[1.2.2](Dec10/16) Action Groups Extended: 250 Action Groups, in-flight editing. Now kOS/RemoteTech

[Yoshimitsu]

This might be a silly question, but is there any way to assign a key combination to an action group?

For example: ALT + 1

[Diazo]

At the moment, there is not.

That is actually a good point though, I don't think it would be that hard to implement?

I'll add it to the list to investigate, no promises on adding it though, and it would be for 2 versions from now at the earliest.

D.

[Atrius129]

@Issue selecting multiple parts? I'm not aware of anything wonky with what is currently implemented. Some people are reporting issues with the actions for selected parts not showing, but that's happening when both a single or multiple parts are selected.

I also have a "select all parts of this type" button I plan to add at some point in the next few versions, but that is not present in current version yet.

D.

I won't be around my PC for a while so no screenies, but with the current version of AGE only one part would work at a time. For instance, one of my spaceplanes used 3 rapier engines. One in back and two in symmetry on the wings. In the AGE list I could select all three engines and tell them to change propellant. It looks all fine, but when I actually try to activate the action group, ONLY the initial part that I had clicked on to make the group will use the selected action. Same with all other parts.

[Apollo13]

@Atrius129: quite odd behaviour. When I select multiple solar panels to activate/toggle, all are activated.

[Diazo]

I won't be around my PC for a while so no screenies, but with the current version of AGE only one part would work at a time. For instance, one of my spaceplanes used 3 rapier engines. One in back and two in symmetry on the wings. In the AGE list I could select all three engines and tell them to change propellant. It looks all fine, but when I actually try to activate the action group, ONLY the initial part that I had clicked on to make the group will use the selected action. Same with all other parts.

It's probably something specific to the rapier engines. Can you check if other parts are doing the same thing?

D.

[Atrius129]

It's probably something specific to the rapier engines. Can you check if other parts are doing the same thing?

D.

It will be a while before I am actually able to check this or post screens as I won't be home for a few days. But solar panels have not worked properly with action groups since 0.24(stock) for me. This could be an issue unique to me.

[Diazo]

If it's since 0.24, I'm going to blame the partModule wierdness that has been going on that my current move to the scenarioModule is supposed to fix.

I have no proof to support that, but it fits in with the theme of things not being flat out broken, but behaving oddly (wrongly) since 0.24 hit.

D.

[Tivec]

Second, be aware the current version has problems with saving data for some people due to changes made in 0.24

I can confirm that this happens. However, I only get issues with the action group names - they are still there, and the actions happen when you click the button, but the name of the group does not show. Not sure if this is what you have too, but I thought I'd let you know at least Keep up the awesome work with a great mod, this is really something that should have been in the base game from the start.

[ctbram]

Having problems I setup actions in the vab then go to launch and the names are there but there are actions associated. A simple test create a probe core and attach a communitron antenna, create a group named comms assign to alpha1, select toggle antenna. Go to the pad and the comms is in alpha1 but it's not green and it f you edit the action group there is nothing assigned!!!! This just started happening for me when I installed 1.12. I completely removed the old diazo folder. So there should be no conflicts. I don't know why it's not working anymore. If there is anything I can upload to debug please let me know.

Not Green and when I click nothing happens!!!

When I open the editor it shows toggle antenna so I do not know why its not working!!!

I did install remotetech2 but i cannot uninstall it to test without breaking my game. Other then RT2 everything is the same as it was with version 1.11 which was working.

This is doubly annoying as I cannot pick the antenna outside the vab because it keep selecting the thing the antenna is attached to. So I end up having to manually click things.

Edited August 10, 2014 by ctbram

[dzikakulka]

@ctbram - Just tested and I don't have that issue. Tho I can't trigger it by pressing '1' (don't know if that's how it's supposed to be), I can click ag on the list and it works just fine. Uhm, is that thing on your screenshot a command pod? Cause you sure need one

[Apollo13]

@ctram: it worked for me. I press the 1 key, and the antenna goes up. Press again, it goes down. I used the two same parts that you did: M-38 Unmanned Guidance System, Commutron 16 Antenna.

Looks like you definitely have another mod interfering then.

Uhm, is that thing on your screenshot a command pod? Cause you sure need one

Yes, it is: NovaPunch M-38 Unmanned Guidance System Edited August 11, 2014 by Apollo13

[ctbram]

@ctram: it worked for me. I press the 1 key, and the antenna goes up. Press again, it goes down. I used the two same parts that you did: M-38 Unmanned Guidance System, Commutron 16 Antenna.

Looks like you definitely have another mod interfering then.

http://i.imgur.com/tez16qq.jpg

Yes, it is: NovaPunch M-38 Unmanned Guidance System

It must be an incompatibility with another mod. I have reinstalled it half a dozen times so I know the mod itself is installed properly. I will do a binary search to identify the culprit and report what I find. I am suspicious of RT2 as it seems to only affect my antennas.

[ctbram]

It must be an incompatibility with another mod. I have reinstalled it half a dozen times so I know the mod itself is installed properly. I will do a binary search to identify the culprit and report what I find. I am suspicious of RT2 as it seems to only affect my antennas.

Confirmed. It appears to be a conflict with the latest re-release of RemoteTech2 v1.4.0. I ran another game folder without it and AGX works as expected. Should I place a comment over in the RT2 forum?

[JeffreyCor]

Having problems I setup actions in the vab then go to launch and the names are there but there are actions associated. A simple test create a probe core and attach a communitron antenna, create a group named comms assign to alpha1, select toggle antenna. Go to the pad and the comms is in alpha1 but it's not green and it f you edit the action group there is nothing assigned!!!! This just started happening for me when I installed 1.12. I completely removed the old diazo folder. So there should be no conflicts. I don't know why it's not working anymore. If there is anything I can upload to debug please let me know.

http://i.imgur.com/roIFjZI.png

Not Green and when I click nothing happens!!!

http://i.imgur.com/3ppY0Qw.png

When I open the editor it shows toggle antenna so I do not know why its not working!!!

http://i.imgur.com/J17VzXL.png

I did install remotetech2 but i cannot uninstall it to test without breaking my game. Other then RT2 everything is the same as it was with version 1.11 which was working.

This is doubly annoying as I cannot pick the antenna outside the vab because it keep selecting the thing the antenna is attached to. So I end up having to manually click things.

I see the problem, had the same thing until I figured it out. When using RT2 you have to use the "Toggle" action, not the "Toggle Antenna" action as you have set. Change which action is executed in your group and you should be all set.

[Diazo]

Just poking my head in to let people know I'm still around.

Been slogging through rewriting everything, I have the base code done now, I just need to add all the specific exceptions back in and finish bug hunting so I can release something stable. (Note that I am still not promising anything beyond soon, a couple of the bugs I have left to squish are quite big.)

Looking at the recent posts, I'll make a point of looking closely at the antenna's and RemoteTech to see what's going on there.

ModuleAnimateGeneric, which is the piece of code the antenna's use, already has an exception in place. It sounds like my exception and RT2's modifications to antennas are conflicting somehow.

D.

[Atrius129]

Thanks for the update. I really look forward to having a "Select all of this part" option.

[Apollo13]

Would it be possible to provide a list of all the parts, which have actions, in another window? I ask, because Action Group Manager has that function. When I can't click on a part (perhaps still covered by a fairing), I was able to select the part and its action from the AGM list.

Just a thought. I no longer use AGM, because I prefer AGE.

[Diazo]

Hmm. On a small ship, not a big deal. On bigger ships though I would have to put some thought in how to display that. Maybe tie it into the planned highlighting system somehow?

Either way, I'll add it to the list of features to look at, but it will have to wait until I get this rewrite finished.

On the status of the rewrite, I'm almost done. The only hurdle left is I need to figure out how to handle auto-saves. Everything is pretty much working otherwise, but autosave is kind of important so I need to support that before I'm ready to release the next version.

D.

[DavidHunter]

^Brilliant idea, Apollo13.

[Apollo13]

Hmm. On a small ship, not a big deal. On bigger ships though I would have to put some thought in how to display that. Maybe tie it into the planned highlighting system somehow?

Integrating into highlighting would be great, so long as the player can click to select the parts.

^Brilliant idea, Apollo13.

Thanks. But credit where credit is due. It's a function of the AGM mod. So, not my idea.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Apollo13

[JeffreyCor]

Seem to be getting lag when this is used with other mods due to the number of save checks. It looks like it is checking all 250 possible saves when opening or working with tweak widows if I'm understanding the debug log correctly. Since action groups aren't changed in the normal design screen when putting on parts and setting tweaks, would is be more efficient to do save checks in the action editing screen only rather than all times?

[Diazo]

@JefferyCor: The next version should get rid of that entirely as it does not use partModules any more. I will double check to make sure but it should no longer be an issue. Nothing in this mod actually refers to tweak windows, so I assume it is something inherent to partModules that is causing the lag.

As for that next version, I'm hopeful it might even be tonight (in a few hours), but we'll see. The last bug I have to squash is that it does not always seem to save in flight mode so it could be 5 minutes to fix, or quite a lot of work to track down.

D.

[JeffreyCor]

I was thinking it was a result of something else and not this mod itself causing it, like the tweak happened to call whatever function that also happened to spring it up making an indirect incident. I didn't even notice it until testing another mod for an author trying to track down a lag related to that one when I happened to find the entries from this one just by chance and found the lag to drop when removing AGExt for testing. Naturally I put it back in after the test. Great to hear it is happening to be fixed in the new version without even knowing there was a problem. Best way for things to happen From helping with testing I can very much appreciate how frustrating that last bug can be

[Diazo]

Ya, I'm still stuck on that "just one bug left" stage. The save in flight mode from my last post is fixed, but now I've found that unloading of parts does not work as I expect so I need to tweak that now.

So, release is still Soon.

D.

[Diazo]

Version 1.13f

edit: I released bugfixes during the day, the most recent version at this point is version 1.13f.

Version 1.13 will NOT import actions assigned in previous versions. Note that actions assigned to groups 1 through 10 will be present as I back-save to KSP for compatibility reasons, but only the actions themselves, no group names or any other config will come across.

New save/load implemented, this release is primarily a test release to make sure everything is working. This new save/load system is a total rewrite and so not compatible with the save/load system from version 1.12 or older and is the reason no actions will be found if you upgrade a previously played game.

Do you use an auto-save mod? Let me know as I need to add support for these. (See my next post for reasons.)

I am not aware of any issues or errors and all the tests I do with vessels in game work. However I have not yet don't a long term game with this version and there are always people who use the mod differently then I expect and test for.

Therefore, please run your own tests before dropping this version into your current game, at the very least make a backup of your save file so you can recover just in case I've missed something critical.

As this version no longer uses partModules, ModuleManger is no longer required. If you have a previous version of AGX installed and are starting a new game, please be sure to delete the part.cfg file in the AGExt directory.

However, if you are upgrading AGExt and continuing the same game, I recommend leaving part.cfg in place. By leaving the part.cfg in place, ModuleManger will still add the AGExtModule partModule to all parts even though it is no longer used by AGExt. By doing this, the partModule will still be present in the game for existing ships to use. If you delete part.cfg and continue the same game, the partModule will be missing and KSP will re-order all the partModules on a part and probably causing the resetting to default of all the partModules it moves.

This bug (the re-ordering of partModules) being the reason I re-wrote AGExt to no longer use partModules. Most mods if their partModule resets to default it is not a huge deal from a fun perspective. Because AGExt uses partModules to save its actions though, when this happened all the Actions assigned on a vessel were lost and it was frustrating for the player to have and reset their actions all the time.

In terms of using the mod, there are no UI or behavior changes. Features talked about in the last pages of the thread will be implemented over the next few versions. The exact speed will depend on how many bugs people find that I will have to squash.

Download Version 1.13f here.

Let me know how things go, even if everything goes smoothly. I want to see a few people report no issues using this version before I start major the larger feature changes to the mod I intend to.

D.

edit: Version 1.13e:

Note that the behavior of how Group Names and which Keyset is current get saved has changed.

Group Names:

Now, when you dock, the two lists of group names merge. If a group has a name on Vessel A or Vessel B and they dock, that group on Vessel C (docked vessel) will have that name. If both Vessel A and Vessel B have a group name, the group name of the vessel being docked to will be used and the group name of the vessel doing the docking is lost.

On undock, both vessels will have the same list of group names that the vessel did before undocking. This means that there will probably be groups with a group name but no action assigned, but as these groups are hidden when not editing actions, this is not a big deal.

Keysets:

The current version (1.13e) does not save Keysets. When you dock, the vessel created by the docking will have the keyset of the vessel that was docked to. On undock, both vessels created will have the same Keyset that the big vessel before undocking did. I am currently investigating how to return this to the old way of saving keysets on the docked vessel, but we will see what I can come up with.

Version 1.13f:

-Add mouse over detection so when you are mouse-over a part in the selected parts list, or mouse-over an assigned action in the current actions list (these lists are in two different windows), a black and yellow square will now display over the center of that part. Note that it is the center of the part, as defined by it's bounding box. Odd shaped parts, notably Launch Clamps, will display the icon a bit off from where you expect.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Diazo