Hints about supersonic regime

[vosechu]

Dearest Squad,

Today I learned about a really cool concept called Transonic flight, and I wish I had learned about it a lot earlier. I would like to propose a very small (I think) change that would have prompted me to learn about this earlier, but doesn't diminish the game-ness of KSP (I understand, Realism Overhaul taught me how unfun space really is).

In my opinion, one of the most important things about KSP is the learning potential. So I love the idea of dropping hints all over the place. The fact that this is a game allows us to drop the hint and let people's imaginations fill in the details (and/or ferram4).

So, my proposal:
1. Display the flight regime we're in somewhere, perhaps near the navball. KFD puts a little Mach number by the navball, but I think it would be better to display the Mach number and a description of the regime "Mach 0.9 (Transonic)" or "Mach 11 (Hypersonic)". Screenshot below is cropped and edited to make it more obvious, but here's a link to KFD mod for credit:http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/73053-105-kerbal-flight-data-release-19-16062015/
2. From Mach 0.8-1.2, shake the camera more. Maybe even change the mach number display to orange or red. It's a dangerous time!

That's all. I don't think implementing shock fans or the significant drag increases is worth it.

I recognize that you're trying to wrap up 1.1, but it seems like an easy victory (which I know can be so critical during bug fixing days) and it encourages people to look in KSPedia and on the Internet for more info.

Thank you for reading!

navball-with-mach.jpg (46.9 KB) vosechu, 04/10/2016 05:50 PM