cantab

It's true that most of the lines have more possibilities than I'd thought. I thought of characteristics of elements without really checking they were distinctive. But there's a key detail that's getting overlooked, especially in light of my first clue that each line (except the sixth) refers to a, i.e. one, element.

Irrelevant for KSP since doesn't use the GPU for physics whatever card you have.

Nope to any.

Did you not read the bit of my post that said "compared to stock"?

Well, you'll just have to try either way. One beyond the planets reversed. One in airs of Earth dispersed. One that stars just cannot form. One that's rarer than them all. Lots you shouldn't in water dissolve. Mix around, this riddle to solve. Clue 1: As a few people have surmised, each of the first five lines refers to a different element. The answer, though, is nothing to do with chemistry. Clue 2: First figure out what element is "beyond the planets", then reverse that element. Clue 3: The second line refers to one of the main gases in Earth's atmosphere. Clue 4: I wouldn't expect stars to produce heavy elements by fusion, but what about light ones?

Wrong. A good wing can generate 10 or 20 times as much lift as it does drag. I shan't claim to know why that's the case but it is. (The lift-to-drag ratio of a plane is equal to its constant-speed glide ratio, by the way).

Well yes, but "Beyond the planets (including Pluto which is totes a planet guys)" or "Beyond the planets (but not Pluto, the puny iceball)" wouldn't really scan.

I've not often seen AAA titles criticised for being demanding on hardware. If anything being unable to achieve 60 fps on top settings on top hardware is taken as a badge of honour, showing that the game is a "next-generation" title so of course it won't run to the fullest on today's lame PCs.

Yeah, the purple light simply means you can't stage right now. It appears purple: When you first load a vessel, for example to launch it, and the physics isn't active yet. It should go to green in seconds, a minute at worst. When you've just staged. It should go green again in seconds. When you've pressed Alt+L to lock the staging so you don't accidentally jettison your things early. Press Alt+L again.

Agreed, the .23.5 buff made them a lot more practical, if arguably OP. I just wish there were bigger engines and xenon tanks in stock; I've turned to Near Future Propulsion which is an excellent mod but really is OP compared to stock.

Not actually too bad a CPU there, people are running KSP on worse. I'd expect maybe 30-50% better performance in KSP with a good desktop chip, and be worried that AMD might actually be a step backwards. The graphics on the other hand are pretty weak, and 6 not 8 GB of RAM is annoying. In practical terms you go into the UEFI, up the speed a bit, test it, up the speed a bit more, test it, and so on. When the test fails back the speed down a notch and there's your overclock. (Or bump the voltage up a notch and try and keep going). Other parts can be overclocked but the main focus is normally on the processor. And an overclocked CPU will draw more power, especially if the voltage is increased, which is what causes the need for better cooling. Hell no! Unplug your PC before you start mucking with its insides, otherwise you'll break it. (This, by the way, was my error on my last build). The voltages referred to are static electricity, which computer chips are very sensitive to. Virtually all modern processors and modern operating systems will run both 32-bit and 64-bit programs, but many older ones only run 32-bit programs. 64-bit programs can use more memory, useful for RAM-hungry KSP.Linux, in all its myriad distributions (varieties) is an alternative to Windows. You can have both installed on your computer and decide which one to use each time you turn the computer on. Some programs, including Steam and KSP, run on both, and there may be differences between the Windows and Linux versions - case in point, KSP. Lots do only run on Windows, a few only on Linux.

Sooner or later someone's bound to have a flash of inspiration...

And now I only just realised .25 is actually out. *Gets back under rock.* Anyway, what I will be doing is trying to work out this tricky gravity assist still.

So there's been a lot of advice in the thread already. I'll add more The quick advice: Less CPU, less CPU cooler, more GPU. The long advice: You want to buy a PC, that's fine. £500 is a shade cheap, budget gaming PCs tend to sit around £550-650, but it's not too bad. I feel the ideal CPU given the budget is the Pentium G3258, AKA the "Anniversary Edition". That's an overclockable dual-core CPU and it's become quite popular for budget gaming PCs. With a good overclock it'll run KSP as well as anything and handle other recent games well too. Plenty of retailers will sell you a ready-overclocked system, but if you'll be OCing yourself just check the motherboard model supports it. Or just leave it at the stock speed and see how many parts you can put on your craft. More generally, a Pentium or a Core i3 at a fast clock speed will do well, better I think for your purposes than an AMD processor. An i5 or i7 would be overkill in a £500 PC, especially as there's suspicion Unity 5's improved multithreading won't really help KSP much. On RAM, 8 GB is pretty standard. Don't get less, but I doubt you'll find more on a non-customised PC. If possible find out if there are free slots which will allow a future upgrade. For the graphics card, get something half-decent. The GeForce 210 and 610 (I have the latter) are underpowered even for KSP. Although you don't want to do a full-on build, consider buying a PC without a graphics card and adding one yourself, you'll get more choice that way. Just check it will physically fit in the case. And on the cooler, you really don't need an all-in-one water cooler. At stock speeds the stock cooler is fine, that's its job. If you want to overclock there are nice air coolers costing £20-30. Here's a build using that same site I've knocked up, £500 on the nail. Case COOLERMASTER ELITE 311 BLUE CASE Processor (CPU) Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core G3258 (3.2GHz, 3MB Cache) + HD Graphics Motherboard ASUS® H81M-PLUS: Micro-ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB) Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 750 - DVI, mHDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready 1st Hard Disk 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE 1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM Power Supply CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY Processor Cooling CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler (£29) Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED) USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead) Operating System Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79) Office Software FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI) Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days Quantity 1 Price: £500.00 including VAT and delivery. Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-home-office-pc/fnHp_SVOBf/ On a final note, depending on what you have at the moment, chances are anything that's not total garbage will be a big step up.

I really hope it isn't. The classic ram intake is visually very striking, even if it's a bit unrealistic, and I can see lots of people wanting to still use it.

I don't know what the defaults are, but I'm thinking normal - keep all the figures at the baseline the developers intended - but with quickloading and reverting disabled, and of course destructible buildings.

Nobody has the overall answer so far. Clue 3: The second line refers to one of the main gases in Earth's atmosphere.

I just learned from here http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Basic_maneuvers#Docking_.2F_Rendezvous Took a couple of goes the first time but now rendezvous is second nature.

Not carnation or catenation. And yeah, I guess this one doesn't invite wild guesses so much. Clue 2: First figure out what element is "beyond the planets", then reverse that element.

@Tech Support, agreed $300 is a tight budget for what you need. I suggest a system based on an AMD APU, a decent one will play most games OK without needing a separate graphics card which is the only way you're going to get in-budget. Even then, you'll have to make some major compromises.

Agreed, I can believe it taking a while. It's the decisions really - what crater is a biome, what isn't, what other features might you use, where do you draw boundaries, and so on. While a ten-minute scribble with the mouse would work, it would be deeply unsatisfactory.

Make the applicable mod yourself. If the simulator supports code, it would be fun to link engine power to the daily post count on the KSP forums.

I wonder if it's not less of a case of Netflix not having good stuff, than of you having already watched out all the stuff you're interested in.

IIRC reputation is itself needed to activate strategies or ramp them up to the max. Joon, there's a "set up cost" when changing strategies. Not sure if it is enough to prevent that trick, but it would certainly blunt it.

To be honest all sports are costly to train for at a high level. But in terms of those that are costly just to get started, I think location restrictions are likely to have the biggest impact. Skiing and snowboarding for most people require taking a full-on holiday.