Exploration and Life Support Systems

CMDR Flaxton

C
Commanders,

I thought I would share with you some valuable information regarding the life support system and a potential flaw which can occur during long duration missions.

The scenario is as follows :-
I am on a long duration mission having scanned 500+ neutron stars and finally arrived at Sagittarius A*. I have had a few incidents on the way and lost about 20% hull and had repaired my internal components on a regular basis using the 3 AMU units I had taken along, looking after my ship as best I could.

Anyway, I am on my return journey and had just passed the Great Annihilator when I had another minor heat problem with a star while not concentrating.

I survive loosing a couple of % on my hull and go about using my repair units to get my internal components up to 100% again.

I notice a heavy breathing sound after about 30 seconds and notice I only have 20 seconds worth of oxygen left so quickly switch on my life support system which was under repair. I get the message "Oxygen supply restored" or something similar and assume that I have 7.5 mins of oxygen again to carry out the repair.

I continue the repair and 10 seconds later I get "eject eject" and ship destruction.

Not quite understanding what has just happened I contact support as all I was doing was repairing my ship systems while stationary and in a safe location.

It turns out that everytime you turn off your life support system, the countdown continues from where it had last got to, so for my E rated life support, the total down time is 7.5 mins. What I didn't realise was that every time I was repairing the system, I was eating into my oxygen until the system was repaired and turned back on. By turning it back on, it says the oxygen has been restored, but not back to the original quota which is only replenished at a station.

So, for all you long distance explorers, be careful when repairing. You might think you are doing your best to keep your ship in tip-top shape for the journey, but like me, you could be unwittingly creating your own destruction......

TL:DR - Don't repair life support system unless you need to with AMU..... and watch your oxygen supply timer.

Hopefully, these words of warning will help others while out in the black :)

CMDR Flaxton
 
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DrNoesis

DrNoesis
Yeah I've noticed the same behaviour when trying to take photo's with the canopy iced over... It's a bit counter intuitive as you'd assume your ship would be more than capable of replenishing your emergency supply, but such is life.

Beginning to wonder if I should just fill my cockpit with algae on the off chance there's a problem though, lol
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
Sorry for your loss and thanks for the info, it was news to me as well. I havent used my AFMU's so far so will use them as a last resort.
 

dognosh

dognosh
CMDR Flaxton said:
Commanders,

I thought I would share with you some valuable information regarding the life support system and a potential flaw which can occur during long duration missions.

The scenario is as follows :-
I am on a long duration mission having scanned 500+ neutron stars and finally arrived at Sagittarius A*. I have had a few incidents on the way and lost about 20% hull and had repaired my internal components on a regular basis using the 3 AMU units I had taken along, looking after my ship as best I could.

Anyway, I am on my return journey and had just passed the Great Annihilator when I had another minor heat problem with a star while not concentrating.

I survive loosing a couple of % on my hull and go about using my repair units to get my internal components up to 100% again.

I notice a heavy breathing sound after about 30 seconds and notice I only have 20 seconds worth of oxygen left so quickly switch on my life support system which was under repair. I get the message "Oxygen supply restored" or something similar and assume that I have 7.5 mins of oxygen again to carry out the repair.

I continue the repair and 10 seconds later I get "eject eject" and ship destruction.

Not quite understanding what has just happened I contact support as all I was doing was repairing my ship systems while stationary and in a safe location.

It turns out that everytime you turn off your life support system, the countdown continues from where it had last got to, so for my E rated life support, the total down time is 7.5 mins. What I didn't realise was that every time I was repairing the system, I was eating into my oxygen until the system was repaired and turned back on. By turning it back on, it says the oxygen has been restored, but not back to the original quota which is only replenished at a station.

So, for all you long distance explorers, be careful when repairing. You might think you are doing your best to keep your ship in tip-top shape for the journey, but like me, you could be unwittingly creating your own destruction......

TL:DR - Don't repair life support system unless you need to with AMU..... and watch your oxygen supply timer.

Hopefully, these words of warning will help others while out in the black :)

CMDR Flaxton
Click to expand...

....+1 rep
 

DrNoesis

DrNoesis
Whiterose said:
Sorry for your loss and thanks for the info, it was news to me as well. I havent used my AFMU's so far so will use them as a last resort.
Click to expand...

Using AFMU's is fine generally, you only eat into your emergency supply if life support is switched off, which happens as a function of repairing them with AFMU's.

Repairing your FSD or Thrusters will "emergency stop" you if you attempt to repair those in supercruise (again, they get switched off while repairing), potentially causing damage, so you need to come to a stop to repair those, but beyond that, AFMU's are safe to use :)
 
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CMDR Flaxton

C
Whiterose said:
Sorry for your loss and thanks for the info, it was news to me as well. I havent used my AFMU's so far so will use them as a last resort.
Click to expand...

As DrNoesis states, the repair units are ok to use on every system as long as you are stationary and in a safe place (especially for thrusters and FSD). The life support only has a limited operation time whilst outside of a dock or station when turned off, and you need to turn it off for repair. This, as I have learnt it the one item which you really need to keep an eye on whilst repairing and in some circumstances, probably best not to repair unless it is quite damaged.

CMDR Flaxton
 

Glenn Ross

G
Surely the more damaged it is, the longer it will take to repair and the more oxygen you will use whilst it is being repaired?
The only way I can see to combat this is to leave it until it is quite badly damaged, repair it once, then head back to re-arm the AFMU and replenish the oxygen. [Not an ideal situation for a long-distance explorer, but I've not needed AMFUs or life support at the moment, and I'm so far out that if my canopy went, I'd die before I got a fraction of the way home no matter what grade system I had, so I've gone with the lightest to help my jump range.]
Don't really agree with the limit not being replenished, maybe FD could implement an integral O2 supply with the AMFU so that if it is repairing life support, you are using that and not your actual emergency supply. At least that would mean you could repair as much as you like and still keep the actual emergency supply intact for ........ emergencies?
 

Murishani

Murishani
Im currently on an extended expedition and am an AFMU user and discovered this gotcha on this trip out as well though in a different way.
Generally if overheated, disabling life support will drop your temperature when your heat is too high to safely jump. I've used this a couple times on this trip.
I also naturally assumed the supply was replenished over time, but it is not. Ive now got about 30 seconds of life support left.
I dont necessarily disagree with the mechanic, but it IS something explorers need to keep an eye on with or without an AFMU.

The name "life support" is a little misleading:
Life support is an integral part of the ship and is on all the time unless you turn it off, by default. This should keep you alive indefinitely. Unless its disabled or you're venting into space through a broken canopy.
The module itself is emergency life support and pumps oxygen in when the standard life support is disabled. This is by no means unlimited and should be rationed very sparingly.
 
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Eloy

Eloy
That wasn´t new for me, but now as you mention it ... it makes no sense. I find it way more logical the way you were thinking it works. (this sounds wrong, sorry, not my native language)
 
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Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
You know, i never thought this through to its logical conclusion. But now it makes perfect sense, and also why when you dock you always get the message emergency air supply restored or whatever it is.

So what Life Support really is, more or less, is a big air tank. And until we can make planetary landings there is no way to restore lost air outside of a space station. Hope when we do get planetary landings, and can land on Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere worlds, then we can replenish the supply.

For fun then, find a helium atmosphere and get a little of that in your air supply. Speak like Mickey Mouse!
 

Gramps

Gramps
I had no idea it worked that way, I'm exploring the outer arm and I've repaired the life support twice already when it hit 98% due to some bad flying and theirs me thinking I was doing the right thing. Thanks for the information it could be life saving, or rather 'Data' saving advice, sorry to hear you lost your ship but I'm so glad you wrote this up.
 

gooddoc

gooddoc
WOW! i didnt know that - iv repaired mine twice now so would have eaten into my air reserve. I can see the reasons why it cant replenish itself in space!
How would leaving it unrepaired affect it's performance then...e.g if you had 6 mins of oxygen but your module was at 50% health - would you only get 3 mins?
I dont suppose anyone has been able to confirm this.

Thanks for the heads up OP from now on it doesnt get repaired.

I know it's little consolation but have +1 Rep for informing most of us
 

Dommarraa

Dommarraa
Thanks for the info. Next time out I will at least consider an A grade rather than D grade LS.
When in the black, I only ever use my AMFU on Thrusters and FSD (until I am nearly home). They are the only mission critical components that will do further damage if they fritz, if the others do fritz, just try again.
I have never gone below 80%, and don't know if I would change my attitude if I went 50 or lower, but never had a fritz of any kind to cause panic.
 

dognosh

dognosh
Dommarraa said:
Thanks for the info. Next time out I will at least consider an A grade rather than D grade LS.
Click to expand...
you will lose range and it isn't worth it, because 25 min or 5 min of air won't make a difference, don't repair life support unless it gets to below 60%(and this will take less than 2 mins to repair) and unless you have many lapses it will not be necessary
 

excalibus

excalibus
commisserations OP, thats really bad luck and I feel for you...

Fortunately for me, I found this facet of the life support system out back when I was running a sniper-viper which required me to shut of all non essential systems including life support while the railguns were deployed. I am using a D class for my asp, and did consider a C or A class instead prior to leaving but figure I will only use my AFMU's on life support when absolutely necesarry
 
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