[WIP][23.5] RealSimpleScience (26.04.14 V0.04)

[Sandworm]

RealSimpleScience (now playable, but still a WIP)

Problem: I've been trying to play real solar under career mode but keep running running out of usable science. Sandbox is fun, but some mods (interstellar) don't play well without progression. Imho the various biomes of kerbin are also too unpredictable under RSS and, frankly, aren't very realistic even in vanilla. Solution: More space/atmo science closer to kerbin, none of which is biome-dependant.

Problem: Squad's concept of science and rewards is radically different than mine. Whereas Squad wants players to repeat the same experiments with the same parts in multiple locations, I want to perform different, part and location-specific experiments. Ideally, science should be handed out for mission accomplishments such as intercepts and first dockings. But I don't want to bother with dlls. So instead I'm using module manager to rearrange science parts and add new experiments modelled on historic missions. Solution: Custom experiments attached to specific parts and places.

Pre-release ToDo list:

Customized experiments for all 1/2/3/4-man pods -- done

Custom experiments for sci lab -- done.

Telemetry experiments for normal/ion engines -- done

Part-specific experiments for cupola, station hub, antenna and other parts -- partially done.

Nerf Sci lab to make it useful -- done.

Enforce min crew limits

Limit experiments to specific areas

Flesh out witty remarks.

Balance science rewards. -- partially done.

Move temp/baro/accel parts to earlier nodes in tree.

Download (V0.04): https://www.dropbox.com/s/eegpazzk5ejshdd/RealSimpleScience_v0.04.rar

Older versions: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7wsc4h3yydywm79/JNSJqlT7Dj

Dependencies:

Module Manager http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55219

DMagic Module Science Animate V0.4 (included in download) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/72466

License: Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

All thanks to DMagic for providing the plugin necessary for these experiments to actually consume resources.

* This mod adds lots of science points to KSP, most all of it near kerbin/mun. It is meant to make career mode playable under RSS and other full-scale versions of KSP. Don't complain to me if it makes careers in normal-sized KSP too easy.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Sandworm

[CaptainKipard]

It's always nice to see more science. So I'll be watching this.

I don't think the guitar and interview thing is a good idea at this point. You might want to wait until Squad implements reputation into the game.

Goo and Materials reprocessing is too OP IMO. It's already fairly easy to return 100% of those experiments if you store each of two results in a separate pod, or a science container(mod).

Everything else is a nice idea. Good luck.

I hope you remove the life support requirement for people who don't use TAC.

And see if you can somehow make the long term studies actually take time. Maybe if you allow for the experiment to be done over a few days or weeks, while the ship is not in focus.

[Sandworm]

Thanks for the feedback, but .... um ... no.

Experiments that take time is a great idea, but cannot be accomplished without a custom plugin. Even then, it never works as intended (see interstellar's science lab functionality). I want to stick to simple changes via module manager. The consumption of life-support resources the only analogue for time that can be implemented via module manager. I don't intend just a little O2 and food. A year-long study of four kerbals in orbit would use a HUGE amount of resources, requiring a significant station be built in orbit. So dropping life support requirements would defeat the purpose.

The media interview / guitar thing is just because someone was ask my opinion of Chris Hadfield and all I could say is that he played a mean guitar.

[blackheart612]

lol so much Chris Hadfield

[CaptainKipard]

Uh. I don't think you understood what I said.

a) Not everyone uses life support mods. It makes no sense to use resources that people don't want to have. You should give people a choice.

Playing guitar and doing interviews has zero scientific value.

[Sandworm]

(a) This isn't for everyone. I had science-related issues when playing with real-sized solar systems and am trying to correct that specific problem.

( That's my point.

Update and question: I've figured out how to manage all of the new experiments and add them to the various pods via wildcards. Module manager makes that very simple. The issue I am having is with the consumption of resources. Is it possible for an experiment to instantly consume resources using module manager? I am able to consume various resources when transmitting data, but I would prefer to have the resources deducted instantly at the time the experiment is performed. The only other mod I've seen that does this (Ltech) did so via a plugin, something I want to avoid.

Other than that, I should have the experiments ready for playtesting once I've written the needed results texts.

[CaptainKipard]

(a) This isn't for everyone.

And that's my point. You should make it for everyone. It makes no difference to me because I already use TACLS but others don't. You're just being difficult now, come on, be real.

Having two versions will also fix your consumption problem.

[NathanKell]

Dude. Telling a mod maker who's making a mod primarily for their own desires that they should instead make it for someone else's is just...weird.

[DMagic]

The issue I am having is with the consumption of resources. Is it possible for an experiment to instantly consume resources using module manager? I am able to consume various resources when transmitting data, but I would prefer to have the resources deducted instantly at the time the experiment is performed. The only other mod I've seen that does this (Ltech) did so via a plugin, something I want to avoid.

Using only ModuleScienceExperiment? I don't think so. It's really easy to do with a plugin, some of my parts do it, but if you don't want to use plugins it might not be possible.

Edit: Though now that I think about it, if you are already going to replace the default experiments, you could include my science module, which was made for just this kind of flexibility, instead of the regular one. It would require a little bit of modifying to allow for resource usage without using animations, but that shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes.

Edited April 23, 2014 by DMagic

[Moon Goddess]

Yeah, Sandworm, make the mod you want to make you have no obligation to even share the mod, and no obligation to do anything to get others to us it, they'll use it if they want what you want.

Your mod looks good to me.

[CaptainKipard]

Dude. Telling a mod maker who's making a mod primarily for their own desires that they should instead make it for someone else's is just...weird.

I don't accept either of the premises of that statement, but other than that you're probably right. It would be weird.

[Sandworm]

Using only ModuleScienceExperiment? I don't think so. It's really easy to do with a plugin, some of my parts do it, but if you don't want to use plugins it might not be possible.

Thanks. I do have something working using the transmit function, basically just adding Oxygen/Food etc to each sent packet, but it's causing havoc with the standard science experiments. I cannot force certain experiments to use certain antenna. I might just steal your resourceExperiment/resourceExpCost and make Dmagic a requirment.

[DMagic]

Thanks. I do have something working using the transmit function, basically just adding Oxygen/Food etc to each sent packet, but it's causing havoc with the standard science experiments. I cannot force certain experiments to use certain antenna. I might just steal your resourceExperiment/resourceExpCost and make Dmagic a requirment.

I went ahead and made a handful of changes to allow for experiments to work without any animations. Except for the five animation-related fields described below you can setup experiments just as you normally would.

You should be able to use any resource you want. The only limitation is that the resource usage is based on time, so there must be a delay from when you click the button to start the experiment until it actually finishes. This can safely be set to 0.1 or 0.2 seconds, but any lower than that and you might get some inconsistencies in the amount of resources used. Feel free to use this module if you want (don't use DMagic.dll, that one has many other functions and is likely to shift under your feet to something that will no longer work for you): http://www./download/n3nk52x8zf12ltd/DMModuleScienceAnimateGeneric.dll (put that somewhere in GameData, I'll make a proper release of this new version sometime soon).

Here is a fragment of your MM code that I used to test my module with your experiment.

// Mark-1 Pod Changes 
@PART[*]:HAS[#CrewCapacity[1]]
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = DMModuleScienceAnimateGeneric	

		experimentID = LifeSci01

		experimentActionName = Measure Vital Signs
		resetActionName = Discard Data
		reviewActionName = Review Data

		showEndEvent = false		//These five fields should be included to 		
		showStartEvent = false			//prevent animation related errors
		showEditorEvents = false
		experimentAnimation = false
		keepDeployedMode = 2

		waitForAnimationTime = 0.2		//These three fields determine resource usage
		resourceExperiment = ElectricCharge    //This will use 20 units of electricity over 0.2 seconds
		resourceExpCost = 100

		useStaging = False	
		useActionGroups = True
		hideUIwhenUnavailable = True	
		rerunnable = True

		xmitDataScalar = 1.0
	}
}

The only other fields you might want to use are "deployingMessage = " which will display a message on-screen (useful if you want to wait more than a second or so before your experiment completes) or "asteroidReports =", set that to true if you want to make any asteroid specific experiments. For complete instructions you can go to this thread (the version linked to there is different from the one above).

Edited April 24, 2014 by DMagic

[Sandworm]

Wow. Thanks. I'm at work atm but I'll have a look at using that DLL when I get home.

I didn't want to do a full plugin because i thought of this mod as more authorship than coding, fleshing out story/science content rather adding new capabilities. But I cannot think of a way to make science cost resources/time/money without a plugin. So having someone provide an already-proven dll lets me stick to what I intended.

The new ground for this mod will be very part/location-specific science. For instance I've got an experiment ("Film an Imax movie") that is only available on the cupola part when in low-kerbin space. I would much rather have such things earn money/fame but those concepts won't be available for many months (ie .25/.26 or later).

[Sandworm]

New version (0.03) is up. I'm playtesting it on my RSS instance atm.

There are custom experiments for 1/2/3/4 man pods, the cupola and the sci lab. Some, but not all, use TAC resources. I don't see any conflicts but need more eyes before moving forwards with lots of new experiments.

[DMagic]

The new ground for this mod will be very part/location-specific science. For instance I've got an experiment ("Film an Imax movie") that is only available on the cupola part when in low-kerbin space.

This is something I've been working on and thinking about for a while. In the past I've always hard-coded any planet-specific experiments, but I want something that is more easily configurable. I've come up with a method that works the same way the biome and situation masks do, you can select any combination of planets to limit your experiments to. The only real difference is that with those there are only six options to select from, whereas with my planet system there are eighteen (there are sixteen planets, but I have two more options that cover asteroids and mod planets). It's actually fairly difficult to accurately type in eighteen ones or zeroes into a binary-to-decimal converter, so I need to come up with some better way of handling that.

Also, let me know if you run into any problems using resources that don't exist, it should be easy to fix if they cause a problem.

[Sandworm]

Version 0.04 is up. I added some engine telemetry experiments that might make you think twice before dropping stages. Science rewards have also been increased because I kept killing kerbals trying to get into orbit using only 1.25m parts.

This is something I've been working on and thinking about for a while. In the past I've always hard-coded any planet-specific experiments, but I want something that is more easily configurable. I've come up with a method that works the same way the biome and situation masks do, you can select any combination of planets to limit your experiments to. The only real difference is that with those there are only six options to select from, whereas with my planet system there are eighteen (there are sixteen planets, but I have two more options that cover asteroids and mod planets). It's actually fairly difficult to accurately type in eighteen ones or zeroes into a binary-to-decimal converter, so I need to come up with some better way of handling that.

Also, let me know if you run into any problems using resources that don't exist, it should be easy to fix if they cause a problem.

Location-specific science is certainly needed in vanilla KSP. But I'm working with RSS, where you cannot get to other planets until you are already deep into the tech tree. So the default low/high limitations suffice. Part and location-specific science might also need lots of documentation. I would be very frustrated if, after landing on Vale, I found out that I had brought the wrong part.

[ahappydude]

Great work op! Made science feel more valued and more fleshed out, also great touch when you got more then one kerbal that you do team science

[Overjay]

Is this playable on 0.90?

[Astrofox]

No, it's not playable as I've heard, however, I do hope someone does come along to revive this about 5 version old mod (yes, about five versions).

[Sandworm]

No, it's not playable as I've heard, however, I do hope someone does come along to revive this about 5 version old mod (yes, about five versions).

Really? People are interested in this? It's mostly just flavour text added through MM. I stopped development when I ran into trouble adding experiments to active parts, specifically engines and decouplers. I'll have a look at things this weekend to see if it can be updated. The Kemini mod allows the addition of unique experiments to specific pods. That might be an easier means of adding experiments and incorporates duration requirements.

[DMagic]

I [thread=72466]updated the plugin[/thread] for this, there were no changes made to the config setup, so nothing beyond replacing the plugin should be required for this to work.

[ManuxKerb]

Will this work in 1.02 ?