Bibblejw

The plasma thrusters require a LOT of power to give any usable thrust. With standard reactors, you usually can't get enough power to do anything useful. You either need AM reactors, or to be in space (where you can do long burns, rather than big burns).

To be honest, it'd be nice to have that now, in a sense. use it to plonk a bubble around yourself, keeping the components stable within, and allowing you to apply thrust. As an advanced component, it would allow you to add thrust to large constructions without the wobbling/kraken effect. Would obviously need to be quite power hungry, and possibly have a decent cooldown to prevent abuse, but it would make some of this much easier. Technically, you could try to invoke "time warp" physics to keep everything where it was while the force is being applied.

I think there have been reports that, if parts are added into previously-unlocked nodes, you need to go back to the science centre and "unlock" them individually (clicking on them in the parts window should do it), otherwise, it should be fine.

Yeah, realistically, the whole thing will get much easier as/when they implement currency. Or have any kind of centrally-distributable resources (i.e. being able to fill up AM tanks on the platform from a hold in KSC, or upgrade parts in the VAB. But I'm aware that I'm dreaming now, so I'll stop.

I'd imagine that part of the issue with conversion would be that the new stuff is capital. You collect and spend it once, Fractal's is revenue, it's a resource that it generated and spent continuously.

For docking, I tend to use MechJeb. Not the autopilot, but the Smart ASS to keep the docking port of the target pointed in your direction. Makes life easier, because it basically just means that you need to advance, and stay straight, rather than needing to match axes, and sort from there. Ground-docking would have a similar advantage, except that it's more difficult to make minor changes, as you need to hover.

I do have to say, it would be nice to have KSC as somewhere that can take resources, being able to cart AM and science into there (by either landing there, or recovering from the surface of Kerbin), and dishing it out at launch, rather than needing to park an AM store close by and using other mods to transfer it across.

Yup, transmitting science only works in increments of 100, so you need that as a minimum.

Ok, thanks for the response. I get TWRs, how to work them out, etc. My main thing is concerned with the amount of fuel. For instance, a 1.01 TWR will have you accelerating somewhat slowly (going through the calculations, a 11,111kN thrust at 1.01 TWR gives 111.11kN usable force. Applying f=ma gives an accelleration that's got far too many 0's before it for my liking), and basically hovering over the launch pad until you've burnt enough fuel to get a useable TWR. I was really just asking for a general rule of thumb that people used (such as mine is that my standard launch vehicle can take 30t to a 100k with no issues, above that, and fuel issues come into play).

Theoretically, unless the code only checks for one, it should have the capacity to use both, it's the same generator that the AM reactors use, after all.

Might have a look at KAS. Not been too long in the KSP modding stuff, so unsure of what's around, but something to prevent my stations wobbling out of existence, and transferring resources without needing both ships to be fully docked would be nice. Another minor question. Anyone give the approximate lifting power of a simple rocket (small AM, thermal engine, etc.) into standard 100k orbit? What sort of payloads/what are people's preferred configs?

Well, so far, my startups have been (after a few trials to learn some stuff about the mechanics): 1. Assemble a science station (2 sets of 4 modules, power, one x64, and one of my standard propulsion units of 2-4 LKMs around an x32), all lovingly assembled with a super-mobile tug ship. 2. Attempt Jool transfer. 3. Realise that, while I do have sufficient delta-V, the ship is not stable enough to apply that. It wobbles at all times. 4. Rage quit and remove the ship, which is now on an irrevocable re-entry trajectory (I couldn't bear to watch it crumble). Then, I tried AM instead: 1. Assemble AM collector ship, with tanks, and a few modules of collectors. Again, shuttled along by a little hyper-mobile tug. 2. Get annoyed by the multitude of dumb craft in orbit, so clear them out from KSC, after renaming the main ship. 3. Realise that the rename was transferred on the last assembly manoeuvre, and the sole ship remaining is the remnants of a lifter stage (I realised this when I got the power stage up). 4. Rage quit. But, realistically, I've now got a decent moderate lifter design (one x64 mainsail, with 6 x64 skippers around it, feeding back) that seems to get about a 20-30t payload to orbit with enough fuel to get close to an assembly. I think my next task will be to install quantum/docking struts. I might try the above method of getting AM on the platform, but I'm not entirely sure how to transfer it to a new ship.