[1.4.3 — 1.7.*] Descent Mode 0.5.0

[Eklykti]

For a long time I've seen videos of people playing Realism Overhaul.  Amongst other great features, it has one that allows you to significantly reduce g-force loads of an atmospheric entry, called Descent Mode. It works by moving the capsule's center of mass off-center, and then, when you reenter, aerodynamics will keep your capsule at an angle, generating lift and allowing it to stay longer in the upper parts of the atmosphere, and, in turn, making your descent much more gentle and smooth.

Now I decided to extract this functionality from RO and make it a separate mod, called Descent Mode, available at Github and CKAN.

Screenshots: Imgur album.
Download: Github.
License: CC BY-SA.
Dependencies: Module Manager.
Conflicts: Realism Overhaul.

Installation: Copy the DescentMode directory inside your GameData. Warning! Do not install this if you already have Realism Overhaul installed, as it does the same thing and will cause conflicts.

Usage:

• Right click you capsule and select "Turn Descent Mode On".
• Orient you capsule to retrograde and rotate it such as the ground (brown) is at the top of your navball, and the sky (blue) is at the bottom (180 degrees roll). This is different from the original Realism Overhaul setup, where you have to set 0 roll, because it 1) allows your kerbals to see their planet in the window and 2) makes better lift for mk1-2 pod with Ven's Stock Part Revamp and FAR.
• Use the "CoM Offset Limit" slider to fine-tune your lift in-flight .
• Enjoy your descent.

Supported pods:

• Mk1 Command Pod
• Mk1-2 Command Pod
• Mk1-3 Command Pod (1.4 update)
• Mk2 Command Pod (Making History expansion)
• MK2 'VA' Command Pod (Ven's Stock Part Revamp)
• More to come in the upcoming versions.

Great thanks to Realism Overhaul people and the authors of CoMShifter.cs, AdjustableCoMShifter.cs and the rest of it.

Edited June 23, 2019 by Eklykti
0.5.0

[drtedastro]

Interesting.  Giving it a go.

thanks for your work.

cheers.

[Phineas Freak]

@Eklykti You can improve compatibility with RO by adding some MM checks to the part config patches:

@PART[mk1pod]:FOR[DescentMode]:NEEDS[!RealismOverhaul]
{
  MODULE
  {
    name = CoMShifter
    DescentModeCoM = 0.0, 0.0, 0.1
  }
}

So that the patches won't be applied if RO is installed. An extra layer of security would also be to rename the module to "ModuleCoMShifter" but that is not something required (something for a future overhaul/new features).

[Eklykti]

Should be listed in CKAN by now.

[Eklykti]

New version 0.2.1:

• Re-compiled for 1.3.1

[Eklykti]

0.2.2

 

• Recompile for KSP 1.4.3
• Add support for the new Mk1-3 command pod
• Add support for Making History's Mk2 command pod

[drtedastro]

thanks.

cheers.

[RoboRay]

Oh, now how did I miss this?  Looks very handy!

[Eklykti]

0.3.0

• Add support for updated mk1pod_v2
• Compile using msbuild instead of xbuild
• Mark it 1.7 compatible

[drtedastro]

Excellent..

Many thanks for update and continued work.

Cheers.

[Eklykti]

0.5.0

• switch to AdjustableCoMShifter. You can now adjust your CoM shift in-flight (in pre-configured range)
• some preparations to try to autoconfigure unconfigured pods

[Chris Bolland]

Seems to work fine in 1.12 I got this mod because I'm playing a 6.4x scale install, and needed to make sure my kerbals didn't die.