Project Plants

vchamp

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This is the add-on I just started.

It will consist of:
- Set of bases on celestial bodies.
- Module which handles a production rate. Each plant-base extracts a certain amount of a resource in a time span. Other plants will consume resources to build vehicles, modules, components, etc with a given rate too.
- Dialog where a plant can be selected and asked to expose a resource (UCGO cargo) or other object depending on the plant type. Then the requested amount of objects are added to the scenario and placed at the specific place, from where it can be loaded to a cargo vessel.

Please post what do you think about it, suggestions are welcome.

I am going to make this add-on for my own use anyway. Don't know however if there will be enough demand to publish it at OrbitHangar.

-------------------------------

The project in its latest state can be found here:
https://bitbucket.org/vchamp/plants

:tiphat:
 
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Rtyh-12

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This could get very interesting, if it becomes what you say it will! :thumbup:
 

Nazban

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This is an amazing idea!!:cheers:
What are your ideas on how these resources can be used?
and how long do you think this will take?? i cant wait for it!!!
 

vchamp

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Basic resources like metal, plastics can be used for vehicles manufacturing at other plants. Fuel and oxygen... obvious. Anything that suggests your imagination. If there is a currency system in Orbiter one day, resources can be used for trade.

How long this will take? The initial, very simple, ready to use module can be made in a couple of weeks or so. There are some obstacles, main of which is my almost 2-years break in C++ programming and Orbiter SDK usage.
 

Nazban

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Alright! im looking forward to this!!:thumbup:

Can you also add something like electrical power plant, like a geothermal one on an active planet. Can this electricity be interfaced with Dan's DG-IV(i have no knowledge of C++ programming), is this possible?
The only bad thing about currency is that orbiter is not an MMO, theres only OMP and to hae a currency like this, there needs to be a LOT of people playing.
But, can there also be like a raw fuel, and a seperate refinery base where the fuel can be made to us(the raw uel can be transferd via UGCO cars as cargos.
Like i mentioned earlier, i have no ideda about programming, i just want to know, can my above points be implemented in this?
 

jedidia

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Hey vchamp, nice to see you around again! Orbiter finally got you back, has it? :lol:

An interesting Idea you have here, similiar to the Orbiter Colonizer that alas never saw the light of day.

You might or might not have heared of my current project, Orbiter Galaxy. A sidekick of that project is [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4976"]extended planetary parameters[/ame], which in a future version will include geological data about planets (while already providing some interesting stuff like atmosphere composition, temperature ranges and similiar, although the current file for the Sol-system isn't complete yet. It's only an early release after all). In the (hopefully) near future I'll be able to provide data on crust composition and stuff like that, which might be interesting for your add-on, since it deals with resource extraction. As a bonus, your add-on would be immediately compatible with all systems generated by Orbiter Galaxy. If you're interested, we can talk about what exactly you need and a preferable interface.
 

Grover

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this does sound good (and familiar...)

i might be able to model some buildings for you, but due to my own scaling issue, you would need to send me a 3ds file of a box with the size of a facility, my software often goes crazy with scaling (alternatley, you could post-edit my model to scale it correctly)

let me know if i can help ;)

-=-Grover-=-
 

Johnman

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This sounds very, very interesting! As Nazban said, currency may not be such a good idea, but a material resources system for extracting, hauling, producing... Hell yeah!
 

vchamp

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Hey vchamp, nice to see you around again! Orbiter finally got you back, has it? :lol:

Hi jedidia! Right, it was only a matter of time :) I almost forgot about Orbiter, but something brought me back. After all it's not easy to throw away great things.

It's a good idea to use crust composition for plants placement. Is it a globe wide parameter or separate for different locations? I've already thought about where to place major minings on Earth, but not decided yet.

Grover, thanks, it will be better for sure if someone takes modeling on him. You can use whatever design you like. I'd like to concentrate on coding only.

Nazban, I am not sure if it's a good idea to have a resource for fuel production. The production chain must be short enough to not become boring and tiresome. And you are right, Orbiter is not an MMORPG, but I hope it can be made using OMP. The plants add-on is the first step to this. If everything goes well, the second will be a currency system.
 

jedidia

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It's a good idea to use crust composition for plants placement. Is it a globe wide parameter or separate for different locations? I've already thought about where to place major minings on Earth, but not decided yet.

Currently it's a few not yet completed chemtables on my harddrive. I'll be getting back to them as soon as I finish the jump-point implementation. The plans are for a crust composition model. It would be easy to add a procedural routine that can be used to locate "veins" or general places of higher concentration on the surface, but it won't really be geologically accurate, of course. More like a random distribution in Starflight-manner.
The overall crust composition should be chemically believable, though.

Also, for the sake of such an add-on it might be better to ommit earth as a mining location. After all, we already have a thriving mining industry here. What we want is mining in SPAAAACE!
 

Grover

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Grover, thanks, it will be better for sure if someone takes modeling on him. You can use whatever design you like. I'd like to concentrate on coding only.

should i make them nice and complex, so you'll be able to do animations*? or just make some factory-shaped boxes?

like depots with animated load racks that can move to supply the craft with UGCO, spawned on a trolley that rolls out of the factory towards the craft

also, i apologise for this, but i am a VERY poor texturer, you might want to find someone to help me with that :p

thanks
-=-Grover-=-

---------- Post added at 09:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:25 PM ----------

also, what kind of style would you like? something to land your XR2 next to? or something that wouldn't look out of place next to a shuttle?

---------- Post added at 09:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 PM ----------

ps, just PM me instead, easier :D

---------- Post added at 11:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 PM ----------

i made a quick model for a generic facility, what do you think?

picture.php


it was only a 15 minute job, i can improve it if you want, just say what you want

(for size comparison, thats a Shuttle-A next to it

thanks
-=-Grover-=-
 

C3PO

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Carmen A

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With this and a "population base" that consumes resources that either have to be shipped from Earth or produced on site, it sounds like the base of a new era of strategy gaming where you have to do the flying yourself :D

Instead of having fly from a to b scenarios, you now have to make it in X amount of time or the target base starts to say "wehaveaproblem".
 

Nazban

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i made a quick model for a generic facility, what do you think?

picture.php


it was only a 15 minute job, i can improve it if you want, just say what you want

(for size comparison, thats a Shuttle-A next to it

thanks
-=-Grover-=-

That looks nice!
But inside is the main thing, The place where the cargo is loaded onto ships. And for other planets, a little habitat place for the people living there.
But all in all i like your outer design!:cheers:
 

vchamp

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should i make them nice and complex, so you'll be able to do animations*? or just make some factory-shaped boxes?

Only constant, not controlled animations, like the stock rail bus, can be used, I think. It's because I want to make plants as bases not as vessels, like GDI MkI Miner, to not overload scenario with them (I hate when there are dozen's of vessels that are not really vessels in fact). As I said it's up to you to decide how it should look. The minimum requirement is a factory building and a place where products will appear, warehouse maybe. Also the base should have a runway and/or a launchpad.

As Nazban said, your model is nice. Quite good for only 15 min work. It only requires more detail in it.
 

Carmen A

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I'm thinking of scenarios where there are colonies around the solar system and they consume resources at a certain rate and it's up to the player(s) to keep them resupplied. The end result of this factory project might be epic. Simple supply and demand can be taken quite far :3
 

Grover

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ok, so i'll work more detail into it, and work on the "no animations" rule

as for runways/pads, they could be added normally as a pad using the [basename].cfg file

i was thinking something modular, a standalone factory, a standalone warehouse etc, then you put the buildings together in s "settlement" or colony

will that do for your project?

-=-Grover-=-
 

vchamp

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Separate meshes for plant components should work fine. Then we could add any custom objects in any combination to a base config file. The visual representation is meant to be completely independent from the add-on's functionality, so you are free to make bases as you like.
 

jedidia

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It's because I want to make plants as bases not as vessels

As far as I know, bases can't be dynamically loaded, though. For a new building to show up you'll have to restart orbiter.
 

vchamp

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Plants are not supposed to be built by a player in a simulation. For now I propose to establish them in config files. For a given celestial body there will be a config file "Config\<cBody_name>\Plants.cfg" which will look like:

Code:
BEGIN_PLANT
	BASE Cape Canaveral
	PRODUCT fuel
END_PLANT

BEGIN_PLANT
	BASE Habana
	PRODUCT oxygen
END_PLANT

Of course it would be cool to construct a base yourself. If someone have ideas how to implement this, you're welcome to share them.
 
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