Action what?

[RocketScientistsSon]

So I have been perusing the forum reading some interesting threads and I was wondering what exactly is an "action group"? What is its purpose?

Also, how do you use it in the game? It seems like it may be useful...

thanks.

Edited December 17, 2014 by RocketScientistsSon

[nekogod]

In the editor at the top (not sure if moved in 0.90) there are a couple buttons, one is action groups. What this lets you do is group several actions to a single key. For example on an SSTO plane you can set your jet engines to deactivate and your rocket engine to activate with a single key press.

Or you can group your science junior, mystery goo and gravioli detector to all fire at the same time with a key press.

You can also use them to stage, incidentally they are not restricted to the small delay between stages so you can stage several times in rapid succession.

A tutorial on youtube that I found

[The_Rocketeer]

Action groups are part functions assigned to hotkeys 1,2,3...0 (and technically others). There's a tab in the SPH and VAB that switches you out of 'parts' mode into 'action groups' mode. This gives you a menu of 'groups' to add part functions to. Then when you press the relevant key, all of those functions happen at once.

Examples:

Deploy all your solar arrays at the same time

Deploy landing gears at the same time as turning on your landing lights

Activate several science experiments at once.

Shut down jet engines and activate rocket engines.

etc.

Edit: dammit! Ninja'd again!

[RocketScientistsSon]

That...is...SO USEFUL!! Why have I not heard/tried this out before?!

[Norpo]

That...is...SO USEFUL!! Why have I not heard/tried this out before?!

Now ya know, there's some features in KSP that aren't immediately obvious to many (Like you can adjust how much fuel a fuel tank starts off with by right clicking it and tweaking it)

Action groups are incredibly useful for hybrid jet/rocket spaceplanes, activating solar panels... Basically, it can be used for activating/deactivating just about anything.

(always set parachutes and a way to decouple the command pod or last stage to Abort, then if your rocket disassembles on the launch pad your kerbal will be able to escape)