Kerbal Space Program: Hardware Rich Combustion

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Kerbal Space Program: Hardware Rich Combustion

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

Splode posted:

I have a problem with kerbals sliding down ladders. It's a pain when you're trying to pull data out of 5 different experiments and Jeb has decided to slowly slide off. It happens consistently for me, anyone else noticed this since the patch?

Kerbals on ladders have paradoxical physics issues -- if a force is pulling them downward they tend to slide upward. You can improve things by sliding the "Physics Delta-Time per Frame" over to the right, but that will also make your game run more slowly when you have a lot of physics stress (like large ships with lots of parts).

Alternately, ladders that are at right angles to the acceleration don't have the problem.

pun pundit posted:

There used to be (still is? Is again?) a bug where if a cubic octagonal strut is the target of a quantum strut, the craft would be immovable.

Yeah I was gonna post to say that looks exactly like the quantum strut anti-gravity bug. My thought was that maybe his grabber up on top of the ship had grabbed a strut-piece somehow, which locked both in place. I just tried putting (stock) struts onto a grabber in various ways and couldn't make anything weird happen, but maybe there was something else involved in his bug besides time acceleration.

edit: oh, I guess KJR could be an easier explanation. That's another one in my "cure is worse than the disease" list.

Klyith fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Apr 4, 2014

# ? Apr 4, 2014 08:05

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 13:09

Tumblr of scotch: Mar 13, 2006; Please, don't be my neighbor.

Flagrant Abuse posted:

Manoeuvre nodes persist through EVAs now.

e: Unless that's from Kerbal Alarm Clock's new update.

Oh my god they even persist through switching craft. This is awesome, Squad's awesome. Maxmaps you and your buddies are awesome.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 08:21

sckye: Apr 6, 2012

In non-asteroid related news, I finally started messing around with Spaceplanes/Shuttles. Rockets are way simpler to build than airplanes, surprisingly. After about 4 different iterations of this designs and a ton of other failed designs, I settled on this:

No RCS/SAS modules on it yet, but as I have nothing to dock it to it's not really necessary yet. About 6M worth of LFO in the interior, which makes it a tad heavy, but it's pretty easy to fly/land. Might have something to do with the insane B9 airbrakes. Using 5 landing bays seems to work out rather nicely, too.

Here I'm showing off its tiny cargo bay, currently loaded up with batteries and science experiments, and the airbrake behind it. The turbofan engine at the bottom is not strictly necessary, but it's an insurance in case I mess up the reentry.

Liftoff!

It's not the heaviest design, so the SRB's easily lift it out of the soup.

Booster seperation. I'm using the perfectrons mod, which adds different types of seperators. The ones used shoot the SRB's off to the sides of the shuttle and clear.

External fuel tank seperation. Plenty of fuel left.

Success! Orbiting at 80km over Kerbin, the solar panels deploy. Still enough fuel to do a fly-by of Mun & Minmus, but I decide against it.

After a victory lap, I fire the OMS retrograde and start heading home.

Burning off some speed. Hey, those mountains seem a little closer than expected..
Overhead, Jool watches amusedly.

Still at about 30km up, traveling at speed. Oops.

It's okay though, airbrakes are insane. Didn't even get to see reentry effects. Might have to use the second runway though.

Naah, we're fine, everything's fine.

Glides rather well, about 40 km traveled.

Gear down, final approach. Haven't had to use the jet engine at all.

Not pictured - bouncing off twice before settling safely. Success!

It sure is Jeb. It sure is. (Also, here's the cluttered UI I've been hiding.)

Now, how do we make it bigger.. :jeb:

# ? Apr 4, 2014 08:22

Splode: Jun 18, 2013; put some clothes on you little freak

Okan170 posted:

Do you have Kerbal Joint Reinforcement installed? There is a bug currently where exiting time warp will leave a vessel unable to be affected by physics at all. I've hit that bug myself, and removing KJR resolved the problem.

So what is the purpose of KJR now that squad has strengthened the joints themselves?

Flagrant Abuse posted:

Oh my god they even persist through switching craft. This is awesome, Squad's awesome. Maxmaps you and your buddies are awesome.

This feature is really fantastic, do let the team know Maxmaps.

Splode fucked around with this message at 08:44 on Apr 4, 2014

# ? Apr 4, 2014 08:42

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

Splode posted:

So what is the purpose of KJR now that squad has strengthened the joints themselves?

The latest version of KJR removes the joint stiffening, but it still does physics easing during loads and when coming out of time warp, plus some stuff with launch clamps. That's a completely separate problem than the stuff with joints the plugin was originally made for, but it got added and is still useful for some people.

If you like super-big space constructions, or especially if you like big bases on a planet / moon, KJR is still useful. OTOH it tinkers with physics in ways that can have new bugs of it's own.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 09:01

Troglyfe: Jan 2, 2014

I just got done goofing around with a mobile refueling and research base.

It's huge.

The towers from left to right: research, two cyclotrons, crew quarters.

Detail shots.

Undercarriage camera.

Beauty shots.

Bonus: breaking my wheels trying to get on a plateau.

As soon as Infernal Robotics gets fixed, I'm giving this thing a crane, a rover garage and a launch pad. :jeb:

Now I just need to figure out how to get this thing to Minmus in one piece. :jebstare:

# ? Apr 4, 2014 10:08

Wyld Karde: Mar 18, 2013; She's so ~dreamy~

OMGVBFLOL posted:

Katherine Kerman's tutorial on maneuver nodes would be an amazing tribute to an amazing person. Working the phrase in "I'll have to check with Katherine" would be neat too.

So much this. Maxmaps, please make sure this gets passed on to the team.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 10:26

maltesh: May 20, 2004; Uncle Ben: Still Dead.

From the change log:

quote:

* Added buttons to add/remove an orbit to the date of a maneuver node, allowing nodes to be planned for several orbits ahead.

Where do these buttons appear? I can't seem to find them.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 10:28

Shanakin: Mar 26, 2010; The whole point of stats are lost if you keep it a secret. Why Didn't you tell the world eh?

right click on a node, the old X appears with a +/- buttons at the bottom.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 10:31

Metrication: Dec 12, 2010; Raskin had one problem: Jobs regarded him as an insufferable theorist or, to use Jobs's own more precise terminology, "a shithead who sucks".

Is there an updated version of Kerbal Engineer?

# ? Apr 4, 2014 10:34

sckye: Apr 6, 2012

Metrication posted:

Is there an updated version of Kerbal Engineer?

Here. Check this thread until 1.0 releases in the official one.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 10:46

DStecks: Feb 6, 2012

Seriously, 60 science for asteroid capture? Was any playtesting done at all? By the time you can afford the claw, that won't even get you halfway to a new tech!

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:01

Splode: Jun 18, 2013; put some clothes on you little freak

DStecks posted:

Seriously, 60 science for asteroid capture? Was any playtesting done at all? By the time you can afford the claw, that won't even get you halfway to a new tech!

Can anyone see if biome multipliers have any impact? I got 60 from both high and low kerbin orbit, but I can't remember if they have the same multiplier.

It wouldn't make much sense if they do make an impact, an asteroid is what it is regardless of where you are.
Not to mention that moving it to LKO with an un-crewed spacecraft and performing the sample with a smaller manned craft once in orbit is exactly what NASA is going to do. It'd be really silly if they were accidentally penalising players who do this.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:07

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

DStecks posted:

Seriously, 60 science for asteroid capture? Was any playtesting done at all? By the time you can afford the claw, that won't even get you halfway to a new tech!

It's 60 science for an asteroid sample, AIUI, whether you actually capture the asteroid or just rendezvous with one as it flies past Kerbin. You don't actually need the Claw.

The Claw seems mostly useful for dragging asteroids into more convenient orbits and building space stations around them, i.e. it's completely impractical, and by the time you can afford it the science from asteroids is basically worthless, but it's cool.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:19

SocketSeven: Dec 5, 2012

DStecks posted:

Seriously, 60 science for asteroid capture? Was any playtesting done at all? By the time you can afford the claw, that won't even get you halfway to a new tech!

Saving the planet from an asteroid is a monetary and publicity reward. Not a scientific one. :v:

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:23

Geemer: Nov 4, 2010

SocketSeven posted:

Saving the planet from an asteroid is a monetary and publicity reward. Not a scientific one.

All of NASA would ejaculate in their pants if you presented them with a captured asteroid to do research on.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:30

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

ToxicFrog posted:

The Claw seems mostly useful for dragging asteroids into more convenient orbits and building space stations around them, i.e. it's completely impractical, and by the time you can afford it the science from asteroids is basically worthless, but it's cool.

Obviously Station Science needs to fix this by adding experiment capsules that can only be performed with an asteroid attached to the station.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:44

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

The game's issue right now is that they only have one reward to give.

Once they add money and reputation then we can start worrying about play balance.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:50

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

Psawhn posted:

Yeah, I was running into that too. It's really annoying. I was at the point of using Mechjeb's maneuver planner just to put nodes where I want them.

If I install Mechjeb right now, will it work on a ship already in flight or is it an add-on part that has to be included? This is really frustrating.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 14:51

RadioPassive: Feb 26, 2012

There are two MechJeb parts, one replaces a cockpit/capsule and is kinda big and doesn't always fit on a ship, one attaches like a battery pack from the stock parts and fits pretty much anywhere.

Once you stick either one on your ship, the windows for delta-v stats and everything else will pop up on screen if you've done it right. But I've only done this in the VAB before launch. I'm not sure if you could get one to attach in flight, and you'd definitely need a mod to make that possible.

Don't forget to go to the tech tree and unlock the MechJeb parts, even if you've already researched their tech level, you need to go to the tree and specifically unlock them once you add them in.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 15:08

sckye: Apr 6, 2012

haveblue posted:

If I install Mechjeb right now, will it work on a ship already in flight or is it an add-on part that has to be included? This is really frustrating.

No, but this will.

I'm kind of surprised they're still going for the "drag arbitrary lines around for 10 minutes until you happen to accidentally get it right", honestly. I'd literally refuse to play the game without this particular mod - it's that essential for retaining your sanity when attempting an interstellar mission or trying to intercept something on a difficult trajectory (such as asteroids).

Seriously, why is something like this not stock yet?

edit:

RadioPassive posted:

VVV

Yeah, you're right. The game IS still an alpha version after all. I worded the above a bit harsher than I intended to. Squad can take their time, the game is great.

sckye fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Apr 4, 2014

# ? Apr 4, 2014 15:14

RadioPassive: Feb 26, 2012

Personally, I'm very happy that Squad has put more time into things like part-joint physics.

Having to adjust nodes manually is frustrating, but they can't fix everything in one go.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 15:19

nielsm: Jun 1, 2009

DStecks posted:

Seriously, 60 science for asteroid capture? Was any playtesting done at all? By the time you can afford the claw, that won't even get you halfway to a new tech!

Workaround: Crash it into Minmus instead, then grab the sample from the asteroid while standing on Minmus. Or redirect it to smash into Duna instead.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 16:01

Collateral Damage: Jun 13, 2009

haveblue posted:

If I install Mechjeb right now, will it work on a ship already in flight or is it an add-on part that has to be included? This is really frustrating.

Assuming you have modulemanager installed, create a file called mm_mechjeb.cfg or whatever in the mechjeb directory and add the following to it to add built in mechjeb functionality to all pods and drone cores.

code:


@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleCommand]] 
{
MODULE
{
        name = MechJebCore
} 
}

# ? Apr 4, 2014 16:35

Arsonide: Oct 18, 2007; You're breaking my balls here

I found a project that adds a metric ton of science descriptions to the game for each and every biome and situation, which will make science a lot more interesting, but I also found the Custom Biomes mod, which adds biomes to every planet that does not have them.

Now, the game supports adding scientific descriptions for each experiment in each biome, but the Custom Biomes mod only implemented about a third of them, and for the other 2/3s you get the two or three generic descriptions, and that's no fun, so I'm filling out small descriptions for every biome and every experiment. I made it a collaborative spreadsheet, so if any of you have ideas, you can submit them anonymously: http://goo.gl/YNX6ZB

What's mostly on there right now is what was already in the Custom Biomes mod, except I ran it through a spelling and grammar check, because yeesh. There are 82 biomes and ten experiments to perform in each one, for a total of 820 science descriptions, and about a third of those are filled out already, though some of them don't make much sense, and I'll need to revise them. Anyway, it shouldn't take too long to finish this up. A lot of the remaining ones are moons of Jool. Once I'm done I'm submitting each and every line to the crowdsourced science description project on the Kerbal forums, so it will become a part of the greater modding community very quickly. The game does support multiple descriptions per situation, it'll pick between them randomly, so if you want to add more than one just delimit them with commas.

I appreciate any assistance.

Arsonide fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Apr 4, 2014

# ? Apr 4, 2014 17:25

3: Aug 26, 2006; The Magic Number; College Slice

Collateral Damage posted:

Assuming you have modulemanager installed, create a file called mm_mechjeb.cfg or whatever in the mechjeb directory and add the following to it to add built in mechjeb functionality to all pods and drone cores.
code:
@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleCommand]] 
{
MODULE
{
        name = MechJebCore
} 
} 

If you want to have each module unlock based on research, you also have to add these handles:

code:

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleCommand]]
{
    MODULE
    {
        name = MechJebCore
        MechJebLocalSettings {
            MechJebModuleCustomWindowEditor { unlockTechs = flightControl }
            MechJebModuleSmartASS { unlockTechs = flightControl }
            MechJebModuleManeuverPlanner { unlockTechs = advFlightControl }
            MechJebModuleNodeEditor { unlockTechs = advFlightControl }
            MechJebModuleTranslatron { unlockTechs = advFlightControl }
            MechJebModuleWarpHelper { unlockTechs = advFlightControl }
            MechJebModuleAttitudeAdjustment { unlockTechs = advFlightControl }
            MechJebModuleThrustWindow { unlockTechs = advFlightControl }
            MechJebModuleRCSBalancerWindow { unlockTechs = advFlightControl }
            MechJebModuleRoverWindow { unlockTechs = fieldScience }
            MechJebModuleAscentGuidance { unlockTechs = unmannedTech }
            MechJebModuleLandingGuidance { unlockTechs = unmannedTech }
            MechJebModuleSpaceplaneGuidance { unlockTechs = unmannedTech }
            MechJebModuleDockingGuidance { unlockTechs = advUnmanned }
            MechJebModuleRendezvousAutopilotWindow { unlockTechs = advUnmanned }
            MechJebModuleRendezvousGuidance { unlockTechs = advUnmanned }
        }
    }
}

Otherwise, you'll just have everything unlocked from the beginning.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 17:47

Falken: Jan 26, 2004; Do you feel like a hero yet?

Wait, who is Katherine?

# ? Apr 4, 2014 18:43

Nth Doctor: Sep 7, 2010; Darkrai used Dream Eater!
It's super effective!

Falken posted:

Wait, who is Katherine?

Katherine Johnson, I think. She came up either in this thread or the spaceflight megathread earlier this week.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 18:53

BrainMeats: Aug 20, 2000; We have evolved beyond the need for posting.; Soiled Meat

You never think it could happen to you until it does.

It's the stage I dumped before landing.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 20:33

OAquinas: Jan 27, 2008; Biden has sat immobile on the Iron Throne of America. He is the Master of Malarkey by the will of the gods, and master of a million votes by the might of his inexhaustible calamari.

Man, no wonder they banned lawn darts. Just look how dangerous that thing is!

# ? Apr 4, 2014 20:40

Arsonide: Oct 18, 2007; You're breaking my balls here

Still working on that mod, running into an issue with Moho - I can't figure out which crater is which on the biome map. It would help me, if you guys could identify where on this map the fabled easter egg "pits" are: http://screencast.com/t/4wQ7qLAVQmT

They say that they are at the north and south poles, but I can't see them on the map, I assume they're actually offset a bit.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 21:40

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

They're at the top and bottom edges of the map, at exactly 90 degrees north/south and longitude doesn't matter. They aren't deliberate easter eggs, they're artifacts formed by the way the 3D geometry is imperfectly wrapped around the sphere.

# ? Apr 4, 2014 21:45

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

sckye posted:

In non-asteroid related news, I finally started messing around with Spaceplanes/Shuttles. Rockets are way simpler to build than airplanes, surprisingly. After about 4 different iterations of this designs and a ton of other failed designs, I settled on this:

That is seriously snazzy. What parts are those? B9?

# ? Apr 5, 2014 02:00

GWBBQ: Jan 2, 2005

I ran into a bug where after capturing an asteroid and undocking my ship from the claw+parachute module, trying to go into warp or physics warp starts accelerating the ship upward (normal vector) uncontrollably and gives the can't warp while under acceleration message. Happens even when I decouple everything but the 3 man capsule with a docking port on the top and 3 radial parasites on the side.

Nth Doctor posted:

Katherine Johnson, I think. She came up either in this thread or the spaceflight megathread earlier this week.

Yup, I suggested her as a tutorial/historic throwback character when the subject of adding female Kerbals to the game came up.

Speaking of suggestions for game content, "arguing periapsis" should be one of the loading screen hints.

GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Apr 5, 2014

# ? Apr 5, 2014 04:09

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

Eventually got the ship back home by burning to break the intercept, then planning another burn that got me aimed close enough for final corrections to take place inside the target SOI. Really hope this gets patched soon, though.

# ? Apr 5, 2014 04:12

Geemer: Nov 4, 2010

GWBBQ posted:

Speaking of suggestions for game content, "arguing periapsis" should be one of the loading screen hints.

Actually having loading screen hints on recent AMD drivers would be cool, too. For me it just shows the first 'Loading...' and then it does the fade to the other artwork and no more hints show up.

# ? Apr 5, 2014 04:13

rhoga: Jun 4, 2012; mon chou

The new parts are defective.

Beautiful. Perfect. And on the other side?

You can also use these parts to make a Ska 2-Liter Soda Bottle.

# ? Apr 5, 2014 04:19

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

Did my first asteroid rendezvous today! I didn't have The Klaw yet, so I had to settle for matching v with it, spacewalking over, and grabbing a sample.

Once this was done, the ship didn't have enough fuel to get home (and had no reentry capability - I built and launched it in kind of a hurry), so I sent out another ship to dock with it, take the crew off, and bring them home.

Guess what?

I forgot the asteroid sample.

It's still on the abandoned science vessel, loving around in a highly elliptical polar orbit.

# ? Apr 5, 2014 04:20