probe direction indicator

[Knaapie]

 

The engineers keep messing up the orientation, can Bill repaint those probes ?

Edited January 19, 2016 by Knaapie

[pandaman]

Yes to this.  Decouplers have direction arrows so why not add them to the probe cores?

[Jimbodiah]

Does it really matter? I've flipped cores and once they leave the VAB the orientation seems to be the right way up anyway. You only have to mount them inline as far as I know.

[Knaapie]

5 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

Does it really matter? I've flipped cores and once they leave the VAB the orientation seems to be the right way up anyway. You only have to mount them inline as far as I know.

Well... Imagine building a vtol moon rover, docked in a space plane cargo bay, with multiple probe cores facing different directions. Then it might matter.

One could still work around it though. Either study your orientation keys or orient the entire ship instead of the probe itself. Add the knowledge that the direction to the hangar doors is the "up" orientation and problem solved.

Then again, this argument can be made for decouplers as well.. And I really like the arrows on those parts.

 

Edited January 20, 2016 by Knaapie

[Jimbodiah]

True. 

[Wjolcz]

Yeah, I guess some simple "This way up" arrow, or anything like that would be nice.

[pincushionman]

7 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

Does it really matter? I've flipped cores and once they leave the VAB the orientation seems to be the right way up anyway. You only have to mount them inline as far as I know.

It does, very much. All your navball stuff will be 180 degrees out of whack, and you can't point relative to a maneuver marker you can't see.

[Jimbodiah]

I've never seen that with round cores, only the mechjeb thingy. I'll try it out, maybe I have just been really lucky while flipping stuff over so far.

[KrazyKrl]

I'd like some type of widget you could use via a control part. This widget would let you change the reference orientation for the control part, essentially "zeroing" the navball to another orientation. Bonus points if you're able to have, say, 2 or 3 differing saved modes for orbital/surface modes. Along with the ability to swap between them via action groups.

 

Imagine being able to make a space shuttle that can VTOL on another planet via engines that thrust out dorsally (out of the cargo bay), then being able to swap modes to your aft orbital engines... And on re-entry being able to set your probe core to 30 degrees above horizontal to keep a reasonable reentry glideslope before returning it to the natural horizon for approach and landing.

Edited January 21, 2016 by KrazyKrl

[Blaarkies]

Most cores have some text on them, this text is always printed up right. But it only requires a small change to texture files to make arrows on probe cores...so why does decouplers and fuel lines have arrows, but not these?

[Alshain]

I think everyone on the forum has asked for this at one time or another.  Hopefully when they re-do the rocket parts this will be in the consideration.  Fuel lines and separators could use more apparent indicators too.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Alshain

[Violent Jeb]

^^Does that mean don't bring it up again? speaking of which, when is the rocket part "re-do" going to happen? 2016??

Personally, i love the confusion. Nothing quite like spending a whole night getting a craft perfectly where you want it to be then finding out you can't detach a giant chunk. So Kerbal !

Oh well, there's a mod for that -  hyperedit force a corrected version into orbit.

Hopefully a mod will come along that hacks this feature so we don't have to wait.

[Knaapie]

5 hours ago, Violent Jeb said:

^^Does that mean don't bring it up again?

Eventhough I love my own topics, yes it does.

 

Perhaps add it to some sort of collectors topic about "parts that need changing", since most like the idea.

 

thanks for the response guys!

 

As a final thought:  about half of the probes have readable letters / numbers. They do give an orientation indication. I'd add these hints to all the probes, perhaps have some fun with the design of the indicator for each probe (kinda like blaarkies suggestion  )

And, on top of that: it does give the confusion feeling for inexperienced rocketeers ^^

 

problem solved

Edited January 22, 2016 by Knaapie
solving problem