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Suggestion: Improve auto-strut stability.


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Is there a way we can make auto-strutting on docked ships more stable so auto-strutting becomes more useful? Like maybe have it keep some form of internal record of the boundaries between docked craft and only allow strut linking to parts internal to that segment of the total craft? It should hopefully radically reduce auto-krackens and make auto-strut more useful.

This post contains an example of said instability:

 

 

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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58 minutes ago, AVaughan said:

Something I try to do, that might help you is to either disabling autostruts before docking, or alternatively make sure that I'm only using autostrut to root.

What about the landing gear? It'd just be nice to not have to worry about that constantly and just have the auto-struts perform relative to their original craft format rather than spontaneously reconnecting.

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3 hours ago, fulgur said:

You can do that. Autostrut can be set to heaviest part (which can change), root part (which can also change) and also grandparent part - which does not usually change.

To save myself sanity and time I might have to see about editing the part if possible and making grandparent the default state. Just wish auto-struts in general worked better without having the need to abandon or reduce the breadth of their use.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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Autostruts work just fine IMO, the problem is that it's not easy to understand how they work, and it's easy to use them in ways which invoke the Kraken in a big way. I think that's more a UI issue than anything wrong with the feature as such. 

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On 10/10/2019 at 5:02 AM, Brikoleur said:

Autostruts work just fine IMO, the problem is that it's not easy to understand how they work, and it's easy to use them in ways which invoke the Kraken in a big way. I think that's more a UI issue than anything wrong with the feature as such. 

Oh, I understand how they work.. the game gets confused as to what is strutted to what on a separation causing craft to spontaneously com bust, that's how they work.. and shouldn't. A well coded game would keep track of what is old craft, what is new craft, and what is connected to what so that before and after separation they are still two distinct craft with known strut points. Just like all the other parts know how they're connected by record.

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Just now, Maelstrom Vortex said:

Oh, I understand how they work.. the game gets confused as to what is strutted to what on a separation causing craft to spontaneously com bust, that's how they work.. and shouldn't. A well coded game would keep track of what is old craft, what is new craft, and what is connected to what so that before and after separation they are still two distinct craft with known strut points. Just like all the other parts know how they're connected by record.

I quite often intentionally make use of this behaviour, for example when launching multiple docked craft in one go.

I think the best solution would be a "lock autostrut" box you can check on the part. This would permanently fix the autostrut to the target part as it was in the VAB

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8 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

I quite often intentionally make use of this behaviour, for example when launching multiple docked craft in one go.

I think the best solution would be a "lock autostrut" box you can check on the part. This would permanently fix the autostrut to the target part as it was in the VAB

That's an idea I could get behind.. but metal spontaneously re-routing itself after craft launch.. hardly logical.

@FreeThinker almost killed the auto-strut kracken, but's squad hard-coding and the fact that settings changes apparently are locally instanced and only res in normal time said no. 45 minutes of troubleshooting with the ability to turn the struts off, on everything except landing gear.

This is the nightmare that results when structural components on space-ships by default auto-orient themselves and you can't tell them to stop, it's even hard coded against it:
 

 

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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8 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

It's as logical as not being able to secure in any way shape or from any connections once you've launched, which is what we have without autostruts.

And I haven't suggested their complete elimination. That'd be just as sloppy as having them functioning the way they are now. They just need a touch up on behavior. Give them the ability to remember where they're connected before and after a docked state.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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I just hope they find some way of fixing the hard coded strutting on the landing gear.. because if they don't I'm not sure I'll be interested in Kerbals 2. I don't want a game where my space planes spontaneously detonate post-dock when they're supposed to be able to dock and I have no choice in making them better or fixing them if there's an issue caused by a rogue physics mechanic. I liked kerbals, but this has broken more than one career for me and the sheer unpredictable random nature of it.. I mean I'd dock undock a thousand designs with gear on board then suddenly, out of nowhere, self-immolating space-craft.

Edited by Maelstrom Vortex
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