Wiseman

Rock Paper Shotgun just put out a Wot I Think on Kerbal Space Program! No numbers or anything to add to the metacritic score, but that's honestly one of the reasons why I prefer RPS. It reads quite positively to me, and was clearly written by someone who's been playing a long time.

Yeah, this is unfortunately a side effect of the new drag-box code that comes with the service bays. If anything is clipping into the bay (or even attached radially with bits of mesh sticking through and into it), it will detect a part as being both inside and outside the bay, and then shake your ship to pieces.

False. "Aero is broken SQUAD fix" is not actually something that contains any valuable feedback - what could a developer take from that, other than the poster is angry? "My capsule/plane does X when it seems it should do Y", "An informational overlay for the VAB/SPH would be helpful in designing aerodynamic vehicles", or "I found a bug - when I do X, Y happens, and here are my reproduction steps" would be useful. What the OP is discussing is the flat negativity that seems to be popping up a lot in threads this last week, which aren't actually helpful and are bad for the community.

I can't speak to planes, but launching rockets feels very, very similar to .90 FAR + DRE. I'm sure more talented players will be along shortly to tell me what I'm missing, but at a basic level my play style is exactly the same - I use the same tools, same ascent profiles, the same sort of designs get into orbit, etc. The big difference is the current state of re-entry heating - it's very low and not terribly dangerous if you put even a little thought into your re-entry profiles. (I expect this to be fixed soon, but that wasn't your question.) G-forces and heat do destroy parachutes as of 1.0.2, but you can crush your kerbals in a 50-G maneuver and they'll be fine (as far as I know) so long as you don't flip your craft out and burn up / smash into something.

1.0.2 is the most fun I've had playing KSP since I first bought the game back in .23. I'm also playing closer to stock (still can't shake that mod habit) than I ever have, and I've been playing with FAR and DRE since my second save. We're in a place where things are good enough and stable, such that I'm not stressed about anything waiting for the next update. Re-entry heating is a bit underwhelming at this point, and there is still more tweaks to the aerodynamics (and part balance, specifically for planes) coming, but that's all to be expected. Career and contracts is another place where I'd like to see a more thorough balance pass, but I'm still having tons of fun in my late-game career planning all sorts of extravagant missions and acquiring sweet, sweet science. So, in short, problems exist, but are being exaggerated and the worst of them will likely be fixed by the end of the month. That should definitely not keep you from diving in and checking things out, since even with things as they are right now, it's the best iteration of KSP SQUAD has ever delivered.

I doubt it will overtake Minecraft, in the sense that it would replace it or whatever, but I see them occupying very similar spaces. They both have great potential to be used educationally, have broad appeal, and are foundations for their respective genres. When multiplayer is added, I could see another spike in popularity happening for sure, since there's a lot of room for collaboration and persistence. I'm hopeful that KSP becomes an institution like Minecraft. Some people just want to watch the world learn

Yes, that, exactly. Having commercial contracts as a separate way to get money, and then "missions" coming from inside your own agency to provide reputation, science, and direction on your next celestial body to target would be my ideal Career mode.

That's my feeling on it too. In .90, between the high science values from certain parts-testing contracts (Mainsail in orbit was giving something like 400k funds, plus gobs of science), and the funds-to-science strategy, I didn't even need to biome-hop Mun and Minmus to clear the tree, I was doing it with super boring test contracts. I rapidly lost interest in those playthroughs since I was just unlocking nodes to get better part testing contracts, to unlock more nodes, and then whoops, the tree was totally unlocked and I hadn't left Kerbin's SOI. I enjoy the lower science payout on contracts now, since I don't have to worry about them overshadowing my actual science vessels. I very much like, conceptually, the idea of taking fund-payout contracts to set up and send science expeditions that are coming straight out of pocket. Tourism is another great way that we're starting to see a decoupling of funds and science missions. My only complaint with the system as it is, is the inconsistency of the the big hard-coded contracts (explore X, fly-by Y, etc). There is an opportunity here to use those as kind of guidance through a career, pointing players to their next big target.

SpaceY has been my go-to replacement for KW Rocketry since .90. It's really pretty fantastic, and all I really used KW for was the 3.75/5m rockets anyways. SpaceY also has powerful radial monoprop engines that double as RCS thrusters, which I just love for docking tugs. They have reaction wheels, a really powerful (inefficient) 1.25m lifter engine, and even a stockalike 5m fairing.

Wow, that update is incredible. Absolutely love the resource functionality and the integration with waypoints. Can't wait to try it out!

My go-to heavy lift vehicle for where I'm at in career mode uses a Mainsail core at around 1.1 TWR, with a pair of Kickbacks that bring it up to a more reasonable 1.3. I've been supplementing low-TWR main stages with SRBs and it's been working great. Haven't done any SRB-only first stages since the Flea/Hammer first/second launch, though, so I couldn't speak to that.

Hurtling towards Jool along with Bill and Bob with a ship that should be able to make it back. Probably. Maybe? There will be science, either way.

Well done! That's my favorite part of this game, that sudden feeling of "well, I made it! I did the thing! Hm, I wonder if I can do the BIGGER thing?" I've been having a great time with 1.0.2 as well. As my career is reaching the point where I have access to all those shiny Mk3 spaceplane bits, I may have to try those out as well!

Possibly

1.0.2 just fixed the parachute drag and a bug related to the thermal system's interaction with water. They released the aero in 1.0, changed some of the settings in 1.0.1, and that's where we've been for barely a handful of days. The splintering of the user-base between different configurations for the drag/aero physics doesn't have a ton to do with SQUAD not being able to make a decision on the what they want to implement. The freaky, friction-less 1.0 atmosphere enabled particular play-styles and discouraged others, just like the old souposphere did. 1.0.1 tweaked the numbers such that, once again, different play styles were enabled while others were made more challenging, and players are reacting in their usual exaggerated way. It's a brand new system with a lot of new variables, so I expect any turbulence leading to whatever the "final" settings are to calm down in the coming weeks.

If you're still trying to go up to 10k and then turn 45 degrees, that's why your rockets are losing control. I started a completely stock career, and getting things into orbit hasn't been a problem at all. Launch without too much power (thrust limit your early SRBs, manage your throttle on liquid engines - if you're seeing mach/reentry effects, you're going too fast), nudge your rocket 5 degrees eastward when you're going roughly 100 m/s, and then just follow your prograde marker to victory. It's quite doable with sleek, realistic looking rockets, and I've been putting some silly things into orbit as well, but I've had a lot of practice with FAR. If you're still having trouble staying on target, SQUAD has created new tier-0 fins that should make learning the new aerodynamics a lot easier from the first launch, and bigger fins at tier 2. Good luck!

I've heard that there is an issue (feature?) where you can't actually send the science unless you have a crewed command pod or probe core attached to the science lab. Do you have someone in a pod as well as in the lab?

Sounds like a positive change, to me. Drag was weirdly sparse before, what with planes able to hit plaid right off the launchpad, and there being practically no air resistance to rockets above 30k.

I dig it for launches, but when I'm doing orbital maneuvers it makes me super nervous that I'm about to lose control. At the default setting, it looks remarkably similar to the twitching spasms that happen when you've got a physics-enabled part clipped into something. (Had a probe shake itself to pieces on the launchpad until I noticed my mystery goo containers were clipped into the top of my service bay.) Max settings on IVA and half on external cam sounds like a great idea, though! I'll be trying that out tonight for sure.

Love, love, love the service bays. I really like the look of them for my probes - I can stuff the probe core, batteries, and a bunch of experiments in there, put a nosecone or parachute on top and some solar panels around the sides, and I've got a sleek, aerodynamic, returnable science probe. I put one on almost every rocket I launch now.

Some of the groupings are nonsense and make the early- to mid-game transition a lot harder than it needs to be, especially when taken together with the type of contracts that are doled out. On the other hand, I like a lot of the groupings better overall, and the way that they've opened up the structure to be easier to fiddle with is great. I also like how many nodes there are and that it takes a bit more science-ing to get the whole thing done, since my biggest issue with the .90 and previous tech trees was just that progression was over too soon. It feels almost like they spent all their time rebuilding the back-end of the tech tree, then had to throw parts into nodes rapidly and at the last minute. I'm hoping for a more significant pass at career balance in 1.1.

Maybe try this lovely Gemini-flavored stockalike pod? http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104925-0-90-K2-Command-Pod-Two-Kerbal-stock-alike-pod

Does that mean all the wobble we've been seeing isn't just people unfamiliar with aerodynamics? Is it significantly harder to make big/heavy things actually fly straight?

Yeah, I was a bit troubled by the implication that the launch was a total failure and everyone is dead D:

Looks fantastic! I'm a total convert to The Kerbal-Umbra Space Program - I'm a sucker for well-integrated systems, and you've had some unique opportunities in that space that it seems you've really capitalized on . I look forward to testing this out later today.