toomuchbrew

Not sure if this was mentioned, but in order to return to the tracking station, the throttle must be set to zero. If you ran out of fuel, it may still be set to full and thus not allowing the tracking station option. Maybe that changed. Haven't tried it due to habit

I think the career tree is a great addition. Unless you are Scott Manley, it gives another challenge to veteran players who are used to having all the parts available. It makes them change their thought process to try to solve simple tasks with limited tech. I like that mainsails are so far down the tree. My pre-mainsail rockets had to be completely redesigned with the reduced lift on the skippers. Side note: when I first bought ksp, I played nearly 20 hours per day while I was out for surgery. Now with career mode my work is making me miserable. I have to go to bed and can't play all night

How I have done it is by focusing on science and electricity. If you consider that you can transmit and get the same amount of science points, you can just send lots of small probes on a one-way trip to the other planets. Obviously, you won't get EVA, sample or crew reports though. They are worth a lot of points, but you can get through the tech tree pretty far on just probes and landing probes.

It doesn't matter if you return or transmit. You will get the same amount of science in the end. As some great forum sage said (sorry, I forget who it was), think of it like a well. Say the well had 1 gallon of water. Equate returning samples to a quart scoop and transmitting a teaspoon. It doesn't matter which you use, you still only scoop 1 gallon of water. Only the time invested changes.

As many have mentioned: Shoot some unmanned probes out into space. Close orbit on Duna and landing on Ike, transmitting until all the science points were used up netted me close to 2k science points. Doing the same with Eve would probably get you closer to 3k.

Pre .22 I reached Duna and Eve. Also Ike, Minmus and Mun. Did not return from Eve or Duna. Landed probe on Duna. .22 Career, Duna, Ike, Minmus and Mun.

I admit, at first, I thought the tech tree was counter-intuitive, but I found that it adds to the challenge. It is possible to get a ton of research points very early with just the initial tech. If you can get a ship into orbit with a full fuel tank left, you can get to the Mun or Minmus and back. You just won't be able to transmit any science. You shouldn't draw on the batteries as long as you don't use auxiliary reaction wheels on your rocket. You can put down close to 1000 or more points in one mission. Even if you baby step it, you should be able to get over 100 points on your first launch which opens up a few tech slots.

I don't mean to be insulting, but why would you try to EVA during re-entry? If Squad made the EVA report viable during re-entry, shame on them. I know we are talking a game, based on science, but stepping outside of your protective capsule during a re-entry is pretty foolish.

No, but didn't it burn in a day?

Is this a serious question?

Ok, so it sounds like, as long as you remain closer than 2.5km away from the active command pod or probe, the chutes will deploy and the cargo will become reclaimable? Do I have this correct? I was putting chutes on my radially decoupled tanks to try to save "resuse" them, but they don't come up reclaimable or even show as debris on the tracking station. Is that due to the fact that after 2.5 km from the pod, they "unload" from the game? I guess I am a little confused as to the steps you mentioned in the quote at the beginning of this post

That is a great graphic.

Did anyone notice that you can run an engine with no power? It was one of the small orbital engines. It still worked at zero power with a manned capsule. I don't remember ANYTHING working when power levels were zero. I noticed that the small engine didn't add to the electrical power like the main engines do either, so maybe that is why.

I had a few issues of this last night. One other thing I have noticed though is that some times my chute self-deploys. This caused a crash too as it cut away at full-deployment altitude. I was still falling about 50m/s and it cut away and I made a crater.

lol-whut? I don't think it would work. Physics only loads at 2.2km or less I think. Besides, your computer would spontaneously combust.

Does anyone know if you can jettison science states/experiments with parachutes and recover them (perhaps as debris). My thought is, you can make a large sciency rocket and then when you re-enter you could decouple the science section with chutes and land your capsule with another chute, that way you don't over power the standard chute. Am I trying to reinvent the wheel here?

I have found the same thing. If you EVA upon landing and don't re-enter the command pod, you will need to recover the vehicle through the tracking station. Does anyone know if it is possible to save the discarded/decoupled parts? I don't see them as debris in the tracking station. Maybe it would make it too easy if they counted towards science. Not sure.

did you try turning off the gimbal on your mainsail outboard engines?

certain experiments give you 100% scientific value when transmitted (like crew reports). Others only offer a fraction of a return. So thinks like sample gathering and goo experiments lose relevance when transmitted as opposed to be returned to the ground and recovered. Try doing good experiments and save them, but dont transmit them. land the craft safely and recover. you will get 100% of the scientific data.

I have found, with research, you get diminishing returns for repeating the same experiments over and over again. When I launch now, I don't get any science from crew reports from the ground through Kerbin orbit. It probably took about 7-10 experiments of the same type in the same relative locations before the returns started generating little to no science.

OMG! I unknowingly got the update and found that Mech Jeb wasn't working on my sandbox game. I haven't been following the forums, so I didn't even realize what the update contained. I figured I would check to see if Career mode was working yet. I almost pissed my pants. I quickly started a new game and instead of going to bed at 11pm for a 6pm wake up to go to work, I instead played until 3am. I couldn't leave my computer. It's all squads fault I feel like crap today. I can't wait to get home!!! I might be feeling a little "sick" "coff, coff".