Hotaru

This can be done with mods, but I agree it should be stock. No reason to limit it to the command seat, either--may as well have a first-person view available whenever on EVA. Having used mods that do this, I can definitely say it makes EVA both more fun and, in some cases, quite a bit easier.

I have to agree this is poor design, PEBKAC or no. The main reason being that the simple act of loading a quicksave--even if you immediately alt-F4 out--overwrites the persistence file, preventing you from any hope of correcting the mistake. The way Skyrim gets around this is by keeping three autosaves, autosaving fairly frequently (depending on settings, it can be when you sleep, go through a door, enter a menu, or just are idle for a while), and not overwriting the last autosave every time you reload. No matter how many problems may have occurred between my chair and keyboard, or anywhere else, I've never lost more than a half-hour or so of progress in that game--whereas in KSP, it's much easier to lose many hours of work just by neglecting to hit F5 for a while. Minor, unrelated, and utterly trivial point: for some stupid reason it's always bothered me that the game reports "Quicksaving" both when you hit F5 and when you use alt-F5 to make a hard save. A hard save is the exact opposite of a quicksave, the entire point of it is it gets kept no matter what, as opposed to a quicksave which is overwritten the next time you hit F5. It really should just say "Saving" with alt-F5, I would think.

Personally I think it's a bit of a silly idea. I'm not offended by it or anything but I guess I don't think it's a particularly funny joke, and would only add to the confusion regarding the already-dubious version numbering scheme. I wish we could go back to having a numbering system that actually made some kind of reasonable sense. Full versions for complete overhauls, first decimal versions for major changes (which would include updates like 1.0.5, which added substantial new content), second decimal versions for minor revisions, bug fixes, etc. There's nothing to be done about the existing numbers, sadly, so we're stuck with 0.90 that's really 0.26, 1.0 that's really 0.91, 1.0.5 that's really 1.1, another 1.0.5 that's really 1.0.6, and eventually 1.1 that will really be 1.0, 1.2, and 2.0 all at the same time.

(Second attempt, thanks a lot new forum software.) I tend to agree with the two-seats-per-Kerbal philosophy for long-duration missions, although it sometimes ends up more like one and a half on shorter, cheaper missions. Usually this means a Hitchhiker module or two, sometimes a Mk 3 passenger cabin on larger ships. Since most of its volume appears to be unused in game--we only ever see the passenger deck, and it hold no fuel, monoprop, reaction wheels, engines, or avionics that could be taking up space--I generally assume it to have living and sleeping quarters on an invisible lower deck. On the other hand, I have the opposite feeling to a lot of people about autopilot; I don't consider a rocket successful unless it can make a fully automatic ascent; sometimes I'll even automate the staging sequence with the "smart parts" mod. This isn't a serious issue for conventional rockets but can be a limiting factor on space shuttles, where the shifting center-of-mass can confuse MechJeb. (I used to use a mod that automatically vectored the engines through the CoM, but unfortunately it hasn't been updated since 0.24 or so, and hasn't worked since 0.90.) I also stick to the rule of no manned launches without some sort of LES--although since I use the Vanguard parachute mod, sometimes on spaceplanes the "escape system" is "stop the engines and everybody bail out!" Which has actually saved more than one spaceplane crew, so it's not completely silly. The LES rule can be a tricky one to follow in early-game career, unfortunately, since a proper LES is basically impossible without an action group to fire it. I make upgrading the VAB a high priority for this reason.

I certainly wouldn't come to the conclusion you're not having fun: I enjoy the challenge of optimizing my designs too. In general my priorities are functionality first, cost second, part count third (with the order of the last two flipped once the part count starts going much over 100). Looks are a relatively distant fourth, but I don't ignore them completely: all things being equal I'll tend to pick the option that looks the most elegant. One of the reasons I enjoy career mode is that it gives me a valid gameplay reason to optimize for cost. In sandbox I never feel compelled to optimize for anything (except maybe looks), and I find the lack of a gameplay challenge a little boring. Have to disagree about getting headaches from Spacecraft Exchange, however. Although on the whole I tend to prefer "form over function," which often results in fairly bland, utilitarian designs, I do like my ships to have nice lines if at all possible. I think a lot of the designs I've seen posted here are extremely cool, even if they don't share my personal design priorities.

Rep isn't the same on the new forum. In addition to the "like" button only counting for one point (making old-forum rep effectively worth more than new-forum likes), I have to admit I miss the little mouse-over titles for the rep bars. Things like "so-and-so owns a roll of duct tape" or "has a rep rivaling Jebediah's" or whatever. Those had a lot more character than just a number. Not a serious issue or anything, just a little thing I miss about the old system.

I think the issue with the line breaks is, normally (at least in any text editor I've ever met) pressing return/enter gives you a single line break, as between two indented paragraphs or items in a list. In this new forum editor, it gives you a double line break, like this: Which is what would normally happen when I press enter twice. To get a single line break here I have to press shift-enter, like this: Which is what would normally happen when I press enter once. It's not a huge issue for me personally, but it is a bit of a nuisance and contributes to the general wastage of space on the new forum layout. PS. Regarding the spoilers: I find that if a spoiler is the first item in a post, I can still put text outside after the spoiler, but I can't get the cursor to move above the spoiler.

I'd be in favor of pretty much all of these suggestions! I would also add that it would be nice if tourists (even level-0 ones) could EVA at least on planetary surfaces, mainly to allow transfers between landed spacecraft without resorting to mods, the claw, or annoyingly tricky surface dockings. I get why they're more limited than regular kerbonauts, but it's just getting out one airlock, walking a bit, and getting in another. It's not, as they say, rocket science.

Well, I hate to say it but this is pretty disappointing. I'm hoping some of the current issues (slow load times, 502 errors, etc.) are just teething troubles that will be sorted in a few days, but the broken links and trashed BB-code are a lot more serious, and I have to say I severely dislike the look of the new forum compared to the old one (although I do appreciate that it's wider than the screenshots we saw before). I hope we'll at least have some improved functionality, especially in the area of subscriptions and notifications, I never could get those working how I wanted them on the old forum. It's not the end of the world, I'll get used to the new look and the lack of BB code isn't going to chase me away from playing KSP or from using the forum, but it is still a disappointment. PS. Why is the BB-code in my signature (and everyone else's, as far as I can tell) still working? What's different about those than all the posts with broken tags?

[quote name='KerbMav']What makes these nuke engines burn so pretty?[/QUOTE] [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/129119-1-0-4-RealPlume-Stock-Configs-v0-8-1-2015-281"]Real Plume [/URL]mod.

Slowly making progress in career mode--still stuck in 1.0.2. My goal is to land a Kerbal on every planet in the stock system (not necessarily the same Kerbal, or on the same mission) in this save before I move on to a new one in 1.0.5. The Rumfoord burned back into Kerbin orbit at the conclusion of its nearly three-year-long mission to Duna and Ike. The prototype Nuclear Aqualung went up from KSC and is now on its way to Minmus. This new type should help with keeping an increasingly large fleet of atomic-powered interplanetary ships fueled, as well as being a more efficient way to move cargo around the solar system. Cargo shuttle Altair launched a mining rig to previously-retrieved asteroid "Julina" in LKO, which should provide an additional fuel supply as more of the Aqualung tankers are sent out to other planets. After a long and extremely boring series of aerobraking passes to bring the Rumfoord down to a 100x100 km orbit (it only had about 180 m/s worth of fuel left after its arrival burn, not enough to circularize), passenger shuttle Canopus rendezvoused with it to bring the crew home, as well as bringing up a rookie scientist who will work on processing the enormous amount of scientific data still stored in the lab while the ship awaits its next mission--most likely to Eve.

Cool, that's always bugged me about the stock indicator. Will definitely give this mod a try, thanks!

Mission complete (again).

Mission complete. The trip of about 400 kilometers and six stages was completed in six Kerbin days' time. Idle performed well, being able to complete the trip under traction power without using its rockets, and successfully demonstrating the ability of the Mark II to operate in a very-low-gravity environment. It also collected a large amount of scientific data to be analyzed at the Coalwood lab in coming weeks. Erithis will now rejoin the regular crew at Coalwood until the next crew rotation. Idle will remain at Coalwood for the time being, but as it has sufficient delta-v to return to orbit under its own power, it will most likely eventually be moved to another planet for continued service. I like Minmus: nice and small. Small enough that the trip was over before it got too tedious (unlike, say, the Mun). While I don't have any immediate plans for a third Elcano run, I imagine I will do another at some point in the future, possibly over winter vacation. Whether in this save or not, I don't know; I like the Mark II rover but it might be fun to try something a bit more ambitious. Once again, Idle and Erithis wait out the night and set out the following morning once the rover's batteries have recharged. The fifth leg covers fairly boring highland terrain, and is completed without much difficulty. Erithis disengages the rover's auto-throttle to allow it to coast down a shallow grade for fifteen kilometers before bringing it to a stop at the end of the leg. She then establishes Base 5 and yet again waits for morning. The next morning, Erithis and Idle set out on the final leg of the trip. After a mostly uneventful stage, Idle descends a notch in the dangerous cliff Damerell mentioned; the descent is tricky but shallow enough that Erithis is able to keep the rover's speed under control. Finally, Coalwood Base comes back into sight. Erithis parks the rover, plants a final flag to mark the end point of the trip, and returns to Coalwood Base.

This has always felt like the sort of thing that was cute back in 2011 when KSP was a fun little game where you could throw rockets together, blow stuff up, and maybe achieve orbit if you were very good, but has become kind of awkward now that KSP is a bigger game that can be, and is, taken more seriously. I see three possibilities: Leave it as is (everyone called Kerman, basically identified by a single given name), make all last names variations on the theme (Kerman, Kermann, Kermanov, Kermanin, Kermansky, Kermani, Kermyn, etc.), or just give everybody a variety of names as with humans. Personally I'm partial to the second option for regular gameplay in the Kerbal system (which adds variety while still keeping things "Kerbal") and the third for anything RSS or military-related where I'd really rather just have actual humans instead of little green Kerbals. It's worth pointing out that there is a mod for this, which I'll probably use for future saves.

[quote name='KasperVld'] [LIST] [*]After some discussion in this thread we'll (most likely temporarily) keep a read-only version of the Rocket Builders forum available for people who wish to retrieve their content but were unable to at first. This archive will be available to a link which we will post on the new forums. [*]We love to see people work together to build craft and such, and as long as the roleplay element is remove from the Rocket Builder company threads there's nothing stopping you from posting these collaborative threads in the new Spacecraft Exchange forum. [/LIST] [/QUOTE] Thank you for this much, at least. However, I [I]still[/I] don't understand the benefit of the "most likely temporary" status of the RB archive. I believe keeping the archive permanently would entail considerably less hassle for all involved, mods and admins included, as well as being considerably more respectful to the users who have put hundreds of hours of work into the contents of that forum.

[quote name='KasperVld']Given all the reactions here, I'll look to see if we can't temporarily keep the Rocket Builders forum available as an (invisible) archive with a link posting in the Spacecraft Exchange to soften the change a bit - but this is dependent on such functionality being available.[/QUOTE] Glad to hear this, although I still wonder why such a move needs to be temporary. I still say just keeping RB permanently available as a locked archive wouldn't hurt anybody, and would potentially save you guys a lot of trouble.

Once Idle's batteries are charged again, Erithis starts the third stage. Sunrise on the third day. The crossing of the Greater Flats is, unsurprisingly, uneventful. Near the easternmost edge of the Flats, Erithis stops at the marker of the first landing on Minmus set by Valentina six years previously. The batteries are still fully charged after the crossing of the Flats, so Erithis plants the flag to mark Base 3 and sets off again. Because so little power was used during the day, Idle is able to run into the night even after climbing up to the midland plains. After two stages totaling 103 kilometers, Erithis parks for the night and plants the flag at Base 4.

[quote name='Damien_The_Unbeliever']This entire thread, all 19 pages of it so far, has existed for less than 6 hours. Maybe, just maybe, they're going to spend some time *thinking* about what's been said before responding?[/QUOTE] I hope you're right.

I've never posted in the Rocket Builders section, probably never will even if it were to be kept, hardly ever even go there, but to be perfectly honest I don't like what's being done to it, against the wishes of a lot of the people who use it. Unfortunately the number of sufficiently-dedicated users is probably too small for them to start their own forum and have a hope of its remaining active; not only is that community being dismantled, the records of it are (for the most part) being wiped as well. I understand why this is being done, even if I don't agree with it--what I don't understand is what's wrong with leaving the section accessible to everyone as a locked archive. I can't see what possible harm could come of that, and yet repeated requests for exactly that have so far been ignored.

[quote name='damerell']Watch out for the 1km cliff that killed Valentina... Based on your coordinates at the time of that accident (if I'm reading them right, I'm not brilliant with latitude and longitude) I will encounter that same cliff near the end of my trip: it's a few kilometers west of Coalwood Base, which is very close to the equator on the westernmost edge of the Lesser Flats. I have a clever plan for that eventuality: Idle has dual 24-77 landing rockets with about 400 m/s of delta-v, the same rockets it used to land on Minmus in the first place. If it goes off a cliff, it can use those to make a soft landing--in fact it can even lift off, stop itself, and land again at leisure if it gets going too fast on a steep downhill grade. I'm hoping to avoid this, though, as I'd like to complete the trip on traction power alone.

[quote name='Sanic']This is not the place to start a flamewar, but.... His mission did not meet the rules. It wasn't all that unique and not that creative. While it shows he is willing to put in the effort to go to Dres, it's relatively mundane.[/QUOTE] I've been following this for a while--as I have a pretty substantial Kerballed Dres program underway in my own career save--and I have to admit I'm a little put off by the vaguely-defined standards of what constitutes a sufficient mission. Why not just make any mission at all to Dres count at a basic level, and then add additional levels for more impressive missions (as with Jool-5)--or, alternatively, set out a clearly-defined minimum threshold missions must meet (cost, mass, number of Kerbals, etc.) to be considered? I also don't understand why the prohibition against mods in a challenge where, since it's not really a competition, a "level playing field" isn't an issue (my program is [I]mostly[/I] stock, but a few key part mods--like KAS--are involved). Your challenge, your rules--but I thought I'd let you know those two issues are at the moment stopping me from considering an entry.

[quote name='KasperVld']No plans to bring back advertisement on the forums.[/QUOTE] Glad to hear that! [quote name='KasperVld']Admins and moderators will be able to access the old RB threads in case someone hasn't been able to back up their content before the update. We can always bring things back [/QUOTE] But why not archive the forum [I]and have it still be visible to everyone[/I], as has been repeatedly suggested? What's the point making extra work for both users and mods digging up and re-posting content when (for much less effort) it could just be left available, locked, with a stickied note at the top explaining why the forum is no longer in use?

The following morning, after Idle's batteries have recharged, Erithis sets out across the Great Flats. It's not the most exciting driving... ...but on the other hand the rover is very efficient on such perfectly level ground; in fact at 83 km/h with the sun right overhead, the solar panels are able to keep up with its power consumption, and its batteries remain fully charged all the way across the Flats. Eventually, the Flats end and Idle climbs back up to another plateau. The descent on the other side of the plateau is slightly steeper than anticipated... ...but by taking the slopes carefully, Erithis once again coaxes Idle safely down without having to resort to rocket power. Once at the bottom, Erithis stops for the night and plants the flag at Base 2 after a mostly-uneventful 73-kilometer stage.

[quote name='VASMIR']Moar! I can only drive so fast! Second leg will be finished shortly.