Beeman

Would it be too much to ask to have some smaller legs, some medium legs AND some big mamma jammas? Sometimes I like to build things small or spindly lookin' but other times having things look really sturdy is nice too.

I haven't used MechJeb in a long while(since version .14 or .15-ish >.> ), though I installed it last night to see what's changed. Haven't used it yet. I don't really view it as cheating, though. My opinion is that as long as I've done a certain maneuver or successfully flown various rocket designs into orbit, having mechjeb simplify things for me isn't really all that bad. I mean, I can make almost perfectly circular orbits(within a hundred meters difference on each side sometimes) so having mechjeb do it for me sometimes isn't that big a deal 'cause I know I could do it myself if I had to. Last night I was practicing landing vehicles close to each other on the mun. I came within four hundred meters on my first try so it wasn't that bad. After a few more tests, I wouldn't feel all that bad about having mechjeb land some things for me but right now, I feel like I need to learn to do that stuff on my own before letting mechjeb automate it. But if you happen to not really like flying all that much on your own and just want to see your creations in action...I say go for the gusto. It's all personal opinion, you play the game how it makes you feel good. It's like people that use OP mods in Skyrim or something. That's not how I would play the game, but if it brings some people joy, I say go for it.

I thought the developer of this was making their own life support mod or something like that. Then again, it's been a while so who knows. Either way, I'd also really like to see this integrated into TAC life support. Then, using KAS and infernal robotics, building things in space or on other planets will be so engaging

Gathering scientific data then using it in a test room/computer is actually a really good idea You can start with rough estimates which get more precise after sending a probe or two to gather scientific data...and when you send a lander or rover, you can get /really/ precise data for your test lab. Maybe there'll be certain experiments which can only be run by kerbonats that you have to do to be able to establish a base on the planet or something. I don't even know, but it's a really good idea

There've been suggestions for various testing areas being added to KSC. A payload building, for example, where you can build rovers with a little obstacle course behind it. A VR launch building where you load up rockets you've designed to see if they work properly without wasting money launching them. Or like, a wind tunnel where you can place your rockets or aircraft to see if they're aerodynamic and what-not. I like most of these suggestions, but maybe they should be limited in usefulness based on your tech tree somehow. Maybe you have to research testing grounds as you start to get more advanced parts(like rover parts and the like) to make sure everything's going to work out properly.

This isn't something that really bothers me, but I'd be totally okay with it if they renamed those parts to truss or girder. Maybe have both, girders being from a different manufacturer with a slightly different style. Maybe have the hollow frameworky bits be trusses and then have a set of girders which are solid(maybe more narrow, as well).

I've never really had an issue with the game feeling dark. Unless I'm on the dark side of a planet, in which case I can't see anything useful. But if I'm on the light side and turn on some lights, it's blinding. I'd hate to see that madness with gamma or brightness up >_> Still, more options is always a good thing.

If you hit F5, you make a quicksave. Holding F9 will take you back to that quicksave. I don't really know why it wouldn't work. It worked for me just yesterday after I screwed up docking something

Some people don't care to fly the rockets that they build. Some people just want to build rockets, stations, probes, bases and so on and hop about in low gravity worlds, ragdolling left and right. Oh the hilarity~ Some people just want to manage a space program, doing missions to earn money then investing that money back into the space program to take on harder missions with more advanced tech. Granted, I want to do everything, including flying my own rockets. Even so, the scratch method or the button thing I was talking about could have strict(or loose) limitations on what you can and can't actually do with the system and that's the beauty of it. The functions would still be much more robust and customizable than current action groups but not to the point where you can fully automate flight after flight. You'd still have to do things to make your flights successful. There could even be, as I suggested earlier, a crew skill requirement for certain tasks. We might even see a lot of this semi-automated rocket maneuvering anyways, depending on how they work in the flight planning features they've got planned. Who knows?

They laid the groundwork for tracking accomplishments, actually. That was the bulk of .21, I believe. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think the game currently tracks whether a flight lands on a planet successfully and whether it returns. It probably tracks more than that, I just don't know much about it. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure someone mentioned in another thread that it's tracking whether specific kerbonauts landed somewhere then returned to kerbin safely. But I think it tracks it oddly or something. I don't know. Either way, I'd be down for the main menu scenery changing, though I'd rather have it be...maybe the last planet you touched down on before exiting the game last time. So, if you landed on Duna then went back to KSC to do build something before exiting the game(without launching), it would show a scene on Duna. Or if the last thing you did was launch a station or probe or something then exited the game, the main menu would display either your probe or just some of the stock builds doin' their thang. That way it's always kind of reminding you of what you did last time you played. It could even probably be setup to show a snapshot of the last vehicle you landed or got into a stable orbit. Hmm...I wonder how difficult that would be for them to setup...

You can already go into the cockpit view for some commands. I think as they improve IVAs in general, we'll see more cockpit functionality. Not to mention other things you'll be able to do from inside of vehicles, stations or bases.

I feel like if we had a UI system like scratch or the weird button thing I was talking about emulating coding without the freedom of actual coding, it would more or less balance things out on its own. They'd just have to omit more advanced actions, leaving it to modders to implement those addons to the system. By limiting what actions you can assign to each button/part, you effectively limit the player's ability to fully automate flights. Or restrict certain actions to pilot skill, since I remember one of the devs saying something about training crew to handle certain maneuvers on their own. Like, if you setup a button to perform a particular turn or maneuver, maybe that vehicle will require at least one crewman with piloting skill level two. Or something like that...and it won't allow a launch without that crewman? I don't know, there's a lot of interesting things to think about in this topic, though.

Having telescoping pistons of various sizes would surely be beneficial. Maybe combine them with rotatron hubs to make like a custom canadarm. I'd say maybe have a small variant with matching cylindrical struts with two or three lenghts, perhaps. By small, I mean...cube strut small. Then maybe have a medium set of arm parts for bigger machines...maybe have them be 'bout half the size of the regular square struts in vanilla KSP. Or like half the size of a probe core or something like that. Then again, maybe you can just get the dromoman guy to integrate his arm parts into your mod Or get permission to use them. Or something >_> Either way, I'm really eager to see what all you've been working on. This and KAS give me ridiculous ideas for things I'll probably never actually be able to build because I'm terrible at mechanical engineering XD

I like the scratch idea, where you use...in KSP they'd probably just be buttons for words and functions and things. So maybe action group one would have x number of buttons that you can define to certain parts, then give those parts functions. Let's say we click action group one, a panel shifts open to the right with...let's say ten buttons. You..maybe click a button then click a part to assign that part to that button. Then another panel shifts over to the right from the engine button and you can assign one(or possibly more, depending on how complicated this system is already) action to that button. Maybe some of the actions can have parameters that you can manually adjust for numeric values. Like activating the selected engines at eighty percent or using your SAS controller to tilt the craft at a specific heading with a particular inclination. Or something like that. You then start to setup button two. Let's say the first one was launching with your engines at eighty percent and then you set your second button to wait until you reach an altitude of 10,000. You'd probably have to use the command pod for the button. Next, you setup button three. Button three, you want to perform a thirty degree turn with a heading of ninety degrees. Again, you probably would need to use the command pod for this as that's kind of your SAS controller, right? Then instead of setting more buttons, you just launch. The buttons will activate from top to bottom in order for each action group that you activate. You hit action group one(whatever the hotkey might be for it) and you immediately launch with all of your engines set to eighty percent. THEN your craft just kind of goes until you reach an altitude of ten thousand meters. Finally, your craft starts to tilt just as you'd designed. Essentially everything you seem to want, but with simple and accessible user interface for it. Though, that leads to autopiloting(even if you have to manually define the numbers beforehand) and I think SQUAD wants to avoid that type of thing...more or less. I don't know. Either way, might make a decent mod if someone knows how to code that stuff. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to work that out, though...I know practically nothing about coding XD

I'd be completely okay with them going crazy from sleep deprivation or being stuck in space for years on end...or maybe their muscles and bones get all weak if they don't have a fitness module tacked onto the space station or if there's too many kerbals and not enough beds/fitness/whatever. Maybe they start to panic if oxygen/food/water levels start to get low or something(if they add those resources to the vanilla game, that is). Might be better as a mod, though...like part of some big hard mode mod pack or overhaul or something.

It'd definitely be nice, even if you could only dump fuel from certain tanks. I often pack on too much mono-propellant and sometimes it'd just be nice to get rid of some of it, rather than crashing into something or winding up lost in space.

There was a discussion or two regarding the mission control building recently and some of the suggestions involved pre-planning flights using the maneuver node system. There was even someone suggesting a chalkboard for the mission control room where you draw out flight plans, just to help yourself brainstorming things. But yeah, it'd definitely be cool to lay out flight plans before launch, maybe utilizing a countdown timer to get all precise with some tasks. You'd still be able to mess them up, though, if you missed your burns, turns and whatever else typically goes wrong. So it's a really good suggestion for KSP.

That could also work

I feel like this would be a good alternative to what we have now. But like...keep what we have now, if that makes sense. Like, maybe in the options there'd be a gameplay toggle for action groups and what we have now can be simplified action groups while something like that can be expanded action groups. If all we had was super complex action groups, it'd overwhelm a lot of people, especially when it's their first time playing. Or even some of us who play a lot but just don't know much about what we're doing. True trial-and-error KSPers XD

I can dig it. Or perhaps keep the lights we have now but add adjustable lights. Maybe they can be some kind of ridiculous LED light where you can adjust the brightness and maybe color as well Would be a good mod if it never makes it into the vanilla game~

I feel like we're probably going to get a vanilla part catalog...or just a part UI overhaul at one point. I mean, they're planning on integrating spaceport into the game(rather than opening spaceport externally via your browser as it does now) so that'll probably involve some new UI stuff. Or maybe even change the way mods load or something. Either way, should be good. Until then, there's mods and what-not, as people have already pointed out.

I think they're going to rework a lot of the older parts verily soon. I remember someone mentioning in one of the pre-.21 devlogs that they needed a bit of an update 'cause some of the parts are really old(especially spaceplane bits). So maybe we'll wind up with completely different looking parts in the next couple patches.

You can IVA in most crew-able parts, but it's just seated positions for now. Eventually, you're going to be able to like take your helmet off and go between parts using hatches and stuff, but that's probably a ways off yet.

There was a thread about this just the other day(yesterday, even...I think >_> ). http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/43964-Dynamic-Soundtrack

It'll probably change once they rework the way fuel tanks are handled. I mean, if we're going to be able to fill tanks with whatever fuel we like in whatever proportions we like, I would expect them all to flow the same way. More or less, anyways.