DStaal

For Ore -> LFO, it's a bit more complex - because it's not really centralized. There's no recipe file used by KSP there - it's down to each ISRU. So you would just have to patch each one of those, separately. I was more talking about the other half of your equation - using the same ore to build ships using RocketParts. That part can be changed much easier.

I think you're in the right place, and make good points. I've noted in the past that some of the parts seem to come in at odd times, and haven't really done much with the thought - you've obviously done a lot more. May I suggest you make your edits and the submit them as a PR to RoverDude on Github? That's really the best way to get this fixed...

I'm pretty sure (but not quite 100%) that time in a cryopod doesn't count toward their home counter. As far as anything but DeepFreeze is concerned, the Kerbals don't exist while they are frozen.

Easier than that - Feline Utility Rovers and Planetary Base Systems both have parts that substitute for the central station (the KPBS one can even mount in a rack that fits a 2.5m profile), and Pathfinder offers many parts with built-in plug receptacles (IIRC), as it uses the same size for electrical cables.

It's a fairly new mod that alters some complex behaviors - these are just teething issues. (And there's at least one way to fix them already - opt the parts out of the MM script.)

EL works via 'recipes'. Every part (and some resources) has a recipe for what resources are needed to build it, and what it breaks down into - based on percentage of mass or cost. (I'm not sure which off the top of my head.) The default recipe build recipe is '100% RocketParts' - but that can be changed via an MM config. Here's the basic recipe from MKS (note it also has recipes for a few resources, and for recycling - I'm not going to post the whole file): EL_DefaultStructureRecipe:NEEDS[Launchpad] { MaterialKits = 0.8 SpecializedParts = 0.2 } That replaces the need for RocketParts to needing both MaterialKits and SpecializedParts, in an 80/20 ratio. Building MaterialKits in MKS takes Polymers, Metals, and Chemicals - which are refined from Substrate, MetallicOre, and Minerals, respectively. So to build with EL and MKS, you need to mine those three, process them into the middle three, and then process that into MaterialKits - SpecializedParts takes another three ores, and needs Chemicals to process two of those into an intermediary. That gives you a moderately detailed supply chain, which you can find a graph of here: https://github.com/UmbraSpaceIndustries/MKS/wiki/Resources If you don't like MKS's supply chain (or want to use Kerbalism, or just want something stand-alone) you could fairly easily make up a set of recipes yourself, and once you've worked out what the whole supply chain would be you can define your own resources (or use those in CRP), and then make some parts for each stage. If you're not a moddler, the parts could start as MM clones of stock drills/converters/tanks, and you could ask for help once you've got the technical details of the resource chain worked out. Also note that the above is the *default* recipe - it's possible to have recipes for specific parts, though that's even more uncommon. But I know I've submitted PRs for specific resources in some cases as well. (For instance, in RoverDude's Orion pack, I submitted some recipes for building Orion's propulsion units off-world, meaning you can do it if you have enough EnrichedUranium on hand.)

MKS doesn't rely on CTT - you've got all the parts, and all of them are accessible to you. It's just that the stock tech tree doesn't really support some of the depth that CTT does, and so if you have both MKS can spread things out more - and takes advantage of that.

First issue: Make sure you have the latest USI Tools, and that everything's installed correctly. They should be in their own set of tabs, if everything's working correctly. (There's a bug in the version of USITools bundled with the most recent version of MKS though - if you grab the newer stand-alone version, you should be good if everything's in the right place.) Second issue: Try Community Tech Tree. It offers modders more nodes, and MKS uses this to spread out quite a bit. (Note though that changing your tech tree mid-save is known to cause some mostly cosmetic issues, as unlocked parts will be in both their old and new locations.) Fuel is still stock. (Even installing Karbonite still allows stock fuel.)

It's got a grab arm, a couple of magnets, a forklift, and some extending legs/wheels. (Relevant to this discussion - it has other parts as well.) It doesn't have that crane - but the abilities of that crane are clearly within what it can handle from the parts that it does have. I was more wondering what it would take to make the models work with the Konstruction DLL, allowing movement and use without going to IR.

I wonder what it would take to make parts like that compatable with @RoverDude's Construction mod. It can move things like that crane usefully enough.

I think taniwha might actually appreciate a stand-alone mod that changed that for EL. He did build the capability into the mod, after all...

Kontainers are known to typically be better than stock in terms of mass per available volume. I believe they try to balance some with impact and heat tolerance.

For the ore->rocketparts changes, you might want to check out MKS - it includes some patches that make EL use MaterialKits instead, and has an extended chain to build MaterialKits. (Including several types of ores, and some intermediate products.) Though note that MKS and Kerbalism don't work together. (But those configs will work without MKS - you'll just need to make parts to mine and refine the resources...)

The only other way to change the root part in-flight that I know of is docking/undocking. Which *may* change the root part, but you won't have control over if or how it does so.

I comfirmed this issue for myself as well - And want to note that as it stands with both mods simply trying to place one of those parts in creates a high likelihood of corrupting the .craft file, which will mean you cannot load *any* saved craft into that editor or launchpad. Solution is to remove the damaged .craft file from the save. (While KSP is shut down, of course.)

There are several fuel-switcher mods around - probably the most flexible (and therefore the most complex) is Configurable Containers:

More surface area than surface-mounted for the same surface area used, less complexity than normal (tracking) extended. Middle ground. (And BTW: I love the curved panels on Karibou rovers.)

Honestly, I haven't had a chance to load up KSP and check since that post. I'm not 100% sure there actually is a problem - but I had a moment of behavior that matched what was being described, and thought it was worth mentioning in case someone wants to check. (And as a reminder to myself.) By saddlebag parts I meant the three different side-mount storage containers in that mod. I only noticed the effect with one, but I hadn't even looked at the rest. (Note that I was doing something extremely weird with them at the time - I was trying to use them as a decoupler because the payload I'd designed didn't have a stack-mount point, and a radial attachment point would have been ugly on the final station that the payload was designed to attach to. I'm not sure it would have worked, and I'll have to re-load that craft to see.)

Looking at that patch, I think removing it wouldn't be unbalanced - as long as you removed the whole thing. It looks like the total deployed mass is constant with or without the patch - it's just that with the patch 60% of that mass will be in MaterialKits. Without it, you'll have the whole mass at launch.

Do you have an antenna on your ship? You now need connection back to Kerbin for a probe core to work - stock probe cores all include a small antenna that will work close to Kerbin, but I don't think there's one in here.

True - but iterating mass/volume assigned to different roles to a defined total is likely to be more accessible to a third-party modder than iterating roles and efficiencies to find mass/volume totals that match a current number. Even if the spreadsheet only does one process at a time and the modder has to do the split themselves, I think it'd be easier to work with. (Though again - I see why you would build the spreadsheet the way you did, and why it's the most useful configuration for you.)

Try extending the drills. (You can retract them once the separators have been swapped, and the new ones will be saved.)

Not much with a new big release - and I'll admit I tend to work on this in spurts... (What I'd really like to do is *reverse* the spreadsheet that @RoverDude made, as it's set up more for a part maker that knows what the parts are supposed to do and wants their stats, when almost everyone but him has parts where they know the stats but want to know what the parts should do.) I still like the theory of requiring a little bit of resources, for reasons I've given - however there's a more practical consideration that should take priority and that I should update them based on: It currently causes a bug. RoverDude's expansion plugin doesn't handle IVA's, and Nils277's does, and the parts have nice IVA's. Currently switching code to use resources means the IVA's don't work - and I don't think that's worth my thoughts on the small amount of expansion resources. If I get a chance and think of it, I'll work on it. If there's a PR to fix that bug, I'll take it.

Hmm. I had a similar issue with one of the Feline Utility Rovers saddlebag parts. They (and the side-mounted engines in that pack) might be worth looking at as well. (I'll do a closer look next time I fire up KSP.)

Honestly, KSP is *amazingly* easy to mod, all things considered.