Traches

Eek! Ellipsis abuse.

I was just about to post exactly that-- my joystick has done the same thing to me a couple times. Glad you found it!

I love that I play the same game as smart people.

Hate: Game engine Space tape Construction editor Love: Difficulty Realism (In a way) Mods and their creators Building Rockets

Dual core =/= crappy. Besides, sometimes a dual core provides exactly the right amount of processing power without spending more than you have to. Hannu is using integrated graphics-- the GPU that's built into his processor. You are using a dedicated graphics card, that is more than powerful enough for KSP. If it's not running smooth, you are probably CPU limited. Anyway, for everyone saying an SSD is a must-- normally I'm a rabid fan of them, and it'll make every other aspect of your computer faster, but for me anyway KSP pegs out a single CPU core while loading. In other words, loading is CPU limited as well.

I imagine you'd want to stay at the highest altitude that will get you full power from your jet engines, for as long as possible while you build up speed. Then when you switch to rockets pitch back up and get out of atmo.

The APAS-69 is part of the kosmos mod pack. I stopped using it after having a similar experience, and also after noticing that lazor docking cam reports its alignment 90 degrees off. Way I see it, the stock docking ports are fine.

Just FYI, win7 is faster than xp. Also, clock speed isn't a direct measurement of processing power, unless you're comparing 2 processors of the same or very similar architecture. The model of processor is crucial information! That said, I suspect the workstation will run faster for you. You can always throw in a good graphics card.

My thoughts exactly, stated in a far less confrontational way than I could have managed.

Haha sounds like you spent too much time in CAOD...

No it's not. Now get off my lawn and stop smiling so much.

You may want to look into the kerbal engineer mod (engineering redux it might be called?) This will give you 2 important numbers for each stage: thrust to weight ratio and delta v. TWR is what it sounds like, and you want it to be a little over 2 for your first stage, a little under 2 for your second, and somewhere over 1 for your third. Your delta v is a measure of how much your rocket can change its velocity-- it's a lot like measuring how many miles your car can go on a full tank. You'll need about 4,500 m/s to make it to orbit. Balanced is important, and symmetry will give you balance. Rockets tend to be radially symmetric rather than laterally symmetric. The easiest way to tell if your rocket is balanced-- on the bottom left there's a button that shows your center of mass (yellow and black ball), and another that shows your center of thrust (purple looking thing). If your CoM is directly above your CoL, it's balanced. If you're rocket's shaking itself to pieces, try adding more struts!

You could try pointing ion engines, ant engines, or linear RCS ports straight up to generate downforce and improve traction.

I've read through this whole thing in bits and pieces over the past few days-- it really is excellent fiction. Thanks czokletmuss! Here's hoping the politicians don't screw everything up, as they're liable to.

Yup.

I think it's novapunch that has extra heavy struts-- super strong, same mass as stock, so you don't need nearly as many. Great way to reduce part count.

Not sure if this has been answered, but you can do that using phase angles and some math. Set up a custom info window with the target's phase angle in it, then do a test launch. remember where your phase angle was when you launched, and when you finish your circularization burn. Work out the difference, and then subtract that from whatever separation you're going for.

I do pretty much what chris says. Maybe we're both stupid.

As previously mentioned-- lazor docking camera (or docking alignment indicator) can be a huge help, and getting your RCS ports reasonably balanced helps a ton. The biggest thing I've figured out that I haven't seen in this thread yet-- if you've got your targets set up (control from your docking port, set the other one as target), hit the "PAR -" (Parallel, opposite direction) button under the TGT tab in mechjeb's smart A.S.S.. It'll keep you aligned in pitch and yaw, so even if your RCS ports are pretty far out of balance you can pull off a dock. Also, caps lock is your friend once you get close. If your target starts rotating for some strange reason (glitch), a quick burst of time acceleration will stop it.