ash73

The only thing I'm not keen on is the drab grey fuel tanks (I like the orange one). We need some black and white tanks, they were painted that way by NASA for a reason so external cameras could pick up the rocket orientation from the patterns, which is also useful when controlling a craft in the third person!

I'd prefer it if they were just labelled "abort flight" (VAB) and "restart flight" (pad) instead of "revert to ..." which just sounds odd.

I built something similar back in the day to retrieve a satellite from orbit:

Totally agree, I often end up rebuilding the same launch stages, rovers and landers again and again and it would be really handy. Although I like some of the other functionality mentioned, that and a merged flight/map screen would be the two biggest steps forward for me.

One small thing I've noticed in 0.21.1, the new space centre looks fantastic lit up at night, but when you switch to the VAB it's suddenly bright daylight through the hangar doors. Also I landed a small probe fitted with LT-5 micro struts on Eeloo, and despite a smooth landing once on the surface it bounced around until the landing gear broke. Tried landing in a few different places and always the same. Are either of these worth raising as bugs, or are they known about already?

Just curious, where do you see the IVA feature going? What are you hoping to do with it? After 5 mins novelty factor I never use it, and it must require a lot of work to code.

The more I've played the more I realised the core of the game is interesting and novel rocket designs; stuff like missions and career mode are pretty irrelevant and I think spaceplanes are a waste of time too, but others like them so fair enough. I'd like the aero to be fixed, because the asparagus designs just wouldn't work in real life, making the whole thing a bit unrealistic. The only drawback is the 16:9 screen format is ideal for short fat rockets. I'd like to see more parts, and more places to visit. The parts should be interesting and novel contraptions like airbags, balloons, maybe even project orion propulsion etc and more science instruments and sample collection. The other feature I'd like is for the flight and map screens to be merged into one display.

I almost didn't download the update after seeing all the problems but my first impressions are very positive, I much prefer the new SAS as it operates like R/C heli's I fly where the gyro dampens movement and holds direction but the pilot can override it with the controls. I used to hate switching ASAS on and off all the time to make small adjustments. I've only done one quick test flight to the Mun but the landscape looks much more interesting and challenging. Loving the new Space Centre and VAB graphics too.

I think it's a bit daft people voting on something like this when the new version has only been out 5 minutes and they haven't learned how to use it yet. It's not going to give the best feedback to developers, imho.

First impressions very good, I like the new Space Centre and VAB graphics, Mun terrain is much more interesting, new SAS feels good more like a R/C heli gyro where you can control the direction and it acts as a damper, so you can leave it switched on all the time. One thing I noticed after my first return flight to the mun, when I touched down on Kerbin there was no "end flight" button and the "revert flight" button was greyed out, so I couldn't get to the flight stats. Does this warrant a bug report?

On the pad: Command Module docks with Lunar Module, ready for lunar injection: Lunar Module and two Kerbals on the Mun: Rendezvous in lunar orbit, Kerbals return to the Command Module via EVA: On finals:

Part of the fun is designing rovers to be resilient. I include a little strut under each wheel to strengthen it, plus roll-over protection for the vulnerable bits, it can survive corner-pounding pirouettes at 60m/s+

My vote would be fix the aero, we're getting too hooked on unrealistic asparagus designs because there's no benefit for aerodynamic rockets. Would love to try mining too.

Where do I get the 20.1 patch?

I was worried I wouldn't be able to bind controls via the .cfg file in 0.20 but it works fine, so no issues getting my joystick to work. Presumably the patch must fix some other values not loading?

Does this also apply to the controls in the settings.cfg file? In 0.19 I edit the .cfg file manually to bind my joystick using GlovePie (AXIS_PITCH, AXIS_ROLL etc) as I can't bind them in-game. I'll try 0.20 myself in a few days, but if it doesn't work I'm stuck with 0.19 there's no way I'm going back to keyboard only!

(cartoon Kerbal created by artist David Westerberg aka Felsmak, hope it's ok to use it)

I use mods like Kerpollo because it means I can build smaller rockets that don't lag so much, and the black & white tanks look better than the stock textures, imo. I also like some of the space station and rover mods so I can create more varied missions. I haven't tried the autopilot addons because I already learned to fly by the seat of my pants and it's more fun that way. It's great there's so much variety to keep everyone happy, that's the main thing.

This is my interplanetary explorer, with radially attached tanks grouped into two main stages, using Kerpollo Stage I and II engines. Function before form... but it gets me to the surface of Eve and back, no problem!

Took a brief detour to Gilly while orbiting Eve and landed ok, although quite tricky with the very low gravity. I thought I'd read somewhere there was a bug that prevented landing here?

Function over form for me, I just want it to be as efficient and easy to fly as possible. I tend to use an evolutionary approach, but every so often I start again from scratch and create something more radical. Haven't done that for a while though as the current design can get me anywhere (and back). I created separate designs for various tasks; satellite launchers, explorers and rescue ships.

Nice pic! It's like the start of a Le Mans race, before they run over to their cars... which rocket can get home first?

OP - you could use that mod to attempt my satellite rescue challenge here - hardly anyone took it on!

I love v0.17, the new planets and moons are wonderful and the difficulty is just right (albeit I use mods, to avoid constructing huge stock rockets that would grind to a halt on my PC). I'd like to see a slightly better predictive view on the map screen for rendezvous, but I'm sure that functionality will come with time. My only concern is each version gets a bit more marginal on my PC, and if that continues in subsequent versions I may not be able to play them.

I landed on Moho today, the planet nearest to the sun. Quite tricky to rendezvous with its eccentric orbit, and when I tried landing near a large crater on the side facing Kerbol the landing gear exploded when I reached about 3000m. I tried again and switched to a polar orbit, landing in the semi-darkness near the north pole and it was ok, so I presume it's something temperature related rather than a bug...?