zeekkay

It's usually best to do a mock-up of the craft first using kerbal engineer mod. This is my method. 1) Create a mock-up of your craft. Include all command modules and test cargo mass. Then add some rocket fuel and engines, as well as your jet engines. Your goal is to find out how much rocket fuel you need to haul to 12km to start your run. Make sure your rocket engines have a TWR of at least 1, or you're not going to make orbit. You should want at minimum 1800m/s dV. 2) Now that you know how much rocket fuel you need to reach orbit, begin assembling and laying out your aircraft. Also add some fuel for your jet engines. The trick is to keep that center of lift just behind the center of mass. (Try to keep your fuel towards the middle of the ship if you can) 3) Lastly make sure your jet engines also have a TWR between 1-1.5. It makes things a lot easier. SSTO's are more late game, panther engines might be able to get your craft into orbit if the ship is very lightweight.

Biggest obstacle for me is usually habitation part placement and keeping the craft balanced. I like all the habitation elements being connected. (Command module, crew cabins, docking port, etc) Other is just pilot skill... always seem to end up cruising for awhile to get to KSC, or end up having to turn around. I rarely make mk3 SSTO's. Big rockets are more fun. Tip on finding out how much fuel you need: 1) Slap a prototype of your ship together, including the engines, expected payload, etc. Include fuel for rockets, but NOT fuel for your jet engines. (Not that shape of ship that important, it's the weight) 2) Use kerbal engineer and add/remmove fuel tanks as necessary, until you like the dV readings from your rockets. (Make sure to disable jet engine thrust so you only get dV from rockets) 3) Add some extra fuel for jet engines and begin laying out your craft.

Banned for not being a rebel.

THIS! Although only with the LFO tanks. Comes with a slider than lets you toggle the ratio of fuel and oxygen. (This tweak would mean incorporating the stock fuel switch module into the game) Useful for fine tuning SSTOs.

I'd like to see more thought behind gathering data instead of "land and collect data." Science data becomes much more variable depending on environmental factors. (The new kerbal "science-o-meter") In short, the goal is to make building manned rovers much more attractive.

Kerbals can die from impact. (Impact with orbiting vessels or the a large body) Say anything above 8m/s. (Source: http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/8106/how-far-would-you-need-to-fall-for-it-to-be-fatal) This update would also include a re-balance on part destruction velocities, kerbals should be more fragile than their vessels. Kerbals should also be more sensitive to G-forces to bring meaning to that g-force bar. (It's pretty hard to hit 15g, unless you're trying to)

Uhhhhh, you said you disagree on some points, you mean all of it? Again my hopes were to make the contracts more "feasible." In an ideal gameplay contracts should be challenging, but do-able. The examples I listed off there were just examples. My suggestion isn't about "put these specific conditions in for these types of contracts" as much as it is a check/balance on what is offered, and keeping feats three tiers away from showing up. What point is there in offering something you can't do? To me this sounds like a break in gameplay. This might be a bigger issue with mods than with vanilla ksp, but the fact you're testing boosters in orbit and landing with struts screams that there isn't much thought put into how contracts are offered.

I've had careers where I got a 50/50 male-female ratio. Latest one I did about 8 rescue contracts, all female.

There should be a set of behind the scenes flags that determines what kind of contracts are available. The main idea is that contracts offered should be within reach of the player's current research. My hopes in this is that existing mods could also take advantage of this to offer more feasible contracts. Examples: No contracts that require lifting more than 10 tons without the 2.5m rocket engines unlocked. (ex: part testing) If a lifting contract is assigned, then the part that needs lifting can't exceed 25% the maximum launch base weight. (Unless the player can afford the upgrade, weight of the object is calculated without fuel) No landing contracts without landing gear available. No rescue contracts without at least having probe cores available. (I know you can stack pods, but it doesn't seem realistic) No mining ore contracts until the drill is unlocked or can be unlocked at that time. (Unless a mod is causing this)

Yup. One of my saves was taken with a class E asteroid on a collision course with kerbin. Though you'll find collisions don't do much. (IRL a rock this size would wipe a city)

Found a bug on an asteroid survey mission. Mission parameters were for a class B asteroid. Decided to use an asteroid I had pulled into a mun orbit. Game says it's a "type e"? http://i57.tinypic.com/nwn13p.jpg Asteroid weighs 33 tons, not exactly a goliath. =P

EDIT: Alignment wasn't working at the time of this post, but it is working now. Further testing might be needed. Setting the inline docking port as the root part might be a temp workaround. Trying to line up a mk2 clamp-o-tron is kind of difficult since "control from here" will rotate the camera, but the target direction on the nav ball is determined using the root part and not the docking port. (Kind of occurred to me that this picture proves nothing, this was an issue in 0.90)

Killed Valentina Kerman. (Parachute burned up)

This is probably insanely difficult, but it would make for a killer mod. I don't expect anyone to actually make this, it's more just an idea I wanted to unload. The purpose behind this mod is to make the contracts a bit more varied and life-like. Real space programs work closely with other research programs to study the earth, the sun, and everything else. Instead of using science tools available from the tech tree/parts, the science tools are created procedurally and made available to you only while that contract is open. The parts can take on one of dozens of shapes, with some fitting in a 1.25m service bay, others needing the 2.5m service bay, and some might even take unusual shapes and require farings! In extreme cases, the payload could be bulky, up to ten metric tons or in endgame even more! =D Another idea might involve science modules in space in order to complete the contract. (Longitudinal Study) Contracts should be issued based on what the user has available to them. No landing missions when mono-propellant isn't available and the user only has a tier 1 launch pad. No unusual shapes of wide diameters until the user has the proper fairings for them.