Stargate525

I'd almost wait on the scienc-y bit... The next update's going to have something very similar, which might be easier to integrate once it drops.

I know it's possible. He wanted suggestions. I was suggesting.

Well now that you mention... n.n Is there a way to randomize part requirements? Like, antennae between 0-6, and dishes between 1-10, or something like that? Having to design specific sattllites for each mission would be neat. How about probe landings on specific coordinates? Imitates a 'take a sample from X crater' sort of thing. This is just personal preference, but I prefer upper-lower apoapsis, with eccentricity, rather than lowest periapsis and highest apoapsis. Works out the same, but I seem to be better able to work the second... *shrug* Crew amount X in orbit Y for Z time? Just a few off the top of my head.

OH! That reminds me. Any reason why each part is its own goal?

I suppose that's fair. Can I request that the high orbit satellites are actually high orbit? Say, 500-2000km? As it stands, the lowest high ones aren't more than a dozen km further out than the highest low ones.

I cross-posted the error into the main plugin thread. It was suggested that I delete the config.xml and let it rebuild when I loaded, which worked like a charm. So, nothing wrong with your pack whatsoever. Sorry for worrying you! Love the pack to death, btw. Can't wait to see more from you. If I might suggest a fuel depot line of missions? Also... might want to consider making the mun mission require getting BACK to Kerbin... I was astonished that my crash... er... more-than-solid impact on the mun qualified for the reward.

You could put a lifetime on them, couldn't you?

If you look, I THINK they payout immediately when the objective is met. Not 100% sure. Also, for the random mission pack... Might I suggest that the satellites are given over to computer control? As it stands, it's super-easy to make a ship which has 1-2000 Dv, and sequentially hit dozens of those targets.

This has been postulated, and IS possible. It's called a Dyson Ring. It would require stationkeeping, like anything else, but that could be solved by anchoring it to space elvators at even intervals.

That did it. Thanks!

KIS, docking mission. I looked through the pack code and didn't find anything glaringly wrong. I re-downloaded, overwrote everything... it's still happening.

I'm getting an error with docking missions. When I attempt to select one, the selection box gets massive, goes blank, and locks up the plugin. Any idea why that's happening?

I've got a problem. Your docking mission, when I attempt to select it, makes the selection window blank, massive, and uncloseable. Any idea what's causing that?

The only way to get 'free' energy, MAYBE, is from managing to extract it from Zero-Point Energy. Problem is, we have no way to try and extract it, no idea if it'll work, and no idea whether it actually is an infinite amount of energy. Jury's still out, though. The main arguments against it seem to be 'you can't because you can't,' which in quantum mechanics is a bit of a farce.

Maybe I'm being pedantic, but I think that the pack system is being used ineffectively. Every pack I've gotten, besides the random missions, require you to start with probes to space, then orbit... They all take the same basic steps of orbit -> Mun -> Planet Exploration -> Duna. I like KIS because of the spaceplane set, I like stock because of its quality, and I like NT for the space station... But I need to keep doing those little bunny hops to get high enough on the tree. Wouldn't it make more sense to turn each of these into their own pack? Like a pack that's just the 'Gemini' Missions (ie, getting into orbit, basic probes, etc.), one that's just Mun prep and landing, one that's just a Duna mission set...

I'm running the mission controller packs, and I found myself in a bit of debt. Launched a rocket with eight satellites piled on top, make a more efficient use of my lifter stage... It's only when I start decoupling them to fly em out to their homes that I realize... I never gave each one a probe body... >.<

How about an Alcubierre Drive? Super late-game, requires a metric ton of energy....

I never agreed with The Killing Star proposal of a hostile universe. It's also assuming that no other species has been stupid, no one has yelled out 'I'm here' or 'I'm a friend.' It assumes that every species evolves sapience alone on its planet, assumes that they didn't evolve in tandem with another easily-reachable planet with life (Say, if Venus were earthlike, had Venutians). It assumes, most damning, that not a single species is willing to trust.

I'm not arguing for 'blindly forging ahead.' The plain fact of the matter is that for Mars to colonize, SOMEONE has to go first. It will be risky. It will be dangerous. Apollo missions are a perfect example; something goes wrong, they're SOL, dead! The president had a speech prepared and everything mourning their loss. Unless you're willing to say that the first MArs mission will be a 1000-5000 man mission, including full industry and processing facilities, there will be an element of risk. Same as with Jamestown, same as with Apollo, Same as with our first eventual interstellar journey.

microgravity =/= reduced gravity. You're arguing a circuit here. We don't have the data, so we can't go to Mars, but if we don't go to Mars, we can't get the data, and if we don't have the data... A lot of this thread is in the same vein. Most of this stuff we won't know until we get someone, something, living on Mars to find out. The closest thing we can do, short of going to another planet and living there, is building a giant spinning ring in orbit calibrated to give .38g, and having someone hang out up there for a year or two. NASA had a smaller one planned to test the viability of those kind of rings, but hey, funding got in the way of it.

It's not, though. It's much more of a parabolic curve. A lot of the problems with weightlessness is that your body uses gravity as a 'down' position for a lot of its functions; digestion, balance, orientation, blood flow, etc. Without that, it gets confused. If it has that down position (which we certainly would in half a g), then it's merely a case of being very strong for the environment. Your heart won't have to work as hard to get blood to your head; your legs won't need to support as much, etc. For some people, it might be MORE healthy, long-term. The biggest problem is that once you normalize to half a g, going back to earth might be impossible, as you're now at, effectively for your body, 2g.

The main hurdle to a Martian colony is economic. It'll be overcome because of economic factors. Columbus was looking for a shortcut to undermine trade margins, Magellan was looking for an alternate trade route as well. Every major exploratory feat we humans have done was to buy things, sell things, take things, or use things, with the exception of the moon landings, which was done as a posturing. If rare earths get expensive enough to justify offworld mining, or people will pay enough to get rid of prisoners sentenced to life... it'll happen. It's already been talked about with the moon.

But the payouts aren't designed around minimalist designs. My probe launches aren't super-efficient, but the launch platform I'm comfortable with typically costs around 20k. That's a 30k payout. I need to launch TEN satellites to run a non-mission launch to my Duna base. That seems fine to me.

With Spaceplanes... You could build a refueling rover on the launch pad, run it over to the plane, and refuel it via docking port or KAS. Makes the whole thing reusable, without ever needing to recycle it.

That's a common fallacy. There's a reason that spacecraft are so light, and submarines so heavy. But yes, the twenty or thirty feet shouldn't be terrible; the astronaut training complex has spacecraft parts that are submerged further than that.