Another year and some really GREAT improvements have been made!
Hello again. I have "ripped you a new one" twice now, so I won't be doing that this time. I know that you're just one person and I congratulate you on the progress you have made.
1. I love the rock and atmosphere sampling and I'm looking forward to seeing how this will effect the story mode.
*Issue - All the samples, no mater which HAB I put them in, are displayed under HAB Gamma, going so far as to disappear off the bottom of the page, with no way to scroll up.
2. PRT's!!!! YES! Finally, I can get a kilometer in under a DAY! (Exaggeration I know)
* If I can carry, 50 Kilos without being over encumbered, and still walk with 75 Kilos on my back... Shouldn't the PRT's be able to hold more than 40? Just my personal opinion. Suggestion? Add the weight of the RTG to the packing weight. No RTG? More storage capacity.
3. Old issue, but it still happens - While in the airlock, of a fully functional HAB; using the control pad next to the interior door... If you remove all the oxygen from your suit, then immediately enter the HAB, you still asphyxiate shortly after entering the HAB... Even though the HAB is full of O2. (My fix is to never remove all the O2 from the suit, unless I'm already not wearing it, in the HAB. Then it doesn't happen.)
4. Cheat Glitch - if you put most of your O2 and Power from your suit into a Non-Functioning HAB, the go inside and sleep (great sleeping bags that keep you from freezing in your sleep). As soon as you wake up, quit the game, then get back in and your suit will be 100% full of BOTH O2 and Power! (Happy accident that I found out about, but still a cheat glitch.)
5. Floating PRT - I saw this on another report, but I just saw it today, so I thought I'd include it. It's exactly as Mr Fusion described.
6. Radiation "Area" instead of Radiation "Storm" if caught in it outside of a HAB. Per the previous post. So that's all for now! I'm VERY impressed with the progress you've made in development of this game and I'm still willing to assist you in any way I can, should you need it.
Sincerely,
SSG (Ret) Charlie Schuhart
US Army Signal Corps
Customer support service by UserEcho
I kinda agree with #2, but maybe with a different point of view. I think another direction of rebalancing it would be to reduce the carry capacity of the player to 40/60 kgs, and increase the PRT to 50, or maybe even 60 kgs. You may think that 40 kgs is too little, and while from a gameplay perspective it might be, there are a few things to consider. The player character is a female, and even if a trained astronaut in top physical condition, being able to carry up to 50/75 kgs (which is likely around her own weight) potentially for a day or two across rough terrain doesn't feel all that realistic. And that's just the items you carry, on top of the weight of the EVA suit, which I'd guesstimate to be anywhere between another 30-50 kgs. So imagine someone carrying up to a total of 80-120 kgs weight for days... And while the lower gravity on Mars affects some aspect of carrying it as weight, it doesn't affect moving it as mass, imparting momentum to its inertia as it's trying to go on its own way uphill and downhill, gaining speed and slowing down, bouncing up and down with every step etc.
I recall #3 having been mentioned elsewhere, but I can't remember if there was a resolution / answer to that. The way I see it, even though going through the airlock takes no time in the game (now, it used to, and I think it still should), the procedure is not instantaneous and you'd still be using the suit supply while the atmosphere is replaced from martian to breathable. So if you empty your suit before all that starts, you will suffocate in it while waiting for the airlock to cycle (which, realistically, would take anywhere between 10-30 minutes at least; IIRC the EVA ingress/egress time on the ISS is around 40 minutes both ways, and that's just draining and filling up the airlock, not replacing an unbreathable atmosphere to a safely breathable one), so I consider that as intended.
I actually meant to look this up some time so now I did, for reference.
The US combined IVA/EVA suit (EMU, AL7) from the Apollo era was 92 kgs in EVA configuration, with 6.5 hours independent life support, suitable for EVA on the surface of the Moon.
The current US EMU in use for EVAs on the ISS is 145 kgs in EVA configuration, with 8.5 hours independent life support.
The Russian Orlan EVA suits currently in use on the ISS are around 110-120 kgs (depending on version) in EVA configuration, with 7 hours independent life support.