Exploding parts a bit touchy?

[MaxwellsDemon]

The massive bone-rattling explosions upon staging aside, I discovered (alas) another "feature" last night as I rendezvoused with my Munar orbital station. I ended my braking burn at just under 100 m from the station, and it appears that a part on the station exploded, followed by a almost Kessleresque chain reaction explosion that obliterated the station. Surely the jet from a throttling-down LV-909 "Terrier" should not cause that much damage at 98 meters' distance! :huh:

[Snark]

[URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/139353-Please-remove-the-1-0-5-added-explosions-when-decoupling-and-ignite-the-next-stage"]Related discussion[/URL] on the suggestion forum that you may find interesting.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Yeah, I'd read that, but I wasn't certain if it belonged in the same thread... that seemed more oriented toward decouplers.

[numerobis]

Think of it as explosive decompression?

[MaxwellsDemon]

I thought of it as "unreasonable and valid cause for a restore of an earlier save."

[A_name]

We all know you shouldn't use the main engine for a rendezvous final approach. That's what RCS is for. Heck, in real life they even avoid using RCS at those distance, lest they risk damaging something. Just because it didn't use to be like this and know it is doesn't mean it's broken. This is the way it always should have been in my opinion. Granted, the explosion effect might seem a bit over the top for some (I personally love myself some good explosions), but the part becoming damaged or destroyed in itself seems completely appropriate to me.

[numerobis]

Would you actually cause damage at that range IRL? I thought the reason to avoid thrusting at that range was to avoid coating the station with gas.

[eddiew]

[quote name='A_name']We all know you shouldn't use the main engine for a rendezvous final approach. That's what RCS is for. Heck, in real life they even avoid using RCS at those distance, lest they risk damaging something.[/QUOTE]

I don't know that :P In fact I rarely use RCS at all for docking, I do it all on rotation and main engine.

The problem with realism... is that it can take a lot of the fun out of things. I'm with the OP in that the last thing I want is to have to be ultra careful about where I point my engines. If there's a config setting somewhere that can turn such damage on or off, that's totally fine, but if it's an intended change with no way to calm it back down to 1.0.4 standards, then it's going to put a lot of people off the game.

[MaxwellsDemon]

I'm not so much concerned that there was damage as I was that the only way that KSP expresses 'damage' (so far as I can tell) is by catastrophically exploding-- which then explodes the next part, and the next, like they were all Minecraft TNT. That's just over the top.

ETA: To elaborate, a semi-realistic damage system-- even one that's a bit 'cartoony' to go with the whimsical approach-- would be much more preferable. Edited November 19, 2015 by MaxwellsDemon