Show radio blackout/darkness time on orbital trajectory

[The_Rocketeer]

This could have been suggested before but IDK.

In the manner that it indicates closest approach and ascending/descending nodes, I suggest the orbital trajectory line in Map View should also indicate where and when a vessel will move into the solar or communications shadow of another body, or at least of the body that it is orbiting. To keep the path from getting to cluttered, I propose the orbital line should change to a darker hue to indicate a blackout zone with a detailed tooltip of duration and source on mouseover. This would really help manage unforeseen upcoming power or communication issues and give the player a little in-mission time to plan around them.

[Jas0n]

I think it wouldn't be quite necessary for solar, because you can tell pretty easily if you're on the night side or not. As for communications, I had the idea of bubbles popping up to indicate where you'll have connection and where you'll not.

[The_Rocketeer]

2 hours ago, Jas0n said:

I think it wouldn't be quite necessary for solar, because you can tell pretty easily if you're on the night side or not. As for communications, I had the idea of bubbles popping up to indicate where you'll have connection and where you'll not.

For solar, the visual representation of darkness-time is less useful that a read-out of how long it will last per orbit. That sort of information is critical for minimising cost for EC storage and charging parts, or for critical power depletion issues on other crafts traversing the shadow.

[Jas0n]

53 minutes ago, The_Rocketeer said:

For solar, the visual representation of darkness-time is less useful that a read-out of how long it will last per orbit. That sort of information is critical for minimising cost for EC storage and charging parts, or for critical power depletion issues on other crafts traversing the shadow.

I see your point. 

[The Aziz]

Um.. But for solar, it makes sense only if you're low enough. I mean, only then it takes almost half of your orbital period. The higher you are, the shorter darkness time is, so it becomes less significant.

About communication, maybe not darker, but grayed, as if you had 1st level of tracking station (and of course unable to place maneuvers).

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

For radio blackout, it's significantly complicated once relays are in the picture - you'd have to model how all of the various orbits will interact in the future to know if/when/how long any particular blackout period will be.

[natsirt721]

On 7/31/2017 at 7:05 AM, Damien_The_Unbeliever said:

For radio blackout, it's significantly complicated once relays are in the picture - you'd have to model how all of the various orbits will interact in the future to know if/when/how long any particular blackout period will be.

Agreed - something like this would be very CPU intensive.  My solution to this is to build a robust network of relays around Kerbin - for the first extraplanetary missions you only have to look at the body you're orbiting (eg duna and ike) to see when you get blackout - on the surface it's even easier to watch when your orbiter is in your sky.  

That being said, from a realism standpoint, comms blackout is a critical thing to know when operating a remote vehicle.  

On 7/29/2017 at 10:59 AM, The_Rocketeer said:

...or at least of the body that it is orbiting.

That would be simpler, but you can basically get that information just by looking - not in the finest detail but hey, KSP has never been known for exactness

[Gargamel]

I think this is a wonderful idea, for a mod.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Gargamel
Logic completely wrong.