KevinTMC

Does the PSystem have something to do with that large-ish thing that looks like an orange window with data in it, that I see a brief flash of while I'm looking at a black screen and waiting for the scene change to complete?

What I would expect is that a full Courage bar = courageous, an empty Courage bar = cowardly; a full Stupidity bar = stupid, an empty Stupidity bar = smart. Is this not the way it works? Are Courage and Stupidity backwards from what I'd assume? Is only one of them backwards? (Is neither of them, and I've just misunderstood the posts above?) Is this intended behavior? (P.S. I was also expecting a definitive verdict on whether our brave Kerbals are Kerbalnauts or Kerbonauts or something else entirely...but here we've got a building labeled "Astronaut Complex" instead? That was unexpected...at least by me.)

Are you sure that helps? I get the exact same lag (noticeable but not severe) and occasional memory-related crashes whether those features are turned on or off, whether the Mapsat window is open or not, and whether the part installed on my craft is the full Mapsat unit or just the GPS.

I'm thinking a Kerbal version of Galaxy Trucker would be in order.

Eeloo may be a more frequent offender; but it's definitely not just Eeloo: Just the other day I planted a flag at the desert anomaly on Kerbin; and when I returned to it later, this happened. I certainly never expected to see a flag splashing down in/below the desert! I had a rover blow up on Minmus in this fashion, also in version 0.20.2.

I'm settling into a routine for these things. I plan to: 1) Follow news of the release and reactions on the forums 2) Keep playing the previous version until 0.21.1 is out and key mods are updated 3) Archive all user data and everything else I've added to my 0.20.2 install; tuck the archive into the KSP folder for easy reference after installing 0.21.1 4) Start from scratch, copying over the most keenly-missed items (probably just a few craft files this time) from the archive as needed 5) ??? 6) Profit!!! EXPLOSIONS!!!

Glad you like the design...I'm sorry it hasn't been working for you! Maybe it's this: SAS should be on; RCS should be off. Have you tried it that way? If you've got both these on, I would indeed expect the hyperactive overcorrecting RCS to tear the stack apart. When I launch it with only SAS on, at full throttle (and of course no time acceleration), it stays together and chugs more or less straight upwards. I'm referring to the stage where you've finally dropped all laterally-mounted stages (first set of SRBs; second set of SRBs; side-mounted tanks with Skipper engines) and you're running on just the single Mainsail engine. At that point it becomes possible to--carefully--steer, hence the gravity turn.

I emptied browser cache (and also checked the box for "Clear data from hosted apps" just for good measure...I'm using Chrome on a Windows 7 machine); reloaded pages. Still can't see the SSTO device on my Kerbin ribbon, or anyone else's on this thread either. It does show up on the ribbon generator page itself, both next to the set of Kerbin checkboxes and at the bottom. I hit "Submit"; it takes me to "And done! here is your signature image"...and SSTO is gone. P.S. Was there supposed to be an option for us to select from different ordering schemes for the ribbons? I didn't see one yet. P.P.S. This is a really cool tool and a true public service to the KSP community. Thank you.

It's not appearing for me on the web app itself (on the My Ribbons page) either.

It's working okay for me...just seems to need some optimization. There is lag (the game will repeatedly freeze for an instant or two on a fairly regular cycle, such as once every minute of mission time), and I'm regularly running right at maximum memory use--I don't dare run ISA with more than a handful of other plugins. Using just the GPS unit doesn't help with these issues; it lags and eats memory the same as the full module.

Ah. Just goes to show how much I've still got to learn about jet engines and atmospheric flight and such. Would it really help extend the range that much by just adding some intakes to the design and flying higher (we're talking what, 25km instead of 12?)...or would I need to also switch from the Basic Jet Engine to Turbojets? I used the Basic Jet exclusively here, since there were only two engine slots and I was designing it for lower-altitude flight; but perhaps I wildly overestimated the limitations of the Turbojet? If two Turbojets on this plane would be only moderately worse for flight below 10,000m, while they raised the ceiling and allowed vastly more efficient flight at a high cruising altitude, then switching to those would be rather a no-brainer (though I'm not sure why one would ever choose the Basic Jets, in that case).

Since my first stock craft was warmly received by literally several users, I have now posted a basic jet airplane...which comes with an optional rocket launch system for suborbital, range-extending delivery. (So does it still go into Atmospheric Vehicles? Eh, I'm sure Maxed-Rockets will know best.) Details can be found in the following thread: KevinTMC's Delta Hornet: Basic jet aircraft...with optional rocket delivery!

Craft files are available here: Delta Hornet (Stock) Delta Hornet RL (Stock) Action groups for Delta Hornet: Abort) Toggle engines and landing gear; deploy chutes 1) Toggle ladders Action groups for Delta Hornet RL: Abort) Decouple all; fire all sepratrons; shutdown rocket engines; toggle jet engines; toggle landing gear 1) Toggle ladders 0) Abort Mode 2: Deploy chutes

What was needed for the polar rescue mission, to go fetch Jeb (and now also Bill, who had flown out in a standard Delta Hornet which was barely sufficient for the outward leg of the trip) was something with greater range, more excessive cost, and more potential for catastrophic failure. All three requirements were met in the Delta Hornet, Rocket-Launched Edition (or Delta Hornet RL): Delta Hornet RL: 345.485Mg, 308 parts with launcher; 10.993Mg, 48 parts plane only Delivery range (ground-to-ground, without using jet engines): approx. 1080km Launch profile: Retract landing gear. Set throttle to three ticks below maximum (as high as it can go without making the Mainsails explode) for launch. At about 8000 meters (as it's starting to get squirrely), throttle down a couple more ticks to the 2/3 mark, turn on RCS, and begin gravity turn, carefully pitching down to about 50 degrees. There's an excessive supply of monopropellant, and this thing can be hard to steer, so go ahead and leave RCS on as you try to maintain pitch and heading until apokerb reaches about 100km. Cut main engines, and pitch down to the horizon. There should still be tons of monopropellant left; at this point, I keep the RCS on and thrusting forward, and manually steer with ASAS off so more of the RCS thrust goes into forward motion. (This may only earn me a couple extra kilometers, but it burns excess fuel...and everyone needs a hobby of some sort, I suppose.) At apokerb, burn whatever fuel is left in the main tanks. I use up the remaining RCS as well, to get just a little more distance out of the suborbital flight. Then it's time to stage. On those days when KSC safety officers are actually invited to mission-planning meetings, they highly recommend staging with the craft pointed prograde, and before gravity starts to kick back in. If lights are on, you might want to turn them off to save electricity. Enjoy the glide back down. Once you're back in the thicker parts of the atmosphere, it will take some effort to keep the nose up; use lots and lots of trim to help. Leave jet engines off until under 15,000m; once they're fired up, you should be able to wrestle the plane into normal level flight before it dips below 10,000m. Or you can leave the engines off and glide to a landing. Harbas Kerman did just that; here he is, safely landed 1080km east of KSC with full jet fuel:

I had sent Jeb off to explore a polar anomaly on Kerbin...only his craft landed without any return fuel, and also he managed to crash the rover before getting even remotely close to the anomaly. Rescue time! I built this jet to go fetch him before his maniacal smile was permanently frozen into place by the arctic cold. Looking at the finished product, I'm not sure whether I did much more than re-invent one of the Ravenspears--but I did build it from scratch. Or rather, it grew out of two other designs: a tiny uncontrollable thing that I had called the "Hornet", and a classic delta-wing jet that I had--even more imaginatively--called the "Delta". Combine the two, and you've got the Delta Hornet, the most flyable atmospheric craft I've ever devised (a very, very low bar to clear, admittedly): Delta Hornet: 10.989Mg, 44 parts Operational ceiling: approx. 20,000m Cruising speed: approx. 445m/s at 12,000m Operational range: approx. 990km At cruising altitude, this craft handles 2x physical acceleration smoothly. 3x is often quite tolerable; and even 4x will often prove a non-catastrophic choice in short bursts. The Delta Hornet comes with not one, but two patented Rescue Seats mounted behind the cockpit! Here's one satisfied customer, testing out a Rescue Seat and having a whale of a time: This jet proved perfectly capable of reaching Jeb...but not of making it back home. It needed more range. And possibly more explosions. And so, in the following post I introduce...the Delta Hornet, Rocket-Launched Edition!

I've been thinking about what I might add--since I did leave docking ports available on all prongs of the station except the cupola/observation deck one. Have had some trouble, though, coming up with things the station might actually need. I'd certainly be interested to see what you come up with.

Great! I hope it's a good starter space station for you. Rendezvous and docking is the tricky part; you may want to make liberal use of quicksaves. Let me know if anything seems amiss with the craft files. I don't think there's anything too weird about them, but I'm new to sharing these things. The station should wind up being 234 parts in total.

I've just put up my first space station; details are in the thread here: KevinTMC's Kerbal Station (2 parts, launch instructions included)

Craft files are available here: Kerbal Station Core (Stock) Kerbal Station Module (Stock) Action groups are the same for both craft: Abort) Abort Mode 1: Decouple all but return stage; activate engine on return stage and separatrons; shutdown all other engines 1) Toggle solar panels, antennas, scientific instruments 2) Toggle Illuminator Mk1s 3) Toggle Illuminator Mk2s 4) Toggle RCS (on space station payload only) 0) Abort Mode 2: Shutdown engine on return stage and decouple from command pod; deploy chutes

Kerbal Station Module: 44.109Mg, 112 parts payload; 495.100Mg, 421 parts total Launch profile is basically the same as for the station core. Instead of pitching, however, this craft will spin. There will be a particularly fierce bit of spin right after the Mainsail stage is activated; wait for ASAS/SAS to stop it before attempting to start the gravity turn. Following these instructions just now, I wound up with an orbit of 165km by 100km, with less than half a degree of inclination; the Jumbo-64 tank was down to 738 units. After rendezvous and docking, it should be possible to transfer enough fuel to leave the Jumbo-64 more than half full at the end of the mission. Here's a picture of the two pieces docked together (any visible differences are due to this being a slightly different, earlier revision of the station; I was too lazy to go through rendezvous and docking again after removing Kerbal Engineer and Telemachus and refining the craft for upload):

I finally got round to putting up my first proper space station around Kerbin...imaginatively named Kerbal Station. Includes necessary control components, supplies of all types of fuel, habitation (i.e. hitchhiker) module, observation module, and science module. Kerbal Station Core: 32.130Mg, 122 parts payload; 462.572Mg, 346 parts total Launch profile is simple. Liftoff at full throttle. Maintain full throttle. Drop first set of SRBs, second set of SRBs, and side-mounted tanks as soon as they empty. The craft will usually wind up pitching about 10 degrees towards the south; resist the temptation to manually nudge it back towards straight-up flight...it's too easy to separate the stack in these early stages. As soon as the central, Mainsail stage is activated, throttle back as far as needed (around 3 ticks) to keep the engine from exploding, and immediately begin gravity turn by pitching over to 45 degrees. (The command pod has been rotated for easier crew transfer in orbit, so be aware that the navball may be rotated 180 degrees from what you'd expect.) Most of the involuntary inclination can be corrected for at this time. When apokerb crosses 100km, pitch further down to 10 degrees. When the Mainsail stage runs out, stage promptly (it may take a few seconds before it lets you), return to full throttle, and keep holding pitch at 10 degrees above horizon. Stop burning when your orbit starts to circularize. Following these instructions myself just now, I wound up with an orbit of 150km by 120km, with an inclination of just under 3 degrees; 233 units of fuel were left in the X200-32 tank. (That was almost twice as much fuel as I needed to polish off the orbit, circularizing at 150km with 0 degrees inclination. The command pod came home with 76 units still in the tank, and the RCS fuel would have gone untouched if I hadn't burned a unit or two to pull away from the space station. Maybe I should trade some of those radial RCS tanks for a few fins on the lower stages?) Second part to follow in next post...

The button could be used to save the astronauts from a fiery death, instead of resurrecting them after a fiery death, but many of us never bother to do that. Because explosions.

I decided to give the dev build a try this afternoon, and it's running just fine together with Kerbal Alarm Clock, Kerbal Engineer, Kerbal Protractor, Telemachus. Don't know about other mods, but no discernible conflicts with those.

Orbital Manoeuvres in the Dark It should be a band or something.

I had a rover on Minmus explode when I came back to it from the tracking station. All other switches have been explosion-free, including swaps executed by Kerbal Alarm Clock.