[Tutorial + Spreadsheet] Filling a part with TAC Life Support Resources

[PunkyFickle]

YOU

Like to play KSP the hard way,

Enjoy watching your Kerbals dying,

Even of starvation (wait, you really do!?),

Use a life support mod for that,

Have chosen TAC Life Support from TaranisElsu,

Use plenty of other mods adding loads of parts,

Are upset because there is no space for snacks in your inflatable module (really, Porkjet?),

Are tired of calculating how much of each resource you should store in it,

Don’t know anything about CFG files and those weird modders stuff (me neither, actually)

(Or maybe you just like reading random posts on the forum, if it’s the case, I hope this one will please you.

If not, feel free to tell me what is wrong, I would be happy to take advices on how to make posts more interesting.

That said, you might want to read about those nice stories on the fanwork page, rather than those boring mod stuff with maths and all that crap.)

?

Well, your annoyance is no more, fellow Kerbonaut!

Here is a

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Tutorial on how to fill a part with TAC Life Support Resources

(Calculator included!)

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EDIT (15/12/2014) :

• The time Calculator is now functionnal. I was using Kerbin-time (1day = 6h) for the calculations, whereas TaranisElsu used Earth time (1d = 24h). This is now fixed.
  
• Added a summary of your ship's stats.

Here we go :

Part 1 : Calculate the amount of stuff you want in.

1. Estimate your container’s volume

I guess that there are several ways to do this. I personally simply measure the part with panels in the VAB.

Here, this part from the nearFuture mod has approximately a volume of 1,7*pi*1,7^2 = 15,43 m^3 = 15430 L.

(Note that this panel is exactly 1 m long and 1 m large. Really handy for measurements.)

(Note too that I’m not cheating; the part has no life support in it)

In general you don’t want to fill completely your part up.

According to Jeb’s IVA measurements, only 23% of it is life support storage. (The rest being living space, structure, instruments and toys) 354 L are thus available.

2. Use

the mighty

TAC Part Filling Calculator

to find out how much stuff you want in it!

It gives you the amount of space you want to dedicate to each resource in order to empty/fill every "container" in your part at the exact same moment.

In order to be able to modify it, download it (File>Download as) or make a copy of it on your own account (File>Make a Copy).

Now fill the sheet :

And get your values.

Pay attention to the total mass value. The heavier, the harder your ship will be to be brought into orbit…

The spreadsheet also gives you the time it will take for one Kerbal to fill/empty your container. Two Kerbals will take twice less time, etc...

Part 2 : Fill it up!

You now have to browse your GameData folder (I assume that if you use TACLS and other mods, you know where to find it).

1. Find the name of your part.

The real one, not the one you find in the VAB.

You need to find the config file of your part. It has a .cfg extension and can be found in GameData/ModName/Parts/PartName. There, look for “name = “. The name is what is written after that.

The name of the PPD-24 is “utilityCabinâ€Â.

2. Create a CFG file in your GameData folder

...using you're favorite text editor. Just create a new .txt file, save it in GameData and then change the extension to .cfg. Choose the name you want, it doesn’t matter. Mine is called AddedLifeSupport.cfg.

3. In your file, copy and paste this :

@PART[utilityCabin]
{
    MODULE
    {
 name = LifeSupportModule
    }
    RESOURCE
    {
 name = Food
 amount = 109.43
 maxAmount = 109.43
    }
    RESOURCE
    {
 name = Water
 amount = 72.33
 maxAmount = 72.33
    }
    RESOURCE
    {
 name = Oxygen
 amount = 11077.46
 maxAmount = 11077.46
    }
    RESOURCE
    {
 name = CarbonDioxide
 amount = 0
 maxAmount = 9568.55
    }
    RESOURCE
    {
 name = WasteWater
 amount = 0
 maxAmount = 92.11
    }
    RESOURCE
    {
 name = Waste
 amount = 0
 maxAmount = 9.95
    }
}

4. Adapt it to your part.

First, change the name in @PART[ ] with the name you found in 1.

Then, change the values for each resource using the ones you calculated in part 2. If you don’t want a resource to be storable in your part, remove the whole related RESOURCE part.

MaxAmount is the maximum volume of each resource you want to be able to store in your part. This is what you want to match the one the spreadsheet gave you. The amount is the volume filled by default.

That’s it! Don’t forget save your file in your GameData folder.

5.

(optional)

Add other parts to your CFG.

You can add other parts in the file. Simply paste again the code above under the first one and redo Parts 1 to 3.

Part 3 : Fly it!

Boot KSP and find your part in the VAB/SPH, it now can be filled with the resources you added in!

My container now has plenty of tasty snacks to live on Minmus for a while! Note that it runs out on every resource after exactly the same time.

Thank you for reading this, Kerbonaut! I hope you’ll have fun with your aborted-for-no-oxygen-left interplanetary missions!

And Thank to TaranisElsu for that awesome mod! KSP would not be the same without it!

Edited December 15, 2014 by PunkyFickle

[LitaAlto]

The timing here is immaculate. This weekend I was planning on making another stab at adding TACLSS on a project I'm helping with. I wasn't so much worried about the cfg part, but figuring out how all the resources should be balanced was frustrating. The calculator is going to be a huge help. Thanks!

[PunkyFickle]

Thank you, glad to be helping!

Yey, obviously, the interest of this thread is more the spreadsheet than the "tutorial" part. I guess that only a few random players who don't know anything about cfg files will be willing to (or even looking for how to) upgrade their parts with TACLS. This is why I posted this thread on "Tools and Applications", rather than in "Tutorials", actually.

[skYman]

I hope this is not seen as necroing but I just stumbled upon this nifty spreadsheet and I wonder if you could update the ratios, because the calculations for waste, waste water and CO2 are way off

Or got any info on where I could check up on the ratios myself?

Or is there even an ingame tool that helps me out here?

EDIT: Actually you just have to switch waste and waste water and then everything works out. Still a nice sheet

Edited January 12, 2016 by skYman

[Stone Blue]

Nice... I never knew this was out there...

Thanx for necroing it, skYman