"Vacuum Simulation mode" in the VAB

[BechMeister]

Hello! I have found a few things that i am missing in this game.  I am currently making a Venture Star style SSTO (although i use solid boosters to get it into orbit) - But I found this time that my center of thrust for the RCS thrusters was not balanced. When i tried to move the vehicle left or right it would jaw left and right as well.  When i tried to move it down and up it would pitch as well. This instability made it impossible to line up the docking ports.

- It would be great to at least have a box that shows the center of thrust for the RCS thrusters, together with the center of mass, main engine thrust and drag. So it's easier to line it up with the center of mass, making sure maneuvering will be problem free in Vacuum. 

- It would be super awesome to have a vacuum simulation for vehicles - were you can test its current maneuverability when docking with something

[jastrone]

a centre of rcs thrust would be awesome

[Lyneira]

There was a really good mod for KSP1 that helped with all of these center of mass/center of thrust issues. You could switch it between the wet mass (full fuel) CoM and  dry mass (empty fuel) CoM, allowing you to tweak your centers of thrust and lift to suit both situations. For thrust, the direction and amount  of torque created would be shown by an indicator. And there was an RCS mode where it could show the torque created by RCS translation as well, to help with optimal placement of RCS thrusters. Sadly, I can't recall its name now... Perhaps someone else who remembers could help out with the mod's name.

It would be quite nice to have these for all kinds of VTOLs, dropships and anything that needs to do maneuvering in space on RCS.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Lyneira

[Sea_Kerman]

RCS Build Aid

[BechMeister]

1 hour ago, Lyneira said:

There was a really good mod for KSP1 that helped with all of these center of mass/center of thrust issues. You could switch it between the wet mass (full fuel) CoM and  dry mass (empty fuel) CoM, allowing you to tweak your centers of thrust and lift to suit both situations. For thrust, the direction and amount  of torque created would be shown by an indicator. And there was an RCS mode where it could show the torque created by RCS translation as well, to help with optimal placement of RCS thrusters. Sadly, I can't recall its name now... Perhaps someone else who remembers could help out with the mod's name.

It would be quite nice to have these for all kinds of VTOLs, dropships and anything that needs to do maneuvering in space on RCS.

That would be awesome to have ingame as stock!

[Lyneira]

@Sea_KermanThanks for reminding me of the mod name!

Some features in RCS Build Aid that I dearly miss in KSP2:

• Show dry center of mass (nice to have: average center of mass).
• Indicator to visualize torque generated by thrusters.
  • Switchable between torque from RCS or the regular engines
  • Switchable between both CoM types
• Visualize RCS thruster vectors.

I made this a separate suggestion on the Intercept Discord feedback forum as well, in hopes of this getting seen.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Lyneira

[BechMeister]

yeah that looks nice