Dedicated Radio Controller/Computers

[ddproxy]

Stemming from #126, I think a dedicated computer (similar to kOS's computer model) should be required for more powerful antenna and dishes as a balancing factor. The controller could be required to perform maneuvers.

With increased range comes increased issues summarized from a comment from AdmiralTigerclaw - so would it make sense that a new unit could be used to 'virtually' filter through the signal and properly parse the connection.

Each "Radio Controller" could support a limited number of active antenna/dishes. Taking in Jyro117's suggestion for modifying effectiveness of omni-antenna's and allowing their ranges to stack, this unit would force a limiting factor to the number of antennas per "Radio Controller" and cause the player to select the more efficient antenna for the situation as the original issue of #126

[Starstrider42]

My concern with your suggestion (if I understand it correctly) is that many players, myself included, get really annoyed with mods that add parts to represent what a probe core should be perfectly capable of doing on its own (KER is a good example, the map viewer from SCANsat would be another). Saying that probe cores will now be useless unless you add a separate computer part to each and every unmanned ship... no fun.

Having a probe core act as a low-quality radio controller won't work either, because stock probe cores are quite light. Say a Stayputnik (0.05 tons) can support 1 antenna by itself. So for the investment of 10 probe cores (0.5 tons), you could build a satellite that can control 10 antennas -- for the mass cost of a single KR-7 dish.

[MOARdV]

As a relative n00b with RT, I'd say that adding more complexity to something that is already difficult to use is the wrong direction to go. Now, based on the RT API, I could see something like this being an optional add-on for someone who wants something even more difficult to manage.

[ddproxy]

You are right, Probe cores should be capable of handling this on it's own. I suppose I'm trying to represent a physical component to demonstrate a limitation of bandwidth capabilities of a probe core's internal radio controller processor.

@Starstrider42 - I should have suggested using stock probes first - additional parts can get over complicated. I was thinking the additional mass requirements for the (non-stock) computer would balance the antenna (which are relatively light) with a heaver component to process the additional range.

Using stock probes - could implement a limit per probe based on their location in the tech-tree. But each antenna would have different bandwidth requirements based on their range (assuming an association between range and the amount of data + signal chop the processor has to filter).

@MOARdV - I agree it would make it more complex, an additional add-on makes sense.

[MOARdV]

I haven't thought too hard about this mechanic, but could something similar be accomplished by having limitations in the ModuleSPU directly? A Stayputnik might be able to handle an Omni, or a short-range dish, but the 2.5m probe core could handle the big dish, for instance. If it's a config file parameter, it'd be something that players could tweak if the out-of-the-box settings are not to their taste.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Multiple communications links and antennae aren't really limited by processing power. I can make VLA and Arecebo transmit a channel with a hand made signal modulator without a computer if I REEEEALLY wanted to. All I need is to get a modulated signal into the upconverter and through the HPA and it goes right down the waveguide.

The limitation is actual TX power, bandwidth, and things like that.

[ddproxy]

Would those limitations merit this issue/feature request?

AFAIK - With meteorological radar, a lot of the data received is thrown out/filtered on the hardware level before it's sent to be processed into weather maps. Hidden in the 'thrown out' data is a plethora of data that would be beautiful it could only be processed through a super computer. Just, current radar hardware I/O is unable to output the petabytes of data quick enough, so the filtering is necessary to make radar functional enough for mass-media outlets.

In regards to radio, I know it's not the same thing - but I was assuming some similar filtering to happen that processes the signal for the computer, but obviously not as much.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

No, because if you think about it, any given antenna is going to come with the components needed to make it work built into it. Antennas are matched with the equipment under the hood. And it would be silly as an engineer to make a modular antenna and not include the equipment that makes it work.

What the antennas need are proper balance.

[neitsa]

We are currently reviewing old feature request with the team in preparation for the RT 2.x branch and we'll not implement this feature request "as is" (we are open to discussion of course): the whole discussion summed up pretty much why we won't implement it.

• It's too complicated, not necessarily to implement but from a player point of view
• There's a risk of imbalance if we implement it (it will require a lot of tests to get it right)
• As @AdmiralTigerclaw wrapped up it's more an antenna feature than a probe core feature

@ddproxy : if you have the will to implement it on your side, we'd happy to give you hand and / or make some adjustments so that the plugin could be easily integrated with RT. Feel free to open a new feature request if you want to rework the idea.