Feature Request: Mission Training Simulator

[breakthesystem]

You're building a plane that's supposed to fly on Duna, but until you arrive, there is no real way to test your assumptions. Or maybe you're building a craft to land on Moho – how do you know if your craft can land properly?

In KSP1, I would usually build the plane, cheat it to Duna, and then try the landing, then revert and iterate. In my mind, it was kind of like NASA would try out the Mars helicopter in an almost-vacuum chamber to check their assumptions. 

KSP2 has this awesome training simulator mode! I'd love to use it for exactly this: try out this craft, starting from that situation. None of the results count, but it'll help develop stuff. What do you think?

[pandaman]

I think it needs something along these lines.

Either a 'cheat' to orbit/location option like in KSP1. Or preferably an in game 'Test/Simulation' mode.  It would be a nice addition if it can increase the accuracy of the simulated environment based on your in-game observations and experiments etc.

[breakthesystem]

ooh I love it. Like if you don't know what the surface looks like, it'll be flat or low-res.

[Starhawk]

Moved from KSP2 Discussion.

[Socraticat]

On console you had a Mun base. You had to unlock it in the tech tree. It was an amazing way to test vehicles in low gravity, since you could choose to launch from Kerbin or the Mun!

I'm most excited for colonies for this reason- 

I assume, or hope, that inorder to have a VAB on another planet you'll be required to have landed on a celestial body before being able to set up a base. Maybe there are other requirements like some payload to deliver. 

Once a base is established on a body you should always have the option to launch from that body, just like unlocking Mun in the console tech tree.

[breakthesystem]

I had the same thought as well, colonies will make this less necessary. But until then, and especially for science mode where you probably don't have the colonies at the very beginning, it'd be so cool

[dr.phees]

It was a suggestion from old KSP 1 days as well: A training facility where you can set up different scenarios: On-surface training on the various bodies, zero-g etc to test your craft.

The idea was also bound to a ScanSat-like exploration feature: You could only rough-estimate the scenario if you didn't have data collected on the body you were setting up in the facility, making exploration and visiting the bodies much more necessary. The idea was to reflect it by having no or only very pixelated surface features and more and more high-rez surroundings the more you explored that body.

[KUAR]

Longtime forum observer, new contributor. Definite +1 for this. I've always thought that it should be a feature and thought I'd hunt for other people commenting before starting a new thread.

A real space agency simulates and models their craft extensively before sending them on missions. In KSP we often test our craft by rolling out our actual craft, then warping to an orbital position or a surface coordinate of our destination body. After we've tested half a dozen times like this, somehow the mission actually feels anti-climactic. Plus it's an inefficient way of testing your craft.

I'd like a "consequence-free" environment where you can submit bits of your craft for testing as if in a simulator. Access to the environment would be via the VAB. You would configure your "launch assembly" as per normal and, instead of sending to a runway or a launch pad, you'd send it to a simulator. The simulator would be a single-planet environment. The planet would be bare and featureless most likely, certainly monochrome with no surface scatter, and some cool graphics could suggest it's a simulation. Basically, it shouldn't feel like a destination in itself.

You would configure its physical properties on entry. Perhaps, if you'd been to and scanned a given planet with a probe, perhaps gone through the atmosphere and landed with scientific instruments, you could auto-configure to simulate a real planet's physical properties (atmosphere, gravity, axial tilt etc.). This would encourage exploration and science. You would then select your preferred situation - stable orbit or landed being the most two common options, to allow you to test entry to or ascent from an unexplored body. You could select various other "cheat" options guilt-free too, perhaps infinite fuel/unbreakable joints/disable KerbNet etc.

If people like this option, Like the post at the top and comment to keep it at the top of the forum!

[Stewcooker]

This is one of those ideas I didn't know I wanted. 

You're very right with the fact that sometimes the actual mission can feel anti-climatic after simming it a half-dozen times. 

I also love the ideas about needing scans or science from different planets to make it work. As a sucker for "Collect all the things!" type gameplay in games, it would add a major incentive to exploring and sending precursor probes to planets before planning actual missions there.

And it would be something unique to KSP 2 that could stand as a concrete addition or improvement over the original game. 

[BowlerHatGuy3]

On 4/24/2023 at 5:10 AM, breakthesystem said:

You're building a plane that's supposed to fly on Duna, but until you arrive, there is no real way to test your assumptions. Or maybe you're building a craft to land on Moho – how do you know if your craft can land properly?

In KSP1, I would usually build the plane, cheat it to Duna, and then try the landing, then revert and iterate. In my mind, it was kind of like NASA would try out the Mars helicopter in an almost-vacuum chamber to check their assumptions. 

KSP2 has this awesome training simulator mode! I'd love to use it for exactly this: try out this craft, starting from that situation. None of the results count, but it'll help develop stuff. What do you think?

A simulator could open up once you land on a body and do research on it in campaign mode. Should always be on in sandbox.