Norcalplanner

Career. If I want a sandbox-type experience, I'll just start an ultra-easy career game with favorable slider settings. Usually I'm running mods (CTT, ETT, or SETI tech tree, plus contract configuration and strategia) and using a rescaled system to make things interesting.

So now that a near-to-final version of KSP 1.1 is in the hands of people who can talk about it, have there been any CPU revelations? I'm going to be building a new rig soon for KSP and other things, but the last big question in my mind is whether I stick with the i5-6600K (which I decided on a month ago) or jump up to the i7-6700K? Are any of the streamers noticing any difference between these two, particularly on whether hyperthreading adds anything in an environment with large and/or multiple craft?

@Cornholio Nice station. I love the big ones. Here's one I did with station science back in (I think) 1.02. It was launched in two pieces which were sent up with incredibly inefficient launch profiles due to aerodynamic issues, then docked in orbit. Ended up being 700 tons, and also used some parts from SpaceY, Fuel Tanks Plus, and Stockalike Station Parts Expansion.

I did exactly what Snark described as part of a challenge back in 0.90. The goal was to see how fast you could get going before leaving Kerbin's SOI, so I went with a massively onion- and asparagus-staged behemoth that managed to accelerate to almost 32 km/s before it ran out of fuel (and 15 minutes before it left Kerbin's SOI). Lowest TWR on the upper stages was around 0.55. MechJeb is a bit confused in the VAB because of fuel lines.

Based on what I saw in the stream, I sincerely hope that there's some sort of toggle for splitting the threads. Sitting through a multi-second pause during every staging event during ascent is going to get old REALLY fast. Further optimization would be fine too... And for the record I'm really looking forward to 1.1!

SMURFF does a pretty good job of this.

I recall watching a video where the engineer in charge of the F-1 engines for the Saturn V described all the problems they had to overcome to ensure even and balanced combustion (and no failures or explosions) in such a large engine bell. Looking at this, I can't help thinking that the issues to be overcome would be at least an order of magnitude greater. Was there ever any serious investigation into the feasibility of such a large engine?

Update - adding SMURFF with a lever of 0.5, plus reducing the heat slider slightly (to 90%) made reentry from 6.4x Minmus survivable. I may end up going down to 80% on the heating when I go interplanetary, but I think I'm good for the moment. Thanks everyone for their suggestions.

So I had a blast with a 3x game using Sigma Dimensions, so now I've stepped up to a 6.4x game. Atmosphere is 1.3 (91 km) and terrain is 0.32 (mountains twice as high as normal) with 2x rotation time (which is still a little fast - may change it to 3x). My question has to do with reentry heating. LKO velocity is around 6 km/sec, so it puts a lot of stress on the heatshield when I come back into the atmosphere. Frequently the ablator runs out and I'm still going 4 km/sec in atmosphere. I haven't yet attempted a manned return from the Mun or Minmus, for fear that Jeb is going to burn up. Do I just change the reentry heating slider in the persistence file? Or does changing the atmosphere heat setting in Dimensions do anything? As an alternative, does SMURFF at 0.5 lever help out with heating? If anyone wants to share their story of how they dealt with heating in stock 1.0.5 aero, I'd love to hear it.

I was going to build one (I'm long overdue) but I've decided to wait until after 1.1 comes out before finalizing things. I'm particularly interested in 6600k vs 6700k performance vs noise.

Understandable. However, hype is a renewable resource.

There's a surprisingly mellow vibe on this particular hype train, with many hours frequently passing between posts. Methinks that some large portion of the more prolific posters are on the experimentals team...

Mission requirements > ease of use > cost > part count > a particular size

Have you considered using a different tech tree? CTT, ETT, and SETI all require a lot more science to unlock, making interplanetary travel and orbital science labs much more attractive. I haven't played stock tech tree in a very long time. If you pair the tech tree with mods like Nertea's near future mods, then all the extra nodes get populated with things that are worth striving for.

I am mainly hyped about the change to Unity 5 and the optimizations under the hood. It used to be that the primary limits on my space program were my available time, and my imagination. More recently, the limits have had more to do with technical issues (primarily lag and memory) combined with my level of patience. I am very much looking forward to the needle swinging back the other way again.

Typically it's some combination of getting bored, finishing the tech tree, achieving whatever goals I had set for myself, the release of a new version of KSP, and/or wanting to try a different combination of mods. There's also the occasional rage quit when there's a major glitch.

Mounting the gigantors vertically would also allow the fairing to be smaller. They'll rotate automatically once they're deployed. And another +1 for Claw's Stock Bug fixes. There's also a stock clamshell fairing mod which will give you a much more satisfying fairing separation.

What @Snark said, except that I'd bring at least 4.5 tons or more worth of fuel in the lander so you can do more biome hopping before heading back up.

Streetwind, Thanks for the great explanation. I'll give that a whirl. I suspect I'm going to need to upscale a bit. It might also have to turn into a semi-staged vehicle, with a pair or two of SRBs hung like missiles under the wings (thinking about the 0.625m ones from SpaceY to minimize drag) or doing some sort of Shuttle / Buran type setup with a cheap disposable lifter that can be recovered with Stage Recovery.

I did some SSTO spaceplane stuff in the past, and did OK - not great, but OK. My current career is 3x scale with a 1.2x atmosphere and stock aero and heating, and I've been unsuccessful in making one for a larger Kerbin. Is it possible to do an SSTO at 3x scale? If so, are there any particular tips? Orbital velocity is about 4 km/s and a typical rocket needs 5.4 km/s of delta v to make it to LKO. Any help would be appreciated.

This so much. Better to use quad symmetry. If you must use tri-symmetry, the radial stage you're controlling with the mouse needs to be placed on the east or west side of the rocket so that drag will be symmetrical N/S when you start the gravity turn. And you have way too much engine for that rocket. You should almost always have two or more orange tanks on top of a Mainsail. Here's a simple Mun rocket that I threw together that doesn't use any asparagus staging and is pretty easy to fly: There's also a lot of good advice in my tutorial thread: Rules of Thumb for Building Cheap and Cheerful Rockets.

There's a staging problem where the mainsail isn't firing at the same time as the vectors, which means you're not really doing onion staging. What slash was saying is that adding SRBs without changing the rest of the rocket is going to have a very limited effect. I'd recommend ditching the radial stages, add 1 or 1.5 more orange tanks above the mainsail, then adding SRBs firing at the same time as the mainsail to bring up the initial TWR to 1.4 - 1.5. Thrust limit them as needed in the VAB so that the TWR after you stage the SRBs is at least 1.1.

You know, I kind of like getting a reward for a big launch elsewhere. Have you considered simply dialing it back for other bodies instead of eliminating it altogether? Maybe by multiplying it by the strength of the body's gravity compared to Kerbin, so a big Mun launch would get 1/6 of the amount?

You know, I kind of like getting a reward for a big launch elsewhere. Have you considered simply dialing it back for other bodies instead of eliminating it altogether? Maybe by multiplying it by the strength of the body's gravity compared to Kerbin, so a big Mun launch would get 1/6 of the amount?

Just wanted to drop a note regarding a fun fact / mild exploit. I've just finished setting up a Minmus mining operation with an orbital refinery in my 3x career game. One of the strategies I'm using is Massive Scale Launches II. My mining ship is approximately 115 tons when it reaches orbit. So... I get 100,000 funds and 25 reputation every time it makes a run. Mining never looked so good. I'm thoroughly enjoying this mod.