hobbsyoyo
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2012
- Messages
- 26,575
So I'd like to talk about some things that could make life easier for KSP players. The great thing about this game is the way they strike a balance between realism and 'easy/fun to play'. They do want to keep it realistic, but at the same time, the developers have stated being fun will always trump realism.
In that vein, I have a few suggestions to make:
-When docking, if you have selected a target spacecraft, are close to it and have <30m/s of velocity relative to it, there should be a button that you can press that will use the RCS thrusters to kill all of your relative velocity. This would save a lot of time and effort on docking.
-Docking mode should automatically lock all of your RCS buttons to a standard attitude. What I mean is that when you are coming in to dock, it's easy to forget that you may have rolled a bit so that the 'up' RCS button actually nudges you left or right. When you are in docking mode, the 'up' button should always push you up, regardless of which way your craft is orientated.
-Docking clamps should have stronger magnets that work at a farther distance, say, 5 meters.
-Different parts sorely need better documentation. For instance, there are several types of docking clamps and the game doesn't say which ones will work with each other. There is a Clamp-o-tron Jr, but even this part's description doesn't tell you it won't work with other docking parts (IIRC). This goes for all the parts. There needs to be an in-game encyclopedia that explains the parts and documents and explains the different features. For instance, I have no clue what the docking mode button actually does and it took forever to figure out the difference between SAS and ASAS.
-More training scenarios for things like docking.
-A 'testing mode' that allows you to test spacecraft in different scenarios. It sucks having to lug your lander all the way across the solar system only to find that it's engines are powerful enough to land on an airless world, for example. Just let us select the spaceship, the manuever and the planet to do it on to let us test the craft.
-There should be a 'hover mode' button. If you press this button when you are at the surface, it will throttle your engines to the point that cancels out gravity after boosting into the air a meter or two. This would save a ton of micromanaging for certain rover designs. However, this cannot be used when you are already off the ground as it would make landing too easy.
In that vein, I have a few suggestions to make:
-When docking, if you have selected a target spacecraft, are close to it and have <30m/s of velocity relative to it, there should be a button that you can press that will use the RCS thrusters to kill all of your relative velocity. This would save a lot of time and effort on docking.
-Docking mode should automatically lock all of your RCS buttons to a standard attitude. What I mean is that when you are coming in to dock, it's easy to forget that you may have rolled a bit so that the 'up' RCS button actually nudges you left or right. When you are in docking mode, the 'up' button should always push you up, regardless of which way your craft is orientated.
-Docking clamps should have stronger magnets that work at a farther distance, say, 5 meters.
-Different parts sorely need better documentation. For instance, there are several types of docking clamps and the game doesn't say which ones will work with each other. There is a Clamp-o-tron Jr, but even this part's description doesn't tell you it won't work with other docking parts (IIRC). This goes for all the parts. There needs to be an in-game encyclopedia that explains the parts and documents and explains the different features. For instance, I have no clue what the docking mode button actually does and it took forever to figure out the difference between SAS and ASAS.
-More training scenarios for things like docking.
-A 'testing mode' that allows you to test spacecraft in different scenarios. It sucks having to lug your lander all the way across the solar system only to find that it's engines are powerful enough to land on an airless world, for example. Just let us select the spaceship, the manuever and the planet to do it on to let us test the craft.
-There should be a 'hover mode' button. If you press this button when you are at the surface, it will throttle your engines to the point that cancels out gravity after boosting into the air a meter or two. This would save a ton of micromanaging for certain rover designs. However, this cannot be used when you are already off the ground as it would make landing too easy.
This isn't the best spot.
Who's with me in trying to get it a subforum?
