Specialist290

Nicely done! Feels almost like coming back to an old home, doesn't it?

For the record, if you're wondering the maximum altitude at which your parachutes will first partially deploy, this atmospheric density table lists and highlights them.

For the benefit of those who (like me) still have the Store version: Hang on to your .zip files. You can just unzip the game again into a different directory.

To quote the last post of his I can find on the forums: ialdabaoth: If you're reading this, hope everything has been going well in the past few months. The government shutdown can't have helped, but hang in there. We're all wishing you're okay.

First off, welcome to the forums! There's really no right or wrong answer to whether the Mun or Minmus is "easier" to practice with, since each has certain advantages over the other. The Mun is easier to reach directly from Kerbin, since it's in a perfectly circular orbit with no inclination relative to the planet, but it also takes more overall delta-v for a landing-and-return mission to the Mun than to Minmus. Minmus has lower gravity which makes the actual landing easier, but it's also in a distant, inclined orbit, meaning you have to do a little bit more planning to actually get there. Overall, I'd recommend getting plenty of practice on and around both, but I'll leave the order up to whatever you feel most comfortable with. Another helpful tip: Before going interplanetary, you might want to try transferring between the Mun and Minmus and back with one craft. You'll use the same basic principles to transfer between planets (only on a larger scale), and it's much less taxing on your fuel allowance. Hope this helps

A nice way to cap off that particular sequence. As always, it leaves me eagerly awaiting more

This one is a little more versatile, since it lets you find launch windows based on the planet's actual orbits rather than an idealized circular one.

Sad to see another one go. Godspeed, Scott; say hello to Neil, Gus, and the others when you rendezvous.

Most definitely one for the Drawing Board!

Duna and the Mun are probably the two bodies I enjoy going to the most (in part because I've always wanted to go to their real-world analogues myself), so they end up being the targets for most of my long-term missions. I'm also admittedly a bit tsundere for Moho, because it's the first place outside of Kerbin and its moons that has claimed the lives of any of my kerbonauts, and I want to prove to myself that I can send a crew out there and bring it back safely someday.

There might be a difference in how the game treats items that are staged versus those that are activated by action groups. I haven't really noticed myself, but then I haven't run into the problem much since most of the payloads I put on the surface haven't been all that heavy (yet). It certainly bears looking into.

All the data you really need can be found from alexmoon's calculator. It's just that for Bop and Pol, since their orbits are inclined and eccentric, you'll have to run the calculator for several different launch windows per target body to get a decent average estimate.

I think that's exactly what happens. The parachutes probably go by your surface speed to determine whether or not they should disappear, since zero surface speed usually means you've landed. As for parachute opening altitudes: In general, the higher, the better. Parachutes will deploy once exposed to an air pressure above a certain threshold, and they'll help decelerate the craft the whole time. My Atmospheric Density Table includes the maximum altitude at which both drogues and regular chutes will deploy. I'm also going to second the recommendation that you add a few drogue chutes to the craft, since they don't decelerate the craft nearly as quickly when they fully open, and they can open from a slightly higher altitude than the main chutes can.

Fair enough. I see what you're getting at now. After playing around a bit with the calculator, I've noticed that the numbers for Laythe <-> Vall, Vall <-> Tylo, and Laythe <-> Tylo are more or less consistent, so I'll go ahead and post those here. Numbers are given by body, for leaving from one and capturing around the other: Laythe 772 m/s <--> 344 m/s Vall (total: 1,117 m/s) Laythe 826 m/s <--> 876 m/s Tylo (total: 1,703 m/s) Vall 335 m/s <--> 843 m/s Tylo (total: 1,178 m/s) Bop and Pol are going to take a bit of work, though, since their orbits are pretty significantly inclined.

Relevant words from my original post bolded for emphasis. I'm trying to tell you that alexmoon's calculator can plot the delta-v required to get from one moon to another and back, but perhaps I didn't word it clearly enough.

I don't know about any Jool-specific delta-v maps, but alexmoon's Launch Window Planner does let you find the ideal launch windows for transit between Jool's moons, if that's what you're looking for.

Both of these are good points to consider. Given the parts available, I'm expecting that our first flight is meant to be a fairly modest suborbital hop just to gather some very basic science to start progressing further up the tech tree. I'm also assuming that when actual monetary costs start coming into play later on down the road, they'll start providing much the same sort of limiting function early in the game when we won't be expected to have much cash on hand.

Welcome to the forums! You can find a wealth of useful information in the Drawing Board, which is linked in my signature. Don't be afraid to ask specific questions in the Gameplay Questions subforum as well, as that's what it's there for. Hope this helps!

Nicely done! I especially like the attention to detail on the LM reproduction.

Hmm... Are you sure it's not draining from both tanks? In theory, fuel should be drained from all tanks that an engine has access to (EDIT: And like Dispatcher said, generally from top to bottom). Do you have any other parts between the fuel tanks in question, like structural panels or girders? Not all of those can crossfeed. In general, a few additional details about what's going on might help us make a more accurate diagnosis, as well as a screenshot of the craft in question.

I'd say it's less a flaw in the parachute code and more a general flaw in the staging logic (since the same thing happens with staged engines that are later disabled), but what you've observed is indeed correct. Like PringleMan mentioned, I'd highly advise that if you plan on using the parachutes twice, you map them to an Action Group so you can press one key to fire all of them.

Welcome to the forums! Indeed, that's quite impressive for only having the game for one week.

For bonus amusement, try the IVA view

Seems to be working for me now. Thanks!

I think I've just found a new signature quote.