Brainlord Mesomorph

I'm about to send my first manned flight to Eve. (never landed on Gilly yet) My first Bots are their way to Dres. (if it exists) I scrubbed the Jool-5 mission from 0.95 (don't think I did *all* 5 moons) And I have a contract to do my first asteroid capture. But I think that's everyplace. EDIT: Oh Eeloo, never been there.

Its not a "psychological barrier" time is a precious resource. Even you called it "excessive time warp" If I have a year while that flight in en-route to Eve, or before my next departure, I have a year to work on the spaceplane project, or build out the Minmus Fuel Station. (of course, in my career, right now its Year 2 day 38, I have three munbases, I'm about to launch 2 interplanetary cruisers, I have 1.7 million funds, and a rep of 82%) I have a problem with time passing too fast, I think time in the VAB should count. In the Dev Forum, I suggested R&D should take time. And about HALF the ppl in that thread said it wouldn't matter b/c "everyone will just time warp" But, no. they wouldn't. At least I wouldn't.

I take advantage of every transfer window I get. And then dawdle in LKO construction most of the rest of the time. trouble is: transfer windows are few and far between and so many things in the game take zero gametime. VAB/SPH construction, endless testflights with revert to VAB. all keep zeroing the clock. (then SQUAD releases a new build, and you have to start over.) So while I do spend a lot (too much) of my time around Kerbin, my goal is to make the Kerbals a truly interplanetary society. I want to colonize Duna, and Jool, and extract every drop of science from every biome there is.

Fairings have mass. Does the ship lose the mass when you pop the fairing? or when you jettison the disk? I have an interplanetary payload in a fairing. I can't jettison the disk before I get there. So should I pop the fairing before I leave? (to save weight) or won't it matter in the game engine?

Still researching new wheel dynamics for my high speed rover tutorial. I can confirm everything you said. There doesn't seem to be a top speed on flat ground anymore (was 50 m/s) but there is this new question or "wheel stress" research is ongoing....

I started with a bee-line to the Mk1 Passenger bay. To spam tourism. Then I went straight after the NERV and ISRU modules. I still don't have high altitude jets or large rockets. My biggest lifter is 2 orange tanks and a mainsail. Year 2 day 50 So its like a 1960s sci fi movie. I have Gemini level rockets but interplanetary tech. I can only lift 20 tonnes at a time but I'm building interplanetary cruisers in LKO. I have three moonbases but not supersonic flight.

That is the definition of SSTO. And that is what I'm saying esp if you factor in the cost of the occasional loss of these more complex, more expensive lifters. Seperately I am working on a spaceplane concept that lifts large payload modules, (i.e. 100 tonnes in a fairing) to LKO. More details on that soon...

My SSTO rocket can lift a payload and do a single "sub-orbit" If I put in orbit with an Ap of 88 km 90 degrees to the East of the KSC, and a Pe of 55 km 90 degrees to the west of the KSC , it pretty much just falls to the KSC. Last time I added it up I was at about 550 to 600 funds/tonne. EDIT: but I've been re-thinking this: It costs about 20,000 funds to turn a dumb, disposable rocket into a autonomous recoverable rocket. (probe-core, chutes, etc) Now if you get back to the KSC, that's all free. BUT: if anything goes wrong... If the rocket comes down on the far side of Kerbin (because I overloaded the payload) of worse yet, the thing tumbles in reentry and the probe core overheats, then I lose the whole thing (including the extra $20,000). I've realized that if I fail 30% of the time, I'm obliterating all the money I saved on the recovering the other 70%. And if I don't care about getting it back, I can put another 5 or 10 tonnes of payload on the damn thing. So,, maybe not.... /physics is a big tease. Every time I think I'm saving money or dV in one place, I realize I'm spending it somewhere else.

I don't want to blow up the whole R&D complex just one small building. a little puff ("poof!") it might not even cost money. just a visual indicator that "DOH! they did it again!" Then the tech node takes an extra week and costs another 50 funds, How about this: A tweak menu for R&D: total budget, a slider for "Safety Precautions" that goes from "Safe&Slow" to "Fast& Risky" I would expect most players going for Risky!

http://deslide.clusterfake.net/?o=html_table&u=http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/photos/spectacular-photos-from-space/ss-AA8lMqC&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link thought I'd share

PLEASE NO!!!!! alt f4 is my way of stopping it from autosaving after the Kraken strikes! F5 then alt F4 if you want to save. (quicksave also saves the persistent) ("Tough day at the button, George?")

sorry "unassaultable" was not really the word I wanted. (undeniable? unassailable? I'm not sure) Time Warp (as a feature) is a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too solution. It enables players like you to make time trivial, and players like me to use time. I only timewarp for a half an hour or so at a time, between burns. If I have an hour or a day (or a year of interplanetary transit) I have time to go back to the KSC and build something. Maybe that's why I have a Rep of 81%. R&D time fits in with this. For players who want time to be trivial, it is. For players like me it'll be much more realistic. --- I can't believe no one else thinks R&D building blowing up by themselves wouldn't be hilarious. sorry I miscounted, you listed 5. I think that's what the R&D dept is doing in that span of time. (not me)

@tater I think you may be going too far. There are contracts to test parts. And I don't think I want to personally run 6 tests on every part before I get to use it. I would like to see part-failure (and maintenance, and repair, and replacement) as a new feature. But that's a different thread.

Dude, I have no idea what YOUR problem is (even with all the those words) and that is NOT a request for you to explain it again. You like to TimeWarp through one mission at a time? Be my guest. Does that effect Rep? yes. If NASA had launched Voyager 1 and 2, in 1977 and then stopped everything until 1986 when they got to Saturn, the public would have been disappointed. (it would have killed their Rep) But they didn't. They were developing new tech, The Space Shuttle, the ISS, I don't think anyone considered those "time filler missions." Time is time. It is not a "currency" it is not a "metric", its not a "dynamic" and it is not trivial. It time. Its a sequence and spacing apart of events, I have a simple (Indeed I believe unassaultable) proposal, there should be a sequence and spacing apart of the events of acquiring science on another planet and then using that science to create new products here at home. NASA sent Apollo 11 to the Moon, then they sent six more nearly identical missions. It that was KSP, Apollo 12 would have been a Space Shuttle. If you have some problem involving time and rep (or whatever) please suggest a solution to that, and do so in a different thread. (don't apologize for threadjacking, stop threadjacking) BTW: My rep is 81%, its the beginning of year 2, I have three Mun Bases, Bots on their way to Dres, and landed on Duna, And I'm building interplanetary cruisers in LKO. (I have no issues with the current rep system.)

I'll agree to disagree with you on this. You're like arguing with my brother, I never suggested filling out budget proposals. But R&D does take time. And ships becoming obsolete halfway through their first flight *is* a problem. Here: my current solution to this problem is that I no longer spend sci points as soon as I get them. I let them sit there for a while. Right now I'm in orbital construction of two ships I'm sending to Eve and then Duna. And right in the middle of that my first Duna Bot lands, 700 sci points. Now I could (some might say should) stop. and redesign everything with new parts. I have time, within the current game, but its just not realistic. So I'm building with the tech I have. I'll spend those sci points after they leave, and BTW: I love the idea of every once in a while an R&D building just goes "puff!" its sooo Kerbal!

I don't get your point. I'm trying to address the issue that: Due to the windfall of science, which IMMEDIATELY becomes a windfall of tech, halfway through every mission, every ship becomes obsolete. R&D doesn't work that way, it takes time to turn an observation made in the field into new products. If you want to Time-Warp through that and leave Jeb stranded on the Mun UNTIL his ship becomes obsolete you certainly can. (you can make it minutia, if you wish) But to the contrary of your point, I think t his would stop ppl from timewarping. If, as you're timewarping though that flight to Jool, you get pop-ups saying you have new tech, you might stop and start designing new ships. Which is when you would do that in RL. Not ten seconds after Jeb lands.

There is a problem in this game. The rewards for science are far too immediate. I’ve heard it described that "science is overpowered," or problems with biomes but I think it is far simpler than that. In an early career game you spend days designing a low tech Mun Lander, you finally get Jeb there, and the moment he does an EVA report, you get a flood of science points and the rocket is obsolete. You’re back in the VAB designing a new rocket before Jeb is even home. And so much for my plans for Mun Lander II (To put its childishly; I spent all that time designing my new toy and I only get to play with it once. ) The problem is that the R&D Department is that in name only. There is no research, nor development. It functions as a tech store, you walk in with science points and buy something. At first I thought the answer was something complex involving converting science points into “tech points.” And blah blah blah. But it’s far simpler than that, you should direct Research and Development. But it should take time. You should direct R&D the way you do now (in the tech tree), but the results should take time. They will get back to you. In weeks or months. This will lead to pleasant, surprising pop ups “Congratulations, we’ve completed research and development in supersonic atmospheric flight. These parts are now available in the VAB/SPH.” This means that spacecraft won’t become obsolete quite as quickly. But you’ll have a reason, and time, to send MunLander 2 and 3 while you wait for the results from the R&D Dept. How many things you can research at once, and how quickly you get results should depend on the Tier of the R&D and strategies regarding how much money you spend on R.&D. But wait there is more: Sometimes R&D does not go as planned. You should have “setbacks” researching any individual thing should randomly cost more money and take more time. It would be a lot of fun, hear me out: After the Sim realizes your R and D has had a setback, it waits until you’re looking at the whole KSC, and then, one small building on the outskirts of the R&D department EXPLODES. A tiny amount of damage, a little puff of smoke, (not like a rocket crash), and then a popup of a startled Kerbal in a slightly burnt lab coat telling you “We’ve had a bit of a setback.” Even given an infinite amount of science points, it should take years to clear the Tech Tree. Just in R&D time. I think it would make the game more realistic AND more fun. /there I fixed it.

New answer: The hardest thing in KSP? Sticking to your plans and not redesigning everything every time you get new tech!

For all the semantics, you guys seem to be forgetting: its a sim! There's a subroutine running and whether its simulating " Adiabatic compression" or simulating "friction" its still sort-of accurate and still produces "heet" (i.e. hands a number to the thermodynamic sim subroutine)

challenge accepted! /not really

I'm worming my way around in the tech tree, So while I may have a workable engine, my jet intakes all conk out at Mach one, My current "Xray Tango" Shuttle is mostly Mk2 parts with 2 Reliant engines and 4 SRBs.

My definition of shuttle is a spaceplane with rocket assisted vertical launch. And halfway through the tech tree that's the only way to get a plane into orbit. I use them for shuttling crew members to and from LKO.

I build SSTO rockets. Add a probe core, heat shield, a load of parachutes and and extra three drops of fuel for a deorbit burn. Land anywhere near the KSC for 98% value recovery!

Well if you want to talk HARDEST - but not necessarily rewarding: Docking two ship when they are both out of monoprop, and you have to do everything with main engines. or when one ship has no SAS at all, even using the time-warp cheat that took hours.

But I think an accurate model of Saturn's Rings is well beyond our patched conic system. The Saturn System alone would add an almost infinite number of planetary objects. A more fulsome asteroid belt though... only a few hundred.