USI - TAC analysis

USI UKS-Kolonization with TacLS

So current testing resulted in the following:
Using 2 level 5 scientists in the OKS Aeroponics module (with required Ag Module) with Tac LS and a base of 2y 97 days of H2O, O2 and Food the supplies lasted 4y 194 days. This means exactly x2 of base resource. This did not vary with level of scientists, however efficiency was above 700% with level 5 and was 525% with two level 0 scientists. This does not change the ratio of conversion only the rate of conversion meaning you can support more kerbals but does not change the 'loss' per unit converted.

This was the best conversion rate I could achieve. No other method gained longer lasting stretching of resources with TAC. Fertilizer was only required for the Ag systems and this was capped at 100 efficiency with greater loss from testing. This means that our ideal systems did not require fertilizer but had some caps on how far you could stretch things.

To 'create' resources you need water + substrate + fertilizer currently. You can not create fertilizer off world meaning that while USI + Tac can stretch the supplies they can not run closed loop or even close to closed loop. At the moment even with off world drilling of water and substrate you can not last indefinitely.

Now, by comparison you can replace the Ag Module, the Aero Module and the scientists required to work them with the TAC Large carbon extractor and Tac Large water purifier and run with zero net loss of water or O2. Then simply replace the other parts with another large food container and suddenly you can stretch that 2y 97 days (which went to 4y 194 days with USI) to 6y 339 days (limited by food alone) for 3 kerbals. At the end you will have still all the water/O2 you started with as well.

So the question becomes how should things be modified, if at all? The purpose of this testing was to try to come up with suggestions on how to make USI + Tac more effective.

Much math was done and I did try a system where I started with 0 of the positive life support and 100 percent of waste products then ran the USI systems and came up with (thanks to the high efficiency) a net loss of 14% when the total conversion to positive was complete. This means that you lost 14% of food, water, and O2 by the end if you had none to begin with but just waste. All of this was tested using the OKS parts.

So... assuming the desire for a non-closed system, I don't see much change needed. I do see a few issues with the base starting units such as levels of machinery or fertilizer or supplies (some parts start with full supplies even if you are using TAC for example and don't have storage for the normal TAC life support units).

What I would like to see is a way to take off world resources and make a net positive loop in life support under TAC. Without this constant supplies of fertilizer will be required to places such as Laythe, or at least shipments of food. In fact there is some question on which would be more efficient, shipments of fertilizer or use of the TAC 'purifiers' and shipments of actual food, considering the weight and manning functions required for USI systems, let alone the cost concerns in career mode.

That said, being able to double the duration of life support supplies is nothing to sneeze at, but considering the fusion powered reactors and ion engines that are unlocked at roughly the same level as some of these parts it is hard to imagine a system that had to run net negative on the surface of say Duna or even Minmus or required external shipments to make processed elements work with a greenhouse.

Again, this is a matter perhaps of ideology rather than balance. The net result of the testing is pretty clear though, in early game with Tac you are better shipping enough supplies raw to get you along until you get the base processors and only at the end game with the best USI parts does there start to be a good argument for the greenhouse systems. The loss in use of say just a MKV greenhouse is enough to make it ineffective as a base colonization part on say Minmus compared to shipping up a few large containers of life support components and not requiring the energy or scientist to operate it as well as fertilizer and machinery.

This actually makes a lot of sense since we didn't take a greenhouse to the ISS and only recently have managed to grow much of anything there after years of shipping up and back waste and supplies instead. But it does mean that at the moment the only real benefit of having the MKV parts is their requirement to make the MKS parts work in the later game in career mode.  And again by that point perhaps there should be a better way to have a net increase in life support rather than simply mitigating the loss rate.

Ideally I would like to see the MK-V parts useful with TAC to the point that they mitigate as much if not a tad more than the current Aeroponics parts do, and the Aeroponics systems be able to run at a net loss of zero (With positive gains possible with outside resources from drills and the like applied).