NotExactlyRocketDesign

I've found career much more fun when science is ONLY obtained manually, i.e., not from contracts or strategies. So I use a 0.6x science multiplier but also use this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/89297-0-90-ZeroScienceContracts-%28no-science-from-contracts%29 For strategies, I just use willpower. ;P But I imagine there are some mods out there that would make it easy to forbid yourself the Outsourced R&D and so forth.

In order to avoid breaking a lot of stuff, it seems like the game would still need an Ap value and Pe value, i.e., storing the data for circular (or near-circular) orbits in a different way from elliptical orbits would mean that any game function or mod that tries to read orbital data would have to account for two different formats. Even hyperbolic or suborbital trajectories have both an Ap value and a Pe value, so it seems like this is probably a deep part of the game's code. However, they could eliminate the flickering by changing the way that the orbit is displayed. Eliminating the Ap/Pe markers for near-circular orbits would be undesirable, because without mods, that's one of the main ways of determining your altitude (yes, you could still read off your altitude at the top, but it's not as precise, and I personally would find it frustrating to lose that source of information). Instead, I think you could keep the markers, but do the following: 1. As soon as Ap - Pe < epsilon, consider the orbit circular. The orbit will still have an Ap value and a Pe value, but the display will be different. 2. Instead of displaying the Ap and Pe markers, display two "Circ" markers (or whatever). These appear wherever the Ap and Pe were when the orbit circularized, and they do not move until Ap - Pe > epsilon. So the "true" Ap and Pe values might be swinging around wildly, but the displayed Circ markers are frozen in place. This has the advantages of (a) preserving the way the orbital data is stored, ( continuing to display altitude markers for circular orbits, and © eliminating flickering.

This may be a really silly question, but how do you bring up the interface? I'm pretty sure I've installed properly, but I don't see a toolbar button or any instructions about key shortcuts. Could it be a compatibility issue with the very recent new version of FAR?

Another interesting way to get around the annoyance of repeat simulation costs would be to have simulations on or around particular bodies be "unlocked" with a fixed lump sum of funds. For example, if you buy the "Tylo orbit" or "Eve landed" simulator for X00,000 funds, then you can henceforth simulate vessels orbiting Tylo or landed on Eve for free (or cheap, if free seems too unbalancing).

Currently there are nine failure types. To me, they seem to fit reasonably well into three categories of three apiece: Electrical: Engine Alternator, Batteries, Lights Aerospace: Engine Gimbal, Reaction Wheel, Control Surface Propulsion: Engine, RCS, Tank Slap an "Engineer" or "Specialist" or whathaveyou after each one and you've got three function-based specializations, the exclusion of any one of which could be problematic for any voyage. RemoteTech and TAC Life Support pair wonderfully with this mod, but I kind of assume most people who use this mod also use those. Kerbal Construction Time can compound the problem of rescue missions necessitated by Dang It!, so that's fun, too. Anything where you use a lot of unmanned vessels makes this mod especially devious, and the potential for water or oxygen to leak adds a lot of interesting gameplay. For example, on a recent moon mission, Jeb ran out of fuel in orbit around the Mun. I had to quickly construct a rescue vessel before Jeb's food ran out; KCT meant I would only have time for one attempt. I opted for an unmanned rescue vessel for cost and weight reasons; I just didn't have the rocketry to get two manned pods to the Mun and back easily. Because of RemoteTech, I had to time my rendezvous very carefully; there was not much of a relay network yet. Anyway, the rescue vessel sprung a leak on oxygen long before it reached Jeb. I had to get Jeb home using (a) a vessel with no fuel, or ( a vessel with no oxygen (I had no resource transfer mods). I opted for (, because even though a normal Hohmann transfer from the Mun to Kerbin's atmosphere would take too long to last without oxygen, an unconventional flight path got him back in just under the amount of time his EVA supplies lasted. In effect, I traded some excess delta v for a shorter flight time. That meant a dangerous reentry (with Deadly Reentry/FAR installed of course), but it worked. Long story short, if you like this mod, use the other "hardcore" mods. They function in concert to create problems you'd never expect, and that's really fun. My suggestions: FAR, DRE, TAC-LS, RT, KCT, KIDS, EngineIgnitor, and KesslerKaos, a seemingly abandoned mod that nevertheless appears to work for me so far: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/74382-Kessler-chaos-space-debris-clouds-0-23-5-WIP-Plugin Great mod, by the way.

Since there are only a few extra nodes needed, you may be able to cannibalize some of the "extra" 10 or 11 nodes (the ones that cost 1000 science each and don't show up in a stock game). That would negatively impact any other mods that use them, but it's otherwise an easy fix.