seanth

Cool. I'll PM you values. The upcoming BioMass update will be a mix of "5L" and 1L units for compatibilities sake. In my perfect world they would all be "5L" units, but such is life. It just makes the compressor that turns oxygen into oxidizer a bit odd.

A specific question of protocol: The BioMass mod, when it first came out, listed a density for "biomass". Later versions changed what that density is. If I recall correctly, Kethane's density has also changed over time. How should this be dealt with, because the mod originator is sort of breaking the guidelines if they refine the density of the resource they create.

It will be extremely easy to modify production processes via MM patches, though we encourage people to at least try out the pre-packaged difficulties since they become closer and closer to realistic as one increases difficulty. In fact, once we hit our test release, I'd be happy to work with people to help make MM patches that will let BioMass play nicely with other mods. As for compatibility, BioMass under Classic "difficulty" should work well Tac Life Support. Easy and higher difficulties will also work with TAC LS, but will also tie in with Kethane. Once we hit our test release I'll make sure to outline what some of our assumptions are as far as how in-game gasses relate to real-world materials so people can make patches to make BioMass work with the "realism" mods out there. It will ship with settings appropriate for the Kerbal universe (with a few compromises to make it work with TAC), but again, we'll outline things. A few examples of our assumptions: -Kethane is the same as liquid methane. All our balanced stochiometry makes this assumption, so replacing "Kethane" with "methane" will make thing work fine. -Squad's "oxidizer" is liquid oxygen. Again, replacing "oxidizer" with "liquid oxygen" used in other mods will be a 1:1 swap In both cases some minor production rate changes would have to be made for different densities, but again, that is trivial. To better understand what I mean related to Kerbal vs real-world materials, check out Thoughts on Kerbal Resources and Making a case for using (seemingly) bonkers resource densities So, yeah. Ping me when we release open tests and we can work on making MM patches (that we can package with the final)

Swing over to http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62631-BioMass-Ongoing-Development?p=1409491&viewfull=1#post1409491 to see the latest news on our attempts at switching difficulty in-game.

Oooooooh. I'm excited. Tonight I was able to get difficulty level choices working. Credit where credit is due: the difficulty switching is built off of some TAC Life Support code that was originally modified by the forum user Jaraxle. Get ready for an image rich post. In the Space Center, in addition to seeing the BioMonitor button, right now there is a second button. Push it and you are presented with a window letting you choose from various difficulty levels, including what we call "Classic"...which is just the original BioMass version. Go into the VAB/SPH and you'll see all the Classic parts. For example, Classic has the three greenhouses (blue, red, and yellow) in the Science parts. If you exit to the Space Center again, change the difficulty level to Easy or higher, and use Module Manager to reload the database (alt+F11 to open the MM reload window), the changes in difficulty translates into changes in parts. If you now go into the VAB/SPH, the greenhouses are now under Utilities, the yellow greenhouse is no longer available, and the red greenhouse is smaller. Cool, right? Of course the parts behave differently at different difficulty levels, too. Hopefully we will have an open test version of BioMass ready in the next few days.

I'm currently working on a way to have difficulty levels for a mod I help with. Right now the in-game gui from the spcace center window lets the user pick the difficulty and results in a modulemanager cfg being written to file. Is it possible to call DataBaseReloadWithMM() from code to reload the database and pickup the changes to the difficulty file? I did read the wiki on github, but what I am describing seems different than the dynamic module examples.

One last part. Today is the MicroBiome The MicroBiome is especially handy because it will break down any (defined) carbon containing resource, BioMass, Seeds, BioCake, Food, Waste (which we assume to be methanediol (CH2(OH)2). We'll explain why we assume this later), Kethane, KethaneGas, and even LiquidFuel (which we assume to be cryogenically cooled kerosene, RP-1 (C12H26). Again, why later). Given enough time, any one of these inputs will result in CO2 and H2, but there are intermediate products that you can remove if you desire. For example, there is an interesting reversible reaction that takes place in the MircoBiome. KethaneGas, in the presence of oxygen, will yield CO2 and H2. But CO2 and H2 will yield KethaneGas and O2. Therefore, if you want the reaction to favor the creation of CO2 and H2, you need to use a compressor to remove the CO2, the H2, or both. Conversely, if you want you recover KethaneGas and O2, you use compressors to remove the KethaneGas or the O2, or both. In this way, you dictate what this space-going compost heap yields. Also note that adding water allows you to create WasteWater for use in Greenhouses for a boost to growth. I keep thinking it might be nice to have MysteryGoo in the MicroBiome, but I'm not sure MysteryGoo is actually a goo or whether it is a tiny Kraken.

Today's part: the Bioreactor. Whether you are playing Classic or not, the BioReactor works in essentially the same way: you put grown biological material into it, along with gas and electric charge, and out comes gas and LiquidFuel. As is often the case, the more complex version gives you more choice and control. In the simplest case, you have BioCake+CO2+H2+ElectricCharge-->O2+LiquidFuel+CO2+H2. As the previous flow charts have shown, you can take the O2 and compress it to make Oxidizer, and take the H2 and make MonoPropellant. If you are also playing with the Kethane mod, you can convert Kethane to KethaneGas and use the alternate reaction KethaneGas+O2+BioCake+ElectricCharge-->O2+LiquidFuel+CO2+H2 Technical detail: Why, you might ask, are there the same gasses going in as coming out? The reactions are mass balanced, but the amount of a given gas going in does not equal the amount of the same gas coming out. The details are more detailed than people probably care for at this point, and I might go into the details of these chemical reactions in later posts. Sheesh. Did I mention details?

Today's part: The Koylent maker Pretty straightforward, really: seeds and BioCake go into the Koylent maker. Add some electricity to run the part, and out comes food. If you haven't figured it out, the name is inspired by Soylent

We are in the process of working on a big update.

Another day, another flowchart. Probably the most important part in BioMass is the Greenhouse. It is in the greenhouse that oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and light interact to produce biomass. Before you run from the Kraken, don't try and take the entire figure in. Focus instead on the output you want (oxygen, for example), and follow it backward to see what inputs are necessary. I will try and redo the classic flowchart in a similar way. Key: Lines going through the grey "Greenhouse" rectangle show a reaction direction. When lines combine in the grey "Greenhouse" rectangle, that means they are all required for that reaction. Dark boxes are Squad resources. Dashed lines lead to/from other BioMass parts Dotted lines lead to/from other mods Dotted lines around rectangles are other mods Summary: The major difference between the Classic greenhouses and the other play types is that Classic Greenhouses all produce oxygen, but different greenhouses produce different things: Yellow produces Food, Red produces BioMass, and all Blue just produces oxygen. Other levels of difficulty have all production types in a single greenhouse. There are four different reactions and one function that can happen in the Greenhouse. Luckily most of these are "always on" reactions, so you don't need to turn them on or off; just provide the correct inputs and it should Just Work. 1.) Germination. In the presence of IR light (which can be turned on/off), Seeds turn into BioMass 2.) Respiration. Plants are live and, like animals, require oxygen to live. Luckily for us animals, plants happen to produce excess oxygen in the light. In the dark, however, plants take in oxygen and produce CO2 and water by breaking down sugars. This means you need to keep your greenhouses in sunlight (or turn the lights on) to keep your BioMass from completely disappearing. Put another way: O2+BioMass-->CO2+water 3.) Growth (photosynthesis). BioMass+CO2+Water+light--->BioMass. NOTE: THE FLOW CHART SHOWS O2 NEEDED FOR PHOTOSYNTHESIS> THIS IS AN ERROR AND I'LL FIX IT SOON). Note there is a second type of growth that takes place in the presence of WasteWater. WasteWater photosynthesis results in faster accumulation of BioMass, and also produces Water as a byproduct. 4.) Reproduction. When a greenhouse fills with the maximum amount of BioMass, the BioMass will start to produce seeds, which can be stored, used to start empty greenhouses, or help make fuel, gasses, or food. 5.) Harvest. This is one of the few things that can happen in the greenhouse that isn't a biological reaction. When you activate the Harvest button on the Greenhouse, BioMass is converted into BioCake, which can be used by other parts to either make fuel, gasses, or food. Next time, we'll look at another simple part: the Koylent (food) maker

One of the parts of the coming update will (hopefully) be the ability to change difficulty level. This means that if you are a more casual player or love the original BioMass, you can play that way. If you want a harder version, however, that will be available. To help explain how the harder parts work, I have constructed a series of flowcharts. Today's flow chart focuses on gas compressors. Bold boxes are normal KSP resources. Dotted lines and boxes are optional interactions with other mods. Next time I'll show how the Greenhouse use some of the above gasses to produce biomass.

We are in the process of working on a big update. Prior releases do not use the same densities as TAC life support, but I believe there is a post in the TAC LS thread that says how to configure TAC LS to work with BioMass+Science

In my role as a cheerleader, and to help start coming up with documentation on how BioMass works from a player's perspective, I made a flowchart for Classic Biomass We're fans of TAC-Life Support here at BioMass, so we've shown how the Classic parts of Biomass integrate with both the stock KSP game and TAC-Life Support. Next time, a flow chart to show just how complex the more difficult BioMass settings are.

A few things on the near horizon: 1.) Obviously the new interface, which includes a fancy new generator module (so we don't need to rely on any other mods for their generators that they bundle with their stuff) 2.) The option to play with the Classic BioMass parts. Last night I took our improved greenhouse models and updated the Classic settings so they work with the new generator. 3.) The ability to switch difficulty! This means you can use Classic BioMass, or you can opt for Easy, Medium, or Hard and get access to a wider range of parts (and a wider range of difficulty that approaches real-world plant-growth-in-space problems) On the far horizon: new models for parts, science experiments to help teach city-folk Kerbals how to grow plants, and more I can't think of. Roboto is doing a great job. I'm just a cheerleader biologist at this point. Ra! Ra! Ra!

If people were interested, Roboto and I could start a new BioMass WIP thread where we would talk about what we are working on, show off new parts, explain the _why_ of some of things we do, etc.

Is there a tutorial on how to make custom contracts? Is that even possible short of diving into the code?

Thanks so much for this. I have been itching for the ability to launch from KSC2 for a while.

I've been having an odd problem with mechjeb, and I'm not sure whether it is something I am doing wrong, or an odd bug. I have a craft I want to put into polar orbit, so I set the orbital inclination to 90. During launch and gravity turn, the rocket arcs to the north as expected. The engines shut down as the craft coasts up to apoapsis. But when mechjeb makes the maneuver node, the resulting orbit is nearly equatorial. Defining a orbital inclination of 120 results in a orbit that looks about 45 degrees off the equator. Worse, mechjeb worked flawlessly once in putting something into a polar orbit, but has screwed up every time since. Anyone else experience this? What should I provide to help chase this problem down?

Do you have a recommendation on how to deal with mods that convert to/from Squad resource definitions to something else? For example, if a mod maker assumes Oxidizer is liquid oxygen and (to use your terminology) is 5L per unit, and a mod has an oxygen resource that is 1L per unit, how does one deal with this and conserve mass? I think for most instances this wouldn't matter, but if one is basing a mod off of molar masses and chemical rxns, this becomes a Problem. Just do the calculations with mixed L/unit and sweep oddities under the table? --Edit: I should mention I'm one of the people that worked on Biomass. We're in the process of updating it, so this discussion is of relevance to me

You know...you are absolutely correct. Not about there not being any logic (there is), but the rest I agree with. More than that, you have won me over. Players do not care who is right. Hell, most of them don't care if the physics in the game is realistic at all. All they care about is fun, and conflicting mods and crashes are not fun.

Don't we, as players, already do this to make mods play well together? Mind you, I'm not at all advocating making a mod that makes the changes that players already do by hand. I'm just saying that such thing is possible (and feels icky)

Of course, one possible solution is a group of people that provide a sort of "harmony" plugin that scans a player's plugins and overwrites default plugin settings to bring them into line with one another. It feels like a nasty way to do this, but if players want compatibility, but mod makers can't agree, a 3rd party could offer a solution.

Oops. Fixed.

I finally sat down at tried to cogently explain with maths why I am absolutely convinced that Squads resource densities are real-world densities*4.5 http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entries/1644-Thoughts-on-Kerbal-resources Please check my logic and maths and tell me why I am wrong, because I really do want to see unified resources. I just can't support definitions that don't fit into the logic laid out by Squad (unless we are throwing all of Squads resource definition away).