Skorpychan

I want to do a Jool tour. Land on the moons, plant flags, leave a big fuel depot in orbit. Return from Duna. Got a plan and a ship in the works, and I just need to get the time/motivation to get on with it. I GOT there alright, but ran out of fuel. Cruise stage is stranded in orbit, the ISRU miner isn't efficient enough to make a profit off Ike, and the lander's got JUST enough fuel to make orbit. The rescue ship is going to be an ISRU miner that'll actually do the job, a bigger cruise stage with more fuel, and I think a tanker as well, that's just a fuel tank with engines and a probe core and docking gear. EVE base. Part permanent research facility, part punishment detail. Visits to Moho, Dres, and Eeloo. Not much interesting there.

1. Standardised. 2. Why? SUBASSEMBLIES. That's why. 3. Subassemblies! You make a payload, then slap on the appropriate lifter, and adjust boosters to taste. Mine go from a simple Skipper core with a Swivel boosters, right up to the 4x1 Kerbodyne engine under a couple of max-sized Kerbodyne tanks, with 2x1 Twin Boar Kerbodyne tank/engines as boosters with the 2.5m-1.5m fuel tanks on top and a nose cone. That's for lifting interplanetary missions all in one go. Lifters take the most work to get right, so I like being able to re-use them and the flight profiles. Fairings make that even easier, since a payload of a certain weight will behave almost exactly the same with a fairing as any other similar weight one.

That's how.

Have you tried removing some mods? Or not running the game on an antique?

I did the same, but with only one girder length. Still worked fine for takeoffs. Landing was a nonissue; I added parachutes to avoid the problem entirely.

It's a little big. Like, 'am I playing this on my laptop screen' big. But it IS easy to see, which I like. Maybe somewhere between the two sizes, I think. Keep the fuel bars big, though.

SMALL engines? I'm normally landing the entire lander back on Kerbin. Lander can, fuel tank, descent/ascent engine, legs, the lot. I use the last licks of fuel in the main tank and the big engine for last-minute braking, then cut thrust and have the landing legs absorb the rest. For my crewed interplanetary missions, I'm planning to rendezvous them with a return shuttle of similar design, but with less fuel and a Hitchhiker pod.

Is this even with clicking on the brake icon to toggle them on? I see that as sort of like putting the craft into 'park' or using the handbrake. Otherwise, try adding landing legs to things if you plan on leaving them alone. Just extend the legs when you park, and retract the wheels. Then do the reverse when you want to set off again.

Precision mode is not very kerbal, so I never bother to use it. Never do anything through subtlety and precision that can be accomplished with brute force, moar of things, and running the main engine up. Even managed to dock with just the assistance of an overpowered main engine once, because I forgot the RCS thrusters.

Those are things I've wanted ever since I bought the game, and didn't know it until now.

No. If it's a manned upper stage, then it's got enough thrust to get itself clear of an exploding stack once I pound the spacebar in panic. If it's unmanned, then I don't give a kerbal's ass what happens to it. It can explode with the rest of the stage. The fact is, I need that top node for something USEFUL, and the LES is just more launch weight and something else to worry about on ascent; it's not got enough thrust to get itself clear of an accelerating first stage at altitude.

Current save hasn't perma-killed anyone yet. 'Revert to launch' stops most screwups from being permanently lethal. Quicksave/quickload covers the rest, as I justify that as simulated testing. Anyone who dies far enough into a mission/from the last save is staying dead. I'll land a rescue mission to recover the body, maybe the craft, and to plant a memorial flag there, though. Or at least nearby if it's somewhere you can't land flags. And they get a 'X kerman memorial mission' named after them.

Ah, you reached the Excel Threshold already? It's the point where a game requires so much number-crunching that you have to resort to spreadsheets to manage it.

Often. I blame the 'new' aero. Of course, even before it, I used to get random failures for no adequately explained reason, or because I was a little sharp with the throttle.

Landed 'safely' would be Duna and Eve. No return missions from outside of Kerbin's muns; Eve is near impossible, and Duna... I never pack enough fuel for the return, and then a new version comes out and I have to try again. I've 'landed' on Dres once. It was more of an impact due to lack of DeltaV to land softly.

I just play science mode instead to avoid the funds issue entirely. Why finagle your way around something when you can just disable it?

Jebediah Kerman has mandated the production of 1 large rocket!

I like the Microcline theory, but that's because Dwarf Fortress has drilled the idea into me that microcline = cyan. Otherwise, it's a ball of chewing gum.

That seems impractical, considering that you'll be starting with no velocity at that height. You'll just plummet.

As someone who had to teach themselves this after FORGETTING TO PACK MONOPROPELLANT, I can say it's easier than it sounds as long as you've got a decent TWR and enough reaction wheels to swing the craft around quickly.

Took me a few hours of gameplay after having mechjeb do it a few times to show me. I still use it for rendezvousing, because I just don't have the patience for it.

So... Like Stage Trees from Known Space? Which were basically SRBs grown as trees.

Outside of the Kerbin system was Eve. Because 'it's closer, right?' Bill Kerman being the lazy sod he is, tried to hover to land instead of swimming to shore like Jeb did. High gravity's a bit of a pest sometimes, isn't it?

Planes aren't as interesting, though. I've been trying to make a munplane so I can land horizontally on small bodies without toppling, and it's hard.

Nope. KSP is about rockets to me. And, try as I might, I cannot into plane designs. So much testing and tweaking and testing and tweaking. Rockets are simple. Radial symmetry, engines, fuel, clean aero, fairings, and up you go, shedding parts as you go.