BioMass Ongoing Development

[locustgate]

Well, I could work on one. I'm so close to Biomass and the topic in general (I'm a plant biologist) that I am not sure what level of detail you're interested in.

If you're willing to pick one part they are confused by, I can start writing a guide for that part. Once done, we can pick another part, etc.

How to get started, I'm terrible with plants but animals are a completely different story though. I.e. how to start growing biomass+seeds.

[Mlah]

The greenhouse would probably be a good start seeing as its probab;yy what would be considered the core and has the most modes of operation.

[Angelo Kerman]

I've been enjoying this mod, or at least the one on SpacePort. Is the source for the SpacePort version available? I was thinking of tweaking things a bit to work more with Kethane. Something like this:

To make Biomass or Food (in greenhouse) - Requires: Nutrients, Water, CO2; Produces: Oxygen, WasteWater, & either Food or Biomass

To make Kethane - Requires: Biomass, Goo, Water, ElectricCharge; Produces: kethane (using existing fuel converter)

To Make Goo: Small amount of existing Goo, Waste, CO2, ElectricCharge (or WasteHeat if the resource is available); Produces: Goo

One of the inputs you'll have to continually add is Water. Perhaps other resources as well; making kethane could deplete your goo supply, for instance.

[seanth]

I've been enjoying this mod, or at least the one on SpacePort. Is the source for the SpacePort version available? I was thinking of tweaking things a bit to work more with Kethane. Something like this:

To make Biomass or Food (in greenhouse) - Requires: Nutrients, Water, CO2; Produces: Oxygen, WasteWater, & either Food or Biomass

To make Kethane - Requires: Biomass, Goo, Water, ElectricCharge; Produces: kethane (using existing fuel converter)

To Make Goo: Small amount of existing Goo, Waste, CO2, ElectricCharge (or WasteHeat if the resource is available); Produces: Goo

One of the inputs you'll have to continually add is Water. Perhaps other resources as well; making kethane could deplete your goo supply, for instance.

The version on github does many of the things you propose.

-It allows you to make food from seeds

-It allows you to make kethane(methane)

-It does not make more mystery goo

[Angelo Kerman]

Nice, I'll give that a try. I have to yank out the old BioMass hardware first, but it gave me a good RP plot: the two research scientists who set up the initial station (so I could try out the SpacePort version) were evil and sabotaged the greenhouses! Not only were the test station's plants ruined, so were those on the Minmus base and on the ship traveling to Duna. The plants would have slowly screwed the kerbonaut's genetics to create deadly cancer had they continued to consume the tainted plant-foot. Fortunately, the base, station, and Duna ship had backup supplies of food, water, and air. Those two evil kerbals? Recycled into kethane! The boys on the ground are working on the next-gen bio-mass station hardware, and the biomass portion of the kerbin station has been de-orbited. Minmus' modules will soon follow...

[zilfondel]

Might I offer a suggestion? Cap the efficiency of the waste recycling systems so that you will not get an indefinite sustainable system. Ie, 95% or something instead of what I assume is 100%? Maybe you can unlock better versions in the tech tree.

If I'm not mistaken, a closed-loop system with a few Kerbals could theoretically last forever, with a steady supply of energy and enough starting resources?

----------

Also, what does the Microbiome do? It makes plants magically grow, but I did not see any change in any of the resources...

Edited June 7, 2014 by zilfondel

[zilfondel]

I think I may try to create some documentation for this mod. Its really interesting, and ties in perfectly with TAC Life Support and the new Universal Storage mod by Kingtiger.

Would love it if, as I mentioned before, there was an inherent entropy effect present in the mod - law of diminishing returns. I personally would like to have an option of, say have more realistic parts, ie:

chemical nutrient waste digester -> extracts nutrients

composting waste digester -> extracts nutrients

having to use kerbals to harvest a crop

longer, realistic crop cycles (30 or 60 days)

realistic crop types: potatoes, kale, etc

kitchen part to convert stored biomass to food

new greenhouses: aeroponics, hydroponics, terrestrial plantings

each of these could have pros/cons: higher/lower weight, different water usage, aeroponics/hydroponics' crop will fail if you run out of water, different nutrient requirement, etc.

Perhaps these ideas would make for a mod that is far too complex; I don't know. It may require a better interface and game mechanic, however, as the current mod's reliance upon Kethane seems to be a bit unrealistic in how plants actually grow.

[Seth]

Hi, I'm sure you're aware but currently the Spaceport download is broken as it doesn't exist anymore. On GitHub you don't have a real release though it looks like it would work to just clone the project to get a working copy. I'd be glad if you updated the post to make it easier to figure out how to get just BioMass and how to get BioMass+ as a working mod.

[seanth]

Hi, I'm sure you're aware but currently the Spaceport download is broken as it doesn't exist anymore. On GitHub you don't have a real release though it looks like it would work to just clone the project to get a working copy. I'd be glad if you updated the post to make it easier to figure out how to get just BioMass and how to get BioMass+ as a working mod.

Can you elaborate on how the github version isn't working?

[Seth]

It probably is. Something else feels a bit strange about it.

The original thread has a dead link for BioMass because Spaceport was shutdown. The link that remains is the BioMass+ link to GitHub. If you just look at it you're not sure you'll actually get the mod. You probably get a working copy if you clone the repo or click "Download ZIP" but you won't know which version it is. It could be anything from some highly unstable alpha to the latest stable release. If you compare it to other mods that use GitHub for distribution you'll notice that they have releases listed which you can click on and you get a feeling for what version you're getting.

[seanth]

It probably is. Something else feels a bit strange about it.

The original thread has a dead link for BioMass because Spaceport was shutdown. The link that remains is the BioMass+ link to GitHub. If you just look at it you're not sure you'll actually get the mod. You probably get a working copy if you clone the repo or click "Download ZIP" but you won't know which version it is. It could be anything from some highly unstable alpha to the latest stable release. If you compare it to other mods that use GitHub for distribution you'll notice that they have releases listed which you can click on and you get a feeling for what version you're getting.

I see. Well, on the upside Roboto and I have been working on a few things that I hope will unify the spaceport and github versions. So I hope there will be an update to the github soon

[locustgate]

How do I produce seeds? I have biomass, but when I activate seed harvest nothing happens, so I'm assuming biomass =/= seeds and 'biomass'.

How do you produce liquid fuel, I have H2O+Biocake+Full battery+CO2+H2, but I'm not getting any liquid fuel.

Edited June 16, 2014 by locustgate

[LethalDose]

Is the only available version of this mod the "Biology +" version that requires Kethane, or is a version that doesn't require kethane available for download (The only link I see is for the now-defunct Spaceport). Thanks!

[Roboto]

- - - Updated - - -

Is the only available version of this mod the "Biology +" version that requires Kethane, or is a version that doesn't require kethane available for download (The only link I see is for the now-defunct Spaceport). Thanks!

Sorry, the moderator over at curse rejected my upload with a vague explanation as to why. I'll pm you a link for now, till I get that sorted out.

Edited June 25, 2014 by Roboto

[SyberSmoke]

Roboto: I was wondering if you had plans to add solar collectors (A collection of clear tubes that can be expanded like a solar cell increasing the area for light collection by Biomass) to help increase efficiency for Biomass production? Given the need for efficiency in space it makes sense to give the Algae(?) more area for photosynthesis and growth.

[LethalDose]

I just started playing around with this mod, and I'd like to make a suggestion:

Give us a way to turn the greenhouses OFF!

I just launched the food greenhouse to dock with one of my orbital stations, and the insane power draw made it an absolute nightmare, even when it was doing nothing (unmanned launch with no CO2 or O2, so there was nothing for it to produce).

I understand that it should have a huge power draw when it's functioning, but when it's a dormant chunk of metal, there's no need for it to suck >1 EC/s. I know it can be coded better than that. The simple GeneratorModule can require all the reactants to be present to run, so this could be avoided with code that's already in the game.

[KBluey]

I can't seem to get this mod to work. The biomass in the large food greenhouse reduces by about 0.7 every 6-hour day, even though the greenhouse has seeds, water, wastewater, light and CO2. Panels are retracted, and the greenhouse is facing the sun with full exposure. I just launched a very simple ship to high Kerbin orbit to get a feel for the mod and can't figure out why the biomass won't grow. I have the latest versions of Kethane and TAC life support installed. I checked the equations in the greenhouse .cfg file and it seems like the respiration equation uses up biomass at a higher rate than the photosynthesis equation generates it. I'm probably missing some key point here, but nevertheless any tips would be appreciated! I tried unzipping the "easy" difficulty level but wasn't sure whether I needed to move those unzipped files anywhere. Module manager didn't like it on startup, and generated a couple of errors due to the "easy" folder.

[TaranisElsu]

@Bluey, are you using TAC Life Support v0.8 or one of the new pre-releases? This mod has not been balanced for the pre-releases yet, so all the inputs and outputs would be off.

[KBluey]

Aha! I just noticed that it depends on warp. At warp x100 or below the greenhouse works as I'd expect. At warp x1000 or above it seems to run in reverse. Come to think of it, I had the same problem with the Interstellar mod (which I'm not using at present); electric charge rate seemed to go haywire at higher warps.

I'm using TAC v0.8.0.4. Oh, and scratch my comment about the respiration/photosynthesis equations, I read the numbers wrong in the .cfg file...

Edited July 13, 2014 by KBluey

[BigD145]

Electric charge goes haywire if you don't have enough battery storage in Interstellar. Similar issues are probably at fault here.

[KBluey]

@BigD, btw I found a fix for the Interstellar problem. If I just left a thermal electric generator switched on the whole time, the electric charge stayed topped up, even if the reactor that the generator was attached to wasn't switched on. Anyway, that's off topic so I don't want to spin that discussion out too much.

[Roboto]

UPDATE:

Here are the results of banging on the plugin over the weekend. Still working on persistence and managing resources on inactive craft, but shes coming along.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Roboto

[JDCollie]

Yesssss! Glad to see BioMass alive and well (or at least heading that way )

[seanth]

A few things on the near horizon:

1.) Obviously the new interface, which includes a fancy new generator module (so we don't need to rely on any other mods for their generators that they bundle with their stuff)

2.) The option to play with the Classic BioMass parts. Last night I took our improved greenhouse models and updated the Classic settings so they work with the new generator.

3.) The ability to switch difficulty! This means you can use Classic BioMass, or you can opt for Easy, Medium, or Hard and get access to a wider range of parts (and a wider range of difficulty that approaches real-world plant-growth-in-space problems)

On the far horizon: new models for parts, science experiments to help teach city-folk Kerbals how to grow plants, and more I can't think of.

Roboto is doing a great job. I'm just a cheerleader biologist at this point. Ra! Ra! Ra!

[Stage]

Nice!

I'm looking forward to the new version of BioMass!