SILLY LITTLE THINGS

[SpacedCowboy]

Not really making a suggestion thread here, Just wanted to talk about those "Silly little things"  Like stuff that should've been fixed a long time ago and stuff that's still with us today

For instance: Why haven't the Kerbodyne  tanks been re-painted? They're terrible.  

 

The helmet light not working! Worked since "way back then." but not now

That's just a couple, got any more?

[XB-70A]

Personally I find the Rockomax X-200 familly much more horrible than the Kerbodyne tanks.

I mean, when I look at that :

I think about that : 

[Whirligig Girl]

You gotta spam the L key to get the helmet lights working.

What the heck did they do to Duna in 0.21? It used to be so much more interesting.

[fourfa]

The spamming-L-key for helmet lights has been fixed in StockBugFix, and will be rolled into 1.2 soon^TM

[Superfluous J]

Why isn't there a global config option to turn off "This is the Space Center!" helpful hint screens? I know what the screen does. I don't need to see that every new career.

[razark]

The animated menus.

I want to click on them, not wait for them to quit moving.  Any "oooh cool" factor is quickly lost to annoyance.

[Streetwind]

Whether or not you like the paint scheme of a part is not a "silly little thing that should have been fixed long ago". It's more like posting a suggestion in the wrong forum...

...However:

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

Why isn't there a global config option to turn off "This is the Space Center!" helpful hint screens? I know what the screen does. I don't need to see that every new career.

This! You even get them in sandbox mode, everytime you boot one up to to troubleshoot a bug report from a user of a mod to help support... >__<

Edited September 6, 2016 by Streetwind

[Magzimum]

I for one love the looks of the Rockomax, for the exact same reasons that @XB-70A hates it. It really looks like a big barrel, and we have yet to find out if it contains rocket fuel, or some kind of pickled herring.

<-- This looks very Kerbal to me.

For me, the main "Silly little thing" is the fact that the vehicles run over the Kerbals in the VAB and SPH. Fixing it won't affect game play, but Jeb's job looks safe compared to the dangers that the poor Kerbals on the floor have to deal with.

[Sharpy]

The VAB editor, with its inability to translate the camera, and inability to move parts closer/farther. They still get stuck in the shelves. Often I'm building rockets in SPH, and if a part decides to move into a far corner, I'm finding it easier to delete it and pick a new one instead of trying to force it closer to the ship.

The fact that each part and object has a separate layer for collisions, separate for visuals, and separate for rightclick detection. Trying to rightclick an extended airplane wheel, or pick a part that's inside a structural fuselage, or getting stuff surface-attached to the bottom of Twin Boar... Also, symmetry. Attach four drogues around the middle of an airplane cockpit nose.

RoveMate has a stupid orientation; your rover's navball will point skywards.

Default wheel orientation. WHY do all wheels in SPH spawn sideways?

How some parts don't allow surface attach despite having absolutely no business doing so. Docking ports (even the "blank" rear side), heatshields, engines (why the heck can't I attach radiators to LV-N? or ISRU - while they REQUIRE radiators?)

Little to no visual hints which side of a probe core is "up" and which is "front".

The fact the actual exit from the lab is on the side where there's no flag/logo, on the opposite side of VAB in default orientation. If you pack it into a cargo bay the way the game spawns both, you'll end up blocking the exit.

 

[GoSlash27]

I always find myself wishing for a simple autopilot with altitude and heading hold. Long distance flights to the poles and badlands suck when you have to hand-fly them at 1x warp.

 

[steve_v]

3 hours ago, Sharpy said:

The VAB editor, with its inability to translate the camera

This gets my vote, under the general heading "unnecessary and nonsensical camera constraints in VAB / SPH".

 

8 hours ago, XB-70A said:

Personally I find the Rockomax X-200 familly much more horrible than the Kerbodyne tanks.

Agreed, actually all the rocket tanks but the Kerbodyne series irritate me, there's no reason to have a lip at the top and bottom, and it breaks up the otherwise smooth cross-section of my rockets. I don't care about the textures, but the profile is horrible.

I run with tank mods, not for variety, for the not looking stupid and not fouling aerodynamics factors.

Edited September 6, 2016 by steve_v

[Sharpy]

2 minutes ago, steve_v said:

I run with tank mods, not for variety, for the not looking stupid and not fouling aerodynamics factors.

That's very non-Kerbal of you. That's a very human space program approach.

This is proper Kerbal spacecraft aesthetics:

Spoiler

 

[steve_v]

1 minute ago, Sharpy said:

This is proper Kerbal spacecraft aesthetics:

For a payload, sure - hiding that kind of thing from the airstream is what we have fairings for... the smooth profile of which is then promptly ruined by the randomly varying cross-section of the other stack parts.
For example, why is the Rockomax decoupler so much wider than every other 2.5m part, it makes no sense. I'm quite capable of building silly looking rockets without the help of extra silly parts.

[Sharpy]

1 minute ago, steve_v said:

For a payload, sure - hiding that kind of thing from the airstream is what we have fairings for... the smooth profile of which is then promptly ruined by the randomly varying cross-section of the other stack parts.
For example, why is the Rockomax decoupler so much wider than every other 2.5m part, it makes no sense. I'm quite capable of building silly looking rockets without the help of extra silly parts.

*shrug* I'm pretty happy about parts straying from the same diameter. Say, this. All the separators (a total of 8 of them!) are removed from staging sequence and never intended to be activated. Their purpose is to create extended areas to attach struts, drawing them along the surface of the craft. Since it's intended to pull asteroids, the puny 50 joint strength of MK1 profile parts is way insufficient, so it's whole reinforced with surface struts - running between the separators.

[steve_v]

8 minutes ago, Sharpy said:

it's whole reinforced with surface struts - running between the separators.

Egads, don't get me started on the wobbly rockets thing...
KJR all the way, and if I need more I build suspension bridge-esque structures with structural beams and struts. No pics at hand, but yeah, structural beams for structural reinforcement... stack separators for separating stacks.

Yes, firmly in the "realism camp" I am.

Edited September 6, 2016 by steve_v

[klgraham1013]

28 minutes ago, Sharpy said:

That's very non-Kerbal of you. That's a very human space program approach.

This is proper Kerbal spacecraft aesthetics:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

My Kerbals are actually aware of aerodynamics.  To each his own.

edit: Let's also keep in mind that "Kerbal" aesthetic is all over the place.  From barrels and batman batteries to streamlined mk2 jets.

3 hours ago, Sharpy said:

Little to no visual hints which side of a probe core is "up" and which is "front".

The name printed on it.  Right side up and on the back.

Edited September 6, 2016 by klgraham1013

[Sharpy]

16 minutes ago, klgraham1013 said:

The name printed on it.  Right side up and on the back.

Or the name printed left side front, right side back, on the bottom of QBE.

Or tiny yellow dots on the front side, and tiny reaction wheels towards the bottom of MK2 probe core.

Or slanted corners on the back of RoveMate. No visual hint of 'up' whatsoever.

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Sharpy

[Crocket]

I really wish the Rockomax X200-16 actually looked like a half sized X200-32 instead of having those weird ridges on the side.

[Harry Rhodan]

9 hours ago, SpacedCowboy said:

Just wanted to talk about those "Silly little things"

Kerbals?

[Superfluous J]

4 hours ago, Sharpy said:

Default wheel orientation. WHY do all wheels in SPH spawn sideways?

Gah I hate this. and elevons. Why is the default placement 90 degrees from the way you would ALWAYS put them on?

[Sharpy]

3 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Gah I hate this. and elevons. Why is the default placement 90 degrees from the way you would ALWAYS put them on?

Actually, I learned that once you find the right place to stick them to wings they orient themselves right. But it is very jarring visually. Generally things should try to retain their orientation between hovering and sticking.

[katateochi]

10 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

What the heck did they do to Duna in 0.21? It used to be so much more interesting

This! Duna is so dull now since it got steamrollered. Bring back the old Duna!

8 hours ago, razark said:

The animated menus.

I want to click on them, not wait for them to quit moving.  Any "oooh cool" factor is quickly lost to annoyance.

On the main menu? Agreed. Any interface animation should take less time than it takes for the user to move their mouse, otherwise it's cumbersome. 
Also, on the first main menu there should be a resume button which instantly loads the last active save. One click to carry on from where you last left off, rather than four (with delays to wait for menus to move).

 

Remove the auto repositioning of the cameras pivot point in the SPH. In the SPH if you have a craft higher up than the default starting point (but still nowhere near the roof) or when zoomed closely into the craft (at default starting height),  when you move the camera to look down on the craft, as well as pitching down it also is moved down, so rather than looking down on the craft you get plunged into the craft. very annoying. It didn't always do that, this was added in several versions ago.

Control surfaces always need two rotations (90 degrees on two axis) to be placed on a wing. You always have to hit S and E to orient a control surface to a wing.
edit - ninja'd by @5thHorseman

Bring back Ctrl + click on attached parts in the editors. (at least I think it was Ctrl+click) - it used to take you to the parts tab where the part you clicked on came from. 

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by katateochi

[Arctodus]

3 hours ago, Sharpy said:

That's very non-Kerbal of you. That's a very human space program approach.

This is proper Kerbal spacecraft aesthetics:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Is that.....is that a boombox on there?

[Sharpy]

12 minutes ago, Arctodus said:

Is that.....is that a boombox on there?

With two beer bottles. Standard issue of KIS.

Don't ask me how the speakers work in vacuum

Edited September 6, 2016 by Sharpy

[FullMetalMachinist]

1 hour ago, katateochi said:

Bring back Ctrl + click on attached parts in the editors. (at least I think it was Ctrl+click) - it used to take you to the parts tab where the part you clicked on came from. 

You sure that was stock and not from a mod? I don't recall that feature.