Magzimum

Note that there are several good mods for life support, and also many many threads to discuss these mods, and whether it should be stock. Although it's ultimately a moderator's decision, not mine, I propose that we don't start the discussion here again. Just weather and wind would be awesome - but it is REALLY difficult to add to the game, and nearly impossible to add to the game without dropping the framerate to something unacceptably low. I would be in favor of more planets/moons, and made a post with my wishlist in a different thread. I would be in favor of a few extra stars, for some really ambitious missions. But I don't see the point of adding the neighboring galaxies. Realistically you're talking about something that's over a million light years away. You can only get to those with warp-speed reactors... and that's just outside the scope of a space simulator. No. Please don't. The game is difficult enough as it is. Congrats on the Mun landing. Try to bring your Kerbal back next time!

Could it be that Windows is doing all kinds of stuff in the background, thereby affecting your KSP performance? Although I am a nitwit when it comes to computers, I see many people that treat Windows computers as if they are vegetables: After some time it goes past the expiration date, and needs to be replaced. The hardware obviously shouldn't be affected, but the Windows software often is. Before spending the cash, you can install Linux Mint on the laptop that will be replaced anyway. You can then download a Linux version of the game and see if that is any change. You may not win anything by doing this, but it's also free of costs. I have a 4-core Intel i5-4570 CPU with 8 GB of RAM, and a GeForce GT 640, running Linux Mint 17.1. The whole desktop cost me around 550 € if I remember correctly - it's a few years old by now. I built it myself, so I obviously did not spend cash on buying Windows. The game runs quite smoothly, unless my ship has over 800 parts and is experiencing serious atmospheric drag... then the framerate drops. The largest ship I launched was around 1200 parts. By then the frame rate slowed to a poor 1 fps... but I am not sure whether that had anything to do with an issue regarding large fairings.

I think this thread title is much funnier if you read it in an Arnold Schwarzenegger accent. Get to Duna NOW! If you're impatient to start with the new mods, then finish the active contracts in as little as possible real time (not game time). You do that by finishing the Duna mission as planned. Finish all active contracts but don't accept new ones. When you've finally warped ahead 1 year, you bring the guys back. This will take by far the least of your time. Then you can indulge in the new mods with all Kerbals safe at the KSC.

You will need KER. That's a mod that gives information, but does not fly your ships or actually do anything at all. (And in my opinion, it should be stock). If you look at the various tabs, enable the one called "Surface". That shows your latitude and longitude. When the latitude will approach zero (i.e. you're about to pass the equator), you are at the AN/DN. The inclination itself is listed under "Orbital", also in KER.

I think that the contracts even ask for a NEW cupola. The challenge for which they pay you is to launch a new section of the lab, which contains a cupola, and dock it. At least, that's my experience. So, if your lab already had a cupola, that will never satisfy a contract: If it already has a cupola, they will ask for a 2nd cupola. The trick therefore is not to stick a cupola onto the lab, but to give it docking ports where you can dock easily (or, alternatively to just ignore the contracts), and then launch and dock whatever they ask for. Having said that, I do believe that the contracts have a preference for cupolas. They seem to come up a lot, just like requests for additional labs.

A memorial wall, or statue. Every achievement adds something to that wall. Every unfortunate (or deliberate) fatality also gets mentioned. And it should be a building at the KSC that you can click on with 1 mouse-click. Scientific achievements are already visible - so you already get a little list of places where you've been - but it's buried deep inside the R&D facility. I think several mouse-clicks is too much for people (this may sound sarcastic, but it's not meant to be).

Yup. Far too much mascara and eye shadow.

First Duna landing ever. "Hatch is obstructed". Boo.

Both the Mun and Dres have awesome canyons. Multiple planets have interesting craters, with sometimes very steep crater walls. There are oceans on three (Kerbin, Eve, Laythe). The poles of several planets are incredibly rugged. I think it would be nice to have some even rougher peaks (like on Kerbin)... but in my opinion, the macroscopic features mostly in place. But it's the small details that makes something really interesting. And small details are quite hard to create. We have some easter eggs, and you can have some terrain decorations (rocks, trees) but I don't think it's reasonable to demand more.

Sometimes the ore-overlay is not visible anymore. Personally, I then use the scanner to make it visible again. There may be easier options, but this is how I do it. Also, since v1.2 I always put a relay antenna (or multiple antennas) onto the satellite, so that it has Moar Functionality as a relay satellite. Both relays and scanners work best in polar orbits.

Well, influencing the media costs money, I assume. A communications department of any company usually costs money (although if done right can generate cash too). Moving the slider anywhere other than the default setting could have a financial penalty? Linking it to the strategies makes it a long-term affair, whereas my idea was to link it to separate missions. It's fundamentally different, but I would support both.

Thanks for all the compliments guys (@dskero, @Galacticvoyager, @max_creative, @SpaceplaneAddict, @Firemetal) . This was one of the most fun missions I did in a while. Really, Dres is a playground where you can try out a LOT of fun stuff. I'm now also proudly displaying the badge in my signature!

So I have an Eve lander for 3 Kerbals, with a rather un-aerodynamic mothership attached to it. It needs to be launched, and for fun I would like to avoid the "going up straight until drag is no longer an issue". So I put a huge fairing around it. But that thing is giving me a headache. The payload inside wobbles - it's moving from side to side already on the launchpad. Autostrut or real struts don't seem to do much. And if I strut it too much, it just explodes on the launchpad. Because of Eve's ridiculous atmosphere the ship has giant wings on the top, so it is an aerodynamic disaster. Removal of the fairing therefore results in flipping as soon as start something that resembles a gravity turn. Below it's shown without the fairing. Any tips how to stabilize large fairings? Or perhaps a confirmation that this fairing is just too large for the poor game engine? All comments are welcome.

My top-tip: Just play with KSP to "get a feeling" for rocketry. I am not sure that this game is the best to really design the rocket engines (if you plan to do that). Nozzle shapes and chamber pressures are probably not a part of the game engine. I think that the flames out of the rockets are just graphics, and the engine just 'magically' moves the rocket up in the game engine. (Not sure, correct me if this game is even more awesome than I thought). However, ratios such as fuel/dry weight and the ratio of the mass of subsequent stages can be tested quite well. Hehe... The OP is a rocketry amateur (i.e. probably not NASA) who wants to build a rocket. I am not sure that the unrealistic clear cut spheres of influence will be a major issue. In fact, I am not sure it should be any consideration... I mean, that would be a REALLY ambitious rocketry project! According to a quick Google search, the highest amateur rocket (ever) reached 117 km altitude. You need at least few additional kilometers before you need to start counting the gravity of other celestial bodies!

Yes, let's focus on the suggestion please. This is about a little slider, and about the weighing factor of the contracts, NOT about the entire career system.

How difficult would it be to add a slider to the 'active contract' pages where you can set the weight of that contract in the algorithm that determines which contracts come up next? Reason to implement A lot of us (me included) would like to somehow be able to influence a little what type of contracts come up. For example: In early career, I will rescue a lot of Kerbals to get more crew. Later I want to do a lot of landings (planting flags and getting science), but the game keeps showing me rescue missions for a while longer. I may do one mission to get some science from within Kerbin's atmosphere, but those early-career missions are tedious and I would really want to do that only once. However, if you do one in early career, the game may flood the suggested contracts with these. Of course, it would not be reasonable to be able to choose your own contracts - for me that would ruin the storyline of the career. But as a Space Program you can influence the media, for example by choosing to do press conferences and by press releases. Storyline The slider could be called "Mission Media Exposure". The more media exposure that your contract (and therefore the mission) gets, the more other companies will hear about it and try to hire your space program to do a similar contract. But if you slide it to zero (i.e. a secret mission) then it will not be counted at all. Perhaps we could even generate negative articles in the media, thereby reducing the chances of getting similar contracts, even if we complete them successfully. I am not yet sure how this can be blended in with the "reputation", which is also linked to how your Space Program is viewed by outsiders. Suggestions are welcome. Practical Since players get no information about the contract weights, the visible slider on screen can just go from "negative media coverage", through "normal coverage" to "flood the media with articles", without showing any numbers. Practically that would mean that the slider goes from e.g. a value of -1 (or -0.5) to +2. Assuming that there is a table/list of some sort buried in the game code that attaches weights to various types of contracts, it should be a simple multiplication. Then again, I am not much of an IT guy, so I may be wrong. *hides under his desk* Curious to hear what you all think of this.

Great idea for a thread. I have 2 proposals: Eve Rocks Challenge 1st iteration, dead now. Not sure a second iteration has existed. Perhaps under a different name? Classic in its simplicity. Good number of entries. Dres Awareness, Show Your Support! 1st iteration. Best challenge ever. Most entries are in fact multiple entries because they encompass entire fleets, not single missions.

You know you need the Vernor Engines instead of the regular RCS: When you are too impatient for normal RCS When your craft is so large that part count becomes a major issue When you don't mind losing RCS control when you run out of fuel When "Moar Boosters" is your answer to speeding up your docking procedure Some of those sound like material for a meme:

Just combine them: Make a relay satellite, and stick the science onto that.

When calculating the real-time spent on time-warp is worth your time, you're simply not warping fast enough.

And what happens if you just finish all the Minmus contracts? Send two ships. Land one (with crew). Do your science. Then dock these two ships in Minmus orbit. Do some EVA in orbit. Transfer some crew between the two ships. Leave one ship there to beam back some science at a later stage (it's free cash), and fly the other one home with all the crew. I think that procedure should just nail all the Minmus World Firsts in one go. I am curious if the game then generates Duna/Ike/Eve/Gilly contracts, or if it finally offers some Mun contracts. This should help us understand whether the Mun just doesn't come up due to your choices in the early game, or because it somehow thinks it's completed.

The World Firsts algorithm is a very stubborn one. If it has decided that you will visit Minmus, then you will visit Minmus. It can generate various contracts (flyby, explore, land, dock in orbit, etc.) and will keep cycling those until you've done most or all of them. But... if you visit the Mun, then the World Firsts society have a secret bank account that will actually pay you some money for doing that even if you had no contract. Spoiler for making life a little easier with the world-firsts:

Dres is real even if it is inconvenient for the agenda of your Space Program. Your "alternative facts" are not so relevant when I am able to land and open a resort. I need no additional proof of its existance. (Why am I responding to this thread?)

Hmm. So a terrier is more aerodynamic (and about as heavy) as my command pod with RCS. This thing flipped engine-first as soon as I decoupled the stage below it. My latest Eve mission is coming along nicely! Already mastered the landing, separation of the parachutes (which dropped like a brick and needed moar sepatrons!), fixing of the landing gear, take off and separation of the first couple of stages... Pity that the top stage went engine-first. Will try again tomorrow! To the pub!

Yes. Click on any drone core, and then click on the button "Kerbnet Access". It brings up a window: Kerbnet! Then push the button "Wayopint" to drop a waypoint either at your current location, or wherever you put the cursor on the map.