[1.2.1] Outer Planets Mod (2.1) - Active development has moved, see first post for new thread

[Uberns]

On 11/8/2016 at 0:57 PM, CaptRobau said:

A (temporary) hack to make comms work at the ranges of OPMs expanded system

Long-range antenna will be boosted quite a bit. This throws off balance in the inner system, but it's the best I could do without something like Custom Barnkit adding more options to change KSC's antenna ranges.

 

Will this be optional via a config?  I have already added an extra dish model to my game and set it up to serve as the OPM relay dish.

(and as usual: Thanks for continuing to keep this mod alive mate.  Its very well done and is one of my fav's )

[DMagic]

On 11/9/2016 at 10:53 PM, Geschosskopf said:

Great!  Can't wait to get back into OPM!  And the updated features sound wounderful, too.  Thanks for all the hard work.

BTW, I've been thinking long and hard about the difficulty of communicating out at OPM distances with the stock system.  Fortunately, I think I've found a solution in the form of @DMagic's Orbital Science mod.  For a while now, since before 1.2x, this wonderful mod has had a gawdawful huge friggin' antenna, the Oversize Signals Intelligence Dish, for its own purposes.  But now, for 1.2.1, DMagic has given it relay capability. 

They are configured as direct antennas, not relay. You could easily change that with a MM patch. Also be aware that they have really high EC requirements for transmission. There is also another part, the Soil Moisture Sensor, that is basically a big array of antennas that could also be configured as a CommNet dish, though that would take some changes on my end to make it work properly.

[Tyko]

On 11/8/2016 at 0:57 PM, CaptRobau said:

A (temporary) hack to make comms work at the ranges of OPMs expanded system

Long-range antenna will be boosted quite a bit. This throws off balance in the inner system, but it's the best I could do without something like Custom Barnkit adding more options to change KSC's antenna ranges.

 

Thanks for all your work! Regarding KSC range boosting - it's not ideal, but for the first pass could you provide a recommendation on what players could manually set their range slider to?

[Geschosskopf]

39 minutes ago, DMagic said:

They are configured as direct antennas, not relay. You could easily change that with a MM patch. Also be aware that they have really high EC requirements for transmission. There is also another part, the Soil Moisture Sensor, that is basically a big array of antennas that could also be configured as a CommNet dish, though that would take some changes on my end to make it work properly.

Ah, OK.  So like so?

@PART[dmSIGINT.End]:NEEDS[DMagic]
{
	@MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
	{
		@antennaType = RELAY
		@antennaCombinable = True
	}
}

@PART[dmSoilMoisture]:NEEDS[DMagic]
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleDataTransmitter
		antennaType = RELAY
		packetInterval = 0.20
		packetSize = 4
		packetResourceCost = 40.0
		requiredResource = ElectricCharge
		antennaPower = 500000000000
		antennaCombinable = True
	}
}

This gives the Soil Moisture thingy an L3 354 Gm range and 200 EC/sec which seems reasonably OK between the huge dish and the stock parts.  Still gives full bars to Jool, too.

 

[tsaven]

29 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

This gives the Soil Moisture thingy an L3 354 Gm range and 200 EC/sec which seems reasonably OK between the huge dish and the stock parts.  Still gives full bars to Jool, too.

 

Maybe it would make more sense to use the Undersized SignIt dish for a in in-between the giant dish and the stock ones?

[Geschosskopf]

1 minute ago, tsaven said:

Maybe it would make more sense to use the Undersized SignIt dish for a in in-between the giant dish and the stock ones?

Or to make a it a 3-step progression between stock and the biggest DMOS antenna?  The great thing about ModuleManager is that it makes every user a modder

 

[tsaven]

1 minute ago, Geschosskopf said:

Or to make a it a 3-step progression between stock and the biggest DMOS antenna?  The great thing about ModuleManager is that it makes every user a modder

 

So soil moisture thingie gets you to Sarnus, Undersized SignIt gets you to Urlurm, Oversized gets you to Neidon and Plock?  Possible, I'm not sure there needs to be three steps to it though.

[Geschosskopf]

12 hours ago, tsaven said:

So soil moisture thingie gets you to Sarnus, Undersized SignIt gets you to Urlurm, Oversized gets you to Neidon and Plock?  Possible, I'm not sure there needs to be three steps to it though.

That's the beauty of ModuleManager. C/est toujours chacun à son goût.  There's no need to try to determine a canon way to mod DMOS to work with OPM.  Once OPM is in the house in the 1st place, you're talking to folks who play with mods, usually lots of them, and who quite often speak ModuleManager

For instance, after bringing home an insane amount of excess science in a previous OPM career game, future games in that universe will be sandbox with all the future-tech mods, fully AI probes, and Kerbals near or even beyond the Singularity.  So probes won't need links for full control, ships won't need pilots for full control, and there's no science to transmit.  Thus, the network would only be there for role-playing, so the Kerbals can phone home periodically.  As a result, I'd only put up the biggest antenna.

OTOH, if you want to do a from-scratch OPM career, then having a progression of relay antenna from Jool out to Plock might be more your thing.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[CaptRobau]

15 hours ago, Uberns said:

Will this be optional via a config?  I have already added an extra dish model to my game and set it up to serve as the OPM relay dish.

(and as usual: Thanks for continuing to keep this mod alive mate.  Its very well done and is one of my fav's )

 

I always intended it to be a seperate config, so it's entirely optional

15 hours ago, tjt said:

Thanks for all your work! Regarding KSC range boosting - it's not ideal, but for the first pass could you provide a recommendation on what players could manually set their range slider to?

Sure

[Poodmund]

With regards to CommNet connections at OPM distances, I'll leave this here for thought.

 

[Uberns]

3 hours ago, Poodmund said:

With regards to CommNet connections at OPM distances, I'll leave this here for thought.

 

That's pretty much what I did too.  Though when I read your post I realized that I needed to up the power of my antenna by at least 2x if I want to reach Plock 

Edit:

After thinking about it for a minute I decided to do exactly what you did (except I gave GX-1024 a little more range).  I now have 3 new antennas in the specializedElectrics, highTechElectricalSystems, and highPowerElectricalSystems.

Thanks for posting those ranges mate!  You really made this process quick and painless.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Uberns
I did more stuff

[JadeOfMaar]

On 11/8/2016 at 4:57 PM, CaptRobau said:

Hi everyone,

Work on 2.1 is continuing at a healthy pace and things are finalized enough now that I can give you a brief overview of what's going to be in it:

Biome overhaul

Gone are the old boring Highlands, Craters, and Lowlands. You'll find the Silisko Sea on Tekto, Falkor Plains on Polta, the Ryloth Region on Thatmo and  Kowgan Archipelago on Slate. Names inspired by KSP devs, modders, fans as well as pop-culture (sci-fi and fantasy) really help make OPMs planets and moons feel more alive. There's also more of them and they're more contiguous (so less pixel hunting biomes). Science blurbs have been changed or moved around and the science payout of bodies has been tweaked to account for the changes. Oh, and all  the biome maps are easier on the eyes too.

Biomes for Plock, Karen, Sarnus, Urlum and Neidon

The faraway dwarf planet and its moon, introduced in 1.9.0, finally get biomes of their own. The OPM gas giants have also been given biomes, after @Snark proved that those were possible, but also a good idea. In total these biomes and the overhauled biomes mentioned above add 100 biomes to the 60 biomes that you could come across in OPM 2.0. This is in line with the biome count of stock KSP since 1.2.

Improved normal maps for bodies

The normals are correctly lit now and the details is just right. The planets and moons have never looked so good from high orbit/the map view.

Redid all timewarp levels to transition more quickly to useful speeds

Less waiting at low altitudes and ideal orbital altitudes, because the timewarp levels are now better adjusted to each body.

A (temporary) hack to make comms work at the ranges of OPMs expanded system

Long-range antenna will be boosted quite a bit. This throws off balance in the inner system, but it's the best I could do without something like Custom Barnkit adding more options to change KSC's antenna ranges.

All sorts of little fixes

A cure for the white planet bug, the Linux/Mac issues and updates made to fully update the mod to take advantage of 1.2. 

 

 

I've always admired this mod and wondered how much work you alone put into it (like the science definitions) since I've almost never gotten mention about the other devs, and I'm quite relieved, even encouraged that OPM is still fresh and growing.

[meuqsaco]

Anyone knows if it's possible to compile the 1.1.3 ksp compatible version into 1.2? This mod is a must have for any new game to me.

[Sigma88]

5 minutes ago, meuqsaco said:

Anyone knows if it's possible to compile the 1.1.3 ksp compatible version into 1.2? This mod is a must have for any new game to me.

OPM does not have any dll so there is no need to compile anything.

Planet packs are a collection of config files used by kopernicus.

Since when this mod was released kopernicus changed but it should still be able to load OPM files.

You should back up your saves if you want to try loading opm on 1.2.1

[Dazpoet]

I'm thinking I already know the answer to my question but I'll ask for safetys sake.

I'd love to try out OPM but I am on 1.2.1, and I know it seems to be working and all is fine but I prefer releases made for a distinct version. However I'm guessing that my new save won't really be anywhere near OPM territory in a while so can I start my new save without it and then add it later or will that lead to all sorts of weird problems? I guess I'll have to refrain from sending stuff to Eeloo since it's moved but I can live with that

[Sigma88]

7 minutes ago, Dazpoet said:

I'm thinking I already know the answer to my question but I'll ask for safetys sake.

I'd love to try out OPM but I am on 1.2.1, and I know it seems to be working and all is fine but I prefer releases made for a distinct version. However I'm guessing that my new save won't really be anywhere near OPM territory in a while so can I start my new save without it and then add it later or will that lead to all sorts of weird problems? I guess I'll have to refrain from sending stuff to Eeloo since it's moved but I can live with that

OPM also changes the science multipliers for stock bodies, lowering the amount of science available so that you actually have a reason to go to the outer planets

 

other than that it should be fine

[Dazpoet]

42 minutes ago, Sigma88 said:

OPM also changes the science multipliers for stock bodies, lowering the amount of science available so that you actually have a reason to go to the outer planets

 

other than that it should be fine

I plan to solve that problem by playing with CTT, which I'm hoping should be enough.

[Nansuchao]

3 minutes ago, Dazpoet said:

I plan to solve that problem by playing with CTT, which I'm hoping should be enough.

OPM only change the position of Eloo, so if you have not ships going there when you install OPM you'll have no issues at all.

[Sigma88]

20 minutes ago, Dazpoet said:

I plan to solve that problem by playing with CTT, which I'm hoping should be enough.

what I meant is that if you start a career without OPM you won't get the diminished science values, and so you might gain so much science that you will have no stuff left to unlock by the time you install opm

nothing major anyways

[CaptRobau]

Outer Planets Mod 2.1 is here!

The second biggest update ever, 2.1 really finishes up nicely everything that was started almost two years ago! Biomes for everything

Features

• Complete biome overhaul. All OPM bodies (including the gas giants) now have biomes, existing ones have more biomes, more interesting biome names and the color palettes are much more pleasant to look at
• Improved normal maps bring out the detail in the planets and moons
• Full 1.2.1 compatibility (Custom Barnkit needed to get balanced CommNet coverage of OPMs greater distances)
• More player-friendly timewarp altitudes
• All sorts of small fixes

For more information, please see the full changelog below

Downloads

1. Download the mod from one of the mirrors. You can also use the CKAN mod manager to download and keep it updated automatically (could take a while for it to get 2.0).

 

2. Download Kopernicus, which is a third-party mode required for OPM to work

 

This version of OPM works best with Kopernicus 1.2.1-1. We can't give proper technical support if you use a Kopernicus version that a particular OPM update wasn't designed for.

3. Install both mods, by moving the unzipped contents of the downloads into the GameData folder. You should end up with the folders OPM, CTTP and Kopernicus in GameData.

4. (Optional) Check out the Mods section for third-party mods that OPM was designed to work with in the OP. For example, SigmaBinary makes Plock and Karen a true binary system like Pluto-Charon.

Installation note: If you're updating complex mods like this, please do not overwrite the old version with the new one but delete it instead. This can prevent issues, as incompatible changes can be made between versions. To uninstall just remove the OPM folder from GameData.

 

Compatibility

 

This update probably won't break any saves outright, but there are enough changes that I recommend starting a new save just in case (or backing up any valuable saves that you want to try and use with 2.1). Especially for career saves do I suggest that you start over. The new biomes won't break anything, but the balance will be off.

 

Screenshots

 

 

Changelog

 

Spoiler

• Redid normals for all bodies expect Ovok
• Fixed ASL pressure readouts in the body overview in map mode
• Removed support for the outdated KopernicusExpansion
• Added MM config that fixes white texture issue for Scatterer users
• Added a config that adapts the new antenna functionality of KSP 1.2 to work with the greater distances
• Redid all timewarp levels to transition more quickly to useful speeds
• Rebalanced science payout adjustments
• Adapted the Karbonite configs to the biome revamp
• Redid all existing OPM biomes
• Adjusted the science descriptions to account for the new/different biomes
• Added biomes and science blurbs to Plock, Karen, Sarnus, Neidon and Urlum
• Gave the biome maps more pleasant color palettes

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by CaptRobau

[Tyko]

weh hoo!! Thanks

[Olympic1]

Trying it out now

[tsaven]

Oh man, this work day needs to be over already so I can go dive into this.

[CaptRobau]

Have fun everyone!

[tsaven]

Maybe this will become evident once I open it up, but is it easy to disable the Relay antenna re-adjustments if I'm going to hack in the Orbital Science SigNit antennas to act as giant long-distance relays?