[WIP][0.24] Kerbol Orbital Transportation Services (KOTS)

[Angelo Kerman]

Kerbol Orbital Transportation Service (KOTS)

This is an idea I’ve had for a while now, but I waited until the .24 release to start implementing. Mods like kethane and Kerbal Interstellar let you mine resources in-situ to extend your explorations. These are great additions to the game, and one result of their inclusion is the need for a transportation network to ship resources around the solar system. If you’re like me and you grow tired of trucking resources around your various stations and bases, then KOTS is the answer.

Based upon the real-world Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program employed by NASA to resupply the International Space Station, KOTS takes the concept one step further.

Design Goals

I think all of these are possible. Ideally, KOTS lets you:

• List what resources are available on any vessel equipped with a KOTS module, even if that vessel is currently unloaded.
  
• Schedule regular supply runs between Kerbin and a vessel within Kerbin’s SOI (including the Mun and Minmus); just list what you need (Liquid Fuel, Oxidizer, Water, etc.), specify how much you want per shipment, and how often to deliver. KOTS will buy the resources and ship them for you- for a fee. If the receiving vessel hasn’t been focused upon in a while, KOTS will catch up on its shipments.
  
• Transport any resource in a vessel’s inventory to any other vessel anywhere in the Kerbol system so long as both vessels are equipped with a KOTS module. This is known as a supply route. You set up supply routes by focusing upon the vessel that will receive supplies, then checking the list of KOTS-equipped vessels for resources that they can ship.
  
• Setup supply routes from multiple vessels.
  
• Schedule regular shipments between vessels. Regular shipments can be either every n times or continuously.
  
• If possible, integrate with Kerbal Alarm Clock to remind the player when shipments are expected to arrive.]
  
• Integration with 0.24's native toolbar if possible.
  
• Generate contracts that encourage the player to establish supply routes between various celestial bodies.
  

With 0.24’s new career mode, you have to pay for your vessels and resources; shipping items throughout the Kerbol system will also cost you.

Technical Notes

RESOURCE_DEFINITION now has a unitCost, which obviously specifies the cost per unit of resource. If shipping between vessels, then KOTS charges a small percentage of the resource’s unit cost, plus a shipping fee equal to the total units being shipped multiplied by a distance factor. If being shipped up from Kerbin, then KOTS charges a fee based upon the cost per unit of resource, plus the shipping percentage, plus the distance factor.

The configuration node also lists density, which is the mass per unit of resource. Resources with a density of 0 (EVA propellant, electric charge) cannot be shipped.

The KOTS module has a limited amount of mass that it can transport, about 16mt- the part itself should be around the size of a Rockomax-16 fuel tank very roughly representing the size of a Space X Dragon or an Orbital Science's Cygnus.

The shipping manifest could specify how many metric tons of resource you want, and it will automatically calculate the number of units you’re shipping.

If you don’t have enough units of capacity aboard your vessel, then the units indicator turns red. If you have sufficient capacity, but the current amount of resource you have plus the shipment amount would exceed capacity, then the indicator turns yellow. Green indicates that your current amount of resource plus the shipment's amount will be less than your vessel's capacity. Ideally, these indicators work across all shipments you're going to receive.

Be nice to the player; if the player hasn’t focused upon a vessel receiving shipments in a while, then support partial shipments so that excess capacity isn’t thrown overboard (and the cost of shipping said excess isn’t paid).

Edited July 22, 2014 by Angel-125

[Kerbal01]

Can't wait to add functionality with this for my Cygnus mod!

[Angelo Kerman]

Looks like this has already been done with MKS/OKS.

[Ogamaga]

Looks like this has already been done with MKS/OKS.

That one lacks the inter SOI capability, which I would greatly appreciate.

[123nick]

i remember having a idea about this, there would be landing pads between each resource pickup/dropoff point. you would have a craft on landing pad, and when ready to make a route between 2 points, you launch/drive/takeoff the craft and it would record all the resource values on the craft. during the journey piloted by the player, between each landing pad, it would record how much fuel used, time spent, resources taken into the crafte and taken out, and then it make a route that automaticly simulate the resources being spent, drop off, picked up , and so on. you could have a landing pad on the surface, and one in orbit, and launch a vessel from the surface launchpad, to the orbit launchpad, and it record the LF/O used during the trip, the resources picked up on surface and dropped off on the orbit launchpad and vice versa, and it make a route between eachother and it would automaticly simulate the route forever without user intervention. hope you understand my idea and like it.

[riles]

Very cool but I seemed to be confused, do you have to pilot and nav the ship yourself or is this all done behind curtains?

[123nick]

Very cool but I seemed to be confused, do you have to pilot and nav the ship yourself or is this all done behind curtains?

for the first time yes, then after that it takes the data from the first time and it just uses the numbers from that- how long it took, resources used, vessel used, resources transfered/picked up, but i dont think it would actualy be moving the ship. you could do that if you had very advanced coding, but i dont think its that important. maybe make it so when it stops at a landing pad the ship used for transporting is teleported over to said launchpad,

[Angelo Kerman]

Sounds like a neat idea. I shelved the project since MKS already does craft transfers but maybe it could be extended to multiple spheres of influence. I may revisit this after if finishing Nuclear Engines.