zarakon

I'm curious, how exactly do you use them to plan interplanetary transfers? When I go to Minmus, I plan a maneuver that puts my orbit out to the distance of Minmus's orbit, and then drag the node around my Kerbin orbit until it's at the right spot to actually line up and give me an intercept. I'd like to be able to do the same thing for going to another planet (instead of using a phase angle calculator), but I'm not sure how to do that. I can only move the node around on my orbit around Kerbin, I don't see any way to plan it for a future point in Kerbin's orbit around the sun, days or months in advance. Is there some UI trick that I don't know about?

The research limit just means you can't research anything that costs more than that. The starting limit is 100, which means you can't research any of the nodes above 90.

Playing on hard. I've explored the Mun, and just landed on Minmus. I've upgraded my VAB, launchpad, tracking station, astronaut center, and mission control to level 2. I've researched everything that I can with the tier 1 R&D. I've avoided using strategies, since some of them seem rather overpowered. Some observations: - At the beginning, the Kerbin survey missions are generally the most lucrative ones in the list, and you might be tempted to research toward jet engines in order to do those contracts. This isn't a very efficient idea though! Unlocking the airplane parts is damn expensive, and they won't help you much with anything else. You'd be better off spending your research elsewhere, which leads to the next point... - For a short time, I was feeling a bit stuck. I didn't feel like I could build a Mun mission in under 30 parts, and I was pretty far away from having airplanes to do more of the survey missions. Part testing rarely paid well. But as soon as I unlocked the magical combo of probe core, battery, and solar panel, satellite launch contracts started showing up to save the day with their large payouts. It's cool how these contracts create an actual use for probes, other than role-playing. - Something that I think could be an improvement would be for mission control to tease you with contracts that you can't actually take yet, like showing greyed-out satellite contracts before you have the necessary parts unlocked. First, that would give you some indication of what you should be researching. Second, it would be a nice carrot-on-a-stick, something to look forward to. - The 30 part limit in the starting VAB is harsh, but some smart research choices can help give you more wiggle room. In particular, getting larger fuel tanks and engines allows you to do more with less parts. I was able to do my first Mun landing with just 30 parts by using the 2.5m tanks. - R&D upgrade does seem too expensive. I think it should cost around the same as the current VAB upgrades, not double. I'll probably be able to complete the Duna and Eve exploration contracts before I'm able to upgrade R&D. - The VAB and launchpad upgrades are a bit whacky. 30 parts and 18 tons is extremely restrictive, which is fine. But then the first upgrade to 255 parts and 140 tons makes it the complete opposite - you can do pretty much anything with that. Maybe there should be an intermediate upgrade level, like 100 parts and 70 tons. - I think in general, buildings cost too much and rockets are too cheap. Other than some of the early part testing, most contracts pay out far more than what the launch costs, so I never feel strapped for cash while building. It feels like 80% of my money goes toward facility upgrades, and I think it would be better if it was more of a 50/50 split. - Overall difficulty of hard mode seems good for me so far. It's given me a decent challenge without seeming impossible. It could definitely use some flow improvements though.

I used it once... ... to turn off the option to allow stock craft I wouldn't have any issue with using it to turn on biome display, but I certainly won't use it for infinite fuel or hack gravity

Like in real life, wait to launch until your launch site is just about directly under your intended orbit. Also don't just launch straight east, launch in the direction you'll need to be going. With a proper launch, a polar orbit only takes slightly more fuel than an equatorial orbit.

I don't think that's what he's asking Suppose an experiment has a max value of 100, but you get 80 from performing it once with a non-scientist, leaving 20 remaining that you can get from repeating the experiment. With a scientist, would it actually increase the max value, or would you just get more progress toward the max? With a 15% bonus, you would gain 92 instead of 80, but would you then have 8 remaining or 23 remaining?

I definitely agree there. The practical difference between 30 and 255 parts is enormous. The difference between 255 and unlimited is meaningless for most people

It feels pretty good to me so far Biomes I think are still an issue, with how you're able to get enormous amounts of science from one object just by doing EVA reports and measurements above different biomes in a polar orbit. It's one part overpowered, and one part tedious. It would probably be better if the amount of science you get from a particular body starts to drop off, even if you're checking out different biomes. I.E. the first EVA report you do is worth the full amount, the second biome slightly less, and by the 12th biome it would be worth very little. Science-related strategies are still super broken. Outsourced R&D gives 1000 science for 35k funds? SIGN ME UP! On the flip-side, Patents Licensing is total garbage unless you've already researched everything. These would both be more reasonable if the exchange rates were swapped.

I'm playing on hard, so progress is a bit slow. First Mun mission should be soon. I lost Jeb on what was supposed to be a simple single-stage rocket to do an aerial survey. Parachutes were in the wrong stage, they opened at launch, and the wrong end started pointing up. Bill and Bob are still alive, just because they aren't pilots and I only have 1-man capsules so far, so I never use them.

I think the minimum research you need for reasonable planes is Stability, Flight Control, and Aerodynamics. Jet engines are a must! If you're using rocket engines, you're better off just using it as a rocket because you won't get very far trying to fly it as a plane. All of those techs are available in the level 1 R&D center, and only one of them is in the 90 science tier. Landing gear is nice to have, but instead you can just use the girder segments that you start with, since they have an 80 m/s crash tolerance. The real gotcha is the ladders! It's a real facepalm moment when you fly a plane to an exploration site that requires you to EVA on the ground, then you realize you'll have no way to get back into the damn plane!

Neat, thanks

If I cancel a contract, do I get hit with the failure penalty, or does it just go away?

Easiest to get to: 1. Eve - Large SOI, no inclination 2. Minmus - Small SOI, large inclination 3. Duna - Smallish SOI, requires more delta-v, some inclination Easiest to land on: 1. Eve or Minmus (tie) - Minmus is fairly easy due to low gravity and the big flat areas. It's kind of like landing on the Mun but in slow motion with much lower fuel and thrust requirements. Eve is dead simple to land on with parachutes, except for the problem where the parachutes can tear your vessel apart if they aren't placed correctly. 2. Duna - First you have to deal with a high interplanetary speed. If you don't bleed that off, you'll punch through the atmosphere way too fast. The atmosphere is too thin to slow you down much without parachutes, but thick enough that the parachutes can still break your ship apart when they deploy. Also, the thickness of the air varies greatly with elevation, so landing in highlands requires more rocket power than landing in the canyons. Easiest to return from: 1. Minmus - Low gravity and low orbital speed around Kerbin. Even a Kerbal's EVA suit has enough thrust and delta-v to return from Minmus. 2. Duna - Not exactly easy, but getting home takes a lot less delta-v than getting there. 3. Eve - Due to its high mass and thick atmosphere, it's extremely difficult to even get to orbit from the surface of Eve. Overall, Minmus is the easiest one to deal with. Getting a Minmus intercept is a good stepping stone before attempting Duna.

My approach with large planes: 1. Use hardpoints or other heavy-duty connectors when I need more height. 2. Use pairs of wheels, right next to each other (touching) 3. Struts! Don't forget that you can attach struts to your landing gear to keep it steady.

If I had to describe reputation in career mode in one word, it would be arcane. Runners-up would be confusing, unintuitive, or cryptic. 1. The reputation meter at the top of the spaceport overview is a bit hard to read, and there's no tooltip to show the exact number. 2. The reputation number that's shown at the end of a mission does not match up with the meter. There also doesn't appear to be any other way to view this number. 3. The sum total of reputation gains does not match up with the meter OR the end of mission report. 4. It's unclear which of the above three numbers the strategy options affect. 5. It's unclear how reputation affects contract options. These numbers should all be synchronized in some way. The meter should have a tooltip with details on how much you have, and possibly a brief description of how it works. In mission control, there should be some explanation of how your rep affects the available contracts. Maybe display some greyed-out contracts that you don't have enough rep for, along with how much you would need before you can take them.

Agreed, I think just having something in use under the specified conditions should be good enough. Sometimes you can right-click an engine or other part and get a "Run Test" option, but it's not always there, and I don't know whether it depends on the specific part, contract, or both. With engines there is a trick that I've used before. It worked in 0.24, but I'm not sure if they've fixed it. - Shut down the engine (right click option) - Create a new stage, move it above the current stage. You may need to put it 2 above, with an empty one in between? - Go back to the space center. This may not actually be necessary - Stage to reactivate the engine

Lack of batteries is a big problem

Mine have texture The Mk3 IVA view is just black for me though

There are a couple of "tricky" things about it - It's easy to make a mistake when adding up numbers from a large number of parts - Staging that involves crossfeed, droptanks, and/or detachable boosters gets kind of complicated

It's just tedious First of all, the stock editor doesn't make the full mass and dry mass readily available. Add in staging, especially asparagus, and just getting all the mass numbers is a big pain It also becomes tricky and even more tedious when you have fuel crossfeed and/or multiple engine types to figure out.

Found these cool replicas on youtube:

I would say the minimum requirement is for one ship to visit every planet, getting close enough to each for some pretty pictures and science, but not necessarily stopping or landing

I do it when it seems reasonable, but I usually just trick the editor and rarely use the debug menu I like the sound of that Harv

Not all engines have that option, like the LV-909

You used the engine under the required conditions The only problem here is that you had to do it in a kind of round-about way. IMO the game should be changed to consider any engine that's on as being tested