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Edit: this is a dumb suggestion and i didn't phrase it the way I want.

old title: Engine-ers should be able to tweak engine trust/ISP/etc. (see desc)

 

Engineers (mid-high xp level) should be able to tweak engine ISP for more thrust and vice versa. E/C alternators in engines could be disabled for more thrust, or cranked up to produce more electricity at the expense of more fuel or less thrust (like a crappy low-tech fuel cell).

Of course, the "tweakability" of everything should be limited so we can't have mainsail engines replacing nukes and vice versa. Maybe this could be balanced with an overheat mechanic: increasing thrust/ISP causes overheating and require radiators. At one point the rocket will reach a hard limit.

Edited by It'snorocketscience
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Is this then like an editor tweak or something tweaked outside of the editor while in flight? And if it's in editor who do you limit it to engineers? I'd find it quite annoying to have to continually tweak a craft outside of the editor if testing. 

Also I think in the stock game I don't feel as if we are really missing any one engine. Tweaking just kinda gives more engines that have only incremental differences. 

And besides, from a real world perspective, engines are complicated pieces of tech (at least some) . I don't think one single person can patch one to make it behave differently and work properly  without a lot of tools and equipment and knowledge

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1 hour ago, qzgy said:

Is this then like an editor tweak or something tweaked outside of the editor while in flight? And if it's in editor who do you limit it to engineers? I'd find it quite annoying to have to continually tweak a craft outside of the editor if testing. 

I think it should be tweakable in both situations, but in the VAB you wouldn't need engineers to do it.

In flight, engines would only be adjustable by engineers. I think it would be useful in the following scenarios:

During the start of an ascent, a temporary boost in TWR could help make ascents more efficient and rockets slightly less complicated. Also, once you escape the atmosphere, a boosted TWR would be nice to help accelerate to orbital speeds if you're using a low thrust high ISP engine (nukes, lv 909, etc). This would be nice for SSTOs, since they can't jettison boosters and eliminating deadweight (extra rockets for ascents only) is critical. You could add more boosters, but that would increase the weight of the rocket and reduce efficiency (boosters have terrible ISPs).

A temporary boost in TWR would be great for landing/taking off from high gravity planets (tylo and eve). Clumsy pilots could use it to save their lander if they come in too fast.

1 hour ago, qzgy said:

I don't think one single person can patch one to make it behave differently and work properly  without a lot of tools and equipment and knowledge

While I'm no rocket scientist at all, they could increase the amount of fuel being supplied for greater thrust and ISP (more fuel/ox burning = higher temperatures = higher exhaust velocity = higher ISP). This would cause the engine to overheat though, so that could be a balancing mechanic.

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I'm no rocket scientist either, but...

In KSP there is a foundation of sensible scientific realism. That means nothing in this game is added that doesn't have a clear scientific origination. The way it's brought forth isn't always top notch in terms of realism, but the aspects of each game element has to be. If this trend is broken more people will come on here to complain about it within a day then all the people that are ever going to read your thread. That sounds harsh but it is the truth.

Rocket engines are heavy metallurgic pieces of hardware that requires a large multi krew to dis/assemble and takes weeks, months including testing before it gets mounted on a rocket. To put this simply, Bill Kerman our famous engineer can't do that on the ground with any magic pieces of equipment he may have tugged inside his suit. Unless magic itself is added to the game that is.

If he does then where is the sensible scientific realism if he requires a multi krew and a large VAB like structure just to get inside of a engine powerplant and plumbing system let alone changing it to boost it's stats?

There are departments in the addon community with mods that are less realistic. I believe there is a mod with which you can upgrade certain engines and parts like ISP, TWR and weight. I don't know the name of this mod, maybe knowing it exists interests you. FAIW it still doesn't work by changing a engines stats on the ground. It is unlocked by spending science points I believe and changing a engine just on the surface of the Mun is spacecraft wizardry and is contradictory to a realistic aspect which is the prime factor for which suggestions are allowed in stock KSP.

At best you may intrigue a sci-fi man in the addon suggestions forums to create a mod to do this, but even there I would hold my breath on this one.

@It'snorocketscience I hope my honesty on the matter was puth forth correctly and I hope you see the point in this.

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On 10/7/2018 at 4:13 PM, Aeroboi said:

but even there I would hold my breath on this one.

I hope not... we might lose a forum member if he does.... ;D

I completely agree though, this is pretty unrealistic.   The engines are so complex, that such changes need to be done in a controlled setting, not mid flight in space.    If it was just some simple switches to flip, or a knob to turn, either in the command pod or on EVA, then those switches and knobs would have be flipped back on the ground.   There really aren't many good reasons for an engine to run at a less efficient setting from the get go. 

I can get behind the idea of having futuristic multi-mode engines for drastically different levels of TWR/ISP, but what you are proposing are minor tweaks, which really don't make sense. 

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On 10/7/2018 at 3:04 PM, It'snorocketscience said:

Engineers (mid-high xp level) should be able to tweak engine ISP for more thrust and vice versa.

Indeed, Squad had thoughts along these lines when skill levels were introduced. Some people derided it as "Thrust Lever +3" and "Magic Boots of Fuel Conservation", others voiced their objections more bluntly. Either way, the idea didn't catch on.

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