[1.8.x, 1.9.x, 1.10.x] Orbital Decay Updated

[eightiesboi]

1 hour ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Sorry to say, I'm most likely not going to be continuing this, at least in it's current form.  It is trying to be too smart and does too much for what the game needs

Hey @linuxgurugamer

@severedsolo had a very simple version of Orbital Decay included previously in Kessler Syndrome. It was a shadow of what Orbital Decay did, as that's obviously not the real purpose of KS, but might I recommend that if you haven't given up entirely on ODU, perhaps simpler (although less accurate) may be better?

IIRC, the KS functionality decremented SMA at PE when In Space Low around bodies with atmospheres. It defaulted to just affecting Debris and could be set to work on all objects, but (in-lieu of stationkeeping), I believe severedsolo was going to allow exclusions based on vessel-type. 

Anyways, whether you decide to throw the towel in on this one mod or not doesn't change the fact that the community owes a lot to the number of mods that you have made, adopted, and / or maintain. Thank you!

[Daniel Prates]

4 hours ago, eightiesboi said:

doesn't change the fact that the community owes a lot to the number of mods that you have made, adopted, and / or maintain. Thank you!

He is right @linuxgurugamer, even if this one appears to have failed, we are all grateful you tried to bring it into good shape.

[Snoman314]

22 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Sorry to say, I'm most likely not going to be continuing this, at least in it's current form.  It is trying to be too smart and does too much for what the game needs

Oh I'm sad to hear that, but thanks for giving it a go anyway. It does seem to be a fairly niche mod, so if it's going to be more than a simple update/refresh then it's probably not worth, I agree.

[severedsolo]

On 11/18/2020 at 6:26 AM, eightiesboi said:

IIRC, the KS functionality decremented SMA at PE when In Space Low around bodies with atmospheres. It defaulted to just affecting Debris and could be set to work on all objects, but (in-lieu of stationkeeping), I believe severedsolo was going to allow exclusions based on vessel-type. 

It's also worth mentioning for anyone thinking about implementing this as a standalone mod that the terribly hacky method that KS used to do this stopped working around about 1.7/1.8 which was why it was removed.

[JediRangerkendor]

On 11/17/2020 at 9:12 PM, linuxgurugamer said:

Sorry to say, I'm most likely not going to be continuing this, at least in it's current form.  It is trying to be too smart and does too much for what the game needs

Perhaps you could rip apart the mod and make your own version?

[linuxgurugamer]

10 hours ago, JediRangerkendor said:

Perhaps you could rip apart the mod and make your own version?

Too much work for not enough return

[Errol]

@linuxgurugamer Sorry about the necro, I know this horse has been beaten to death, but I've had a thought for a different, much simpler way to abstract orbital decay as a mod for ksp.

No modifying the orbital parameters of anything gradually over time, instead when debris is created (vessel type is switched to debris), check if periapsis is in low-space and if the parent body has atmosphere, and if yes then set a timer to delete that piece of debris. Timer length is calculated based on semi-major axis and/maybe mass. The timer could also be disabled if you change the type back to anything other than debris.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Errol

[Touhou_Flandre]

@Errol your going to fix it?