Jump to content

Norcalplanner

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,627

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Norcalplanner

  1. Norcalplanner
    I've noticed this problem for some time playing in upscale systems. Sometimes the Kerbals to be rescued are in a moderately eccentric orbit, with part of each orbit being outside the atmosphere and therefore providing a brief opportunity for rescue in space. The safest course of action is to never accept any one-star rescue contracts. :-)
  2. Norcalplanner
    A few months ago, I tried to calculate how long it would take for the Hermes (from The Martian) to leave Earth orbit at its stated acceleration of 2 mm/s squared. The straight calc is over 20 days, but that doesn't take into account a whole host if factors which would likely increase that by at least 50%. I'm afraid my math skills aren't good enough to be of more detailed help.
  3. Norcalplanner
    As with most rare resources in the KSP universe, I'd recommend searching in locations which are difficult to get to and/or remain at for any significant length of time.
  4. Norcalplanner
    I voted for 10x, but my answer is more complicated. 10.6x is my favorite, but as others have noted, it can take a long time to get things done. I've spent the most time playing 3x and 3.2x, which strikes a good balance between epic grandeur and RL time limitations. I've also spent a good chunk of time at 6.4x. And right now I'm enjoying a 2.5x GPP career using BDB and SSTU - initial indications are promising.
  5. Norcalplanner
    I'm really wishing I wasn't up to my eyeballs with RL commitments right now - I'm jonesing to play some GPP something fierce. All I can do the next four days is live vicariously through the GPP adventures of others as viewed on my phone. So keep it up, everyone!
  6. Norcalplanner
    The most needed missing nuclear engine is a 2.5m version equal to a cluster of 4 LV-Ns in all respects except for part count. Both Modular Rocket Systems and Vens Stock Revamp include such a part.
  7. Norcalplanner
    Ah. I haven't unlocked and used any of those engines yet, but I was looking at the descriptions and didn't see the old dyno tuning text. I'll be sure to give them a workout. I'm also going to try to avoid Karborundum as much as possible this save, and have installed Far Future as a partial substitute.
  8. Norcalplanner
    I'm not sure whether to be impressed or freaked out by that Skybox. ;-\ BTW, whatever happened to the Deep Sky Dyno tuning for the Karbonite engines? Was that removed for being OP, or was it an "oops, forgot that" situation?
  9. Norcalplanner
    Ummm.... Nertea already covers this pretty well....
  10. Norcalplanner
    If you multiply all the dV values by the square root of the rescale, you should end up with the ballpark dV for the rescale. So 3,200 m/s X 1.58 (the square root of 2.5) = 5,060 m/s to get to orbit in 2.5x.
  11. Norcalplanner
    I had the same problem. If you start a save and go straight to the VAB, Jeb is still there and will hop in your first rocket. The workaround is to go to the astronaut complex first, which will show the renamed Gaelans correctly. Going back into the VAB afterward will have the Gaelans named correctly.
  12. Norcalplanner
    Has GregRoxMun ever played GPP?!?
  13. Norcalplanner
    Thanks @Nertea for asking for feedback. I've been an enthusiastic user of this wonderful mod for a long time - see photo below from my 3.2x GPP career: I don't know where the github roadmap is located, but here are my thoughts on parts which would be very helpful in a new/redone version of the mod, in rough order of preference: 1. A 2.5m 5-way hub, with sides angled at 120 degrees to aid three-way symmetrical stations. 2. A double height 3.75m habitat. 3. A 3.75m cupola without the attachment point in the middle 4. Quad-length crew tubes in both 1.25m and 2.5m diameter (although this might be redundant with NF Construction). 5. Maybe a 3.75m hub, in both 6-way and 5-way variants. 6. Larger parts at your discretion as mentioned by other posters, such as toruses, larger science labs, etc. Thanks again for all your hard work with this and your other mods.
  14. Norcalplanner
    Slasher, GPP is very particular regarding the version of the game, and the versions of the mods it depends on (such as Kopernicus, Module Manager, and Scatterer). Here's some advice from a previous post:
  15. Norcalplanner
    I've found that the best way is to use the exospheric collectors in orbit. The only problem is the luck of the draw - you may end up with usable concentrations at convenient altitudes, or not.
  16. Norcalplanner
    OgreMagi, GPP is pushing KSP to the limit in a variety of ways, which means that it's very particular regarding the way it's installed and exactly which mod dependencies are required. It's particularly sensitive to versions of other mods, such as Kopernicus and Scatterer. My advice would be to create a new install somewhere on your computer outside of the Steam directory, then follow the installation instructions a few posts after the OP to the letter. Lastly, once things are working, never allow any mod in your GPP install to automatically update itself via AVC or CKAN. If a new version of KSP or GPP comes out, my advice is to create a new install for the new version, get everything working, then finally copy over any save files you want to use with the new version.
  17. Norcalplanner
    @JadeOfMaar Here are links to the three albums of my 10.6257x GPP career. Feel free to use whatever you want.
  18. Norcalplanner
    This looks great, and I wanted to offer a suggestion. It's possible to use this with the community tech tree or with the stock tech tree if you use the Bluedog Design Bureau mod. BDB includes some early probe cores (such as Explorer) which are placed into early nodes.
  19. Norcalplanner
    @MatterBeam I'm glad that you like them. SpaceY Expanded is a great help for big rockets. I'm still running KSP 1.2.2 with KJR, so no auto-struts are needed. And I'm also running SMURFF at full lever, so most parts are lightened to be more in line with RL. Not sure about the fairings, though... I'll need to look into it. Right now we have 34 million in the bank, so spending 2 million on the KSS Overkill (including lifter) wasn't too bad.
  20. Norcalplanner
    The Klondike I brought back over 155,000 units of Karborundum. So if a little is good, a lot must be better. This lovely lifter here had three 10m cores. The two outer cores were staged just under the threshold for successful recovery (set at 2,500 m/s), thus keeping the cost down a bit. Each core had 9 RS-25 engines courtesy of RSB. And this is why I needed such a big lifter. The Klondike II did what the Klondike I did, but at an even larger scale. Weighing 3,400 tons fully laden, it brought back over a billion funds worth of Karborundum. So what the heck can we do with this stuff? Here's a couple of things - a small two-man lander, along with an orbital scanning probe, both still attached to their transfer stages. Probably won't be able to get very far on their own, though, even with Karborundum. They probably ought to hitch a ride with something larger... Uh-oh. Evidently a 10 meter fairing wasn't big enough for this payload. 4,500 tons on the pad. I think this will do. Here's your teaser shot of the KSS Overkill, carrying both of those smaller craft after a protracted docking session with the Klondike I. (Asymmetrical RCS thrusters on the transfer stage only are not your friend.) After a brief shakedown cruise to Ceti to test systems, we'll be going interplanetary with this Karborundum-powered monster... with every one of the Fab Four on board... with USI-LS... at 10.6257x scale... what was I thinking?!? More to come soon...
  21. Norcalplanner
    Radiators are your friend when harvesting solar Karborundum. Also look at the temperature tolerance of every single part on your craft, and see if you can design it so that all parts are 2000K or higher. Using the more expensive versions of probe cores and deployable solar panels will help tremendously.
  22. Norcalplanner
    Don't recall (away from computer atm) but I'll take a look tomorrow. My impression is that it's somewhere north of 10 days - definitely had to worry about habitation and supplies with USI-LS. Edit: @CatastrophicFailure I fired up KSP, and it looks like it's 9 days, 20 hours to get from LGO to LCO, assuming you leave from a roughly coplanar orbit and don't have to make a large correction halfway there. I recall that my craft had enough USI-LS supplies for 22 days, and I ended up burning some extra fuel to speed the return trip.
  23. Norcalplanner
    Pinchy, I'm glad you enjoyed the screenshots and commentary. Regarding the Icarus insertion burn - I have the Karbonite mod installed, which includes the Karborundum resource. It's heavy, but when burned in a power-hungry vacuum engine, it has an Isp of 10,000. My probe had an initial vacuum TWR of 0.6, so it's a fair bit higher than a typical ion engine layout. So trying to replicate what I'm doing in a stock-ish install will be very difficult, if not impossible. In terms of time, zipping in and out of Icarus' SOI would take 56 minutes without an insertion burn, but the burn only takes 50 minutes, so I'm able to do the whole insertion without having to exit the SOI gain. When I finished the burn I was in a very high sub-orbital lob (Ap of thousands of kilometers) which I then had to adjust to bring Pe out of the planet, then subsequently circularize at a normal height on the next orbit. And as @CatastrophicFailure says, it's possible (and sometimes necessary) with lower thrust engines to start the burn before entering the SOI. And MechJeb is definitely a huge help here (as it is with any long burn), especially the SmartASS function which allows you to hold various headings very precisely. Let me know if you want more info - I'm happy to explain things in whatever level of detail you need.
  24. Norcalplanner
    Thanks. I finally made a decent computer last year, so I can run this with all the visual bells and whistles. Usually I run the full Near Future suite, but this save has MKS installed, and was trying to cut down on the total part count and potential mod conflicts. I also didn't want the two reactor/electric mechanics stomping on each other. This is also my first save using Vens and BDB, so keeping part count down steered me in a different direction.
  25. Norcalplanner
    Finally got around to posting some of what I've been doing over the past month in my 10.6x GPP career. Here's one shot to whet your appetite - many more screenshots are in the linked post.
×
×
  • Create New...