How does KSP do damage tracking??

[GeneralVeers]

So my new space station has been up and running for a while. Yesterday there was a bit of an incident. Some idiot in a shuttle was flying up to dock, and got too close to the solar panels. He didn't actually hit them, but later, when I happened to glance at the flight log, I noticed there were about a hundred entries, each saying "solar panel was damaged by engine exhaust".

Evidently our hotshot pilot was blowing thruster exhaust on the solar panels while trying to dock. What I'm wondering: is this damage recorded permanently, or does it get "forgotten" when I change focus, go back to KSP, exit the game, or whichever?

[NathanKell]

That actually just means they got heated up, no actual damage.

[Claw]

Yeah, KSP doesn't do partial damage for craft. Noting is really damaged unless it visibly breaks (like solar panels shattering or wheel treads breaking), or if the part is destroyed completely.

Cheers,

-Claw

[jiminator]

that is one answer. I have a saved game file of a ship attached to an asteroid. time acceleration always causes explosions. same after detaching it. the problem went away after I reattached in another spot. So what in the craft caused the "always explode" ?

[NathanKell]

Some sort of bug, I'd assume.

[GeneralVeers]

So, if a thruster was parked in front of a solar panel and spent six years blowing rocket exhaust on it, the solar panel would never explode?

Well, on the plus side I can be a little less paranoid when I'm flying around near a space station......

[Claw]

that is one answer. I have a saved game file of a ship attached to an asteroid. time acceleration always causes explosions. same after detaching it. the problem went away after I reattached in another spot. So what in the craft caused the "always explode" ?

Sounds like you are running into one of the claw bugs. I have a fix for a couple in my stock bug fix modules, but that's a different issue than what the thread is about.

So, if a thruster was parked in front of a solar panel and spent six years blowing rocket exhaust on it, the solar panel would never explode?

Depends on how big the engine is, how close, and how far you throttle up. But if you can throttle up fully and the solar panel stay there, then yes...30 seconds...six years, it's all the same. If the engine is strong enough and close enough, then it will break the panel. There is no "partial damage" though.

An often run-into problem is that a solar panel can, in fact, block the thrust from an engine completely. This has led to many posts asking why an interstellar craft doesn't actually accelerate, or why it might randomly turn off to the side (if one of the solar panels that was blocking an engine breaks off).

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