Norcalplanner

I was originally thinking 1070 or 1070 Ti when I first started thinking about this after Christmas, but it looks like the 2060 is either equal to or ahead of the 1070 in most benchmarks, for over a hundred dollars less. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever go to 4K on a desktop - my eyes are "maturing" and I already have to wear my near distance glasses when I'm on the computer.

Currently 1920 x 1080, but my goal is to upgrade to 2560 x 1440 sometime in the next 12 months and use the existing monitor as a second screen for Internet and whatnot while playing. As I said in my post, I'm looking to increase performance in RP-1 with all the visual mods. This would include Scatterer, EVE, TU, KS3P, and many large part mods such as BDB, SSTU, and FASA, which combine to over 60K MM patches when loading. Currently I'm compromising on visuals to get decent frame rate, including lowest res ocean in Scatterer, no volumetric clouds in EVE, 4K textures for planets and clouds. I'd love to up some of these settings and upgrade to 8K or higher textures. Edit: And just to be clear, RP-1 includes both RSS and Realism Overhaul by reference, along with other compute-intensive mods such as Remote Tech, TAC-LS (with processing of unloaded vessels), TestFlight, RealFuels, RealPlume, and KCT.

So I'm looking to spend some money on my system, primarily to increase performance in KSP (RP-1 with all the visual mods) as well as some other games (Kingdom Come Deliverance, Cars 2, Fallout 4, etc). Current specs include a 6600k in a Z170 mobo with a mild OC, 16 gigs of ram, a gtx 960, and ssd and spinning drives. I know upgrading the graphics card will help (leaning towards a RTX 2060), and I'm going to try a more aggressive OC, but would it make sense to bump up to 32 gigs of ram? Or would it be better at this point to look at upgrading the mobo and CPU? Looking to keep things under 500 USD atm.

Any pressure-fed thruster should fit the bill, although they're not terribly useful until hydrazine is available.

I think it depends on the mod. If the contract calls it out by part name, then it's hit and miss. If it does it by whether the part contains a science lab module, then it should.

KABOOM at the Kape - Getting into orbit The KABOOM space program continues to progress, albeit in a slightly suboptimal manner due to some missteps regarding initial allocations of funds into build rate vs. research vs. KSC improvements. We're doing many things similar to other programs, but frequently with a larger craft at a lower tech level. Nevertheless, we're pressing on and trying to slowly turn the ship to a more favorable heading. Played around a bit more with sounding rockets, resulting in this smaller design: As well as this larger one. We didn't fully commit to the lucrative sounding rocket grind. We also upgraded our suborbital astronaut-hucker to use a slightly more sane cockpit: Our first (barely) orbital capable craft was the Glorious IIB, shown here ascending from the Kape: With further refinements, this series was also able to reach polar orbit. Problem - how to quickly increase the reliability of the Snubotron for consistent upper stage ullage. Solution - 36 Snubotrons in three stages on the bottom of a boilerplate testbed: The Corsair IV series was the craft that eventually got us to lunar flybys and impacts. Unfortunately we didn't have a fairing large enough to enclose the RN Sputnik core, so the design looks a wee bit silly: But the result was worth it: We'll end this entry with a tip of the day - if you're heading to the moon or high orbit with a probe or satellite, be sure to grab a sounding rocket altitude contract before you launch for some free funds.

SSTU. Seriously. The command module includes RCS thrusters, drogue and main chutes, a docking port, and a heat shield. One part. And the tanks are customizable too. I frequently play with USI-LS, and will have a procedural tank with fuel, oxidizer, monoprop, thousands of EC, supplies, mulch, and fertilizer. Again, one part.

KABOOM at the Kape - The Beginning The Kerbal Administration for Big Overpowered Orbital Machines (KABOOM) is proud to be competing against other space programs to see who can advance their RP-1 career the fastest. Many thanks to @soundnfury for writing the mod that makes this possible and for hosting the challenge on his server. The early stages of the KABOOM program are focused on the 0.3m Argus series of rockets. First up is the Argus 0, a simple solid rocket with a sounding core: The two scientific instruments are placed asymmetrically so that the rocket curves away from the pad. There's just enough time to transmit the science before it crashes into the sea: The Argus I was a proper sounding rocket. Alas, all of its launches were at night, so here's a shot in the VAB: The Argus II series was our first rocket which carried cargo to complete some contracts and get some science from other biomes: Got a nice shot of the Argus III, which had a parachute to allow a safe return after dipping into space briefly: We shall not speak of the Courageous I. The Courageous II, however, was a tail-sitting SSTM1 (single stage to Mach 1) craft which looked like a cousin of the Bachem Natter: And if a little bit of rocketry attached to a cockpit is good, a lot must be better. I give you the Courageous III: Crewed above the Karman line? Check. I really don't like this craft all that much. The crew blacks out on reentry and the cockpit wants to blow up if you stray too far from prograde. I don't think we'll be using it much more. Here it is with chutes: Woohoo! This is going to be fun.

I'm really looking forward to starting a new RP-1 career this week, and find myself with a few questions: Is it a design goal and/or will it be feasible to transfer a 1.3.1 RP-1 career to 1.5.1 when that comes out? Trying to decide how much time to invest in the new career. KCT is frequently played with Stage Recovery and Scrapyard. Are the RP-1 formulas for KCT designed for those mods to be present? Just looking to experience the new release the way it's meant to be played. Any info or clarification is greatly appreciated! :-)

I'm not aware of a config, but love SSPXr and would be appreciative of one. I think Twitch streamer sanjosharks has SSPXr in his RO game - I'll ask him what he did and whether he'd be willing to share, or at least get some tips on how to make some myself.

Regarding non-throttling of hypergolic engines, I found it helpful to put three engines in a line on the bottom of an early lunar probe, and controlled via two action groups. I had full, 2/3, and 1/3 throttle available, which (combined with pulsing engines) was enough to land a half-dozen probes safely on the moon.

Thanks for the reply. I've removed TWB for the moment and reverted to a backup save. I'm still excited about exploring all the new worlds, so I'll figure out something later in my career to make it happen. And maybe IC will be sorted out by then... ;-)

@TheProtagonists Just a quick note to say that Sigma Dimensions doesn't appear to affect the location of the Dawn system. This screenshot is with a 3.2x rescale applied: I may still be OK, depending on how large the SOI of the Dawn system is. If I've done my calculations correctly (and I'm not sure that I have), then Grannus has a SOI in 3.2x with a radius of 1.6e+12m, and should be at an altitude no higher than 5e+12m when near the Dawn cluster. So as long as the radius of Dawn's SOI is 5.4e+12m or smaller, then we should be OK. Is Dawn supposed to have the orbital velocity shown in the screenshot? Just trying to figure out how far from normal this setup is...

If I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, the next version of GPP may have it implemented at Thalia and possibly other planets. In terms of dealing with it, I'm thinking it would be the same combination of craft design (moar shielding) and mission profiles which minimize time on the surface.

Thanks for the insight. I'm still pretty early in this career, so it's feasible to pull everyone back to the GSC (home system is GPP/GEP) and sacrifice/delete existing craft as needed before adding TWB. And I'll let you know how things work with SD. :-)