Anyone interested? Ultimate Grand Tour Galactic Neighborhood.

[hawkinator]

So, I'm thinking about doing a Galactic Neighborhood Ultimate Interstellar Grand Tour using the [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/128856-WIP-1-0-4-Galactic-Neighborhood-Integration-of-multiple-planet-packs-in-the-same-game"]Galactic Neighborhood mod[/URL] as well as a bunch of planet packs supported by GN. Therefore, I have a few questions:

Which destinations should be included in a UIGT? The GN mod includes several systems that only include stars, with no planets to land on. Should those be simply skipped, and if we should go there, what should we do in a solar system with no planets in it?

ISRU and a warp drive mod are basically requirements to make this sort of thing feasible.

Which planet packs should be included? I rather doubt that I'll be able to get all of the planet packs supported by GN to fit in my 3 GB of ram along with the mod for warp drives. This means there is a high likelihood that I'll have to pick and choose certain planet packs. Any ideas which ones are better candidates for this sort of thing?

And lastly, would you like to see this as [noparse]A:)[/noparse] A series of mission reports [noparse]B:)[/noparse] A series of Youtube videos [noparse]C:)[/noparse] Something else [noparse]D:)[/noparse] Two or all of the above [noparse]E:)[/noparse] None of the above. Edited November 17, 2015 by hawkinator

[Esme]

I woudl be fascinated to see reports of such a game. My personal inclination is to just go and explore whatever I can, but with some kind of progression system hence my preference for Scince rather than Contract games, and I'd love to be able to take my Kerbals to the stars (they haven't evengot to Duna yet!). So I;d be interested as to how well it all works out for you, but n the other hand - I wouldn't read/watch every episode as I'd be hoping to do something similar myself one day, and would want to be surprised occasionally. :-}

[Francois424]

If this finds it's way on youtube let us know.

I always like series like that (that gets further away than Kerbin/Moon/Minmus)

Edit:
Q. The GN mod includes several systems that only include stars, with no planets to land on. Should those be simply skipped, and if we should go there, what should we do in a solar system with no planets in it?
R. Just send a probe and set it to orbit the star... That will make Astrophysicists back home happy as they get to collect good data ! Edited November 17, 2015 by Francois424

[mrclucks]

First of all, that mod sounds freaking awesome.
The super grand tour would require a boatload of dv and a lot of time warping.
For systems with just stars, I think a simple fly by would suffice and I would love to see a YouTube series of this happening

[quyxkh]

Maybe KSP should reincarnate Starflight

[problemecium]

I'm all for this, but allow me to advise you to [i]take your time[/i]. There's a LOT of planets out there, and I wouldn't want you skimping on the missions just so you can get to all of them.

It may also be wise to send a flotilla. I'm usually a proponent of massive singular motherships, but if you're going on a multi-system grand tour, you're likely to go way beyond KSP's "reasonable" part count limits. It can also save you time if you send each ship to a few planets, and stagger their arrival times using KAC so you can take turns visiting planets one after the other without having to wait years and years every time. I guess that's not technically a grand tour in the classical sense any more, but you'd still be visiting everything and it'd still make a fun series to follow - something like Kuzzter's Duna and Eve stories involving multiple ships.

[sdj64]

The part count really depends on if the mods installed allow you to bring a lander that can SSTO from all the planets you want to land on. If you can, it will decrease the part count drastically. I could see 3 main components: lander, transfer stage that can land on low gravity moons and refuel, and a scanning satellite if your preferred ISRU requires it. Without an SSTO lander, you might want to bring additional ships to carry landers or disposable lander stages. I had an almost working Eve lander that could be reused by attaching new drop tanks on docking ports. It would keep its core with engines, crew, batteries, and most of its part count, while the stages are just 2 parts each - tanks with docking ports on them that are dropped in an asparagus pattern.

If you really want to go to every system, install them one at a time and delete them afterward if all you leave is flags. More complicated if you want to leave stuff behind like rovers and probes.

As for the format of sharing it, use anything that can possibly contain the awesomeness of such a mission. Youtube or a storyline are more engaging than just pictures but whatever works.

[Sigma88]

I think I'll follow it regardless of what you choose ;)

But if I had to choose, probably youtube. It allows to multitask, have a video on a screen and in the meantime do other stuff on other screens...

[bigyihsuan]

I would say to make a YouTube series.

Since you're installing mods anyway, you should install the two SpaceY mods (vanilla SpaceY and SpaceY Extended for 7.5m rockets) for the massive rockets needed to get to the other stars.

[Archgeek]

I'd say a weird combination of mothership and flotillia -- Multiple fusion/antimatter powered interplanetary vesels, some scanny probes, and options to alter loadouts for each system by docking most everything to anything else -- all of which in turn dock to a single warp-capable mothership that takes the whole fleet from star system to star system.

[cantab]

Unless you wait until 1.1 - which may mean not starting the mission until February - or use Linux you'll probably have to add and remove planet packs. That will mean some finagling with the save file, but it should be possible.