Will water be "nicer to crafts" in 1.0?

[One-Way Films]

Does anyone know? I hope they fix it in at least Version 1.01 because I love ditching planes when engines fall off. it's just cool and it's a small thing that would improve the game in many aspects such as sea platforms that don't combust when an object pushes them down into the water. Just my opinion. Take it or leave it

Would anyone agree with me though on water being important in some ways?

[Majorjim!]

It's a definite possibility. Don't hold your breath though. I remember reading that Squad wanted under the seas to be explorable too. I wonder what came of that?

[klesh]

I would settle for the sound of traveling in water to be fixed. I pretty much had to turn craft sounds to 1 in order to stand sailing around Kerbin.

[Van Disaster]

As ever there's a mod for that, but it'd be nice if it wasn't necessary to use a mod for that little thing, indeed.

[klgraham1013]

Doubtful. Stick to crashing on land. It's safer.

[8bitgammers]

i sure hope they do this!

also, and this is just my opinion, i think they should add a boat making facility and a working water port to launch from, after all it would be a good aspect of career if the player had to recover their own crafts.

just an idea though. not like it will happen.

[MGCJerry]

i sure hope they do this!

also, and this is just my opinion, i think they should add a boat making facility and a working water port to launch from, after all it would be a good aspect of career if the player had to recover their own crafts.

just an idea though. not like it will happen.

Recover boosters on barges...

[Chaos_Klaus]

Try the better bouyancy mod by ferram4!

[Columbia]

Seriously though, I still think that water would be very important to the game. Many KSP activities are associated with it. When you land on waterborne bodies such as Laythe and Eve, boats would be a big gamechanger to explore the planets with.

Boosters that fall can be recovered without the unrealistic "water" whacking them apart. It's actually less dangerous to land on ground.

A bit counterintuitive, isn't it?

And if that still doesn't give Squad a reason, what about the tremendous lag it causes, especially during splashdowns?!

Sorry for the rant, I just found it frustrating that Squad ignored this issue even if it was right in front of their faces.

It's both unrealistic and​ game-breaking.

[LABHOUSE]

It's a definite possibility. Don't hold your breath though. I remember reading that Squad wanted under the seas to be explorable too. I wonder what came of that?

I have gone under the sea before, once you are completely under the surface, you can move some.

[jlo96]

I believe I remember SQUAD saying they would not be implementing boats and such. It's a shame, but their reasoning is that KSP is a rocket game/simulator/thing, not a sea thing. It would fragment the game and their original vision.

EDIT: I couldn't find a member of SQUAD saying anything about boats, but it is on the official DNS list

As for all the water lag, dangourousness, etc. I think it's like that because water is so much different than everything else, collision wise. If SQUAD is even semi-sane (which they are) they're probably waiting until other things are stable to fix this, because it could potentially be so buggy and hard to implement. That's not to say they're not doing it wrong right now, but I trust they'll fix it when they're able.

Edited April 11, 2015 by jlo96

[Vallius]

Why should it be? Hitting water from more than about 70 feet up (~21 m) is about the same as hitting concrete, but has no trouble swallowing up large spacecraft.

I was about to make an argument about how impractical it would be for Squad to implement mechanics that only apply to 2 or 3 planetary bodies--but then I remembered air breathing engines.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Vallius
Included metric

[Bill Phil]

I hope so.

Maybe a dynamics update, more than aerodynamics, but hydrodynamics and proper thermodynamics( to an extent, of course), you know, the works.

[EladDv]

Thermodynamics is a part of the Aerodynamics update

[panzer1b]

i agree water fix (at a minimum the lagginess) should be looked at.

While water sports are always fun (almost every DMP server theres at least 1-2 boats using the air intakes), its kinda annoying that it both lags excessively, and requires abusing air intakes in large numbers.

[Bill Phil]

Thermodynamics is a part of the Aerodynamics update

I know. But it was an example.

[BagelRabbit]

I made a thread for this on the Suggestions and Development subforum awhile back. Here it is. Even though this thread got a fair amount of attention and replies, it didn't really result in anything happening. But then again, very few suggestions on that subforum are actually implemented for some reason.

I still stand by all of the things I said there. Water is currently far too laggy; it looks quite unattractive; it's more unforgiving to splash down on it than to crash into hard Kerbin ground; rocket engines and jet engines work whilst submerged; and many parts are so ridiculously buoyant that they bounce hundreds of meters into the air (I'm looking at you, air intakes). It's a placeholder that has basically remained unchanged since water was actually not rendered as a solid surface.

Would overhauling water be a difficult thing to do? Probably.

Should the devs overhaul water for 1.0? Absolutely.

1.0 is supposed to be a 'feature-complete' version where all aspects of the game are more-or-less established. The water system right now is undeniably a placeholder, and placeholders have no place in a complete game. Water is not a 'small' aspect of the game, either - after 1.0 is released, boosters and other bits will likely have to be recovered in it more frequently than ever. It's really absurd to leave water as-is, and hopefully SQUAD won't do it. I have a sneaking suspicion that they will, though.

Please, SQUAD, fix water for 1.0. For our sake and for yours.

-Upsilon

[Lukaszenko]

Why should it be? Hitting water from more than about 70 feet up is about the same as hitting concrete, but has no trouble swallowing up large spacecraft.

Mythbusters tested this, and as I recall it is far from the same as hitting concrete.

[matts73]

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be

The future's not ours to see

Que sera, sera

What will be, will be

[Juanfro]

That was a long time ago it is like the nuclear reactor for bases, constructing buildings in other bodies, more star systems, the very complex old resource plan...

If one or more of those features eventually get into the game I don't think it will be before a 2.0 version.

[Renkov]

I'd like enough of a water system to be able to ditch a plane in the water and not have the whole thing explode like it was made of balsa wood.

[eddiew]

This got suggested early but everyone has ignored it so I'll raise it again...

Better Buoyancy by Ferram4

I've hit the water at ~80m/s in a shallow glide and gotten away with it thanks to this mod. Sometimes it'll cause small items (e.g. science packages) to break off and float, but it's still a much better bet than stock water. Now if my SSTOs aren't looking good on landing, I kick the rockets and overshoot for a splashdown, rather than F9 and try again

Only down side; Kerbals will probably sink if you EVA them, so don't expect an ocean surface sample, ever!

[Greenfire32]

Why should it be? Hitting water from more than about 70 feet up is about the same as hitting concrete

While this is mostly true, by the time most players hit the water, they're going slow enough where this no longer applies. Especially if chutes are deployed.

[Alshain]

Why should it be? Hitting water from more than about 70 feet up is about the same as hitting concrete, but has no trouble swallowing up large spacecraft.

While this is mostly true, by the time most players hit the water, they're going slow enough where this no longer applies. Especially if chutes are deployed.

There is also a difference between hitting the water head on and gliding across it with a pontoon plane. In current KSP, there is no difference, it's like hitting concrete every time.

[pincushionman]

In the Devnotes…

…proper detection and placement of splashdown effects at very high speeds (now that that’s possible)…