tsotha

The first one is this ship's mass without fuel.

I use Trajectories for reasonably precise landings. I noticed when I get back the clamps are still there from my launch as long as my landing isn't too close. If I land close enough to load the model there's a "ka-chunk" sound (same one you hear at launch) and the clamps disappear. I don't think I get money for them, though I'm not absolutely sure about that.

You might want to have a look at metaphor's post in this thread. From KSC to the surface of Moho he used 7217 dV. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/74375-Lowest-Delta-v-to-Moho/page3

No. Gameplay comes first, then realism. Materials bays and goo containers used to transmit at 100% (and were reusable without the lab, too). That was changed to reward the design of more capable ships.

They could certainly implement it such that experience was scaled based on where you are, just like science. Fix a solar panel on Kerbin? Great! Another 500 and you level up. Or you could fix just one on Moho. Personally I'd like to see them get rid of classes and go strictly with skills. If all you've ever done is fly ships your pilot skill might be high, but you'd have to do engineering things to raise your engineering skill.

I just checked again. It's right now.

Yeah, the experience system doesn't make a lot of sense. On the other hand, you learn by doing, and if your engineer can pack chutes to train, than what does it mean for him to gain a level that allows him to pack 'chutes? The easiest thing to do is make a ship chock full of hitchhiker pods and do 5th Horseman's level 3 experience tour. Last game I did 24 in one launch and never worried about experience again. Though I confess in my new game I'll probably only do four or five - from my perspective the only class that has any value is the engineer except for the first few launches when you need a pilot for SAS. The thing I don't understand is the wiki says level 1 = pack chutes, level 2 = fix wheels, and level 3 = fix legs. But my engineers don't seem to be able to fix wheels until level 3.

Heh heh. It might be under 3000 parts and 1800 tons. He's not playing career.

Nah, it never lines up perfectly. But I don't usually care that much, since it doesn't affect anything.

Hahahaha. Unity released 5 with enough time for everyone to think it might get integrated but without leaving enough time to actually integrate it. Did you .... them off somehow?

I always take a step back when I've written a post title that contains both "Slight Imperfection" and "HATE".

I use KAS to replace them unless they're gigantors. KAS has become a mod I can't play without.

Paltry rewards? The "science from space around Kerbin" and the satellite contracts are there to help you get back on your feet when you run out of money. You can make something like 120k with a rocket that costs 5k. If you don't need the money just don't accept them.

One thing I'd like to have is the ability to actually shut down a probe core completely. Let's say I create a ship by docking two small ships. I only need a single capsule or probe core to control the thing, but I'm stuck with that extra power draw because there's no way I can throw the "off" switch on the ones I don't need. Note that I'm not suggesting some way to get around expending power for probe cores that are actually controlling the ship - I just want a way to shut off the power draw from the ones I'm not using.

People will never stop complaining. They just change the target of their complaints occasionally.

I guess it depends on your play style. If you're playing career on "hard" you always have gobs of science and no money. There's no reason to send manned missions to collect science. Once you get the second probe core the only reason to do anything manned is to have an engineer handy to fix wheels and legs. In fact that's my big complaint about Kerbals. Except for the wheels/legs thing they're essentially heavy probe cores.

Eve is actually much easier to land on. Landing on Gilly takes almost no fuel if you use Eve to aerobrake into Gilly's plane, so I always send a single probe that does Gilly first and then Eve. But if you're asking this question there's no way you're ready to send a manned mission to Eve, since as others have pointed out leaving Eve is hard mode. Duna is easy to leave, but landing at Duna is more challenging than anyplace you've done yet. Make sure your lander is wide and has a low center of gravity - there aren't many flat spots on Duna.

They don't use monoprop. Yet. Does their backpack fuel get recharged? I don't know, but I doubt it.

Is it odder than thinking of him as a ship? Perhaps not. Anyway, grabbing something with the claw is functionally the same as docking with it, which itself is the functional equivalent of making one ship out of two. You can transfer fuel and Kerbals, generate power on one side and use it on the other, and share monoprop. Heh heh. You really did this the hard way Normally you only need to grab them like that if you've used up all their EVA fuel.

Ah, well. That's a good point, though I don't understand why you're asking questions if you already know everything.

Somebody on this forum (don't remember who, sorry) created a table which allows you to do bigger splits. The key is knowing when you have to start, since your orbits will start to take nontrivial amounts of time toward the end.

Why include the hitchhiker? I was able to get something similar back into orbit using O-10s and a large monoprop tank. Once in orbit I docked with my refueler, filled it back up with monoprop, and headed home. You don't need much dV if you wait for a transfer window. The big problem you're going to have, I think, is getting it back onto the surface of Kerbin in one piece. Labs are fragile - you have to be nearly stopped to land them in the water, and on land you need to make sure you have legs or sacrifice parts to absorb the shock. That all has to be designed in from the start. The first time I tried a mission like that I got so frustrated with the landing I sent up a bunch of capsules to land the science and sent the empty lab to a fiery death.

That... flies?

That's just perfect. The numbers are there if you want to geek out, but you don't need them. Judging from the reddit and the KSP forum, though, what it could really use is 50 pt red flashing text that says "You're going the wrong way!" when they have the right orbit but the wrong direction

Same here. In previous versions I would make sure to collect all the science I could. Now I don't even bother. Crew reports, thermometer, and surface samples. Between that and the contract science I have everything I need to stay ahead of my ability to upgrade the R&D building. In 0.90, at least on the default "hard" settings, the buildings are way too expensive. Everything else, including spacecraft design, is an afterthought.