[Ongoing Dev] [0.23.5] Modular Kolonization System v0.16 (RELEASE) [05-10-2014]

[RoverDude]

1. I built a craft using the colony hub as the main source of control with no other probe bodies on it and it defaults to debris and doesn't display on the map. Feels like this ought to be a pretty quick fix.

Saw that one myself - will get that fixed for the next version

2. I noticed that the colony hub does not operate if it has no punch cards, but its purpose is to generate punch cards. In one of my first tests I launched with no punchcards and found myself with an inoperable base. This may be how you intended it to work, but it seems to me that the punchcard generator should be able to work without punchcards.

Also on the fix list - short version is that I procedurally generate all of the configs and need that one to not need PunchCards.

3. I had a hard time selecting exactly 250 parts for the construction hub--I set up a very basic bootstrapping base with just a construction hub and a colony hub and wanted to have both operational with the construction parts on board. The slider snapped to increments of 100, though, so I could only either bring 200 (too few) or 300 (50 more than I wanted). I worked around it by taking 500 in the construction hub and 0 in the colony hub, but if you can set that tweakable to snap to counts of 50 or less then that would be ideal.

Let me see if that's doable, had the same issue and had to do the same tweak. Fallback is to adjust the requirements and numbers so they are a lot more tweak-friendly.

4. On my map of the Mun water is *extremely* scarce, which I think is fine--the search for water is a pretty big thing in space exploration (or, at least, it is what makes it into the media--NASA mush have found water on Mars a dozen times by now). The algae tank lets you work around a lack of water just fine, but it strikes me as being unrealistic--you can generate mass with this unit. It would be within the suspension of disbelief if this module required some mundane resource, like "dirt," that was found everywhere. This prevents an orbiting algae tank from violating conservation of mass. For now I'll be self-imposing the rule that algae tanks only work when hooked up to some sort of drill.

Yep, I am going over all of the parts to find gaps like this. I believe the new one requires substrate and enriched soil, so you need another module and some drilling to keep the operation going long term. Also the generation rate went up fivefold since you'll need lots of biomass to make polymers, and there had to be a way to generate biomass in cases where you have a lot fewer Kerbals.

All in all, though, looks pretty fantastic. Can't wait to see a not-extremely-pre-alpha version of this mod.

Great to hear! I'm planning on rolling out a new version this weekend now that I have some models done.

[1of6Billion]

This is truly exciting. I like what I see

Keep it up!

[RoverDude]

Just a fun new model I am playing with to represent a five-kerbal capacity colonization module

[likke_A_boss]

Prettttttty....

[Zuni]

Nice looking mod! Good luck!

[RoverDude]

New models. All 16 core modules are done. Flat form factor, but require the addition of a cap - these are modular so the same 16 modules can be used inline or with their deployed tops. These come in clear round, solid round, and windowed.

Inline cap (can be used by any module)

All sixteen cores. Each has a numeric and color code, because trying to find a single module in a colony with 20 identical core parts is kinda hard. Will offer alternate textures for launch if there's interest (mor subduded or without most of the markings).

Running through a batch of playtesting this weekend with the intent that if all goes well, I'll update dropbox and also swap out the imagery at the start of the thread (and also update the license).

[TinyPirate]

Awesome! I have a dream whereby modules can be hooked together via an inflated tunnel dragged by a Kerbal from the special door on one module to a door on another module - a bit like KAS's connections but big enough for a Kerbal to imagination walk through.

The part to pull this off would be a radially attachable "door" that could be slapped on to a part and then grabbed by a Kerbal to pull out the tunnel and attach it within a few meters to another door.

Make it so?

edit: Here's a hub and spoke with tunnels design:

http://www.moonsociety.org/moonbasesim/images/SadlerLunarOutpost59.JPG

Edited March 22, 2014 by TinyPirate

[kiwiak]

Were you inspired by KSO station parts?

Very nice work.

[RoverDude]

Were you inspired by KSO station parts?

Very nice work.

I had to do a google and run over to the thread to see what they looked like - so no My inspiration can be summed up in the phrase 'Space 1999 with Kerbals'

[RoverDude]

Building a Mun base...

Space farming!

[RoverDude]

New version up on Dropbox Link on the first page of the thread

[TinyPirate]

Yay, update! Rover, I have read the wiki pages twice and still don't get what that point of the construction hub is. It produces a type of part that I don't see referenced anywhere else. What does one do with these parts, and how?

[RoverDude]

Yay, update! Rover, I have read the wiki pages twice and still don't get what that point of the construction hub is. It produces a type of part that I don't see referenced anywhere else. What does one do with these parts, and how?

No problem

Basically, each module must have 250 construction parts inside of it in order to function, otherwise the generators will not work. These are also VERY heavy, so one way of saving weight (to the tune of 20T per module) is to build them in place at your Colony. The Construction Hub can take ore and minerals and make these parts.

Later on, when you want to build your own supplies, one of the supplies you need as a component are ModularParts - these are the secondary function of a construction hub.

I'm going to draw up an infographic this week to help with this

[drtedastro]

That will be a GREAT HELP.

thanks......

[rbos]

Lacking water, you ought to be able to manufacture it. You could probably produce it by combining oxygen with kethane, which can probably be assumed to be a hydrocarbon.

[drtedastro]

H'mmm, I thought it was a hydroKarbon....

[RoverDude]

Lacking water, you ought to be able to manufacture it. You could probably produce it by combining oxygen with kethane, which can probably be assumed to be a hydrocarbon.

True, could just be another module

[RoverDude]

FYI - did a recent test to shake through some of the long term effects of converters and make sure the interface with TAC was working properly. My test ship had a Colony Hub, Terraformer for Purify, Kerbitat, and a Greenhouse. It also started with a seed of about 600 TAC LS supplies. I launched this ship with Jeb on board, then set another one to warp and push forward the global timer.

I let Jeb spin around for a few years without focus until TAC LS had him shown as good and dead for a couple of months and his last update was a few years in the past. Note that to get food, he had to go through three converters - a composter in the Kerbitat, then the greenhouse to BioMass, then back to the Kerbitat for cooking

When I then went and gave him focus, despite being 'dead' for over 30 days, all of his numbers snapped back, and he was in fact quite alive, and dining on snacks. Granted, these snacks had gone from Jeb's digestive track about 600 times, but were no worse for the wear.

[kiwiak]

I got a feeling that this might become second ksp interstellar in terms of amount of stuff it adds into ksp. (its praise)

[rbos]

True, could just be another module

Considering that you can make water by catalyzing hydrazine and burning it off (source: The Martian, excellent book) it ought to be similarly simple to produce it without needing an additional module. Maybe tack it into the Kerbitat, or into the kethane converter, if you can modify parts belonging to other mods.

[RoverDude]

Considering that you can make water by catalyzing hydrazine and burning it off (source: The Martian, excellent book) it ought to be similarly simple to produce it without needing an additional module. Maybe tack it into the Kerbitat, or into the kethane converter, if you can modify parts belonging to other mods.

Yep, Module Manager can handle the updating bit.

[Grunf911]

Will it be possible to also have a manufacture module that would produce some food / water / oxygen and store it somewhere for craft resupply ?.

I.e. if you look at TAC Fuel Balancer, it is already possible to transfer TAC resources between ships if they are docked.

I thought of the following scenario:

Let's say i have a Kethane Refinery on Duna. Assuming I would want to build a base with MKS around it, the situation where i see this mod being awesome, is taking my Lander Craft, or my SSTO, and landing close to base, and just refuel (from rafinery - already exists from kethane), and restock food, water and oxygen, while leaving wastewater CO2 for future reprocessing (in exactly the same fashion - i.e. connect a KAS fuel line between storage hut and lander).

I was thinking land nearby and use KAS to transfer resources.

This would cut the Food dependency on Kerbin not only for the Duna base, but for the whole Duna system, making each planetary system self containable from the TAC Life Support perspective.

If I understood your Tutorial, at the moment it is only possible to have the i.e. Duna base self-sustained.

Just an Idea, but perhaps it could be more. I will test your mod a bit and give you some feedback later

that i.e. if I had a Duna base, i could take my lander from the Duna orbit station and refill my food/water/

[RoverDude]

Will it be possible to also have a manufacture module that would produce some food / water / oxygen and store it somewhere for craft resupply ?.

I.e. if you look at TAC Fuel Balancer, it is already possible to transfer TAC resources between ships if they are docked.

I thought of the following scenario:

Let's say i have a Kethane Refinery on Duna. Assuming I would want to build a base with MKS around it, the situation where i see this mod being awesome, is taking my Lander Craft, or my SSTO, and landing close to base, and just refuel (from rafinery - already exists from kethane), and restock food, water and oxygen, while leaving wastewater CO2 for future reprocessing (in exactly the same fashion - i.e. connect a KAS fuel line between storage hut and lander).

I was thinking land nearby and use KAS to transfer resources.

This would cut the Food dependency on Kerbin not only for the Duna base, but for the whole Duna system, making each planetary system self containable from the TAC Life Support perspective.

If I understood your Tutorial, at the moment it is only possible to have the i.e. Duna base self-sustained.

Just an Idea, but perhaps it could be more. I will test your mod a bit and give you some feedback later

that i.e. if I had a Duna base, i could take my lander from the Duna orbit station and refill my food/water/

Actually, if you had a spare Kerbitat and Greenhouse and enough capacity in your Terraformer water purifier, you could do this with existing modules.

Just transfer all of your waste to the Kerbitat, and since you're at a net positive with the other LS mods, this would automatically be generated into the other supplies.

So one scenario I envisioned is to have a near autonomous base, but with several extra Kerbitat/Greenhouse pairs specifically for this kind of resource generation.

[Grunf911]

2 Questions though then:

1. Can Kerbitat be populated (actual kerbal getting in) ?

2. When Kerbitat is populated i assume a Kerbal does the conversion (Food->Waste, Water->WasteWater, O2->CO2). If Kerbal is not occupying Kerbitat, this part of conversion is not happening i assume

3. Since there could be several Kerbitats used for resource generation, i still think it would be practical to have a single hub to connect your craft to (not to have to pop with my lander between kerbitats to collect enough resources to take to orbit station)

[RoverDude]

2 Questions though then:

1. Can Kerbitat be populated (actual kerbal getting in) ?

2. When Kerbitat is populated i assume a Kerbal does the conversion (Food->Waste, Water->WasteWater, O2->CO2). If Kerbal is not occupying Kerbitat, this part of conversion is not happening i assume

3. Since there could be several Kerbitats used for resource generation, i still think it would be practical to have a single hub to connect your craft to (not to have to pop with my lander between kerbitats to collect enough resources to take to orbit station)

1. Yes (kinda). the Kerbitat MKS module is not crewed (none are), but it's required cap has a one crew capacity. The actual location of your Kerbals could be anywhere in the base.

2. Probably another way of thinking of it is that the Kerbitat has storage tanks for Waste/WasteWater/CO2, which are then consumed by other attached modules to convert them, and the Kerbitat in turn can store resources regardless of where the generation module is.

3. Since all of the MKS bits would have to be linked to operate, once your ship is docked you could just transfer from any Kerbitat, which should all stay at a pretty high net amount due to the closed system - and if you drained one, it would just be the first to fill up again.

So one way to get what you are looking for would be to have your Kerbitats brimming with food/water/oxy on launch (they hold 500 each). Alternatively, if that number is too low, I could always add in a stand-alone high capacity provisions module specifically to handle this kind of excess conversion.