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Comm networks as added to KSP in mods are not even slightly realistic, they are needlessly tedious, particularly given that the distance from Kerbol to Eeloo is about 1/2 the distance from Sol to Venus, right? Here's why I chimed in on LS, and why I would actually welcome a chance of part failures in career (perhaps via a mechanic where parts were gained on an "experimental" basis until tested a certain number of hours/days/whatever). I'd like to see reliability a factor vs other benefits of parts. So you pick upper stage engines based upon reliability (as Apollo did) and restart. Heck, I'd also be in favor of changing the throttling ability of engines to be far more realistic, as well as restart not being a thing for many. Note that these forms of realism would only come into play at all in the context of career alone (and career needs a gut-job improvement, frankly). Currently there is no mechanic whereby crewed missions are any different than uncrewed missions.

Actually, my analogy is spot-on. Manned spaceflight is a combination of rocketry, and life support. Both are necessary systems, and the latter drives pretty much all mission design. The reason the moon was challenging technologically was the requirement that it be really safe for astronauts. Note that everything would be a toggle, anyway, as it already is. It's not noobs that would use this, it's a replay thing. If you've been playing a couple years and you are still on stock-sized kerbol system, and not using LS, etc... you must be harder to bore than I am.

Please make physics optional, and add warp drives, it's silly to have to wait for launch windows, or plot burns. Am I doing it right? Life support is part of what actually creates a challenge, particularly in the mini solar system of KSP. You plan differently if rescue is a few years away.

Some sort of simple LS system is required.

The choices are weak. It's Kerbal space program, so I'm willing to accept changes that represent the reality of kerbals---past that, they should aim for the physics to be as realistic as possible, if for no other reason than it make balance/etc easier.

Thought you'd like this pic:

How does one do a search within, say, only 2 sub forums? "Advanced Search" no longer contains this option (checking the forums you wish to each within).

"Spamming the warp button" is meaningless, anyway. You can do that now to avoid the rep penalty of turning down a contract so you can get new ones. In addition, I would fund MISSIONS, not the program... Chose "Explore the Mun," and it comes with a budget, doled out as X thousand funds every 6 days (perhaps with an initial bolus of funds to start). The time limit for "explore the Mun would then be the funding period. If it is a 1 year project, then finish it in a year, or take a substantial rep hit.

The year is 426 days (and change), right? 71 weeks of 6 days.

100 days is too long in KSP. Start a new career. You'll blow through at least half the tech tree in 100 days. Even 50 (a number I have suggested in the past, as it is a Minmus month) is likely too long. A munar month is about 6 days, right? 6 days is a better number. The only way for such a plan to make time meaningful is for the player to actually run out or low of funds so that they have to hit the "warp to next fiscal week" button, advancing time by X days.

Double spacing is a typewriter thing. Real typography is virtually never double spaced, and if Word does it, it's just another example of Word adding new features without being able to do text properly. I made my judgement based upon the claim up the thread that line spacing was defaulted to double, however. A quick look at actual text shows that this is not the case anyway, and it is only double-spacing on a carriage return (line break). This is NOT "default double spacing," though, that implies a global leading setting of something like 200-240% of font size, so that even flowed text would be double-spaced (which would be awful to try and read). Bottom line is that the forum flows text at normal spacing, and a line return adds a line. The last paragraph, actually double-spaced (to see how awful real double spacing would be): I made my judgement based upon the claim up the thread that line spacing was defaulted to double, however. A quick look at actual text shows that this is not the case anyway, and it is only double-spacing on a carriage return (line break). This is NOT "default double spacing," though, that implies a global leading setting of something like 200-240% of font size, so that even flowed text would be double-spaced (which would be awful to try and read). Bottom line is that the forum flows text at normal spacing, and a line return adds a line.

Why would a default be double-spaced, are the guys who wrote this forum software completely unversed in standards of typography?

What you'd ideally do, is to have the annual budget doled out every few weeks... However many Kerbin days this is, you'd have a button added to warp to the next fiscal week. If you found yourself out of cash, you warp to the next payout. This would instantly make time a thing, and you might take longer than 100 days to fill out most of the tech tree.

New forum is pretty ugly, honestly.

[quote name='Xavven']To be honest, though, the whole Kerbal XP thing makes no sense to begin with. I don't see why an engineer has to go to orbit and back to learn how to repack a parachute. Shouldn't s/he know how to do that before getting in the spacecraft? And then how the heck did the manufactures initially pack the chute to begin with -- have THEY all been to space? Experience points make sense in combat and adventure games, but I just can't see it being executed well here. In all my career play-throughs it hasn't been a game mechanic that's really added to the fun of the game. These are all good ideas for incrementally removing the tedium, but I would just as soon get rid of this game mechanic altogether.[/QUOTE] I agree. so the training idea above also makes sense. It's pretty stupid when I'm preparing a mission (with LS) for someplace distant, and I want skilled crew (engineers, usually) for possible repairs, but they need to be sent on such a mission unprepared first, so I can send them prepared... makes no sense.

Yeah, science should be useful, not just points. Map view could have the zoom-in scaled to regions that have been mapped via photography (add a few camera types---high-res can be automatic on all manned craft, but they have to return to kerbin to be developed/analyzed. Later probe cameras can vary based upon what science they can send home via antenna (low res would require lower orbits/impacts (Ranger) for surveys, higher res would have lower data rate and would take longer to map, etc). Tech tree unlocks could require specific types of science...

It should not be soi based at all, it should be based on total time in flight combined with actually using what skills are available to them. Add missions to repair things (like a satellite or station you had a contract for, earlier I the career) for engineers. Science gathered by scientists, and piloting (time and milestones/missions---like rendezvous, landing, etc).

It would require adding functionality and some gameplay design in addition to the parts, but the game really need cameras for spacecraft.

[quote name='davidy12']They're Kerbalized flags. [/QUOTE] The rising sun flag is the flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It should be the regular, "meatball" Hinomaru.

I still think it's pretty amusing that anyone would possibly care.

[quote name='Red Iron Crown']I generally reuse craft if they still work, why reinvent the wheel? New saves with every update, though.[/QUOTE] Making stuff is half the fun, I just remake it. Of course I make rockets/spacecraft, so it's not like they are hard to remake.

I throw away old game folders with new patches, anyway. I'm at a loss why anyone would care if craft are broken.

If you are not flying a ridiculous trajectory, there is no problem whatsoever. I've been messing with career since the patch, and I have yet to have any problems at all.

There are a few good base mods. One thing that I consider critical is KAS. Then your kerbals are actually useful for base creation, and you have some options.

[quote name='Veeltch']That's because PorkJet specializes in plane parts. They hired him to redo those first. Otherwise we would get that MK3 Choo-Choo cockpit. As I said before: He's the only guy rworking the parts right now (AFAIK). When he's done doing that he might redo the rocket parts. If there was another person working on those I'm afraid we would again have more than one art style AKA The Stock Soup (pretty much what we have now).[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure there are more than just "redone" plane parts lately, plenty of NEW plane parts. How about no new plane parts until the rocket prats stop looking awful. They don't even need to look nice, I'd settle for "not awful."