Jean Deaux

Hey hey! Gratz! The more in-line (direction, speed, inclination) you are the better you will be at getting your relative speed to zero. I honestly wouldn't worry about being at zero, you're never really going to be "perfectly" matched until you're physically docked to something. As long as your relative speed is .3 or less there's plenty enough time to maneuver around before the distance becomes too great to interact. In space, close is a pretty garsh darn big area in comparison to what we think close is for ourselves. Basically the higher your relative speed the smaller your window of opportunity will be for an encounter and a higher risk for physical damage if contact is made.

You really need to work on that bed-side manner as you're implying no thought was given this subject matter and I find that a bit rude. Thanks everyone! I think what was adding to my confusion was the atmospheric pressure gauge just below the altimeter indicator. Once I hit the light blue area I was expecting "Kerbal like" atmospheric performance. Apparently this is not how this gauge should be interpreted.

I've been at this game a while now, but have only fairly recently gotten space planes down. I've successfully flown to Duna and have landed on the surface, but have had to do so as if I were on the mun as the atmosphere does not appear to provide any lift at all on my wing surfaces. The air breathing engines do not get any oxygen to run (not totally unexpected as nothing says it has to be an atmosphere of oxygen) but I'll admit I'm surprised that my wing and control surfaces have no effect on steering or with lift. Is this normal, or is the 64bit updated version got a bug in it? I've got EVE on my to-do list and I've seen posts using parachutes to descend so can I expect to find a fully flyable atmosphere on Eve?

Welcome to the club! I gotta tell you, it took me over year to get in myself, so I know what you're feeling. Gratz!

Good luck, shout out a good Yeaaa Baby!!!! when you finally real him in.

This was my favorite part of this challenge, was finding the needle in the haystack of emptiness. Here's some tips that I use that may help you. The Navball is your friend here, be sure you have your Kerbal targeted so he'll show up on the Navball as a target to steer towards (pro grade or retrograde). Once you're close, keep your speed slow just as you would a docking maneuver. Now you just need a point of reference to help align your view to your target. I like to use the sun because it's so easy to find. What I do is point the nose of my ship directly towards my target (the floating Kerbal) and rotate the navball to a level/horizontal plane so I can easily tell North & South and take my relationship of where my nose is pointing and where I am in relationship to the sun. If the sun is behind me and the angle is up and left, when I switch to the Kerbal using the "[" key I know I should be looking towards the sun down and right (the opposite direction). The ship should be easier to see than the Kerbal, and simply use your RCS pack to fly the Kerbal to the ship. You may have to bounce back and forth a few times until you're close enough but this method worked for me without fail.

If you were a terrible pilot and needed money, those boring tasks would be perfect. Be thankful you don't need them and can simply ignore or decline them (that big red X there on the right of the screen). A good game considers all types of pilots, good and bad, be glad this one does that.

Rumor has it there may be a hidden universe out there, maybe you can find it!

My list of the minor things currently in game... 1) TT18-A Launch stabilizers going to some odd stage instead of to the very last stage of the current design. 2) The navball being minimized by default on the Map view 3) VAB assemblies starting out with the gear indicator turned On even though the gear is Off on the launchpad. 4) Closing a window grabs a part off your current assembly, mucking up your progress 5) Spaceplane flights are rather jerky and tough to control

Conditions for the mission are to load into a command "module" and return to Kerbal safely. So yah, any other method of retrieval is a fail.

Wow, that looked like it hurt!

Not this discussion again...

I haven't made it to the huge piece count rockets yet, so I'm not really noticing much of a difference, but then again I have a high end machine and have been running at max settings in 32 bit mode. The only difference I've noticed so far is that the Kerbal animations in the cockpit cameras are no longer smooth and animated. It's now more like a slideshow with insta-changes between facial positions and expressions.

I like this idea, a lot!

Wouldn't it just be easier for those who want Ironmad mode, simply not to load from a previous save, and perhaps even further, don't save?

I'm a visual guy, I'm terrible at remembering names/words n such. As-is, I'm writing down (electronically on another screen) the parts I need and the test conditions. (Yes, I know there's a pop up window with the same stuff but I find it too small to be useful when I have multiple monitors with a much larger display that works better for these old eyes). If a graphic image of the part to be tested were to pop up, it would be much easier to remember/identify which parts are being referred to as opposed to having to switch back and forth between mission control and the assembly building to identify the part in question. "Ideally" you could have those mission windows as separate windows I can position on my screen anywhere as well, but that seems like I might be asking too much.

I'll play just a few minutes.

Just depends on how big you want to go? I'm a big (mostly) stock player and this is one of my preferred pre-fab cities I drop as a 1 piece insta-town.

Yah, figuring out how to dock the very first time is a booger bear and incredibly frustrating. But once you get the first one, then rest are just a walk in the park. It's just learning the mechanics. Start with small ships, the bigger they are the harder they are to balance and dock.

I too finding a combined burn more efficient when able. This can take a while to setup just the way you want, but I find uses less fuel vs two separate maneuvers.

I was actually starting to make a video of the whole thing and believe I found the missing piece of the puzzle, the angle of re-entry. I had been coming in nose slightly elevated figuring the angle of attack would help reduce speed. Looks like that was the cause of the problem. I came this time nose on the horizontal plane and this time I came in without a hitch. Want to see the video? Here it is! And to answer your questions, no FAR, all stock ship short of Mechjeb and TAC Fuel Balancer.

I have FINALLY made a successful space plane, I've known about the C.o.M. from the many threads I've read and have loaded the TAC fuel balancer to keep the weight distribution even throughout the plane at all times. Soon as I hit atmosphere I lose all control of the plane. Even after slowing down to as slow as take off speeds I'm unable to regain any control (to include giving Mechjeb flight control). As such, I'm not entirely convinced center of mass is the entire culprit.

I had frequent problems with my ships disappearing in the Jool system. I don't know what it is about that system, but check your ship inventory before you save and make sure they're still there before you do.

*Hoping for future releases of bigger RCS thrusters now that we have bigger ship pieces parts!

I think your information is a little out of date, mainly thanks to Star Citizen which is an upcoming (alpha DFM module is now out) which is a massive universe real physics space sim, right down to the maneuvering jets. Granted a couple of years ago you'd be spot on, but times.... they be changing!!! Click on the Cryengine link above, it's their showcase of current games in production. Now I'm not saying it's going to be a direct, or even easy, port over. What I am saying is that KSP is worthy of being ported over and expanded upon. But again, a future release, let's get this one done first.