SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE THE LOOK OF ASCENSION ULTRA
This is a very wonderful project. I've had an eye on it for a very long time, and I've been using the old version until now. I just downloaded the ultra a few days ago, and all I can say is WOW!!!
Since this is open BETA, and we are supposed to make contributions, I have some observations regarding the lighting colors and runway markings. These are my opinions based on real life, but no deal breakers. The Space-/Airport would still be awesome without my suggestions, so feel free to ignore it if you think I'm too particular (I mean the developers), but that's one of the things that set your work apart, and I believe they're easy to accomplish. I also know that this is a WIP, so if there are already plans in place to adjust them, then ignore this post. Here are the observations:
1. LIGHTING COLORS (This only refers to the basic rwy & txwy lights, and not the guidance ones specific to Wideawake):
a) I noticed that the Runway threshold and runway end lights are blue. The Runway threshold lights should be green instead of blue, and the runway end lights should be red. The green color is more or less the same color as a green traffic light, just like you have them already at KSC in Orbiter. Also, since RWY 13L/31R is wide enough, it should have the touchdown zone lights (sets of 3 lights on either side of the centerline, that run from the threshold to around 3,000ft/900m), and those should be red before the threshold, and white after, stopping where the painted touchdown zones stop. They should only be visible from the correct side (green side). So, depending on what side of the threshold you are, the threshold/end lights should be either green or red and not blue.
b) Taxiway lights should be blue on the sides and if the taxiways are wide enough (the ones at Wideawake are, of course), then there should also be green lights on the centerline of the taxiways, just like you have them already, but the blue ones are never absent. If anything, it's the green ones that are absent on very narrow taxiways.
c) Also, although the centerline lights of a runway are white, they start alternating white and red after about less than two-thirds of the runway (my estimate) and then toward the end only red leading all the way to the runway end, forming a red 'T' with the runway end lights. The sidelines also turn to yellow at about halfway beyond where the center lights turn to alternate white/red.
d) Eliminate the 2 sets of red lights before the runways, discard one set completely, and place the other one on the last taxiway stop before making a turn onto each runway. Stretch the runways at both ends until the very end. There is no need for displaced thresholds. Displaced thresholds are put in place because of obstacles that aircraft on final approach might collide with, so they displace the runway beginning, moving it forward for landing aircraft, while allowing an aircraft taking off to use the entire length of the runway. Since there are no buildings or mountains on either end of both runways, let the runway thresholds/ends be at the very beginning/end to maximize the runway length.
2 RUNWAY MARKINGS:
a) The runway sidelines should be white like the centerline, and should be thicker than the taxiway lines. The centerlines should be equally as thick. Makes the runway to stand out.
b) The threshold markers (bars immediately after the threshold) should be quite longer than they currently are, about double the hight of the runway number. Use KSC as reference (not orbiter KSC, but the one on Google Maps. Zoom in on the runway until you can see the tiles. You'll notice that the threshold bars take up to 7.5 tiles in length (height?) while the number takes about 4. The landing zone markers are also 4 tiles long.
c) there should be a solid line (about 4x thicker than the thick sidelines (~8x the weight of the taxi lines)
d) The touchdown zone markers are arranged thus:
In pairs (one on each side of the centerline) of "III, III, II, II, I, I" on each side, at 500-foot (150-meter) intervals (measuring from the bottom, not the top) starting from the solid Runway beginning line for a total of 6,000 feet or 900 meters beginning from the solid Runway begin/end line. The second III is replaced by the huge 'aimpoint' bar, which is the same length with the threshold markers (7.5 tiles) (Usually it's either the second "III" bars or the first "II" bars that get replaced with the 'aimpoint' bar, but for the space centers it's the first "III").
e) Finally, the landing zone bars should be right halfway between the sidelines and the centerline on the wider RWY 13L/31R, and closer to the sidelines on the narrower RWY 13R/31L (judging with the "III" bars). AT the moment, they are too close to the center.
I hope I haven't bored anyone to death already.
