Science plugin

[RCSub]

Hello everyone

I have for some time been messing around with a mod for adding new technologies (Like the old TreeLoader mod), but with a slightly different spin on it.

I try to keep everything as close to the way it works in stock KSP.

At the moment you can add new technologies (even to an existing save), and assign parts to these.

I have made a pre-alpha version of a new ScienceExperiment module, that only allows recovery, not transmission or boosting transmit. It uses the KSP ScienceDefs.cfg, meaning you can use the existing experiments or create your own. At the moment the GUI is kinda ugly, but it works. I am missing a storage module, so for now you can store infinite iterations of the experiment.

Plans:

1:I plan to make an ExperimentConversion module, that allows an experiment result(configurable) to be turned into another experiment result(configurable). Both input and output experiment should be either stock(transmit alowed) or with no transmission allowed. It is supposed to be used for E.G. a surface sample analyzer that turns a surface sample into a surface analysis(which could then be transmittable) But at the moment I am facing some problems creating an experiment result without adding it (with 0 data and science) to the R&D Archive.

2: I plan to implement experiment based requirements for new technologies. Like "Mun dust refinery" technology requires a certain amount of science collected in surface samples from Mun, before you can research it.

I am not planning to make alot of parts (I am a terrible 3d designer), but I hope others would use the mod for making new part packs.

Any comments or suggestions for extra features?

Best regards RCSub

[RCSub]

Just found that KSP also creates these "empty" entries in R&D archive that I mention in plans 1. Guess that is okay

[artwhaley]

I'd been pondering a very similar mod for ISRU- making it so you had to do a certain amount of scientific analysis of a biome before you could produce fuel there, for example. The part of the tech tree mechanism that arms to be lacking is the ability to require a certain kind of science to unlock a node. As it stands now, research on the moon would be able to unlock the 'make fuel at jool' node.

So it may require some plug in programming.

First thought for your conversion problem. What if you make the soil and atmosphere samples as defined resources, similar to intake air, instead of an experiment. So you land and start collection. Then you define your experiment part to require soil as a resource for operation. If you make it require 5 units per second and take 20 seconds to do the science, you turn 100 units soil into a science experiment result and bypass the need to convert zero value science to a different experiment. As a resource, soil would have mass, so there would be an advantage to processing it in place instead of carrying it back to orbit, etc.

If you get everything else working but need a plugin to check whether an experiment has been performed before allowing a part to function, let me know and I'll help! I can also help work part models once you get everything working mechanically.

Art

Edited December 2, 2014 by artwhaley