Haven't played KSP since 0.24, what have I missed?

[Riven]

So League drew me in for a while but bored me to death as of late. Decided to make a forum account some time ago but I never got around to using it for real-world aerospace discussion in the Lounge.

I haven't played since 0.24; I can vaguely remember playing with KSP Interstellar, MechJeb, some communications relay/delayed command mod, RSS on one save, FAR, various Soviet-era rockets and engines, and life support. I guess during that time people were asking for a stable 64-bit build for Windows and Mac, I think the former got it but how about the latter? Did a 64-bit Mac version ever materialize? If so then I'll be modding my game as far as my RAM and SSD swap space can take it.

[Mikki]

You`ll be amazed... I think i wast enjoyed about 3000 hours in KSP.. don`t ask...
And hello to the forums, where true Kerbals rule.

[pandaman]

Hi @Riven and welcome. 

What have you missed?  Oooooohhhh lots.

So much has changed I struggle to remember what it was like back then. 

A Unity upgrade has given a big performsnce boost, but some immediately obvious game play changes though are. 

Updated aerodynamics. Proper gravity turns are now the way to get to orbit efficiently.

 Addition of communication/relay network and 'kerbnet' 

Welcpme back.  Enjoy exploring the changes.

[/not/pol/]

5 hours ago, Riven said:

So League drew me in for a while but bored me to death as of late. Decided to make a forum account some time ago but I never got around to using it for real-world aerospace discussion in the Lounge.

I haven't played since 0.24; I can vaguely remember playing with KSP Interstellar, MechJeb, some communications relay/delayed command mod, RSS on one save, FAR, various Soviet-era rockets and engines, and life support. I guess during that time people were asking for a stable 64-bit build for Windows and Mac, I think the former got it but how about the latter? Did a 64-bit Mac version ever materialize? If so then I'll be modding my game as far as my RAM and SSD swap space can take it.

you have missed ALOT. seriously. we have 64 Bit meaning push your game as far as your RAM expenditure can go. we have new parts STOCK Communication's networks Master improved aero dynamics Female kerbals and so so so much moar.

[The Aziz]

You pretty much have to unlearn what you've learned.

Physics are far more accurate, no more "straight up to 10km and turn 45°". Well, it could work, but it's not the most efficient way to fly, and you can just burn up in the atmosphere.

And a lot more (was there a career mode in 0.24?)

Also, mod section is as good as always.

[wumpus]

Rocket stability is completely different.  As mentioned, aerodynamics finally work (although maybe not as well if you had feram installed), so expect to be *required* to have aerodynamically stable rockets.  Not only are flying pancakes no longer a valid means of ascent, but stability is also nasty, making pointy rockets flip out of control after going supersonic.

As in, learn to build and fly rockets all over again.

Connection strength has also varied wildly, and there is a new "autostrut" feature to hopefully avoid the nightmare of having to manually add struts (and then find out they didn't connect on the launch pad).  Not sure if the connection strength is higher or lower than .24.

As usual, more parts (although this might be moot if you added enough mods).  Much of the parts are spaceplane/airplane parts lately, not sure about .24 (although I think there was another large of bigger parts since then).

I suspect that if .24 had a "career" mode, it just unlocked the science tree.  KSP now has a "proper career" mode with grinding.  It still has problems and can get in the way of the fun, so I can't recommend it if you just want to go to Mun/Minmus/Duna (although it would probably help if you need to start learning KSP again including basic ascent).

[Riven]

Thanks everyone! Looks like I've indeed missed a ton!

6 hours ago, /not/pol/ said:

we have 64 Bit meaning push your game as far as your RAM expenditure can go

64-bit... oh boy. I'm probably gonna be one of those people with close to 100 mods

7 hours ago, pandaman said:

Updated aerodynamics. Proper gravity turns are now the way to get to orbit efficiently.

 

3 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Physics are far more accurate, no more "straight up to 10km and turn 45°". Well, it could work, but it's not the most efficient way to fly, and you can just burn up in the atmosphere.

Reminds me that I used to play FAR all the time so it shouldn't be too much of a problem but ooooh stock realism like aerodynamics and burning up in the atmosphere - KSP has come quite far in the time I've been gone.

3 hours ago, wumpus said:

I suspect that if .24 had a "career" mode, it just unlocked the science tree.  KSP now has a "proper career" mode with grinding.  It still has problems and can get in the way of the fun, so I can't recommend it if you just want to go to Mun/Minmus/Duna (although it would probably help if you need to start learning KSP again including basic ascent).

I think they had just released a career mode, but I wasn't too much of a fan (probably because it wasn't that great). I'll definitely give it a go after I assemble my addon/mod list :3

[Jabbman]

5 hours ago, wumpus said:

... Not only are flying pancakes no longer a valid means of ascent...

Oh, I beg to differ!

[NSEP]

Space Centre destruction.

Part overhauls

Areodynamics improved

Waaay better preformance

Fairings

Relay networks

More

More More

More More More

More More More More

[Guest]

8 hours ago, wumpus said:

flying pancakes no longer a valid means of ascent

About that...

 

[The Aziz]

2 hours ago, NSEP said:

Space Centre destruction.

Oh, right

New explosions!

Lots of them!

Though, they were introduced in 0.25 so you've missed the most Kerbal update just by a bit. 

Good to have another Kerbonaut back on board anyway!

[Sharpy]

Some more minor things:

buoyancy and hydrodynamics - actual submarines, where you can use fins to go up or down.

lots of cool new parts.  Endgame 1.25m engine for Space Shuttle, which you'll need to stick on an early game rocket for totally ludicrous TWR. 0.625 jet engine for puny planes. Mk3 parts no longer snap from a sneeze - you can make actually mighty sturdy things out of them. Laboratory for research "on site", big, fragile, unwieldy, power-hungry but if you manage to get it to the destination you open a treasure trove of science.  A telescope to be placed on a satellite to detect more asteroids.

Whole heat management system. Drills, ISRU etc need cooling, and there are static radiators and big extendable radiators, and caveats like reentry heating making the radiator actually heat you up, and so on. Generally, heat can play nasty tricks. And reentry is actually difficult, no more vertical landing on return from Eeloo.

New fuel crossfeed rules with prioritizing tanks. Asparagus without pipes.

Most of old krakenbaits are fixed. You can use the Klaw without fear, even dock to an armed klaw, or swing on released pivot.

What's worse?

- wheels. Around 1.1.3 or so they got totally broken, into a bouncy mess, 1.2 fixed them...mostly, but they still like to misbehave under heavier loads. Landing gear has stress rating and the low-level landing gear is really crap.

- "seams" - as the maps of planets are stitched, they align worse than before. Usually the cracks are barely visible, but sometimes they are big enough any rover will be destroyed.

[Spacetraindriver]

Your rockets also now require less than 50% of struts than they used to! (Actual Math not done) But due to the fact there are bigger parts with bigger engines you would probably require a nice 200% more struts. (Just kidding)

Seriously though, no more noddle rockets! Just flippy rockets!  

Ok, for real, building bigger rockets is easier now with joint reinforcement updates. I think that's what they're called.

[The Aziz]

3 hours ago, Sharpy said:

 A telescope to be placed on a satellite to detect more asteroids.

Excuse me?

I'm trying to keep up with update content since, like, 0.2something, and I haven't heard of any telescope yet. Not seen in game either.

[Sharpy]

8 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Excuse me?

I'm trying to keep up with update content since, like, 0.2something, and I haven't heard of any telescope yet. Not seen in game either.

Sentinel. ...uh, wait, it's not in stock still? Okay, that's Official Mod,

[KerikBalm]

On 2/4/2017 at 5:36 AM, Riven said:

some communications relay/delayed command mod

There is now a stock communications relay system. There is not signal delay. Strong connections boost the % science transmitted. There are some options to configure, but by default there are 6 (or more?) ground stations on kerbin, so you don't need a relay system for low kerbin orbit, but you do need such systems for the far side of other bodies. By default, probes have "limited" control when there is no connection - you can't control them with the keyboard anymore - except you can fire the engines(but no throttle control, just all or nothing). Additionally (I don't know if this feature was in 0.24 yet or not), next to the navball are buttons to hold prograde/retrograde/radail/antiradial/maneuver node heading (depending on the probe core, those options may be available) - those still work. You can place maneuver nodes before losing a connection, and have the probe orient itself to the maneuver node and fire its engines. Likewise, you could execute a landing by telling the probe to follow retrograde and fire the engines for a suicide burn.

Or you can configure it so that probes are completely unresponsive

Pilots in certain command pods, or on vessels with certain advanced probe cores can act as control points for other probes if you can't establish a connection back to KSC.

Quote

FAR,

The new aero is like the old FAR. Intake spamming is gone. Maximum airbreathing speed is ~1,600 m/s (for 1.2, in 1.1 it seemed much harder to reach these speeds) The soup-o-sphere is gone. The atmosphere's of Duna and laythe have changed significantly (Duna is just 0.067 atmospheres now, not 0.2 like before. Laythe is 0.6 atmosheres instead of 0.8). The scale height is not constant (as in real life). Re-entry heating is a real concern now - particularly for Eve and direct aerocapture at laythe. We have new heat shield parts, fairings, service/cargo bays(for protecting less heat resistant parts), etc to deal with this

Parachutes don't auto disconnect when you touch the ground. You can configure control surfaces. New landing gear, new aerodynamic parts, etc.

Quote

 people were asking for a stable 64-bit build for Windows and Mac, I think the former got it but how about the latter? Did a 64-bit Mac version ever materialize?

I'm not sure of the mac (I was on a mac, but switched to a PC), but its certainly true for windows.

 

Also, we got new wheel physics (that took some getting used to and teething problems), hydrodynamics, bouyancy...

Stock resource scanning and ISRU mechanics. A stock feature somewhat similar to scansat (not super similar though) that allows one to find anomalies and place targetable markers on the surface of bodies. 

New contract mechanics... uh...the bugs with the Claw are gone.

Part "autostrutting" which makes use of the normal struts a bit unnecessary.

"massless" parts are no longer massless: they add mass and drag to their parent part.

Engine Isps and balance has been reworked.

Oh: different vessels in the same "physics bubble" will be run on different CPU cores-> ie there's better optimization/ support for multi-core machines

The "physics bubble" has been expanded about 10x in the atmosphere - which makes some short burn-duration reusable boosters viable (you can make designs where detachable boosters land before leaving the physics bubble)

 

After all the limitations and effort one has to put into to use probes, I wouldn't be surprised if life support is added soon. The biggest relay antenna is 0.65 tons- why bother with that when you can slap a lander can on it for 0.6 tons and have local control with no constant power drain, extra EC storage and reaction wheel torque?