zarakon

Seems fine to me as-is. I think it would suck if a couple of failures could give you a total game-over. If you lose funds and reputation for failing, then that means instead of going bankrupt you can still end up in a tight spot and start making backwards progress. If you run out of surplus funds and have only the contract advance funds available, then I imagine it will be more difficult to complete the contract. Fail, and you end up with less reputation and easier/cheaper contracts. Eventually you'll reach a point where you can complete one or two to get back on your feet. But being put into that downward spiral, even if only temporarily, seems like it could be punishing enough without the need for a game-over.

Rule #1 - Gratuitous use of quicksave/quickload required. Failure will never be permanent. Videos will be edited for the illusion of perfection. Rule #2 - No return trips. Kerbals leave their planet for good. Sacrifices will often be mandatory just for the hell of it. Rule #3 - Use MechJeb from the start Rule #4 - If something can be automated by MechJeb, flying manually is not permitted. Rule #5 - Kerbals will only be supplied with as much food, water, and oxygen as they can cram into their suits. Rule #6 - No stock parts Rule #7 - Must use mods to alter every possible aspect of the game physics and balance

I installed FAR, used the same plane unmodified, and beat my stock time on the first try. Beat it by a wide margin on the third try (after disintegrating on takeoff for the second try) 1:06 with FAR (second attempt in the video) I had some attempts that could have been under 1 minute if I had lined them up better. This is also an ugly landing. I made a much nicer looking one at the front end of the runway while uploading this video, but it was the same 1:06 time I'm not trying to say that FAR should be banned or that FAR result times don't deserve respect - just that FAR and stock should be scored separately because they are so different.

I think 500 m/s at sea level with a single engine says it all No matter how hard it is to do that in FAR, it's impossible to do it in stock

FAR may be more difficult, but I don't think you can argue that there isn't a significant difference in the maximum potential. Top speeds of ~400m/s at 3km in stock vs 500+m/s at sea level in FAR, stock doesn't stand a chance at winning the top ranks

Video cropping is still being processed at the moment. If the video is still 4 minutes long, skip to 1:42 for the non-fail attempt 1:37 from takeoff to full stop 100% stock 1 kerbal

Isn't FAR a massive advantage for top speed in the lower atmosphere?

If you combine the power of all rockets that all KSP players have ever built, it might be enough to move the smallest moon in the game (Gilly) by 1 or 2 m/s (if they weren't on rails)

Dynamicwarp mod is very helpful when flying ion gliders. Depending on your craft's complexity you can get 2x or 4x warp with no physics distortion, or up to 8x with only 2x physics distortion

There are a few things that may be contributing to the behavior you're seeing 1. I believe wheels have their own momentum, and will continue spinning after you remove the motor input 2. The Mun has low gravity (duh). But this means that if your rover is very light, such as your metal plate with 4 wheels, the wheels won't make good contact with the ground. This could explain why it feels like you don't have much power - your wheels are probably slipping. In combination with the momentum of the wheels it could also explain why you seem to keep accelerating after you've removed input - your wheels are spinning faster than you're moving, and due to the light weight of your rover and low gravity, they are able to continue to impart significant velocity to your rover while also taking a long time to lose momentum. To make a better Mun rover, it can be helpful to add weight to it or add some upward-facing ion engines to push the rover down into the ground for better traction.

What we call infiniglide is the same thing, just flapping control surfaces. I guess spending electricity is the difference, but that still creates an unintended infinitely-renewable propulsion source, which IMO goes against the spirit of most challenges

Even with no control surfaces, you can infiniglide using torque

No you don't. Old versions had a big tower like that next to the launchpad, and that thing was a damned menace. Good riddance, I say!

See this thread for ion gliders made for Kerbin orbit: - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/75704-Reach-for-orbit-with-an-ion-glider%21 Ion SSTO on Kerbin is just barely possible. Maybe. It becomes hard to tell whether infiniglide was a significant factor, even with locked control surfaces, when you have such light craft with a lot of lift. I don't think you'd get anywhere close on Eve, there's just too much drag. Even on Kerbin, the most important thing is to climb as quickly as possible to get above the high-drag lower atmosphere. The new ion engines suck xenon a lot faster than the old ones did, so it hardly feels like you have infinite fuel.

Other than sepratrons, never

From https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/

I could never get "canned air" to actually work. The engine would appear to turn on, would consume air, and wouldn't be in the flame-out state, but never generated any thrust

I quicksave mostly to undo things like accidentally warping through a planet

Technically that's more of a semantics perspective than a technical one.. If that doesn't count as SSTO, then neither would any of the "SSTO" spaceplanes that switch from jet to rocket engines

Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world? Fire 65 LV-1 engines at the same time

An anonymous online bidder paid $610,000 for this joystick that was used in the Apollo 15 landing I hope the buyer plans to play KSP with it

Keyboard for rockets, gamepad for planes

Yes. A couple of my earlier attempts at SSTO spaceplanes ended in failure when the shifted center of mass caused loss of control when attempting to land. Also parachutes have ripped apart plenty of ships entering Duna's atmosphere

And look at all of those struts between the stages!

^ hack gravity