[[0.20] RemoteTech: Relay Network – V 0.5.0.1]

I think, in a single-player, sandbox, no-achievements game like this...

Yes, single player sandbox game so I play by my rules, which include (among many others): nothing goes to space without me strapping it on something with rockets and flying it manually

[[0.20] RemoteTech: Relay Network – V 0.5.0.1]

Is there any hope of a beta version of this soon? By that I mean released for actual use as opposed to play-testing. I don't expect perfect, I just want stable enough to use RemoteTech with an expectation of not having to redo my satellite network to be able to take future updates.

I guess what I really want to know is if I should hold off on interplanetary missions (where the delay matters) for a beta or just give up on RT2 for this save and try to get RT1 working with new SAS.

[Nuclear engines fuel efficiency in multiples]

Since you have them all, use them all. It would be more efficient not to be moving around the extra engine mass by only having one or two engines, but unless you're inclined to try some controlled colisions to remove them that's probably not an option at this point.

[Think again about leaving kerbals stranded]

Since there are high risk missions, I have lost a few heroic kerbals in the past. I plan to erect a monument for them. Right now not sure where. But it will be done!

I propose a pile of unfired SRBs left by the dead kraken in honor of Jeb (and all the others).

I've only had one mission where I suspected from launch that I'd need a rescue mission (it did, but it was on Mun). If my kerbals are still alive after disaster strikes I make every effort to get them home, even if that means letting Jeb EVA half way back from Dres (no fuel for course corrections) and doing an aerocapture at Kerbin (he really loved that part) to get an orbit he could be retrieved from.

[Deepest point on Kerbin's Ocean...]

The Orange Tank was full, still floated.

I did have to detatch almost everything that I used for landing it. I think I only had a couple lights, the one man capsule, an RTG or two, and the themometer and barometer. My first attempt had radial parachutes on the tank itself and barely sank.

[Deepest point on Kerbin's Ocean...]

Orange tanks sink, so strap a kerbal to a full one and dump it in the crater.

My mission to the bottom of the ocean (I didn't try for the crater): http://imgur.com/a/4NjaN

[You Will Not Go To Space Today - Post your fails here!]

Dispersing communication relay sats for remote tech:

They were dispersed pretty well after several days in terms of coverage, unfortunately they had no power (all the solar panels broke off) and 48 sats cluttered my satellite lists way more than I wanted.

[Are you going to start a fresh save file come 0.20?]

I'm starting completely fresh - new save and not copying ship files.

I had a mishap when I started using remote tech this week that resulted in a cloud of 48 small satellites in orbit around Mun that were supposed to be relay satellites: spinning the mothership and releasing them all at once to disperse them resulted in collisions and I think every single probe lost its solar panels. They dispersed quite nicely into a band after a few days, but even if they were still powered that's too much bloat in the list of satellites for me (should have thought of that before trying it...).

Besides that, I didn't redesign much with .19 so most of my ships with engine clustering are still using cubic struts for mounting, and .20 seems like a good point to fix that.

[Meticulous Planning or Wing it?]

I plan my primary mission (at least when I'm going farther out than mun). Extending missions due to extra fuel without planning is how I ended up with Jeb in my first Duna return ship landed on Dres with almost no fuel left.

[Your first planet]

My first probe orbiter was launched to Duna but due to unfortunate solar panel placement and allignment ran out of power on the way (made it to the Duna SOI but couldn't burn to get an orbit). Six months later when the sun was shining on the right spot I ended up going to Eve.

My first (and only for quite a while) kerbal to leave the Kerbin SOI was when I took Jeb to Gilly (because anywhere my ion-powered mapsat can land looks fun).

[Joystick support?]

You have to go in and map controls to the axes of the joystick/controller - it's not configured to use them by default.

[Lauch Stability Enhancer exploding..]

Is there a mod that's just a docking cam (spaceport is a mess)? I liked that part but didn't like how much else the mod added besides the one feature I was looking for.

[KSP computer dev team]

I'm just imagining a row of mainsails pointed up as the output. I'll be following this in the hope that it'll be appropriately kerbalized.

[The best way to build Rovers]

I use the VAB and can get perfectly symetrical wheel placement:

put a cubic strut on the bottom node of whatever you've got so far

attach beams to the side of it using 2-way symmetry and snap-to-angle

attach wheels to the ends of the beams

move the cubic strut (and everything attached to it) to where one of the wheel placements should go

copy from the cubic strut (alt-click/drag I think is the default) to everywhere else you want wheels

This method certainly has limitations - I placed the cubic mounts using 2-way symmetry on my last rover and from then on anything I attached to the beams by the wheels would go to 4-way symmetry but only attach to three places, no idea why (I just carefully placed the 4th without symmetry). I'd post pictures, but I'm not on the computer I use for KSP currently.

edit: I didn't come up with this - it was mentioned on the forums shortly after .19 came out, but obviously I can't go find the post to give credit anymore.

[Do you leave debris in orbit?]

I try to keep debris to a minimum - usually by ensuring anything I stage off either has a probe core and some fuel left for deorbiting or by staging when on a suborbital trajectory.

I have had a couple mishaps that left debris in Kerbin orbit, but most of that either encountered Mun and got ejected out into a Kerbol orbit or I cleaned up (by docking with/grabbing with my LKO tug). All I've got left near Kerbin now is a large transfer stage that ran out of power before I deorbited it (it's in an eccentric orbit so it's a pain to chase down and it's big enough I don't think my current tug can handle it) and a decoupler that was supposed to be in a suborbital trajectory but snagged on my ship when I circularized without me noticing.

[When was the last time you had to land on your engine?]

My mapsat probe transfer stage was designed to go to Eve before I'd figured out how to aerobrake safely (quicksave), so it has way more fuel than needed just to get a small probe in polar orbit. Rather than leave the transfer stage in orbit I've taken to trying to land it (without legs because I keep forgetting). I think I've got two that I landed softly and kept upright, and one scaterred across Eeloo because I hit too hard and all that was left were the side fuel tanks, which all rolled downhill.

[What's a New Guy to Do?]

Mapsat was a big inspiration for me to actually go to all the planets. I've currently got everything mapped except Ike, and I put probes around all the Joolian moons with one mothership and 6 probes (one spare that I didn't actually need). Gilly is still the only place outside Kerbin and its moons that I've landed a Kerbal. Maybe someday I'll either get good enough with spaceplanes to actually take one somewhere, or perhaps I'll just accept that my planes are failures and go back to rockets.

About it not working: You have to be below a certain altitude (500km?) for it to map, and you have to have the flag to draw the image turned on (or you can record to csv and build the maps with the utility provided, but it's more interesting to see the map being populated as you orbit). Also, you have to be at 50x or lower time accelleration.

[You Will Not Go To Space Today - Post your fails here!]

The crash on Mun:

Rescuing the rescue mission (hint: don't use a mainsail at full throttle as your transfer stage unless your ship is far better strutted than mine was)

[Talk to me about space planes...]

Also, in a similar vein, any tips for how to fly them in KSP?

I learned to fly (and land in one piece, which took a bit longer) using the stock albatross. I'd suggest getting the hang of it using planes with a decent bit of lift before you move on to spaceplanes.

Once you're trying to fly spaceplanes, use turbojets and plenty of intakes for high speed/high altitude flight. You want to get most of your speed from the jets somewhere above 13km (throttle down jets when you start running out of air, they're more efficient that way), then use a rocket to circularize your orbit.