ChaserGrey

Doh! Farmers = Agriculture seemed so obvious I never bothered to check. That'll teach me... Many thanks!

I'm completely stuck on agriculture. I have USI-LS installed and have managed to get my first Ranger ag module working, but despite being fully supplied with all resource inputs, EC, and staffed by a farmer it refuses to go above 5.5% efficiency. Details: I'm using Agroponics, so the only things I should need are Fertilizer and Mulch, both of which have > 100 units stored in the module. Module's Machinery supplies are fully stocked. Tended by one Farmer and one Miner, both of whom are fully leveled (AKA not using XP on this playthrough). Module is linked via hubs and tubes to an empty Supplies warehouse and a Global Logistics hub, which is manned by no less a personage than Valentina Kerman. I've tried juggling inputs, I've tried deploying extra Sunflower lights (doesn't seem to do anything), I've been through the wiki, and I can't see what I'm doing wrong. Do I really need two Farmers to go above 5% efficiency?

[inaccurate info, deleted]

That's good to hear. Everyone seemed to be going for Laythe first, but I hate gravity wells. And a quick update: With a full crew aboard, the Starcrane departs on her shakedown cruise to Minmus. Check ignition and may Kod's love be with you.

After quite a bit of orbital construction I've got my contender for the Kethane Expedition mode ready. Mission report is underway here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79598-Flight-of-the-Starcrane-A-Jool-5-Challenge-Mission-Report

When you're doing the Jool-5 Challenge Kethane Expedition style, you're doing it on easy mode. So I know I have to bring something pretty impressive to the table to compensate. I'll let you all be the judges of whether I've succeeded or not. When I stumbled across the Challenge I'd already gotten a 0.23.5 Career save most of the way through the tech tree using MechJeb and NovaPunch 2 for mods, so that seemed like a good place to start. I added Kethane and KAS and got to work, later adding PreciseNode for mission planning. First up: the lander, which I named Stork. I knew I wanted a single universal lander so I'd only have to bring one set of drilling/refining equipment, and it needed to return a full set of science from each moon I visited. A nuclear engine seemed like the obvious choice, especially one of NP's shorter fusion engines, but I just couldn't get the TWR I needed to lift off from Laythe or Tylo. The solution I came up with was to mount four aerospike engines on radially mounted boosters to act as "afterburners". In microgravity, she can land on just the nuclear engine for greater efficiency. On Tylo or Laythe, she can light the aerospikes for extra thrust to get to orbit- and since they're aerospikes, efficiency is reasonable at all altitudes on Laythe, which is very much not true for the nuke. It took a fair amount of testing with a full-sized mockup on Kerbin, but by using struts to spread out the landing gear I finally had something I was reasonably sure I could land. It's not easy to see in the shot I ended up with, but the Stork is actually made up of two modules- the main lander, and a separate section in the rear with the nuclear drive and kethane drill/refinery. That was intentional, because to make the complete Starcrane spacecraft I separated the two and put a "Cruise Stage" in the middle: The Cruise Stage is mostly a giant fuel tank with some extra drives attached to keep acceleration reasonable. It also had a series of docking ports for the Hitchhiker canisters I planned to attach- 4 total for a planned crew of 6, just to make sure there's plenty of elbow room for the trip out to Jool. The habs were launched separately on a heavy-lift booster I gave a suitably heroic name to but have been unable to think of as anything but "the wedding cake". They also served to fuel up the Starcrane, since the Cruise Stage burned itself pretty much empty getting into orbit. Here's the Cruise Stage partially assembled, with two habs attached and a lab module forward. I did the weight calculations out, and it turns out that if you're landing on all five of Jool's moons with the same craft you do save (a little) weight by cleaning out and reusing your Science Jrs. and Goo Capsules instead of bringing extras. KAS has been a lot of fun to play around with and has made modular ship design a lot easier, since I can dock the modules and then install struts to help brace them. Here Chuck Kerman works the day shift, hooking up the lander module to the Cruise Stage. And all 4 habs are attached! Since each one was launched separately, I got to put a different flag on each. In addition to the KASA logo, the Starcrane proudly bears the logos of our sponsors: NovaPunch, Kethane, and Squad Development. And here she is, assembled in all her glory in LKO. Mass, with not quite full fuel tanks, is just under 400 tons. So where do we go from here? - First stop will be Minmus. I'm planning to land the entire ship, with the help of KAS anchors winched down from the habs to brace her. The Minmus landing will essentially be a dress rehearsal for microgravity kethane mining/refueling- if there are problems I want to find out about them before we get to Jool. - Entire ship boosts out to Jool. I'm planning to aerobrake a bit, but have some reserve fuel in case I don't lose as much velocity as I'd like. - Transfer to Pol. Yes, you read that right. The ship's built to refuel, and I don't want to do that at the bottom of a gravity well. Assuming the Minmus operation went well I'll land the whole ship with anchors and fill her up all at once. Otherwise it'll be a bunch of trips with the lander, but with the Cruise Stage in orbit I'll only be burning a few m/s to and from Pol's surface. - With the ship refueled I'll have the delta-v to explore Jool system at my leisure. Visit the moons, take samples, get a full set of scientific observations, and move on. Bop is a potential refueling point in the middle, since it also has low gravity. The only major complication is that at Tylo and Laythe I have to hit a kethane deposit the first time I land- the Stork has enough delta-v to land on those moons, but not enough to take off without surface refueling. - Refuel once more at Pol or Bop before heading home. The lab module has been outfitted with solar panels and a control module, and will be left in Jool orbit for possible use by later expeditions. - Return home with a full set of science for Jool's SOI and high/low space for each moon. Since I don't have any science from Jool currently I am expecting a ridiculous number of science points that will more than make up for my stupidly large ship. ...Did I mention I've only done one interplanetary transfer before? Oh well. Ignorance of the laws of physics is no excuse not to try something. Stay tuned, sports fans!

I'll have to remember that. As it happens, I found a not-too-far out of date save and was able to begin construction. Just a quick snap before I have to go to work: This is the Stork, just launched to Kerbin orbit. She's a universal single-stage lander with a nuclear main and four aerospikes for extra thrust at Tylo and Laythe. About 3900 m/s delta-v, plus a drilling apparatus and refinery so she can refuel on the surface. All up mass is about 89 tons. The plan is for the entire ship to have enough fuel to get to Jool, aerobrake, and maneuver to Pol. Lander deploys and mines kethane to refuel the main ship, then off we go into the wonderful Jool system. I'm planning a dry run, as it were, at Minmus once the whole ship's assembled. Next step is the Cruise Module, with lots of extra tankage, a lab, and living quarters for the crew. (Yes, I am going to Kerbal Hell for my all-up mass)

Grr. I had my Kethane expedition all planned out, then my save got corrupted. Taking with it my nearly full tech tree and a ship on the way to Duna for the first time. Me? Bitter? Nah. Currently weighing re-climbing the tech tree vs. just doing this in Sandbox. The latter is faster but science is really a lot of the fun here...

Allright, I'm doing this. Kethane mode, expedition style. I have no experience with Kethane or interplanetary transfers. Let's do this. "Ignorance of the laws of physics is no excuse not to try it", as Jebediah would say. Edit: One question based off the ones above. I'm planning on a large ship assembled in orbit. Is it permissible to bring the ship into LKO and retrieve them with a non-clipped ship? I'd kinda like to keep the large ship intact and in orbit.

No, this is just a script that wraps all your parts in PART {} so they can be loaded in 0.20. I'm new to Python and have only used 3.3, so I don't know enough to say whether 2.77 will be able to run it. ...You should probably be fine, but I'd back your parts up just in case. It's the only one that's amenable to mass editing like this. As ph34rb0t mentioned there may be attachment issues but that's probably something you'll have to sort out on a part by part basis. Personally, I'm just avoiding those parts for now and waiting for a 0.20 compatible version of my favorite packs, but then a) my favorites are still being maintained and I'm lazy like that. Thank you and thank you! Python is platform-independent (similar to Java) and I believe there's a Unix-compatable version on the site I linked to.

Ph34rb0t posted a .bat file here that automatically updates part.cfg files from before 0.20 to the new format, allowing large packs like NovaPunch to be used with 0.20 without having to manually update hundreds of files. Unfortunately, I run a Mac, and I know some other folks are probably in the same boat. So, I created a Python script that does the same thing and runs on Mac and UNIX. (Runs on Windows too, but it's more work than ph34rb0t's .bat file so you're honestly better off with that) To use it, do the following: Download a Python interpreter. You can get one for free here from Python.org. Make sure you get Python 3.3. Download the script here Associate the interpreter with the ".py" file type. On Mac you can do this by right-clicking a ".py" file, picking "Get Info", opening the "Open With" tab, and choosing "Python Launcher". Not sure how to do it on other systems. Set up your folders. Make a folder inside "GameData" named after the mod you want to update, e.g. "NovaPunch". Inside that folder, make one called "Parts". Inside the "Parts" folder, set up sub folders using one or more of the following category names, the same as Squad uses for their parts: "Aero", "Command", "Electrical", "Engine", "FuelTank", "Structural", "Utility", and "Wheel". You do not have to use all of these names, as long as you use some of them. Move your parts into these folders, according to the category you want them to show up under in the VAB/SPH Copy the "main.py" script into the "Parts" folder. MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that the script is in the "Parts" folder, that the folder contains one or more of the category folders given above, and that those category folders contain ONLY parts folders- no interiors, ships, etc. Failure to do so will cause the script to crash. Run the script. On Mac, you should be able to do that by just clicking as long as you have associated the .py file type with your Python Interpreter. Note that this only updates the part.cfg files. If the 3D models for the parts don't work with 0.20, this doesn't do anything about that. But it gets you part of the way there until the addon folks get to do proper updates. Tested on my copy of KSP 0.20 on Mac OS 10.7 and it works fine. Hope others find this useful as well.

Guys, long time player here, want to say thanks for 0.20. I was an exile from KSP for 0.19 since my system just couldn't handle it. I know memory optimization is frustrating to do, but you gave me the game back. Thank you!

Loving the pack so far. Two questions, not sure if this is place for them but haven't found a better. 1. I've downloaded the program from kerbal.net and mediafire, and each time it tells me that the centrifuge model and solar panel model can't be unpacked because the archive is incomplete. Known issue? 2. These ships are massive. How am I supposed to launch them? Build an even bigger launch vehicle? Thanks, and again- loving it!