Greezy

Mars will never be free until the sands run red with earther blood!

Awesome! I was 2.57GB before and 2.096GB after with 20ish mods. Down to 1.78GB after Squad Reduction Pack. Back up to only 2.19GB after adding back B9 and a couple others, the list now stands at Actions On The Fly, AviationLights, B9, CityLights & Clouds, DE, EL, FAR, MapSat, KAS, pFairings, KAC, Kethane, IR, MJ2, MCE, Spherical & Toroidal Tanks, Modular Fuels, RT2, TAC Balancer, TAC Life Support, Telemachus, KSPI, and WolfPack. Yay! Thanks so much!

Any chance of smaller versions of the Smelter, Auger, and OMD? Like 1/2 or 2/3 scale. Especially the Smelter but they all seem unnecessarily large and cumbersome.

Awesome mod! Eagerly anticipating greenhouse and recycling modules. You are also leaning toward some in-situ resource utilization that would fill a gap between, and form an awesome triad with, Kethane and Extraplanetary Launchpads. I have always found it interesting that a life support system, and especially space-based agriculture, must be budgeted on a molecular and elemental level. The gas and liquid inputs (and Kethane) can be handled by the same Separation Facility part, call it a combo of pumps, compressors, condensers, centrifuges, boilers, fractional distillation, more compressors condensers and pumps, and out to storage tanks. This is a take-what-you-get situation, with no selectivity except what to dump or not, but also not requiring other input reactants or chemical processes. It all depends on the yet undefined composition of the local input resources, and of course requires creating some other new resources, as getting mostly elemental with it is the best way. Basic resources: Nitrogen, abundant atmospheric gas, life support applications in both cabin pressurization, and as a fertilizer component. Helium, rare but a consumable and critical (and supercritical!) element of both spacecraft propulsion and life support. Methane, could be used as-is for fuel in a Methane burning engine, or split into Hydrogen and Carbon Hydrogen, convert into LiquidFuel, or use a Fuel Cell part for Hydrogen + Oxygen -> Water + ElectricCharge Greywater, replacement name for WasteWater, can be used as greenhouse input, or filtered into Water, Waste, and maybe small amounts other raw bio resources Complex resources, here is where it gets really interesting and the scope-creep goes off the chart: Every biome would have the composition of their local resources uniquely defined, ie LaytheAirUpper: 90% N, 4% O, 1% CO2, 1% He, 4% disregarded (Argon etc..) LaytheAirLower: 75% N, 12% O, 3%, CO2, 2% CH4, 1% H2O, 7% disregarded LaytheAirSurface: etc LaytheWater: 85% H2O, 5% CH4, 5% Kethane, 5% disregarded (salt...) LaytheKethane: we know it has Xenon in it, maybe some CH4, He, and the FairyDust that gives Kethane its magical properties LaytheOre: Oxygen is an abundant byproduct of ore refinement as the useful metal is typically bound up in oxides. This is more a Real Fuels issue as to what Oxidizer actually is and if its breathable or not. It would probably be a N + O -> nitrogen tetroxide, and might as well combine it with: ... into a generic Chemical Reactor Facility part to handle all such conversions. BioMass, I think, is a necessary intermediary resource, rather than going directly into Food. The molecular budget of your life support system is heavily invested into the greenhouse BioMass, there are multiple paths, entrances, and exits for resources to flow through the system, and managing that flow is the key to to the systems sustainability and the ability to identify shortages that need resupply or in-situ replenishment. Other than Food, the BioMass should be convertible into Fertilizer, CO2, N, or other elements, and fuel like the Renewable Bio Fuel Mod does. The life support system has to support plant life as well as animal. The quantity of BioMass is variable, but the number of crew members is constant, and that number determines the maximum capacity and rate of BioMass generation, because of the crews limited rate of resource conversion to supply the atmospheric CO2 level and Waste->Fertilizer rate that feed the plants. This requires the option to cannibalize some BioMass to feed itself, either by decomposition/composting to recover all the resources as Fertilizer in the bio-loop, or more complex separation to elemental resources, to keep Carbon in the loop, but take out some Hydrogen for fuel, and Nitrogen for oxidizer, etc. I like the Algae option as a high efficiency BioMass generator... it can also be eaten, but eating Algae gave me another idea entirely... Morale: I think it qualifies as life support, right? The effect of Morale could be simple, as a modifier to certain conversion rates, so that low Morale produces "leaks" in the system as crew members lose efficiency at their jobs, or "gain weight" as they process biomatter resources less efficiently.. The variables that determine the Morale level are probably infinite: - Mission Time Elapsed, long missions continue to reduce Morale - SOI, biome change, and EVA, implying something new to see or do, boosts Morale - Eating Algae reduces Morale, eating Food has no effect, but eating SynthiMeat boosts it. Starving, drinking Greywater, and breathing Oxidizer reduces Morale - Asphyxiating greatly reduces Morale. High CO2 levels reduce Morale by causing headaches. - Some formula of # of crew members VS habitable volume, 3 in a capsule for months reduces morale, but an empty Hitchhiker module would give them more hab volume to negate the loss - Some psychobabble derived data on 3 being the optimal size of a working group, or multiples of 3 staying optimal - Courage, Stupidity, and BadAss flag of individual crew members, and the combinations of the crew as a whole. A crew member with low Courage may lose Morale more quickly but if he has a BadAss commander with high Courage that could negate the Morale loss. The key is for the BadAss Commander to also be NOT Stupid, and for the low Courage guy to also be NOT Stupid enough to recognize his Commander is also NOT Stupid, so that he trusts him. If the crew is composed of 3 BadAsses and they are all Stupid, I dont actually know if they would get along like Happy Stupid BadAsses, or if they would fight like Alpha males. If Morale reaches 0 for too long you come back to find only 2 Stupid BadAsses reporting a tragic airlock malfunction. - Big window modules like Cupola or Karmony reduce Morale loss - Entertainment, recreational, and exercise facility part(s) to reduce loss or boost Morale. Increased habitable volume as well as enhancements like exercise equipment, musical instruments, and big screen TVs. So yeah.. please add all that stuff!