[1.5.x~1.7.x] ProgressiveColonizationSystem - Life Support & Colonization for more fun in late game

[BigFatStupidHead]

If any of you use Configurable Containers, I whipped up a couple of patches to add PKS resources to it. Find them here.

 

I haven't checked if I got the masses of the resources right, so let me know if I have them wrong!

Edited October 3, 2019 by BigFatStupidHead

[Pichixox]

Ok so I built an orbital station with hydroponics lab and I have one biologist and one scientist (both tier 5) and I have thousands of units of fertilizer and snacks but it says that the progress from teir0 to teir1 will take 5k days. What am I doing wrong ? Or is that intentional ?

Edit: Also it's not maiking any snacks. It says I have 1 snack0 unused capacity and <none> production.... Why ? I have the fertilizer a biologist so I should be making some snacks tier0, right ?

Edited October 11, 2019 by Pichixox
Forgot to mention crucial information

[NermNermNerm]

On 10/11/2019 at 8:12 AM, Pichixox said:

Ok so I built an orbital station with hydroponics lab and I have one biologist and one scientist (both tier 5) and I have thousands of units of fertilizer and snacks but it says that the progress from teir0 to teir1 will take 5k days. What am I doing wrong ? Or is that intentional ?

Edit: Also it's not maiking any snacks. It says I have 1 snack0 unused capacity and <none> production.... Why ? I have the fertilizer a biologist so I should be making some snacks tier0, right ?

Have a look at the wiki help for this:

https://github.com/SteveBenz/ProgressiveColonizationSystem/wiki#kerblab

It's intentional that it's 5k days - you should bring more Kerbals.  "Production" means how many are being produced & stored.  I'm still looking for a way for the dialog to clearly state what's being produced & stored vs. what's being produced & consumed locally without being too chatty and confusing the issue even more.

On 10/3/2019 at 2:52 PM, BigFatStupidHead said:

If any of you use Configurable Containers, I whipped up a couple of patches to add PKS resources to it. Find them here.

 

I haven't checked if I got the masses of the resources right, so let me know if I have them wrong!

Thanks!  I haven't used Configurable Containers - I presume that doesn't include any actual container parts, right?  Which mod are  you using for containers?  (Or does this just re-use the stock fuel tanks for containers?)

In theory, you shouldn't need to mess with volumes & masses.  The Resources themselves specify mass/unit & volume/unit.  (Though, as I recall, not in those terms exactly).  So assuming Configurable Containers is built right, it oughta just work.

[BigFatStupidHead]

17 hours ago, NermNermNerm said:

Thanks!  I haven't used Configurable Containers - I presume that doesn't include any actual container parts, right?  Which mod are  you using for containers?  (Or does this just re-use the stock fuel tanks for containers?)

In theory, you shouldn't need to mess with volumes & masses.  The Resources themselves specify mass/unit & volume/unit.  (Though, as I recall, not in those terms exactly).  So assuming Configurable Containers is built right, it oughta just work.

This just adds the resources to stock parts - tanks are editable for exactly which resources goes into them. As an added benefit, tanks should be able to be configured to change which resource they hold (in the same family, so no switching from LFO to snacks, for example) for when your base upgrades from shinies0 to shinies1.

[Covert]

Just wanted to say thanks to NermNermNerm for the Mod.  You have inspired me to start a new playthrough and will let you know how it goes
as I get more experience with the Mod.

 

Also thanks to @BigFatStupidHead for the Configurable Container patches.

[NermNermNerm]

News update!

KSP 1.8

Since the mod, in its current release, runs just fine under 1.8, I haven't hurried a release or anything.  I do have it building under 1.8 with the new Unity framework and such, but I've been sitting on that release, because there's no change that you'd really see.

New Snack Storage Parts!

I've managed to get some rudimentary skills in Blender & such to create some simple parts.  So here's the first installment:

They come in three sizes and are built with particular scenarios in-mind; I didn't just spam all the Configurable-Containers stuff across them.  The scenarios I went after are ones where the configurable containers don't do well at.

1. The Space Rated Lunchbox is a surface-attach part, which carries 3 Tier-4 snacks.  It's built for extending those early-day Mun missions and, once you're further along, take some of the drama out of the crushin-scrounging expeditions.  It doesn't support any configuration - it just does 3 snacks.  If you want to quibble about how you're apportioning 3 snacks, you're getting a little too fancy, so, for simplicity, it just has the one loadout.
2. The Snack Bucket is a 1.25m part which holds 45 kerbal-days worth of snacks.  This part is designed for longer hops - for example it can take a 3-kerbal crew to Minmus and back (assuming you get your maneuver nodes done reasonably optimally).  It'd also be good for trips around Jool.  Since it is fully 45-days' worth, this part is configurable - but only among snacks.  One mode is purely tier-4 snacks, and that's simple enough.  But it also has a Tier-0 snacks mode - in that configuration it carries 27 Tier0 snacks and 18 Tier4 snacks - because that's what a Kerbal will consume in 45 days, exactly.  Likewise for the other tiers - e.g. all the way up at tier 3, it's 1 Tier-4 snack and 44 Tier-3.  So you can take your Kerbals off your colonized world without cutting into your precious stocks of Kerbal snacks and without having to get too fiddly with tank management.
3. The Orbital Pantry is a 2.5m part; the large size actually makes its use more niche.  If you need to store that many snacks, you're really at a point where configurable containers are the way to go.  The only really solid application I have for it is early space stations.  If you read the posts in this thread, people are clearly struggling with knowing how much of what kind of stuff to bring.  The base loadout of this part is meant to fix that problem; it consists of tier-4 snacks and fertilizer, in roughly the proportion that you'd use in a station using early hydroponics.  Beyond that, the only application I can imagine would be a simple desire to have container parts that look the part.  That is, you just want your snack storage module to look like it stores snacks.  For that case, there are loadouts for purely T0-T4 snacks.

Another need, which I haven't addressed yet, is for a small container for fertilizer for early-game.  The Orbital Pantry might just take care of that requirement; we'll see how we get on.

Orbital Scanning

I'm pretty well settled in the idea that Tier-2 plus scanning will require 2 crewmen, thus making the size of the station bigger and encouraging a more station-like build.  (As opposed to now where folks are basically encouraged to combine the mission of the interplanetary-transport and the station).  I had started modeling a large, fancy part for the job, but I got to thinking that in modeling all that fanciness, I'm doing the player's job. 

You know how you always like to stick on a mess of antennae and whatnot on your station for no reason at all other than looks?  Well, what if that bristling array of random stuff actually had a purpose?  I haven't really cooked the idea fully yet, but the basic idea is that the part will work "better" if your station has a variety of whatnot attached to it.

Stay tuned, I should be able to at least get the snack cans and 1.8 changes out this weekend or next...  Sometime after I get the gutters cleaned...

[Covert]

PSA if you use the BigFatStupidHead patches to Configurable Containers above, it also covers all the storage wedge parts
in "Kerbal Planetary Base Systems".  Which then gives a lot of snack/fertilizer storage and spatial layout options. 

(The 4 wedge hub part is very nice for early orbit bases)

[linuxgurugamer]

@NermNermNerm

Contact @JadeOfMaar about his mod (see below).  

 

 

I'm currently in (long) process of configuring a new game.  I had been going to include the Snacks! mod, but this looks much better for what I want.

Regarding 1.8, I'd appreciate it if you would make a 1.8 build available, even if in beta. 

Edit:  Continued reading answered the crossed-out line :-)

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[NermNermNerm]

Version 2.1 Is out!

This release changes the scanning mechanic to encourage more elaborate and purpose-built orbital stations on worlds where colonization has progressed beyond the early stages (i.e. Tier2+). In the PKS <2.1, there was a single scanner part (which looked like the IR telescope). It required one crewman and could be set up for any tier.

Starting in 2.1, there are two scanning parts - a one-crew part that can be used to research Tier-1 and Tier-2 scanning, and larger, two-crew part that can be used for all tiers. You can, if you want, forget about the small part altogether and just use the larger scanning part, it'll just be heavier to lug around.

The best way to think about it is this: if you know you're going to established a crewed presence in orbit from the get-go, you should probably launch with one of these. If you're going to go, do your research, and head home immediately to regroup for the next, then you could go with the smaller part to save mass and have a smaller crew count.

If you've been using PKS before, and you update to this version, all your old IR-telescope-looking-parts will be replaced with the new look. If you have old scanners of Tier-2+ already in orbit, those parts will continue to work. You just won't be able to upgrade them.

One more thing! If you look super-close at the big scanner part, it has a bank of lights on it that look like the signal strength bars on your cellphone. Those bars indicate how good your scanner network is around the planet. It's just an assessment of the number of satellites in orbit; you can supply your own ideas about how perfect the equipment is. You also need at least one antenna of any type for each satellite you have in orbit in order to utilize it. (That's just to finally give you the excuse you need to stick on more cool-looking but pointless antennae on your station!)

[JadeOfMaar]

@NermNermNerm I've started writing configs for Airline Kuisine compatibility with this mod. My mod provides three parts for ISRU-based functionality. By default these are: A greenhouse; a fertilizer producer; A general purpose inline converter. You have a distinct greenhouse feature and a fertilizer feature, but I'll need to know what particular converter you want to take up the third slot. After that I can think about textures. Also, I could not find any references of a bio waste resource. Please confirm whether there is one or not.

Note: I have not yet begun opening/playing KSP with PKS installed.

[NermNermNerm]

On 1/1/2020 at 1:17 PM, JadeOfMaar said:

@NermNermNerm I've started writing configs for Airline Kuisine compatibility with this mod. My mod provides three parts for ISRU-based functionality. By default these are: A greenhouse; a fertilizer producer; A general purpose inline converter. You have a distinct greenhouse feature and a fertilizer feature, but I'll need to know what particular converter you want to take up the third slot. After that I can think about textures. Also, I could not find any references of a bio waste resource. Please confirm whether there is one or not.

Note: I have not yet begun opening/playing KSP with PKS installed.

The template you'll want to use for Fertilizer production is the mod I make to the stock small ISRU unit.  Your best move would be to leave the numbers alone, but if your part is considerably more or less massive, you will want to tweak the numbers appropriately.  There is no concept of bio-waste in PKS.  I didn't include it because, when I played with it in other mods, it felt like something that added complexity but not fun.  In PKS, food production comes in two types - "Hydroponic" (for space) and "Farming" (for landed colonies).  The whole food production stack includes a drill (well, really two drills) for getting raw resources, fertilizer and either farming or hydroponics.  There's also a production stack for making stuff to take back to kerbin and sell.

BTW, because of the variety of resource types (multiplied by the 5 tiers), it's impractical to play the mod without some kind of in-flight configurable storage.

[JadeOfMaar]

@NermNermNerm Except for TAC life support, I think I generally buff the Mk2 version of a converter by up to 25% over what I find in a 1.25m form, as long as the volume of the thing makes sense to me. I understand your decision against bio-waste. I tried a life support mod which had one job: produce sustenance from a steady EC input alone and hold a small amount within the converter. There were no tanks outside of the converters.

Since food production comes in two very distinct forms, I'm confused now how to treat them in my mod. I provide only 3 parts for holding converters. And it's not easy for me to choose which 3 features of your mod to put into them. If you experiment with B9PS as I do, you will be aware of B9's ability to alter the I/O lists in a given converter (but a quicksave and quickload need to happen after the switch). I've entertained the idea of using this on your modules but I wont be sure if your plugin will agree with it.

Spoiler

I guess hydroponics is more appropriate for Airline Kuisine. Until now I didn't know that each one was appropriate for a certain situation and so I couldn't decide. I haven't gotten an answer #3 from your explanation (due to the number of industrial converter chains not directly tied to food), though your explanation is sufficient for understanding PKS better.

I'd like to mention that (pardon me if you know already): I'm very aware of the tiered food resources and that they're availed through B9PS; As subtypes, and with recent feature additions to B9PS, you can make each tier/each subtype require a tech node unlock, and progressively make them all available which is that much better and more fitting for PKS.

Edited January 21, 2020 by JadeOfMaar

[Pichixox]

HI, I love the mod, but...

I don't understand the local and planetary warehouse options on the container parts. Does it have to be set up somehow specifically to be able to transfer resources between vessels ? Like I have a Minmus base that I'm trying to do research on and I have to regularly ship snacks tier-4 there but when I land in the proximity of the base I can only transfer fuel to the ship, but would like to transfer the snacks to the base. I've played tens of hours with this mod and I am unable to make this work. Any help appreciated.

[NermNermNerm]

On 1/26/2020 at 8:21 AM, Pichixox said:

I don't understand the local and planetary warehouse options on the container parts. Does it have to be set up somehow specifically to be able to transfer resources between vessels ? Like I have a Minmus base that I'm trying to do research on and I have to regularly ship snacks tier-4 there but when I land in the proximity of the base I can only transfer fuel to the ship, but would like to transfer the snacks to the base. I've played tens of hours with this mod and I am unable to make this work. Any help appreciated.

First, let's make sure we're talking about the right thing - I think we are, but the word "warehouse" above makes me think there's a chance you're conflating this mod with the USI mods which use that word.  PKS transfer system uses the "Transfer" tab of the cupcake button's screen.  I bet you're talking about that, but just to be sure...

Anyway, assuming you're talking about the "Transfer" button, I think you've got a right to be confused.  It almost always gets it right, but when it doesn't, it's super maddening.

First, it takes the vessel's type (like Base/Station/Rover/Lander, in the "Rename Vessel" screen) into account.  In your case, I'd bet that's the issue for you.  The basic rules are:

1. If one vessel is marked as debris or has PKS-production parts and no Kerbals aboard, it will take everything off of that vessel.  (E.g. if you're abandoning a base)
2. If a vessel produces a resource and the other vessel has storage for it, it gets transferred to the vessel with storage
3. If a ship needs a resource in its production chain and doesn't have a means to produce it and the other ship has the resource available, take it. (Think Complex Parts)
4. Snacks-Tier4 have the special rule to try and transfer from Ship->Base->Rover/Lander (But rules #1-3 above overrule this behavior)

If you want to say "there should be some kinda manual override", I'd say I agree.  Somewhere between fires at work and anticipating KSP 2.0 has made me not work on it much.

I'd also highly recommend you get KIS/KAS.  In addition to mostly solving problems like this, it's a really fun mod.

[HZDeadmeat]

Hi, I'm really enjoying this mod but now that I am ready to launch a first tier moon base, I realise that the fertiliser factory is non existant in the part menu. I have looked all over the tech tree to see if I havn't unlocked it and can't find it there also. I have ISRUs unlocked so I tried seeing if it's a setting in them to no avail. I really want to continue with this because it's the right kind of speed for me (it doesn't throw you into the deepend). Thanks for the help in advance.

[NermNermNerm]

On 2/17/2020 at 5:19 AM, HZDeadmeat said:

Hi, I'm really enjoying this mod but now that I am ready to launch a first tier moon base, I realise that the fertiliser factory is non existant in the part menu. I have looked all over the tech tree to see if I havn't unlocked it and can't find it there also. I have ISRUs unlocked so I tried seeing if it's a setting in them to no avail. I really want to continue with this because it's the right kind of speed for me (it doesn't throw you into the deepend). Thanks for the help in advance.

It should be in the "Advanced Science Tech" node alongside the "Convert-O-Tron" ISRU's.  The part shares the same model as the ISRU's, so you might have mistaken it.  The parts can be found in two places in the VAB - in the "Utilities" parts, where it's very hard to find, or in the "PKS" tab, where it's not so hard.

[rmaine]

I'm slightly puzzled about the requirements for automatic crush-in mining. Sometimes it gripes at me that my simplest rover miner isn't suitable for automatic mining because it doesn't have room for 2 kerbals. Other times that same vehicle is fine. I thought at first it might be tied to the tier of crush-ins being mined, but  that must not be it as I just got frustrated when I got that gripe trying to set up my crush-in 2 automining on Ike. Argh. Restored a prior save rather than waiting til I had enough rocket parts to build (using simple construction) another rover, having used up almost all I had on site for the first one. :-(

 

[HZDeadmeat]

On 2/17/2020 at 1:19 PM, HZDeadmeat said:

Hi, I'm really enjoying this mod but now that I am ready to launch a first tier moon base, I realise that the fertiliser factory is non existant in the part menu. I have looked all over the tech tree to see if I havn't unlocked it and can't find it there also. I have ISRUs unlocked so I tried seeing if it's a setting in them to no avail. I really want to continue with this because it's the right kind of speed for me (it doesn't throw you into the deepend). Thanks for the help in advance.

I found what was causing it while making a new profile on CKAN. It turns out that restock was causing the problem, I assume it's due to the fact that this mod utilises the original parts and so by changing them borked it. Not a huge issue or something I expect to be patched, just a heads up to people who have had the same problem as me.

[pand1024]

This is my first foray into modded kerbal space program. Your wiki tutorial is a great start but I am feeling pretty confused even after having read it a few times. Keep in mind I've not actually gotten far enough in my save file to unlock the necessary parts to progress with the mod very far.

1. I don't understand how research works. Does the research come from eating the snacks or making the snacks? Wiki doesn't actually say how research works (that I can find) just that I can build a base and then I need to upgrade it later.
2. Is there a menu where I can see my progress/unlock status on each body? A config file where I can see it?
3. Is there a config file/menu? Can I turn off features or make them easier?
4. Can we have a table that lists the parts and what they do?
5. Can we have a table that lists all the requirements for each level?
6. How long does the research take for each level?

Here is what I've tried so far: I put Bob in a pod (well cupola but same thing), stuck a bunch of teir-0/teir-4 snack storage pods below it and parked it on the launch pad. Cupcake menu says no research is happening, but doesn't offer any advice. I'm just really confused. Do I need to wait for bob to consume some of the snacks? Does it need to be in orbit? Do I need to produce the snacks instead of just making them in the VAB?

Edited March 31, 2020 by pand1024

[rmaine]

I'm a little confused (suppose I could stop at that - seems to be a problem that's increased ever since my teens when I knew everything, but I digress - back to my current confusion) about apparent skipping of tier 1 at times. For scanning, it seems consistent enough that I've gotten used to it. I recall that early on, I finished scanning at tier 0 and then sent up a tier 1 scanner only to discover that was pointless as tier 1 was also silently completed for whichever moon that was. For scanning of interplanetary destinations, I tend to just send a single one of the larger scanners and upgrade it on the spot. After doing the tier 0 scanning, I still have to upgrade twice to get to tie2 2, but I don't have to do any scanning at tier 1 between the upgrades.

But today I was pleasantly surprised to find a similar thing in my surface research on Duna. After finishing the research for tier 1 production, I found that I was allowed to configure a tier 2 scrounger and corresponding tier 2 factories without ever having to specifically research tier 1 stuff on Duna.

That was a pleasant contrast as getting a Duna base going has been a litany of pain for me, mostly not directly related to this mod. It was excruciatingly painful to try to land on Duna a base like the one in the tutorial. Easy enough on the airless moons, but required exquisite care in balancing to keep things under control while landing on Duna. I finally settled on landing just a minimal core with enough rocket parts to bootstrap building (using simple construction) a scrounger and rocket parts factory. That worked ...well, better... once I got past the fact that the stage separator was ripping off the adjustable base frame that I thought had fit nicely inside of it. (Prelighting the engines in the nest stage before separation seemed to help pull it out fast enough to solve that.) Then I hit some sort of input locking bug where I couldn't click on most things - even if I tested starting a brand new test career. Only solved that by installing a new copy of the game (and all the mods I'm using) and copying my save game over. Argh. Then I finally got my base core landed, but it was a bit too tall and it toppled over. Spent lots of time trying to rectify that, including an almost successful ploy of building add-ons to the side port that was now on top and using solar panel extension to lift enough to swing it all upright. That sort of worked... until I found that the gravity ease-in toppled it back over when I left and later returned focus there. Well, I could still sort of awkwardly build some basics even with the base toppled over. Sure was glad that it looks like I'll be able to skip adding tier 1 stuff to it before landing a more permanent base for tier 2 and up.

 

Yeah. I know that was sort of a long and largely off-topic spiel. Feeling chatty from all the social isolation I guess. :-)

[NermNermNerm]

On 3/31/2020 at 12:49 PM, pand1024 said:

This is my first foray into modded kerbal space program. Your wiki tutorial is a great start but I am feeling pretty confused even after having read it a few times. Keep in mind I've not actually gotten far enough in my save file to unlock the necessary parts to progress with the mod very far.

1. I don't understand how research works. Does the research come from eating the snacks or making the snacks? Wiki doesn't actually say how research works (that I can find) just that I can build a base and then I need to upgrade it later.
2. Is there a menu where I can see my progress/unlock status on each body? A config file where I can see it?
3. Is there a config file/menu? Can I turn off features or make them easier?
4. Can we have a table that lists the parts and what they do?
5. Can we have a table that lists all the requirements for each level?
6. How long does the research take for each level?

Here is what I've tried so far: I put Bob in a pod (well cupola but same thing), stuck a bunch of teir-0/teir-4 snack storage pods below it and parked it on the launch pad. Cupcake menu says no research is happening, but doesn't offer any advice. I'm just really confused. Do I need to wait for bob to consume some of the snacks? Does it need to be in orbit? Do I need to produce the snacks instead of just making them in the VAB?

Sounds like you haven't made it far enough for things to make sense yet.  The requirement for research is to produce the stuff.  In the case of hydroponic snacks (where you can't store any of the output, you have to eat it or it doesn't get made), it's effectively eating it.  But putting Bob in orbit with Kerbal made snacks doesn't activate anything.

5 hours ago, rmaine said:

But today I was pleasantly surprised to find a similar thing in my surface research on Duna. After finishing the research for tier 1 production, I found that I was allowed to configure a tier 2 scrounger and corresponding tier 2 factories without ever having to specifically research tier 1 stuff on Duna.

Right off the bat, I can't remember what the requirements are, but yeah, once you hit Tier3+ on two (or 3?) worlds, you can skip Tier1 on future worlds.

Yeah, landing bases is pretty exciting on worlds with an atmosphere.  Couple tricks I've done:

1. Balance the thing as best you can.
2. If that's not good enough, use RCS thrusters - preferably the kind that use LFOX - they're pretty stout.
3. Carefully balance the thrust.  Lately I've gotten good enough to be able to use the K&K Meercat landing assist engines.
4. Build it on the spot - My usual plan is to land a Tier2 base with lots of places to build on to and use EPL to extend the base to its full flower.

[NermNermNerm]

In other news, I've been working on my own first colonization of Laythe.  My first post-mod-complete save file's objective was T4 on Dres...  Which would have been a whole lot more fun if the encounter nodes in KSP were a little more rational with inclined orbits.

Anyway, I've got a couple things:

I only sorta like the big scanner part with its 2-kerbal crew.  It does work as intended in that it encourages a bigger orbital station...  But orbital stations get to be a PITA once you get past T2.  It's just up there, constantly running out of stuff while I forget about it and look at other stuff.

It's tough and time-consuming to get 5* kerbals.  I don't mind it so much with the Engineers, as even 4* Engineers have a role on a T4 base - making shinies and running the drills.  4* Scientists kinda get left jobless once you reach T4.

So I've got a couple of nerfs in mind to address those.  The first is to make it so that the scanners (at least the big one anyway) work system-wide.  So, for example, if you had a space station in Kerban orbit and it had a Scanner Hub part configured for Mun and another for Minmus, that'd be good enough.  It'd also work for both Mun and Minmus in Mun's orbit.

The other nerf is to give Scientist a 1* specialist boost for Hydroponics.  That is, a 3* Scientist (which you can get just by planting flags on Mun & Minmus and leaving Kerbin's SOI), would be capable of running a T3 Hydroponic part.

 

[rmaine]

47 minutes ago, NermNermNerm said:

 

Right off the bat, I can't remember what the requirements are, but yeah, once you hit Tier3+ on two (or 3?) worlds, you can skip Tier1 on future worlds.

Yeah, landing bases is pretty exciting on worlds with an atmosphere.  Couple tricks I've done:

1. Balance the thing as best you can.
2. If that's not good enough, use RCS thrusters - preferably the kind that use LFOX - they're pretty stout.
3. Carefully balance the thrust.  Lately I've gotten good enough to be able to use the K&K Meercat landing assist engines.
4. Build it on the spot - My usual plan is to land a Tier2 base with lots of places to build on to and use EPL to extend the base to its full flower.

Ah. I hadn't thought about progress of prior worlds affecting later ones. That does explain what I was seeing.

BTW, I don't find the scanning stuff to be too painful, even for multiple bodies at a planet. It's not too hard to put together one of the big scanners with 2 geologists, a mechanic, and enough snacks and rocket parts to do all the tiers in one mission. Then I send another vehicle for the next moon (or the planet) and have the crew transfer over to it.

I had worked your tricks 1-3 above and that's what was being really painful. Though I wasn't using the LFOX RCS thrusters; didn't think of them. I almost always use the Meercats for bases, just because they fit so nicely. For Duna I was having to use quite a few of the meercats (8 of them if I recall correctly - 2 on each of the 4 sides). I've pretty much settled on trick 4 for now, though I use simple construction instead of the full-blown EPL.

[pand1024]

Thanks NermNermNerm, this makes more sense now that I understand that it's the amount produced and there is no way to store hydroponic snacks. I've made some progress unlocking research and so I did some math for the hydroponics, for Tier 0 -> Tier 1. Thought that I would share the results here because I don't see this type of information already written down anywhere.

The hydroponics module produces 2 units of Agroponic snacks per day (not listed as an output because it's eat it or loose it). If you had a single Kerbal doing all hydroponics research by themselves it would take 6816 Kerbal days to reach Tier 1 (16 Kerbal years). This also requires a large amount of Tier 4 snacks shipped in. You need 5453 Tier 4 snacks. Rounding up, that means you need the equivalent of 16 orbital pantries costing 100 thousand credits and weighing about 20 tons. The hydroponics unit will also require 8 electricity per second and a total of 1364 Tier 0 fertilizer.

For tier 0 -> tier 1, you can have up to 10 Kerbals eating the produce from one hydroponics unit. With 10 Kerbals that cuts down the research time to 1.6 years.

Let me know if there is or is going to be a wiki for progressive colonization because I would be happy to contribute this kind of information there!

Edit: It appears that tier 0 snacks produced on the surface can be used to offset some of the cost for feeding your hydroponics researchers. This means you can potentially cut the need for Tier 4 snacks way down. For instance your kerbals in space could eat a diet of 20% hydroponic tier 0 snacks + 40% greenhouse tier 0 snacks + 40% kerbin tier 4 snacks. In this example the need for tier 4 snacks is cut in half.

Edited April 25, 2020 by pand1024

[xxendurancexx]

That's really cool. Especially with Planet packs installed