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While everything was a new experience, the three challenges I remember requiring a lot more effort were: 1. Getting a rocket into space without having to strain my fingers while in atmo - I didn't know about RCS, or SAS, or even the effects of wing stubs, and boy would my hands get stressed trying to control the drift on those early, KSP-naive rocket designs of mine 2. Designing and landing a craft onto Mun (even one way - often did not have enough fuel to make a safe landing, and I didn't use a dV calculator back then, and I had a hard time estimating braking times versus distance remaining... clipped many a mountain on the way down) 3. Docking. 'Nuff said. There's certainly some things I haven't done yet, like landing and taking off from Eve (using stock parts), building a grand tour ship, or rescuing Bob from a polar, solar orbit, but I'll get there.

Honestly, KSPI fusion or AP reactors.

Just make your spacecraft a gaggle of cockpits... they seem to be made of asbestos-lined duranium.

Good to see. This thread once had epic levels of discussion (and, hopefully, downloads) and with the mod now spread between a few different threads, including the add-on development one, I fear it isn't getting the attention it deserves since Fractal left and you guys took over as caretakers. I hope a brand new thread with a single download requirement will bring interest in KSP-I back up again and help new players find the answers they need without having to leap-frog through several threads. Looking forward to it! (And 1.0 too...)

One "capstone" engine could be an antiproton-catalyzed drive of some kind for ludicrous isp/thrust at the expense of very expensive antiprotons. Not that I want to duplicate KSPI accidentally (which is an equally awesome mod for futuristic, but well thought out engine concepts), but that would be a logical step up. One niche engine I'd like to see would be a radial, fusion VTOL drive. Snub nosed, dramatically less isp-efficient but very high thrust than a regular fusion engine, but designed to help VTOL craft land on planets. (But still keeping it better than using conventional rocket engines - it's a fusion drive, after all). Maybe add an overheat mechanism, where you've got only 20-30 seconds at full thrust before it overheats, to compensate for it's relatively high TWR/isp ratio. I've been looking for something like this (that wasn't worse than a regular chemical engine) for near-future VTOL'ing. Is there a market for that? Also, I hope you don't plan on putting too many crazy gameplay restrictions for using engines - Kerbals don't even have food, gravity, or lifesupport needs! I'd say let cost, science, weight, and exotic/expensive fuels be the limiting factor, and let players build their ships with their choice of ridiculously-awesome tritium-powered mayhem drives.

Wait, what? I thought that was one of the advantages of a fusion reactor. Line it with Li-6 or Li-7, away you go.

Balancing your RCS helps though and goes a long way, and yeah the docking AP doesn't always quite work, have to fiddle around with the options.

I actually lost a lander this way, lol. I just assumed they behaved like monoorbs (for whatever reason) and didn't link lines to them. Also, I recently installed a clean version of KSP to play around in (without mods), and I honestly thought I installed it wrong because I couldn't find the MRS parts (in stock). Still a great mod, I hope TPTB pick this up someday and incorporate it, in part or in whole, into the main game.

I was looking to build a Starfury design in KSPI, and I'm glad I found this one! Totally going to borrow the original design, but I'm going to try and replace the engine pods with the fusion engine parts from KSPI (powered by a reactor in the middle.) Great models!

Very cool design!

Always good to see more "near-future" tech, like fusion engines and reactors and the like. Keep up the good work!

Awesome! I've been looking forward to having some kind of (situation-dependant) vehicle shake for a while now! Looking forward to wickedly unsafe re-entries with that enabled.

Hey barwick, I just threw up a quick setup, and got it to manufacture AP: Is that what yours looks like? This is a completely fresh install, btw, with Fractal's original overlaid by Boris' 0.90, overlaid again by FreeThinker's stuff.

Very cool design! I also like the little lander guys in your signature. Got some great ideas for some (fusion-powered) landers! Thanks!

Hi FreeThinker, Just a comment from a long-time KSPI player. I get that this is mod is now the product of your efforts and you are free to design it to your will, but I'm not personally on board with being "punished" by anyone for gameplay choices beyond the existing need to balance cost, design, and delta-v. That's a strong word to use on people who might just want to enjoy your efforts and try out cool concepts. Those are useful parameters for creating a challenge without going overboard - failed designs either explode, crash, run out of fuel, or are needlessly inefficient. The penalty for using the VISTA drive was an interesting outlier concept, but if more gameplay elements are going to start costing players anything more than funds, ISP, or delta-v, it is my opinion you'll alienate more potential players than gain. They will simply not use the gameplay element and go for the next best part. The same goes for adding too many secondary game mechanics ("soot"). And every element of rocket industry has inevitable accidents: will liquid fueling cost Kerbals? Deployment, or loss, of fission reactors? Will KSC be vaporized in an antimatter containment failure? I'm might not be someone "in the know", but working in environmental engineering, I can tell you that if you want realism and number of recorded fatalities, rocket fuel and radiation top hydrazine by a tragically massive number, and I'd prefer not to have to deal with that kind of mathematics every time I want to build, balance, and play around with fusion-powered space ships. Keeping them powered, fueled, and generally free from melting down is fun enough. As always, your idea, your effort, your mod. I just don't want to see it killed by overcomplexity. Just a thought from a member of the so-called "ignorant masses".

Very, very awesome. I'd love to see your take on a theoretical, "unproven" design like a fusion engine, or a wierder ion engine. But excellent gameplay balance (and a really cool model!), I shall add it alongside the NFT, KSPI, and USI drives that I use with equal pride.

Without being at a computer to try out fixes, I will ask the obvious questions: are you using a clean install of the current versions of the required mods? You need quite a few patches to bring fractals original mod into function with recent tweaks. If you have any legacy files from older installs, they may cause havoc. Regarding the thermal helper, is there a little custom box or button on the screen?

How... how does the K+ get back to orbit, exactly?

Great series. I'm still an Interstellar fan boy to this day, and loved the progression from first principles to fission engines to space folding. But all things must come to an end, and frankly, I was a bit surprised he continued the series this long. That must have been an insane effort to deal with the various modding problems that emerge in a save that big. Kudos you to, space man(ley)!

Hrm, I wasn't aware I was actually missing reactors, but now I'm not so sure. I do know I seem to have reactor-type-per-size gaps, but I thought that was intentional. I'll have to double check. Also, is anyone having problems with the thermal rocket nozzle not working? My setup is generally the following: Fuel/Battery (or alternate reactor for power)/intakes/generator/reactor/nozzle, and some radiators. The setup works great with a nuclear turbojet (weeeee fusion SSTO), but not the nozzle, with the exact same setup. I'm a little confused. (Also, while the turbojet is nice, I think the nozzle is more efficient for pure space endeavors so I'm hoping to fix this.) That said, caveat emptor when it comes to mods...

I'll be honest, after a recent patch and moderate fiddling with mod configs, etc. I had to reinstall everything from boris' version, to KSPI extended, to CTT to get everything to work right. I'm using CTT and Techmanager, and the reactors show up under Nuclear Power (above Nuclear Propulsion). If you have other configs, I'm unsure what to do. - - - Updated - - - Also, I've just recently returned to the tech level which uses reactors and generators and rocket nozzles... the heat output is insane compared to previous versions. I used to be able to get away with two normal sized radiator fold-out panels, but now I need a ton more of them to make propulsion work. I deleted all previous versions of KSPI and reinstalled. Is this a recent design change or probably a glitch in my install? Seems excessive amount of heat management requirements.

What you do in your own time is your business, mister... /he may be somewhat legendary //or mythical? has anyone actually MET him?

Excellent post, and all true. Heat panels are just for bigger energy uses, such as XL solar panels for ion engines, or any of the reactor setups. Even if you craft doesn't seem to discharge any heat without them (or obviously large parts), I encourage players to double check. I've had a few probes that did appear to warrant heat management shut down after time acceleration for a long journey inward (to Eve or Moho, for example). Even small numbers add up over time.

Excellent add-on! I like using RemoteTech for the added challenge and game experience, but I too find it a little more unforgiving that I want in a computer game. This balances it perfectly!!

Fair enough. I just peeked at SpaceY, very similar. I was thinking along the lines of a stackable sepatron (I'll get the name right, eventually) which would serve a similar purpose to putting two of the radial ones, spaced equally (for thrust balance), pointing "up". My "niche" was all those times I decoupled big boosters (radially), but they needed a big enough push to clear the immediate area or they would strike something. I'd use the little radial sepatrons, but I'd need two (or more) in a balanced placement, and the amount needed for larger boosters or stages was a little much (or just unseemly using Tweakscale). I had a similar model in mind to the stackable parachutes from RealChutes (which themselves were very handy for some uses...) in that they aren't attached to the "side" of something to work, they are integrated into the stack. Just a suggestion now. It's a game (and your hobby in your free time), it's just something I've often found I've wanted. I might go take a look at SpaceY, which looks awesome, but I'm running low on RAM. Stupid 32-bit. If ever KSP-Interstellar flames out mod-wise, I would nominate you to take over. Your stock-a-like style fits well with the existing KSP stuff.