Arran

I date back of the era where you bought full fletched expansion CD's for a game to extend its live. These expansions added tens, sometimes hundreds of hours of new contents to a game, a whole new storyline, new area's to explore or something in that general idear of expanding the game. I never had any issues in buying those expansions, even often looked forward to them. Slowly this became replaced by small DLC's that add really nothing to a game, a new skin, a new weapon, imho its just added BS to the game, a quick money grab. Later on it evolved in getting better gear that in a way was becoming Pay-to-win contents, leaving those who didnt buy the DLC in a disadvantage. This kind of DLC really gave the DLC a bad rep, people got imho weaseled out of their money, and with the huge influx of casual players as gaming moved from a Niche hobby for geeks into the mainstream madness its has become now-a-days, Publisher saw a huge profit market thats willing to pull out its wallet for the next shiny object. And in a way i cant blame them, alot of modern casual gamers are willing to spend hundreds, sometimes even thousands of euro/dollars on a game, and they run a bussiness after all. And in favor of those cashcow gamers they stabbed imho the old generation gamers who made them rich in the first place in the back. Instead of games made by people with a passion, that could be seen in the quality of the game, hence some of the older games still have 20+ years after their release are still seen and considered as the standard modern games are compared with. And those games had expansions too, even the expansions became part of the nostalgia of these games. But now-a-days DLC and the main games are mostly trash, regardless of the budget they are made with, they still are and will be moneygrabs., and i refuse to buy this trash, even if millions are addicted to these games on a daily basis. But i discovers in the indy branche you still can find gems of games, that breathe the quality of games of the past Era, KSP feels to me right there on the spot, abeit i admit after 4 years of experimental testing, weeks of bug hunting since 0.14 my time spend in KSP after release went down 100%, hardly touch the game anymore. Over 3000+ hours is enough for me Also as stated i am also one of the ones that has gotten the game before april 2013, so i prolly get all the updates for free, but thusfar from what i read of the upcoming update, it hardly peeks my interrest, it hardly adds imho much more contents, its about historical missions and sorry to say, played these allready with Mods and some imagination, it doesnt expand the KSP game.. I allways hoped for played expansion for KSP, that would add colonisation, deepend research, reacing out to the stars, more immersive planets.. For this i gladly would have grabbed my wallet, but for extra missions... Sorry it feels like SQUAD is entering the quick money grabbing here as well. Hopefully i'm wrong, and it does add alot, but for now.. i'm not convinced.

I just downloaded your craft, tested it with both versions (1.2 and 1.1.3 with no mods) on my i7:4820k CPU (GPU doesnt really matter in KSP, its mostly CPU power needed, but for those who want to know, using a GTX750Ti) but i cant see any differences between FPS rates, even if i use a third party testing tools for preformance measuring. Granted, the monstrosity does give my PC a preformance hit, but this hit is nearly the same, and both games with this monstrosity i'm getting about 85FPS in 1.2 and 87 in 1.1.3 I do see an increased amount of memory used abeit slightly more in 1.2 (2795MB in 1.2, vs 2745 1.1.3). Then i repeated my steps on a older Q6600 with a ATI Radeon 7900 in it, and i saw some supprising differences, 1.1.3 ran about 25 FPS, while 1.2 barely make it above 15 FPS with this testship, so there it seems to be getting a huge preformance hit. Now comparing a Q6600 with an i7:4820k is like comparing apples with oranges, still the difference between versions on both PC's are not really comparable, i mean, on the i7 the difference is minimal, while on the Q6600 like said with above posters is substancial.

Noticed the red parachute icon in staging bar, means its unsafe to open the chute. Secondly you acent is to steep, you never slow down enough now in that angle before you reach save parachute deployment, or maybe you will cut it close here with a fraction later deployment, cut the movie was for me to low res to be able to read, but my judgement tells me you never will make it safe back in that acent now. Use next time a shallower angle, and wait before deployment beeing not red. Red means in this case Dead ..

That one exploded, sadly

Somehow that craft reminded me of this Guess it misses Cheech and Chong

Haha, i read in my haste CPU, after my vote i realized it said GPU, so voted also wrong, as i use 2 older GT470's in my PC (i know KSP only can use one card at the time) But i resently upgraded my old Q6600 CPU to a I7 CPU what was imho the best upgrade for KSP. GPU wise nothing has changed with my old PC to my new PC, but i tried KSP on Ubuntu with these GT470's and didnt knew how fast to go back to Windows regarding graphics, with Ubuntu i had severe grafical glitches, glitching shadows, blurry text fonts and a very poor FPS rate. Maybe somehow with more knowledge of Linux could have fixed it, but i didnt wanted spend so much time learning Linux, trying drivers and such to get it preform like it did in windows just for one game, or even buy new hardware(GPU's) that work better with Linux as my old GT470's Since i run only a few Mods that easely fits within the 4GB limit of KSP 32Bit, i didnt really needed the X64 version of KSP to warrant a completly Ubuntu OS parrallel to Windows on my HD, nor i have the knowledge of Linux enough to run a VM Windows under it. So i pretty pleased with Nvidia on Windows is what i think is the most used PC hardware/OS setup currently by most, Intel CPU with Nvidia GPU's under windows.

Dont try to gain speed in the lower atmosphere with the Turbo fans, to much air resistance there that gives huge drag, get to about 20.000, then level off as i said to about an angle of about 5 degrees, and go full speed (i need 4 turbo fans for an basic Spaceplane to reach this speed, and just 2 LV-909's with 8 air intakes), and it takes a LONG time, the acent from 20.000 to 32.000 takes about 25mins with an accelleration of about 0.1m/s at 20.000 and tops off at 32.000 at around 1.6 to 2m/s So its NOT a quick launch approach, its all about efficiency, with as little as possible drag creating stuff on the outside, so build sleek. Also use as less wing as possible, the airframe itself with a deltawing is enough for those speeds, landings might be a tat hairy, since you need to keep a high speed to keep it airborn, basicly its a horizontal rocket with slow acelleration on airbreathing engines Given enough time (heat managment will be a HUGE issue, as your craft will be the whole time engulfed in flames, to near critical levels, i get to about 97% heat buildup on the cockpit for example) you reach insane speeds. Patience and precision control is the key here, for this i use the Pilot assistance mod as normal keyboard wsad inputs are to jerky, Mechjeb cant do such precision inputs neither. Keep the angle as shallow as possible and keep that AoA meter as much on the 5 degrees. Use enough air intakes to keep the airflow to the turbo fans flowing at those heights, and they will sufficate no matter the intakes around 32/34.000 m height. But with 2400m/s and faster the AP will then be around 400km and PE around 30km, so you prolly need just a minor burn to make the orbit stable. Any jerky moves, and you bleed of speed alot, hence i have to use that pilot assistance mod, on fine control mode, to make those tiny adjustments, and again alot of patience Lower AP might be hard as you will need to throttle down the last bit to keep the heat under control and the tiny drag even there will slow you down and lower the AP. Also keep it as light as possible, there crafts arent ment for carrying huge loads, but very economical shuttles to resupply stations (i use TAC lifesupport, thus need regulair resupply flights) and crew.

I launch my MK2 spaceplanes in a shallow angle (5/10 degrees) way up to about 32km where they start to sufficate, reaching a speed of about 2600 m/s that pushes it to a near stable orbit (roughly 450km x 30km) on airbreathing engines alone while the plane itself, then just let it glide to AP, where i active my lvl-909 for a circlulasation manouvre. Only this approach takes patience as the acent on turbofans take about 35mins. Only 2 small MK2 tanks are needed one for Liquid fuel and one for the LoX, so even with the airbreathing engine nerf, they still are pretty OP if you ask me.

Its like docking, as long you havent succeded, it seems impossible hard, once you are able to do it, you bang your head against the wall wonder why o why i had so much problems with it. I never wacthed any YT, (reason why is a complete different not on topic issue) figured most out on myself, using F5/F9 as tool for practice. Started to play the games ages ago it seems, it was 10x harder back at 0.15 when i started to play the game, the diffilculty was the thing that kept me hooked to the game. But landing on the mun is easy, several ways to do it, easiest approach i think is, Get to about 15/20km above the surface, bring the ship to a deadstop retrograde, let it tumble straight down, keep the retrograde marker dead centre, and let it slowly fall down. Keep reducing speed, slowly and bring the speed toabout 15m/s once you see your own shadow appear, reduce speed even more then to about 5m/s and gently put in on the ground. Any drift can be countered with the thrusters. Its not the most efficient way, but i think its the easiest way to do it at first, once you mastered the easy inefficient way, you can focus on more efficient techniques Seriously its that simple, but some suggested Minmus might be easier do practice due its lower gravity, and even though its further away, it hardly requires more fuel, as minmus landings/take-off require less fuel that compensate for the longer distance. IMHO the addiction comes from you only are competing with yourself, and trying to mimic others ships, this game is all about your own exploration, not only of the Kerbol system, but also your inginious exploring how to solve a problem with the most strangest contraptions thats at least makes it for me addictive. The weirder my designs, the better i feel

TBH, for me its allmost the thing that puts me off from KSP, those Pseudo-wannabee-stars on YT, i cant stand them, but in their defence, no matter what game, i just cant bare watching those YT's. so its not just KSP YT's.. I rather read a good tutorial, thats well written and to the point, instead listing to some "random" guy that finds himself very interresting, rambling about all kind of stuff that doesnt interrest me the slightest. Even the so praised Manley, i just cant bare to watch any of him, if he would be direct to the point, maybe, but 70% of the time those vids last, its for me, uninterresting rambling that i utterly am not interrested in. But i guess i'm the exception on this view on YT's here. So nope, i didnt got into KSP by any Youtuber, matter of fact, a fellow iRacer mentioned it on the iRacing forums, that peeked my interrest in the game.

I be better of mentioning what i didnt do, otherwise my list would go on forever

Depends, i play computergames since 1974 when i got a phongbox and got addicted to gaming, and in time i seen a great share of good and bad games, some games like BaldursGate, LeisureSuit Larry in the land of Lounge Lizzards, Hero's Quest, Police and Kings Quest, Planescape Torment, Wingcommander, Xwing vs Tiefighter, even MS-Flightsimulator are games i never will forget, KSP is also one of those games that made it in my personal list of Best of All time games. What is my most favorite game... TBH i dont know, to many of those, but that KSP is high in my list thats for certain. Still when i compare KSP to many games released nowerdays, it stick out with head and shoulders above the rest. Finnaly a good game that emphasis on gameplay, instead brute graphical force and shallow gameplay, very refreshing to play. Games like GTAV and such, dispite they are stunning to look at, and fun to play, they tend to bore me after a few weeks, KSP, still going strong with me, even after 3 years of play, still enjoying it

Maybe its the angle of the screenshot, or my eyes taking the ..... on me, but it seems to me on that picture the fins are off-centre too, what could result in a off-balance creating a spin. Also SRB's directly attached to a other SRB sometimes causes them not beeing perfectly aligned deadcentre, and can create also a spin. From what i can tell of that screenshot its one of those two things that causing the biggest effect, combined with the Antenna sticking out and the unbalance of the paracute location, and all these in a combination can result in a disasterous spin.

I allways was crap with SSTO's/spaceplanes, i never got them into LKO, ran shot of fuel etc etc etc... so i gave up on them thusfar.. Then 1.0 came out, gave it a other shot, and OH My..... on my first attempt..... SUCCES!!!! Using only 2 Turbojets and 2 LV909 making a 100x100 orbit with bare minium fuel left for a deorbit to 30km where i could scoop just enough drag to slow it down enough to fall like a feather (yes it fell like a feather coming to about 15km height at a ridiculous 90m/s slow speed) and could ignite my TJ's again. Granted reentry took me a several attemps before i could bring it back though all the ways i saw thusfar didnt work so i had to find a new way for that particulair spaceplane.. For this particulair plane a extreme AoA of 70 degrees slowed it down so much, i didnt even had any reentry heat effects kicking in, what was imho rather unrealistics, going through the upper regions coming from over 2000m/s to a slow 90m/s without breakes or chutes.. Still with 1.0 i find Spaceplanes alot easier.. My guess those who had troubles before find them easier, those that can adapt to the new Aero/drag dont have a issue too, those that keep trying to do it the old ways, just cant get them up there.. It is like we have to unlearn everything you learned thusfar and adopt/learn new ways to do so..

Its the Heatwarning mod, not certain if the creator of it has released it yet. It prolly will show up on the mods page soon

For the MK1 pod and the service module you dont need heatshields.. just dead weight when add then to the craft in this setup. And for the ablator, the Service Module and the MK1 pod, dont use those (granted thats a tat of a confusing decission of SQUAD). So sticking a heatshield under the MK1 pod and service module, is creating the issue of instability, while you dont need the heatshield there... Guess problem solved, dont use it when its not needed.. But i dont mind to redo the same thing with a Heatshield, and post the screenies again, as the result will be the same in the end (since i done it with a heatshield too).

There you go.. Only used 2 Turbojets, and 2 Lv909's to get up there..

Here is a little sequence to show my pod wont tumble, nor is going to burn up on re-entry. Just one nice smooth ride down using a very shallow angle (mostly due i miscalculated my orbits back to Kerbin after a succesfull Munlanding.. Still on the mun.. Breaking at 30km, all temps within its limits, pod stable facing the right way.. Becoming a fiery ball of fire, chute still not deployed, holding SAS for stability... Coming out of the fire ball, the HeatWarning Thermometers showing i was getting very hot, but just below breaking point. Succes, allready cooling down now.. So IT is doable, its just different as before.. Crazy tall small pods just dont work well. Normal sized loads no problems.

Re-entry soup-o-sphere style doesnt work anymore, 2 types of re-entry with Pods work fine, first the old shallow angle, but this means you have to slow down alot before capturing yourself by the drag in the upper atmosphere, this will become later even more so important when you start with spaceplanes, slowing down in the upper most regions of the atmosphere is the way to not get desintrigrated by heat and drag. If you grab the upper atmosphere right, the MK1 pod can take the heat easy and slows down nicely.. But you have to be gently on electricity usage, you will need it to keep the pod on the correct angle, or you have to be really good with manual correcting it. Conserving electricity can be done again by now make all the orbital manouvres with SAS not constantly on, just notch the craft in the direction you want, hold F to temp disable SAS, then release it near the point where you want it.. Chutes can be released at 21km height and act as counter balance if you out of electricity and keeps the pod with the shield facing fowards, and will not be burned by the heat, and it wont be ripper off (havent at least managed that yet to happen).. Other way that works fine, is the steep/drop down way, you will go down with an insane speed, but you go so fast the heat buildup just wont have time enough to get too high before it starts to cool off again, but the chute wil hold with these extreme landings, and maybe is even easier to do for a new player since getting it at KCS that way is pretty easy, thus saving big costs on recovery. Its different now with Heat/Drag added and its not like FAR/NEAR/DE its different, and it took a very little time for me to adjust.. (very little even) but granted my old ways didnt worked, so i looked for ways that did work..

Take them above 70KM before going down again.. Anything lower and it wont count as suborbital on Kerbin.

I know the feeling, one thing killed my personal fun in the game, that was joining the experimental team. In the weeks of the Exp Testing, i play KSP so intensive in a repettative testing manner, that once the update is released, i dont feel like playing the game at all for a few weeks, and just need a break of it. Its atm even so bad with me, i hardly play it atm between Exp testing last 2 updates, only to slowly started to play 0.90 just a week ago of today. I think its simply to much of a good thing, becomes a bad thing, and with KSP i think i flow between these extremes. Once i start to play it, i'm hooked and cant stop playing till i get so bored of it again, i wont touch it for weeks, and then i get that urge again

With the upcoming 0.91 Space refulling system announced (ok we still have to wait and see how its turns out) those stations could be turned into refuelling stations. And for sattelites, i still hoping for a kind of RT tech like stock counterpart, so sattelites do have some use beyond static spacejunk fillers and the occasional one shot science grab. Allthough KSP has entered beta, and all the core parts of the game are completed, in its current (0.90) state the game feels imho incomplete, stranglely even more as before now. With addition of Fine-Print, Science contracts placing objects in space it all feels like pointless to me TBH, it has no more use as to forefill the particulair contract and then move on to the next one. Now ofcourse i have enough imagination to have an sollution for this, but herein lies a other problem, as soon you do stuff thats not "contract" related especially on the harder diffilculty settings you run out of funds for them again, so the restriction of the funding actually hinders again creativity gameplay wise again, while it does helps in finding an creative sollution to that particulair contract problem. Overall i like the new additions to the game, but i just have to keep saying that dispite the goodness it brings, it does creates some caveeats and restrictions that doesnt show really at first hand, but are defently there after you played with them a while, the contracts as it is now with the available ones to us, create the issue that you need to keep doing them to fund the project till you finally unlocked everything so you finnaly at the "end-game" can start to pursue your own goals and creativity, till funds run out again.. But at that point that isnt an issue anymore since all funding can be put in pet-projects.

Great news, but if you guys throw some more landing gears into the soup as well that would be great. And its winter, a good filled soup works perfectly to get all warm and fuzzy from the inside And to be fair havent we abused those small landing gears enough by now with 50+ ton planes on those eeky small wheels.

This lead to this Be carefull...

Actually, its how i made my first landing, and at times i still do, launch when the mun is at the appropiate position, then not even bother in orbitting Kerbin, but go straight to the mun on an interception course and land, fast, crazy and fun