Camaron

Modular. Since I am a master of stock docking, I often build crafts with detachable points that can reconfigure the engines attached or add/remove fuel capacities. I've been messing around with interchangeable design since 2014.

I once had a Kerbal who decided he was going to EVA from a spaceplane at supersonic speeds. He rolled over the plane and became wedged in the tailfins. He spent a long time that way, knowing full well he was going to die while the plane continued at full throttle, until it presumably eventually crashed into the ocean. (Or ground, It was a vary stable plane and I wasn't about to wait 20 minutes or an hour to see the inevitable and obvious result.)

Heh. I wasn't really suggesting you use a micro-ion ship, just seeing if I could slap together 30k+ with one stage. Smart staging is going to be key for a real grand tour ship with enough power to carry what you need for all of the landings. also, with the exception of EVE, your lander can be modular and re-docked with other configurations for each world. It probably Involves a core ship in one launch, The Landers in another, and all of the drop-tanks for the trip in other launches. The way I built mine, I had four Rocko 64's (it was a long time ago) per launch and on the 64's each had a set of decouplers, with RCS, a probe core and an RTG. This let them maneuver themselves into place to dock with the primary craft, and then it was able to blast away the extra, now-useless pieces, leaving only a tank. That's the easy way anyway, without building stuff that requires something like Hexa-docking.

For the lulz. Fully valid with a seat, solar and SAS

I love the strange and interesting ships that show up so often on the WIP thread! Anyway, here's mine, a W-I-P Crew trainer SSTO which is designed to Successfully carry 52 Kerbals to orbit, and then to Minmus and land. It then uses its drilling system to refuel, carrying up to 24,800 Liquid fuel for a fairly gigantic D/V allowing the crew trainer to journey just about anywhere. It has so far been tested to reach orbit with 1,900+ d/v (enough to make the trip to minmus and land) as well as a stable re-entry and landing. Credit where credit is due, this plane was insipred by Rune's Sabre-Foil several months ago, which was also a great learning tool in becoming better at constructing extremely successful SSTO's. Thanks, Rune! Here it is: The Diamondback Type III (Top pic is actually outdated but its very, very similar)

http://imgur.com/SRLQAOC

And finally, after not playing KSP for a while, a hideous prototype of the promised "Giant Version" (I'm thinking of calling it "Diamondback"). It reaches orbit with a D/V of over 2600, after launching from the runway with less than half of its potential LF. It carries a drilling and scanning kit along with 30 Kerbals. KER says this plane should have around 6,750 D/V with full LF and empty Oxy.

Let me tell you.....While I was testing an EPIC-ly powerful Intel Xeon 2695 V3 in my PC, it lagged considerably easier than my i7 5820k. As it currently stands, KSP's performance for physics is almost purely clock speed. That may be changing in 1.1, but for now, Clock speed is king. That said, a 5960X is just ripping yourself off for no reason. Get a 5820K if you're going the socket 2011-3 way. Its faster clock would actually edge out the 5960X for KSP anyway. And when the 1.1 update drops, you're still better off getting an ES 2695V3 from ebay for that kind of cash.

IN THE GODDAMNED LHS 3447 SYSTEM!!! (No wonder I couldn't find him)

I did it with a modified version of Rune's ship featured on the both the first and the last posts of page 4.

In my modifications I caused the craft to be too forward-heavy for that sort of heavily angled re-entry, so I couldn't pitch up the way you had designed it.

With the modified version I was flying, I got a total of 3,912. I actually tested that by flying Rune's Sabrefoil To the Duna system. The first photo is from after reallocating fuel upon making orbit. The second photo is in orbit of Ike when that fuel ran out, and I took all of the remaining fuel to the center. I made it home but reentry is challenging. I didn't have the patience to work it out at the time, and started on my giant version. Thank you Rune, this was the perfect plane to teach me how to build extreme-performance spaceplanes!

I know. I have no idea why one engine switched like that. It didn't happen again. Finally orbited the darn thing. I certainly don't have 5,000dv left, only made it to LKO with 1463 total LF. I won't become a skilled pilot overnight. Also, I'm not very patient with 20-minute ascents. Also, after losing several life-and-death conflicts with the evil tailfin, I rebuilt it into a much more stable (and slightly lighter) version that I was able to get along with. It's a tad uglier tho. This design tweak is overall a half-ton lighter than the original. Someone with pilot training could make some serious progress with that. Maybe we could actually crack 5k dv on orbit with a skilled flyer? Later....(edit) Dropping 0.703 tons or the dryweight makes an enormous difference! Managed to take 1821 LF to orbit this time with the same substandard piloting. Here is my final modification before attempting to build my giant version, which I'm thinking of calling "Runebane".

Oh neet. I think I'll tear it apart and build a giant one Seems to be my thing. Something works. Let's scale it up until it doesn't!

Where's the love for the Nerva and the IX-6315 Dawn? I just love those Xenon powered ships. They'll take you to the edge of the solar system and back again without trouble.

Very cool. Need more well-lit shots.

I did nothing. Nothing at all.

Name it KOOKLE

Awesome. But you aren't done. Better build some gravity rings or its incomplete.

I found out about KSP at 0.20. I did what I always do, and pirated it first to see if it was worthy of buying. Got hooked so hard I forgot I was playing a stolen copy. Four (or five? or seven?) months (the entire 2013 summer and more) of 12 hours per day Krack addiction made possible by the fact that I work from home with extremely dense hours, my best friend came down on me like an intervention and brought it to my attention that I needed to get a grip and reign in my playtime to a reasonable amount. (Assuming 4 - 8 months before buying, 12 hours x 30.5 days, equals between 1,464 and 2928 hours that aren't counted on the steam clock.) By the time I remembered to legitimately buy it, the price had gone up to $30, which I bought on steam. The steam copy now also clocks 1050 hours. And that steam clock doesn't count any modded copies I played for weeks, which get copied out from the steam folder, and steam doesn't see those, and doesn't count their hours. If these speculations are true, I may have staggeringly over 4,000 hours on this game. But at least I play it like a sane person now, a few hours once every few days like some who isn't addicted to Kokaine. I didn't realize there was a forum or mods during the initial binge. I forgot that game communities were a thing. But thanks to that, I can dock insanely effectively, and I have complete disregard for making kerbals circle Kerbol for 63 years to get an intercept with Jool while completely ignoring "launch windows". I'm stalled at the moment because I just really want to see if multithreaded physics is going to be a real thing. I've got some insane PC power over here just itching for a fight!

YEAAAAAHH!!!! NOW WE"RE GETTING SOMEWHERE!

Who cares? I'm always happy to start a career in the new, updated and (hopefully) improved versions! Besides, if the new physics multithreading pans out at all, my entire fleet is gonna get a whole lot more complex.

Was that meant to be "Enigma"?

I really do need that many airbrakes. What you're seeing is what I did for it after discovering that 16 airbrakes wasn't enough. The rocket still weighs around 200 tons even after dropping the payload and emptying fuel. If I don't drop under about 1900 m/s or so before falling to around 20km, lets just say it gets a little toasty, a little REALLY QUICKLY. I also retroburn any remaining fuel around 22k if I haven't already burnt it.

Still working on getting this one to kiss the ground instead of .....-slapping it. Edit: NAILED IT