GoSlash27

I think you misunderstood Best, -Slashy

Not knocking your choice, just pointing out that it's not necessary and people who don't use it aren't necessarily "oblivious". Speaking from *my* experience, designing the ship on paper using a spreadsheet before I build it isn't tedious at all and it helps me build more efficient designs than your method allows. So to each his/ her own. *shrug* Best, -Slashy

A bit of a side-issue, but you don't need KER to know that stuff. I've never needed it and therefore never used it. I design my rockets to have the desired TWR and DV and optimal efficiency before I ever enter the VAB. IRT the OP, I think it's the result of improperly managing the stresses rather than the rockets being more noodly. If you fly it properly I'm pretty sure you won't have those issues. Best, -Slashy

Fair 'nuff. I'm not going to convince you if I'm right, and I'm not really certain I am anyway But as long as you're getting into the business, I have an idea that I think will help: There's no need to go to space to get cheap (or even free) fuel. You could set up an oil field/ refinery on Kerbin and save yourself a whole lot of transportation/ infrastructure expenditure. It'd be pure (or nearly pure) profit. Best, -Slashy

Tee-hee! -Slashy

Yeah, sounds like. Judging from what I've seen so far, it'd be more efficient to set up a drilling farm, process the fuel in situ, then transfer the fuel to wherever it's needed using a tanker. The logistics will be interesting to sort out. Best, -Slashy

Thanks for the clarification! I'd imagine you're the go-to source on this one Is it also unlimited for asteroids, or does it deplete there? Thanks again, -Slashy

SelectHalfling, Do you remember which stream you saw this in? My gameplan is going to depend on whether or not resources deplete. Thanks, -Slashy

5thHorseman, No, that's definitely not my argument. It's absolutely worth it to spend $100 for your fuel instead of $1000. That's why we're going to mine ore and process it in space. It's just not worth it to then deorbit the cheap fuel you've made and relaunch it. ddenis, IRT point 1, I would argue that the ideal percentage would be zero. Point 2, it is sorta like putting your money in a bank, but (to use your analogy) you have a choice in which bank you use. LKO National Bank allows you to make free cash withdrawals while KSC Credit Union hits you with heavy transaction fees for "drag and gravity well". And it goes back to my original point; you won't ever turn a "profit" by putting your money in a savings account. At least one that doesn't pay interest. The best you can do is spend your money as wisely as possible. Best, -Slashy

I don't think it's a cheat at all. It will just change the logistics of the game; trading one fuel distribution network for a different one. I'm looking forward to solving the problem. I think I heard that the drilling sites never run out of fuel. Does anybody else know whether this is true or not? Best, -Slashy

Well... looking at it as a rational exercise, it kinda has to be that way. When you recover your tank of fuel, they pay you (say) a thousand credits for it. Then you turn around and buy it right back for a thousand credits. It's like moving money from your left pocket to your right pocket; the transaction may as well not have happened. So basically what you're doing is deorbiting your fuel, keeping it in a temporary fuel tank, putting it in another rocket, and then burning most of it to get some of it back up to orbit. It's much better to just leave it in orbit in the first place. Or at least it *should* be... Best, -Slashy

khyron42, Here's my flight plan: 1 Eve 2 Ike 3 Dres 4 Pol 5 Bop 6 Eeloo 7 Laythe *edit* Hmm... I picked my #7 because the contract said to land and I can't land on Jool Best, -Slashy

Nah. It's a good movie sequence and us scientifically- minded folks don't believe in omens anyway. 1.0 is going to be epic! Best, -Slashy

^ That's my point. Although since I never use mods, I have zero experience with this. It is therefore entirely possible that I'm missing something that's not immediately obvious. By my way of thinking there can be no "profit" when you're the only consumer in the economy. There can only be "savings". Looked at from that perspective, there's no economic reason to return fuel to Kerbin's surface if you're just going to turn around and lift it to orbit again. Better to just leave it up there and do what Alshain said. Best, -Slashy

"suiting up" for KSP 1.0. Best, -Slashy

Right... but I'm still not getting the logic behind doing that. You go out and mine/ refine ore to make fuel. It's cheaper than what you pay retail at KSC, so that's good. So you deorbit it and recover it and turn what appears to be a profit. *But* when you run your next mission, you're buying back the fuel you just sold them, so your profit is lost. And it's at the bottom of the gravity well, so you have to spend even more to get it to orbit. Why not just leave the fuel in orbit in an orbital depot and use it to fuel your missions there? Not only do you not have to pay retail for the fuel, but your shipping costs of getting the fuel to LKO where it's useful are eliminated. I've got to be missing something here...

Fengist, That airship is pretty neat! For future reference, the more specialized mods are required to participate in a challenge, the less likely it is that people will participate. For that reason, my challenges have always been either all stock or separate leaderboards for commonly used mods. Best, -Slashy

I'm not following this line of reasoning. Who would you sell the fuel to, and why? The only person who's ever going to use it is you. How can you have a for- profit business when you're the only customer? Confused, -Slashy

My.90 stuff represents a lot of work, research, and development, but it's not very useful in 1.0. So out with the old and in with the new. Best, -Slashy

No thanks. Why would I want an iPod? A trip to Mars. On Mars One.

And now that I've got this tune hopelessly stuck in my head...

Keepin' the hype train a-rollin'...

5. It's alright, but the subject matter doesn't really lend itself to music IMO.

I voted to scrub it. You're not going to learn much from the effort and much of what you do learn won't be applicable to KSP anymore. OTOH, there's a lot that needs to be re-learned in 1.0 Best, -Slashy

I recreated NASA's process. I started with suborbital flights, then orbital, then orbital rendezvous and EVAs, then a munar mission. This was all in the demo. When I stepped up to the full game I learned how to dock and how to work with the aerodynamics. Best, -Slashy