Shania_L

I'll put in my tuppence here in favour of the old style. Most people wont click through to Imigur to view album photos, the old style at least made the pictures big enough to be visible on the forum page. This new one is just wasting so much space at the bottom, it makes your pictures tiny and more difficult to make out detail, it might be fine for memes and other basic internet shenanigans, but when you are documenting a mission you want to be able to provide big detailed images ... that is not possible (afaik) with this new system. If there was a way to actually make the images full screen (thread) width however I could put up with the advertising space for imigur at the bottom.

Wernher paused from his lunch to gaze out of his window at the HoundDog Ib sat on the launch pad .... it took a few moments before he realised that it shouldnt really be there, what with its launch scheduled in for early that morning. Gus Kerman had been expecting the call so he wasnt surprised when he was summoned directly to Wernhers office. Not one for smalltalk Wernher cut right to the point, "Why is the Minmus probe still sat on the pad Gus? all the latest calculations came up positive, the extended Ib has the Dv to put a relay around Minmus provided we aren't wasteful" Gus dropped a short printed report onto the desk, "The Mi-a is fine Wernher, its the tracking station that is the problem, Mortimer hasnt recieved payment from Kerbin Telecom for the Mun Network yet. They are claiming we have significant gaps in our coverage and have yet to meet their requirements. Without the tracking station we have to rely on eyeball burns, which are fine for Mun, but Minmus requires accurate plane changes and even the Ib doesnt have the Dv to mess about haphazardly." "Well, is it true? what is our coverage of Mun like?, the 2 relay solution was always going to be a close thing, but you assured me that we could make it work" Gus shuffled his feet, "We are getting good 95% coverage of Mun most of the time, we never expected to cover the poles anyhow, the problem comes when the sats pass behind the Mun, there is a break in connection for only a few minutes, but it resets Kerbin Telecoms calibration checks so the contract hasnt completed. We, err really need a third sat up there to get full coverage" "Damnit, we were really counting on getting those Funds in soon, I have already signed off on construction of two Minmus relays as well as the Mun scanner. You go get the VAB moving on this, top priority, use my name I'll have to see Mortimer about scraping together another 40 grand for a third Mun relay. Get that Minmus relay off the pad today Gus, the VAB is over worked at the moment so just get it into low orbit and we'll deal with it once Mun-Net is running properly." Day 123, KSC Day 125, KSC Day 127, LKO Day 128, Mun Ehh well that was a bit of a bugger, comeuppance I suppose for trying to be too smart and having a 2 relay network. I backed myself into a corner with having the next 3 flights in construction before I had confirmation of the Mun networks completion. I had to cancel and scrap a HoundDog II test flight to put together the Funds to build the Mu-c .... this certainly feels a lot more like real space programs lol. Sorry about the broken and 'jumping around' nature of this report, I had to decide whether I was going to report chronologically or by mission. I chose chronologically, and you can imagine how much I was switching between missions juggling burns at Ap/Pe, SOI changes and hitting ejection angles, I have a new found love for Kerbal Alarm clock!!!

I think "Just around the corner" is being somewhat optimistic. I certainly dont expect it to be around any time soon. And if/when it does appear and if you havent finished the mission, as has been said before, simply copy your KSP folder out of steam and thus rendering it auto-update safe

What flight data mod are you using? those HUD look pretty nice and clear. The drifting out of sync issue is going to be a problem for you. Raising the orbit hight will give you more time between comn failures but ideally you want to be synching your satellites by orbit period rather than by Ap/Pe. I use RemoteTech and using VOID flight data I get the orbit period down to 0.1 seconds variance this gives me years of time between the satellites drifting apart ... and then I put them considerably higher so they have to drift a lot further before they intercept the surface.

Day 107, KSC Day 115, KSC

Tellion had been doing the 6.4k configs, but he doesnt seem to have been active recently. I am still using the 1.5.5 was it? (pre-Urlum moons anyway) on my 6.4k because of fears about the contracts issue snafing up my save ... does the latest patch fix that btw? I'm not entirely sure of all the changes Tellion did in his configs, but as Urlums moons dont have atmosphere it should be simple radius, mass and semi-major axis increases.

I'd love to hear some more about the 6.4k spaceplane attempt. I know you said it wasnt successful but how close did you get? I havent got as far as spaceplane development on my 6.4k yet, but its something I really want to get into so just seeing your design ideas and methodology may point me in a decent direction

That is from the pre-release version of RoverDudes sounding rockets mod, same as the balloons. With DRE you need to open your chutes at much lower altitudes than stock, you need to have got through all of the heating effects (outside temp below 200deg or so) and you really do need to be sub-sonic, or at least very close to it. As you can see though in my early missions, I was unable to recover the SkyBolt I or II due to parachute issues. Sounding rockets are very slippery and do not slow down very well that is why I had to fit the heatshield to the III because it has a high drag co-efficient causing sufficient speed loss to allow parachutes to open at low altitude. Nope, I dont have stability issues, I run at around 2.6 Gb RAM or so and the game quite happily runs as long as I need it to. I have trimmed out a fair few parts that I do not use, namely all of the regular cylindrical fuel tanks because procedural replaces them, I kept the custom shaped ones however. I am still using the 1.5.5 version of OPM, so no Urlum moons for me just yet. There isnt a 6.4k conversion for it that I can see but also I think there is a problem with it and contracts disappearing.

You will only get similar performance to me if you have a similar mod setup, assuming you do here is a bit of detail about it. SkyBolt V is a 2.5 stage rocket, to make full orbital velocity you need to have propulsion as part of your payload. 1st stage, 2nd stage, Payload stage, Day 106, KSC

Thanks guys, its always nice to get feedback (positive is just a bonus) and from two prolific writers as yourselves just puts the icing on top The balloon is from RoverDudes sounding rockets mod, more specifically from the pre-release version linked in his dropbox. Following on from Sigberts second foray into space the young Kerbal had been transformed into something of a superhero, idolised by literally tens of Kerbals right around the KSC. Mortimer (Finance) had been searching around the many industrialised corporations of Kerbin hunting for sponsorship to further the KSC's push into deeper space and had come back with a bumper crop of contract offers. Contract offer_________________Funds upfront Science from Mun orbit____________(14,423) Lo-Res mapping of the Mun________(39,200) Extend communications to Mun_____(70,000) Extend communications to Minmus__(87,500) Plant a flag on Mun surface________(23,800) Explore Minmus__________________(47,000) Total upfront payments, 281,923 Funds To accept these contracts Mortimer (Finance) had to enact escape clauses within two visual survey contracts costing KSC 60,500 Funds and 216 Reputation Spoiler:OOC Day 99, KSC Day 106, KSC First quarter yearly roundup. Career progression. 161,489 Funds, 26.2 Science, 570 Reputation VAB, Launchpad, Administration block, Mission Control, Astronaut Complex and Science Facility all have a single upgrade, Runway, SPH and Tracking Station have none. All sub 100 nodes unlocked as well as 4x '160' nodes. Production Facilities KSC, 2x VAB build queues, #1 @ rate 1.05, #2 @ rate 1.0 KSC, 2x SPH build queues, #1 @ rate 0.20, #2 @ rate 0.1 Iakod, 1x VAB build queue, #1 @ rate 0.45 Iakod, 1x SPH build queue, #1 @ rate 1.10 Launch History. Skybolt I - V (including light)______ 12 launches, 1 failure. HoundDog I+Ib__________________ 10 launches. Ascender Manned Spaceflight Program Ascender I Science Technician Podley Kerman Balloon ascent Ascender II (Skybolt IV) Pilot Sigbert Kerman Sub-orbital Ascender III (HoundDog I) Pilot Sigbert Kerman Orbital Polar Ascender IIIb (HoundDog Ib) Pilot Elory Kerman Orbital Polar Centus Communications Program Centus I (HoundDog I) De-orbited and burned up successfully. (Boost stage as space junk) Centus Ib (HoundDog I) De-orbited and burned up successfully Centus II Ka, Kb and Kc (HoundDog I) Fully operational supplying Kerbins communications network. (Each added its boost stage to space junk tally) Centus III Ke and Kd (HoundDog Ib) in production. Centus IV Mu-a and Mu-b (HoundDog Ib) awaiting production slot. Iakod Aeronautics Program DART Prototype, Pilot Jebbidiah Kerman Launched and recovered successfully, didnt kill its pilot. DART Successor, In development. Helmdar Planetary Scanning Program Helmdar I (Skybolt V) remains operational circular polar Kerbin orbit 497Km Helmdar Ib (Skybolt V) remains operational circular polar Kerbin orbit 600Km Helmdar II (HoundDog Ib) In development. Helmdar III (HoundDog Ib) In development. Verity Probe Science Program Verity I (SkyBolt V) remains operational on an elliptical LKO Verity II (SkyBolt V) remains operational on highly elliptical LKO (no Dv remains) Verity III (HoundDog I) recovered on Kerbin after flight Verity IV (HoundDog I) scattered liberally across the face of Mun

Wernher looked at the crudely daubed slogan painted across the VAB wall sadly, "Probe Core Space Program". Sighing because he knew it was true, yet also frustrated because he knew it was his reputation at stake if he put Kerbals onto rockets that were not ready for them. Jebediah, the most experianced (and gung-ho) pilot the KSC had was still off at the Iakod facility, true he wasnt going to get any hours in space there for quite some time, but he was getting flight hours done and maybe he just needed the action. Wernher had been preparing manned flight, that was why he had been using so many robotic cores, he needed the rockets to be ready and he had almost been there ..... then the international agreement on reducing usage of non-biodegradable materials came through. HoundDog used these materials extensively in its fuel tanks keeping the mass down it also allowed incredible flexibility in design, now they were illegal. Wernher had managed to get a pass on launching one more old-style HoundDog that had already been manufactured but after that all new HoundDogs would need re-designed fuel tanks, which would be heavier and more restricted in what they could do. Spoiler:OOC Day 87, KSC Day 93, KSC

How well does this pack work with re-scaled solar systems? For example I use 6.4x Kerbin. I already use the remote-tech and scansat packs ok (scansat renders the orbits inside planets but thats easially tweakable and they arnt requirements to meet anyway) but this pack will require specific surface co-ordinates to be visited .... so it might be a bit more touchy ... just thought I'd ask.

"120,000 Funds is a snap when you think about it," the contractor was insistent, but Wernher had to admit that he did have a point, upgrading the Astronaut complex without any interruptions to KSC operations at all, he had even promised that it would go up so fast noone would even notice old one had gone. "Ok, ok fine, you have the contract, but I want it finished by Monday morning, my pilots get cranky if they miss breakfast." (12 concurrent Kerbals supported, Extra-terrestrial EVA and flag planting unlocked) Shooing the contractors out of his office, Wernher turned to the next Kerbal dutifully stepping into his office. Mac Kerman had been assigned directorship of the new Iakod Aerospace Research Facility, and he was already pestering Wernher for pilots, he must have used the same building contractors to get setup so fast. "I want to present the opportunity to fly the first fully reusable air vehicle to your pilots, I am sure one of them will volunteer for a transfer to Iakod to be a part of our program. Our technicians have put together a basic craft already, we simply need a pilot." Taking one look at the pro offered image of the DART aerodynamic prototype, Wernher pressed his intercom button, "Would Jebbidiah please report to my office please?" "I meant to offer the seat to all of your pilots, any of them would be capable enough to ..." Wernher cut Mac off with a grin, "Capable sure, but only Jeb is crazy enough to actually get inside that thing." DART prototype, prepped for flight at the Iakod test facility. Day 86, KSC Day 86, Iakod Ok one more point to put in what has become quite a long post, I have decided to add the "Real Fuels stock tank proces" mod by karamazovnew, this will add a better costing system to procedural tanks as well as to realfuels themselves. As you have probably noticed, my launch vehicles are, to put it mildly, bargain basement cheap. This is because realfuels bases its cost estimates on full RSS vessels, (i.e humungous) in my smaller rockets this makes the cost of fuels practically non-existent. It also imposes a few restrictions on the type of procedural tanks I can use, balloon tanks (which I use pretty much exclusively for lightness) are now no longer surface attachable meaning Ill have to use heavier, more expensive tanks, filled with fuel that actually costs something!!! I havent done any launches with this yet, but I have compared the new versus old on the HoundDog/Centus II launcher. Pre-Mod the full setup was ~17,000, payload, launcher fuel the lot. Rebuilt with proper tanks and fuel, it would now cost nearer 45,000. So a significant increase, if this looks like it might bankrupt me I may reconsider it, however I'll stick with it for now.

As we saw in the previous episode, the data network around Kerbin local space is somewhat lacking, Verity IV was only possible due to co-operation with ground stations all around Kerbin. In an effort to centralise command and control of all orbital activities KSC wants to establish a network of relay satellites to enable any station to fully control any orbital vessel. (Also because they accepted cash for creating a network some time ago and have yet to do anything in regards of creating one yet.) Firstly some housekeeping, Research points from Verity IV has allowed a few nodes to be unlocked. Fuel Systems, Advanced Construction and Space Exploration. 2 KCT points spent on SPH #1 (Now 0.2) 1 point on R+D rate (now 32 points per day) Day 79, KSC Day 81, KSC Day 82, KSC I think I should really put some effort into trying to recover portions of HoundDog, not that it is a particularly expensive launcher but as practice for the future. Also I need to get a few more facilities upgraded. To aid the project the Experimental Iakod Evaluation Institute/Organisation (EIEIO) is setup at the Iakod aerodrome to the East of KSC well within the southern hemisphere, the aim of this Institute/Organisation is to research aircraft and other fully re-usable technologies. Being a fully independent base (other than building upgrades) it gets to distribute its own KCT points differently to KSC. SPH production queue #1 set to 1.1 and VAB #1 to 0.45.

They already are in an album, I have all the images of this career save separated from images I have uploaded of other saves and etc. For what reason do you ask? it would require me to resort them all but if you have a good reason its certainly easier to do while I'm still early in the career I thought posting individual images would be better because it allows me to tie a specific image to text whereas an album all the images would be grouped and then you'd have a wall of text. And people don't like walls of text. Bill and Bob inspect a mockup of the latest craft to be launched. Centus II, Kerbo-stationary communications relay.

Heh, glad you are enjoying it Im working on a new post atm, I have been doing some experiments with DRE ... I havent been getting on well with the beta version at all, so Im back using the release again as that behaves much better.

Gene Kerman looked at the proposal laying on his desk, Verity IV was the rather unassuming name for what would become the first piece of Kerbal engineering to leave Kerbins sphere of influence. It had managed to pass the board of administrators, Mortimer (Finance) and Linus (Science) were happy, it was relatively cheap and promised a bonanza of scientific returns, Gus (Operations) was happy because it used very few parts that had not already been tested in one way or another and Walt (PR) was happy, because? well it was a rocket and Kerbals love big rockets. Spoiler: Mission Proposal Day 72, KSC Day 74, 14Mm above Mun. Id like to add thanks to the Koronal Vessel Viewer mod which is responsible for the 'artists impressions' at the beginning of this post.

Thats something I'd pay to see (Sorry, I just had to) As for actual content for this post, I'd love to see an official config for Astronomers Edge of Oblivion, a lot of people still use it on heavy modded games due to its significantly lower RAM usage (and IMHO similar effects to interstellar). I love the added depth this mod adds and its rapidly becoming a core 'must have' in my collection. I cant wait for a x64 config to come out and I'll be all over it (yes Im looking at you Tellion!!)

I play x64 in full career, and yes the barrier to progression is Funds, not science. That is true of reality too though, we 'can' technically perform any number of missions that we just cannot afford with the budgets assigned. Add to that construction time, lifesupport and RT,.... and maybe Im just a sucker for punishment lol.

Does this mean that VOID will now calculate Thrust/Weight ratio and Dv correctly in atmosphere, due to variable engine ISP?

Now that I have a decently capable launch vehicle I can concentrate on some home improvements and actually progressing the career somewhat. Day 66, KSC Day 70, KSC =========================================================================================================== The next mission is a biggie, I'd also like to see if I can get a decent explanation of the HoundDog launcher, how its put together etc, if I can get some decent shots of it.

Much more actual rockets in this one guys Day 61, KSC Day 61, KSC Day 63, KSC

There was also a config file posted waaay back, that was for the much more lightweight Edge of Oblivion pack, I use that and afaik it looks fine.

I use the aggressive version of the active texture management mod, which reduces the RAM usage of all parts I also run KSP in Open-gl mode which ... I'm not exactly sure how, but that one is magic. (I have a radeon gpu perhaps? I'm clutching at straws here, all I know is that I use 2.6Gb RAM). It is quite amazing that so many different mods by so many different people all work together, my appreciation goes to them for their hard work, so that I may explode things in many pretty and varied ways \o/

30,130.12Km for a 24Hr rotation period 15,144.37Km for a 12Hr rotation. Ofcourse that is if you want it circular, you can achieve 12/24hr orbits where the Ap and Pe are wildly different and it is still Keosynchronous.