Hidden gameplay utilities

[septemberWaves]

What are some of the most useful tricks that you've discovered that are far from obvious even for advanced players? I recently learned that in the map view, right clicking on any marker that shows information when you hover over it (apo/periapsis markers or closest approach markers, for example) that information will stay visible until you right click it again or exit the map view.

[fourfa]

Lately, the AeroGUI option in the alt-F12 menu.  Helps with creative SSTO builds, where it can be hard to tell if your clipped parts are affecting drag or not

[Guest]

I noticed the right click recently too after seeing NecroBones do it in his tutorials. He didn't explain it, just did it like it's something anyone would know while demonstrating a manoeuvre and I, observing the mouse movment just well enough to catch the motion, was like "oh... really? wow".

Edited August 24, 2016 by Guest

[Qwarkk]

Renaming vessals from the tracking station is the one which I wish I knew from the start. It's more well known now, but I've spent countless hours switching vessals just to rename them

Edited August 24, 2016 by Qwarkk

[jlcarneiro]

17 minutes ago, Qwarkk said:

Renaming vessals from the tracking station is the one which I knew from the start. It's more well known now, but I've spent countless hours switching vessals just to rename them

Hey! Is that working again? It had stopped some time ago, if memory serves me...

[Qwarkk]

Just now, jlcarneiro said:

Hey! Is that working again? It had stopped some time ago, if memory serves me...

Yeah it stopped working due to a bug in 1.1.2 but Squad fixed it for 1.1.3.

[jlcarneiro]

Thanks!

Didn't notice that, gotta read changelogs more carefully...

Edited August 24, 2016 by jlcarneiro
10 chars

[JedTech]

7 minutes ago, Qwarkk said:

Yeah it stopped working due to a bug in 1.1.2 but Squad fixed it for 1.1.3.

For the love of Kerbal, please someone explain how to rename vessels in the tracking station. Or is the purpose of this thread to keep the hidden gameplay utilities hidden?

Edited August 24, 2016 by JedTech

[Peder]

I played like 300-400 houres before i notised I could holde mouse above a manouver node and roll the mouse instead of pulling and pushing the navigation node and fine adjust example my speed.
Example click the manuver node and holde mouse above the green prograde marker and you can roll the mouse and adjust power + -

Edited August 24, 2016 by Peder

[FullMetalMachinist]

56 minutes ago, JedTech said:

For the love of Kerbal, please someone explain how to rename vessels in the tracking station. Or is the purpose of this thread to keep the hidden gameplay utilities hidden?

Use the list on the left to focus on the ship you want to rename. When you do, a few orange button will pop up on the right. Click on the one that's an "i". After you do that a small window will open giving you more detailed information on that ship. Click (or is it double-click?) on where it says the name of the ship. That will bring up the rename window, where you can not only rename it, but also change what type of craft it is (ship, probe, station, etc.). 

[Snark]

My favorite "hidden utility"?

The way that toggling on "fine control mode" (caps lock) causes RCS thrusters to engage proportional thrust so they automatically compensate for placement around CoM, so that you get waste-free lateral translation ability without having them try to rotate the ship.

[cubinator]

I had two thousand hours under my belt before I learned you can name quicksaves and have multiple stored.

[Kerbal Kommander]

1 hour ago, Snark said:

My favorite "hidden utility"?

The way that toggling on "fine control mode" (caps lock) causes RCS thrusters to engage proportional thrust so they automatically compensate for placement around CoM, so that you get waste-free lateral translation ability without having them try to rotate the ship.

This... is a thing? Then why do we have a mod valled RCS build aid?  Why didn't you tell me sooner?  Thanks!

3 hours ago, Peder said:

I played like 300-400 houres before i notised I could holde mouse above a manouver node and roll the mouse instead of pulling and pushing the navigation node and fine adjust example my speed.
Example click the manuver node and holde mouse above the green prograde marker and you can roll the mouse and adjust power + -

Thank you, I had no idea. So many hours will be saved when I don't have to drag the cursor back and forth hoping it moves just a tiny bit.

[Corona688]

3 hours ago, Qwarkk said:

Yeah it stopped working due to a bug in 1.1.2 but Squad fixed it for 1.1.3.

It was more of a work-around.  They disabled it to prevent people reclassifying kerbals on EVA as ships (and crashing the game in doing so) until there was a better way to deal with that underneath.

[Superfluous J]

Trim. It's so hidden I know all the controls and still can't seem to get it to work.

Oh, and keyboard shortcuts in the VAB/SPH. I essentially can't watch a streamer/LPer who clicks the symmetry button with their mouse (say, to Symmetry 4), brings the cursor back onto the ship and goes over something with a different Symmetry (say, Symmetry 2), and can't figure out why it changed or how to make it work correctly. Especially if they go through the process multiple times on stream. It triggers all my "if I were playing this wouldn't be a problem" rage.

[FullMetalMachinist]

1 hour ago, Kerbal Kommander said:

Thank you, I had no idea. So many hours will be saved when I don't have to drag the cursor back and forth hoping it moves just a tiny bit.

Be careful, it has a really funky scale applied to the wheel clicks based on how fast you scroll. 

For example, say you want to change the maneuver by 5 m/s. So you hover the cursor over the prograde handle and give it a few clicks. Each one adds, say, .02 m/s. "This is going to take forever" you say, and proceed to spin the mouse wheel rapidly. Suddenly your after-maneuver trajectory is escaping the SoI. "Uuummm, what just happened?" 

It works like this: if you scroll the wheel slowly, like "click.....click......click" then each click is a very small amount. But if you spin the wheel quickly, like "clickclickclickclickclick", then not only do you get a lot more clicks, but each one is worth more m/s than if you scrolled slowly. This leads to the possibly that spinning the wheel quickly can actually add more dV than pulling the handle out all the way. 

[W. Kerman]

Once you have your encounter, you can focus on the planet, pull up the hidden navball, and use it for getti ng insanely close flybys.

( I learned this by watching a Wexus video closely)

 

[Norcalplanner]

1 hour ago, W. Kerman said:

Once you have your encounter, you can focus on the planet, pull up the hidden navball, and use it for getti ng insanely close flybys.

( I learned this by watching a Wexus video closely)

 

I didn't learn about this until after I had completed my first Jool 5.

To add something new, I just learned recently that an open shielded docking port acts like a mini air brake. When it's on top of a capsule or other craft coming in retrograde, it will help slow you down faster and keep your craft oriented correctly.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Norcalplanner

[magnemoe]

35 minutes ago, Norcalplanner said:

I didn't learn about this until after I had completed my first Jool 5.

To add something new, I just learned recently that an open shielded docking port acts like a mini air brake. When it's on top of a capsule or other craft coming in retrograde, it will help slow you down faster and keep your craft oriented correctly.

Same with the equipment bays. both has the benefit that they don't burn up. 

[Scientia1423]

Lights turn on with 'U' as default and not 'L' for some reason. Also Kerbal lights are broken.

My favourite is the Spacebar when on docking mode, as it's too painful to click every time. The other one is in the VAB/SPH which is the 'R' & 'F' keys. One switches between Radial and Mirror whilst the other switches offset between Absolute and local, respectively.

[W. Kerman]

1 hour ago, Norcalplanner said:

I didn't learn about this until after I had completed my first Jool 5.

To add something new, I just learned recently that an open shielded docking port acts like a mini air brake. When it's on top of a capsule or other craft coming in retrograde, it will help slow you down faster and keep your craft oriented correctly.

Ouch... Sorry you didn't have that knowledge at the time.

[Sharpy]

Strutting payload to a fairing.

Just strut it to some dummy elements (usually kickbacks) placed outside the fairing at such a distance that the fairing doesn't 'bloom' from your cursor. The struts will stick to the fairing, and you can then remove the dummy elements. Strutting the fairing from outside needs some more clever dummy element placement but is possible too.

The fact heatshield has three attachment nodes, can act as a separator and isn't all that heavy if you remove all ablator.

The fact nodes are more of a suggestion. After you node-attached an element, you can still move it and rotate it freely. Like make the engine radially attached, or flip it upside down and move right to the opposite end,

[Superfluous J]

47 minutes ago, Scientia1423 said:

Lights turn on with 'U' as default and not 'L' for some reason.

That's because 'L' is "translate right". It's part of the ijklhn cluster.

47 minutes ago, Scientia1423 said:

Also Kerbal lights are broken.

No, they turn on with 'L'. I think that stands for "throw Logic out the window"

 

[Scientia1423]

3 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

No, they turn on with 'L'. I think that stands for "throw Logic out the window"

I've rammed a R.A.P.I.E.R engine into the L key. It doesn't work...

[KerikBalm]

I've had inconsistent results with the L key for my kerbal EVA lights is 1.1.3

Sometimes I start up KSP, laod a save, and they work fine.

Othertimes, they will not work under seemingly any circumstance