KSP Mobile Craft Creator

[Cheif Operations Director]

My suggestion is that the KSP Team Develop a KSP Companion App. In Short the App would have all the parts and allow for Craft Creation. You could test the vechiles in a box world (similar to minecraft) This Way orbital mechanics and planets and all that stuff doesn't need to be added. No com net and such. Just a 5000m tall by 5000m wide world for quick testing. This comes in handy on long road trips where you might have a idea but can't implement it until you get home. With this we can make full functional craft and then rebuild them in KSP. This would allow KSP Players to Iron out flaws in their craft. 

Thoughts?

[Jas0n]

How would this work with mods? Would you download mods as you would on PC? What about plugins that change physics? like FAR?

[qzgy]

10 hours ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

You could test the vechiles in a box world (similar to minecraft) This Way orbital mechanics and planets and all that stuff doesn't need to be added. No com net and such. Just a 5000m tall by 5000m wide world for quick testing.

But this would affect the physics... Say I need to make a launcher. And I want to test said launcher to see if it makes it to orbit. How would you simulate that in a box world as you propose. Also, I would think that flying a plane in a box is similar to but not quite like flying a plane on an actual planet. Say I go really fast in a box world. I would just continue straight. However, If i did this in a sphereical world (like a planet) I would exit the atmosphere and get a different profile.

 

Essentially then you end up with KSP mobile edition if you need to correct for this.

[MiffedStarfish]

I’d rather the time was spent on actual features on PC than a mobile game that would be incredibly laggy and limited, while taking up extremely large amounts of memery memory.

Edit: Memory not memery, though memes are fun

Edited February 1, 2018 by MiffedStarfish

[Cheif Operations Director]

1 hour ago, MiffedStarfish said:

I’d rather the time was spent on actual features on PC than a mobile game that would be incredibly laggy and limited, while taking up extremely large amounts of memery memory.

Edit: Memory not memery, though memes are fun

It wouldn't because all the planets are not their. Nor Orbital physics.

3 hours ago, qzgy said:

But this would affect the physics... Say I need to make a launcher. And I want to test said launcher to see if it makes it to orbit. How would you simulate that in a box world as you propose. Also, I would think that flying a plane in a box is similar to but not quite like flying a plane on an actual planet. Say I go really fast in a box world. I would just continue straight. However, If i did this in a sphereical world (like a planet) I would exit the atmosphere and get a different profile.

 

Essentially then you end up with KSP mobile edition if you need to correct for this.

Yes it would affect the physics. The point of it is to TEST craft make sure you don't get krakened fix a weight problem not fly to jool.

4 hours ago, Jas0n said:

How would this work with mods? Would you download mods as you would on PC? What about plugins that change physics? like FAR?

No mods it's for Mobile Only

[MiffedStarfish]

The physics engine will be the same, just with less scope. The game dosent differentiate from “orbital physics” and “ground physics” it’s more “you are at this place, going at this direction, at this speed, under the influence of this. You’re still doing tick rate physics, and still using a ridiculous amount of RAM for mobile.

Edited February 1, 2018 by MiffedStarfish

[qzgy]

1 minute ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

It wouldn't because all the planets are not their. Nor Orbital physics.

You know that's the easy part to model right? All the planets are on rails and the orbital physics is just some equations that don;t even have to be constantly modeled. The hard part is the modeling of the different forces acting on the vessel and subsequent behavior. Like, for a plane in KSP, every frame or so the forces from drag, input, lift, collisions (if any happen) thrust, and so on. Thats cpu intensive, and I don;t think even the most modern mobile devices (phones tablets etc.) will hold a candle to even a decent laptop. Or maybe they will, but then you run into issues like control surfaces and so on.

6 minutes ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

Yes it would affect the physics. The point of it is to TEST craft make sure you don't get krakened fix a weight problem not fly to jool.

But what if thats what I want to test? I mean, yeah, you can test that it doesn't get krakened, sure, but testing should also include the flight stages which would therefore need everything to be modeled.

4 minutes ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

No mods it's for Mobile Only

Thats like saying I'm going vegan, I use a blue pen to do work (no offense to any vegans or people who use pens at work). Mod integration is one of the hallmarks of KSP and some people are heavily invested into mods. How would one "test" on a mobile platform those mods if mod support is not included?

Beyond these issues, how would you design the control system? Trying to fit the 100-odd keys and mouse functions onto a gamepad is difficul but apparently doable. For a mobile game though you would need to have the screen and control surface to be the same thing, limiting options.

[Cheif Operations Director]

Just now, MiffedStarfish said:

The physics engine will be the same, just with less scope. The game dosent differentiate from “orbital physics” and “ground physics” it’s more “you are at this place, going at this direction, at this speed, under the influence of this. You’re still doing tick rate physics, and still using a ridiculous amount of RAM for mobile.

And less calculations. Gravity, escape trajectories and such wouldn't be added. Just a set gravity number

1 minute ago, qzgy said:

You know that's the easy part to model right? All the planets are on rails and the orbital physics is just some equations that don;t even have to be constantly modeled. The hard part is the modeling of the different forces acting on the vessel and subsequent behavior. Like, for a plane in KSP, every frame or so the forces from drag, input, lift, collisions (if any happen) thrust, and so on. Thats cpu intensive, and I don;t think even the most modern mobile devices (phones tablets etc.) will hold a candle to even a decent laptop. Or maybe they will, but then you run into issues like control surfaces and so on.

But what if thats what I want to test? I mean, yeah, you can test that it doesn't get krakened, sure, but testing should also include the flight stages which would therefore need everything to be modeled.

Thats like saying I'm going vegan, I use a blue pen to do work (no offense to any vegans or people who use pens at work). Mod integration is one of the hallmarks of KSP and some people are heavily invested into mods. How would one "test" on a mobile platform those mods if mod support is not included?

Beyond these issues, how would you design the control system? Trying to fit the 100-odd keys and mouse functions onto a gamepad is difficul but apparently doable. For a mobile game though you would need to have the screen and control surface to be the same thing, limiting options.

Again I'm on console. I only use stock. Many PC Gamers use Stock it may not seem like it because of forums and YouTube but I assure you they do.

[qzgy]

2 minutes ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

Again I'm on console. I only use stock. Many PC Gamers use Stock it may not seem like it because of forums and YouTube but I assure you they do.

I too use stock (parts). But I'm speaking for the many people who do use mods. Saying your new shiny app that complements KSP doesn't support the mods people oh so dearly love would be a huge turnoff and likely limit the actual usefulness/market of the app.

4 minutes ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

And less calculations. Gravity, escape trajectories and such wouldn't be added. Just a set gravity number

Just because you decide "Oh I won't do escape trajectories in my game" doesn't mean that they can't exist. Those things you are trying to drop are a natural consequence of the basic physics of the system. You can't simply say "oh those don't matter".

 

Please, do correct me if I'm wrong. I don't see how you can have a game with gravity but not really with gravity.

[Cheif Operations Director]

23 minutes ago, qzgy said:

I too use stock (parts). But I'm speaking for the many people who do use mods. Saying your new shiny app that complements KSP doesn't support the mods people oh so dearly love would be a huge turnoff and likely limit the actual usefulness/market of the app.

Just because you decide "Oh I won't do escape trajectories in my game" doesn't mean that they can't exist. Those things you are trying to drop are a natural consequence of the basic physics of the system. You can't simply say "oh those don't matter".

 

Please, do correct me if I'm wrong. I don't see how you can have a game with gravity but not really with gravity.

A set gravity number vs evolving gravity and calculating thrust and then m/s and such. 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

This whole thing about a "mobile version of the VAB/SPH" has been hashed over several times now.

The general consensus is that you might as well port the entire game over at that point because you've done 90% of the work anyways. Mobile hardware just isn't going to be up to snuff either I'm afraid. Controls would be a nightmare, The cost to develop it could prolly never be recouped through sales; assuming anyone was actually willing to pay for it in the first place and you didn't have to release it for free with ads.

May I suggest the humble alternative app for this function: It's called "A pencil and a notepad." 

Edited February 1, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[swjr-swis]

Quote

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Why does this setting even exist? Genuine question.

 

 

[Spricigo]

 

A tool for ship design that can calculate performance parameters and run on mobile already exist: https://www.google.com/sheets

 

 

 

[Cheif Operations Director]

1 hour ago, Spricigo said:

 

A tool for ship design that can calculate performance parameters and run on mobile already exist: https://www.google.com/sheets

 

 

 

Seriously, how I haven't used sheet like that before how do you program it do calculate stuff like that.

[b0ss]

On 2/2/2018 at 6:55 AM, Cheif Operations Director said:

Seriously, how I haven't used sheet like that before how do you program it do calculate stuff like that.

I imagine importing formulas used in KSP's aerospace simulation using data from a ship you're designing is pretty straightforward actually  

 

Honestly I really dislike this idea. It doesn't seem like it would be very wieldy or useful. If I'm allowed a little hyperbole I'd even say this would be financial suicide for SQUAD as maintaining something like this alongside the actual game just doesn't seem feasible at all to me.