Feedback #28103
We shouldn't have to add alarms for maneuver nodes.
Description
When it was only Kerbal Alarm Clock, it was ok, we don't expect a plugin to be able to change much of the core game but when you have a builtin feature where you obviously want to pay attention to, having to manually create an alarm looks like an unecessary step. Alarms should be intrinsic to maneuver nodes, with the alarm list showing all outstanding maneuvers regardless of whether I've done anything to set up an alarm.
History
#1
Updated by jclovis3 over 3 years ago
Updated by The feature as it stands lets you create the alarm when you create the maneuver. Oddly though, deleting the maneuver doesn't delete the alarm. But to make maneuvers automatically carry their own alarm behavior will not support the current user definable settings in the alarm, which also include setting it to some specified amount of time before the maneuver. Just as the warp to maneuver feature drops you at one minute before the maneuver plus half the thrust time (used to not include the thrust time) it may still not be enough for rotating a large craft into position if it is slow to rotate (poor design perhaps). You may also want extra time to complete some experiments just before the maneuver, or to verify the accuracy of the maneuver when you get closer to execution. For any number of reasons a player may wish to slide the alarm up earlier, they need to be able to. The alarm as it stands now allows that. Making it an automatic feature of the maneuver node would not allow for that.
I do think that plotting any maneuver should come with a warning if the thrust time plus one minute (TTPOM) should cross any other pending maneuver TTPOM window. I can't tell you how many times I've had ships in different planet SOIs having maneuvers planned too close together. Maybe even a player selected setting for how wide this window should be for comparing overlaps in case TTPOM by itself is not enough. In the past, I've resorted to spreadsheets to track maneuvers to avoid such conflicts.
#2
Updated by Dunbaratu over 3 years ago
Updated by jclovis3 wrote:
Oddly though, deleting the maneuver doesn't delete the alarm.
Squad, Please do NOT "FIX" this unless you also add the ability to set up transfer alarms without needing a maneuver node. I use this to give me a roundabout way to make alarms not attached to maneuver nodes. (I use a dummy probe in orbit, give it a planetary transfer maneuver node well in the future, with an alarm for it, and then delete the node since all I wanted was the alarm, not the node and this roundabout way of making it is the only way to have the game calculate a transfer window and put the result in alarm clock form.) One of my common uses of the Kerbal Alarm Clock mod was to have it warn me when a planetary transfer was about to be available, a day or two BEFORE, so I could construct and launch a vessel to use that window. The new stock Alarm Clock has the problem that you MUST use a vessel with a maneuver node to do this, which is silly if what you want is to not launch until the window, rather than launch, park it, and then wait for the window.