Wjolcz

That's interesting. The only problem I see here is it doesn't really influence the game that much and the effort needed to implement all this would probably be quite big. So there would be these 27 agencies. People start as freelancers. Once they get enough rep they can choose to join an agency. Now once they work for one of the agencies they are able to design missions for other agencies (maybe they should also get some sort of payment if they create a contract once a week, or something like that). They decide how much they want to pay for the completion of the contract they have just created and once all the objectives are completed (by someone else) the vessel appears in their game. From now on it's theirs and they can control it, because they paid the price. I just came up with this but I think I'd enjoy it actually.

Enough to get the job done. Usually 4 is my minimum when it comes to spacious vessels. Each has a different role and there's that extra guy just in case. Makes me wish kerbals could have two skills each.

Yep. Bon Voyage does that. Would be a handy thing having it in stock. If you've seen the new Mars documentary thingy on National Geographic Channel there's that scenario in which the ship lands too far from the base and they have to drive a rover all the way from base to the landing zone. Since in KSP there's no way of telling where you're about to land it would be nice to have stockified Bon Voyage just in case.

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. There are at least 4 points of interest each time. And it seems they are randomly generated, but I'm fine with that. Opportunity would go back and forth quite a lot too. Can't say if the stock rewards are appropriate or not, but that's because my career is moded in a way that doing contracts always pay off (contracts grant reputation, reputation directly influences monthly budgets).

Nah. I just goofed there. It was only one time. I actually think it was a pretty funny situation.

Did you guys know that in 1.2 there are certain contracts that generate points of interest around a landed vessel? These are great for rover missions. I haven't noticed them in previous versions of the game so I assume they are a new thing. @Arsonide was probably involved in this. Thanks a bunch. Another reason why these guys should get a medal for tolerating my whiny behaviour.

Thanks QA guys. I can't say I enjoy career mode but the rest of the game is relatively bug-free. And by "relatively" I mean I haven't actually encountered any severe bugs in 1.2. Job well done.

Here's something in case anyone's interested:

Another thing worth noting: I hardly ever accept any contracts (only when I have a rover landed somewhere or really need reputation). This means I have the freedom of what I want to do next and in what order (WOOOOHOOOO!). World's Firsts give enough rep to keep my space program rolling. Contracts are actual side quests now. I can decide whether I want to do them or not. That also renders the strategies even more useless than they previously were, of course. I consider it a good thing. It's all going great. Need to broaden my horizons and stop sending probes to the Mun though. Got plenty of them there already.

I agree it should still be a game first, simulator second. But the game doesn't need realism to be enjoyable. The problem with career is it is neither realistic, game-like nor coherenet. It's just not enjoyable because the whole career that had been put together is too abstract. There are too many reward points (funds, rep and science) and getting rid of one of them (guess whuch one I'm talking about) seems to actually fix the game and makes it much more enjoyable (the proof is in my thread). EDIT: Oh, snap! Quotes broke, yo

Monthly or daily budgets, science experiments yielding reputation, tech tree researched with cash and time. Basically this: Works way better than the stock career mode and has that time-passing element to it which makes waiting for transfer windows way more bearable.

I thought it was obvious that a wind turbine screws with the air behind it, making that space not the most efficient place to use another turbine in? It's still better than coal and plastic trash people throw into their chimneys.

DragonChaser? I thought the official name was Dragon 2/Dragon V2?

It seems to have fins stabilizing the whole thing during the flight. I was thinking about the trunk recently and considered it a pretty smart idea. Are there any other spacecraft that utilize such kind of trunk?

How did MESSENGER use gravity assists to decrease it's aphelion and perihelion? The only way to do that I can think of is encountering a planet from the leading side (front/prograde) and then let it pull you back, thus decreasing your Pe?

Yep. I've been wanting something like this for a while now. The docking ports could be given the ability to connect to each other via these tunnels. Just like the refuelling hose thing in KAS.

This thread should have been closed long time ago.

Same thing happened to me. I was on my ascent profile going suborbital and I saw an old sat flying by so I went "Hey, I can target it now and rendezvous with it later to perform an EVA inspection just for fun". But I didn't. Everything went wrong. The vessel I was flying was set to prograde keeping mode and all hell broke loose. Tumbled, wasted tons of fuel and fell back into the atmosphere.

Hey, @nightingale are you planning on adding more strategies? In case you do, can I have a request? Would it be possible to add a strategy focusing on space mining? It would be great to get paid for hauling ore from different locations back to Kerbin.

Another update. I've noticed that tourist orbital hop contracts give tons of reputation. I got back to my previous amount of funding by just doing two of them. The rest of the rewards seem to be fine. Since there's no way to lower their reputation rewards in-game they'll probably have to stay that way. I guess that can be done with file editing, but I'm too lazy.

TBH I don't think KSP should have any deeper story to it. It's a pure sandbox game in which you write your own history of spaceflight. If there's ever going to be a sequel/prequel (Kerbal Aircraft Program?) to KSP I think the story mode should be left for that one. Akin to how IL-2: 1946 had a few pilot careers in which there were diaries and certain tasks to be performed. I still play and enjoy that game even though it's pretty old.

I agree. Makiny sharp turns on the Mun with a very light rover looks anr feels scary.

Don't worry. Aliens will save us. We're all gonna be fine living with them on K-Pax.

Fly kerbals with their jetpacks on the Mun then watch them ragdoll, bounce and slide all over the place.

IMO just adding little craters on surfaces of asteroids would make them 200% cooler. Right now they are grey potatoes.