Small but tricky Mobile Processing Lab tweak

[Deimos_F]

I tried doing this myself, but it turns out to be a bit more complicated than I thought, and outside my ability range.

The MPL right now, if used optimally, will produce a lot of science. The problem is, the storage capacity is relatively small. While you are conducting inter-planetary flights, you will find yourself having to switch back to your labs tens of times per orbit, just to transmit the science points when they top off, to allow the lab to continue the research.

I'm sure trying to make the game execute scheduled operations on vessels other than the active one is really hard, so I tried to work around that.

I tried going into the "largeCrewedLab.cfg" file and tweaking the storage capacity of the lab to increase it 10x, but that screwed up the research rate, increasing it by a huge margin. I don't want to buff the lab, only make it less grindy. That increase in research rate seems to have occurred because the calculations for it take into account factors like current stored data vs maximum data storage and current stored science points vs maximum science point storage. There is also a variable in the .cfg file that is labelled as being responsible for adjusting the research rate, but it does not accept decimal adjustments, and increasing or decreasing it by 1 seems to have an enormous effect. So my plan to increase storage as a means of reducing the number of visits the lab needs, failed.

It now seems to me there are only ** ways to tweak this:

either

• coming up with a way of draining the science points storage into a secondary storage compartment (module?), which has no effect on the research rate formula, so that you can later go there and transmit its contents;
  

or

• using my original strategy, but somehow tweaking the formula the game uses to calculate the research rate;
  

or even

• my original assumption is wrong, and it would not be hard to program the lab to periodically transmit its accumulated science;
  

All these things fall beyond my abilities, and that's why I came here to ask for help.

I just don't want to have to stop my flights every 100 days to go back to my lab to empty it out. This is not farmville.

For those wondering "why do you need that much science anyway?", I'm playing career mode, and if find using the lab in conjunction with a "science for funds" policy works as a nice and steady small source of extra income.

Hope someone can help!

[Reddeyfish]

solutions 2) and 3) should be possible by modifying the module code. (not the parameters in the config file, but the module itself that processes those parameters).

However, I can't find where the module's code is within Game_Data. (I'm new to this)

Edited May 17, 2015 by Reddeyfish

[Deimos_F]

\Kerbal Space Program\GameData\Squad\Parts\Science\LargeCrewedLab ?

[Mecripp]

Really haven't played around with them settings but wouldn't be

	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleScienceContainer
		reviewActionName = Review Data
		storeActionName = Store Experiments
		collectActionName = Take Data
		evaOnlyStorage = True
		storageRange = 2
		allowRepeatedSubjects = True
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleScienceLab
		containerModuleIndex = 0
		[COLOR="#FF0000"]dataStorage = 500                        // <------------------------    Here [/COLOR]
		crewsRequired = 1
		canResetConnectedModules = True
		canResetNearbyModules = True
		interactionRange = 5
		SurfaceBonus = 0.1
		ContextBonus = 0.25
		homeworldMultiplier = 0.1
		RESOURCE_PROCESS
		{
			name = ElectricCharge
			amount = 10
		}
	}

	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleScienceConverter
		scientistBonus = 0.25	//Bonus per scientist star - need at least one! So 0.25x - 2.5x 
		researchTime = 7	    //Larger = slower.  Exponential!
		scienceMultiplier = 5	//How much science does data turn into?
		[COLOR="#FF0000"]scienceCap = 500	    //How much science can we store before having to transmit?	<--------------------------------------    HERE [/COLOR]	
		powerRequirement = 5	//EC/Sec to research
		ConverterName = Research
		StartActionName = Start Research
		StopActionName = Stop Research
	}

[Deimos_F]

Really haven't played around with them settings but wouldn't be

    MODULE
    {
        name = ModuleScienceContainer
        reviewActionName = Review Data
        storeActionName = Store Experiments
        collectActionName = Take Data
        evaOnlyStorage = True
        storageRange = 2
        allowRepeatedSubjects = True
    }
    MODULE
    {
        name = ModuleScienceLab
        containerModuleIndex = 0
        [COLOR=#FF0000]dataStorage = 500                        // <------------------------    Here [/COLOR]
        crewsRequired = 1
        canResetConnectedModules = True
        canResetNearbyModules = True
        interactionRange = 5
        SurfaceBonus = 0.1
        ContextBonus = 0.25
        homeworldMultiplier = 0.1
        RESOURCE_PROCESS
        {
            name = ElectricCharge
            amount = 10
        }
    }

    MODULE
    {
        name = ModuleScienceConverter
        scientistBonus = 0.25    //Bonus per scientist star - need at least one! So 0.25x - 2.5x 
        researchTime = 7        //Larger = slower.  Exponential!
        scienceMultiplier = 5    //How much science does data turn into?
        [COLOR=#FF0000]scienceCap = 500        //How much science can we store before having to transmit?    <--------------------------------------    HERE [/COLOR]    
        powerRequirement = 5    //EC/Sec to research
        ConverterName = Research
        StartActionName = Start Research
        StopActionName = Stop Research
    }

Try it. The research rate will go through the roof.

The module coding needs to be adjusted to adapt to the new storage capacity, and that's the reason this thread exists.

[KerbMav]

Raising only the ScienceCap should not change the research rate.

[Deimos_F]

The cap itself, no, but the fact is, when you shove the extra data in there, the rate skyrockets. It's the amount of stored data, not the cap.

The problem is, if you change the data cap to say, 1000, over half of the possible data storage amounts generate insane rates above what should be the maximum, because what is taken into account is the "number" of stored data points, not "number/total".

I have tested this, and that's how it works.

That's why I've been saying the equation itself needs tweaking in the module.