Sky_walker

Oh horrors. They had to learn how to get into the orbit - they'll learn how to build rockets that don't look like a monster strapped to cartoon-alike set of fireworks. Current aerodynamics model is pretty much this: Seriously, if I'd be about to point out just one thing that bothers me with Kerbal - it's areodynamics. Everything else is either great or good enough. But areodynamics are horrible. And that obviously is a problem not only with going up the atmosphere and space planes, but also descending down through the admosphere and how pretty much every shape and kind of ship can get into the atmosphere without even damaging it's structural integrity, not to mention breaking up completely. Luckily - it seems like both: Better aerodynamics and re-entry heat&damage are on a list of planned features. It only saddens me that they picked to implement it after the multiplayer - mode which equally well could be kept as a mod, just like it started, while the core mechanics of the game remain waiting :/ :/ :/. For those that will get angry - give them an option to use the old model, preferably like sumghai suggests.

@Kasuha - There is a similar mod already. I'm asking for a stock part. It's relatively quick to do and at the same time will add immersion into the game and, yes, they will make stuff look cool . They're basically a dream-parts for anyone building SSTO planes or atmospheric planes. Not to mention how much of an aid would they be in a docking process - which is my personal reason for the request: it'll add new dimension to the design process where you can actually make your life easier by setting up a proper and consistent navigation lights. Existing lights are not a work around. They don't have any "glow" nor blink. They're just point light sources that are visible only if they cast light on a surface - they are not visible or suitable as a nav lights (when looking towards the light source you cannot tell what color they're in, not to mention that they're pretty much invisible from a distance). Stock > Mod. Some people play only a stock version of a game. Some things are so essential that they should be in a stock game - this certainly qualifies (if you want an example of mod that was picked by dev team to be implemented into the stock game - think about multiplayer. It's enormous project that begun as a mod (and IMHO should stay as a mod with devs focusing on a core of the game not MP), and now is being implemented into the game). As for the other point: why update it? Just make the thing right at the beginning and be over with it. It's such a basic thing that it won't require maintenance pretty much just like the current illuminators (which got only one update: they added an option to change light colors). I tried to give as precise description of needed features as possible (to save devs time researching values) and make it as future-proof as I could to ensure it doesn't add any long-term work load for the devs.

Could we, please, get a navigation lights as a stock part in a game? Preferably with tweakables: - Turn on/off - Strobe (on/off - by default: on, frequency cannot exceed 30 per minute, duration of dark must be longer than a duration of light (dark being just a low-intensity glow, nav light doesn't turn off completely in a strobe mode)) - R - G - B (by default set to white) For optimization reasons - at a distance lights should appear as a bright star-shaped sprite that's becoming visible from 5000 meters (according to the rules) in a proper color and a blink frequency (at a very far distance "dark" phase can appear as a light turned off). Up close it's just a small glow spire on a physical 3D model and an actual point light, much like one from an Illuminator Mk2, only on a much wider angle (180 degrees? It needs to be at least 90) and in a strobe mode: alternating power (say: when in "dark" phase it should be 1/3 of Illuminator Mk2 brightness and range, in "light" phase it should be 1.5 of Illuminator Mk2 - really, really bright glow on anything that's up close). Current real-world example: ORBITEC Cygnus resupply spacecraft is using set of 5 navigation lights - 2 white, 1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow (source)

It's bad because it wipes out any illusion of realism we have, not because people might want to use it as something good for their designs.

Excellent ideas. I especially love one about implementing radiotelescope network around the globe - it doesn't require them to implement elaborate mechanics of visibility, while at the same time adding some very nice point to the game. As for percentage - well, force people to build 2 satellites on top of an existing one and divide the amount of points one gets from transmission by 3. So by default - you get only 1/3 of current amount of points from transmissions, with fully-build network: you get what you'd have now.

+1. Kerbol was a complete disappointment after getting up close. Forget for a moment about solar flares, prominences or anything like that - it's just not bright enough. It should be nearly blinding, while right now it DOES look like a huge gas giant. I guess much more elaborate stuff like heat mechanics will be added when they'll get around implementing heat shields but brightness with strong flares is something that can be added quite easily (perhaps also some god rays? Under some camera angles it'll look weird with no rays visible, but when viewing ship towards sun center of mass - it'll look stunning).

IMHO: Waste of time. I'd much rather see improved dialogs (which as far as I see - they're working on) or heck: even customization of Kerbals (change a haircut/facial hairs/add female kerbal pilots) than silly interactive professors.

TBH: I'd prefer to see any of these by far more than a multiplayer component.

+1. I'd love to see powered hinges. These would open a whole new world of design possibilities.

Can't they just add some simple shaders instead of playing with something more elaborate like occlusion mapping? For example: 1. Add a proper water instead of just flat texture - flat texture works from an orbital distance, but the closer you get - the worse it becomes. At some distances you can clearly see tiling, which is... horrible. Feels like a cheap game from '90s. It'd basically require 2 shaders - one for distant water (say: 1000m+) which will be basically a flat surface with little bit of mirroring (reflective diffuse?), and another for up-close water. 2. Add some god-rays - cheap, quick, makes game look much better, though it will look unnatural once the ship gets in a low sun orbit. But it'll still be much better than nothing. 3. Add some normal map specular shaders for certain, selected elements of a ship. Most obvious one being solar panels and a glass on electric lights but it'd work with parts covered in a golden foil - for example LV-909 Liquid Fuel Engine. Pure specular shader can also be applied to all of the windows - it'll give you an illusion that they're reflective under certain angles. Of course - all of these should be purely optional. Keep in mind that these are just stock shaders included in Unity and ideas for changes that require minimal amount of work. For something more time-taking they could go for implementing cube maps that would depend on an orbit and based on that - create proper reflective surfaces. Add on top of that normal maps to all of the elements and suddenly KSP would make a huge leap forward in terms of visuals.

Add an option to enable dynamic shadows from point light sources (electric lights). And before someone says "OMG it's expensive on hardware!" - I know. But there are people that run Kerbal at 80+ FPS and could benefit from better visuals, while at the same time - it's pretty much the cheapest trick you can get to improve visual fidelity of a game.