There’s a lot of cool stuff in 1.11 Some Reassembly Required, and the Squad team hopes you’re enjoying it all! I’m here to share a few thoughts on some tuning changes we’ve made to the game.
Kerbals on the Scale
Kerbals have always had a mass in the game when they’re EVA - 93.875kg. That included themselves, their suit, their EVA jetpack, and their parachute, plus any Snacks they managed to hide on themselves.
Now with jetpacks and parachutes being something Kerbals can choose to go without - for better or worse we’re taking the time to update and rectify some things around this.
On the Scales:
First, Kerbals got a little fatter - now tip the scales at a full 94kg, fully loaded. A little weight gain is expected after almost 10 years on a job this stressful. Here’s how that breaks down:
IVA Kerbals have mass now:
Second, we’ve gone ahead and made Kerbals have a mass IVA. Previously, whenever a Kerbal got into a craft, their mass would be nulled out. Now, the weight of the Kerbal itself - 45kg with their suit on, plus anything their carrying - gets added to any part they’re riding in.
Note: The command seat was a special case as that’s still an EVA Kerbal, and the Kerbal’s mass always counted.
To keep everything roughly as it was before, all command pods are now automatically 94kg lighter per seat - that’s the weight of one Kerbal plus an EVA jetpack and a parachute. All other parts that could contain a Kerbal - crew cabins and the MPL - are 45kg lighter per seat, as you hopefully won’t be kicking your untrained passenger
This automatic readjustment can be disabled on a per-part basis for modders who might want to do so.
EVA fuel has a density now:
Kerbal EVA fuel was always a bit abstract. With the addition of separated jetpacks and the EVA Fuel cylinders, we’ve adjusted that. Now EVA fuel is 5kg/unit, and the Kerbal respond as you’d expect as it's burned up - jumping a little higher, being able to accelerate faster with the Jetpack.
Crewed part tuning adjustments:
Since we’re already messing with pod masses a bit, we went ahead and made a few changes to the tuning of certain pods.
First, all of them have inventory capacity, to store some baggage if you’d like. The amount of space involved depends on the part.
Second, we’ve adjusted a few to align them more with other parts.
PPD-10 Hitchhiker Storage Container: Its mass was adjusted from 2.5 tons to 2.07 tons, and it now has some significant cargo storage capacity. This makes it closer to the average .5 tons/passenger that other passenger containers had, accounting for the extra benefit of that large storage.
Mk3 Passenger Module: Its mass goes from 6.5 to 7.18 tons: This part was judged to be too mass efficient vs other passenger storage modules, so it got bumped up.
PPD-12 Cupola Module: Its mass was cut from 1.8 tons to .886 tons: Despite giving some glorious views of the cosmos, it's always been much too heavy, given how few Kerbals could get a view from inside it. Perhaps its now being built with transparent aluminum? Its cost was also cut in half, from 3200 to 1600.
Mk2 Crew Cabin: Its mass goes from 2 to 1.85 tons - which is slightly less than the tuning adjustments for the passenger mass might otherwise have lowered it to,, since its built in lifting surface is now accounted for.
There’s a lot more that’s gone into 1.11, and I hope you check all the changes out at the 1.11 intro and change log. Feel free to add a comment here if you’d like more info on some of the details behind the game design of this update!
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