SkyRender

The bug that causes patched conics to sometimes fail to recognize an encounter despite it being assured is definitely known about by the developers; it gets mentioned often. As for the whole "can't see SoI changes past 3 of 'em" problem, you can adjust that in the game's settings.cfg file. Change the number for CONIC_PATCH_LIMIT to something bigger (6 should be enough for anything outside of a particularly insane multi-Joolian-moon encounter).

My own mod list grows and shrinks depending on what I'm after. It's going to shrink considerably with 1.0, I suspect, but some mods are pretty much assured. Right now my mod list is: KER, FAR, KAC, TACLS, RealChutes, Karbonite, ScanSat, RemoteTech. Only the first four regularly make it into my installs, and FAR probably won't after the next release unless the aero overhaul in 1.0 really doesn't do it for me.

I don't mind if the experimentals are going to take longer than usual for this version (and they should!). I'll have all sorts of other fun stuff to do in the meantime. It is pretty cool that we're in the final stretch, though.

It depends on what mods I have installed and how complex the parts are, but it usually starts to lag at around 200. It starts to really chug around 300, and it becomes completely unplayable by 400. Really hoping the optimizations for 1.0 boost those numbers.

I knew Scott Manley trying to pull a Whackjob would bring the real deal back. This should be good.

Hearing about the "little" bugs getting squashed is almost more interesting to me at this point than hearing about the new features being implemented. Probably because I've been with the game so long and have put up with those bugs for so long as a result.

Long ago, back in the days before KSP was available on Steam, I built and landed this monstrosity on Duna:

Well now you know what Pol is made of. Isn't learning fun?

It's something of a rare delight when one encounters an informed individual on the nature of space flight. I am sorry to say that even the generation that grew up with the excitement of the Apollo missions still by and large does not even grasp the fundamentals of how orbiting works. I still find that many adults from the Boomer generation are astonished to learn that objects in orbit are not in fact stationary, but rather moving at ludicrous speeds as compared to what we can achieve down here on the surface. I blame the Coconut Effect. (The Coconut Effect being that people will cling to falsehoods presented by the media and claim that the real deal is fake because it doesn't match what they saw in their entertainment.)

Minmus is made of microcline left over from thousands upon thousands of annoyed Dwarf Fortress players trying to get rid of the stuff.

I tried that. Hell, I've tried every single antenna. They all start out undirected, and of course RemoteTech does not let you issue any commands to a probe that has no connection, so I cannot tell it to point at Mission Control. Even if it is literally pointing right at Mission Control on the launchpad! EDIT: Alright, I found the one antenna in the entire mod that makes even a modicum of sense. Why the hell does only that antenna have the option to do the one thing you need antennae to do for a probe to function at all under RemoteTech? That strikes me as amazingly poor design.

I must be missing something here. Probes seem to be entirely impossible to even launch under RemoteTech, because there's no way to tell them to communicate with anything without a connection. A serious bootstrapping issue, in short. I should not need another completely different mod to get this mod to even be feasible. Why do probes start out with zero connection to the launch site? They start out at the launch site! Please tell me what I'm missing here, and please don't tell me to install that smart-whatever mod to make this mod behave in a sane manner.

Of all of the KSP updates, the one that resonated the most with me was 0.18. Mostly because that was effectively when Sandbox mode reached a state of completion gameplay-wise. It was pretty much the point at which KSP graduated from "very elaborate tech demo" to "pre-release of a game".

Today I intercepted a space station with a spaceplane from launch, under the effects of FAR, and laterally docked to that station without RCS. I'm pretty sure that's something of an accomplishment.

The clouds also seem to be extremely plentiful, to say the least. Is there any way to make them not spawn over 90% of Kerbin's surface?

One somewhat subtle in-joke with fans of Scott Manley is that his accent causes his pronunciation of the word "Explorer" to sound a lot like "Exploder". Naturally he tends to name his vessels things like "Eve Explorer", which on occasion do live up to what it sounds like he said when they explode upon impact.

On the rare occasions that I bother with RCS, it's only used for final docking maneuvers and orbital insertion trimming. Most of the time I don't use it, because KSP is exceptionally forgiving in how it models rocket exhaust.

Those look amazing! Pretty much exactly what I was expecting for the interiors for those parts, in fact. It's almost a shame we have to wait for 1.0 to see them in action.

It has admittedly been some time since I last updated the Guide, but it came to the Guide's attention recently that there is a glaring omission in the data we have on Kerbals. As such, a new entry had to be hastily cobbled together. I mean carefully researched and written up. It is as follows: Kerbin's Atmosphere It has come to the attention of the Guide that, while the knowledge we possess concerning Kerbals is quite extensive, one thing that's been consistently overlooked in discussing these strange little explosion factories is the fact that their atmosphere makes no sense whatsoever. While it does generally exhibit certain qualities known to exist within atmospheric bodies, such as lift, drag, and mucking up the lovely view of space with an annoying color change, it does not actually seem to follow many of the rules of aerodynamics. Previous Kerbologists sent to Kerbin by the Guide failed to mention this phenomenon for no reason we can ascertain, mostly because there aren't many surviving Kerbologists outside of those in the employ of the Guide, but this editor suspects that it had something to do with the fact that paying attention to aerodynamics is not something you usually have the luxury of doing when dealing with Kerbals. Generally speaking, if you've got time enough to notice that the air around you isn't behaving like air, you're probably either dead or about to be when Kerbals are involved. Whatever the case, the Guide has now sent a new Kerbologist out to study the phenomenon. The extensive report can best be summed up as: the entire Kerbin solar system is one seriously messed-up place, and worrying about the fact that the air on its various planets doesn't behave itself seems kind of petty in that respect. This Kerbologist was promptly sacked, and a new one was hired to give us a non-sarcastic analysis of Kerbin's atmosphere. His report was, in full: it's beans. We are once again in need of a new Kerbologist; please apply if you have the time and lack of self-presevation skill required for the job. Regardless, one thing is certain about Kerbin's atmosphere: whatever it is, it is truly a unique gem in this galaxy for us to treasure. So long as Kerbals have that going for them, their tourism and body count both should remain high. Addenum: It has come to our attention that the Kerbals caught wind of the Guide's entry on their atmosphere, and have decided to alter it to more closely resemble a normal atmosphere out of spite for us. In retrospect, this was something of a predictable side-effect of letting the Kerbals know that we've been watching them and laughing at them for so long. This editor in particular finds it quite terrifying that they can radically alter their ecosystem in such a short span and in such a fundamental fashion, but that's just my opinion. The post of Kerbologist remains open, incidentally, as it was when this article was first published two weeks ago. We've admittedly gone through 14 Kerbologists since then, but don't let that deter you from applying!

I think we should consult the Hitchhiker's Guide to Kerbals for this one. Let's see... Ah yes, here we go. Kerbin's Atmosphere It has come to the attention of the Guide that, while the knowledge we possess concerning Kerbals is quite extensive, one thing that's been consistently overlooked in discussing these strange little explosion factories is the fact that their atmosphere makes no sense whatsoever. While it does generally exhibit certain qualities known to exist within atmospheric bodies, such as lift, drag, and mucking up the lovely view of space with an annoying color change, it does not actually seem to follow many of the rules of aerodynamics. Previous Kerbologists sent to Kerbin by the Guide failed to mention this phenomenon for no reason we can ascertain, mostly because there aren't many surviving Kerbologists outside of those in the employ of the Guide, but this editor suspects that it had something to do with the fact that paying attention to aerodynamics is not something you usually have the luxury of doing when dealing with Kerbals. Generally speaking, if you've got time enough to notice that the air around you isn't behaving like air, you're probably either dead or about to be when Kerbals are involved. Whatever the case, the Guide has now sent a new Kerbologist out to study the phenomenon. The extensive report can best be summed up as: the entire Kerbin solar system is one seriously messed-up place, and worrying about the fact that the air on its various planets doesn't behave itself seems kind of petty in that respect. This Kerbologist was promptly sacked, and a new one was hired to give us a non-sarcastic analysis of Kerbin's atmosphere. His report was, in full: it's beans. We are once again in need of a new Kerbologist; please apply if you have the time and lack of self-presevation skill required for the job. Regardless, one thing is certain about Kerbin's atmosphere: whatever it is, it is truly a unique gem in this galaxy for us to treasure. So long as Kerbals have that going for them, their tourism and body count both should remain high. Addenum: It has come to our attention that the Kerbals caught wind of the Guide's entry on their atmosphere, and have decided to alter it to more closely resemble a normal atmosphere out of spite for us. In retrospect, this was something of a predictable side-effect of letting the Kerbals know that we've been watching them and laughing at them for so long. This editor in particular finds it quite terrifying that they can radically alter their ecosystem in such a short span and in such a fundamental fashion, but that's just my opinion. The post of Kerbologist remains open, incidentally, as it was when this article was first published two weeks ago. We've admittedly gone through 14 Kerbologists since then, but don't let that deter you from applying!

Gotta stick with the old standby, "How hard can rocket science be, anyway?".

I find it somewhat remarkable that we still have not seen any other mod implement clouds in KSP. Especially in light of the fact that this particular mod has not been updated in almost half a year.

I suspect it's key lime sherbet. Mmm, key lime...

From a purely release-oriented standpoint, it's best to fix what you have before you go adding in new content. From a development-oriented standpoint, those fixes are liable to break as you add new content. It's a tough line to walk, but seeing as 1.0 is a major release milestone, I'd personally say that focusing on fixing bugs and updating existing systems should be the top priority.

No relation that I'm aware of; sorry. Though it would be interesting to meet a relative of someone you know on a forum for a game you like, I must admit.