A system of magnetopheres, solar wind, and related parts

[nhnifong]

I have a suggestion for a big plugin.

Each planet will have a magenetosphere, especially Jool. and Kerbol will emit solar wind which can effect ships.

It may have random harmful effects on ships which do not use electrical or passive shielding.

Flying through a magnetic feild at high speed with a coil part could generate electricity.

Being within a magnetic feild protects you from damage in proportion to it's strength.

Megnetotorquers, can be an energy-consuming part which can be used as attitude control.

The solar wind could be simple to begin with, just an ever present danger with strength in proportion to your distance from Kerbol.

But later, it would be cool to have some visual representation, so that it was directional, and came in random pulses.

[PsychoLucario]

great idea, but wouldnt that require for parts to take damage over time? plus there should be some magnetic collector which generates a weak amount of power based on where you are in relation to a magnetetosphere

[nhnifong]

The damage I was thinking of was more like, a part might stop working, and to fix it, you need to EVA over to it and mess with it. Like activate it with the F key a few times or something. Because it's fiddly and broken.

[PsychoLucario]

that would actualy give EVA a purpose too

[dishycourier]

Anything science related is always on my list of things to support, especially if it can be used to generate awesome pictures.

[Lazurkri]

hmmn, this would be fun especially if you're attempting to land on MoHo, which is really close to the sun and thus would be bathed in both EM and hard radiation....

[jfx]

Neat idea.

But seeing as how the majority of the playerbase struggles to even achieve a stable orbit or yet alone make it to duna ... I can't see how introducing "random part failures" or strapping on moar tons of equipment to deal with kerbol particles will get much love.

This might change in the future.

[kyle.mk.howard]

Anything science related is always on my list of things to support, especially if it can be used to generate awesome pictures.

I've been dying for some more EVA interactive plugins or something. Either ship repair, sample testing, etc...

[MinerEdgar]

Or on a basic level screw up your SAS's abilty to handle you ship

[nsnipe]

Neat idea.

But seeing as how the majority of the playerbase struggles to even achieve a stable orbit or yet alone make it to duna ... I can't see how introducing "random part failures" or strapping on moar tons of equipment to deal with kerbol particles will get much love.

This might change in the future.

It doesnt mean that those who struggle need to install plugin, or mb it can be done as optional.

[Mekan1k]

you could have it setup so that the solar wind acts as an 'atmosphere' coming off the sun, a magnetosphere prevents damage to eva'ing kerbals (less magetosphere,more rad damage until the kerbal cooks), magetosphere could also allow for interplanetary magnetic braking, etc, etc.

[Fox62]

Dude, I like this idea, and it would actually force you to use docking for your manned missions.

[Guest]

The Apollo astronauts got through the Van Allen belts in a tin can with some foil wrapped around it. Although presumably there was no protection in the first place. I would assume most parts are somewhat radiation shielded and only if you get really close to Kerbol or there is a flare or mass ejection would you have to worry about your satellites getting toasted. And come to think of it, why not toss in micrometeoroids as well?

[Mekan1k]

We at Puffin Tech talked about doing something like this, but we do not have enough understanding of plugins to make this work. Please ping us if you want help on this project.

[OrbitusII]

Well... This has actually gotten me thinking about how I would accomplish it... I do actually code stuff with Unity (for 3 years now) so learning the KSP syntax wouldn't be too tough. The hardest foreseeable part of the plugin would be adding the "Part Health" variable to the config so that the parts can determine whether or not they're working. Generating the radiation is pretty easy, I'd just have to look into whether or not the radiation travels through planets without Mag-sphere (I think it does... I should know this!) to decide if I should use raycasting for determining how much radiation the ship receives.

Pretty easy plugin, actually, I'd just have to redirect my attentions from modeling to programming, but I think if I can get 3_bit trained well enough in that field and the current projects finished I can do it. No guarantees ATM, however.

My stuff on the U3D forums, if you want it:

<CURRENT> Vehicle System

<OLD> Door Opener

<OLD> Basic Flotation