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22 years ago, Kerbin was hit by a comet. The 16 kerbals of the Space Station Ranger used its remaining fuel deposits to flee to Eve during the lucky transfer window it got. Arriving at Eve, the crew landed in their various Kerbin reentry pods and began to build underground bases to shield from the radiation and the harsh environment. Now, the 34,000 residents of Eve's only city New Kerbin City but on Eve hopes to return to Kerbin. They do not know how they could escape the thick atmosphere and strong gravity, but these hardened Kerbals knew one thing. It would not be easy. ----------------------------------------------- Yup. A new career game. But not just any career. This time, the KSC is on Eve and HARD MODE. No quicksaves, no reverts, tougher contracts and funds. And Unkerballed Start. And SimpleConstruction. And all their dependencies. But why SimpleConstruction? Because the Goal for this career is to COLONISE KERBIN. This mission report will have some story elements. Jeb: Like this. ----------------------------------------------- Let's get to it.

Hey guys, I've been playing for a couple months now (stock 1.3, no mods), and lately I have decided to tackle the hard mode (or at least the beginning thereof)... Obviously, the biggest issue with this mode (default difficulty settings) lays in the "200% fundings" modifier that makes buildings evolution extremely costly, when you get just 60% of the rewards from your contracts. I got quite inspired by Virgin Galactic and spaceX plans to fly lay people to space for a few (million) bucks, and decided to try and milk the VIP/Tourists suborbital contract till I get enough to upgrade a few buildings (Mission control, VAB, tracking station and launchpad). Interestingly enough it turned quite well and our witty engineers came up with a design that allows me to get 40,000 every 2 minutes (from launchpad to recovery), with minimal intervention (only the first 30 seconds of the 2 minutes, almost a fire & forget! ). Introducing... the Vomit Comet (ta-daaaablurglupblooaaarg!) Basically, all you need is: - To enable physics warp *4 if not already done (allows you to complete the mission in under 2 minutes by warping to *4 just after launching) - Do the 2 first contracts and get enough science and money for the parts and to upgrade the mission control - Take but DO NOT DO THE ORBIT MISSION - Then just build the rocket and get all dem juicy suborbital contracts!!! (just warp to next day if you don't have any left; they will respawn as long as the first orbit hasn't been achieved) Now ,for the fun part: - Get your most stupid pilot in the ship (only takes him activating 2 stages) - Slam 4 tourists in the caske - the first class - Go to the launchpad, max throttle, sas on.... - Launch and immediately warp to *4 DO NOT TOUCH THE CONTROLS - After less than 30 seconds, your SRB should run out of fuel; activate the 2nd stage (sometimes results in a magnificent SRB explosion) - Go do some stuff for 1:30 min, or get all sweaty seeing the Vomit Rocket getting on a lithobraking trajectory - Recover - ??? - Profit! (40k funds and quite some rep) - repeat Once you get used to it, you should be able to milk 10k a minute, including the time spent to check contracts and warp to the next day... The trick of this design is to return the whole second stage, the first stage being only a SRB and a decoupler ... Allows for a 4.5k refund on the < 6k spent on the rocket; more than 75% refund! (can't get closer to an SSTO). But wait there's more to it! The swivel engine balances the rocket and acts as a heatshield during aerobraking, allowing for a nearly automated functionning (launch and press space for stage 2). Almost SSTO, almost automated, high fundings return for a smooth ealy hard game... Enjoy guys! (and feel free to comment and post better designs) -- Zorz

how does mission control calculate where you will end up and how map calculates this. like for translunar injection how do you know how your orbit is by not using map mode

Source code Available Here. 1.1.3 binaries [alternate] Now on CKAN. Old version: Tested on 32 bit. It's experimental, was done in about 5 minutes and isn't guaranteed not to turn your computer into smouldering scrap, and thoroughly shock your kittens. Feel free to play with it and let me know if you think it's too punishing or not punishing enough. Update 24th July 2014: Reputation notice added. Update 20th August 2014: Some startup-related bugs whacked. Thanks, stupid_chris. Update 21st September 2016: Long-overdue maintenance update for 1.1.3