boredAnswerGuy

Hello, I call myself "boredAnswerGuy". It's my name from reddit where I have been answering spaceflight questions. I find that the more I learn about real-life spaceflight, the better KSP becomes, and the better I can play it. I can't think of any other game like that. I signed up for the forum because the developers clearly take community feedback into consideration, and I wanted to participate in the discussion. Squad has never let players dictate how the game should be made, but when newly proposed features were met with skepticism, the developers listened to the KSP community, made some small adjustments, and now those controversial proposals have become great new features. The game has progressed, version by version, into something wonderful, and I can't give Harvester and his team enough credit. I'm excited to see what comes next for Kerbal Space Program.

Real-time engineering checks may be inappropriate while the vehicle is unfinished. If engineering checks are performed on a continual basis, the first part placed will trigger a huge list of warnings. Almost none of these warnings will go away until the vehicle is nearly finished. Virtually every engineering check except for the final check will have been a waste. Consider that every sentence is grammatically incorrect until the final word is written. Every word is misspelled until the final letter is written. Proof-readers check finished manuscripts. They do not watch the writer type and scrutinize his or her every keystroke. The engineering check feature certainly would have helped me avoid at least one failed launch, and such failures are costly in career mode. I think that the basic idea is good and helpful, but constant checking may not be a good choice.

I recommend that the engineering-audits that Romfarer is working on be performed not in real-time, but only at the request of the player by pressing an audit button. It should be like how the vehicle is not saved in real time, but only when the player presses the "save" button. This would solve the performance issue, and it would be very similar to the Critical Design Review that all rockets and spacecraft are subjected to before construction. NASA's SLS rocket recently passed its review. Read about it here: http://www.nasa.gov/sls/core-stage-review-2014.html If the real-time audits cause any perceptible lag, the frustration would quickly negate any utility the feature may add. Several people have made this suggestion already, but I felt it was important to re-iterate their concerns.