SAI Peregrinus

Part testing contracts don't make much sense much of the time. But testing an engine while splashed down could be handy, say ascending from an ocean landing on Eve or Laythe. Now, the one that makes no sense is being told to test a launch stability enhancer in orbit of Kerbin. I think that bug may have been fixed, but it was amusing to see.

Make it on Eve, then launch it to Eeloo, skimming just over Jool's "surface" on the way.

Definitely looks cool, will try it out when I get a chance to play some KSP one of these days...

Gyrocompasses solve that. A full inertial navigation system using MEMS accelerometers and gyros is easily available as a single-chip solution IRL. Eg the ST LSM9DS1 goes for under $7 US. It can be used as a full inertial navigation system and includes a magnetic compass. And they're incredibly sensitive, easily good enough to use in a system like this (if in a radiation hardened package, etc). I picked that one because it's in the same family of chip used in my phone (samsung SGS4). That's a light, portable device that could function as a navball on EVA.

Use OpenGL. Delete all the stock fuel tanks/wings/parachutes, replace with procedural parts/wings/real chutes. DDSify and compress textures (more than ATM aggressive if it's really bad).

You might find this paper interesting. It's a very cursory historical overview of using geometric algebra (the algebra of the wedge product) in various applications. This comment, and indeed the entire discussion on that article at HN is interesting.

Action Groups Extended It can add all instances of a given part to an action group quite easily.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104758 Mods my friend, mods.

Yep, this is definitely one of the best mods for anything with more than one engine.

Infernal Robotics rotatrons are what you want.

For VTOLs, TCA is a great help. It controls the thrust limiters on each engine independently to maintain stability. It's a lot like the systems used in the Saturn or Falcon 9 rockets to provide engine-out capability and, in the case of Falcon 9, vertical landing stability.

As an example of unrealism not being easier: Imagine a basketball game where the gravitational acceleration on the ball is selected randomly (direction and magnitude) every few seconds. It would be impossibly difficult to play, and terribly unrealistic. Now imagine one where every last aspect of the game is modeled, and you have to have controls for all of it. QWOP style. It would be impossibly difficult to play. Realism can be used to increase or decrease difficulty, but it's far from the only factor and it's not a linear relationship.

This game is in Beta. The point of having open betas is to allow the users to provide feedback, both to find bugs and to fine tune the gameplay. Finding the best-liked default is a good idea, since it will make the final game appeal to more people (and thus sell better). This discussion is about that.

And they're off! Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever seen goalpoasts move so fast? This is bound to be an exciting race!

CATOBAR: Catapult Assisted Take Off, Barrier Arrested Landing. Or, for the new recruits, Catastrophe At Take Off, Barely Achievable Landing.

Which is exactly the same as the Steam launch options. (Steam just launches the game with the command line arguments specified in the launch options, the same as just making a shortcut or using advanced options in Windows.)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67270 Differential throttle.

Hmm. One thing I haven't seen any mod do is calculate what throttle position is needed at each altitude to remain under terminal velocity. With and without FAR. Then show a graph of it or such. MechJeb can do this when autopiloting, but doesn't show it for manual use. Being able to see this (and possibly set thrust limiters on various stages) could be handy.

The only problem I have is forgetting what the hotkeys are. I'm sure that won't be an issue with time, or if squad fixes the intake rules.

Most large aircraft IRL have thrust reversers. Eg It's used a lot for landing safely in wet conditions.

For any difficult design (getting home from Eve, building a base in the Mohole, etc) I design from the end point backwards, using a sandbox save with Hyper Edit. I don't consider this cheating, since real space programs use far more extensive computer simulation before anything gets built. I don't use hyper edit in my career saves. For example, an Eve mission. First, I design a small lander with the science equipment/kerbal living space I want that can land safely on Kerbin from LKO. I Hyper Edit it to LKO and test this to ensure it works (I use Deadly Reentry, etc). Then, I design a transfer stage that takes that lander and brings it from Eve to LKO. I use Hyper Edit to test that. Then I design a lifter to get that off of Eve (or, if not all of it, the Eve lander so it can dock in orbit with the transfer stage). Hyper Edit to test it. Then I design the lander stage that puts it down on Eve. Test. Then I design the transfer stage that takes all of that from LKO to LEO. Test. Then I design the lifter to get it off Kerbin. Test. At each stage I know what my payload is, so it's easy to figure out when I have enough dV. At each stage I test with Hyper Edit, so I know it can work. When it's all ready, I build the craft in career mode, freak out at the budget, realize I'm way over my part/mass limit for this stage of the game, screw up the piloting, flip over, and blow up the launch pad.

In general the proper way to launch a rocket is to launch straight up, turn about 5 degrees, and turn off SAS. Then let gravity turn you the rest of the way as you go. That's why it's called a gravity turn. A perfectly designed rocket will do the gravity turn without you needing to touch the controls.

Sounding Rockets adds small, incredibly cheap, rockets with 4 possible experiments. The 2.0 beta (linked further down the thread) enhances it quite a bit. Very nice for starting science.

It's also not done because it's effectively impossible to pump the fuel around fast enough, which leads to your point. One of the most common failures of rockets that makes them explode is a turbopump failure. With asparagus staging, you need an extra turbopump per sub-rocket. And it has to be big, to pump fuel fast enough... which adds even more weight. Fuel lines are ridiculously OP in this game. On the main topic, I find FAR easy. It's more intuitive than stock aerodynamics, and the fancy simulation windows make it very simple to get things right before leaving the SPH, which is a nice benefit. They're the main reason I don't like NEAR. I want to be able to get at least the major design aspects working before I test a craft, FAR (and Kerbal Engineer) helps with that.

This list is ignoring "helper" mods like KSP API Extensions and KineTech Animation. 85 actual mods. Essentials: Action Groups Extended Alternate Resource Panel (Allows, among other things, staging in map view.) Better Buoyancy Contract Window + DDS Loader Docking Port Alignment Indicator Editor Extensions FAR In-Flight Waypoints Intake Build Aid Kerbal Alarm Clock Kerbal Engineer Redux kOS Scriptable Autopilot NavHud NavUtilities Precise Node Procedural Fairings (I delete most stock parts and use procedural versions) Procedural Parts Procedural Wings QuickScroll QuickSearch RCS Build Aid Science Alert Stock Bug Fix Modules Trajectories Transfer Window Planner TweakableEverything TweakScale Recommended: Active Texture Management (Largely supplanted by DDSLoader) Ambient Light Adjustment (Necessary if taking lots of screenshots/video) Aviation Lights (Planes just aren't right without them...) Coherent Contracts Connected Living Space Crossfeed Enabler Crowd Sourced Science Custom Biomes Davon Throttle Control Systems Deadly Reentry Continued Enhanced Navball EVA Parachutes Filter Extensions Improved Chase Camera In-game Notepad Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Kronal Vessel Viewer Landing Height Display PlanetShine RKE On-Screen Joystick (and Fine Keyboard Controls) SafeChute Science Funding Smart Stage Sounding Rockets! Stage Recovery Stock Plugins Texture Replacer Toolbar Universal Storage Vertical Velocity Controller Nice to have: 6S Service Compartment Tubes B9 Aerospace DMagic Orbital Science Extraplanetary Launchpads (w/Regolith) Fuel Science Hullcam VDS HyperEdit Karbonite K+ KAS Kerbal Foundries Wheels and Repulsors MSI Infernal Robotics MechJeb 2 NEBULA EVA Handrails Orbital Material Science Procedural Airships RealChute Regolith RemoteTech SCANsat Smart Parts Station Science Surface Lights USI Exploration pack USI FTT USI Kolonization Systems USI Survival So most of what I most like are UI/gameplay improvements. Part mods are nice and all, but not nearly as important. Once 64-bit is stable I'll add in Environment Visual Enhancements and either KSPRC or AVP. But with only 32-bit working properly using 8k textures would lead to out-of-memory issues. 32GB of RAM on this machine and KSP can't even use 4.