Waxing_Kibbous

Werner stuck one on top of a Flea to use as his wig-holder. Since he doesn't actually own a wig it collects dust.

My story is completely random- I'm not too much of a gamer these days (basically I've played Kingdom Rush/Frontiers for the past year pre-KSP) so I generally don't seek out games. I was on Reddit one night, checking out the front page for interesting stories, and came across someone's TIFU post. In the middle of it he mentions that he is playing KSP, and when he "got his craft safely into orbit" went off IRL do do his thing. That one line really intrigued me, this idea of a game where someone could put something into orbit and simply walk away, so I looked it up, got the demo then the full version within a day or two.

The big trick to career is not to take any contracts that may seem remotely off-putting. Don't touch them. There will be others that come along. Don't take the first station or base contract if it doesn't follow what you want to do. This has taken me a while to sort out, but in general I don't touch part contracts (unless they are "on the launchpad" ones early on), and I'll do satellite ones if they involve polar orbits because I use ScanSat. If a base one is simple, like a small habitat one, I'll do those as a start to a bigger base. A big part of making career fun is the having wisdom, patience, and discipline to take contracts that mesh with your own personal (and yes creative) goals. Don't be greedy! It'll bite you in the a#$!

I just want to add that I play on 64 bit Linux and have had games where I've had a fair amount of mods with no issues, not even coming close to my 8GB limit- I think it was probably around 4GB with a browser and email client open on the side. Right now with 19 mods KSP is using 1.9GB, but I have no planet packs or super heavy parts packs either. Depends on the mods and OS tho I suppose... I will never argue with future proofing, in fact it's a smart idea, but in my experience 8GB is plenty (the only time I ever exceeded it was on purpose, subdividing a mesh in Blender to see how far I could push my system). If cash is an issue, personally I'd stick with 8GB and find a system with a dedicated Nvidia gfx card.

Hooray! Thanks!

I don't recommend or endorse any of these machines officially, but here are more options http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100019096%204016%20600014730

Hmmm, not sure what the issue was then, heck maybe something was running on my machine in the background at the time. Good advice all around though Anyhow, not sure if this a potato, Intel Core2Quad @ 2.66GHz, Nvidia 9600GT. I do have 8GB RAM tho on a 64 bit linux system

This addon is something I've wanted for quite some time- both bits, selecting addons used by a save, and warning you when loading a save if the addon no longer exists, would be really really nice to have. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/85177-090addon-controller-11-toggle-addons-and-parts-for-individual-saves/&page=1

I've had about 10 rescues now in my current game, in the past I've always just stopped tracking the "hulks," but lately I've been changing the status to debris instead. My last session I've noticed a bit of slowdown in the framerate, perhaps because of this? What are the pros and cons of either method?

I changed the mass of the MK1-2 to 3.15t using a MM file, with monoprop added in the VAB it goes up to 3.27t, which IMO is close enough.

Wow that's a lot of reduction! Even though that could be more accurate I'd feel like I was disrupting the original balance a bit too much. Looking at the stats of the bigger units, what you gain in terms of EC etc. and the cost (which is very high, so therefore more exotic materials involved), I think I will reduce them in my game, but to 3.15t and 1.85t, based on the totally arbitrary value derived by 1.25m part equivalent * # of Kerbals supported * 1.25.

A common theme that I see from more experienced players is that the Mk1-2 command pod is too heavy and to use different hardware if possible. It also seems the big lander can is a bit overweight in some people's minds as well. So my question is, what ideal, balanced weight should they be? I've been mulling over a MM file to change the pod to 3.5T and the can to 2.25T, but I am torn between feeling like a cheater or never using them because it's a bad idea. Are they really that bad?

Just to play Devil's Advocate here, AntennaRange *more than likely* has had more hours played and a more diverse testing group than the stock implementation so far, so in terms of testing a simple community mod can have a robust, mature codebase. [removed link to defunct website] But I agree that Squad does have a bit more pressure to release something that is working flawlessly than the modding community does. The thing about coding though, sometimes it's best to reinvent the wheel, others it's best to take what is existing and tweak it. Then there are the complexities of implementing variously licensed mod code into a proprietary codebase, it's probably less headaches just to code something up from scratch

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/126402-axial-aerospace-cargo-bays-mini-mod/

With a little bit of planning you can start a career with some plans from the Administration building running- take a look at what a plan or plans would cost, then start up a new game and add the required funds/science to unlock the plans from the very start. Right now I get a bit more money from world firsts and just started getting a bit of money for science points. I still take contracts, but only ones that I would do anyway, no contracts for the sake of contracts.

Ah crap I probably was going in the wrong direction- I've done this before with rescues before as well. Lets hope the new UI helps!

I generally avoid Satellite contracts, but I had a polar Mun one that was pretty close to the ScanSat ideal placement so I went for it. I got it to the point where the guide orbit and my orbit were so close they were z-fighting, it still didn't complete. The previous Sat contract I did was really sloppy, and not too close at all and it passed. The hard one was red, the other wasn't (Blue maybe?). Is color a factor for the precision needed to complete?

A couple of notes: Rovers are neat but building a biome hopping lander is a better idea for lower gravity bodies. If you are new and can spare the crew, leave your Kerbals until you get a bit better. Also, when you are ready, sometimes you can combine a contract or two, eg plant a flag on the Mun, with your rescue.

It happens in some careers that you get over saturated with a profession, I've had others where I've had a great distribution. I'd like to see the great distribution happen as a standard, not luck of the draw. When rescuing Kerbals you get money, rep, AND the cost of a Kerbal, so really it's a good bargain (I feel that if the RNG were fixed it'd be perfectly fair to only get a Kerbal + Rep, no funds, just because they are so pricey. Recovery of parts is a different story though). If you can get 2-3 in a low orbit somewhere you can do that easily in one flight and profit.

How far along are you? I generally don't see rescues until after I enter the Mun's SOI, but that is usually pretty early in (about 5-6 flights).

I just want to say that early in career one star pilots are pretty freakin' handy. The hold retrograde skill is awesome for both re-entry into Kerbin and landing on the moons. I don't think probe cores can do that until you get the more advanced ones.

I think the distribution should be more of a throttled RNG system- once a certain occupation get rescued it's odds of getting picked decrease, if it happens again the odds get even worse and so on. I just got about 7 pilots out of 10 rescues- the others being engineers. I had to actually hire a scientist!

Yeah I wanted to make something to remedy this http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/125949-making-a-simple-game-enhancement-mod-some-advice-needed/#comment-2287994 But it's beyond my skill level I imagine a skilled modder could do this pretty easily though, seeing some of the other crazy %$#@ that gets made

I recently discovered a program in the Admin building that allows you to gain more money from doing world firsts and get less from contracts. I sort of cheated and started a new game with enough resources to unlock this from the get-go. "So Far" it seems to be going quite well- I still even pick up some easy contracts, but don't feel compelled to do so.

It's just the way games work- why do wizards have to kill so many orcs to learn a spell when they should just be studying? Going off to slay some world destroying baddie with Fire1 and 15MP at their disposal Many of these things concerning crew bugged me at first, but with more hours in game I have come to appreciate the game elements of KSP. One thing I didn't like about science mode was that it was too easy getting handed 5 star Kerbals for free, felt a bit cheap for how I play this game.