[Land a Spaceplane]

Horizontal velocity isn\'t that important, you just have to get the vertical down as close to 0 as possible. In other words, 'float' above the ground as long as possible and then gently touch down. If your landing gears are spread wider apart then you\'ll be less likely to roll over.

[What's next?]

I\'m assuming 10 days is long enough for a short break, and while i agree that a patch would make sense, i\'d like confirmation from the people who know.

They\'ll say what\'s coming next when they\'re ready to say what\'s next. Squad isn\'t a massive developing franchise, they\'re a small but dedicated group. Play and enjoy the current version, and rest assured that whenever we get the next version that it will be another quality release.

[New laptop for school]

I got a Dell XPS 15 last year for college/gaming. It has:

2.3 GHz i5 w/ TurboBoost up to 2.9 GHz

4 GB RAM

Nvidia GeForce GT 525M, 1GB with Optimus

500 GB HD

Backlit Keyboard

9-cell Extended Battery.

Never had a problem playing any game (granted I don\'t play high-intensity stuff like Crysis). Battery lasts for 6-7 hours of web browsing/note taking. It cost me about USD $830 last year. No problems other than a dead pixel

[Rotatron-Powered Aircraft Challenge]

I just kinda stared at this in awe because I haven\'t even gotten a chance to play around with all the new parts yet. Many helicopters will be attempted; many Kerbals will be slain.

[My first circular orbit!]

Nice work! I\'d be interested to know how you got to the Mun without a circular orbit.

In my amateur days of flying I would just shoot straight up, creating a really narrow elliptical orbit, and then just 1000x time warp around and around, sometimes for 5 minutes until the Mun scooped me up when I was at my Kerbin apoapsis. Not very efficient, but it got the job done :

[KSP Live Stream]

I was fascinated by your very circular orbit. And then I spotted Mechjeb =P

[the world is ours]

That\'s pretty cool. Very creative use of the wing connectors!

[Decoupling]

If you move the decoupler on the jettisoned part up the list, does it still happen? To be honest if it is a bug it is more of a Mechjeb bug than a KSP one.

[Desktop thread.]

I can\'t stand icons. Usually I hide the recycle bin too. I like to keep my desktop clean.

[What is your favourite TV show?]

I don\'t watch much TV, but some of my favorites are The Big Bang Theory, Blue Planet, and Robot Chicken.

[Shadows on the Mun]

Are you landing on the dark side of the Mun? If you are you won\'t have a shadow because there is nothing casting light from behind your spacecraft.

If that is not the case, then the only variable is the resolution. Switch to a lower resolution and report back? You never know.

[Bill is in a Minmar orbit, Jeb is being ejected from the solar system, thx Mün..]

Oh, Jeb. Off to cause havoc to another star in several light years.

[Adding myself to the game]

Fairly certain 'brave' is the threshold which the Kerbals will show the panicked animation at when flying. Not sure what 'dumb' does, perhaps how often they get that silly grin?

In either case it is not cheating, as it does not effect the flying of the rocket, just the animations of the Kerbals in the corner.

[A video showcasing some of the new features]

Wow, this is really well done. What did you use to record the scenes?

[In the new trailer, Kerbals talk in reversed Spanish.]

Ahh, they sound exactly like I had imagined! It would be amusing if they screamed in their language while the ship was going out of control (with an option to turn off of course).

[Hotkey to Alternate Hat Switch Between RCS and Camera Control]

So after getting my new joystick, the T-Flight Hotas X, I wanted to go completely keyboard free. I like to move the camera around a lot when I am flying, and obviously the best place to map control of this to is the hat switch. However, this is also the best place to map RCS in my opinion, and KSP does not have a keybind to toggle between using the hat switch for different functions.

This method will allow you to use the hat for RCS, and then when pressing another button and moving the hat, make that move the camera. This frees up a lot of buttons on your joystick if you were using those for camera/RCS, or allows you to go completely keyboard free if you were still using keys for either of those functions.

How to:

1. Download 'Joytokey' program here:

http://www.electracode.com/4/joy2key/JoyToKey%20English%20Version.htm

2. Extract and run the program.

3. There is already a configuration made for you, called 'First Configuration'. Above the key-mappings you will see 'Joystick 1' and 'Joystick 2' tabs.

4. Go into the Joystick 1 tab. Click the 'Others' tab on the right and put a checkmark in the 'Use POV switches' box.

5.Find which button you want to hold down while moving the hatswitch to control the camera. I chose 'Button 1' which on my joystick is the trigger. Double click it, and go to the 'Special' tab and select to use the configuration of Joystick 2 temporarily. Hit OK and leave everything else alone in this tab.

5. Move to the 'Joystick 2' tab. Again, go to the 'Others' tab and check the 'Use POV Switches' box.

6. Find the 'POV1:Up' in the list of buttons. Highlight it, and at the bottom click 'Auto Setting Wizard'. For the 'Up' one, hit the up arrow, etc. for all 4 directions.

NOTE: If you have changed the keys which control your camera movement in KSP from these defaults, you must press whatever keys you use. If you haven\'t changed the default camera pans, ignore this note.

7. After you do those 4 directions just close out of the setting wizard (not the whole program).

8. In KSP, make sure you have mapped RCS control to the hat switch.

9. Now when Joytokey is running and you hold the button you have set to use the configuration of 'Joystick 2' while moving the hat, you will be able to move the camera in 8 directions. When not holding that button and moving the hat, you will use RCS!

10. Just make sure to start Joytokey before you start KSP.

Note: The Logitech Attack 3 does not have a hat switch, but you can get this to work with the buttons on top of it. I do not own that joystick, but the setup method will be similar, just don\'t 'Enable POV Switches' on Joystick 2 and instead map the buttons on top to the arrow keys.

Enjoy, and safe flying!

Sky Visitor

[Best Flight Simulator?]

My copy of FSX is coming in the mail today . I decided on FSX because from what I have read it seems to have the most realistic experience (X-Plane is almost there but not yet?). I found an addon called Real Environment Xtreme which makes the graphics look hundreds of times better. I may be interested in actually flying in the future so I wanted as close to the real thing as it comes.

[Launching Directly to the Mun]

Well you could calculate the arclength with the differential displacement of the Mun along the curve of it\'s orbit, solving for the angle required between r1 and r2 within a plus or minus range consisting of the Mun\'s sphere of influence, all based on your velocity toward the curve which would get you captured by the Mun. As such it would be better to calculate using your distance and velocity on each launch, because there is no set 'angle' as you do not always launch at the same position relative to the moon; there is a constant difference between two radii but it moves around the curve with the Mun. Thus, your velocity is the variable. I\'m quite busy within the next couple weeks so I don\'t have any time to set up the equations but it seems like it would be fun (yes math is fun, I am an engineer )

[What do you consider a circular orbit?]

Well unless your orbit satisfies the equation x^2 + y^2 = r^2, you are not in a perfectly circular orbit of eccentricity 0. But given that such is almost surely not achievable in the game, I would say a margin of error of less than 1%, calculated by |apoapsis - periapsis|/apoapsis. So, for me it depends on the height at which you desire to orbit.

[How did you feel when you first achieved lift off? ( Successful )]

My first rocket was a huge cylinder of layers of solid boosters. Before I knew how to use the symmetry tool. Needless to say centrifugal force took over, my rocket broke apart under its own spinning inertia, and 3 Kerbals lost their lives that day.

[Will the Logitech Attack 3 Joystick work with KSP?]

Just so you know the Attack 3 does not have a hat switch (the tiny 8-directional thing on top of the joystick). Although it isn\'t necessary, it is quite useful and fun for using as the RCS controls instead of the keyboard. The Extreme 3D Pro by Logitech which I believe is like $5 more has the hat switch.

If you\'re willing to spend $45 I would recommend the T-Flight Hotas X, it has a separate throttle unit and IMO gives you the best bang for your buck of any joystick under $100. I can play 100% keyboard free with my Hotas X.

[Music to listen to when launching rockets]

I enjoy Solar Fields for when I am travelling through space. Incredibly relaxing.

[Interplanetary Planning Thread]

No offense intended here, but you\'re saying you\'d need an actual gaming computer to play this game? Really, if you\'re playing games like this you should think about saving up to build a pc that can handle it. It is a hobby worth investing money in if you already spend any significant amount of time enjoying pc games.

My PC is more than adequate, however from the number of threads that I see of people complaining of lag and such it would seem that a significant portion of the player base is using some Black Friday deal laptop. Don\'t get me wrong, I do agree with you, which is why I have spent the extra money to get a higher quality PC as well as a joystick to fly with, but the effects on the current players as a whole must be taken into consideration when creating updates.

[Interplanetary Planning Thread]

Imagine the lag induced by the countless particles which make up those rings. There would need to be an option to minimize the number of objects in the rings or said rings would be unapproachable by players using an integrated GPU.

[whats the lowest settings?]

I\'d lower the terrain detail, disable 'SM3 Terrain Shaders' and see where that gets you. If that isn\'t enough, I\'d put anti-aliasing at 1x. Then you could lower the texture quality... but at that point your game would look terrible. Instead of touching the texture quality I\'d lower the screen resolution and run it in windowed mode, not fullscreen.

But lowering the terrain quality should be enough. Out of curiosity, what graphics card are you using? I am assuming it is an integrated GPU. If not and you have Nvidia Optimus, make sure you run KSP with the dedicated GPU. Otherwise it defaults to the integrated APU.