ondofpond

That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. Thank you. I'm still not terribly clear on how the Engineer "Atmosphere" thing works. Does it calculate the whole atmospheric effect as your prospective rocket is climbing (presumably at full throttle)? Or does it only do what's at the Altitude/Mach sliders? Which means it's not much good? Dunno. And so, when I'm looking at Delta-V maps of the Kerbal system, do I want to be looking at Engineer with "Atmosphere" on or off? Obviously any map is good for planets with no atmosphere. Did I read that "Atmosphere" Delta-V for Kerbal orbit is 3200? 4500 without "Atmosphere"? Dunno - sorry for noob questions. If you know a good tutorial that deals with Engineer and these questions please point me at it.

Done a search, can't get a thread on this specific topic. Been a KSP player for years, like efficiency and since career mode I build for cost, every time, even if I don't need to with excess funds. I'm not bad, but not perhaps the most discerning of method in my builds. So - using KSP Engineer and looking at how much Delta-V I can get for my buck. On build using a Swivel for a two-stage centre, I put two or four BACC SRBs on, but stage so that I launch off the pad with SRBs only. Obviously ensuring I have enough TWR for it to be viable. If I have four SRBs and enough TWR I might light only two SRBs on the pad, drop and light the next two (performing a struggling gravity turn with risk of impact when dropping) before finally lighting my Swivel. Obviously this makes for a slow initial ascent. I understand the thick atmosphere thing at the pad, get going quickly blah blah, but when I compare Delta-V stats with Atmosphere in Engineer, doing what I say above yields more Delta-V than if I light the Swivel on the pad, or light all four SRBs on the pad if using four. Again, TWR is considered and a slower start seems to be better on final Delta-V against cost. I'm not arguing the virtues of using SRBs at all vs liquid side-booster stages, to me that's a no-brainer on cost (I can end up with 2.5m Skipper build with no Mainsail side boosters, just six Kickback SRBs using the above method, lighting four on the pad and lighting the other two before finally lighting the Skipper, when payload makes it viable). What I'm wondering is, am I wrong to be purely looking at Delta-V values in Engineer in these builds? What might I not be considering that is possibly making the Delta-V figures either erroneous or a bad idea for another reason I'm not considering?

It annoys me a little that I have "Supersonic Flight" but that doesn't include the turbojet. On a basic jet engine I'm finding it impossible to do a very high altitude flight so I can quickly nip around the planet to do some visual surveys. I'm not flying at sub-20k altitudes to the opposite side of Kerbin, takes forever. IMHO be much better if they allowed turbojet unlockable a bit earlier so it can be useful. Soon I won't have a contracts-driven reason to bother with it, as I'll be more interested in outer system stuff. FWIW though, I can do visual ground missions by sticking Vernors on the belly of my jet, landing legs sticking out the back to take impacts in addition to wheels or landing legs along fuselage in conventional arrangement, plus radial chutes around nose cone. Making sure I have 2 cockipts, one for pilot and one for engineer, I then VTOL off the ground using Vernors, and when I get to target I just cut engines and open chutes, landing on tail, but making damn sure the plane falls forwards to land horizontal on its conventionally placed gear. Taxi-ing on ground helps loads so wheels rather than legs is preferable. Engineer re-packs chutes, and on to next one.

Ok I tested it - with the thing in Kerbin orbit and just the 3-seat command module and Lab on it, the mission status as viewed in the KSC building says "incomplete" for the "support 5 Kerbals" bit, but via the little contracts window I get a tick on that category, so Lab and command module count . Thx for help folks.

Can anyone tell me - on the Orbital Station contract, when it says support x number of Kerbals, what does it mean exactly? Must it have habitation modules enough to support x ? Or is it enough to simply have spaces on the ship (command module, mobile lab) to support x? I ask because, right now, I have the station, consisting of 3 seat command module and mobile lab, in Kerbin orbit ready to punt off to the Mun, and some conditions of the contract are already saying complete, but not the "must support 5 Kerbals", still incomplete. Must I ship up a habitation module, which would support 4 Kerbals, or even 2 modules to exceed the 5 required? Thx for help.