Alshain

Yeah, that was me.

Exactly

You've seen offroad vehicles that can adjust traction on the fly.

I didn't say the slider was incorrectly named, I said the slider was breaking the laws of physics, and it is. The slider is definitely not traction control and that is the problem. You are throwing up a straw man argument.

We have that. It's rocket fuel. The game oversimplifies it to "Liquid Fuel" but rocket fuel on Earth is often liquid hydrogen (it can also be kerosene which is petroleum based). Other rockets use hypergolic compounds (two or more compounds that spontaneously ignite when coming into contact with one another). Your monopropellants include hydrogen peroxide, nitrous oxide, and hydrazine.

Pre-launch checklist 1. Write a better pre-launch checklist. Include more than one item!

Except for the ghosting feature, the stock navball icons suck. So it's not entirely obsolete, just 95%. I do hope Kitoban comes back and fixes that part of it. I tried, couldn't figure it out. On topic, I agree and I wish the SAS were smarter.

It's incredibly useful! Just as useful as clicking a part twice to re-root a craft! /sarcasm

They are pretty fun. You can build a vertical turbine from a soda bottle and some copper wire. It's a good science fair project if you have young kids

What options does it open up? Just curious, cause I was doing pretty much everything in the game before ISRU was implemented, without mods.

Well neither am I. But I did work in electronics that were fitted on natural gas wells. We were always researching ways to provide power for these devices. Wind was summarily ruled out because of these complications. FWIW though, look up pictures of vertical turbines, if they were to implement wind turbines for bases (not aircraft) that would likely be their design as they tend to be much more compact and easier to construct.

From a realism standpoint, you wouldn't use small scale wind power on Duna. The planet is a Mars analog and that is all dirt and sand. The complication of small scale wind turbines is that it works with moving parts, parts which clog with dirt and dust. Of course solar panels face the same issue, however Spirit and Opportunity have been able to use the wind to clean the panels, something that wouldn't really be possible with a clogged turbine. Large turbines we use on Earth are less susceptible to small grains of sand. Their blades are large enough and strong enough to soldier on and break up potential clogs in most cases. Though they still require maintenance. People frequently request an electric propeller for Duna here on the forums, and this reasoning is why I question that would be a wise choice for Squad to make. It's just unrealistic to be effective. KSP has always been an extension of real world or even potential real world space exploration, there really is no potential for wind turbines or electric propellers on Mars, therefore we don't need them on Duna.

The great thing about graphics, is they usually have a settings menu option. Given the graphics settings KSP already has, I see no reason they wouldn't. Personally, I'm still on the fence about Scatterer. It's definitely getting better. The last time I played with it though, the transition into space looked horrible, it was a huge turn off. I haven't used it since early 1.0, but if he as fixed that then it might be worth adding it's effects, but if not I would say no. It's easy to take a screenshot and say it looks beautiful, but when you put it in motion that is where it gets tricky. Like I said though, it has improved, it used to be even the screenshots looked bad.

I don't recognize the acronym, but I don't think orbital ship spawning should be in stock period.

PlanetShine doesn't do that. PlanetShine renders reflected light from the daylight side of the planet (on the side of the craft facing the planet). It's a good mod but it doesn't generate light on the dark side of the planet.

That's more than just adding a orbital construction facility. That is adding an entirely new ISRU system. It would have to be much more elaborate than it is now to not be overpowered. There are mods that do this, but in stock the ISRU is for fuel only, not building materials. Either that or you would have to ship the materials from Kerbin to construct in orbit, in which case, how is that different from sending the parts?

The issue with the inverted solar panel design is that solar panel activity occurs based on craft orientation and occlusion, not just which side of the planet you are on. That means lights could turn on even on the light side of the planet, depending on craft orientation. You would have to develop occlusion detection between the sun and the craft, which is possible but it's not as simple as re-using existing code in the game. The various antenna mods do this to determine connectivity, so rest assured it is possible if someone is willing to attempt it.

Traction, not friction. Those are two different concepts that have two different behaviors. Changing the tread on the tire alters traction, but not friction. Traction would also behave differently. Rather than your vehicle sliding completely out of control, lower traction would be more likely cause the wheel to turn in place without moving the vehicle (have you ever gotten your car stuck in the mud? That's a lack of traction)*. If you wanted to allow us to alter traction, that would be fine. However it is not the same, and simply considering the friction control to be traction is incorrect. They are closely related so I can understand the confusion. Modelling traction properly would be quite the task, as it is also dependent on surface material. Traction on the asphalt runway would be a lot different than traction on the dirt runway, would be a lot different than traction on the grass... or mun... or wherever. Simply offering a slider or renaming friction to traction would be silly because it would still be constant across all surface material. I would love to see traction implemented if done correctly, but it wouldn't simply be a slider. It could have a 'tread' slider I suppose, but only so much as the craft would be engineered for a specific surface and setting a tread for asphalt and landing it on the ice of Minmus would cause problems (this would be no different than @Arsonide's chain example, that too is traction). That simply isn't the effect of the friction slider, which to reiterate, is still breaking the laws of physics. EDIT: * Relating to active wheels, like the rover wheels. The effect for aircraft, with free spinning wheels would be different than both this and the behavior of the friction slider. In that case, the plane simply wouldn't slow down very fast (unless it had ample air braking). It might spin out of control if the traction were low enough to make the steering ineffective, but that assumes you are steering. Where as friction control has effects even when not steering.

I enjoy managing funds though. If they would add funds only mode, where the tech tree was fully unlocked but still required the initial buy in on parts (basically the opposite of Science mode) I would play that instead. However despite many people requesting it, it has yet to be done. I don't understand why this is such a headache, it's the point of the game to launch things into space, but to each his own I guess. However, in real life multiple launches is is exactly how such a thing would be constructed. It's how the ISS was built.

Funny, I don't see any chains on the KSP wheels. Also, I don't know of any wheels in real life that have no friction, a physically impossible case. We both know that isn't the reason its there, its a workaround for crappy wheels. Properly working wheels shouldn't need the friction slider.

Because there is no logic to the sliders. Their behavior can be random and completely unpredictable, not to mention the fact that altering friction is breaking the laws of physics. Pretty sure they were a workaround. I'm hoping they are gone in 1.2 (as in, not necessary to even exist)

There is no way to know. The author may be inactive (he hasn't posted since March), or like many, may still be playing 1.0.5 due to the instability of 1.1.x. Mechjeb and kOS are your only options that I know of. You know a well built rocket will do a gravity turn all by itself in stock.

Yes, if you fly without SAS.

I can't say I agree with that. It doesn't really matter how big or how long it takes to unlock the science tree, the game doesn't begin until it's done.

What are you referring to as end game? Last I checked, the game doesn't end.