Repacked Parachute can be Redeployed by Staging

[peter1981]

My issue is that when you've landed on say Duna and used parachutes you will inevitably repack them for the return to Kerbin.

Why not make repacked parachutes able to be redeploy by staging?

So all you have to do is move the parachute icons up the staging or create a new stage for them to be in. Then stage them as new.

Any thoughts on this?

[regex]

So all you have to do is move the parachute icons up the staging or create a new stage for them to be in. Then stage them as new.

This doesn't work? I could have swore it did...

[klgraham1013]

Last time I tried it, I don't think it worked. If it doesn't, it probably should.

[TheMoonRover]

No, it doesn't work.

[Red Iron Crown]

Chutes can only be activated once with staging. They can only be used more than once through action groups.

This seems like a simple, useful suggestion, good idea OP.

[stupid_chris]

This doesn't work? I could have swore it did...

No it doesn't. Like staging engines again. You know why it doesn't? Because the stock staging controller doesn't really allow a part to be "unstaged", and thus it can't be staged again. The staging controller is old and deprecated and they really need to burn it down because there's no salvaging it. There needs a new one from bottoms up.

This is also why RealChute doesn't use the stock staging controller. You know it's bad when catching the "launch stage" keypress is better than listening to what the stock staging controller is telling you.

So another feature that would appear if Squad fixed their bugs, yay.

[r4pt0r]

There needs a new one from bottoms up.

More like from the BUTTONS up, amitire? HAHAHAHA.....

but yeah, that's always a pain especially when your duna lander is also your return module. chutes have been finiky in my experience.

[A_Burnt_Rodent]

If you action group parachutes, then they can be reused after repacking. I do this all the time now and just move all chutes to stage 0.

[AbacusWizard]

Well shoot! I'm glad I learned about this just before sending the Voyager I on its way to Duna instead of just after. I guess I'd better rebuild the lander (again) with an action group for the parachutes.

[Renegrade]

Just a note for anybody who has a craft in flight who can't change to action groups: you can also activate the parachutes via right-click. Obviously this has some drawbacks (clunky, only one at a time, etc), but it's a band-aid solution and pretty much how I do Duna missions in a normal stock game (assuming the save lives long enough to go to Duna and doesn't drown in 40,000 science points before reaching orbit).

I'd definitely support being able to re-stage chutes. I'd also love to see some of the (other) RealChute features make it into stock (like gentle deployment, selectable kinds, de/activation settings, etc)

[cicatrix]

Last time I tried it worked for me, you just need to drag the chute manually into a new stage (use + button). Dunno, maybe it's RealChute, but I doubt.

[peter1981]

Thanks everyone for the responses - to the best of my knowledge in stock KSP 0.90.0 'chutes can only be deployed by staging once. (RealChutes may mod this.)

I've am aware that you can deploy parachutes using Action Groups and activate them after repacking as many times as you repack them but, in career mode action groups are limited to none, basic, and full for each of the three VAB upgrade levels, respectively. Yet parachutes are a 0 level technology and require level 1 engineers to repack. So maybe this is a broken feature that was intended but (AFAIK) has never worked.

This is further complicated by the fact that the icons for parachutes gets reset after a repack and reload of a vessel. The icons are (IIRC):

White - packed ready for staging

Cyan - staged but not deployed

Yellow - semi-deployed

Green - deployed

Red - unpacked

If you repack a unpacked parachute, red icon, it turns into a green icon, deployed, but it is in fact packed ready for staging. However if you've returned to the KSC and go back to the vessel you'll find that you have a white icon (which is correct) but if you move it to a new or un-staged stage you cannot deploy it using staging. (@Devs fix this pretty please.)

I have had another thought on this after reading the previous posts: When you accept a contract to test an engine under specific conditions if you miss the conditions can't re-stage the engine activation after manual deactivation (or action group shutdown) and then perform the staging test -- you either have to revert the flight to launch and try again or launch another attempt.

So in summary staging need a overhaul SQUAD