Please Add More Action Group Buttons

[NeoMorph]

As someone who loves using physical switches over using the mouse, I would think it would be a good idea to include a better action group system.

The problem is that some of the more complicated craft need more than 10 action groups. Surely it should be possible to add Shift, Alt, Ctrl and combinations to expand the functions.

For example.

• 1 - 10 (what we have now)
  
• Shift 1 - 10
  
• Alt 1 - 10
  
• Ctrl 1 -10
  
• Shift+Alt 1 - 10
  
• Shift+Ctrl 1 - 10
  
• Alt + Ctrl 1 - 10
  

That would give us 70 action groups which we could bind to a proper dashboard... Maybe someone will eventually make a Kerbal Apollo dashboard even (yeah, I have this in mind).

Thanks to Telemachus we can extract data and send some back... but being able to bind key systems like this would help a lot. DennyTX has given us a WONDERFUL Apollo rocket that even beats the old Kerpollo. It just makes sense to have a decent control panel to use it.

[Scoundrel]

Wow. You really like pushing buttons lol.

I too would like to see more action groups. Unfortunately, while I could see alt+# working, shift and ctrl are throttle buttons, so I don't think those will work for AGs without some change to the keybinding... but I do think we players should have the option to change it for those that truly need 70 AGs.

Because buttons.

[Diazo]

I'm tooting my own horn here, but I am going to point you towards my Action Groups Extended mod which does exactly this. (Link in my sig.)

One of the reasons I wrote it was for external cockpits like this so that you can assign each switch an action group. I also added the ability to activate action groups via mouse click so you can have groups with no key assigned so that you are not limited by the number of free keys on your keyboard.

However, it does have a couple of minor bugs at the moment (notably some parts can't be selected in flight mode to edit their action groups) but I will be releasing the next version to fix those this weekend.

D.

[Random Tank]

I definitely don't want to be pressing shift or control to do action group; remember what those buttons do in KSP?

Alt+# would work well, and you could do Alt+Ctrl+# and Alt+Shift+#, so I agree with those 3

[vexx32]

Although that would work in theory, you might get a lot of instances where you press the Shift or Ctrl buttons slightly before hitting Alt and thus mess with the throttle. If you wanted to use RShift, RCtrl, and RAlt instead (not even sure if those are all considered their own keys, though I know RShift is) instead, that would likely be a far better option.

[r4pt0r]

ugh, if i had a dollar for every time i shift+tabbed to the steam browser for forum tips and activated my engines, id own Rockomax.

[vexx32]

Will Steam accept RShift+Tab instead, to avoid that one?

[karolus10]

I would not mind second row of action groups under [Alt Gr] (right alt), rest keys are pretty much occupied and 20 action groups is more than enough .

Also It would be great to had ability to add action groups that would not be binded to keys ,but work as an item on staging list (and could be dragged between stages), I think that it would be useful to had action groups capabilities incorporated into staging.

3rd and Last possible action groups could be bonded with clickable switches/buttons in IVA spaces of chosen pod (available amount depending from switches in Iva space).

Edited April 11, 2014 by karolus10

[allmappedout]

I totally agree with Karolus - the ability to setup a series of events to occur as part of staging would be excellent. Furthermore, some sort of timer would be great too (for example, decouple, then 0.5 seconds later engage sepratrons, or decouple, drift for 5 seconds out of the fairing, then engage solar panels).

[NeoMorph]

I'm tooting my own horn here, but I am going to point you towards my Action Groups Extended mod which does exactly this. (Link in my sig.)

One of the reasons I wrote it was for external cockpits like this so that you can assign each switch an action group. I also added the ability to activate action groups via mouse click so you can have groups with no key assigned so that you are not limited by the number of free keys on your keyboard.

However, it does have a couple of minor bugs at the moment (notably some parts can't be selected in flight mode to edit their action groups) but I will be releasing the next version to fix those this weekend.

D.

OH. MY. GOD!!!

DUDE... I gotta say I am running around in circle going crazy here. This sounds freakin PERFECT. Loading KSP with it now. Thanks... you have removed another barrier to my sim becoming actualised.

Regarding Shift and control (and spacebar) I found that I really hated them and have always changed them from their default and moved the throttle controls to + and - on the numpad and the spacebar is now my OMGITSALLGOINGWRONGABORTABORTABORT button. For staging I use Page Up as it is out of the way. You would be surprised at how many accidental stagings I did before I did that.

But to run the entire missions in sim (ie, not selecting stuff via the three D view) is almost impossible without tons of action groups. So thanks for making my life SOOOOO much easier.

Edited April 12, 2014 by NeoMorph

[karolus10]

Personally I never had problem with using backspace for ABORT sequence and never had issues with accidental space-bar use as KSP always had staging lock enabled by pressing [Alt]+[L]. You can see if staging lock works by green light indicator near staging counter turning red(-ish)... after this you can hit space-bar for as long as You please without any consequences.

Before and after staging lock

Small power-tip: bind right shift and control for throttle control as well, I often found useful to use second hand for throttle control.

Other thing I would like to see about staging is having them bounded to pods, guidance units and probes.

This mean that every craft, module and sub-assembly could had own set of action groups and commands unique only for them, for example "instrument unit" probe on launch vehicle could had programs and sequences useful only at launch and independent from payload. Other use would be to had different behaviors of ships made of multiple modules docked together during mission allowing to turning ON/OFF RCS thrusters groups on specific modules or had different abort action for launch escape and lunar lander during Apollo-like mission.

Main command part action groups globally accessible from any command part without alternative action groups (empty action groups on second pod could use same number action group from main pod).

Action-groups has very large potential in KSP (especially if it would be directly connected with staging list and allow some scripted commands in future) and I'm looking forward to see them improved .

Edited April 12, 2014 by karolus10

[Honeybadga]

I totally agree with Karolus - the ability to setup a series of events to occur as part of staging would be excellent. Furthermore, some sort of timer would be great too (for example, decouple, then 0.5 seconds later engage sepratrons, or decouple, drift for 5 seconds out of the fairing, then engage solar panels).

This might prove useful to you:

Smart Parts