really like it.

But how about encouraging players to drive in certain direction, instead aimpessly wandering around?

Landing near border of two biomes and visiting both during one rover survey coudl generate some extra science. Terrain in vicinity of anomalies coudl be extra rewarding too.

Edited February 24, 2014 by kiwiak

[Mekan1k]

Does this work on mods? 90% or more of my parts are mod parts...

[a.g.]

But how about encouraging players to drive in certain direction, instead aimpessly wandering around?

Landing near border of two biomes and visiting both during one rover survey coudl generate some extra science. Terrain in vicinity of anomalies coudl be extra rewarding too.

The science is biome-specific like surface samples etc, so if you visit two biomes you get to bring back twice the possible science cap. With planes I find this provides sufficient incentive (or maybe rather in-game justification) to fly around, even to the poles or the badland area, since planes are fast and you can actually reach lots of places in reasonable time, and the current per-biome report size cap is just 42 science on Kerbin. I generally wanted to keep this plugin simple, so that there are as few things that may go wrong as possible.

Does this work on mods? 90% or more of my parts are mod parts...

The MM config is based on wildcards, so any part that has ModuleCommand and ModuleScienceContainer will get aerial survey, and any KerbalSeat will get ground survey. So if your command pod can be used to store science by kerbals, it will automatically get aerial survey, etc.

[kiwiak]

What i meant is visiting two biomes in one survey woudl generate mor science than visiting them separatly.

[GeoPhizzix]

Loving this concept, and have been playing around with how something like this would work in game for sometime. However, I have no idea how to code/program/illustrate, ect. One of my thoughts/idea, called for different instruments for similar tests, one for the quick fix science points ("you see the goo dissipate in the water, here is 5 points") vs. a more advanced instrument that would be unlocked only after the initial test is ran, and requires time to generate the full yield of science ("after a week of monitoring the goo within the aquarium, you notice tiny organisms swimming in the water, here is your 20 points").

[a.g.]

What i meant is visiting two biomes in one survey woudl generate mor science than visiting them separatly.

Since this generates completely standard pure stock science reports, except for the detail of generating them over time instead of instantly, about the only thing it can do is maybe boost the science per minute generation rate if there are other reports in the container, or at most increase the single report size limit. However the science value mechanics and the total science cap are not affected by the plugin in any way and will remain the same.

[rottielover]

Nice I like it. Tried it out a little last night and works good.

Suggestion: Once "activated" add a dragable window that the user can see the display of what's being generated, instead of just putting it in the right click context menu. I was playing with a very early tech "rocket plane" and kept getting "wrong speed", it would be nice to have a display to tell me that.

[a.g.]

It was more likely the climb angle restriction: near surface any velocity between 20 and 400 m/s should produce at least some science, with 200 m/s being optimal; and the allowed speeds increase with altitude to make it easer to keep in the air (e.g. to 2.5x at 20km). However you are supposed to keep the plane in steady flight within 10 degrees of level, so that you can't easily get extra science by simply flying a rocket.

[amo28]

Tested this out last night and I gotta say -- great mod. The aerial flight had a limit of about 40 science or so -- the total flight was about 15 minutes just around KSC (using RSS).

I didn't find that to be too overpowered or cheaty. I thought it was a great use of the suborbital plane parts that I got early in the tech tree, but also a new challenge to make a good enough plane with those parts. This was definitely a good reward for that challenge.

Having a window tied to the toolbar to check that it's still generating would be a great tool -- but the popup messages that tell you when it's full or starting are good enough for me as is.

Thanks for a great mod, a.g.!

[a.g.]

Well, 42 is only the limit on one report. If you fly multiple times and visit different places, you can gather up to 112 points per biome - but a surface sample on Minmus instantly gives you 150, so I think that getting say 200-250 points for a two-hour flight to the pole and back on stock Kerbin may still be reasonable.

[kiwiak]

A.g. any progress with this mod?

Frankly said now i am much more interested in aerial aspect of your mod, because rovers has much complex mod taking care about them

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71661-0-23-PLUGIN-RoverScience-ALPHA-3-Open-for-Playtesting%21

So, planes need more love now!

[a.g.]

I don't really intend to do anything with it at the moment: for me it's fine the way it is, except maybe tuning some coefficients in the configs. The idea was to solve the problem of people with a bit of a perfectionist mindset (like myself) feeling guilty/disappointed when doing things with planes and rovers because in-game they are pointless; once the base mechanic is in, the imagination can fill the rest of the way for me at least.

It also hopefully provides a small clean example of a new way to generate science gradually for other developers, which is another reason to keep it simple I think.

[amo28]

Just thought I'd mention that this mod works without issue in 0.24 for me. Linux x64 bit.

Thanks again, a.g.