enewmen

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My 6000-hour KSP-IE review shows how to get all data from biomes from all planets and moons and fill the tech tree. I've gotten all science data from all biomes from all planets and moons. KSP-IE is special to me because it got my kids interested in physics, especially nuclear and beam power, without physics cheating or parts working magically good. But in the past, I gave lousy advice a couple of times because I included KSP-IE with other mods such as Near Future and similar mods. They all worked well with KSP-IE, but not most people on the KSPI-IE forum don't have Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters, for example. This time I was getting all data from all biomes; the ONLY mods installed were KSP-IE and USI Life Support. Not having life support makes the game too easy, I think. I also powered all ships using beam power, making the ships much lighter and cheaper than including a reactor. Let me begin where the stock tech tree ends. Normally my ships, I received a lot of beam power, then powered the Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters, which worked very good-almost too good. I needed an alternative using only KSP-IE. First, to use any beam power, I needed a beam. I found the low-tech Multen Salt reactor to be one of my favorites because it is also one of the longest-life reactors. A 5-meter molten salt reactor with an Inline Wrapped Phase Array Transmitter using the Infra-Red wavelength(the highest frequency in the early beam transmitters) is a great place to begin. One placed in a high Kerbin polar orbit can supply ample power to all within the Kerbin gravity of influence. The best combination of high ISP and high thrust early using beam power I found is the Thermal Turbojet. The thermal turbojet uses a wide variety of propellents, but I found plain Oxidizer to work well, and Ox is easier to mine and refine than other propellants such as CO2, Carbon Monoxide, Neon, Argon, Xenon, etc. The Thermal Turbojet is a thermal rocket that requires a thermal-type beam power receiver. Relays are also needed to get power to all sides of Kerbin and Mun. I use two relays in the perpendicular polar orbit and one in the equatorial orbit around Kerbin and Mun, which works well. I made a spaceship to reach Duna with a miner for mining ore and refining, a rover for getting science data from Ike, and an SSTO spaceplane for flying across Duna. The spaceship had a molten salt reactor with a Double Pivoting Phased Array Transceiver transmitting IR, which gives plenty of power and a small enough spot size for a small rover or spaceplane to receive. The spaceplane had a thermal turbojet that could use air and oxygen as a propellant. The plane also had large elevators, airbrakes, and wheels for control in thin air and rough landings. If you are higher tech, you can build a powerful X-Ray transmitter in polar Kerbol orbit near the sun getting loads of solar power from a large Blanket solar receiver. A large enough X-Ray transmitter can then beam power all the way to Duna and most planets with a small usable spot size. However, X-Ray can not relay, so make sure you stay in line-of-sight. The highest frequency that can relay is Vacuum Ultraviolet. It is possible to build a Super-Size vacuum ultraviolet transmitter that can transmit power to most planets with a small enough spot-size to be usable while still being able to relay and cover all areas. I used the same spaceship to enter all biomes of Moho and Dres, and even Eeloo with extra fuel and living space and a miner providing a refuel for going home, but Eve was more of a challenge. I needed a spaceship with a stronger beam transmitter, and the spaceplane used on Duna was not strong enough to escape Eve's orbit. The Eve spaceplane needed a higher ISP ATTILA thruster while receiving enough power to be powerful. I tried many propellents, but simple monopropellant seemed to work best. The ATTILA is also an electric engine requiring a lot of energy received in the form of electricity. The added power and electric engine also required large graphene and titanium heat radiators. The plane was also heavier than the Duna plane, which needed two thermal turbojets to get a high enough speed before using the ATTILA to reach Eve orbit. Once flying near the Eve surface, the more heavy plane has no trouble flying at low speed with easy landings. After some practice, the plane could also take off and land off the water. Jool and its moons required a different starship because I wanted to level up lots of Kerbals, which needed lots of living space and a powerful transmitter to send power to all the moons. By then, I had a Quantum Singularity Reactor, which gave lots of power for thrust and beam-power transmitting in Vacuum Ultraviolet. I tried many high-tech engines, but the simpler Plasma Nozzle attached directly to the singularity reactor gave a good combination of power and ISP when using a hydrogen propellant and a fuel. Ironically, the more high-tech plane used on Eve did not do well on Laythe because it was too fast and heavy. The more simple Duna plane did nicely. To mine and refine hydrogen, you need the All In One ISRU, but that requires regolith, which is not on all moons. Tylo was also a challenge because the heavy gravity and lack of atmosphere made it difficult to land and maneuver after landing. After my lunar lander landed, there was not enough fuel left to hop to all biomes, so a rover was needed and stay on the ground. The same rover used before did not climb Tylo hills well, so larger, more powerful wheels were needed- even if a powerful beam was available. After landing the rover, there was not enough fuel to get back into orbit, so after visiting all Tylo biomes. I needed to drive to the miner refinery, which refueled my Ox tank on the rover, then I had enough fuel to reach orbit and dock. That's about it to getting all Biomes from all bodies. After finishing Duna, Ike, Eve, and all Jools moons, any remaining planets or moons will seem easy. I already finished getting data from many biomes in the stock game, but that required a LOT more refueling because of the lower ISP and weaker engines, even when using the Nerv engine. Escaping Eve required landing a HUGE rocket, and Tylo required a large rocket to take off and land and refill for each biome. Instead, reaching all biomes using KSP-IE was fun and easy after I knew what to do while using real science. I hope someone finds this post helpful.

I've played KSP over 6000 hours and I'm giving KSPI-E most of the credit for adding so much replayability.

It works. Just need to charge it first. But can't charge in the VAB for some reason.

Yes, but I never saw RoverDude on the KSP 2.0 team.

"Nertea is now a part of the development team" Awesome. I hope Freethinker, RoverDude, ihsoft, NecroBones, and Sarbian also join the 2.0 team.

I agree and I like DLCs. More than relying on modders do all the work. DLCs will then be well(EDIT: MUST be well) designed and well tested to work with other DLCs. Often mods are not tested to work with other mods. My concern from the beginning is getting the physics perfect from the first version. If the first version only has simple Newton physics LF/O and 1-2 types of propellant, it will be difficult/impossible to make good a DLC later with futuristic engines/fuels/propellants that require realistic atomic physics. KSP was always about doing missions and making wacky spaceships that all use real science-no magically good engines. If KSP2 will be done "correctly" from the beginning, then future DLCs will be easier to make and not clunky.

I gave you a thumbs up. But if you want to visit other star systems in KSP 2.0, I think you will need more than the stock 1.0 LF/O fuel and engines. Ultra-high ISP becomes important at some point.

I understand. It just looks painful and unnatural to see a kerbal stuck in the same seat all day every day for 1 year - even if they look happy.

Exactly. This is why (in real life) interplanetary missions need a capsule a lot larger than 10 chairs. I personally will like to see life-support in a settings menu that can be enabled or disabled. Life support will also not be an issue until going farther than the Mun and should not be available until later in the tech-tree. It will take a lot of creativity to build a ship big enough to comfortably 10 kerbals on a very long trip. But some people just don't want that kind of realism. I've personally done interplanetary missions with a team of kerbals using USI life-support. The vet kerbals can also be more hardy.

I understand and I agree with what you are saying. The reason why I don't see a problem is because the KSP 2.0 tech tree will go well beyond the stock KSP 1.0. For going to the Mun, SSTO, and all casual throwing kerbals at a celestial bodies, this is all done in the early part of the game. For advanced players that care about life-support, beam power, atomic fuel refining/recycling, different engine types and fuels that have ultra-high ISPs, engine cooling, etc all play in the far right side of the tech tree. These techs are all part of the existing/current community tech tree. So, all the casual players that only have hour to spare will never get into the complexities of the right side of the tree. There will also be people that want a big challenge with RSS to land on Duna using real Earth and Mars gravity with Apollo/Saturn V tech. So yes, either way, the game will start simple.

It seems all features in KSP 2.0 was decided a long time ago. A wish-list like this is now inappropriate. People also voiced to keep KSP simple. But I still have some concerns even if KSP remains simple. From the very beginning, KSP should scale easily even if it is kept simple. Will the parts be procedural and easily scalable? Will the physics scale to multiple CPUs? Can new fuels and propellants be added easily and have different types (solid,liquid, gas, plasma)? Will nuclear physics be added to make adding new reactors/engines/fuels/reactions/coolants possible ? This way it will be a lot easier if others wanted to add features. For example, changing or adding weather is difficult if weather never existed. I can go on. But as a programmer, I know some designs are too difficult to change after the project is completed and would require re-making everything from scratch. Maybe little/no scalability is by design? Ok, I'll keep quiet.

Fixed

What engines are you using?

Scaling with Tweakscale? Some engines can not scale. Many have upper and lower limits.