This page explains where/how to get help with Principia. Please read through the following guidelines.
Questions regarding the usage of Principia are best directed to the Discord channel for Principia (here is an invite if you don't have access already). There are many knowledgeable users there who can help you with basic questions and provide guidance on getting started with the mod. The Discord channel is not suitable for reporting bugs, however; a post like "when I do X it crashes" will likely not been seen by the developers, and therefore the underlying bug won’t be fixed.
Historically, the Principia thread on the KSP forum was a good place to ask for help with the mod, and it contained some interesting threads, although it has been less active in recent years. Unfortunately, as of this writing (October 2024) the KSP forum seems to return 500 more often than not. It is not recommended to post questions there, even when it is up. Use Discord instead.
GitHub Issues should be used for reporting bugs (either crashes or misbehaviours) and requesting new features or improvements. GitHub is not suitable for questions on how to use the mod ("how do I go to the Moon from Cape Canaveral?", for instance). Please use Discord for those.
There are two kinds of crashes that may be caused by Principia: crashes of Principia itself, or crashes of KSP or Unity.
When reporting a crash, please indicate whether the crash is reproducible. There is no need to include reproduction steps.
These crashes may manifest themselves as a Windows dialog box (on Windows) or a SIGABRT (on Linux). Or the game may just stop.
Go to <KSP directory>\glog\Principia, you should find a FATAL file with a
name that matches the time of the crash, for instance
FATAL.20230920-223637.6656.log. You should also find an INFO file created
shortly before that, for instance INFO.20230920-223615.6656.log. Take these
two files (one is not enough), and
attach
them to the issue. (Don't try to extract "interesting" snippets from these
files, we need them in their entirety.)
If you don’t have a FATAL file, you probably had a crash KSP or Unity that
Principia did not detect (Principia can still be the culprit). Normally, you
should find a crash directory located in one the directories:
- Windows: either
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Squad\Kerbal Space Program\Crashesor%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\Squad\Kerbal Space Program\Crashes - macOS: possibly
~/Library/Logs/Unity? - Linux: possibly
~/.config/unity3d/Squad/Kerbal Space Program?
The crash directory has a name that starts with Crash and matches the time of
the crash, for instance Crash_2024-08-22_143949780.
Attach
an archive (zip, 7z, rar, etc.) of the entire contents of this folder to
the issue (there should be at least 3 files, named crash.dmp,
error.log, and Player.log). Also include the <KSP directory>\KSP.log and
the INFO file (see above) at the time of the crash.
(Don't try to extract "interesting" snippets from these files, we need them in
their entirety.)
It is possible for the mod to not crash, but still behave in an unexpected manner. When that happens, please provide reproduction steps, possibly including screenshots or movies showing the behaviour that you think is faulty. Note that these issues may be caused by interactions between mods that are hard for us to reproduce, so if you can give us a scenario that works in the stock game that’s preferable.
If asking for a new feature, please explain the problem you are trying to solve, not what you think the solution should be (that’s known as the XY Problem). Most users are not in a position to evaluate the complexity of implementing a particular solution, so if you suggest a change that would be extremely onerous to implement, it’s likely to be rejected, even if a cheap change would solve 80% of the problem.