davidpsummers

I have an apparent bug. Looked at the bug report thread and it was closed and no e-mail, so I'll post it here... KSP Version: v1.0.0.830, Mac OS (don't know how many bits the Mac one is, but there is only the one). What Happens: Activate engine. Get smoke and sound. Fuel gets used. Rocket doesn't move. The program and Kerbal Engineer both report a TWR of 1.6. To Replicate: Try and launch the following craft... https://www.dropbox.com/s/4v28li7e9nby7y5/Materials%20I.craft?dl=0 Mods/Add-Ons: Yours (without parachute drag, Mk3 Strength, and Symmetry Action fixes) and Kerbal Engineer. Fixes/Workarounds: Having the rocket sit on its fins rather than the motor, doesn't help. Replacing the LV-909 with the LV-T45 does. [Edit] I just installed you mod today. So it should be the most recent. Installed the version of module manager you ship with it.

OK, that will help, though, of course, it is always possible to design a ship that is too top heavy. When we get advanced, this will make aerobraking large probes "interesting". I guess, if you don't have a heat shield, you will be limited by how much heating you can withstand?

Well, you can use any mouse you want, even one with 20 buttons. However, the OS, AFAIK (and I haven't paid attention), only defines "click" and "command click". Most mice (again AFAIK) send "command click" when you click the right button, and most game writers (Squad included) use that as "right click". The mice that Apple sells do this these days (have a right and left click). My mouse does send something when I click the scroll wheel button. Currently it brings up the widgets, but I'm not sure how what it sends matches anything else. What info is middle click suppose to bring up? Does do windows users with track pads do?

So I tried to use the Science Jr on my nascent, 1.0, career mode. I was aware of the changes and put a heat shield on. The problem is that upon re-entry (from a decently high apoapsis) the capsule flipped over, heated up, and exploded, killing Jeb! A retry (with brave Valentina going when Jeb had just died) with reaction control module was able to keep it orientated. So the bottom line is either a) have sufficient attitude control to counter aerodynamics (how much, not sure). reenter with just a capsule that will orientate itself. In some other threads, they deploy a parachute. Though even if the game lets you, I'm not sure how a parachuter survives re-entry.

The VAB now (?) has a middle mouse click to bring up more info. (what info?) I have a mouse that lets you click the scroll wheel? (I am using a Macbook Pro). That just brings up the widgets. AFAIK, that is defined by the guys that made the mouse (Mac just defines a right and left click?) I don't think PC have them either? (It's a unix thing?). As you can see, I confused enough I don't really even know the right questions to ask.

Tanks for the comments. I've played around with space planes enough to be leary of the aerodynamic changes alone. But I won't delete, I will actually keep my old game, and KSP 0.9, around in case I ever want to "revisit".

I have a career mode (old "science" mod), that has gotten pretty mature, but still has stuff to do. Looking around, it sort of seems that if I convert it to 1.0, I'll have to redo a lot of designs? Maybe start a new career mode and learn the difference that way? What do you guys who rushed out to use 1.0 think?

BTW, you can to a gravity assist off another moon. I don't know how much this will give (not a lot?) It will be hard to calculate a burn. Maybe sling off into a retrograde direction (with respect to Jool's orbit, you will always want to apply your dV retrograde wrt Jool. A transfer to a more inner planet is applying the right amount, at the right time, of dV to retrograde) and see what you get. Once you leave Jool's orbit, you can adjust the solar orbit? (you would gain the gravity assist, but loose some Oberth effect, the solar burn will be a low velocity).

If you want to know when, you can use any of the calculators for Jool => Kerbin. The window from Laythe will be basically the same time. You can then put in your burn mode and see how much dV you need to bring the periapsis of the resulting solar obit in to the distance of Kerbin's orbit (the optimal transfer will have a solar orbit where the periapsis just touches Kerbin's orbit and if you do the burn at the optimum time, then you want an optimum orbit). Then you fiddle with it. Maybe add some normal or anti-normal component so the game shows you the closest approach (if it doesn't already) or just burn to an orbit that graze's Kerbin and do a correction once you leave Jool's SOI?

They definitely go the wrong way. But for a weird reason. Compare the elevons with the fin mounted laterally on the engine in this photo... But if you look from above, you can see the wings extrapolate to just before the center of mass. (The back part is actually attached to the radial engine, but it seems the game extrapolates the line to the center....

Thanks. I think I'll check out the mods since the persitence file can be inconvenient for routine stuff.

That one was good. What thread is the bit SSTO thread?

Well, at least I guess I'm not missing something and that it is indeed that tricky... One thing I tried was, rather than put down a bunch on a large plane, I took one wing segment, put them on it, and saved it as a subassembly. The main problem I have now is I was using the swept elevon (elevon 5) with the swept wing segment. The problem is that when I went to launch, I found they go the wrong way (pitch up when they should pitch down, etc.). I can't just flip them because then the slant won't line up right?

So I'm building a space plane. I put some elevons on the back of the wing so I can control it. So far so good. When I want to put them on, they always try and go on perpendicular or whatever and I have to rotate them in place. And swept wings or worse. They are deterined to embed themselves in the wing part and it looks I have to use the rotate and offset functions to move them carefully in place? Is it suppose to be this hard?

I have a decent SSTO space plane using Mk2 parts. I can get crew and very small probes into orbit. I'm looking for something bigger that might to do more. Some I would like to make a large one with Mk3 parts. But I'm having a bit of trouble. It would be handy to see how other people have done it. So I'm interested seeing people's stock space planes with Mk3 parts. The bigger the better.

Is there a way to look at, and/or modify, action groups after launch?

Thanks for the help everyone. There it is!

From Orbit around Jool - - - Updated - - - I'm tingly with anticipation!

I accidentally deleted one of my ships. I have it on an old save. However, I can't just revert because I have done to much to loose. Can I edit the persitent file to recover it? If I find the entry for the ship and cut and paste it back in, will that work?

Being persuaded by the issue of TWR also needing to be sufficient, I went with "take the launch vehicle and put enough weight on top until Kerbal Engineer says the amount of dV is right" approach. If I was still calculating dV's by spreadsheet, I may have calculated the weight and TWR ratios.

I experimented with a plate, and decoupler, and a fuel tank and there do seem to be combinations where you can't stick things on the bottom. But there was also clipping. -I took the version that was rooted at the plate (the same one I had problems with, rooting at the tank didn't solve the problem), and pulled off the tanks and stuff above the plate. -I stuck an octagonal strut on the bottom. -I put a decoupler and probe core below that, and rerooted at the probe core. -Removed the plate and strut and stuck the plate on the decoupler. -Removed anything that might clip from the plate. -Put the tank, with stuff on it, on the plate. -That worked, but only if I was careful. (The tank would want to place down covering the decoupler for some reason.) With all that, I'm not sure what the original problem was. If anyone wants to look at it, here is the original craft (if I did this right)... https://www.dropbox.com/s/axzin530dxk7uaz/Bop%20Lander%20II.craft?dl=0

I want to use the docking port for something else and it will look weird and be wobbly.... - - - Updated - - - I don't really have a site to do that on. Unless you can recommend a free one....

I'm not sure what you are talking about?

I don't really have a place to do that? I can't do it on this site, can I?

I've got several lift vehicles that I match the right size for missions. I know how much they weigh and what their delta-v is without payload. Can I use that to calculate the maximum payload they can lift to Low Kerbin Orbit? It would be handier to be able to rate them by mass they can lift to LKO.