planetx

So I have a couple questions regarding targeting. I understand the need for antennas to extend your targeting range. Right now it seems all I can see are vessels. Are there plans to make planets show up in the target list? And for vessels, is there a plan to allow specific docking ports to be in the list?

Thanks for your replies! I really get the feeling that I'll have to start from the beginning when it comes to C#. I thought I could just jump right in due to my programming background, but that's not the case.

I have a heavy background in PHP/MySQL/Javascript and I've won awards in Visual Basic programming. So I thought developing a mod for Kerbal Space Program would be no problem because I have a big programming background. I'm using Visual Studio 2012 and so far I've managed to get my "Hello, World" print to the debug log only thanks to copy/paste from the tutorial on the KSP Wiki. C# is just confusing the hell out of me right now. I feel I have no clue where to go from my Hello World plugin code. How do I make a GUI window and style it? How do I interact with Kerbal Space Program to control a ship or even just fetch current radar altitude? If I can just get someone to post a link to a previous post containing helpful information, I'd GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.

That moment when.... ...you let mechjeb control your launch ascent, and during the gravity turn mechjeb decides to tumble the rocket despite a perfect manual launch history. ...you engage your first ion-engine probe and learn you need 10x the solar power generation. ...you start your mun ascent and run out of fuel before you can circularize.

Keep trying it yourself. It took me about 6 hours when I did my first docking, and that was with a youtube tutorial video guiding me! Remember to hit quicksave (F5 key) all the time. That way if you screw something up or ram your two space station modules into each other you can quick load (F9 key) and try again.

I find this encouraging because if mod devs are being hired it can only mean that KSP is going to get better, instead of falling off a cliff into development hell. I can definitely see the "mod support goes away when mod dev gets hired" but when you look at the quality of these mods and the skill of the dev I think it's great that the dev's skill will now go into all future KSP releases.

Registration is now open! Sign up free at http://www.kerbalmcc.com. A lot of work is still being done to the save file sharing system, but once work is completed (very, very soon) emails will go out to everyone who registered.

And to think EA got the rights to Star Wars video games. Bleeping hell.

The website is going to be www.kerbalmcc.com. Development of the back-end code is well underway.

I'm running MJ 2.0.7. I've been having issues with MJ auto-staging even though auto-stage is turned off and even though I'm not even using ascent guidance. Also I can usually create new stages on the fly while the ship is being flown but for some reason MJ keeps "auto-staging" and it just prevents me from doing that.

What MJ2 does is how it should be: It halves the calculated burn time and burns each 50% on each half of the maneuver node. So if the burn time for a maneuver is 60 seconds, it will start the burn 30 seconds before the maneuver. It's the most accurate way to burn a maneuver node. MJ1 had its own unique method of circularizing, but since MJ2 uses maneuver nodes that's what makes it "burn differently" but you still end up with a good result.

I'd think an Eve colony would give you the best prison. No escape, and if the inmates take control of the facility you simply stop resupplying them.

KSP is an extremely fun game that I can get lost in for hours on end and actually runs on my laptop. I would not at all mind paying more money to ensure continued development.

I take the part for the station and put it on the end of a "tug". The whole thing gets lifted with lots of rockets. I make sure that when I detach the last "lifting rocket", everything is still on a sub-orbital (aka crash and burn) trajectory. The tug is responsible for circularizing, rendezvous, and docking. Then when the new piece has been docked to the station, I undock the tug from the new piece and the tug burns retrograde to de-orbit. Zero debris, nice and clean.

So what domain name are we thinking about? Personally I love kerbalmissioncontrol.com but anything using "kerbal" or "ksp" would most likely invoke the wrath of the copyright gods.

Here's how I see everything working at this point: Create an account, then you can log in and join a "mission group". There will be public and private mission groups. Public mission groups will be listed in a directory, private mission groups will be unlisted. Anyone can create a mission group. Each group will have a unique vanity url that can be shared for easy joining. Private groups can also be password-protected so even if the vanity url gets shared it won't fill up with players you don't want. When you join a group, you'll be inserted at the end of the queue. The group creator (moderator) can require you to add mission details before you are able to download the game save, and then when you submit the new game save you can post a mission debriefing which will get saved forever. So as a group goes through the queue an ongoing mission log will build up, serving as a history of accomplishments for the entire group. When it's your turn you will have (x hours, set by the moderator) to download the file before you get bumped by the next person in the queue, and you will have (x hours) to submit the new game save before you get skipped. If that happens, you will not be able to upload your game save as the next person is already playing the game save. The group creator/moderator can grant extension requests so if you need more time you can ask for more time and avoid being skipped and having to throw out your hard work. Most of you should know this, but the file to be uploaded will have to be the entire game save directory. If you upload just the persistence file then the next person to play the game save will have the game auto-deleting all the ships. I'm hoping to have native support for directly uploading the folder, but it might be the case of having to zip the folder and then unzip to play. We'll see. I am also thinking about some sort of competition method between groups.

I finished the mission with 200 m/s delta-v, so if I had burned off that delta-v before launch somehow I could have had a much better jet engine flight. When I saw the problem I was having, I attempted to re-design the craft as a spaceplane hybrid, where I would decouple all the wings, intakes, and the jet engine going into stage 2 srb. I kept having an issue of not enough wing lift as the atmo thinned out...probably due to bad plane design more than anything. I knew I wanted to do a manned lander, and my initial landers were far smaller but lacked the dV to return from Mun. Those flights I did get to 1,700 m/s with the jet engine, and ended up with an apoapsis of nearly 600km. But as soon as I put in that final tiny tank to get enough dV for Mun return, well, you saw the result. I had thought about going with an ion-engine lander, but I started running into the same problem once I got enough ion engines and solar panels going. All-in-all I'm pretty pleased with my result, but I can't wait to see better ones.

I only got to 900 m/s. My Jet engine TWR at launch was 2.02, and because the jet engine at take-off only produces 112kn thrust and mechjeb TWR is based on the maximum jet engine thrust (220 or something like that) that means my TWR was effectively 1.01. It took a bit more than half my fuel to reach 10km before I turned over and adjusted my angle of attack to create horizontal velocity, then I only got to 300 m/s with about 25% fuel remaining. By the time I got to 900 m/s I was out of fuel and had to kick in stage 2. I tried different ascent profiles, but the above profile gave me the best speed before I ran out of fuel. I tried adding more liquid fuel but then I couldn't get off the ground, because my Munar lander weighed so much. I tried paring down my lander size but then I didn't have enough dV to make it to Mun and back.

Like old mechjeb, mechjeb 2 requires that the rocket be built to exact specifications. You might be able to control a wonky design because you know that it's wonky. Mechjeb has always required that the rocket be built near perfect. When the design is good, mechjeb can do miraculous things with it. If the design is bad, then only the good Lord knows what will happen.

I'd love to see a picture of your craft. My entry for this challege (refer to link in my earlier post) only allowed me to put my 1-man capsule to 100km apoapsis AFTER the RT-10 fired, so my 3k delta-v was used for Mun operations. Succesful, but the jet engine and srb barely did it for me. I'm interested to see how you pulled it off.

Does the entire craft have to be put into orbit on a single launch, or can we construct a ship in orbit?

Okay gang, I made it to the Mun and back manned by Jeb! Full gallery with all the proof here: http://imgur.com/a/xiBHK Achieved 100km apoapsis, documented. Accidentally ignited the 3rd stage engine before grabbing proof of my final 130km apoapsis, so I'm submitting my entry as a 100km apoapsis. I put a Jeb-manned munar lander into space with my 1 stage of 1 jet engine and my 1 stage of 1 RT-10 SRB. Only mod used was Mechjeb 2, and boy did I need that. I BARELY got off the ground with the 1 jet engine, and my fuel window was so tight that without the precision of Mechjeb I doubt I could have done it.

I'm planning on having the "next up" person download only a copy of the master game save. They do their thing. If they don't upload the new one, or if the uploaded save file is broke, then the next one in line gets the original file. If they don't download the file and start doing their mission within a certain time window, they get skipped and re-inserted to the end of the queue. The goal would be for each person to take no more than 72 hours to perform the mission and submit the game save. I'm also thinking it would be great to allow separate communities to exist on the website, so instead of having 100 people waiting in one queue for a particular game save, you could form your own smaller groups so you can perform missions faster.

I'm a website developer by day, kerbalnaut by night. I've seen a lot of groups of people that pass around a single game save file as a pseudo-multiplayer game. I'm contemplating developing a website that would allow you to create an account, then put yourself into the queue to receive the game save. You can post a mission agenda, and after you've been given the file you would carry out whatever you're wanting to carry out, then you upload the new game save along with mission results (imgur album, etc). The next person is automatically notified by the website. There are a lot of places where this happens, but I think a website to organize and automate things could work. What do you all think? UPDATE 5/13/2013 Registration is now open! Sign up free at http://www.kerbalmcc.com. A lot of work is still being done to the save file sharing system, but once work is completed (very, very soon) emails will go out to everyone who registered. UPDATE 5/9/2013 The website is going to be www.kerbalmcc.com. Development of the back-end code is well underway.