bcbarnes

I use keyboard for most thing, but have a CH products 'throttle quadrant' with six axis. I have set up 5 of them for the 4 custom axis action groups and throttle. I also have 10 of the buttons set for action groups 1 - 10, but find that I rarely use them (the keyboard is just easier for this).

Pecan, Thanks for the info and explanations. I haven't really understood the action group stuff yet. I guess I'll dig into it.

I accepted the contract with the title shown, and expected to just be able to observe the Mystery Goo from the surface of the Mun and return the data. Unfortunately, this didn't work. Does anyone have a clearer explanation of what this contract needs me to do? Brian

So I am still learning to play KSP 1.8. I watched a video by Matt Lowne (linked below - thanks for the work Matt) In this video he designs a rocket that has as a first stage a single stack of 800 fuel tanks with a swivel at the end. Attached radially in a pair is another stack of 800 fuel tanks with reliant engines. Standard decouplers are used at the top, and fuel ducts are used to feed the center engine from the side tanks. Matt comments that when the side tanks are empty, the idea is to eject the two side stacks, and the center stack is still full of fuel. I copied his design exactly, and was able to follow the video and get to Mun and back. Now, however, I want to do a rescue mission for a Kerbal around Minmus. I modified the design for a heavier payload (two seat capsule, external monopropellant, RCS thrusters, etc). I'm expecting to need more dV out of the first stage, and thought that I could just double up on the side tanks/reliant engines. But then, while out on a walk (where my head tends to go to new and diffferent places ...) I thought about adding a pair of solid boosters instead. This lead me to the problem of who is going to run out of fuel first - the side liquid engines, or the side solid engines. I can also devise scenarios where it changes - a more vertical launch profile to maximize the initial AP, or a flatter profile to get circularization for "free". In one case, I'd run all liquid engines at max, and the two side engines are more likely to run out of fuel before the solids. In the other case, I would probably throttle down the liquid engines as much as possible, in which case the solids would run out of fuel first. All of this was a long lead in to my question, and what I would like to be able to do. In decreasing order of happiness: 1. Have both the liquids and solids set to decouple as I anticipate based on my expected launch profile. I can manually switch the decoupler staging during flight to get what I want. 2. Be able to manually trigger the decouplers during flight by click in the stage stack during flight. 3. Be able to tell the decouplers to trigger automatically when a given (pre selected) engine is out of fuel. I have KSP 1.8 and both DLC. Is there a way to accomplish #2 or #3 (I haven't looked into the robotics, etc. that the DLC's provide)? If not, does anyone know if KSP 2 will allow this. If not that, does anyone else think this might be a useful feature request?? Thanks for listening Brian

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Finally got through the contract using a combination of the tips given here - using lots of parachutes, and using the main engine like a lander to slow descent.

Having a hard time with this one, as it seems that once a vessel splashes down, all the staging and all parts except the mk1 pod are "removed". Anyone have any suggestions for a design that might work for this contract?