Tier 2 Tracking Station...

[Kuansenhama]

So the T2 Tracking station is basically the T3 station with scaffolding/construction around it and three of the smaller T1 Dishes surrounding it rather than the T3 Dishes.

I know a lot of people think that the designs of the lower-tiered KSC are lazy. I honestly think they are pretty good, save for this. I request the improvement on the modeling of the T2 Tracking station in that it actually has its own model, and a new model of satellite dishes for the T2 Station as well.

[Kerbart]

7 minutes ago, Kuansenhama said:

So the T2 Tracking station is basically the T3 station with scaffolding/construction around it and three of the smaller T1 Dishes surrounding it rather than the T3 Dishes.

I know a lot of people think that the designs of the lower-tiered KSC are lazy. I honestly think they are pretty good, save for this. I request the improvement on the modeling of the T2 Tracking station in that it actually has its own model, and a new model of satellite dishes for the T2 Station as well.

I agree that the lower tier models are more than decent looking and totally do not get the "ugly" comments. But to be fair, the T2 Tracking Station is not something that lasts long in career. I'm fine with the concept of scaffolding and "under construction" -- if anything I wouldn't mind if a few other buildings would take that approach.

 

[EdusacconBR]

yea, i want it to be improved too, it just feels weird to see the tracking station under construction, its like the game want you to get it to T3 before the other buildings

[Alshain]

Honestly I think the upgradable buildings were the sort of thing that seemed like a good idea at the time.  In the end, they don't look great at lower tiers, they get upgraded far to quickly, and most of the upgrades have 'benefits' that make terrible game mechanics.  There are far more problems than just how the tracking station looks.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Alshain

[kujuman]

heh, I've not seen the T3 tracking station in career in a LOOOONG time--I never really bother upgrading to it :-P I think the T2 station looks fine as is.

[AbacusWizard]

On 1/15/2016 at 0:47 PM, Kerbart said:

But to be fair, the T2 Tracking Station is not something that lasts long in career.

Not necessarily--I generally keep mine at T2 because I don't want my contracts list to get cluttered up with a bunch of asteroid stuff before I'm ready to actually go after asteroids.

[bewing]

I find it amusing myself. The T1 SPH has patched holes in it, from little accidents. The flag at the T1 admin building has been abused. It's pleasantly idiosyncratic for each building -- and I'd like more of it.

I wouldn't mind if all the T1 and T2 buildings had some silly thing visually wrong with them, to gently encourage you to upgrade them.

 

Edited January 18, 2016 by bewing

[Kuansenhama]

20 minutes ago, bewing said:

I find it amusing myself. The T1 SPH has patched holes in it, from little accidents. The flag at the T1 admin building has been abused. It's pleasantly idiosyncratic for each building -- and I'd like more of it.

I wouldn't mind if all the T1 and T2 buildings had some silly thing visually wrong with them, to gently encourage you to upgrade them.

 

Well, if it was something that was Intentionally wrong with them. (Say the T2 Tracking station, you had a collection of different sattelite dishes, both small and large, but different from the T1 and T3, that might give the itch to upgrade it.) But in my opinion, it's kinda lazy on the part of the devs to just mix and match the models like that and add a scaffolding.

[Hotaru]

Personally I think the word "lazy" gets thrown around kind of a lot in situations where "not a high priority" might be more appropriate. It's not like the devs were slacking off watching TV (or whatever people do when they slack off in the 21st century) while they should've been working on the low-tier KSC models, more likely they were "slacking off" by working on other aspects of KSP which they figured were more important. 

In this particular case I happen to agree with their priorities: I don't spend a huge amount of time looking at the KSC buildings, especially the tracking station which is sort of out of the way, so I'd rather see modeling and texture work going into rocket parts. That said I do think the lower-tier KSC buildings could do with a bit of work, they're pretty bland as-is. And I agree the scaffolding around the Tier 2 tracking station doesn't look very good; I tend to leave the tracking station at Tier 2 for a long time for the same reasons as AbacusWizard: don't want asteroids or asteroid contracts showing up before I'm actually ready to deal with them, and all the other tracking station functionality is pretty much unlocked at Tier 2 anyway.

[Kuansenhama]

13 hours ago, Hotaru said:

Personally I think the word "lazy" gets thrown around kind of a lot in situations where "not a high priority" might be more appropriate. It's not like the devs were slacking off watching TV (or whatever people do when they slack off in the 21st century) while they should've been working on the low-tier KSC models, more likely they were "slacking off" by working on other aspects of KSP which they figured were more important. 

In this particular case I happen to agree with their priorities: I don't spend a huge amount of time looking at the KSC buildings, especially the tracking station which is sort of out of the way, so I'd rather see modeling and texture work going into rocket parts. That said I do think the lower-tier KSC buildings could do with a bit of work, they're pretty bland as-is. And I agree the scaffolding around the Tier 2 tracking station doesn't look very good; I tend to leave the tracking station at Tier 2 for a long time for the same reasons as AbacusWizard: don't want asteroids or asteroid contracts showing up before I'm actually ready to deal with them, and all the other tracking station functionality is pretty much unlocked at Tier 2 anyway.

I suppose you have a point there. I guess the big reason that I'm inclined to say that it seems 'Not a high priority' as you would put it, is because every other building has three very distinct models for each of the 3 tiers. It's not like I'm running around with my hair on fire because this is some horrible issue that's completely ruined the game for me. I'm just bringing up the fact that it sort of grinds my gears. And you do have a point there, you usually don't spend a lot of time looking at the KSC buildings. After all, this is KSP not KSCP. (Kerbal Space Center Program).

[Temstar]

I personally really like the T2 tracking station because it shows a clear progression from T1 to T3. I mean you still need dishes when the big new shinny dish is under construction, so having three small one seems pretty reasonable to me. Having three means you can track three separate deep space spacecraft at once.

This is as opposed to T2 VAB and SPH. The T2 SPH looks like T1, except with two new walls for more room inside and a curved roof. It's clearly not just a T1 SPH with a new roof since it's much roomier, yet it doesn't seem like an incomplete T3 SPH either. Overall the continuity is not nearly as good as T2 tracking station. I mean what were they doing with all my spaceplanes between the two demolish-rebuild phases?

[Andem]

I would appreciate if for some time after upgrading a building you weren't allowed to access all but th most basic features for about a week due to "Construction" and that could be where we see the current Tier 2 model.

[Matt77]

On 18/01/2016 at 5:00 PM, Hotaru said:

Personally I think the word "lazy" gets thrown around kind of a lot in situations where "not a high priority" might be more appropriate. It's not like the devs were slacking off watching TV (or whatever people do when they slack off in the 21st century) while they should've been working on the low-tier KSC models, more likely they were "slacking off" by working on other aspects of KSP which they figured were more important.

I seem to recall that a few updates ago, Squad posted pictured of the new Tier 1 buildings (a barn, a trailer park and so on).  There was a huge community outcry due to the art style, Squad listened, and gave us what we have now.  So neither lazy nor "not a high priority", but rushed because the rest of the update was ready.  I think the blue buildings look awful, but I know they're just placeholders, so I live with it.

17 hours ago, Andem said:

I would appreciate if for some time after upgrading a building you weren't allowed to access all but th most basic features for about a week due to "Construction" and that could be where we see the current Tier 2 model.

Sounds like you need to install Kerbal Construction Time, and suggest this on that mods thread!  Squad won't implement it, although they have gradually been introducing time-based mechanics.  I like the idea - so while your VAB is upgrading from tier 2 to 3 (it can take a LONG time depending how you configure the mod) you only have access to tier 1 abilities?

[Andem]

32 minutes ago, Matt77 said:

Sounds like you need to install Kerbal Construction Time, and suggest this on that mods thread!  Squad won't implement it, although they have gradually been introducing time-based mechanics.  I like the idea - so while your VAB is upgrading from tier 2 to 3 (it can take a LONG time depending how you configure the mod) you only have access to tier 1 abilities?

Ya know, that's a good plan. I'm (probably) am going to do that (eventually)...