AbacusWizard

Once I advance far enough (in money and tech) to go interplanetary, I almost always have multiple missions en route at once, because it's really boring to just wait as the timewarp fast-forwards through two years or whatever. It feels more worthwhile if those years of fast-forward are progressing several vessels towards their destinations.

"The probe core analyzes its surroundings, beeps, and prints out the message 'THEY SHOULD HAVE SENT A POET.'"

"We've already tried basic jet engines on the Mun with unpromising results, but maybe--just maybe--turbojets would work better!"

Hrm. Neat idea but way too expensive. If it was, say, $20 for a small model, I'd probably end up spending two or three hundred bucks on various ships I really like... but if the entry price is $100 each, I will be spending a grand total of zero bucks. Sounds like a bad business decision to me.

Temporary workaround: put goo cannister directly on top or directly on bottom of the central stack.

I concur. Generally the only reason I use the Cupola is to look awesome in screenshots--both external screenshots showcasing the ship (or large rover; works well for that too) or IVA screenshots with an awesome view. The control panel sticking up in the middle of the window ruins the latter half of that.

I'm fond of making a huge interplanetary exploration ship and support infrastructure for it: tankers to refuel it, freighters to deliver new landers, orbital stations for science dropoff and crew exchange... and then sending that huge ship everywhere. As per Arthur C. Clarke's advice, it never lands, but carries small landers with it. I'm also recently for the first time trying out some of the popular mods and I've been having a lot of fun building utility skiffs with Kerbal Attachment System (docked at the orbital station) and fuel refineries with Karbonite (to make the tankers more reusable).

Got it, thanks; it's working fine now.

I do think certain screenshots would look a lot more awesome if the monoliths were smooth featureless surfaces.

There must be other space agencies out there; how else would all those kerbalnauts get into lonely orbit to need rescuing? I don't want to see weapons in stock but I would enjoy some inter-agency competition... and even cooperation under certain circumstances; perhaps other agencies might hire you to launch something that they can't, or perhaps you could hire another agency to run refueling missions that you don't want to bother with yourself.

Does this require some other toolbar mod in order to work? I just installed ActionGroupManager but I don't see any AGM button in the upper right toolbar. (I also have SCANsat and kOS installed, and their buttons do show up in toolbar.)

Well, you could always not put the drill onto your craft. Seriously though I would expect that refueling will require more effort than "land, drill, refill all fuel tanks, and take off." Based on existing mods like Karbonite and Kethane I'm guessing you'll need a drill to extract protofuel, a big tank to store protofuel, and a big heavy converter (and lots of electrical power?) to convert protofuel into fuel. I doubt that putting all this on your main craft (let alone landing it to refuel!) would be practical; a better approach would be to set up dedicated fuel production infrastructure: permanent surface outpost extracts protofuel and transfers it into tanker; full tanker takes off, flies into orbit, and docks with permanent orbital refinery; orbital refinery takes protofuel from tanker and processes it into fuel; empty lander returns to surface outpost; your interplanetary ship periodically stops at orbital refinery to refuel. To me this sounds like loads of fun: ∆v is still a concern, but with plenty of planning and infrastructure, long-term missions will be much more viable.

Aw, when I saw the title of this thread I assumed it meant allowing the buildings to be moved in-game.

Try right-click-dragging.

Well shoot! I'm glad I learned about this just before sending the Voyager I on its way to Duna instead of just after. I guess I'd better rebuild the lander (again) with an action group for the parachutes.

It would be nice to have a 1.25m science lab, though; presumably single-occupant and with less functionality than the full version. I'm not sure what exactly "less functionality" would mean, since currently I only use the science lab for resetting one-use experiments and storing data (yes, I know it boosts data transmission value, but--with the rare exception of a permanent off-world colony--if I have kerbalnauts in the lab I'm planning to bring them home eventually anyway, so there's no need to transmit data). Maybe the hypothetical 1.25m lab could reset the one-use experiments, but only once or twice each? Or maybe what the lab does needs an overhaul to give it more of a purpose. I'd also love to see a 1.25m equivalent of the cupola, even just a translucent dome on the end of the cylinder, or at least SOMETHING that has better IVA visibility than the existing command pods. The jet cockpit has great visibility but doesn't look right for a space station. ...and now I'm thinking of 1.25m Hamster Habitrail space stations.

There are several 1.25m crew cans; they just only hold one crew each.

For me, it hits a lot of the same awesomeness buttons that Dwarf Fortress does. Wide open sandbox with plenty of freedom to set your own goals; extreme learning curve leading to versatile capabilities; the opportunity to make ludicrously elaborate plans and watch with joy as they come to fruition or fail hilariously; and actually learning fascinating and useful stuff through my fun (minerology and medieval industry from the one, and orbital physics and astroengineering from the other). Also, since I teach physics for a living, KSP means I get incredible amounts of synergy between my job and my hobby. Playing KSP gives me a better intuitive understanding of orbital mechanics, opportunities to use what I already know, incentive to learn more, and ideas for examples to use in my classes.

Have you tried Kerbal Attachment System? It has winches that can extend cable; kerbalnauts on EVA can tether themselves to the end. If the lost kerbalnaut is out of jetpack fuel, you could even try your skill at launching a grappling hook... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/92514-0-24-2-Kerbal-Attachment-System-%28KAS%29-0-4-8-Fixed-for-0-24-2-x86-x64-%29

Heh. My first ever boots-on-the-ground Mun mission landed safely, but turned out to have not *quite* enough fuel to get back into orbit... so I had the pilot abandon ship and use his jetpack to acheive a stable personal orbit while the empty lander crashed. Over the next few days I learned a heck of a lot about precision orbital maneuvers and rendezvous, and finally got a rescue ship close enough for him to grab the ladder.

I'd like to see an expansion of the "rescue" missions, based on the notion that there are other space agencies but they're all incompetent and need our help. Right now all we get is "rescue this one kerbalnaut stuck in low Kerbin orbit"; more diversity in both what needs to be rescued and from where would be great. Examples: • Stock lander with three crew is on Minmus with no fuel (or maybe the engine broke off during landing); bring the crew safely back to Kerbin (extra bonus for recovering their lander too) • One-kerbal command pod in low Kerbin orbit is ready to re-enter, but the stupid pilot accidentally deployed the parachute on the way up and doesn't know how to re-pack it; send an experienced engineer to help • Duna rover broke a wheel; send an experienced engineer to repair it • Satellite forgot to extend its solar panels and ran out of power; send someone up to manually open them • Small Munar orbital station forgot to turn off its rockets after making a small maneuver and is now on an unwanted escape trajectory and out of fuel; send a craft to dock with it, refuel it, and put it back in the proper orbit (note that there's an implied soft time limit on this one--if you wait too long and the station leaves Kerbin's SoI, it's still *possible* to complete the mission, but a lot more difficult, so you'd want to hurry) • We got our ground outpost all the way to Laythe and then suddenly realized we hadn't brought any science equipment; please build a small probe lander with a materials bay and a thermometer and land it within 50 meters of our base Stuff like this would add a lot more interesting variety and keep the "rescue" contracts viable throughout the game.

I don't remember where I saw it, but I think I recall a statement from the devs saying that they intend to introduce larger wing parts that will "make Mk 3 aircraft design as easy as Mk 1 aircraft design."

I've actually found the space stations I've launched to be extremely useful. The first big projects I made in the current version (once I had the tech for them) were Mun Orbital Command and Minmus Orbital Command, making sure to accept "build station orbiting Mun/Minmus" contracts first so I'd get paid for them. I designed each one to include crew quarters, a science lab, a crew lander, and a probe lander (each with science instruments). Now whenever I get a flag contract, a science-in-space contract, a science-from-surface contract, or a survey contract for Mun or Minmus, I can complete it with little effort and no cost* by sending down one of the landers that's already there. THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, it would be really nice if the contract system had a way to recognize that stations I've already built and generate later contracts that interact with them. I would love to see things like resupply missions, orbital adjustments, attaching new modules, and cycling crew. * except eventual cost to refill the station's fuel reserves, but I included plenty of extra fuel in the original design and haven't run out yet

I don't mind overpowered launches... because for me, the game really begins once I'm in orbit. I'm all about the colossal long-term interplanetary voyages of exploration. That being said, getting the colossal interplanetary starships (and their supply freighters) into orbit in the first place is an interesting part of the challenge.

I mostly use the "each module is independently mobile" approach. Starbase Alpha here was a total of four launches: Launch 1: core (with eight spokes) and detachable lab/crew quarters Launch 2: twin fuel bananas (to be repeated whenever more fuel is needed) Launch 3: very stylish six-seater transport skiff, currently attached to one of the unused spokes Launch 4: monoprop transport pod (under core; can be used to send monoprop to nearby vessels that foolishly run out) and KAS utility pod with crates and winches (between lab and core) Here's another view showing the skiff in action. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out; it's quite useful for moving crew from vessel to vessel near Kerbin and it can be launched from surface to low orbit using only a couple of jet engines and a couple of the smallest solid booster rockets. If I added wings I could probably make it an SSTO but boosters are cheap and I don't really need more than one at this time.