AbacusWizard

I've heard that 1.1.0 and 1.1.1 have problems with lander legs (which I use all the time) and 1.1.2 has a bug disallowing the renaming of vessels from the tracking station (which I use all the time), so I'm still using 1.0.5 until that all gets fixed.

What I've done recently is use a rocket-crane (with docking clamps) to gently place a few monolithic (in the sense of "built in the VAB and launched in one piece") buildings on the ground, then connect them with KIS/KAS parts and add on smaller peripherals manually. Example: my refueling base on a plateau on Minmus. I'm especially proud of the solar farm.

Eh, I was holding off until 1.1.2 specifically because 1.1.1 looked so buggy. I am disappointed that 1.1.2 introduces more new bugs right before an apparent hiatus.

Look up the "Caveman Challenge" on the challenge forum if you haven't already, and prepare to be impressed.

Hey, no littering! Keep Mun beautiful!

There are really only four ways to give a vessel more ∆v: More fuel. Less non-fuel (which is basically going to translate into "no armor"). More efficient engine (which really just means faster exhaust velocity). Move to a universe with completely different laws of physics.

It won't get you all the way to NASA but it's sure a good start. Playing KSP--especially if you focus on designing efficient and effective vessels and flight plans--can be a great way to get an intuitive understanding of orbital mechanics, some principles of engineering, and physics in general. If you work out all the equations yourself, you can get even more practice with physics, calculus, and algebra. Also: When you take classes in physics and calculus (if you haven't done so already), spend some time frequently throughout the year thinking about how what you're learning in each class applies to your ship designs and flight plans in KSP. (I myself teach math and physics, and I find that I often come up with ideas for examples to use in class while I'm playing KSP. In fact just this morning I was teaching a few students about conservation of momentum using a rocket expelling exhaust as an example, and we ended up deriving a simplified version of the Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation and talking about specific impulse, fuel percentage, and how they relates to engine efficiency.)

Is there any way individual users can fix this by making the relevant change to a data file or whatever? Renaming (and re-classifying) vessels via the Tracking Station is a feature I use often enough that I'm not interested in upgrading to 1.1 until it's fixed (or fixable).

I accidentally opened KSP twice and now I'm Two Kerbals.

I'd really like to see the demo just be the full game but limited to Tier 1 buildings. Give new players a glimpse of all the cool stuff they *could* be doing when they get the full game.

I find it useful to think in terms of stages, and in reverse order. Start by designing a lander--something that is capable of getting from munar orbit down to the munar surface. To be on the safe side, I'd say start with a single occupant lander can, an FL-T800 fuel tank (the largest Size 1 tank), whatever batteries and reaction wheels and lander legs you think are necessary (go ahead and include the small science instruments; they're lightweight), and an engine. To decide which engine, look at the current mass of your ship add a bit to account for the mass of the engine, multiply by the Mun's gravity (1.63), and make sure your engine has AT LEAST that much thrust in kN. I'd go ahead and double it to be on the safe side. Now start thinking of your lander as the payload. Strap enough (detachable) tanks and engines to the bottom (or sides) to transfer that payload from Kerbin orbit to Mun orbit. Delta-v is the important thing here; 1200 m/s ought to be enough but you'll probably want more to leave a margin for error. Familiarize yourself with the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation so you can calculate it. Now think of THAT entire cluster (lander plus the transfer stage) as the payload, and put enough (detachable) tanks and engines underneath to launch it from the pad up to Kerbin orbit. Big ol' solid booster rockets are your friend here. Make sure the total thrust at launch will be AT LEAST ten times the total mass of the rocket, preferably a fair bit more than that. Follow these steps and you should be able to get to Mun with a lander that's able to land. (Getting home is another story... but don't worry, if you're not using any life support mods, Jeb can wait patiently until a rescue craft shows up.)

Well, yes. I spend most of my KSP time designing rockets and then flying the rockets I designed. I spend most of my Dwarf Fortress time digging out a stronghold of my own design. I spend most of my Factorio time building a factory and using it to produce resources with which I build more factory. However, I usually call these activities "playing the game."

Kerbal Inventory System would also work. Send an engineer (with some helpers, if it's more than 1 ton) to detach that part, then flip it while re-attaching.

Precursor to Jeb's Junkyard!

I teach physics for a living. Many of the skills I learn in Kerbal ARE the skills I use to contribute to the world.

Yeah, with the exception of the occasional discount, it's been a standard $40 for quite some time now. I bought it a couple of years ago when it was 20-some dollars, but knowing what I know now, I would gladly have paid $50 or more--for most of the last two years, it's been the only game I play; I've learned so much from it and it synergizes remarkably well with my job (teaching physics).

Au contraire; Jeb and Val find it HILARIOUS fun to find an old booster stage in low orbit, spear it with a harpoon gun, tow it into a suborbital path, and watch it explode behind them as they maneuver their H-Wing back into a stable orbit. I'd also love it if the rescue contracts would spawn not a single isolated cockpit but instead an entire vessel--presumably one of the stock crafts that come with the game--with some problem. Maybe it's out of fuel, maybe a part broke off, maybe it's in great condition but some fool forgot to attach parachutes, whatever. Your mission, then, is to rendezvous with the troubled ship, figure out what's wrong with it, and either rescue the pilot for a small reward, or repair the ship (KIS/KAS might be necessary for this) in a way that allows it to re-enter and land safely for full reward.

I think they fixed asymmetric flameout a couple of versions ago; I haven't had any issues with it in a long time.

I used to put lights on everything for exactly that reason, but since then I've gotten much better at fine-tuning my orbital trajectories, so I generally just arrange every rendezvous (and landing) to be on the daytime side of the planet.

Is it possible to drag a pinned right-click menu to a new location? (I'd try it myself but I don't have 1.1 installed on this computer yet.) Also: any chance we'll be getting CLOSE buttons for the right-click menus? That's what I assumed those buttons were in the early screenshots, and honestly I would find a close button more useful than a pin button.

These days I generally just keep a jet engine's right-click menu open and keep watch on its current thrust (while at full throttle). When it dwindles to around 10 kN, it's about to flame out.

Good point; I've never liked docking in the dark.

Bah, the Terminate button is no fun. Real kerbalnauts do manual garbage disposal! I'm usually rescuing stranded kerbalnauts long before I get the Klaw, and I've never found it to be very consistent anyway, so I usually go up later with a KAS harpoon gun.

If I remember correctly, marooned kerbals don't show up in a given location until you've at least sent something there. Obviously this means the poor fellow stowed away on board your tiny uncrewed science probe and then fell off. --- I don't mind doing rescue contracts--hey, a free rookie!--but it does bother me that the abandoned crew pods tend to clutter up low orbit. Sending the H-Wing to tow the junk onto disposal trajectories is fun for a while but that only goes so far.

Minmus is magnificent. Easy to get to, easy to land on, great for science, great for mining and refueling, beautiful scenery, fresh minty flavor, fun acrobatics in low gravity, all-natural runways. Some of my favorite missions have involved spaceplanes that take off horizontally from the runway on Kerbin and land horizontally on the flats on Minmus. Landing gear with brakes is like delta-vee that you don't have to pay for! (Taking off again is a little trickier; wings don't really do much with no atmosphere... but as long as you can get going sideways fast enough and pitch your nosecone up just a little bit--boom, orbit! But look out for that ridge up ahead!)