Krizzen

Multithreading isn't something you can just flip a switch and say "Tada! Multithreaded!". It's analogous to turning a 2-lane road through a tight city with skyscrapers on either side into an 8-lane super highway. It can be done, but lots of things either have to be destroyed and rebuilt differently or some very ingenious engineering can route the new highway through, under, or around existing buildings. So, KSP's engine has numerous roadways through it's city. Some of the paths are really simple to expand to multi-lane highways, and others can't easily be expanded because they run directly through the city (i.e. some of the core Unity engine systems like PhysX, in this case).

The conics modes are just different ways of visualizing your trajectory for intercepts with other SOIs. Conics mode 0 is *extremely* useful for tuning an intercept, let's say to Jool. This mode will show your predicted trajectory in relation to Jool where it is *now* and not where it *will* be. This allows you to double-click Jool in the map to get a nice closeup view of your predicted trajectory as opposed to an absolute mess of orbits and symbols piled up on a little ghost symbol of Jool. Here's conics mode 0 used to visualize an intercept with the Mun and here's where I found the image with images of each conics mode!

Here is a diagram I that's useful for planning and executing interplanetary transfers. The angles of the planets in relation to Kerbin are accurate, so this helps to just "eyeball" the planets to help spot planets near an optimal launch window.

, you could get to any planet and back with less than 2000 delta-V from LKO. The only requirements are extreme patience and a very thorough grasp of orbital mechanics/maneuvers.

I know you've seen Scott Manley's recommended mods, but if you don't have these, I can't stress enough how nice they are: - ISA Mapsat - for finding anomalies! - Crew Manifest - for Jeb, Bob, and Bill! - Subassembly Loader - for easier rocket, rover, and payload construct/modularity! I can't live without the Maneuver Node Improvement mod. It allows you to just press O to select your maneuver node. It helps *tremendously* when doing interplanetary maneuvers. Also, you can type in delta-Vs for each axis of the node (i.e. prograde/retro, axis N+/N-, and rad+/-) and allows you to change conics mode. The conics modes basically let you view your resulting orbit around your target in a few different ways.

I've never completed a burn with the ion engine. It just takes too damn long. I think the Poodle is quite useful. It's especially useful for LKO maneuvers and for circularizing orbits of relatively large payloads. It really shines when you want a simple solution with a decent TWR. Slapping a Poodle inline with your main rocket is much simpler (and lower part count) than working in some 909s.

I got it! This has been a mystery to me, but I think I have it. So, a fuel optimal ascent is one that doesn't waste fuel to atmospheric drag and one that doesn't fight gravity longer than it should. Two very simple concepts. As examples, you could have an apoapsis of 500km and *still* fall right back to Kerbin. Also, you could burn so much fuel in the atmosphere fighting drag that you *never achieve orbit*. The ad-hoc gravity turn is a (somewhat) optimal solution to give you an apoapsis far enough outside the atmosphere that you won't waste all your fuel to drag inside the atmosphere. It's like a compromise. Now, this is a rather basic way to look at it, though I haven't been able to conceptualize it without all the insightful posts. I'm sure there is a mathematical solution (I'd love to know what it is!). I think the most significant gains are from your ship's trajectory. Again, you go straight up, and you will fall back down even with a very high apoapsis, just like throwing a rock straight up as high as you can. If you aim too low, you will waste all your fuel fighting to burst out of the atmosphere, like an airplane. If you aim just right, your trajectory will pierce the thickest part of the atmosphere letting you accelerate where the atmosphere is the thinnest and at the point where you are "falling" back to the surface.

Lots of ground testing on Kerbin. Don't forget that your structures will flex landing gear and other parts less in low gravity. While that can make some of your docking ports not line up, the low gravity might allow you some wiggle room (literally). Also, it helps to find a reasonable height that you can adapt to nearly any vehicle. Alternatively, you can use the awesome Kerbal Attachment System (KAS) mod. Then you can dock virtually any craft via EVA and a few parts.

You could use the mod KSPX's larger nuclear engine. It's quite balanced against stock parts, and can help reduce part count while increasing TWR, of course while keeping a nice ISP. The only trouble is it *might* get added to the official game since the KSPX developer was hired by Squad. This creates trouble because you have a toss up between using the old, unsupported part over the new, stock one. Anyway, just an idea.

I just built my largest station (~350 parts). It's an absolute lagfest around it. I really wish there was a way that when you change a vessel to "Station" that it would somehow simulate the whole thing as one part rather than all 350 wiggling around. I would gladly sacrifice a bit of realism, and even make the station indestructible to gain a ton of frames.

Sevendust, Hed (PE), 10 Years, Motograter, Staind, Incubus, Breaking Benjamin. I still can't shake the need for a touch of nu-metal. Some old school Taproot: Love this stuff. Basically hard hitting stuff with amazing clean vocals and then some tasteful screaming.

I haven't seen that flow chart before. It looks AWESOME! It's both simple and complex at the same time. I mean, to make rocket fuel, you just need a pump drill and rock drill, fuel compressor. I would expect the simple resources to be somewhat plentiful on the Mun, and generally gets more complex further away. However, you could have a more complex mining rig that could handle most any resource. I'm just too excite!

This is merely pilot error. No KSP pilot ever makes mistakes! This is a genuine problem. I think there are two feasible solutions: 1) Give Kerbals an "inventory". It could be just one slot, but the ability to expand it could be very useful to add more flexiblity (and moddability; "Yo dawg, I heard you like mods...") to the mod. This also makes me curious if the 0.20 update added an inventory for Kerbals since they each carry 1 flag. Perhaps hooks could be just plugged into the new inventory? 2) Search for an empty hook bay on the vessel your Kerbal is entering and stow the hook I think this goes against the whole KSP philosophy, but an option to spawn one via some sort of "hack" GUI could be useful. This might be a limitation of the engine, or just extremely difficult to work around given the constraints. I think this is possible, but the hooks do different things for a reason, and I really enjoy the variety. I personally don't want a super hook.

The reality is the amount of TWR you use is totally up to you. There is no "right" answer (except you'll never lift off if your TWR doesn't rise above 1.0; you can still have <1.0 TWR on the pad and get above 1.0 by burning fuel, thus reducing your mass and increasing TWR). There are tradeoffs for using high/low TWRs. When building rockets, I keep these two rules in mind: Rockets with a low TWR are typically more fuel efficient and less time efficient. Because of this they are mostly lighter weight. Rockets with a high TWR are typically less fuel efficient and more time efficient. Because of this they are mostly heavier weight. So, on the launchpad I prefer a TWR that will propel my rocket near max Q (i.e. reaches nearly exactly speeds to not exceed a fuel-optimal ascent based on atmospheric drag), which is usually around 1.7. As you ascend, you burn propellant and your TWR goes up, giving you more speed to hit max Q. In orbit, I like about 0.5 or greater. I don't enjoy really long burns, so sometimes I slap a few more engines on my rockets to bring my TWR up and lose some delta-V in exchange. Right now, there are no dollar limits on rockets. You can build them as large as you like (or as large as your PC can handle!), so maximizing efficiency isn't a priority. When career mode is released, TWR will become much more important since it will directly impact both cost and efficiency of our rockets.

Ahh, okay. I'm still on a limb about whether I should manually patch Kethane into my 0.20 install. I also keep my KSP installs relatively clean.