What it does

• Lets the user choose vessel type (i.e. probe, base, station, etc.) via UI in the vehicle editor.
• Can automatically set vessel type from ship name, based on customizable configuration.

User-selectable vessel type

All command pods and probe cores have a "Vessel Type" selector on their menu in the vehicle editor:

...just choose whichever you like. Your choice will be saved with the ship. When you launch it, it will have whatever ship type you chose.

One of the available choices (the default one, in fact) is simply "Default". When that's chosen, then the ship type will be chosen as usual based on what parts it contains, unless there's a name-based setting (see below).

Automatic vessel type based on name

Unless you've manually chosen a specific vessel type in the editor (see above), the mod looks at your vessel name to see if it can automatically set the vessel type for you. By default, it looks for one of the following strings in the vessel name, and sets the vessel type to what you'd expect:

• Lander
• Station
• Base

...However, the player can easily customize it to add their own strings, either by directly editing the config, or by patching it with ModuleManager. For example, suppose you routinely name your unmanned interplanetary probes with "Pioneer" or "Surveyor" in their names, and you want to designate such ships as the "probe" type. You could use ModuleManager config like this:

@VesselCategorizer:AFTER[VesselCategorizer] {
    @NamingRules {
        Probe = surveyor
        Probe = pioneer
    }
}

For tips on how to write your own config, see the comments in the default config file that comes with the mod.

Why I wrote it

It's one of those minor itches that bugs me every time I play KSP. I don't enjoy having to manually tinker with ship type; I want it to just magically be what I want it to be. Examples of things that bug me:

• I use relay antennas instead of direct ones, wherever possible, because it lets my probes do double duty as relays. But KSP then makes all of my probes into "relay" ship type, which is not what I want.
• I launch stations. There's no way for the stock game to automatically set "station" type.
• I often make landers that don't have a "lander can" on them... so the stock game doesn't call them landers.
• I play in career mode, which means that only 0.625m probe cores are available until very late game. Which means I always have to tuck my probe cores inside service bays. Which makes them a pain in the posterior to rename the ship (have to open the bay, find the core, change the type, close the bay).
• I'm an OCD consistency freak, and have a fairly standard naming scheme for my ships. So a name-based vessel categorizer is right up my alley.

How to install

Unzip the contents of "GameData" to your GameData folder, same as with most mods. (Note, includes ModuleManager.)