N_Molson

Landing a plane using the low-tech landing gears seems incredibly difficult to me. They seem extremely fragile. I tried with suspension on or off. Also the nose wheel steers the same angle regardless of the aircraft speed. That's a recipe for disasters. The basic runway is simply impossible to use, the aircraft simply bumps, turns and hops in a crazy dance of disintegration. So I feel I'm missing something there. Has anyone experienced the same difficulties, and found a way around ? Also, I wonder if that "friction control" thing plays a role in that mess.

I'm pretty sure they ran out of time to get a lot of things "polished". I'm very confident all those small things are going to be fixed soon. There are a lot of improvements on 1.1 that work perfectly. Nice work Squad & the Beta Testing Team !

That would be cool to be able to size it down independently from the rest of the UI. The most annoying issue, is that on a 1050x1680 screen, the original texture size is too small, and looks almost a bit blurry.

Thanks a lot for those notes, very interesting. In addition, I have the feeling (is it just me ? - I play music and train my hear a lot -) that the audio quality is much lower than in previous versions. It's like the files have been compressed to a higher rate. Is it intentional ? I can definitively hear a lot of "compression noise" in background of all audio FX and some music tracks, that's a pity.

Sure, but they also have a manager that puts them deadlines, the industry works like that, even in "indy" studios. The money they use to develop the game does not rain from the sky, and the % they get for each copy sold is very low The picture of people sitting on a mountain of gold and developing their game when they want to is completely wrong. They have to sell more copies and meet expectations from their manager.

Yeah, that would be a must. And not only 2 runways, but say one by "Private compagny (Rockomax, etc...)" spread all over Kerbin, figuring the major population centers. Maybe the recovery bonus could even be related to your reputation relative to that compagny. You could fulfill contracts for them or even give money to improve it. You could also have some "jealousy" between two rival companies, meaning that getting well with one makes the other angry. And each one would give missions specialized in one area (exploring, rescuing, testing, space stations, space tourism...), to give a strategic depht to the whole "system".

Some background, make Kerbin a more interesting planet, and Kerbals more "unique". - More launch sites (or airports) on Kerbin, and some buildings to figure the major cities. It could open low-end missions like ferrying (a lot of) kerbals or cargo in a specified amount of time (that would give us a good reason to build fast while fuel-efficient jumbo-jets or suborbital spaceplanes, too !). - Being able to invest money and upgrade various launch sites, or additional R&D centers that could earn extra science % bonus. There could also be upgrades for income and reputation bonuses, too. - Add a log for each Kerbal, that tracks flight time (and how much time spent around/on which planet), EVAs etc... - Distinctive suit color/insigna for each rank. The ultimate one being the highly prized Orange Suit (TM) that only Jeb, Bob, Bill & Val are currently allowed to wear. Some hairstyle/color variety, too. - Have those Courage / Stupidity stats do something that impacts gameplay. Transition from a life-time paycheck to a monthly wage. Experienced Kerbals wanting MOAR MONEY, of course. My two Kredi-cents

Chewie, engage the Hyperdrive !

Don't worry, the Squad guys are now Hype Ninjas. They use that deadly weapon like nobody.

I've been resisting in an heroïc fashion those last weeks, but now I begin to be spaghettified by the near-infinite gravity of the Hype Train Black-Hole-Engine-Overdrive !

RemoteTech doesn't seems to like 1.0.5

That's quite an easy fix. Make its cost dissuasive for an expendable use.

The game is much much better since the new aerodynamics have been implemented. It now gives you an idea of how things work. And still its pretty easy. If you have problems just toggle "F12" and watch the aerodynamic forces. Keep the nose of the rocket near the yellow speed indicator. Think in terms of airflow, and add fins if you need extra control.

That's a simple matter of AoA (Angle of Attack). In surface mode, the yellow marker shows the direction of the airflow, while the eyeball shows you where the rocket is heading. The key is to keep that angle very low during the critical stage of the ascent (10,000 to 20,000 meters depending of the rocket design). Keeping the nose within the yellow cue should work. That's much, much more realistic, indeed !

Alas, she is amongst the growing list of the now 12 Kerbals that gave their life since I started a v1.0 career. Underestimated the parachutes more realistic model, deployed too low, slammed into the ground. RIP. But (some) lessons were learned and she gave her life for the good of Kerbal Science.

Absolutely not a clone, as said above. This game focuses on real management, personnel micro-management, hardware R&D etc... With quite a huge selection of historical US and Soviet hardware. If you played and liked BARIS (Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space, 1993), you're going to love it. There's an official forum there : http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=226 It does, and yes skilled Mission Controllers are what ultimately make the difference. It will be released the 31st of October, on Steam too I think.

Hehehe good one, a munument to Kerbal Culture.

When returning from the Moon, no. The Earth "slingshot" effect can send the spacecraft on an escape trajectory. Or in an orbit so elliptic it will take months for it to come back. Also don't forget that KSP physics model don't take gravity perturbations into account. Sun/Moon/Earth interactions can send the spacecraft in an elliptic orbit around Earth that never crosses atmosphere again. You forget something that isn't (AFAIK) implemented in KSP : conical (Apollo) or headlight-shaped (Soyuz) capsules produce lift, like any shuttles or aircrafts. They are designed to produce lift when re-entering, and while they are designed to fly at their best at very high ultra-sonic speeds, they completely stall only slightly above Mach 1 (at trans-sonic speeds). When the capsule is tilted in the right direction (thanks to RCS thrusters), it acts as a wing : air pressure is higher on the heatshield, and lower above the top. From Wikipedia : So, when the capsule "skips" the atmosphere, lift is produced, and not only drag. Of course nothing can produce more lift than drag (else we wouldn't need engines !), but the effect is significant enough to greatly bend the trajectory of the spacecraft. This, combined with the slingshot effect, can be a one-way ticket when re-entering from lunar velocities (roughly 10,500 m/s vs "only" 7,500 m/s for a LEO return). And to escape Earth SOI, you don't need to go much faster than 11,000 m/s. A spherical capsule (like Vostok) produces no lift at all, and only drag, typically getting 8-9g on re-entry. There is also a safety mode on the Soyuz that, if the other controls fail, make the capsule automatically spin on itself at a fast rate, which nullifies lift. This is called a "ballistic reentry", and the spacecraft decelerates exactly like a spherical capsule in that case. Soyuz TMA-11 re-entered that way, and was nearly 500 kilometers off-target, because of the lack of lift.

This is definitively a problem, which kills pretty much the concept of a separated lander. Apollo astronauts would have been a little sorry if they had not been able to transfer the lunar samples from the LM to the CSM... And since the soil samples are by much the most valuable science artefacts, there is no way to skip them. Now, of course, you can add parachutes to the lander and push it back into Kerbin's atmosphere since there is no re-entry check yet, but I feel like it's cheating...

Also don't forget that almost all the experiments lose most of their value if they are not recovered. Goo canisters, in particular, suffer a nasty -80% penalty if you simply transmit them. So be sure to bring them back on Kerbin. If you want to do this in a more or less realistic fashion, you will need to achieve a powered descent, else they would burn.

I agree that duration should be taken into account as a positive factor for data value. Orbiting a Kerbal for 30 days should allow to collect more data than during a suborbital flight of 10 minutes. That's the purpose of space labs like Skylab, Mir or the ISS.

Anyway, the Carrer Mode is really in its beginnings. It's clearly not complete enough to jugde if it is good or bad. I'd say that what I see now is fun and has a lot of promising potential, but that's all. If you don't like the tech tree order, you can always rearrange it your way.

The only thing I have to reproach to this update is that it comes with a small pack of annoying bugs, but I'm certain they will be patched soon. Also it was a long time since .21, and Squad certainly had to release something, even if not perfectly polished. Gathering Science is a fun new goal. It pushes you to move forward and set ambitious objectives. Concerning people that say "it's too easy", here are a few points to consider : - Try without MechJeb or other mods that basically fly for you. - Currently you can re-enter Kerbin with Goo canisters and experiments, but one day heating management will come, and retrieving the experiments will require a powered descent. Which means a much heavier and costly launch assembly. You will have to do with communications, and those apply huge penalties to the number of Science Points you gather. - There is no money or parts availability limit right now. I doubt you will start with enough Kerbucks to build a monster stack that can reach Duna. - Some things that make life a bit too easy are probably going to be fixed. Like directly transmitting data from the Farside of the Mun without using relay communication satellites (how does those radio waves get through the Mun ?!). - The unlimited supply of Kerbonauts is not going to last forever. And I guess they will have to rest between missions, which will require a team if you want to launch missions continuously. Now you can do anything with Jeb only, but even that heroic guy has the right to sleep from time to time, not even speaking of vacations. Also, here again, they are kindly working for free now (and a few snacks), but this isn't going to last... So yeah, really, work in progress, and the fact I already like what I see now makes me very optimistic for the future.

I agree that the 3.75 meters parts of KW rocketry really add something to the game. It is an elegant solution to build "Saturn-V" heavy lifters class. Other than esthetical, the huge pro is that using that kind of configuration drastically reduces the number of parts in the rocket. And then the game engine and your graphic card handles it more easily. Now why space agencies don't use such launchers everyday ? Because they are insanely expensive, require heavy infrastructures and then are reserved to manned interplanetary exploration (or mining if you want) missions (which is a point of a space program). It could be the same in KSP. Those parts would be the very costly, and then you would use them only when necessary, like when you want to send a complex (ker)manned mission to Duna or Jool's moons, with rovers, surface lander, orbital module, etc... Also, think that more realistic aerodynamics, if implemented, will probably give a serious blow to those "asparagus" designs. There's a reason if you don't see that in real life. Now, 5 meters, I don't know, not sure there is a need for it right now.

I'd try to recruit Kerbals with high courage and high stupidity, too ! Also, you can send in Jeb, Bill & Bob, those are "special", they are always eager (and overjoyed when stuff blows around).