In flight vessel 'Engineering and Maintenance' Editor

[pandaman]

This comes from an idea spawned when replying in another suggestion thread...

KSP2 will have very large vessels, so what about a 'VAB style' editor that would enable changes to be made to vessels in flight, perhaps an 'Engineering Workshop' module would need to be part of the vessel to enable  it.

Think of it a bit like the Engineering/Maintenance Department on a cruiseship,  where repairs and minor reconfiguration can be done while away from base.  KSP1 has engineers that can do this type of stuff, but on very large vessels it could be very awkward as well as needing to potentially move very large parts and assemblies around.

Obviously, what work can be done would need to be limited by the parts and resources, and crew, available on board, but it could give the options to be able to do things like rearrange the modules on your transport ship to turn it into a more practical station on arrival, or swap out the engines to more suitable ones for the new environment, in a less finicky and more structured  way than in KSP1.

[MKI]

I like the idea of improving on the "kerbal engineering" build mode in the "flight mode" of the game to be easier to work with, but I don't think it should be made more powerful.

Its one thing to add small upgrades to your ship, or fixing things here and there. But rearranging the modules on your ship in flight sounds overpowered. I know its space LEGOS, but this might be too LEGO, where how you design the rocket and mission doesn't matter anymore as you can just change it in flight. This would remove a lot of the engineering decisions when building a craft in essentially all situations as you have super space Macgyver-kerman who can rebuild your billion dollar space ship in zero-g using duck-tape and snacks, just gotta drag up all the parts and slap it on when you need it.

 

imagines all the youtube people doing insane stuff by rebuilding the same craft for all situations lol

 

 

 

 

 

[Bej Kerman]

2 minutes ago, MKI said:

I like the idea of improving on the "kerbal engineering" build mode in the "flight mode" of the game to be easier to work with, but I don't think it should be made more powerful.

Its one thing to add small upgrades to your ship, or fixing things here and there. But rearranging the modules on your ship in flight sounds overpowered. I know its space LEGOS, but this might be too LEGO, where how you design the rocket and mission doesn't matter anymore as you can just change it in flight. This would remove a lot of the engineering decisions when building a craft in essentially all situations as you have super space Macgyver-kerman who can rebuild your billion dollar space ship in zero-g using duck-tape and snacks, just gotta drag up all the parts and slap it on when you need it.

imagines all the youtube people doing insane stuff by rebuilding the same craft for all situations lol

I'd imagine parts would have to be kept in large containers that cannot hold many things, and there'd probably be limits to how much of a vessel you could split.

[pandaman]

15 minutes ago, MKI said:

I like the idea of improving on the "kerbal engineering" build mode in the "flight mode" of the game to be easier to work with, but I don't think it should be made more powerful.

Its one thing to add small upgrades to your ship, or fixing things here and there. But rearranging the modules on your ship in flight sounds overpowered. I know its space LEGOS, but this might be too LEGO, where how you design the rocket and mission doesn't matter anymore as you can just change it in flight. This would remove a lot of the engineering decisions when building a craft in essentially all situations as you have super space Macgyver-kerman who can rebuild your billion dollar space ship in zero-g using duck-tape and snacks, just gotta drag up all the parts and slap it on when you need it.

 

imagines all the youtube people doing insane stuff by rebuilding the same craft for all situations lol

 

 

 

 

 

I wouldnt imagine it being able to do a whole lot more than we can already with docking port connected modules etc. Just that it would enable easier manipulation of very big parts and modules, and be mainly intended for the very big ships due to the size and weight of the 'Workshop'.  Sort of like a 'Super strong KSP1 Engineer', but with a VAB style interface.  Probaly with mass limits too, depending on how many crew you have helping and/or any 'lifting gear'.

11 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

I'd imagine parts would have to be kept in large containers that cannot hold many things, and there'd probably be limits to how much of a vessel you could split.

Exactly, you can't swap engine A for engine B unless you have an engine B on board.  And you have to carry it somehow, so planning and prep would be needed for any such tasks.  And I envisage that multi-part modules could only be split off and connected at certain points, such as docking ports or special 'jointing' rings or whatever.

[Pthigrivi]

4 hours ago, pandaman said:

This comes from an idea spawned when replying in another suggestion thread...

KSP2 will have very large vessels, so what about a 'VAB style' editor that would enable changes to be made to vessels in flight, perhaps an 'Engineering Workshop' module would need to be part of the vessel to enable  it.

Think of it a bit like the Engineering/Maintenance Department on a cruiseship,  where repairs and minor reconfiguration can be done while away from base.  KSP1 has engineers that can do this type of stuff, but on very large vessels it could be very awkward as well as needing to potentially move very large parts and assemblies around.

Obviously, what work can be done would need to be limited by the parts and resources, and crew, available on board, but it could give the options to be able to do things like rearrange the modules on your transport ship to turn it into a more practical station on arrival, or swap out the engines to more suitable ones for the new environment, in a less finicky and more structured  way than in KSP1.

As a person who frequently builds transformer-ey vessels that dissemble and reassemble in different ways I love this idea. In fact we know there’s a base editor interface and I don’t see why on very large colony ships that have all of the necessary processing equipment on board you couldn’t treat it like a colony or space station and make changes along the way. 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Pthigrivi

[shdwlrd]

I really like this idea. It would solve the problem of what do I do with the colony ship once you reach a new star system. It would make sense to rearrange the modules to make an orbital colony than tear down the whole ship just to build the same thing. It would also be helpful for in-situ upgrades so you don't have to recover the ship. Just dock it to a station or just do the upgrade while in orbit somewhere. 

I can see the limits being:

What supplies you have on hand. (To limit what you can actually do.)

What help you may have. (Is there only one engineer or is there a whole team.)

How much time you have to do the upgrade. (It will take X amount of time.)

 What facilities are available to help. (Docked to a shipyard or just to some lonely little station.)

[SOXBLOX]

Ehhh... I'm sceptical. The KSP1 engineer thing? Absolutely. But just rebuilding your ship from the ground up feels a little OP.

[Beerasaurus]

Sounds like a good user mod to me. 

I hate the idea of poo-pooing anybody's wish list, but I'd rather any potential time spent on this by the Devs be spent in a dozen other ways instead.

[shdwlrd]

53 minutes ago, Beerasaurus said:

Sounds like a good user mod to me. 

I hate the idea of poo-pooing anybody's wish list, but I'd rather any potential time spent on this by the Devs be spent in a dozen other ways instead.

This would just be another variation on the VAB/BAE editors. 

4 hours ago, SOXBLOX said:

Ehhh... I'm sceptical. The KSP1 engineer thing? Absolutely. But just rebuilding your ship from the ground up feels a little OP.

It's one thing to replace a solar panel or a radiator. Yeah, just send a Kerbal out to fix it. It's another to strip them all and replace them with a better solution. This method is quicker to remove the parts you don't want and place the new parts exactly where you want them.