Orbit direction arrow and time warp quick buttons (any mod for this?)

[pontus_p]

First time poster here with 96 hours in the game. Love it.

Two very small things would would improve gameplay a lot (effort/kerbonaut happiness is very low)

1. I often want a small arrow pointing to where im going in the orbit. Now i usually speed up time shortly to se where the craft seems to be going. Another thing i guess i could do is place a nav point and see where the prograde is pointing.. It is especially important when I plot a transition and want to know if the estimated orbit at the target planet is going to be clockwise or anticlockwise - sometimes hard to tell. Don't you think? Am I doing something wrong?

2. Shortcuts for time warp states. I want to quickly jump to a specific time warp state, and then with one button reset to x1. That would be amazing.

Are there any mods that does any of this?

[Random Tank]

Welcome to the forums!

If I understand what you're trying to say correctly, both of these features are already in the game!

The direction of travel, as in where you are going, whether flying on or orbiting around a planet, is shown by the Prograde Marker; that's simply what it does! Around a target planet/moon you can focus on the planet/moon itself, by either double clicking or left click then clicking focus view; this will then switch to show your exact orbital path around that planet/moon as it will be when you get to it.

You can skip to any specific time warp step by going up into the top, left hand corner of the flight or map screen, and clicking on the arrows that appear above the MET; the first one is x1 time, the 2nd is x5, 3rd is x10 and so on...

Edited January 21, 2015 by Random Tank
Betterer wording

[pontus_p]

Thanks for the reply!

You understood me correctly. The thing about the direction of flight is this situation: I'm in map view, see my orbit and see my ship as an icon in the orbit. I can see the navball, and see the prograde marker, but since the ship icon doesnt show my orientation, it is still not immediately apparent from that screen weather, say, my orbit is clockwise or counter clockwise. Like, if I point my ship prograde in the navball, I still don't know if my ship is gonna go east or west in the orbit on map view. If I speed up time, I can se the ship drifting along in a certain direction, and then I know. But if there was just a little prograde point displayed right on the orbit in map view, that would help a lot. Or am I missing something obvious?

About time warp - sure, but I play with joystick with key binds, and use the mouse as little as possible. It would be nice to have a "panic button" bound to a keyboard shortcut to "Time x1". By the time i've clicked on the screen I'm already 1000km past my nav point

Edited January 21, 2015 by pontus_p
clarification

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

Like, if I point my ship prograde in the navball, I still don't know if my ship is gonna go east or west in the orbit on map view.

That information is given to you by the navball - twice. First, there's a HDG indicator at the bottom that tells you what direction you're now pointing in. And second, the white markers on the navball also tell you what direction you're looking - so if HDG is 90 you're pointing East, or if it's 270, you're pointing West.

In the below image (from the wiki) the heading is 69 so it's "mostly east".

[Dodgey]

There was a discussion a bit ago about showing the direction of the orbit in the map view, the solution that I think worked the best was to just fade the orbit slightly behind the ship as the orbit progressed. This doesn't add any new elements to the map screen keeping it clear of clutter and is a quick way to identify the direction of the orbit.

[pontus_p]

There was a discussion a bit ago about showing the direction of the orbit in the map view, the solution that I think worked the best was to just fade the orbit slightly behind the ship as the orbit progressed. This doesn't add any new elements to the map screen keeping it clear of clutter and is a quick way to identify the direction of the orbit.

That sounds like a good idea. But what are you saying - was this considered for the game, or did somebody do it in a mod, or at what point was it implemented?

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

Well, the obvious, consistent, way for the orbital direction to be indicated would be to reuse the rotating dots idea that the contractual orbits already use. If anything different were done to indicate orbital direction, I'd hope that the contractual orbits would use the same mechanism.

[Alshain]

Well, the obvious, consistent, way for the orbital direction to be indicated would be to reuse the rotating dots idea that the contractual orbits already use. If anything different were done to indicate orbital direction, I'd hope that the contractual orbits would use the same mechanism.

This, I like this. Ideally you should be able to toggle them off and on and should also appear on your target as well.

[bdito]

Well, the obvious, consistent, way for the orbital direction to be indicated would be to reuse the rotating dots idea that the contractual orbits already use. If anything different were done to indicate orbital direction, I'd hope that the contractual orbits would use the same mechanism.

This makes the most sense seeing as it's already implemented in the stock game.

[Dodgey]

That sounds like a good idea. But what are you saying - was this considered for the game, or did somebody do it in a mod, or at what point was it implemented?

IIRC it was the general consensus of the thread that this was the best method, if not then it is just my personal favourite. It has no official standings what so ever.

[OrtwinS]

Hi pontus_p, welcome!

Since no-one has suggested it already: use Kerbal Alarm Clock for 'warp-to' functionality, it adds little fast-forward buttons in the map view at crucial orbit points such as Ap, Pe, An, Dn, and SOI-changes, click it and it auto-warps at best speed.

It returns to 1x a few minutes before the actual point, to allow for manual fine tuning and/or manoeuvre node execution.

KAC: Kerbal Alarm Clock

For the orbital direction, try hovering your cursor over the Pe-Ap nodes, and look at the time.

For interplanetary SOI intersect direction, look at where it says '[planet]-escape', that is the exit point.

PS, forum tip: click the little star on the bottom left of someone's post whenever you find that particular post useful.

Edited May 4, 2021 by Snark
Link to defunct website removed by moderator