Cargo Bays and Wings

[Zosma Procyon]

I just started playing KSP again after a year away, and I haven't gone through all of the patch nots. Are cargo bays and structural tubes water tight in the current game version? Also do structural wings hold together own their own or do they still have to be structed together?

[A Fistful Of Double Downs]

I dunno much about wings because aerodynamic flight is the devil, but when I tried getting to the bottom of the sea I found that pretty much everything is watertight and the only way down is to load up on parts with a density higher than 1. I'm not an expert, but I think the game just assigns each object a volume when determining density and doesn't really care whether it's opened or closed. 

[DeadJohn]

I don't think anything changed for water in the last year. Strut behavior and general part strength seems to have gradually improved, but I don't know how much of that is due to my construction style improving, and use of mods.

Water

Most (all?) parts behave like they are watertight even if the graphics show water inside. Buoyancy is unaffected whether a part shows water inside or not. Almost everything floats and it's a struggle to stay underwater without ore for ballast (or using mods).

I haven't tested the stock water graphics in the latest 1.10.1 release (I use Scatterer mod for prettier water), but I think it's safe to assume that water behavior hasn't changed. It would be big news if we could carry water and make airborne firefighting tankers.

Structural Wings

Long wings still have a risk of flapping during hard turns, but I haven't needed the strut-everything approach in a long time. If I find problems on a test flight I turn on autostruts for a few wing panels.

 

[Draalo]

11 minutes ago, DeadJohn said:

Buoyancy is unaffected whether a part shows water inside or not

Cargo Bays have different buyoncy when open or closed

Edited September 4, 2020 by Draalo