Norcalplanner

Yes you should. It came out for 1.2 yesterday. :-) I can't really start my serious 1.2 career in earnest until Kopernicus is updated, since the plan is to combine stock-ish parts with R&D in an upscaled system.

Supplies are definitely not full. I have an MPL doing recycling, but it was my understanding that this simply reduced the consumption rate of the noms. Each NOM 5000 on my station has only used about 2 units of fertilizer in 60 days of operation. Plus lots of mulch just sitting there waiting to be converted.

Has anyone else noticed the Nom-o-Matic 5000 running a lot slower than it used to? I had a mid-career station around the Mun with two of them, both configured for agroponics, and they couldnt keep up with the mulch generated by only two kerbals. Plenty of fertilizer and EC. I'm away from the computer atm, so no logs - just wondering if anyone else has seen this.

Thank you for updating this! Doesn't seem to recognize upgrades for the new Porkjet parts, but that's understandable. Everything else seems to work fine so far.

I'm fairly sure that rendezvous and docking missions have to be launched separately from Kerbin.

Yep, this is my preferred way to keep your experienced Kerbals. Bring everyone home, then upgrade. I generally roleplay it as "there's early warning of a cataclysm approaching the system, and the only safe place is underground on Kerbin itself" as justification to bring everyone home. Some craft and stations may survive, some may not. When the Kerbals emerge from their underground bunkers, they can take stock of what infrastructure remains, then start rebuilding their program.

Finally - a use for the Flea! With some tourists crazy enough that they want to pass out, you can oblige them by putting them in a capsule on top of a Flea, then radially attaching 3 or more additional Fleas. Heads up like a streak of lighting for 8 seconds, long enough to render the tourist unconscious. This part finally has a use!

I voted for the first choice, but only for the sake of completeness. I wouldn't spend more than one lecture on everything up to Goddard, with a bit more emphasis on Galileo discovering that the moon is a body with mountains and other features - like those we know about and live amongst on earth. I would also spend some time on the role of space travel in popular fiction, since exploring the heavens has long been both an aspirational and inspirational activity. Both of these factors have been critical to the long-term exploration of space, particularly manned spaceflight, which is difficult, expensive, and hazardous.

Keep in mind that not all mods will get updated right away, so it may be worthwhile as suggested above to try a stock "throwaway" career to play for a bit just to get a feel for the pace and the mechanics. Have everything at 100% (science, funds, rep, etc.) then look at what you're getting way too much of too easily, then crank it down. Part of it also depends on what you want to be constrained by - for example, I want my 1.2 career to be more constrained by science than by funding, so I plan to keep funding at 100% or higher, while reducing science to 60%. Kerbal R&D in particular brings with it the possibility of making the game much easier, so long as you have the science to spend. (Take a look at eddiew's Mission Reports thread to get an idea of what can happen.) Using Stage Recovery will make your launches cost less in the long run, so there's a real possibility that you'll be swimming in funds if you're not careful. Make sure that you have "unlock part costs" or whatever it's called enabled, otherwise the money side becomes way too easy. Also decide if you're going to use an alternate tech tree. I'm a fan of Community Tech Tree in part because I love Nertea's and NecroBones' mods, and they're all supported by it. It takes a lot more science to buy all the nodes in that tree, so I'll also generally do DMagic Orbital Science. So I guess it all depends on the mods you're going to use and what kind of a game you want. So I guess I'll offer up my plan that you can consider, adopt, reject, or somewhere in between: Science 60%, Rep 60%, Funds 100% or higher (with my own special rule that if funds get above 5 million, I have to drop what I'm doing and launch things until it's back down under 4 million, since I want to build a lot of infrastructure in this save) Yes to quicksave and revert (largely because of bug potential) No to respawning kerbals and stock craft availability Sigma Dimensions at 3.2x or larger (to make things harder initially) Kerbal R&D (to make things slowly easier over time in a larger universe) All of NecroBones' and Nertea's mods (go big or go home) Community Tech Tree Some sort of life support (I'm partial to USI-LS) DMagic Orbital Science and ScanSat (more fun things to do) KCT and Stage Recovery (to encourage time planning and make things more strategic) Add other mods as needed once it's time to start building really big stations (Station Science) or surface bases (Pathfinder, MKS/OKS, KPBS) Whatever you decide, remember to have fun. Don't be afraid to decide that a particular mod or setting isn't fun, and then change it. It took me a long time to truly understand what I do and don't like. For example, I had a negative association with KCT for a long time, but that was because my initial experience was in the context of RSS/RO. Now I happily use it without worrying about major plan change concerns, fuel boiloff, or any of the other things that irritated me at the time. Be sure to post some reports once you're going, especially once you get further than you've ever gotten before in career. And good luck!

How about making it so that they have to be at least level 1 or level 2 to reset the science experiments? If you have a colonist going to another moon or planet, odds are that the mothership, orbital station or surface base is going to have an MPL, so they'll have an opportunity to level up at some point before gathering science in earnest.

Yes, but the cloud height gets increased so it can look a little weird with SVE. I think there's a way to set the cloud height in the EVE folder to bring it back down where it's supposed to be, but then you may end up with the "mountain ranges poking out of the clouds" issue at certain altitudes. Everything always looks good by the time you're in HKO.

And here's the challenge I ran back in 1.0.5 for lowest cost per ton to orbit, limited to rockets only. Kickbacks are your friend.

I recall it being around 600 m/s.

Please don't flare out the bottom if at all possible. When I made my Nova Heavy using RSB parts a while ago, the final solution was difficult and not terribly attractive when it came to using the parts as radial boosters. Because, you know, this is Kerbal and someone (slowly raises hand in corner) is going to build rockets resembling a Delta IV Heavy with these new parts. 120+ engines firing at liftoff? Yes, please.

With enough SRBs, it won't matter if your craft generates any lift at all on the ascent. Plenty of upper stages, both in KSP and IRL, achieve orbit with a TWR well below 1.

I think it's time to finally crack open the special box in the corner of my mind that has been sealed over time by rage, frustration, and LAG. With the optimizations in 1.2 and my new overclocked PC, it's time to put imagination in the drivers seat and let it run wild again, instead of being constrained by part count or FPS. HYPE!

In looking at the job ads through the link at the top of the forum, every job description requires that the applicant speak Spanish fluently. Could the language issue be a contributing factor to the exodus?

Don't forget "glorious", "this makes me happy", and "I'm a sucker for a good animation".

@DMSP This looks like a lot of fun! Can I request a slot? I'm going to be out of town when the list ends right now, but would love a slot sometime around November 5th-6th. And are there any other unwritten rules? Stylistic best practices? Or just an authoritative "Go forth, and make the station(s) awesome"...?

Actions will speak louder than words in the long run. Let's wait and see what happens. For all we know the folks who are leaving were headhunted away by another studio, or have decided to form their own game company. I'll also note that Rover Dude and Nightingale aren't on the list, so there's still some high quality talent staying.

As in many areas of life, hope for the best but prepare for something less...

Great data. Any chance of seeing results for parachutes instead of nosecones? I remember NathanKell's thread about the detached shockwave - mainly it reduced aero heating at high speeds. Probably not going fast enough with these rockets to make a difference.

Did someone say "surface docking"?

Yes to both. Should I cancel, accept again, and then go straight to the barnstorming?

So I just started what will probably be my last 1.1.3 career, heavy modded with some things I haven't done before, including GAP. I'm having a lot of fun, but seem to be stuck at the "Barnstorm Jebediah's Tool Shed" mission. I've launched a plane, flown it through the shed at over 100 m/s, but it still won't tick the box in the mission completion. Is there anything special about "barnstorming" that I'm not getting? Some speed or throttle level? Upside down? Any assistance would be appreciated. BTW, I killed Jebediah the first time I tried it. I found myself laughing out loud - I haven't killed a Kerbal in months. He clipped one wing on the side of the barn, spun the rest of the craft around like a madman, survived the first bounce (although a few more parts of the plane did not) then finally vanished in a puff of smoke on the second bounce. Somehow it seemed fitting - if Jeb is going to buy the farm, this seemed like the way to do it.