Adjusting multiple component settings at the same time

[THX1138]

I have a large number of parachutes attached to the part of my craft I'm returning home. If they all deploy at once, the forces destroy the craft so I need to deploy them sequentially. Is there a way to select multiple parachutes at once or do I need to do these for each individual parachute?

This would also be useful information for setting thrust limiters etc.

[Taki117]

You have to do each of them individually, or you can assign certain ones to action groups, but without a mod this is not possible in flight. You can however adjust your staging to deploy sets of chutes at the same time, but this method is time consuming if all your chutes are in the same stage.

[Superfluous J]

In the VAB you can place the parachutes with symmetry and then tweak each set individually. For example, if you have 8 parachutes (what are you landing!? ) you could place 4 sets of 2. Set each set of 2 to open at say 2000 meters, 1500 meters, 1000 meters, and 500 meters. Or 500, 400, 300, 200 meters. Whatever.

I did this on Eve when I was trying to land a lander that was way too big for my tech level. The lander failed to land correctly, but the chutes did slow it down as designed without tearing it apart.

[Pecan]

Is the RealChute mod still going? I can't find it but, if it is available, it has gradual deployment specifically to stop things tearing apart.

[Taki117]

Is the RealChute mod still going? I can't find it but, if it is available, it has gradual deployment specifically to stop things tearing apart.

RealChute is alive and well.

[Eric S]

Another way to do this is to use tweakables to set the pressure and opening altitude of the parachutes so that they don't all partially or fully deploy at the same time. You can then stage them all at the same time, even before entering the atmosphere.

[cantab]

In stock perhaps the most helpful thing is to include some drogues. They seem to open more gently than main chutes and will take a lot of the speed off before the main chutes deploy. My suggested sequence of events is drogues part deploy, drogues fully deploy, mains part deploy, mains fully deploy. (For that you'll want the drogues in the stage before the mains).

[Kryxal]

I usually set the drogues and mains to part-deploy ASAP (and the drogues deploy quite a bit sooner than the mains) then tweak full-opening altitude. Do note that drogues don't slow a ship down as well, though they do it sooner.