Things I hate about the editor

[Majorjim!]

Building fairings tend to make me nuts. They can be so finicky. I spend 10-15 minutes getting it just right and,,,oops, I forgot what ever it was and the fairing has to be removed. I carefully set it aside and see that it's just fine, fully intact. Then go to put it back to the same position,,, and poof! No fairing.

This can be annoying. Try adding another thin part first before the fairing and pick that up first along with the fairing. Doing this keeps the fairing intact when reattaching.

[moogoob]

This can be annoying. Try adding another thin part first before the fairing and pick that up first along with the fairing. Doing this keeps the fairing intact when reattaching.

This is a good tip - I just discovered this myself yesterday when launching a small station hab module.

[SpacedCowboy]

Do tell?! Thanks for the tip.

[problemecium]

You know what'd be neat?

If the editor had a way to visualize the parenting tree. I used to play a game called "Battleships Forever" that had a ship builder similar to a 2D version of KSP's. When you would hold "P" (I think), it would show lines connecting each part to its parent.

[Mr_Gruntie]

I loved that mod until I installed it. It kept being the default and there was no way to set it the way I wanted it to be: Something I toggled on to use during that 1% of the time I needed it. So I uninstalled it, never looked back. Just perusing the changelog on the first post seems to tell me that it has not changed.

Check line 43 of the config file.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I loved that mod until I installed it. It kept being the default and there was no way to set it the way I wanted it to be: Something I toggled on to use during that 1% of the time I needed it. So I uninstalled it, never looked back. Just perusing the changelog on the first post seems to tell me that it has not changed.

That's about how I felt when I first installed it, but very soon I started to see how useful it was. My only complaint is that it moves to fast. I use shift all the time with it.

Funny ... after building in the VAB for a few years and having a lot of frustration with orientation (gearboxes, multi-cylinder piston engines) I discovered the power of the SPH. Never looked back since.

The camera is something to get used to. Since using the SPH I can build three times as fast. VAB is like limping when you could be running. But to each his own.

I used to use SPH more than VAB, because I couldn't get inside my craft. But now I use WASD editor cam. I can use either, depending on whether I'm building a rocket or a plane.

[RocketBlam]

Here is what drives me nuts:

You use action groups on something, say a jet engine. You have two jets and you set the 1 key to toggle them on and off. Ok, fine so far. Then when your editing, you adjust one of the parts the jets are attached to. Say, they're attached to a LF tank and you move that. Now, ONE of the jet engines still has the action group attached and the other doesn't. So when your up at 20,000 meters and you hit 1 to shut your jets off, it only shuts one of them off, and you spin out of control. Because you thought it still worked the way you set it up. This bug costs me more time than anything else.

Edited August 29, 2015 by RocketBlam

[Xyphos]

1) QWEASD keys will rotate the part you're currently holding

2) if you install the Kerbal Engineer Redux mod, it'll tell you in a small window, exactly which part you're pointing to, before you click on it.

3) camera control is lacking. it needs a quick-flip key to rotate it 180* around the Y-axis, still waiting for a modder to jump on this.

[TronX33]

I don't know if any of you guys know, but holding shift plus the arrow keys makes it move, as if in a FPS I guess?. Holding Shift plus scrolling make the camera go up.

[selfish_meme]

I don't know if anyone said this but when attaching elevavons and they are vertical, make sure you have angle snap on and push it into the wing slightly further, they will then rotate to align with the wing.

[razark]

Majorjim's trying to help you, as the others have said. Why are you dismissing his attempts as "useless?"

New guy: I have a problem doing <X>.

Oldtimer: "so what?" Your complaint is invalid!

New guy: Well, I guess my opinion isn't worthy of being spoken around here.

Some of us have been around a long time. We've put up with some oddities in how the program works. We've gotten used to them, and we know how to work around them easily.

That doesn't mean that they're not still there, or that they're not worth mentioning. New folks are going to have a different perspective. Let's try not to act as though they don't have something worthwhile to bring to the conversation.

[Columbia]

New guy: I have a problem doing <X>.

Oldtimer: "so what?" Your complaint is invalid!

New guy: Well, I guess my opinion isn't worthy of being spoken around here.

Some of us have been around a long time. We've put up with some oddities in how the program works. We've gotten used to them, and we know how to work around them easily.

That doesn't mean that they're not still there, or that they're not worth mentioning. New folks are going to have a different perspective. Let's try not to act as though they don't have something worthwhile to bring to the conversation.

He didn't say his complaints were invalid, please look at what he said again.

1) so what? It takes a second to position it.

2) Save often, try not to use control+z it's kraken bait. Either reload the craft or just build more carefully.

3) It is possible to move the craft into any position you want man, its easy, just press shift to grab the whole craft or grab the primary part and move it.

My suggestion would be, practice more.

MJ

Maybe it came off to him, or you as "Your complaints are invalid". He told him about workarounds to the problem. He never said his complaints were invalid.

And besides, when an oldtimer gives you advice, do you say that his attempts are useless? Now that's just plain rude.

[razark]

He didn't say his complaints were invalid, please look at what he said again.

He said "so what?" in response to another player's annoyance. How is the poster supposed to take that?

And besides, when an oldtimer gives you advice, do you say that his attempts are useless? Now that's just plain rude.

I missed that part with the advice. "So what? It doesn't bother ME that much." is a bit more of a rude response. Just because someone has been around longer, or has a higher post count doesn't mean he's any better than someone that just joined. Expecting a person to listen to someone based only on how long he's been here is a bit dickish, really.

[Columbia]

He said "so what?" in response to another player's annoyance. How is the poster supposed to take that?

I missed that part with the advice. "So what? It doesn't bother ME that much."

At the start. The rest of the advice was actually helpful.

Just because someone has been around longer, or has a higher post count doesn't mean he's any better than someone that just joined. Expecting a person to listen to someone based only on how long he's been here is a bit dickish, really.

Since when was this about join date, or being more skilled at the game than the other? He gave him advice (which you thought was apparently "rude",) and he said it was useless, rather rudely, I must say.

And even if it was rude, telling him it was "useless" was rather dickish, too. If you really wanted to tell him that it was no use, what about "Thanks, but I already knew about these workarounds" and all that similar stuff? It's less rude.

[Azimech]

That's about how I felt when I first installed it, but very soon I started to see how useful it was. My only complaint is that it moves to fast. I use shift all the time with it.

I used to use SPH more than VAB, because I couldn't get inside my craft. But now I use WASD editor cam. I can use either, depending on whether I'm building a rocket or a plane.

That's probably even better! I liked the presentation of that mod.

[Val]

Here is what drives me nuts:

You use action groups on something, say a jet engine. You have two jets and you set the 1 key to toggle them on and off. Ok, fine so far. Then when your editing, you adjust one of the parts the jets are attached to. Say, they're attached to a LF tank and you move that. Now, ONE of the jet engines still has the action group attached and the other doesn't. So when your up at 20,000 meters and you hit 1 to shut your jets off, it only shuts one of them off, and you spin out of control. Because you thought it still worked the way you set it up. This bug costs me more time than anything else.

Have a look at the Stock Bug Fix Modules plugins. The SymmetryActionFix.dll solves exactly that problem.

[mrclucks]

Perhaps even more annoyingly, if you orient something and then take it off (eg, need symmetry), it forgets the orientation you made and you have to do that all over again!

Learning keyboard shortcuts will prevent you having to move your mouse as much. Pressing x with increase symmetry and shift x will reduce it.

A couple other shortcuts are. Holding alt and clicking will duplicate that part and anything attached(excluding the root part), pressing r will switch between mirror and radial symmetry, although mirror has a max symmetry of 2.

If you want a whole list you can easily Google a keyboard map for ksp

[RocketBlam]

Eh, thanks, but no. I have a principle against using mods to fix bugs. If a modder can fix it, Squad should fix it and not rely on modders to do their footwork.

[BudgetHedgehog]

To be fair, it used to be a looooot worse. Remember the old part list layout? No offset/rotate/re-root gizmos? When you couldn't toggle between radial and mirror symmetry and had to save ships as subassemblies to move them between editors if you wanted to? Remember when you sometimes couldn't place engines at the bottom of symmetrical stacks because they "clipped" into the stack? Or when you couldn't place a part because it was touching another part by a pixel and you had to enable part clipping in the debug menu? Oh, the wars that were fought over whether that was 'correct' or morally right..

Random screenshot from Google, I think it's 0.22 or 0.23.

The editor certainly has come a long way. Still, Alt+click copying a part should maintain that parts orientation, not be even worse than a new part.

[Superfluous J]

Eh, thanks, but no. I have a principle against using mods to fix bugs. If a modder can fix it, Squad should fix it and not rely on modders to do their footwork.

That is a very honorable position to take and I understand it, however you're only hurting yourself.

- - - Updated - - -

To be fair, it used to be a looooot worse. Remember the old part list layout? No offset/rotate/re-root gizmos? When you couldn't toggle between radial and mirror symmetry and had to save ships as subassemblies to move them between editors if you wanted to? Remember when you sometimes couldn't place engines at the bottom of symmetrical stacks because they "clipped" into the stack? Or when you couldn't place a part because it was touching another part by a pixel and you had to enable part clipping in the debug menu? Oh, the wars that were fought over whether that was 'correct' or morally right..

Oh Gawd I had forgotten about "you can't place this engine with symmetry but you can place all of them individually." That drove me insane. You mention having to save subassemblies to transfer from VAB to SPH, remember when there WERE'NT subassemblies?

Yes the editor in particular has gotten a LOT better. Other than clickthrough and some camera shenanegans I'm happy with it. If they don't touch the editor for a year and work on other stuff I'll be perfectly happy.

[Mat2ch]

Yes the editor in particular has gotten a LOT better. Other than clickthrough and some camera shenanegans I'm happy with it. If they don't touch the editor for a year and work on other stuff I'll be perfectly happy.

The clickthrough may be gone with Unity 5.

And remember the Oh, I have a hundred parts thing here, do you want to add it in symmetrical mode? You can avoid that by holding ALT...

[Azimech]

That is a very honorable position to take and I understand it, however you're only hurting yourself

This.

---

Oh and something about keyboard use. If you don't do it, start doing so. My left hand is just as active as my right hand. If only because the offset/rotation gizmo's sometimes have difficulty switching to a different part or an adjacent part sits inside gizmo radius. So for me it's constantly tapping keys 2-1-2-1-2-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-2-etc when adjusting a large number of parts.

Other things:

Don't stick with angle snap or free, choose what's appropriate for your parts or situation. I'm constantly switching.

Same as with local or absolute reference, the f key. I'm constantly switching this as well.

Switch on "non-strict part placement" and "allow part clipping" through Alt-F12.

Zooming in on a part enhances offset resolution. With rotation gizmo, unfortunately it does not.

All these things together greatly increase crafting rate.

[Superfluous J]

And remember the Oh, I have a hundred parts thing here, do you want to add it in symmetrical mode? You can avoid that by holding ALT...

And you have plenty of time to remember to do that in the 3 minutes it takes KSP to respond after it started doing that anyway, because you can't really hold down ALT the whole time you're editing your craft.

[DocMoriarty]

Abpout the editor I hate most that mirrored parts group actions get removed when a mirrored branch is detached and reattached. Then I forget to fix it and notice it when it's in orbit. Doh!

[Tank Buddy]

3) Trying to get a camera angle to see something in a tricky position? Good luck, you'll be moving the camera around all day long. Free move isn't possible on your camera.

There is a mod that enables FPS-like VAB camera controls. I am yet to try it.