Northstar1989

1. Been using 1/4th resolution for a long time now. Still looks great (I don't really notice a difference unless I set it to 1/8th res) 2. I have antialiasing set down to 2x. The jagged edges really bother me, but 2x is fine for me. 3. The "Scatter Enabled" box is unchecked, and the density set down to 10%- as I sometimes still seem to encounter a little scatter regardless. 4. VAB/SPH lag is a complete non-issue for me, even when editing computer-crashing part counts that kill my FPS once they make it to the launchpad/runway. See below. My game isn't laggy at all in the SPH or VAB. It's most laggy on the ground- and gets exponentially less so the further I get from a thick atmosphere. i.e. Duna isn't laggy at all even near "sea level", Kerbin is quite a bit so on the ground- but far less in the upper atmosphere, and not at all above about 120,000 meters; and Eve is so laggy on the ground it's nearly unplayable for me (I am *NEVER* setting up a base there anyways, given the atmospheric density and gravity, so whatever. It will only affect a couple probes and manned missions there for !SCIENCE!) I think it has something to do with the rendering of the horizon and terrain in an atmosphere- since my FPS are MUCH better if I face the camera straight up, and to a lesser degree if down into the ground... Glad to see you've been following Specialist. I've already sent several probes, tankers, and even permanent space stations to the Jool and Duna systems in previous saves. I just never landed anywhere in the systems- partly because I tend to *VERY* carefully engineer my rockets (no 20-tank lag machines for me- I find I can often pack in way more delta V than I need anyways with a carefully designed rocket that carries no excess weight and stages in a clever manner- and maybe a little orbital refueling...), and I spend a LOT of time designing efficient lander-equipped missions when I make them... I am currently working on an efficient design to deliver an orbital science lab (from KSP Interstellar- it generates science at a very slow rate, and only becomes available near the very end of the tech tree- it appears it should be most useful for reaching the super-expensive nodes it adds a couple tiers after the tree normally ends) to Laythe orbit. So far, I tested using the Near Future mod's plasma magnetoplasodynamic thrusters (impressed by its 24 kN thrust and ion engine-like ISP's), but found that even a single thruster burns through Rockomax-64 sized hydrogen tanks at an incredible rate, due to the *very* low density of the mod's "HydrogenGas" fuel... So unless I want to pack about 80 of the largest Hydrogen tanks into a single rocket (which many tanks would still only weigh about 0.8 tons in total- full), and probably have to refuel them all once, getting a relatively heavy payload (more than 5 tons- the Science Lab alone is 3.5) to the Jool system in a reasonable amount of time using that system is out of the question...

In a move the wisdom of which is yet to be revealed, I have added the following mods: (and backed up my savegame) TAC Fuel Balancer (Utility) KSP Interstellar Mod (extremely futuristic technologies- more advanced and EXPENSIVE than even the NearFuture Mod, I think of it as a sort of far-off future mod...) I'm also toying with adding the HOME and/or Kethane mods... Oh, and MechJeb, once they work out the bugs in the current version. I'm worried about what the Kethane mod will do to my already laggy game though (for that matter, I'm worried about KSP Interstellar for the same reasons)... Basically, I'm going for resource gathering and expansion of my interstellar reach. Especially with new, more distant locations to visit thanks to the PlanetFactory mod... Still looking for new ideas though. Is anyone reading this???

My Eve probe (see main thread) makes a pitstop on Gilly for some extra SCIENCE! And, a beautiful sunset. I love how low the gravity is on Gilly. Reaction wheels alone are capable of righting my transfer stage and all with enough force to actually jump it quite a few meters off the ground (from nudging the ground on the way up).

THIS THREAD IS CLOSED, AND A NUMBER OF THE MORE RECENT IMAGES HAVE BEEN LOST FOREVER (THANKS TO IMGUR). IT'S FINISHED. KAPUT. PLEASE SEE MY NEW THREAD, "KERBIN AND BEYOND: A NEW BEGINNING" IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE TO FOLLOW MY MISSIONS IN KSP. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86535-Kerbin-and-Beyond-A-New-Beginning APOLOGIES, NORTHSTAR Kerbals love exploring space. They love exploring it so much that they developed their first rockets before they developed wheels! Already, brave Kerbal explorers have set foot on the Mun, Minmus, and most of Kerbal's biomes (excluding the Tundra and Badlands, if I have the second name correct, which are both harder-to-find with a low-res orbital map...) They've designed aircraft that can circumnavigate Kerbin TWICE (image below), and they've sent probes off towards Duna and Eve (neither has yet arrived, but see images below). Oh, and they also placed a fuel depot in orbit of Kerbin to facilitate heavier missions (images below)- and plan on putting another identical one high in orbit of the Mun. EXTRA PICS in SCREENSHOTS thread (hasn't been updated in a long while though) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57508-Kerbin-and-Beyond-a-Maturing-Space-Program Double-Circumnavigation Jetliner (designed for the Kerbal Airliner Challenge) DUNA Probe EVE Probe Fuel Depot (note the KAS winches for fuel-transfer) Now, however, as three brave Kerbal explorers (Enrick- the pilot, Jerbo, and Neddred, from left to right) stand on yet another biome of the Mun (Highlands biome- picture below), the question arises- where to next? What should they do when they get there? (For those who were curious- the lander only holds one Kerbal, but two more rode down on the rovers. They can get back into orbit by re-attaching the commands seats from the rovers to the lander- using KAS.) I've developed this thread to try and solicit good/creative/interesting mission ideas. I've developed quite a bit of skill in rocketry over several months playing KSP, though I still mostly launch my payloads straight up- as I only recently developed my first spaceplane (images below). I haven't yet actually landed on any planets outside the Kerbin system with anything more than a couple light probes on Duna and Ike in a previous save (none yet in this one- the last one was unmodded Career Mode, and I deleted it after starting my current modded Career mode save), but I could easily send a manned mission anywhere in the solar system- I've sent at least 8 or 9 orbital probes, manned orbital labs, fuel tankers, and fuel depots (tankers to refill the fuel depots, in prep for planned manned missions, in previous saves- now deleted), probably more, to the Jool, Duna, and Eve systems in previous saves- though the labs all got eaten by a couple universe-crash bugs shortly after arrival- so I never got to attempt an EVA-only landing on Pol from one of the Jool labs- which I was planning. Updated Mods List: Kerbal Attachment System v0.4.5 (useful for transferring fuel w/o hard docking, and in-field minor modifications to spacecraft and rovers) B9 Aerospace R4-0c (the larger wings are indispensable) Procedural Dynamics v0.7 (aka. Procedural Wings- the customizability and size of wings it allows is unimaginable- now I can design EXACTLY what I want/need) Stretchy Tanks v0.2.2 (same idea- customizability and scalability- but with fuel tanks) Firespitter Mod v6.1.1/Pre3 [REDUCED] (I love the electric propellers- extraterrestrial aircraft just became a lot more feasible!) Novapunch 2.03a (My computer is very slow/weak- so the larger diameter tanks/engines help a LOT with reducing heavy launch platform part counts) with TEXTURE REDUCTION Multipanels 1.0 (A tiny mod that adds scaled-up static solar panels. They are proportionally heavier and larger, but save on part count. Saves FPS mostly.) NearFuture 0.33 (Decent mod- a little over-simplified and unbalanced compared to, say, KSP Interstellar- but still very cool/realistic- as much as KSP ever gets) KSP Interstellar v0.10.1 (AMAZING mod- adds a ton of features, especially many focused on realistic and difficult resource extraction. Beats Kethane Mod hands-down for long-term mission sustainability- at least as far as realism and greater difficulty go...) Krag's PlanetFactory Nov8 2013 version (first mod EVER to add new planets and moons to the game, that aren't just re-textured versions of the ones Squad made. I GREATLY look forwards to exploring them- but they are analogs for Saturn- "Sentar", big comets like Haley's Comet- "Ascension", and a few dwarf planets mostly- so they're much harder to reach than the original destinations... Off-world bases should come in handy here though...) Kethane Pack 0.8.4 (this is a new one for me- I'll have to see how I like being able to mine methane, *cough*, Kethane all over the place- even places I shouldn't realistically find it, like the Mun... It DOES enable Extraplanetary Launchpads' ore-mining though...) Extraplanetary Launchpads v 3.7 (it's not as easy/cheaty as you may be led to believe- at least not if you play it legit in Career Mode like I do. The tech nodes to unlock it are pretty advanced, and the infrastructure it requires is HEAVY. The rockets aren't free once you can build them either- you still have to haul every last ton of Dry Mass to the launchpad from Kerbin as the "RocketParts" resource, and ALL the fuel the new craft will require too... You can also mine "Ore", much like Kethane, which can be refined into "Metal" and then into "RocketParts") Orbital Construction Re-Redux (shares the "RocketParts" resource with ExLchnpds, but without the need for all the heavy infrastructure for ground construction... May sound easier- but this is realistic- it's actually much easier to build large, massive things like rockets in zero-gravity environments in real life...) Utilities: TAC Fuel Balancer v2.1 (a simple utility- it adds the ability to launch with empty tanks, partial fills, etc.- and a better system for balancing you fuel tanks in-flight) Ferram's Kerbal Joint Reinforcement v1.7 (ESSENTIAL until the next update stabilizes joints, and hopefully physics loads. I only added this just before establishing my mountaintop launchpad [see page 13] and I'm glad I did. Before adding this mod, I was having a lot of trouble with ships inexplicably exploding or losing parts when landed, Kerbals glitching into said ships or the ground and exploding, etc. Not nearly as often any more. Once again, an ESSENTIAL mod for KSP in its current state as of 0.23) MechJeb v2.1.1.0 DevBuild #168 (useful if my computer is being too laggy to fly a craft properly, or if I just don't want to be bothered making that hour-long burn for an ion probe...) MechJeb/RemoteTech for All (I'm only using the wildcard utility to add MechJeb2 to all my cockpits- the last thing I need on my laggy computer is an extra part...) Kerbal Alarm Clock v2.7.0 (Useful when I have 6-7 ships en-route to Duna at the same time, and I don't want to miss a SOI transition!) Active Texture Management Texture-Compressor Plugin (sort of a utility- compresses and reduces all textures in the game, including those of mods. Takes less RAM memory to compensate for reduced textures by running at full-res than to run game normally on half or quarter-res.) I eagerly await new and exciting ideas. SPECIAL MENTION: I feel Krag's Planet Factory is important enough it deserves a shout-out for the link. I think EVERY player should install it- even if you normally only play stock. The vanilla game is sadly poor in planets and moons to explore- and this adds more variety... http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1q008p/expansionkrags_planetfactorysentar_system/ P.S. I won't beg for reputation points- but don't forget that if you like this thread, you can "award" me reputation for it- which helps to show my dedication to this game. Regards, Northstar

In relation to my budding space program (thread in Mission Reports http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57509-Kerbin-and-Beyond-a-Maturing-Spac.e-Program), here are a couple of particularly beautiful and scenic screenshots I took of one of my Mun rovers at the edge of a Mun crater at sunset. Enjoy. (For those who saw earlier pics of the two rovers- I reallocated all the solar panels and scientific instruments to one using KAS, and terminated the other, to reduce the # of flights in progress. Stripped the command seats from both rovers and attached them to the lander to bring the extra two Kerbals back to orbit.)

Ok, so, first of all, my airliner. Bit of a ungainly albatross of a plane, but she has great lift, good stability (I've pulled out of many tailspins with her on test flights) and I'm very proud of her incredible fuel-efficiency... The plane has: 850 fuel capacity 2 pilots 34 passenger capacity (in Firespitter passenger fuselages) 1 turbojet engine (from B9 Aerospace) And, I went for an extra bit of challenge, and made this in my newest Career mode game, with limited technology (hence the biplane wheels and the reason for the multiple-fuselage design in the first place, instead of just another giant cargo bat filled with command seats). So NO, I'm not going to hire 27 additional Kerbals (I have 9 in active rotation- I only used 4 on this mission) just so I can fill it up- and be stuck with all of them afterwards. I filled both pilot seats, and one of the passenger modules (I took a screenshot before liftoff of the crew hatch screen for it, but I'm not sure what happened to it...) You'll just have to trust me on this, those 17 things with the windows and the yellow stickers are all indeed passenger modules, and can hold 2 Kerbals each... Second, an in-flight picture: And finally, my attempt at landing on the island runway. I massively overshot the KSC because I got so focused on maintaining level flight and cruising altitude (no MechJeb for me) that I didn't realize I was past the KSC until I was already halfway across the ocean to the east of it. As a result, I performed a steep dive down, and turned towards the island runway, as it was closer (and worth more points)... This should have been relatively easy- but lately my computer has been acting up, and it slowed down to about 12-16 frames per minute- so I couldn't control turning well if my life depended on it. As a result, my approach angle was way off, and I crashed, lightly (no parts were destroyed, no Kerbals killed, and the G-forces didn't even exceed my peak of 3.2 when I was performing a rapid dive towards the end of my flight)- right into the air controllers' tower. So, first of all, the last of my three flyby's, thanks to lag making accurate line-up near impossible (the plane has under 100 parts, by the way) As you can see, I had 371 fuel in this screenshot. After that, I just got fed up with it, and attempted to land at a terrible angle- straight towards the control tower. I knew from experience my plane could stop very quickly once it touched down- so I figured I could stop short of it. I probably could have. However, I forgot that the tower's collision box goes way beyond the actual tower, thanks to all the debris scattered in front of it- so I didn't have to hit the actual tower for my plane to break apart first (and then skid to the resting spots shown here) As you can see here, the fuel got broken into multiple pieces, so it's impossible to get an accurate count in just one image: The landing was a FAIL. However I did manage to carry a 34-Kerbal payload around Kerbin, *PAST* the KSC, circle around to the island runway and make no fewer than THREE flyby's before attempting landing on the fourth, and finally, land without killing anyone (even if the plane had been full- no parts were destroyed), all with 369 fuel left over (I did my last approach, where I crashed, mostly on glide mode- as it was costing me about 10 fuel/flyby when powered, even on minimal throttle- due to very-low atmosphere inefficient Isp and high drag). For the record, I could have done it on far less than half my fuel- I had 450/850 left when I realized I had massively overshot the KSC, and decided to turn around... Finally, the flight log: As you'll notice, I cleared Mach 3 (even huge planes with tons of wings like mine can reach very high speeds when flying at 27,000-30,000 meters). I flew for over 2 hours and 15 minutes. I traveled a ground distance of over 4,284,000 meters (for reference, Kerbin circumference is 3,769,911 meters). And I had enough fuel left upon (crash) landing that I could have done it again without refueling (remember, it took me 400 fuel from a full 850 to *massively* overshoot the KSC.) I would normally complain that the fuel-scoring system favors big, heavy planes that waste lots of fuel (50% of an 850-fuel plane's fuel is still a LOT less than 25% of a 8400-fuel craft's fuel). IMHO it should be based on PERCENTAGE of fuel left at landing. But I did crash at the end, so I'll be happy if I'm just given the points for the fuel I had left... In finale, the score: Pilots 2 x 15 = 30 pts Passengers 34 x 30 = 1020 pts Fuel 4 x 10 (rounded up to 400) = 40 pts Speed 3 x 50 = 150 pts Penny Pincher = 100 pts Blackout = 25 pts Engine shortage = 100 pts B9 Aerospace Mod = -90 pts Firespitter Mod - -90 pts Total = 1285 pts Could've had 50-85 more pts if not for my darn overshoot of the KSC, and that lag-induced crash landing, but oh well- it wouldn't have changed anything. I still place in 2nd either way. Coming NEXT, if I ever get the willpower to fly for that long: my heavy all-electric model (it's a bit smaller- but still with three fuselages), just for kicks (and to be a "Green" CEO). It doesn't travel that fast (it hits a high of a bit under Mach 1 in a very steep high-altitude dive- and could sustain around 200 m/s in level flight in an earlier version I made, before I stripped off 6 of its 9 engines to reduce lag- which is still very impressive for an electric plane... I haven't tested the newer, weaker version, much yet), its altitude ceiling isn't all that high (16,000 meters with the 9 electric propellers), though once again, impressive for an electric; and it's solar-powered, so it has to fly WEST from the KSC, leaving around late afternoon (it flies faster than Kerbin rotates), to circumnavigate the globe successfully. On last though: I originally designed the electric model as a heavier derivative of a mid-sized plane I designed for the "Flying Duna AGAIN" Challenge, inspired by the Kethane Traveling Circus... Unfortunately, I still wasn't impressed enough with its altitude ceiling to justify the enormous effort in launching it on a SABRE engine stage (from B9 Aerospace) or spaceplane, to get to Duna (17,200 meters on Kerbin, with 5 propellers, and a lot less mass)- so I decided to put off the challenge until I develop the Career Mode tech node for Structural Wings and Wingboards (which I plan to use to create an all-electric plane without fuselages beyond the cockpit). Still, the link if anybody's interested in attempting the Challenge themselves. It's not easy: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50619-Flying-Duna-AGAIN

By the way, did you try placing the parachutes right on the center of mass of the plane? In my medium-altitude electric plane design (the one I just posted about) I was having the same problem, until I moved the parachutes to directly on top of the center of mass. Basically, parachutes tend to exert torque on your craft if they're placed off-COM, which is what makes your plane lawn-dart. So, you're left with two options- try and balance the torque with parachutes on both ends- which is tricky to get right at best unless your craft is front-to-back symmetrical as well- or place the parachutes right on the COM. The plane will still tend to tip some- you'll never get the 'chutes exactly on the COM- but if you're close enough you can stop the thing from tipping tail or nose-up (depending on which end the parachutes are on) with control surfaces alone.

Difficult challenge Geschosskopf- but the hardest part is getting the thing to orbit from Kerbin! Inspired in part by your Kethane Traveling Circus episodes, I already built an all-electric plane that's almost up to the challenge- it can cruise at 16000 meters on Kerbin (that's the same pressure as 4770 meters on Duna) and is plenty maneuverable and powerful for the job. The first problem is, after about 16000 meters, the Firespitter electric propellers I used (and you used in the D'OH) start to leak coolant (FSCoolant)- and stop working soon after that when they run out! How did you get your plane to over 6000 meters on Duna? The propellers should have lost all their coolant long before then... The second problem I face, is, as I said, getting the darn thing to orbit. You see, I built the thing in Career mode (bonus points for doing it in Career mode before discovering all the nodes, anyone?) and I haven't even discovered Ramjet engines yet, nonetheless SABRE ones (I'm running B9 Aerospace, KAS, Firespitter Mod, NovaPunch2, Near-Future mod- which is balanced and realistic advanced ion engines and nuclear power, and Multipanels 1.0- which basically is just a static panel weld mod)- either of which would be required to get the thing high enough to orbit it like a spaceplane. So it's going to be a real hassle getting the thing into orbit- I'm pretty sure the lift of the thing would tip any rocket over I sat it on top of or on the side of... My only option (before discovering more tech nodes) seems to be sending TWO copies of the plane to Duna, on each side of a huge rocket- but the part count for that on the Launchpad would kill my weak/slow computer (or invite the Kraken over for dinner)... Let me know if you have any ideas- otherwise, it's waiting until I get better propulsion methods (SABRE, or at least Ramjet engines) so I can send the thing to orbit via spaceplane, like you did in the KTC... That is, if I don't lose interest in the challenge before I get to the node... As a side-note, I've recently been experimenting with using Turbojet engines alone to get to orbit (they pop up on the tech tree intermediate between basic jet engines and ramjet engines when you have B9 Aerospace installed). They make it to a vaguely suborbital trajectory (63,350 meter apoapsis), but I haven't quite been able to get up to 80,000 meters or so with them yet (where I'd have enough head-room for an orbital burn)