Jett_Quasar

Icy All KSP images have been moved here. JR

Today I explored the Kerbal Galaxy... JR

I've been exploring the Galaxy with my Millennium Falcon to give it the stress test (craft has almost 500 parts) and get some nice pics. No warp speed but I do have hyper(edit) drive! LOL The Millennium Falcon flies over the Icy moon with planet Nix overhead... I'm lovin' this Mod! - JR

Les Paul and Marshall! JR Edit: Oh wait that's already been done!

I love this mod! Out of all the great planet packs this one is my favorite, however I have encountered a couple of bugs. First of all the planet Eden appears to be outside of the SOI of it's host star Eravante (should be an easy fix). Pictures have been moved to here. Second, when I saw this picture of KSP orbiting the planet Kerbin I was beside myself! I think this may be an issue with the environments mod or Kopernicus (not sure if anyone else is having this issue). JR Edit: The problems listed above have been fixed in the latest release so I have removed the pictures and replaced them.

I'm not sure if it's still the case in V1.0 but if your Kerbal lands on their head they will always survive. I saw a video (I'll see if I can look it up) where a Kerbal reentered from orbit and survived by landing on his head - but that was in V0.90, I don't think they would survive the reentry heating now. JR

I look at my ship and whatever name suits it - that's what I name it. JR

As far as game play features go it's done IMHO. The only thing left is bug fixes, game balance, and optimization. Any additional features for KSP v1.X will be completed by the modding community (which has already been done pretty much). Put the game out on all platforms once it's stable and be done with KSP version 1. Then start working on KSP version 2 with new features, better graphics, more destinations etc... JR

Without question re-entry and landing is where most of my failures occur. Between the overheating mechanic (which I like) and the aerodynamic stresses (which I don't like) coupled with new parachute and wing physics (which I'm still getting used to) make hitting the ground too hard a fairly regular event. But I'm not hardcore so I never actually kill Kerbals in my career game - I will always revert until I make it work (it is just a game after all). Most of my tragedies occur during testing anyway which in my cannon is just a simulated environment. JR

That's an interesting point I was recently trying to land a couple of craft on Ike and was having problems with the electrical draining to zero - and it was happening on both craft. I thought it was a game glitch at first but later realized that Ike was being eclipsed by Duna. It's very cool that the eclipse game mechanic works for solar panels but a visual queue of the shadow on the ground and spacecraft would be helpful. JR

My daughter is not into rockets but I built a huge base on Dres that looks like a castle and named it after her. When I showed it to her we played around with the game a bit and one of the Kerbals ended up rag-dolling & spinning on his head like he was break dancing... we laughed and laughed. I also wrote a story for her about Kerbals who accidentally become space pirates and she loved it. I think she "borrowed" some ideas from it for a Language Arts assignment in school. I introduced KSP to my nephew and he loves it, he landed on the mun the first time he tried but couldn't manage to dock. I showed him a few tricks and now he can dock like a pro. Space planes are a different matter. Unfortunately the game doesn't run on his laptop so he only plays when I'm around. JR

I thought there was a warning sign about not showering in the Rapier engine exhaust... Oh wait maybe it was a different type of engine - never mind it's OK. JR

You'll find what you're looking here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/37169-Spiritwolf-Hanland-Submissions?highlight=hanland JR

I actually have two setups: 1920x1080 full screen with no mods for when I'm designing & testing or just for fun. Then I use 1600X900 with the Astronomer's Visual pack in a windowed mode to do picture and video capture. JR

I'm not going to mangle any more of your sweet designs, I like this one the way it is. The only thing I would do is add some mining equipment into the bay (since it has a 10T cargo capacity), and take it on a grand tour! JR Edit: I liked the Longsword the way it was too, I just couldn't fit my Reliant craft into the cargo bay

I really like the rocket VTOL capabilities... I think I might borrow that idea! LOL JR

Someone built a train locomotive engine that worked as an SSTO (I can't find the thread but I'll keep looking). Can any of these cars get to orbit? JR

I rescued Jorhat Kerman from the orbit of Gilly then flew to Duna/Ike before transferring him to a lab to be dropped back to Kerbin. By the time he got there he was at level 4. I did most of it in this ship: Magnum-G All KSP images have been moved here. JR

You stole my design before I even had a chance to think of it! Seriously though, that thing is really awesome! JR

Slashy, on that I will agree with you 100% - I always try to use as many parts as possible on my designs... even when they are infinite range SSTO's. It's not Zen and it's certainly not minimalist but it will take you where you need to go... in style! That's the idea but it's still a WIP so those ratios are just a rule of thumb. You got it exactly right on the ascent profile though. JR

Slashy, you're way more Zen than I could ever be. I'm all about pushing the envelope and doing things that other people don't - must be my space pirate nature. I love this game but there are still some things that are broken and need to be fixed, and I think the V1.1 release is a good opportunity to do that. I've never spoken up before but I feel some things just need to be addressed. JR

Your on-orbit delta-V will depend quite a bit on how you fly in addition to how your craft is designed. Vegetal's approach is good but I find a combination of Rapiers and Whiplash to be more efficient coupled with the LV-N. The Whiplash reach a peak efficiency and have higher thrust at lower altitudes and weigh less than the Rapiers. And then of course the nukes will be used to get you the last way to LKO and beyond. The ratio I use is about 3:2:1 - Rapiers:Whiplash:Nukes but my style is to over-design these things. What I like to do is right-click on one of the Whiplash engines and keep an eye in the thrust while maintaining a constant increase in velocity and altitude. When the thrust drops to around 30kN toggle them off. Then right-click on the Rapiers, and as the thrust begins to drop kick in the nukes. How low you let the Rapiers thrust drop before you toggle to closed cycle mode will depend on your TWR. I usually check on my velocity and if the acceleration starts to slow too much I toggle to closed cycle. If you're planning on only using the nukes beyond LKO use up all your oxidizer getting to orbit - beyond that it's just dead weight. My design philosophy is to include an on-board ISRU so that the craft can refuel and fly to multiple destinations. JR

So space planes were OP before and they're OP now and game balance is a matter of opinion. People will continue to do crazy silly things no matter what game mechanics you put in place (I have created several different types of infinite range SSTO's myself - which means 100% payload capacity and the ability to launch and land as many times as you want). But I think it would be a mistake for Squad to accept the status quo ahead of a major release that will put the game out to a much wider market. Complacency has never been a good approach to game design and ignoring constructive criticism is not the path to broader acceptance. If you think it's OK to have strut-nubs keep a space plane from entering orbit I simply have to disagree with you. JR

I don't want to hijack this thread with back-and-forth about how game mechanics should work but the simple fact is SSTO space planes don't exist in the real world, so who's to say how they should actually work in the game. ...but I refuse to accept that strut-nubs will cause an otherwise perfectly fine space plane to be unable to reach orbit. JR Edit: There's no spoon, but there is a difference between knowing the path and walking it.

That's a great attitude and I'm sure it has served you well but unfortunately the new young players that I've introduced this game to don't feel the same. They look at the space plane mechanic as overly complicated and difficult and quickly get frustrated and lose interest. Don't get me wrong, I love space planes I just think the aerodynamic model needs to be adjusted to take into consideration the more junior players - and basically it just needs to be fun again. For all those hard-core space plane aficionados, there's the FAR mod (which is still used by many), for the rest of us the aerodynamics should should be enjoyable. JR