So, how do debris and parachutes work, exactly? You get refunded for items that are reclaimed, how does that handle discarded stages? I know that the capsule and attached items are refunded, but how are things like boosters and lower stages accounted? I've been putting parachutes on things out of habit, or simply doing single-stage.
Discarded stage unless they landed while under the physic boundary ( wich is 2.5km away max from active craft ), wich also never happens, are totally destroyed. That is not expanded in the stock game. However there is a nifty little plugin that i love that does exactly that, recycle spent stage and give back some money depending on how fast they landed and how far away from KSC.
I.E.: A multi-part booster ( 2 tank, one LV-T45 2 parachute if i remember right ), will land under the 5ms/s with no damage thus giving full refund of part minus the distance and fuel spent. On the other hand if i had only one parachute it migh land at 7.8ms/s thus giving it a little damage lowering the max amount of refund.
What i like about that plugin is the feedback it gives you, if the stage simply blows up that because you dont have enough chute by a large margin, if it land in the *yellow* section (damaged) you also see the speed it was going uppon touchdown ( simulated mind you ) thus giving you an idea on how many chute i need etc.
Some says its cheating as you recover much more money leading to a big amount of fund in no time since you dont *bleed* money somewhere. Myself i find it decent because i play with so many mods and some piece cost so much that it would take me forever to do anything.
Also debrefund kicks in only when its outside of the active physic bubble.
Edit: Just realised that some of the information i said was already said, sorry for the overlapping information.