[WIP] KAP - Kerbin's Age of Pioneers (A Career Mode Overhaul)

[AlphaAsh]

"Test pilots may die and kanines may not return from orbit, yet it is their early efforts that allow us to go further than ever before." - Unknown Kerbanaut

KAP will modify career mode heavily. It's primary goals are to provide more historically appropriate choices for progression of your space program. This means you'll start out with a lot more parts and have a lot more choices about where you choose to focus your efforts and operations.

From the outset you'll be able to build prop-planes and basic jet planes. Early space exploration will primarily be unkerballed.

Or will it? One aspect I love about stock KSP is having to innovate if you don't want to just pull science in in the traditional ways in order to progress up the tech tree. KAP is all about giving you lots of stuff that allows you to innovate.

This doesn't mean your progress will be slowed. KAP won't be adding any new tech nodes. It will move a lot of Squad's parts around, it will make changes to some of those parts and it will offer many new parts that are rescales and integrations of existing Squad parts.

After jets and unmanned space exploration comes satellites and the age of manned space exploration. Moon landings. Deep space probes. Space stations. Extra-planetary bases. Space industrialisation. Colonisation.

UPDATE in progress. I make parts now, so I'm able to come at KAP in a very different way from which I originally had in mind.

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Copyright © 2014, Ashley Hall and Alpha Strike Games

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Addendum 1: You may modify the contents for personal use but may not re-distribute modified versions of the content without obtaining permission first. Contact Ashley Hall on the KSP forums, PMing the user AlphaAsh.

Addendum 2: This work may not be re-distributed, modified or un-modified in a 'mod pack'.

Edited November 14, 2014 by AlphaAsh

[AlphaAsh]

Out-of-date. NTS: Update it then.

Edited July 25, 2014 by AlphaAsh

[Gristle]

Sounds interesting. It's really annoying how Squad has arranged the tech tree. Wheels and I-beams locked until I've sent Kerbals to the Mun a few times? Really?

[AlphaAsh]

That's definitely one of the parts of gameplay that KAP will address. A lot. Not surprisingly, it means there's a considerable shifting from the right of the tree to the left and it's going to be challenging to refill the right side but there's a lot of mods and a lot of ideas I haven't begun to sort out or implement. Also, it means a serious rejiggering of science rewards but KAP is about providing "historically accurate" ways of going about that, before getting to more "sci-fi" ways of acquiring it late-game.

[Robotengineer]

Could you also make things more expensive? Or have each individual part have a cost rather than the current 'nodes' form? It would be nice if everything was available to you at the start to buy, and then you bought what you want rather than having to late node to get something as basic as a cubic strut.

[AlphaAsh]

Or have each individual part have a cost rather than the current 'nodes' form?

That's likely to be plugin territory. Beyond the scope of my initial plans for this particular project (but a great idea regardless).

[AlphaAsh]

Second post updated with images. Shots of some of the stuff built with these goodies forthcoming.

[AlphaAsh]

More visual stimulation added to second post. I really should get doing some more Kerbin Around.

[Space_Kraken]

I'm going to be following this thread for a long, long, long, time......

[AlphaAsh]

Art! Just cos.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Interesting! Download?

[AlphaAsh]

[WIP] thread in the Add-on Development forum Soon.

[SlimeCrusher]

Will follow this until its finished!

I was looking at the start tech image, i don't really like that rockets are there, maybe having them on the 2nd node? As to be forced to make a rover OR a plane before advancing to rocketry, more or likely what we (Humans) have done so far

Edited May 24, 2014 by SlimeCrusher

[AlphaAsh]

I'd considered moving any 'rocket' related parts out of start but decided to leave the most basic ones to allow some early innovation, like sticking a rocket on the backside of a plane and seeing how high you can get it. Start also includes an unmanned space capsule with a 'kanine' inside it. This allows you to start checking out high atmosphere and low orbit as you progress your plane projects. KAP's all about choice and innovation.

[SlimeCrusher]

I'd considered moving any 'rocket' related parts out of start but decided to leave the most basic ones to allow some early innovation, like sticking a rocket on the backside of a plane and seeing how high you can get it. Start also includes an unmanned space capsule with a 'kanine' inside it. This allows you to start checking out high atmosphere and low orbit as you progress your plane projects. KAP's all about choice and innovation.

Yea, leaving the barrel-filled-with-TNT (RT-10) and the aluminium-cone-with-some-fancy-rubber-tubes (LV-T30) is ok, as you more or likely will be focused on putting a kog/kanine inside of a kardboard box and glueing that to a plane, right? Kerbal technology is the best!

[AlphaAsh]

Exactly. It does raise some challenges regarding science acquisition but I'm working hard to get the balance right. It's looking likely that there will be more overall science obtainable at various points in the tech tree, spread out over a larger number of 'experiments'. This does mean that if you decide to do all the science grabs rather than choose what to focus on, you're likely to progress more rapidly in tech. Truth be told, I' not too worried about that. Play-testing will help finalise the balance on that.

[Gristle]

Second post updated with images. Shots of some of the stuff built with these goodies forthcoming.

I see some stuff from TT's Wheels Pack v6 in there and that mod wasn't in the list.

[AlphaAsh]

Good catch Gristle. Will get the credits updated.

[technogeeky]

You should include SCANsat. Surely your pioneers had RADAR before they built jet planes!

[AlphaAsh]

SCANsat is in the current build I haven't quite finished sorting out where precisely it belongs (it may well end up being start) and I'm considering adding SCANsat functions to some of Lack's radars.

[AlphaAsh]

Struggling to find good sources on real-world equivalances of SAS/ASAS technologies employed currently and historically. Any plane junkies out there got some pointers? Cheers in advance.

[AlphaAsh]

Idea dump.

Fluidic Circulation Control - SAS/ASAS powered by IntakeAir rather than ElectricCharge.

PART ideas - SAS ASAS control surfaces that actually **** out air like RCS thrusters?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems_Demon

EDIT -

Adaptive Compliant Wing. Could procedural wings be able to real-time simulate this? Maybe more the territory of something like Infernal Robotics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_compliant_wing

Edited May 24, 2014 by AlphaAsh

[Bloodbunny]

Finally someone is doing this. TreeLoader had a TraditionalTech tree that was similar but didn't account for any mods. If career mode is even to be worth playing, then planes should definitely come before anything that could come close to reaching space. Heck, I would suggest making jet engines a few tech nodes up so that early research has to be done with prop planes only.

[AlphaAsh]

Heck, I would suggest making jet engines a few tech nodes up so that early research has to be done with prop planes only.

I briefly played with this idea in an early build of KAP but put simply, didn't really enjoy "starting in the 1940s" rather than "starting in the 1950s".

[AlphaAsh]