Claw

I have created exactly this plot and will repost it when I get back to my computer (in maybe a couple hours). I posted it previously but I think there was no interest, so it's lost somewhere. I use it for exactly what you are asking: when designing a rocket to reach a specific altitude/airspeed for a test. It's also somewhat easy to compensate for airspeed requirements, though there is a little bit of pilotage that's needed. -Claw EDIT: Here you go. Not the best, but it works well enough for what I need. Gravity and drag losses are included so you can see that it's nearly a terminal velocity ascent. If you need speed in excess of terminal velocity, you can just add the m/s that you need in excess of Vt. To figure out additional drag loss at that speed, you can eyeball it based on the slope of the drag loss curve below.

Well, without any log files, screen shots, craft files, save games, or a list of mods, it's really hard to guess what your problem might be. I recommend you read that thread I posted again, otherwise there isn't much else we can do except guess. If you do have mods still, I will probably move this to the mod support forum. You might get more mod specific help there if you post a list of what you are using. -Claw

Moved to suggestions, since these mechanics are by design and you're suggesting they change. Cheers, ~Claw

While the subject of polar orbits itself is still relevant, this olde-but-goodie is a bit out of date with the mod references. I'm going to go ahead and close this so it doesn't confuse anyone. Cheers, ~Claw

Yes, it is true that you will be refunded money for RECOVERY of debris even without a probe core. However, this does not happen automatically. As was posted already, any object that falls outside of physics range (about 2.5km) and is below 0.1 atmospheres (below about 23km on Kerbin) will be deleted, not recovered. That means you will not get funds back in that case. If you want to activate parachutes on dropped boosters, you can put the parachute activation icon in the same stage as the decouplers. Chutes will auto deploy at the selected altitudes. Without some fancy designing and flying, you'll need mods like Taki said. There are several that extend physics range and do other things that can help. If you want to do it all stock, your best bet is to design a booster section that comes down in 1 piece if able. It needs to be able to coast suborbital up to 40-ish km to give you time to get your real ship close enough to orbit that you can switch back and follow your boosters back down. In stock, you basically must watch them land in order to be able to recover them and get funds back.

I know there were problems with the download server earlier. I'm unaware of the status at this moment, but the problem was known. Hopefully it'll be back up soon. ~Claw

There are a lot of good tips in here. I'm surprised it hasn't been hinted at until the last post. You can use the rocket dV equation to calculate the maximum theoretical maximum dV that an engine (in particular the ISP) will provide. Because the fuel tanks max out at a mass ratio of 9:1 (liquid fuel, anyway), that's the highest mass ratio you can use in the dV equation. dV = 9.81 * ISP * ln (9/1) I only bring this up because if you are still aiming for 10,000 dV and a completely recoverable ship, the only stock engines capable of that are LV-Ns and IONs. You will either have to use those engines, accept lower dV requirements, or drop parts along the way. You can also send refueling tankers, but I don't know if that violates the "bring it all home." Cheers, -Claw

You guys know you can remap the quicksave/quickload keys right?

Personally, I always recommend a secondary installation that's never been touched by mods. Some mods may make changes outside of their own specific directories. When this happens, it's impossible to entirely delete the mod without reinstalling. Also, having a second install means you won't accidentally trash your main, modded install. Not all mods act this way, but some do leave parts and pieces laying around. Also it occurs to me that a few others have reported missing buttons (although not the same ones as you). In those cases, fiddling with the game's resolution fixed the issue. ~Claw

Moved to the add-on section. I think you might get some more experienced eyeballs in here. Welcome to the forums ~Claw

There is a common misconception that few mods, or certain types of mods can't cause problems. The truth of the matter is that mods can cause all sorts of unintended consequences in exactly the same way as unintended things happen in the stock game. I had an outdated version of MechJeb that completely messed up the stock interface and textures. It happens. I'm not saying "it's your mods, deal with it" but perhaps try playing stock for a bit and doing the same types of things you're doing now. See if you can get it to happen again in stock only. If it's 50% of the time like you said, it shouldn't take too long. Then you can truly narrow it down to a stock vs. mod issue and that will help us direct your question to the right people to answer it. All that being said, what mods are you using? Also, it would be helpful to include things like pictures and log files. I know it's from another forum, but this sort of information helps us help you: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24543-NEED-SUPPORT-Read-this-before-posting-No-modded-installs Cheers, ~Claw

Squad does poke around on the forums, although not necessarily commenting on everything (or anything) in particular. The issue with real time enable/disable of mods is that parts and pieces of save files that use mods get wiped out when you disable things. It would be very easy to make a costly mistake. There are ways to fix that obviously, but I'm not sure if such a menu setup is in the works. Sounds like a good suggestion though. You can throw that up in the suggestions subforum and see what others come up with. Welcome to the forums ~Claw

Yeah, this has happened a couple times. What was your game resolution set too and what is your monitor's resolution?

I don't believe that KSP simulates precession. Although there are plenty of bugs that cause your ships to go off course.

Interesting. I haven't heard yet but you can give it a try. I have my doubts though since I don't think asteroids have a cost associated with them. ~Claw

Congratulations xcorps. Nice job getting to space with your first successful design. ~Claw

I think what Taki is talking about is when you change something within the VAB. Kerbals like to climb back into the cockpit if it isn't the last thing you do. However, that doesn't sound like what you're describing. I guess I would have to ask if you by chance saved previously, maybe in an earlier time that you launched where Jeb happened to be on board. It isn't typical for a kerbal to show up randomly after a quicksave. So if that's the case, it isn't normal. I would say you can try again with the empty capsule and save/load as required. If you get it to happen again, then it would be good to see if you can figure out if there were any steps in common (aside from the save/load). The lights can be a pain. It might be easier to point the lights of your ship at the ship itself. That way the ship is illuminated when on the dark side of Kerbin, instead of trying to point the light at something as small as a kerbal. Cheers, ~Claw

Sure, I get that. Your best bet is to submit a suggestion to the suggestions forum. It really helps if you post an idea in the suggestion forum, instead of merely saying "this thing is not right." It's not really a bug so much as a the way it's mech'd at the moment. So if you have something different that you'd like to see in this particular case, it's best put up as a suggestion. This particular thread doesn't offer any suggestions, but does discuss an aspect of gameplay. That's why it now sits here. Cheers, ~Claw

Since this isn't really a bug so much as a loophole in the gaming construct, I've moved this to Gameplay Questions & Tutorials (so others may learn, abuse, and critique as desired). ~Claw

There may be some misunderstanding with my statement. Things that are jettisoned off of your ship that go outside of physics range (about 2.5km away from your ship in focus) and are below 0.1 atmospheres (roughly 23km on Kerbin) are automatically deleted. This is a separate thing from "Recovering Debris." Things that are deleted will not return funds. There are mods out there that can get around this problem if you want to be able to recover boosters and other items decoupled from your ships from higher altitudes. Recovering debris (or anything else) is when you go to the tracking station and click on the yellow "Recover" button. OR when you go "fly" the item that is landed on Kerbin and select the green Recovery button at the top of the screen. When you do this for items that don't have a probe core or pod, you still get funds and science back. Hope that clears it up, ~Claw

I'm sure new contracts will come. Part of the development is to find out what people want, so feel free to post to the suggestions forum. ~Claw

Moved to add-on general. Good luck, ~Claw

Edited. Sorry about the confusion. Yes, this is also a valid technique. I'll add this too. Thanks! ~Claw Thanks

Well, what you're probably asking is that any debris that dips below about 23km around Kerbin and is outside of physics range (about 2.5km from your current ship) is auto-deleted.

v0.24 KSP: First Contract FAQ I'm trying to compile a list of Frequently Asked Gameplay Questions specific to v0.24 "KSP: First Contract." This isn't meant to be a tutorial or walkthrough (though I may link to those). It's meant to be a quick stop to get the basics of the common questions answered. If you're having problems with the game itself, please check out my v0.24 Issues/Fixes Thread in the Support & Bugs Forum. So think of this as a list of "How do I...?" type questions in regards to contracts. UPDATES: - 21 Jul: Initial Post - 23 Jul: Added Contract Completion technique, Clarified Debris Recovery funds Current List of Questions: (In This Post) How do I...? Complete a rescue contract? Set the throttle default on launch to 0%? Convert my 0.23.5 Career Save into a Science-Only Save? Complete a contract (test a part) when all conditions are met? Get all funds back for recovering debris? Complete a rescue contract? The first thing to note is that you cannot switch to a kerbal in need of rescue through the tracking station. This is by design since the point of the contract is to pilot the ship to the kerbal. Once you get within physics range (roughly 2.5km) you can switch to the stranded kerbal by pressing [ or ]. The keys to switch to the kerbal are the same as switching craft within physics range, so check your keybindings as they may be different. (Non U.S. keyboards may also be different.) After switching to the stranded kerbal, you can activate the jetpack just like normal ® and fly to your rescue ship. Set the throttle default on launch to 0%? As of right now, you can't. In v0.24 the throttle defaults to 50% at launch time. Convert my 0.23.5 Career Save into a Science-Only Save? You can convert saves before loading in v0.24 (easiest) or after loading in v0.24. AlexinTokyo did a great job posting a how to here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86622-How-to-import-a-0-23-5-Career-save-into-0-24-Science-Mode Complete a contract (test a part) when all conditions are met? Meeting all conditions (all green checkmarks) is the first step. You must then activate the part under test while the conditions are green. You can either stage the item activate, or right click and activate it. Also: In v0.24.0.459, using action groups does not count as "activating" for test contract purposes. So you can use action groups to activate the part, then stage (with spacebar) when conditions are met. If you activate the item (with spacebar) BEFORE making all the conditions green, you will not complete the test. Also, as silly as it sounds, make sure you are testing the correct part. Get all funds back for recovering debris? You receive funds back for recovering any items landed safely on Kerbin. To recover items: 1) Either switch to them in flight and recover (move the mouse to the top of the screen) or 2) Go to the item in the tracking center and recover Items at KSC receive 100% of the invested funds, minus any fuel expended. The percentage drops the further from KSC the items are. Currently there is a limitation in the game where recovering uncontrolled debris (with no probe core or pod) appears to return zero funds. However, if you check your funds counter the recovery funds should be awarded. However, things that are jettisoned off of your ship that go outside of physics range (about 2.5km away from your ship in focus) and are below roughly 23km on Kerbin are automatically deleted. This is a separate thing from "Recovering Debris." Things that are deleted will not return funds. There are mods out there that can get around this problem if you want to be able to recover boosters and other items decoupled from your ships from higher altitudes. But with stock KSP, if you didn't "Recover" it, then you won't receive any funds for it. If I am missing things, please feel free to ask. But please remember, this is not meant to be a "how do I get to orbit" or "how do I rendezvous" type of thread. Good luck Kerbonauts, ~Claw