capi3101

Hey, any of y'all ever try to use the Alcubierre Drive to go catching rocks? I had a contract come up today to put a D-class over Ike, pays √1.5M. Ordinarily I'd scoff at the very notion of picking up something as heavy as a D, but with a warp-equipped craft, the only real issue should be whether or not the rock would fit inside the bubble...assuming I had a properly equipped warp ship available, of course.

@Messernacht was crossing a line from Shakespeare's Richard III with a Half-Life reference. Headcrabs are the first enemy you come across in the game; the crowbar is the first weapon you come across (a few rooms later). I got it, anyway...

Yeah, ideally I'd have made the necessary adjustments to the trajectory right after I'd picked up the rock, when I still had a fair amount of delta-V available. The Tater Catcher was designed back in v. 1.1.3 - before CommNet. Botched this one up good all for the want of a lousy antenna...

Most of my day yesterday involved misadventures with the Tater Catcher 7 mission to put a B-type asteroid in orbit of Mün. If you'll recall from my post yesterday, I had managed to get said rock and said mission into a stable orbit around Kerbin, but it had ran out of gas and I was trying to figure out how I was going to refuel the craft so it could complete its mission. I had the bright idea to go ahead and convert the asteroid's ore directly into fuel, and to that end, I designed the Leech 7 ISRU probe and sent it up to the rock. Rendezvous took several orbits to complete, during which time I returned tourist Liseny Kerman to KSC 09 safely aboard her Auk XIII single-passenger spaceplane and retreived an LV-T45 Swivel engine from orbit for contract. When I got back to the Leech, I realized something quite important - if I was going to drill ore and convert it to fuel, I probably needed some effin' drills... So I designed and launched the Vampire 7 drilling probe, and got it up to the rock. Drilling operations on Asteroid PDM-700 in a 118x110 kilometer, 53 degree inclination orbit over Kerbin, with Leech 7 (top), Tater Catcher 7 (left) and Vampire 7 (bottom) in view. The Vampire sucked the rock bone dry and the Leech converted it into about 600 m/s of delta-V. Still not enough to get to put the craft into an equatorial orbit around Kerbin, much less get to Mün. So it's on to plan B - I did have the foresight to put a docking port on Leech 7, so I could send a traditional refueling flight up. Tater Catcher needs about 200 tonnes worth of fuel to tank up completely; I got about ten tonnes worth of gas out the rock itself, so 190 to go. It would take six Auk VIII heavy spaceplane flights to fill it up to the brim - and that's a plane I hate to fly, so at this point I'm thinking one big honkin' tank of gas on a rocket. Turns out I've already built a booster that will handle a 300 tonne paywad to orbit (the Piper Alpha 7a, two of which were launched to Duna), so I'll be working along those lines later today. Also already did the calculations - I could get to Mün from where I'm at for just 850 m/s of delta-V. I'd still have to get it in orbit after that. The whole mission is still doable, and at this point I just need an orbit at Mün - any orbit - to clear this particular contract. The rock's pretty much worthless now; I've given up hope for a profit here - I just want to clear the contract at this point. Next time I'll do better.

I use FAR and PW all the time, but as a rule I'm not making fighter replicas. I'd try KJR - another one of Ferram's mods - if you're not already. It's possible the PW are flexing a bit more than the stock, resulting in the observed behavior at high gees. I use KJR and I don't have trouble with the wings set as low as 0.3 on the mass; one of my planes pulled ten gees just yesterday. You also might want to double-check your settings on your control surfaces; make sure you've got your ailerons set to 100 roll and 0 for everything else, and so forth with your other control surfaces. Probably not the cause of the issue, but it doesn't hurt to check. Only other thing I can think to do is compare your FAR stability numbers between the two planes.

Haven't done much since my last post. Had another tourist, Liseny Kerman, who decided to repeat Kenson's flight out to Minmus in an Auk XIII single passenger spaceplane, except she went to Mün and only wanted to orbit it before returning. She docked at the Kerbinport space station and since the station was out of reserve fuel, an Auk VIII heavy tanker followed her up to the station. The VIII arrived safely and offloaded enough fuel to refuel the XIII as well as the station's reserve tanks to the limit. Both planes then departed, with Liseny headed to Mün and the VIII affecting a harrowing landing at KSC 27 (came out of re-entry burn at Mach 2 ten klicks from KSC 09 and wound up having to double-back twice for landing; I was in an RL time crunch at the time). Liseny arrived at Mün this morning and upon completion of her orbital entry it was determined that she had sufficient fuel to return to Kerbin without stopping at the Munport space station first, so the plane burned for Kerbin; at this point she's returned to a 100x99 orbit over Kerbin and I'll conduct the re-entry flight later this morning. Meanwhile, the Tater Catcher 7 mission finally re-entered comms range, and I was able to put the mission's target asteroid into a 118x118 orbit over Kerbin at 53 degrees inclination. Slight problem now is that the mission is out of gas; I'm weighing my options at this point, but I'm leaning towards sending up an ISRU to just mine and convert the available ore from the rock. Not sure that would be at all sufficient; the rock only has 28 tonnes of ore and the Tater Catcher's fuel load is 5 x S3-7200 tanks. Refueling the flight is doable, but I'm loathe to fly that many Auk VIII missions - I really hate flying the VIII...

Been years since I've seen that movie...

I did kinda tease something yesterday. Probably won't be interesting to y'all, but it sure beats what I've been up to yesterday and so far today: drilling ore for money (twice), aerial temperature surveys on Kerbin (three of them), Mün science, garbage hauling, a rescue mission and building a new survey plane. Determined a Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe was too long to fit in the cargo bay of an Auk IV probe delivery spaceplane. Hauled tourists Gusman and Moly Kerman up-and-down in an Auk I 2-passenger spaceplane; did the same for tourist Thompfred Kermin. Yep. It sure sucks when all but one of your contracts are tied up on long duration missions. On the plus side, I've only got another 20 days until the Duna mission starts begin their course correction burns, and the Tater Catcher 7 asteroid grabbing mission to haul a B-size rock into orbit of Mün has returned to Kerbin's SOI at this point, so I might be getting another contract slot/money back soon. So, on Monday, I got a VIP contract to take tourist Kenson Kerman to the surface of Minmus. Now, I wasn't too keen on sending up just one Kerbal to Minmus in one of my ferry ships - seemed like a waste of money. I've also been on a plane-designing kick of late, so I decided that instead of sending Kenson up to the Kerbinport space station in an Auk I, I would design a single-seater spaceplane. Thus was born the Auk XIII: The Auk XIII single-seat spaceplane. Because where tourists are involved, you can never go wrong with the number thirteen, right? Kenson took the plane up on its maiden flight to Kerbinport: The view from the seat of Auk XIII on approach to Kerbinport, with Next Objective, Necessary Evil and Laggin' Dragon all in dock. Once I was there, I had the thought - "I wonder if this thing could make it out to Minmus on its own?". I decided to find out - I tanked the plane up at Kerbinport and had it undock. Lo and behold, it had sufficient fuel for a one-way trip to Minmus, so off Kenson burned - he arrived at Minmus six days later: Auk XIII on approach to Minmusport. Auk XIII coming into dock. After arriving at the Minmusport space station, the plane was refueled for the return flight to Kerbin, and meanwhile Kenson went down to the Deepwater Horizon refinery on the moon's surface to fulfill his itinerary. Upon his return, Kenson returned to the plane and made his way back to Kerbin: Auk XIII on re-entry. Mission accomplished. The plane affected a successful return to KSC 09, successfully fulfilling the contract. Minmus and back for the cost of the plane's initial fuel load - I was certainly happy. So yeah, essentially it was a re-certification of my K-prize credentials. Last time I did the K-prize was four years ago, back in v. 0.23 with this monstrosity... There's an old screenie for all y'all, from way back in the good ol' days of KSP errordynamics, when anything with wings could be made to fly with enough intakes. Suffice it to say, the modern Auk IV looks absolutely nothing like this... Monday's flight doesn't qualify for the K-prize, unfortunately - the wings on the Auk XIII aren't stock...

I learned a long time ago that it was a lot easier to fly my planes if they all use the same set of action groups - all thirteen planes in the Auk series use that set and I've got all but my crappiest earliest surveyor planes using them too (as appropriate, anyway). 1 toggles the engine, 2 toggles the intakes, 3 toggles the docking ports (it also toggles solar panels on the designs that use them), 4/5 are for FAR flaps, 7 releases payload (pretty much exclusive to the Auk IV), and 9 toggles the antenna/airspike. On my rockets, 1 usually toggles solar panels (if any). 0 is generally reserved for emergency actions after an abort.

Month's gotten away from me again; can't say I've done much of any real interest. After the departure of the Duna expedition on November 15th, I landed the Auk VII 16-passenger plane from the Kerbinport space station that I'd used to bring up the expedition crew for Strange Cargo and followed that up with a flight of an Auk IX 4-passenger craft to the station with tourists Natabas, Hayrod, Raybart and Dottie Kerman aboard. From there, Next Objective left for Mun with tourists Wilfry, Sherdorf, Barmin and Natabas, while Necessary Evil departed for Minmus with a larger group of tourists. Raybart returned with the Auk IX to KSC 09 safely, his contract only involving an LKO flight. A pair of dedicated science/resource scanning probes were launched for Duna while the window was still open, bringing the total number of craft involved in the Duna expedition to nineteen. On the 17th, an Auk VIII heavy tanker was sent up to Kerbinport to refuel the station, which returned safely to KSC 27. I conducted a four-waypoint seismic survey six kilometers south-southwest of the Deepwater Horizon refinery on Minmus, and then launched a Bates Hotel outpost module (dubbed Hojo Alpha) to Mün for contract, landing the module about 25 klicks south of the Piper Alpha refinery along Mün's equator. Next Objective arrived at Mün shortly thereafter and docked at the Munport space station, with the tourists landing near Hojo Alpha before returning to the station. Necessary Evil also arrived at Minmus, but due to the amount of fuel used in her transfer burn, I had to perform an emergency braking maneuver using the ship's RCS thrusters to increase her delta-V sufficiently to make orbit. She did arrive safely at the Minmusport space station, but she was most certainly on vapors at that point. Nelny told me he thought we'd cut this a little bit close. I was all like "Whatever. You've still got a quarter of a tank of monoprop left - so suck it up..." Tourists Dottie and Jotrey Kerman affected a landing with the station's Spamcan 7 lander, and after returning to Minmusport, Necessary Evil was refueled from the station's stores for a burn to Mun. Next Objective couldn't get a good solution for a straight Mun to Minmus transfer, so she slingshotted off to Kerbin to get there, arriving 12 days later. I also shepherded the departure of the craft of the Duna Expedition on the 17th; all of them should arrive at Duna in between 300-400 days. The 18th and 19th were pretty quiet. After a fueling run at Minmusport, Necessary Evil arrived at Mun and docked at Munport, just staying long enough to gas up before returning to Kerbinport safely by the end of the day. Two refueling runs were conducted for Munport on the 19th. Last week began with Next Objective's arrival at Minmusport. After refueling, tourist Barmin Kerman went down in the Spamcan 7 lander to Deepwater Horizon, which was refueled before turning to Minmusport. Next Objective then departed for Kerbin and returned safely to Kerbinport. With ten tourists to bring down, I decided to go ahead and design a ten passenger spaceplane, the Auk XI, and flew it up to Kerbinport for her shakedown flight. The mighty Auk XI 10-passenger spaceplane. Also known as "I really could've stood to spend a little more time coming up a better engine placement configuration." The plane flew alright up to about 50,000 when it developed pitching problems at full thrust, a problem that was ultimately traced to an uneven lateral engine arrangement between the dorsal and ventral engine pairs. The plane returned to KSC 09 and aside from blowing the ventral portside engine at touchdown, it returned the tourists safely, clearing four contracts in the process. A replacement contract had me putting a telescope probe between Kerbin and Eve's orbit; to that end, I designed the Ray Charles 7 SENTINEL probe and sent it on its way; it'll reach its final position around the time the Duna expedition arrives. A Bill Clinton 7a mission was launched to rescue scientist Sigrey Kerman on a junk-and-kerbal mission in high orbit of Kerbin, which was a success. With a new rescue mission over Minmus and six tourists heading to Kerbin's moons, Sigrey was immediately loaded aboard an Auk II 8-passenger plane with tourists Lable, Gerdous, Ancal, Roly, Tanzer and Lanming Kerman, who boarded Laggin' Dragon upon arriving at Kerbinport. Laggin' Dragon left for Minmus first, arriving 5 days later; she arrived at periapsis a mere 2.8 klicks from Minmusport and so she went straight for the rendezvous, requiring no initial orbits before arriving at the station. While in transit, I launched a Tater Catcher 7 asteroid grabbing probe to pick up a B-type rock and put it in orbit of Mün for contract, and also used an Auk III tanker spaceplane on a mission to refuel Kerbinport. The Spamcan 7 at Minumusport was dispatched to rescue pilot Malcolm Kerman from a highly-inclined orbit over Minmus, returning him safely to Minmusport and letting him join the ongoing expedition with Laggin' Dragon. He, Sigrey and Lanming boarded the station's heavier Spamcan 7a lander on a run down to Deepwater Horizon for flag-planting training. After returning successfully, Laggin' Dragon burned for Mun and arrived ten days later, with a fuel run at Minmus conducted while the craft was in transit. The Tater Catcher caught up with its target while it was still 41 days from Kerbin's SOI; I'll be riding the rock into Kerbin's SOI before attempting further maneuvers, since I forgot to upgrade the design from v.1.1.3 with even a simple antenna (I have to wait until it comes back into comms range; this is a problem I'll have corrected for any subsequent Tater Catcher flights). Once Laggin' Dragon arrived at Munport, two Spamcan runs were made; the ship was then refueled and burned for Kerbin, returning safely to Kerbinport. All of the passengers and Malcolm were returned using the Auk II, which had remained at the station while Laggin' Dragon was away; the plane returned safely to KSC 09. Two refueling runs at Mün were required in the wake of the craft's visit. This past Sunday was pretty busy with small jobs - I put the Kerbin Mu probe in place for contract, hauled down a Mk2 Liquid Fuel fuselage with a Bill Clinton 7b probe, took a drive 10 klicks southwest of KSC, tested a Vector engine splashed, did a quick drilling job at Minmus, adjusted the Minmus Alpha probe, and finally tied up my last two contract spots with a station expansion mission for Kerbinport and an ore delivery mission from Duna to Ike. The station expansion mission was pretty straightforward, requiring only additional seating, so to that end I designed the Auk XII 6-passenger spaceplane. Auk XII - the latest in the line of "oh my god, how many different passenger planes do I really need" spaceplanes. The shakedown flight of the plane went well (aside from a triple bounce at landing, which required adjustments to the gear) and she fulfilled the contract requirements beautifully; the plane is definitely a hot rod, with way more thrust than she needs...I can only chalk that up to an overestimation of her required takeoff fuel load. Started the day yesterday with the launch of the Mun Epsilon probe and the successful retrieval of an X200-32 from orbit for contract. Ended the day with the flight of an Auk IV probe delivery plane to a polar orbit. It'd been a while since I'd flown one, so I figured why not - and everything went well there, too. The rest of yesterday's activities...deserve a post of their own, one not as long winded. That one has more screenies too, so I'll do that here in a bit. TL, DR: I did stuff over the last two weeks. It's not as interesting as the stuff I did two weeks ago, but I still did it. Built a couple of planes, too.

... ♫ and I feel like crap fine. ♫ (It was either that or something like "Cue the Hawaii 5-0 music".)

Thanks @Dark Lion for liking the two previous posts - it reminded me to give you guys an update... The basic code as it stands now is working for all four part types; I've used it to update my own .cfg files to include the flags I want. Been busy in RL this week, so I haven't had time to work on the GUI; hope to be able to do so soon.

Verifying that I've seen this same behavior between Flexible Docking Ports and FAR. In my case, it made a pretty pretty voxel fountain. Been happening since at least 1.1.3...

Verifying that I've seen this same behavior between Flexible Docking Ports and FAR. In my case, it was a pretty pretty voxel fountain. Been happening since at least 1.1.3...

Yesterday saw the departure of the First Duna Expedition in my career save. The day began with the departure of an Auk VII 16-passenger spaceplane to the Kerbinport space station, where the remaining crewmembers assigned to the expedition boarded Strange Cargo in preparation for their journey: Naturally, Strange Cargo had to depart the station at night. Night gives such great screenies, you know... After Strange Cargo's departure, it was time for me to go to work planning a grand total of seventeen trans-Dunar burns, and I spent the bulk of my day performing those burns - and in this order: A Nostromo 7 ore hauler, a Hellhound 7 rover, the Ikeport space station, Strange Cargo, a Spamcan 7b lander, two Heartbreak Hotel 7 outpost modules, the refinery Scan Queen, the Dunaport space station, a second Nostromo, the refinery Enchova Central, an Old Bessie 7 fuel hauler, another Hellhound, a second Old Bessie, a third Hellhound, a second Spamcan, and finally the science lander Yokohama. The craft of the First Duna Expedition all en route, with Kerbinport also visible. Dunaport's transfer burn was the longest at just under eight minutes, and it was also the most interesting one because TAC Fuel Balancer didn't behave the way I expected it to: Dunaport commencing its burn for Duna, with two Faux News modules attached. I thought I had it set to drain the two transfer stages of the Faux News modules first. Trouble came up when they didn't drain evenly; I had to do some finagling during the burn to get the fuel loads to balance with one another. I did get the fuel situation straightened out, and once they were drained the two Faux News transfer stages were cast off; by then the craft was already on a Kerbin escape trajectory. I've already verified that each of the craft will approach close enough to Duna to get an encounter, though I'm a little concerned about the fuel status of the Ikeport space station. I think the craft will make Duna orbit, though I might have to aerobrake a bit more than I would like... Once all the burns were completed, it was time to satisfy a stupid contract. For that, I turned to engineer Magster Kerman, who was hitching a ride at Dunaport: Magster on EVA. Using KAS/KIS, Magster attached a shopping cart wheel to the station's exterior. The wheel was tested on a Kerbin escape trajectory for contract, and then Magster proceeded to detach and stow the wheel. First money back from the mission...a mere √25k. Yay. Finished up my day with a situation report of the bases in Kerbin's sphere of influence. The Minmusport space station needed a fuel run; serendipitously, the station was over the release point for an Old Bessie landing at the Deepwater Horizon refinery and it was daylight at the refinery (for once), so I just did a quick fuel run there. No problems. The Munport space station was in reasonable shape, so nothing was done there. Kerbinport needs fuel; the station's reserve tank is empty as is the fuel tank of Laggin' Dragon docked at the station, though Next Objective and Necessary Evil are fully fueled and ready to go. I'll be sending up an Auk VIII flight in the near future to address the fuel problem. I still need to return the Auk VII from the space station first - the VII and VIII are both part-heavy designs, and together they really kill the frame rate... Finished my day with a simple parts test at KSC. Was going to do that with a KERBalloon, but apparently I failed to install KERBalloons when I upgraded from 1.3.0 to 1.3.1. I'll have to try to rectify that today...

I'm still trying to figure out the new way of doing Imgur albums and YouTube videos my own self...any pointers?

Rendezvous and docking at 350k is about the same as it is at 80k, except both craft aren't going quite so fast. Timing the rendezvous is easier, in my experience. I've recently done a couple at 600k my own self (which was the old hard limit of the Alcubierre Drive mod if you wanted the drive to work at all; had to figure out if I could service a warp ship with my existing tech). For me, yesterday was mostly finishing up the launches for the upcoming Duna expedition. It began with the launch of a second Spamcan 7b crew lander and Old Bessie 7 fuel hauler. I decided to save some money and headaches by only sending a single reusable science lander out to the Duna/Ike system. I had such a design back in v. 1.1.3, so I pulled it from my own archives and after tweaking it a little bit, the Fireball 7c science lander Yokohama was launched to LKO. Engineer Eriemy Kerman flew a second Faux News 7 satellite delivery module to the nascent Dunaport space station in LKO and successfully docked to balance out the first Faux News module, which engineer Magster Kerman flew up the day before. Two Heartbreak Hotel 7 outposts were brought up next, finishing out the total Duna/Ike launch set. Total cost of the mission so far is just over √6.5M, and I haven't left Kerbin yet... With launches done, I focused my attention on a tourist/training expedition aboard Laggin' Dragon, which arrived at Minmus shortly after the launch of the last Heartbreak Hotel 7. The craft arrived safely at the Minmusport space station. Pilot Didkin Kerman along with engineers Leaemy and Megkin Kerman went down to the surface near the Deepwater Horizon refinery for flag-planting training, and after using the refinery to refuel the lander, they returned safely to Minmusport. Laggin' Dragon was refueled and burned for Kerbin, arriving ten days later - just ahead of the Duna launch window. Upon Laggin' Dragon's successful return to the Kerbinport space station, Didkin was given temporary operational command of Next Objective docked at the station, with capsule commander Val transferring over to Strange Cargo with Jeb at the helm. Leaemy and Megkin were also transferred over to Strange Cargo. Tourists Herdon and Antrey Kerman returned to KSC 09 aboard a waiting Auk II 8-passenger spaceplane docked at the station, and in the wake of their successful return, the Kerbin Eta probe was put into a new position for contract. With a new tourist mission picked up and now eleven minutes before the Duna launch window opens, the first order of business today is going to be a flight of an Auk VII 16-passenger spaceplane to Kerbinport. Bob, Bill and engineers Dilnard, Dezor and Halzer Kerman will be joining Jeb, Val, Leaemy and Megkin aboard Strange Cargo, which has been designated as the crew flight for the First Duna Expedition. The flight will also contain tourists Wilfry, Crisster, Jotrey, Sherdorf, Barmin and Orrle Kerman (who will be heading out to Kerbin's moons after the launch of the First Duna Expedition) along with five scientists (who are mainly there just to put butts in the seats). After arrival and crew transfer, Strange Cargo will be departing for Duna, along with sixteen other craft currently parked in LKO. I'm guessing the next day or two is going to be largely transfer burns...

With fourteen days to the launch window, I decided that the time had come to begin sending up the hardware for the first Duna/Ike expedition. Plans call for an armada of twenty craft heading out at this window, with all but one of those scheduled to remain in the Duna SOI at the conclusion of the mission. The Dunaport space station and a Spamcan 7b crew lander were both launched on Sunday. Yesterday saw the launch of the Ikeport space station with scientist Siglock Kerman in command as well as the launch of the first Faux News 7 satellite delivery module, with engineer Magster Kerman manning the craft to a rendezvous and docking with Dunaport. Yesterday also saw the launch of the refineries Enchova Central and Scan Queen, which are headed to Duna and Ike respectively. A pair of Nostromo 7 ore haulers and three Hellhound 7 rovers rounded out yesterdays set of launches, and this morning I launched the first of two Old Bessie 7 craft. With the ferry ship Strange Cargo already launched and docked at the Kerbinport space station, this brings the total number of craft ready to go so far to thirteen. I still need to launch another Spamcan, another Bessie, another Faux News, two Heartbreak Hotel outpost modules (they're required for contracts) and a pair of Fireball 7c science landers (the last of which are a bit tricky since they have yet to be designed). Total price tag so far is about √6M; plans to get an Alcubierre warp ship in my career save have been set back quite a little ways, unfortunately. The contracts I have at Duna and Ike should help make up the difference pretty rapidly, though. TL, DR: Been standing under a lot of rockets lighting fuses of late. Must learn to run faster...

Code's working. Still don't know what happened on Friday but it seems to have resolved itself. Next steps are to verify it's working with all four of the parts configuration files, and then begin building the GUI.

All told, I had a pretty slow weekend. After determining that Minmus was well out of phase with Mun for any kind of fast transfer, the decision was made to burn Laggin' Dragon back to Kerbin and make a standard transfer there, getting the ship to Minmus in a mere eight days instead of 35. Laggin' Dragon made a stop at the Kerbinport space station, staying just long enough to refuel before heading out of the barn once again. I also conducted a temperature survey six clicks to the north of the Deepwater Horizon refinery on Minmus using the refinery's rover La Perla Negra, which was pretty easy to do as none of the waypoints were outside of the Great Flats. Pilot Phoming Kerman also conducted an aerial survey of a region 800 klicks to the east of KSC aboard a Bad Idea 3 surveyor plane and eventually returned safely to KSC 27. Finally, I did a quick ore "delivery" for √300k. This morning after conducting an ore drilling job for √250k, I launched Dunaport station to LKO. With the Duna expedition's launch window coming up in a mere fourteen days, I figured it was high time to start bringing up the hardware. Scientist Kirmund Kerman rode up with the station, and she will be the station's capsule commander once it arrives on station. One down, several to go. I also took some time to try out the recent changes to the Alcubierre Drive mod in my litterbox save, flying the Phoenix 4 warp probe from Duna out to Bop. Not much different from the way it was before, though I will say that putting all those batteries on the probe turned out to be a really good idea... Another √4M and I can get me a warp ship in my career save. Looking forward to that.

Alright, thanks. I've made the necessary set of adjustments to my local save. Flew Phoenix 4 from Duna out to Bop over the weekend. Not too much difference in the way the mod works, though I will say that putting all those batteries on the probe turned out to be a really good idea (it was a pre-update craft; haven't launched anything new just yet). Being able to get closer to Bop turned out to be a good thing; got the relative velocity down to 350 m/s over Jool (not slow enough) but I was able to use Bop's own gravity close to failsafe to finish things off. Only had to yo-yo once. I did manage to warp through Bop's SOI at high speed when I finally decided to head out that way, though that may be because I had physics warp turned on at 4x at the time... EDIT: Why Bop? It's stupid...I asked my 2-yr old where I should go and that was his response.

Here's a quick question - I was in my career save a second ago and noticed that the two smaller z-model engines weren't available. At what point are they intended to be available? Stock tech tree.

Yesterday I decided to try and make a little bit more money and get in a little bit more training before the Duna expedition launched, the window for which is coming up in a mere twenty days at this point. Pilot Didrin Kerman, engineers Megkin and Leaemy Kerman and tourists Herdon and Antrey Kerman boarded an Auk II spaceplane at KSC and flew to the Kerbinport space station, where they boarded the ferry ship Laggin' Dragon with Lazor Kerman at the helm. The ship departed and burned for Mün, arriving 4.5 hours later and docking at the Munport space station. The two engineers took a lander down to the surface for flag planting duty (pilot Didrin having done so before her prior rescue from the Münar surface), and then returned to the space station. After Laggin' Dragon was refueled, the ship departed in preparation for a burn to Minmus. Meanwhile, Munport had sufficient fuel reserves to not require an immediate refuel mission (so I ain't gonna do it). Only other thing that happened yesterday was an excursion on the surface of Minmus. Engineer Theony Kerman, the sole kerbal assigned to the Deepwater Horizon refinery station on the surface, took the refinery's rover La Perla Negra out to 4 waypoints in the foothills of the Great Flats six kilometers southwest of the refinery for EVA readings, returning to the refinery safely. Also fiddled around with the Alcubierre Drive mod, trying to learn all the changes made to it in a recent update. I think I like them, other than needing to redesign some ships to account for the changes. Efforts to make a utility program for the Decal Stickers mod are also proceeding slowly. Yesterday the .cfg file I modified did reflect the changes I'd made - and it did cycle through to the name of the flag I wanted, but the image itself didn't change. Trying to figure out why... Would love to play the game right now, but I think today is going to involve some serious amounts of laundry folding.......

Yeah, I was rolling the math around in my head overnight and came to the conclusion that Fuel Cell Arrays were probably going to be the stock way to go from here on out, at least for running the drive itself; I'd still reserve solar panels for the exotic matter generator in close proximity to Kerbol. I've got a nav guide to update; will try to have that done for y'all by the end of the week.

Quick reinstall later and I can verify that my code did add the test flag to the textureNames and textureDisplayNames, but the flag image isn't changing when I hit "next/previous flag". Can't see an obvious difference between the .cfg with the test flag in it and one I haven't touched yet other than the added flag and description (which works like it's supposed to), so I'm not sure what's going on right now. Still progress for the day, I suppose.