Ideas for Level 4 Pilots

[Wcmille]

Why make your pilots level 4? Here are some ideas for what level 4 pilots could do:

• Precise burn timing. If a burn takes 4.5 seconds, you click a button and you will burn exactly that long.
• Slow time. You can toggle the game to operate time at reduced speed. This lets you make very precise actions.
• Reaction wheels operate more effectively.
• SAS critically damps to it's target, so when you choose to go prograde, it goes to prograde as fast as possible, without overshooting.
• You see an indicator in the staging display of where your impact point is, so that you can make super-precise landings.
• Docking ports have more powerful forces, making sloppy docking easier.
• Induced torque for RCS translation is reduced.

What are your ideas?

[Wjolcz]

Add this: Vessels don't despawn when flying in the atmosphere no matter how far they are if a pilot's on board.

 

Something like this would make Stratolaunches possible.

[pandaman]

I'd certainly be in favour of most things on the list in some form.

Not sure about 'slow time though'.  And increasing the magnet strength on docking ports feels too much like changing the laws of physics, but a way to improve docking alignment makes sense.

[nikokespprfan]

I would love to have *****-star pilots have the ability to calculate trajectories.

[Wcmille]

10 hours ago, nikokespprfan said:

I would love to have *****-star pilots have the ability to calculate trajectories.

Can you say more about what that would be like? I don't think I quite understand.

11 hours ago, Veeltch said:

Add this: Vessels don't despawn when flying in the atmosphere no matter how far they are if a pilot's on board.

 

Something like this would make Stratolaunches possible.

What is a stratolaunch? Would this be like flying a rocket up on a jet, launching the rocket, then landing the jet?

[Wjolcz]

34 minutes ago, Wcmille said:

What is a stratolaunch? Would this be like flying a rocket up on a jet, launching the rocket, then landing the jet?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratolaunch_Systems

Also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAKS_(spacecraft)

And this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(rocket)

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_launch_to_orbit

Edited December 20, 2015 by Veeltch

[Pthigrivi]

I think its pretty clear none of the skill disciplines are actually filled. We've been discussing the matter nearby. Several of your suggestions are covered. 

As far as the physics range, Im curious to see what the limits will be after 64 bit. Im hoping it could be like 200k. That should cover most stage recovery methods. If possible it should just be part of the game, not a pilot ability.

 

[Wjolcz]

13 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

I think its pretty clear none of the skill disciplines are actually filled. We've been discussing the matter nearby. Several of your suggestions are covered. 

As far as the physics range, Im curious to see what the limits will be after 64 bit. Im hoping it could be like 200k. That should cover most stage recovery methods. If possible it should just be part of the game, not a pilot ability.

 

Actually I don't think there would be any problem with such mechanic. No need for 64bit. Think about this: you have one vessel and X parts are loaded during the flight. Hit space, one of the stages falls back to the planet and the other half (2nd stage) is space-bound. If it goes beyond the 22km limit but both vessels are still loaded there's no lag. It's still X parts and the ground is loaded based on the vicinity of the vessel closer to it (1st stage which is about to land).

Basically what one of those mods does. Don't remember the name. Was it called "Never Unload", or sth?

Found it: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/44874-tt-neverunload-vessel-unloading-preventer/

Edited December 21, 2015 by Veeltch

[nikokespprfan]

19 hours ago, Wcmille said:

On 20-12-2015 at 11:48 AM, nikokespprfan said:

I would love to have *****-star pilots have the ability to calculate trajectories.

Can you say more about what that would be like? I don't think I quite understand.

It was a thread somewhere, It was that you can order a pilot to calculate a trajectory that brings you into a specific orbit within a specific amount of time (and maybe even within a specific amount of dV). You still have to excecute the manouvre yourself, but the pilot would be sufficiently skilled to calculate it for you.

Edited December 21, 2015 by nikokespprfan

[Wcmille]

I think from a gameplay perspective, I'm looking for a L4 pilot to take the "grind" out of the late game, which becomes more like a real-time strategy game and less like a flight simulator. While engineers and scientists are also interesting, they already have a very good purpose late game (Scientists make science, which can be changed by strategy into money, and Engineers make fuel). Whatever the pilot ability, I'd like it to help me just "point-and-go" so that I'm spending less time micro-managing burns, docking, and landings, which take up a considerable amount of time.

[Warzouz]

19 hours ago, Wcmille said:

I think from a gameplay perspective, I'm looking for a L4 pilot to take the "grind" out of the late game, which becomes more like a real-time strategy game and less like a flight simulator. While engineers and scientists are also interesting, they already have a very good purpose late game (Scientists make science, which can be changed by strategy into money, and Engineers make fuel). Whatever the pilot ability, I'd like it to help me just "point-and-go" so that I'm spending less time micro-managing burns, docking, and landings, which take up a considerable amount of time.

For scientists, that's not true. When your scientists are level 3, you've nearly unlocked all the tech tree (I always do), even without researching in a lab. Level 4/5 scientists are mostly useless.

As for engineers, its also very grindy to level them to 5. Except for a Jool-5 partial mission or a trip too Eeloo you don't get them easily.

The OP suggestions are nice, but the XP system need to be changed. Experienced kerbals come too late in the game.

[Wcmille]

I thought scientists can be used to generate money and reputation (instead of science) by way of strategies?

[AbacusWizard]

I love the idea of high-level pilots being able to put the game clock on "bullet time."

[nikokespprfan]

11 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

I love the idea of high-level pilots being able to put the game clock on "bullet time."

I do to, a well trained pilot can do things quickly.

[monstah]

On ‎20‎/‎12‎/‎2015 at 4:08 AM, Wcmille said:

Why make your pilots level 4? Here are some ideas for what level 4 pilots could do:

• Precise burn timing. If a burn takes 4.5 seconds, you click a button and you will burn exactly that long.
• Slow time. You can toggle the game to operate time at reduced speed. This lets you make very precise actions.
• Reaction wheels operate more effectively.
• SAS critically damps to it's target, so when you choose to go prograde, it goes to prograde as fast as possible, without overshooting.
• You see an indicator in the staging display of where your impact point is, so that you can make super-precise landings.
• Docking ports have more powerful forces, making sloppy docking easier.
• Induced torque for RCS translation is reduced.

What are your ideas?

I really, really, like the first and fourth ones. I have advocated for better SAS for pilots in the past, but never thought about burn timing.

As for the fifth one, I don't get it. What is the staging display, the list of stages? How does that relate to impact?

On ‎20‎/‎12‎/‎2015 at 8:48 AM, nikokespprfan said:

I would love to have *****-star pilots have the ability to calculate trajectories.

*trying to figure out what curseword was that*

[Wcmille]

3 hours ago, monstah said:

I really, really, like the first and fourth ones. I have advocated for better SAS for pilots in the past, but never thought about burn timing.

As for the fifth one, I don't get it. What is the staging display, the list of stages? How does that relate to impact?

*trying to figure out what curseword was that*

The staging display is the 3D display used which is not the map display (M toggles between them). The ideas is that you can see your trajectory (or maybe just the impact point) on the ground, so you can tell where you'll hit if you do nothing. The map display already does this, but its not useful once you are very close to landing.

[suicidejunkie]

Experienced scientists could gain 'SAS' (Science Auto Sense); IE: Toggle the thermometer to auto, and Bob the Science Guy will automatically take readings when you get to a new biome for which a sample isn't already on the ship and/or is worth more than what is already in the thermometer.  Also good would be to automatically take the appropriate readings when you're in a contract zone.

[Yakuzi]

On ‎20‎-‎12‎-‎2015 at 7:08 AM, Wcmille said:

• Precise burn timing. If a burn takes 4.5 seconds, you click a button and you will burn exactly that long.
• Slow time. You can toggle the game to operate time at reduced speed. This lets you make very precise actions.
• Reaction wheels operate more effectively.
• SAS critically damps to it's target, so when you choose to go prograde, it goes to prograde as fast as possible, without overshooting.
• You see an indicator in the staging display of where your impact point is, so that you can make super-precise landings.
• Docking ports have more powerful forces, making sloppy docking easier.
• Induced torque for RCS translation is reduced.

I like 1 and 4 a lot. Other abilities I'd like to see included:

• maintain angle of incidence
• maintain altitude

On ‎20‎-‎12‎-‎2015 at 10:37 AM, Veeltch said:

Add this: Vessels don't despawn when flying in the atmosphere no matter how far they are if a pilot's on board.

I think this should be implemented independent of whether a pilot is on board or not.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Yakuzi
AoA /= AoI