Haven't forgotten, but then again I haven't really thought about it anymore.

Now tat I know more about RCS assignement (after fixing them) I can see that preventing them from being used for translation is no problem at all, I'm more wondering about how to not make them consume fuel. They won't work without a propellant resource, that's for sure. It should be possible to make a static propelant resource of 1 kg that always gets replenished, and not show it in the propellant screen... Will take a bit of trial, but I'm pretty confident that it's doable now.

Still, first things first. We really need functional panels by now. I still have to implement gear-shifting for engines, I think I'll be able to do the gyro's in the same go.

Thanks. I totally agree that the panel is a top priority right now.
By the way, I've seen a couple of vessels which had an additional propellant with max mass of 1 kg that wasn't used in any visible way.

Must be something in a config somewhere. I think.

No, I mean not IMS vessels, but some other vessels. For example, Kulch's Tx have third propellant tank of 1 kg. Seems like Kulch came to the same idea as you. Don't know what he uses it for with Tx. It have no gyros.

Could be anything, really. It could even be a means to communicate with other dll's (the same way UMMU uses attachment points with nonsensical values to communicate with the UMMU vessel) as vessels of different sub-classes can only gain access to the basic VESSEL- structure.

Anyways, good to know that it's not an IMS bug.

Ha, new new version.

Fixes stability at high time accelaration without affecting performance (indeed, it runs faster than the unstable 0.5.1 ) and the annoying "the sun shadows me from its own light" bug which came to my attention only a few minutes ago. Heating logic has also been improved.

Also introduces absolute killrot, so it won't be that difficult to keep your radiators out of the sun's face.

Absolute killrot is a must have with thing getting this serious.

Back to my proposal of waste resource.
Lifesupport in its current state can create additional mass by making oxygen, water and food out of nowhere if its regeneration capacity is more than crew consumption. The thing could be more realistic if it would have to use waste to make these resources from, and the regeneration effectiveness should be less than 100%. We could also add a big red button 'Dump Waste' in the middle of engineering panel

That is a good point... I'll see about it.

Uploaded 0.5.3

Fixes a unit conversion error when reading battery capacity from file.
I slightly re-arranged orders in the temperature calculations, as far as I can tell it is now rock-steady even at 100,000x time acceleration.

It also introduces the option for naming modules. If you enter Name = peakaboo (or whatever, just remember: no spaces!) in a module config, that name instead of the default module type will be displayed in the system control panels (not yet in the module control view, But that'll change when I rework the blasted thing). Mostly intended for general purpose modules and modules that "abuse" their module types (radiator modules as nuclear ractors come to mind).

The new VASIMR is included too.

As far as I can tell, this is currently it. I will now start with reworking the panel, so it'll be a while until next update. Keep posting bugs you find, an I'll fix them, but as always I can't upload patches during a major feature implementation, as that would cause more confusion than anything else...

Roger that. let's get this finished up and out in public!

Ok, Pilot panel. Current concept is 4 MFDs, 2 Thrust controls, Propellant Gauges, Alarm screen, Autopilot Buttons, Hud control buttons, RCS rot/trans/off switch.

Thruster controls will be switchable, so you can control any of the four thruster groups with any of the two controls, but I won't be able to cram more than two controls into that space.

Anything I forgot? Any ideas what else might be useful?

Pics of the concept?
Loooks like you have it covered so far.

Just how many different types of propellants your prop gauges are designed for?

That is a good question.

LH2 (im assuming the pure hydrogen is for the VASIMR, as it wont burn very well on its own)
LH2+LOX (these two we KNOW)
(hopefully) RP-1+LOX
(hopefully) xenon or argon (for the ion drives)
and maybe some MMH+N2O4 for the RCS systems

So, hopefully at least 5. Jedidia might have plans for something different, though. Im sure he will let us know.

I'll have to see how many I can fit in at the same time, but they'll certainly be flexible enough to display any fuel resource onboard, if not necessarily at the same time...

I'll post them when I have them...

Come to think about it, apart from the MFD I could make the other screens members of the same class... I.E. there would be four MFDs, and 4 or more "control areas" that can be assigned whatever function... wouldn't be any more difficult than hard coding them into place, really. That way, if someone needs another thrust control panel for some reason, he can just repurpose one of the fuel displays, etc...

And how hard would it be to make it VC compatible as well?

Unknown...

OK, I'll keep the VC for SC3.