About Re-Packed Parachutes

[Brotoro]

I learned some things about re-packed parachutes today. I was having trouble using repacked parachutes on a ship that needed to do multiple hops. After repacking the chutes, they would often cause weird explosions when I tried to later deploy then with action group keys. They would NOT explode under the same circumstances if deployed with a right-click (although that was impractical because the unbalanced deployment caused my ship to tumble violently), and they never exploded when deployed the first time (non-repacked) even when deployed using action groups. Along with this was the annoyance that the repacked chutes could not be deployed from the staging sequence (even if moved around into new stages).

Anyway, after a bunch of experimenting, I found out the following things:

The parachute icons change color, indicating something about their status (which may have been more obvious to you non-colorblind people than it was to me):

1) The first color (white) shows that the parachute is ready to be deployed.

2) The second color (green, I guess…I can tell from the RGB of the pixels, and from having seen a few greens in my day) shows that the parachute is out and operating.

3) The third color (red, I'll bet) shows that the parachute has been disconnected (this shows after landing).

4) The fourth color is the odd one… a darker green… and its what you see after repacking your chutes. Chutes displaying this color will not deploy in the staging sequence, and these are the chutes that have been causing weird explosions when I deploy them with action group keys.

BUT, HERE IS THE FUN PART (and the reason I had some difficulty in getting the exploding effect to repeat): …IF you do a quicksave and then reload the save, these darker green chutes turn white again! AND they work in the staging sequence. So apparently I just have to remember to quick save/reload after packing chutes before I attempt to use them.

I'm not sure what the darker green color is supposed to represent (I presume it wasn't meant to indicate "amusing exploding mode active!").

[DisarmingBaton5]

Interesting... Very interesting...

[Brotoro]

Ah… And TimMartland informs me that there is also a yellow color chute icon for partially deployed chutes (I would never notice the difference between yellow and that bright green, which looks yellow to me).

Is there an indication when you have activated the chutes but they haven't yet deployed? Say, if you open them in space before reentry?

[Jarin]

Chutes that get stage-activated in space turn ice-blue. I have no idea what actually happens to these upon re-entry.

[Brotoro]

Chutes that get stage-activated in space turn ice-blue. I have no idea what actually happens to these upon re-entry.

OK… another color change that was too subtle for me to notice.

[Cydonian Monk]

I've had limited success getting repacked chutes to work with action groups, though I can't promise it wasn't across multiple saves and loads. (In previous versions you could also retract antennas though a quicksave/load... that's less relevant now.) Can't say as I've ever had one explode on me though. I've not seen the darker green, or if I have my mind has mapped it to the brighter green. Might check when I land on Duna again tonight or tomorrow.

The point this topic really raises is a battle I've fought for my entire software development career - color-only status indicators are a bad thing. (But tell that to an "artist".)

[John FX]

Very interesting. So we have six `states` for a parachute and one of them makes OPs craft explode!

color-only status indicators are a bad thing. (But tell that to an "artist".)

I completely agree although now my own eyesight is starting to suffer I would say to have a colour change and an icon change. Myself I`d quite like the chute icon to be closed, semi deployed and deployed as well as a colour change to reflect its state.

Edited November 21, 2013 by John FX

[I_Killed_Jeb]

In my experience, chutes deployed in space (with the concurrent color change in status) will open in atmo when it reaches minimum opening pressure.

[SuperBigD60]

At least they promise the possibility of reuse.

As opposed to lithobraking devices.

[Rhomphaia]

The repacked chutes causing explosions is a bug where for an instant they have the fully deployed drag in the partially deployed state.

this can be avoided by going to the tracking station between repack and second deployment.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52104-My-repacked-chutes-won-t-deploy-from-a-stage-(Can-manually-deploy-though-)/page2

[Sirrobert]

Chutes that get stage-activated in space turn ice-blue. I have no idea what actually happens to these upon re-entry.

I believe that simply means they will deploy as soon as they get caught in an atmosphere

[Bishop149]

I too have had similar problems.

In my case the green repacked chutes did not explode on attempting to deploy them with staging, they simply didn't work at all.

I deployed them manually and whilst the chute model changed from the packed to deployed state and the "cut chute" option became enabled . . .no actual chute deployed.

I waited for a minute to see if they were just invisible or something. . . nope no reduction in airspeed. . . Oh ****!

I think I fixed it by switching to the space center and back to the craft again. Then the repacked chutes were grey and worked properly.

[Kasuha]

Bad experience taught me to always set up action groups for deploying chutes which are supposed to be used more than once. Even if they become white again it's not guaranteed you'll be able to deploy them by staging.

[Spatzimaus]

Bad experience taught me to always set up action groups for deploying chutes which are supposed to be used more than once.

Personally, I just right-click the parachutes and select Deploy Chutes manually. You can get the same basic effect from an action group, but I like being absolutely sure they're all activated before entering the atmosphere.

[pizzaoverhead]

The RealChutes mod fixes a lot of these bugs. You can repack parachutes and then use them from the staging list again for example.

[allmhuran]

OP did actual science, as well as bringing our attention to a bit of an interface issue. You rock OP!

[annallia]

Personally, I just right-click the parachutes and select Deploy Chutes manually. You can get the same basic effect from an action group, but I like being absolutely sure they're all activated before entering the atmosphere.

This works if you only have one chute. If however you are landing a large craft with chutes on the edges, or even just a lot of radial chutes you run the risk of unbalancing the craft.

Now in Kerbin or Eve this isn't much of a problem because you have forever and a half to open all the chutes and once they are all opened your craft will right itself but I have had this method fail me on Duna before.

[VirtualCLD]

This works if you only have one chute. If however you are landing a large craft with chutes on the edges, or even just a lot of radial chutes you run the risk of unbalancing the craft.

Now in Kerbin or Eve this isn't much of a problem because you have forever and a half to open all the chutes and once they are all opened your craft will right itself but I have had this method fail me on Duna before.

Until re-entry heat damage is implemented, you can deploy all of your chutes prior to entering the atmosphere and avoid unbalancing the craft.