Camera for long ships question

[wrobel-cwirek]

Hi

I have build very long ship (Mars One style) and all my science equipment is located in front of it. But the camera is focusing on the middle part - so it is hard to access the science instruments. Is there a way to focus camera on front of it somehow?

[maja]

Hi, try this mod: Camera Focus Changer

[Chiron0224]

Also, in 1.1.x you can right click a science part and then click that little grey button in the top right corner of the right click box to pin that menu.  Once pinned you can put your menu somewhere where you can easily get to it.  Also you could put your science gear on one or more action groups so that you can just hit like 3 or 4 on your keyboard and activate your science.

[Clipperride]

As mentioned above, action groups can be really helpful.  You can add multiple commands to a single action group, so it is easy to, for example, activate all your science equipment with a single key press.  To avoid having to keep turning my refuelling drone during docking I attach a bunch of small, forward facing, motors to slow down.  I also deactivate the main engine with the same action group (after a particularly nasty incident!) so I know that they will be the only ones firing.

My other tips for using action groups. Write them down!  If you return to a craft that hasn't been used for a while, you can easily look up the relevant commands.  Finally, it helps to be consistent.  I know that any ship I command, with retractable solar panels, will toggle them in and out by hitting the "1" key.  That also really helps if you dock one or more vechiles together as they will all do the same thing with the same key press.

Also, remember you can zoom out the camera and change the angle to help click on difficult to reach parts of the ship.

[CSE]

In the KSP 1.2 pre-release, you can aim the camera at specific parts as a stock feature.