How do you view custom action group key bindings in flight?

[ClamBoy]

Hi All! Is there a way to view custom action group bindings in flight? I don't always remember how I've set them up or have them set up differently for different ships, then end up not using them.

This seems like a simple question, but I cannot find the answer.

If not, how do you manage your action group bindings?

Edited June 8, 2016 by ClamBoy
Phrasing subject as a question

[Pecan]

How "custom" are they?

Stock: no, you can't see them.  I manage that by standardising my action groups as much as possible.
Raster Prop Monitor (RPM) mod: no, you still can't see them but a neat trick is to list them in the ship description when you 'save' it in the VAB.  This description is displayed when the MFDs are 'idle'.
Action Groups Extended (AGX) mod: yes, you can see all 250 action groups any time you like and change them in flight if you want to.

These mods are rather excellent, why not try them both?  :-)  AGX is obviously more applicable to your specific enquiry but RPM is always worth a look anyway.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Pecan

[ClamBoy]

45 minutes ago, Pecan said:

How "custom" are they?

Stock: no, you can't see them.  I manage that by standardising my action groups as much as possible.
Raster Prop Monitor (RPM) mod: no, you still can't see them but a neat trick is to list them in the ship description when you 'save' it in the VAB.  This description is displayed when the MFDs are 'idle'.
Action Groups Extended (AGX) mod: yes, you can see all 250 action groups any time you like and change them in flight if you want to.

These mods are rather excellent, why not try them both?  :-)  AGX is obviously more applicable to your specific enquiry but RPM is always worth a look anyway.

Stock: No. Question answered. Now I know I'm not missing a buried setting somewhere.

Thanks for those mod recommendations. RPM looks like fun. I'll be trying that out for sure.
As for AGX, I have a problem that's a little nail, and AGX looks like a sledgehammer. A fine sledgehammer, but overkill for what I'm looking for. Of course I say that now...

[Superfluous J]

Just gonna toss this out there. I wrote a mod specifically because I encounter a small nail (I always forget to assign things to action groups at all) and - like you - found AGX to be an overly-large hammer. So if your action groups are only "extend/retract solar panels", "extend/retract radiators" or "do all science" then may I suggest All Y'All? Link below in my sig.

[ClamBoy]

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

Just gonna toss this out there. I wrote a mod specifically because I encounter a small nail (I always forget to assign things to action groups at all) and - like you - found AGX to be an overly-large hammer. So if your action groups are only "extend/retract solar panels", "extend/retract radiators" or "do all science" then may I suggest All Y'All? Link below in my sig.

Nice suggestion, thanks for that!

[Snark]

In my own case, I solve it by being really consistent about how I assign stuff.  Solar panels are always in group 1, fuel cells are always 7, engine toggles (mode or activate/deactivate) are 0, and so forth.

That works in pure stock, and solves the "remembering what I did" problem, since I always do the same thing.

It does make for tedious setting-stuff-up-in-the-action-tab (and the ever-present danger of forgetting to set something up), which is why i wrote this little mod:

...basically, it lets you use ModuleManager config to decide what to do with action groups by default (e.g. "put solar panels in group 1" or whatever).  That way I basically never have to touch the action groups tab, since everything just naturally ends up where I want it by default when I put a new ship together.  The only time I ever have to go to that tab is if there's some special case where I don't want to use the default, and need to tinker with something manually, which is fairly rare for me (e.g. either to manually assign a part that I haven't configured a default group for, or to change the assignment of a part that I don't want to be in the default-assigned group, for some reason.)

The nice part about it (for me, anyway) is that it's really lightweight and has no UI at all.  It only affects the vehicle editor, and even there it's just the initial default assignments that it messes with.  The player still has full control to manually assign whatever they want in-game, using the stock UI.

[Pecan]

On 6/8/2016 at 5:49 PM, ClamBoy said:

Stock: No. Question answered. Now I know I'm not missing a buried setting somewhere.

Thanks for those mod recommendations. RPM looks like fun. I'll be trying that out for sure.
As for AGX, I have a problem that's a little nail, and AGX looks like a sledgehammer. A fine sledgehammer, but overkill for what I'm looking for. Of course I say that now...

Good answers.  Looks like you know what you're doing and will get on well :-)
Like you say, a clear 'no' might be disappointing but at least it stops you wasting time hunting for something that isn't there anyway.

[ClamBoy]

2 hours ago, Pecan said:

Good answers.  Looks like you know what you're doing and will get on well :-)
Like you say, a clear 'no' might be disappointing but at least it stops you wasting time hunting for something that isn't there anyway.

Thanks. I've been lurking the forum for a long time. Only recently started posting. Steam says I've got 1302 hours into KSP so far, admittedly, much of that time the game is on pause (sometimes overnight), but I've been getting along just fine. Looking forward to my first interplanetary trip. I had one last career, but my Duna ship mysteriously asploded (kraken). I didn't have a previous save I wanted to go to, so RP'd it by saying the lone scientist on board went mad and scuttled the mission. Hopefully it doesn't happen next trip... just grinding contracts and science to get the gravioli detector before the transfer window.

[kBob]

I'm starting to a design an external program that can parse a craft file and give a bunch of statistical information that can be printed out or put into a pdf or text file or screen capture.  Probably be a few months before it's ready for prime time, but I can easily put in a list of a craft's action groups to make a nice cheat sheet.  I'll certainly include the action groups if you're interested (well I will anyway).   It'll also be able to do some simple things like strip out all parts of a certain type or replace them with a different part (like stripping out all struts or replacing all ladders with a different type ladder things I find tedious in VAB). 

I'm mostly writing this because I want an external way to get statistics like dV etc. without needing a mod and I want a dedicated user interface so a spread sheet won't do and I find when I turn equations (like the rocket equation) into a program I understand them better.

[swjr-swis]

On 6/8/2016 at 6:49 PM, ClamBoy said:

As for AGX, I have a problem that's a little nail, and AGX looks like a sledgehammer.

Now that you have a fine sledgehammer, those little nails will start to look suspiciously like a wall to be demolished...