KSP Weekly: The Falcon

[Ultimate Steve]

4 minutes ago, ThatGuyWithALongUsername said:

Small nitpick, Orbital Sciences' Pegasus was the first private spacecraft to orbit. Eventually, though, especially if BFR gets built, the Falcon 1 launch may become a more historic achievement, if it is not already.

Ya, it's something that many people forget about, including me sometimes... The Falcon 1 was the first liquid fueled privately funded rocket to reach orbit should be the correct version of the fact. They are both amazing achievements, though.

[Chel]

I really hope that SQUAD hasn't abandoned the console version of the game. 

[Jimmidii]

Delta... V...

Delta V?

Delta V!

[theJesuit]

Yay for Delta Vee info!  

Although i am quite partial to the KER readouts.  Looks like i'll have to adjust them.

Will the info (like burn time) be accessible for kOS and such?

Peace.

[Frozen_Heart]

Really hope this will allow dV to be shown in the VAB/SPH at some point. It's something that has been missing for so long.

[juanml82]

4 hours ago, SQUAD said:

We improved the burn time indicator by recalculating based on dV and not acceleration. We’ve also added a staging indicator that shows which stages contain the dV needed to complete each part of the maneuver. This will show a red section at the end if there’s not enough dV in the current vessel to complete that maneuver. We’ll continue looking at ways to leverage this dV information going forward. In the extended mode of the burn time indicator two extra lines are shown, allowing you to adjust how much time you want to spend burning before and after the node during the maneuver as well as showing you a countdown for when you need to start burning fuel to do so.

It's happening, it's finally happening!

[Kerbinchaser]

48 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

I really hope that SQUAD hasn't abandoned the console version of the game. 

Well we never know...

[Chel]

3 minutes ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

Well we never know...

Yes, because they never tell us any news

[Kerbinchaser]

Just now, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Yes, because they never tell us any news

EXACTLY. 

[swjr-swis]

1 hour ago, MOARdV said:

I would be (pleasantly) shocked if 1.5.0 had dV calculations that were able to handle the crazy gamut of designs that this community creates, especially since experimental / pre-release builds are no longer available to the general community.

I'm rather hoping that the spectre of 'but we cannot cover all possible cases' has finally decided to stop haunting this one. As the massive use of KER/MJ shows, people would much rather have something that works in 'most cases' than missing the indicators/readouts entirely.

October release for 1.5 already announced... I think that means no pre-release for 1.5 either. Perhaps even a silent confirmation that it's a closed chapter under T2. We'll see how it pans out.

 

4 hours ago, SQUAD said:

On top of all of the above-mentioned details, the orientation issue with this part has been corrected and a few new attachment nodes on the sides of this part were added. This will certainly help to expand the creative usage for this part.

Orientation fix and extra attachment nodes: awesome. Question about the extra nodes: I hope they don't come with extra drag if left 'open'? Could be a bummer to have more reason to use this part now, only to discover drag is now a killer.

[Kerbalstar]

53 minutes ago, Frozen_Heart said:

Really hope this will allow dV to be shown in the VAB/SPH at some point. It's something that has been missing for so long.

I ageee! If @SQUAD implants that in 1.5, I will ignore all the other features I was hoping they would add in 1.5! Alwo, @Snark, BBT is (sort-of) stock! Yay!

Edited September 28, 2018 by kerbalstar

[nestor]

31 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

Orientation fix and extra attachment nodes: awesome. Question about the extra nodes: I hope they don't come with extra drag if left 'open'? Could be a bummer to have more reason to use this part now, only to discover drag is now a killer.

The attachment nodes are not involved in the drag properties, so no. 

[Redneck]

6 hours ago, SQUAD said:

We are far from over with KSP and there’s still plenty to come, but we are now at a point in development where we are confident enough with the development of this update to share with you all that Kerbal Space Program 1.5: Dressed for Success comes out this October.

 

This is the best news i have heard in a long time from Squad. The part where it says "there’s still plenty to come" got my attention right off the bat. The burn time clock looks great and will come in handy. THIS is what i mean by a "meaningful update" Thanks squad and thanks to the artist. The new parts look good as far as i am concerned. Good weekly

Edited September 29, 2018 by Redneck

[Superfluous J]

6 hours ago, SQUAD said:

We’ve also added a staging indicator that shows which stages contain the dV needed to complete each part of the maneuver. This will show a red section at the end if there’s not enough dV in the current vessel to complete that maneuver. We’ll continue looking at ways to leverage this dV information going forward.

You, sir, have blown my mind.

6 hours ago, qzgy said:

I'm not sure how helpful the percent before and after splitter is but eh I guess its nice to have customization.

I don't know how helpful it will be either, but I see what it's for. On a long burn where the mass of the ship will appreciably drop, you actually want to start burning well after "half of the dV from the node" as the second half of the burn you'll be going faster. In a crazy extreme circumstance you could in theory end the burn before you even get to the node if you start "halfway before" it. However, I'm not sure how you're expected to know how much sooner you're supposed to burn without doing a ton of math, and if you do that you know the burn time and when to do it so why use the percentages?

6 hours ago, TheSaint said:

dV calculator in the VAB?

Don't get ahead of yourself. I'm surprised they're spanning stages here, even. It seems to me that the idea is to give us the most information they can while being relatively sure that the information is accurate. There are so many ways that the full-ship readout could be wrong (and confusing to a new player) that they just don't feel comfortable with it and when I type this all out, I see their point. I mean we all know if you build and asparagus or onion staged rocket and don't use fuel ducts and instead cross-feed, the dV numbers will always be wrong, but explaining that (over and over) on the forums could be difficult (and tedious).

I'm secretly hoping there'll be a way to describe the use of your ship (*cough* mission planner *cough*) and that could tie in with the dV readout so you can tell the game "I'm going to drop these tanks when they're empty even though the engines can still fire using fuel in the rest of the ship" for example.

Edited September 29, 2018 by 5thHorseman

[JadeOfMaar]

@nestor @SQUAD Concerning the dV measurements, would it be possible to get a toggle for the staging UI between fuel gauges and dV gauges per fuel mixture per stage? It would be nifty to be able to collapse engines down and see just those, preferably with the dV numbers above the or beside the gauges.

Can I petition for the engine sounds to be reverted? The change there for 1.4 is honestly, one of the most disturbing things that has been done and passed off as (good) new content. In 1.3.x I learned that there was an art to mixing sounds for jet engines, and have grown into making such art when tuning engines, but this sound "upgrade" has completely shattered that. It all sounds the same, like [choice words] and vacuum cleaners choking or shrieking. I'd like to take this chance, the advent of 1.5, to ask you to consider this.

[KraterKreator]

7 hours ago, SQUAD said:

We improved the burn time indicator by recalculating based on dV and not acceleration. We’ve also added a staging indicator that shows which stages contain the dV needed to complete each part of the maneuver. This will show a red section at the end if there’s not enough dV in the current vessel to complete that maneuver. We’ll continue looking at ways to leverage this dV information going forward. In the extended mode of the burn time indicator two extra lines are shown, allowing you to adjust how much time you want to spend burning before and after the node during the maneuver as well as showing you a countdown for when you need to start burning fuel to do so.

YES!

[James M]

HYPED FOR BETTER BURNS!

[SpaceCube2000]

Will the entire part overhaul be released in this update? Or just part of it? 

[Lupi]

6 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Orientation fix and extra attachment nodes: awesome. Question about the extra nodes: I hope they don't come with extra drag if left 'open'? Could be a bummer to have more reason to use this part now, only to discover drag is now a killer.

You've gotta be taking a rover awfully fast to be worried about drag, don't ya?

Can any of the wheels go that fast?

 

(Yes, i know, There's plenty of uses for this part. It's on every one of my deep space probes and resource scanning sats so i can find anomalies, lol)

[garwel]

For one, I'm most happy about the extra nodes on the RoveMat. At last, I'll be able to launch it without making the rocket mushroom-like.

[Omega482]

Hey DevTeam,

Good work this week! The effort you put into the SM-18 is really starting to shine!

[GearsNSuch]

By the Kraken, it's full of updates!

Great job on the dev-notes this week. The new RoveMate is quite impressive, especially with the new nodes and oh-so-fancy color switching option; all of the variants are good-looking. That said, changing the shape and locations of the panels on the side of the White variant to provide a wheel placement guide would be a nifty "easter egg" that everyone would probably appreciate. Nothing too obvious, just moving the current panels to coincide with the (recommended) location of the wheels.

Nice use of specular on the service module as well. Looks much better (and more historically accurate) than the old one.

As far as the navball improvement goes... Are you all trying to make @Snark obsolete? Stop listening to feedback and integrating popular mods, okay? In all seriousness, the navball is probably the feature I'm looking forward to the most. Part revamps are much appreciated, but this... All I can say is, "well done"!

 

Amazing job on the update. I'm most certainly looking forward to the release.

 

P. S. - To console players: Squad / T2 has not abandoned you. They're probably just getting some contracts ironed out with Blitworks (we all have those "test launch clamp in solar orbit" ones) and will release an update after 1.5. In the meantime, all of this news is console news; it's just coming after-soon rather than coming soon. I'm not the betting type, but I'd put money on it that the majority of the devnotes after 1.5 are going to be focused on you all.

P. P. S. - @GregroxMun: Open the extra-spatial shed doors. Fire up the boiler. Release the brakes. It's time.

Edited September 29, 2018 by GearsNSuch

[MR L A]

For everyone saying a proper dV read out might be too much for new players... advanced tweakables anyone?

seems like a simple toggle on/off would fix this problem almost immediately. 

Also yeah, I think most players realise a dV readout might occasionally be a bit broken depending on the craft, so IMO squad should just implement one anyway and not worry about tiny hiccups. 

[klgraham1013]

2 minutes ago, MR L A said:

For everyone saying a proper dV read out might be too much for new players... advanced tweakables anyone?

...or just have a little more faith in the people buying a game about launching rockets into space using semi realistic physics.  I mean, you have to have some desire to be smart if you're choosing to play KSP seriously.   ...and not just for the lol splosions. 

What's more confusing to new players.  Giving no information, or giving some information with a disclaimer that this gauge do hickey might not work to great with crazy craft.

[Burning Kan]

the rovermate really deserve this revamp.nice structure, cool partvariant foils,well done.also the nodes ,good idea.

• dV readouts(calculator) YEAH! -in VAB/SPH would be cool too. 

@SQUAD is always good for surprises.

 i have no bugtracker account so i wrote a list with things that also need some attention:

• asteroid collider    
• decoupler/seperator collider and advanced reaction wheel,large collider
• attachnode to shielded ports
• EVA open /close resource (batteries)
• resource open/close via actiongroups
• kerbal should weight some³(specialy if u make the dV readout!)  apologiy,²
• ²EVApropellant should weight some
• staging icons mixing after vesselswitch
• parachutes drag setting(less than 0.4 in VAB/SPH)
• WHEELS/LANDING LEGS
• terrainrock colliders
• planetshadows/groundtexture
• meaningful yielding nozzleform in aspect of Isp(vac/atmo)

³kerbal weight with suit is 95kilos or 209pounds

So with that sayed i wanna say thanks for a couple features,gimmicks,tools that u bring in this lovely game over years,so lets start:

• IVA windows/cutoffs
• vessel name priority
• fuel flow priority
• reroot/offset/spin tools
• engineer report in VAB & SPH
• upgradeable parts
• fine adjustable struts
• colorchanging heatshields(ModuleColorChanger)
• Part Variants
• VAB/SPH switch
• surface dust effects
• EVA parachutes
• Kerbal G-Force effects
• heatglowing radiators
• navball in mapview slideable(optional)& in EVA
• Plasma Blackout
• Destroyable Spacecenter
• reentry effects
• fading orbital lines

and thats just a few of them the come in mind of a long list of things the make the game/sim so KERBALISTIC

Dressed for Success comes out this October -HYPETRAIN!

ps a BETA rollout for bugfixin would be very appreciated

Edited October 3, 2018 by Burning Kan