Better fairings

[T1mo98]

I'm sure this has been said quite a few times, but I just wanted to share some features I think would greatly improve fairings and their use-cases in the game.
I've listed all the changes I'd like for them to make.

 

1. The most obvious one. Reduce the size of the part and make it look better. Right now it just looks ugly and out of place on pretty much every rocket. 
A much better look would be something like a decoupler only taller and without the markings. Another feature would be to make it hollow, like the structural tubes. That way there's way more flexibility with them.

2. Change the colours of the variants. I find that the variants look quite ugly because of the very repetitive and textureless surface.

3. Make fairings be solid so other parts can be attached to them. This would add a toggle in the VAB/SPH that would make the fairing solid. You can then attach the parts you like. If you then make it see-through again the attached parts become part of the fairing itself and will remain with it even after being deployed.

4. This is the most complicated one.
Make it so fairings can be split up into multiple parts than can be deployed seperatly or not at all. 
This would work while making the fairing. An extra option would make the rest of what's build independent from the bottom of the fairing. Each section can then be staged seperatly or be disabled from staging. To visualize this just think of the fairing seperation on an Atlas V, where the top part of the fairing deployes while the bottom half stays attached. 
This feature would vastly improve the usability of fairings to beyond just protection from the air and streamlining.

 

Thoughts or suggestion?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

All good ideas certainly.

Not sure how difficult they'd be to implement.

I'm thinking the "solid fairings" you could attach parts to, could potentially cause some complications though.

Edited November 5, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[The Aziz]

@last suggestion you can place two fairings on top of each other, each carrying different payload.

[Cassel]

3 hours ago, The Aziz said:

@last suggestion you can place two fairings on top of each other, each carrying different payload.

I was thinking about fairings doing this, you only drop half of fairing and other half stays and plying role of heat shield

is this possible?

Edited November 6, 2018 by Cassel

[T1mo98]

3 hours ago, The Aziz said:

@last suggestion you can place two fairings on top of each other, each carrying different payload.

You can, but that’s not the functionality I’m talking about. Go look up the fairing seperation the Atlas V with a large fairing and you’ll see what I mean.

[JoaquinJAR]

i love this idea!!

this with more structural parts would be awesomee!

[AlamoVampire]

I have been a HUGE proponent of this very idea since they gave us the NEED to have fairings. Until such a time as we get better fairings I just use the mod Procedural Fairings. op 14:37:30

[T1mo98]

11 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

I have been a HUGE proponent of this very idea since they gave us the NEED to have fairings. Until such a time as we get better fairings I just use the mod Procedural Fairings. op 14:37:30

The reason I don't use Procedural Fairings is that I can't make the fairings look exactly how I want. I'm a big fan of recreating real rockets in a Kerbal way, and that involves making the fairings look alike, Procedural Fairings doesn't allow me (as far as I know) to do that.

[AlamoVampire]

51 minutes ago, T1mo98 said:

The reason I don't use Procedural Fairings is that I can't make the fairings look exactly how I want. I'm a big fan of recreating real rockets in a Kerbal way, and that involves making the fairings look alike, Procedural Fairings doesn't allow me (as far as I know) to do that.

For what its worth I have not had difficulty replicating real world fairings with PF. But that may be from years of use with the mod. For me I like being able to not have to click and drag and otherwise fiddle with fairings. Just set symmetry select connical or rounded fairings and place on the green dot and watch my fairings form instantly. But I understand where you are coming from. Im happy you get enjoyment with stock fairings  happy flying  

[Hydrothermalventclam]

2 hours ago, T1mo98 said:

The reason I don't use Procedural Fairings is that I can't make the fairings look exactly how I want. I'm a big fan of recreating real rockets in a Kerbal way, and that involves making the fairings look alike, Procedural Fairings doesn't allow me (as far as I know) to do that.

There is a manual control option in procedural fairings.  One of the right-click options is to disable the autoshape feature.  Then you can manually change the dimensions.  Also, if you don't like how the curved parts of the fairings look, you can edit the curves in the part.cfg file.  For example, I always use a procedural fairing that has a sharp angled bottom, but a smother cone on top, kind of like the largest Atlas V fairing.

[T1mo98]

11 hours ago, Hydrothermalventclam said:

There is a manual control option in procedural fairings.  One of the right-click options is to disable the autoshape feature.  Then you can manually change the dimensions.  Also, if you don't like how the curved parts of the fairings look, you can edit the curves in the part.cfg file.  For example, I always use a procedural fairing that has a sharp angled bottom, but a smother cone on top, kind of like the largest Atlas V fairing.

Mmh, I might try them out if they work on 1.5, but probably only for tests. I never use Modded Parts in my actual builds so they remain compatible for every version and don't require any downloading of mods.

[AlamoVampire]

@T1mo98 they are updated for ksp 1.5 and work on 1.5.1.