Cavscout74

There was already a lot of little bits & pieces of info about KSP2 that had me a little iffy about when I would get it. Recently, after a break from KSP1 I started playing again, and my excitement for KSP2 was growing. Then they published system requirements. I guess I'll be trying it at some future date after getting a new computer. And since I just bought a computer last year and it still doesn't meet even min requirements, I suppose it will be a while before I buy or play KSP2

This was an old modded electric plane I made for exploring Duna long before a robotics DLC was even announced. Uses four little "Buzzer" electric props (from Modular Rocket Systems IIRC), although two could be shut down for cruise - which reduced power drain to less than what the solar panels produced, giving unlimited daytime range. Seats 2 kerbals in the "Observer Cockpit" from Airplane Plus. I don't remember exact numbers, but stall speed was very low: <25m/s on Duna, <15 on Kerbin IIRC. It was small enough that it wasn't too difficult to fit onto a rocket for the trip to Duna, except that you needed a pretty big fairing to cover the wings. While anyone can deploy the surface experiments, it is better for an engineer to deploy the power generating items (solar or RTG) and better for a scientist to deploy the actual experiments. Engineer-deployed power sources generate additional power based on the engineer's experience and scientist-deployed experiments generate science faster, also based on the experience of the scientist deploying them. Also, they are only useful for one deployment per body, not per biome. I suppose you could deploy multiple sets to gather data faster (not certain on that) but you won't get extra data from them.

My first round of Duna probes arrived around our closest neighbor, with a lander, science probe/relay and another science probe that went on to Ike orbit. Then my Moho science probe arrived and (barely) entered orbit. Lastly, my first batch of Eve probes departed - a science probe/lander combo (copy of the Soviet Venera 9), another different lander, a science/relay satellite and a dust sample return probe, but no pics of them yet. Duna lander - since I use "require signal for control" turned on, I had to ballast the lander with a fuel tank to orient correctly for entry. I barely regained signal with the fixed antennas to stage away the heat shield & ballast. I was <1000m altitude, with all chutes deployed, still descending way too fast when 1 tiny little bar popped up, allowing me to deploy the DTS-M1's and stage. Pioneer-Duna entered a highly elliptical polar orbit to complete both science gathering & communications relay functions Pioneer-Moho arrived, burned off all the fuel for its NERV transfer stage and most of the monoprop carried by the probe itself to establish its own elliptical orbit

I made some more progress in my 1.12 career, with the first Moho probe launched, a few more rescue missions, new jets & the first space station around Kerbin in this save. Pioneer-Moho departing Kerbin. I always appreciate when the game hands me a "Test NERV engine ...." contract long before I can research the NERV. Jeb taking up a new CF-05 Viper jet for a spin at dusk Kelrik & one of the rescuees returning for a safe splashdown Finally, first crew docked with the Manned Orbiting Lab to begin operations.

Clearly the top secret Minmus terraforming program is a resounding success.

Made a little progress the last two days - 3 unmanned probes headed to Duna (no pics), my first Mun & Minmus direct missions were flown plus a launch failure and played with the US2 Advanced sub-satellite. MCL3-1 burning for Mun with a crew of 3 freshly rescued kerbals Val checking out the US2 Advanced Sub-Satellite for proper deployment First MiCL3 to Minmus to finish building a rover ended up in an abort when - ironically - I tried to jettison the abort tower & fairing, and the debris destroyed the fairing base. While the abort tower was already gone, the abort function still separated the pod, allowing a safe escape. The crew actually did go to space - barely - before landing safely in the grasslands to the east The second attempt at the MiCL3-1 went better, landing within 100m of the incomplete rover, making it fairly easy to finish the rover - after eventually figuring out how to use the build function, since I hadn't used that system yet. I still prefer KIS/KAS to the stock system though. The completed rover made the 1km trip to the target destination while the crew prepared for their return to Kerbin. Driving this was worse than trying to drive on ice. Did they make Minmus more slick since I last played?

I tend to use fairly standard launchers, and name them: 1.25m Jabbit or Horned Jabbit, 1.875m Dawngrazer or Steamglider, 2.5m Girroc, 3.75m Granok. I don't remember what my 5m or some of my reusable launchers were named. The names were from creatures fin an MMO I used to play. I'll typically have several sub-assemblies of each size with different length fuel tanks & possibly different engines. Individual small craft designs tend to get abbreviations based on their use - OMV= Orbital Maneuver Vehicle - a manned pod with limited dV & RCS, typically what I name the basic Mk 1 pod to get a kerbal into orbit in early career, or MPV - Multi-Purpose Vehicle, usually the 2-man pod with much more dV, usually enough for trips to Mun/Minmus. OTV# is Orbital Tourist Vehicle (# seats). If there are variants, that will get an additional abbreviation (ER = Extended Range is the most common). Then I just add a sequential number to each one I launch (MPV-1, MPV-2, etc). The design gets saved as (launcher) (craft abbreviation) so something like Dawngrazer MPV-ER or whatever. Relays usually end up with an abbreviation, altitude & A/B/C for the (usually) 3 relays in the network. So the second "medium" altitude relay around Kerbin at 500km would be MKR-500-B. Science probes get usually historic probe names plus destination (Pioneer-Duna, Surveyor-Mun, etc). Large craft - something like to take a crew of 4+ kerbals to for missions to other planets and are not disposable get a class designation and individual names, usually running in alphabetical order from a list I made a long time ago: Exploration Vehicle 1 (EV-1) is usually named Avalon, #2 is Babylon. Space Stations will get a basic name (Kerbin Fuel Station or Minmus Science Station or whatever) but whenever I kill a kerbonaut, I rename a station in his/her honor. Preference goes to more complicated stations first - a fuel depot with no crew quarters tends to just stay Kerbin Fuel Station while a research station that I built out of 8 separate payloads, with greenhouse, science lab and quarters for 20+ kerbals will be one of the first to be named.

My 1.12 career continued to progress, with the 2nd manned Mun & Minmus landings. Jeb performed an unauthorized maneuver, slinging his capsule out into kerbolar orbit before returning. Kelrik gathering a greenstone to bring home while Jeb keeps the lander warmed up Val & Ambera plant a flag on Mun Testing a miniature Mun rover before sending it off to space The second attempt landed safely and did some exploration before having to stop to recharge it's batteries. The first attempt suffered an unexplained structural failure & exploded near the Mun's surface (ie a clipped part reacted..... poorly when I staged away the transfer stage during descent) We also started providing rescue services to other space programs operating somewhat recklessly around the globe, using a shorter ranged version of the Dawngrazer multipurpose vehicle, repainted in red & white "rescue" livery.

Could you be missing one of tweakscale's dependencies? I ran into different problems, but I was missing one on my most recent build & it messed my game up pretty bad till I found the missing one.

Make a backup just in case, but it shouldn't harm anything. And the persistent.sfs should be the only file you need to edit. I regularly personalize my kerbals when I start a new career with no ill effects.

I know this has made the rounds of KSP for a while, but I didn't realize it was supposed to be a game guide....... * *courtesy of KSP Facebook page, I have no idea where it originated.

My new career has been making great strides - from exploring anomalies on Kerbin in low tech jets, to sending kerbals to Mun & Minmus

Yep, that sure sounds like one of my normal Eve missions.

There was a mod "Ground Effect" that added, well, ground effect to KSP, making creations like this able to be built more like the real thing. It also affected regular aircraft, making them more buoyant near the ground - which I found made for much smoother landings. I don't know if it works in the newest KSP versions, but since you just reminded me of it, I plan to find out tonight.

I started playing KSP again after a bit of a break, and decided to start a modded 1.12.5 game. I'm away from my game computer at the moment, so logs & an exact mod list will have to wait. Everything seems to be working good except, when I go to the tracking station. When the screen first comes up, everything is fine. But when I select a craft, it's icon on the map disappears, only the orbit is visible. When I select a different craft, the new craft's icon also disappears, but the previous craft does not reappear. If I exit tracking & reenter it, everything is back to normal until I select a craft. This is happening on two different computers, on two different career saves - one I started before mods but is now doing it and one new career that is only modded. And I don't remember if the unmodded career was doing it before I added mods - it was just starting, I don't think there was anything in orbit to track before I added mods. Went into a sandbox save I had, and it does not do this, only my career saves (currently with level 1 tracking stations)

All it takes is practice. Oh, and quite a bit of beating your head on your desk or other convenient hard surface. But at least no casualties. Seriously though, I found rendezvous to be the hardest skill to learn in the game, far harder than the actual docking - although that needs some practice to get the hang of as well.

So I bit the bullet and went through the trouble of building a modded 1.12.5 install & started a fresh hard career. So I've been doing all the early career stuff - at least the modified early career that I started using, with some aircraft & rover parts, to give Jeb something to do waiting on rockets to reach orbit. Bumper rocket, lofting the Korporal upper stage almost into space - 68km 2nd try a few days later, I didn't turn as sharply and kept the nose higher to get a 78km Ap and the first suborbital flight In the meantime, Jeb was off exploring the desert in a tried & true Hawk prop fighter while Kelrik & Ambera were working to bring the island airfield back into service After the successful Bumper flights, I was able to loft a small relay satellite into orbit Jeb also got to test out the experimental Juno engines, powering the new Star fighter. Lastly, Kelrik & Ambera were tasked to take a long range patrol jeep up to the arctic to investigate some strange signals received from there. Mostly because the Hawk I don't think has the range, the Star's engines were experimental & I don't have the science to unlock them now that the contract is complete, and my other prop fighter that might have the range still has parts that I also need more science to unlock. I am also wondering about something I encountered that I haven't seen before - in the tracking station, when I select a craft, it's icon disappears but the orbit is still visible. Then if I select a different craft, it's icon disappears, but the previous craft doesn't reappear and it's orbit disappears unless I mouse over where it is. I'm hoping it was just a glitch & will be gone when I load the game next time.

That is actually just JNSQ with Scatterer Does make backing into your parking space a bit easier though

Did some more JNSQ careering. I also figured out the mystery of my lost career save - I had started it in 1.11, and soon after getting a Mun landing, I ran into game breaking bugs - specifically stuff falling off whenever you tried to attach parts to a craft. I ended up deleting all my 1.11 installs, and was experimenting with a new tech tree in 1.10, intending to try again but lost interest instead. Tested the abort system on a newly researched Mk2 pod The Minmus Surveyor landed uneventfully That was followed by manned orbital missions to Mun & Minmus, with safe returns by both

It looks like you are out of the atmosphere & I don't see any pieces missing after booster separation, so it couldn't have been too bad of an idea. You've certainly beaten most of my shuttle attempts.

When I first heard about KSP, I downloaded the demo & swore I wouldn't buy the game till I could at least get something into orbit. Took me nearly a week. A few weeks later, when I got my first kerbal walking on Mun, I was ecstatic. Keep trying, keep experimenting & before you know it, you'll have one of those Jeb clones planting a flag on Laythe, and Mun will be a distant memory. And I still occasionally misjudge & send something shooting off into the ground or into a bad orbit. Lastly, qucksave & quickload (F5 & F9 on pc) are your best friends when learning to land on Mun.

Back when I was posting my JNSQ career as an ongoing series, I had the mod list posted at the beginning. It wasn't RSS-length ridiculous, but I had a fair number of pretty large mods.

Are you using auto struts? They are usually a big help.

Thanks for everything you've done for the KSP community. I've enjoyed quite a few of the mods you've made & adopted.

Got off a few more JNSQ launches - my first tourist trip in this career, a Mun probe & completed a contract to take an aircraft past mach 2. Luna probe with Trans-Mun stage coasting to Ap as the Atlas falls away. Coming back to land after a successful (on the 5th or 6th try) mach 2 flight. This was a pain, as the contract stipulates no more than 10 m/s vertical speed. And hold it for 5 seconds. That is down or up - very hard to keep near level that long while rapidly accelerating in a tiny plane with a reliant at full throttle.