Merinsan

Going to the Mun and back is something I do when I just feel like doing something simple. I've gotten so good at it, I can do it even on the dark side (although it is much harder). Duna is fairly routine for me also.

I would like to participate in the competition, but I simply suck at it.

My next task is to set up the Kethane mining operation around Pol. 9 ships are about to enter the Jool SOI, and I will need to aerobreak properly to get them there. After that, I need to work on a better fuel transfer ship - probably a Kethane Miner/Converter which can get back into orbit, to unload fuel.

I've actually intentionally built ships to do that before, although it can be risky. I find myself often adding RCS to my ships and then forgetting to put the actual RCS thrusters on! When I get to the point where I need to dock I have 750 monoprop and I can't translate...takes a minute to realize why! As for the fuel draining, I always put decouplers between stages, so I never get this problem. One thing I always want to use is the stack separators - they look so sleek, but I never do because they are heavier than decouplers!

You can also select the crew if you click the launch pad to load the craft, rather than going through the editor. I suspect this is an under utilized feature, since I almost always go into the VAB to find my craft first.

Solar sails have been used already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail#IKAROS_2010 Although I understand all the concerns about how impractical they would be to use. They'd still look cool though!

I can't fairly comment at this point. I was pure stock until 0.23. I played 0.23 for about 2 weeks, then I installed some mods. I doubt I'll go back to pure stock, Kerbal Alarm Clock is just too good. Some of the other mods I guess I could live without, like Kethane and KAS.

I'd like some solar sails! And they should be huge, just so it looks cool!

This is amazing. I imagine the next step will be someone setting up a "rocket" in the backyard to put all this stuff in, with a ladder to climb into it. I wonder if someone will build a full on simulator that simulates vibrations, G force, etc.

Get a RAID drive.

I do hope so! I might go back to stock then! Sorry, that was so off topic. The reason numbers are going down is most likely because 0.23 was not a particularly big update. People have played what they could, and are waiting for the next update. And most of the long term players don't use steam (at least in my opinion)!

I've heard of someone doing 10 orange tanks before. I've done 5 orange tanks myself. But my go to fuel ship does about 2.5 orange tanks. The tanks detach to provide fuel storage tanks for fuel depots. I used it to stock my HKO station (orbit outside Minmus orbit) with fuel for interplanetary missions. The final stage has 2 nukes which feed off the 2 tanks, so it is capable of going interplanetary, which it did recently to Dres to set up a mining operation there.

Are you certain they are not the same Buzz? Perhaps you will opened a temporal rift somewhere in the system, in the future, and send him back in time so it appears there are 2!

I think it was more that they fixed a bug, which resulted in them being able to walk better. There was a bug where they could fall over and never get up...I always attributed this to the sniper kraken.

It wasn't just threads, it was users as well, including me!

I'm pretty sure I put a flag on the moon of Hermes, but I haven't landed on any of the large moons (due to too little thrust). I really want to land on Hestia and Rhea, they just look so nice. Even if there are problems with anything I have in the system currently, it's not a big problem, since all live Kerbals have left the system and are on their way home.

Looking forward to it. I still have 1 probe in the system, I hope it survives the changes. Also, wondering what will happen to my flags! My Dres mining station is almost up and running, so I'll be staging from there next time round.

1. Trying to land on the side of a hill 2. Trying to change focus in the map screen, and using shift+tab to go backwards. 3. Too little thrust 4. Too little fuel 5. Too little torque (see 1) Can't think of anything else.

Not sure where you get that from, would like a reference. I've been stock for a long time, but recently started using mods: KAC, KAS, Kethane, clouds and lights Planet Factory and Sidos Urania system. These mods have given the game a new lease on life for me.

I've been all over the place in Urania now (well almost). Some comments for you, regarding issues I found. 1. A description of a planet is wrong. I forget which one specifically, but it said it was the moon of Rhea, when it was not. I think Eos. 2. The moon of Hyperion has an insane SOI, it practically touches the surface of Hyperion. 3. I had some weird effects at one point. The SOI transition was getting further and further away. Time accelerating stopped it and it started again when I went 1x, so I left it on until the transition. I guess this is a planet factory issue. Design comments: 1. The planets are pretty, but they are too homogenous. They don't look the same but they all seem to have very similar characteristics, ie all the moons moons seem to have .5g, all the main moons about .7g A bit more variation would be good. 2. Fragnum has some areas (at least the green crater I landed in), below sea level. The problem with this is the camera angle becomes fixed, looking down. It's very difficult to do things like that. 3. Hyperion has most of it's land at about 80km. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but I feel that the sea level should be much higher to represent this. I guess then you'll have a problem with the low areas. I smashed a ship into it first time, trying to aerobreak. Landing on it was very interesting though. 4. Eos has no atmosphere, yet there is wind blowing snow/ice around! There might be other moons like that also.

If that were the case, the kraken drive would never have been invented. The whole reason people came up with this idea was because people were experiencing this bug when not trying.

Another reason is if the ship is not stable. Admittedly not a real issue with the nukes, but I have had problems with mainsails being too powerful, destroying a ship.

I completely agree with this. A recent ship I built had 4 LV-Ns. The burn time was 90 minutes. If I had 1, it would be more efficient, but it would have been a 6hr burn. I'm lucky when I get to play KSP for 6hrs, I don't want to be doing a single burn for that time!

I finally arrived at the Urania system. I initially said that the update did not affect the transit, though I may have been wrong. My SOI change was delayed by about 8hrs for each ship. Interesting though, the one ship that had an encounter with one of the moons still had it. 2 of my ships have landed, 1 is in an orbit. The system looks beautiful, though crowded - looking up into the sky there are so many moons to see! I underestimated the thrust my ships would have, so I can't land on the moons of Urania (I probably could, but it will be hard), though I can land on the moons of the moons. Also, I noticed biomes when doing science! I like KSP, and what Squad has done, but the planets are so dull when compared to what you have done. Are they realistic? Probably not. But they look so cool. Next transfer window, I will be sending better landers. Also, as I mentioned before, I've sent ships to Jool. The purpose of that was to set up a Kethane mining facility on Pol. I'm also setting one up on Dres. These are going to help me to get to and from Urania and Sentar easier, so I can send bigger ships! Tonight I hope to do more exploring!

If they ever do that, I'll build a rocket that can land on Minmus first, then visit the Mun on the way back. As far as I can tell though, this is not the direction they want to go - even the career mode is going to stay sandboxy, just with resource restrictions. I'm looking forward to contracts, having reasons to do things. I'm hoping that some of the contracts will include putting space stations and bases in places, so we have a reason to do so!