Garek

I play with TAC LS, so there is a quite rational caution about running out of life support during longer journeys. E.g. my last Munar fly-by was already critical because a miscalculation resulted in a far longer travel time than planned. I had only 13 minutes of power left when arriving back at Kerbin because the craft had to be running on batteries - it was the flight that finally unlocked solar panels. I'm not sure yet how I will do interplanetary manned missions, but I will propably include enaugh life support to last until a theoretical rescue mission after the planned return window would arrive.

I started around .19 or .20 (the last release before we got the new buildings), fooled around in sandbox mode, restarted saves often because of changing mods, changing playstyle and stuff and never got further than the Mun. Since .21 my main save is always in career mode, because I want to do science! With the release of .22 I more or less settled on a set of mods and a playstyle I'm comfortable with for career, restarted my save, and never went to sandbox since. Also, I agree to DisarmingBaton5, although it didn't get _that_ crazy yet - but certainly more creative than anything I ever had in Sandbox.

Looks really interesting, I would love for this to be added to RPM!

Okay, that makes sense. Because of...stuff it will be wednesday before I get back to the game, but then I will try to make it work with the additional UT controls I found in PreciseNode. I guess that should work

because that's awesome. But this also is. So...we need more nothke! Joking aside, I think it's okay to switch between different projects. As long as you do finish them at some point, it's certainly better than burning out on always doing the same stuff. And it will propably never be fast enaugh for all the players anyway, since at least some of them are simply going to have more free time than you.

I actually never used nukes yet. In my past sandbox saves, I didn't go interplanetary (heck, I haven't been to Minmus yet). And in my current carreer mode, I'm starting to send interplanetary probes, but have not unlocked any nukes yet (I have the Ftmn nuclear engine mod installed). But I won't crash them on planets for sure. In the early stages of infrastructure development I might dump nuclear single-use stages into interplanetary space. In the really-long-term I was planning to create reusable 'Interplanetary Propulsion Units', basically nuke-powered probe ships with docking ports to carry the actual payload, which would stay in space indefinitly and be refueled by chemical rockets or spaceplanes. I didn't think about actually landing them back at Kerbin for recovery, but that is an interesting idea. Maybe my reusable nukes will get a limited lifetime (reactor fuel running out) and after that either become debris on a orbit, or be recovered. But first I need to unlock them

I don't have MechJeb and for node input I would like to use PreciseNode. That doesn't have the snap-to-node + shift-time functions MechJeb has, but rather a plain simple UT input field. So would it be possible to output the UT for the burns? EDIT: so it seems PreciseNode actually has some additional time controls which would make burn time after Periapsis work. Nevertheless I would apreciate a UT output there, if it's not to complicated to do.

If you actually build DNA from this...wow. I can't even imagine the size that would be Oo I mean, this has already a decent size and is just an unfinished molecule if I understand you correctly?

Looks really good, but I have a question and a suggestion: - do the parts work in career mode? i.e. do they appear in the tec tree? - I would like to see combined radial containers

So I updated to the latest version, and as the folder structure has changed, I deleted the old "RadishPod" folder. Now, on both of my active vessels that use the pod, this happens: It happens to the shown vessel and a station with docked pods, but not my mapping satellite, which leaves this, TAC life support and Real Chutes as possible culprits. But I suspect it's this mods fault because the update is afair the only thing I changed about my mods. I will revert to the older version, land those vessels and then update again and see if that solves it. I also used Realcrows MM patch to add RPM to the old version and added a DR heatshield, resulting in this config: @PART[Radish] { MODULE { name = JSIInternalPersistence } MODULE { // this one is custom, and is a little thicker than most heat shields. name = ModuleHeatShield direction = 0, -1, 0 // bottom of pod reflective = 0.05 // 5% of heat is ignored at correct angle ablative = AblativeShielding loss { // loss is based on the shockwave temperature (also based on density) key = 650 0 // start ablating at 650 degrees C key = 1000 64 // peak ablation at 1000 degrees C key = 3000 80 // max ablation at 3000 degrees C } dissipation { // dissipation is based on the part's current temperature key = 300 0 // begin ablating at 300 degrees C key = 500 180 // maximum dissipation at 500 degrees C } } RESOURCE { name = AblativeShielding amount = 250 maxAmount = 300 } } @INTERNAL[Radish] { MODULE { name = InternalCameraTargetHelper } PROP { name = RasterPropMonitorExampleMFD position = -0.2504817,0.2107841,-0.07583074 rotation = -0.2461533,0,0,0.9692309 scale = 0.4849713,0.4849713,0.4849713 } PROP { name = RasterPropMonitorExampleMFD position = 0.250348,0.210784,-0.075831 rotation = -0.246153,0,0,0.969231 scale = 0.484971,0.484971,0.484971 } } Removing the MM config doesn't fix it, but it may have "broken" the vessels. Other mods I use that globally modify vessels: TAC LS, FAR, MM to add Kerbal Engineer to all pods and Kerbal Joint Reinforcement. Full output_log.txt: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62916890/output_log.txt I can also provide a full list of mods if needed, but that would be a bit of work, especially the versions. Some other mods might also not be up to date, but I'm hesitant to introduce more changes compared to the last working configuration. EDIT: so reverting fixed it, and although I didn't put the MM file back, the Ablative Shielding remains. I guess that landing those craft and then updating will solve the problem. But you might want to mention that in the OP.

You could just launch a probe ship with the relevant parts - you have to get them up somehow. The only way to get new parts into a flying vessel other than transfering them from _somewhere_ would propably be editing the save file.

This is so true. For example, I'm using the station science mod, and unlocked the lab before any 2.5m lifter technology. So I tried creating an appropriate lifter by clustering 6 1.25m liquid rockets around a seventh - it took me like three days to realize that I made a low-tech 3.75m rocket by doing that. And you know, it actually works pretty nice, at least when I got the strutting right.

I think the point originally was that you can get an easy supply of electricity with solar panels, so the consideration was not how much supply you would need for your mission (as with food etc.), but just how you last through the night. But with career mode you get the problem, that you need a significant amount of science for those solar panels, but without them, your means to get science are limited, because both your probes and capsules run out of power.

For me, attaching parts to wings usually works fine if I turn of angle snap.

Also: Sorry for Off-Topic, but I couldn't resist.

You DID use an appropriate dummy payload instead? meaning approx. same wheight and shape. Is there anything specific happening at 6k height like a stage separation? What is your accelaration? Are you using FAR? What does the F3 log say? Also, you should probably provide the .craft, your ascent profile, some screens, and the KSP_Data/output_log.txt. The first two are needed for an exact reproduction of the problem, the screens in case someone doesn't has the mods required for the .craft and still wants to know what's being talked about. And the output_log is helpful for finding actual errors in plugins, I've heard.

looks really nice, but I would like to see more than one RPM per seat. Especially when using external cameras, I find myself switching between screens far to often otherwise.

So I don't create Mods, but use a lot of them. Also, I work as a software developer who is quite happy to let other people do the first-level support. I think the system proposed here is a very good idea. About config-entry vs. recompile, I think forcing a recompile is a good idea. Basically, you choose what skill level you require from a user to circumvent the version lock. Most people which are using computers at all are propably capable of editing a text file, especially if it gets explained a hundred times in the forum. They could probably also install a compiler, follow a script to set up the project and fix compile bugs and recompile, but that's propably the point where most people realise there are doing something they don't understand the consequences of and rather wait for an official update. Of those that would do a recompile you hopefully get a far better ratio of those that understand at least enaugh to not go annoy the developer needlessly to those that go whine on the forum anyway. Since I said that I'm a software developer one could argue that recompiling isn't that much of a hassle for me. But setting up projects for half a dozen mods and fixing their compile bugs, while their developer is probably doing exactly the same better is something I will likely not do. Mind, I'm running without B9 for the moment because it's not updated for .23 even though there are a number of fixes to get the .22 version working with .23. That's because I don't trust the ability of mod users (including myself) to make it work without stuff breaking down for no apparent reason. I just can't understand the interactions well enaugh without investing amounts of time which are unreasonable for something which will be superseeded by an official update hopefully sooner than later. Of course, Mods can get abandoned, but that's a different discussion entirely, and the version lock doesn't prevent a takeover, because whoever takes over a mod should be more than able to correct it.

You could try adding truss structures alongside the middle section to relief it of some of the stress.

This looks awesome, and I think RasterPropMonitor would be great for the interiors. What else are you going to do with all those nice monitors I saw in that screenshot?

Just doing my first station experiment: As you can see, I use a whole bunch of Mods Also, no solar panels or 2.5m propulsion yet, the Lab itself was brought up by a Hydra II, which has 2 stages of 7 1.5m Liquid Cores each plus 5 SRBs. That was a Launch. Actually three, because I didn't get the strutting right the first two times. Just in case anyone wondering, the Pods are from the Home Grown Rocket Parts mod and have two seats each, bringing the current crew to four - the lab launched unmanned and has no life support of it's own. Bonus points if you find the probe core.

I would respectfully disagree. Although certainly most Mods do make the game "easier" in some respect (mostly less tedious, one could argue), there are some which actually increase the difficulty. E.g. RT2 introduces both the neccessity of a working satellite relay and a control delay which makes stuff like unmanned landings more difficult. Or the Life Support Mods, which introduce basically an additional layer of resource management. Or Deadly Reentry, which can make aerobraking/reentry with big vessels really interesting. Also, most of this is configurable, so one can choose his/her own difficulty. And something like FAR is really mixed up (lower delta-v requirements, but you need to consider aerodynamic stability and stuff). Disclaimer: I think every game style, every variant of (not) using mods is equally valid, as long as you don't grossly misrepresent your achievments. Which means that I should propably list the (difficulty influencing) mods I'm using in my sig, but well, I'm lazy, and that could be a long and ever changing list. EDIT: added kind of an overview

My lifter cores are almost always liquid fuel rockets. But I use SRBs if I need want just that bit more delta-v or first-stage, e.g. my first Orbital Flight in my current carreer save was the last suborbital design with two SRBs tacked on the sides.

I have not used it yet, but I propably would to recover from a game glitch or for testing runs (don't acquire science, don't count towards ribbons, revert afterwards, etc.) once it get's more complicated to get hardware into place than a simple launch to the Mun.

This looks interesting, I will propably test this when the parts actually do science. Or maybe when I start launching missions with longer travel times so the parts may get updated in the meantime