This is my first suggestion so I want to make sure I'm clear on what I'm proposing.
I would love to see either a new type of parachute or the ability to adjust the length of the strings on the existing parachutes.
To explain....
I'm sure the game creators here have heard of drogue chutes, I'd love to see these added in order to help stabilize and slow down a spacecraft before the main parachutes are deployed. One of the difficulties I have with the parachutes in the game is that when they're deployed they can easily kill my test dummy, sometimes even if they're deployed at higher altitudes where the atmosphere is thinner. I often find myself deploying my parachutes in space before reentry to prevent this which is unrealistic.
This problem can already be mitigated by having two sets of the existing parachutes. The first parachute stage can have smaller chutes to slow down the spacecraft, then they can be detached and larger parachutes can be deployed that are sufficient for a landing.
One of the problems with this approach is with the limitations on how we can resize the existing parachutes. Mainly that the length of the strings can't be adjusted and the size of the chutes only goes down to 50%. So any attempt at making a drogue chute just ends up looking like normal chutes that are too close to the reentry capsule to look realistic. This problem becomes much more evident when trying to land larger payloads and rockets on a planet.
If we could make the strings longer, a small parachute could look a and function a lot like a drogue chute. This could help enhance the look of primary chutes as well. Rockets come in many different shapes and sizes so parachutes that are too close to a rocket will inevitably not look right on some designs.
P.S. I'm a big fan of the game and have been playing since the early days of SR1. I know you guys have a lot you're working on already so something like this could always be done down the road if you think it's a good idea.
I wrote this thank you reply by email but figured I'd give the feedback here as well...
Thanks for your attention to detail and for listening to customer feedback, not all game developers will do that. It's been a little while since I've played but I'm seeing that you guys also worked on making the landing legs more stable. I'll have to return to check out all of these changes soon because they'll both work well with my very large Mars rocket. As a challenge, my last rocket was designed to get to Cylero and back with no orbital rendezvous or experimental engines to boost performance. Needless to say, the rocket was massive and had a huge lander because it had to carry the weight of the fuel for a return trip down to the surface of Cylero.
The rocket could make it to Cylero and back as I intended it to with some aerobraking but the legs and parachutes were very frustrating. The large lander would bounce and wobble making it very tricky to land and the parachutes would usually kill my test dummies unless I opened them in space. lol
Anyway, I'm rambling now but thanks again for hearing my suggestions and the suggestions made by others!