so how often is the game lying to us?

[mrklaw]

I just watched the recent Scott Manley beginners episodes where he is docking in kerbin orbit for a contract. He put a junior docking adapter on, and I was chuckling to myself because then his crew would be stuck in the lander. 'why did he do that?' I thought to myself.

Well he did that, it turns out, because you can transfer crew just fine through the teeny tiny junior docking port. The one that has a description in game of 'its usable for transferring resources, but not crew'. The main reason I've been building unnecessarily large landers because you can't really put the normal docking adapter on the small mk1 pods or lander cans.

So what other examples are there where the game says one thing, but does another?

[Starwhip]

Well, it was supposed to work like that, but at the moment Kerbals can be transferred through struts, let alone the tiny docking ports.

I haven't noticed much else... though the unshrouded solar panels do not give a warning as to their lack of retractability.

[Sharpy]

Think of it that way: The kerbals don't travel through the port. They go EVA and move to the other ship. The "transfer" operation is just a shorthand for that.

[Snark]

Also, I suspect that it's not really lying, just obsolete. The handy "transfer crew" feature was a fairly recent addition to the pre-1.0 game. My guess is that the original description was written for "color" rather than trying to impart any specific game rules (similar to the cutesy warnings about explosions, for things that don't actually explode), and then when they added the crew transfer feature, nobody thought to go back and check all the part descriptions.

[Feradose]

Well, it was supposed to work like that, but at the moment Kerbals can be transferred through struts, let alone the tiny docking ports.

I haven't noticed much else... though the unshrouded solar panels do not give a warning as to their lack of retractability.

Im pretty sure there is an orange warning under item icon in its description.

[Nookos]

... at the moment Kerbals can be transferred through struts, let alone the tiny docking ports...

Asteroids is a good one too. Vessels attached to an asteroid at different location can transfer whatever they want through the asteroid.

[magnemoe]

Well, it was supposed to work like that, but at the moment Kerbals can be transferred through struts, let alone the tiny docking ports.

I haven't noticed much else... though the unshrouded solar panels do not give a warning as to their lack of retractability.

You can also use kas pipes or wires to transfer kerbals.

[Geschosskopf]

So what other examples are there where the game says one thing, but does another?

Mostly in the map view. It frequently shows encounters that don't actually happen, or show no encounter and suddenly you're in another SOI without warning.

[Red Iron Crown]

The Precooler part is another one. It's thermal properties are nothing great, you're almost always better off attaching engines to a larger tank for better heat absorption.

[Superfluous J]

The Mk2 Lander Can says, in its description, "don't expect it to survive atmospheric entry or even a sneeze"

In reality it can survive re-entry just as well as any other part.

[Rithsom]

The Mk. 3 Cockpit description still says the internal view is in shipping and customs, even though that's in now.

[Captain Sierra]

The Precooler part is another one. It's thermal properties are nothing great, you're almost always better off attaching engines to a larger tank for better heat absorption.

Oh you mean that part I buffed the thermal mass on?

Its convective and radiative properties are pretty good but its thermal mass is too low to be useful most of the time.

EDIT: One thing I noted in my revisions of it is a) a lot of the new physics crap is kept outside of the .cfg and consequently the documentation, API, and general accessibility for those not wanting to write a plugin to tweak one part, is about nonexistent.

- - - Updated - - -

The Mk. 3 Cockpit description still says the internal view is in shipping and customs, even though that's in now.

I presume this is an artifact from when the IVA was still not done but the part was in game (1 or 2 updates ago).

Edited June 13, 2015 by Captain Sierra

[viktor19]

Dont forget the Antennae paradox: first available antenna displays higher speeds and lower energy consumption than the other two, which are more expensive and unlocked later in-game.