Salda007

If you find yourself needing to use the docking ports to connect a stage like that for some reason in the future, you can also just add an empty stage to your staging list; that should let you stage away things without triggering the upper stages. Be sure to disable fuel crossfeed on the docking ports, though! Found that one out the hard way. "Why doesn't my upper have any fuel?"

Just don't use them in your ship and you should be fine. Parts in the VAB or SPH don't affect the save file, it's only when they're put on a ship and launched that they are included in the save or can begin saving their own data.

Save file has been passed on to Olex!

Success! Megapod-3a has landed at Kronos base on Minmus! Also, I can't attach the save file. Even after zipping the file into a permitted format under the size limit, I'm still 19MB over my attachment limit. Great. Olex, want to PM me your e-mail address? Looks like I'll have to get the file to you that way.

Blerg. Just left my last attempt splattered across Minmus' surface, and I didn't have a quicksave. It's 3 am here; I'll try again in the morning.

Just got a chance to grab the save, so I'll hopefully get something up later tonight. If not, I hope people won't mind if I ask for a 24-hour extension due to the forums being offline.

Sure, why wouldn\'t it? There should only really be a noticeable strain when you come within 200m of another ship as the physics for those ships load; Kerbos base on Minmus is pretty sparse (only two other ships) at the moment, so head there if you like. Also, if you need to land just outside of 200m to avoid lagging out, that\'s fine, too. Someone else can always hop it closer if needed.

You can go one better and grab one of the save files with the base on it, to practice landing at the actual location! Just, y\'know, make sure you grab the latest file before your actual turn. ;-)

Heh, the whole point of this is that the colonies are set up as a group. So feel free to fly a ship up to Minmus\'s south pole on your turn, and then others will join you there, and soon enough there will be a whole colony of landers (and maybe some rovers) there.

Nope, I think we\'re all just interested in playing with the new parts. Feel free to bring a 1-man pod, or even one of the cockpits, if you like. Also, put me down for a flight out to Minmus!

Alright, first flight is up! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mote base! (sorry, Stogas!) Why\'s it called Mote base? Well, it\'s right in the middle of the eastern 'eye' on the Mun. The location\'s not the hardest one to get to, and the terrain\'s pretty gentle; I figured I\'d start with a relatively easy base while everyone\'s getting used to the new parts. If we get enough ships up here to get a second base going, we can set that one up someplace harder. Anyway, the boys hopped out for a quick group shot, but they headed back in to hang out and wait for more people (I don\'t think anyone wants to drop a lander on a munwalker\'s head). The welcome mat\'s out, drinks are in the chiller, and the munchies are rehydrating, so come over and say hi! Save file\'s attached, Candre, you\'re up! (Yes, I pinged him, too!)

I\'ll launch a mission on a clean save, and land somewhere on the Mun (haven\'t decided yet), establishing a 'base' there. Once I\'ve done so, I\'ll put up a post with a screenshot or two and attach the save file with my mission waiting on the moon, then ping Candre, who\'ll be next. Candre will download my save and fly his mission to the Mun, trying to land near me (closer is better, but sometimes lag forces people out past 200m). Once he\'s succeeded, he\'ll post the save with both missions, and ping you. You\'ll then do the same, flying your mission to a location of your choosing on Minmus and establishing the first Minmus base, since neither of us are heading there before you. Once you\'ve landed, post it here with the attached save (with all three flights) and ping whomever signs up next on the list. That person then has the option to fly to either the base on the Mun with Candre and myself, to your base on Minmus, or to a new base on Kerbin. Check out the previous thread for 0.15.2 as a really good example. Over time we\'ll assemble quite the collection of crafts at each base that people start landing at; it\'s a neat way to see other people\'s designs in practice. You can ask me to name the Mun base Buran, since I\'m heading there first, but I might name it something else. Haven\'t decided yet. ;-) Anyway, it\'s getting late, and my first attempt toppled over due to unexpectedly rough terrain (hazards of landing on the dark side of the Mun). I\'ll try again tomorrow and put up the first flight.

First flight, please! I haven\'t been to the Mun yet in .16, but I aim to try!

So, what\'s the plan for this with .16 out? I\'m happy to fly my last flight on this one; I copied over my .15.2 install before patching to .16. Nutt007, I\'m not going to jump in front of you if you want to fly yours as well; just let me know. Now, who want to organize Stock Base 4.0? (Not it!)

The purpose behind the on-rails system is that it is very easy to calculate, because you\'re using set formula based on the orbital parameters and the overall clock. If the engine needed to calculate everything\'s position by calculating the physics for them, then the engine would be stressed.

Just get your periapsis above 70km or so. If you want to de-orbit immediately without doing a full orbit, that should be fine, but you should show that your ship is capable of it.

So, who\'s up, then? Apotheosist? I think we\'re waiting on you.

In case people aren\'t aware, when using the stock wheels, \'B\' activates the brakes. Use carefully, though; I\'ve had ships flip end-over-end when I tried slamming them on too hard.

Okay, just got the suborbital-only 'Flying Pig-5' (*) out there. Lost the aerospike engine while taxiing over a stray hill near KSC-II (overshot the landing), but it was out of fuel anyway, so no big loss. Also, it looks like sal_vager\'s ship is missing. I never saw anything but khyron42\'s ship, whether visually or through a target marker. Maybe someone who knows how to hack save files can edit sal\'s back in? The flights listed in the tracking station (and where) are: sjwt-Star01 (Mun) X10 (Minmus) Universal Lander One (Mun) mun dragon (ERS) (Mun) Alien Invader (Mun) Ice Dancer (Minmus) Quadra-lol (Minmus) Minar-1 (Minmus) Z-16-3 (Mun) Double MiniMunshot (Minmus) X-8 High Road (KSCII) Pizza Delivery 1 (Minmus) Flying Pig-5 (KSCII) Save file attached. Also, sign me up for another go! TO THE MUN, ALICE! (*-Why, no, I wasn\'t all that optimistic when I started my spaceplane program. What makes you ask?)

Just saw this this afternoon. First flight ended in a LOCV(*)--my 'Flying Pig-4' flies like its namesake unless I draw from the centermost tank last. Trying again now... (*-Loss of Crew and Vehicle)

Depending on your design, it can also help is to disable flow on your forward-most fuel tank(s), and let the other tanks drain first. It won\'t help once you\'re completley This keeps more weight up front longer, which should help with stability. I have seen some odd behavior with disabling flow and fuel lines, though, so keep an eye out for that.

No worries! I sprained my ankle a couple years ago--I can totally sympathize. Take care, and get well soon! I don\'t see nothin\' about no level flight! 8) ;P The dive was ~125 m/s I did skip the bit about posting the ship, though, so please let me remedy that here: ------ Very carefully? Seriously, though, I had more problems with explosions due to side-by-side collisions than due to the ship weight on the pad. There\'s a reason I wound up going with such an open plan for the Demon-8; a more condensed grid had explosion issues. ------ Anyway, looking at my Demon-8 and khyron42\'s Rama\'s Arrow, it seems like the winning formula for stock craft is the Mk2 cockpit with as many FL-T250/TurboJet stacks as you can squish together behind it, with the absolute minimal amount of other parts needed to make the thing flyable, which would mean that at this point it\'s just a matter of who can go the biggest. Of course, I would love to be proved wrong, so I look forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with!

Pure stock, vertical launch, 1006 m/s absolute in a 100 m/s dive, 1003 m/s overland. This was taken just after the peak run as the craft dropped back into the heavier air. Final stats with high speed. Edit: 1013 m/s absolute speed while diving. 1005 m/s overland, again. I wouldn\'t be surprised if this design can crack 1020 m/s diving and 1010 m/s level, though. Again, this is while slowing down... Final results. Edit 2: Yup, I was right: 1030 m/s absolute, 1018 m/s overland.

Ehh, 'hardcore' isn\'t really the word for it. More like, 'can\'t keep track of all of the mods out there any more'. I respectfully disagree; as we\'ve seen, piloting skill and the ability to keep envelope-pushing craft pointed in the right direction have had large effects on the results. Don\'t get me wrong, I don\'t object to you using MechJeb in this at all, I just object to you calling it 'stock'. If you want to put up a stock speed, I invite you to remove it and see how fast you can get your ship moving while flying it manually. Heck, I look forward to it! 8)

Not to be a hard case, but given how important altitude management is to this challenge, I don\'t consider flying with Smart A.S.S. to be stock.