[1.0.5] KerbalMass | 1.0 Release

[*Aqua*]

Description
In stock KSP Kerbals who live inside a vessel don't add to the vehicle's mass.

KerbalMass changes that. Now every Kerbal boarded in a ship adds its mass to it. It's time to rework your tightly balanced space planes again! ;-) To help you with that a slider has be added to the part context menu in the editor. With this you can easily preview how your center of mass changes when transfering Kerbals to other parts, EVAing or boarding. You can also alter the Kerbal's mass in the settings file if you don't like the default. This also affects the mass of an EVAed Kerbal.

Be warned! Removing this mod after playing (and saving) a game could lead to problems. Changes this mod makes are permanent to all vessels in flight. You might not be able to continue this save. Also editing the settings after you started a game can lead to weird behavior.

The best way to avoid problems is to start a new game when changing things.

KerbalMass is still in alpha. Please report any bugs in this thread.

Download
SpaceDock
The zip file also contains the source code and license file.

Note that ModuleManager is required.

License
KerbalMass is licensed under the BSD license.

Editing settings
In the KerbalMass folder there are two files which alter the mod's behavior.

The KerbalMass_settings.cfg let's you set the mass of a single Kerbal in tons(!). Please do not set this value to 0 or a negative number.
It also has a switch if a part's default mass as shown in the editor's part description includes a Kerbal masses or not. When changing that be aware that there could be parts which weight less than a Kerbal!

The KerbalMass_ModuleManager.cfg contains an ModuleManager script which adds the KerbalMassModule to all parts that can hold a crew.
The KerbalMassModule calculates and changes the part's mass it belongs to.
If you add the line isLimitedToEditor = True the mod will try to add a crew slider to this part in the editor. The part's mass won't be modified in the flight scene.
Use editorCrewCapacity = x if the part doesn't have a CrewCapacity attribute so the mod knows how much Kerbals can board this part. This attribute is ignored when isLimitedToEditor is set to false. No slider will be shown if the value is set to 0 or less.

Change log
<0.8 - private versions in which different attempts are tested
0.8 - public alpha
0.9 - Added two new attributes to the MM script which can be used to force a crew slider to parts which usually don't have them. They don't alter the part's mass in the flight scene. The EAS-1 External Command Seat now has a crew slider in the editor.
1.0 - Compiled for KSP 1.0.2. The config files can now be modified with ModuleManager scripts.

Known problems
- There could be problems when changing the Kerbal's mass. But so far I didn't find any.
- Installing, uninstalling or changing the mod's settings can lead to weird behavior when continuing a saved game.

Planned features
- none for now

Edited February 18, 2016 by *Aqua*
SpaceDock download link added

[Superfluous J]

This. Is. Awesome.

I followed this keenly in the other thread. Glad to see it's now a mod. Too bad you had to muck with the actual ship mass, it feels like a recipe for disaster but the next time I start a new game this'll be a must-install.

Does the chair have a VAB/SPH slider too? One of my big gripes in the game is you can't see how seating a Kerbal there will affect your ship's COM (and dV with KER). I know the chair's handled differently than pods.

[*Aqua*]

The chair is ignored by the MM script. I'll try to add the slider to it.

Edit:

Done. The next version (0.9) will have the slider on the chair, too. I'll wait till tomorrow if there are other ideas proposed or bugs reported I can quickly add or fix and then I'll release the next version.

The tank is empty so that the CoM change is more visible.

Edited February 6, 2015 by *Aqua*

[NonWonderDog]

Does this also allow us to change the Kerbals' mass while EVA? To give them a more realistic density so that they don't sink in Better Buoyancy's water, for instance. (It would have to reduce EVA propellant thrust and amount as well, to keep balance the same.)

[*Aqua*]

It does! EVAed Kerbals have their mass changed too if you change the value in the cfg.

[skykooler]

Hooray! This is a much-needed mod.

[*Aqua*]

0.9 is released.

The command seat now has a crew slider in the editor.

I also added attributes to the MM script to allow other parts to be treated like the command seat.

[Joonatan1998]

One of the few mods I have felt was needed for a long time.

[AngelLestat]

nice done, what happen with command pods from other mods?

[*Aqua*]

They should be recognized as long as they have the crew capacity attribute.

[*Aqua*]

There are no more more bug reports or feature requests. I think I can declare KerbalMass stable in the next version.

For the next version I only plan to add CKAN support. Can someone help me with that?

So far I wrote that:

KerbalMass-1.0.netkan

{
    "spec_version" : 1,
    "identifier" : "KerbalMass",
    "name" : "Kerbal Mass",
    "abstract" : "Boarded Kerbals now have mass."
    "$kref" : "#/ckan/kerbalstuff/567",
    "license": "BSD-3-clause",
    "release_status": "stable",

    "depends": [
        { "name": "ModuleManager" }
    ]
}

I'm not sure if that's how you should do it. Also I have to remove ModuleManager from the zip, right?

[Yemo]

Great mod!

Especially helpfull with the underwater hovering of Kerbals in "BetterBuoyancy"!

There is however one thing which would greatly improve its usefullness:

The ability to change the KerbalMass_Settings per ModuleManager.

I m not quite sure why that is not possible at the moment, but it would greatly boost the usefullness of the mod.

Players could set the value in their own MM.cfg, making updating/reinstalling much less painfull.

It would also allow the tweaking and thus usage by BalanceMods (such as the one in my signature).

Thank you very much!

[nightingale]

Great mod!

Especially helpfull with the underwater hovering of Kerbals in "BetterBuoyancy"!

There is however one thing which would greatly improve its usefullness:

The ability to change the KerbalMass_Settings per ModuleManager.

I m not quite sure why that is not possible at the moment, but it would greatly boost the usefullness of the mod.

Players could set the value in their own MM.cfg, making updating/reinstalling much less painfull.

It would also allow the tweaking and thus usage by BalanceMods (such as the one in my signature).

Thank you very much!

My suspicion on this issue is that you're loading your cfg before ModuleManager can do its thing. Changing your monobehaviour(s) to run on the main menu instead of "instantly" will likely fix this issue, and I don't believe should cause any side effects in your case.

[aeTIos]

This mod's awesome, makes the game more accurate

Enter sacrificing kerbals for more dV.

[Enceos]

I see many people reduce the mass of Kerbals by roughly the factor if 2 for better buoyancy. Doesn't that mean that Kerbals will jump higher and have twice as much dV in their backpacks?

[John FX]

Any chance of the mod getting a CKAN/1.0.2 update?

[*Aqua*]

I updated the mod. Have fun!

@Yemo

I did what nightingale suggested.

Try a MM script like

@KerbalMass_Settings
{
	@KerbalMass = xxx
	@DefaultPartMassIncludesKerbalMass = True
}

That should do it.

@JohnFX

Done.

[Quiana]

Quick question, call me a bit dense but if one wanted to remove the extra tag for Kerbal count in the editor but retain the mass changes in flight, what would I need to do in customizing the MM provided file for this? I like the concept of adding the weight and having to mentally adjust for it, but I also don't want to clutter up my editor windows with an additional slider as I have a fair few of those with my mod list.

[*Aqua*]

I'm sorry the mod doesn't support this behavior. I never thought that somebody want it like this.

I keep that idea in mind and may add it when KSP 1.0.3 is released. But don't bet on that. I don't know if I can do that in a reasonable amount of time. Lots of stuff to do!

[DarthWall]

so.... How much weighs a Kerbal?

[Selentic]

so.... How much weighs a Kerbal?

Apparently, it's 93.75 kg. Well, those space suits certainly are heavy!

[DarthWall]

Their heads too!

[ThatOneBritishGuy...]

So, just to make sure, this works with 1.0.4 correct?

[S1mancoder]

I had no issues running it from 1.0.4 update.

[GorillaZilla]

Really neat little mod matey, attention to Detail like kerbals actually adding their mass to the craft they are in is what sets modded KSP right at the top of my favourite games list, right alongside StarCitizen.

Do you have a donate button so I can buy you a beer in return for making our game better?