Life Support Let's Play.

[Valley]

I find the idea of a life support interesting and have been thinking about it lately, as well as the Kethane mod. But while I notice a lot of tutorials and Let's Plays with the Kethane mining mod, which allows you to get fuel from many of the planets and moons, I only noticed a few tutorials about the Life Support mod. Are their any Let's Plays of the any of the Life Support or Life Support like mods? I would like to see how it works in game play and am having a hard time finding any gamers using it. Does anybody know of a series that uses it?

[leax256]

I don't use them currently but maybe I will at some point if I find one actually worth getting.

[malkuth]

I use it in my series. (ioncross) but really don't talk much about them. Just usually the fact that I need to make more complex craft to support the crews. When I had my Base on the Mun.. I had to launch regular supply missions to it for oxygen. Was fun.

[leax256]

congradulations valley. I have now added TAC life support mod to my Livestream Series. thank you for adding one more thing that could cause me trouble.

[7499275]

I use Tac as well... Actually if you want to see a lets play with it, click the link in my sig to my youtube channel and skip to episode 10 or 11!

[Valley]

Hmmmso if I want a Mun base this is not likely a mod I want. You can exchange fresh TAC units for old ones on a station in orbit, that is easy enough to do during a refueling mission or crew replacement visit.

But there are issues just refueling visiting craft on the Mun's surface with stock - how would a visiting ships replace the TAC LS units of the base's buildings? I already have a Hitchhiker container on the Mun. I don't mind replacing it with one that has LS attached to it if need be but any structure on a moon or planet would be doomed to a slow death. You would end up with dozens of command pods and containers littering the surface like trash. Along side all the candy wrappers and half-smoked cigarettes.

[leax256]

Kerbal attachment system or anoth resource transfer systeeem

[Valley]

Kerbal attachment system or anoth resource transfer systeeem

True. I miss the old landing autopilot from MechJeb. You could land on a dime. Now it lands hundreds of meters away. But I guess I will be using Kethane, KAS, and either TAC or Ioncross. I think Ioncross has a recycling unit, yes? Have to develop better and bigger rovers or wheeled tankers.

[SkyRender]

The thing is, life support considerations don't really complicate things that much (well, unless you're talking about a long-running reusable space program; I can see why Scott Manley neglected to add Ironcross to that particular series). Really, it just amounts to a bit more mass on your craft, and keeping stations stocked up on resources is generally pretty routine. Unless you're running a mission to another planet, you probably wouldn't even notice the impact of TAC or Ironcross once you got used to the idea of "add enough supplies to keep your Kerbals alive for the mission".

[Valley]

But if you plan to have a Mun base or Kethane mining the Ironcross (Iron or Ion?) Life Support seems more forgiving....

[leax256]

eitherway I am just gonna use tac

[Beeman]

It would be nice if the dudes making TAC and Ioncross would come together and make the ultimate life support mod. They could even create two or three variants of the mod to suit their inevitable differences of opinion, but having both people working on them shenanigans together would increase their productivity immensely. Unless they're both excessively stubborn and closed-minded @.,@

Then part packs could easily be made compatible with the ultra IoTA(or whatever they'd call it) life support mod, rather than having to consider both or picking their favorite, dividing the userbase by mods. Like how there's only one RemoteTech, FAR or deadly reentry.

[Scotius]

Ever heard about natural selection? Better, funnier, easier to use mod will prevail.

[Kerbart]

"After 684 days in space, only Jebediah came out of the capsule. Although the space suits of Bill and Bob were there, the kerbonauts themselves where missing. Jebediah, who looked amazingly plump for having spent almost two years without food, refused to divulge what happened to his fellow crewmembers but said that 'food was never an issue' and smiled mysteriously after that statement"

[SkyRender]

Perhaps Scott Manley will start anew with Reusable Space Program now that the original has been lost to the whims of hard drive failure, and this time include TAC and Deadly Re-Entry just to up the challenge factor. Or perhaps someone else will before he gets the chance. Who can say for sure? Certainly there's an opening there for a series that focuses on upping the challenge factor on his original Reusable Space Program...

[NeoMorph]

True. I miss the old landing autopilot from MechJeb. You could land on a dime. Now it lands hundreds of meters away. But I guess I will be using Kethane, KAS, and either TAC or Ioncross. I think Ioncross has a recycling unit, yes? Have to develop better and bigger rovers or wheeled tankers.

Hmmm... MJ2 can STILL land on a dime... IF you start from over 100km orbit. It's so accurate that I usually come down on manual for the last bit just so that I don't land on the previous craft.

[leax256]

Perhaps Scott Manley will start anew with Reusable Space Program now that the original has been lost to the whims of hard drive failure, and this time include TAC and Deadly Re-Entry just to up the challenge factor. Or perhaps someone else will before he gets the chance. Who can say for sure? Certainly there's an opening there for a series that focuses on upping the challenge factor on his original Reusable Space Program...

I refuse to use anykind of deadly rentry mod untill a sutible heatsheild is made. but I do livestreams of my own space program...not quite as reusible.

[Valley]

Well. downloaded Ironcross, Kethane, and KAS (which is a lot of fun to play with). Already attached a small Life Support System to my manned station, the C. J. Cherryh. As it has a ton of energy from reactors and solar panels, has two hitchhiker containers, and one cupola module with only one Space Guy it did not have to have much - a small oxygen tank and two recycling units.

NOW I have to figure out how to make portable life support systems for my Mun base house. Already made a connector Rover with two winches - one on each end - to link two systems that may be too far apart or don't have KAS on board. When two systems - rovers or ships are connected - do they act as one? Do I have to worry about MechJeb or SAS trying to kill everybody?

And now I also have to try to figure out how to scan the Mun for Kethane. Fun all around.

[leax256]

Well. downloaded Ironcross, Kethane, and KAS (which is a lot of fun to play with). Already attached a small Life Support System to my manned station, the C. J. Cherryh. As it has a ton of energy from reactors and solar panels, has two hitchhiker containers, and one cupola module with only one Space Guy it did not have to have much - a small oxygen tank and two recycling units.

NOW I have to figure out how to make portable life support systems for my Mun base house. Already made a connector Rover with two winches - one on each end - to link two systems that may be too far apart or don't have KAS on board. When two systems - rovers or ships are connected - do they act as one? Do I have to worry about MechJeb or SAS trying to kill everybody?

And now I also have to try to figure out how to scan the Mun for Kethane. Fun all around.

the only act as one when the plug is set to docked mode. warning docked mode can cause issues on low g bodys like mimnus. set to undocked first then set to docked after that. also quicksave before any pluging

[rottielover]

I also like and use TAC's lifeSupport. I like the GUI that gives you how many days hours till a resource runs out. He's already included "waste" products that will be used in a future release for recyclers. Yes the containers are ugly, but that is just a cosmetic thing (get procedural fairings and make yourself a resource pod to hide the ugly containers).

I've found that if you don't have very many kerbals, your supplies will last longer than you think. Plus it gives you something else to consider when your doing supply missions and crew rotations.

I'm totally on the fence with Deadly Reentry right now. I used it in some testing and it seemed fine, but if I do end up using it I think I'd rather start a new save file and start over, (been debating that one anyway).

I have a ton of mods as it is

[air805ronin]

I think, when it winds up being added to the game officially, that life support should have stuff in the tech tree to add greenhouse modules to our crafts. X modules per kerbin.

[Beeman]

I think the developers are still on the fence in regards to life support. They want it but they don't want it to be an annoyance, which it certainly will be for some people. But for those of us who'd love to see full-on life support in the vanilla game...I just don't think that's going to happen. Would be nice if it were something you could toggle on and off for career mode, that way those of us who'd LOVE deep, complex life support in the vanilla game could have it and those that would be annoyed by it or just want something simple like oxygen only could play thataway as well.

But honestly, if they introduced complex systems like advanced life support and complicated resource mining and processing webs(like that flow chart they posted oh so long ago) one part, resource or mechanic at a time....it wouldn't be a bother to anyone. Except those who really hate those types of things for whatever reason, of course >.>

[rottielover]

I don't see it as a problem. Most games include a difficulty setting, for ksp wouldn't it just be turning on/off certain modules? Ala: easy the way it is now, hard: add life support, very hard: add life support, FAR, and deadly Reentry

[SkyRender]

I think the developers are still on the fence in regards to life support. They want it but they don't want it to be an annoyance, which it certainly will be for some people. But for those of us who'd love to see full-on life support in the vanilla game...I just don't think that's going to happen. Would be nice if it were something you could toggle on and off for career mode, that way those of us who'd LOVE deep, complex life support in the vanilla game could have it and those that would be annoyed by it or just want something simple like oxygen only could play thataway as well.

But honestly, if they introduced complex systems like advanced life support and complicated resource mining and processing webs(like that flow chart they posted oh so long ago) one part, resource or mechanic at a time....it wouldn't be a bother to anyone. Except those who really hate those types of things for whatever reason, of course >.>

I've always liked how the first System Shock handled its complexity: by letting the player decide how much of it they want to experience. That game actually let you fine-tune the presence or absence of all of its core mechanics, to a degree that almost hasn't been seen since. And really, that would work well for any advanced features in KSP. Things like resource mining, life support, re-entry effects that aren't purely aesthetic, and so forth could be bound to the settings of the save file when the save is first made. Make them off by default, and let the player decide if they want them on or not when they make their file.

[slay_mithos]

Is it me, or nobody mentionned H.O.M.E. ?

It adds quite a few things like lodging or places to grow food.

Also, @SkyRender: It's all well and good, but what happens when you figure out that you might have preferred with X or Y?

Do you allow it to be toggled on and off from a menu?

Because if you do, then it's just about hiding things to the player that are there anyway, and if you don't, then the save file can be lighter (less data) and the game potentially run a bit better, but with no save compatibility.

It's quite a big job to decide how to implement such things, and having those as mods makes it more like you suggest, just for the directory as a whole, not just a save game.