suggestion for stuff falling through atmosphere

[mrmegaminer]

So you know how there is a 30km radius (don't quote me on that) for stuff falling in atmosphere and if it goes over it destroys itself...

well my suggestion is what if parts with parachutes attached didn't get destroyed automatically.

[Force21]

But theres also the physics calculations. What if the parachute wasn't structurally sound and if you manually parachuted the craft down, it would tear off? Multiplayer is squads """fix""" (major quotes) for this as one person manning the launch stage and another on the orbit stage can let everything be recovered without danger or switching back and forth losing the whole mission.

[Kasuha]

It is 23 km altitude around Kerbin where things on rails get deleted. Coincidentally, the game also thinks you reached orbit (and performs camera transition) when your periapsis passes 23 km.

The reason why such things disappear is that the game only runs one physics simulation and that simulation goes on in a sphere 5 km in diameter centered around active ship. Everything else is handled in a simplified way.

Presence of parachute does not automatically mean the ship will survive. The chute must be primed, it must be positioned well to not break the ship when it opens, it must be large enough to slow down the ship sufficiently. The result of the descent also depends on where you land, results of landing with the same chutes depend largely on altitude at which you land, slope on which you land, and whether you land in water. So I see no other correct way to handle that than to run full physics simulation of the descent which might be a problem for your CPU, but it might also turn to major annoyance if the game prevents you to use time warp because it needs to run physics simulation of some parts you dropped.

At present there is little reason to care about parts you dropped, if they disappear, you have less debris to care about. Things may change when money are introduced into the game. I hope they will be introduced in a way which will still mean that letting stages disappear in atmosphere is not an issue.

[Red Iron Crown]

At present there is little reason to care about parts you dropped, if they disappear, you have less debris to care about. Things may change when money are introduced into the game. I hope they will be introduced in a way which will still mean that letting stages disappear in atmosphere is not an issue.

Definitely agree with this. If stage recovery is a thing when economics arrive, I do not want to babysit descending stages while the more interesting ascent is going on. Some sort of automatic check to see if the stage is on a ballistic trajectory and has sufficient recovery equipment (#Parachutes/StageDryMass>SomeConstant, maybe?), then consider it recovered once it leaves draw range.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Coincidentally, the game also thinks you reached orbit (and performs camera transition) when your periapsis passes 23 km.

I've always thought the camera switch occurred in the sub/orbital switch. If you're descending and the camera switches, that marks the point of no return, you're aero-captured now. If you immediately burn radial out, you might be able to save it, but usually, you're just going down.

[Kruleworld]

Presence of parachute does not automatically mean the ship will survive. The chute must be primed, it must be positioned well to not break the ship when it opens, it must be large enough to slow down the ship sufficiently. The result of the descent also depends on where you land, results of landing with the same chutes depend largely on altitude at which you land, slope on which you land, and whether you land in water. So I see no other correct way to handle that than to run full physics simulation of the descent which might be a problem for your CPU, but it might also turn to major annoyance if the game prevents you to use time warp because it needs to run physics simulation of some parts you dropped.

given 49% of dropped equipment is going to be during launch, it's unlikely you'll be going to time-warp (game prevents warp when ship is throttled up). The other 49% is the re-entry, which is warp limited too (perhaps remove the 3x & 4x option). I don't think many are going to be too upset that it doesn't run full physics on dropped parts. after all, it's just a matter of whether or not it survives, (which it should if it has sufficient chute power stuff).