Mission Control ChalkBoard

[Sumyunguy]

The idea behind this is to include a chalkboard inside the Mission Control building to play around with. Manipulated with the mouse and mouse buttons, the chalkboard would be used to:

Draw Mission plans.

Tally Kerbal deaths/recoveries.

Examine budgets and science.

Create visual representations.

Charts, numbercrunching, etc.

Draw Misc Pictures.

Show off your artistic skills.

And other things.

A small calculator next to or on the chalkboard could be used for mathematics and deltaV estimates to eliminate need to "Alt-tab" or have access to a real calculator.

Drawing could even be saved by "flipping" the board to the other side, allowing 2 or more illistations to be kept. These illustrations could be viewed from the VAB or SPH with a key press or something. This allows players to reference their plan without reloading the mission building.

I'm not sure how difficult it would be to code something like this, but I guess it wouldn't be too hard to paint a pixel at mouse cursor. This might seem trivial to some, but it would be a funny way of showing how kerbals(players) think and a useful feature.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Sumyunguy
Feature list and more ideas

[Beeman]

I liked the idea when it was brought up in the mission control topic and I like it now. It'd be really good for taking screenshots or making videos of flights and stuff, even if it doesn't have much practical use in terms of gameplay.

[Sumyunguy]

-snip-

Agreed, videos and screenshots would be more interesting with visual aid of the chalkboard. I just decided to post a suggestion just incase it was overlooked in the other thread.

[Sumyunguy]

I'd expected this topic to get more replies, but it seems that is not the case.

Please don't refrain from posting! Anything you can add to the idea or feedback is appreciated.

[SpacecraftX]

I think this is a brilliant idea. We know it can be done because even duke nukem forever was able to do something similar and that game was terrible. This could work really well for players. It'd also be interesting to see what can be done with this tool if some really clever minds got their hands on it.

[Vonar]

A nice feature would be to have the chalkboard / computer version of it do the Delta-V requirements for a mission proposal as part of the mission planning phase.

[Sumyunguy]

Absolutely. Number crunching would be a must to make something like this a reasonable game feature. A small calculator could be placed on the "shelf" of the chalkboard. When clicked on, this could bring up a small screen that displays estimated delta-v and such. Also functions as a normal calculator to appeal to the people who do mathematics, eliminating the need to minimize or leave the game to access another calculator.

[Beeman]

It could be like a little room scene with clickable components. Kinda like how older Medal of Honor games(or other such war games) had their main menu options in a simulated office. Whiteboard/map was for missions, the desk was for saving or loading and so on.

In the KSP mission room, we could have a monitor on one wall..or maybe like a mission board or something where you get missions, a whiteboard where you sketch out your plans, maybe including little clingons you can place or move around to represent the planets(adding a new one each time you discover a new planet), a little computer for maybe doing rough calculations involving fuel and thrust requirements for certain payloads(the weight of which you punch into the computer) and maybe some other amenities.

Might be a little cluttered for one room, though. I don't know.

[Sumyunguy]

-snip-

That is another excellent idea. Such things would add immersion to KSP, allowing the player to feel apart of the mission control crew.

I wonder if Kerbals use mainframe computers or a network of personal computers?

[Beeman]

Could be both. Or maybe the aesthetics of the building's interior change once or twice based on your progression through technology levels. They could start out with cassette players taped to cardboard boxes with static-filled TVs and silly, bent rabbit ears then get a little nicer and clearner later on.

Then again, that might be a bit much, to have the interior change over time. Hmm~

[Vostok]

this would be nice, especially if the texture that the user drew on the chalkboard then showed up randomly on chalkboards throughout the space center. (such as the astronaut complex, the SPH and the VAB, and the Tracking station).

Nothing would be cooler than to see your kerbals staring thoughtfully at a chalkboard with rude words and orbit trajectories written on it.

[Sumyunguy]

-snip-

Yes, the chalkboard needs to be able to be viewed from the construction centers around KSC, but having your kerbals admire your obscene drawings and plans really sounds awesome.

Wernher von Kerman might even oversee the planning himself.

[Themohawkninja]

This would be super simple to code. If I knew how to make tabs and similar things with the KSP SDK, I'd mod this myself. It would just be a matter of on mouse button down event, infinite loop creating a 1x1 square (of customizable color), and save the color values and coordinates in an array to be re-loaded at any time.

[Sumyunguy]

-snip-

That would be amazing if you could do such a thing. I'd figure it would be an easy coding experience of simple pixel change.

Is KSP SDK located in the same place as SourceSDK and similar? Or, is it found somewhere on the web?

[Sumyunguy]

Could be both. Or maybe the aesthetics of the building's interior change once or twice based on your progression through technology levels. They could start out with cassette players taped to cardboard boxes with static-filled TVs and silly, bent rabbit ears then get a little nicer and clearner later on.

Then again, that might be a bit much, to have the interior change over time. Hmm~

Haha Kerbal high-powered computing sounds exactly like that. The computer progression would be a great idea for campaign mode. I'd might go something like:

Abacus > Punchcard_Computer(50s/70s) > Mini_Computer(80s-90s) > Personal_Computer(2000s-Beyond)

Kerbals might have a variety of computers at their disposal like the Kerbadore-64 or other silly-named computers.

[John FX]

If this could be a pre-design and mission/Dv calculation tool then that would be very useful. Using a 2D chalk design for Dv calcs and mission specs and seeing it change to a 3D VAB design to add stuff like dishes, power etc would be cool.

[jelgerlemmens]

LoL I had exactly the same idea!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/48778-Mission-Planner

[Abomber544]

I think Mission Control should be used to remember how you launched your rocket the last time and be able to recreate the launch multiple times over. You could impliment that with the science aspect by making the probe cores have limited storage capacity for advanced manuvers and be able to train kerbals to recreate it also.

[404james]

Maybe, as your technology advances, the planning room could change functionally, as well as aesthetically. so, you start with a chalkboard, and only white chalk. then you get a dry-erase whiteboard, and a few colors to toss around. I also like the flipping board idea.

[edwardc]

I know my mspaint skills... (or lack thereof) so I'd suggest a few helper tools for the chalkboard. Some basics like circles and ovals just to draw the orbits etc a bit neater. Otherwise you are going to have a LOT of VERY squiggly flight plans. But then again, that actually might be more accurate seeing how my rockets fly.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Why stop at two saved? I'm thinking using four buttons, "Save", "Erase", "Previous" and "Next". You can click the "Save" button and it flips it one way. The "Next" and "Previous" would act as load button. You hit the "Next" button to flip it the same way as the "Save" button and you hit the "Previous" button and it flips it the other way.

[User Unrelated]

...like the Kerbadore-64 or other silly-named computers.

No, man

Kamiga is the way to go! It's the future of computing and gaming as we know it!

I like this idea, I'd certainly have fun with it.

"what I INTENDED to do"

and

"what I actually did"

would be interesting to compare after a mission.

I think it'd be neat to be able to name each doodle, and "bind" it to a particular mission

so, say, you can name your mission, and then you could go to the VAB (or SPH) and build/launch your craft

then later, you could go back to the chalkboard, and load up the mission, and you could view the saved doodle, and maybe a model of the ship you launched or something... heck, maybe that's how you can load ships, if you so choose...

Bind multiple doodles to the same craft file/mission?... for say, using the same exact craft to do 2 totally different things?

idk, it'd be fun!

Edited November 28, 2013 by User Unrelated

[Thomas988]

That's a cool idea!

[Sumyunguy]

-snip-

I really like the idea of referencing past missions with the chalkboard to see what went wrong right. Maybe even name missions and categorize flight records under those mission names (Apollo 1,2, and etc.) for easy organization at the chalkboard?

Maybe even throw in a file cabinet full of past flights with their according dates of launch and return, with casualty listings of kerbals lost and such.