An ISRU overhaul connecting the Nertea suite, USI Life Support and Extraplanetary Launchpads

[Charle_Roger]

I've been playing with a mod list very similar to the recent Community Lifeboat Project for many years, mostly built around Nertea's suite of part and gameplay mods and growing as more became available, and although they upgrade the game to almost exactly what I want it to be, I feel it's still lacking in resource acquisition and conversion, particularly in the late game.

The best option right now is probably MKS, and although I do use USI Life Support, I find the MKS resource loops quite complex and all-encompassing rather than being cohesive with other mods. Instead, I'd like a compromise between the two, a resource system which works nicely with many popular mods like Nertea's, is much richer than the stock "turn Ore into anything" system, but simpler than the MKS "turn tons of stuff into even more tons of stuff" system.

I've gradually accumulated my own homebrew patches which enrich the experience of in-situ resource utilisation based on Rational Resources for producing propellant and life support, and more recently trying to create something similar to Keridian Dynamics but based on parts from existing mods (Nertea himself once hinted at creating a mod with Extraplanetary Launchpads functionality).

With a bit of polishing I think this could become a proper mod which others might find as enjoyable as I do, so this post is intended to gauge interest for a mod like this and start a discussion about how to improve on my current design.

The current state of affairs

My choice of mods uses the following resources from the Community Resource Pack:

• Antimatter, ArgonGas, DepletedUranium, EnrichedUranium, Fertilizer, FusionPellets, Lithium, LqdHydrogen, LqdMethane, Metals, Mulch, RocketParts, Supplies.

As well as providing some basic support for things which have no use like LqdAmmonia, LqdNitrogen and LqdCO2.

The resource conversion loops are roughly the following:

• Convert-O-Trons [Stock] for turning ore into propellants.
• Various smelters for turning Ore into various metals.
• Whirligig Nuclear Reprocessor [Near Future Electrical] and PK-1 'Vulcan' Nuclear Smelter [Far Future Technologies] for producing nuclear fuels.
• PK-EXO 'Bussard' Particle Scoop [Far Future Technologies] and the two Sift-O-Trons [Space Dust] for acquiring gases from atmospheres and exospheres.
• Agroponics modules [USI Life Support, Stockalike Station Parts Redux] for turning Fertilizer and Mulch into Supplies, but no way of producing Fertilizer.

The concept

With all that in mind, the idea is to create a rich and coherent ISRU system which ties everything together in an alternative way to MKS, with ideally no new parts, by adding functionality to parts from Nertea's NFT, FFT and SSPX via patches. This mod would be intended to work well with, but not depend on, Rational Resources, SCANsat, Space Dust, USI Life Support and Extraplanetary Launchpads.

Here's an overview of my current working design:

• Completely remove stock Ore from the conversation and replace it with four types of ore:
  • Spodumene
  • MetallicOre
  • Uraninite
  • ExoticMinerals
• Additionally, the ability to mine generic Minerals (which can be separated into some of the above ores, see below)
• Replace the current drills with two types of drill, one for the above mineral ores and one for ices:
  • Water
  • LqdCO2
  • LqdNitrogen
  • Whatever else Rational Resources might have configured
• Change Convert-O-Trons to deal only in various chemical reactions using the above ices (note that this removes the ability to produce LiquidFuel):
  • LqdCO2 + LqdHydrogen → LqdMethane + Water
  • LqdNitrogen + LqdHydrogen → LqdAmmonia
  • Water → LqdHydrogen + LqdDeuterium + LqdOxygen
  • LqdAmmonia → Monopropellant
• Use <something> to produce Fertilizer via two possible routes:
  • LqdAmmonia + LqdOxygen → Fertilizer + Water
  • Minerals → Silicates + Fertilizer (bypassing Gypsum as an unnecessary resource in this design)
• Require Water in the production of Supplies
• Provide life support functionality to some parts from other base-building mods like Planetside Exploration Technologies
• Use the Whirligig Nuclear Reprocessor (or a cloned variant of it) as a generic mineral centrifuge for separating Minerals into Silicates and trace Spodumene, MetallicOre and Uraninite
• Use the PK-1 'Vulcan' Nuclear Smelter (or a cloned variant of it) as a generic metal smelter for metal ores:
  • Spodumene → Lithium + Metals + Silicates
  • MetallicOre → Metals
  • Uraninite → EnrichedUranium
  • ExoticMinerals → RefinedExotics
• Use <something> to manufacture Silicon from Silicates
• Use high-tech labs and maybe other parts to manufacture Extraplanetary Launchpad resources:
  • RefinedExotics + Silicon → SpecializedParts
  • Metals + SpecializedParts → RocketParts
• Use high-tech station command modules as Extraplanetary Launchpad assembly buildings
• Use <something> as Extraplanetary Launchpad launchpads
• Remove the abundance of ExoticMinerals on Kerbin to encourage the return of RefinedExotics produced off-world as an alternative source of funds in career mode (it's about 48k per ton)

[theJesuit]

Sounds like a complex version of Simplex Resources.  What a great idea!

[Charle_Roger]

1 hour ago, theJesuit said:

Sounds like a complex version of Simplex Resources.  What a great idea!

I did come across Simplex Resources while looking for these kinds of mods before I decided to make my own, so consider yourself an inspiration. I think the key difference is where Simplex Resources aims to create a whole new stockalike ISRU system which can be used by other mods, I want to make the ISRU system that I feel is already implied by the functioning of many existing mods, but just doesn't exist yet.