My problem with KSP and how to fix it

[zone1135]

This has to do specifically with orbits and them not stay where I damn well put them. Also this is more of a mod request thread then anything else.

I propose a mod that does a few things, mainly to improve remote tech and the new satellite systems. But could also have uses outside that.

It would work like so:

1. If an object has a extremely similar orbit to another object (what the mod considers 'similar' could be tweaked till it felt right) the moment that the object loses focus (you switch to another vessel outside of the render distance) the objects orbits get changed so that they match perfectly.

2. I was going to have a few more points (stipulating that unless thrust was intentionally applied, the orbit would be reset back to what it was before focus was gained in order to avoid accidentally changing orbit while twisting or otherwise interacting with the craft in a way that doesn't provide force but changes where exactly the centre of mass is relative to the orbit) but I realised that 1 would more or less solve that issue anyway.

I have played around with making the mod myself but outside of some rudimentary dives into things like Lua my coding skills are sub-par for sure. If anyone could potentially make this mod, you would have my eternal gratitude because this seemingly insignificant details has frustrated the absolute hell out of me since I noticed it.

[DrLicor]

Do you want KSP un-realistic? cause thats how you get ksp un-realistic. In real life no orbit is perfect, besides, every orbiting object near earth falls back, since the atmospheric drag doesn't stop around 140km... 

Anyway, an object you put in a orbit in ksp should stay there. I don't know what mods you use, but they definitely don't have to change orbits when no asked.

Although, if you really want to make you orbit that perfect, you can set all you RCS to 0.1% and get them in a real precise orbit. Al my geostationary probes have the exact same orbit time and inclination. Not periapsis and apoapsis because that doesn't matter for me.  

For me, but thats totally personal, the gameplay has to be realistic, and a mod like you described, wouldn't have any of my interest.

 

[zone1135]

On 26/09/2016 at 9:10 PM, DrLicor said:

Do you want KSP un-realistic? cause thats how you get ksp un-realistic. In real life no orbit is perfect, besides, every orbiting object near earth falls back, since the atmospheric drag doesn't stop around 140km... 

Anyway, an object you put in a orbit in ksp should stay there. I don't know what mods you use, but they definitely don't have to change orbits when no asked.

Although, if you really want to make you orbit that perfect, you can set all you RCS to 0.1% and get them in a real precise orbit. Al my geostationary probes have the exact same orbit time and inclination. Not periapsis and apoapsis because that doesn't matter for me.  

For me, but thats totally personal, the gameplay has to be realistic, and a mod like you described, wouldn't have any of my interest.

 

It was more so due to how the game is unrealistic. In real life satellites would constantly be compensating for slight imperfections in their orbits, allowing them to stay in relatively the same orbit with comparison to one and other. What happens now is I set up my satellite communication system, 5 or so satellites in orbit. And I got for an interplanetary travel. The next thing I know I lose connection cause the slight imperfections has caused blind spots to form in my initially perfect set up due to the satellites drifting together or whatever. Heck if I could run kOS on non-focused satellites I would just use that to keep them in orbit properly.

[Van Disaster]

People have proposed station-keeping mods in the past given RemoteTech has been around quite a while now - you might want to browse the RemoteTech thread to see if there's any concrete solutions.

[DrLicor]

31 minutes ago, zone1135 said:

It was more so due to how the game is unrealistic. In real life satellites would constantly be compensating for slight imperfections in their orbits, allowing them to stay in relatively the same orbit with comparison to one and other. What happens now is I set up my satellite communication system, 5 or so satellites in orbit. And I got for an interplanetary travel. The next thing I know I lose connection cause the slight imperfections has caused blind spots to form in my initially perfect set up due to the satellites drifting together or whatever. Heck if I could run kOS on non-focused satellites I would just use that to keep them in orbit properly.

But those imperfection are not due the main orbit you reach, but duo the orbital time of you sats. The reason why real sats are correcting their obits is because they still fall toward earth and have to avoid space object. In KSP we don't have these factors.

With RCS on your sats you can set the orbital time to 0,000 seconds precise (with help of the info from Kerbal Engineer Redux). Your sat will barely move toward eachother when on a planetary mission.

I have a comsat network with al sats the exact same orbital time for around 100 years and I never lost connection. It doesn't matter if you Pe and Ap are different. As long as they are both near 2863km and the orbital time of you sats are all exact the same 

Edited September 28, 2016 by DrLicor

[Kerbart]

As @DrLicor points out, if you set up your network perfectly, there won't be any gaps.

Now, I for one can't do that, so I compensate by spacing my satellites denser than required. Consider a higher orbit—at only 1000km ASL you need just four satellites to easily generate 100% coverage (at least in RT you do).

[Sresk]

If you want to cheat you can use Hyper edit. I've donw this exact thing, got the 3 sats into visually what appeared to be a stable orbit and then hyper edited them to make them perfect. Not I want to try the same thing with RCS though...