Close a Communitron?

[Themohawkninja]

I recently saw one of Macey Dean's videos, and he closed a communitron dish. I can't seem to do that with right clicking or action groups. How do you close them?

P.S. In case you don't know who he is, he doesn't use any mods.

EDIT: Okay... I went back to the Space Center, and then back to my craft, hit the action key, and they closed. They only seem to react once when you are using the craft. Perhaps this should be moved to the development section as a bug report.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Themohawkninja
Kinda sorta solved it.

[rryy]

You can also hit F5 to quicksave and then load it, and then toggle it using an action group.

[Themohawkninja]

You can also hit F5 to quicksave and then load it, and then toggle it using an action group.

It seems like a bug though, considering you have to reload the save to use the action group again.

[Pugspaceprogram]

According to the wiki, they are not meant to be closed. Besides, why do you need to close it so much anyways?

[leopardenthusiast]

According to the wiki, they are not meant to be closed. Besides, why do you need to close it so much anyways?

Reentry, if you're pretending that reentry heating is in the game yet and that your "heatshield" made of structural bits actually works. Your communications equipment might stick out when it's open, but be fully within the shield when closed. Or maybe something else, I'm not the OP.

[Johnno]

I poked a bit at my comm dish config and you can change it so you toggle the dish instead of just opening / closing. The opening/closing thing only works once, and apparently resets when you swap ships.

For those who want to try it (disclaimer: I'm not to be held responsible if you muck up your files, make backups first):

KSP/GameData/Squad/Parts/Utility/commDish/ That's the folder, open part.cfg with notpad (or your choice of text editor).

At the bottom there's 'isOneShot = true'

Remove that line, save the file, restart KSP and you can toggle your comm dish to your heart's content. Should work for long antenna as well (also under utility) but haven't looked yet.

[Francesco]

I poked a bit at my comm dish config and you can change it so you toggle the dish instead of just opening / closing. The opening/closing thing only works once, and apparently resets when you swap ships.

For those who want to try it (disclaimer: I'm not to be held responsible if you muck up your files, make backups first):

KSP/GameData/Squad/Parts/Utility/commDish/ That's the folder, open part.cfg with notpad (or your choice of text editor).

At the bottom there's 'isOneShot = true'

Remove that line, save the file, restart KSP and you can toggle your comm dish to your heart's content. Should work for long antenna as well (also under utility) but haven't looked yet.

this is interesting.

I'd like to hear directly from Squad the reason why such a gameplay limitation has been put into place.

[stupid_chris]

this is interesting.

I'd like to hear directly from Squad the reason why such a gameplay limitation has been put into place.

Because once an antenna or a dish is opened in space, they can't be retracted. The problem isn't space, it's more that they're not designed to be retractable. Something that re-enters the atmosphere doesn't have an antenna sticking out.

[Francesco]

Because once an antenna or a dish is opened in space, they can't be retracted.

and why would that be?

[WCOLE360]

and why would that be?

not made to.

[stupid_chris]

and why would that be?

Because it implies a failure percentage. The Cassini probe'S main antenna had a failure when opening, about half of it's high gain antenna didn't extend. Result: it was unusable and they had to rely on the low gain antenna about 100 times less powerful. Every mechanical failure that can be adverted will be adverted, you can't afford things like those to happen too often.

[Francesco]

Because it implies a failure percentage. The Cassini probe'S main antenna had a failure when opening, about half of it's high gain antenna didn't extend. Result: it was unusable and they had to rely on the low gain antenna about 100 times less powerful. Every mechanical failure that can be adverted will be adverted, you can't afford things like those to happen too often.

but we're talking about real life there.

by the same token, engines should only be restartable one or two times after cutoff (if they can be restarted).

I was curious about this antenna thing because it's not an option we're lacking in terms of game code, but something which has been actively limited.

[maltesh]

You can build antennas and dishes so that they can pop open with a simple mechanical spring, or other similar arrangement. A lot less complex, and lighter, than using a motor arrangement. With the vast majorty of spacecraft humanity has built, there's little to no reason to need to close the antenna once it's been opened; If the spacecraft is going to enter a planetary atmosphere, where a deployed space antenna could be damaged, it's usually a one-way trip.

[stupid_chris]

but we're talking about real life there.

by the same token, engines should only be restartable one or two times after cutoff (if they can be restarted).

I was curious about this antenna thing because it's not an option we're lacking in terms of game code, but something which has been actively limited.

I am talking about real life too? Dishes on satellites that orbit Earth or the Sun or whatever other planet are locked in place for three reason: first, there's no need to retract them, second, locking them into place can prevent momentum or any other force to partially close them, third, there is a risk something would break, so why take it?

Engines that should only restart once or twice or orbital engines, those used by launch systems and such. Much less complex engines like those on the Cassini, Galileo, Mars Explorer etc. can be restarted more often. Yes there is a risk, but as I said, everything you do up there has a risk of failing. So really if there's something you don't really need to do,you don't do it to prevent the risk.

The developers are preventing dishes and antennas to close and open all the time because they know normally you shouldn't be able to.