MaxxQ

I would go with magenta. TBH, the slightly OCD artist in me would have switched around the yellow-green-ish one with the orange (the two on the right in the top image). That way, once you get the magenta one in there, you would have alternating warm and cool colors.

Okay, I just read through this entire thread, and couldn't find a clear answer (or it's there, but the fact that it's 4:30am here means I missed it) to this - possibly probably - stupid question: Can this be used in a stock-sized system? If yes, does it have any effect? I know it rebalances mass fractions, but most of what I've read in this thread keeps referring to rescaled systems (and I understand that that is the point of the mod - to allow stock fuel tanks, engines and pods to be used in rescaled systems), but since you've also mentioned how stock mass fractions are way off (balancing for the smaller size of the Kerbin system), I guess I was wondering if it would be pointless to try this mod on a stock sized system.

Yeah, I keep waffling on KR&D (I've used it before). I like the idea of having something to spend science points on, but KR&D can also be abused if one isn't careful. There's also the issue of it not being compatible with some part mods - mods which I use a LOT. If I do eventually install it, it'll be after I've more or less cleared the tech tree. I've never use KCT, and although it sounds interesting, I'm too impatient to wait for the vessels to be built, plus I do a LOT of build, fly, revert-style testing (I just tell myself it's computer simulations that they're doing at GSC ).

Well, after two solid weeks of my current playthrough (or however long it's been - the days kinda blend together), I've decided to start a completely new science game. Part of the reason is that I only need 8500 more science points to completely clear the tech tree. This sounds like a good thing, until you realize that I've only done manned missions to Gael orbit, landing in all biomes of both Iota and Ceti, and landed Gaeleans at Niven (and I've barely explored Gael itself and harvested science from all those unchecked biomes). The rest (read: MOST) of my science has come from probes sent to all the inner planets (inside of Gael's orbit), and one planet out from Gael. I think I'm going to reduce the science rewards in this new playthrough a bit, just to force me to send some more manned missions to other planets ("Gaeled", or "Gaeleaned missions" sounds weird, so I'll stick with "manned"). This will also let me send off more probes to other planets, and their moons, and not rake in quite so much science so quickly - I'm only in Year 7 and almost all science gathered up. That's one reason why I never use the science bays. Picking up science is too quick as it stands at stock settings. I brought home 13k science just from a single mission to Niven (as recapped in my earlier post on that flight), and while i was like, "YAY!", I was also like, "Damn! That cleared nearly two rows of the tech tree!" I also just added a few new mods, and got rid of a couple others that I wasn't really using, and just having the new parts pop up in an almost-toppled tech tree kinda bothers me. The other kinda-sorta major reason is that I learned a few things about playing KSP and designing ships for a job in this last playthrough, and I want to try them out on a fresh start, as opposed to constant trial and error. I'm not ever going to try to land and take off from Tellumo, though. That planet only gets orbital scanning and science. I'm only playing stock size, but even then, it's just too much for me to figure out. I spent a week or two in 1.2.2 trying to do that, and spent most of yesterday trying again, and I'm just throwing my hands up in defeat on this one (I may someday try again, but to be honest, I'm a bit lazy and it seems like too much work). That's okay... it just means I need to get science from elsewhere.

I have 26 separate installs. Most are stock and modded versions, as well as Beta versions that were released for testing. 1.2.1, 1.2.2, and 1.3.0 have three different copies each - completely stock, stock Kerbal with mods, and Galileo's Planet Pack (which replaces the entire Kerbol System, including Kerbin), for a total of nine copies. I never play stock anymore, but I keep the stock copies in case I bork up a modded install so badly that it needs a complete reinstall.

Glad I could be of some help.

Yeah... first thing I thought (when I saw the title of the thread) was that he was on a retrograde orbit relative to the moons. Edit: @LapraLapso... If you're using MJ, I can't understand how you're ending up in retrograde orbits, if that's what's actually happening. Are you using MJ to get to Jool to begin with? If so, then once you're outside of Kerbin's SOI, you should try fine tuning your approach. There's an option for this in the MJ maneuver planner. Set the desired distance to something a bit farther out than where you end up intending to be once your Jool orbit is circularized (i.e.- If you intend a 600km orbit, best fine tune to 1000km, as it's not entirely accurate). This will only cost you a very few m/s DV, and once you reach a Jool encounter, you can adjust for your final Jool orbit. If you look down on Jool in map view from directly overhead, your ship should be orbiting counterclockwise, the same direction the moons are orbiting.

Aside from what Sigma88 wrote above, a quick and easy workaround until the issue is fixed is to retract your panels (assuming they can retract), point your ship at Ciro (or whatever direction the panels will face when opened, as long as they point towards the sun), then extend the panels. This isn't a permanent fix, as sometimes when the ship goes into the shadow of a planet, the panels will end up trying to track on Grannus again, but at least you now know one way to have a temporary fix. This has worked for me, and every so often, I'll check my ships to see if I need to correct the panels. Most of the time, they're fine, so it's not like you'll need to babysit your ship.

^^^This. That's why I'm having such a hard time deciding whether or not to get a warp drive mod.

Yeah, I have both of those, and I DO use CKAN, but only because I'm lazy. I can do manual mod installation, and do it when necessary. Like for GPP. But for general mod installation on well-developed and established, non-finicky mods, I use CKAN. The flag is actually the logo for the BuNine (Bureau Nine) Honorverse group I'm involved with. It can be seen in the images here: https://maxxqbunine.deviantart.com/

Those are just stock 1.25m tanks but with the texture switched through the Fuel Tanks Plus mod, I think (and clipped a bit - I don't normally clip parts, but in this case, it was for aesthetic reasons and not cheaty reasons). I believe it's the Delta texture in the right-click menu for the tank. The nose cones are the angled nose tanks. Edit: I'm not really sure which mod does the texture-switching on stock tanks (or even if it's a stock feature - I haven't played stock in years), but I have FTP and Interstellar Fuel Switch installed, both of which have texture-switching. Edit 2: Other part mods are Mod Pods, Lithobrake Exploration Technologies, Real Chutes, Deflatable Heat Shield, DMagic Orbital Science, Universal Storage, and probably a couple others I've forgotten.

So I finally took six Gaeleans somewhere other than Iota and Ceti (I've yet to do this ever since GPP was first released and I started playing it exclusively). I went to Niven, requiring three separate launches for the lander, the return vehicle, and the tanker, which allowed me to make multiple landings in various biomes and science the you-know-what out of Niven. I don't have any images of the Gael launch vehicle, but it's basically the tanker core, but with six side tanks (like those on the tanker) and engines on the side tanks and core, as well as six massive SRB's, one per side tank. The Gael launch vehicle is the same for the lander, the return vehicle, and the tanker, just with the different payloads. First thing to do was to get all three into Gael orbit, then send up an additional tanker or two (actually took 1.5 - the leftover is still sitting in Gael orbit) to top off everything for the journey to Niven. All three transfer launches took place one day apart, with the last being the first to arrive at Niven, and the other two arriving in orbit within hours of the first. First landing was planned, intended to get the lander into a polar orbit to make landfall at the Ohio Spiral biome. This worked out fine, except doing that, refueling the lander after its return to the transfer vehicle, and getting back to an equatorial orbit used up all the remaining fuel in the transfer vehicle. Which is why I sent a tanker along. The lander's transfer vehicle remains in low orbit as a relay. Lander docked with tanker. https://imgur.com/Pe24WA8 Entry into Nivens atmosphere. https://imgur.com/JAk8IC1 Drogue chutes deployed. https://imgur.com/lEShUd1 As usual, can't seem to land on a flat area. https://imgur.com/z5jtI1O Still sliding... https://imgur.com/U2WcXka Finally stopped. https://imgur.com/XnrR78Q Galileo Gaelan planting the first of five flags on Niven. https://imgur.com/Y685DRT Liftoff. https://imgur.com/G9w6stX Back in orbit. It's an SSTO on Niven! https://imgur.com/hH7PCKp Docking with the tanker for a refill. https://imgur.com/qjMVXev After a second landing, docking with the return vehicle for a crew swap. https://imgur.com/acWfvza Third landing. Poodmund Gaelan plants the flag. https://imgur.com/TVmm5TU I apparently can't do more than five landings, due to running out of extra go-juice, as well as parachute reloads. Now they get to sit and wait for a bit over a year for the return flight to Gael (three males, three females... what WILL they do to pass the time?). All the crew will be aboard the crew return vehicle, and the tanker and lander will be abandoned at Niven, to act as additional relays in high orbit.

Something about the art style is making me think, "Homeworld".

Yes, Su-Metal is very bendy. It looks even worse from other angles.

Nope... no stoning here. We're more civilized.

Yeah, it's pretty good at detecting changes and discriminating between those and just relocating an item. I've done something as simple as changing the type of parachute, and it's assigned a new Bloc number. OTOH, just moving something from one location on the craft to another doesn't trigger a Bloc change (this is a GOOD thing).

As Pood and several other people have said, switch back to 1.3.0-4. No worries about it screwing with your existing game. I "upgraded" to 1.3.0-5 when it came out, very soon found the same issues (among others) that you had, and switched back to -4, with no ill effects in my science game. That said, Galileo has mentioned that he (and Pood, and OhioBob, and Jade) is currently working on an update to GPP to work with the latest version of Kopernicus. Just give them some time. There were two Kopernicus updates released since GPP updated to work with Kopernicus 1.3.0-4.

Nah... 350m/s is just a bit over Mach 1 (I think 320-330 is Mach 1 in stock aero, may be a bit different if you're using FAR). You'll sometimes see this effect (or similar) on real-world aircraft as they're breaking the sound barrier.

I assume you mean Firespitter? If so, then that one's a bit tricky as well, because different mods may require different versions (I just read this on another topic, so apologies for stealing it), and you can only run one version of a mod. If you're using CKAN for everything, then both Firespitter and Firespitter core are available on there. I personally don't use Firespitter, but I do have FS core installed, because it's required for other mods that I have installed. I'm not sure if there would be an issue if both are installed... my assumption is that FS contains FS core as well, but I may be wrong about that. The thing is, I love mods. I have 100+ here on KSP, I have nearly 250 on Skyrim, 60-70 on Dragon Age Origins, and so on. The problem is that for the most part, I use a mod manager to install them, because some mods are just too finicky to install manually (I'm lazy, pure and simple). I only manually install mods when it's REQUIRED by the mod-maker (or when they're not available through the mod manager), and then I follow the instructions to the letter. As far as manually installing mods in KSP, I don't think there's ever been an easier game to do that with. CKAN is completely unnecessary, considering how easy it is to install mods on KSP - with a few exceptions, of course. Galileo's Planet Pack is one that I will NEVER use CKAN to install, because there's just so many sub-mods contained in the main mod for mixing and matching how you want to play. Also, some things for GPP rely on other mods, but have their own "version" of that required mod. This can confuse CKAN, and it may not install the sub-folder correctly, if at all. The other thing that really helps to understand all this and be comfortable with it is to READ the mod threads. If you've just found a mod you like, go to the thread, then go back a few pages and start reading from there. most of the time, any questions you may have are answered within those last few pages. Another thing I do is read the first 3-4 pages of a thread. Every (good) modder out there should have install instructions in the very first post, as well as a list of dependencies and conflicts. Forex, KSP R&D conflicts with Tweakscale and other mods. I don't use TS, but I do have some other mods that R&D conflicts with. CKAN will refuse to install one if the other is present, so I have to manually install the conflicting mod (in some case, like with R&D, you can do this. Most of the time, you can't manually get around CKAN's conflict warning, and you will break your game until you remove the offending mod(s)). I'm aware of the issues (because I read enough of the mod threads to know what to expect), so I'm not suprised when something can't be done using one or the other of those conflicting mods. So, above all else, read the mod threads for the mods you're interested in - at least the first few and last few pages, paying special attention to the first post. I know this takes time and you (in general, not you specifically) want to start playing ASAP, but trust me, a couple hours reading might save you a couple DAYS of troubleshooting - or even save your saves

Been there, done that. Edit: I should really qualify that by saying that it wasn't a bug with GPP.

I doubt you'll find any single video that will cover all the aspects that you mentioned in your post. Your best bet is to search for individual videos that focus on one thing at a time. There are literally thousands to choose from, but a decent start might be to check out Scott Manley's channel. Some of his videos are of playthroughs with mods (his Interstellar Quest series is a good example, as it uses the KSPI mod to add things like antimatter and warp drives - I think), so make sure you make a distinction with your friend about which videos contain mods and which are stock. Frankly, the best way is to just have him come over and watch YOU play. Maybe have a pair of installs - one stock, one modded - so he can see the base game, and then the opening up of possibilities with mods.

@stali79 I can't check right now because I'm at work

First question @stali79: OPT isn't listed on CKAN at the moment, but OPT Legacy is. @HaydenTheKing If you look just a couple posts above yours, you will see the same question being asked, followed by a response. Second question: If you mean manually install OPT when other mods you have are installed by CKAN, then no, it won't mess up your other mods. I have 90 mods installed through CKAN*, and another 23 I've installed manually, due to them not being on CKAN yet (or the mod creator doesn't want their mod on CKAN, for their own reason). The only thing you need to be careful about is that some mods contain different versions of things like Module Manager, or plugin cores that are required for other mods to work. These can cause issues, and in many cases, the game simply won't load. Using Module Manager as an example, by itself, it doesn't change a damn thing in the game, but nearly all mods require it. This is the one that usually bites people in the rearend, since many mods bundle MM with their files. Some of those bundled MMs are outdated, and if you don't pay attention, you can end up with multiple versions, causing issues. CKAN automatically filters outdated versions. *About 1/4 of these are dependencies for other mods that I use. They don't do much themselves except to allow a specific mod to work.

Heh... I recently had the song Iago's Demise by Faith and the Muse playing while I was looking through the forums here. The song goes through a short list of Shakespearean play female character names (about 10, out of somewhere around 150 or so), and I thought, "Some of those names are pretty cool." So I looked up a list of female characters in ol' Bill's plays, and wrote a bunch of them down. I also have the mod, Launch Numbering, which automatically adds a number after the first launch of a given ship. If it's still the same ship, but maybe has a different payload, or added SRBs, or any other change, no matter how minor, it will add a "Bloc" number as well. For example, I have a launch vehicle named Ophelia. I launch it once, and it stays Ophelia. If I launch a second one that's exactly the same, the name shows up as Ophelia 2. If I add SRBs to the original, then it gets renamed to Ophelia (Bloc II), and a second launch of that craft is named Ophelia 2 (Bloc II).