Hotaru

I've noticed this as well, maximum number varies slightly for me (possibly based on rep?) but I've definitely never had more than 15. The debug menu can be used to spawn new specific contracts (I frequently use it to get the "Explore Minmus" one, which absolutely refuses to show up on its own) but unfortunately I don't believe there's a way to use it to just spawn a random contract. I suppose it's not a problem if you only ever do one mission at a time, but I'd love to see a mod/cheat/config edit/whatever that changes the way this works, or at least raises that upper limit to more like twenty or thirty for those of us who use KCT and KAC and like to multi-task.

Now although I do notice this, it doesn't bother me so much as the annoying convention of using decimal notation for a system that isn't actually decimal, so to anybody used to math but not software development, "zero point ninety" looks like it should be equal to "zero point nine." I know, I know, it's a well-established system and we're stuck with it, and I'm pretty much used to it myself anyway, but I can't help but wish we used a different character there instead of a period (or comma). 1-0-2 or 1|0|2 or 1~0~2 or 1x0x2 or 1+0+2 or something instead of 1.0.2 that looks like it should be the same as 1.02. (Not sure how you'd pronounce them though, hard to beat the convenience of "point.") PS. Or just use a different system altogether, like alternating letters and numbers for aircraft models. 1.0.2 becomes KSP-1A-2. You don't even need the dashes, if you don't want them.

I know exactly what you mean. If I'm honest I'd say I've had to revert more due to my own stupidity than due to glitches, and it's almost always something decoupler-related. Can't even remember how many times I've stacked decouplers and Procedural Fairings bases in the wrong order. Just the other day I had to revert a launch because I had the wrong size docking port. Unfortunately I wasn't using stock ports--which are easily distinguishable--but Tantares APAS ones--which all look kind of the same and are thus easily confused. Hence, reverts. One of these days I'll do a no-reverts career save, maybe that'll teach me to use checklists.

The way I remember it is things orbiting stars get (lower-case, annoyingly) letters and things orbiting planets get Roman numerals. So Earth would be "Sol d" and the Moon, "Earth II." In fact Wikipedia specifically refers to Titan as "Saturn VI." That's what I use when I'm writing sci-fi, anyway. It fits with the naming scheme of extra-solar planets, which are always called something like "HD123456b" (which would be a planet of a star called HD123456) since nobody's bothered giving them proper names yet. Me, I think I pretty much always get "Kerbal" right except for occasionally slipping up and calling them "Kermans" (which I know is technically right, but "Kerbal" is so widely used now it's hard to argue it's not the standard term). On the other hand I occasionally confuse "Kerbol," "Kerbal," and "Kerbin" when referring to the planet Kerbin. I'm usually pretty careful to get them right in forum posts but I slip up all the time in actual conversation. On the other hand I have to say it doesn't bother me when people get it wrong, so long as they're close enough that I at least know what they're on about. I do find the "adding K to every word" thing slightly annoying depending on context, but not enough to complain about it. I am glad it stopped being called "Kearth" though.

Small and straightforward can get you there too. I made it round the Mun in a rover that was basically just a Mk1 inline cockpit and four ruggedized wheels. The key was MechJeb's stability control, which helped it handle the frequent jumps.

I also think this sounds like a fun idea! My reaction to any non-RPG game is invariably "should be more like an RPG" so I'm all for anything that adds RPG elements to KSP. Tried using the "Kerbal Feels" mod that adds inter-kerbal relationships, but it doesn't seem to work well in 1.0. Personally I would be in favor of a "hardcore mode" that DOES have game-changing effects; if you send a ship full of stupid Kerbals there's a very small chance one of them will flip the wrong switch and the whole thing could explode; on the other hand, maybe stupider Kerbals are easier to get along with, and if you send along a ship full of smart ones they might start getting in fights and make science labs and command pods quit working. But maybe badS ones are better leaders, so sending one of those could help mitigate the effects of stupidity.

Opened up my sandbox save, having finally finished my Elcano Challenge circumnavigation (which, admittedly, was very satisfying to complete). Installed mods. Blew stuff up. Went to the Mun. Didn't go to the Mun. Messed with harpoons. Orbited a space station around the Mun. Most importantly, however, wasn't bored!

Here's what I posted in the NFP thread. I tried different tankage/engine combos for a 2.3-ton command module, and here's the result: Tunguska + LH2/OX Jumbo: wet mass 29.3t, dry mass 9.8t, TWR 0.96, 4317 m/s delta-v. Tunguska + LH2/OX NFP tankage: wet mass 31t, dry mass 7.6t (!), TWR 0.90, 5525 m/s delta-v. Hydrogen LV-N + LH2 NFP tankage: wet mass 29.4t, dry mass 8.25t, TWR 0.21, 7152 m/s delta-v. Hydrogen LV-N + LH2 Jumbo tanks: wet mass 29.0t, dry mass 17.3t (!), TWR same, 3950 m/s delta-v. The only times the cryo rocket came anywhere close to the nuke in terms of delta-v was when I either used a stock tank with LH2 for the nuke (much too heavy!) or an NFP tank with LH2/OX for the cryo (a little too light). As long as I stuck with using tanks for roughly their intended purpose (NFP tanks for LH2 only, stock tanks for fuel/oxidizer combinations), things seem pretty balanced, at least for this size of ship. Stock LF/OX engines get high TWR and low delta-v, hydrogen nukes get low TWR and high delta-v, cryo rockets ended up about halfway in-between, which is pretty much (in my non-engineer's mind at least) the way it should be. My only suggestion would be (if this is possible) to disable Interstellar Fuel Switch for the NFP tanks, keep them restricted to LH2-only. EDIT: Just for the sake of argument, here are the values for the same ship with LF/O propulsion. Poodle + LF/O stock tanks: wet mass 27.8t, dry mass 6.6t, TWR 0.92, 4361 m/s delta-v. Skipper + LF/O stock tanks: wet mass 29.1t, dry mass 7.8t, TWR 2.28, 3659 m/s delta-v. Which is interesting because the Poodle option actually compares favorably to the Tunguska option (and is a bit cheaper to boot, for us career-mode people). Presumably the difference is because the Poodle is half the weight of the Tunguska, and really more a cryo equivalent to the Skipper. If I use a Chelyabinsk instead (love the names, by the way), delta-v goes back up to 5171 at cost of an NTR-like TWR of 0.21.

Just to clarify, this isn't quite how the MPL works. The problem is that science and data are not the same thing. Processing science in the lab does not use up the science, it only adds data to the lab. Once the science is processed, it can still be returned or transmitted to Kerbin for science points. In fact it can even be taken to a different station and processed through another lab! The lab will continue processing the data into still more science points in the background, which must be transmitted (not returned!) back to Kerbin. Example: I have a space station in Munar orbit with a landing craft. The lander goes down to the surface, takes a surface sample worth (say) 100 science points and 50 data for the lab, and brings it back to the station. The sample is processed through the lab, which gets 50 units of data. The sample is now transferred (by a Kerbal EVA, Ship Manifest mod, or similar) to a space shuttle and returned to Kerbin for 100 points of science. In the meantime, the lab is now processing its 50 points of data in the background. A few in-game weeks later, I come back to find it's turned that data into another 200 points of science, which are then transmitted back to Kerbin. So from that surface sample I've got a total of 300 points--100 from returning the sample itself, another 200 from the science lab. So if you process science through a lab for the challenge, you would get no additional points for doing so, but you could still return the original science to Kerbin for full points at end of mission. The end result is, while the lab could still benefit your career save, as the rules stand now it would basically be dead weight from the point of view of the challenge, seeing as its only other function is to reset Mystery Goo/Science Jr. experiments, and a scientist Kerbonaut can do this as well. Personally I think this is fine, the MPL is basically a source of virtually unlimited science points, so being able to use it would basically make the whole idea of Jebediah's Level pretty much pointless.

Mission complete.

So that's it: mission accomplished. Shannon Kerman and the Mark II rover Michael Palin completed a circumnavigation of the Mun in seven days and fourteen stages, revisiting the sites of every previous Munar landing and collecting 2662.2 points' worth of scientific data along the way. Shannon, the science data, and the valuable equipment recovered from Auk XII and Palin returned safely to Kerbin on the SSTO Starlet Beatrix a few days later. As no plans were made to recover Palin itself, the rover, powered down and stripped of its science equipment, remains where Shannon left it on the midland plains of the Munar far side. Good grief, that was boring! But oddly satisfying. It's a good thing I did it during summer break and was able to blast through the trip in a few long days. If I'd had to squeeze it in around classes or work over the course of weeks, I don't think I'd have had the patience. I was surprised how easy it turned out to be with MechJeb driving, I've never had much luck with the rover autopilot before but it worked very smoothly on this expedition. The key was the stability control, I could probably have handled throttle and steering manually (if I'd had the patience, which I didn't by a long shot!) but having the rover automatically keep itself oriented during its frequent hops and jumps was fantastic. It even managed a full 360 at least once, but always righted itself in the end. All I had to do was keep it clear of craters. I doubt I'll be doing another land circumnavigation any time soon (having said that, watch me start one tomorrow), but in the end, I'm glad I did it once.

This can definitely happen, I just got a contract to retrieve a Kerbal and his pod from Ike orbit. Much to my annoyance, in fact, as I haven't been to Ike yet. Or Duna. Or anywhere besides Kerbin, Mun, Minmus, and solar orbit. What's the fun in exploration if somebody else has been there first?

Cool, thanks!

Circumnavigation complete. Palin finally arrives back at Base 0, the starting point of the circumnavigation. The landing craft from Barbicane Station is already waiting to pick up Shannon, along with the science data and hardware from Palin. Shannon gets out of the cockpit for the last time. Palin has completed a trip of about 1400 kilometers in roughly [edit] seven (Kerbin) days' time, collected an enormous amount of scientific data, and successfully demonstrated the capabilities of the Mark II air-portable rover (this last making the engineers at KSC especially happy). Now, its task accomplished, it will be stripped of useful equipment and left on the Munar surface along with the two flags marking the start and end points of its journey. All that remains now is for Shannon and the science data to be returned safely to Kerbin; the landing craft will take them to Barbicane Station in Munar orbit, where the SSTO Starlet Beatrix is waiting to take them home. Edit: Thanks! I have never had any trouble with the ruggedized wheels, on this trip I only had one burst tire (well, two but on the same incident) and that was when I basically drove the thing off a cliff. Apart from that they held up extremely well.

Interesting idea, I will definitely at least have a go! Suggestion: either disallow MechJeb or have a separate category for it. MJ makes it fairly easy to use autopilot and auto-staging to control a rocket using the mouse only, whereas steering and staging without WASD and the space bar would be one of the main problems without MJ.

Palin continues from Base 9 through increasingly rugged terrain around the East Farside Crater. Shannon plants the flag at Base 10 on the rim of the "Death Star Trench" canyon. The descent into the crater is completed without trouble, and Shannon establishes Base 11 at the old landing site. Palin climbs out of the crater and heads for the next and last objective, another 140 kilometers away: the crash site of Auk XII, an old lander that tipped over due to an autopilot error (some idiot put "02" instead of "20" into the Altitude field of the Ascent Guidance computer, causing the ship--which was already above 2,000 meters elevation--to topple over instead of blasting off). Stopping to recharge on the way, Shannon establishes Base 12. Finally, Palin arrives at the Auk XII site and Shannon plants the flag at Base 13. Shannon strips the wreckage of any recoverable equipment, including some science instruments and batteries; anything too big to fit in the cockpit is bolted to the outside of Palin for the final 100-kilometer stage of the circumnavigation.

I have the same problem. Until recently (when I finally ran out of scientists for my research stations and had to hire a couple new ones) I had an all-rescuee space program going, besides the original four. At first I was sending up individual capsules for them, later I started using four-seater SSTOs to get several at once from LKO. I've even bolted some retro-rockets and chutes on and retrieved a couple of their old capsules. Eventually, though, the rescue contracts settled down a bit, to the point where now I generally only seem to have one going at any given time. Haven't gotten one yet from anywhere besides Kerbin, Mun, or Minmus orbit though. Kind of looking forward to my first interplanetary rescue mission. Just as long as whatever space agencies are putting them up there doesn't beat me to Duna. That would be annoying.

So why can't it be both? Me, I've got two saves right now. One is a career save, I play very seriously, have lost no Kerbals so far. Other is a sandbox save, I mess around, blow stuff up, have lost about fifty Kerbals so far. They're both fun, the exploration game and the disaster simulator. I don't see why they're mutually exclusive. The disaster simulator attitude doesn't stop you exploring any more than your exploring stops me blowing stuff up in my sandbox save. Personally, that dual nature is one of the things I love about this game. When I get burned out on the stress of career, I can indulge in some sandbox silliness; when I get bored with explosions, career is there to give me some structure. I'd lose interest and move on to other games much quicker if I couldn't do both those things. (Not to imply that you can't have a silly career or a serious sandbox, by the way. That's just the way I happen to do it.) I also don't see what's wrong with having a "lemons to lemonade" attitude towards glitches. I absolutely agree that they should be fixed (especially the crashes and memory leaks, those need to be fixed yesterday), but as long as we're stuck with them, what's the harm in having fun with them? (Just as long as it's made clear that we do want them fixed in the end, of course: we don't want to give the devs the idea they should leave bugs in a finished game just because they're funny.)

Nice going! I was seriously impressed by the business of the winch at the glacier edge, I probably would not have thought to try that. (I mean, I'd try it NOW, having seen you do it, but wouldn't have previously.) Also that you built a machine that goes 177 m/sec on the water in KSP without shaking itself to bits. And I thought my 25 m/sec Mun rover was fast. So how many Banzai!s did you go through, in the end? I seem to recall at least two replacements. (Surprised autocorrect let me get away with "Banzai!s." Also surprised that autocorrect autocorrects "autocorrect.")

Depends on the bug, and my mood at the time. Some of them are infuriating, some kind of amusing, most neutral. I'd like to see them all fixed in the end, of course, but in the meantime I'm giving some serious thought to playing a career save where I try to incorporate them into the Kerbal universe, rather than F5/F9'ing every time something glitchy happens. Krakens kind of remind me of the ubiquitous "space-time anomalies" in Star Trek, or the "chrono-synlastic infundibula" from Sirens of Titan.

I think some of the autogen female names are actually kind of pretty, in a Kerbal sort of way. Wenrine, Elitrice, Natarina, Erithis, Julina. Don't know if I'd ever use them for an actual human child. Maybe as a middle name? I have a boring first name and interesting middle name in real life, and I kind of like it. Might reuse some of them for characters in other video games, though. And of course there are some normal names in there (I'm currently driving around the Mun with a Shannon Kerman), where you could get away with a double reference to the Kerbal and the actual person they were named for, and still have an utterly normal-sounding name.

An old mod called NEBULA Decals. Version on Curse is for 0.25 but works fine in 1.0 (might need some edits to its config files, I can't remember). PS. Funny the way video games distort our sense of time: a mod from six months ago seems "old."

Great to see this challenge resurrected! Looking at the list of allowed/disallowed mods, a couple questions: KW, SpaceY, and Near Future Solar all have parts significantly more powerful than stock (5 meter rockets/tanks and bigger SRBs for KW and SpaceY, big/efficient solar panels for NF), should these really be allowed? Conversely, what do Tantares and FASA have that's overpowered compared to stock, or is there some other reason for disallowing them? Also, what's the word on the Corvus and K2 2-Kerbal pods, Home Grown Rocketry, Modular Rocket Systems, Procedural Parts? First two seem harmless, HGR probably harmless too, not sure about MRS, PP I ask about purely because it isn't specifically mentioned. Last, and this is entirely my opinion--I personally disagree with keeping ISRU in a separate category in a 1.0 version of Jool-5. This made sense back when you needed a mod to do it but now that it's a stock capability I think disallowing it is against the spirit of the challenge (which I see as "stock and stock-like capabilities only"). Not a huge deal, just my feeling. PS. Just noticed OP asks for links to mods in question; added them.

Rescued Deti Kerman from high Munar orbit. Must remember to put some illumination on these SSTOs during their next refit.

Reports getting briefer and less frequent because--let's face it--this is turning out to be a kind of boring trip! Mission half-done, Shannon admires the view at Eumon's Pitfall, where Base 6 is established. Survey completed, Palin continues westward. Kerbin slowly recedes below the horizon. Finally, during the seventh stage, something interesting happens! Going over a particularly large hill, Palin lands harder than usual and blows both its rear tires. Fortunately MechJeb manages to keep the rover upright as it bounces to a stop, and none of the delicate science equipment is damaged. That was exciting! Shannon repairs the wheels and Palin continues on its way, establishing Base 7... ...Base 8... ...and Base 9. The next stop is another old landing site in the East Farside Crater, at this point about 150 kilometers distant. All this time, the SSTO Starlet Beatrix--carrying the refueling hardware--has been doing a complicated rendezvous dance in high Munar orbit to rescue a stranded Kerbal. At this point, with Palin nearly three-quarters of the way through the trip and making good headway on solar power, it seems pointless to waste fuel sending the surface shuttle down so near the end of the trip, so the refueling landing is canceled. Beatrix will wait at Barbicane Station in Munar orbit to take Shannon home once the circumnavigation is complete.