Foxster

You don't need a big craft...you need an efficient craft. Three things to consider in achieving this: You should get the payload you are returning to orbit to the absolute minimum. That means dumping absolutely everything you don't need to make orbit before lifting off: chutes, airbrakes, landing gear, experiments, struts, etc. Don't be tempted to throw on extra crew, unneeded solar panels, RCS, reaction wheels, batteries and such. You need the best engines for isp and low drag to suit Eve. This will likely mean Vectors and/or Aerospikes for the first stages and a Terrier for the final stage. For Eve the biggest challenge is drag, so you want to keep it skinny! You want a small number of thin mk1 stacks. You also want to eliminate absolutely anything that sticks out and is otherwise not essential. A final thought on your craft design for Eve: If you get the urge to add something to gain just a little more dV then you are likely wrong - you need a "what else can I take away" attitude instead. As for landing on land...There are some very large land masses in the equatorial region. Do a couple of orbits and you should spot one. Set your Pe so that the orbit end is to the eastern edge of the land and you will almost certainly land in an area to the west of that.

It is a simple construction system but having wheels that bolt onto the craft is exactly the same and serves the same purpose. They go around, don't do weird stuff in collisions and look like real turning wheels.

TerraTech.

Lateral thought - don't use landing struts at all. They are buggy and feeble for their weight. Some of the relatively new panel structural parts have very high impact tolerance and low weight. They make very good landing surfaces and your craft won't pogo after landing.

How come other Unity-based games with wheels don't have these problems?

The lateral thinking solution is to use these engines only for their designed purpose: To push little craft a long way. If you use them with larger craft for their isp advantage then you'll have to take the painful hit of the resulting low TWR.

How so?

Maybe we should ask why it was implemented in the console version. An easy-to-do salve for a sub-community who have been badly treated with a buggy and outdated product? Or something to help more of that sub-community actually make it to the Mun when it is much harder on the console version with it's clunky interface and lack of mods? Whatever the reason, there seems little desire to implement in the same way for the PC too. If it is done then it should be implemented differently to the other launch sites. I suggest making it something requiring construction by the delivery of large components to the site, or after completing completing a very difficult contract like a Jool-5, making it an end-game activity.

What's the skinny on the engines changes? * Rebalanced the following engines: Twitch, Spark, Place-Anywhere 7, RV-105 RCS,Vernor.

It's something that annoys the hell out of me too. I'm guessing the number is the distance from the centre of the planet rather than altitude above the surface that we more commonly use.

Try playing with different Pe for de-orbit. Makes quite a big difference.

No you can't if the ground is a planet or moon. Yes you can if the ground is an asteroid.

Just to clarify... We have 10 Kerbals on Eve (however they got there) and you want them delivered back to Kerbin (low orbit? surface?) in one (?) flight.

HyperEdit.

If you want to be efficient and have smaller craft then it's usually all about payload. You often at most need just to get a man in a can there and back. But for some reason folks want to add a couple more crewmen, a rover, parachutes in case Eeloo suddenly gets an atmosphere, and a ton or two of other junk. Every bit of extra payload balloons the whole craft greatly. KISS.

Design a craft that launches from Eve sea-level to orbit, de-orbits and lands (anywhere) and then re-orbits.

Use the alt-f12 set-orbit cheat function first. Only use HE for the landing bit. HE gets confused when switching SOI.

I'm guessing this is not meant to return to orbit and re-dock? If so then why use docking ports? Unless it was assembled in LKO of course.

Is the fuel level the same when you use set-orbit and when you fly the mission? Are you descending from the same Eve altitude and have the same Pe? Have you done 'control from here' on the lander's capsule to make sure KSP is correctly working out which way is up (it sometimes gets confused with multiple controllable parts on a starting craft)? I'd guess that you are on the edge of stability and some small variation is enough to tip the craft into instability. Try adding some more drag to the back end, for instance by adding a bunch of disposable airbrakes.

Might be an interesting idea just for the fun of it. However, stock KSP doesn't really have a need to move big craft or products around the planets, it's not like a 4X game, so there really is not much if anything to be gained from it. From a practical point of view it is more useful to learn to make smaller and more efficient craft so that you don't need to refuel a couple of times for a longer trip.

You can get a definitive answer by turning on aero physics data via the alt-F12 menu - assuming you are using a PC.

I just checked to make sure it hadn't changed recently...Makes no difference to drag whether open or closed.

You mean a man-in-a-can to orbit? If so then I can put this 47t craft into orbit from Eve seal level with about 1000dV to spare... Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1u2bgz0gb76gr3/GRS 2.craft?dl=0 If it's a bit heavy and you can fly well then you can lose an upper stage.

Coupla things... Get more drag at the back end. You have that big draggy lump at the front and not much at the back. Add fins at the back until it flies right. Use autostrut if you aren't already. A wobbly rocket can be a flippy rocket.

I do understand what you mean but personally I find the limitation of the stock parts adds to the challenge and the fun. Eve-return is kinda the end-game experience for KSP and it takes something away from that to use easier engines.