Paul Kingtiger
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Posts posted by Paul Kingtiger
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Brilliant news!
My question is, will the features of Kerbal Edu, namely the metric system, be available to standard KSP users?
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Love the new shut down sound! I think the main burn needs to loose a little of the bass though.
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A IVA view where the camera was looking up out of the window, giving you a view straight ahead would look cool, but those sorts of views, as used in real craft, assume that the docking port is an a specific location. In KSP people put docking ports all over the place, so that might not work.
Probably a better way would be to have a camera built into each docking port (or assume there is a kerbal looking through the docking port window) and also place some markings on docking ports to help you align the dock. Have it as a selectable view (right click on port, control from here?).
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Sounds great, thanks for the in depth update
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2.0 looks interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing some more of it!
Couple of questions:
1) are you planning to use the new Open Resource System mod for food water and so on?
2) With the introduction of additional resources like food and water, ECLSS 2 seems to have some overlap with TAC Life support. Have you thought about joining forces to work on a single mod or is your design plan too different / you want to produce something by yourself?
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Progress update on my parts pack...
Looking great! Do you have any plans for a 1.25m inline container?
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...I noticed a mistake. The mass of the small tanks is too small by a factor of 10
Nice spot, thank you. I've updated the files.
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Shouldn't the "@MODULE[ModuleCommand]," part be removed from your updater, so manned parts that aren't command parts (ie: B9's passenger modules, maybe the hitchhiker storage container) have O2 as well?
So I had it like that originally, but "something" caused an issue with non-command parts, namely the Hitchhiker cabin and the Science Lab. I tried putting the code direct into the Part.cfg to make sure it wasn't an issue with my module manager code and it was still happening. It appear to be an issue with the ECLSS mod which I don't understand enough to bug fix. The issue only happens in the VAB or SPH and in flight everything seems to work well, but I'd rather put out a limited but working mod than one with known bugs.
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If you want to change the efficiency of the reprocessor then edit whichever .cfg file you've selected (blue box above) and find the line:
@INPUT_RESOURCE[CO2]
{
@rate = 0.03
}
@OUTPUT_RESOURCE[Oxygen]
{
@rate = 0.015
}
The top value is the CO2 going in, leave this alone.
The bottom value is how much O2 comes out (currently set to half the top value.
SO to make the reprocessor 90% efficient you would change the bottom value to 0.027
So other values would be:
100% 0.03
90% 0.027
66% 0.0198
50% 0.015
33% 0.0099
Like I said above, 50% is the only real world reaction I know of, but there may be other, more efficient reactions, possibly using other compounds to capture the carbon.
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Ok, I've created and tested some rebalance files for ECLSS:
First up, assumptions and usage rates:
O2 requirements per 24 hours: 550 liters (real world value for an average Human)
CO2 production per 24 hours: 495 liters (real world value for an average Human)
O2 and CO2 storage attributes (based on real world values) http://sdrv.ms/1a1Sn2p
Conversion of CO2 to O2 using the reprocessor:
I have used the chemical equation 2CO2 --> 2C0 + O2
This is a real world reaction so it seems a good base. It does mean that the reprocessor is only 50% efficient and you end up with waste Carbon Monoxide. I'll talk about how to change this value below.
Adjusting the parts:
This mod halves the scale of the ECLSS parts, so that the large tanks and reprocessor are now 1.25m parts and the single tanks are smaller. These new size parts have a storage capacity more in line with real world values.
Then I have added O2 and CO2 storage to all manned command pods, each has enough for either 1 day or 3 days supply (assuming fully crewed pods. You can select how many days by using the appropriate file (see below)
Using the Mod
First up install ECLSS
Next download the rebalance files here http://tinyurl.com/kaxdetu
Unzip the file!
In your KSP folder open GameData, LifeSupport and delete the two .cfg files
Then copy in the LifeSupport.cfg from the downloaded zip file
Finally select one of the other .cfg files from the downloaded zip file and copy this to the GameData,LifeSupport folder.
The 2 files allow you to select how much O2 is present on command pods, either a 1 day supply or a 3 day supply.
Note that these modulemanager files will add ECLSS functionality to any manned command pods (stock and mods) based on crew capacity.
More information and installation video avalalble at http://www.kingtiger.co.uk/kingtiger/wordpress/2014/01/02/mod-eclss-rebalancer/
Finally, Licence information:
This mod is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Feel free to share and modify the files, but please give credit to the author of this mod and to the authors of any mods referenced in this one.
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How much O2 does a Kerbal consume?
It's settable in the Lifesupport.cfg file. The value is units per second (I'm assuming 1 unit is 1 liter).
The default in the mod is 0.006366 which is ~550 per day (24 hours). This is the average value for a human.
As side note, I've noticed through looking at this that the in game clock uses 24 hours to a day (earth day), even though 1 Kerbin day is actually 6 hours.
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Was the evaporant actually consumed though?
If you're moving heat from one part of the craft to another then no. A fridge or AC system doesn't use up evaporant because in the end the heat is lost through the radiator at the back of the fridge or AC. So ultimately it's still radiated. In a loss evaporant system you vent the evaporant into space, carrying the heat with it.
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Temperature could be really interesting, but we'd have to look into what the problems are. From what I understand the problem on the ISS is keeping it cool, as all the electrics produce waste heat as well as the crew and that has to be radiated away. One option is to use evaporative cooling, but then you have to carry and replace evaporant. On the ISS they have large cooling fins, which work like the solar panels but stay angled away from the sun. I don't know how this was handled on Apollo (I think maybe evaporant)
Either way having heat as a built up resource which can be dissipated by cooling fins and evaporant could be really interesting.
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To be fair, I didn't really understand what he was saying. It sounded half like he was saying 'realistic values would make it too easy so we shouldn't do it' and half like we should.
I'm with you! I'm saying the tanks in the mod don't hold a realistic amount of O2, but when you add a realistic amount then they hold so much (because the tanks are so big) that it becomes too easy / pointless.
My solution is to use realistic O2 per volume of tank figures, but have smaller tank parts.
EDIT:
You can see the spreadsheet I used to work all this out on skydrive
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Brooklyn, I'm assuming the O2 is stored as a liquid, but the volumes I've quoted are as a gas because that's what we want to breathe.
I did think about reducing the amount Kerbals require per hour but figured I'd keep it at human rates (23lph) you can easily change that in the LifeSupportConfig.cfg file if you want.
Frostiken, the problem at the moment is the tanks in the stock mod hold a very low amount of O2 for their size so you need loads of them for any long duration flight. But when you add more realistic amount of O2 capacity for their size they hold so much that having more than 1 tank becomes very rare for most flights. The solution I think, is to use smaller tanks with realistic capacity so you have to plan for O2 usage without having a rocket full of O2.
I guess if you're going to assume O2 is never going to be a problem, then don't use the mod. Or if you want to focus more on CO2 buildup being the problem then there are other mods that take that approach (IonCross focuses more on CO2 build up)
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So I did some research on O2 tanks, using medical tanks rather than space tanks, simply because that data was easier to find.
I collected size, weight and capacity information for a range of different sizes noticing the trends you would assume (larger tanks hold more O2 for weight of the cylinder). Anyway, then I estimated the size of the small O2 tank in the mod and used that information to estimate what the O2 capacity would be.
So the ECLSS Oxygen Small Tank would hold about 27077 liters of gas O2 (of course it's compressed in the cylinder), which is a massive difference from the 400 it currently has.
That much O2 weighs about 36kg and a cylinder strong enough should weigh 86kg (that's assuming the technology used in current medical use cylinders, not fancy space tech)
A human consumes about 550 liters of O2 every day (24 hours) so that Small Tank has enough O2 (assuming Kerbals have the same needs as Humans) for 1182 hours!
The large tank, which at minimum is 12 small tanks, gives enough for over 14000 hours!
So there is our problem, the tanks are large and hold so much O2 as to make resource management pointless at realistic rates.
My suggested fix for this would be to rescale all the parts so the large tanks and reprocessor were 1.25m giving smaller tanks, which when filled with realistic amount of O2 give a good challenge for resource management.
I'm going to play around with some number and knock up a module manager file.
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The devs are Mexican.
Felipe is Brazilian, Squad head office (and Felipe) are in Mexico City I believe. It should be noted though that KSP developers are based all over the world and work remotely.
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Love this, the too much monoprop issue really annoyed me. I echo the requests for end plates to make mounting stuff easier.
Also having an unmanned opening option would be great for my unmanned probes, I'd be able to mount instruments in they bay then deploy them once in orbit.
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For item 1, what science doesn't currently do is encourage efficient craft. You can build things with as many parts as you like and go for the biggest rocket you can imagine, because the same has no concept of cheap vs expensive. I'd love to see some sort of funding system in KSP career mode, so you have to think about what is required to get the job done and the risk vs reward of designing to budgets rather than maximum safety margins.
Public opinion is another metric I'd like to see in game, although this should be more of a score thing than a currency thing.
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I figured out the issue with KW engines causing the engineer window to blank. I posted the following in the KW thread:
I managed to figure out the KW/Engineer problem. It has to do with a minor change to engine part configs in 0.23. The ability to tweak electric charge on engines needs to be explicitly disallowed (as it now is with stock engines), and then Engineer works fine. You simply need to add "isTweakable = false" to the engine part configs as follows:
RESOURCE
{
name = ElectricCharge
amount = 0
maxAmount = 0
isTweakable = false
}
Hopefully this change can get added to the base KW mod, then it should play nice with Engineer, and possibly some other 0.23 mods.
We should be able to automate that with a Module Manager script. I'll take a look later today.
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Right, that's what I actually meant
Just another thing: Would it be possible to not require one of the parts be attached to the vessel if the toolbar is available? I think the parts look really great, but personally I always just attach them to get the KER window, then remove them before actual flight. I don't really have a use for them. I'd rather just click the toolbar button and get the window when I need it.
There is also a mod to add Engineer 6 to every command pod without the need for parts here: Spaceport
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This is just about a perfect description of part of the functionality of SCANsat...
Great link, thanks! The ability to map Biomes is a great feature and will really help science collection!
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This looks really promising!
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Can you not separate the decouple action from the engine action in the stage list?
Although I usually have the LES connected to a docking port and decouple that way (via action groups)
KerbalEdu Extends Kerbal Space Program Into Education
in KSP1 The Daily Kerbal
Posted
Maybe modders will be able to add some of the features to the basic game? It would be a shame if the educational value of KSP wasn't fully available to the public. I'm sure there are lots of parents who would like to use KSP to teach their kids more about physics, or kids who's school can't / won't buy the Edu edition but still want to get the benefits.
I'm assuming that there are some features that simply won't work, but things like fully labeled metric measurements and problem solving tools should translate well enough. I'd happily buy that as DLC if they wanted to keep it separate from the basic game.