NCommander

I've always been mixed feelings on time warp, though that's more in stock I mine science out of Mun and Minnus, then time warp to the Duna window, and then get bored or upset with how the save goes an abandon it. If you're not using life support or part failures, there's no reason to hold off; mission reports can be somewhat more coherent if you're not running 30 missions at once

It's on CKAN, and generates a porkchop graph. I've had good success with it and it integrates with KAC and will generate based on the bodies in game so it will "just work". If you need something more advanced for things like gravity assists, there's KSPTOT, though I've never tried it with a non-stock system. It works pretty well if you want to get things like multiple flybys but it's tricky to understand. If you want to see TWP in action, I used it here in my MR (https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/169553-dancing-in-light-chapter-83-evolution-vs-revolution/&do=findComment&comment=3278163) to plot an extremely aggressive Duna transfer.

(somehow, I lost the screenshots of the rescue mission. This wraps up Chapter 8; hoping you all enjoy this installment. I expected this all to be a single update but it mutated as I was writing it. Feedback would be welcome as I'm really not sure how well this is coming together or how the anomoly hunt is coming together. Chapter 9's primary mission will be be Mun Redux, and visiting an old spacecraft) Chapter 8.3 - Evolution vs Revolution

KAC's transfer windows really aren't great. If you compare it to something like Transfer Window Planner, it often times says you have a window when it's at best medicore. I believe it's only taking account the actual phase angle and not inclination or distances involved with the transfer.

Eve generally isn't quite as bad as most people make it out, but Jool is fraking murder in Kerbalism. The radiation levels are ridiculously high. Ironically, Moho in some ways is the easiest in Kerbalism because the fast transfer times (you could potentially even take a NERV for the roundtrip as you can do a Moho to/from in less than an in-game year). Biggest problem with Kerbalism and Eve is you're dealing with the fact that you're flirting with engine failure for most ascent vehicles or you're going with low engine count spaceplane. Assuming you're staying on Eve's surface until the departure window, thats generally 1-2 years. Plenty of time for a Kerbalism strike.

Chapter 8.2 - Nightmares in Real Time

And here I was concerned @Cydonian Monk was simply swept up in a new cycle since I don't think you've gone to space :). Yeah, KSP can be tricky to get back into after a long hiatus esp. w/ a fairly heavily modded install. KSP 1.4/Making History will be interesting when it drops.

Here's a thought, send a payload on a free return trajectory to get science return from the moon. I can't remember if the biological samples need to be returned for full science, but if you can get a flyby, you *should* be able to get a free return.

Nothing like deorbiting a space station when you're done with it. Though TBH, it didn't look like their were that many Kerbalism critical failures with it. Mostly all yellows ...

I was actually surprised to find it in game; I've never bothered going to KSC2 in a career mode and I think the last time I hyperedited something there was 1.0 before they fixed all the easter eggs. Looking with Google/YouTube, it looks like the Monolith was there in 0.18 (or whenever the navball pointed to KSC2 by default). I'm going to hunt for the other monoliths as I've never actually done this on Kerbin; I vaguely remember one of them is on or near K2 and pretty much requires a VTOL or a very good rover to get. I dunno about the other ones but there will be missions. I also need to visit the temple, crashed alien ship, and ... I feel like I'm forgetting one, but those are the big ones. Mun has a bunch, Minnus has two monoliths + green monolith, and the rover tracks, but I don't think that shows up in SCANSat.

Chapter 8.1 - Balkerbanur

Despite my intentions, I actually have a fully formed narrative in my head, and I know exactly where it's going; I'm a huge fan of the "fair play who's done it"-style of story, and so there's a reasonable chance that someone can figure out what exactly is going on well before the kerbals do. Anyway, I was getting screenshots for the next story mission, and um ... Kerbin got drunk. This might be a side effect of playing over Steam Streaming (I just moved, no desk for the desktop and I want the eyecandy so ...), followed shortly by a game crash. But still, what? I've never seen THIS kraken before.

I've never seen a partial eclipse in-game, though I don't fly a lot of in-atmo missions (i.e., your rover drive to KSC2 way back when). Very cool to see that handled well. I do hope I can get my own story/mission reports 10% as epic as emiko station :). (though I have learned that the "plot" related updates more than anything suck time like anything. Doing a plot update for exploring the Island Runway took more time than three regular updates since my thread has missions in .0 chapters, and plot in .1 ones). Course, I actually need to decide a title for my adventure

Most of it is Astronomer's Visual Pack + KSPRC with Scatterer. Was an utter pain to setup and get going I'm actually still having some issues with it despite multiple attempts to futz with it; Minnus will randomly loose it's aura and such and go back to stock blandness. I've also gotten some interesting pictures where Kerbin sorta ... dissolves. I might loose the eyecandy though for the next update; I'm moving and that means playing KSP on the laptop. It has enough oofph to run the game but the GPU is lacking. It's also been a really busy week so I haven't had spare time to write. It's actually fairly unrealistic (stock/SVE mun is generally closer to what the mun looks like in RL), but it makes driving/flying around a heck of a lot more interesting. I've been itching to send a rover mission but ATM I'm seriously lacking on parts since stock tech tree puts the structural parts, big wheels, and the command seat in rather silly places. I need R&D 3 to get the very large wheels, and a bunch more science for the medium ones. I actually used some down time to design the first munar output base, but I haven't decided if I'm happy with it. With the necessary shielding to survive multiple years, the blasted thing + descent skycrane weighs in at nearly 80 tons. Once I get long duration Mun down, we'll likely be looking at our first far-rays into interplanetary space, but I might cave and install EPL, and houserule that I won't mine for rocket parts. I dislike Exterplanary Launchpads because it's stupidly complex, but none of the other construction mods aside from USI handle orbital construction very well, and being able to throw the entire ship in a recycler and rebuild it will work nicely with kerbalism since I can essentially treat it as an overhaul period. As for the first interplantary mission, Duna is usually choice A, but I might go to Moho or Eve instead. The largest problem is reliability. Assuming I use standard transfer windows its roughly 2-3 years total mission time. Eve and Moho have much more frequent launch windows for return, and the penalties for off-time transfers are nowhere near as large as Duna. Moho is the easiest in this regard for a manned flyby since you can get there in 180 days and get back pretty easily. Eve landing is probably out, but exploring Gilly is always fun. We haven't been there yet.

TF is a great mod, but god all mighty is it not well documented. A lot of playing RO required asking questions in IRC. You need it to prevent breaking RO in two; it's quite possible with the A-4+aerobee staging to get orbit very very early with an upgraded LP As for handy tips, when working with realism overhaul, the easiest way to prevent screwups is build the entire payload first, and then stick a decoupler on the bottom. I'm going to guess you're using a simulation mod (KRASH gets installed with KCT), and test it in Earth orbit. MJ/KER don't quite work correctly with RF, hence why it's easy to get tank mismatches. For things like a lunar lander, build the ascent/aboard stage first, then the descent, etc. Once you have it working, build the second stage as a separate craft and test it. Once you have it working, throw it as a subassembly (and mark how much dV at what weight it gets). Continue until you have a full rocket. You'll end up with a bunch of rocket assemblies that are known to work and you know roughly what they can do. One slight catch with subassemblies is sometimes TF variants don't seem to survive but that's relatively minor in the end. RCS is your biggest friend. Due to both ulliage and lack of deep throttling engines (the only one you get is the Apollo Descent stage until near the end of the tech tree), you'll need a LOT of it to get accurate burns. Embrace the RCS. For engines that need ignitions, you need to calculate how many burns you'll need; usually you can get the moon on one, but you might need multiple if you want to try a Mars/Venus flyby + one for orbit. Hypergycemic engines (aka, stuff that doesn't need lights) are very inefficient, but short of critical failure, can be relit when TF strikes.

I'll name a bat Caesar and another Bunny. Vaguely curious if anyone would get the reference. RSS can be a remarkably frustrating experience in and of itself, and TF is even worse; I gave up trying to make orbit with the aerobees in the early game; you really need something far better to reliably make it. EDIT: Re-looking at your testflight fails, are you SURE you're not burning past max ignition time? Each engine has a specific amount of time it can run for before it goes BANG (you can sometimes get past that), but you've had a lot of nearly identical failures which suggests to me you're *really* pushing the limit. Knock about 10-15 seconds off the max (basically, time fuel exhaustion to happen BEFORE you hit max engine lifetime), and it will drastically help prevent engine explosions. SRBs are also immune to TF (they're dead simple stupid in RL); I also use seperation motors a LOT to get the ulliage kickstart on in-atmo stages, so you can get quite a bit of bang to using them to get the first stage moving and decreasing long burn times. Running through full R&D research also does a lot, AJ-10 failures should become relatively rare as long as you're using the higher end models. It was an extremely reliable engine in RL as well. I also believe short of catastrophic failure, you can attempt to relight failed stages though you obviously need a relightable engine which you might not have that low in the tech tree.

Chapter 8 - Communication Difficulties --- I also flew a bunch of missions that weren't really notable, new SCANsats for Kerbin and Mun, bunch of building upgrades. 8.1 will cover Val's continuing memory loss, though I'll keep you'll to apprised of any notable fumbles. I'm very much re-enacting the Soviet Union's space program (they had quite a few similar problems with Mars probes failing to get into orbit due to stupidity. At least I can re-purpose mine into flybys of other bodies). Looking at the launch schedule, I'm going to do a Mun mission, and then start shooting a bunch of probes at Duna/Ike. That will likely be followed by long duration Mun missions, and Apollo-style to Minnus. Assuming I got the timing right, SENTINAL 1 should flyby Eve in time to uplink with the lander which lost it's high gain antenna so we should have some more science there as it heads towards Moho. As always, comments, feedback helps keep motivated :). Craft, mission names, and kerbal names accepted.

So, following up on this, I ended up playing a lot over the weekend, but an update is not coming together. I managed to crash a probe into Minnus (lost radio signal at the worst possible moment), actually landed on Minnus, turned a failed solar probe into an Eve->Moho flyby (which is going to attempt to re-establish contact with the Leaf lander), and I've sent an orbiter (which MAY attempt a landing) to Dres. We've also done two more kidnapping rescue missions, and I hired a pilot before the price got too silly (it's at 250k right now). HS Duna is 17 days from SoI encounter, so that might be where I finish random gameplay. If HS Duna actually works the way it's supposed to, I'll get both Duna and Ike science followed up by Mun landing II. I'm putting together an Apollo Style mission for Minnus as we're heading to the poles for a contract, as well as a larger Mun lander. I need another 300 science tech node I'm hoping HS Duna will provide followed up by a long duration mission to the Mun. EDIT: ... so ... um, note to self. Check antenna ranges when you're doing high speed flybys. HS Duna reached Duna and had no signal to allow me to repoint the probe retrograde (and due to the OKTO, I couldn't reorient the probe to point retrograde; it crossed into the SoI facing prograde). I did get a fair bit of science that I'll be able to send back to mission control as the probe flies back towards Kerbin. Playing with maneuver nodes, I actually can get a reasonable Kerbin flyby and use to to send it into a low solar orbit getting science from down there, so yay that.

Chapter 7.2 - Through the Night

KAS/KIS lets you re-enact the Martian in KSP; it's probably one of the single greatest utility mods after KER and KAC. Was curious if you were going to Ike on this mission. I'm currently looking at building the first Mun base in my kerbalism game, and managed to smash a probe into Minnus (... forgot stock Kerbalism locks out controls when !signal). Interplantary with crew in Kerbalism is ridiculously hard due to both life support+part failures (and Mr. CME). Did you use many high quality parts for say your hab or?

There's a space program beyond Rald? Wow, amazings (though the Rald exploration was very pretty. And insane)

Chapter 7.1 - Holding Retrograde ---

Unless it's different in Enhanced Edition, you can change these settings from the pause menu under Settings -> Difficulty.

So they can join the rest of the survivors in the back half exploring the mysterious island they crashed on?

Chapter 7 - Excelsior