pondweed

just realized there are a lot of very good suggestions on these forums. i should probably look before posting these questions

Hi all so i got a new laptop (asus G752: 970M / i7-6700HQ / 16GB ram), forgot to move over my career save file. so i gonna start again (without revert to launch feature, but this time, seeing as i got better specs, id like to try some mods. firstly id like to try some visual mods (maybe clouds wold be nice), or any other visual mods you think are good, (not sure what visual mods are worth it with 970M). iv also seen some cool mods which show additional information/statistics about Delta-V, aerodynamics and other things. im fairly okay at building efficient rockets, but i feel i kinda reached a plateau with simple trail-and-error guess-designing. it would be nice to have some actual figures to work with. I think i heard people mention mech-jeb before. that one any good / up to date ? thanks for your time, have a nice day. PW

They are some mighty fine designs/pics. its great to see some visual examples. Many thanks

great stuff chaps, thanks for info. so it sounds like SSTO's in general are barely worth it. but it still seems fun to try for the novelty factor interesting about the difficulty factors. changing the funds income by 20% seems like a welcome challenge. im sure it will push me to learn more effecient designs and experiement with new ones. I don't use auto save/load. makes for quite the adrenaline rush

Hi all I'm very interested in SSTO's. something to rescue kerbals with. and general-purpose shuttle to orbit. I have looked up some videos/posts about building SSTO's, but most seem to be from before Aerodynamics changes patch, or they done in sandbox mode with a load of Rapier engines. In career mode i'm on quite low end tech, researched tier 3 and parts of tier 4. you recon an SSTO can be built with that sort of tech? I made a few attempts so far. thefirst issues was the LY-01 (matchstick) landing gears buckling under weight. got me them LY-10's. current issue now is with jet propulsion: i got the J-33 "wheesley". it doesnt seem to do well up high. will i need the J-404 "panther" ? The payload just needs to be an Mk1-cockpit + remote-control-thingy.

whaaa! wicked stuff guys. thanks for all the great info. lots to play around with here

Hi all so iv done a return trip to minnimus (w/ sciency stuff), and am looking to go further out (ike). iv encountered snafu with lander designs. in the past iv attached return fuel tanks underneath. works okay but im left with a very, very long lander that, upon landing, has to balance upright or lay on its side (risky). so im trying to design a lander, that is very short in length, with fuel tanks stacking outwards (x4). kinda like a giant space starfish. getting it into orbit for EVERY far-bound mission is costly due to 'fat' aerodynamics. so i was thinking of keeping it in kerbin orbit, with the refueling station. than having a separate science module + crew-pod which can detach and come back down to kerbin by itself. anyone done this sort of thing before? any pics/vids? one potential issue i though off was, when coming back from far out missions, i wont the able to do much with using atmosphere to airbrake. with just science kit + crew-pod, i can come in steep, at high speeds. nice little heat shield protects compact unit. but doing that with a fat lander that i want to put back in kerbin orbit? will it survive the heat? thanks PW