Basic features. Energy, water, sanitation, waste management, hazardous/toxic/radioactive waste management, organic waste, health, food,

[Lo.M]

What we're going to discuss here, in the colonies and in space.

• How do we produce energy? Nuclear Reactors (Saltwater reactors among others...), Fusion reactors (Magnetic/Inercial Containment Reactors, pneumatic fusion reactors among others...), Tri Alpha Energy, Solar Panels, RTG generator, Combustion generators, geothermal energy, heliothermal energy, tidal energy, wave energy, marine current energy, ocean thermal conversion energy, antimatter annihilation energy (yes I know antimatter was made to transport energy plus it to be included)
• How would we extract water? From the polar ice caps, from the treatment of water on planets with water, extracted from the subsoil, extracted from the air. How would that work?
• How would we treat the sewer? Using algae/microorganisms, osmosis, or would we dump anywhere (bad idea)?
• How would we handle the trash? Recycling, Incineration, Landfills?
• How would we handle dangerous/toxic/radioactive waste, we would throw somewhere (bad idea), throw it in a bunker, turn it into useful things?
• Would we have organic waste? We could do composting?
• Would the Kerbals would be healthy? Would they be bad for eating stored things for a long time? Would they have diseases?
• How would we produce food? Aquaponics, Greenhouses, Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Could we Grow insects (and kerbals would eat them)(nhum nhum insects), we could industrially process this food, We would have those edible pastes that astronauts eat, we could grow algae and microorganisms cultivars to produce pastes ("very good") ?

In case you think it's necessary, I'll add other things.

It's good to speculate, but we still have little information about it.

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Lo.M
I added something that the user below reminded me of.

[Guest]

You can go either light and abstract all of these as "supplies" and electricity consumption or go as deep as you want, at the end of the day it won't be the realism to be the mayor factor in what we'll find in the game, but the result of the playtesting they're likely doing. 

At the moment we have very little and sparse information about how that part of the gameplay will look like.

[shdwlrd]

To expand on what Master39 has said. The only definite thing we know is there will be more resources in the game, and you will be able to manufacture them in the colonies. The rest is just broad ideas with no definite system mentioned or explained.

I don't think it will be as complicated as like MKS or Pathfinder, but it will be more complicated than what is currently in KSP.

[Kernel Kraken]

There's going to have to be a balance between realism and making the game actually fun to play. I doubt it'd be super fun managing Kerbal's radiation exposure when ship parts already block radiation, sewage removal just sounds like a tedious thing to do once and forget about it, and handling trash sounds like a boring chore. If the automated supply missions are a thing, I see no reason why automated sewage treatment (in a special part for sewage treatment, of course) shouldn't be done automatically, same thing with trash management.

The others sound much more fun. Playing with radioactive waste sounds like a great source of content for those YouTubers who like to torture their videogames. Sending rovers to measure water levels to make sure the planet is habitable sounds interesting and a good reason to have probe cores. I would love a progression with the power systems, from wind to geothermal. Imagine hydroelectric turbine parts that have to be deep underwater to work! A special greenhouse dome for hydroponics or algae or just a generic "snacks" resource would be a good looking part to keep on your base 

The issue is how complicated you want to make it. I feel like there should just be a few main resources: Water, Oxygen, Snacks, and Material. All do what they sound like- water is consumed and used for irrigation, oxygen is used to breath, snacks are snacked on, and material are used for in-colony VABs because I doubt you would need to deal with Kerbin-side part contractors shipping parts to space. Greenhouses on the higher end of the tech tree could produce oxygen as well as snacks, and water recyclers would be a late-game option so you don't have to spend material on ice-mining rovers. 

On the topic of nuclear waste: I think it should be a very late-game problem that most players won't have to deal with. Nuclear reactors last years with a small amount of fuel, and produce massive amounts of power. Advanced designs also produce very little waste. Full-blown reactors would be able to power your entire colony while producing little waste and not having any serious downsides other than having to dump waste material into a crater somewhere. They would need to be balanced, like needing a large amount of water and a backup generator to run or risk going offline, because otherwise it would take the entire challenge of energy generation out of building and managing a colony. 

On the subject of energy generation... how do we feel about long-distance energy transfer with heating lasers and things? Imagine a tidally locked planet close to it's star. Once you've set up solar farms there, you could fire high-powered lasers at a colony on another planet as a form of energy generation. That would also facilitate structures like Dyson swarms and other fun megaprojects. 

For water gettin' and storage, I feel like you could use normal drills used for getting material. If you drill in an area with ice, it sends ice into your ore tanks that can be sent back to your colony and melted to be filtered.

That's just my two cents, though.

TL;DR: Keep it simple with just a few resources, and keep automation high so it doesn't become a chore simulator instead of a space exploration game.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Kernel Kraken
Spelling errors, punctuation.

[MKI]

I'm on the side of **not** wanting to manage my colonies basic needs. At a certain point it turns into more a management game and less a "space program" game. Either it turns into a situation where your spending most of your time "up-keeping", or its automated away so it doesn't really matter anyways.

I'm sure mod support can come in and increase the realism, but I'd rather focus on more advance space tech and missions further and deeper into space. Spending time getting "snacks" to my kerbal colonies on the Mun, is less time spent pushing the limits of my only "orbital drive ship" being sent to setup an outpost in the closest star system for all of Kerbal-kind in an all or nothing mission. 

The stock game should focus on taking that first "I made it to orbit!" feeling and expanding on it for larger scoped missions using more advanced tech. With the main goal being that it is inspiring to do those kinds of missions with such large stakes and risks. 

For those that want extra realism grind, mods or maybe even expansions can serve it.

I wont hate it if its in the game, I just don't want it to slowly turn into a grid. 

 

 

 

[Lo.M]

30 minutes ago, MKI said:

I'm on the side of **not** wanting to manage my colonies basic needs. At a certain point it turns into more a management game and less a "space program" game. Either it turns into a situation where your spending most of your time "up-keeping", or its automated away so it doesn't really matter anyways.

I'm sure mod support can come in and increase the realism, but I'd rather focus on more advance space tech and missions further and deeper into space. Spending time getting "snacks" to my kerbal colonies on the Mun, is less time spent pushing the limits of my only "orbital drive ship" being sent to setup an outpost in the closest star system for all of Kerbal-kind in an all or nothing mission. 

The stock game should focus on taking that first "I made it to orbit!" feeling and expanding on it for larger scoped missions using more advanced tech. With the main goal being that it is inspiring to do those kinds of missions with such large stakes and risks. 

For those that want extra realism grind, mods or maybe even expansions can serve it.

I wont hate it if its in the game, I just don't want it to slowly turn into a grid. 

 

 

 

Food and oxygen I think have been confirmed if I don't know what those domes with plants at the end of the ksp2 trailer for

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Lo.M said:

Food and oxygen I think have been confirmed if I don't know what those domes with plants at the end of the ksp2 trailer for

It's not confirmed, I can totally see a gameplay mechanic where habitats can sustain a certain amount of kerbals plus something if you add some greenhouses.

"This hab can support 15 Kerbals plus 5 for every greenhouse you assign to it up to 50"

Or a requirement system with Kerbals in a colony having a hidden score representing how well they're living in that colony and their work  and growth being influenced by it (from not working at all up to having a bonus). 

Life support doesn't have to be a mere "Kerbal fuel management minigame" like most of KSP1 mods.

[Lo.M]

Maybe a small piece you would put in your colony or spaceship, which would reciclasse the garbage that the kerbals would produce, and the machine would convert into resources, and the more kerbals the more resources it would produce, but it wouldn't be something like fuel in the game, but that would only work if your colony was functioning normally and wouldn't work with a lack of food or other things if it had.

The same could be applied to sewage producing water.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Lo.M
I'm sorry for any grammar error.