[0.90] StarSystems v0.7 (Dec 15) - Under New Managment

[medsouz]

@medsouz: Thanks for picking this mod back up and working on it, its just the sort of thing I was looking for to expand my Interstellar career (what's the point of an alcubierre drive if you don't have anywhere to go, right?)

I've noted the very first hurdle and I'm hoping you could help me with it. The current problem: Solar panel power scaling. I noted that my a ship I had at eeloo was generating (from solar panels) the same amount of energy that it should have been making while in Kerbin orbit. I flew the ship from Eeloo to Dres taking a very low perihelion route to see what the power levels would do and they seemed to remain more or less constant the entire trip.

I'm not sure how the current code is setup so I'm not sure what help I can give other than pointing these things out as I find them. What sort of solar power arrangement is intended with StarSystems? ie. are solar panels supposed to change their point of aim based on which systems SOI it is currently in? Are panels supposed to be completely non-functional when outside of a solar system's SOI?

Solar panels are supposed to point at whatever star is closest but to be completely honest I haven't even glanced at that section of the code yet. I'll see what I can do about your scaling issue once I get planet moving working.

I'm super hyped about this. There wouldn't happen to be any compatible planet packs at the moment, would there? I seem to remember at some point there was a list of mods that would add their planets around stars orbiting the black hole. That may have been a different iteration of this mod though (or a different mod, I don't remember...). If not, I may just look into making some myself. Can anyone tell me how I'd go about doing that?

I was working on adding planet moving to the config file last night so that you'll be able to use ModuleManager to throw planet packs around to different star systems. Between work and school I haven't had much time to work on it today but I'll probably have a release by tomorrow night.

[wasmic]

Actually, you could just have a system where one star orbits around the other one just like Kerbin orbits Kerbol. But I assume you meant a star system where both stars have the same mass, so I came up with a way of doing that too. You just create an invisible point that serves as the barycenter, then have both stars orbit around that point.

Has been tried. It does work to some extent, but many types of orbits around/between the stars will end up being unrealistic.

[CaptRobau]

@medsouz: Thanks for picking this mod back up and working on it, its just the sort of thing I was looking for to expand my Interstellar career (what's the point of an alcubierre drive if you don't have anywhere to go, right?)

I've noted the very first hurdle and I'm hoping you could help me with it. The current problem: Solar panel power scaling. I noted that my a ship I had at eeloo was generating (from solar panels) the same amount of energy that it should have been making while in Kerbin orbit. I flew the ship from Eeloo to Dres taking a very low perihelion route to see what the power levels would do and they seemed to remain more or less constant the entire trip.

I'm not sure how the current code is setup so I'm not sure what help I can give other than pointing these things out as I find them. What sort of solar power arrangement is intended with StarSystems? ie. are solar panels supposed to change their point of aim based on which systems SOI it is currently in? Are panels supposed to be completely non-functional when outside of a solar system's SOI?

Stock solar panels only lose the majority of their effiency beyond Eeloo's orbit. Maybe that's it and you just never noticed that before.

[TavishThomas]

http://media.tumblr.com/643f66c4b52a5ce668c2dd995834d097/tumblr_mjbkskK46U1qlrxcho1_500.jpg

[Yaivenov]

Stock solar panels only lose the majority of their effiency beyond Eeloo's orbit. Maybe that's it and you just never noticed that before.

That is not my experience. Typically the panels are producing 2-5% at Eeloo/Jool distances from the sun compared to their nominal Kerbin orbit output. In this instance while testing StarSystems the panels were putting out 95% of nominal at Eeloo/Jool with very little change despite huge solar altitude changes.

[_Augustus_]

I was working on adding planet moving to the config file last night so that you'll be able to use ModuleManager to throw planet packs around to different star systems. Between work and school I haven't had much time to work on it today but I'll probably have a release by tomorrow night.

Wonderful. I tried to add that but I couldn't get it to work.

[Magniff]

Micro suggestion:

IMHO this mod isn't drawing the attention it deserves.

The cause of this might be the Mods naming which (to me) does sound more like a Parts-pack instead of a Galaxy-simulation.

Therefore I’d suggest a more aggressive naming like “Galaxy-Simulatorâ€Â.

In case medsouz wants to keep things more quiet, “Multiple Star Systems†(as originally used by OvenProofMars on Reddit) could already improve the community’s perception.

In this case, you might as well drop the “under new management†addition for a reference like “aka StarSystems†(to avoid the current audience from getting lost).

Best regards and thanks a lot to medsouz for his willingness to continue this great Mod,

Magniff

[Veelay]

I was working on adding planet moving to the config file last night so that you'll be able to use ModuleManager to throw planet packs around to different star systems. Between work and school I haven't had much time to work on it today but I'll probably have a release by tomorrow night.

Awesome! I'll mess around with it some as soon as it's up. Talk about taking KSP to the next level. Be sure not to overwork yourself!

[medsouz]

I got the planet moving code working but I seem to have hit a dilemma, StarSystems loads before ModuleManager is able to change the configs so using ModuleManager to add new planets is not an option. I don't want users to have to modify the system.cfg directly and I'm not sure how I'm going to work around this...

EDIT: Fixed, cleaning up and releasing soon.

Edited November 12, 2014 by medsouz

[medsouz]

I just released v0.3, you can grab it on Kerbal Stuff

Changelog

Added planet moving to the config. You can now move planets to different star systems using the "Planet" config node.

Example - Moves PlanetFactory CE example planets to the Dolas system.

[temporalExile]

Could you possibly include some planets for other stars in the mod? And also, could you have an installation guide for planet packs?

[FluffySilverUnicorn]

How much does the new configs let you change? I have a set of planets around my own star that I have set up in a particular way, so how would you customize the orbits?

[Herr_Professor]

there is something strange happen when i use your new update

[Veelay]

I just released v0.3, you can grab it on Kerbal Stuff

Changelog

Added planet moving to the config. You can now move planets to different star systems using the "Planet" config node.

Example - Moves PlanetFactory CE example planets to the Dolas system.

Cool! So, to move a planet with moons to a different star, would I just nest Planet nodes?

[temporalExile]

there is something strange happen when i use your new update

http://img5.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/failzqair4km9e.jpg

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/JOmHVPMDIy.jpg

I had the same problem you can fix it by going to: whereveryouinstalledksp/GameData/Starsystems/plugins, copying Starsystems.dll, then pasting it in GameData/Starsytems

EDIT: Actually, you'll need to get the starsystems.dll from 0.2, not 0.3, so if you have a download of that, go into Starsystem0.2.zip/Gamedata/Starsystems/, Grab Starsystems.dll, then paste in Whateveryounamedyourkspfolder/GameData/Starsystems.

This might break The new planet changes in 0.3 though...

Disregard everything I just posted

Edited November 12, 2014 by temporalExile
I don't really know much about coding anyways...

[medsouz]

I had the same problem you can fix it by going to: whereveryouinstalledksp/GameData/Starsystems/plugins, copying Starsystems.dll, then pasting it in GameData/Starsytems

EDIT: Actually, you'll need to get the starsystems.dll from 0.2, not 0.3, so if you have a download of that, go into Starsystem0.2.zip/Gamedata/Starsystems/, Grab Starsystems.dll, then paste in Whateveryounamedyourkspfolder/GameData/Starsystems.

This might break The new planet changes in 0.3 though...

Please don't do this, it will cause issues with the 0.3 and the 0.2 DLL conflicting.

Try deleting your StarSystems folder completely before installing 0.3.

Cool! So, to move a planet with moons to a different star, would I just nest Planet nodes?

The planet will take it's moons with it when it divorces with the current star and moves in with the new one.

How much does the new configs let you change? I have a set of planets around my own star that I have set up in a particular way, so how would you customize the orbits?

I completely forgot to finish that part of the code, expect a 0.3.1 release with it soonish.

Edited November 12, 2014 by medsouz

[temporalExile]

Please don't do this, it will cause issues with the 0.3 and the 0.2 DLL conflicting.

Try deleting your StarSystems folder completely before installing 0.3.

Sorry for posting that. Its just that it seemed to fix the problem for me, and it didn't seem cause any new problems. Also, I did remember to delete the folder completely first, so that wasn't where the problem came from.

[medsouz]

I found the issue, I messed up my check to see if a planet exists before it tries to move it. A temporary solution would be to either delete StarSystems/Config/MM_PlanetFactory_Example.cfg or install PlanetFactory CE with the example planets.

EDIT: Fixed! I also added an orbit config to planets, check out my example config for an example.

You can grab the update from KerbalStuff

Edited November 12, 2014 by medsouz

[Konny_K]

First thing: what colors of stars are already available.

Second: Is it compatible with KerbinSide? I had both and tried to launch on the Airplane Carrier... Found myself a quarter orbit behind Kerbol(so very far away from everything...). Do you know the issue? Can you fix it? Is it just my PC or in general not compatible?

[FluffySilverUnicorn]

Will future updates add compatibility with asteroids? I'm not sure exactly how the game generates the asteroids, but it should be feasible since Squad uses the asteroid generator to put stranded Kerbals in orbit around Kerbin. You could let things like orbit and density be changeable with a config around our stars.

[medsouz]

First thing: what colors of stars are already available.

Currently only blue, red and yellow. I haven't touched that part of the code yet.

Second: Is it compatible with KerbinSide? I had both and tried to launch on the Airplane Carrier... Found myself a quarter orbit behind Kerbol(so very far away from everything...). Do you know the issue? Can you fix it? Is it just my PC or in general not compatible?

I'll have to look into that one. it wouldn't look too good if the two mods I work on aren't compatible with each other.

Will future updates add compatibility with asteroids? I'm not sure exactly how the game generates the asteroids, but it should be feasible since Squad uses the asteroid generator to put stranded Kerbals in orbit around Kerbin. You could let things like orbit and density be changeable with a config around our stars.

Custom Asteroids should work

[Veelay]

So I've run into a bit of a problem. StarSystems seems to be breaking the game menu a bit. The 'resume saved' button does nothing when I click it. Probably a mod incompatibility, but I'll try it out on a clean install just to be sure. I'll post my player.log if the problem persists.

EDIT: Definitely a mod incompatibility. My first thought would be RSS, which I have as part of the KSP Renaissance Compilation, but it could be anything. I'll do some testing with a few things I'm suspecting. On the bright side, planet-moving works perfectly. I've got Urania in a cosy little orbit around Dolas~

Edited November 13, 2014 by Veelay

[_Augustus_]

Great job with this mod, medsouz. I like that you made planet-moving optional.

[medsouz]

So I've run into a bit of a problem. StarSystems seems to be breaking the game menu a bit. The 'resume saved' button does nothing when I click it. Probably a mod incompatibility, but I'll try it out on a clean install just to be sure. I'll post my player.log if the problem persists.

EDIT: Definitely a mod incompatibility. My first thought would be RSS, which I have as part of the KSP Renaissance Compilation, but it could be anything. I'll do some testing with a few things I'm suspecting. On the bright side, planet-moving works perfectly. I've got Urania in a cosy little orbit around Dolas~

Track down that incompatibility and I'll see what I can do about fixing it.

[Veelay]

Ok, I think I found it! Apparently Final Frontier is making a fuss about Kerbol being turned into a black hole. It's throwing errors when it tries to find the sun. Works fine when I removed it.

EDIT: Oops, may have jumped the gun. Removing Final Frontier let me load a game, but I'm still getting null references when I try to change scenes within the space center. Trying on a fresh save shortly.

EDIT EDIT: Ah, nevermind, it's definitely Final Frontier. I put it in my clean save and reproduced the error. I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place

Which means I either broke my save, or there's another incompatibility. Probably the former.

Edited November 13, 2014 by Veelay