BudgetHedgehog

No, no.. THIS is a modernized Kerbal X! Your textures fit like a glove. I'll have to redo this when you get that pod sorted out though

Lovely stuff! One question though - why is a ModularFuels kind of mod needed? What dependancy does it have?

Put impactor on body to be tested (either on a probe or a lander or whatever - just needs to be solid ground). Start recording. Smash something into the ground (doesn't have to be nearby) at over 40 m/s and it has to be your active craft - it could be anything, a mini-probe, piece of debris, another ship, just as long as you're controlling it. When smashed, a pop up will say there is science to be collected from one of the impactors deployed on this surface. Go to first vessel with recorder and collect and transmit data. If you want to smash more than one thing into the ground, they have to be called different things. There's also more science to be gained from several recorders in different locations on the planet/moon (up to a point, though). EDIT: I don't think that second method will work - if the recorder is destroyed, then so is the data in it.

Take your time, I can't wait to try it out! Heh, I wonder how FAR will handle it all

My engines are glorious!

Quick question: is it possible to have MJ turn on SAS once it's completed a manoeuvre or manually turned off?

I'm going to go ahead and assume that's a typo...

Are you sure your hex actually has kethane in? You said you're in the middle of a patch now but is this a regular one? It might be worth rescanning the area to confirm if there's any kethane left.

I really hate to be a bother, but please please please could the next update fix this bug? I didn't touch the washers until landing and they were already out of line.. rotating them induces some kind of clipping based wobbling and they remained resolutely out of sync, no matter how much I rotated them/pressed O until they didn't move any more. I think it might be the fact the washers are put on angled surfaces? The others stayed in sync, only the rear ones borked out (and then only the rear right, for some reason) (Sorry for duplicates, the first picture shows the bug clearest.)

1, Perform a Minmus burn as usual, but as you reach it's altitude, throttle down so you don't overshoot. As soon as your orbit exits Kerbins SOI, cut throttle and wait. You should only be a few m/s over escape velocity. Once you're in solar orbit, do stuff. When you're done, turn your vessel so it's pointing straight at Kerbin and throttle up. Ideally, you won't be in the Sun's SOI for more than a few minutes so Kerbin won't be too far away. Either way, point and shoot. When your map says you're going to re-enter, throttle down and wait until you're back into Kerbins SOI. Then, make any orbital changes necessary to put your perikee at around 30km for aerocapture. Your craft doesn't need to be anything special - anything capable of landing on Minmus will be able to do this. 2, I'd say Eve because of the thick atmosphere and larger gravity well, but it really does depends on whether you're planning on coming back. If you are, aim for Duna - an aerobrake is easier (don't forget F5 though!) and you can lift off pretty easily too. If it's a one-way trip, head for Eve. Gilly can provide some pretty good Science and it's **** easy to land on. An inclination change in Solar orbit will cost you about 300m/s dV which, if you're piloting interplanetary vessels, isn't that much really.

See, this is what I meant by 'some directional triangles to show ejection direction' (ARM update 3m decoupler) In perfect keeping with KW style, as you notice. Also, I've just trademarked 'Ejection Direction' as a band name.

OK, confession time.. I got so excited to try this out, I installed it and started playing in sandbox with it. Seems fairly simple.. am worried about the part count stacking up though. And I grabbed Baha's models (as well as the other smelter) and I must say, they are terrifically made. Props to him, for sure. Here's to the start of an era in Kerbol Kolonisation!

Oooh... rubs hands together gleefully.. that sounds rather exciting

Yes yes and yes. A revamp is sorely needed - having all vessels everywhere mixed in with the flags makes a really cluttered list. I think flags should be a similar category to debris, able to be viewed and toggled etc, but not shown by default. Agreed on sort by location, adding custom categories and 'folders' of crafts (kethane satellites, RT2 sats etc). So many good ideas, and I want them all. Ooh, and don't forget to add in 'clear all debris' button, or give a check box and a 'clear selected debris' button.. I know you can change persistent debris amount in the settings config, but that requires a restart and takes literally years out of my day. Excellent idea!

There's a 1.0?! Is that going to be based off the new dev code in the other thread?

Ahhh, I see. No doubt I'll get the hang of it all once I actually start playing it. I can't wait! Thank you for the help, all of you!

How would I build one on-site? It appears to be essential to the building process..

True, but the KW engines do. Mostly agree with your other points though, I like the metallic nozzles. A carbon fibre texture wouldn't go amiss too. Maybe change the green to a blue as well, similar to the SPS/Maverick

Then I'm afraid I don't know, sorry

Hmm... so if I'm lucky enough to have an ore field overlap with a kethane field.. I could have the kethane drill making fuel to put in the constructed ships, a skycrane to plop things into the recycler, a kethoelectric generator to help power the whole lot.. A steady supply of sacrificial kerbals, maybe? Oh god, I could turn into a monster Sweet jesus, I could get a whole base up and running.. combined with that modular Kolonisation mod, it's one step towards colonising the entire solar system! Quick question: how big are these parts, the recycler, smelter and everything.. able to fit under fairings? Playing with FAR poses some interesting challenges.. Oh and regarding the recycler, how close is "close"? I saw the picture earlier in the thread, looks like a hopper on top, do the things go in there?

Thank you, very helpful. What does each 'thing' require? I read the smelter requires fuel, obviously it all requires electricity.. how does the recycler work? I'm holding off downloading this until the ARM update (as I do with all mods that add parts - wait until the current tree is done. Seeing as ARM update is coming soon, I don't really feel like starting a new save just yet)

@PART[whatevertheNFradiatorsarecalled]:Final MODULE { name = FNRadiator animName = a1 radiatorTemp = 1350 radiatorArea = 400 originalName = Mo Li Heat Pipe upgradeCost = 10 upgradedName = Graphene Radiator upgradedRadiatorTemp = 3500 upgradeTechReq = experimentalElectrics } RESOURCE { name = WasteHeat amount = 0 maxAmount = 2500000 } I've no idea what the Near Future radiators look like, so you might have to change the area, temperature, name and max waste heat amount to something suitable, this was just copied from the medium deployable radiators.

What about a SSTO rocket that parachutes safely down without crashing anything? It'd only need refuelling again and it's good to go (our SSTO rocket also has landing legs and remains upright). It is no cheaper than a plane to reuse. What people forget is that SSTO doesn't necessarily equal spaceplanes. It just means it's in a stable orbit with what it left the ground with i.e. it didn't drop anything. Rockets are perfectly capable of that. And if you end up back on the ground without dropping anything, you're no different to a spaceplane that's done the same thing and I don't think it's fair there'd be different rules for that. Without knowing exactly how the money system will work, this is all moot, anyway. Will fuel cost anything? Will stuff you drop in atmo with chutes deployed be destroyed as normal, thereby losing money when you really shouldn't be? Will recovery get you back the money you spent or just a portion of it? Will we have to worry about stuff like wages? Will there be grants we receive every year or whatever? These are all questions that need to be answered before we can start speculating about how to save money.

Which would increase your spending on fighting gravity. I don't know of a reason why terminal velocity ends up being ideal, I think it just is, thanks to balancing unnecessary drag and gravity. IANA rocket scientist though...

Because you're wasting fuel trying to push through it. Imagine an atmosphere where you couldn't go faster than terminal velocity because it's so thick. At terminal velocity, you have x% throttle. If you increase throttle, you're burning more, but not getting any faster because of the high density atmosphere. Obviously, atmosphere aren't like this, so you scale back the thickness and you can go faster, but you're still burning more fuel than necessary. Look up a youtube video about the Goddard Problem in KSP. A vessel with I think 33% throttle got higher than one with 100% because it wasn't fighting higher air resistance than necessary. As for gravity drag, it's like hovering - burning fuel but not going upwards. If you're going 100% throttle and still not going fast enough upwards, it's like doing 50% with a twice as powerful engine. "Fast enough upwards" is a balance between hovering and exceeding terminal velocity - turns out the most fuel efficient speed to travel is at terminal velocity.