Line of sight/radio range question and story

[velusip]

Hello all!

I learned something new during today's recovery mission which I have not read anywhere before.

A poorly planned re-entry left a grounded Kerbal (Keldrin Kerman) out in the middle of a vast continent on the other side of the planet. Before embarking on the recovery mission, Oroly Kerman checked the Tracking Center for landmarks. Version 0.20 of the tracking software provides a cute, little icon for lone Kerbals. There was Keldrin; near a set of lakes. Aboard the Javelin 2 -- a leapfrogging spaceplane -- Oroly had no visual of a grounded Kerbal (Keldrin) on the horizon, nor via the tactical map view. It wasn't until Oroly was within 50km to 52km, just overhead, that he could see Keldrin's "bracket" icon and set as target. Once landed, Keldrin became visible from other orbiting vessels.

I can only assume that EVA suits have a short comms range which can be relayed by command pods? Or perhaps there is a line of sight limitation from the plane? Is there any documentation about this sort of thing? I'm familiar with a plugin called RemoteTech which implements these sorts of ranges, but I'm not using any plugins at all.

TL;DR I see grounded Kerbals from tracking center, however not when in my plane until within 52Km. Any docs regarding comms ranges on parts, EVA suits, and antennae?

Edited May 23, 2013 by velusip
grammars

[velusip]

I suppose I'll bump once and then let it die.

One more bit of info. I left a stranded kerbal inside of the pod and conducted a similar mission, this time I couldn't see the pod until I was around 100km away, up from 50km when it was just the lone kerbal.

[legodragonxp]

Limits of the game at this point. The only other thing that comes to mind is the old Monty Python skit, "The is Keldrin Kerbal, he cannot be seen. Keldrin, can you stand up please?" BOOM!

-Lego (insomnia time, sorry)

[SkyRender]

There's hardcoded ranges for how far away you can "see" various types of objects. At present, communications serve no purpose; a vessel can never truly be "lost", and the concept of radio contact only exists through mods like RemoteTech. It's not known at this point what form the eventual implementation of official communications and locational awareness of other craft will take.