Wjolcz

I feel like it's kind of a bad argument acutally. Many things aren't simulated in KSP. Where are the turbopumps or helium tanks? Why does the NTR work fine with aerozine? And I think the "oh, but it's a game, it doesn't need all that complexity" and "because it's kerbal" arguments don't really apply here, do they? As much as I agree that engines don't need to be that complicated, RAPIER still is a SABRE-like hybrid engine, whether you want to believe it or not. We don't even have electric propellers for oxygenless atmospheric flight, even though these things were tested and functioned perfectly fine IRL.

You can also jump off a building if you're a hardcore zero-G daredevil like me.

Then use a different type. Debris also can't connect to other things. Even when they do have an antena. You might also be out of range.

;_; A Titan Sea Explorer mission would be pretty awesome. Cassini did some great stuff at Saturn. For now I'm waiting for the Red Dragon landing and Europa Clipper and lander in the next few years. And I don't think Cassini will be able to take and send any pictures from the atmosphere tbh. They will probably keep the bandwidth for more important things like density and chemistry scans, magnetometer and stuff like that. Besides, I'm not sure if the cameras and mirrors on them are able to withstand the reentry acceleration. It would probably be pointless even if they would work during reentry anyway.

Why? People don't like plane parts already and you want even more components that the majority wouldn't even touch. Yes for an electric propeller though. These would be useful for both: planes and subs (and even rockets if you want to make Adeline).

: O This is amazing! Looks complicated as heck though.

A career overhaul that makes it actually enjoyable. I've sort of achieved it with mods, but it's still not it.

What do you want to land? If your payload is a probe only then go for a heatshield+parachute combo. If something more complicated it might be good thinking about an SSTO.

I came here to suggest just this. However, another way of doing this could be a sort of quasi-multiplayer, where people join the in-game agencies and sort of "work" for them. Ideally they would do just what you said, but their achievements would be constantly updated and there would be one or more to race against +could create contracts for others. So basically, you start as a freelancer and once you accumulate enough rep you are able to join one of the agencies. Once you do that you enter the multiplayer. From now on you can see achievements of other players from other agencies and you can compete against them. You see that it's day 23 and by that time that player achieved LKO only. You decide "I can do better than that!" and go HKO. And now you are in the lead and get some rep for it, or something. So yeah, basically what you've said. But time needs to matter first. Daily/monthly budgets and research taking time. Otherwise beating someone in going to the Moon is a matter of hours. Another problem is what would happen with the settings. Would players just download presets from others, or something like that? Probably. Another type of multiplayer I would like to see implemented at some point is Telemachus/Houston-like multiplayer. That one could be fun too.

I'm also curious what you mean by "affordable" and "sustainable"? Another space station in LEO? A Moon base? IMO landing an ISRU rig or a base piece on Mars is better than nothing. Otherwise Mars will always be 30 years away. Oh, and I retract my statement. One of the payloads is Europa Clipper orbiter+lander. SLS is actually pretty cool.

Well, tbh I don't really understand the notion of going back to the Moon. A lot of probes went there and even humans have done so. I mean, a proper base would be something, but I think Mars should be the priority. And unless the SLS is repurposed, Elon will get there first. I don't really think this whole ARM program is worth it. It's a waste of money since OSIRIS-REX is going to visit one anyway. I know real life is not KSP, but if I had a powerful rocket like that I would use it for a station building, Mars base building or a human-rated ferry.

The energy consumption could be easily adjusted. It's just a matter of how much thrust it can produce and how much EC it needs to do so. Every single engine in KSP is unrealistic. The Dawn ion thruster has waaay too much thrust and the Juno can be used for supersonic aircraft. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think it's something like 4x more powerful than it's RL counterpart (the Me-262 Jumo engine). And I think the main reason of why we still don't have it in the game has to do with how animations and resources are handled. There's that mod with plane parts that has an electric prop and the thing uses infinite "Coolant" resource, because EC-powered engines need an additional resource to work, or something like that. Probably barely on Duna. It shouldn't work well in thin atmospheres IMO. But still, I'd rather have it there than not.

The funny thing is there isn't an electric propeller in the game, even though NASA built a flying drone using the technology, and yet we have one that hasn't even been built yet which is RAPIER. Electric aircraft are more and more common so I don't really see a reason why shouldn't an electric atmospheric engine be in the game.

When you are suborbital it is in "FREE" mode. When you achieve orbit it switches to "ORBITAL" and rotates 90 degrees. It can get pretty annoying when your every RCS adjustment changes your orbit from orbital to suborbital. But I think if you switch it yourself it stays in the mode you've switched to.

Ok, fine. I get it. But as I said before: this would not fix or improve the career. It would extend it.

Fair enough. But I would prefer a proper set of planning tools and KIS/KAS instead of this "Rocket In-Situ Print-o-tron 3000". I actually think bringing stuff from Kerbin to other planets and then using it (base first, staff later) is more rewarding than just landing a 3D printer and having rocket factories on the surface. Still, not against the whole colonization idea. I just think it shouldn't be that simple. I see it as an extension, not a fix of the career mode.

Wooooow, holy crap the younger me was pretty mean at the beginning of this thread. Yeah, I guess a Gemini-like probe wouldn't be bad (I've actually changed my mind), the problem is it would either need an adapter or a whole new set of 1.8whatever-meter parts. If the pod would become stock, people would demand more parts of its' size. And as far as I know there's no one on the dev team now that has the time or the ability to create these parts. But then there's the question: how useful would the pod actually be? Gemini was built mainly to test the ability to dock in space +some other stuff. There were also some other uses planned for it (like the Moon landing), but these plans never became a reality. I'd still prefer a Dragon V2-like capsule, with a separate 2.5m inline engines part (like a ring with nozzles in the outter part) that can be attached either to the capsule, or the bottom of something else that is also 2.5m wide (like a tank). As I've previously said: I'm sick of Mk1-2 pod, the hitchhiker is not good enough and the MK3 cockpit is well... A MK3 cockpit.

I think that if part failures ever become stock I would want it to be dependent on the usage (if it's the wheels) or the way you treat it. If you bump a tank, it has a chance to leak, if you bump the engine it can explode or simply stop working, etc. It should be the player's fault if he/she isn't careful. But engineers should be able to fix all of that, of course. And about the crew: yes, they ARE too expensive. I actually consider cheating some of them in (once I decide to start sending the crew somewhere else than LKO) because of how silly the prices are.

Thanks a ton. I keep forgetting how to disable it. I don't remember what I did. Probably held "W" and phys-warped (with alt). I've disabled the wheels fortunately.

I just did something and I don't know why but one of my rovers keeps the pitch input at the fullest. Is there some sort of key combo that keeps the current input permanently? How do I reset it? I tried Ctrl+W, Ctrol+S, Shift+W, Shift+S, Alt+W and Alt+S.

I'll stop you right here. Firstly, the problem of fast-forwarding: time needs to matter. It doesn't right now. If you warp through the tech research because it needs time then the ships arrive at other planets in no time. Secondly, the "oh, but do I have enough fuel?" is simply the case of the lack of information in stock. Colonization won't fix that. You shouldn't be able to go all "oh, oops! I guess I'm stuck here with this one-man capsule! Time to colonize! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" Colonization would not improve the career. It would extend it. I'm not against it, but to fix the career we don't need more nodes or more parts, or even life support (though I support the notion of having it in stock). We need a fix first, more stuff later.

The stock tree sucks! I haven't had that moment simply because I'm using the Historical Progression Tech Tree and a bunch of others mods that let me do stuff my way without caring about these damn science points.

A lander.

One mod is not enough. I recommend you using the mod compilation linked in my first post here. It really makes a huge difference. Also what the hell? I can't get rid of this quote and the only way is to write in it. Curse you, mobile version of the forum!

Well... Engineering points. Hmmm. Yeah, okay. I guess that could work. As long as they are not earned the way science points are (yuck!). I haven't played with KCT yet, but I think I might give it a try, though don't agree it's actually needed to make the time matter. You can make it matter by tying reputation to daily budgets (which are capped monthly i.e. you can only gather so much money each month and it all depends on your rep). My experience with the career modlist I use (the one I've linked above) is more or less like this: Got some cash but not enough to launch a vessel -> warp for a few days -> the money has accumulated -> launch the vessel. I often also find myself in a situation like this: Need a certain part in a node I don't have yet (let's say it's the wheels) and don't have enough money to research it -> warp for a few days -> buy the node -> go to the VAB and build the rocket with a rover -> I see I don't have enough cash to launch it -> warp until I have enough cash to launch my rover That way the time passes nicely and I don't have to launch any half-assed science grinders to research more nodes. I'm halfway through the tree and the Moho transfer window has just opened. Considering that the further nodes take a lot more cash to unlock I still have a long way to go, so I should have visited all the bodies by the time I research the last node. It's also important to note that I'm using the Historical Tech Tree which is awesome because it allows for much more varied research paths (thus playstyles) and makes more sense than the stock tree, which is always welcome. I also hardly ever accept contracts. World's Firsts are enough to keep my space program running.