[UNOFFICIAL/FANMADE] 0.18 Discussion thread

[TheProdigy]

You mean to say that Squad is NOT implementing docking for 0.18? Seriously?

After the months of waiting after the 0.15 update? Wow, just.... wow...

Too bad, deal with it. No one promised docking anyway...

[hebdomad]

Docking is the space station feature.

There are mods for that. I would rather see Squad concentrate on features and game mechanisms that cannot be easily implemented with plugins than extra content that can be added by mods.

Core features have to be done by the developer. We can not rely of people looking for mods to get the most out of KSP. This is why space planes where added.

We DO need docking as a feature. I've seen the 'docking mods' and you can not do the things as a fully featured docking feature would bring.

You can not build space stations bit by bit. We don't have seamless crew transfers. Heck you can't even leave two docked ships together in orbit without them drifting apart.

... in short, we need docking.

These ARE features and game mechanics that can not be easily implemented.

... *le sigh*

Honestly this thread should be locked until Squad announce what they are working on for .18 , until then I'll get back to landing stuff on Duna and beyond.

Edited September 28, 2012 by hebdomad

[Crimson_Pride14]

I'd really like a mission planner like some others have mentioned. Something where I don't have to test a rocket several times to get it to where I wanna go. I know some people like playing that way, but I'd rather be able to focus on the payload and mission than trial and error.

This is what I propose. It would be a simulation of the galaxy, from a moment that you would chose to launch your rocket. When you click the launch button from the VAB or the launch pad from the space center you have the option to plan your flight or just launch. Your launch can either be right away, or you can set it for a later time. (Useful for setting up your launch so you don't spend a lot of time in a parking orbit waiting for the right angle. Possibly give a view of the galaxy with a slider to speed up time to the point that you want so you can see the planets positions.) You set a parking orbit that you wanna start from around Kerbin. Several mods are already able to predict the phase angle and ejection angle with the required Delta-V to reach the desired destination. Looking at what Harv has already started with the patched conics update it could be possible to hover over where you wanna go or even select a celestial body or vessel, so it will display the information you need to rendezvous with it. So you can click where you wanna go, and it will make a mark as a event in the flight plan. This event will list the angles required to reach your destination, along with the delta-V. There can even be a count down to the event, so you know exactly when you have to be lined up and when to start your burn.

One small thing that would be amazing is to mark on which ejection angle you need to start your burn based on the engine you have. Since the nuclear engine has such low thrust the burn has to be pretty long, which throws off the final trajectory. So knowing how early to start the burn so you get the right angle would be a life saver. Though that would require direct information about the rocket, which could be possible because there is an engineer mod somewhere that does the same kind of thing.

Once you have where you'll enter the SOI, you can move the mission planning up and start again from that point. Your path will be estimated like it is now, but you can add burns in at certain intervals to adjust your trajectory to either move into an orbit or enter the atmosphere and land. You could do this by selecting certain points on your path and list how much Delta-V you want and at what angle. These will be marked down as another event in the fight plan, with required Delta-V and any other information you need.

If you wanna get back to Kerbin, you start again from a parking orbit over the body your taking off from.

If you don't wanna stop at that celestial body, you can let your craft pass through it's SOI. At the next SOI change you can start the mission planner again like before and continue for as long as you want. You can set as many events in the flight plan as you want, allowing for gravity assist trajectories to minimize the fuel required. So as you overlook the galaxy you will have a diagram of your trajectory's and your flight plan. More importantly, you will have a list of burns that you have to make in order to follow that path. Each one has the angles and Delta-V required. As you fly you can have a countdown to each event. So you do your transfer burn, warp to the next event, do your burn, and warp to the next event. So on and so forth. There are mods to estimate the Delta-V of your different stages, so it's just a matter of arranging your stages to get the proper Delta-V.

Of course this will require cleaning up of the current game. Seems like the precision of the orbital mechanics still isn't where it needs to be for this kind of precise planning. There also needs to be some better navigational tools outside of mods, because of the requirement to burn at certain angles for certain times. There also needs to be a way to account for error the the calculations. So it might have to be a dynamics flight plan as well. But for the next update a bare bones version would still be amazing. Even having the option to trigger certain stages and certain time or positions in the flight could be cool. But that would also probably require a overhaul of the staging interface in the VAB to makes it easier to organize.

Apologies for the wall of text, just wanted to explain my idea thoroughly.

[RageCookie]

I really would like to see an improvement of our ''stock'' navigational systems except one Gyrocompass. I dont like using mods because it is anoying to keep them up to date.

A game which by great parts lives from its modding community should also have some kind of mod manager which keeps everything EASY up to date and sorted out. Thats something I really would like to see ( not necessarily in 0.18 but in general).

More realistic athmospheric friction and heat is something I also would really like .

I also really really would like that they try to improve their gravitation and orbital mechanics. I run some numbers and crunched some formulas and I m really not happy with the gravitational influx of some bodies but thats just a minor thing.

Higher warp settings and a better interface for the VAB and the SPH would be something really fancy.

But a really important thing:

GIVE US SIMULATIONS !

Oh my god. You always have to try your new desgins for interplanetary missions and that takes TIME a lot of time and gets really frustrating at times when u reach your target and dont have enough fuel to deorbit,land or what ever. Everything elese is really something i can wait for but mission planers or simulators for specific missions or enviroments are something i cant wait for. It s just anyoing.

[Aescwulf]

I think 0.18 would just be bug fixes

The simulation thing as the person said above would be a good idea kinda like the benchmark testing that is in Forza 4 game.

I think smoothing out the game as it stands should be in 0.18 otherwise you'll have so much content and then you'll spend ages sorting those out.

[DuckZero]

But a really important thing:

GIVE US SIMULATIONS !

Oh my god. You always have to try your new desgins for interplanetary missions and that takes TIME a lot of time and gets really frustrating at times when u reach your target and dont have enough fuel to deorbit,land or what ever. Everything elese is really something i can wait for but mission planers or simulators for specific missions or enviroments are something i cant wait for. It s just anyoing.

The game is a simulation...

[Lesarthois]

And how can you expect Kerbins to have a computer to make simultions, when they can't even make an auto-pilot or computer-assisted fly

[Bluekommeh]

I for one would like rovers, but I think a big hunking chunk of bug fixes is in order, and would be really useful. Pretty much just polishing, like Moho's lava, and perhaps some prototype atmospheric, like the small puffs of cloud you see on Kerbin, but perhaps bigger or more refined. Also a stackable parachute would be nice, but really that's not necessary.

[Shadownailshot]

People, seriously, not complaining about docking. This game is in EARLY ALPHA STAGE. Squad has barely scratched the surface, you should feel lucky you even get to play the game at this stage. You're an alpha tester. You made a donation to support a good company with an awesome game concept. They are giving you free updates for what I believe is right up to the final version. Stop complaining, you have a good deal here.

[Vostre Roy]

People, seriously, not complaining about docking. This game is in EARLY ALPHA STAGE. Squad has barely scratched the surface, you should feel lucky you even get to play the game at this stage. You're an alpha tester. You made a donation to support a good company with an awesome game concept. They are giving you free updates for what I believe is right up to the final version. Stop complaining, you have a good deal here.

I'm only a member on here for less than a week and I fully support that message. You can't dictate what to do or what should be done when you are not a part of the dev team. Our job is to gather bugs, crashes and everything wrong with the current game, and then suggest some ideas for them. The fact that the game runs well enough to be fun is just the cherry on top of the sundea. If you ain't happy with the current way the dev release the stuff, stop to play, go out fo a while and come back in a couple of months when the game will be "up to your expectation"

/rant

Back on topic, I can't really give much ideas, I'm less than a week in this game. My biggest wish is to fix the tracking station bug, I for one never been able to get into it, it always crash. Tonight I shall give my crash package, I think I'm near 20, most being because I lacked RAM or whatever. Beside that, I'll shamelessly say that: Keep the good work, this game has more potential than any game I can think off right now.

[RageCookie]

Yeah, the game is in a pre Alpha state for which they charge 18 Bucks. A bit of pushing and complaining is not really missplaced. Again, funny phenomenon...in no industry customers have so much tolerance for failure as in the electronics arts business.

As much as i like KSP, for my taste 18 bucks is overpriced. Minecraft as an other Indie example, is about 27 bucks in its current state. In the alpha it was free and in late beta is was about 8 Dollars and not to flame too much but Notch and Co updated way more often then Squad. But just my opinion. I bought KSP when it was way cheaper and I recommeded it then to two of my friends. As of it got really expensive for an alpha I wont recomend it again unless the game progresses much better.

I have every respect for Squad and Nova and all the other people working on this but the developement has to speed up if they want to justify the high price.

The game is missing key aspects as docking ( which was by the way anounced about 3 updates ago or something), proper mission planing (simulations ) and a lot of tweaks about the physical parameters.

Just my opinion. I am open for flame now.

[Shadownailshot]

I didn't realize 18 bucks was steep for a game. You didn't have to donate. No one is obligated to, you can still get .13 without donating. You shouldn't complain about an alpha because in alpha they're still building the groundworks. They can't add all of these features you want because the underlying code necessary to add it correctly isn't there. And 18 bucks is not steep, considering you usually can't get in on an alpha unless you work for the company, and most games today cost about $60. So I consider this a great deal. If you have such a problem with it, why are you here? Alright, I'm done discussing this, it's gone way off topic, and this thread is going to get locked again.

[kacperrutka26]

Yeah, the game is in a pre Alpha state for which they charge 18 Bucks. A bit of pushing and complaining is not really missplaced. Again, funny phenomenon...in no industry customers have so much tolerance for failure as in the electronics arts business.

As much as i like KSP, for my taste 18 bucks is overpriced. Minecraft as an other Indie example, is about 27 bucks in its current state. In the alpha it was free and in late beta is was about 8 Dollars and not to flame too much but Notch and Co updated way more often then Squad. But just my opinion. I bought KSP when it was way cheaper and I recommeded it then to two of my friends. As of it got really expensive for an alpha I wont recomend it again unless the game progresses much better.

I have every respect for Squad and Nova and all the other people working on this but the developement has to speed up if they want to justify the high price.

The game is missing key aspects as docking ( which was by the way anounced about 3 updates ago or something), proper mission planing (simulations ) and a lot of tweaks about the physical parameters.

Just my opinion. I am open for flame now.

Please talk about 0.18 not about how much the game costs please, Even though this is my thread, you are lucky I can't delete this post because I would since it's off topic (I am not a moderator so I can't delete posts)

[JMBuilder]

We need parachutes that slowly open as soon as you deploy them. This would be good for more accurate Skycrane missions. They wouldn't slow the craft all the way, but they would allow the craft's engines to take over.

[sal_vager]

You are paying for access to the game in its current state and the future updates are free, KSP will get more expensive as time goes on, bought it early? Good, Don't want to pay $18? Well there are other things you can spend your money on, you don't need KSP like you need food for example.

KSP is currently an alpha release, not a completed game, you should expect it to have bugs and missing features.

Now back on topic: I think 0.18 will be mostly polish and fixes rather than a lot of new features, maybe we'll get voices and music

[kacperrutka26]

You are paying for access to the game in its current state and the future updates are free, KSP will get more expensive as time goes on, bought it early? Good, Don't want to pay $18? Well there are other things you can spend your money on, you don't need KSP like you need food for example.

KSP is currently an alpha release, not a completed game, you should expect it to have bugs and missing features.

Now back on topic: I think 0.18 will be mostly polish and fixes rather than a lot of new features, maybe we'll get voices and music

Now that you mentioned voices, I had an evil idea about screaming kerbals and Maybe laughing kerbals (Jeb style ) That would be cool if they talked in the middle of a flight. Like blablablablabla arrrgh!!!! Or something like that

[Lesarthois]

Judging on their faces when I launch my rocket, I'll only get "haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrhhhgggggg" for the whole flight.

[thenbagis]

I'm new to KSP, but I tend to agree with those that say:

- Polish

• Finish IVA and Planets
  
• Work bugs out
  
• Code optimization (help us with slower computers)?
  

- Usability features

• A VAB that splits payload and launch
  
• Mission control / flight planning - is this video a hint?
  
  

basically, getting closer to a released game, than adding features. Features can always be an "expansion pack" or "mod" but these underlying things are needed to be a releasable game.

[mustwinfull]

Firstly, welcome to the forums thenbagis.

OT: I think it was stated a few pages back by Nova that 0.18 wasn't going any new planets but maybe enhance them a bit (unless I misread what you were saying).

Anyway, features that I would like are:

• Kill certain annoying bugs.
  
• Work on the planets more (Moho, for instance is currently lavaless).
  
• Some sort of mission planner (launch windows, differnt burns etc).
  
• Finish IVAs off.
  
• Add the true altimeter to the main view instead of just IVAs.
  

0.17 has left me with a lot to do (haven't even got to Minmus yet) so I'm not going to want/expect too much from 0.18.

[Lesarthois]

Oh, one thing that should be done : moving the damn compass on either left or right. This thing is annoying when it come to landing, as I like to have my cam zoomed, making the ship legs hidden behind. And I want to keep an eye on my velocity, so it must be showing.

So, having the possibility to move it would be great.

[Jay_Em]

I just landed on Eve. That place is unexplorable without rovers. A simple little rover would make my day.

[stargazer1235]

I think for that for 0.18 Squad will finish off the planets. Most likely finish off Moho and the rest of the gas giant. Probably fix up some bugs and also finish the IVE views for ALL the capsules. I heard that they might be working on a protractor tool to make interplanetary travel easier. Docking and rover will most likely be implemented later. Various Squad members have said that if they are going to do it, they want to do it well.

[pwnedbyscope]

I would like to see more staging options, options for payloads, exclusion rules, such as turning off certain rcs thrusters until a certain stage, or limiting an engine for in atmo use only. As far as new content I would like to see a mission planner or flight simulator. with a calculator for determining how much fuel thrust etc. you would need to get to a certain planet/moon with a certain payload.

As far as docking is concerned i think an underlying reason it hasn't been implemented yet is there really isnt a reason to do it yet, other then to build bigger ships and get to other planets (which can already be done with one ship) there really isnt much else to do once you get there. once we see more features that add IVAs/EVAs, and things to do in them, such as tests the can only be preform on a certain planet that give rewards in the upcoming career mode. then there will be a reason to add things such as docking, which at that point when the devs determine the time is right they will add things such as docking

[mnnm1234]

More IVA Stuff That is all.

[Russian Flame]

What i want will be in .18 is co-op or muitplayer