Payload Test weight parts.

[Moonfrog]

Not entirely sure if this has been suggested, so I'm sorry if it has already. This suggestion goes mostly towards helping new comers get to grips with the game, while also adding a challenge element to the game.

Basically you would have parts that purely a fixed mass, but don't really do anything. You could have a part that is 5 mass units. You would use this as your payload to test your ability on getting it into orbit.

Could also have a 10 mass unit, 20 mass unit, 40 a 50 an 80 and a 100, for Jeb maybe a 2500 one, etc.

To clarify. For beginners, it would let them build a rocket that they could put in the sub assembly for later use. This encourages the use of the sub assembly. It also lets them know that if they build there payload, say a lander that is less than 10 mass units, it will get into orbit, using this rocket. This will allow them to experiment more easily with building and learning how to do rockets.

For the more experienced people, these Mass units can provide a challenge. Sure I've already seen challenges about putting so much into space using this type of rocket etc. I feel there is a challenge aspect to these parts as well people can enjoy. Since the parts are fairly simple, they should be easily mod able for any custom challenge u wanted yourself.

Lastly I believe this fits in with the current framework of the game, instead of providing lots of information like a spread sheet to people, like certain mods do. It provides an element people can experiment with, and in return get a useful feel for the game. Encourages the mind set of experimentation of putting the parts together to achieve a goal, but once that goal is complete you have then a standardized rocket, You built yourself and can be proud of, which can be used repeatedly for other goals.

I think its a fairly simple idea and shouldn't be too difficult to implement. I think as tutorial parts, it would be a good idea.

What do you guys think?

[Random Tank]

Hmmm... I'd prefer if it was one part that you could tweak the weight of (I KNOW THERE'S A MOD FOR THAT), just to save spamming the parts bin, but a good idea nonetheless. For proper newbies it wouldn't be that useful, as they're just testing to get ANY rocket into space, let alone one with a payload; it'd be more useful for testing capabilities of launch stages.

[RidingTheFlow]

To have this in stock, it should be made able to display assembly weights at least...

Edited June 20, 2014 by RidingTheFlow

[Pulstar]

It would be good for lowering the CoM on rovers.

[Red Iron Crown]

It's a good suggestion. I tend to build lifters for specific payloads, but it would be good to be able to easily tweak up the payload mass to discover exactly how much mass a launcher is capable of putting into LKO. Currently I use disabled fuel tanks for this, you can get the mass fairly close to the desired payload while likely having a much lower part count.

If you don't mind mods and would like a similar feature now, NRAP is a test weight tweakable in both mass and size.

[cpast]

I also used fuel tanks before I got NRAP.

[John FX]

If we get these I`d want a crash test dummy that can be put into a command seat to balance EVA vehicles and smaller rovers/airplanes

[LethalDose]

I'm not sure if I agree there's a need. I use fuel tanks to test SSTO payload launches and they work well. For rockets, my "payload test" is the payload, combined with the "revert to VAB" button.

[cpast]

Yes, but using fuel tanks is a) ugly, can require odd structural changes, and c) is very bulky (really important for cases where you have limited room. For actual rockets, some of us like to rate boosters and save them as subassemblies - just because something isn't an SSTO spaceplane, doesn't mean you don't want to use it for many different payloads.

[Red Iron Crown]

Is fuel bulkier than any equivalent mass non-fuel payload? I figured fuel tanks were about as dense as it gets, but I never looked at the numbers.

[Justin Kerbice]

This is regularly suggested and there is at least 3 mods which have some parts for this purpose (NRAP for top payload, the old dummyweights which is no longer avail I guess due to spaceport removal, and one I don't remember the name with small cylinder which have "tweakable" mass, perhaps it's Goodspeed parts)

And by the way what you suggest is against Harvester's point of view on his game (people should spend their entire life on trial & error instead of having at least one single kerbal engineer who help them instead of walking and pretending to work in the VAB)

[Moonfrog]

Justin I never wrote that please reread what I said, I feel you have misunderstood me. To be honest, a little kerbal professor who tells you what ISP is, what Delta V is and thrust per weight ratio and a simple explanation of staging probably wouldn't be such a bad idea. He could even look rather cute.

No amount of experimentation and trail and error in this game will teach me anything about how to build a rocket. Theres simply no feedback on anything about what anything really does or why it happens. Surely with trial and error and experimentation, that's exactly what test weights were invented for in the real world.

[cpast]

Test weights are completely in line with trial and error gameplay. They don't tell you the craft's lifting capacity outright; they only make it easier to manually run those trial ascents.