Improvements to stages and SPH/VAB

[johannestaas]

I'd like a few improvements to building rockets, and stage organization.

1. Naming stages - It'd be a lot easier to see which stage I want to put my decoupler and rockets if I was able to name them. eg. inner skippers, solid boosters phase1, etc.
   
2. No arbitrary stage picking when placing parts - Even if they went into an "unstaged" section of the bottom of stages so that I could see which ones I didn't explicitly put into a stage yet. This can be very annoying when I already have 5+ stages set up and put another pair of boosters on a rocket and it gets placed automatically into stage 2 and I have to hunt around and try to highlight the boosters.
   
3. Fix the weird issue where a symmetric set of items gets split into the group minus one, and the other one on its own, if you know what I mean. For example, I'll place 3 boosters as a symmetric group, and on the stages, 2 will be in their own group and 1 will be on its own. It gets confusing.
   
4. Hotkey for struts - NEVER ENOUGH STRUTS
   
5. ability to pick between mirrored symmetry from the VAB, or the normal from the SPH - Rovers seem to make more sense with the SPH mirrored symmetry, especially with the wheels, but I want to place them as payloads in the VAB. I know there's a mod for this, but I think there's no reason not to make it a part of the game. i work it out with sub-assemblies for rovers right now, built in the SPH
   

Now of course I have some features I'd love to see too:

1. robotics parts like servos and pistons - I think I've seen a mod, but I've been wanting to build a ship where parts can fold out and have a bit of complex machinery.
   
2. more incentive to return from a planet to bring the science - I spammed the hell out of transmitting and unlocked the full science tech tree way before my friend who was trying to return from the planets. Maybe split up the "science" resource a bit more, so certain "science resource" types HAVE to be brought back?
   
3. ability to strut ships together more when in space, especially for docked ships so that they are more stable together. Maybe let the kerbals walk around and hook parts together?
   
4. Kethane mod - seriously, that adds so much to the game. If it was well-thought out and balanced, something like that would be awesome in the base game.
   
5. ability to build stations in space or on other planets, so you can launch from there. I've always wanted a really good reason to make a base on Duna other than just to do it, or even an extra launching base on Kerbin
   
6. on that note, base construction - ability to expand on your kerbin station and maybe that is part of career and unlock new stuff?
   
7. missions - something where you have a set of available missions, like go to the Mun and back, or send a rover to Duna. Maybe you earn money from that and able to expand your base or do whatever?
   
8. reasons to build jets - they're fun, but there's not much to explore on Kerbin. Something to add incentive maybe? If there were missions, maybe one would be to land on that other air strip, and other similar stuff?
   
9. wormhole to a new solar system?
   

Just stuff I've thought about. I've started making an addon with the missions idea I had, but I think it'd be a fun part of career mode for the main game.

Also, thanks for making this game! This is one of the most fun games I have ever played, and I'm starting to think it's my favorite (and I've played a **** ton of games in my 29 years).