Tex_NL

I had to dig deep but I found it. Today, exactly 2 years and half an hour ago I made this screenshot. The most useless thing I ever build: Damocles. It was one hell of a nightmare to launch with all those wing parts in front of the CoG. It was also the period I first started using my SSLS (Stable Shuttle Launch System).

Looks like several other people in that thread are asking the very same question. The only advice I can give you has already been given in that same thread: Use KIS/KAS. It offers you struts and many, many more.

Funny thing is, it doesn't matter. A gas giant has more than enough gravity to cause tidal friction in its moons. Heat from this tidal friction alone can be enough to sustain life.

Let me offer another solution: KIS/KAS. Use the KIS containers to ship the parts required to wherever you want to build your base. Then have your Kerbal Engineers bolt the pieces together with KAS. Or simply link separate landers together. Linking them with KAS pipes is a lot easier than trying to connect misaligned docking ports.

Yeah, and ... ? He also has series on Xenonauts, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen and many, many more. Sadly he never finished his Freelancer playthrough.

This thread could not have come at a better time:

What if you mount the gun closer to it's centre of gravity? That way any torque (inertia and recoil?) should have a smaller effect. Currently the rail is attached at the far end. Placing it on the front should make it more stable.

I just re-build and tested the OP rocket. With KerbalJointReenforcement and Claws StockBuxFix there is NOTHING preventing MechJeb from launching it into orbit. It blasted to a 100*100km equatorial orbit with over 560m/s to spare in the first stage. I intentionally typed 'blasted' bold as it has an insane TWR. On the launchpad it starts at just over 4, going all the way up to 14! If MechJeb had not throttled back it would have burned on the way up. This might also be part of your problem, you might simply be going too fast. Just a side note: You won't be travelling far on your ion stage. Without batteries four SP solar panels will not sustain an ion engine. Edit: Removed the Rocko adapter. You don't need it. Replaced the reaction wheel with batteries. You don't need the reaction wheel but you do need batteries. Replaced the separator with a decoupler and the 8 canards with 4 winglets to save even more weight. And narrowed down the fairing to reduce drag. Still gets to orbit with fuel to spare. Over 380m/s in the first stage. And that's WITHOUT the Rocko X200 fuel tank. I removed that too. Edit2: And do no loose the fairings. Un-bug them instead. Launching my rebuild with the same launch profile without fairings (nothing else changed) it only had 255m/s left in the tanks.

Before talking about moons supporting life please answer me this: How would a gas giant burn? Without an active mechanism (such as life on earth) to replenish either fuel or oxidizer (or both) one of them will run out very quickly.

Just keep in mind Scott Manley might go straight up to 10km and then start his gravity turn. This method is very outdated! Instead start your gravity turn very soon after launch and be gentle.Big, strong moves during launch often proof fatal.

Best advice I can give you is simple: Try, fail and explode. Do not be afraid, sooner or later everybody cocks-up big time. Start small and don't be over confident. Huge monstrosities look cool but are hard to build and fly. Very often less is more. You don't need a huge rocket to reach Mun or Minmus. Scott Manleys tutorials are also very useful.

No. Because when the fairing bug is fixed a smooth gravity turn will not flip your rocket. Starting the gravity turn requires you to deviate slightly from prograde. EVERY form of gravity turn will deviate slightly from perfect airflow. If you perfectly follow the airflow you will be travelling in a straight line and there will be no turn.

All very true. Yes, MechJeb can turn you away from the airflow if you tell it too. It also can keep you perfectly aligned with the airflow. But the same can be said about manual control. MechJeb has NOTHING to do with it! The real problem is the body lift bug on the fairings. It is placed WAY to far forward. As soon as you veer even slightly off course (with or without MechJeb) this bug can generate a huge force too far in front of your rocket. So huge that it can be nearly impossible to correct. With Claws Stock Bug Fix the body lift vector is place back where it should be making the fairings behave as intended. But with an improper flight profile (with or without MechJeb) it is still possible to screw up and destroy your rocket. All that said only one question remains? Why bring in issues that have completely nothing to do with the problem at hand?

This is the ONLY correct answer (others have said the same but FullMetalMachinist was first) in this entire list of answers. Get the bug fixed and it WILL fly correct. How is it fragging possible even SQUAD staff is incapable of providing the correct answer? If any it should be SQUAD that knows about this stupid bug.

Correct. And in the same manner you can also collect data from experiments and use them again. Just keep in mind some experiments need 'restoring/cleaning' by a lab or scientist before they can be used again.

[Alt]+[F12] Then click "Show Biomes" Colours are horrible but you know exactly what is where.

Yes. Simply open the .cfg in a text editor and change the price. Or write a ModuleManager patch to do it.

First to discover? Don't think so. First to do? Probably. Early January I drove a rover under water from the KSC runway to the island runway.

Try ActionGroupManager. It's old and it does takes some getting used to but it works like a charm.

You're preaching to the choir my friend. But sadly the powers that be are not listening. Instead of listening and dealing with all the complaints they seem to have adopted a passive strategy. When they realize complaining won't help people eventually will stop. It would not surprise me if at that time the powers that be start patting themselves on the back: "Everything is solved, not body is complaining any more."

@Nils277 All issues I had with KBPS 1.0.X until now have been resolved. All except one that is. (It's just a minor nuisance I can live with.) For some weird reason the window lights won't stay on. Whenever I return to one of my bases all but the command module lights switch off.