Mod request: persistent resource extraction / (dis-)charge / fuel consumption

[Spinoro]

The title pretty much says it all...

It would be nice to have a mod that allows resource extraction to continue when I'm not focused of the resource-harvesting craft, similarly to MarkusA380's persistent rotation mod (which does this for the craft's angular momentum).

In addition, one could have the craft's electric charge continue to be dynamical when the player is away. That would require the game to keep calculating the discharge rate due to the energy usage of the craft, and the charging rate due to fuel cells and solar panel. Moreover the game should keep checking the sun exposition of the panels, and the fuel consumption of the cells. If well-written, such a mod should not be cpu-intensive at all.

Does something like this already exist, or is someone willing to take this on?

[Hohmannson]

And it is... intensive, if you have many vessels. You can configure it to remove unwanted mechanics so it'll just handle background processing.

[HansAcker]

On 12/7/2020 at 10:36 PM, Spinoro said:

It would be nice to have a mod that allows resource extraction to continue when I'm not focused of the resource-harvesting craft,

Isn't that what the stock system already does? Drills and converters keep updating (in batches) even for unloaded crafts.

[cyberKerb]

8 hours ago, HansAcker said:

Isn't that what the stock system already does? Drills and converters keep updating (in batches) even for unloaded crafts.

I don't think it does. From memory the system works on a catchup mechanism in that nothing happens for unloaded craft resources. However, as soon as you load the vessel in as the active vessel, it'll do the necessary difference calcs prior to displaying the scene. These work out what the resources should be at the current time based on their original values when going "on-rails", knowing the length of the time passed since then, and the math for resource changes.

Here an old mod that used to do what you're after - Almost certainly won't work with current version of KSP, but it should give you the key-words to look for in other mods.

Some mod-makers add similar functionality into their mods, but that's usually a choice.

Kerbalism (mentioned above) does that in spades and then some.
Also, most life support mods (eg: TAC-LS , USI LS) include some kind of background processing. This is so the LS  (Life Support) requirements continue to tick down, even when vessels are not loaded. I think these also track EC for unloaded vessels, usually because the mod-maker decided the LS requires EC to function.

So, I don't think it's part of the base game, but it can be if you find he right mod for what you're looking for.

Edited December 10, 2020 by cyberKerb