[IVA Challenge]

How many extra points do we get if we don't use the map view either?

[What have you been the first to discover in KSP?]

No idea if I was the first, but I did manage to launch, orbit the mun, and return safely to Kerbin without leaving IVA view for the entire mission.

Here's a screenshot from that mission - I think it was mid-2012?

Spoiler

 

[Getting to Duna]

21 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

Sure - use the transfer window planner. Generally it's used to find the time where it takes the less dV to get where you want to, as waiting is easier than adding more fuel. But if that doesn't concern you, just enter your current orbit details, pick the target, and click the bluest part of the 'leftmost' side of the colorful graph. It will tell you what ejection angle you need, and how much dV to burn if you want to go -right now-.

There's actually a possible transfer window to Duna, which doesn't take any more dv than the optimal one, which you can launch immediately (year 1, day 1) - but it takes about 2.5 years to get there.  It actually takes less time to wait until the regular window opens up around year 1 day 236.  To see the year 1 day 1 launch option, open the transfer window planner, hit the 'Advanced Settings' option, and enter 1500 days as the max 'time of flight'

[Tip Over Recovery]

Last time this happened to me, Jeb had landed on Duna.  I was playing with no quickloads/no reverting/no crew respawns, and had just about unlocked the entire science tree (everything else was on normal difficulty) without losing a single crew member throughout the play-through.  Since I wasn't about to take any risks, Jeb got out and went a few hundred meters away to wait for rescue.  Luckily, the lander had a probe core on it, so I attempted to try to light the engine and pitch up.

 

Surprisingly, it worked!  I landed the ship, Jeb got back in, and they took off for home.  It seemed to be just that kind of mission, though, as my extra takeoff and landing burnt up too much fuel, and Jeb had to bail out part-way up from the Duna surface.  He managed to barely get into orbit with the EVA jetpack, and was successfully rescued, but all of the science and the surface sample was lost.

[Do you have a screenshot that makes you laugh every time?]

Old, but I still get a kick out of it:

[Bad Astronomer Phil Plait probably owns Kerbal Shapeways]

It wouldn't be a stretch to get him to post - he's joined discussions on Fark.com for years

["There is nothing concerning about this vessel"]

I will say, this is the first time I've started a career and remembered to drain the MonoProp out of the capsule before RCS thrusters were unlocked. That is entirely thanks to the Engineers Report

[New expierence table?]

Slight correction: They only need to plant a flag on Minmus; on the Mun, it's enough to land their vessel (no EVA or flags required).

Also pay attention to actually do suborbital on Kerbin. With the new atmo, it's easy to go from flying to orbit and back without ever going suborbital at any time in between.

Actually, I think it only counts the best thing you do in each SOI, so as long as you make orbit, you get the 2 points. You could, for example, land on the Mun and return without ever actually being in orbit around the Mun.

[Impossible contract?]

Yeah I think it might be the direction. but i have no idea how to switch it!?

The straight forward (and inefficient) way is to make a note of your orbital velocity, and then burn exactly twice that much pointing exactly retrograde

[Multiple Satelite missions with a single probe - feels like abuse?]

I tend to do the satellite missions one at a time, but as cheaply as possible. I had a sat in 0.9 that cost less than 5k (boosters and everything included) and could get just about anywhere in the Kerbin SOI. I dunno if you could do that now with the engine nerfs, but you could probably get close

[Show off your flags MEGATHREAD]

To celebrate the release of KSP, I made a flag featuring my dog. Her name is Laika.

[Has anyone been playing since 0.7.3?]

I started with 0.8.something, but then didn't start playing regularly until .14ish maybe

[How badly have you ablated your heat shields so far? From 100% obviously.]

I did a free-return from the Mun to a Peri right under 30k, and used up half of the heat shield on reentry

[How to use SAS without pilot.]

You can use a probe core (Octo or better) to provide SAS.

Although the earlier probe cores don't have reaction wheels

[Back to School]

I did exactly the same thing. My Ap was only 143k, but Jeb was still killed.

[Official 1.0 MEGA Hype Thread!]

Best hype song:

[The stock parts that you never ever ever use/hate.]

Kerbal is a game with a lot of parts that everyone uses much more than they do other. What is your least used part?

Personally I never use the Probodobodyne QBE and the NCS Adapter.

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Probodobodyne_QBE

My pet hate part is the FL-A10 Adapter and I don't know why. I just hate that part. I prefer to stack my 0.625m probe on top of 1.25m rockets than add that thing to my part count!

I use the QBE a bunch in career, it's nice because it is light and low tech enough to get early. It makes for a great low-cost sat core: this one costs under 4000 and has a dv of nearly 6500 m/s.

[Teaching old players new tricks]

[+] and [-] on the numpad will also zoom in and out in the VAB.

Also, [x] and [shift]+[x] change the symmetry up and down (1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 6x, 8x)

[Return of the NaNo virus]

I've had this happen on totally unmodded installs before. Always when switching to a ship in interstellar space

[Black screen after loading interplanetary vessels]

Here's my output_log.txt:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v36dfxfqt333iuj/output_log.txt?dl=0

Hope that helps squash this one. It's become a really expensive bug playing on hard mode with no reverts.

[Black screen after loading interplanetary vessels]

This is happening to me as well, no mods installed. It only happens to interplanetary craft, while they are in solar orbit

[Solution to asparagus staging taking out centre engine]

I've had the same problem more on this update than previous versions. It seems like the ejection force of the decouplers is higher than it used to be, causing more torque in the ejected stages.

[Handwritten Calculations for KSP]

I wrote a quick little app for my calculator to find dv. I use it all the time, multiple times per flight.

[Rescue Mission]

So in 0.90, you get rescue missions before you can set the poor kerbal as a target. I think i need to upgrade mission control to get patched conics, but i dont see anywhere what i need to be able to set a target (unless that's patched conics as well).

I was wondering if anyone tried rescuing someone without patched conics... i tried but kept on overcorrecting until i was nearly out of fuel ...

You can set the guy as target, but you can't do it from the map or tracking station. If you can get close enough to see him in the distance (50km? maybe 25km) then you can doubleclick to set as target. I managed to rescue one person like this.

[What did you do in KSP1 today?]

I killed Bill. His lander tumped over on the Mun, and instead of sending a rescue mission like I should've done, I figured I'd try and take off sideways and pitch up.

bad idea...