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Large Grid Lander Script

2017-11-17 Update: No longer needs a timer block. If you had one before, I recommend you "disconnect" it from the prog block (remove all its actions) to reduce surprises.


This script is primarly for "lander"-type ships or even planet-bound ships in general. It incorporates features from my other scripts as well as a "Vertical Takeoff, Vertical Landing" (VTVL) module to aid in planet launches and re-entries.

It will work on small grid ships, but the door & airlock features won't be usable of course. I have a separate lander script for small grid ships/drones (basically a beefed-up version of my Drone/Utility Manager script), currently unpublished. (Actually, the small grid version has been published in a way - see my Passer-class Utility Shuttle and just grab it off its prog block.)

(And if you got here from one of my landers, here's how to update the script in any of my published landers.)

For a ship that demonstrates all/most features of this script, see my Hamerkop Mk2, especially the toolbar descriptions.


New features created for this script:

• Assisted launches. Aligns you by pointing the configured facing toward the ground. Thrusts up using ion/atmo or all 3 thruster types, using only enough thrust to maintain near-max speed (and thus saving power/hydrogen). Upon leaving natural gravity, it will automatically re-engage all thrusters and relinquish control of the ship.
  
  
• Assisted descents. Thrusts you forward (or whatever direction you want) allowing you to line up for re-entry. Upon hitting natural gravity, it will take control of the ship and align the ship so its bottom is facing straight down (also configurable). Shuts off bottom thrusters so the ship drops like a rock for the ~40km or whatever to the surface.
  
  Allows you to manually initiate braking to slow to 50 m/s using either ion/atmo or all 3 thruster types
  
  Optionally performs automatic braking and stops at a set altitude.
  
  Note the auto-braking feature is meant to stop the ship safely above the ground at a certain altitude. It is not a full autopilot or replacement for the remote control autopilot.
  
  However, as of a recent stable release (01.153), it is now possible to read the ship's elevation directly. Touching down and landing is now possible... even at a specific location.
  
  
• "Orbiting." When the orbit feature is enabled, your ship will periodically align itself with the gravity of the planet (1/6ths of a second every 3 seconds). Since the alignment is only done periodically, you retain near-full control of the ship and are able to adjust its heading.
  
  You can then use cruise control to move forward at a fixed speed or manually thrust (if that's your thing :P).
  
  Really useful when cruising rapidly over the surface of smaller planets.

A few features from my Ship Manager script:

• Automatic door closing
  
  
• Simple airlock (i.e. 2 consecutive doors) management
  
  
• Oxygen manager, air vent manager (those things eat up 330 kW!)
  
  
• Timer kicker/reactor manager for docked ships (if the lander happens to also be a "carrier")
  
  
• Redundancy manager
  
  
• Damage control (highlights any damaged blocks using "show-on-HUD")

A few features from my Drone/Utility Manager script:

• Safe Mode
  
  
• Battery monitor

Finally, it also incorporates two of my standalone scripts:

• Cruise control (thrust in any direction at a set speed using all thruster types or only a subset)
  
  
• Solar alignment using ship gyros

Load the script into the programmable block.

There is one option you absolutely must set: VTVLHELPER_REMOTE_GROUP

Set it to the name of a block group that contains a Remote Control block that is properly oriented with respect to your ship. This remote control is used both for orientation and natural gravity detection.

The other VTVL options are described below and should be set according to the configuration/performance of your particular ship:

• VTVLHELPER_BURN_DIRECTION & VTVLHELPER_BURN_SPEED -- When beginning the drop/re-entry procedure, the ship will cruise in this direction and speed as long as it is still out in space.
  
  
• VTVLHELPER_BRAKE_DIRECTION -- This is the ship facing that should be directed toward the planet surface while dropping and braking.
  
  
• VTVLHELPER_BRAKING_SPEED -- When braking, this is the speed to slow down to.
  
  
• VTVLHELPER_LAUNCH_DIRECTION & VTVLHELPER_LAUNCH_SPEED -- The direction & speed to use when launching. When direction is set to "Up" it means the ship will align horizontally and boost straight up. When direction is set to "Forward," the ship will line up vertically (i.e. rear thrusters pointing toward ground) and boost that way.
  
  
• VTVLHELPER_ORBIT_DIRECTION -- The facing of the ship to keep pointing downward when the orbit function is enabled.

See the VTVL module documentation for the primary features of this script.

For the other features, see my other scripts.


For the bleeding edge, as well as a more readable and modular version of the script, go see GitHub[github.com]. I usually only update the workshop version when things break or major features are added.