stephensmat

@Nate Simpson, I know you've said in the past that Colonies will hopefully take less time than For Science!. Obviously, I'm not going to ask for a release date, but after a month, are you still hopeful for the shorter turnaround time, or has the feedback pushed the plan back again?

I'd like a Space Telescope to unlock other systems. That's still a ways off, but it'd be a way to keep the 'progression' that they're tying into missions.

And here I thought I was being smart. The Internet: Reminding you that you're not special since 1995.

Well. I am officially a brand new, totally undiscovered, level of stupid. If you're following my journey to the stars, you'll know that I worked up a low-tech spaceplane that could deorbit, and sent it to Laythe. There was some errors in the transfer windows, and I lost a lotta fuel trying to aim the thing straight. Enough that I couldn't get into Laythe orbit. What I could do was adjust my trajectory to put the Longshot into a 'crashing' orbit through the upper atmosphere, then I picked my moment, cut the Jet loose, and dove into the atmo at roughly 4000 m/s. I managed to pull out in time, (annoyingly, still on the night side of the Moon), but I raced the dawn to my point of interest, and got some sweet pics. I'm thinking of making this next one my wallpaper. After literal hours of jet flight, I make it to my target. When I get in range, I shout "YES!" because I'd eyeballed the directions right, and was flying in exactly the right heading. It takes me three tries, but I swing it around and make the best landing I've ever achieved... And I can't get out of the plane. See, when I first built this thing, it was for the Kapy Rock mission. I had to land in a specific spot, without any kind of landing area, particularly for someone who was lousy with planes. So I added more drogue chutes to the plane, specifically so I could stop on a dime, and float down to a specific spot. One of those chutes is apparently mounted halfway over the cabin door of this plane. So I can't EVA. The 'Hatch is obstructed.' Totally undiscovered, completely unclassified level of stupid. Just put it on my business cards. Carve it on my tombstone. Alright. I gotta think about this. This was hours of work, and no few glitches that forced me to restart the whole program when I tried to quick-load. Frustration makes me wanna stay, but I'm not sure what to do...

I really LOVE terraforming games, but there's no use for it in KSP2. Kerbals don't have to worry about oxygen tanks. They can sit around on an airless moon for decades. In fact, it's a hindrance. The planets with atmo are the hardest to launch from, really. That said, if they wanted to, it would be relatively doable. They've got the Aquatic systems already in use. KSP1 has the capacity for intercepting/moving asteroids to planets. You pick an ice asteroid to raise the 'water level', you use a nitrogen asteroid to raise the atmosphere, you use something flammable to raise the temperature. That and a few unlockable Colony buildings would do it... But the only reason to do it, really, would be if there was some benefit to having terraformed worlds. And, in KSP, there really isn't.

Meet my latest invention. I have christened thee, the SS Longshot. As yet, I don't have the science points to make a proper spaceplane, but I managed proof of concept with this thing the other day. It's a working atmospheric lander, albeit one-way at the moment. As a matter of preparation, I've added large, solid docking rings to all my large boosters. It's a policy I followed in KSP1, to save resources on interplanetary craft. I refuel all these boosters back to full, and have the 'resources manager' keep the center one as the priority. I can detatch the other two as needed, and effectively have the Delta-V to go almost anywhere. (Though, I admit, I've never used a jet as a Lander before.) With a good comm satellite already around Jool, I should be able to take measurements, send back Science Points, and hopefully unlock the 'Creature Feature' mission on Laythe. It's waaaaay too late at night now, so I'll update you tomorrow on whether or not this works.

Yes! Very nice! And I'm betting this will only get more important as the game approaches 1.0!

Whoo! I just did something for the first time! I've mentioned (several times) that I haven't been really successful with planes, but I got one working, with a landing can balanced on the back, to complete some 'on Kerbin' missions. Today, I had an idea: How heavy is a MK1 Lander Can? Maybe the same weight as a small fueltank and an engine? Well, even the small engines were way too heavy, but half a dozen XS thrusters leaves just enough room on a small fuel tank for a stack separator/docking port. Couldn't get the thing to balance in a proper gravity turn, but by boosting straight up until i was out of the atmosphere, and saving the central Mammoth-II engine for a 'circularizing' burn, I actually got pretty close to what I had left on my regular heavy launches. Now, I don't have nearly enough Points to unlock a Rapier, or any of the Jumbo Jet parts, but that small fuel tank? Not enough to maneuver, not enough to line up for docking. You know what it can do? It can push a plane from a stable 200km orbit to a sub-orbital trajectory. You can see the tiny landing booster detaching after being used up. Aaand, down we go. I've never tried re-entry in a plane before. Not even in KSP1. I just didn't see the need for it, once I figured out how to refuel in orbit and make regular cash. My Tier 2 jet engines can't breathe in space, but there's enough magic in the stabilizers to keep her level, all the way through re-entry. I was doing 2000 meters per second in this shot, and using the whole plane for drag to slow down, pointing it's nose down straighter in when the temp levels got too high. There were a few moments when I was actually gaining a little altitude from the angle shifts. But finally, the plasma cooled off, and I turned on my jet engines, and they were at full intake. My one regret is that re-entry brought me to the night side of Kerbin. Harder to get a good shot, but it makes the jet engines easier to see. Boom! I have successfully created a plane that can be navigated through Space by a large booster (which I've been using since my Duna missions) and come in for a landing via an atmosphere. Not sure if that means I should go for Laythe next, and unlock a few thousand science points. It'd be a one way trip at the moment, but I've done that before, using the unlocked points for construction of a return craft.

A quick-fix that has worked for me? When the ports are right up next to each other, and should be connecting, speed up the clock to 2x. I don't know why, but that works.

Love that second pic, BTW. Haven't been there yet in KSP2, but Today I went to Gilly. According to my Delta-V Map, Pol needs 130 DV to launch, and Gilly only needs 30. As a result, timing your landings to say... land in a large impact Crater, ala Mission Control's requests, is surprisingly difficult to time. I did, however, get a nice shot of Eve-Rise by... well, jumping. I might trim the sides off that and add it to my favs.

I honestly, truly, cannot believe that worked. So, I've been throwing my landers at Kapy Rock like darts, trying to get a perfect landing, and I have failed, a hundred times. I always short it, or land too long. I pulled together a rover and drove all the way there, only to read the fine print on the Mission and see that a 'lander can' is required. Finally, I decided to come at it from the other direction. See, I'm starting to look at Eve and Laythe, and preparing for Atmo-Flight. I don't have any spaceplane parts, but I'm experimenting with regular jets that I can launch vertically, on top of a booster. And then I thought... What if I docked a landing can on the back instead? I'm not famously skilled with aircraft. I've always been better with Rockets. So, of course, my first plane is a ridiculous design to try and drag a one-seat landing can across the planet. It took me a stupid amount of fiddling to try and balance the thing, but I did it. Once I started flying the 'revised prototype', I started flying it in a very shallow climb, went and made lunch, came back, and it was still going in a straight line. Now I know what you're thinking. There's no place to land at Kapy Rock. And you're right. So I put eight drogue chutes on the thing. When I got close, I flew as slow as I could directly over the Rock, then I pulled up hard, stalled it deliberately, and popped all the chutes. It was a rough landing, but on the third try, I managed to keep my landing gear intact... And then I inched her forward until I had officially reached Kapy Rock, with a 'MK1 Landing Can' attached to her tail. I've finished the first 'Kerbwide Tour' Mission, and it turns out the second needs a Lander Can too. So at least I've got a working craft that can do the job.

Anyone know a simple way to take a bearing on a direction? Specifically, anyone know the right heading from the Default Runway to Kapy Rock? I'm giving it a shot, taking the Lander Can on an aircraft, instead of a rocket/lander. If I can get the 'degrees', then I can fly forever in a jet and find it, but the only 'map' is a spherical view from orbit.

To be specific, my atmospheric jets go into a flat spin/cartwheel every time I make any kind of turn. I've built a plane that will take off smoothly and fly in a straight line, but there's no stability in turning. Not sure if this is a bug, or a problem with me. Almost certainly a problem with my design, I just don't really know how to fix it.

I'm looking at the Eve challenge. Ten Kerbals, there and back. I don't see a way to do that with a Lander. Not without drilling/refueling parts. So, the Rapier is too expensive to unlock. I've got the large boosters and Mamoth2 Engines to get the thing into space/on the way to Eve. All the tutorials on spaceplane construction are for 0.1.0. Anyone got a good tutorial on construction? Preferably something up-to-date and easy to follow? I've never been good at planes. Not compared to rockets.

I had a three-launch mission to Gilly. I didn't want to waste the transit window, so I launched all three to Eve at once. So, the Alarm Clock was indispensable. Three flights. Alarms for when each one left/entered an SOI, alarms for each maneuver. Every adjustment changed when they'd arrive somewhere, etc. The one inconvenience was having to go through the Tracking Station for each shift to another craft, but trying to juggle all this without the mod would have been impossible.

Hmm. But you can attach docking rings to the ends of trusses, and embed them into tanks... Back in KSP1, I had all my boosters include docking ports on the sides at equal height. Line boosters up in groups of three, and they became 'Drive Sections'...

Today I used a medium truss for the first time. I had the Radiation detector connected to the next part along, and it made my ship look like a mushroom. I added a medium truss, and then 'aligned it down' until it essentially contained the Instrument. It made a more realistic visual, and provided a perfect spot to mount solar panels and such. Here's my thing: the connection points are on the ends. If they changed the trusses so that they could contain things by design, rather than 'alignment', then it becomes a low weight construction option. Does sliding the trusses along until it 'embeds' in the solid part actually make them rigid/join together?

EDIT: Just found another thread, and a pretty recent one at that. Please delete this thread. My apologies.

(Raises hand) I've had this happen several times too. I fact, I just closed my game because my Science button think I'm landed on Kerbin. I just left the SOI.

Not even once. Took me a couple of tries to get the altitude just right. You gotta skim very lightly. Enough that you don't even change your orbit much, if at all.

So. My next mission was to put a comm satellite in Jool orbit. I could watch this planet all day. Seriously. It's beautiful. One of the side missions... was to take an atmo sample and send the details back. Well, by pure chance, this was an early model Sat. Same type I used over Duna, only with extra solar panels, given the extra distance. As a result of the 'Tier Two Level' design, it had Science Jr Jr and a mini Atmo sniffer. But no heat shields, no wings. The prize was 3000 science points, and given that I'd already completed the main mission, I decided to copy NASA's fine example, and sacrifice the thing to the firey friction of a Jovian, and hope the transmission would make it out before crashdown. I quickly decided this was a terrible idea, and instead, decided to see just how high the atmo of Jool went. Something I've never tried. Not even in KSP1. With an elliptical orbit, I had more than enough fuel to play around, so I took the periapsis down to 210, then 205, and finally to 198km. Atmo sampling takes two minutes. I pulled in the larger solar panels, and the comm dish. On the first pass, I got 90 seconds. And I'm grateful that I can 'pause' and 'resume' when I reenter the same biome again later. On the second pass, I got the data, and 5000 in samples (Which I can't use yet.) Wouldn't you know it, on the last F9, the trajectory lines of everything vanished, but I still had the Ap/Pe numbers, which was all i needed to put her back in a stable orbit. Transmitting the data back to Kerbin took three charges of my in-probe battery, but there's another thing I can pause and resume. So, I've now unlocked all the Tier 3 science, and I'm looking to see what I can do with those Science Lab parts in uncharted areas. Back in KSP1, I made it a point to try and get a Science Station in orbit of every planet and Moon, as well as another on the surface, and just start farming science points. Can't do that for profit in KSP2, but there's a stupid amount of the tech tree yet to unlock.

For me, when I come back from the map view, I'm in the middle of my ship, (like literally, the camera is inside the hull) and have to scroll out to where I was. Minor bug, but aggravating during rendezvous.

Towards the end, when they have a Kerbal walking across to a rescue ship, they mention that 0.2.1 is coming next week, on Tuesday.

They've said in the stream that 0.2.1 will be released on Tuesday.

So, after three days... Lo, behold! Kerbal F'g'than! The last klick was the hardest, with terrain difficulties. I must have tumbled down the hill a hundred times before I made it. In other news, I got a proper comm satellite into Duna orbit too. My rover took the long way around, so I was able to upload another thousand points worth of observations, plus what I got just for making it to this thing. I've made it to Tier Three. The comm satellite is a design that should be viable over Eve as well, and Eve SOI is my next 'task', I've already got it launched and waiting for a transfer window. I'm also working a side mission to take three Kerbals to Ike. Funny thing, because I've already got two on Duna, waiting for pickup... but I'm still gonna have to launch from Kerbin. In KSP1, my policy was to send two one way missions: A crew to land/science, and a large drone fuel tank with a drill, to go the small nearby moon and harvest/convert fuel for the return trip. Until we get some refueling parts in KSP2, that's not gonna work. Now that I've unlocked the large tanks and hi-end probe cores, maybe I can send fuel tanks ahead to refuel the landers for a return to Kerbin. Seems wasteful, but that's what I've got right now... In the meantime, I've got a cool place to take holiday snaps.