totm may 2024 [1.12.x] - Modular Kolonization System (MKS)

[goldenpsp]

1 hour ago, vossiewulf said:

I'm just beginning with MKS, so having some basic questions. One, I apparently have a misunderstanding of hab time calculations, yeah shocking I know. I have an 8 seat vehicle, with a PTD-C Porthole cupola with a .7 hab multiplier. So I get that as 8 weeks hab time, one for each seat, plus the .7 multiplier should result in 13-14 weeks of hab time for the vehicle. I then put only four Kerbals in, I thought they would divide the available hab time between them, giving them about 3.5 weeks each. Instead, I launch them and they say they have 12 days of hab time, as if they're ignoring the available space. So they don't use all available hab time, they just get their one week per seat times the hab multiplier? That doesn't make sense to me. Could someone help me understand this?

some modules need to be "turned on" for hab to work.  I would check that first.

[vossiewulf]

1 hour ago, goldenpsp said:

some modules need to be "turned on" for hab to work.  I would check that first.

Thanks, but where do they get turned "on"? VAB or in flight? I haven't seen anything, these aren't MKS parts but standard third party pods/parts.

[Brigadier]

1 hour ago, vossiewulf said:

Thanks, but where do they get turned "on"? VAB or in flight? I haven't seen anything, these aren't MKS parts but standard third party pods/parts.

In flight.  They are considered 'on' in the VAB when you open the LS window, but they have a 'on' button in their context menu/action window.  This function often draws EC.

For example, if you place a PTD-C 'Porthole' Observation Window + another command pod on the launchpad with a power supply, such as a launch clamp, you'll see it has a "Start Habitat" action.  You'll see the effect of starting & stopping it in the Life Support Status window (the green cube on the toolbar).

[vossiewulf]

9 hours ago, Brigadier said:

In flight.  They are considered 'on' in the VAB when you open the LS window, but they have a 'on' button in their context menu/action window.  This function often draws EC.

For example, if you place a PTD-C 'Porthole' Observation Window + another command pod on the launchpad with a power supply, such as a launch clamp, you'll see it has a "Start Habitat" action.  You'll see the effect of starting & stopping it in the Life Support Status window (the green cube on the toolbar).

Ah, thanks Brigadier. I thought I'd read all the docs but I missed that. Um, why does it work that way? Is there some reason one wants to be able to turn hab on and off?

[DStaal]

3 minutes ago, vossiewulf said:

Ah, thanks Brigadier. I thought I'd read all the docs but I missed that. Um, why does it work that way? Is there some reason one wants to be able to turn hab on and off?

They use a not-inconsiderable amount of EC.  (And some of the other converters use other resources as well.)  Depending on your crew load, where you are, what you're doing, you may want to save the EC.  A couple of examples: A transfer station that's often unmanned, or in preparation for a large ion-powered burn.   (Or if you lose a solar panel, or run out of fuel for a fuelcell...)

[vossiewulf]

3 hours ago, DStaal said:

They use a not-inconsiderable amount of EC.  (And some of the other converters use other resources as well.)  Depending on your crew load, where you are, what you're doing, you may want to save the EC.  A couple of examples: A transfer station that's often unmanned, or in preparation for a large ion-powered burn.   (Or if you lose a solar panel, or run out of fuel for a fuelcell...)

Thanks for the clarification, now I understand. Yes there are certainly scenarios where you'd want to disable the EC flow, and I guess it makes sense to have it default off during launch before any solar is deployed.

[DStaal]

7 minutes ago, vossiewulf said:

Thanks for the clarification, now I understand. Yes there are certainly scenarios where you'd want to disable the EC flow, and I guess it makes sense to have it default off during launch before any solar is deployed.

Before launch actually brings up another big exception - as you're on Kerbal, you don't actually *need* them... 

[silvermistshadow]

So, I'm trying to set up a Karibou rover. I've read some info about rovers and that their center of mass should be low. I definitely need to figure that out, as all of my Karibou rover designs so far have a tendency to flip over if I brake a bit too much on Kerbin. I've heard it's a lot worse on anything with lower gravity. Thing is, while I can figure out how to move COG forward/back on most things, I have no idea how to move it 'up' or 'down'. I don't really think that strapping things to the underside of the rover sounds like a great idea either. Of course, the easiest option would be to borrow someone else's designs, but I always have difficulty finding things. Another thing would be making sure it can recover itself when/if it does flip over. The inline RCS modules it can have, perhaps?

On a mostly unrelated note, I'm off to go find something to help me with the whole 'vtol' thing, because Mechjeb doesn't seem to have a 'hover' mode. 

[Loren Pechtel]

35 minutes ago, silvermistshadow said:

So, I'm trying to set up a Karibou rover. I've read some info about rovers and that their center of mass should be low. I definitely need to figure that out, as all of my Karibou rover designs so far have a tendency to flip over if I brake a bit too much on Kerbin. I've heard it's a lot worse on anything with lower gravity. Thing is, while I can figure out how to move COG forward/back on most things, I have no idea how to move it 'up' or 'down'. I don't really think that strapping things to the underside of the rover sounds like a great idea either. Of course, the easiest option would be to borrow someone else's designs, but I always have difficulty finding things. Another thing would be making sure it can recover itself when/if it does flip over. The inline RCS modules it can have, perhaps?

On a mostly unrelated note, I'm off to go find something to help me with the whole 'vtol' thing, because Mechjeb doesn't seem to have a 'hover' mode. 

It's not actually your center of gravity that matters, but rather the angle between the ground and the center of gravity.  The smaller the angle the more stable the rover.  Putting your mass low helps but it also helps to make your rover big.  It will be a pain to haul to orbit but it's a lot less likely to crash.

Also, if you're willing to spare the mass & power, use reaction wheels.  Bring along a pilot or probe core capable of running SAS.  With SAS on it will use the reaction wheels to try to keep the rover from flipping.  I've taken rovers with big reaction wheels over terrain where you end up sliding down a hill--when sliding you can't hope to be careful and thus any ordinary rover will most likely crash.

[RugPony]

2 hours ago, silvermistshadow said:

So, I'm trying to set up a Karibou rover. I've read some info about rovers and that their center of mass should be low. I definitely need to figure that out, as all of my Karibou rover designs so far have a tendency to flip over if I brake a bit too much on Kerbin. I've heard it's a lot worse on anything with lower gravity. Thing is, while I can figure out how to move COG forward/back on most things, I have no idea how to move it 'up' or 'down'. I don't really think that strapping things to the underside of the rover sounds like a great idea either. Of course, the easiest option would be to borrow someone else's designs, but I always have difficulty finding things. Another thing would be making sure it can recover itself when/if it does flip over. The inline RCS modules it can have, perhaps?

On a mostly unrelated note, I'm off to go find something to help me with the whole 'vtol' thing, because Mechjeb doesn't seem to have a 'hover' mode. 

Mechjeb does have a hover mode. It's called Translatron. Use the "keep vert" button.

[vossiewulf]

So if the pod you're using doesn't have the Start Life Support button on the context menu, I assume that means it's not supporting USI LS at all and simply can't be used for anything but LKO? Luckily I put a probe core on it first, they're scheduled to go touristy before the capture burn at the Mun (2.5x).

[goldenpsp]

6 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

So if the pod you're using doesn't have the Start Life Support button on the context menu, I assume that means it's not supporting USI LS at all and simply can't be used for anything but LKO? Luckily I put a probe core on it first, they're scheduled to go touristy before the capture burn at the Mun (2.5x).

Not at all.  Not every module has a start life support option.  Parts that are specifically designed or deemed to be habitation type modules have that option.  a capsule is a cramped place to sit.  A hitchiker module is a space where you can stretch out.

[silvermistshadow]

17 hours ago, RugPony said:

Mechjeb does have a hover mode. It's called Translatron. Use the "keep vert" button.

Didn't quite work. It just kept launching me further into the sky. Maybe it's because it doesn't know how to work with only vertical engines (even with gimball), although it probably doesn't help that the two VTOL sections I put on the rover like to not gimball in the same direction (that is, they'll point toward each other half the time). 

[notthebobo]

@vossiewulf, I'm not recalling the PTD-C porthole cupola, but for most parts, you need to activate the habitation on the appropriate modules once you're in flight by using the right-click menu on each part (or setting up a action group before launch).

[Smorfty]

Is there somewhere I can look up which efficiency mode-thingies ([Crusher], [Smelter], [Workshop], [Greenhouse]) affect what? I've looked all over the wiki (https://github.com/UmbraSpaceIndustries/MKS/wiki) and in the part tooltips ingame but can't find it listed anywhere.

I've done some experimenting and found that:

• [Smelter] Boosts the production of: Polymers, Metals, Chemicals & Refined Exotics.
• [Greenhouse] Boosts the production of: Supplies.

Does [Greenhouse] boost Fertilizer or Organics production? I can't find anything that gets boosted by [Workshop]. Can you boost MaterialKits production at all? Would love to know if there's a comprehensive list somewhere so that I don't have to experiment to find out.

[chateaudav]

Hi,

I have lots of this in my output_log.txt ... need help =)

Here is the link to the full file : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bX-VzGemXZBiW43nmzHLiKSuPDldahBJ

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportPersistance.SetupSettings () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportPersistance.GetSettings () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportMonitor_Editor.UpdateGUIInfo (.ShipConstruct ship) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportMonitor_Editor.OnGUI () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

Thanks !

Edited July 26, 2019 by chateaudav

[vossiewulf]

23 minutes ago, chateaudav said:

Hi,

I have lots of this in my output_log.txt ... need help =)

Here is the link to the full file : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bX-VzGemXZBiW43nmzHLiKSuPDldahBJ

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportPersistance.SetupSettings () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportPersistance.GetSettings () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportMonitor_Editor.UpdateGUIInfo (.ShipConstruct ship) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at LifeSupport.LifeSupportMonitor_Editor.OnGUI () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

Thanks !

That looks very similar to the error you just posted in Ferram, gui failing on filename unknown. Those are probably not caused by the mods themselves, there's something common they expect to be there that isn't.

[chateaudav]

Ok, thanks for the analysis but... I have no idea of what could be missing ?? 
 

[vossiewulf]

2 hours ago, chateaudav said:

Ok, thanks for the analysis but... I have no idea of what could be missing ?? 
 

Sorry, no idea, I am hardly expert in KSP code, someone will help you here. Just saying based on general dev experience that this doesn't look to be an error specific to these mods. 

[DStaal]

2 hours ago, chateaudav said:

Ok, thanks for the analysis but... I have no idea of what could be missing ?? 

It would help if you could be sure exactly what mod/mods is causing the issue.   Usually the easiest way to find that is a binary search: Remove half your mods, and see if you still have the error.  If yes, it's in the half you have - remove half of them and repeat.  If no, it's in the other half - swap which halves you have installed, and repeat.  Eventually you should be able to reproduce it with just stock and one mod.  If you can't, it may be a mod interaction - that will take more fiddling, but do the best you can at finding out exactly what mods are involved.

Once you have that, grab a log and post in the thread for that mod, letting people know exactly what you're seeing (if anything) beyond the log messages.

[chateaudav]

2 hours ago, DStaal said:

It would help if you could be sure exactly what mod/mods is causing the issue.   Usually the easiest way to find that is a binary search: Remove half your mods, and see if you still have the error.  If yes, it's in the half you have - remove half of them and repeat.  If no, it's in the other half - swap which halves you have installed, and repeat.  Eventually you should be able to reproduce it with just stock and one mod.  If you can't, it may be a mod interaction - that will take more fiddling, but do the best you can at finding out exactly what mods are involved.

Once you have that, grab a log and post in the thread for that mod, letting people know exactly what you're seeing (if anything) beyond the log messages.

I'm working on it... so far i have removed these and i have no more errors :

FAR - USI LS - Kerbnet controller - RemoteTech (+stock configs) - Fusebox - Ohscrap (+Scrapyard)

i will try to reinstall them one by one.

[headstone55]

Hi All 

I'm having an issue with Flexotube ..I'm unable to find it in the VAB or the SPH . is there something I'm missing ?

 

 

[Brigadier]

2 hours ago, headstone55 said:

Hi All 

I'm having an issue with Flexotube ..I'm unable to find it in the VAB or the SPH . is there something I'm missing ?

Welcome to the forums.

I believe the mod on which they depended (KAS) changed a few months ago, and they no longer work.  Consequently, they may have been removed.  TBH, I don't know the current status.

[halx]

hey guys - been gone a bit (I think a year ) what're we using nowadays for IN-SITU construction and 3d printing parts etc... last I checked MKS was working on its own thing and I was using extraplanetary launchpads for offworld and in space building.  There's some kinda 'construction thing but you have to launch the box from kerbin? 

3d printing I was using OSE workshop.  

Look forward to hearing back, thanks!

[infinite_monkey]

1 hour ago, halx said:

hey guys - been gone a bit (I think a year ) what're we using nowadays for IN-SITU construction and 3d printing parts etc... last I checked MKS was working on its own thing and I was using extraplanetary launchpads for offworld and in space building.  There's some kinda 'construction thing but you have to launch the box from kerbin? 

3d printing I was using OSE workshop.  

Look forward to hearing back, thanks!

I guess you mean Global Construction (fromerly known as Ground Construction):

I think Extraplanetary Launch Pads still works, but I never used it.