Pthigrivi

Yeah they're def buffed. 2kn thrust, 4200 Isp, 8.729 E/s. I imagine people will complain they're op but as it was between ants and oscar b's and nuclear rockets there was really no purpose for them. Especially being so high on the tech tree I think making them useful really adds a nice dimension.

Its solar sailer time! 4 kerbal Jool bus on a 24 min burn! What I love about it as a mechanic is really having to carefully plan approach vectors and oberth burns to run outside of planetary shadows.

I know there's just so, so much we'd all love to see. Im curious, if you could order development in terms of what is most important to least important to you, how would you list it? Personally, 1: Money and contracts/better tutorials, .24 stuff (soon! woop!) 2: Craft weight, TWR, dV stats in construction and flight 3: Complete biomes and orbital mapping 4: Launch-window calculator and alarm clock 5: Aerodynamics overhaul with fairings and cargo bays 6: Surface features - geysers, ice, volcanoes, with unique science 7: Multiplayer support 8: In-flight management console for changing hotkeys, improved fuel transfer, etc. 9: EVA enhancements - more repairable parts and replacement part boxes, EVA welding, surface science animation 10: IVA enhancements - ability to move between connected modules, science module experiments, etc 11: Kerbal enhancements - Unique looking Kerbals, stats, flight experience, specialization? 12: Clouds, wind, and weather 13: Graphic enhancements - better shadows, better surface textures, landing/roving surface particles 14: Re-entry heat and heat-sheilds 15: Robotics - hinges, actuators, rotors etc. 16: New planets! Maybe 1 or 2 more gas giants? 17: Asteroid belt and comets! 18: Mining and refining - mining of LFO could be linked to finding offworld H20, dovetailed with biomes and science collection. 19: Life support - 02, water, snacks, hydroponics module for long flights and colonization 20: Ocean exploration - surface propulsion and floatation, submersible propulsion and ballast I know this is basically a big list of already-suggested things, the question is, what is most important/highest priority to you?

It's interesting question how they could feasibly do a ring. Most of the particles in saturn's rings are between 1 and 5 centimeters (with some larger shepherds). I dont know what flying into into/through it would entail for a craft or the physics engine. It might be as simple as a graphic effect that damages the ship if penetrated at high enough speeds?

^A nice ring would be key. It could itself be a biome where unique science could be gathered. Yeah I mean Id love a new planet, because yay planets! But I can wait. I think they're right to be focusing on the central mechanics of the game, and money and contracts is obviously a huge part of that. I also agree that the existing planets could use not just biomes, but special biomes and locations like water ice and liquid water geysers and volcanos that would necessitate real exploration of the planets themselves, encouraging players to carefully pick landing sites and get out and about with rovers when they land there. Thats just me though. There seems to be a consensus that even after career mode is finished there are still some core issues like aerodynamics and heat to deal with before getting into luxuries. I also want an Io analogue

I'm just really excited for another planet. Id bet there will be some thin and thick atmo moons around it. Just from a standpoint of gameplay I rather like the way things are calibrated at the moment for the planets. If youre really precise and careful you can absolutely use Duna's atmosphere for aerocapture and aerobraking, (at about 10-12k I've found) and even though you need thrusters at the last minute with a shallow decent chutes can absorb a huge amount of dV. I feel like if Duna's amto was any thinner it would cease to be useful, which from a gameplay standpoint is really what's important about it. Eve is a real challenge, and wimpy part of me thinks maybe it's slightly too much of a challenge, but hey, leaving something thats really difficult for people to strive for is huge. But yeah. I want a Titan analog. And when they get geysers going a Triton as well.

I've only really used mech jeb for t/w calcs, delta v estimates and precise orbit info. For me half the fun of the game is the suspense of bringing something down as close to a suicide burn as possible without plowing into the surface. It helps you learn. I like that I have a pretty decent working intuition of aerocapture altitudes just from trial and error.

I dont think you need a whole new building for this but it could be great content for the mobile processing lab. I was just advocating for extrakerbestrial life, and having canisters you can collect and bring critters on kerbin into space for observation and science points seems like a great segway into that. Recovered specimens could be viewable at the R+D facility, loaded into science modules in the VAB, and you could observe them in different environments in IVA in the science lab module after launch, much the way they bring all sorts of things up to the ISS to see how they behave in zero g.

I imagine the folks at Nasa finally talked some sense into them Jk Im sure they have plenty to work on. Anyway we "arent talking about this".

I frequently do things like this:

Aerocaptured my ion kerboldive probe returning from with near-kerbol science to kerbin at 9500 m/s. Pulled it into a parking orbit and sent another probe up to attach chutes for decent and recovery. Also did my first rendezvous with a probe in interplanetary space that ran out of fuel so I could tug it back to kerbin. It's reminding me to build these things modularly so Ive got more mission flexibility.

Just a little tweak, but it would be nice if you could rightclick/hotkey fuel lines so as to use them as fuel valves. Ive done the fancy trick with jr docking ports and Oscar-b's, (great fun) but y'know in the name of simplicity and weight savings and all that. That is all

Do the devs not like resource mining? or is it just too much for them to worry about at the moment?

So just an idea of how it could be implemented. Subsurface Ice: Surface samples taken in Munar polar lowlands, polar regions and craters on Duna, and various biomes on Vall, Tylo, Pol, Bop, Ike, Eeloo and maybe 20% of future asteroids could result in finding subsurface ice. It might also be nice to re-lock moho's rotation and have ice present on the night-side of Moho. Regions with ice could perhaps give a 30-50% science bonus for surface samples, and later could be mined and refined to make LF/O. Liquid water: Found around geysers on Duna, Eve, a few Joolian moons. I dont know if any ocean sample on Eve or Laythe should give the science bonus but it stands to reason. Geysers could be relatively common (within a short rover-ride of any given landing zone) and contained within small isolated biomes. Surface samples near them could result in 80-100% science bonus and later could be refined into LF/O at higher rates than areas with subsurface ice. Fossils: Perhaps found in visible formations in select biomes (maybe slopes?) on Duna, Eve, and Joolian moons. The formations should be relatively rare but visible from a short distance on the surface. Finding and returning fossils to Kerbin could result in an 80-100% science bonus. Microbes: Select geysers, (maybe 20% and only on a few worlds) could be marked with green tops. Taking samples from these could gain a 200% surface sample science bonus. There could also be little stromatolite formations along the coast on Eve and Laythe. There might also be a science bonus for taking an atmospheric analysis near one of these formations? Honestly you could stop right there, but maybe, possibly, there could also be a very small number of biomes with things like snails, worms, small plants, anemones, and the like that could be gathered and returned to Kerbin for big science bonuses. These regions should be rare and hard to get to (maybe 5 small biomes in the whole game) but once reached, a few kerbals with a buggy or rover should be able to buzz around and gather them. Maybe? Something like that? These could also be things that benefitted in some special way from being analyzed in the science lab module. Obviously the science multipliers would have to be carefully balanced, but I think if they only affected surface samples it wouldn't break the game or anything, just give a little extra incentive for real exploration, getting out and about on the surface rather than getting basically an equal science bonus no matter where you take sample from.

I dont know how many people have been watching Scott Manley's interstellar series but using kerbals to replace and repair parts on EVA really does add something to the game. Another nice little bit of animation would be for kerbals to bust out picks/drills test tubes when taking surface samples.

Yeah I mean even if we were only talking about biomes on laythe with little geysers around which were like stromatolite formations you could right click and take a sample for more science than your average surface sample. From a gameplay standpoint this would make some biomes more valuable than others, encouraging players to make more precise landings, and bring rovers to quickly search broader areas around a landing site for valuable science. I think it would be important to keep this very limited and special, so there was a real challenge in finding it and returning it to Kerbin. As it is now the only comparable thing are the anomalies, which aren't really part of the gameplay as of yet. Theres no scientific value to finding them, just kind of "Oh neat!"

Oh dude that would be even better Also when buggies/rovers are moving across a surface it would be great to see dust kicking up around the wheels.

Re this last comment: I would love to see this. It also doesn't help that the speedometer covers part of the navball...

Yeah I usually emulate something like this by keeping my engines hotkeyed, throttling up and switching them on (for instance to calibrate maneuver nodes without altering my orbit too much) but this wouldn't help much in your situation, and I totally agree we should have this.

Didn't I see a hint about this in yesterday's devnote? Is this what Mike meant by "surface effects" or is that something different?

Id tend to think the focus of development would be making the gameplay better. Period. I mean theres a certain cartoony fantasy to this thing, I dont see why we have to be so serious about a game where little green men fly canisters of mystery goo into space. I dont think there's any like canonical principle that says everything in the kerbal system is definitively dead. Im just thinking of what would make the play experience more rich, more fun, more rewarding, without going so far as to make things silly.

Haha it's true. But I really like that the goal of the game has become about the collection of science. I guess I'd been thinking they would not be prevalent, only in certain biomes on a few worlds, but once you'd landed in that biome they would not be terribly hard to find or catch. This could encourage things like manned rovers. I'm thinking they could be implemented when they add ground scatter, just small plants, fungi, crustaceans or even little jellyfish and mudpuppy kinds of things. If we were only thinking microbes it wouldn't even require animation, just included in the results when you take surface samples.

Im pretty against having like intelligent 'alien' species, but what do people think about microbes? maybe flora and fauna? little plants and critters on some worlds you could catch and stick in a container on EVA and return to Kerbin for science? Is that too hokey? Or for a game with little green wall-eyed astronauts is it exactly hokey enough? Is this nuanced enough not to be a 'this has been discussed' locked thread? If not forgive me Im late to the party

I think this is pretty long term as far as the current development schedule goes, but maybe long term, after minable resources. I think if anything, you should have to build and launch off-world assembly systems yourself, rather than static magically appearing bases. There could be foundry module that draws resources and current to make parts, and an assembly pad/gantry for constructing things in orbit or offworld. I've also seen some really cool things with kerbal attachment system. Just as game mechanic the ability replace broken or forgotten parts, weld struts and fuel lines on EVA could really, really make things more interesting.

Honestly I think you can go all the way with this. O2 could come from tanks, with scrubbers that draw current. I love the idea of snacks, with a few different size packages and greenhouse module high end of the tech tree. Waste heat is a big deal in the real world, and maybe could be included in a kind of hard-mode along with re-entry heat?