Flight Computers

[KSPACE]

You should be able to pre-program a spacecraft so it can automatically land like a reusable booster or first stage. You would need to make a simple programing language with basic things 

Example:

Point(Between[RETROGRADE^3 and "Drone_Ship"]);

SetThrust%((Velocity:M/S*Altitude:KM)/14.3);

[Gargamel]

We'll probably never see this is stock, but KPRC, KOS, and I believe MJ (among others) are all programmable to do exactly what you are asking. 

[IncongruousGoat]

Much easier said than done and not worth it. Writing a brand-new programming language is hard, and it would take up a serious amount of dev time (like, on the order of months) to develop one. Plus, if the devs were to go ahead and add this feature, the number of users who's use it would end up being a microscopically tiny part of the player base.

Also, I'm not sure you know what you're asking for. GNC program require some serious non-trivial math, and are in all cases much more complicated than your little example two-liner. The physics of rockets is complicated; you've got an object of changing mass, with a variable thrust vector, moving through a non-uniform force field (i.e. the gravitational field of whatever body you're orbiting). It doesn't lend itself to neat analytical solutions.

[Cassel]

But what about physics? If you as a player are in orbit, the ship landing at the KSC would have to have its bubble of physics.

[KSPACE]

6 hours ago, Cassel said:

But what about physics? If you as a player are in orbit, the ship landing at the KSC would have to have its bubble of physics.

You possibly could have the 2nd stage continue on while you control the first. I feel like this could be done just if you can tell a stage just when to burn at what percentage and have automatic MECO or SECO.  

[Rocket In My Pocket]

You can't have two active flights due to the physics bubble.

Anything not near your "camera" is packed up to avoid having to simulate everything at once.

It's beyond the scope of the game engine to put it simply.

As far as coding rockets:

https://ksp-kos.github.io/KOS/

Edited November 17, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[The Aziz]

And this for dropped stage control

[Gargamel]

6 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

You can't have two active flights due to the physics bubble.

Oh, yeah, I completely misunderstood the question being asked.    So we're talking about either stage recovery mods or split-timeline mods then.  Still something we'll never see in stock, but they modding community has you pretty well covered.   And you cold still use one of the programming language mods in conjunction with a split-timeline mod to actually have your boosters be completely automated. 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Gargamel

[Whirligig Girl]

I'd like a scratch-like flight computer programming interface with a GUI similar to the Mission Builder. Then we could have lovely things like speed of light delay and life support and a meaningful Kerbal/Probe dichotomy.

[Dunbaratu]

2 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

I'd like a scratch-like flight computer programming interface with a GUI similar to the Mission Builder. Then we could have lovely things like speed of light delay and life support and a meaningful Kerbal/Probe dichotomy.

Okay, sounds neat... but...  I fail to see any logical connection between your first sentence and your second sentence.

[Whirligig Girl]

7 hours ago, Steven Mading said:

Okay, sounds neat... but...  I fail to see any logical connection between your first sentence and your second sentence.

The GUI suggestion specifically is not actually related to the second sentence, but the notion of flight computers is.

If we have programmable flight computers, then we can implement speed of light delay in probes. Then to balance things out, we'll make Kerbals require life support, so the choice between probes or Kerbals is a meaningful one. Without life support, you'd never use probes; without speed of light delay, you'd never use kerbals; without flight computers and with speed of light delay, you'd never use probes.

[The Aziz]

Wasn't the delay implemented in RemoteTech or somewhere? I've seen it somewhere, or I dreamt about it, idk

[Gargamel]

19 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Wasn't the delay implemented in RemoteTech or somewhere?

Yes, I believe it was. 

[panarchist]

RemoteTech definitely has speed of light delay, and a rudimentary autopilot. Adding kOS into the mix allows a lot more capability and flexibility.

[Kerbinchaser]

On 11/16/2018 at 9:01 PM, Gargamel said:

We'll probably never see this is stock, but KPRC, KOS, and I believe MJ (among others) are all programmable to do exactly what you are asking. 

What he said. 

I doubt that we will ever see this stock, because I think that part of the joy of KSP is flying rockets yourself, but it's a nice idea. 

[KSPACE]

On 11/23/2018 at 12:41 AM, Lo Var Lachland said:

What he said. 

I doubt that we will ever see this stock, because I think that part of the joy of KSP is flying rockets yourself, but it's a nice idea. 

Yeah, but I would rather land a first stage than continue a burn of a second stage.