[0.90.0] Fine Print vSTOCK'D - BETA RELEASE!!! (December 15)

[Fingal]

People who are getting "lots" of certain missions, tell me - is there more than two on the board at any given time?

No, but once I've chosen other missions such as exploring a planet I tend to get less of those, which is a bit annoying if I have a cluster of them off to Jool and have to wait a year.

[Arsonide]

I've released version 0.54a. I am working on getting this onto Curse, but for now, it'll be on KerbalStuff.

Here is the changes:

Added orbital waypoints that show a ring and are animated to show you which direction the orbit goes. These show up in the tracking station for all currently posted contracts, and in game on the map for any that you've accepted, just like normal waypoints.

Added satellite deployment contracts. They do not show up until you have technology for probe cores, power sources, and antennae. These contracts will ask you to build a new unmanned probe with an antenna and a power source, then put it into a very specific orbit, shown on the map with the new waypoints. The mission will ask you to put it into a certain deviation of the orbit shown, and the deviation gets smaller as the difficulty goes up. You need to match everything: apoapsis, periapsis, inclination, eccentricity, the whole nine yards. The orbits also get less kosher as the difficulty goes up, more eccentric and inclined, and the burns required to hit that deviation window are very minute. It's challenging, but the pay goes up as well. This mission type prefers Kerbin, but can go to other planets as well, especially at higher difficulties. On Kerbin, the reputation and fund rewards are tripled, but the science is cut to a third. This is to emulate a commercial space program on Kerbin putting up satellites for clients. That doesn't mean it will pay as well as putting a satellite around Moho, it just means it will be comparable.

Added new "neutralize controls for a period of time" objective. This objective requires you to cut your throttle, and turn off any controls, such as RCS or SAS for a certain period of time. This was added to asteroid recovery missions, base building missions, station building missions, and satellite deployment missions to prevent the mission from completing before the situation has...stabilized.

Adjusted the way that distance calculations to waypoints are calculated, specifically in regards to altitude. For aerial waypoints this means that you can now fly anywhere within the height envelope shown on the contract and still complete them. For rover contracts, it means that if a waypoint spawns at an odd height, it doesn't matter, as you just need to drive to the general area.

Drastically reduced the distance required to trigger rover waypoints. This was made possible by the previous change, and means that you now have to actually drive around within a rover cluster.

Fixed the cupola objective plaguing some station missions, a big thanks to Burkitt for helping me track this issue down.

I'm interested in feedback on the satellite deployment missions, and any bug reports.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Arsonide

[rabzoue59]

Great nice things here, maybe you can add an insteresting mission : Geostationnary orbit, for someone who want to create a relay network, your have to match the orbit period, not periapsis or apo, like that you can put one probe on 0°, another at 60° another at 120° etc etc

anyway thanks for your work

[Hurry- Starfish!]

Will this new update wipe my contracts again?

[Arsonide]

Will this new update wipe my contracts again?

This update should not wipe your board, as no save data for existing contracts was modified.

EDIT: Aaaand we're on Curse!

Edited August 8, 2014 by Arsonide

[vardicd]

EDIT: Aaaand we're on Curse!

Although there doesn't seem to be a download on curse?

[Arsonide]

Although there doesn't seem to be a download on curse?

Took a bit of wrestling, but I fixed it. What a terrible interface. Thanks for the heads up - the file was available through CurseForge but not Curse, since it was set to "Alpha" instead of "Release".

[voidptr]

Great mod!

However, it seems like the satellite missions it keeps generating for me are impossible - the orbit exceeds Kerbin's SOI, any attempt to match it ends up going into solar orbit before I can intersect the target.

[Apollo13]

What is "satellite deviation"? I have a mission for deviation less than 7%. Is that the same as eccentricity? That is, periapsis is at least 93% of apoapsis? I googled "satellite deviation" and found only angle deviation.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

We're going to need more accurate numbers than a visual circle on the map for the orbits of the satellite deployment missions. Also, some caps on it so this doesn't happen:

Yes, that orbit is impossible. It is 25 m/s beyond what kicks it into a Kerbin escape.

Can you believe that was my FIRST satellite deployment contract? And I can't even decline it because we don't know what the parameters will be until we accept it and look at it in the map. (Generally, that goes for all of them.)

[colmo]

What is "satellite deviation"? I have a mission for deviation less than 7%. Is that the same as eccentricity? That is, periapsis is at least 93% of apoapsis? I googled "satellite deviation" and found only angle deviation.

It sounds like acceptable margin of error to me?

[fortytwo]

hey, i was trying to do a contract from fineprint to achieve a specific orbit:

but when i was trying it the orbit is above escape velocity for Kerbin, so i don't think it is actually possibly:

Just wanted to let you know, I think your mod is awesome by the way.

But if I may add a suggestion to this specific orbit missions? Maybe you could include the inclination and height at PE over the parent body in mission debrief. because that would help with building the missile and the launch.

[Hurry- Starfish!]

Yes, that orbit is impossible. It is 25 m/s beyond what kicks it into a Kerbin escape.

Can you believe that was my FIRST satellite deployment contract? And I can't even decline it because we don't know what the parameters will be until we accept it and look at it in the map. (Generally, that goes for all of them.)

I haven't had a satellite deployment contract yet, but with the others, you can actually check the parameters at the tracking station before you accept them. Is this not the case for the satellite ones?

[Arsonide]

We're going to need more accurate numbers than a visual circle on the map for the orbits of the satellite deployment missions. Also, some caps on it so this doesn't happen:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v430/admiraltigerclaw/ImpossibleOrbit_zps82a4db37.jpg

Yes, that orbit is impossible. It is 25 m/s beyond what kicks it into a Kerbin escape.

Can you believe that was my FIRST satellite deployment contract? And I can't even decline it because we don't know what the parameters will be until we accept it and look at it in the map. (Generally, that goes for all of them.)

The orbits show in the tracking station, so you can look at them, actually. Generating outside the SOI should be mathematically impossible, but I will check it out and include some orbital parameters in the summary.

Deviation means deviation, how much you can deviate from the orbit to be considered successful. With inclination it would be 7% of 90 degrees, with LAN it would be 7% of 360 degrees, and with periapsis and apoapsis it would be 7% of the height.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Arsonide

[sluissa]

Been having crashes on load of a saved game with Fine Print v.54a installed.

KSP 0.24.2

Other installed mods:

Kerbal Alarm Clock 2.7.8.2

KW Rocketry 2.6c

FAR 0.14.1.1

Details: I'm running the x64 bit version. I can start new games with Fine Print installed with no problem, but any time I try to load a game with it installed it crashes. This goes for both saved games where fine print was added from the start as well as saved games where it was added after starting vanilla. Removing Fine Print fixes it.

Crash occurs before the spaceport screen is fully loaded. The status bar at the top with the funds, reputation and science loads, and it says "Time x1" and then crashes.

[BigD145]

*reads the fine print*

Sign me up!

[Arsonide]

I'm running the x64 bit version.

This likely has a lot to do with it, do you have logs available?

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

The orbits show in the tracking station, so you can look at them, actually. Generating outside the SOI should be mathematically impossible, but I will check it out and include some orbital parameters in the summary.

Deviation means deviation, how much you can deviate from the orbit to be considered successful. With inclination it would be 7% of 90 degrees, with LAN it would be 7% of 360 degrees, and with periapsis and apoapsis it would be 7% of the height.

It looks like (looking at my image only) the algorithm generates the source of the orbit in the SoI, but when it follows up with additional parameters, doesn't cap it off. I'm assuming it started by picking the first point (Per) and then picked eccentricity, inclination and such to be within' a certain amount without limitations.

Actually, it would probably be a good idea to explain the algorithm for the orbit formula so we can catch any logic errors.

[Arsonide]

It looks like (looking at my image only) the algorithm generates the source of the orbit in the SoI, but when it follows up with additional parameters, doesn't cap it off. I'm assuming it started by picking the first point (Per) and then picked eccentricity, inclination and such to be within' a certain amount without limitations.

Actually, it would probably be a good idea to explain the algorithm for the orbit formula so we can catch any logic errors.

You nailed it, it calculates periapsis within an acceptable low point and the max point of the SOI, picks an eccentricity, then uses the eccentricity and the periapsis to calculate a semi major axis, which determines where the apoapsis is.

It determines the semi major axis by adding the radius of the target celestial body to the desired periapsis to get the periapsis radius, then divides that amount by (1-eccentricity).

My understanding was that this calculation of the semi major axis would produce an apoapsis within the sphere of influence, but I'll need to cap it off.

Inclination and longitude of the ascending node are chosen at random, with some limits based on the difficulty of the mission, and weights to equatorial orbits.

Argument of periapsis, mean anomaly at epoch, and epoch are all ignored by the algorithm, effectively, it chooses a number very close to one.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Arsonide

[Nithhogr]

I've spotted at least one mention of this in the thread already but I'm getting rover contract waypoints showing back up on the map when going back to the space center after completing the contract. I'm on 64-bit, not sure if that's part of the bug or not. Aside from that (and honestly, not a huge bug anyway though I can foresee the whole map being covered with them if you do a bunch) I'm loving this mod!

[sluissa]

This likely has a lot to do with it, do you have logs available?

PM sent with link to logs.

[JeffreyCor]

Have similar issue with rover points showing on map after contract is completed. 32 bit KSP here.

[Arsonide]

I've spotted at least one mention of this in the thread already but I'm getting rover contract waypoints showing back up on the map when going back to the space center after completing the contract. I'm on 64-bit, not sure if that's part of the bug or not. Aside from that (and honestly, not a huge bug anyway though I can foresee the whole map being covered with them if you do a bunch) I'm loving this mod!

Hrm, I had this issue with the orbital waypoints, but fixed it. I see what it might be, and I'll have it fixed by monday.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

You nailed it, it calculates periapsis within an acceptable low point and the max point of the SOI, picks an eccentricity, then uses the eccentricity and the periapsis to calculate a semi major axis, which determines where the apoapsis is.

It determines the semi major axis by adding the radius of the target celestial body to the desired periapsis to get the periapsis radius, then divides that amount by (1-eccentricity).

My understanding was that this calculation of the semi major axis would produce an apoapsis within the sphere of influence, but I'll need to cap it off.

Inclination and longitude of the ascending node are chosen at random, with some limits based on the difficulty of the mission, and weights to equatorial orbits.

Argument of periapsis, mean anomaly at epoch, and epoch are all ignored by the algorithm, effectively, it chooses a number very close to one.

Yeah, I thought so. The logic error is easily realized in: 'So what if it picks a stupidly high PeR and calculates an SMA that's larger than the SoI?'

I'm assuming that you have the Eccentricity 'error range' somewhat circular, without highly elliptical orbits. So that 'shouldn't have happened' but in my case, and the other guy who posted an image, it picked an altitude that was effectively rolling a natural 20 in D&D terms.

Seems like the max altitude needs to be a percentage below the SoI maximum that is equal to or greater than the percentage error for eccentricity, as a quick fix.

A more complex fix I'd introduce is to actually write an algorithm that produces reasonable orbits with actual purposes and limits the contracts to random variants of those. With difficulty being more about precision.

In this case, putting satellites into LKO, LKO polar orbits at mapping altitudes, KEOstationary orbits, and KPS (half-KEO) orbits along with Molnya orbits

Difficulty tiers:

I: LKO, LKO Polar, (Random orbits.)

II: Molnya, KEO (Orbits with specific periods and inclinations.)

III: KPS orbits. (Orbits with more exacting periods and inclinations.)

(KPS is GPS system orbits.)

You could swap whether or not KPS orbits belong in tier III or II if you wanted, depends on what you think is harder. Too bad we don't have functional precession. That would make an excellent tier III difficulty to put a satellite in orbit that actually undergoes sun-synchronous precession throughout the game.

But I dunno. I also posted concepts for mission types back in the development through, but don't know if you saw them or not.

[Arsonide]

Specific purpose oriented orbits were planned, as a side objective in the next patch. (Geosynchronous, geostationary, etc)

For now I need to fix up these random orbits. I think I know how to do it. If I clamp the eccentricity choice to how much space is left in the SOI after the periapsis choice, it should never produce an apoapsis outside of it right? (This would mean the closer the periapsis gets to the edge, the more it is forced to be a circle. Right now eccentricity is random between 0 and 0.5, the upper end of which varies depending on difficulty.)

Edited August 9, 2014 by Arsonide