JadedStoner

DMagic, So I figured it out. It's a bit of tricky wording that I was reading it incorrectly, in some places it reads as time remaining, other as total time needed. Could a countdown be added into the contract writing? I just got the message that two magnetic survey contracts had been completed so they definitely work. As a humble gamer, I apologize for thinking it was wrong on your end. Your mods are some of the best in the game! JS

Yeah, I've had one mag survey around Kerbin for 64 days by the MET clock, the mission was only for a 21day scan... sure, the margins of the orbit are close 0.186 vs .15 e, but still, if it's on rails, it shouldn't change... So why isn't it triggering the mission to be completed?

RoverDude, I love the work you do man, some great fun stuff! I've been playing around with the Ratpack for a couple of days and I've been having a couple of funny issues... First, it looks liked the two chassis don't meet up in the same horizontal point, the back one sits down a bit. Second, once I've decoupled the frame during the build phase and start adding the chairs or other pieces I get a funky oscillation in the z-axis. Must be hitting a resonance cause the amplitude gets to the point where parts start exploding, how very Kerbal BTW... Moving the rover and setting the brake on/off seems to stop it, but once more parts are added it starts again. I've been doing all of this on or near the launchpad with Bill at lvl 2 w/ the powertool and node attachment. I saw an old video where the Ratpack was put together via 'storing' the piece into each other, did that change with KAS/KIS updates? Oh, and I totally put a winch on the front and have done some testing around the shores, so later today I'm sending Val, Bill and Bob for a three man rover expedition to Minmus! JS

Squad, big props on all the effort into loading up the game... I played stock for a week (waiting for mod updates) and it was wicked fast... Now I've got a dozen plus mods and it's still stupid fast... I use to go out for a smoke and come back, now I can't make it back with a glass of water... Cheers! JS

I've read through this thread and I think there is a point missing here. The proposed hiring system would be great... for SCIENCE mode! There is no incentive to return Kerbals, it's all about exploring. So it should cost you more to send that 100th guy out on some mission. As for CAREER mode, the OP is absolutely right. Salaries, hazard pay and all that good stuff. When probes go on long distance transfers, major operations are limited to very few personnel and are "awoken" for major trajectory changes, so there could be a very small operations budget to account for it. Maintaining a space station could provide long term funds and rep. To do it right would take serious work from the Devs and I would respect any amount of time they needed to create a truly robust economic system. Just my two cents. JS

Thanks for all the props everyone! JS

It occurred to me, there is a perfect rescue mission in the game... in the tutorial! One tutorial has the player correct Jeb's orbit with a limited amount of fuel. Perhaps you could 'authorize' a test flight for rep and the game screws it up, giving a contract to fix it. Stranded in orbit, on the Mun, loads of stuff... and since you authorized the test flight, it's not some shadow space program... JS

Watching a space program grow can be a beautiful thing... One thing I find sorely missing would be an overview of the players financial progress. Management/city building games provide serious, in-depth reports on many aspects of growth and I think the boys at KSC could provide the same graphs, albeit in a much more Kerbalized version... I've put together a few thoughts, feel free to expand them or squash em. Quarterly Reports - Income - Launch Costs - Payroll - Rep gains and losses - Science and Research Long Term Finance Reports - Contract gain/cost/net - Strategy projections - KSC upgrades Post-Mission Reports - Mission Logs: burn times, dockings, SoI transfers, take-off and landing - Launch/Insertion efficiency: for Ecc<0.05 (deltaV required / deltaV used) x100 - Transfer efficiency: - Crew/Experience - Time of Flight, Biomes visited - EVA/Surface samples These would find a home in the Administration Building and I think it could be a great asset of players. I'm sure some hard-core players do all the number crunching themselves for each flight, but bringing it to life in the game would flesh out the 'running a space program' bits... Cheers! JS

Rocks, Rockets... It's KSP right? JS

Did anyone else catch this video? KSP could really use a herd of cows fleeing before a launch! JS

Could this be a gizmo that was recently added to the VAB/SPH?

I'm all for But I gotta give my honorable mention to JS

I haven't played with Kerbal Construction Time myself, but I think this might be what you are looking for. Not quite the 'time running in the VAB' you are looking for, but it would require you to spend a few days game time between constructions... JS

Above all, I think most people would agree that these should be career options. From what I gather, most people agree that SQUAD doesn't want to force the players into any particular path. With that being said, I had a thought. If scanning/mapping were added to stock, un-scanned terrain could create a situation where your instruments (speed, altitude, orbital period) provide a "range" of speed. Since the mission timer turns yellow as the physics slows down, the indicators could turn yellow/red representing a +/- 2% to 10% range from the actual values. With a probe flyby, this wouldn't be mission critical (except for VERY low periapsis). If you did choose to send a manned mission, the module DOES have a radar altimeter, so at 3k meters above the surface, your instruments do reset to 'solid green' since its reasonable to get your speed/altitude from them. This would make landing on an un-scanned surface tricky, but not impossible. Flyby's would let you scan a swath of the planet's surface, enough to provide 'solid green' speed/altitude information for the next probe to circularize it's orbit. Additionally, if your probe is below a 5k altitude, a smaller 'landing approval swath' could be created, setting up landing sites for future contracts/programs. In the map view, I would visualize this as a '2D-path' of varying width, or event better, a 3D 'tube of possibilities'. Imagine the awesomeness of paths/tubes in highly eccentric orbits, with tiny widths near periapsis and large widths near apoapsis. Your probe/vessel could be represented as an orange disc/sphere within the path/tube, providing some idea of where you are, but not an exact measurement. As for the Kerbol system being immutable, the starting positions of the planets could be options (t = year 0, 10, 30). I think I heard something about the game requiring the planets to be in position X at t=0 and that the mass/atmospheres are fundamental So for this to work, I think the game would need to identify they surface of the planet with the orbital trajectory. How challenging is this coding-wise? Finally, I've been playing since 0.17. I've started a dozen career/sandbox modes for different projects. I don't think long term players would just jump to the wiki. I think most would relish 'rediscovering' the Kerbol System. I want to see a Monument Park where you can use a VAB style editor to create homages to your greatness!