CobraA1

The earth rotates a super tiny bit faster, and the frame and the ground beneath the frame heat up a super tiny amount.

Nope. They're basically a conversion of electrical power into mechanical energy - in this case, rotational energy. Basically, it's an electric motor connected to a large, heavy wheel. As the motor spins up (accelerates), it creates rotational motion (torque). Add a computer to control it, along with sensors to detect the rotational motion, and you get something like this .

No reason why they couldn't work in an atmosphere. Inertia works the same everywhere. They just need to add a few more variables, like counteracting gravity and dealing with friction.

Suicide burns need to be properly timed, which is very hard to do. I consider that something that you'd really need an addon like MechJeb for. A "stairstep" approach where you bleed of speed every so often works. It's easy to build ships with enough fuel for this. Scott Manley has an interesting approach - he approaches the body at a very shallow angle, so that most of the speed is horizontal rather than vertical. Then you don't need as many stairsteps and waste less fuel than a steep angle approach.

Tech tree and docking.

My initial thoughts: -Awesome job! This really adds a lot to the game, and AFAIK it's the first patch that didn't have any major game-breaking bugs in it. -The math seems wrong in a few places. For example, "throughput" seems to be wrong - I think they multiplied when they meant to divide. The bigger antennas should have higher throughput, not lower. -Not sure I like having a penalty (sometimes pretty big) for transmitting the science data rather than recovering the craft. There's already diminishing returns for repeating the experiment in the same place. This means that any time you transmit the data rather than recover it, you are losing some science forever. -I love the new kcience, erm science system . Combining doing research with a tech tree is a great way to do it. I'd say this is the biggest improvement since docking. Overall, a big step forward . I look forward to seeing what this brings in the future, both for stock and for mods.

Do keep in mind that reentry effects currently do nothing - you don't really need to close it. This is clearly awesome IMO . Sure, it's unfinished, sure it needs tweaking, but I wanna see what happens to my goo on all of the planets in the solar system now . And I need to get soil samples of them too. Maybe I'll complete the tech tree quickly, but it still opens up a lot of possibilities to explore. And for those who like mods - this clearly opens up to mod authors the ability to create their own tech trees. I can't wait to see how mods will use this.

Windows 8, but with Start8 installed. I actually find that I never really use the "Metro" apps. As for the system itself, it's a Core 2 Quad with 8 GB of RAM, which is actually quite solid for its age. That being said, I'm currently in the process of planning and budgeting for a rebuild of my system. Star Citizen looks promising, and I'm finding more and more games can't be run at highest settings.

Agreed. Even with the mods, this is a complex mission with some complex craft. Even if he had used MechJeb's autopilot (which he didn't), I'd still label it as impressive due to the ship designs and the very well timed and executed mission. . . . and the RemoteTech mod actually adds a significant amount of challenge to the game, so this is certainly not somebody shying away from difficulty.

Yikes, multiple pages - but I'm still gonna respond to the post that responded to my post . . . No, they're doing it for the money. Probably because Wall Street said so. So? Whether some people accept the answer or not, they should give it. And maybe, just maybe, if people aren't accepting an answer - maybe, just maybe - the answer really is inadequate, and they shouldn't be doing things that way. So tell the likes of GameStop to either give them a cut of the pay or get cut off from selling the latest games. Actually, I think that's inevitable at this point - Steam is picking up steam, so to speak, and digital sales are taking off. As soon as digital sales have enough power, I think it's inevitable that physical sales are gonna get cut if publishers and devs don't get a cut of used sales. I don't think that harsh DRM is a good way of handling used sales. Except it doesn't. I has a perfectly functioning offline mode. If Steam can do it, why can't other platforms?

I don't think the reasons are particularly good. And note that I didn't really mention DRM anyways - I just don't want future versions of SimCity to be multiplayer-only online-only games, period. Hey, you know what? If EA wants to explain things a bit more, they can. But they aren't. All we got for an explanation of the online always requirement for SimCity was "but our vision! We had a vision! How dare you say we stray from our vision!" Pretty pathetic if you ask me. I disagree. Mojang took a big risk with its different business model (sell the game while it's still in alpha / beta, increasing the price to the release price over time). Kickstarter has made taking risks easier, as well as Steam's Greenlight. There are lots of risks being taken with indie businesses now. Risks that frankly, EA is not willing to take. EA doesn't take risks - they just make anti-consumer decisions. The decisions are actually very safe because they know they'll make millions regardless. I would not confuse these decisions with "risks."

Do you want these behaviors to change? No? Indeed. I enjoyed SimCity 2000 - back when it was just Maxis. I never bought the most recent SimCity. I was excited - until I learned about the terrible launch and the always-on internet requirements. Not the game for me, and I'm not going to support future games with similar requirements. Not because I just hate EA - but because I don't want to support their current behaviors. You can't get a business to change their behaviors simply by continuing to buy their products.

Ah, Mindrover. I remember it well. Sadly, it is no more. It had troubles for a while, and now the page is just text. I hope someday somebody makes something similar. It would be great to have something like that again .

Yes, it makes sense - Windows doesn't normally crash when you run out of memory, because of something called the page file (or swap file). I won't bore you with the details, but it works like this: When Windows runs out of memory, it starts using the hard drive as memory. However, when that happens things slow down a lot because using the hard drive as memory is really slow.

Humm, it wasn't working for a bit when I got back home from work, but now it is.

Thanks to the oberth effect - it would actually be very useful to know the minimum safe distance over which you can fly over any of the planets/moons/planetoids without atmospheres. That kind of info should be useful to put into the Wiki.

. . . and after trying to log in with the Chrome browser once, the 406 error returns in all of my browsers . Maybe a connection to the Chrome browser?

My recent manned mission to Moho (including manned landing on the surface) and back. Needed to refuel the ship twice, had to create some of the largest craft I've created in the game so far. Not being able to aerocapture or aerobrake means spending a lot of fuel just slowing down. Its inclination and tight orbit don't help.

I don't use anything that I would consider to be unrealistic/impossible in real life, or that would upset the balance of the game. But I do use MechJeb and some other mods to make life easier.

Checked to see if the login issue I was having got resolved, got this: EDIT: Once it came back online, I was able to login! Yay! Time to show off that I landed a manned mission on Moho and returned .

And now, with the aid of a ship designed to return them home safely, my kerbalnauts are back on Kerbin . Now I have to figure out what to do with the old mothership/lander: Use them for future missions, or bring them down? BTW, my signature hasn't been updated because I'm having some technical issues with the ribbon generator .

So - I decided to go to Moho. This is the largest undertaking I've done so far, and it took a lot of botched launches, a lot of patience, a few redesigns, and two refuel launches that weren't really part of the original plan. The design for the craft involves a two-piece "mothership" that is basically nuclear engines strapped to orange tanks, as well as a rather standard lander for actually landing on the planet (not too different from my mun landers, save for that oversize docking port). The trip requires a LOT of fuel - so much in fact I had to refuel the "mothership" twice. Once on the way there, and once on the way back. A larger design may have worked, but at a cost of complexity. On the way there, I was able to get within Moho's SOI without refueling, but wasn't able to slow down enough, so I actually refueled it in orbit around Kerbol and tried again. For the way back, I was actually able to get the refuel craft into orbit around Moho and refuel the "mothership" in orbit around Moho before heading back to Kerbin. Note that I am using MechJeb and the Lazor mods, and a few other minor mods (the USA flag, the colored lights if you see any). It should be doable with stock parts, however: I'm not using any major parts mods. With the possible exception of refueling, which was done with the lazor mod. Note that these are all scaled - click on them to go to ImageShack, where you should be able to find full size versions. These are photos on the surface of Moho: Once back to Kerbin, I used aerocapture and aerobraking to enter orbit around Kerbin and reduce my apoapsis to 100km. I was treated to a rather spectacular fireworks show for the first pass: Here's the "mothership" in the second pass, so you can better see it: I *do* have to keep the lander attached for the return trip, as I didn't put any spare room on the "mothership" for two kerbalnauts. Here's the command module for the mothership: Here's the engine module for the mothership: Here's the lander: Here is the refuel craft I used: The refuel craft is quite possibly the largest thing I've ever launched in KSP. Not only am I getting an orange tank into orbit, I'm getting it to one of the planets that requires the most delta V to get to as well, and I have to have plenty of fuel left to refuel the other craft. It's got not one, but two stages that use the nuclear engines, and it will use some of the last stage to get into Moho's SOI and orbit. However, it does get enough fuel to the mothership to allow the mothership to return to Kerbin. The refuel craft was actually made after I discovered the original craft didn't have enough delta V to get into Moho orbit . I think others have done bigger ships - but for me, that's a record. Maybe not in part count, but certainly in sheer volume. I've only got one last step to complete: Returning the kerbalnauts to the Kerbal Space Center on Kerbin. Neither ship has enough thrust for a soft landing on Kerbin, so I'll have to send some ships designed for the task up. But that's pretty easy. I think I've done enough for now to call it a success . I haven't updated my signature ribbons yet due to some issues with the signature generator.

Uhhhh . . . can't login: EDIT: Evernote didn't like me doing that, use ImageShack instead . . .

As Aphox mentioned - Steam doesn't prevent you from creating multiple installs. I personally use Steam, because it's a pretty easy way to manage all of my games. I think the biggest benefit to Steam is the automatic update - I didn't have to go out and update it, as it updates itself. I got versions 0.20 and 0.20.1 while I was away doing something else .

N-body systems tend to "drift" out of what would actually be their orbits due to numerical rounding, and there's no really good way to correct for that. At extreme levels of time warp, this can cause systems to fly apart. Two body systems (ie, conics) is the only one that has been solved completely by mathematicians, and thus is the only one where you can completely predict the position at any arbitrary point in time. With three or more bodies, you generally have to perform actual simulation of the orbits in real time, and can't completely predict the position at any arbitrary point in time. This means that errors tend to accumulate over time, leading to instability, especially at high levels of time warp. I should note that this has been discussed before many times, and as a result KSP is unlikely to change. It will likely always be based on conics, unless there's a breakthrough in current mathematics involving three-body systems. EDIT: This is why: The authors of KSP decided that for their game, this type of orbital deterioration is unacceptable. The goal of KSP is to be a game first and foremost, and gamers will expect not to have these types of bugs. The goal of Orbiter is to be a realistic simulation, and to some degree these types of bugs are acceptable if it's still an overall more realistic simulation.