Wjolcz

But Red Dragon is still happening, right? BTW why do they have the helium tank problem with the upper stage but not with the first one? is it because the tanks in the second stage are cramped together to a degree they have direct contact with each other? If that's the case can't they simply give it some more space, or something? I guess that would increase the mass, but would also be a way to maybe solve this issue?

Everything looks terrible when you play on the lowest settings (as I do). And yet I'm fine with most of the planets as they are. Jool could use some swirly storms, proper cloud bands and other bits like that.

Fair enough. I can get behind that. But the power demands are still pretty crazy especially around/on distant worlds like Eeloo and Jool.

When tutorials and scenarios were being introduced I silently hoped we would also get an official scenario creator. It's a shame we didn't. Could be great for challenges.

What do you mean by that?

Don't know about you but I always go for the smaller one simply because it's, well, smaller. Can we at least have some sort of power generation thing (either a fuel cell or an RTG) included in the bigger one? Or a tank to store the fuels/ore in? The efficiency is also something I don't get. Would an IRL ISRU unit be more efficient if it was upscaled? And please don't argue that 'it's a gaem!!!!'. I'm already kind of sick of all these comments using that as a valid point. Let's have a serious discussion instead.

I pretty much agree with this. About strategies: IMO they should be completely replaced by something called "Programs". The easy way to put it is they would basically be mission filters (Want to focus on the Mun? Pick the Mun Program. Want to go out and orbit something like Jool? Go get that one). They could also serve as funds boosts. If you were running low on funds you could pick one of these (instead of that dumb stock loan "strategy"), but the demands would be higher (Now we've given you that extra cash go plant a flag on the Mun!). And stuff like that. About the upkeep cost: In my modded career I have it simulated by having monthly upkeep cost of active satellites (each probe/station/ship costs 1K per month iirc). I sometimes cheat and simply turn some of them (the least useful ones) into debris to avoid the bills, but it's still fun. These guys from administration have too much paperwork anyway. I'm sure they would be thankful if they found out about it. Let's not tell them for now though. Oh, and forgot about the most important thing which is the R&D of course: a great way to make the time pass is making the tree nodes cost funds and time. How it works in my modded career: I've set science yield to 10% (the lowest possible). I have a widget with which I buy science points. Since I get a certain amount of money each day (rep influences money) I have to warp for a few days to accumulate enough cash to "buy" a node (I buy science points and then use them to unlock the nodes). That way the time passes and I spend my money on the research. Thanks to that I actually spend more time exploring the solar system and reading the science flavour text instead of grinding for science from every possible biome.

The problem with this is sometimes you want to perform multiple manouvers in different parts of the orbit. Simply dragging AP/PE is just like creating a single manouver node at a time on either AP or PE only.

8:34 AM (I think). Not sure which time zone though. I assume the one Florida is in.

Yeah, sorry about that. I actually phrased myself poorly.Yep, custom game modes would actually be better. I guess my overall dissatisfaction comes from what I excpected from the career mode before it was implemented and after it happened. I don't disagree with others' concept of "fun". The problem is you can't balance something like KSP's career mode simply by giving more options (just like the devs did). It's like giving someone who wants pancakes beef instead. Then the chef says "But I actually want to eat pancakes this time". Then you throw more kinds of meat at him + some BBQ sauce and say "K, here's more options." No pancakes for me. Gotta grind through the tech tree and contracts to start doing something I actually want to do. So yeah, the customizable game modes would be the way to go, but then how much dev work would it take to do it vs. implementing a few mods I use to make my career more enjoyable.

That's true, but with easier and cheaper access there also come the customers. I don't know if it will be a good comparison, but think about cars. They were a luxury thing in the beginning. People didn't need to own one. They either had a horse or just walked. Once they got cheaper everyone could afford one + they could transport things faster. A local shop would have fresh milk every morning because the owner of the shop also had a car instead of a sluggish horse or a boat. The same shop owner would get more customers and get rich faster bringing the prosperity to the region. Same could happen with spaceflight. First it will be the space miners that use these cheap, mass-produced rockets to bring some shiny, otherwise rare on Earth metals. Next space hotels and eventually maybe even private space stations (not sure what kind of paperwork business you could run in space though, but then do all these billionaires need these T-Towers?). I know it all sounds like very distant future, but it has to happen some day. And I hope it soon will because I want to see it.

Not at all, actually. The only two things that would need to happen is getting rid of science points and having capped funds based on the amount of reputation. It's just that the current system is "prefectly fine" because apparently people are fine with it. No point in fixing something that is considered perfectly functional and fun by the majority. SQUAD should do what Rust developers did. They implemented a whole XP system and then got rid of it. Same thing should happen to the career mode, except not being deleted but actually recreated.

Do you guys feel like we are experiencing some sort of 'spaceflight boom'? More and more of my friends ask me to send them some websites about space so they can read them. They are getting really interested in all of this. Some people say that the spirit of '60s is coming back, but I think it's something different. Back then the spacecraft were one-offs and differed so much from one another that they could be considered prototypes. Now the industry starts to lean towards mass production and even space mining which IMO is the way to go. Even though I'm in my twenties and I don't remember the Old Space I feel like some new era is about to happen with all these billionaires investing in spaceflight like never before.

Exactly. A propeller won't get you very high anyway. Scratch that. NASA's Helios almost achieved the altitude of 30km. But it was unmanned.

All I see suggested here is "more new stuff". What about "fix the things that are already in the game"?

That's very original. Not like it's being suggested each new week, or something.

The first thing, as previously said, you would be able to 'kill' (it's a game though) someone with a name who's already dead. The second thing to consider is the fact that there are relatives who might think it's a really bad and dark joke. Would I care if someone named anything after me after I had passed away? No, I wouldn't. But that's because of my beliefs. We need to consider and respect other people who don't share the same beliefs as I or perhaps even you do. The third argument about why 'easter eggs' like this shouldn't be in the game is dev time and the amount of them needed to 'pay' respects to each individual that ever lived and did something to either promote spaceflight or actually took part in it. You don't have to implement anything into the game to pay respects to any of those people. KSP is not the most important thing that's ever existed. Simply think about them, remember and try to be like them if you think it's worth it.

I have this one: http://www.banggood.com/FQ777-124-Pocket-Drone-4CH-6Axis-Gyro-Quadcopter-With-Switchable-Controller-RTF-p-977881.html It's packaging is also the controller. Really fun to fly around the flat. A bit problematic outside when there are strong winds, but it also has the 'ultra-whatever' control mode where it turns a lot faster. Can fly for about 5-7 minutes and it isn't that expenesive. Have to repair it though because during a flip one of the cables snapped. It's nothing severe though.

Some more Minmus activity. IS IT ACTUALLY EDIBLE? The first Minmus lander. It landed with surprisingly high levels of fuel. The primary objective was to just land on the surface and probe it for any traces of sweetened frozen food. However, its mission has a high probability of being extended. It will be hopping around until the most important question in the kerbalkind history is answered: Can we eat it? PS: I forgot to take any pictures, but there is also a Moho probe on it's way.

About the same time I put that station in the orbit I also went to the Mun. THE FIRST MANNED MUN LANDING Forgot to take pictures while on the surface but the flag is there in case anyone's skeptical about the presence of Jebadiah himself on the surface. I also got lucky during the reentry. The lander had quite a lot of dV I used to slow myself down before hitting the atmosphere. As I separated the capsule I realised it was a good decision because the heat shield was clearly missing. The next iteration was immidately equipped with one after the authorities realised how lucky Jebadiah was. ------------------------------------------------------- Remember to reuse your stuff. THE PROCESS OF RECYCLING This is Muna-II. It failed to achieve Munar orbit during the fly-by because of insufficient signal. Renamed Muna-M2 it had a new mission: to explore an icy moon in the outer ridges of Kerbin system. This low-tech piece of early engineering proved itself more than useful. It will also serve as a communication satellite during the next missions.

Even more local activity. STATIONS ARE EASY The first station in the career. Woo! It's not big, but it will be one day.

Back to Kerbin THE JOYS OF G-LOC Decided to have some fun with planes. And because tourists asked for this. The rocket pods on one of these double-cockpit vomit comets are for additional acceleration during the high-G pull ups. My main design influences here were Me 262 and MiG-9 obviously.

The next step was to drive a rover on another body. THE MUN ROVER The ERL rover mission (apart from landing on the wrong side of the Mun and having to use the Mun orbitting probes as relays) was pretty successful until I crashed after tumbling down one of the nearby lesser craters. At least EaRL went out in style.

Please note that at the beginning I set up a rather unsuccesful GPS system and then turned the additional DSN station on (I just assumed they got built after some time). Anyway, here comes... THE UNMANNED MUN EXPLORATION PROGRAM The objective was to land a vessel and return it back to Kerbin. I didn't achieve it until the first manned Mun landing mission. ------------------------------------------------------- During the Mun exploration program I was rising my reputation by accepting some tourism contracts. THE BLUE ORIGIN-STYLE TOURISM PROGRAM I also killed one of the tourists and I did some high-G blackout contractracts with a Juno-powered aircraft I'll post the pictures of later on. EDIT: Oh noes! The posts got merged!

I never have enough motivation to finish my career games. I start them, get to the point when I can built SSTOs and get bored or a new version comes out breaking the mods I use. But this time it's different! I have a bunch of mods that make the career a really enjoyable experience and I want to achieve one of my long-standing goals which is a permanent Laythe polar base. Why Laythe and why on one of the poles? Simply because Laythe is another blue dot with oxygen and I want to use horizontal take-off and landing SSTOs, and the polar regions are great for that. So the plan is more or less like this: The base: -ISRU (1x ISRU unit, radiators, a drill, ore storage, LF/Ox+Mono fuel tanks) -Power source (auxiliary solar power plant, RTGs, fuel cells) -Habs (at least 2x Hitchhiker modules, KAS pipes to attach them to the power plant and ISRU) The additional ground equipment: -Shuttle system (1x SSTO crew ferry) -Rover -Juno-powered science/recon drone The orbit: -Simple scientific probes equipped with ore scanners (sent before everything else arrives) -Kerbin-Laythe ferry (which also serves as an orbital station and possibly Joolian system explorer later on) -Comm sats I'm still thinking about installing some sort of LS mod like Kerbalism. I've just recently planted a flag on the Mun, so I still have some time to think about it. Another thing is the EC management might be tricky with stock parts, so some sort of nuclear power mod might also come in handy. I'll also try and do some story telling once the base is up and running. Each next post will be themed (first Mun rover, first Minmus orbiter, etc.). I hope that when I suddenly start posting like crazy I won't get banned for being a bot, or something. We'll see how it all goes.