Tyko

Cool way to do docking. Can you share a few more pix of your setup? Maybe from different angles? Maybe we can see something Also, you may want to ask directly on the Infernal Robotics thread - that's where you'll find the really passionate IR people.

Two reasons: Philosophical: I'm of the opinion that it's fun to learning how things are done. So I suggest they try it first rather than "just install a way to automate something". Practical: In this particular case - if you're just transferring from one small craft to another it's faster to alt-click and do it manually than it is to use a resource transfer tool

cool stuff. I'm thinking about adding this mod. 2 questions: is it likely to break an existing save? I'm currently using stock with OPM added in. Will Other Worlds modify anything in the Kerbol system? Are the planets complete with biomes to explore?

Yes, I have an SSD. I'm asking about RAM specifically because I'm running 75 Mods with tons of extra parts. Since all those textures are living in RAM....

A pod with a heatshield and parachutes is really simple...you mentioned a "shuttle" not sure how complex that is.

Agreed Panda...a hierarchical system would be great and then they wouldn't have to invent new icons/categories

I'm upgrading from 16GB of RAM and want to make sure KSP has lots of elbow room. Where is the point of diminishing returns? I realize processor / graphics card also plays a role, but if RAM is the weak link, will 32 help? will 64 help any more?

so a single ship/space station would be considered one "area"? if that's the case, then I'm well over the 8 light max.

I just posted my quick and dirty "get to the Mun" explanation in another thread. Not going to re-post here, but you can look at it. I hope it helps

The counter-argument to this would be asking why Squad, with their very limited resources, should duplicate existing modding efforts when instead they can focus on fixing and extending parts of the game that mod-makers can't / won't touch. I've asked the same thing and then realized I'd rather have them squashing bugs and improving general playability

I've noticed that my lights are flickering sometimes. I read your note above about having more than 8 lights. Could this cause the flickering I'm seeing? When you say "in a single area" what are you defining as an "area"? Thanks!

You didn't mention it, but I'll throw USI Life Support out there. When I did the research I felt like it offered a good balance of playability and "realism". Basically it includes food / air / water as one source called "supplies" and waste / CO2 / wastewater as "Mulch" (strange name). So, you are accounting for what your crew needs in order to survive without having to discreetly track a bunch of different resources / waste products. I also like that that Mulch + Electricity + Fertilizer can be reprocessed into Supplies again with greenhouses.

Are you trying to use the science twice - once for the lab and once for KSC?

"not 100% compatible with tweakscale and IFS"...is anyone trying this? I love this mod idea, but I'm a huge fan of those other two mods.

This is a great guide! My challenge is that I'm often landing in craters and if I do my de-orbit burn 180 degrees away I'm coming in too flat and too high because I have to avoid smacking into the leading crater edge with are usually higher then the preceding terrain.

Yea, good points. I guess it would also unnecessarily increase part-count, but it would look COOL

A couple of things...first it's a lot easier with some way to calculate DeltaV. Either learn to do it by hand or install Kerbal Engineer Redux or MechJeb. Second, get a good reference on DeltaV requirements this link is to my favorite, but there a number of them. With that, you can decide on a number of different launch options just like NASA did. I settled on 3 stages because it's easy, repeatable and relatively efficient even including a DV "cushion" in each stage. Launch Stage ~3600 DV - gets me to 75Km circular orbit above Kerbin Transfer / Insertion Stage ~1400 DV - transfers my lander to Mun/Minmus and performs the braking maneuver into low lunar orbit Lander / Return Stage ~2500 DV - lands, reorbits Mun/Minmus, transfers to LKO and re-enters Kerbin atmosphere. I chose this because it doesn't require orbital rendezvous/docking and I hadn't mastered that yet. If you're proficient at those skills you can upgrade your transfer stage for travel in both directions and make a smaller, lighter lander. That said, my formula above is really straightforward if you're still learning and want to get a few missions under your belt.

It would probably be a challenge to code, but some old style 7 segment digital displays on sides of parts would looks awesome. They could go dark when there's no power being used. The fact that they are lit up would draw attention to the module using power, then you could zoom in to read the actual display

After you master doing it manually, there are a couple of mods that make the process easier to manage, especially when you're dealing with stations with many tanks. Check out TAC Fuel Balancer or Ship Manifest. I settled on TAC because the UI was a bit easier for me to understand, but Ship Manifest has more capabilities

Installed KIS. After some frustration, a little RTFM and several YouTube videos I have figured out how it works. So I spent the rest of the evening reducing part count on my Science Lab. Every removed strut connector left over from launch is one less part! After I removed a bunch of useless parts I played with moving small parts around. KIS QUESTION - when I'm placing parts is there any way to turn on snap to 22.5 degree functionality like you can in VAB?

I'm just learning to write part.cfg files. I'm not ready to dive into part modeling yet, so I've been "borrowing" existing parts (Squad and 3rd party). A couple of things I built work really well and I'd like to share them. Is borrowing parts considered rude (or actually illegal)? Thanks!

This rocks! I also learned to turn off yaw/pitch/roll and rely on reaction wheels. and, yes, I too have spent too much time turning off each thruster manually after I'd launched This thread, by the way, has turned into my favorite kind of feature request - Good dialog find out there's a hidden capability already in the game Discover (again) how cool this game is.

I would love to see more in Stock, but the game designers (wisely) built the game to be extensible and there are many great contract mods out there. Stations and Bases + Tourism Plus has really added flavor to my base building work. I'm regularly getting contracts to fly up mission specialists, rotate crew and take up tourists. These do a great job of making it feel like the kind of work the Russians have been doing for years with the ISS. I don't do them all the time, because they can get a little repetitive, but IRL that's how running a base feels and they give me opportunities to run other types of missions to my station and get the trips paid for by tourists

My understanding was that FCM just equally reduced the power of RCS and Reaction Wheels so a push of the button resulted in less torque. I didn't read where it would actually load balance the whole craft. I'll test it tonight. Thanks!

Yes, but it's not going to be balanced because the entire compound craft will be a one-off rather than something created and balanced in the VAB - that's EXACTLY why smart RCS balancing would be amazing. You have RCS on your load and you have RCS on your tug. The two mate up and smart RCS would calculate the new CoM and adjust all the thruster outputs on the combined load to rotate around the CoM. Again, this isn't supposed to replace good planning/craft design, but it would be a higher level capability that your best pilots or best probe cores would enable. Just like you have to learn to plot courses and fly them manually, but level 3 pilots and better probe cores offer course and target tracking.