My wishes

[strider3]

I have 2 wishes that will make me believe in Santa Kerbal:

1. A "Career Mode" that makes sense. I want many, many contracts at my "ability" level. I am tired of landing on Kerbin...once...and having my next Contracts sending me into orbit around the Mun. I do not have the Science, ability or Funds to go to the Mun yet! Give me many, many contracts at my level of ability, so that my Science and Funds build at a reasonable rate to PREPARE me for the next level of Contracts. This is the very reason I abandoned "career" mode for "science" mode. I do not like this science sandbox mode...but I hate the current career mode even more.

2. When setting a Maneuver Node, there is no way to "focus" on the actual "encounter" area. This makes precision arrivals at a planet impossible to judge. There should be some way to "focus" on burn "events"...especially on "encounter" events. That way we could zoom in and see exactly how we are "encountering" the target, and make adjustments accordingly.

 

I've been a good boy all year, Santa Kerbal...I only ask for these 2 things.

[Rayder]

For #2, press [Tab] to cycle through celestial bodies and vessels when in map mode.

[KSK]

For #2, I'm also pretty sure that you can right click on the target planet and there's an option to zoom in and see your projected orbit relative to it. Getting the zoomed in view with the maneuvre node in a convenient place as well can be tricky though.

[ZooNamedGames]

@Veeltch I think you might enjoy spreading your POV on career here.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Victor3 said:

1. A "Career Mode" that makes sense. I want many, many contracts at my "ability" level. I am tired of landing on Kerbin...once...and having my next Contracts sending me into orbit around the Mun. I do not have the Science, ability or Funds to go to the Mun yet! Give me many, many contracts at my level of ability, so that my Science and Funds build at a reasonable rate to PREPARE me for the next level of Contracts. This is the very reason I abandoned "career" mode for "science" mode. I do not like this science sandbox mode...but I hate the current career mode even more.

Contracts that make sense? Better career progression? A clear path laid before the player? Blasphemy!

Thou shalt do tourism contracts before launching Sputnik! Thou shalt haul parts into space for no reason! Thou shalt take crew reports above 18,000 meters before you have plane parts researched! Thou shalt fly halfway around Kerbin! Thou shalt not launch Sputnik, even after thou hast unlocked a probe core! Thou shalt not research advanced rocketry before electronics!

Explorer? Mercury? Ranger? Gemini? Surveyor? Apollo? Thou shalt not ask for such frivolous nonsense! Thou shalt launch a single Kerbal into Minmus orbit before attempting a landing on any body!

Edited October 3, 2016 by Guest

[Wjolcz]

29 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

@Veeltch I think you might enjoy spreading your POV on career here.

The fact you tagged me here proves that already enough people knows my opinion on the topic.

I also had a very salty dinner today.

[strider3]

13 hours ago, Rayder said:

For #2, press [Tab] to cycle through celestial bodies and vessels when in map mode.

The problem with that is...I'm not trying to focus on these. I'm trying to focus on the spot where I'm going to intersect with my target...the target is not there yet. It's just an empty place in space, at that point.

Edited October 3, 2016 by strider3

[strider3]

Here's a picture to help explain #2. This is about as close as I can get to the area circled in green. This is the rendezvous point with Duna that I would like to focus on, and zoom into, so I can fine tune my maneuver. As it is it's very hard to tell if my proposed Duna periapsis is on the Kerbol (Day) side or the "night" side. I want the "night" side to more easily enter a standard, West to East orbit.

[Vectura]

Have you tried a different patched conics mode? I seem to recall the fourth one displays the intercept orbit line next to the planet in it current position (could be wrong though).

[Kelderek]

For #2 there is a setting relating to patched conics that you can change.  The Draw Mode setting will change where the lines appear and the Limit will allow you to see more future orbit paths.  You can fiddle with these two settings to get the display the way you want.  I use "Local to Bodies" and a limit of 5.

http://imgur.com/a/Lrdoa

Edited October 3, 2016 by Kelderek

[Alshain]

6 minutes ago, Kelderek said:

For #2 there is a setting relating to patched conics that you can change.  The Draw Mode setting will change where the lines appear and the Limit will allow you to see more future orbit paths.  You can fiddle with these two settings to get the display the way you want.  I use "Local to Bodies" and a limit of 5.

http://imgur.com/a/Lrdoa

I don't think that setting is in his version of the game.  He will have to edit files.

[Kelderek]

Hmm ok.  I'm playing the pre-release of 1.2, but I thought it had been in the game before that.  If it's not a 1.2 feature, but older than that, then wouldn't it be odd to post in the suggestions forum while not playing the current stable version of the game?  If it is new in 1.2 then there's the suggestion already implemented

At any rate the file in question is settings.cfg in your main KSP folder and the lines to change would be these:

CONIC_PATCH_DRAW_MODE = 0
CONIC_PATCH_LIMIT = 5

[Alshain]

@Kelderek I'm pretty sure it's a 1.2 feature, but the 'current stable version' is debatable.  A lot of people are playing 1.0.5 because it is the current stable version.  However, I don't know if the OP is playing 1.1 or 1.0.5, but I certainly wouldn't assume 1.2

EDIT: Actually based on his screenshot, it's probably 1.1.  It has KSPedia, but no ComNet (which granted could just be turned off)

Edited October 4, 2016 by Alshain

[strider3]

Yep...1.1.3.

I have no idea what "patched conics" are...other than how it's spelled. The Precise Maneuver mod UI has "Trajectory Drawing" buttons, at the bottom. I have not touched these as of yet...I'm still trying to learn what all the PM functions actually do. Going to see if I can find some better info on using the PM mod.

[strider3]

AHAH!! This Precise Maneuver mod is turning out to be quite awesome! Clicking the "Next Enc" button (next encounter) allows you to zoom into the actual encounter area and fine tune your node...sweet! The "Trajectory drawing" buttons, at the bottom are supposed to change the patched conics that were mentioned. Still have no idea about those...and pushing the buttons didn't seem to do anything.

You still have to move the maneuver to create an "encounter" before you can use the "Next Enc" button...still...it's a million miles ahead of where I was.

SOooo...as far as wish #1...I take it 1.2 does nothing to make the career mode more...sane?

 

Edited October 4, 2016 by strider3

[Kelderek]

I haven't used that mod, but I would guess that setting the "Trajectory drawing" to "LOC" would be the same as what I use (local to body).  The + and - would raise or lower the number of trajectories to show, this is useful if your orbital path takes you into multiple encounters like flying through the Mun's sphere of influence on the way to Minmus.  If you go back to look at the imgur links I posted a few posts up you will see a good example: a normal solid blue orbit line around Kerbin, a maneuver node there and a dotted orange/yellow line leading away to an encounter with the Mun.  Because of my conics draw mode of "local to body" you can see a dotted purple line near the Mun to the right that represents the path it would take near the Mun and after it passes by it becomes the dotted green line in orbit of Kerbin again.  If my number of trajectories was a lower number (mine is set at 5) you might only see the initial orange line and nothing more, or the orange and purple ones but not the green.  It really helps to see the full results of what a maneuver will do.

Patched conics is the method KSP uses to simulate the effect of gravity on orbits relative to celestial bodies.  It is a 1-body physics method that only cares about whatever body is exerting the biggest gravitational pull on your vessel.  This is where the idea of spheres of influence comes in.  When you enter the sphere of influence (SOI) of the Mun then the Mun's gravity is the only gravity the game cares about until you escape that SOI.  This is shown visibly by the orbit lines in the game and the draw mode determines how those "patched conics" appear in the map view.  As you can see from that mod there are 5 different settings for the draw mode and I think the 4th one is the default setting (it's value is 3 since this setting is handled from 0 to 4 in the config files.  You won't notice a difference in these settings without having some orbits or maneuvers with encounters.

[strider3]

Thanks Kelderek! I'm beginning to understand now. If I do (understand, that is), I should be able to increase the number of trajectories and use the LOC mode, in the PM mod, and see something similar to what you posted to imgur...without using the Next Encounter button?

[Kelderek]

Yes, that's the idea.  If you have an encounter with the Mun that you want to fine tune then you focus on the Mun in the map view and zoom in so you can see exactly how a maneuver will look once you get there.  By using that mod you have it a little easier because you can increment the attitude controls without needing to see the actual node on the map view, you just use the buttons in that window.

[strider3]

Thanks K. I do like that mod...makes dealing with nodes much easier...no more Kerbol fly-byes when simply trying to get to Duna LOL.

[Windspren]

@Victor3 you know that you can just double click on the planet the maneuver node is around to zoom in on it? That, or you can right click on it and click "Focus View."

[strider3]

10 minutes ago, Laythe Dweller said:

@Victor3 you know that you can just double click on the planet the maneuver node is around to zoom in on it? That, or you can right click on it and click "Focus View."

Yes but I needed to see a view of how my maneuver node was going to arrive at the target. It's not as simple as zooming in on the target. It's all figured out, now.

Edited October 6, 2016 by strider3

[Windspren]

Just now, Victor3 said:

Yes but I needed to see a view of how my maneuver mode was going to arrive at the target. It's not as simple as zooming in on the target. It's all figured out, now.

What do you mean by how your maneuver node will arrive at the target? You can already see projected paths around a body if you have an intercept with it.

[strider3]

6 minutes ago, Laythe Dweller said:

What do you mean by how your maneuver node will arrive at the target? You can already see projected paths around a body if you have an intercept with it.

Yes, you are right...but they can be very hard to see and focusing on the target planet shows you where it is now...not where your trajectory will land. If you read back to other replies you will see how a person can actually see a close up of your maneuver's projected trajectory and how much easier it is to then adjust it.