BlkBltChemie

I've been playing KSP for about a year and a half and just discovered that - in addition to renaming by right-clicking on a probe/capsule - vessels can be renamed in the tracking station or map mode by left-clicking on the information "i" button and then on the orange box with the craft name! (Note: in map mode, this only works if the navball is visible). This works for dead probes, unmanned pods, debris, any asteroids that have been tracked even if you stop tracking them (but not unknown objects), flags, everything! It even works for Kerbals on EVA which I think may be the only way to rename them in game! (See the posts by RocketPilot573 and cantab on page 3.) I'm going to write up a tutorial after I get some decent images, but wanted to share this in the General Discussion forum first because I don't think it is widely known and may be of general interest, especially to more experienced players who don't check the tutorial forum often. (In fact, with a quick search, I turned up at least 4 suggestion threads requesting this feature.)

KSP Version: v0.90.0 Windows 32-bit (Steam download, but launching from .exe file) What Happens: Cannot click map filter icons when navball is hidden Mods/Add-Ons: Stock Steps to Replicate: Place just a Mk 1 pod on the launch pad/runway Switch to map mode Hover mouse by the top center to show the map filter icons Result: Icons are not clickable Fixes/Workarounds: Make the navball visible Hover mouse by the top center to show the map filter icons which can now be used Pictures: 1. Unresponsive filter icons with navball hidden 2. Clickable filter icons when navball is visible

This is a completely minor, low priority suggestion. (And to be honest, I'd much rather the devs keep doing what they are doing rather than devote time to something like this, but I wanted to mention it because I think it sounds cool.) Specifically, I think that it would be fun to have a loading video while the game is starting up rather than watching a yellow bar count off the assets as they are launched. Potential content already exists on the KSP official YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/KerbalSPOfficial) so they shouldn't have to do any new animations. I'm not talking about the gameplay sneak peeks, but the cinematic update trailers - "Selection Process," "Recovered Munar Footage," "Kerbal Science," "Kerbal Engineering," "Jeb's Junkyard," "Special Delivery," etc. Even the "Grab KSP on the Steam Summer Sale" video where a Kerbal gets grabbed on the Mun with a Claw. They are actually really good videos, in my opinion, and really capture what KSP is about. Maybe some sort of compilation of these clips could run while the assets load in the background. (If so I think it should end with part of the "Teaser Trailer" which has a pod drifting away above Kerbin with "How hard can rocket science be anyway?" written on the side. If loading all the game assets takes longer than the video, then it can just go back to the background image with the yellow loading bar. And, of course, you should be able to disable/skip the video if you don't want to watch it. For me, this is really just an "icing on the cake" sort of thing that would give some additional polish for the big 1.0 release and I really can't wait to see the new features they have in store for us in the update!

I completed my first in atmosphere circumnavigation of Kerbin with a plane - West to East, 1035 units of fuel at takeoff, overshot runway, glided around, and landed with 12.5 units of fuel remaining. Most of the flight had an upper altitude less than 25 km, but about 3/4 of the way around I started worrying about fuel so I starting hopping up to 30-45 km, shutting down the jet engines, coasting back to 18 km, and firing up the engines again until I made it back. I also almost crash landed on Minmus, but bounced. Fortunately, my central engine and fuel tank survived so I decoupled my side tanks (half of one had been destroyed so the craft was unbalanced). Unfortunately, I had just transmitted data on the dark side and had no electric charge to control my craft which of course was spinning wildly. Fortunately, my pilot, Caling Kerman, had nerves of steel and fired the engines briefly everytime he was pointed skyward eventually getting a high enough AP that I was able to coast until I could see the sun, recharge a bit and circularize before a brief jump out of Kerbin's SOI for training purposes (in progress).

I definitely agree that the Mk1 Lander Can needs to come earlier (Tier 1 R&D) and a 2-Kerbal rocket capsule (i.e. other than the spaceplane) would be fantastic. I don't really have an opinion about the Mk1-2 pod because I can't recall where it unlocks at the moment, but I also agree that the Mk2 lander can should come sooner, but after the Mk1-2 pod. I've done something similar with the FL-T800s using a Tricoupler. I think it makes for a really cool looking launch stage. Although the other day I did a TWR calculation and using 3 LV-T30s (3.75 tons, 645 kN total) in that setup gives a lower TWR than 1 Skipper (3 tons, 650 kN) for the same ISP. I still use my Tricoupler though because it just looks great in my opinion and it really isn't that much less anyway (just the engines, no fuel gives a TWR 17.5 vs 22, respectively.)

Your update in particular actually got me thinking that maybe the problem is not with the contract system but rather biomes/science. Right now, for temperature scans, near space is one biome and if you return the science you get the full value; it isn't incremental like goo and materials bay and the thermometer is reusable. Hmm...now that I reread that, it kind of makes sense - I can look at a thermometer 50 times no problem and would the temperature of near space change that much (if your altitude is constant)? Maybe that is why the contracts have a science reward. I know that is a very controversial topic in and of itself, but it does make up for the times when your measurement doesn't actually give science. It would be really cool to have the contracts linked to something specific, but I don't know if that is possible since they are procedurally generated. Then again, maybe it could be something like "Visual Survey from the Mun's Northern Basin" and it could be limited to one for each biome. That would actually be really cool, in my opinion, because you would actually be observing something new each time. I had completely overlooked that aspect which is a really good point. I remember one mission I was really struggling for funds and did an all for nothing Mun-shot. After the launch I had less than 1000 funds, fortunately it worked. I tend to agree with tater in that I like to have multi-purpose, reusuable, redirectable, etc. craft. Although it could be possible to require launching a new craft...maybe it could be balanced so that the "Advance" funds was high enough to pay for a launch - suborbital works for science in space and can be pretty cheap. I haven't tried that yet (limited number of contract slots + hard mode = need funds quickly), but now I really want to. Again though, it is a real strategy (and I don't think an abuse at all) - it worked because you were in a polar orbit which passed over the specific locations you needed not just because you were there. Thanks for thanks for all the comments everybody!

This is a pretty cool idea. Here's a quick trick you can use in PowerPoint that may make your life easier if you still want to go that route. (This is actually how a lot of people generate figures in scientific journal articles.) Make your design on a single PowerPoint slide - it is ok if it goes off the edges or you can resize the slide so everything fits. Ctrl-A or right click and 'select all' - Note: make sure you are on the actual slide, not the slide navigation that is on the side (otherwise you select all of the slides in the presentation instead) Then right click on the edge line of one of your image boxes - Note: if you click on the slide background it deselects everything In the menu that pops up, toward the bottom (mine is 3rd from the bottom), there is an option to "Save as a Picture..." That will open up a window where you can specify a save location and file type (png, jpeg, etc). Then you should be able to upload the image file to Imgur much more easily than going through a PDF. CAVEAT: If you use a background on the slide, it will not be saved, so what you can do is (sorry this part is kind of convoluted...) After pressing Ctrl-A, right click on the edge and select "Group" -> "Group" Now any separate boxes are grouped and you can move, resize, etc. them together Then, Ctrl-X to cut, Then on the menu (not the Ctrl-V shortcut) click the arrow below the "Paste" button, and select the sub-option to paste as a "Picture." Then, right click on the picture, click on "Format" -> "Fill" and select "Slide Background Fill" Now your slide background should actually be the background of the image Then you can right-click, "Saves as a Picture..." and the image file should now have your background as well. (It is really a lot easier than it looks, but I just wanted to give as much detail as possible...)

This is my first official post (aside from the introduction forum), and I’m curious to see what people think of this idea (although I’m sure most everyone is pretty occupied discussing the aerodynamics revamp). Since we now have the Visual Surveys, Temperature Scans, etc., I’m wondering if anyone else thinks that the Science from Space Around [X] should just be removed. Often the Visual Surveys, Temperature Scans, etc. take place in space already, and the Science from Space Around [X] seems redundant. One of the arguments I’ve frequently read is how easy it is to abuse the Science from Space Around [X] contracts to get free funds with just a satellite and thermometer even if it doesn’t actually give science. (Yes, I am guilty of this myself!) The Visual Surveys, Temperature Scans, etc. on the other hand have both science specific and location specific requirements. That is, you need to conduct orbital maneuvers to take the (specific) measurement in the correct location so eventually you have to send up a new satellite or more fuel. Granted, you still don’t need to actually have scientific gain from the measurement, but you can only collect one temperature scan from near space anyway, and these contracts often require at least 3 measurements. One factor in favor of Science from Space Around [X] is that it requires you to transmit the data, while the Visual Surveys, Temperature Scans, etc. do not. I actually saw a discussion on this topic previously on the forum recommending that a transmission requirement be added. The advantage of requiring transmission is that it requires the probe to have sufficient electricity (and potentially recharge between measurements). Another problem with the Visual Survey, Temperature Scan, etc. is that, for atmospheric bodies, I have only ever seen the measurement requirements within the atmosphere so that doesn’t really count as science from space. Here's a summary of my analysis of the two. [TABLE=class: grid, width: 600, align: left] [TR] [TD=align: center]Visual Surveys, Temperature Scans, etc.[/TD] [TD=align: center]Science from Space Around [X][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: center]PROS[/TD] [TD=align: center]CONS[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Specific science requirement[/TD] [TD]General requirement[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Specific location requirement[/TD] [TD]Anywhere in space over [X][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: center]CONS[/TD] [TD=align: center]PROS[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Collection only, transmission not required[/TD] [TD]Transmission required[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]For atmospheric bodies, typically only offered in atmosphere[/TD] [TD]Anywhere in space over [X][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: center]OVERALL[/TD] [TD=align: center]OVERALL[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]More challenging to complete (less easily abused) and limited by fuel[/TD] [TD]Easily abused and unlimited[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Personally, I think that Science from Space Around [X] should be dropped with two conditions. The first is that Visual Surveys, Temperature Scans, etc. should have a transmission requirement instead of just a collection requirement. The second is that there needs to be an accommodation for atmospheric bodies to still have some sort of space science contract. Looking forward to reading what other people think (and hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post a poll). - - - Updated - - - Hmm, so I looked in the FAQ on how to create a poll before I posted. It says there should be a checkbox at the bottom of the page when making a new post that says, "Yes, post a poll with this thread." However, I did not see it anywhere when I created the post. Sorry, no poll for you guys today! The question was going to be: "Should 'Science from Space Around [X]' contracts be removed" with options for "Yes;" "Yes, but... (state conditions in a reply);" "No, but... (state conditions in a reply);" and "No."

As the title hopefully suggests, I am new to the forum but not to KSP. I have been playing for about a year and a half now (since version 0.21, just before the original science mode was released), and I have logged more hours than I care to admit! I am using a four and a half year old, off-the-shelf laptop and KSP runs pretty smoothly - very few crashes, a bit of lag with very high part counts but not so much with large numbers of craft on rails throughout the system. I usually play in Sandbox following a historical timeline inspired playthrough based on the Wikipedia Campaign with a few additions of my own and actually just started it over from the beginning. I have a second “Exploration†sandbox where I am trying to land Kerbals on every celestial body and an “R&D†save where I just design random craft. So far I have only landed (legitimately) on Duna and Eve outside of Kerbin’s SOI although I have done unmanned flybys of everything except Eeloo. (And I would’ve had it too if it weren’t for the Kraken spewing my probe across the system after it left Jool’s SOI!) All that said, I have really been enjoying the new challenges in the 0.90 career mode and am looking forward to the tweaks coming in the beta. I have not really experimented with mods that much, although just last week I created a new install to tinker with a few so we’ll have to see where that leads! My favorite part of the game is either building rovers or stations. Probably the hardest thing I have done so far was a side-on docking simultaneously to two docking ports creating a square station. Added to that was the fact that one side had two Hitchiker Modules, the other a Science lab plus a battery (to give it just a little extra length so the two sides were equal). (I apparently take way too many screenshots…it took forever to find this!) Right now for some reason, I have a real hankering to land on Ike and Eeloo…really not sure why I am so interested in those two, especially since I have not landed on any of the Joolian moons yet. Anyway, nice to meet everyone, and I am looking forward to participating in some interesting discussions here.