Plugin and docking parts to enhance docking immersion by enabling UI information

[curtquarquesso]

I've got an idea for a neat immersion plugin.

I'd like to discuss two short comings in stock KSP.

1. Docking is too easy.

Currently, if you and your target are in simple orbits, all you have to do is make an intercept node, and then null your velocity when you get close. The nav-ball nodes make this incredibly easy, and as long as your Kerbals have their autopilot levels maxed out, it's super easy. You can pretty much dock completely by the nav-ball in most cases.

2. Antenna are boring.

There's no need for multiple antenna currently. There's no incentive to really deck out your vessel with multiple antenna and greeble, as any more than one are redundant.

The idea is to make classes of parts that enable certain information that would be relevant to a docking scenario tied to different parts you can add to your vessel. All these parts would be different and separate from the stock antennae. Stock antenna would still function only as science transmission antennae.

I'd like to model my idea on the the IGLA model of rendezvous.

The part classes would be these:

Tracking Antennae:

By default, a vessel's orbit is visible from the tracking station, but it's current position in that orbit is not visible without a tracking antenna. With this antenna, the ground, and other vessels would be able to see a vessel's position in an orbit. This would be a low-level part available VERY early in the tree.

Telemetry Antennae: Send/Recieve

Two vessels attempting to rendezvous will need sending and receiving capabilities. Depending on which craft is passive, and which craft is on active approach, the need for certain antenna will change, but generally, both parties will need both antennae. This ability allows a vessel to see and target another vessel, and know it's orbital speed, but not relative speed. In low-tiers, this will be to separate antennae, in higher-tiers, this will be a single, smaller antenna.

Vessel Range Finder:

This device allows the distance to a vessel to be seen, and it's relative speed. Range finders do not need to be in pairs. Only the active craft needs one to see distance to target. The docking target MUST be targeted in order for it's distance from your vessel to be seen. This also is needed to see distance to an asteroid.

Radar Altimeter. For planetary bodies, a radar altimeter will be required to see distance from he surface in IVA.

A lot of the information in KSP we take for granted, and I think it'd be a neat immersion thing to really flesh out docking in KSP, and make it fairly immersive. I'm not sure how this would work with probes, or on other planetary bodies. WIP.

Is hiding certain information, and making select parts enable specific pieces of information in the UI possible? I've currently got a VERY small parts add-on that this plugin would support. I'm really new to add-on creation, and I'd love to take a stab at this. Thoughts?

Edited July 10, 2015 by curtquarquesso

[Svm420]

I love the sound of this. Maybe partial integration/build off of remoetech? Either way very interested

[hab136]

How would this affect gameplay?

1. Add tracking antenna part to every ship (and I mean *every* ship)

2. Add telemetry antenna to space stations

3. Add telemetry antenna and range finder part to docking ships

4. Add radar altimeter part to landers

For #1: space programs have to have some way of tracking debris (both man-made and natural debris) that obviously don't have an antenna, so why would they need an antenna to track a craft that they already have a good idea of where it should be?

For missions away from LKO, this would make a lot more sense. If you're entering in to Moho orbit to rendezvous with Moho Station, you may not be 100% sure of where the station actually is, and a tracking beacon would help you to know.

If you could fuzz the location instead of completely hiding it (it should be over *here*, plus or minus 20 km in any direction), that would be interesting. Lower the fuzzing the closer you get.

For #2/#3 - this would be interesting if you could hide both the distance to the other ship and the relative velocity (disable Target mode in the navball). You could still dock by sight, but it would be extra dangerous.

For #4 - uh, that's not docking. I guess you could call landing "docking with the planet"

There's no need for multiple antenna currently. There's no incentive to really deck out your vessel with multiple antenna and greeble, as any more than one are redundant.

RemoteTech 2 gives you a reason to use multiple (and different) antenna, though usually just one omni and one dish, except for communications relay satellites. I usually use mothership with dish+omni paired with a lander that just has an omni.

Is hiding certain information, and making select parts enable specific pieces of information in the UI possible?

Check out ResearchBodies which hides planets until you discover them (like asteroids). I'm not sure if it will help, but it's along the same lines.

It's real easy to check if the current ship has a certain part (or better, PartModule), but to avoid doing that check every frame, you can set a boolean flag when the flight scene starts and then whenever the ship changes (or you switch active ships).