Doozler

What are the options for image hosting? I think I saw google docs mentioned but I'm not sure? Or is the answer use imgur like everyone else

I like this one. It would mean I couldn't use the ever-useful "move station to dock with broken craft" technique though.

Oh no what have I done?? :rolleyes:I was imagining having a cluster of one-man pods for individual re-entries to Kerbin, but now I'm going to have to bring the bus down in one piece! It might not be too elegant as I've not unlocked all the parts yet (that's what everyone was doing at the Mun - getting science!) I guess the science will have to wait now I'm morally obliged to get a bus made!

@ mello, No, I'm still fairly new so am going mod-free for the first playthrough (whatever that means!). Sounds useful though - I'll add it to my list of potentials!

@ Mellojoe, Oh I agree, probes are definitely more realistic, I just didn't want to get too realistic and end up with a mostly unmanned space program I think I've decided that the bus will need to have a driver. Some of those Kerbals have been in one-man capsules for a while and will need a chauffer to drive, make tea and scrub their backs while they relax in the hab modules. What is it that probes CAN'T do? Is it just flags, samples, reset experiments? Oh and open solar panels. That's quite a bit now I think of it!

After a few (!) missions to recover Bob from the Mun, I now have several pilots in Munar orbit who need to catch a bus back home. It would probably be easier to send an unmanned bus, but I don't know if that counts as cheating. So: what are your rules for when unmanned craft are acceptable - and why? Do Kerbals not trust a computer to drive for them? Does the Kerbal Trade Union of Pilots forbid unmanned fuel transfer vehicles? What do you think?

Moon lander had not enough fuel to make it back to orbit. First rescue craft had no RCS, so wouldn't have been able to dock at the refuel station and had to be abandoned. Second recuse craft had triple symmetry. I tried to adjust the position of the RCS thrusters to compensate for the triple-symmetry... it didn't . Also I forgot to add additional RCS fuel so I had to perform a dock with only forward and reverse RCS (no translation). Bob made it back to the station eventually though!

Is that a space chicken?!?

Ok cheers guys! That's a big help. Now I know it's possible I will keep trying until I get it!

Hi everyone, Can you launch multi-part ships with the parts connected at launch by docking ports? I want to do a mothership + lander. I've tried to connect the ports in the VAB, but don't seem to be able to. Is this not possible or am I just failing at assembly? I was thinking of hacking it by connecting the two ships with decouplers and then docking them back together, but it seems a bit inelegant. Also, as I've not unlocked separators yet I might need to use two decouplers, with one upside down? Any help will be much appreciated!

Hi Impatience, from your ribbons I think you should be easily able to ulock a bunch of science. I agree with ZLM, sounds as if you have "skipped ahead" and not got the science for, eg, landing pad, then suborbital, then leo, then high orbit, then.... One of the difficulties with the science is that you can only get one result for eg the mystery goo per unit, so you can end up with only a small amount of science from an impressive mission sometimes. If you like doing "big missions", how about a "science ship" with 8 goo containers, multiple Science JRs, etc etc and do one big mission to minmus or something? There's lots of different biomes so lots to research. My trick was to do EVAs and crew reports as often as possible per mission, as they can be done many times per mission and you get full science for transmittting the results. Let us know your next mission plan!

I found this prolem really bad trying to do a planetary burn away from kerbin, where I was trying to click a node but had to deal with all the flags, stations, etc that are all on top of each other. One way to deal woul be that hovering the mouse over the close trajectories/ craft brings up a quick-pick list that you could then select from.

I keep looking at the (IRL) Moon longingly and thinking "Hmm..."

Hey! Welcome to the crew. Sounds like you're well on your way. Your next projects found pretty tough - I didn't get a station until after sample returns from both mun and minmus. I'm too scared to even try a spaceplane Maybe a mum flyby next? I remember a really nice post with a list of suggested tasks- I'll see if I can find it. Are you career or sandbox?

Well I realised that autopilot was an old idea and I realised that it would break the early game. The idea of "training" was that it would depend on your skill level rather than just tech tree level. So if you only land on the mun 50% of the time then so could your kerbal - and there would be a 50% chance that it wold die and you'd need to train a new one. But if you can get to lko 10 times in a row perfectly then you could train a kerbal to be "nearly as good" The idea is that this wouldn't remove the fun of learning anything because you'd have to master it before you could train - just like life! ...and I agree that this is v v low priority as mech jeb + pilot's honour performs the same function, essentially. Edit: I just realised that if the upcoming contracts system gets tied into mech jeb you get pretty much my original suggestion. I still think it would be cool to tie it to individual kerbals though. Imagine a rescue mission for your ace tanker pilot with ten hour training invested...

Yes, this. Will add a sense of discovery and give a justification to putting a probe(s) around each planet. Will go really well with contracts. To make it simpler on the more long-winded tasks, rather than having to individually map parts of the planet or skybox, it could just get filled in base on how long the telescope/ camera has been placed in the "correct" orbit. P.S. What's the accepted way to "like" or upvote suggestions? Is it just "reputation"?

I don't know if this has been suggested before - I can't find anything exactly the same. There seems to be a reoccurring Autopilot debate - does it remove the grind or remove the fun? What about training Kerbals to perform routine flight tasks? The idea is that you would have to perform a task like orbital insertion, getting to geosyncronous etc three times while you "train" that Kerbal. Depending on how well you do (fuel used, circularity of orbit), the Kerbal is correspondingly skilled. You would then get to instruct that Kerbal to perform that task (essentially an autopilot). It only performs that task as well as you could (or slightly worse). You could perhaps only unlock training after a particular career stage. This has a number of advantages: It prevents end-stage tedium (putting up 20 parts for a station.) However, you don't get to "cheat" and use an autopilot to avoid learning how to do something. Perhaps most importantly: there is then a real value put on Kerbal lives - you don't want to lose you expert launcher/ lander/ geo-synch pilot. Obviously, this is similar to an Autopilot, but I thought this was a way of adding one that allows late-stage convenience but doesn't affect the early stage learning. Thoughts?

Sounds like your at exactly the same stage as me- I have two probes on the way to Duna as we speak. It's taking a few tries as 1) I'm only using FL size rockets 2) I didn't take notes during the Manley tutorial and 3) I was trying to watch GOT S 3 at the same time and kept missing nodes!

Sek, that looks like a pretty cool mod. Altering craft in orbit seems like a really useful addition to gameplay. I'm doing completely stock and mod free until I finish career mode first time through, but UI will probably go back and play "with mods" after. Jav: Cheers - very useful bit of info there. It was a bit of a scary ride down, and the retro rockets were a bit of a panic! Next stop Duna...

I know what you mean - I waited to get my station done myself Edit: What, no winky smily? Edit Edit: That's better!

OK, Got mine! Where's yours, robo?

I was thinking about this: with any government / large organisation if you don't sepnd the budget for a project it gets reduced for the next project. SO how about you get a fixed amount to spend on an contract. If you underspend you can't save it up, but have to prendit on things like statues, gold paperclips and diamond toilet seats for the Space Center?

I've been trying my first docking. After an hour of failing on thursday, I took a deep breath. I read the wiki. I watched the scott Manley videos. I studied the tutorial threads. Two hours of slooooow manuvering later, my craft nudge together and stick... but there's no lock. The craft are not registering as "docked". I try turning off the SAS and wiggling, all to no avail. I'd put the docking port pointing inwards.

My In-laws are coming round tonight to give me and mylovely wife a chance to go to a party with loads of people I really like. I don't want to go. I have a docking to do

Seems like a nice way to add a bit of structure to the mission planning... at least until contracts get added in .24!