Scarecrow71

Continuing on with my attempt at a HARD Caveman challenge, I got contracts to test stuff while splashed down. I misjudged the buoyancy of the probe, and so it starts to sink. I look directly at it...and realize I can see Kerbol THROUGH THE CENTER OF KERBIN WHILE UNDERWATER.

My problem here is that I want to LAND on Minmus, not just fly-by. I've seen all of these people out here do all these cool things in the Caveman challenge...and I can't. No matter what I try I'm just not, for whatever reason, getting it done. It's frustrating considering on Normal difficulty I can do almost anything I can think of. Why am I having such a difficult time on HARD? My other major issue here is that I cannot find a tutorial on how to rendezvous without having any upgraded buildings. Everything I'm finding uses maneuver nodes and patched conics, which I don't have access to in this career. Everyone says "Well, you really should learn how to do it". Yeah, I know how to do it with maneuver nodes. But I can't find anything to help me learn how to do this without them.

Say hello to...

I'm trying to avoid heavy part clipping with this one. But I may give this a serious look.

Have you tried other planet packs instead of Infinite Discoveries?

Are you using any planet packs beyond Infinite Discoveries? I ask because I have an install of 1.12.5 that has KSRSS (with Kopernicus, of course), and I'm not seeing this issue with the solar panels. How did you install Kopernicus? Through cKAN, or CurseForge, or manual download? Have you tried verifying the integrity of your files? Uninstall Kopernicus and reinstall?

Yeah, I'm not looking to cheese into it, or even claim it if it isn't warranted. I was just curious because that's the one thing that doesn't really have a firm description on what it takes. I assume at least one interplanetary trip on a difficulty of no less than Hard...but again, that's subjective. And I'm not planning on going interplanetary with this run anyhow; I've spent already far too much time trying to build this one off-site craft to get to Minmus. But, well, I'll probably try it anyhow. How does one go about requesting taking over a challenge for someone who is no longer active?

@king of nowhere I have the lander and central stack out on the launchpad right now. I'm with you - I can't spare the extra parts right now to use launch clamps, which really would be very helpful. But, que sera, and all. My issue with the airplane wheels is going to be turning. As in, they don't turn effectively enough with this large of a load on them. I have the side booster built as a subassembly, and I can easily enough identify height. But those airplane wheels are going to be the death of me. That, and CoM; I'm finding that the current rover design wants to tip this thing forward. I'm trying to get enough weight near the back of this thing so that it is either straight OR tilts a bit to the back. I am aware of the need for jet engines. I'm actually toying with using a rocket engine (Reliant) to get some speed and then move forward with braking to slow down. You are correct on needing a second engine pointing the other way for reverse; that's something I hadn't thought of before. This might actually help with my CoM issue above. Hmmm. All told, I totally appreciate the help you are providing here. I am really hoping to get to, land on, and return from Minmus with this particular build/mission. If this works - and while I know you did it, I doubt myself - I might just try an interplanetary mission using these same concepts. Not that I'm trying for order of the trilobyte, but what does one have to do to get that? Is a singular mission to, say, Duna, complete with a landing, on HARD mode acceptable? Or is that reserved for those nano-diamond peeps who do a Jool-5?

See, that's the trick here. I have a lander that I can attach parts to...but I'm stuck at the whole "we build vertically in the VAB, so how do I get boosters attached in the right way" phase. I have Aviation unlocked, so I have access to the airplane wheels. Not the best, but they can be used to move stuff around. That's kind of what I was talking about. Moving away from the runway (or the launchpad) with stuff to attach to other parts already out there. I said grasslands because, well, that's the first thing I think of when I think of building off-site. But I'll see how far I actually have to go to make sure I don't run into the 18 ton limit. I will have to check these out!

I am in the midst of trying the Caveman challenge on HARD, and science has all but bottomed out with me needing 8 nodes on Tier V. This means I need to leave Kerbin and go collect science on Mun and/or Minmus...but I'm limited to 30 parts and 18 tons. I have an idea to.build a craft away from the KSC, specifically in the grasslands to the west of the KSC. I could launch to LKO and try docking there, but I am horrible at manual rendezvous. So I want to explore this option first before wasting all of my remaining funds on LKO madness. The big issue with the grasslands is that I cannot utilize EVA construction due to weight limits. So I probably have to use docking ports. Which is fine, I guess. My question: does anyone know of a video or a thread that covers this? I need as much help as I can get here.

I use maneuver nodes for everything. I'm not good at just knowing when to burn and for how long, so I use the tools the game gives me.

That's not an opinion. It's fact. Nate didn't write one line of code, so the code being bad isn't his fault. He is responsible for not sticking to the original vision or scope document, and he is absolutely responsible for promising things that couldn't be delivered. But the code? Not his fault.

Thanks! I finally got around to creating a custom flag for KSP, and I decided to turn that into my avatar. Yeah, it is going to take all kinds of time that people just don't have if they do this in their spare time. I didn't say it wasn't his fault. I'm just saying he isn't a coder, so the actual code being bad isn't his fault.

That's really not as easy as some people seem to think it is. Even if one has the requisite knowledge needed (Unity, art, modeling, animation, etc.), it still boils down to 100s - if not 1000s - of hours to create said game. Heck, I'm trying to learn Unreal right now, and I barely have time to run through the tutorial. Granted, the tutorial is like 14 hours long and covers a lot of the basics in multiple situations (terrain generation, movement, collecting resources, etc.). But I'm not even 3 hours in and I've been at it for weeks. Just don't have the time to dedicate that I'd like to. So it's possible that, while someone may have the requisite knowledge, they may not have the time. And if they need to learn some/any/all of it? It's a bit daunting. @NexusHelium can speak for himself, but... It isn't released, but it's not like he's sitting around talking about stuff without at least trying it all himself.

He isn't a coder, so no, it isn't his fault that the code is a mess. That lies with the coders. Nate's responsibility is in the design document and giving in to scope creep.

So I've got more than 1000 hours in KSP1. I can get to and land on Mun and Minmus in my sleep. I've gotten to, landed on, and returned from Duna, Dres, Moho, and Eeloo. I've visited a few of Jool's moons (although I haven't landed on them here, I did land on and return from both Bop and Pol in KSP2). And I've even orbited and returned from said orbit around Eve. You can almost say I've done almost everything in this game. Except for a few things, that is. And I need to work on those few things, starting with Eve. So today, for only the 3rd time ever - in over 1000 hours of playing - I was able to land a probe on Eve. Hathor II, with a relay satellite in orbit (Hathor III). So here's the craft on the launchpad, and then in LKO: A little side note here. I was today years old when I discovered that fairings have a truss mount option. I did not know that this was possible! I can stack multiple satellites inside the same fairing without having to use extra parts like those multi-stack pieces? Where has this been all my life?!? That is unbelievable! Ahem. Anyway, on with the show. The craft in orbit of Eve, followed by the probe touched down on the surface: This craft was way over-engineered. I followed a tutorial - yes, some of us with a lot of hours in this game still need help - by GrunfWorks. When I separated from the transfer stage, the transfer stage had ~3000 m/s of dV. The probe that landed had ~1000 m/s when I decoupled it inside Eve's atmosphere. But, considering Eve is my current nemesis... I will most certainly get better at Eve landings, and I will practice building and doing them. I feel so accomplished today. Time to take a break and go drink a root beer. Until next time, this has been Ron Kerburgundy for Kerb 5 News in Las Kerbas. Good night, everyone.

Well, I'm not sure what happened, but as soon as I fired up KSP today, that contract for surface-deployed science completed itself. I'm not complaining. I just wish I knew why, is all. Anyhow, I had to go put a satellite in orbit of Eve, and while I was time warping through the cosmos, one of my satellites in orbit of Kerbin decided it wanted to get a closer look at the Mun. And by "closer look", I mean "crash-land into the canyons". So I had to go replace that one because I need the relays up in space for whatever reason KSP has for wanting all those green lines showing up. Anyhow, because I won't do anything without a contract, I look and see I've got a contract to put a new satellite up in HKO. I'm like "well, free money for something I'm gonna do anyhow", so I take that and build a new satellite. Get into LKO, and as I'm preparing for an inclination change burn, I capture this shot: A total solar eclipse, with the Mun directly in front of Kerbol, from LKO. I was a bit miffed about losing the satellite and having to replace it, but catching this made up for it. Well, this shot, and the fact that I got paid to replace it. To the tune of 300,000 and 22.

How low can you go? All the way down Down, down, down Down to cheat-town

I don't normally deploy science, primarily because it doesn't seem to return more than what it costs to actually get it to where it needs to be. But today I decided to drop the surface mystery goo experiment on Minmus. Sent up a Scientist (Bob) and an Engineer (Bill) because I've read that certain Kerbals deploy things better than others. So I sent them to the lowlands with the Mystery Goo experiment, the Control Station, and the Power Station. Just hold your thoughts for a few moments; I'm getting there. Anyhow, dropped the experiments on Minmus, and took a bunch of science readings to bring home (I haven't been in this biome before, which is why I selected this one for surface deployed science). Decided to just check the Wiki regarding deployment order, just to be sure...and see that I need the surface antenna too. Which I do not have unlocked yet. Like, really? You want me to deploy surface experiments, but I don't have the one piece of equipment that's necessary to do this? Sigh. I bring Bill and Bob home, and I have just enough science from this biome run to unlock the node I need for the ground Communotron. So I have to send Jeb up there by himself to deploy the antenna, but I decide to bring the magnetometer and the seismometer with me. If I'm going, I may as well make it worth my while, right? I land on Minmus...3 or so km away from the site. So I get to spend a bunch of time holding the W key to run Jeb over there (I suck at short hops, so I didn't even try to get closer). I deploy the communotron, and it immediately sends up 40% of the mystery goo data. I'm thinking "Dang! I'll hit the whole 50% and finish the contract before I get back to Kerbin". I run Jeb back to his lander, launch to 30km, circularize, and send him on his way home. I start time warping, and some message comes up indicating an issue with sending data back from the deployed science? Well, as far as I know there is no way to go see a history of messages - thank you Squad for deciding THAT wasn't a necessary thing - and so I land Jeb on Kerbin and immediately go to the Tracking Station. I switch to the deployed control station...and it shows Comms of 1.0, and power. The power station shows it is generating 3 units of power, and all 3 are being used (Control Station, Communotron, Mystery Goo). Mystery Goo shows it's still collecting. Communotron shows its communotroning. And I've got a satellite in orbit of Minmus (but I didn't check where it's at, although after a 2 day return trip, it should have come back into position above/near the Communotron at least once, right?). So I'm at a loss. The mystery goo thing shows 40% sent, everything is connected and powered, and yet that message came up and went away so fast that I don't know what it officially/fully said. Do I need to send Jeb back to Minmus until this is done collecting/sending? Did I miss something that I need to deploy or keep there? Is this a bug that I should simply cheat my way through (which I do NOT want to do)?

TTI is actively trying to sell the publisher right now. Why on Kerbin would they leak the source code?

So I'm doing a playthrough in career with the Stock-alike Space Station Parts redux mod. And I have that mod installed because I'm tired of having to manually craft a round-ish space station ring. Anyhow, I've got 187 science points, and I'm looking at the tech tree and I say to myself "Hot dog, I can get Heavier Rocketry and finally get access to the Skipper and Bobcat engines". And then I promptly click on and approve purchasing Precision Propulsion. What more Kerbal thing can you possibly do in R&D? Now I have to go collect another 160 science points to get the module I really wanted. Sigh.

This has to be the most far-fetched amount of hopium I've yet seen over KSP2. I get that everyone wants a feature complete game, especially the one that Nate and the devs simply couldn't stop playing. But to hope for a beta-level build that's better than what we got? Man, I'd like to have a swig of whatever you are drinking there, my friend. I'm with @TickleMyMary here: I wish you nothing but the best of luck. If you are able to pull this off I'll actually download the mod and fire up KSP2 for the first time since Christmas and check it out. I just hope you are able to get around some of the still-existent bugs, such as orbital decay, and parts falling through celestial bodies.

They already have. @munix has a Discord server dedicated to Project Launch Escape (I believe that's what it is called), and they are currently attempting to get a proof-of-concept up and running in Unity. The server has been a bit quiet for some time now, so it's hard to determine whether or not they are making any headway. In addition to this, I'm running myself through an RTS tutorial in Unreal Engine 5.4 to see if that might be the way to go. I think RTS is probably the best way to handle gathering resources, especially early on...but I'm not sure yet how to combine that with the build-a-bear concept for rockets/planes, nor how to deal with the solar system and flight. There are tutorials out there, which I'll have to go through at some point. My point here is that several people are already going down this path. Only KSP2 is unfinished. Keep in mind that acquiring the IP would also give one access to the original, which is, technically, a finished game. Granted, the source code for KSP also has issues and needs a fair amount of optimization. But it is still feature complete.

Is any effort going to be made to remove the KSP2 banner from the forums? Or maybe just switch back to the original one?

And at that, the modding community has all but stopped development on KSP2 mods.