Course-plotting tool

[Hakkonen]

It would be enormously helpful, for those of us who aren't as experienced at eyeballing orbits, to have a tool for plotting burns and such. I envision it working something like:

1a) Choose a destination.

OR

1b) Specify new orbit parameters (apoapsis, peroapsis, inclination).

2) Course tool shows you the optimal place to put a maneuver node, how long to burn and in what direction.

I don't want it to do the burns for me, but it would be awesome if I had some help with the math.

[Tex_NL]

Everything you're talking about can be done by MechJeb.

MechJeb can setup and perform the bruns but you can also do them manually if you want.

(Pretty sure MechJeb isn't the only one. There are other mods you could use too.)

Edited November 15, 2013 by Tex_NL

[samhuk]

Hmm, this will not be implemented, trust me.

Everything the dev's have been going towards is this game being fun, inspiring, and not just really easy like some convential trivial game like pokemon or something.

Having self-plotting manoeuvre nodes to everywhere kinda removes the need to learn about phase angles, optimizing flight path, etc.

Case closed I'de say, this has been said before and it always gos bombarded by flocking moderators.

Sam

[konokono]

Hmm, this will not be implemented, trust me.

Everything the dev's have been going towards is this game being fun, inspiring, and not just really easy like some convential trivial game like pokemon or something.

Having self-plotting manoeuvre nodes to everywhere kinda removes the need to learn about phase angles, optimizing flight path, etc.

Case closed I'de say, this has been said before and it always gos bombarded by flocking moderators.

Sam

Before the topic gets locked, I'd like to disagree with this slightly.

I actually learned a LOT about phase angles / optimal flight paths precisely by using MechJeb. Everyone has to learn somewhere and you can either watch a youtube video or you can learn from your autopilot. Either way, when I first started KSP, MechJeb was an invaluable tool for showing me how to plot a somewhat optimal course for various maneuvers, and now I can do them myself.

Also, I like how MechJeb is implemented in career mode. It starts off without any autopilot features, so you still have to do stuff yourself. As you unlock more of the tech tree, MechJeb gets more advanced, allowing you to automate certain more routine tasks, i.e. change apoapsis / circularize, while still forcing you to do the more complicated stuff, like ascent, rendezvous and docking.

[samhuk]

Yes, but the dev's are trying to avoid the exponential growth of this.

Yes, a small bit of hand holding is good to kick-start the player's knowledge, but the problem is, like what has happened with some other games, that idea gets out of hand as more people want more help and then bam, the game isn't even a game anymore, you just sit there and it does it's stuff like a movie.

I see too many threads these days about people wanting ever more hand-holding, and one must avoid just getting carried away adding more and more of that.

Sam

[Specialist290]

It would be enormously helpful, for those of us who aren't as experienced at eyeballing orbits, to have a tool for plotting burns and such. I envision it working something like:

1a) Choose a destination.

OR

1b) Specify new orbit parameters (apoapsis, peroapsis, inclination).

2) Course tool shows you the optimal place to put a maneuver node, how long to burn and in what direction.

I don't want it to do the burns for me, but it would be awesome if I had some help with the math.

Neither of these are in-game mods, but I can suggest two useful tools that might be helpful:

1. Alexmoon's Launch Window Planner, which allows you to see "porkchop plots" for transfers between any two bodies in the solar system that you want.
   
2. Arrowstar's Trajectory Optimization Tool, which has a number of useful features including a transfer calculator, a burn-time optimizer, and a rendezvous planner that can read the orbital data for your craft from the persistence files to optimize your flight plan even further.
   

Hope this helps