RobFalcon

Given what I have seen when folks mess with KSP's atmospheric settings, I can understand your opinion on this. (I have, admittedly, not done this myself.) Also, I agree that firing a rocket on Venus would very likely result in upward acceleration. KSP doesn't really know how to handle that level of atmospheric pressure. I would note, however, that if you're trying to get off of Venus, the atmospheric pressure would be the least of your problems. I tend to think that, with advances in materials science and engineering, we could likely develop a lander which could last for more than a couple hours and potential land a rover as well, though I still don't think we would get nearly as much operational time with them as we've seen elsewhere. (Opportunity is SUCH A TROOPER!) I'd love to see a sample return mission from Venus, but I highly doubt we're going to see that for a long time. Making Eve into a closer Venus analog DOES increase the challenges with conducting missions there, but I would argue that it does not make Eve useless. True, you won't gain as much science as you would in a return mission, but you'll still get something. As Voodoo said, if you want more science, send more landers to different biomes. At least, that'll be my plan once I've got time to try a playthrough!

After many years, I've learned not to take ANYTHING I hear on April 1st seriously. So, I knew this was a joke going in. Still loved it! (Though I DID get tricked by something Linkara put out today... Still enjoyed the vid, though!)

This reminded me of something from the movie Titan A.E. (I'm not the only one here who remembers that movie, right?) Gune: [holding up a small device] Does this look familiar? Do you know what it is? Neither do I. I made it last night in my sleep. Apparently I used Gindrogac. Highly unstable. Preed: Gune... Gune: I put at button on it. Yes. I wish to press it, but I'm not sure what will happen if I do. Random Access Memory at it again. But at least it amuses me!

I'm working on a stock solar system playthrough at the moment (my first time keeping locked to one version until I complete it!), but I've been watching KSS VERY closely. I'm planning on this being my next playthrough, though I'll be including a couple FTL mods. (Roverdude's and FTL Drive.) Start from scratch, and build out to the galaxy!

It's probably outside the scope for your current playthrough, but I've been watching Kerbol Starsystems a lot recently. It might be something to consider for a future one! Once I've finished my current run (which was strongly inspired by yours, if I hadn't mentioned that already), I was thinking of giving KSS a shot. (Using Roverdude's Alcubierre Drive in conjunction with FTL Drive Continued.) One question: Where do you intend to place your Kerbals when they retire? Build a complex there at KSC so they could always sneak onto a ship whenever they get bored advise the new classes? Or build a resort on the closest thing Kerbin has to a tropical beach? Greatly enjoying the missions! Looking forward to the next post!

The Star Trek prime universe gives a lot more definitive information on this. Both the original Enterprise (ST:TOS) and the NX Enterprise (from ST: Enterprise) flew in atmosphere without difficulty. The NX Enterprise even got into a battle in atmo. The Enterprise-D (ST:TNG) was designed to be able to land its saucer in an emergency (as shown in ST Generations), though it was expected to need major repairs to be spaceworthy again. Voyager (ST: Voyager), on the other hand, was able to land and take off with relative ease, and had landing legs built into her engineering hull. They used that capability multiple times over the show's run.

Superb series thus far! I read through it all yesterday, and you've inspired me to try out a similar playthrough! It'll be my first time seriously trying career mode, though I'm allowing myself some part mods. (Yeah, I'm an addict. ) One problem I've had with long-run playthroughs in the past is pacing out my missions. I'll be at in-game a couple days and already about to send missions to Mun. Without KCT, how have you paced yourself to be at Year 7?

Yup. That fixed it. I removed KJR and, once I remembered to turn on the autostruts for the boosters, I followed the same flight path out of the atmosphere with no disruptions. I'll make another test off the Mun later, but I'm feeling confident that the issues have been resolved. Harry Rhodan, Tex_NL, Shadowmage; thank you all for the assistance in troubleshooting!

On CoL vs CoP; understand all. I was just part of a fluids project involving rockets where CoP was a big thing, so it's kinda stuck in my brain. I also understand what you mean by the overall configuration. I took another look at the manned rocket, getting rid of the 2.5 meter section, and was able to control the CoL with a normal amount of fins. I agree; I made the top stages too long and thin. I'll call concern #2 solved. With concern #1: The problem I'm seeing seems independent of any factors pertaining to the rocket. It's happened at different points during a launch from Kerbin, and when relaunching from the Mun. The unmanned rocket had one such issue when exiting Kerbin's atmosphere. The other was a 2.5 meter manned Mun lander (direct ascent style). In both cases, the rocket suddenly started a three-axis spin, almost like they had hit something but with no damage caused. I suppose it could be Krakens, but I've never seen that many of them in such a short order without really trying to summon them.

While I have no mods installed which should affect flight characteristics, mostly visual mods and utilities, I'm placing my questions here just in case. First: I've run into a strange issue during liftoff. At several points of the launch, my rockets will make a sudden and very large course deviation, pretty much starting to roll on all three axes. With effort, I'm able to get them pointed back in the right direction and continuing along their trajectory. Normally, I would just chalk this up to poor aerodynamic properties and move my fins, but in addition to mid-launch it's also happened to me when my rocket is passing through 70 km going up, and when lifting off of the Mun. Most recently, it happened with a pretty standard design which has been proven stable for quite a while. (Pictures in imgur link.) For the Mun launch, I think I was well below the low space to high space transition point. Second: I've also noticed something strange with my center of pressure while using the Mk 1 capsule. When I make my standard tall rocket design, I have to put on many more fins than usual. In the past (up to 1.2, at least) I only needed four. Now, I need about twelve. (Pictures in imgur link.) My rockets still flip out, but with the previous issue ongoing I'm not sure if it's purely an aerodynamic concern. I am not using autostruts with any of the rockets, though given the situations I've been in strutting should not have been an issue. Any assistance with figuring this out would be greatly appreciated! Additional files and images can be gathered if needed. The particulars: I'm running Version 1.2.1.1604 (Locking there so I can actually finish a playthrough!) Mods: Science Here and Now Better Burn Time Distant Object Enhancement Engine Lighting Stock Visual Enhancements (With EVE and Scatterer) Kerbin Environmental Institute Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Kopernicus NavyFish Docking Aid PlanetShine SCANSat Science Full Reward Tac Fuel Balancer Texture Replacer Trajectories Alarm Clock Transfer Window Planner If all else fails, I can attempt to update to 1.2.2 and see if that solves the problems. Not ideal, as I'm trying to maintain a stable setup, but it IS an option. Link to imgur album showing the aforementioned rockets.

With the 1.2 pre-release, I have finally built a spaceplane which could make orbit, survive reentry, and land back at the KSC. In a couple years playing, it's the first time I've ever pulled it off. And, the pre-release still being as new as it is, this was done completely stock. No math. Completely seat of the pants. Maybe I shouldn't be as happy about it as I am, but man am I happy about this!

I'm in with the general consensus. I'm happy to wait for the "release ready" version. Your efforts are very much appreciated! Admittedly, it's been interesting trying to make a spaceplane work by seat-of-the-pants methods. Two attempts last night, and the furthest I've managed to get is about 3/4s of the way around Kerbin, but I didn't crash either time! (Had JUST ENOUGH pitch authority.) Note: Landing gear in 1.2 is very durable. I slammed down hard multiple times and nothing broke!

I know what you all mean. I've used KER for pretty much my whole time playing this game. I'm still going to give the 1.2 pre-release a shot, though! I figure that most of my rocket designs end up significantly over-engineered, so if I use that as a starting point I should be okay! ...Right? Or, I'll just get in touch with my inner Kerbal and eyeball it.

This one is more of a "You will not STAY in space today". No screenshots, I'm afraid, but here's the tale. I had recently discovered OPM and, after looking at several planets in the tracking center, decided I wanted to go and visit one sooner rather than later. So, I fired up a sandbox game, built myself a warp capable probe through a combination of NFT and RoverDude's warp drive mod, and started a jump out to Plock. It was beautiful! I warped one way, turned around, warped another, and tried to get as many angles on it as I could. It was a wonderful little trip! Then, I made a terrible error... I got too close, and the warp drive shut down. My probe was suddenly stuck on its original trajectory... which in this case was STRAIGHT INTO PLOCK. And my cool little Hall-effect argon engine didn't have nearly enough grunt to save me. All I could do was tell my faithful little probe, "I'm sorry!!" as it crashed into the ground at a WHOLE LOT of m/s... I can only blame myself and my poor astrogation... Though one of these days, I'll return! (For now, running a smaller game with more visual mods, encouraging myself to actually GO to the rest of the stock planets. )

Last night I finally had success! Mostly because I finally remembered how to rocket correctly. I grabbed a LOT of screenshots, and picked out ones which I felt would show things off well. The main visual mods I'm running with are KASE, SVE, Planetshine, Engine Lighting, and Ven's Stock Part Revamp. (The astute observers among you may notice that my Mk1 Capsule is still stock. I switched it back so it would match the MOLE parts I'm trying out for the first time this playthrough.) I'm running a science career mode right now, so as I expand out through the system I'll start grabbing more shots for anyone interested! (Note: Not sure why the embedding's not showing the full image, but the imgur album itself is working.)

I've seen that button, but I never thought to actually try using it in a good year-or-so of playing... Thanks for the pointer, Zhetaan!

I know this question is a few months old, but I tried the combination today (KASE with SVE). On Kerbin, at least, I had no issues. As I get further along, I'll let you know if I find any problems. Looks awesome, I must say! (I'll grab some screenshots later. Only fired up long enough to test.)

I've read enough of these recently that I wanted to pass along an experience I had with 1.1.2, in hopes that it might help someone else. I, too, noticed some frustrating stability issues, which included a number of crashes mid-launch on the second launch of a science career playthrough. After enough of them, I decided to hold off and wait until the next fix came out. (Because a fix would always come out, given enough time and patience.) After checking the forums and seeing others with similar issues, I decided not to add to the pile. However, a few days ago while looking at my desktop shortcut, I found that I had been using the KSP executable as opposed to the KSP_x64 executable. I made a fresh install, tossed on my usual modset (to have as equivalent a setup as possible to when I had the stability issues), and made sure to use the x64 version of the executable. Since making the switch, I have yet to have a major problem. Only one crash in several days of playing, and I attribute it to the fact that I left the game sitting on pause for a good hour or so. I don't know if this will help everyone having issues, but it might be something worth checking if you're running into problems with crashing.