[1.3.0] Kerbalism v1.2.9

[seeingeyegod]

Anyone know why my VAB planner is showing 20 years oxygen life expectancy, but when I start the mission it goes down to 4 years? Same number of crew members both times. 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

Configure Module

This is a module that allow to select in the VAB a set of 'setups' for the part. Each setup contain modules and/or resources. This is used by some of the new things. Setups can be unlocked by technologies, have extra mass and cost. In future they will even be reconfigurable in flight by an engineer.

Could this also be used in combination with any mesh switchers? Will this tie into the 1.2 upgrade mechanic? Also, engineers seem to be getting lots new things to do, maybe having scientist switch reactions on ISRU would be more "balanced" (even though it's probably just switching few boxes around, so really a job way below a proper scientist ;))

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

Then, the atmospheric processor experiment now also double as an atmospheric harvester. This was necessary as atmospheric ISRU is now the main source of useful raw materials.

Hmm, where does that leave our Mun bases? Will it still be possible to have a self-sustainable (or nearly self-sustainable) base on airless worlds?

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

Finally, all converters, drills and atmospheric harvesters are configured in the VAB to determine what they can transform or extract. The small stuff get less selectable setups than the big one.

Will engineers also be able to reconfigure that? Maybe have more than 1 engineer around for more complex tasks (i.e. like KIS mechanic for moving heavy parts).

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

 

LivingSpace module

This module specify the internal volume, and the external surface, of a part that is meant to contain kerbals. Even if it has no crew capacity.

It has so many features that I have to make a list to not clutter this post:

• the volume is used in the internal atmosphere simulation (read below)
• the external surface is used to determine amount of shielding required
• volume and surface are calculated automatically from the bounding box if not specified
• it has a 'comfort' property (that replace the Entertainment module)
• it can consume electric charge (to represent lights and other minor amenities in the habitat)
• it can be 'disabled', to exclude it from all calculations: this replace the 'internal spaces' mechanic that was using CLS
• it can have a 'deploy' animation (for inflatable habitats, or the ring)

Can't wait to test all the cool inflatable Ven's parts with it! I guess centrifuge will use the same mechanics? 

 

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

 

Internal atmosphere simulation

The vessel internal atmosphere is now simulated using two hidden pseudo-resources. This together with the volume specified by LivingSpace make possible to calculate some data about the internal atmosphere:

• pressure
• mass
• level of carbon dioxide
• temperature

Does that mean that habitat punctures, leaky seals on malfunctioning docking ports, etc. can be simulated now? Failure mode to docking ports resulting in leaks would be especially cool, considering how many of those are needed when building deep space ships in orbit. Engineers should be able to duct tape all the leaks of course

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

LSS

The LifeSupportSystem module represent a more 'realistic' take on the matter of life support systems. This is still being designed, but there will be different components that can be installed in some living space parts (such as pods). These components can be selected using the 'configure module'. Here are some of the ones I'm designing:

• Cabin Pressurization System (CPS):
  • inject oxygen in the internal atmosphere to maintain a target pressure
• Air Revitalization System (ARS)
  • sequester carbon dioxide from the internal atmosphere and store it
• Temperature Control System (TCS)
  • maintain the internal atmosphere temperature inside the survival range
  • ec cost depend on internal atmosphere mass, OR each TCS has a limited capacity (still in design)
• Water Reclamation Unit (WRU)
  • your usual waste water recycler, no filters used
• Solid Oxide Electrolyzer (SOE)
  • transform carbon dioxide in oxygen
• Extra supplies/batteries
  • this just provide extra storage for resources
• ... expect more in future...

I really hope mods like Planetary Base Systems will add support (and cool models) for all those things. 

 

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

Default profile

The consumption rates are now more realistic, and water consumption is added. The realism profile is removed: in a certain sense, it became the default one. So long realism profile, you will be missed. Only CRP resources are used, and there is mass conservation (when appropriate). A carbon dioxide poisoning rule is added. The climatization rule don't consume EC now, and refer to the internal atmosphere temperature instead.

Hmm, that will make the game even harder... I think you can access the difficulty level programatically in 1.2, so maybe have the default profile work as you described on normal, have the simplified workings of current version on easy, etc?

 

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

Greenhouse

Need water, and ammonia. I have the idea of having different 'crops' that can be selected in the VAB, each one with different tradeoffs between food produced, amount of water and ammonia required, and growing time. This is still in early design phase. Probably something for a later version.

Ammonia is a new resource? Or could it be recycled/obtained from  from "crap"?

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

 

Containers

The old food containers can now be configured to store food, water or food/water. The old oxygen containers can be configured to store oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen or ammonia. The stock ore tanks could also be made configurable to store different resources, so as to act as more generic containers.

Cool, will they be getting different textures depending on contents? Lots of mods provide such functionality, personally I like B9. Perfectly understandable if you don't want to add any dependencies.

3 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

Oh, and is pointless to say that these changes are savegame-breaking. That's one of the reasons I'm doing them all at once.

I think most of folks will start a new game on 1.2 anyway, so shouldn't be a big problem.

[ShotgunNinja]

10 minutes ago, Yaar Podshipnik said:

Could this also be used in combination with any mesh switchers? Will this tie into the 1.2 upgrade mechanic? Also, engineers seem to be getting lots new things to do, maybe having scientist switch reactions on ISRU would be more "balanced" (even though it's probably just switching few boxes around, so really a job way below a proper scientist ;))

[...]

Will engineers also be able to reconfigure that? Maybe have more than 1 engineer around for more complex tasks (i.e. like KIS mechanic for moving heavy parts)

[...]

Cool, will they be getting different textures depending on contents? Lots of mods provide such functionality, personally I like B9. Perfectly understandable if you don't want to add any dependencies.

Reconfiguration in flight will be added later. I agree it would be cool to have it. I'm thinking more of stuff like wet workshops and the like, however. Mesh switching is not planned. But texture switching could be added in future.

The configure module is not using the stock 'part update' features because: I started developing it a month ago, and also the stock update thing can't enable/disable modules or add resources on-the-fly.

 

16 minutes ago, Yaar Podshipnik said:

Hmm, where does that leave our Mun bases? Will it still be possible to have a self-sustainable (or nearly self-sustainable) base on airless worlds?

One of the available reactions is 'Molten regolith electrolysis' that extract oxygen out of ore. So it should be possible to do something about oxygen on airless worlds. Self-sustaining bases however will be harder, moving toward more realistic mechanics.

 

19 minutes ago, Yaar Podshipnik said:

Can't wait to test all the cool inflatable Ven's parts with it! I guess centrifuge will use the same mechanics?

Yes! The gravity ring will be some kind of special case of living space (still working on porting it on the new system). Inflatable habitats may even get their 'inflated' animation controlled by the pressure directly (also still working on this).

 

21 minutes ago, Yaar Podshipnik said:

Does that mean that habitat punctures, leaky seals on malfunctioning docking ports, etc. can be simulated now? Failure mode to docking ports resulting in leaks would be especially cool, considering how many of those are needed when building deep space ships in orbit. Engineers should be able to duct tape all the leaks of course

They could be implemented. The recent changes to Reliability allow multiple types of malfunction per-component, and per-part. And a pressure leak is pretty much the same as a tank leak in the new system. These kind of things can be added later, after the thing is up and running.

 

23 minutes ago, Yaar Podshipnik said:

Hmm, that will make the game even harder... I think you can access the difficulty level programatically in 1.2, so maybe have the default profile work as you described on normal, have the simplified workings of current version on easy, etc?

A simpler profile could be authored, with limited life support mechanics, and people could share it here. About the difficulty settings in 1.2: I just can't use them for technical reasons, that are the same ones for which there is not a settings window to choose features.

 

29 minutes ago, Yaar Podshipnik said:

Ammonia is a new resource? Or could it be recycled/obtained from  from "crap"?

Ammonia is harvested in some celestial bodies, and also can be produced using the 'Haber process' (from Nitrogen and Hydrogen). It is then used as fertilizer in the Greenhouse. It can also be used to produce Oxidizer and Monoprop.

The greenhouse will also accept Waste (as in organic crap waste) as an alternative fertilizer.

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Thanks for the details! If docking port pressure leaks can be done via MM patch only I'll gladly contribute a config with it.

[steve_v]

4 hours ago, ShotgunNinja said:

I'm going to introduce and explain some of the changes that are coming in next version. Most of this is still in development, and some are still in design phase.
...

I think this has my interest more than KSP v1.2 TBH.

Sounds very cool, can't wait to try some of this out.

Edited September 20, 2016 by steve_v
Stupid, stupid IPS. Rubbish WYSI(S)WYG editor.

[N70]

Welp, that means an update for UKS-Kerbalism patch will be needed with this next update? Can it just be called 1.2? Since it's a MAJOR update.

[crapstar]

Really excited about the features to come.

Now that v1.2 has a comms-net built-in and looks like RemoteTech needs a new home, any plans to integrate it into Kerbalism?

Thanks for this great mod again

[evileye.x]

@ShotgunNinja I've a feature request regarding crew and EVA reports.

Stock mechanics (you can have multiple crew reports, but only if you hope out, grab report from capsule and store it back) are ridiculous!

this mod solve the issue 

But AFAIK it's not updated. So I suggest you to implement this in your mod (I think it will fit your science adjustments perfectly)

If you already fixed it - sorry - I was out of KSP business for some time...

[ShotgunNinja]

@N70 Well, yes unfortunately. Some modules do not exist anymore, others were introduced.

 

@evileye.x I agree 100%, that is a bit ridiculous. There are some modifications to the science system that I'm working on (for a while now...) where the 'ladder dances' should be gone for good, among other things.

 

[3ngin33r]

I've been wanting a radiation/degradation mod for ages. Based on what I see I love it, great work, and it's compatible with a lot of my mods. I have questions though. I see some features that could have problems with procedural parts, wings, tweakscale, sstu labs and other complicated part mods. How would your mod react with those? The whole background processing thing, how big of a problem is that with not supported modded parts? Does it break stuff or is it just a balance issue? And finally, I've had issues with RT where it acts weird with modded probe cores, sometimes it doesn't acknowledge their existence, sometimes it says local control with no kerbals around and one more thing I don't remember, should I expect similar problems? If no, where can I submit an antenna patch for bluedog design bureau, since I'll be making one for myself anyways? Also, before I start learning to mod ksp, are there templates for parts like antennas and ec generators, etc. where I can just put in the name and some numbers so I don't have to? 

[ShotgunNinja]

@3ngin33r Thanks. Technically mods that scale parts and change things like resource capacity, or even type of resource stored, should not be a problem. The planner will see the new resource immediately. Even if a mod change these things in flight my system should just see the new capacity and work from there.

For background simulation, if a resource producer/consumer is not supported then it is not simulated in background. The consequences of this vary depending on the module in question, I guess. Example: you build a vessel around a non-supported nuclear reactor, and it get not enough EC generated when not loaded.

As far as I know the signal system work flawlessly, so you should not see weird issues at all.

All the modules have their properties documented here. Also take a look at the patches already distributed with the mod as an example. If you end up writing a patch that you want to contribute, post it here (or send me a PR on github) and chances are good I'll integrate it in the next version.

 

 

[seeingeyegod]

I really like this mod but I'm having a few problems. It seems like my scrubber efficiency is stuck at 50% even though I have the entire tech tree unlocked. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling default config but that didn't fix it. I think this is why I am seeing really long O2 life expectancy in planner but when I actually go into space my O2 life expectancy is 5 times lower. I'm have to bring as much weight in O2 containers as food on long missions, makes no sense. Help?

[ShotgunNinja]

@seeingeyegod You need to provide log/savegame/etc, or I can't determine what's wrong.

[jo_jo_binks]

@ShotgunNinja

Just thanks for great mod.

[seeingeyegod]

On 9/21/2016 at 9:41 PM, ShotgunNinja said:

@seeingeyegod You need to provide log/savegame/etc, or I can't determine what's wrong.

Okay, also I have this thing happen a lot where when in the highest time advance my entire ship will blow up from an RCS malfunction. Which log, where is it located? Will attach savegame later.

[ShotgunNinja]

I had some spare time today and refactored the quality of life mechanics.

Now there are two modifiers in the rule system that replace the old 'qol' one: 'living_space' and 'comfort'. Both have values that can go from 1 to 10. The 'stress' rule in the default profile use both of them at the same time, so that the time to instability can scale quite a bit from a cramped, zero-comfort vessel to one with generous living space and plenty of comforts.

The living space factor is determined by volume per-capita on the vessel, versus an 'ideal' living space that can be configured in settings (in cubic meters).

For the comforts instead, there are a set of them and their contribution can be specified in settings. These are provided or not depending on some vessel condition (not much changed here):

• firm-ground: if vessel is landed
• not-alone: if crew is 2 or more
• call-home: if the vessel has a link home
• panorama: no conditions

The thing that changed is that there is a Comfort module (that somehow replace the old Entertainment one) that can provide one of these comforts even if the conditions don't apply to the vessel. So this module specify a string, not a value, and is easier to balance the whole thing.

The gravity ring now provide the 'firm-ground' comfort (so it is useless on the surface). The cupola provide the 'panorama' one instead. That's all for today.

[JeffreyCor]

The search didn't provide any results to thought I'd ask (only found regarding decay question, not power power supply to craft), would it be a great deal of work to include JDiminishingRTG support for the RTG power system in Kerbalism? I find it much more in depth of an RTG system then stock or Near Future gives. This uses module "ModuleDiminishingRTG" if that helps for reference

Edited September 24, 2016 by JeffreyCor

[SiCaRiO31]

I love this mod, been playing with it for a week now, had a few scary moments already :p.  Is there a way to change how conections work? Right now I always have conection as long as I have line of sight with kerbin. I want to make it a bit more realistic, needing line of sight with the KSC so that the horizon can block the signal. Is it possible?

[JeffreyCor]

I don't think this is possible with Kerbalism's communication system, but the 1.2 stock system does provide this option.

[Benji13]

This looks great. Waiting for 1.2 before downloading though. Does the gravity ring spin around? Also (in my opinion) the gravity ring looks a bit bland. It needs more colour or stripes or Windows or something. I dunno. Just my 2 cents. Can't wait for 1.2. 

[Senior Slaphead]

Minor issue but I have a Science lab on Minmus that processes science all day and night if I sit in it but when I'm elsewhere it runs out of EC almost immediately it is in shadow. When I switch back it then starts regenerating EC as though it were in daylight...  I did a search to see whether the lab was supported in Kerbalism and apparently so since v0.9.9.9. I'm currently running v1.1.4. Checking first whether this is a known issue or just unsupported. If not I'll try and replicate it without other mods.

Also, I'm getting the warning message that another craft has 'ran out of oxygen and all the kerbals have stopped breathing'. The craft was originally attached to the dropped science lab in this vid, has oxygen tanks (now empty) but is now probe controlled, with no kerbals. But I keep getting this message as though there are kerbals in it.

Modlist: Dark Multiplayer, Module Manager, Toolbar, Kerbal Engineer Redux, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Kerbal Inventry System, Kerbal Attachment System, Docking Camera, Docking Port Sounds, Chatterer, RCS Sound Effects, Rover Wheel Sounds, TAC Fuel Balancer, Real Plume, Real Plume - Stock Configs, Smoke Screen, Cool Rockets, Engine Lighting, Planet Shine, Distant Object Enhancement, MemGraph, Memory Monitor, Editor Extensions Redux, RCS Build Aid, Kerbal Reuseability Expansion, Trajectories, SpaceY-Lifters, Kerbalism, Community Resource Pack, Persistent Rotation, Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, Indicator Lights, Better Burn Time, PWB Fuel Balancer, Rover Science Revisited, Ship Effects, [x] Science

[ShotgunNinja]

@JeffreyCor That RTG is on the todo list already, but I have lots of things to do still so it will probably remain on that list for a while.

 

@SiCaRiO31 No, this mod only require line of sight with the home body and not specifically with KSC.

 

@Benji13 Well I think the gravity ring is fine graphically. It does spin, consume electric charge and provide comfort to the crew when active.

 

@Senior Slaphead That is a known bug in KSP 1.1.3, not related with Kerbalism: it also happen in unmodded stock. Found it myself after another similar report. Essentially stock doesn't detect the celestial body as occluder in some circumstances, that seem to be related to low altitudes. That's why it is happening on minmus flatlands. There are some chances it is fixed in KSP 1.2.

13 minutes ago, Senior Slaphead said:

Also, I'm getting the warning message that another craft has 'ran out of oxygen and all the kerbals have stopped breathing'. The craft was originally attached to the dropped science lab in this vid, has oxygen tanks (now empty) but is now probe controlled, with no kerbals. But I keep getting this message as though there are kerbals in it.

Thanks, you are right I was able to reproduce it. Will fix in next version.

[Senior Slaphead]

Thanks ShotgunNinja...

So it's giving me EC at all times that I'm in the craft because Minmus is not occluding the sun (due to this stock bug)... but it is doing it correctly when I'm not in that scenario, hence the EC disappearing.  Makes sense now.  I'm going to have to plug in the mother of all battery packs.

[inigma]

Help me understand radiation vs how much shielding I need. Im using the Mk 1-2 pod, 3 Kerbs. Going to the Mun. radiation meter in munar orbit shows 0.020 rads/h.  For an 18 day mission, what shielding will I need? Can you help me figure it out?

[ShotgunNinja]

@inigma In the planner there is a 'radiation' panel. Click on the body name and situation until it match your mission plan (eg: Mun, Landed). Now the radiation panel show you some useful info. Hover on it to see even more info in the tooltip.