ghpstage

I only found this out recently too, before that I would go straight to space too. But you miss out on about 50k cash doing that!I support the idea in the OP too.

Stayputnik is clearly useless I don't know what everyone who doesn't think so is talking about! Evidence below! Yes that's a Stayputnik on Eve. It crash landed after leaving its parachute in the factory.... and an unfortunate night time landing with a low CoM The second is just entering the Jool system, with aerobraking it could certainly make Jool and Laythe orbits, maybe the smallest moon too Both weigh less than 18 tons The last is the Mun, powered by 14 batteries due to not having solar tech It can go to Duna too, and both Gilly and Ike are likely achievable as is The above was all achieved using low tech level parts. If you were to beeline Science Tech and Flight Controls while ignoring everything else, you could achieve a Mun landing like that, and just adding Electronics can get you to any of these planets. Far left is the battery powered Mun probe The second is identical to the Mun except the 14 batteries are replaced by 4 solar panels, that's all it needed to go to Duna, Eve and Jool. With a 7s to replace the 909 this thing can go just about anywhere. Third is another use I found for Stayputnik, to launch mat labs and goos straight upward through high altitude and into space. Doesn't even need a reaction wheel. Admittedly there are issues with using it. Without SAS any sources of random imbalances, such as from time acceleration or wobbly radially mounted thrusters can quickly prove unsalvageable Lack of SAS means practice is needed Lack of a torque wheel means you have to get a reaction wheel to turn it, in practice making it more expensive than a Command Pod and just as heavy as the next core Tech location is abysmal. Without batteries there is very little it can do, and the next, and much better probe comes in the next tech level. This is the real issue with the part, should come earlier but the whole tech tree needs to be re-examined as its nonsensical on all fronts. None of these make it even close to useless however. Its light enough that purely linear rockets can get it just about anywhere, limiting the wobble potential With practice and the fine controls mode (caps lock) its actually pretty easy to control It can clear exploration contracts earlier than anything else Using this instead of rushing to the next core saves up 90 for other, more pressing techs like Aerodynamics or Fuel Systems. Far form being useless, I find it to be top notch as a functional part, as well as fun to use.

Today I flew this Stayputnik Drone through the launch phase, into orbit, corrected the orbits inclination relative to the Mun, travelled to the Mun and achieved orbit without the help of SAS or even manouvre nodes. Even managed to crash land it on the dark side with no lights! Then I found out I forgot the antenna.... now I need to send another to complete the other half of the exploration contract, doh. EDIT - On the plus side the second attempt landed perfectly, and then my first blind Minmus probing mission went perfectly thanks to having a lot more fuel than would strictly have been needed.

The parts limit isn't an issue for a long time, you get to the Mun, Minmus, Duna, Ike, Gilly and other things with that!The real problem is the 18t weight limit. Its a major blocker to getting manned missions anywhere for quite some time. Probes to go carry out exploration missions on any planet can be done comfortably with those restrictions, and ones to reach the Mun, Minmus, Duna, Eve and their moons can be built very early. In the case of Mun exploration, it can be done very early indeed, this is a battery powered probe that landed on the Mun, only needing 110 science. The Mun being a nice target as its easy to encounter, near enough for 14 batteries to be sufficient, and you need to do a part of the contract before anywhere else or you'll kill their contracts. That battery powered Stayputnik drone managed to land on the Mun. It only cost around 110 science to build it too. It would be nice to have both harder missions, and more missions that represent progression, like manned missions to various bodies after basic exploration. The altitude ones, orbit and exploration ones are the only ones I know of that do this right now.

Is KAX an aircraft based mod or something? Since I came here i've been seeing and reading about a lot of what looks to be very well made mods. I'm going to try a few over Christmas. I could find a few i've seen named, like mechjeb, but to make it easier, does anyone know of a list of the more popular mods with descriptions and links to d/l sources?

Today I built this thing. It may be small, but its actually an SSTO that weights 11.8 tons It can't do much in orbit, but thats not really suprising as the only non tier zero part it uses is a single FL-T100 fuel tank, it can land on land in one piece however. Its also ridiculously agile in the atmosphere and only requires the first tech researched to build. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU1zGTrPl1g&feature=youtu.be The new offset tool seems to have potential for a whole lot of silliness

Update on the probe spam Well... The moho probe came in at too high a velocity and failed to achieve orbit. Eve went very nicely. It managed to pick up science from Gilly despite coming in at far too poor an angle to orbit and land, and it completed the Eve exploration mission and an opportunistic science from Eve contract picking up a whole heap of cash. Fortunately it was enough even to make a profit on the whole probe spamming endevour as..... Shortly after that, the other 5.... got eaten by a space kraken They all somehow got teleported to what i'm guessing is the games maximum possible distance from the star, all in one spot. Over 100k gone up in flames and 2 million+ in contracts delayed. Before the Moho and Eve encounters (and at least one launch!) and after....

The biome science could be rebalanced against tech costs in the future, science from repeatable missions can't really.

True, having a slip up = game over being a common event isn't really suitable for this type of game. I think a compromise could be made quite easily however.If the difficulty and value of available contracts were to be tied to the cash you have banked and in ground assets (to avoid the most obvious exploit!) then upgrading your facilities would require going further afield but low level missions would be available again should you approach bankruptcy. Removal of science from contracts and that outsourced R&D lunacy would also force players to do actual science stuff in different places to continue to advance.

You didn't just beat the 18t limit you smashed it. Very impressive! I've never tried the 48-7s before, looks like they are well worth using.

Today I got fed up of the astronomical costs of facilities, particularly the R&D. I'm sitting on 1500 science points right now and have all the level 1 R&D techs already..... So I tried designing a low cost, 30 part interplanetary probe to clear the Duna and Ike contracts, but when I tried it out its dV far exceeded my expectations. I've sent 5 out so far, one to Duna with a second to its moon Ike, one to Eve and one to Jool, all are currently on course for an encounter. The fifth is the first MK3 version (below) and is currently sitting in orbit, either to go to one of Jool moons, or preferably, to try one of the other planets when the orbits are better aligned. This version dropped a SRB booster making it lighter and cheaper compared to the previous version. It was so successful I decided to replace the drone with a lander to make my first Minmus landing in 0.9. After that it still had the fuel to exit the Kerbin SOI, come back and orbit the moon before returning to base, achieving the training plan outlined in this thread! Next will be a Mun landing, and landing the probes I have already sent. I suspect the Eve probe can manage to cover Gilly too, provided that's not the borked probe I sent with a parachute covering the thermometer Edit - Sent new probes to Moho and the Jool system, and the one already in orbit to Dres though its currently a tad out from getting an encounter. Another probe up in orbit ready to go to the Jool system for the moons. I now have probes travelling to every planet bar Eeloo, with 2 going to each of Duna and Jool. Eeloo can wait due to difficulty getting a transfer, solar power issues and the fact that i've never dealt with so many encounter missions at once and don't want to push it. Though part of me demands that I have simultaneous missions going to everywhere

I find it quite useful, and like others I also like it for aesthetic reasons. With 0.9s limited weight and parts count its pretty hard to get an early Mun landing, and with the limited contracts we don't really want that contract blocking others ones for the mid term. To make matters worse the much easier Minmus exploration contract doesn't come up until you've started the Mun one.... A probe using the Stayputnik is a good solution to this as all you need to do to clear the contract is the ability to land and send some science back. The exact same rocket-probe set up can be used to clear the Minmus contract too, and if your probe carries a thermometer its likely got enough fuel to take a big chunk out of, if not complete a Minmus temp scan contract. Then there's the satellite and orbital science contracts. It does have a few issues, but I think the real issues lie with the tech tree. If the Stayputnik was a starter part, with a poor quality battery and reaction wheel available to go on it then I think it would be appreciated a lot more.

Hello! Been lurking these forums quite a bit recently and decided it was finally time to join. I've been playing this game for a few of months now, and have just come back from a couple of weeks break to find 0.9 I'm surprised how much it has improved career mode, i'm finding myself using things I barely bothered with before, and the new contracts are great. Its certainly one of the best games I have ever played. Very addictive!