Staging Options

[Moesly_Armlis]

Compared with the previous versions of KSP  the Part Action Menus are more versatile.  Now could be the time to expand on the usefulness and add some staging options.

 

Setting Non Stage

Already decouplers can be set to be non staged.  This means the only wat to use the decoupler in flight is to use the Part Action menu/  This should apply to all parts that are capable of being staged.

 

Staging Group

Staging can happen the same way and through the Part Action Menu a stage number is present and a slider to set its relative staging position.

The slider represents all staging positions and is dynamic.

When parts are copied or moved the slider is persistent.

This would enable parts such as launch clamps to always be on the bottom of the stage group and parachutes to be in the top group.  Even after moving the part or using a sub assembly.

 

Edited May 17, 2016 by MoeslyArmlis

[Alshain]

27 minutes ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

Setting Non Stage

Already decouplers can be set to be non staged.  This means the only wat to use the decoupler in flight is to use the Part Action menu/  This should apply to all parts that are capable of being staged.

 

It is implemented on most stageable parts, it just isn't turned on.  Click the second link in my signature to get a patch to turn them on.  Engines are the edge case, they do not implement that ability

 

29 minutes ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

Staging Group

 

Staging can happen the same way and through the Part Action Menu a stage number is present and a slider to set its relative staging position.

The slider represents all staging positions and is dynamic.

When parts are copied or moved the slider is persistent.

This would enable parts such as launch clamps to always be on the bottom of the stage group and parachutes to be in the top group.  Even after moving the part or using a sub assembly.

.The problem here is that the slider scale is fixed at design time, while stages are variable.  So there is no way to predict the upper boundary of the slider because at design time you don't know how many stages there will be.

[Moesly_Armlis]

8 minutes ago, Alshain said:

It is implemented on most stageable parts, it just isn't turned on.  Click the second link in my signature to get a patch to turn them on.  Engines are the edge case, they do not implement that ability

That is a good start.  Did not know about your patch, thanks and will give that a try.

As for the staging via Part Action menu you bring up a good point.  The slider setting could only allow for top or bottom stages until attached.  This can still be useful when using a sub assembly for booster or payload.

Edited May 17, 2016 by MoeslyArmlis

[Alshain]

9 minutes ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

As for the staging via Part Action menu you bring up a good point.  The slider setting could only allow for top or bottom stages until attached.  This can still be useful when using a sub assembly for booster or payload.

You misunderstand.  When I say 'design time' it can't be done before or after attached, it can only be designated in programming, at least as far as I know.  So lets say you have 5 stages, Squad adds the slider and gives it an upper boundary of 5 and puts a release on the game.  From then on until they re-released the game, it can only be 0 to 5.  If you have 6 stages, you are out of luck.  I've not done a lot of programming for KSP, but I do have one mod that uses sliders and I've not seen any dynamic way of setting those boundaries.  But, I don't know everything, maybe there is something I am unaware of.  To the best of my knowledge, I've never seen a slider that changes it's upper and lower boundaries at while in the game though.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Alshain

[Moesly_Armlis]

On 5/17/2016 at 4:17 PM, Alshain said:

You misunderstand.  When I say 'design time' it can't be done before or after attached, it can only be designated in programming, at least as far as I know.  So lets say you have 5 stages, Squad adds the slider and gives it an upper boundary of 5 and puts a release on the game.  From then on until they re-released the game, it can only be 0 to 5.  If you have 6 stages, you are out of luck.  I've not done a lot of programming for KSP, but I do have one mod that uses sliders and I've not seen any dynamic way of setting those boundaries.  But, I don't know everything, maybe there is something I am unaware of.  To the best of my knowledge, I've never seen a slider that changes it's upper and lower boundaries at while in the game though.

The word dynamic could be replaced with percentage.  The 0% could indicate the bottom of the stack and 100% represents the top. 

If the craft's stage stack has only one stage and for example a sub assembly is selected that has parts set at 100% this would cause a new top stage and the parts could then be assigned.

If parts are set to 50% and added to a craft then this would add a top stage to a single stage craft and would split a two stage craft, placing the parts in the middle stage.

Setting the slider to a corresponding percentage is how I am thinking about this idea.

[pincushionman]

14 hours ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

Setting the slider to a corresponding percentage is how I am thinking about this idea.

Methinks this may have complications, as presenting the user a percentage would be confusing; you'd need a way to fake the display into showing a valid stage number.

Also, you need to dynamically adjust the "step size" of the slider, which may be under the same sort of programming restrictions as the upper bound.

I'd actually suggest that, instead, the part config could specify "always stage 0" (better: "always stage 0, if no parachutes yet, shift all stages down and add stage 0") or "always highest stage" (better: "always highest stage; if only stage 0, add stage 1").

That would probably take care of any default stage issues that would come up. Persistent stage setting would probably be better handled by a "spin button" with no upper bound that autosets itself via the normal staging rules unless it's "locked" by a checkbox.

[Sereneti]

On 17.5.2016 at 10:17 PM, Alshain said:

You misunderstand.  When I say 'design time' it can't be done before or after attached, it can only be designated in programming, at least as far as I know.  So lets say you have 5 stages, Squad adds the slider and gives it an upper boundary of 5 and puts a release on the game.  From then on until they re-released the game, it can only be 0 to 5.  If you have 6 stages, you are out of luck.  I've not done a lot of programming for KSP, but I do have one mod that uses sliders and I've not seen any dynamic way of setting those boundaries.  But, I don't know everything, maybe there is something I am unaware of.  To the best of my knowledge, I've never seen a slider that changes it's upper and lower boundaries at while in the game though.

there are already a option for that in the game...