Hot take: procedural wings won't make building easier

[Bej Kerman]

3 minutes ago, regex said:

That's the same way I felt about trying to stack up all the little bits and pieces of wings into a shape that looked mostly like a wing and did what I needed it to do in KSP1. Absolute witchcraft. The best part is it looks like these new wings have colliders so you can just slap another on instead of adjusting sliders if that's what's prefered.

Wings have control surfaces built in, so it doesn't look like hardcore wing patchers will get a good substitute for old style building. Unless you like every tiny bit of your wing flapping.

[TheOtherDave]

11 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

Which shape of the same wing should I choose if the indicators won't move much? How do I know which one will do better? I can build and launch rockets without testing, enough DV, enough TWR and stability and off I go. But this is witchcraft.

You could build similar shapes out wings in KSP 1, so you'd know the same way you knew there.

[regex]

Just now, Bej Kerman said:

Wings have control surfaces built in, so it doesn't look like hardcore wing patchers will get a good substitute for old style building. Unless you like every tiny bit of your wing flapping.

Looked to me like you could change the size of the control surface, potentially down to nothing, which would mean you could still stack wings without that sort of weirdness. In some cases I can see wanting to stack wings, like maybe I'm making an F4U or something.

Edited February 22, 2023 by regex

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, The Aziz said:

A game shouldn't require knowledge gained elsewhere to play it

They're adding what look like very easy to digest tutorials for space flight. I've seen no indication that they aren't also going to add a few for air flight. I've not seen that they WILL add them, but it's possible you'll actually be able to both have your cake and eat it too. And by cake, I mean wings. And by eat it, I mean... uh... fly... I guess.

[Zozaf Kerman]

Doesn’t it come with preset sizes you can adjust? So you can do it the same way as in ksp1

Edited February 22, 2023 by Zozaf Kerman

[boolybooly]

10 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Which shape of the same wing should I choose if the indicators won't move much? How do I know which one will do better? I can build and launch rockets without testing, enough DV, enough TWR and stability and off I go. But this is witchcraft.

Well I haven't tried KSP2 yet but in KSP the shape does not make much of a difference that I can tell.

It would be nice if it did, one hopes it would but its not that complex an aerodynamic model. As I understand it, HarvesteR (Felipe Falanghe) had decided that KSP was focused on rocketry, which is fair enough as that is the core gameplay of KSP.  So wings use a straightforward model with a lift value and an attach point in KSP and the changing shape simply changes the amount of wing area creating a lift value and maybe the attachment point  location. If you see no change in the drag indicator on changing the KSP procedural wing shape then if it is not a refresh bug it means there is no difference because the two wings have the same effective function and the aerodynamics model has remained relatively simple. I dont know if that is the case but I think that is a likely explanation. 

Saying that HarvesteR has since started developing a game called Balsa, all about winged aircraft models, on Steam EA though it is very early days! I think the aerodynamic model in that does mean wing shapes make a difference.

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by boolybooly

[Bej Kerman]

6 minutes ago, Zozaf Kerman said:

Doesn’t it come with preset sizes you can adjust? So you can do it the same way as in ksp1

Nope. There are no preset wings. You get a few default wings and it's your job to change the settings from there.

[Icky]

idk where youre coming from. youre saying you wont know what size/shape wing to put on a plane in ksp2, but how did you know in ksp1? there were different sizes and shapes there too. (btw the shape doesnt even matter, its just the total wing area. im betting ksp2 wont be much different) so all thats left is size. and its gonna be the same in 2 as it was in 1, if you dont have enough lift, you need more speed or more wing. and beyond that its still gonna be "put COL behind COD"

[Wheehaw Kerman]

Do we know whether the procedural wings will have fuel tankage?

[Yakuzi]

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

Wings have control surfaces built in, so it doesn't look like hardcore wing patchers will get a good substitute for old style building. Unless you like every tiny bit of your wing flapping.

Careful with the assumptions... You can toggle  control surfaces on or off:

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by Yakuzi