SyX

A question about clouds, for anyone who can help me. I've installed GPP following the instructions to the letter, and it worked fine. Then I added the optional "Secondary" mod so that I can keep GPP content as an end-game goal, and that has worked fine too. My only problem is that whilst Gael had nice volumetric clouds, Kerbin does not. What should I do to improve atmospheres (and possibly textures, too) within the standard Kerbol system? I could just try install another mod designed to beautify the original system, but then I'd be concerned that I won't know if I accidentically messed up something in GPP until way down the track, when I can finally make an interstellar journey.

Ohhh, I see. Thanks for that!

Am I misunderstanding how the admin strategies work, or have I encountered a bug? I tried activating Outsourced R&D at 60%, and now all my contracts actually COST me money. I'm not talking about after expenses, I'm saying that they are literally charging me money to accept contracts. I also tried activating Unpaid Research Program at 50%, and now every contract provides literally zero Reputation. It seems to me that these programs are siphoning off twice as much as they should be. I should mention that I'm taking the contract screen at its word. If it is actually giving me the right values but telling me the wrong ones, I wouldn't know.

For the most part I see this as a non-issue. You just need to be intelligent about what you weld together: 1.5m RCS tank directly on top of a 1.5m fuel tank? Weld it. Octagonal truss on another octagonal truss? Weld it. Tiny, uninteresting objects like rcs thrusters or the gravioli detector? Weld it (the probability of them being hit off a fuel tank is minuscule anyway). Solar panel? Don't weld it. Docking port? Don't weld it. Landing legs / landing gear? Don't weld it. Basically weld any parts which are uninteresting from a physical perspective, or have exactly the same profile at the joint. Make sure that particularly important parts like docking ports and parachutes are flagged as unweldable. Using this system could allow for a separate type of strut which reduces part count by forcing welding. You would have to keep the original strut to allow for stable staging, however.

@ferram: Base on your advice, I'm almost certain that the problem is my first stage extending above my CoM. Can someone explain why this causes instability though? edit: I mean, my first stage is usually large due to a long fuel tank, not a chain of fuel tanks, so as long as the CoM is still above the center of the main tank, shouldn't the CoM gradualy move upwards with fuel burn as expected?

I think FAR needs it's own guide or much more comprehensive FAQ now. This thread is much too large to be scanning. Anyway, does anyone else find gravity turns impossible with FAR? I find that due to the reduced drag of a well designed rocket, my apoapsis leaves the atmosphere before my rockets are even 20km up. I also find that for some reason, unlike with the original aerodynamic model, if I try to gravity turn whilst the atmosphere is thick, my rockets have a tendency to become uncontrollable, as though they are stalled aircraft. How can that be when my rocket is just a rocket shape with fins at the trailing edge?

I have experimented with this fairly extensively. The most simple answer is: the more mass you have per parachute, the slower you need to be. You can counteract this by using struts to anchor the parachute to the ship better and spread the force.

I've done several return trips to Duna now. Every time I go I realise I severely overestimated the strength and size of the rocket I would need to return to Kerbin. I have also put a spaceplane on Eve. That super thick atmosphere chokes your velocity both horizontally and vertically. I do not see it working. An airbreathing stage on a rocket might still be the best way though. It could be the only way to get into thin atmosphere without unlimited fuel. In fact, the basic jet engine might finally have a purpose on Eve. Presumably the Superjet chokes on the smog.

In my experiments, I have found it to be lacking and non-ideal for most purposes. Trips to Jool sure. Landing on Duna AND returning, sure. But if, for example, you just wanted to get to Duna, you don't really need a very big rocket. If you have some lucky transfers, you only need the 1 man pod, 400 litre tank, and the 0.5 mass engine - assuming that you can get this into space without any of it's fuel consumed. Sticking a nuclear engine in the place of the small engine in this example actually yields less delta v. This is because the nuclear engine is monstrously heavy. Basically, what I am saying is that the nuclear engine is good if you want to move a HEAVY craft in space. But since you don't need one for most things, it is incredibly niche.

I finally made it to Jool. 2500ish days... Not going back until we get another few orders of magnitude on the warping... and prefereably the 4x physics warping for using slow nuclear engines as well. It was pretty cool though. terminal velocity approx 25m/s, parachute dropped it to less than 2. Then you hit zero on the altimeter and you just keep sinking.