Remove character limit on craft descriptions?

[ReconXPanzer]

Hi everyone,

Super impressed by the new 1.1 update, truly hats off to you guys and your effort into making a fantastic update.

However I have one little minor 'maybe it's just me' kind of problem that is very slightly bugging me, that is the max limit of characters in the craft descriptions, I don't mean to be negative about the whole thing and like I said it's probably just me, but I keep finding I'm out of characters before I've done a craft any justice with a decent description (though maybe, I need to keep my descriptions more concise and stop waffling who knows...  Though normally I put mission goals, maybe some specifications (what the craft can do etc). Again, probably just me...

I'm perfectly okay with the subassembly limit, since the description has to fit in the subassembly window, but for crafts I always seem to find myself hard pressed on the number of available characters...

Cheers,

Ollie

 

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

What all do you put in the description? I don't know the character limit for certain, but I never ran into any problems.

[ReconXPanzer]

11 hours ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

What all do you put in the description? I don't know the character limit for certain, but I never ran into any problems.

The character limit is more a personal thing, some may not drag out their descriptions as heavily as I sometimes to. As for what I normally put in my descriptions are some sort of fictional history e.g. "The first XXXX to achieve XXXX" or "The XXXX Mk.2 is the second variation of the XXXX, featuring XXXX blah blah blah blah" An overview, specifications, layout etc "Featuring XXXX engine layout, producing XXXXX kN of thrust. 

Mission purposes "The XXXX is designed to reach XXXX whilst still being able to carry XXXX... the ability to aerobrake or land on the water, land and come back blah blah blah blah"

What it comes with "Now comes with XXXX launch vehicle" or "Now comes with XXXX" - these are mostly the case for if I've made a craft and then made a separate craft with a particular launch vehicle or have made a custom launch facilty (towers, pads, silos etc). 

Sometimes I add in some relatively comedic phrases "Warranty void if used" "Is the first fully working SSTO (probably)"

Then again, you said you don't run into this issue - so your descriptions are probably more straight to the point, concise, no waffling etc The reason why I posted was just out of personal preference...

Edited April 23, 2016 by ReconXPanzer

[Wyzard]

8 hours ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

What all do you put in the description? I don't know the character limit for certain, but I never ran into any problems.

I use it for notes on launching (such as first-stage throttle settings or flight profile for spaceplanes), as well as a list of what each numbered action group does.  I've run into the limit a few times.

BTW, it looks like the limit has been reduced in 1.1:  I have a spaceplane I made in 1.0.5, and now the editor doesn't let me add anything to the description until I delete some of the text that's already there.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Wyzard

[ReconXPanzer]

6 hours ago, Wyzard said:

I use it for notes on launching (such as first-stage throttle settings or flight profile for spaceplanes), as well as a list of what each numbered action group does.  I've run into the limit a few times.

BTW, it looks like the limit has been reduced in 1.1:  I have a spaceplane I made in 1.0.5, and now the editor doesn't let me add anything to the description until I delete some of the text that's already there.

Same I sometimes do that, on stuff that requires careful 'instructions' shall we say on how to operate it. (For me this mainly applies to stock bearings and things that are a little more complicated than usual 

Then again, I'll be the first to admit that some of my descriptions are a bit long (though they're not like an essay, it's the sort of like the first paragraph or so when you type an aircraft into Wikipedia.

Edited April 23, 2016 by ReconXPanzer

[Rags346]

I don't understand this, on previous versions of Kerbal, you could make an essay in the ship description. With the last update (1.12) there is a very small limit to the amount of characters you can enter. I personally like making my own companies and giving them backgrounds as to their purpose, achievements, etc, but now there really aren't enough characters to put anything substantial down. I'm just confused as to why that feature was removed.

[ReconXPanzer]

Yeah, I agree with this too  see here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/137752-remove-character-limit-on-craft-descriptions/

 

Edited May 2, 2016 by ReconXPanzer

[Rath]

Please this.  If I can write a backstory for my craft because I have no life, I should be able to

[Rath]

Prepare to bear the tide of people comparing KSP to twitter because of character limit.

[ReconXPanzer]

Agreed! I'm now constricted to something like 6 lines, which doesn't  even do basic craft justice! For long stuff I believe a scroll bar will do nicely. 

In my opinion, with no character limit, there's nothing stopping people making short descriptions and there's nothing stopping people from going all essay on them too (well so long as storage space is no factor, but that'll be a LOT of text ) both sides are happy.

[Vanamonde]

Overlapping threads merged. 

[katateochi]

I agree, the limit is too low. 

I like to use the description to describe the ascent profile for SSTOs, which I find can differ quite a lot depending on design, so it's helpful to have the reminder.  Plus any quirks about the craft.  But now, even using shorthand, there isn't enough space to describe an ascent. 

Limits should only exist if they improve the system or if there's a technical reason for them.  I can see there's a good reason for preventing the from user dumping the complete works of Isaac Asimov into the description, that would probably slow the game down a bit. But I think it should be at least 4 times what it is now.

[Zawmbbeh]

[REDACTED]

Edited May 5, 2016 by Zawmbbeh