Kerbal Space Program update 0.23 detailed: will bring science tweaks and tweakables

Kerbal Space Program's update 0.22 brought a career mode to would-be rocketeers only a couple of weeks ago.

brought a career mode to would-be rocketeers only a couple of weeks ago. But science doesn't sleep. Science stays up all night, experimenting with ever more dangerous propulsion systems, before strapping them onto a small container, stuffing it full of 'willing' volunteers, and detonating the entire mess - possibly into orbit; probably into shrapnel. Which is an inelegant way of saying that KSP developers SQUAD have already released details on the game's next planned patch.

Rather than continue on with the voyage to a fully formed campaign, update 0.23 focuses on fixing and improving what the last one introduced. On top of optimisation and bug fixes, the team plan to slightly rework how Science works in the career mode, and introduce a new feature called Tweakables. This will allow players to bring up a context menu on parts during the build phase, tweaking settings to allow greater control during launch and flight.

Here's the full of planned changes, taken from the Kerbal forum.

All-Around Optimizations

We're going through each line of game code and making sure things are getting done as efficiently as possible. We're also optimizing the asset loaders to reduce loading times, and upgrading to the latest version of Unity, to take advantage of all its new tweaks and fixes.

The Science Archives

Collecting scientific data isn't just about advancing the tech tree. The Science Archives will be a new section on the R&D Facility, which lets you review all the data you've accumulated to date. This is your library to view all the knowledge you've gathered for Kerbalkind. Also, this overview should help plan future missions.

Tweakables

This long-awaited feature is finally coming with this update. Tweakables will allow you to open a context menu for each part during construction. This allows for unprecedented freedom in design and setup of a spacecraft. Want your wingtip control surfaces to act only as ailerons? Or your landing gear to start deployed or retracted, or to make some of them steerable? Tweakables will allow for all that, plus many other adjustments.

Science Revisited

We too have been playing the newly-implemented Career Mode, and taking in all the feedback from the community. We are changing a few things to make Science much more interesting:

- The Transmission logic is being redone, so no matter how many batteries you've got, you won't be able to max out a subject by just using antennas.

- We're also changing the way experiments allow being reset, so don't get too attached to those endlessly-repeatable experiments.

Science Lab Module

If getting the data back to the labs is not an option, you'll now be able to get the lab itself to the data instead. With antennas not able to max out a subject anymore, the Lab Module will allow you to increase the max amount of science you get from transmitting, by giving your crews a way to run tests and analyze the experiment results 'in the field', before beaming it back home. Don't expect this to be a compact piece of equipment though. In fact, not many parts are larger than the Lab at the moment.

EVA Data Transport

With new ways to process experiment data, we're also going to need new ways to move it around. EVAs will now be able to collect and store not only their own experiments, but also collect data from other modules and data containers, including other Kerbals on EVA.

Quite a lot of other stuff

Overhauled UIs, 3D Mouse Support, Monopropellant-powered EVAs, Steerable landing gear, Secondary propellants for engines, more Biomes, and of course, hunting down some of the most critical long-standing bugs... The list goes on.

SQUAD make clear that this is just a plan, subject to feasibility, and that some features may be pushed back to later updates. Currently there is no release date for the 2.3 update.