Blaarkies

That helped me keep going...its the most intense and fun career I have ever done. Mining bases are necessary to save up on funds, harvesting every binome of all science is essential to unlock the techtree and seriously considering the rep hit from dead kerbals makes you think twice about willy-nilly launches and suicide burns. My goal is to build an extravagant surface mining base(on Laythe), by use of a VTOL-dropship-spaceplane...i guess like Halo?

Oh yes that would work beautiful! Sorry i should have mentioned the SSTO: It is a single Boar(with a Poodle on the bottom of the boar) with 2 orange tanks stacked on top. At the very top is the 2.5m faring structure with a docking port(and all the probe, RCS, Reaction wheel, parachute, stuff on top). On the top docking port is a 2.5m heatshield(bottom side facing down towards the Boar), but there is another docking port on the heatshield(on which the final payload is mounted). After payload delivery, i can still dock to spacestaions to transfer left over fuel. Once all is done, i detatch the heatshield-docking port combo, and redock to that...now the SSTO has a heatshield nosecone(re-entry happens nose first) Oh yes of course, i do realize disposable launchers can get very cheap AND they only take like half the mission time(since SSTO missions are over until it is back at KSC). At normal difficulty I would never even look at SSTOs, because by the time I have that kind of tech I am already drowning in funds...running two disposable missions in about the same amount of time as a single SSTO mission is definitely more profitable, but for my 30% settings the profit margin on disposables get really low, to the point where SSTOs are more profit per effort. But mostly what I like is that SSTOs can take up anything with them, no matter the price, like multiple RTGs, massive RCS/Reaction wheel controls, best probe cores and even lots of those super expensive fins. This all helps to make my missions a lot easier while not costing anything extra(once I have that kind of tech someday) * I took another look at disposables again(i dismissed them back when the SRB nerf came in), but I am struggling to get below 1800funds/ton without resorting to hundreds of the small basic fins. Gimbaling on engines keep it upright, but if I have to throttle down it starts tumbling. How do I avoid this?

Great idea! But I am afraid I haven't reached that far into the techtree on this save yet(still haven't upgraded the SPH, so the 140t limit makes unlocking the 3.75m parts useless at the moment). How would I position the pair of Vectors so as to not induce torque as I turn off one of them?

Remember I did not start with a full tank at 103km. I started both times at 71km full tank, but for one of these I used the crafts fuel to get into a 103km circular orbit. I did this to counter the obvious influence of starting at a higher orbit(if we are in a 10Mm orbit and burn just a little bit prograde, we can reach Minmus) I deemed it unfair to compare the higher against the lower orbit when the 103km orbit starts with more potential energy I like your elliptical test, it is way more conclusive than mine. edit: i also used hyperedit

"Nope, it's not. That's because there are some discrete breaks in KSP's physics, and one of them happens to be at 100km around Kerbin. You actually get a little bit better Oberth response if you have your lowest point just above 100km rather than 70km. I'm not sure where that reverses itself (i.e. is that still the case at 50km)." Are you sure about the Oberth effect not active under 100km thing? I just tested it with a tiny probe: -Probe has an oscar tanks and a swivel engine(waaayyy overpowered, but a super short burn time is good for such tests) -Put probe in 71 000m orbit, use 5% throttle limit. Burn at Pe to get Ap up to 103 700m, burn again at Ap until Pe is 103 700m(+-100m). Turn off the limiter, and full thrust prograde with the remaining fuel > Ap increased to 16 798 000m -Quickload, use the exact same probe in the same 71 000m orbit. Burn full throttle prograde with all fuel > Ap increased to 33 223 000m Does this maybe only happen after scene changes from KSC back to orbital stations? * maybe all Oberth is reduced <100km, but because I did it at 71km it was strong enough to overcome the disadvantage: A test at 95km vs 101km might show a different result?

I agree with the top statement, Puffs beat RCS ports with thrust by miles and the Puff's weight is almost negligible. But the added MonoProp tank between the LFO tank and Lander can...that mono tank is bad weight. Adding the same mass of LFO tank+engine will probably yield more dv. But some players use a lot of Monoprop to dock, that is where this extra tank will shine(as long as they didnt use it)

I would say you are doing SSTOs wrong then...try playing around with them, stick to basic designs until you get the hang of it and remember to minimize complexity(cost and mass is irrelevant once you land it back at KSC). My SSTO gets payloads to LKO at less than 700funds per ton at excellent reliability, i have yet to crash one after the 16th launch. Playing on Hard settings and funds/sci/rep turned down to 30% i need to squeeze all funds out of every launch. I know the Cheap & Cheerful rocket challenge shows disposable lifters that does this even cheaper, but reliability is a serious concern for me since I cannot really afford a failed launch or click a revert button because of the chosen difficulty...hence I love using this SSTO that saves me roughly 2000funds per ton it puts into SSTO. As for VTOL, I have done exactly that and got it to be so precise, but I had to use two sets of engines: 2 engines burning gives 100% thrust, but only one engine burning gives 50% thrust(now just position these groups as pods around the craft where necessary). But this hogs down a lot of action groups just for the takeoff part. It isn't really more complicated than the extra "advanced" buttons added to the RCS thrusters...players don't have to use it if they don't want to, but still squad went ahead and added 7+ more buttons to RCS ports, despite that going against the simplicity of the ui. VTOLs are some of the top 10 cool stuff the game can brag about, even though it is really never needed to "finish" career mode...kind of like spaceplanes, rovers, mining bases or ion probes. But the parts for all those still exist because enough players consider them fun. I agree that almost any amount of effort from SQUAD to implement this might not be worth the feature, since the VTOL player base is quite small...so ill just stick to Davon Throttle Control Systems to do VTOL craft

I see Ven's Stock Revamp still has this spotlight issue. That mod has lights on every docking port(like a wide laser pointer showing where the port is aiming). Those shine the same kind of light onto the planet's surface(as big as countries), also in map view.

Send them to space as parts. Attach wheel to an i beam, and two small docking ports on the I-Beam. With this you could construct the massive rover in orbit. After landing you can move the rover around to a better/flatter spot...but all this could be avoided by planning ahead

Are you serious?! That is like an easter egg without any "easter egg" in it

I get about 1.5 TWR at launch when lifting the 14t payload...any less and I am wasting dv on gravity drag(maybe i am already losing out on gravity drag...but we have to balance dead engine weight vs drag). 30seconds after launch, the vessel is way lighter and the Boar tries to crush the poor payload under a few g's. Remember, this is an SSTO, I cant drop the Boar. Now with that in mind, the Poodle has like 50 Isp more than the Boar, thus using the Poodle as much as possible has increased my payload by 2t(even though the Poodle itself added another 1.5t to the craft). So this is the problem: -I need the Boar for liftoff -I need the Poodle for squeezing extra efficiency. -I need to use the Poodle as much as possible for this, else I am "...having an engine that isn't performing at it's maximum is dead weight..." x- discarding isn't an option for SSTO As for the VTOL: -Take of from a bumpy place -10m-50m in the air, we want to use the wings -> activate forward engines -at 50m/s we might have half the aerodynamic lift we need to stay aloft...but the vtol engines are pushing up at 1.2 TWR(we are at full throttle because we want to get wing ling as quick as possible, that uses less fuel than hovering) x-Now we drop throttle so that the wing lift+vtol lift equal 1 TWR upwards? But now it takes longer to reach flight speed. x-We could cut the vtol engines and keep max throttle...hoping that we could pull out of the dive. ►If we could somehow keep the throttle at max, but slash the vtol throttles all at once to 50%, then we would just start falling slowly for a few seconds until enough speed is attained for more winglift, at which point we could finally cut the vtol engines, and again fall the last few seconds until flight speed is reached * I use "fall" to mean "rate of decent is increasing"...not tumbeling through the air, although that is very kerbal-like. What if we could set it the same way that Flap/Spoiler limits are set on FAR? An extra "show advanced" button(like the RCS thrusters have for actuation toggles). In that extra piece is "Alternative throttle", which you then set, but in the Action Groups is a "toggle alternative throttle" event to add to an action group. *A linear timer function would be cool, so that the throttle slowly transitions from current->alternative over 10seconds(or "x" seconds)

If your main engines are 330+ Isp, then you would have more dv by not adding the monoprop tank. You are losing dv by adding the safety feature, since monoprop tanks have a wet to dry mass ration of 6-7 vs the LF-OX tanks' ration of 9. Rather add a Oscar tank(or bigger depending on the lander size), and lock that tiny fuel tank until you need it. This isn't an attack on you, I apollogize() if it seems that way, but I have seen this reasoning too many times before. I like to keep an eye on my fuel/dv to know how much more I can do in a mission, but sometimes we forget things, it's only human...that's where the locked Oscar tank could come in handy(an Ant engine on the last stage would really maximize your dv) * Filling the capsule with MonoProp and using a RCS thrusters yields a few hundred m/s dv aswell(This is fine, since you are already hauling around the empty capsule anyway, so this is not adding any dry tank mass) edit: Puff does have amazing thrust, you could escape a failing Mun landing with such system

I have a Twin-boar SSTO rocket, that also has a Poodle on the bottom(between the Twin-boar nozzles). At 9km altitude I activate the Poodle, and would like to throttle down only the Twin-Boar(because it is less efficient than the Poodle)...but at the moment all I can do is toggle the Boar on/off, because if I throttle down then the poodle also throttles down This suggestion is the perfect solution

No. Unfortunately you will need to manually set the orbit back periodically(its easy, takes like 3 clicks). I am still experiencing weirdness at my Mun station, it seems like phantom forces pushing the station away when i come in for docking(forgot to check my Ap/Pe for changes). Maybe it is just tidal forces, but my RCS thrusters sometimes cant even keep up(when docking there, i have to come in like a wrecking ball )

I calculated it basically like that a few savegames ago, but the ISRU kept blowing up as my lander reached the physics bubble(I was landing the lander next to it, but at 2.3km the ISRU blew up)...I was thinking I completely misunderstood the heating mechanics, now it seems like it was just a bug

This need testing with writing down facts...kind of like science, but in real life. What I am wondering, is how does the heat generation occur? I mean, does a drill generate an amount of heat related to how much ore it is drilling through, or is it just a simple on/off state? How do we calculate the maximum amount of cooling a base will need? (when drilling, refining and doing all the hot stuff at once...except sundiving of course)

Serious now, too many z-4000 stacked gives serpent-syndrome to ships(and also phantom forces sometimes)...I discovered this when trying to make a rockomax32 size "electricity-tank"...it really didn't work out, at all! Mod the z-200 battery to rescale x4. It should be 2.5m now, and as thick as 4 z-4000 batteries...great for mining bases with 16 000ec. It is the same as 4x z-4000 stacked, but neater

Is hyperedit seriously kraken bait? I haven't had a single problem with it. In fact i have been using it to fix all the other kraken issues i encounter. I do however do intermediate steps with it(first edit to orbit, then edit to destination orbit, then land/rendevous wherever the craft originally was) The claw might be a good stock solution...if it was fixed this update. Just leave a docking port on the back of the claw, but be careful since that connection will be flimsy for large craft

HyperEdit could help you, but only if you are strong willed not to use it for it's intended purpose. Use it to land the "station" back on the runway, recover it. Rebuild the station in SPH/VAB to the exacts same specifications(last auto-saved ship is wonderful), remember to set fuel limits and stuff to the original thing you had in space...then hyperedit it back into orbit. Nothing gained, nothing lost ...did you remember the docking port this time? KIS would be a lot more fun, it feels like a repair mission because of our own human errors(like the first days of Hubble). But I use HE to save my program for all other bugs(ever increasing Ap, docking port not undocking, solar panels inside fairing broken on smooth accent, Mun base landing legs not deploying because they were "stowed" in a fairing a few months ago, etc.)

@Mythos This is gold, epic stuff thanks! * The kerbals in my space station is respectfully calling you "el Saviour"...they also heard I was about to trash the station because of a single docking port

That is how you rendezvous with a mountain on the Mun On gilly or pol it would be hard to do a low orbit when things look totally different in flight view and map view. I am exaggerating of course, but there needs to be some model or way to see height differences of the celestial body in map view.

Coriolis effect FTW!

You want the SSTO to move at sub-orbital speeds, to rendezvous with something orbiting at 3000+m/s ? I hope i am misunderstanding this, because that is going to be quick docking s = 1/2 * a * t^2 s: shift(distance accelerated-> 100 000m)| a: acceleration(16.7m/s^2)| t: time(x) t = sqrt(s / (a/2)) t = 109.4 seconds vf = vi + a * t vf: velocity final| vi: velocity initial(0m/s)| a:accel(16.7m/s^2)| t:time(109.4 seconds) vf = 1827m/s vf is the dv you need if you could "shoot" you craft upward...not going to happen, so you have to add the amount of seconds that you are thrusting(t = 109.4 + 35) and do the calculation on that. (while you are not yet in the speeding bullet state, you are practically "hovering"...very fast upwards though) Air resistance is going to add 50-150m/s From 100km, a small probe could do the last 3000m/s(it will practically be in orbit itself before you can even think about docking to the other craft)...this could get kerbals up and down fairly SSTO like

...you still sometimes use the Stayputnik? I mean ofcourse, after you have other options. I loved using it in early rockets designed to achieve orbit without guidence, but i was glad when I got the science to move on

"Control from Here": Cool, but what about setting a priority(a number from 0-3). Right-click probe core, click this button until the number reads 3(high priority...for motherships). Set the lander or spaceplane priority to 2, and set the mobile rover to priority 1...Now whenever you dock, you will control the larger ship that is dictating where we are going. Action Group Binding itself needs improvement, like modifying it in-flight, having a menu that can display the list of set action groups and maybe an "Alt+1...9" set of controls(vtol spaceplanes easily use up 10 action groups just for surface->space). "Tweakable Reaction Wheel": That would be awesome, but it shouldn't even be necessary...yes i am gonna say it, MechJeb doesn't give this problem! Level 4 pilots should be able to not overshoot the prograde vector by 179' degrees! The stock auto-pilot aiming is truly useless, it is like a little kid running into walls, you have to continually slow it down. It is only useful when you are actually already aiming in the prograde circle, to keep it there during launch and other long burns