JonathanPerregaux

I will never forget the time I deliberately formatted a floppy disk full of stuff on my Commodore 64, without a backup copy. Also, for some stupid reason, I thought the format command itself wouldn't do anything if I left off a parameter. I honestly don't know what I was thinking, but I do remember the moment. It must have been my Asperger's acting up. Temporary insanity. Anyway, that was about the dumbest thing I ever did with a computer, because of course I lost everything on the disk, and it wasn't a "quick" format kind of thing. The floppy drive just clicked away merrily and then the blood drained from my face and my stomach dropped as I realized what I'd done. I've kept backups of backups of backups from then on.

I played the demo for a long time. I guess it took me a few weeks of sporadic playing to get how spaceflight actually works. I had to figure out some of the terminology (like periapsis), techniques (like Hohmann transfer), overcome game bugs (like launch clamps sticking to the ship), how to build a non-wiggling, non-flipping ship, and so on. For someone who loves space and space travel, I was surprisingly ignorant of basic space travel mechanics. But I figured it out, largely thanks to Scott Manley. So when I finally landed on the Mun, it was truly an accomplishment.

For what it's worth, I turned to this add-on after 1.6.1 drove me to distraction with GC every second. Literally unplayable. This add-on works like a charm in 1.6.1, but jeez guys, if an add-on can do this, why can't the base game manage memory better by default?

A few KSP/MechJeb versions ago, I noticed a strange thing... my rocket-launched "space plane" twists at a 90° angle and flies like a knife on ascent. I can look out the right window and see the water. This wasn't always the case, so I assumed there was a bug in MechJeb's "Ascent Guidance" module (I use their developer builds). But now I'm wondering if there's something up with the MK4 cockpit itself. In MechJeb, there is a setting to control the rotation angle, but it has no effect on a MK4-topped rocket. Regular pod-based rockets launch just fine and will fly level. But with the hypersonic MK4 "pod," my ship (which once flew fine) goes slightly bonkers and flies apart as though trying to reach Camp Kitomer before the new Klingon Chancellor can be assassinated. I tried re-orienting the ship 90° in the VAB, to no avail. Without MechJeb, the ship is stable, flies level, and can be made to ascend to space just fine. Now that 1.6 is out, and also an update to MechJeb to refine ascent guidance wobbling, I gave my problem rocket another go. Same exact fail. So, I created a new rocket with the MK4 cockpit and watched it go the same amount of crazy with MechJeb in control. Then I replaced just the MK4 cockpit with a stock aero part. The rocket flew normally—level flight, no weird gyrations. Put the MK4 cockpit back on and yippity hoinky-boinkies.

Using the latest dev build, I'm still having issues with ascent guidance rotating my ship 90°. It seems to do this regardless of how the ship is rotated in the VAB. I have a spaceplane with side boosters. MechJeb wants to fly it slicing through the air like a knife instead of level flight. SmartASS does the same thing. Thinking this was an issue with the Mark IV Spaceplane mod from Nertea, I checked some older, standard rockets of mine and noticed the cockpit windows on those were getting rotated 90° as well (you can look "up" and see the old runway island out the window). In prior builds, I could overcome this by using "Control from here" on the MechJeb unit attached to the side of my ship. Aside from wobbles (presumably fixed now), this trick would fly my ship "properly" (though the navball looked scary). Now, however, this same trick causes MechJeb to immediately nosedive my craft, causing it to break apart. Using stock attitude control, I can launch my spaceplane without issues. It is stable, does not fall apart, and performs well. I've had to stop using MechJeb for launches, which is a shame because I like to take breaks while the ship is going up to do other things.

When it finally occurred to me that aero forces during launch really only break deployed antennas and panels. Everything else is fine, even if a bit flimsy strut-wise. Angle of attack? Yeah, whatever. Oh, and nothing implodes, either. I mean, why do I even turn on the max Q setting in MechJeb? Because it works in "real life" but not "in game"?

I noticed that Ascent Guidance and Smart ASS seem to rotate my ships 90°. I have a rocket-boosted spaceplane and it ascends on edge with MechJeb instead of a normal "flying" orientation. I have to "control from here" on the MechJeb part, which causes the navball to go sideways and show the ground/sky vertically (eek), but fixes the ascent orientation of my plane.

For some reason, HAL will not open any of those pod bay doors. But he is sorry.

Now if only we had Near Future Ladders so we could build proper ingress/egress options for our planes instead of the stock lameness...

Because nothing fills my heart with joy more than building a complex rocket, tuning it to structural and performance perfection across dozens of iterative launches using MechJeb, and going to bed satisfied by a rocket well-built. Then coming back the next day, excited, and watching it flip end-over-end for no freaking explainable reason until I pull it all apart and start over.

The first bug I ever wrote was: 10 GOTO 10

Well, now I'm also getting the Kopernicus error logging that it "failed to load body: Sun." This happens even if Kopernicus is installed, but Outer Planets Mod (my only planet mod) is removed from GameData. Turns out only one thing changed since I last saw this working a day ago: I got a new Logitech G513 LED keyboard. The "KSP Logitech RGB Control [v1.1.0]" mod causes the issue. If I remove that mod, Kopernicus and OPM work again.

For me, this is one of those "can't play this game without" mods. All my coolest creations are built with these parts.

Okay, I give up. How do you change a Kerbal's spacesuit without using a mod? I see an official Squad screen-shot of this, but I have not managed to figure out how to do this.

LT-1 struts. I landed the same ship on Moho and got the same bouncy-bouncy thing.

I landed a small lander on Eeloo and the thing relentlessly bounced all over the place like a drunken kangaroo. I made the mistake of going EVA and spent the next few minutes attempting to chase down my bouncing ship before giving up. I got a good laugh out of it, anyway. Also, I've noticed in 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 that my large rocket visually appears to be "coming apart at the seams" during ascent, until I hit 2600 meters. Then it suddenly it all goes "solid" and looks fine the rest of the way up.

I got one of these and I love it. Such a clever build. Several times as I was assembling it, I wondered where in the hell they were going with this... and then, many steps later, it became not only evident but obvious. Bravura LEGO design. Funny thing is, when I went to my local LEGO store, they didn't have it. They practically told me to forget it. So I ordered it off Amazon no problem. I am noticing this more and more — that physical retailers have nothing I want. Just lame crap. Instead, I hit up my electric telephone interconnecting network receiver device and get stuff no problem. Often while standing inside the very store that failed to sell me stuff! Sad!

A Dungeon Keeper mod that requires you to slap your Kerbonauts with a large, disembodied hand in order to get them to work. If you slap them too much, they die with a little whimper and their carcass becomes an obstruction that other Kerbals must dig out with pickaxes. To replace him, you'll have to pluck another Kerbal by the scruff, grunting and struggling, out of the Astronaut Complex. You drop him onto the capsule of your waiting rocket, give him a slap for motivation, then press Spacebar to launch. Once in orbit, you can build out little areas where bullwhips methodically "train" science and engineering Kerbals to be more efficient on missions. But if one of them bolts and runs in fear, you'll have to pluck him up again and drop him into a lightning room powered by a car battery that "re-adjusts" them. On a planet's surface, Kerbals must labor constantly to find ore to satisfy your ceaseless demands for more fuel to supply your oversized boosters. Sometimes you'll find some gold ore that can be used to pack your coffers so bigger, crazier rockets are more affordable. Those few, hearty Kerbals who do not die from overwork, cave-ins, starvation, exhaustion, or idle slapping from above will grow into larger golems. These creatures can hold rockets steady while launching from other planetary bodies, but of course get incinerated in the process. Okay, now I want this mod. (Goes to Hell)

I what you did there.

I've also had solid rocket boosters fall off. It's always funny. What I've found is that when physics forces start kicking in, it's possible for a clipped portion of your ship to knock off a booster or two. After reworking the attachment points, I've managed to solve this kind of problem.

Well that's a clear case of Star Trek episode 47, "The Immunity Syndrome."

I'll bet you baroque that thing tons of times before it finally flew.

Better still, let me click on a part from the toolbox and filter craft that use that part. I have enough ships now that I'm losing track of which ones have landing legs, wheels, chutes, probe cores, whatever.

These lights are great, and I tend to be picky about mods. One kinda funny thing I noticed was that the rotating searchlight can illuminate a huge swath on a planet's surface from thousands of kilometers away... which got me thinking about a new orbital agriculture invention I will soon be patenting. As soon as I can alter the laws of physics, I'll be putting out a product that will feed the world. Also, due to KSP's cut-rate light rendering, it did all this from inside a closed clamshell. Which I find charming, actually.

I recently did something very stupid. I built this whole, giant lander with ore-processing abilities. Mounted it to Near Future's new, bigger lifter parts. Got the whole thing flying and landing beautifully. Added a satellite to the tip, enclosed in an aeroshell, to separate later and scan for ore in a polar orbit. Propelled by ion engines with sufficient xenon, battery, solar panel EC generation, with a transmitter dish and even RCS blocks so I can dock it back to the mother ship and venture to another planetary body with a fresh supply of liquid fuel and oxidizer. I got all the way to Duna orbit, smugly separated my satellite, deployed the scanner, hit the ion engines and... click. Click. Oh, dear. THEY'RE BACKWARD! Only an overgrown mop-head like you would be stupid enough to...