Nicole

I actually asked after installing the mod and trying it. I don't have any initial contracts from this mod and had got the impression there is an initial contract to get started. Contract Configurator lists it properly and it's active, but not sure how to trigger it. Didn't have the time to mess about with it then, I may need to wait a few Kerbal days / weeks, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks for the reply.

Sorry if I missed it, but does this work with existing careers?

To be fair, there is debug menu 'clipping enabled' clipping, and then there's part translation tool clipping, and it looks like they didn't used the cheat menu for this one. On the other hand, those Russians. Did you see where the parachute is on the Soyuz?

Thanks for the reply. I actually just noticed I already have a mod that calculates RCS Delta-V, it's called RCS Build Aid. I like it for the visual indicators to help prevent RCS torquing, but I opened it up and it has Delta-V and thrust and burn time too. Even got some parachute readings, I should look at it more. I got nothing but my own guess behind this, but I thought that the much lower weight of RCS engines could counter their lower efficiency when it comes to super light craft in low/no gravity. The info I'm getting from RCS Build Aid says I'll be fine to land my 1.3t probe on the Mun with a measly 60 units of monoprop and two standard thruster blocks. For science I will have to try this, but perhaps in the long term I'd like see some RCS information available through KER too. I think the neat and customization displays it allows would make it the superior choice.

Great mod! From the start I thought I didn't want to bother with this type of technical mod, but I am playing Career on Hard mode, and although I'm only just now planning Mun missions I've realized that I already try to plan the heck out of my vehicles because failed missions hit hard, and trying to over-engineer every craft is tiresome. This mod is more essential than I realized before getting it. Since I am using the Career setting that means I require one of the KER parts to be on my craft to use KER, I have a question; Are the two parts functionally identical? I was also trying to make a very lightweight Mun lander probe that uses just RCS for descent, however KER doesn't give Delta-V readings for RCS. Is there a resource to help with that?

Hello! I decided I'd like to start documenting the craft I make in the SPH and the VAB, for posterity. I might as well put it on the forums, maybe other people will be interested too. I play the game in Hard mode on Career, which means that not only am I crawling for new technology and parts to use, each thing I build has to function well and have a positive prototype stage, because in Hard mode you simply can't loose many Kerbals or throw Funds into the wind and still keep a space program going. I use some mods which you can notice, but am pretty conservative and only use those that I feel mesh well with the stock game visually and functionally. Lastly, I always want to be creative and neat with the things I build. I feel there is a lot of easy or obvious ways to build craft in the game that nearly everyone does, due to convenience and the parts available, and I try to avoid those for interest's sake. KJ-20 Vulture Jet Atmospheric survey plane. This is the best flying plane I've ever seen or had in KSP, it is above all simply fun to fly. Not only does it have a high speed just under supersonic, making it bearable for flying out for survey contracts, it can turn on a dime with huge amounts of lift and is remarkably stable. It is suitably flyable that a non-pilot Kerbal is fine to use with it. I wanted to try making a plane that did not have a rear horizontal stabilizer, like a tiny space shuttle, and largely fluked amazing performance out of it. One interesting design note is that I have StockPlus installed, allowing me to tweak the authority of control surfaces, which I have used to align the vertical stabilizers on the wing tips to be straight into the airflow even though they are attached on an angle. This is done by having them be "deployed" with very low authority, and testing reveals that this does increase speed. I can toggle those surfaces to be "undeployed", which angles them in and increases drag for a useful landing configuration. WH-6 Helicopter Space Center operations, science and recovery. Many respect to Kerbal Aircraft Expansion for enabling me to build a helicopter! Unfortunately, this helicopter had a bit of a rough prototype phase which resulted in the death of two Kerbals, including renowned engineer Bill Kerman. That was due to it's desire to flip over into a non-recoverable state while yawing at speed. The problem may have been the angle of the aerodynamic surfaces attaching the landing skids to the craft, however it was since stabilized by incorporating new reaction wheel systems, which allow any degree of induced roll to be recoverable. Still, the craft now features an eject-able main rotor and parachutes. This helicopter also has pontoon landing skids, as I had planned for it to be water land-able, but my estimate for the buoyancy was not correct and it does not float at a reasonable level. ZUREK V Orbiter Low Kerbin orbit tourism. Originally designed as that next step up from a simple MK1 pod for putting Kerbals into low orbit around Kerbin, it excelled in every way, and it's reliability, cost effectiveness, and ease of use led to it's usage for tourism. In fact it has launched many more tourists around the planet than it has official mission astronauts, due to lack of science equipment aboard. The prerequisites for design were to have something more comfortable and roomy than the MK1 pod (Very little options available at the time of design), to have the final stage engine also be part of the return vehicle for efficient vessel recovery, and to have a more interesting return system than a nose-cone parachute. As a plus it also turned out pretty cute. The craft features remote probe core control, despite being crewed, which not only made the dangerous prototype stage much more Kerbal-friendly (Oh yes, the utility tower came off once or twice during the first re-entries!), but it also allows all Kerbals aboard to be tourists which is a great advantage. Due to not going into high orbits, the ship does not need a heat shield and instead uses the engine to protect itself on re-entry along with radiators to manage heat. I had just watched a video of the Orion craft landing from space before designing this, and was partly inspired by it's jettisoning cover over the main chutes to do something similar. As you can see the main chutes are tucked away behind radiator panels, which are ejected just before they deploy. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm sure I'll make more things in the future, hopefully bigger and better than ever, and I hope to update this post. For now that is it, thanks for reading.

That is awesome, very creative.

In my own mind I have envisioned the Kerbals as mole-people, with vast, interesting settlements all around the planet under the surface, and complex networks deep into the planet, like the Locust Horde from Gears of War. They only come out at night in order to stare with wonder at the distance objects and lights because they are prone to sunburn. Then I can look down on from space and land on Kerbin, while still seeing it as an interesting and abundant planet. This of course means that all the Kerbals involved in the space program are extra brave, they fly to space where other Kerbals do not even know the surface of their own planet. Also the thread has been bumped from 2013, don't know if that's frowned upon here like it is elsewhere.

Okay thanks. I thought that was the case, since it's mentioned in the first post. I was asking because when I ran out of EC in my game when using this mod, and monitoring the life support status window, it simply made the timer for supplies freeze. I didn't loose control but it seemed like odd behavior and I thought maybe I had met a bug. I used time acceleration to run the clock quite a lot (I was in orbit around the sun) but the timer remained the same and I still had control 15 days after supplies had run out (By my estimate, since the life support timer was stuck on a positive number). Then I went back to the space center and the life support data correctly showed the craft was 18 days past supplies running out, and switching back to the craft found all my Kerbals on strike. It was just odd that running out of EC stopped the timer for how long my supplies would last and apparently left the craft in life support limbo. I launched another test and I found that I could reproduce that, but also that restoring the EC after being deprived of it resumed the timer from where it was stopped.

I decided to try and make a flag for once, keeping it simple and wanted it too look good on the side of a space ship. It's a little dude skippy happily in space. The black lines are an accurate portrait of outer space of course.

When a craft runs out of Electric Charge does the Kerbal give up right away, or does it get the same amnesty period that running out of snacks does?

Thank you, it's a bit hidden away there.

This is a bit confusing to me as it doesn't make any sense why it would be taken out. The problem is I have used the sub-assembly feature in the past to save sub-assemblies, I took a break for a few patches, and now it's not in my game. It used to be under the other tabs in the construction category, was it moved? I noticed I can now merge saved crafts together, and I tried using that to save sub-assemblies, however saved crafts require everything to be properly attached to the first part and it's very unusable to save sub-assemblies for that reason. I thought it might be because I was in Career mode and I needed further upgrades to unlock it, but I couldn't find it after starting a Sandbox mode either. How can I use sub-assemblies again?

I've always found the procedural fairings to be a bit touchy with connecting, like it will snap to the node but placing it does not connect. I've always gotten it to work though by getting it into the snapped position and then moving the mouse around a little to make it turn green before placing. I'm not sure if this is the problem you're having, or if it's something worse. You would want to check you have the latest files, and even then I don't know if some error might appear because from what I see this mod hasn't be recompiled for the latest version of KSP. Also, it's unlikely but might as well mention it, these procedural fairings do not connect to stock fairing bases if you were trying to do that. I just installed this again in the latest build and ran some tests to check it was working as expected, and I didn't get any bugs. I don't like the look of the stock fairings or how they separate, so this mod is great.

Somehow that seems like Kerbal logic, bravo.

Just a fun fact, but doing the math on the size of Kerbol and it's actually too small to possibly be a star, it would only be a brown dwarf.

Scott Manley is one of the people that gets into testing builds and he does say he's not allowed to reveal stuff often when it comes up.

I like it. This is what I thought "root part" was for, however I tried it and it didn't seem to do that, I still don't know what it does.

Interesting discussion.. I don't have much to add, but I have been watching a few older videos on Youtube featuring pre-1.0 KSP, from Scott Manley and others, and I am very thankful for the progress the game has made since. Lots of basic stability for the game engine, quality-of-play fixes and improvements, and content like a whole lot of new parts and ways to play the game. I was playing the game back then, in pre-1.0 and I feel like it's come a long way even in the ways you mention as being left lacking. The Kraken was certainly more rampant, the Career mode had no funds to consider, the main way to get science was to spam the same experiment over and over, the wasn't any contracts, then there was contracts but they were not worth using, and now in version 1.0.5 I started a brand new career on Hard difficulty and find much more purpose in playing it. It has come a long way for me. But I do not mean to use this comments to refute your own, OP. I am satisfied with the game and where it is going, I think we can not expect perfection from it, but you know if the developers read your comments and decide to improve the things you mention I would be delighted, it would be a better game for us all. I guess what I mean is, I think with some patience we will end up seeing the type of thing you would like coming into stock. I trust Squad will keep working on improving the game and the Kerbol system and the experience of playing it, because that is what I have see over time already. From the frequency of new patches and the content in them I do not get the impression that the developer team is large, so they make take a while.

So many times in my own playing, and many videos from different people I watch also, it will catch a cool angle with your ship against the sun or even another planet in there, and it looks beautiful. I think the sun being a bit bigger is very nice for the pretty shots and serves good a purpose for some extra imposition, adding style to it's little star system. Space seems nice and bright too and I like that. Actually on the subject of brightness, I think making it a bit bigger may be helping for the fact that it is not bright like an actual star, because it would cause too much glare and be less fun. Of course I can't know how much any of that would change unless seeing the game with an adjusted sun.

I think it's pretty funny that "Aerial Ramming" is put under list of Russian inventions on Wikipedia. It says Soviets invented it in World War 1.

When you want to be able to making a small adjustment to an orbit, like for rendezvous of any kind, you can use the tweakable thrust limiter on any engine to greatly increase your precision. Throw that slider right down near the bottom when you're cleaning up a manoeuvre and suddenly your entire throttle is only throttling a few percent of the engine thrust. No need to try and tease a very sensitive control and jerk your way in or overshoot. At least it is a useful tip to me I do not know it is commonly known.

Thank you for the great work! Ambitious mods can add a lot to the game, but I definitely appreciate the little quality-of-play stuff this add-on does. Just being able to angle my symmetrical parachutes so they don't go inside each other and can look cool is very nice. I mean how many thing needs multiple chute to land without blowing up? Most things I make.

That's good news, thanks for the response.

Hello, I had a quick question about changes in the 1.0.5 version for modders. Since there is some updates to how heat is handled does this mean there is some new parameters needed for parts to be interacting with heat properly (like the difference between core heat and skin temperature), and if so is there some information about them?