Kchinger

Did it work for you? How long until you think it could be the actual release? Or, if it works, can you point me towards instructions for using it? PF is the only thing holding me at 1.7, and I'm about to make my first trip to something beyond Kerbin sphere (Duna I think) and it's silly but I really want your first time I see another planet to be with the new textures, so I haven't played in months.

Thanks. They use the terms extended and standard on the screenshot on the first post of this thread. Standard on far left and standard extended on far right, those are the two I've unlocked so far I think. The others must come later (like hollow, etc).

So apparently the standard base unlocks after the extended one for some reason. Or maybe my tech tree was just messed up because I installed part way through a career, but anyway, it was in the next aerodynamics node. Still not sure what the benefits of the extended are, but I'll try the normal and maybe it will become apparent.

Landed my fuel ferry on Minmus to start getting fueled up. Kerbal is for scale (by the right landing gear, under the KAS hose). It holds a LOT of fuel, and should be able to get most of it back to LKO since Minmus is so easy. Other than that, just some normal contract stuff. I set up KAC alarms for transfer windows to all of the planets, so I can start sending relays and doing a bit of science at least. Possibly might just go ahead and send a manned lander and see what happens, but that's scary, so I dunno. Duna isn't the first window, which is giving making me wonder what to do exactly on the order. Need to get a LKO station set up, for a contract and just to get a launching pad for inter-planetary.

What are the benefits of the extended base over the standard base, and what is the actual standard base called? The only one I can ever get to work is the extended one, and it seems wasteful if it's not necessary. Maybe I'm not using the correct "standard" one.

Today I returned 600 units of ore from Minmus for a contract, despite connecting the 10m heat shield incorrectly (forgot the decoupler below it, so I couldn't deploy it). First time I hit the water, sank, and broke up when it hit the ocean floor. Tried again and got land, no problem even without the heat shield. From left to right, ore return ship, miner, and base. Then I landed a tourist ship on Minmus, switched a rescued Kerbal to it, fueled up, and headed off to orbit the Mun for the tourists. Tourist ship with the entire Kerbin system in the background. Then I built and launched a giant (950T or something at launch) fuel ferry ship. The idea is it heads to Minmus, fuels up, then returns to LKO to fuel ships. I have my doubts that it can land, or maneuver well enough to dock, but we'll see. I didn't drop any tanks, just 6 Mammoth engines in two stages, which were all recovered with Stage recovery (and a silly number of parachutes). I think it has about 550T of fuel off the top of my head, plus maybe 4500 units of MonoPropellant. And I just now noticed on that screenshot that there are Kerbals aboard. It has a probe core, I just put the command module on in case it came in handy to ferry some Kerbals later. Ugh, now I have to get those people home somehow. I wish putting people on ships was less automatic and had more checks. If it works I'll modify it slightly and make another one for liquid fuel. And if it turns out it can't land on Minmus, it still got about 200T of fuel to orbit for pretty cheap.

So is this confirmed working in 1.8.1 still?

Got my Minmus base to the surface after picking up a new scientist from a rescue in LKO. Had to hop a few times to get within range of the KAC hose (35m I think) and then actually banged my solar panels into the other ship's panels on deploy, but no harm done. Got the ore loaded onto the ore return probe, and loaded it up with fuel, so it's ready to head back whenever I'm ready. Will have to send the new scientist back to Kerbin surface at some point to complete the rescue contract, but for now he and another 2 star are in the MPL on Minmus surface, loaded with data. Considering its Minmus and on the surface, I don't think it's making appreciably more science than the one in Munar orbit, which seems odd. Tomorrow will be to return the ore, and I'm not sure what else. Maybe start building some fuel ferries to make the mining worth it. And perhaps time for a probe to Duna, leave the Kerbin system finally.

So I'm not the only one having crew management issues. Maybe I need to hire a manager to keep all these people straight and get them on the correct ships.

Well, I managed to land the Minmus Rover Miner. Only took two tries. First one rolled a bit off axis so I couldn't control it with the Thuds and it slammed onto its side. Definitely harder to drive in the low gravity. It wants to flip and roll if I'm not gentle. Drove over to the ore lander about 2 km away, set up for mining, and quickly realized I had two issues. 1. I had a pilot, not an engineer. I had tested on Kerbin with an engineer, but somehow ended up with a pilot on the pad. This isn't the first time this has happened, I need to get in the habit of checking my crew on the pad to be sure. 2. I had never used the KAS transfer station before, and didn't realize how it worked. I thought you used two hose things to attach, I never saw the socket piece, so I can't connect them. So, another opportunity! Got a contract for a Minmus base and a Kerbin rescue. So I built a lander with a big 4 person module plus an MPL. I'll grab one scientist from orbit rescue, then I've included an engineer with the sockets and tools to fix the existing ships, another scientist, and a pilot. My current pilot on Minmus will round out the necessary crew for the contract, I'll get my hose stuff fixed, and send the ore back. How will I get all of those people from the new Minmus station back to Kerbin? Maybe I won't, I dunno. They can level up from there, they can reach orbit without even needing a ship, and fuel ferries will be landing anyway that they can hitch a ride on maybe. The base is in LKO, ready to rendezvous with the rescue, and should easily reach Minmus surface tomorrow. Needs a much more precise landing since it isn't a Rover.

If you're using mods, smart parts has a fuel bleed valve you could use to get rid of excess weight.

Today continued my work from yesterday (doesn't it always?). Got the huge mining rig into LKO, took 4 orbits with the little NERV to get it to Minmus intercept. It actually beat the Ore Lander/Return ship to Minmus, but I parked it high up and then sent the lander down to scout for a good location. Hopped once and got to the Great Flats, with 15% ore. Perfect. Tomorrow will be landing the rover, and starting the mining. Should be fun. Rover in its fairing looks a bit ridiculous, and makes the huge rocket look ridiculously tiny. But it worked. The much, much smaller ore transfer lander. This will satisfy "return a ship from Minmus" and "return 600 units of ore from Minmus" at the same time. Well, at least it will if I can manage to keep it from smashing into Kerbin's surface once it has 600 units of ore on board. It's loaded up with parachutes, drogues, and a 10m inflatable heat shield. And it's pretty light otherwise. We'll see.

Yesterday I finally returned everyone to Kerbin from set of explorations and rescue contracts at Mun and Minmus. Got about 6k science, mostly from Minmus, which helped my tree considerably. I haven't even spent it all, since I'm not sure exactly what I need most. Today I built a small Minmus hopper/lander probe with empty ore tanks and a KAS fuel line and a surface scanner. Sent it on its way to Minmus to find the best spot and hang out. Have to bring 600 ore to Kerbin surface for a contract. I'm hoping I can slow it down enough. Stage Recovery says yes. We'll see. Then I spent a ton of time building, testing at KSP, and refining a Minmus mining rover. Based on one I saw here, it will land on the bell and then tip onto wheels, with two Thuds to slow the descent of the nose. I'm hoping I can land it. I managed it once in Kerbin gravity, so might take a few tries but I think I can manage. Strapped it on the biggest rocket I've built yet (36t or so payload to Minmus surface). It made orbit, sort of, but middle stage TWR was too low so the orbit was super eccentric and wasteful. Made a couple modifications and I'll try again tomorrow with a more efficient launch. 6 big drills, 1 big convertor, 12 gigantor panels, another few surface mount panels from Near Future I think, enough radiators to cool all drills plus two conversions. Should be enough to be efficient. No fuel cells, so no nighttime mining, but that's alright. My first try at mining, I'm excited. Once I get the base set up I'll build a fuel ferry or two to get it from surface to Kerbin or Minmus orbit, and then I can start heading to my first planet.

So this has happened multiple times lately, and it's driving me nuts. I'm on 1.7.3 still. When this happens, I can still use my mouse to select my menu items, I can click to check status of parts, etc. But I can't control the ship in any way, I can't click EVA, I can't click SAS, I can't use the WASD to do anything, I can't switch to Map mode, I can't use escape to bring up the menu. I can't warp, I can't switch vessels (it says "Target Switching Locked" I think. You can see that RCS and SAS are somewhat grayed out maybe. But I have plenty of electric charge, I have people onboard, I'm not warping. I can't figure out what is happening here. I do have mods, including EVE, KER, Firespitter, KAC, procedural fairings, SCANsat, Near Future stuff, CTT, Chatterer, Docking Port Alignment (which I can't figure out how to enable), transfer window planner, trajectories, Stage Recovery, RCS Build Aid, MechJeb, KIS, KAS, Gravity Turn, and some other stuff I don't even know why or what it is. The game keeps running though. Time passes. I just can't do anything. I end up having to kill the game with Alt-F4 and then go back in and go to a save. Strangely, it Autosaves (or at least says it is) while I'm stuck like this. Any ideas?

Continuing in the vein of "it's always something", I sent up the second ship with the scientist. Went to do my capture burn around Minmus and realized I'd forgotten solar panels. Luckily I was able to use the engine to gimbal and generate just enough electricity to control the attitude and complete something resembling an orbit. Then it was time for the second rescue, this time with an engineer with some panels and an electric screwdriver. Successfully docked (no easy task, I stupidly relied on the built in RCS of one of the command pods, but my ship is way too big still for that, so it was mostly an engine affair, which the skipper is less than ideally suited for). Got the panels attached to rescue #1, and it headed off to rendezvous with the original Minmus lander ship so the scientist and pilot can continue their mission to land. Rescue #2, meanwhile, will rescue one person from Minmus orbit for a contract and then head to Mun, meet the low on fuel lander in orbit, stick a probe core with two docking stations on it on top of the lander, and then Munar lander probe will head down to rescue someone from the surface for a contract. And do a bit of science while there on a hopefully new biome. Probably going to have a ton of fuel left on various craft after all this is done, so I might use it to move my Mun MPL station into orbit around Minmus before everyone heads home. Drop off some extra science from Minmus surface at the MPL on the way, maybe swap on a two star scientist for a one star that's there. If there is still fuel left and the Minmus lander hasn't hit every biome maybe I'll fuel it up and go again. This game has endless possibilities of things to do and endless ways to screw those things up. I love it.

Well, last night I sent a scanner/relay probe, a lander/biome hopper, and a command module on their journey to Minmus for my first landing there. Today I finished maneuvers and they are parked 25km up and circularized, except the probe is out at 299km scanning. Got ready to separate and descend and realized I had a problem. I intended to bring a scientist and a pilot. Instead I brought an engineer and a pilot. So, I built another ship to bring a scientist, grab the extra oxidizer I accidentally sent with the original command module NERV. It'll swap folks, rescue someone from Minmus, head to Mun where I have a lander in orbit low on fuel, transfer some extra fuel and a person.... Hmm, I just saw another flaw in my plan. My lander at the Mun is a one seater, and I need to rescue someone from the surface for a contract... Maybe I take a probe core with two docking ports on it along and dock it, by itself, to the lander. Have to make sure I time the descent to see my relays, but should be okay, I have a couple in Molyinar (sp?) orbits at Mun. Always something with this game.

In a roundabout kind of way you've sort of demonstrated why ICBM interception and kill is such an incredibly difficult problem.

So I think I finally solved this. I think it's related to Procedural Fairing. I left the interstage nodes on without really understanding what they are (I need to research this) and I think instead of attaching stuff radially to the top of my craft like I thought, I was actually attaching it in midair to an interstage node, but couldn't tell.

Does Smart Parts work when the vessel isn't in focus/switched to? I'm trying to use them to ride through the nights, so discharge when EC gets low, prevent charging until morning, but I'm having trouble figuring it out, and I can't tell if it's an issue with my implementation or that I'm not watching the craft. Thanks. And thanks for the quick update to 1.8, getting closer to being able to move there.

Ah, yes, mine did that last night for some reason. Eventually reached orbit but it took 20 minutes from liftoff to finish circularizing. Spent a very long time at about 60km. Yes, in this case it's not optimizing correctly. You could try alt-improve guess, that'll reset everything to default and let it try again. Also try adjusting some stuff yourself if that doesn't work. Read the help question marks in game. I think the one that's important is the second time that it decays too, if that's too long it might take forever. I'm far from an expert though.

Even if you're letting it optimize, it's usually an issue with the rocket itself if it's not making orbit due to flipping/loss of control). If it's burning up then you can try adjusting the parameters (the hold AP time I think adjusts steepness. Too steep is less efficient but less chance of death). Click the question marks to see what each parameter does, and then launch a couple more times to optimize once it reaches orbit. Watch the control inputs while it's ascending. If it reaches a limit of control and the rocket still crashes, there's not much Gravity Turn can do. You can try hand steering first to see if it's even possible, since Gravity Turn can be slightly slow to react to changing flight characteristics and can lose control when you could've made it. If it's breaking up, try turning off the time warp option.

Luckily he doesn't need to climb, he can fly there, right?

My first Mun landing! Not super exciting for most, but I'm pretty happy with it. Apollo style with a command module in orbit. Hoping to have enough dV to biome hop at least once, but the landing took like 1500 from 38k orbit. I need to learn to be more efficient I guess. Only have 900 left, enough to make orbit but not a ton of extra.

Sent a manned mission to just orbit Minmus and do science. May have wasted my biome scanner. It finished, but it's out of electricity when I switch to it so I can't view the results to get the science or anything, and I can't turn off the scanner to let it charge. Electricity seems to be my constant weakness. Did a resource scan though and doing a low resolution scan I think with my manned one before dropping into a lower orbit to do biome science.

Got my first encounter and orbit around Minmus. Just a Scansat to map the biomes for future exploration for now. Wasted a ton of dv reversing my orbit by accident. When placing my maneuver for the capture I must have accidentally pulled too far and didn't realize what I had done. I watched as mechjeb executed the burn, my orbit got more and more elliptical, collapsed, and then grew again. Oops. Oh well. It's polar and has the correct ap/PE for scanning, with like 20 dv left over. Once that scan finishes I think I'll have just enough science to get the infrared and the atmosphere thing, which will help me get more science, hopefully get to the gravity science thing, and then I'll attempt my first mun landing, followed my a minmus landing and I'm off to the races.