New comm system in 1.2 and downward compatibility

[Kermanzooming]

Can't remember where but I think I read that the future stock comm system will be downward compatible, so existing unmanned probes will be controllable once you update to 1.2

Have I dreamed it or any of you has heard/read something like that?

[Archgeek]

Yes.  The whole system will be a dificulty option applied either explicitly, or on starting a new save.  It's also got some sub-options under that.

Upshot, no existing saves will have the system activated until you tell them to.

[Alshain]

@RoverDude has clearly stated it will be an option somewhere, details are fuzzy.  Worst case scenario, it will require an edit of the persistence file to turn it off, but I doubt Squad would do that.  Ideally, existing saves would be assumed to have turned off, since they didn't have it at the start, and it would be a 'new career' difficulty option, maybe also have an Alt-F12 option in there too.

[Terwin]

I also remember RoverDude saying that turning the system on would not brick your existing probes, so you should at least be able to do *something* even with the system turned on.

I also mentioned putting an 88-88(the large non-asteroid day antenna)  on all my scansats and Roverdude said those have the range reach Kerbin from anywhere in the Kerbol system, so you could future-proof today by just putting large antennas on your probes.

[ZentroCatson]

2 hours ago, Archgeek said:

Yes.  The whole system will be a dificulty option applied either explicitly, or on starting a new save.  It's also got some sub-options under that.

Upshot, no existing saves will have the system activated until you tell them to.

So it would be possible to launch a bunch of sats in career mode and and turn on the antenna system once you have a stable network. And you can future proof your missions by adding large antennas. Perfect!

[Alshain]

21 minutes ago, ZentroCatson said:

So it would be possible to launch a bunch of sats in career mode and and turn on the antenna system once you have a stable network. And you can future proof your missions by adding large antennas. Perfect!

I wouldn't count on the "future proofing" without knowing more about how the system is going to work.  From what little we have heard about it, there are going to be two classifications of antennas, though not directional and omnidirectional like RemoteTech.

RT is based on a directional/range limitation of antennas, the stock system has been described as being limited by the technical hardware and software that in real life would be attached to the antenna, rather than the antenna itself.  Specifically store-and-forward technology. in the real world SAF would be determined more on memory capacity and programming on the radio rather than the antenna.  SAF capable radios use the same antennas as older radios that did not support SAF. 

Some of the antennas were described as being relay antennas (SAF), while others were described as transmission antennas (not SAF).   The details are still unclear, but if relay antennas can not be used to transmit data then simply attaching the largest antenna doesn't guarantee you will be able to transmit data with them. (FYI: In the real world, it does guarantee it, but in the interest of gameplay, it may not be the case)

We just don't know enough right now to say for certain that you can future proof existing craft.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Alshain