Recover Spent Stages

[Exsmelliarmus]

I think it would be useful if, in career mode, as stages are ejected, before they leave physics range, the game quickly calculates (possibly on another thread) the weight of the stage, the momentum it will have and, if it has parachutes, the amount of force the parachutes would generate, as well as the time it would take before splash (or crash) down. Then, when the stage leaves physics range, it can be deleted, as long as it is under 20km, as per usual, only to be recoverable from the tracking station x seconds after it is ejected, x being the previously calculated time to impact, provided it was able to survive. In this way, reusable/expensive components would not have to be scrapped because they are not part of the upper (focus) stage, reducing the cost of launches, and making stages less expendable.

What do you guys think?

[Beeman]

Fairly certain that this is planned. Reusable parts or crafts are a major consideration for real-world space programs. They already have a recover option, too. But since there's no currency involved just yet, it doesn't really do much besides deleting debris.

But the way it's supposed to work, if I recall correctly, is if you're recovering a part very far away from KSC(but still on Kerbin), recovery isn't as valuable as if you were recovering payloads and parts closer to the space center. Kind of excited about that.

[Exsmelliarmus]

Yeah, that'll give a really good reason to use a glider/spaceplane as opposed to just a capsule. What would be nice though would be allowing reuse if parts at only minor cost - for example, if I keep launching the same rocket, only with a different payload, you don't have to buy it every time but merely pay a percentage of its cost to repair it.

Edited September 8, 2013 by Exsmelliarmus

[Beeman]

Yeah, I get the feeling that's their goal. Or at the very least, when we recover parts, we get a percentage of its cost back to spend on the next launch. Either way, it should be good. I mean, they really want the game to be like this big, elaborate space program simulator like tycoon games of old. So there's undoubtedly going to be all sorts of fun things we'll be able to do in career mode.

[boomerdog2000]

I think the OP means recovering things like boosters, and the rest of the launch stage.

Unmanned bits that you still want to reuse if possible.

Edited September 8, 2013 by boomerdog2000
clarification

[Dunbaratu]

I'm fairly sure this was one of the planned career mode things. Like if you parachute your stages to a gentle landing you can recover some of their cost. But the problem is that right now if you are low in atmosphere and a stage gets more than 2.2 km from your ship, the game stops tracking it using full physics. That makes parachuting it not really work. Also, at the moment it just deletes the debris entirely if it's in low atmosphere, but even if it stopped doing that there's the fact that parachutes don't work on rails.

[Kegereneku]

The last post point out the biggest problem. There would be hundred variation of SpaceX reusable rocket if it wasn't for the impossibility to "pilot" two craft at the same time.

[Exsmelliarmus]

Exactly, which is why I suggest that rather than rendering the landing, it merely calculates if it 'would' land safely, and if it would, allows you to recover it.

[peadar1987]

Exactly, which is why I suggest that rather than rendering the landing, it merely calculates if it 'would' land safely, and if it would, allows you to recover it.

The mission controller mod does this, you recover some of the cost of your spent stages if they fall below a certain height, and have a certain number of parachutes per unit mass (I forget what the exact figures are, but you get a little message telling you the stage has been recovered, and how much money it returns. A lower stage with a couple of Mainsails on it gets you quite a lot of cashback!)

[NickWalker12]

Any news on this?

Currently, debris will be deleted if:

-They are more than 25km from the selected craft.

-They are inside the atmosphere.

-They do not have a command module attached.

I assume KSP did this to improve performance, and not as a gameplay decision.

I have a few ideas regarding implementation of a fix:

1. Specify despawn distance in Km. Despawn distance can be MUCH higher, and should be editable via menu. Bare in mind that spawn and despawn distances can be dramatically different. I.e. Setting a despawn distance of 500km will NOT cause all satellites in LEO to spawn. It just means that spawned parts will persist for 500km. Spawn distance can remain 12km (or, even better, allow manual editing).

2. Manual Spawn/Despawn. Allow users to manually spawn/despawn parts. Or even a "Persist" option on the focused part in the flight UI.

3. Save, don't despawn. After de-staging, allow players to jump back in time and take control of a detached stage. Passive-mode only would suffice. I know Unity's physics is non-deterministic, so a live replay feature would be required for this and no interaction between separated parts could happen in replay mode.

This feature would be really handy with a Pause button / Freeze Time button. This would allow players to jump from one craft to another and have a slightly easier time controlling both (or many).

[Unknow0059]

I think there's a mod for that.

[cicatrix]

I think there's a mod for that.

Several, actually. This one does exactly that what OP suggests.

[KSK]

Yup. Amongst other things, Kerbal Construction Time does this. Or it did - I haven't seen the latest version. Add sufficient parachutes to dropped stages to slow them below 10m/s and they'd be automatically recovered.