Future Plans

Some new Atlas parts are Coming Soon (tm) and there are plans for a new logistics system, W.O.L.F., intended as a separate mod.

From the MKS forum on April 19:

A quick heads up ::) There will be (offical) 1.7 stuff coming up, mostly in the form of a few PRs and getting that locked down, after which there's going to be a separate pre-release that includes two things:

• Atlas parts (the dome bits!)

• W.O.L.F. Integration (this is the super nifty and new resource management stuff that takes MKS up another level. Or another way of looking at it, stock KSP is management at the vessel level. MKS brings in colonies and outposts. W.O.L.F. adds a layer above that, and deals more with managing multiple colonies with a completely different resource management system at an easier to manage abstraction layer (and gets rid of all of those pesky background processing and interplanetary transport issues). @DoktorKrogg and I are also working on something special that tacks onto W.O.L.F. ;)

W.O.L.F. is not an MKS replacement any more than MKS is a replacement for the stock resource system. Rather, it's a system that layers on top and adds more goodness.

Since it's a massive change both in terms of design and will probably result in people's brains sloshing around a bit (and also have it's share or tweaks, etc.). there will be an opt-in download available for pre-testing :) This pre-release will also include all of the Atlas bits as those are ones I also would like to get some feedback on from some of our more enthusiastic and involved players.

More details on Atlas were provided DoktorKrogg on April 22:

A pull request for the Atlas parts has been submitted and the models are done. The converters and their recipes have all been setup. We just need to make a second pass over them to iron out all the other fiddly details like mass, cost, attach nodes, names, descriptions, etc. The converters in the 10m domes worked out to be roughly equivalent to the converters in the Tundra parts in terms of throughput. The big difference is that there are 6 bays instead instead of 2 or 3. The 20m domes also have 6 bays and thus have substantially more throughput per converter. I'm not going to make promises on @RoverDude's behalf but the goal is to put out a beta release for both the Atlas parts and WOLF for KSP 1.7. Could be days, might be weeks, probably not months. It really just comes down to his schedule. ^_^

Some more notes on the Atlas parts:

We added some "shortcut" recipes that will allow to do things like make MatKits directly from MetallicOre, Minerals and Substrate, bypassing the intermediate conversion to Metals, Chemicals and Polymers. For the first time, we will have swappable, multi-bay USI-LS parts. What this means is that you could have a starter dome that's setup to perform all life support functions (i.e. habitation, recycling, med bay, life support extender, etc.). Then later, when you're ready to grow your colony with additional domes, you could have one dome dedicated to each function. A 20m dome with all 6 bays set to Habitation will provide almost 2,000 kerbal months! Side note: This is the reason we had to change the way converters work. We wouldn't have been able to do this previously. The 10m domes will seat 12 kerbals and the 20m domes will seat a whopping 96! Anyone want to make an IVA for the 20m dome...? Anyone? :) This is all subject to change which is why we're waiting to include it in the beta release we put out for W.O.L.F. We may add bays, remove bays, add recipes, remove recipes, add crew capacity, remove crew capacity... who knows.

DoktoKrog had some more to say on W.O.L.F. in the Forum on April 25:

Q: Will nuclear powered depots be possible and will they need refueling? (assuming MKS power plants)

A: There will be equivalents in WOLF for basically everything that MKS and USI-LS currently do. You'll still need Power but the idea is that you're delivering the equipment and then leaving it in the hands of your Kerbals to figure out how to keep it running. So there's no waste heat to manage, no reactor refueling, etc. No more "I have 3000 radiators on my mining rig...why are the drills still overheating?" issues or reactors blowing up during time warp. ^_^

Q: Is the depot collection/conversion rate expected to be influenced by colonization bonuses?

< A: No. We don't want to introduce any hard dependencies between MKS and WOLF. That said, we already have plans for WOLF v1.1 that will introduce new mechanics in the same spirit of MKS colonization bonuses. We still want there to be rewards for expanding a colony. We're just trying to get WOLF v1.0 out the door for now though. So more on this particular topic later.

Q: Is there a plan to have W.O.L.F. converters to produce non-raw materials for transport across the W.O.L.F. network?

A: Yep. Everything you can make with MKS, you'll be able to make with WOLF and you'll be able to transport most of them within the WOLF network as well. Kerbals are also treated as "resources" in WOLF. Once they join a colony, they are "absorbed" just like equipment is. You receive a number of CrewPoints for each star the Kerbal had when they joined the colony. They all consume the same amount of life support resources though, so there's incentive to get your Kerbals leveled up before they become colonists!

Q: Any information available on how transport costs will be calculated/paid?

A: I'm really excited about the transport mechanic personally. You won't get it for free like you do with planetary logistics in MKS. In WOLF, you have to make the journey between depots yourself first. The amount of mass lost between point A and point B determines the cost in TransportCredits and the final mass of the vessel determines the payload. You don't automatically get the return trip for free either. You have to refuel and make the journey back to point A yourself if you want two-way transfers. Once the route is established though, you can transport whatever you want over it. So say you end up with a payload of 10 WOLF units, you could send 5 Water, 1 Food, 1 Oxygen and 3 MatKits to the destination over that route. You can change what's being transported at any time too, provided the destination depot is able to "give back" what was originally being transported (i.e. it's not required by other consumers). So say you get Water production setup at the destination depot for a total of 10 Water (5 coming in via transport and 5 from the refinery) and you're using 8 Water. You could cancel 2 Water coming in via transport and start sending 2 units of something else instead (e.g. more MatKits, more Food, a new resource, whatever).

Q: If a hopper is destroyed, are any resources allocated to it permanently lost?

A: Nope, at least they shouldn't be. Detecting when parts go missing can be a bit tricky sometimes, so this is something we will probably need some help testing and troubleshooting once the beta goes out.

Q: Sounds pretty awesome even though it is a trade-off between engineering and game performance. I will wait for this update to drop and start a new career on 1.7.

A: Oh there will still be plenty of engineering required, it just shifts from "how do I attach my base pieces together and keep it from exploding" to "how can I make the trip from Minmus to Ike with the biggest payload while using the least fuel" and "is it more efficient to deliver equipment to the Mun from Kerbin or build it in situ".

WOLF first release as part of MKS on 2020-12-21, with this information:

Also - handy doc for understanding what WOLF does and getting past the initial learning curve: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zft2Ka9gubOYQf4CQgvReTxpnP8_LQYNyHouEjQZqjw/edit?usp=sharing

and here's a cheat sheet of all of the WOLFy conversions! Read the doc first, it's not that scary once you understand how WOLF works. https://kerbal-forum-uploads.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/monthly_2020_12/wolf.thumb.png.b6238f4e2609598d6421db558fc6da02.png

Info on Transport Credits and Routes - the glue that lets you set up supply lines and interplanetary transport hubs! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BEqW60RrnYiVJKpAIFHAUqhdBrzbwwQ7KsaJ8hZjH4w/edit