Make the new IVA's more practical

[DerpenWolf]

Ok so there are a lot of blank buttons in the current IVA's and I think it could be pretty cool to utilize some of them for things such as the abort, landing gear, lights, and other action keys (1,2,3,etc...). It would also be nice if the views would be made more useful for things like docking and atmospheric flight (Mk1-2 Command Pod could be better for docking and the Mk2 cockpits, though nice could be altered slightly to give a better flight view. It would also be cool if the command seat got an IVA!

Thoughts?

[Sampa]

I support this fully

[r4pt0r]

I think this would be cool. though my main concern is all of the command IVA's getting a radar altimeter that you can see while looking out the window, for easier IVA landings.

[White Owl]

My IVA wishlist:

#1 - Great visibility. Big windows, positioned so the pilot can actually see outside. Even if that makes the parts slightly unrealistic.

#2 - An equivalent airspeed indicator. Merely adding an EAS mode to the current speed gauge would be enough. What I'd really like is an analog gauge; good ol' round dial with a needle pointing to numbers.

#3 - Machmeter. The big update is apparently bringing mach effects. If players don't have a means to see their mach number, then they won't understand why the vehicle suddenly starts handling differently. Even if you know it's caused by transonic effects, do you know what speed exactly is transonic at what altitude exactly? I suppose you could memorize a chart instead...

#4 - Fix the altimeter. Like this. Change three lines in a config file, and the IVA altimeter will match every other altimeter in the world, including all those other flight sims that players might have experienced.

There's a whole bunch of other stuff I'd love to see - like head tracking and functioning MFDs - but those points are the most important omissions/errors in the current IVAs.

I do want to point out how very cool it is that KSP has already had working clickable cockpits for so long! Now it's just time to polish them up.

[Wanderfound]

Just integrate RPM already. IVAs are useless visual candy without it.

[cpast]

Just integrate RPM already. IVAs are useless visual candy without it.

Can't. RPM is GPLed, and Mihara isn't the only contributor, which means *all* contributors have to agree to relicense it to allow integration (or someone has to rewrite basically everything that's been touched by anyone who didn't agree to relicense it).