Wanderfound

Especially with the new tweakable wing strengths; I don't think the broader Kerbal community is yet aware of the significance of that. The one thing that was legitimately newbie-unfriendly in FAR were the hair-triggered aerodynamic failures. It's now easy to build around that problem in return for a slight weight penalty if desired (and the ultralight option is still there for when you do want a glass speedster...). It's great for advanced designers, too; I'm having success with using the tailfin mass tweakables to fine-tune CoM height and other such tricks. Now we've just gotta convince Ferram to bring in a more friendly UI than the finicky right-click sliders...

TLDR version: is stock aero broken, producing many completely ridiculous results? Why, yes it is. Fortunately Squad know this and are working on fixing it. And, in the meantime, Ferram to the rescue.

1,500m/s is plenty fast enough to hit orbit with tanks 2/3rds full. See post #3 in the Kerbodyne thread linked below for some tips.

To get the alternate views, you need to click on the appropriate bit of windowframe. I'm not sure about that mod IVA, but with the stock Mk2 cockpit clicking between the front window gets you: And clicking behind the rear window gets:

It's entirely possible that it's actually too much wing. Have you accounted for the increased weight (and strength) of the wings? Use the tweakables to wind the mass down to 0.4 if you haven't already. What you actually need to do is run an AoA sweep at the speed it tends to happen at and check that your Cm (the yellow line) is still sloping downwards at the AoA you want to be able to fly at. If it's aiming down, the plane is stable; if it's sloping up, it ain't. If you're looking at the stability derivatives screen, you'd be using -20/.01/5 as your input data. Wiggle your wings about and see if you can get more green happening, particularly on the pitch numbers. A bit more space between CoM and CoL is likely to help.

Not sure, experimenting. I've just stripped out a bunch of new mods due to excessive crashyness; if that doesn't fix it, Kerbpaint'll be the next to go.

Got a nice VTOL/HOTOL spaceplane in the works. Just gotta shave a bit of weight and figure out how to stop the lift jets from overheating...

I'm usually gliding at Mach 5 / 30,000m with maximum time acceleration on; spending too much time watching the map screen is asking for disaster (and not as scenic). As a rule of thumb, I'll stay fast until 200km to KSC, and drop down to start doing S-turns once I get within that range.

It does count. You just need to put a probe core on the probe and switch to it for a bit with controls deactivated after release.

Nice... Looking forward to the RPM IVA.

Is there a trick to updating the labels under the action group buttons? Following the instructions on the ALCOR page (e.g. AG1=MainEngine) doesn't seem to have any effect within the cockpit.

The other key to that is fixing the highlighting system. When I mouse over a part or staging icon, I want the matching icon/part to be clearly marked, not given a faint green glow or a subtle outline. Turn the things bright red instead.

I'd agree with all of this.

Half a dozen Vernors balanced around CoM on the ventral surface of the ship allows for very gentle landings: Once you're down, either use powered landing gear from a mod or puff yourself about with RCS (or a few rear-mounted Vernors).

In that case, a few RT-10s on decouplers mounted on the back of the engines should do the job. Launch as a tailsitter and start to pull the nose down as soon as you're out of the thickest bit of atmosphere. Use the thrust limiter tweakable to keep the TWR to something sane. Put some fins on them to ensure that your CoM is in front of CoL both before and after dumping the spent boosters. You'll have an increasingly stable plane as the SRBs burn off; possibly too stable. Stick some Vernors or RCS around the nose to ensure you can keep it pointed where you want.

It would be nice if it became possible to detach or relocate a strut from either end.

* Contracts with a sense of urgency: "Spacecraft X is out of power and plummeting towards Kerbin! Intercept and rescue it before it crashes!". * Satellite retrieval missions. * Delivery and retrieval missions. "Deliver part A to location B before time C". Light payloads, long distances and short deadlines give you express courier missions; large payloads (e.g. a 500 ton rocket...), short distances and long deadlines provide trucking or heavy lift missions. Really short deadlines can be "get this part to the urban power plant before it explodes". With a bit of story framing, delivering arbitrary parts to arbitrary locations can be spun into almost anything. * Precise science missions, with locations and deadlines. "Take science instrument A to location B at the right time to observe event C". * More diversity in the atmospheric aircraft missions. The aerial surveys are good, but "there's a forest fire at location X! Fly over it at altitude Y and drop this tank of extinguishing foam onto it!" would be awesome. Pacifist bombing missions, basically. * "Sport" contracts. "You've been hired to compete in this year's Aeroracing Series: fly from X to Y between altitudes A and B in less than time Z".

Initially I thought no, but on consideration that actually makes sense. Small can do everything big can do, but not vice-versa.

It's a nice concept and I gave it a go, but the implementation didn't quite work for me. Too much screen clutter from the big black box, combined with text too small to easily read. For actual landing, I get by just fine with Kerbal Flight Indicators (thanks!). Just put the prograde marker on the end of the runway and cruise in. It's the navigation to KSC that I need data for; thanks to DRE (or, more accurately, my failure to adequately compensate for the requirements of DRE; I'm still in the habit of setting up to ride the edge of overpressure rather than the heat boundary), I routinely overshoot KSC by 300km or more.

Are you using the Active Texture Management mod?

This: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90747-Kerbodyne-SSTO-Division-Omnibus-Thread?p=1504987&viewfull=1#post1504987

Seconded. "Hang on, was this the action group to close the intakes or open the solar panels?" is a routine cause of in-flight whoopsies for me.

Once you're in orbit, ÃŽâ€V is ÃŽâ€V. Don't even bother looking at atmospheric ÃŽâ€V figures, though; there are too many variables involved in a spaceplane flight for it to be a meaningful figure. Depending on how it's piloted, the exact same plane can reach orbit (or fail to reach orbit) with vastly different levels of fuel remaining.

Speaking of nice boats... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/92653-K-S-S-Kraken-three-masted-sailing-ship (not mine, just very cool)

Cool; will do. The one thing that most gets me in the basic RPM IVA is the VSI; it's tiny, poorly placed and unlit. This looks to be a strong improvement in that respect. Keeping the most essential instruments at the top of the dashboard means you can see 'em while still being able to look out the windows.