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[WIP] Kerbal Nerfer: Make EVA more realistic!


chicknblender

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The stock EVA Kerbal has 500+ m/s delta-v, about 20x more than the closest real-life equivalent, the MMU. Additionally, a Kerbal's mass is only 94 kg compared to 200 - 300 kg for a human in a spacesuit. This makes some pretty amazing things possible in the stock game, such as landing and returning to orbit on Minmus, or getting home from Gilly or even Eeloo with EVA propellant alone.

I am beginning work on my first mod, which will be a tiny plugin with the goal of increasing a Kerbal's mass and decreasing his EVA propellant (and possibly thrust) to realistic levels. The rationale is that this will allow physically realistic command seat shenanigans in Realism Overhaul (or with any other mods as desired).

I know this is a microscopic project in terms of most mods, but since it is my first, I am still learning where to start. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated!

Edited by chicknblender
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The EVA pack's fuel consumption is not realistic as those rocket engines are.

it's still something like giving a consume rate and a thrust and that's all. Increasing/decreasing the thrust won't change how fast the fuel is consumed.

Anyway you can check my signature. I made the EVAPowerPack plugin months ago and the latest version allows you to set thrust value in the config.xml file. I might consider adding consume rate value into it too.

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The stock EVA Kerbal has 500+ m/s delta-v, about 20x more than the closest real-life equivalent, the MMU. Additionally, a Kerbal's mass is only 94 kg compared to 200 - 300 kg for a human in a spacesuit.

[snip]

I know this is a microscopic project in terms of most mods, but since it is my first, I am still learning where to start. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated!

I like what you're doing here but just FYI, the EMU (Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit) only weighs 49.4kg :)

Ref:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extravehicular_Mobility_Unit#Specifications)

Plus I'm a pretty big (5' 11" slightly "insulated" :P lol but play rugby and train weights...and at my heaviest I weighed about 90-95Kg's, I thought Kerbals were short but with large heads (May offset the weight thing I guess though lol)

I'm just saying that if I was strapped into an EMU suit and stood on some scales at my heaviest I'd only scale in at ~140-150Kg's, not quite 200-300Kg's :)

Just some numbers for you to work with :)

Edited by Eggman360
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I like what you're doing here but just FYI, the EMU (Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit) only weighs 49.4kg :)

Ref:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extravehicular_Mobility_Unit#Specifications)

Plus I'm a pretty big (5' 11" slightly "insulated" :P lol but play rugby and train weights...and at my heaviest I weighed about 90-95Kg's, I thought Kerbals were short but with large heads (May offset the weight thing I guess though lol)

I'm just saying that if I was strapped into an EMU suit and stood on some scales at my heaviest I'd only scale in at ~140-150Kg's, not quite 200-300Kg's :)

Just some numbers for you to work with :)

Total EVA suit weight is listed as 145kg for ISS. I'd say, between 200 and 300kg is about right. Remember, that includes life support, propellant, etc.

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I like the idea, but wouldn't go to NASA extremes. NASA's safety-paranoid, and only uses compressed cold gas. I figure Kerbal jetpacks contain one of those exotic (and deadly) combos involving fluorine or red fuming nitric acid. :) Maybe that's why they never take their suits off. Touching the outside of the suit with bare hands gets you contaminated with toxic chemicals.

Or, perhaps the backpack's full of tiny balls of plutonium and a big laser to cause implosion/fusion. A personal Orion drive! That'll get you into Minmus orbit. Just be sure to make a deposit at the sperm bank before you leave Kerbin!

Anyway, I don't agree with changing their mass, but as long as this plugin's configurable I'll probably give it a try. :)

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When I figure out how to do this, I'll probably make two different versions (a "light" version where the mass stays the same but the propellant is decreased, and a regular version for super-hardcore realism). And I'll do some more digging before I settle on the final numbers -- it's still just an idea at this point.

Ideally -- and this is a big "if" since I don't know what I'm doing yet -- I would like to be a part of remodeling the Kerbals themselves to be like human astronauts for RO. But that's miles away from my current skill set, which is mostly limited to being a pretty good in-game player. :)

Edited by chicknblender
punctu'ation
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I would use the cold gas isp of around 68 as the starting point for nerfs. Keep propellant mass and flow rate the same, and reduce the thrust proportionally to the isp reduction, and see where that gets you. Lower thrust should make it easier to do a proper EVA where the goal is to move about the ship rather than launch from Minmus. It's hard to avoid overshooting currently.

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Great. Once this and KerbSocial (or sth akin to it) get released, manned RO missions will get much more realistic (which equals fun in my book).

Oh man, Is KerbSocial a thing? Other than this project, the biggest things on my wishlist are mods that (a) simulate physical health (KeepFit comes close but seems like a dead project), and (B) simulate mental health (e.g. being alone in space for 2 years ain't good for ya, and spending five years alone with Billy-Bobman might just lead to murderous intentions).

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