Quality of Life improvements list

[macdjord]

• Eliminate non-functional actions from the action group screen (e.g. SRBs should not have a 'shutdown engine' option, since they can't actually be shut down, and the non-retractable solar panels should not have a 'retract' action.)
  
• Option to disarm a parachute which has been armed but not actually deployed
  
• Improve visibility of the in-game message texts (i.e. the quicksave/quickload messages, the transmission progress messages, the experiment result transferred/lost messages). These are all printed in light-coloured text, which makes them nearly invisible if they're over a light background. Adding a fine black outline to the font would make them readable on any background.
  
• A number of the part sequences need to be rebalanced in various ways in order to have sensible economy of scale. You should never have a situation where a small version of a part is strictly better than a larger part that does the same thing. For instance, the Z-series batteries all hold the same amount of charge per unit of mass, but the larger ones cost more, proportionally, than the small ones; this makes no sense; the larger ones should either be identical-but-bigger or better-but-costlier. Similarly, the Gigantor solar panel should be at least as mass efficient as the smaller retractable panels. On the other hand, the ladders all have the same mass despite massively different lengths, while the RCS quad has the same mass as the linear thruster while offering 4 nozzles to its one.
  
• Two of my previous suggestions, namely radial-mount drogue chutes and the ability to rename objects from the tracking station, are already in the game and should be removed from the list. (Note that my original suggestion was for radial-mount and 0.625 m drogue chutes; the radial-mount already exists, but the 0.625 m part is still a valid suggestion.)
  

Edited May 26, 2015 by macdjord

[DSKY]

The dialog where you select which saved game to open lists the number of active flights by each save. Flags count as active flights. Why? They should not be included in the count.

[TothAval]

VAB/SPH - checklist

*add a list showing what parts and how many are used per stage, hide the information within the note[+]-functionality in the engineer report

informed a dev about the list

list updated

integrated ideas from other posts in Suggestions and Development Discussion

[macdjord]

When a navball icon is out of sight off the edge of the ball, add an arrow of the appropriate colour pointing to it. For paired markers (prograde/retrograde, target/anti-target, etc.), the arrow would only show when neither of the pair is visible, and would point towards the positive one. The size of the arrow would indicate how far out of view the marker is, from full size for 'just out of view' to half size for 'almost exactly 180 degrees away' (of course, unpaired markers like the node burn marker would ever get that small; the paired markers can get much more than than 90 degrees away without the opposite marker coming into view).

[sumghai]

Another modding-related QoL suggestion for your consideration:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/124699-Allow-ModuleAnimationGroup-to-consume-generate-resources-when-used-on-its-own

Allow ModuleAnimationGroup to consume/generate resources when used on its own

EDIT: Please disregard

Edited June 14, 2015 by sumghai

[macdjord]

Put a hard limit of, say, 5s on how long a Kerbal can ragdoll before becoming controllable again, and make them immune to ragdolling again for at least 2s. This includes while skidding or bouncing along a surface.

[DSKY]

Scrolling: clicking above or below the scroll bar does not work in some (maybe all) dialog boxes. Have to drag the box with the cursor or use a scroll wheel.

Scroll wheel: using a scroll wheel to scroll the flight list in the tracking station results in the map display zooming, even when the cursor is over the list.

Loading in VAB/SPH: no warning given if current vessel has not been saved. Would also be nice to have an indicator showing saved status.

Action groups: would be SUPER handy to have a way to view action group definitions once vessel was launched!

[Red Iron Crown]

Loading in VAB/SPH: no warning given if current vessel has not been saved. Would also be nice to have an indicator showing saved status.

There are warnings, but I think only for pressing "New" or "Load".

[TothAval]

Thx for the input. I've been kinda busy for the last weeks, i will try to update the list 'til weekend.

[DSKY]

OK, this one is really esoteric: a marker on the navball indicating the direction of your external view. For those times when you want to look in the direction of a maneuver node or a target that isn't quite in view yet. Maybe it could be shaped like the old CBS eyeball logo...

[Feradose]

The "pictures of crafts" should be deleted for craft files that dont exist! It eats our most valuable RAM!

[clivman]

Can you add the features of Stock Plus to this thread- especially radial chute spread.

[moronwrocket]

UI requests:

- Don't change button placement in a window. (Happens when processing science from a science lab. Always keep the 4 buttons in the same spot.)

- Make all keyboard actions mouse-able. I should be able to click on the Navball to enable/disable SAS and RCS, and to set my throttle, including max throttle and 0 throttle.

- Allow right-clicking parts in the staging stack to access the normal right-click menu. Makes night ops easier. (Protip: You can slide the debug window over your vessel to get a "night vision" view of the ship)

- Vessel science instruments added to staging stack indicators, as above

- Increase the number of things visible in the Orbit window when you hover over a location. Happens all the time with me that the key parameter I need is cutoff.

Gameplay requests:

- Give EVA kerbals a navball at top tier of the astronaut center. Seriously, even FLAGS get a navball.

[DarkMoon]

One thing that is really bothering me: the audio settings seriously needs a master volume control.

Gameplay: kerbals in EVA should rotate up/down, the same way they rotate left/right. Useless when landed, but very important when in orbit.

[Tynrael]

UI Suggestion:

Clicking one of the options for if you want to save in the assembly buildings will not pick up parts of your ship if they are behind the menu.

[macdjord]

UI Suggestion:

Clicking one of the options for if you want to save in the assembly buildings will not pick up parts of your ship if they are behind the menu.

Hell, make that a general rule: When UI elements anywhere overlap, clicking should only trigger the top one.

[WinkAllKerb'']

add some dice too ksp ; ) (off topic, partially ... *yick* )

[WinkAllKerb'']

VAB/SPH: part placement

for offset and rotate tools: optionnal pop up window with (absolute/relative) numerics values you can manually enter

------

Edit:

btw what miss the most is probably the ability to reset to 0,0,0 absolute and relative (especially for rotation & absolute) and/or the ability to enter preset decal value instead of full manual entry could be nice 1 5 10 25 50 100 // 1° 5° 15° 45° 90° 180°.

(mostly thinking around the "Kinetic Void" Shipyard left side UI tools wich was kinda handy and really well thought regarding reset position, rotation, preset values and a few other things)

(more details about shipyard button fonctionalities in KV that could be usefull for KSP can be found bottom of this steam guide http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=258410158)

Edited August 3, 2015 by WinkAllKerb''

[DanTheGamer11]

It would be nice if the quick load would remember the camera mode/position, makes reloading a landing frustrating since it defaults to a side view :/ Would also be nice if you could have a button to reset the camera centred behind a space plane(or centre cockpit without reverting to default zoom too), especially for locked view mode. Small but annoying for me. If for some reason that isn't implementable maybe a pause button so you can at least adjust the camera etc before you waste time having to adjust the camera everytime

I wonder how useful it would be to be able to pin the info panes that come up when you left click a part, especially with the panes going crazy if a part is moving fast etc

Edited August 2, 2015 by DanTheGamer11

[juanml82]

For the GUI, I'd like a togglable overlay showing which key rotates where. Say you're doing a rendezvous. The target marker isn't in the navball (add a ghost marker would also be a good idea) but you have the target on sight. You can't, however, easily know which key will rotate your spaceship towards/away the target until the marker appears in the navball.

[Samniss Arandeen]

In addition to having settings adjustable on the fly in game, I'd like probes, rovers, and space stations to aim at a fixed point in the sky, and remember this point when they reload. This would simplify docking with the damn things and make sure solar panels always face the Sun. Too many times I've set a space station to target the Sun and point directly at it, only to fly into physics loading range of it and see the rotation hasn't been preserved. Now I either have to switch vessels and reaim the space station (which isn't the easiest thing to fly, being heavy and held together with docking ports) or dock at this [EXPLETIVE] up angle and hope I don't block what few panels are left facing the Sun.

Navball. Oh how I would love to just have a simple artificial horizon with compass overlay, like real avionics. Being able to zoom in on it would be a treat as well if Navball is kept (some of us are used to it, and players new to the game/not versed in aviation might find it simpler to grasp). I understand that the directions on the Navball correspond to cardinal directions on the surface (and zenith for 90 degree pitch up, nadir for 90 degree pitch down), but in orbital mode, I'd like the Navball's horizon to represent the orbital plane, 0 degrees heading being exactly prograde, 90 degrees east being radial. This way it can act as a nonrotating frame of reference.

The Map Screen should show us more information about the orbit, such as period, inclination, ascending nodes, eccentricity, etcetera.

A small one, but one nonetheless. Let us aim landing gear lights independently of the landing gear. Let lights placed with Symmetry be different colors.

VAB/SPH: part placement

for offset and rotate tools: optionnal pop up window with (absolute/relative) numerics values you can manually enter

Same for Tweakables, options sliders, anything where I'm changing a numerical value. Just give me a field to manually enter a freaking number.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Samniss Arandeen

[macdjord]

For the GUI, I'd like a togglable overlay showing which key rotates where. Say you're doing a rendezvous. The target marker isn't in the navball (add a ghost marker would also be a good idea) but you have the target on sight. You can't, however, easily know which key will rotate your spaceship towards/away the target until the marker appears in the navball.

Click on the navball where it says 'Orbital' to cycle between orbit, surface, and target mode manually.

[juanml82]

Click on the navball where it says 'Orbital' to cycle between orbit, surface, and target mode manually.

This is what I mean:

Which keys do I press to point towards the mothership? It isn't a big deal in this particular case, because the lander is small and turns fast, but for larger vessels without enough reaction wheels or rcs, it can be.

[macdjord]

This is what I mean:

http://i58.tinypic.com/206yoih.jpg

Which keys do I press to point towards the mothership? It isn't a big deal in this particular case, because the lander is small and turns fast, but for larger vessels without enough reaction wheels or rcs, it can be.

Ah! What you need there is a little arrow on the navball telling you which direction the marker is in when you can't see it. (I suggested this earlier.)

[WinkAllKerb'']

Parts/ (new category) Generic shared UI

Tweakable bar with multiple sliders (amongst a list of possible ressources)

- Usable for many things

- Could be interesting regarding the ksp part folder like reducing the same looking part (aside eventually a texture choice menu eventually)

- might be usefull regarding many KSP part fonctionnalities and modding also.

Kinda like this:

- - - Updated - - -

Edited August 27, 2015 by WinkAllKerb''