desert

I was trying to use Dart engine for some time and didn't find any applications for it. Recently I was tinkering with my Eve ascent rocket and finally got an understanding that Dart engine is completely useless in its main application and Vector is almost the only way to go. This is strange because the idea of aerospike is to work independently from ambient pressure. Turns out, Dart has ISP 290s-340s vs Vector's 295-315s. Its thrust is also more affected by an atmosphere: 85% of vacuum thrust, compared to Vector's 94%. So, the aerospike is affected by atmosphere more than a bell nozzle engine. Maybe I shouldn't compare it with Vector, but still, I've seen and made many Kerbin VTOL SSTOs and Eve rockets on Vectors and these cases should be applications for the aerospike. 340s ISP makes it a good thing for vacuum stage, but there are better variants. It is also unlocked pretty late in the game, so it is too small to be the first stage of late game big rockets. In real life aerospikes were studied for J-2 engine. And they gave it better sea level performance, as well as increased vacuum ISP and thrust. Maybe in the game Dart should also be considered as a version of another engine, for example, Swivel, as they have the same diameter and close in thrust. And as it is a late Kerbal technology, it may have better characteristics in general. Swivel has a mass of 1.5t, 168 - 215kN thrust, 250-320 ISP. Maybe Dart should have something like 1.5t, 220 - 230kN thrust, 310 -330 ISP. Of course, the downside of it should be greater cost, and maybe, overheating if a burn is too long. It would be also cool to remodel it, add some plumbing which would resemble Swivel's and of course add linear variant, which would be cool to recreate X-33 by placing them in a row.

You have another mod, Textures Unlimited installed. It changes procedural tanks and wings colors. You can either recolor these wings with GUI in right-click menu of the part, or you can remove the Texture Unlimited completely. (Damn I'm late)

Hi, I'm using ambient light boost to better see my crafts at night, but TU parts doesn't seem to be affected by it and these parts are very dark. Reflection settings are at max, so they are no a problem.

Thanks, it worked! Seems like FASA was rereleased by RO team. I will tell them about the issue too.

Hi, I have some problems with FASA Mercury Parachute in RO, RP-1, game version 1.8.1. When I deploy it, it doesn't slow the capsule, and I hit the ground at about 60 m/s. I also don't see any RealChute UI in editor. There are only mod settings in KSC menu. And there are no other parachutes with the exception of Mercury and it's mini version. I remember that in older versions of RP-1 there were others too. I've tried reinstalling (through CKAN) RealChute, FASA and ModuleManager, and it didn't help. The log is https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q5pNhdl77ljhyeWW2ostfS4NhDhWuwlc/view?usp=sharing

Hi, the mod is absolutely great, I am currently at ~1959 technologies and steadily progressing. I can see many empty nodes in late parts of tech tree, starting from advanced capsules era. Am I missing some recommended mods, or its just still WIP?

Hope the idea of space center as main menu will be redone, as we will have multiple planets and launch sites. It makes more sense to have tracking station view as main menu with RnD and contracts done in windows, not in buildings. I'm sure not everyone will love it, but currently all this management is clunky and very slow.

Hi, I was reusing rockets for a while with mods and encountered the lack of platform to land rockets in the ocean. And then I got an idea that it could actually be a good DLC. So, my proposal is combining ideas of several mods (KRE, FMRS, etc) into one DLC and adding some other related stuff not present in mods. The DLC could include: Parts: Big legs, grid fins (obviously Falcon-style landings) Bigger chutes (e.g. for SRB reuse) Parafoil (Electron-style. Well, without chopper) Deployable wings (Energia flyback boosters) Landing bags (like in Starliner, but boosters could use them too) "Chomper" fairing able to open and then close for reentry (Starship, Energia Uragan) Maybe some generic 3.75m or 2.5m conical capsules for face-forward reentry (similar to Russian Klipper, Blue Origin's Biconic Capsule concept, Starship's crew compartment) Ocean platform to the east of KSC. Equatorial, with quite big area and far away from shores. At least for landing, not sure if launching from it will make sense. Also landing pads at KSC and on the land far to the east. Most important thing, stock FMRS mod functionality. Jumping back in time to land the booster, recover it and then continue with the mission. The mod is great but merging it into stock UI and adding improvements to it will be great. Maybe even ability to record return flight, to have automatic recovery (with some probability of failure) Some tweaking of recovery costs, including base game. For example, bonuses for land recovery, as there is no corrosive salt. It seems to me that such ideas fit DLC format, reusing spacecraft with will not be obligatory, it is a spin-off gameplay, not base-game changing. Unlike, for example, Life Support which will require players to completely change their playstyle and will greatly separate players with and without DLC ("their tiny cans vs our mighty live-supporting ships"). And I believe it will be interesting for many players.

I really wished we would have new panels. Deployable panels now are not very equally spaced in size . And Rosetta and Bepicolombo have interesting panels not similar to stock. Its good that we don't get new engines and tanks, there are a lot already. New command module is too specific, but okay. New and realistic experiment is cool. But maybe there is still time to add panels? Or at least add them as fix a bit later?

I'm pretty sure one of the first mods will be changing UI back to KSP1 and another one will be unlocking craft limits

You are making good points about them, now I am less sure we need these fuels :-) Yes, and making orbital depots with huge solar panels, radiators and maybe even engineers to reduce boil-off will be interesting. The only problem with LH is that we will have two different fuels named specifically after Hydrogen: Liquid and Solid, while usual fuel will remain generic Liquid Fuel. It seems like disproportion. Maybe calling LH just "Cryogenic Fuel" will be better?

Still, bigger planes need bigger runways. Would be cool to have separate launch complex which specializes on planes and has wide and long runway. Now other launch complexes don't have any anvantage over KSC.

Me too, but I think they only do what they mentioned: Ariane 5, Rosetta and Bepicolombo

They don't really care about duplicates though. Now we have both Skiff and Rhino for J-2; and Twin-Boar and Mammoth for F1

Wow, how do you imagine that?

Part right click menu enhancement. Now it is very difficult to find there what you need. Dividing options to tabs could be great. For stock they can be "Actions", "Resources" and "Advanced". And option to add more tabs in mods, of course

UI for loading saves and ships is quite bad now. For saves we definitely need "last modified" date and also statistics like science etc. Same "last modified" is needed for ships, as well as including parameters like mass and total DeltaV. And of course ability to sort by these values. Another thing is that i.e. to get new contract you have to leave your current flight (and lose ability to revert it), wait for KSC to load, wait for Mission Control to open, choose contract, wait for KSC again, wait for Tracking station to open, wait for your flight to open. Having shortcut to Mission Control and other buildings in-flight would be really useful.

Look for guides on Youtube, they are very helpful for beginners

I've had the same thought, we get many new types of future fuel, why not add types of today. But I understand why many players wouldn't like it. So, maybe to have separate option, which is not default in normal game difficulty. In this case new players (who usually choose easy or normal difficulty) will not be overloaded by such things. (Same could be applied to Life Support which many players want to have while others prefer more arcade gameplay) And then just add kerosene, hydrazine, methane, and hydrogen. Kerosene is for early engines and for most planes, hydrazine for small engines, methane for advanced engines, hydrogen for mostly vacuum-optimized engines and Nerva, as well as fuel cells. Not sure about oxidizers, probably one is enough. And fuel switch for tanks, of course. Some kind of base management can be tied to these fuel types, different planets with abundance of different fuels, and each fuel requires special facility to be produced

I don't really see a reason why they wouldn't be in KSP2. But you gave me an idea. If KSP2 is a world of kerbal future, original heroes may be "retired" on different planets and as part of your career you can find and hire them all. For example Jeb working at his junkyard at remote location of Kerbin; Bill living near the Mun colony owning a garage of rovers; Bob stranded on Duna, cosplaying Dunatian and waiting for rescue. And Val relaxing on shores of Laythe.

More flexible item list, e.g. for engines ability to sort by thrust, Isp, fuel type. Similar to other parts

Yeah, really, SpaceX is landing rockets for five years, most players definitely tried to similar thing and still there are no larger stock legs. Not to mention using them for huge landers for other planets.

Very simple idea, really, and easy to implement. Currently the only way to lock rover breaks is to press on UI button. "B"-key is only able to break when you hold. Making a combination Alt + B lock breaks seems like logical thing, as Alt is already used in different locking combinations

I think it can be avoided, but in general this plot thing is tough to implement, I agree. I had easter egg contract pack mod in mind, but mixed with other various missions. They could be standard missions, like launch comm-sat somewhere, but with mission description fitted into the rest of the plot. KSC runway is quite short, so other can be significantly longer. But mostly it changes background landscape for fun and gives quick access to other biomes. For example Arctic base for those ground speed records.

There are many ways to improve career, from just adopting existing mods to introducing an actual plot. One of the problems in career is that the only rewards from most contracts are some numbers: obvious credits and some strange reputation. The only exception is saving kerbals. As a result most types of contracts are completely ignored by player. "Why should I test some stupid module in stupid conditions when I can get the same credits for riding tourists on my already existing rocket to already explored body?" So, I think different contracts should have different impact on the game. I have some thoughts on possible improvements: Part testing. Someone already mentioned contract for part testing in sensible conditions as a way to unlock the part. I have an idea about it. Part supplier provides you with a free part tagged as "experimental", which would explode when it will reach desired flight parameter, making a fireball marking the success of the test. Using these parts for non-testing purposes should be possible, but dangerous. For example liquid engines should be tested for total burn time. And if in your design they work less time, you are ok, congratulations for using free parts*. But if you push the part to the testing limit, then RIP. But then again, at least you will successfully finish the contract. After the contract is over, you unlock the part and receive credits. This creates space for more flexibility, if you are an experienced player and don't want to spend time, you can skip the contract by paying some credits as it is implemented now. *(The amount of times you can use free parts can be limited so that you don't exploit it very much.) Kerbin Exploration. These hour-long flights to the opposing side of a planet for some measurements are really dull. It would be more interesting to fly to ground objects and to unlock their functionality. For example, to unlock other MH airfields you should reach them first (and yes, we need more airfields and especially ocean launch and landing platforms). Same with ground stations, reach them to make them operational. Crew Recovery. Spawn not just capsules, but different ships! Some ships intact and out of fuel, so you can either dock and refill or just save the crew if you don't want credits for the ship parts. Some ships with flaws or damage in their construction unable to land themselves. The reasons of ship being stranded should be relatable to player: out of fuel, forgot the chutes, forgot solar panels, didn't check staging. This makes the game world look alive. Single capsules without anything do not. Moreover, new players will see other designs and probably will take something from them. And of course there should be more information: what kind of trouble happened and what to expect from the stranded ship, tank sizes, dock-ports, etc. Plot! At least something that looks like it. For now, the most driving forward contracts are World First, but after you visit Duna you understand that the rest will be the same: new body, same accomplishments. It would be great if there were a series of successive contracts, united by some story. These contracts should lead you through planets, through some easter eggs, will ask you to make some kind of bases, to do some crazy stuff here and there. These contracts can reward you with some unlocked parts, can place some preinstalled stations, introduce some lore, give you some trophies at KSC. And the fact that they are successive and you are unable to skip them will make the ending more desirable. Now there is no ending, and player understands it, so the player stops proceeding and exploring.