ResearchBodies

ResearchBodies is a mod that adds the functionality of tracking celestial bodies to explore them. When you start a new save, you have to choose a difficulty preset (that sets celestial bodies that are shown from the start) and values for research and discovery costs. This mod's original Author @simon56modder has handed the reigns over to me to maintain support and develop his work going forward due to Real Life commitments. Big thanks to him and to the other contributers below for making this mod happen. His original Thread can be found here. (Please NOTE parts of this code written by JPLRepo are All Rights Reserved as per the license information in the Code headers).

What this Mod does, or how to use this mod: This mod will Make Celestial Bodies invisible at the start of a new game. You can change which celestial bodies are visible by default by changing the difficulty setting in the Difficulty Settings Menu. This mod should be played in Career mode as it offers contracts.

At the beginning of a game you can only see a few bodies. First you have to gain enough funds to upgrade your Tracking Station to Level 2. This will unlock the Observatory Facility. - Yes this mod adds a new Facility to the KSC that acts like a stock facility (destructible and upgradable). Entering the Observatory you can find out information about the Celestial Bodies you know about, or what research level you are up to for discovered bodies. (This UI is still a placeholder and will be updated soon! - will also be upgraded to show information about ResearchBodies contracts).

You will be offered contracts to Search the Skies via the Observatory - or via a Telescope. This mod comes with it's own infrared telescope, but also modifies the stock infrared telescope (That has been included from Asteroid Day). You can also install my TarsierSpaceTechnology Telescopes which also integrate with this mod and perform in a similar way (But also can take pictures of the celestial bodies and you can see their details become progressively clearer as you research celestial bodies).

Yes that's right - This mod also alters the physical characteristics of the celestial bodies. So when you first discovery them they are just a grey blob. As you progressively research them they will progressively become clearer. This mod also alters the Mapview/Tracking Station so you cannot see celestial bodies you know nothing about. And gradually as you research more about them, things like their characteristics and orbits, etc become known to you.

Finding a Celestial Body:- You can a) randomly point your telescopes at the sky and try to scan and find bodies. b) accept Search the Skies contracts and complete them.

Researching a Celestial Body:- You can a) point telescopes at bodies and scan them (or take photos of them if you also have TarsierSpaceTechnology mod installed). b) accept Research Body contracts and complete them. When the research state reaches 100%, you can finally go to this body and you earn science!

If by pure stroke of luck (or not :wink:) you manage to encounter a previously unknown body in flight, or one that has not had it's research completed, the body will be automatically discovered and have all it's research completed.

Localisations (translations)

English - Français - Español

This mod previously supported the above languages. And still does. From KSP 1.3 English and Spanish is supported by default when you select those languages via KSP. For French however, you need to go into the Difficulty Settings for ResearchBodies and manually select French as the language.

This mod also can support the other KSP 1.3.0 supported languages - but has not been translated at this stage. Volunteers for translation to Russian, Japanese, Chinese more than welcome.

The Observatory Facility - Fully integrated with stock.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/1O1DolF.png" alt="" width="313" height="320" /><img src="http://i.imgur.com/blfZJL8.png" alt="" width="327" height="246" />

The Observatory Inside.

Bodies are Unknown and their orbits are unknown at the start of a new game even in the Map View and Tracking Station.
Once discovered you need to research them to discovery more about them such as their orbits and visual information.

Progressively discover the details of the planets.

See your progress and conduct Research Programs on bodies you have found.

Difficulty Options:

Difficulty options can be set via the stock Difficulty Options screens when starting a new game or via the mini settings menu in game.

Future Expansion Ideas:

- Proper UI for the Observatory.
- Improve and finalize the Contracts.
- Further work/tweaks and improvements to the Progressive CelestialBody Maps including support for SCANsat.
- KSPedia pages (instead of a WIKI).

Install Instructions:

Dependency: You must have installed (NOW included in this package). Module Manager
Completely delete REPOSoftTech\ResearchBodies and REPOSoftTech\ProgressiveCBMaps folders from GameData before updating from a previous version.
As of V1.8 the install folder location has been changed. Please ensure you remove \GameData\ResearchBodies folder if you have one in your install.
Download and install Contract Configurator Mod (This is required).
Un-zip into your GameData folder.

Other Mods Supported:
Tarsier Space Technology (TST) - You MUST have V6.8 or UP of TST.
TST will modify it's Telescopes to also act the same as the TB-75M telescope.
Will not offer it's contracts for Bodies you have not fully discovered.
TST telescopes can also qualify for ResearchBodies contracts, find and research bodies through using it's telescope cameras and taking pictures.
Contract Configurator Is absolutely required for ResearchBodies to work and also knows about Undiscovered bodies and bodies not fully researched when offering contracts. - You MUST have V1.16.0 or UP of CC).

Integration for other mods:
WIKI pages.
For further info, questions, and if you want to integrate to ResearchBodies and/or the Progressive CelestialBodies Maps features of this mod drop me a PM or find me lurking on IRC.

Support:
Known Issues:

With Planet packs loading the Tracking Station can be a bit slow.

For support please ensure you are following these instructions.
NO LOG = NO SUPPORT.

When I ask for a LOG I mean this LOG:

The Logs
These are text files that the game spits out for debugging purposes as it runs; if something broke horribly in-game, there will be something in here about it. You should upload the entire log as a file (i.e. not to pastebin); you can use dropbox or an equivalent host to upload the file. Make sure the entire file gets uploaded; you may have to zip it first, as logs can be very long. Here is where you can find the log:
- Windows: KSP_win\KSP_Data\output_log.txt (32bit) or KSP_win64\KSP_x64_Data\output_log.txt (64bit)
- Mac OS X: Open Console, on the left side of the window there is a menu that says 'files'. Scroll down the list and find the Unity drop down, under Unity there will be Player.log ( Files>~/Library/Logs>Unity>Player.log )
- Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Squad/Kerbal\ Space\ Program/Player.log

Whilst I agree CKAN is a great mod for those that can't use Zip tools. I take no part, nor am I interested in maintaining the CKAN mod metadata for my mods.
Please don't ask me about it but refer to the CKAN mod thread if you are having issues with CKAN or the metadata it maintains.

Current Contributors (V1.7.1 above):
@JPLRepo : All code changes, packaging, distribution and support.

@simon56modder : French locale

@fitiales : Spanish locale

This mod's original Author @simon56modder has handed the reigns over to me to maintain support and develop his work going forward due to Real Life commitments.
Big thanks to him and to the other contributers below for making this mod happen. His original Thread can be found here.

Original Contributors (up to V 1.7):
@simon56modder : Original Code, French and English locale
@Well : Telescope model and texture
@fitiales : Spanish locale
@JPLRepo : code made for compatibility with Tarsier Space Technologies