RizzoTheRat

My habit of starting a new career every time I update to a new KSP version means I'm getting quite well practised at the early game. Ignoring a few static trips out on the pad or runway with new science experiments, my flight history so far this career has been: Flight 1 - Suborbital with several science experiments Flight 2 - Suborbital with 2 tourists Flight 3 - Polar orbit to get EVA science Flight 4 - Free return Munar Flyby. 17km over the moon, so Jeb could collect science High and Low over the moon, and 40km over Kerbin for an aerocapture.

I spend most of my time in Notepad++ working on my KOs scripts, but after that it's rockets

In his first ever flight, Jeb has done himself out of a job. I've installed 1.8 and started a new career, a visit to the runway and launchpad generated enough science to get the thermometer, so the first actual flight was straight up to about 80km, netting enough science to unlock the KOS module. Over the course of my 1.6 and 1.7 games I've not even set foot on Duna, but have developed KOS scripts capable of running complete missions from precision landing on a munbase's docking port, to deploying a satellite network from a resonant orbit around Duna, but my scripts have evolved and are a bit of a mess. So the plan for this career is a complete overhaul of my scripts, with missions built from a list of parameters rather than individual mission scripts. This may take some time, but one thing is certain, I don't need pilots except for early flight tests.

Sounds like your code is completing without going through the bit you want it to do. A couple of common issues I've messed myself up with a few times is to define the function but not actually call it, or have a bit of script to do a task but forget to put it in a loop so it just runs once and then stops. Best thing I can advise to try and debug your problem is to put in plenty of print statements to try and work out where it's going in the code. In general I have a common boot script that copies various other files to the KOS module and runs them, so that I don't have to modify the boot script and revert back to VAB to reload it, which sounds like what you're trying to do.

Woohoo, great news. Thanks for all the hard work guys! Time to install 1.8

Not tried the Mammoth but my standard KSP lifter is 6 or 7 Vector engines, lifts around 40 tonnes to LKO, and lands back on the runway using KOS (from an equatorial orbit, I haven't quite nailed the landing script for an inclined orbit for Minmus missions). Multiple Vectors on an engine plate seem to cope with re-rentry heat way better than single bigger engines. Very tempted to give RSS/RO a try for my next career though as I agree launching is a bit too easy.

I tend to use the 2.5m cargo bays quite a lot, can fit a remote guidance unit, KOS module, batteries and a few other bits in there easily enough. Possibly slightly heavier than Streetwinds suggestion (not sure how heavy the faring panels are), and of course you can tailor the faring to be as big as you want if there's a lot to fit in, but it looks a lot more robust.

KOS. No mission I've ever done in the basic game can match the sense of satisfaction of your first fully automated docking or precision landing.

Launch -> F5 -> Circularise -> F5 -> Transfer to Mun -> F5 -> Circularise -> F5 -> Change inclination -> F5 -> Drop Pe over target -> F5 -> Brake -> Oh I'm sorry you forgot to put a full stop at the end of this line of code to deploy the landing gear -> Crash -> F9 I've only really used them to refuel something without a docking port or for module recovery missions. I generally put docking ports on everything though so they don't get used a lot. Ideal for providing emergency fuel to stranded craft without a docking port though.

After who knows how many thousands of hours I've played, I've just learned something new.

It's one of those things we all suck at to begin with but once you get the hang of it it's as easy as falling off a bicycle

It's not just wheels, I lost a 70 tonne VTOL SSTO the other day to pogo stick landing gear, and that was with the damping set to maximum.

That's my approach too. I usually have some kind of orbital fuel dump in place either as part of the mission or left over from a previous one, although I do get the occasional issue where I realise I only have the medium clampotrons on the initial mission, but have since upgraded my ships to use the large ones so can't dock and I haven't got any KAS ports on board. I also revert and reload from saves A LOT as I'm using KOS so will often run a particular segment of a mission several times while I refine the code, and then go back and run the whole thing, by which time I've usually worked out if I haven't got enough fuel, forgot the antenna, etc. My crewed ships always have probe cores too as with USI-LS the crew can become uncooperative if they're stranded somewhere for too long

Welcome to a whole new world of missions taking way longer as you tweak the software and revert to launch again... Followed by the immense satisfaction when you get it right.

Too many to count Staging issues are a pretty common cause, but I've also lost a lot to landing failures. My most impressive loss was when I set up an intercept with another craft in orbit I was intending to dock with, and ended up colliding with it half an orbit later! I'm a big believer in Revert or F9.

My first use of the Breaking Ground deployable experiments. Is there any way to stop them making a noise in a vacuum? I'm not overly keen on the messages keep popping up screen every few minutes telling me they've transmitted 0.08 science either. I think I've pushed my current SSTO design about as far as it can go, with 7 Vectors being the most I can fit on a this diameter tank. I now need to either increase the diameter or start looking at double or triple stacks. This one launched a 40 tonne payload to LKO at Minmus inclination, but figuring out how to land it from that inclination is proving tricky when my code is using the runway coordinates for reference and I appear to be using pogo sticks for landing gear

After several weeks of designing and testing both space hardware and KOS scripts I finally have my Mun base operational. This is a proof of concept, the idea is to hopefully send something similar to other bodies to set up long term bases in a single misison. I'm ridiculously excited about this so have a complete Imgur album about it. https://imgur.com/gallery/Zv7OU9J TLDR: Built a modular base on the Mun where everything was carried in on one vessel

Can anyone figure out what I've messed up here? Using RemoteTech 1.9.4 on KSP 1.7.3 I have a lander in low Mun orbit with a DP-10 (500km range). That was a a quality control issue, should have been the 16s but the 10 should just about do it. I have 3 Kommsats at 120 degree intervals in 250km orbit equipped with KR7's and Communicatron 32's (5000km range). The Kommsats all have comms to Kerbin via a similar network of 4 satellites in Kerbin orbit. The nearest Kommsat is 340km away from the lander, but the lander is showing no comms back to Kerbin. I've tried upping the Range Multiplier in the RemoteTech_Settings file to 10, and the antennas are reporting 5Mm and 50Mm range respectively in case there was something odd going on with the range but no joy. I've checked my save file and the connectivityHandler is set to RemoteTechConnectivityManager. I've just overflown my Mun base at an altitude of 12km, the base has connectivity, the lander still didn't. what is going wrong?

Not bad but could be better. So far I've used them for: A concertina of hinges to lift a rover from a carrying module to the ground and back Fold out flap to allow vertical Gigantors on a base without needing the extra width at launch Docking clamps on a transport vessel that fold out a docking ring to go on each end of the docked module A folding Mun base with 6 attachment points for additional modules that fold in to the core for easy transport Folding "legs" to keep a base module stable while resting on the ground without bouncy landing gear. However I have had a few issues Why when I lock hinges to they not lock in the current position, but seem to leap to one extremity unless I disconnect the motor first? Landing gear and wheels seem to be automatically autostrutted, which cause some big issues if they're autostrutted to something the other side of the hinge. Hinges and rams are great, but I could use a traverse mechanism, I've bodged it using a ram but it's wobbly as it's only attached one end. The power consumption is insane There's no simple way to lock and disengage power to all robotic parts, I've written a KOS script to lock all my hinges but that really ought to be in the KAL controller.

Precision landing is a lot easier in a vacuum (skip to the last minute or so if you have a short attention span) I think it needs a slightly smaller dead zone for the RCS alignment, it's currently half a meter which results in the slight mismatch on the docking port, but it's reusing the RCS function from my docking code so I don't want to break that. ETA: Yikes, do YouTube links always come out that big?

Discovered that the scanning arm needs more clearance than I expected to be able to scan anything. I've lugged this all the way to the Mun and I can't use the scanning arm because it hits the ground. On the plus side my new Rover deliver module worked pretty well despite clearly needing wider landing gear, it's a bit precarious on a 6 degree slope

Do you use KIS/KAS? I'd be interesting to see if you could use it as a harpoon and winch your bigger ship in on the cable

Think I've found the limits of my PC in 1.7.3. Not quite sure how many parts there are but it's quite a few. PC is flicking between green and yellow and straight in to the red if I try x2 physics warp. I really should have given it more engines, it's a 7 minute burn to the Mun, and this is a test of a new ship concept for long distance expeditions so it probably out to have more power if I'm going to send a version to Duna.

Other than fact it looks so freaking cool! Interestingly landing near the KSC claims to give a 98% return on funds, but actually gives 100%. Not sure how far away you have to land before it drops below 100%

After recovery. I'm doing a power only landing so need something like 400m/s at the end which will bump tbe cost up a chunk. It started as an experiment to reliably land on the pad using KOS but I landed it on the runway at the moment as getting the range alignment to drop it on the pad needs a lot of fine tuning.