If you could have one feature in KSP what would it be?

[TimKerbin]

In all my KSP adventures, I feel one feature has always been overlooked: the ability to recognise kerbals by trait and XP level at a glance. It is so frustrating to be expected to memorise randomly generated names and know who they are (yes you can view them in the Tracking Station but you still need to memorise them!). And not once did Squad think about this. Instead they gave us what we really needed, coloured struts.

All we need is the addition of P, E, or S, by their name, along with a number 0-5 for their level. This could be added to the left click menu when you click on a module hatch. I think the Haystack mod did something similar. This would make managing large numbers of kerbals on a station or a base so much easier. It's just really annoying that such a simple, quality of life enhancement was never even considered.

[AtomicTech]

3 hours ago, TimKerbin said:

In all my KSP adventures, I feel one feature has always been overlooked: the ability to recognise kerbals by trait and XP level at a glance. It is so frustrating to be expected to memorise randomly generated names and know who they are (yes you can view them in the Tracking Station but you still need to memorise them!). And not once did Squad think about this. Instead they gave us what we really needed, coloured struts.

All we need is the addition of P, E, or S, by their name, along with a number 0-5 for their level. This could be added to the left click menu when you click on a module hatch. I think the Haystack mod did something similar. This would make managing large numbers of kerbals on a station or a base so much easier. It's just really annoying that such a simple, quality of life enhancement was never even considered.

I'd have the source code!

THE SOURCE MUST FLOW

3 hours ago, TimKerbin said:

I feel one feature has always been overlooked: the ability to recognise kerbals by trait and XP level at a glance. It is so frustrating to be expected to memorise randomly generated names and know who they are (yes you can view them in the Tracking Station but you still need to memorise them!).

It would be a neat addition to have slightly different suits for each class of Kerbal!

[Royalswissarmyknife]

hmmmmmm

all the mods I have installed

oh wait one?

atlas balloon tank parts

Edited May 23, 2023 by Royalswissarmyknife

[adsii1970]

A planet/star crafter within the game. This way, you could have an ability to start, from the main menu, a planet editor that would allow you to click and drag, drop, edit and every thing else needed to create custom planets, moons, and other stars to the game.

[Davidian1024]

FTL

[adsii1970]

Just now, Davidian1024 said:

FTL

Yeah, that! But the question is would we want hyper drive, as in Star Wars or warp drive, as in Star Trek, or something in-between?

[Davidian1024]

Just now, adsii1970 said:

Yeah, that! But the question is would we want hyper drive, as in Star Wars or warp drive, as in Star Trek, or something in-between?

I want FTL so so badly.  But I also want the game to remain true to known science.  As true as is reasonable within the context of a video game.

So, I'm torn here.  Part of me wants Star Trek style warp drive.  But, at the same time I want it based in reality.

I'm still holding out hope that the physicists will figure out how to get us past light speed.

[adsii1970]

30 minutes ago, Davidian1024 said:

I want FTL so so badly.  But I also want the game to remain true to known science.  As true as is reasonable within the context of a video game.

With KSP2 going "interstellar" by 1.0, it is going to have to have FTL, unless we are talking about creating generational Kerbal spacecraft. But while that would be challenging, it would not be anything we cannot already do in KSP (original) now. It might be more of a challenge if there were some sort of stock life support we had to consider it as part of a generational journey. However, with the way KSP2 was introduced, they did say that FTL would be part of the stock game once it was complete.

34 minutes ago, Davidian1024 said:

So, I'm torn here.  Part of me wants Star Trek style warp drive.  But, at the same time I want it based in reality.

I totally get it. I do. I am a huge Star Trek fan; for my 35th birthday and while in graduate school, a few of my friends took me to a Star Trek convention (I was wearing a full captain's uniform from TOS), and I was "promoted" - complete with certificate - to commodore at that convention in Saint Louis! It was a blast! Anyway, yeah, I'd rather have realism over science fiction, too. But, in case I ever wanted a good ol' Star Trek-style warp, I am sure that some thrifty modder will give us that effect in KSP2!

36 minutes ago, Davidian1024 said:

I'm still holding out hope that the physicists will figure out how to get us past light speed.

Although I am an historian by vocation, I study the history of space travel and the ideas and theories behind manned spaceflight since the early 19th Century. Even though our species, humankind, has longed to reach out to the stars before that, spaceflight and the concept of it really became a part of the minds of many after Jules Verne made it fashionable reading. He seasoned the minds of his readers with the ideas of what could be possible. And with my love of science fiction fed in my youth by television shows such as Star Trek, Space 1999, UFO, and old sci-fi serials from the 1950s and 1960s (thanks to U.S. Armed Forces Radio and Television Services-Europe!), I've always looked towards our future (as a species) with hope and optimism.

I am hoping by your statement you are referring to real life physicists... so, that's how I've been crafting my response. To be honest, I was captivated by the television and watched with great anticipation every Skylab and shuttle launch until my time in college, the military, and return to college made it impossible to do so. Even now, I am amazed each time I am able to watch a cargo or passenger capsule dock with the ISS. But in reality, I am disappointed in how little, globally, we have progressed as a species in our efforts to colonize the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids in the Asteroid Belt. But then again, I am tainted by the many years of reading Azimov, Clarke, Sagan and the other great science fiction writers of the past.

[Nazalassa]

No [or at least minimal] memory leaks would be pretty good.

[Davidian1024]

3 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

...with the way KSP2 was introduced, they did say that FTL would be part of the stock game once it was complete.

I missed this.  Excited to hear that they intend to put it in the game. 

4 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

I am hoping by your statement you are referring to real life physicists...

Yep, you've got it right on.

7 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

...I am disappointed in how little, globally, we have progressed as a species in our efforts to colonize the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids in the Asteroid Belt.

I think we're very much on the same page.  The progress we've made isn't where I had hoped it would be when I was young.  Unfortunately, I think we have alot of societal things that need to be sorted out first.

[AtomicTech]

40 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

creating generational Kerbal spacecraft

But, don't they live indefinitely? 

[adsii1970]

11 minutes ago, AtomicTech said:

But, don't they live indefinitely? 

They do, but do they have to? You could always go into the persistent file and make them dead after so many years in flight...

[Davidian1024]

I'm looking forward to the dating sim.  Maintaining a sufficient Kerbal birthrate on interstellar voyages will be critical.

[AtomicTech]

5 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

They do, but do they have to? You could always go into the persistent file and make them dead after so many years in flight...

Then that would make you Modder, Creator, and Executioner 

Too much power for one man if you ask me!

[jimmymcgoochie]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

With KSP2 going "interstellar" by 1.0, it is going to have to have FTL, unless we are talking about creating generational Kerbal spacecraft.

KSP2 won’t have FTL, that has been stated repeatedly. Interstellar travel will take a realistic amount of time i.e. decades to centuries one way. 

[Kerballlistic07]

If I could have one? More stock abort towers. I know there are mods, but its nice to have them in stock sometimes. I usually just revert anyway, but they look cool.

[adsii1970]

2 minutes ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

KSP2 won’t have FTL, that has been stated repeatedly. Interstellar travel will take a realistic amount of time i.e. decades to centuries one way. 

I must have misunderstood. I could have bet money they said there would be FTL travel in KSP.

[Davidian1024]

I was also under the impression that FTL won't be happening.  I mean, I'm sure modders will grant this wish, and I will definitely be using those mods.  But not in the core game.  I assume not even in any DLC  And tbh, I think that's for the best.  Once they start opening the game up to science fiction, I think it's a slippery slope.  And while I am torn over this, I lean in favor of staying within the realm of science fact.

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

Making parts with ore in space. I know there's a mod (i tink), but I'll always be a stock-ish not-so-modded guy.

[some_failure]

bigger engines, im trying to get a 100 ton payload into a far off location and i need like 5 mammoths and 6 clydstales to even get it off the ground 

so ya bigger more powerful engines even by just a bit 

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

On 5/24/2023 at 6:51 PM, some_failure said:

bigger engines, im trying to get a 100 ton payload into a far off location and i need like 5 mammoths and 6 clydstales to even get it off the ground 

so ya bigger more powerful engines even by just a bit 

You know it...

MORE BOOSTEEEEEEERRS

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by Aerodynamic Kerbal

[Kuansenhama]

On 5/24/2023 at 11:51 AM, some_failure said:

bigger engines, im trying to get a 100 ton payload into a far off location and i need like 5 mammoths and 6 clydstales to even get it off the ground 

so ya bigger more powerful engines even by just a bit 

Yeah would be nice. Past a certain point large (sometimes even perfectly sane) rockets become overly wide.

On 5/23/2023 at 10:10 AM, adsii1970 said:

A planet/star crafter within the game. This way, you could have an ability to start, from the main menu, a planet editor that would allow you to click and drag, drop, edit and every thing else needed to create custom planets, moons, and other stars to the game.

JNO has this. Though I haven't played around with it much it seems pretty difficult to use.

Anyways if I could have one wish granted, I'd say some new parts. I know this doesn't qualify as "one thing" but I'm indecisive. I know modders will grant this wish but my days of having saves borked by modded stuff are over and mods don't always match the stock aesthetics or stay updated.

-A 4-5 kerbal dragon/orion style capsule. 

-Fuel tanks for nuclear engines (or the option to switch any tank between LF/OX and pure LF with existing tanks). The main problem is the large LF tanks are plane parts that have added mass due to the increased impact and temperature tolerances. But nuke ships don't need that as they tend to be vaccum only. If you want mass/cost optimization you have to use the smaller tanks which give you a high part count and a wiggly ship.

-More powerful monoprop RCS. Customization for the base RCS block like we now have for the tiny one.

-Falcon 9 style booster landing legs.

-Size 3/ 3.75m probe core (where is it?)

-2.5m klaw for large asteroid movers.

-A "fully realized" rhino. Ideally one where I can toggle off the "base" of the engine like you can with most of the other 2.5m engines such that I could cluster them on the bottom of a 5m tank. Its implied in the text that the rhino was originally going to be a massive first stage engine. Mammoths are good but they don't look good clustered due to already being a cluster.( I'd like to be able to toggle that base off on a rhino so I can cluster 3-4 of them on a 5m upper stage.)

[RevanX_LSR]

A way to tweak celestial parameters upon starting a save.

[Polish KSP Player]

Probably procedural generation of entire systems.

[Lyra]

More ways to get science! Particularly in atmospheres, and some reworking of the "space near [x] / high above [x]" boundaries - possibly adding more of those types of regions for larger bodies, especially the Sun/Kerbol. Atmospheres need more areas too, particularly Jool, and there could even be more atmospheric experiments early on so that a plane-based progression is more feasible. This would come with some tech tree rebalancing as well.

If I could add something really big, it'd be an ice giant twice as far away as Eeloo, with a nice ring system and one or two moons - one of them could be like Triton, while the other another Gilly-like body.