Delayed Activiation for seperatrons.

[Arugela]

I think it would be useful to be able to set seperatrons and groups of seperatrons to have a delayed activation after the stage they are in is activated. This would help with burn damage depending on location on seperation. I currently have a ship where the seperatron is aiming right at the main ship hull. This sparks the log and makes it so I can't open it because of the numerous hits to items on the main vessel. What would be useful would be being able to set them to activate up to 60 seconds or more after stage so they fire in sequence set by the number. This could be accomplished with a simple slider bar like everything else in the VAB/SPH. 0 would be immediate burn and adding to the value would make it cound down before firing after seperation!

For example I have 6 sets of seperatrons on my seperation stage to get large SF launch engines away from the vessel at about 4km. There are some far away I could activate immediately that may not cause alot of damage. Another set is slightly closer to the ship and could activate after 5-10 seconds. And a third starting right against and aiming at the main hull. I could activate these after 10-20 seconds to not hit the main ship and heat things in the log.

This would be insanely useful to alot of builds potentially. And would allow alot of options for good ship designs.

[Matt77]

I like this idea. In an earlier career I was trying to avoid using probe cores to deorbit detached stages. I was using radial engines and sepratrons that fired upon staging. It only worked sometimes, all that fire pointed at my ships and not under control ;-)

I'd want that delay available on all engines though. Maybe other parts too, maybe something like 5 seconds after jettisoning a probe, it switches on its lights and deploys its antennae. After ten seconds the solar panels unfurl. That simple delayed activation could add a lot of possibilities!

[kurja]

Sounds like something you could do with kOS