OHM Project-Outposts: Wet Workshops

[Photonic]

Absolutely amazing! Can't wait to see the new modules, launch with the XR5, and hopefully one day soon build interplanetary cyclers/ships with this and jedidia's modular spacecraft.

 

[Mandella]

As for the problem with the quick save luckily it is not in my code but the original Atlantis launch script. The script is running through the launch sequence trying to ignite the engines (main or in some cases the OMEs). In your case the main engines where deleted and the OMEs created and assigned to the main thruster group, thus ignited and off you go. They then shutdown shortly after and the RCS kicks in to rotate the vessel so it can drop the ET, however this goes wrong and the vessel fights as it puts itself into a spin. The force of the spin can reach a level which appears to rip attachments from their attachment point ??!! That's a new one on me.

Good news is I think I can fix it, the bad news is it might fix the original also! By that I mean replacing the original orbiter files, something I can't do without warning people. So I may just fix it for Project-Outposts and keep the fixed script in my directory structure. You guys can then replace the original if you so wish, at your own risk!!

So is there a workaround for this until then? Some way to disable the script when we are coming back from a save?

A related question: How do we start a scenario on the pad without the launch auto-pilot kicking in?

EDIT: Thanks to Ark for the fix. Delete or comment out the line starting with "script" in the ENVIRONMENT block in the scenario file.

 

[jedidia]

and hopefully one day soon build interplanetary cyclers/ships with this and jedidia's modular spacecraft.

Problem is, the only thing you could implement into IMS are the exterior meshes and animations. The functionality of the original modules as well as the interiors would be lost. I don't know if that's appropriate for such great work and detail.

 

[Arrowstar]

Very nice!

 

[Ark]

So is there a workaround for this until then? Some way to disable the script when we are coming back from a save?

A related question: How do we start a scenario on the pad without the launch auto-pilot kicking in?

I just went into the scenario file and deleted all the script stuff. Man up and fly your own ascent. :lol:

 

[Mandella]

I just went into the scenario file and deleted all the script stuff. Man up and fly your own ascent. :lol:

Which is exactly what I was wanting to do. No other way to rendezvous with your partially completed station anyway.

Ah! There it is. I had looked into the scenario file, but had somehow skimmed over the script location between BEGIN and END ENVIRONMENT. A simple manual deletion and it should be fixed!

 

[Steve]

Which is exactly what I was wanting to do. No other way to rendezvous with your partially completed station anyway.

Ah! There it is. I had looked into the scenario file, but had somehow skimmed over the script location between BEGIN and END ENVIRONMENT. A simple manual deletion and it should be fixed!

Absolutly correct. You do not need the script to fly the shuttle.

The script is the original launch script provided with the stock Atlantis in Orbiter. I did not write this. Nor did I write the Atlantis project which I state in the manual. All that is provided is a modified version of the stock Atlantis project that adds the ability to take the ET's into orbit for delivery to an LEO plane. That is all that I added to the project. I want the Orbiter community to embrace the changes I have made and make better versions of the Atlantis or other craft that can use my modules.

However to get you started using manual flight if you examine the code between the BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT and END_ENVIRONMENT sections you will find the line:

Script demos/atlantis_launch

If you remove this then you can fly the shuttle manually.

This was taken from the stock Atlantis demo scenario provided with Orbiter 2010-P1. It invokes the LUA script system to start running a fixed program which can't be interupted and assumes you are starting from a launch position. If you save your scenario part way through, lets yes, during a launch and then run the saved file again later then script starts executing again from the begining. This is not what you want.

The Mission 1 scenario should have had this taken out but it slipped through the net. I'm Sorry for that. The intension was that the mission scenario would be run from begining to end in one go. In the demos folder you will find the same scenario as the mission 1 but it is called 'What's cool - Atlantis Launch with ET station!'. This should have been the automatic flight demo scenario which flys the Atlantis to orbit for you then lets you assemble the basic ET station after you achieve orbit circularisation.

The Atlantis was added for nostalgic reasons, and as an interim. The intended vehicle to get the ET's into orbit is the Space Elevator documented in my manual. As this will take me some time to get this add-on ready for you I wanted to give you a vessel to get you started. I chose the Atlantis.

I hope this clears up some of the confussion.

---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 PM ----------

Problem is, the only thing you could implement into IMS are the exterior meshes and animations. The functionality of the original modules as well as the interiors would be lost. I don't know if that's appropriate for such great work and detail.

I had actually planed on providing a Tug system with the Project-Outposts: Station Commander add-on but bumped it to an unpublisied add-on I have planned called Project-Outposts: Mission Manager. This introduces new gameplay concepts where you manage a private space company and take out contracts to get funds to build space stations or transport space stations to other planets or asteroids for mining colonies etc. The tug system would be introduced in this add-on which could be used to move stations to orbits around other worlds. A cut down version of the tug would be supplied in Project-Outposts: Station Commander for altitude corrections and maneuvering about orbital debris. See the coming soon section in the user manual.

Maybe there is room to make Project-Outposts modules compatible with other add-ons. That is if this is what the community wants?

 

[Photonic]

I had actually planed on providing a Tug system with the Project-Outposts: Station Commander add-on but bumped it to an unpublisied add-on I have planned called Project-Outposts: Mission Manager. This introduces new gameplay concepts where you manage a private space company and take out contracts to get funds to build space stations or transport space stations to other planets or asteroids for mining colonies etc.

Orbiter could definitely do with some economic/scientific modeling add-ons to drive mission planning. I've been wondering who's paying for all the trillions of dollars of fancy spaceships and cargo.

The tug system would be introduced in this add-on which could be used to move stations to orbits around other worlds. A cut down version of the tug would be supplied in Project-Outposts: Station Commander for altitude corrections and maneuvering about orbital debris. See the coming soon section in the user manual.

I've been using the Tranzit for RCS, orbit corrections, and temporary energy generation so far to great success. It is nice having opposing docking stations on a tug so it can fit in the middle between station modules. This will likely break your future functionality that communicates module status/O2/etc through docking ports so a compatible tug will be much appreciated.

Originally Posted by jedidia
Problem is, the only thing you could implement into IMS are the exterior meshes and animations. The functionality of the original modules as well as the interiors would be lost. I don't know if that's appropriate for such great work and detail.

I was thinking more along the lines of assembling the cyclers in orbit with Project Outpost station modules then using standard docking to a ship built from IMS to customize the challenge of Earth-Mars or outer planet transits without dropping a monolithic interstellar ship out of ScnEditor and adjusting the fuel. Of course this would be possible now by assembling any number of Tranzits together behind a station for appropriate dV. Enough of that for now though. I'll put down von Braun's The Mars Project and stop threadjacking :hmm:

 

[jedidia]

Well, you wouldn't even have to do anything to make those modules compatible. IMS just takes a mesh and integrates it visually into a unified superstructure, all the functionality is dictated by the IMS core module. As such, we can just write up a config file for a module, we don't have to re-publish the original meshes or any parts of the original add-on (we're currently doing that for pretty much every popular space station module add-on there is out there).

As such the add-on still works in its original state without trouble, but the meshes that are integrated into the IMS superstructure are, in the end, just meshes. The visuals are all that remains of the original. This isn't so bad, as practically all space station modules are just visuals but outposts is far more than that. Hence I would feel kind of sorry of just letting people use its visuals for my add-on, although the original add-on wouldn't be influenced in any way. It just... doesn't feel right.

 

[Hlynkacg]

The Atlantis was added for nostalgic reasons, and as an interim. The intended vehicle to get the ET's into orbit is the Space Elevator documented in my manual. As this will take me some time to get this add-on ready for you I wanted to give you a vessel to get you started. I chose the Atlantis.

Silly question I know, but isn't a "wet workshop" kind of pointless if you have a space elevator? why not use a purpose built module?

Maybe there is room to make Project-Outposts modules compatible with other add-ons. That is if this is what the community wants?

My suggestion would be to either make the project open source or (if you'd rather not) create an SDK that would allow addon developers to integrate Project Outposts' features into thier own modules.

See Dansteph's OrbiterSound and UMMU/UCCGO SDKs for excellent examples of the latter.

Minor quibbles asied (and they are quite minor) I want to echo what many others have already said and congradulate you on a job well done. This addon truely deserves a place on the "reccomended downloads" list right next to AMSO and the XR Fleet.

 

[Steve]

Silly question I know, but isn't a "wet workshop" kind of pointless if you have a space elevator? why not use a purpose built module?



My suggestion would be to either make the project open source or (if you'd rather not) create an SDK that would allow addon developers to integrate Project Outposts' features into thier own modules.

See Dansteph's OrbiterSound and UMMU/UCCGO SDKs for excellent examples of the latter.

Minor quibbles asied (and they are quite minor) I want to echo what many others have already said and congradulate you on a job well done. This addon truely deserves a place on the "reccomended downloads" list right next to AMSO and the XR Fleet.

Thank you very much for such a nice compliment.
Oh and I shall think about an SDK for Project-Outposts.

About the space elevator: Yup you have a point here. Here is part of the backgroud history I am currently writing about Project-Outposts. I hope this explains my reasoning behind Project-Outposts and the wet workshops.

The following is copyrighted by myself.
© Stephen Tweed 2010-2012

My intension was to use the Wet Workshops to start manufactoring plants in space. There have a large volume, are reletively cheap to build, and can be used for a multitude of applications; including providing the fuel they need to get to orbit.

The history for there use was based the private space industry, which had suffered set backs and stooled, and an environmental crisis which required imediate action to be taken. All suggestions turned to space for the answer and to move mining and high polluting manufacture off world. However there was no means to move large scale industry off world as the private space industry never took off and the public sector cut budgets to government funded space programmes.

We looked to the past for answers. The space shuttle and its ET's were revisited and assessed to see if the decomissioned museum pieces could be referbished and put back into operation as a temporary solution (I chose this for nostalgic reasons rather than an alternative universe with the space shuttle or an automated launch system using ETs). The Wet Workshops built from ETs could be used to start moving manufacture of the most polluting processes off world. Eventially mining could be moved off world completely as well. The Wet Workshops could be assembled quickly, cheaply, and transported easily to astroid fields, planets (including the Gas giants), and moons. The Wet Workshops were also considered to construct a new space elevator. This would bring down dramatically the cost of transporting materials, equipment, and humans into orbit.

Eventually custom modules and components would be manufactured and taken into orbit and then onward. Orbital assembly stations were built and the age of the first space only vessels and true space ports begun. Eventually Wet Workshops would be phased out. Before that happens an entire industry had evolved over a 50 year period before the first space elevator was operational. The great disaster of 2050 made the human race take notice of what they were doing to the Earth. They stopped laughing about crazed ideas of space elevators, making a permanent home in space and actually did it. We realised that the Earth was our only home and we had nowhere to run if the worst was to happen. It took almost 50 years to complete building of the first space elevator, just in time to welcome in the dawn of the 22nd centry.

During this 50 year period the private space industry had brought a new industrial revolution to the Earth. New lessure industries had popped up, new sports like Space Sky Diving (SSD) and Zero Gravity Football (ZGFB), space hotels, offices, research plants all took hold. Prospecting industries sprang up from no where looking for new places to mine for ores and other wealths. This is where Project-Outposts: Wet Workshops starts, at the birth of the Wet Workshops age in the year 2050. Project-Outposts: Space Elevator take you forward to the year 2099 the opening of the first orbital space elevator and permanent space port, over 49 years later.

 

[Mandella]

Minor issue here, but when reloading a save with the ET still attached to the shuttle, there is a noticeable gap between the tank and the shuttle. Or at least a larger gap, since there is always a little space between the support struts and the bottom of Atlantis (and yes, this is using the proper tanks, not the ones designated for the future elevator).