Gaming The Kerbal Space Program - Version 1.2.x

[iamwearingpants]

I have a suggestion, how about nose cones?
I think that having a booster with a flat top is horribly unaerodynamic, and there should be nose cones that need to be put on top. Oh, and how about stacked SRB's and fuel tanks acting as one?
A stacked SRB will output the same thrust but have twice the life.
A stacked fuel tank will act as, well, a big fuel tank

I'll have to see if a liquid engine can lift 2 fuel tanks though.

EDIT: Crap the stacked SRB's, just make a fuel tank for them call it the SRB segment. And, the nose cone could have a parachute in it, so the SRB's could be recovered and re-used.

 

[Fabri91]

I think the logic of building from the top down is best, at least with parts similar to those we already have, otherwise one would have to align stuff precisely to then fit a tri-coupler, for example.

What would be great would be the ability to set parts or stack sections aside, as already mentioned!

 

[PeriapsisPrograde]

The VAB is like a little 3D modeling program, and like with all 3D modeling programs I've used, the VAB can be pretty dumb at times. If we could select attatchment points, that would help considerably. Sometimes I just can't get the coupler to go under the SRB, SAS on top of SRB, etc...

 

[spacekid1998]

HarvesTR it would not be a good idea to change it to build from the ground up because it would be tough to have tricouplers then

 

[HarvesteR]

Hmm, true, I hadn't considered the Tricoupler (and other similar parts to come)... A long time ago, on the very first builds, it wasn't necessary to have the pod before everything else, but we decided to have it like that because it made structuring the ship that much easier.

But yeah, If everyone's ok with building the ship top-down, I'm more than happy to leave it like that (my worry is that it might bother people... it never bothered me personally... but then again, developer's syndrome )

Well, ok then, we have been doing a great deal of thinking today, and we have a target changelog for the next update almost ready. It'll be up in the Development board in the KSP forum.

About stacking SRBs and fuel tanks, well, that's one of the features of the new update :thumbup:

Cheers

 

[iamwearingpants]

(and other similar parts to come)

Ooh, yay!

About stacking SRBs and fuel tanks, well, that's one of the features of the new update :thumbup:

OOOH! Yay!!

:jiggy::jiggy::jiggy:

 

[Fabri91]

Looking forward to it!

There's one more thing which I think is worth considering: a key to directly activate the separator under the capsule, in order to escape from a failing-launch-ball o' fire. Right now it's a problem when there are solids in the stack, since before staging they have to be ignited...which makes staging "less comfortable", especially if the rocket has a less than positive rate of climb.

 

[Ghostrider]

Could it be feasible to have stacks saved as separate entities so that they can be tested on their own before being reloaded and assembled? Like, once you a have a first stage that works, you can save it as such and then work on the rest of the stages.

 

[Pablo49]

Looking forward to it!

There's one more thing which I think is worth considering: a key to directly activate the separator under the capsule, in order to escape from a failing-launch-ball o' fire. Right now it's a problem when there are solids in the stack, since before staging they have to be ignited...which makes staging "less comfortable", especially if the rocket has a less than positive rate of climb.

A launch escape system would be even better. Since if the rocket below you is moving, you'll still be stuck on top.

 

[Fabri91]

Yes, but even with a separate decoupler you would just have to survive the first stage burning, which is doable in most cases, and not all the 5 or 6 stages before being able to deploy your chutes.

But an LES would be awesome, yes!

 

[Turbinator]

 

[Moach]

from what i've discussed with HarvesteR so far, it seeems his plan is to add a special trigger for an "abort stage" setup...

we were also going over the possibility of having separate, more specialized editors in different building facilities (when the space-center thing actually comes along) - in that case, you could construct any number of preset stacks and strap them together in the assembly building

but since that would involve qute a deal of (re)work, it's more like a concept direction than an actual work-in-progress at this stage...

i'm still trying to convince him on letting go a bit of the "spore"-style editor setup, and go more for a lego-like stackup thing... that pick-and-stick method is quite cumbersome when it comes to rocketry - it'd be best if parts had an array of pins to attach stuff upon... except, perhaps in special cases for some finer-detail parts...

 

[Turbinator]

You mean sort of like the LEGO Digital Designer?
http://ldd.lego.com/

It would be worth while to download to see how it works, and to see how they handle and manage some aspects of the free-build process. There are some good ideas in LEGO Digital Designer that you could transfer over to your game that would serve it quite well.

For everyone else, download it because it is a ton of fun, like having an unlimited box of LEGO with every LEGO piece ever made.
http://ldd.lego.com/

















.

 

[Turbinator]

My favourite model, huge amount of detail, complete interior, and working parts:

 

[iamwearingpants]

My favourite model, huge amount of detail, complete interior, and working parts:

Oh my god.

I want to buy that :blink:

 

[HarvesteR]

Downloading right now!

But yeah, I myself am not perfectly happy with the current part attachment setup... But doing anything different at this point would require starting all over again. So I'm doing the best I can to make the editor easy and fun to use. I reckon that once there is simmetry, a way to add parts in between stages, and other conveniences, like alt+copy and a schematic view for advanced stage planning, things will be a lot less frustrating to use.

But I like the drag n´drop scheme anyhow... If nothing else, it is at least very intuitive.

About the LES, that is already being planned as a part. Also some kind of 'Abort' button or key, that if pressed will activate all decouplers (except the LES one), fire the LES rockets, and (hopefully) fly you to a safe distance of the huge fireball.

Also a good idea would be to add self-destruction charges that you could stick to the parts, like the SRBs, when aborting, they would explode the rockets, which is the only way to stop them thrusting once lit.

So the idea is that there will be a special 'Abort' action, and a number of parts that respond to it. How to set up the escape plan is up to you .

Cheers

 

[krashkart]

Would it be possible to reduce the amount of rubbery-ness in the stack? If I try to build much taller than a three-stage inline rocket it bends like a wilted carrot and eventually falls over. That's with two heavier stages mounted below a tri-coupler. :lol:

 

[Turbinator]

Yeah, I dislike the way the side booster straps wobble. Almost like they are being held by spit and bubblegum.

I am guessing this is because in the future they are planing to implement upgraded parts, that are more reliable and sturdy.
Bringing an RPG element to the game.

 

[HarvesteR]

Ok, it's the end of day 1 here, and we already have a number of features in!

This was a very good day here! In one day we went through an amount of features estimated to take 3 days to complete!

Namely, saving and loading ships is in, toggling SAS with the T key is in, the capture screenshot button is also in, there's a relaunch button in the Pause menu, so you don't have to click twice to restart a flight, and there is a Simulate In Background option in the settings.cfg file (enabled by default).

About the settings.cfg, the downloaded package doesn't include it. This is because the settings.cfg file is a Phoenix file, and it will automatically be regenerated if one isn't found there. So you can reset your settings simply by deleting it. Also, if there are new settings in the new version, it will not overwrite your changes. It will only add the new entries.

About the wobbliness, yeah, it's wobbling more than it should be now... This is a problem that cropped up a while ago, and I'm still not sure what it was that set if off... The ship is supposed to wobble a little, but not as much as it does now. I'll dig around, and see if I can find the source of the problem.

Cheers

 

[iamwearingpants]

When will you release the new couplers?