More Boosters

How is this even for the modders? We're just sharing info among eachother on what doesn't seem to work. I think you guys are imagining a problem that isn't there.

So the Panther does allow SSTOs after all.

I'm not sure how sharing which mods we ran into problems with is complaining.

Yes and you pointed out wonderfully, Reliant/Swivel are anemic. The Vector's also more expensive than a Mainsail with the same TWR, you pay for the compactness and the gimbal. I will however say that there's no reason to use anything but a cluster of Vectors outside career mode for lifting, but the differences are academic. And Vector has both less thrust and more weight than the SSME, it just so happens that our kickback is nothing like the 3.71m monstrosities the real life shuttle SRBs are. Thing's out of scale for sure, the Vector has its real size while the Kickback's diameter is a third of its real life counterpart. And I think it's supposed to be the 5-segment variant for SLS. Counter-edit: I think you're making a wonderful case for buffing Swivel, it just so happens that you're using that against the Vector and not for the Swivel.

Well it's a single player game, you do as you want. There's no ore at the pads so you need to go look out near KSC though.

Well, the hidden meaning here is that 1.25m stacks at late game are usually for launching small probes and stuff. You don't use Mainsail on every 2.5m stack, so you don't use Vector on every 1.25m stack, but 1.25m stacks at late game generally don't carry anything heavy. I can think of 1.25m stacks where I wouldn't need to place 10 FL-800s to tame the Vector. @Streetwind Everything I find for the SSME suggest a higher thrust and lower weight though I am guessing the orbiter was larger than our Mk3 parts.

ISRU operation is free. You just pay for building the thing and generating the power. As for ferrying fuel it might save you some trouble to just fill up your tanker and then recover it at the airfield for a 100% return. could be tricky to ferry it all the way to your rockets.

I see your point, but the Vector isn't supposed to be used in 1.25m stacks to begin with. You may argue that's not the case for any other engine, but the numbers don't say anything out of ordinary. It's just the square cube law in effect.

Nope, I have this problem as well and don't use CTT.

Because I wasn't in a position to download updated versions of mods. You can correct someone without being condescending.

DMagic, Stage Recovery, Useful Space Stations and Trajectories are all kaput.

Except you know, gravity losses and no benefit from those wings. But yeah the thread is pretty pointless.

This is a huge boon for SSTOs, and the high price promoting recovery further cements that.

Would LH2/LOX liquid fuel boosters not be feasible?

You have to design F-1 mostly from scratch. However good it was at the time, it was also hand crafted. The manufacturing techniques went a long way since Saturn V, and you do have to re-design the thing. It says all that in the article you linked! That was the whole idea behind the Pyrios booster and they were doing that until it was made certain the Pyrios would not be used. (It's also the basis for my favourite engine in the game, LFB 1x2 KR-1) Saturn-V is almost 3 times heavier. SLS uses much lighter and more efficient fuel, and thus it can do a similar job with less mass. I don't think they're actually producing new shuttle engines or SRBs either, those are the stockpiles.

Well I'm considering to switch to the mechanic Snark described above. That one seems to be a better idea.

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement seems to be what you want. - - - Updated - - - Kerbal Joint Reinforcement seems to be what you want. My rockets haven't snapped since getting it.

I've never used an ion engine or filled out the tech tree before restarting my career for them lulz in my 244 hours of game time.

I think the Mk1 LF Fuselage has been buffed*** that it does not have more dead weight despite having more resistance. And I did use them on nuclear probes to decent effect. If you're using nukes with 2.5m parts (how would you even go with 3.75m? is there an adapter for 1.25m x whatever?) then you're using quad couplers, so why not just use the Mk1 Fuselage with that? The weight and capacity scales similarly with the 2.5m parts so just add more to cover the same volume. Would look nicer too! But I don't mean to dismiss your claims of problems, I just never had any myself. Trying to understand where Mk1 Fuselage may fail, and it's not extra dead weight. Edit: *** http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/FL-T400_Fuel_Tank *** http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Mk1_Liquid_Fuel_Fuselage The wiki shows the same dry mass for the two tanks just as I recalled.

That's all good, appreciate you putting thought and time into my idea. I hope this doesn't sound lazy but I'm... sold. See the problem is I've been using the Field Experience mod since forever and I didn't think about how my version would work out for all-stock players who have to wait until mission completion for this to work out. There's also the dilemma of do we give the commander super fast XP gain or do we make him fall behind the peers he is inspiring, and you do have a point in that after a nice little field trip with the commander, greenhorns will pick up on his experience just the same while not making complete fools out of themselves (I'm looking at you, engineers who can't repair rover wheels) during the trip. There are a few details that need ironing out, namely in that who exactly is a part of the mission? Will he cast a radius in which rookies get their temporary level-up? Will he be able to command from inside/outside the ship and affect kerbals inside/outside just the same? I guess once you're sure on how you'd have this work out I could edit my OP to reflect that, it really does seem better the more I think about it. What would you replace level 4 with though? Unless we want that buff to stack further? I mean, sharing his level out already does have a similar effect and Level 4 is just a raw buff here. And the big bulky EVA suit thing was mostly inspired by, oh you know, Gravity and The Martian; I wanted a visual identifier for the commander. I do personally think that EVA suits should come with a limited supply of electric charge and their fuel requiring physical refills, but that may be too much of a change just to accommodate my commander suit idea. I guess if those happened, then this would be in a good spot. Makes sense to me that the commander would get the best gizmo. Edit for ninja: Good point. It's fairly easy to get there outside of those "I must spam science from Kerbin space until my eyes bleed" kind of "difficulty" settings anyway. Also, once you have those upgrades that's gone and done. Even scientists can produce science and sell it via those admin protocols.

Well, wanted to keep them integers. @Snark That is... Quite detailed. I'll think over my response.

I'm not sure what the problem is. By all means, add some, but if I were squad I wouldn't want to clutter tank lineup with this. Mk1 since its buff is working like a FL-400 with free reinforcement and the only available LF-only engine, the NERV, is a 1.25m engine to begin with. There really is no good case for this to happen, what exactly do you hope to achieve with more fuel tanks that would only be used by one engine? Because planes seem to fare well with the Mk1.

Oh you know, like Reddit and some other forums... Can we get notifications when someone quotes us?

I am calm but you're trying your best to change that. Your clichêd analogy (OP part that's cheap so just don't use it) doesn't help your position, nor does it make any sense in this context. A sensible and completely optional gameplay option can't be compared to something that breaks gameplay by making it too easy/too hard/too *insert something it shouldn't be* even if it is to be optional or not. I'm not responsible for Squad's time management. They're clearly working on improving the game, and I, as a customer, am telling them about a feature I would like to see, something I consider would be an improvement to the game. Your disclaimer means diddly squat when the only difference between a feature like this and one that is already in the game is that... It's not in the game yet. Compression heating for example is in the game and it can be turned off completely. It's a sensible gameplay option but you are not forced to use it. "If you don't like it don't use it" is not valid reasoning, but it also needn't be invoked here as this really is no different to heating or money in career mode. And if you're going to say that heating and aerodynamic effects are an integral part of real life space programs... Well so are astronaut salaries. Edit for mod ninja: The thread is civil, no problem here.

Will the new Panther engine allow SSTOs? I know it's not really set in stone or anything but you'll never see an SSTO get a significant help from the Wheasley.