Zorg

Up next was my first ever landing attempt at Eve. The mission was launched atop a TantaresLV Soyuz rocket The lander is from Probes Plus again, the appropriate Venera lander and orbiter I tried to separate the lander on a re-entry trajectory and then correct the orbiter's trajectory to try and enter orbit. Unfortunately I couldn't circularise before the lander entered the atmo and so the orbiter flew off on a sunward trajectory, Stock Visual Enhacements makes Eve look quick beautiful but the dense clouds obscure the surface. Having never visited the planet before I was curious to see what would greet me as the probe descended through the clouds By sheer luck I had managed to send the probe towards a very picturesque area, the shallows near Crater Lake. The lander ended up quite close to the shore with a nice beach view The orbiter ended up making a rather close approach to the Sun I also sent a separate mission to land on Gilly I used the same basic probe design I used for Ike and Dres (based on the IRL Surveyor probes)

So on to the first planetary missions, my first ever landings at Moho and Dres The lander is entirely built on Probes Plus parts I have heard about the Mohole but decided to land in a somewhat more normal area. Chose this crater which was one of the few points of interest. I guess there's not too much to say about it apart from that you get some epic sunflares at Moho The Dres mission: I used an identical lander for this mission. Seen here decoupling from the Centaur transfer stage.I believe the SRB used for deorbit is from BDB (Star 48 equivalent IIRC) and not one of the probes plus ones. Dres has a rep for being a bit boring but I found a valley that I thought would give some nice views Nice safe landing

Final round of Kerbin SOI highlights Returning to the Mun with surface experiments. This is quite satisfying actually, setting up the various experiments instead of just landing. Two totally peaceful non military "civilian" stations pass each other in a "chance" encounter Launching Buran (Cormorant Shuttle with Tantares Energia) Building MIR with Buran instead of Proton Completed MIR replica Some more MIR angles

Not sure, I am still on 1.4.3. I think it should work, just give it a try. If you need any help with configuring it you can always post in the KS3P thread.

You're welcome. From the description and from my own experience KS3P does not have a big effect on performance.

@Catatau_27 The 2nd picture is by me. The depth of field effects and bloom effects you're seeing are from KS3P. The terrrain textures are also not stock they are from SVT (Stock Visual Terrain). I do have EVE and Scatterer of course but they only affect atmospheric bodies so they don't come into play here. I cant speak for Cobalt's banner for certain but lens dust, film grain and depth of field effects are visible and so it looks like KS3P again.

Ah fair enough. Since my earlier post I compared both in greater detail and decided I was happy with SVE.

Spray On Foam Insulation (I tried googling this acronym a while back when I first came across it and actually its not easily found even when combined with terms like NASA or Rocket)

Part 3 - The Mun missions Following the events of the previous post, of course moon missions are next. Gemini X-wing for first Mun flyby Apollo orbital mission for some proper science gathering Building and launching the BDB Saturn V was quite fulfilling! I've done plenty of Mun missions and bases even but a full fledged Apollo mission has a unique sense of satisfaction The landing Minmus landing Built 3 skylabs, for Kerbin, Mun and Minmus More Skylab Just one or two (max) more Kerbin SOI post before moving to the interplanetary missions I think

Thanks! If you're not familiar with those parts, they're from D-Magic orbital science. The one pictured is actually the Undersized model lol. There is an even bigger oversize model. They come with a science experiment but I think their main utility is that they double as extremely powerful relays. Useful for planet packs.

Well done! Way cooler than my first Mun lander for sure!

I mentioned that theres not much of a story here but I did enact a little roleplay sequence after I installed Tantares as a prelude to Munar exploration. Part 2 - WHISPERS AND RUMORS Following rumors of increased activity at the Dessert Kosmodrome, Kerbin States launches a KH7 "Kambit" spy satellite on an Atlas Agena. The Dmagic undersized Signals Intel dish is being used here on an Agena bus, this was before I installed tweakscale so proportions are a little off. The real KH7 was optical of course. Deploying the undersize SIGINT dish to drop some eaves on the Krussians. Some disturbing chatter about a large delivery of "staged combustion engines" from the Tantares Design Bureau is overheard... Following up with a KH8 - "Kambit" 3 on a Titan II. Surveilling the Dessert Kosmodrome. The little brother reconnaissance camera from DMagic seems directly inspired by the KeyHole satellites. Apart from the surveillance unit being a little too wide, this is a fairly accurate recreation of a KH8. "film return capsule" Time to develop the film and see what the Krussians are up to. The close ups are grainy but they reveal a truly collosal rocket being built. Such a rocket can only mean one thing. Funding for the Sarnus V has been quadrupled in response. Bonus real image of the N1 taken by a KH-8 Gambit 3

I thought I would use this sub forum to create a visual record of my attempt to explore the system in a nice sequential and somewhat organised way for posterity. Hopefully someone will enjoy viewing them too . This will be mostly images with some comments. Like seemingly quite a few players I had gotten stuck in the Kerbal SOI building stations and Mun/Minmus bases without ever exploring the wider system (I had done one manned Duna mission and sent ScanSats as far out to Dres and Laythe in a previous save but thats it). I started an all new 1.4.3 save with the clear intention of thoroughly exploring the Kerbol system as best I can and then on top of that do the Outer Planets AND go interstellar with the Valentine system! I wont be using KSPIE but rather less complicated methods like Alcubierre warp standalone when I get to that point. The aim is to at least land robotic landers or rovers on all major bodies (i might skip a moon or two from the first round if it doesnt interest me) and to send Kerbals to the bodies that interest me the most. I'm playing this game in science mode to give a sense of progression in the early game and kind of for roleplay purposes. I like collecting something when I visit a planet even after unlocking the full tech tree. The game is pretty heavily modded and I have USI life support installed to make things harder for myself lol. Anyway I've been playing for a few weeks so I will kick this off with some highlights from my activities in the Kerbin SOI before posting some images of of the interplanetary missions. Bluedog Design Bureau parts will feature heavily though I think Near Future will take centre stage as we reach the mid game. Part 1 - THE EARLY DAYS First launch was a tiny sat on a Viking rocket. Much more satisfying than a capsule on a suborbital SRB that doesnt decouple like stock forces you. First Kerbals into space on a Mercury Atlas More Atlas Wouldn't be complete without Gemini Agena docking mission More Gemini Agena

Hey @Kerbas_ad_astra, just downloaded your 1.4 branch to test things out on a clean install. Its definitely looking good! I did notice a small issue that may not have come to your attention: the standard size clampotron docking port's new bumper animation seems bugged in both the VAB and in flight (extends but then retracts at end of animation) All the other ports seem fine. Edit: Weirdly enough, I was able to reproduce it once upon reloading the game but not since. Not sure what caused it. Will let you know with a log if it happens again.

At present US1 converts the Food wedge and radial food tank into USI "Supply" containers. However it does not seem to add any life support recyclers that extend the supply duration. What I personally did was use the Sabatier and Water Recycler models (both of which look amazing!) as USI Recyclers. WRS model - 50% life support recycler for 2 crew, 0.5 ec/s Sabatier model - 70% life support recycler for 2 crew, 1.2 ec/s I also made new descriptions but kept the tech and costs the same as the TAC parts these were derived from. I suspect the balance isn't as well thought out as the official TAC stuff in your mod. These recyclers are a lot more compact (and more powerful in the second case) than the small size converter that comes with USI itself as I configured them for my personal needs but on the other hand they are more expensive in price and tech unlock node. (I'm kind of new to module manager and for some reason the +Part method didn't work for me so I made copies of the models and created new config files.) Anyway a patch that does something along those lines for US2 would definitely be appreciated by USI users I'm sure PS. As far as new parts go I would love a USI greenhouse wedge perhaps exclusively in the new tallest wedge size. Again the appeal of such a thing lies in just how much better looking the US parts are compared to the early stockalike aesthetic of USI. Please have a think about it when/if you look to expand US2 in the future!