may be a little difficult to implement...

[Helix935]

what i ask is to allow for something similar to simulated flights but not quite...

how about having the ability to make parts that will be discarded in staging transparent in the vab so that we may be able to know which parts will be discarded so that we don't accidentally stage the wrong parts at the wrong time. This can have like a setting that can show transparency for only the parts that are below the staging part (and the part itself) that can be represented by an eye thing that can be clicked to set.

just a thought

for those that wish for me to rephrase this, inform me in the posts below

[Sirrobert]

The parts that activate already light up when you mouse over the stage.

[XOIIO]

The parts that activate already light up when you mouse over the stage.

This, and you can mouseover the part and it will show it's spot in the staging area.

[iStickyDuck]

This, and you can mouseover the part and it will show it's spot in the staging area.

That's all very well, but what if the staging is buried somewhere in the rocket. What I think they are trying to say is, to be able to hide parts that are in certain stages and all the ones below, so you can see other stages easily. An improvement on this would be to lock the stages that are hidden so they can't be edited. I've countlessly clicked the wrong part making everything go wrong...

[marshrover]

This is actually a very good idea. I sometimes click on the wrong part too. Makes my whole rocket come apart .

[Kasuha]

If you save your design and load it again, ship highlighting changes and when you mouse over a part in staging column, everything that will stage with it will highlight. The only difference to your request is that it highlights instead of becoming transparent.

Assuming you have it saved, you can also pick the decoupler associated with the stage and delete or move away the whole stage to check what will remain.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Kasuha

[Seret]

Annoying staging cockups are half the fun.