White Owl

Holy carp, dude! This is a huge update.

Understatement of the week.

Kerbal engineer was available at the beginning of the tree by default; I didn't change anything there. I decided to make the 1.25m stretchy tank available whenever the first stock 1.25m tank shows up, so "TechRequired = basicRocketry". The .625m and 2.5m stretchy tanks will be available along with stock tanks of those dimensions. I haven't played that far yet, so I don't know which tabs those will be. My plan is to unlock the stretchy SRB whenever the larger stock SRB shows up; still don't know what tab that is. I put procedural wings in "TechRequired = stability" because that's when the first rigid wing piece unlocks. If you can build a tail fin like that, you can build a wing, so it makes zero sense to unlock it later. I think I'll make a separate category for dedicated science mod parts. I've already seen three that should work well with this series.

So the reported bugfixing that enabled pWing support actually means users have to manually create separate paint masks? It isn't supposed to work ingame with the P key? Not upset, not complaining if that's the case... I just want to understand how this is supposed to work, so am seeking clarification.

It's a crime that Rogue System doesn't get more attention. Calling all sim pilots! Rogue System is aiming for DCS-like levels of detail and in-cockpit interaction with all your vehicle's many systems. Forget that silly Star Citizen and back something that deserves it.

What's the secret to getting this wonderful mod to work with Procedural Wings? Stock parts and stretchy tanks work perfectly, but the pWings don't respond to the P key at all.

The first post is unusably cluttered with old mods no longer in use, and there's no good record of which mods were used in which videos. As the first vid of the new is uploaded and scheduled to be published in a few hours, I need a better solution. So! In this post I will list mods in use in this particular series. I will also try to refrain from adding too many other mods as I record.I decided to go easy on additional parts mods this time around. No KW Rocketry, NovaPunch, AIES, B9 Aerospace, or anything else with dozens of totally new parts. I'm keeping KSPX since all those parts should be stock anyway. Also keeping select engines, intakes, and control surfaces from TV Aerospace since those are indispensably useful to airplanes. The dynamic parts mods that I intend to make significant use of are Procedural Wings, Stretchy Fuel Tanks, Stretchy SRBs, and Procedural Fairings. In this way, I can make many desired parts directly in the game. There are a few plugin changes in this series. Most notably, I'm using r4mon's Treeloader to load up Yargnit's tech tree, and also Regex's custom ScienceDef.cfg to dramatically slow the rate of science collection; I'm collecting science at 1/3 the stock rate. Deadly Reentry is gone because it wasn't so deadly except for glitchy bugs exploding things on the runway. FAR is here to stay, of course, and I've added Ferram's other game changing realism/hardmode improvement, KIDS. Many other plugins remain in use... If it displays more information or makes the game easier to use, but doesn't include anything resembling an autopilot, then I'm interested and will at least try it out. Enough babbling; more listing. Here are the mods. Parts (sometimes with plugins): Aviation Lights KSPX Mk2 Cockpit Internals Taverio's Pizza and Aerospace Dummy Weights Shuttle Parts Plugins (sometimes with parts): Chatterer Crew Manifest Docking Node Controller Navball Docking Alignment Indicator Dynamic Warp Editor Extensions Kerbal Engineer Redux Enhanced Navball Fusebox Kerbcom Avionics KerbTown Grey's Runway for KerbTown Editor Part Highlighter Universe Replacer Mushroomman's Cloud Pack PreciseNode Interplanetary Maneuver Node Assistant RotationFreeze TAC Fuel Balancer Targetron Kerbal Isp Difficulty Scaler Ferram Aerospace Research Kerbal Alarm Clock In-game notes / notepad Deadly Reentry Continued Dynamic/Procedural Parts and Plugins: Procedural Dynamics - Procedural Wing Procedural Fairings StretchyTanks Stretchy SRB KerbPaint Science! Parts and Plugins: TreeLoader ScienceDefs Research & Development Overview Radially Attached Experimental Data Storage Container Station Science

So if I had a few of these parts on a lander, then one kerbal could collect multiple surface samples? Do I understand this correctly?

What's your point? In the OP, mic_e credits NavyFish for the original idea. This mod is somewhat simpler in that it doesn't provide as much information, but it's also a much cleaner design. Just one icon on the navball.

Perfect.

I think the latest version of KIDS also causes engine thrust to vary with Isp, which confuses the engineer.

Is this compatible with Kitoban's Enhanced Navball? Can I have both installed at the same time?

I'm actually overturning my previous opinions about probes, so I agree with you. Launching a kerbal on a single SRB is fun gameplay, and well worth waiting a mission or two to unlock more "sensible" options.

This sounds great! For the moment, I've experimented around with your tech tree and Regex's 1/3 science return cfg, and I think that's the configuration I'm going to play with. Comfortably slow enough progress to feel like it's telling an interesting story, yet fast enough to not feel like a mere grind for grinding's sake.

Has anybody tried some of these new tech trees while also using edited Science values to slow down progress?

You're awesome.

This is one of my favorite mods. Something like this should've been part of the maneuver nodes when they were first introduced. After using it for awhile, two minor suggestions occurred to me. Would an option to minimize the window be possible? It would be convenient to reclaim some of KSP's ever-dwindling available screen area. Next, I love manipulating the maneuver node with the keyboard, but it would be smoother to hold down a key instead of tapping the key over and over again. Just a couple small user-friendliness suggestions.

In any other context than KSP, this would make perfect sense. But KSP lets you stack as many tiny fuel tanks as you like. Although this does open up the concept of voluntarily choosing not to stack one fuel tank on top of another, for exactly the reasons you mention. Hmm... It honestly never occurred to me that stacking fuel tanks could be considered unrealistic and an exploit of game mechanics, just like air hogging a dozen intakes. This could actually be inspiring!

Depends which mods. I'm planning on unlocking Procedural Wings whenever the first rigid wing piece of any shape shows up, since it would be so utterly stupid to think my kerbals only figured out how to make one specific wing component and just stack them on top of each other. Absolutely idiotic! Similarly, if you have any 1.25m fuel tank unlocked then you should also get that specific size of Procedural Fuel Tank. The mind boggles at why anybody ever thought it would make sense to gradually unlock multiple tanks of the same base diameter... As soon as you have one tank, any tank, you can make the other sizes by stacking, so why not cut to the chase and allow any fuel tank of that radius? It just barely makes sense to limit the other diameters. On the other hand, something huge, complex and game changing with new technologies - say Kethane or KAS, for example - that might make more sense to unlock at the end of the tree.

In my opinion, the fairings should be available in whatever tab the first aerodynamic cone is available.

I was certain that something like this would show up immediately after .22 was released! No sense in wasting energy arguing about the tech tree; just fix it and carry on playing.

Yeah, I played around with KIDS and the Arcturus Thrust Corrector a little bit. Kerbal Engineer definitely chokes on that combo; doesn't know how to read it. In that setup KIDS chops all your thrust in half, but everything still weighs more than real-life rockets... using stock engines and tanks I could barely get off the ground, let alone think about orbiting something. I don't think KIDS + ATC + stock equipment will be a viable setup. But I still haven't looked at modular fuels, so maybe that could work.

Right, in stock KSP it's so absurdly easy to reach orbit. If your payload is the stock 1-kerbal capsule, you don't need to think about staging or boosters at all. Just one engine and a few fuel tanks will do it with no problem. That's just plain wrong. This mod fixes that problem.

Just took it for a quick test drive. FAR to Real, Adjusted is the mode for me. Works exactly as advertised. Ferram, congrats on another universally game changing mod. FAR and now KIDS are essentials; everything else is optional.

Excellent!