Orbit direction indicator

[BudgetHedgehog]

>screen clutter

what? it would be at most, two 5 pixel lines. actually it might look like this: >

it would be on all orbit rails so if you auto-capture an asteroid while you arent looking you can instanty tell which way it is going, especially for anything in a highly inclined or maybe verical orbit.

how is this a bad thing?

Asteroids aren't on rails, first off. Second, as I mentioned with conics mode 0, you can see their orbit within the SoI. The entry and exit are clearly labelled as such. So, you don't need this for intercepting asteriods. The only other one I can think of needing this is rendezvousing with a polar orbiting vessel.. which you put there. So presumably you know which way it's going. Unless you're meeting it a full half orbit around the parent later when the apparent rotation has changed direction, ok, THEN it might be useful but it's nothing watching it for a few seconds can't do.

EDIT: Screen clutter?

Yeah, I think so.

[r4pt0r]

when you look at the map view, every body/ship is on rails. also asteroids can be orbiting any-which-way if they get pulled into by a moons gravity. more information is good, and a small unobrusive marker is convenient.

[Red Iron Crown]

EDIT: Screen clutter?

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m593/HGGundamReviews/screenshot2-1.png

Yeah, I think so.

The clutter there is from the abnormally large number of satellites going on, a few small arrows are not going to add significantly to it.

Nice globe of orbits, BTW.

[BudgetHedgehog]

asteroids can be orbiting any-which-way if they get pulled into by a moons gravity.

Conics. Patch. 0.

If they're on rails in the map view (which granted, when not within 2.3km, they are), you can see their entire orbit in the SoI with entrance and exit clearly labelled and it's not going to change until you're physically moving it yourself.

Yes, more information is good, but you already have it. You just have to look at it.

The clutter there is from the abnormally large number of satellites going on, a few small arrows are not going to add significantly to it.

Nice globe of orbits, BTW.

Yeah, it's a fringe case, but adding more lines will still be adding more lines. And it's not my system unfortunately, it's this guys.

Edited April 7, 2014 by ObsessedWithKSP

[r4pt0r]

mate. you are not following me. asteroids auto-capture on occasion. see thread http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/75608-Kerbin-has-3-moons

in that OP's picture, tell me how one could instantly tell which way the asteroid is orbiting?

[Endersmens]

I've had asteroids aero-capture. Which was awesome. but on my quest to get to it, i ended up launching at 180 inclination. Not a huge problem as the Apoapsis was maybe 100 km from the edge, but still annoying. Especially since the nearest approach indicatiors seem to be broken when you orbit the wrong way. It always showed the nearest aproach at the periapsis. i ended up having to eyeball the whole mission. Make an intercept that looks good. Fly past. Repeat. back on topic though the orbit direction marker would've made everything easier.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Endersmens

[Red Iron Crown]

Conics. Patch. 0.

There's not an easy way to change conics patch mode in the stock game, nor is it intuitive to a new player what conics patch mode even is.

[BudgetHedgehog]

There's not an easy way to change conics patch mode in the stock game, nor is it intuitive to a new player what conics patch mode even is.

I think changing a '3' to a '0' in the settings file is easy enough, even for someone who can't computer. Granted, there should be a way in-game to change it (along with the limit). Would be very helpful.

Regarding the auto-capture thingy, yes, I see what you mean now. Instantly, yes, there is no way to tell. But whatever it is you are planning can surely wait a few seconds to watch it. Is there ever a situation where you need to know instantly what direction a thing is moving?

[r4pt0r]

Regarding the auto-capture thingy, yes, I see what you mean now. Instantly, yes, there is no way to tell. But whatever it is you are planning can surely wait a few seconds to watch it. Is there ever a situation where you need to know instantly what direction a thing is moving?

A fair rebuttal. i just think it would be convenient for the inexperienced and the experienced alike.

[Caelib]

Yeah, this would be very handy ... I usually just time accelerate briefly to see which way things are moving.

[Trann]

Rather than an arrow, I'd love to see something more subtle: a gradient effect applied to the colour of the path. This example shows both.

If it were grey (unselected/not targeted), then it would be slightly whiter just behind the body and fade to near black in front of the body.

If it were colour, the same levels could be applied.

[r4pt0r]

i was going to mention that maybe the lines could have a color gradient instead of an arrow, so that would work just as well, and would take up as much space as it does presently.

[Anthlon]

this idea will solve my little troubles as well, i do sometimes lost in direction, so instead looking (lets say Kerbin with mun) from top (mean north), i am looking from bottom, so rotation is also oposite side. any indicator mentioned here will fix this my noobish behavior as well.

[Trann]

Funny timing: just caught up with the most recent Cosmos and they were illustrating a simple Hydrogen atom and how a quantum leaps emits photons.

This is exactly how I envisioned KSP doing orbits.

[Vanamonde]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see why this is needed, or even helpful. If you're passing to the right of the target world, you are moving prograde, and will end up orbiting in the same direction as every world in the game. If passing to the left, retrograde. In this game's solar system, there are no other possibilities. And if one is getting confused by the main view camera's orientation, simply switch to map mode for a moment and get your bearings, because map mode's orientation never changes.

As for asteroids, they're always moving. Hit warp for a few seconds and you can simply see where it's going as easily as looking for a marker.

[stupid_chris]

I'm not seeing why not. It's not always easy to see from interplanetary encounters, and tabbing through can be long and minutious. It's not like it would be hard to have a small indicator to say "prograde" or "retrograde" It could even be with a colour code. Alows for some easy tweaking.

[razark]

How about:

A. Make a marker that shows the prograde direction of an object when you hover over it in the map.

or:

B. Provide a setting, so those who want it can turn it on, those that don't can turn it off.

[Trann]

I'm also in the why-not camp: it's non-intrusive, it's great for beginners, and gives you orbital directions at a glance, without the need for momentary warping or other closer inspections.

All provided it's even possible and not too demanding on rendering.

[mordin86]

+1 very good small suggestion. It would be pretty cool to have orbit direction indicators in the map view.

[S4qFBxkFFg]

I support this - it would make the orbital view much clearer and probably isn't difficult.

[Vostok]

I can't think of a more pointless bit of screen clutter.

...

Seriously. I hope they don't implement this. If they do waste their time with this, I'm going to turn it off.

There have been a few times this would have been useful to me. For example, performing a lunar rendezvous on an apollo style mission, several times have I taken off in the wrong direction, believing that the service module above me was orbiting in a different direction.

So, not pointless as far as I can tell, and barely large enough to be screen clutter.

[Stargate525]

Why not change the texture of the orbit line from -------- to >>>>>>>>> ? Basically, give it little jagged edges that suggest a direction?

[KASASpace]

Once I had to use a lot of D-v switching my orbit around Eve to rendezvous with Gilly. (Career Mode, wanted the orbital science)

So, I think it is a truly great idea.

[Collin Cutler]

This is a good idea. I'm sure a lot of people have mest up a lot of missions because of that. I seccond tho motion.

[Doozler]

+1 here.

Not needed the vast majority of the time, but would be easy to implement and has no real down-sides.