Zephram Kerman

As a precaution, put a jumper across the two pins for that chassis intrusion sensor. An open connection has random value until it is tied to something. It could float up or down, influenced by stray voltages nearby, random bits of dust drifting by, etc.

I'm one of those. This thread is better than most of the stuff on TV! I expect there are more lurkers here.

The simplest way to deal with this (and for regular space planes, too) is to put all your fuel tanks at the CoM. They can be in a row side-to-side. That way, as the fuel tank(s) drain, the CoM does not shift at all. No compensation needed. I also like to put VTOL engine(s) along the CoM as well. Here's one example, from 0.19, I think: Basically, I try to put anything variable along the pitch axis, such as: fuel tanks, kethane buffer, VTOL engine. CoL and main wheels go close to there as well. It's a very popular place.

Self-deleted, due to a much better reply from Professor Ferram!

I was going to suggest to put your vessel into a roll maneuver during jettison, so the decoupled parts get some free momentum. But this sounds more like a part clipping issue. Back in VAB, disconnect and reconnect the possible clipping parts, which should "reset" the connections and hopefully solve the problem.

Thanks Brotoro!

Gratuitous screenshot...

It seems to me the Rapier engine is a game design decision. It's an easy way for new players "how to SSTO" without flameout, complicated action group schemes, etc. If the Rapier outperformed all other engines, we would never use anything else. But this way, there is room to increase performance by trying harder.

IIRC, the Shuttle SRBs were designed to gradually reduce thrust toward the end of their burn. This was done by shaping the exposed surfaces of the fuel during construction. So if your LanderTron motors change thrust over time, it would make sense to me. But I think I like Aquilux' vent idea better. The visual cues help people understand what's going on. With any new mod, it's easy to think some problem is due to the mod not working. So simple and obvious might be preferable. (Also, that small automatic 'holddown' thrust would be very convenient!)

While terrain data maps have been done before, this one is the most beautiful I've ever seen. It'll be great to see other data there, like 'concentration of unobtanium', etc. This post of yours is very encouraging! Looking forward to new features over time and the inevitable awesomeness.

Wow, that's a weird looking thing! Is the perspective playing tricks on my eyes, or do the wings move? The welded part should appear in the category you specify. The list will refresh after you change to a different category and back.

I hope this doesn't sound contrarian. My backwards solution was to make planes that land at very slow speed, so that any flat-ish surface was safe-ish to land on. You can either use lots of wings, a VTOL engine, parachutes, or some combination. The VTOL was my favorite, because it could compensate for varying air density at different altitudes. But to answer your question more directly, if you can find a safe flat runway site, I agree about the flag / hud markers. They don't cause any lag, and are not substantial if you happen to hit one. If you are brave, you could even hack the persistent.sfs file to arrange them perfectly. I don't prefer lights anymore, because the lights at the far end of the runway won't be visible until you have already crossed the near end, due to the 2.3 km physics range limit.

For video capture, I prefer MSI Afterburner. It works well, and its free. For what to do in your format, please, please, definitely pre-record, keep to a script, and add your comments in post-production. I can't think of anything more tedious than watching a gravity turn or menu screen while someone verbally organizes their thoughts. If you know what you want to say, and then make a video to help communicate it, the perceived quality goes way up.

And then it only dings when scanning a new cell. So you should here one ding when you turn it on for the first time, as it scans the launchpad cell, then a few seconds after pitch-over, etc.

Rareden, I want to believe. But I don't fall for the conspiratorial lies! I think it's highly unlikely you produced these images with computer software. Instead, I think it's more likely that you have actually been to Kerbin's Mun and took photos with your Hasselbad microgravity camera.

I think it's one of those cases where something is "so simple it's hard". In one of those updates (0.22, I think) Squad simplified the directory structure so that mods can be simply dropped into one place, whole. So, here's what you do: 1) delete (or archive) all old kethane files; 2) get the new version of kethane and extract the whole thing into \gamedata; 3) before you start KSP, call your mother, because you'll be distracted by kethane KSP for a long, long time!

Reeeeally? Thanks! Never had a thing showcased before. I've cropped the original image, so feel free to post that one.

Downloaded the new version, and suddenly radial parts are working normally. Thanks again!

So, the 'radial parts sliding off' problem... I seem to recall it has something to do with distance from Center of Mass. Is that right? Perhaps everything I've welded is too big, and I should build them in segments. Would that help, or am I barking on the wrong track?

The Ker Ball rolls very nicely. Every time I tried to launch it, actually. The boosters would explode, and it would get about as much altitude as falling off the side of the launch pad. Then it would roll perfectly all the way to the water. That right there is the main reason folks turn to Welded Parts.

Yes, it's only worthwhile to close intakes when the jets shut down.

Some consider 6-7 intakes per engine "sufficient", while some others consider more than 1 to be "airhogging". It's a debate that's already been done to death. (I hope your thread doesn't turn into another rehash of this.) In my sandbox, I like the extra challenge, so the rule is 1:1, but I'll bend that to make something work. Anyway, back to the topic. In a "normal" space plane, the challenge is to transition into orbit when the jets run out around 16 km and 2600 m/s. At that altitude, with increasing speed, to reduce drag by closing intakes makes a significant difference.

Congratulations! It looks really cool out there in the big dark.

I took an interest in ring / wheel / disk things too. Been having such a hard time, and learned a lot from this thread already! Keep it coming. I never thought of building rings without using symmetry, and sure enough, they often exploded on the launchpad. Welded parts mod does indeed help, although its not yet perfect. If your welded part has a lot of nodes, sometimes it won't attach to anything. So one of my parts I had to manually edit out the extra nodes. (That wasn't so bad as it might sound.) For your inspiration, here are some ring things I made using Welded Parts mod: Unfortunately, none of them are stable enough to fly. Perhaps they're just too big? I haven't figured out the problem yet. That disk actually is stable. My problem with that one is I want to make it into a wing, and launch it space plane style. Not likely to work.

I borrowed Brotoro's "Bird Dog" style nose wheel trick for my Laythe exploration plane. Basically, put a pair of rover wheels on the aircraft nose wheel. When you want to drive around, retract only the nose wheel. The changing height also helps for station docking. Here's the amateurish video I made while exploring Laythe. In some ways it is similar to what you have in mind. Except I succumbed to installing MechJeb and Kethane mods. Perhaps it will give you some ideas for your program. You can kinda see the rover gear arrangement at 2:58. This design is from version 0.19, I think. So a lot of things are different now. I'm sure yours will be even cooler!