Hunger for Kerbals

[FireFoxGaming]

I strongly believe that you should add Food bars to kerbals, this makes it so that players will have to put some sort of small container about the size of a battery maybe on a rocket(or planes) that contains space food for the kerbals to eat. This is also makes managing space stations harder as players will have to send rockets or planes to the space station and give food and on that note you should also make a larger food container that is for a larger rocket or for a space station(and planes). I think this will make players think more about space station they've built in the past and not just forget about them. You should make it that if a space station doesnt have any food the kerbals will eventually die and then the space station will(maybe) explode and have several parts crashing into kerbins surface. Yes I understand that some parts of this are maybe too big(for example the space station exploding), but if you can put this into KSP I would be overjoyed and put my full attention to KSP.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Welcome to the forums!

Nice first post, and a good idea; one that is often suggested by the way! I would also like to see a stock life support/food system put into place, perhaps in a future update?

Till then you could check out one of the many life support mods available, it sounds like Snacks! would be right up your alley.

 

[klgraham1013]

I like you already!  Unfortunately, I doubt we're ever going to see this.  Thankfully, if you're on PC, you'l be able to craft a brilliant game using the fantastic mods built by the community!

Feel free to try TAC Life Support, USI Life Support, Interstellar Life Support, or Snacks.  Each with it's on advantages and difficulties.

[FrostedShoe]

On ‎31‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 11:29 PM, FireFoxGaming said:

You should make it that if a space station doesnt have any food the kerbals will eventually die and then the space station will(maybe) explode and have several parts crashing into kerbins surface.

The space station explodes when the food runs out? Will they be using the food as some sort of glue?!?

I assume there is some sort of simulated maintenance going on that stops when the Kerbals die, but if you wanted to go for realism you would have to think of how this applies to unmanned probes (although the space station suddenly going kaboom is pretty Kerbal)

[The Aziz]

On 1.01.2018 at 12:29 AM, FireFoxGaming said:

this will make players think more about space station they've built in the past and not just forget about them. 

Sure, that's fine, constant attention. I could support this.

But think about multi year missions to outer regions of solar system, or grand tours. If you are not able to produce food onboard, you have to pack enough to keep the crew alive for Kraken knows how many years (especially when you don't know how long your mission would last). That adds a little bit more of difficulty.

[FireFoxGaming]

6 hours ago, FrostedShoe said:

The space station explodes when the food runs out? Will they be using the food as some sort of glue?!?

I assume there is some sort of simulated maintenance going on that stops when the Kerbals die, but if you wanted to go for realism you would have to think of how this applies to unmanned probes (although the space station suddenly going kaboom is pretty Kerbal)

No im thinking that when the food will run out in the space station kerbals cant eat and when they dont eat for a perioid of time they die. Then, the space station explodes because there is no one keeping control of it.

6 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Sure, that's fine, constant attention. I could support this.

But think about multi year missions to outer regions of solar system, or grand tours. If you are not able to produce food onboard, you have to pack enough to keep the crew alive for Kraken knows how many years (especially when you don't know how long your mission would last). That adds a little bit more of difficulty.

Well the more difficult it is it makes you have to think about it more and for a lot of players the more difficult it is the more fun you get

Edited January 2, 2018 by sumghai
Merged consecutive posts by the same user

[FrostedShoe]

17 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Sure, that's fine, constant attention. I could support this.

But think about multi year missions to outer regions of solar system, or grand tours. If you are not able to produce food onboard, you have to pack enough to keep the crew alive for Kraken knows how many years (especially when you don't know how long your mission would last). That adds a little bit more of difficulty.

You could plan ahead sending unmanned probes full of supplies before long missions that the main ship can dock with at the destinations. Some sort of stock transfer window planner would be helpful for this.

[klgraham1013]

21 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Think about multi year missions to outer regions of solar system, or grand tours. If you are not able to produce food onboard, you have to pack enough to keep the crew alive for Kraken knows how many years (especially when you don't know how long your mission would last). That adds a little bit more of difficulty.

I know.  Pretty awesome, right?

[The Aziz]

2 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

I know.  Pretty awesome, right?

Depends. I like expanding orbital stations and build actual surface bases, but anything close to life support is still a big maybe for me. I haven't killed a single kerbal in both my careers (not including intended explosions) so even a chance for it to happen because they run out of snacks is not entertaining to me.

They might go unconscious, with a chance to recover in specific conditions, that looks possible to me.

[JadeOfMaar]

58 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

They might go unconscious, with a chance to recover in specific conditions, that looks possible to me.

Snacks! by Angel-125 is your LS then (if you're interested). Kerbals don't die and don't turn into tourists. They simply become useless and inaccessible until food returns. In non-sandbox games, science and funds start draining too.

 

On 1/2/2018 at 10:49 AM, The Aziz said:

But think about multi year missions to outer regions of solar system, or grand tours. If you are not able to produce food onboard, you have to pack enough to keep the crew alive for Kraken knows how many years (especially when you don't know how long your mission would last). That adds a little bit more of difficulty.

I don't read these request threads much but I'd like to believe an inherent problem with all these requests for stock LS is the player asking for it likely doesn't go beyond Kerbin's SOI. The OP's request clearly sounds like giving KSP an Orbiter 20xx feel. If Squad produces an LS, shouldn't they also possibly provide a cryostasis/cryosleep feature too?

[klgraham1013]

7 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

I don't read these request threads much but I'd like to believe an inherent problem with all these requests for stock LS is the player asking for it likely doesn't go beyond Kerbin's SOI. 

I don't know.  Many of the LS supporters on here seem more like the hardcore gamer type.  RO and all that jazz.

Honestly, I think it should be there simply because it's one of the most obvious and inherent difficulties of space travel, and KSP just chooses to completely ignore it.

[Jas0n]

I think stock LS isn't a good idea unless it can be customized and disabled through settings.

[James M]

The spacecraft shouldnt explode. Kerbals should die, then the ship gets deleted and chalked up as “Lost to deep space”.

[klgraham1013]

5 hours ago, James M said:

The spacecraft shouldnt explode. Kerbals should die, then the ship gets deleted and chalked up as “Lost to deep space”.

Nah.  I like the idea of ghost ships floating through space I can return to.

[Hodari]

7 hours ago, Jas0n said:

I think stock LS isn't a good idea unless it can be customized and disabled through settings.

It definitely should be optional if it's going to be added at all. I'm not sure it really adds THAT much to the game most of the time though. I've tried a few different life support mods and it seems like at best, it just ends up being "Stick an extra part or two onto your rocket while building it and then forget about it because it doesn't add anything further to the gameplay."  If you forget to add the part or miscalculate the length of the mission and run out, then odds are either your Kerbals just die without you having time for a rescue mission or anything(which is more frustrating rather than actual fun) or the mod has them enter some sort of "suspended animation"/tourist/useless state, but remain alive indefinitely until you can rescue them(which basically kills whatever realism the LS mod was supposed to add in the first place).

Life support seems like a good idea, but after actually trying it...I usually end up uninstalling those mods fairly quickly.

[klgraham1013]

On 1/5/2018 at 6:48 AM, Hodari said:

Snip

I found the exact opposite.  Not only does it recreate one of the more visble challenges of space travel, it adds actual time based gameplay.  Which is sorely lacking from the stock game.

[pandaman]

My line of thought is with @klgraham1013 on this.

Life support is such a huge deal for real life space missions, that it should be represented in some way at least.   It adds mass due to supplies and equipment needing to be carried, and adds a time constraint to missions.   It doesn't  need to be u!ta detailed, maybe just a single resource that represents air, food and water etc, and electricity consumption to power it. And also some form of recycling and perhaps greenhouses.  And toggleable of course.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I have a really simple solution idea for this:

Have Kerbals drain E/C like probe cores do. Fluff wise, it's to run the life support systems. Perhaps they can even "hibernate" during timewarp like probe cores so as not to negatively affect long distance trips. (You could just re-label the button "Snack Rationing" or something.)

E/C is a very undervalued stat as is, this would not only give it more priority, but also utilize existing game systems for minimal work/change. (E/C is basically weightless as well, batteries and solar panels are much lighter than most life support mods resources are on top of that; for minimal impact on stock Dv requirements.)

Edited January 7, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Hodari]

On 1/6/2018 at 11:44 AM, klgraham1013 said:

 Not only does it recreate one of the more visble challenges of space travel, it adds actual time based gameplay.  Which is sorely lacking from the stock game.

Time-based gameplay is definitely needed in the game.  I just haven't seen any life support mods yet that really get the balance right.  Or maybe it's the base game itself that makes it that way since in most cases, it's still too easy to just add enough supplies without really needing to sacrifice anything else to do so.  IRL adding any extra mass to the payload is far more of a problem and needs all kinds of tradeoffs, but in KSP, it's usually not a problem at all.

[klgraham1013]

11 minutes ago, Hodari said:

Time-based gameplay is definitely needed in the game.  I just haven't seen any life support mods yet that really get the balance right.  Or maybe it's the base game itself that makes it that way since in most cases, it's still too easy to just add enough supplies without really needing to sacrifice anything else to do so.  IRL adding any extra mass to the payload is far more of a problem and needs all kinds of tradeoffs, but in KSP, it's usually not a problem at all.

This may have to do with the size of the stock system being so small.  Bring more into orbit is much more trivial than in real life.

[Matuchkin]

On ‎2017‎-‎12‎-‎31 at 6:29 PM, FireFoxGaming said:

You should make it that if a space station doesnt have any food the kerbals will eventually die and then the space station will(maybe) explode and have several parts crashing into kerbins surface.

"Oh no Jeb DON'T EAT THAT CHI-

 

[tomasantony]

This might be a little off topic, maybe this is the place?

Myself, I'm quite the fan of TAC life support, especially once you add some of the 3rd party mods that include a variety of realistic looking recyclers etc, to really extend flight time without re-supply - good for stations and realistic deep space missions. I also run the game with Dang It!, which integrates part maintenance and faults into your real missions, which makes things a bit more unpredictable... with TAC this has led to many Apollo 13 style missions - failing life support is a really fun challenge! It also mean on long trips to I need to get my Kerbals out and do EVA missions.... not just fly past in 100x speed over say 200 odd days in space! 

I have tried out USI life support, but I find Roverdude's parts for it a little bit stock-game looking - however USI integrates a new mechanic that simulates fatigue, and living space as a factor in space exploration - I find it really annoying that Kerbals can just sit in a mk 1 capsule for years making a transfer and there's no problems (just imagine what it would be like!) - USI adds a fun mechanic where Kerbals effectively mutiny (Skylab 4 comes to mind) if they are in space too long without space to move about. So i would suggest you check it out if the other life support mods aren't cutting it.

Here's my problem - is there any mod like the Habitation function in USI that can run in parallel to TAC life support that anyone can recommend? Or a workaround to just run this part of USI on it's own? I like life support being broken down into Oxygen, water, food, waste, Carbon Dioxide etc, but this extra mechanic really means long distance space travel is realistically hard.... You cant just sling your Kerbals in a garbage can and fire them into space, you have to do serious planning and designing!

[NSEP]

As an on/off feature. Well yeah. But if not, its just a way to put more pressure on beginners.

[sevenperforce]

It would have to be on/off.

 

[JadeOfMaar]

On 1/8/2018 at 9:46 AM, tomasantony said:

Here's my problem - is there any mod like the Habitation function in USI that can run in parallel to TAC life support that anyone can recommend? Or a workaround to just run this part of USI on it's own?

Two options come to mind.

1. USI LS is highly configurable. I don't recommend mixing the large LS mods but you can try installing USI but turn off its consumptions of, and penalties for Supplies and EC.
2. You can try this mod. It's purely a hab system mod and may be comparable to the same portion of Kerbalism. You have to deal with cramped quarters, radiation (from space and from other parts on the ship), random illnesses and you also have to deal with HP,  atrophy and gradual death from simply being in space too long...but of course it has a means to restore HP and keep kerbals happy on long voyages, and it's explicitly compatible with USI LS and DeepFreeze but I bet it will get along just fine with TAC. 

Edited January 10, 2018 by JadeOfMaar