Better Pilot Training

[eddiew]

Hey there,

This is just a small thing, but would it be possible for a future KSP version to give pilots a bit more training before letting them sign up for my space program? Right now, if I tell them to point prograde, anti-normal, etc, then they'll massively oversteer and oscillate back and forth several times before settling into the right place. This problem is much worse with heavy vehicles, or low-torque probes. It feels like pilots are just going hard-over on the stick until the marker is dead ahead of them, and forgetting about angular momentum wanting to keep the ship turning.

Right now it's faster to locate the marker myself, and then tell the pilot to just hold this direction we're already facing.

It might be nice to give them a bit of subtlety with regards to 'retrograde' as well. This setting can be really good for landings, since you only have to watch the throttle, but if you accidentally reverse your vertical velocity by even 0.1 m/s, the pilot flips you upside down with your engine pointing at the sky - probably at extremely low altitude! This gets aggravated by the oversteer issue and can result in a pilot panic attack, whereby the ship flails in all directions except upwards. I've had some really close calls due to this behaviour.

If the AI to handle retrograde situationally is too complex, then perhaps a new 'retrograde landing' option available only when below 1km altitude (vs terrain). This would always be trying to track true retrograde, but would not push the nose below zero degrees, even if you're moving upwards. If you start moving upwards, it would still help you null your horizontal velocity but wouldn't let you blast downwards at 50m above some sharp rocks.

Lastly; any chance of an option (toggle on/off in companion to other pilot controls) to cancel directional hold and revert to stability mode the moment the player gives WASD input? Few things are more annoying than a pilot who is constantly fighting me as I'm trying not to land on a steep slope. At such a moment I don't want to divert the brainpower to finding the mouse and clicking the option over myself, because I'm probably too low and too fast already

Thanks!

...and since it's randomly in my head, on-the-ground training facilities? E.g. with a Tier 2 or 3 astronaut complex, perhaps you could put your new hires through a week of training for a fee, getting them straight to level 1-2 in their respective fields? Probably horribly imbalanced, but the taking 4 rookies to Mun and back is getting wearisome

Edited January 5, 2015 by eddiew
typo

[Synapse]

SAS needs to be fixed so that when you enable SAS it defaults back to hold position, this will stop many landers going straight down into the ground.

I think a pilot training facility would be good, but boring? Spam a few clicks to add a star. I'd much rather have a kind of course where you can fly through rings or something to gain a level of experience.

[razark]

It makes sense that the more flight time a pilot has, the better their piloting would be. It would add some purpose to building a plane and taking it up for training flights.

I wouldn't mind seeing the ability to hire some level 1 Kerbals (for a price, of course), instead of just out of school pilots/engineers/scientists.

SAS needs to be fixed so that when you enable SAS it defaults back to hold position...

And as of a few hours ago, someone's got a mod for that http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/106487-ResetSAS.

[prophet_01]

Sounds interesting. Might be interesting to give pilots better maneuvering skills if they reach higher levels. That would make them even more valuable which is a good thing imo