Devnotes Tuesday: Wednesday Edition III!

[jedensuscg]

7 hours ago, The Real Franklin said:

At first I thought we were going to see deployable airbags, and I got excited. A deployable shield is okay, too, I guess.

There is an addon called USI Survivability Pack that has inflatable airbags AND floats for water that is up to date.

[cfds]

8 hours ago, SQUAD said:

Fairings also received a bit of attention, and the dreaded “cannot activate while stowed” issue for interstage fairings has been fixed, though it requires rebuilding your interstages to take effect.

Why was it not simply fixed by removing this mechanism altogether? The problem is not restricted to stock interstage fairings, it also affects real fairings (like PF), cargo bays and places that may or may not be close to something that remotely looks like a cargo bay.

The only use case I have seen so far is people saying that it prevents antennas inside fairings from activating during "transmit science" and that problem should be fixed in this context (Trying to transmit science and no antenna active? Try to activate non-shrouded antennas, otherwise display something like "no non-shrouded coms devices on vessel").

[SolidJuho]

Damn, these came 11mins too late ;( btw, are parttools for unity plugin or external software to make models?

[richfiles]

6 hours ago, RoverDude said:

You can activate it's decoupling via an action group or via a right-click menu.  It just doesn't have a stage icon - reason being (and we saw this when testing the original heat shields) that it's easy to assume the stage separates *below* the heat shield (like regular decouplers do), and there were a few incidents of accidentally dropping your heat shield during reentry...

So now, just tie the decouple option to an action group (or jettison manually similar to how you would cut a parachute) and you're good to go.  

Fun fact.  The reason the new heat shield is an omni-decoupler (like a stack separator) is because it has dual attachment nodes, so you can hook to the 2.5 one, or nestle a small 1.25m payload inside as well (making it a great aerobraking and reentry tool for small rovers).

Then PLEASE add moar action groups!

Even stealing the pre-defined ones (like abort, lights, brakes, gear), I still run out! Now we have radiators, cargo bays, fairings, the version after this might have stock coms, and now we have extra actions needed for these new heat shields... Double the number of action groups, and make the default keybindings for Action Groups #11-20 be the numeric pad's 0-9 keys. That would be ideal. A.G. #1-10 would still be the numbers in the number row above the alpha keys.

Adding more features is wonderful, but we need more ways to actually control it all!

Edited February 18, 2016 by richfiles

[Jasper_f]

8 hours ago, SQUAD said:

 

 In memorial of last week’s feedback Dave have this short poem/plea.

[snip]

Just call sal_vager mr Spellchecker this week, He’s been going over the KSPedia with a critical eye, doing his best to rid it of Aussie-isms, typos, incorrect usages of there, their and they’re, didgeridoos and G’days.

Thank you for the great poem and the positive attitude towards the feedback from last week. I couldn't be more proud of you guys!

8 hours ago, SQUAD said:

 

Old bugs! Jim (Romfarer) has been working on bugs that have been around for a long time. He managed to fix one of them in staging where the stage list would split symmetry groups in editor while detaching and attaching parts. This bug has been in the game for years.

[snip]

Also Bill (taniwha) has been plugging away at bugs, most notably fixing docking ports locking up due to the game being saved between the magnets engaging and the ships docking.

[snip]

There were also some not so little things though, like integrating a few parts from the Asteroid Day mod as a nice surprise for the community. The Probodobodyne HECS2, Communotron HG-55, and OX-STAT-XL Photovoltaic Panel have been rebalanced and integrated into 1.1 as stock parts.

These are fantastic bits of news. Fixing these old bugs and integrating the parts from the Asteroid Day mod are very, very much appreciated! Thank you for the great devnotes and good luck with the 1.1 update.

 

[richfiles]

I love that the core parts of Asteroid Day are being integrated. Oh, how I love that solar panel! 
I had that docking port bug pop up on me once on a base once... VERY glad to see it fixed!
Glad to hear so MANY bugs are getting killed ded by the old can o'Raid! 

[fireblade274]

9 hours ago, SQUAD said:

 

...working on a comprehensive save upgrade system. The idea is to, whenever possible, allow the game to upgrade old saves by applying any modifications it determines to be necessary, and output data that the new version can load. This is something we felt was necessary now that we’re out of early access, and save-breaking can’t be considered an ok thing to do anymore.

 

YES

 

 

9 hours ago, SQUAD said:

 

The upgrade system is module-based, so we can add more upgrade modules to it in the future, whenever we need to change game data in old files. It can target both .craft and .sfs files, and operates at the ConfigNode level - which means data is parsed from the file text, but not yet applied to anything in the game - so it should (theoretically) be able to update any old data to whatever new format we need it to be in.

 

YES YeS

 

 

9 hours ago, SQUAD said:

The first upgrade module we’re writing is one to upgrade the old save data for wheels, landing gear and legs, extract from them what persistent data we can, and re-save that under the new format. That way 1.0.5 and earlier saves should be able to load in 1.1 without wheels deciding to ignore their saved states which would likely cause entertaining, but generally counterproductive effects (think of rovers parked on slopes, stuck in place only by the persistent state of the brakes).

I wish should sounded more optimistic but YESS

9 hours ago, SQUAD said:

 

Old bugs! Jim (Romfarer) has been working on bugs that have been around for a long time. He managed to fix one of them in staging where the stage list would split symmetry groups in editor while detaching and attaching parts. This bug has been in the game for years. He also investigated some backend bugs which at the moment don’t seem to cause many issues with the exception of the flow algorithms in Engineer’s Report, which throw an error. Normally this sort of error message would simply be suppressed, but since the flow algorithms in the Engineer’s Report are the prototypes for the fuel flow overhaul it is important to get issues such as these fixed. Nathanael (NathanKell) Fixed even more bugs, but this week he focussed his efforts on performance, optimizing  the thermo and the temperature gauge system, the Unity 5 changes we had to make to it had slowed it down a lot, but it’s now running better than ever. Testing, reporting, reading, suggesting, and debug sessions for Steve (Squelch) all week. Devs are fixing bugs faster than he can report them and they’re even reporting their own along with the fix. 

 

YES YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS and you spelled focused wrong  I will forgive you spellingation, sal must have missed this one lol

So glad performance and optimizing are getting a good long look at. And OMG FUEL FLOW OVERHAUL IM SO EXCITED

9 hours ago, SQUAD said:

Nathan (Claw) got down and dirty, learning the ins-and-outs of the new UI this week and trying to help tidy up the last few bits. Probably more of interest to the kerbonauts out there, he managed to tackle a few long standing issues such as “what’s the first click for on the re-root tool?” 

Finally, I want to say I think its fantastic you've brought Claw on the team. About time I say! He's helped me with so much, from fixing corrupted saves, glitches, and craft for me, I'm so happy he's on the team. CAN NOT WAIT for 1.1.

The heat shields look like they are coming along nicely, I hope I can use it practically with some of my larger space-planes, thinking as a nose cone?. Aerobrakes have a terribly delicate heat tolerance (I'm pretty sure claw would agree!) that really shows since the 1.5 update to the atmosphere, and having a deploy-able heat shield that acts more like an aerobrake seems like it could fit the bill (sometimes, i wish you didn't have to pull up on reentry to survive lol)

Edited February 18, 2016 by fireblade274

[QPDO]

dV and TWR in stock before PS4 release please!

[SkyKaptn]

I would really like to have an automated way to balance fuel in-flight as stock in 1.1. Could work like: Setting a setpoint in SPH or just simply remembering the original CoM for a "balance button" while in-flight later in the mission.

Edit: "Keep balanced" would be the preferred function of this 

Edited February 18, 2016 by SkyKaptn

[Kobymaru]

11 hours ago, SQUAD said:

Bob (Roverdude) wrapped up work on the new inflatable heat shield.  ... It also has its own fairing, as well as a built in omni-decoupler  but one that is not in the staging menu (to prevent ‘accidents’). 

@RoverDude The "not-stageable" is a good idea, however, is it possible to make this configurable? In 1.0.5, the decouplers have a right-click menu button in the VAB which lets the user decide if they are to be used "structurally" or for staging. Could that be used with the inflatable heat shield as well? Potentially with the staging disabled by default.

Also, hoping for some insider information here: what's the latest mass on the heat shield? (needed for planning ships)

[taniwha]

11 hours ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

How does somebody even find a bug this obscure

Seriously, hats off guys.

For me, it was back in 0.90 with a multi-port docking that wasn't going very well and for some reason I saved then loaded with one port docked but the other not. I don't remember how I noticed things had gone bad, but when I checked my logs, they were full of NREs from the docking port module.

[ktmemp]

(Sorry for bad english not my native language) Hi this is my first post but ım playing this game over 1 year so my thoughts important.I read countless devnotes and this is short version bug fix bug fix 64bit bug fix bug fix whell bugfix bug fix and this is it.I want to see other solar system,hundred new stock parts,better single player experience( like xcom short videos about when I dıscover Duna atmospheric pressure or give me a reason to do something not just for science points),parts we can bend and make our ship unique etc.I know this is not easy but I waiting this patch so long and all I hear bug fix bug fix.I know you gonna say u can add mods to game to have fun but in-game content should much more than that.I only write this cuz I love this game.

[Streetwind]

6 hours ago, RoverDude said:

Thanks   Just bear in mind we already have a 3.75m heat shield in stock

Well, consider this: there comes a time in pretty much every single playthrough I make where I want to land on something with a 1.25m size lander which carries too much stuff to have a low enough ballistic coefficient for comfortable reentry. In such a situation, I often find myself forced to completely rebuild the lander in a 2.5m form factor, and in turn rebuild the entire transfer stage as well, and make a far larger than strictly necessary launcher, for no reason other than the fact that trying to fit a 2.5m heatshield on a 1.25m lander is an exercise in absurdity.

This may be different for different people, of course. I can only add my personal voice to the discussion. But as far as that goes, a smaller inflatable heatshield would be awesome.

Or, you know, relax the safety limits on the parachutes and/or make drogue chutes far more prevalent and easier to get and integrate. I'll happily reenter with a higher ballistic coefficient if the chutes will let me. Heat is never an issue, just obtaining enough decelerating drag before plowing facefirst into the ocean with the chutes still showing red.

[monstah]

15 hours ago, RoverDude said:

You can activate it's decoupling via an action group or via a right-click menu.  It just doesn't have a stage icon - reason being (and we saw this when testing the original heat shields) that it's easy to assume the stage separates *below* the heat shield (like regular decouplers do), and there were a few incidents of accidentally dropping your heat shield during reentry...

I did that one time with the stock heat shields when they first appeared. Isn't learning from (explosive) mistakes part of KSP?

14 hours ago, tater said:

Since you guys are killing typos, etc, you should seriously consider properly naming the Tracking Station and Mission Control. "Mission Control" in the real world is where you control missions that are in flight. 

The Tracking Station should change to Mission Control, and what KSP labels "Mission Control" should become "Mission Planning" or "Contract Office."

I second that motion. (What's 'taters', preciouss? What's 'taters', eh?)

9 hours ago, richfiles said:

Then PLEASE add moar action groups!

Even stealing the pre-defined ones (like abort, lights, brakes, gear), I still run out! Now we have radiators, cargo bays, fairings, the version after this might have stock coms, and now we have extra actions needed for these new heat shields... Double the number of action groups, and make the default keybindings for Action Groups #11-20 be the numeric pad's 0-9 keys. That would be ideal. A.G. #1-10 would still be the numbers in the number row above the alpha keys.

Adding more features is wonderful, but we need more ways to actually control it all!

I also second that motion. Unfortunately, my laptop doesn't have the numeric keypad (and *how much* I miss it...). How about Alt+(0-9)?

As a side note, the orbit view features both a Tab command to cycle focused vessels, and a Shift+Tab to cycle in the opposite way, which will also throttle up due to Shift being pressed. Alt+Tab is obviouslt not good, either. Can anyone think of a better alternative?

Edited February 18, 2016 by monstah
ShiFt+Tab! SHIFT+Tab!!

[Robje]

Is the bug/feature that it seems to be impossible to add parts in the centre of cargo-bays being adressed? 

[Kuansenhama]

I'm just happy for stock asteroid day mod!

Edited February 18, 2016 by Kuansenhama

[worir4]

Parts in the air no longer get deleted on quickload!

AWESOME!

[Curveball Anders]

While I love the idea of automagically adjusting saves and crafts so they work in the new release I cannot help to sense a bit of dread and go looking for my big sign with "Here be dragons!" on.

Please either keep backups of the original files or make sure that you nag all users to make their own backups.

It's not that I doubt your coding geniuses in any way, it's just that KSP is a very complex environment with seriously creative modders and users. So crafts and saves might be a bit unorthodox ...

Besides, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", so what ever fowl play The Doctor is up to there will not have any impact to the rest of the world

[swjr-swis]

2 hours ago, monstah said:

I also second that motion. Unfortunately, my laptop doesn't have the numeric keypad (and *how much* I miss it...). How about Alt+(0-9)?

Or you know, just make it user configurable... let us choose the keys, to fit whatever set up we happen to have.

[monstah]

Just now, swjr-swis said:

Or you know, just make it user configurable... let us choose the keys, to fit whatever set up we happen to have.

Sure, let us alter them! Just make sure to make modifiers like Alt, Shift and Ctrl available, too. Even a fulll keyboard can be small for a game like KSP

[Apollo13]

I haven't checked in with KerbalStuff for a couple months (been playing lots of Skyrim and Assassin's Creed).  So, I din't know it had shut down until I read the DevNotes mention of it.  Just now looked at the site.  Not good.  Not good at all.  KerbalStuff, you will be missed.

[Warzouz]

I don't understand why the new inflatable heatshield can't be in the stage bar. It's totally a feature which should be. Accidental staging can occur on any part of the ship.

• Staging chute too soon
• Detaching payload too soon
• Dumping heatshield by accident before reentry
• Dumping engine block before circularing or slowing down...

[01010101lzy]

Inflatable heatshield! But RIP DRE Shield....

[richfiles]

2 hours ago, monstah said:

I also second that motion. Unfortunately, my laptop doesn't have the numeric keypad (and *how much* I miss it...). How about Alt+(0-9)?

As a side note, the orbit view features both a Tab command to cycle focused vessels, and a excrements+Tab to cycle in the opposite way, which will also throttle up due to Shift being pressed. Alt+Tab is obviouslt not good, either. Can anyone think of a better alternative?

Yup. The idea is for the keybindings to default to numeric pad 0-9. If that doesn't work, then yeah, keybindings can always be changed.

Have you tried Right Shift? I know on my keyboard, Left Shift and Right Shift are two different keys, but that may not be true on yours. I think KSP only responds to left Shift and Left Control for throttle. Does it respond with the Right Shift+Tab? If That doesn't work, then yeah... Definitely needs fixing.

Edited February 18, 2016 by richfiles

[Tantalus]

I'd also suggest to make the heatshield stageable. Give it a unique icon in staging list and a uniqe texture (both not really whichcraft) and let the players deal with their mishaps as they have to do in 95% of all other cases too.

 

Regards

Tantalus