More Boosters

It's practically the same thing. The difference is that my version makes the commander a trainer who would eventually be done with a set of nuggets and move on to the rest, while your version simply suggests that we keep one Level 5 pilot around at each flight (same thing). XP as it is isn't "hard earned", it's a grind and you'll have to go through it anyway at first with the pilot. This would only make it faster, not instant unlike your proposal. It also doesn't make intuitive sense to me as knowledge is accumulated through human experience and then passed on; if everyone had to start from scratch we would not be half as advanced as we are right now. So while it is interesting, are you sure your way doesn't cheapen the XP mechanic just as much? And well since everyone seems to be against the EVA fuel thing I guess I'll just remove it. Perhaps Squad will balance that one day (maybe make the fuel not infinite?). What do you guys think about the commander's special EVA suit though?

Thanks man you just reminded me to turn the SCANSAT altimeter on on my Kerbin station.

You're entitled to your opinion but it is only binding for you. There is the science/sandbox mode, and even for career this would be completely optional. You can't just tell me to go play another game. It's selfish to say that we can't have this as an option, if you don't want to use it, don't use it. Probes can't improve ISRU efficiency or restore experiments. It's like real life, you keep your astronauts for stations and flagship missions and most spacecraft are unmanned. Pilots do need a better role though, and for that I have a thread on the suggestions and development subforum about making them commanders.

Duna doesn't have an ominous, giant green planet over its sky though. And I think the inner moons of a gas giant are exposed to too much radiation.

You know what would be amazing? The option to set everything to an option group where we can toggle whether their content will be blocked or not. Going through 20+ batteries disabling them all by hand is rather inconvenient, it would be great if we could do it by just setting up an action group and then pressing the button as we need it.

I didn't ask you to come up with a better idea. I asked you why exactly you felt the proposal fell short, which you did not explain. How exactly does the poll convey that attitude? There's an option for just saying yes and another for coming up with a better idea. I'd see your point if all the options that don't accept it right away demanded a better idea, but that simply isn't the case and you can simply say that you don't like it at all. And I suppose they could get visually different suits clearly holding more EVA fuel? I mean how do the "realism kids" cope with the fact that it is infinite in the first place? But yeah, the only part I'm unsure about is the EVA fuel bit, so that does require more thinking.

Well, the XP boost on its own would be significant enough. Training rookies more quickly late game is surely valuable to have. But yeah I'll admit to being hard pressed to find something on top of that to buff teammates, hence EVA fuel.

Well ironically I don't think enough thought went to this bit of criticism. Why exactly do you think so? The EVA fuel thing is indeed kinda magic but that's only supposed to reinforce their role as field leaders. It's also not "most of it", only two levels have more EVA fuel alongside the XP bit which I don't think is insignificant enough to be considered filler. Any other parts you have an issue with? Well, these commanders are to retain the pilot abilities, and yes, pilots are not useful one bit. There are far too many substitutes for them and they're usually a waste of a seat.

Now build a ringworld.

I initially mentioned this in the thread for making pilots useful past early career but I believe the changes suggested are radical enough to merit their own discussion. My suggestion is to repurpose Pilots as Commanders. I always saw the pilot role as more of a team leader role with the most daring and adventurous Kerbals taking the job. They train the nuggets and inspire even the most experienced colleagues. They could have the following effects I guess (on top of what they already get). (cumulative) Level 0: --- (default Level 0 pilot skills only) Level 1: The entire crew gets 100% more XP. (so 200%) This effect doesn't stack across multiple commanders and the one with the higher level is picked instead. Level 2: The commander wears a bulkier EVA suit with even more fuel, stronger thrusters and stronger lights. This suit has a communotron 18 (or whatever that first one is) installed, which can transfer EVA reports right away from the field. The suit also has limited electric charge that needs to be replenished (automatically or via refueling if Squad changes it so) at the vehicle. Level 3: The entire crew gets 100% more XP. (so 300%) Level 4: The entire crew becomes 50% better at their tasks. Scientists process data more quickly and engineers make ISRU go even faster. Level 5: The entire crew gets 100% more EXP. (so 400%) Having these AND pilot abilities would not give them too much utility in my opinion, as node holds are easy to buy from various probe cores or the avionics gizmo. Oh, and I'm not sure if the XP bonuses should apply to themselves, so a bit torn there. Discuss.

Yeah but I would rather have this as an optional in game mechanic instead of make believe.

As people who are here for similar reasons I'm sure most of us would share your sentiment but you also need to realize that space just isn't that interesting to people that aren't interested in it... Sounds like a tautology until you realize that's most people. And being interesting here is also about political and/or financial gains.

Then your best bet is the Pyrios and F-1B.

A rule of thumb is that unless your CoM is periliously close to your CoL you'll be fine. Put that CoL way below.

You can still sell the science you get. I felt the need to mention that you can always pay up a .625 node and 5.200 roots and get the avionics gizmo for all the benefits of a Level 5 pilot. Or you can use one of those higher end probe cores on top of your pod too. My suggestion is to repurpose Pilots as Commanders. I always saw the pilot role as more of a team leader role with the most daring and adventurous Kerbals taking the job. They train the nuggets and inspire even the most experienced colleagues. They could have the following effects I guess (on top of what they already get). (cumulative) Level 0: The entire crew gets 50% more XP. This effect doesn't stack across multiple commanders and the one with the higher level is picked instead. Level 1: The entire crew gets 50% more XP. (so 200%) The entire crew gets 50% more EVA fuel. Level 2: The commander wears a bulkier EVA suit with even more fuel, stronger thrusters and stronger lights. This suit has a communotron 18 (or whatever that first one is) installed, which can transfer EVA reports right away from the field. The suit also has limited electric charge that needs to be replenished (automatically or via refueling if Squad changes it so) at the vehicle. Level 3: The entire crew gets 100% more XP. (so 300%) Level 4: The entire crew becomes 50% better at their tasks. Scientists process data more quickly and engineers make ISRU go even faster. Level 5: The entire crew gets 50% more EVA fuel. The entire crew gets 100% more EXP. (so 400%)

Yeah I'm not sure why you would manufacture a 50 year old rocket with 50 year old techniques. Why do you want this anyway? The practical bits and pieces from Saturn are already being salvaged, like that test with F-1 to improve it and perhaps use it as LFBs for Block II.

Well it would be optional. Wouldn't mind it not being in any of the default modes either for those who want to play Hard more as it is or something.

This is pretty straightforward, so maybe this could be an option? And on an unrelated note can someone please tell me how I'm going to activate physics time warp in vacuum? Holding alt and pressing the time warp buttons don't work.

The overused meme of Jeb made me hate him and I never use him. There, I said it. There's no reason to even use a pilot (ever) and when I do use one for the lulz I go with Val or one of the whites.

Dark Knight is just one of the three possible boosters for Block II though.

Well let's get it out of the way that I don't mean random destructive behaviour to define "Kerbal" (as an adjective) but rather reckless but daring things to do driven by the Kerbal passion for space exploration. Probably something a real space agency wouldn't do. For example earlier today in my new career, I decided I wanted to get as much science as I could at up to low Kerbin orbit. That requires a scientist to go on EVA and take the data and restore the experiments, so all normal there, but today I decided that orbiting is a waste of time and resources. So I built this simple pod with the MK1 pod on top, a Science JR under it and a 1.25m heat shield under it. The launch vehicle for the entire thing? A single Rockomax BACC. What could go wrong right? But that actually worked out fine and I managed to get a lot done with plenty of time to spare with that Apoapsis of 100 km, and re-entry took much less time and was far more intense too. Kinda expected when you have an AoA of 80-ish degrees but yeah. What other things would you expect Kerbals to do?

Yes, I recently watched The Martian. But I've had a long standing interest in the issue and the extent of my knowledge was that the soil has perchlorate salts that are apparently poisonous to humans and plants. How true is this? What other challenges are there to overcome like heating, water, no microbial life in soil etc.

I thought Martian soil contained perchlorate salts, making it poisonous to plants (and people?)

Great but how well does this fly?

I'm happy about this but sadly I can't be very optimistic. At the very least you need to add special infrastructure for the cryogenic fuel. Maintenance of supersonic planes is no joke either.