jimmymcgoochie

Aside from deployable batteries, which adds batteries to power your deployed science when the sun goes down, I don't know of any other mods that add deployed science experiments. It's a bit of a shame really, there are a lot of possibilities- a deployed sky-scanning telescope that could work like a Sentinel, some kind of biological experiments e.g. growing seeds (they do it on the ISS!), or an InSight-style drill that would slowly dig into the surface and collect data from the various layers it encountered.

Found a minor bug with the HECS compact bus in NFX- the labels for bare and silver variants of the endcap are the wrong way around. The descriptions are correct and they work the same way as for the other buses, but the text labels are wrong. No other parts are affected, I checked. In this screenshot the bare option is selected and the silver foil option is being hovered on, but the labels are the wrong way around.

I usually go for a fairly small central stack with boosters on the outsides. The SRBs provide the extra oomph to get it off the launchpad and usually also have extra fuel tanks on top to boost its range/payload capacity, and the main stack can use a smaller but lighter/more efficient engine which makes it cheaper and gives it more delta-V once in orbit. When paired with something like Stage Recovery to salvage the SRBs it can reduce launch costs considerably over using one big stack. I don't use LF/Ox powered side boosters often, but they fill a similar niche. Big stacks need bigger engines, which tend to be less efficient, and the extra mass of engine and fuel tank plus the fact that it has to be carried until the stage is empty will reduce your payload capacity; however a single stack has the advantage of a smaller aerodynamic profile, less complicated staging and you don't generally have to throw struts around to keep the thing from shaking/tearing/wobbling itself apart 3 seconds after launch.

I didn't know you could stack stuff inside fairings like that Must try this!

Just double-checked that video and I got round in 19 seconds @vyznevThe vertical engines are throttle controlled, horizontal are on an action group and set to maximum thrust.

Some of you are using a rather loose interpretation of the word 'hover'... I'll see your 25 seconds, and raise you... 22 seconds. Sub-20 second runs should be possible

0m57s- under a minute, but there's still a fair margin to go quicker with good piloting and/or MOAR THRUST!!!

Quick question- how do I put that badge on the bottom of my posts?

Clean run in unmodded KSP 1.9, 1 minute 5 seconds. The reason I asked about SAS is because I rely almost entirely on holding radial out to keep the rocket pointing up and reasonably stable; it's not explicitly banned in the rules, so it isn't technically cheating 14 parts, and 9 of those were to make landing legs because the real landing legs were heavier (did that matter? I have no idea). I reckon I can go sub-1 minute with a better landing, lost a lot of time at the end.

Do you need to have a pilot on the rocket? So far I've done a 1:11 with a little uncrewed rocket, but I reckon that if I can avoid crashing back onto the launchpad I can get under a minute. Going to try again in an unmodded KSP instance instead of the heavily modded (and consequently slooooow) version I did it in before. Just to check- using SAS is allowed?

If you're just using MechJeb as a tool and not using the parts, just uninstall the mod and you'll be fine. Probably. Just back up your most recent save game before you uninstall it and load the game up, just in case.

There's actually no lifespan limit on Kerbals, so you could theoretically keep one alive until the end of time (in the game at least, which I think is one second before year 1000). Of course that doesn't cover accidents, life support mods of varying flavours (literally, in the case of Snacks), accidents, unplanned disassemblies, accidents, deleting save games, accidents and forgetting to repack parachutes after the last plane disintegrated mid-flight... And accidents

There are some mods that can change fuel types for you, or if you're feeling a bit more adventurous you could try creating a new version of the part to your specifications. Here's how: Dig into the file tree under GameData/Squad/Parts/Aero/cones/noseConeAdapter.cfg Copy and paste it Open the copied file and paste this: where it says Then 4. Change "name = noseConeAdapter" at the top to another name e.g. noseConeAdapterLfOx and you'll have a brand new part in your tech tree next time you open the game that looks and acts exactly like the regular NCS, but has fuel and oxidiser instead of liquid fuel. If you don't change the name then the game can get confused by two parts with the same name. Or you could do it the boring way and use mods instead.

I find this mod very difficult to use, for the single reason that it doesn't follow the UI scale settings and there's no way to make the window bigger. I'm playing on a large TV a couple of metres away and so have the UI scaled to 120% or 130% to stay readable, but this mod sticks to 100% scale and the upgrade stats are illegible unless I move closer to the screen. Any chance of UI scaling please?

Found the 2.5m cargo bays a few days ago and they're very useful, but the highlights on them are completely wrong and will randomly be bright/dark regardless of where the light is coming from in KSP 1.8.1. I also found the cargo doors to be slightly too narrow and managed to create a perpetual energy machine by getting a wheel stuck outside the bay after opening the doors with said wheel deployed, resulting in unplanned disassembly and much explosions. If the doors were hinged the other way and both parts opened outwards then that would be an improvement to me.

Always check the original post, it usually has important information on it like dependencies, incompatible and supported mods etc. If you're using CKAN for mods then it will often flag things up, but not all the time. I once spent most of an evening trying to figure out why a mod wasn't working- turned out I had missed one of the dependencies that was right there on the first page, installed that and suddenly everything worked fine

Which version of NF Exploration and KSP are you using, and what other mods do you have installed? Please note the following from the FAQs on page 1 of this thread: Q: I'm using Remote Tech and something doesn't work!A: This mod is not compatible with RemoteTech. Some aspects may work but the reflector/feeder system would need to be reimplemented by the RT devs.

Whatever I'm doing to the texture files is corrupting them in some way- they jump in size by about 3x and KSP can't find them, I tried just opening one of the existing textures and saving it again unedited and it immediately started producing module manager errors. Interestingly it also doesn't show an image preview for all the edited files when looking at the folder even though they're all shown as .dds files. I have literally no idea why this is happening, is there some kind of file compression in the existing texture files that I'm accidentally destroying? Bodging a patch that just adds the variants without the textures will be vastly simpler (and I now know that it's working!), but won't look as nice. That might be the compromise I have to make if I can't get this texture thing sorted.

@Nertea I've tried putting together a patch that adds the solar panel cell types to the stock solar panels when ReStock is also installed (because the artwork is very similar). So far I've managed to make it nearly work for the basic OX-STAT static panels- the part switching worked but not the texture switching- by sticking the relevant code into a new patch file (and after repeated failed attempts, including ALL the curly brackets in said file) but it generates module manager warnings about the textures not being found and Solar_Static_Quad not existing (I copied the code directly from the KX-STAT panels). I think the texture .dds files I made aren't right and/or I need something like :AFTER[NearFutureSolar] at the start of the config file, do you have any advice?

You can't EVA tourists, so I'm going to assume you had a pilot on that ship who went EVA and presumably let go. Are they floating beside the ship or did they end up stopping dead and then dropping towards the surface? The second option can happen if you're accelerating at the time you do the EVA and is a little bit harder to recover from. Press the RCS key (usually R) and your Kerbal will activate their EVA jetpack. They can then fly around with it and get back to their ship- the pack has a lot of fuel and Minmus has low orbital velocities so it's actually not that difficult to get back to the ship, board and fly back to Kerbin.

From what I've seen and read about KSP2, Kerbals are going to have a lot more to do primarily because of the colonisation aspects of the game. If their personalities make a tangible difference rather than just 'veteran' gives an orange suit (no idea what 'badass' does, I haven't been able to see any difference and likewise the sliders for courage and stupidity) and there was more of a story in the game instead of "here's some parts, go build some rockets and stuff" then they could become less expendable and more valuable. I'd like to see some kind of specialisms aspect to the rather broad term of 'pilot', 'engineer' and 'scientist' - there's a difference between flying a crop duster biplane, a 747 with hundreds of passengers and a Space Shuttle, after all! Differing specialities would have different perks e.g. a geologist would get more science from running experiments on and about the ground whereas a botanist would get more science from plant-related experiments (and possibly life support systems, which I think will also be important in KSP2) but irrespective of whether they're landed, flying or in space. Some pilots could be specialists at atmospheric or vacuum flight, and engineers could be specialists that gave bonuses to e.g. wheels or resource converters/mining. Whether that's tied into the existing XP system or completely separate is another matter entirely.

If you're running ReStock+ version 1.0.0 or later, you'll find that most of Missing History is either redundant or outright replaced, but there are still a few parts in there (e.g. making the FL-A10 adapter into a fuel tank) that are useful. OctoSat and Probes Plus are also recommended: OctoSat because it's an incredibly versatile and modular system to make just about any type of probe you want, and Probes Plus because of the sheer diversity of stock-alike probe cores, landers and other parts that are actually based on real probes (prebuilt ship files are available but don't come with the mod itself) plus there are a bunch of additional science experiments in it too and a massive list of compatibility patches and plugins. Other good mods include: SCANsat is good for getting more science and it makes useful maps of terrain and biomes so you can find good landing sites; NFExploration has some interesting stuff in it including a unique way of using multi-part antenna systems to get more range/take up less space and some structural probe buses that match the appearance of the cores but are hollow and can hide stuff like batteries and fuel tanks to keep the probe itself looking pretty; RLA reborn has some new probes plus upgraded versions of the stock cores with better stats plus a selection of 0.625m parts that will work well with small probes; PicoPort gives probe-sized docking ports- there's also an add-on that adds 0.625m, 1.25m and 2.5m variants if you like; Extended Antenna Progression, which has relay dishes that are huge, heavy and expensive but pay off with ranges that reach over 100 light years. Between that and the OctoSat relay dish I'm not sure you'd need JX2 antennas; KNES has many different sizes of parts, starting at 0.3125m and rising in many increments; it also comes with the smallest functioning probe core I've ever seen in KSP- it's a cube sat that's even smaller than a cubic octagonal strut; SSR MicroSat also contains a selection of probe-sized parts including LFOx and ion engines, little solar panels and dishes. Light and compact but a bit bland to look at especially compared to some of Probes Plus' offerings. I'd skip Cryo engines purely because hydrogen doesn't have the fuel density to compete with standard LFOx engines, and the engines are expensive. Kerbal atomics is good for either really small or really large vessels- small because they're light and the smallest nuclear engine is pretty efficient, large because the engines are really efficient and can deal with the mass of hydrogen fuel you'll need. Beware of the patch that converts other nuclear engines to burn liquid hydrogen as this will affect the OctoSat nuclear engine, and OctoSat parts can't hold liquid hydrogen; bodge the part file to use a tiny amount of electric charge on top of liquid fuel and you can get around that problem. NFPropulsion has some nice high-efficiency engines, but there are two caveats: first, they use A LOT of electric charge for their tech level and will require nuclear reactors to run them (unless you're going really close to a star); and second, they don't produce a huge amount of thrust when operating at peak efficiency- the VASIMR thrusters can vary ISP at the expense of thrust, and the PIT thrusters can vary their ISP at the expense of increased power use. Skip the lithium engines, they're not nearly as good. There's a patch file inside the mod that varies the thrust, power use and ISP of all the engines; is it cheating to use that? Possibly... From what I saw the spacetux recycled nuclear engines are pretty dismal, possibly not worth bothering about. Not sure modular SRBs are worth getting either, but BetterSRBs is an interesting one that modifies all existing solid fuel rockets with a variety of different fuel burn profiles (high thrust/low burn time vs low thrust/high burn time) and works perfectly well with SRBs from mods too. You could also try the Grannus expansion pack for another solar system, and dwarf planets plus for some additional targets within the Kerbolar system itself. And once you're done with all that, try JNSQ with the stock planets rescaled nearly 3x and a compatible Grannus expansion at the same scale.

Alas, the NFExploration compatibility only comes with KSP 1.9 and not 1.8.1, so looks like I'll be stuck with deleting all the NFEx antenna stuff until either Kopernicus and planet packs are 1.9 compatible. I don't know what JNSQ does to the standard groundstations, but I can confirm they are present on the map even if the stock names don't apply (Crater Rim isn't anywhere near a crater, for example). They still work with CNC. @Horus I doubt it. One alternative is to build a geosynchronous relay satellite parked directly above KSC, which due to its orbit will always stay right on top of the space centre and with some whopping great relay dishes on it should cover the entire solar system. Scatter a few more relays evenly spaced around the Sun (check the scenario for comm net that comes with KSP itself for some ideas) and you should be covered from just about anywhere. If the stock antennas aren't enough, CommNet Antennas Extension mod provides some that plugs some gaps and adds some larger long-range antennas too, and should be more than adequate for the stock solar system and possibly for OPM too. For larger systems e.g. JNSQ or interstellar packs, Extended Antenna Progression should cover you with deployable relay dishes that are big, heavy and expensive but compensate with ranges up to 40 quadrillion km - that's close to 500 light years...

I tried installing Ad Astra in KSP 1.8.1 with just JNSQ and its dependencies. Like others I had no clouds, and the Lindor rings were a solid translucent grey disc.

Re. the curved solar panels thing, I've just found a nearly identical problem with the NFLV 5m cargo bays even though they're attached in a stack. I only used them for the first time yesterday so never found it before.