lazarus1024

Okay, awesome. I can't really view the SQUADcasts, so that is probably why I missed it. For me I love the potential the most for "go there and stay" missions. Sure, I love making big'um rockets and ships, but if I can make it a lot smaller, I'd love to do that too. A full jool system exploration is a lot easier if you can plunk down a mining and refining operation somewhere to refuel your ships with, especially for the return journey to KSC. Also, especially if asteroids now have extractable resources, it gives asteroid capture something meaningful. Tow a modest sized one back to Kerbal orbit for a refueling station instead of having to haul loads of fuel up to it from the surface. I mean, yes, it saves some money to refuel a station, to then fuel up/refuel a ship for a mission, but it is also a fair amount of extra hassle. Same with dropping off any extra fuel at a station on a return journey. You can skip those steps (within reason) if you can just haul an asteroid in to orbit and mine it there. For big missions, you can load up all your fuel in orbit then and skimp on your launcher for your ship, saving money. It also makes it much cheaper to refuel re-usable ships in orbit. If all I need to do for my reusable ship is to send a new lander/re-entry module up to it and attach it at the refueling station, then load up on fuel from the station that was mined from an asteroid, that is a LOT cheaper than having to send up a lander/re-entry module AND fuel. Both in time and in cost. - - - Updated - - - This. I also hope that it can be "complex". I am kind of hoping, at least in the long run, for more than simply "Oxygen" that is supplied from "Oxygen tanks" that can maybe be mined and refined somewhere. Hopefully there can be "upgrades", like "air recyclers" which use power in exchange for reducing oxygen use or something. Or hydro/aeroponics which can infinitely recycle "oxygen". And speaking of, it would be neat to have water/food as resources too at some point. However, I think each level of consumable life support should be togglable as an option (yes/no to air, water and food being required). Probably also be able to toggle a yes/no for is life support consumed if the current game focus is not on the ship (IE if not focused on the ship, no life support is consumed). Yes, this means you can cheat by switching focus away and then back once you've time warped somewhere. However, if you allow it to be toggled off entirely anyway, it isn't really cheating. It is a good way to keep from accidently killing all your kerbals in other ships if you forget about them.

Maybe I've missed it, but has SQUAD said yet how resources are going to work and/or confirmed 1.0 will have them? It was mentioned early on that they'd be in 1.0, but I haven't seen much since in the weekly dev updates about resources. Or have resources been bumped to an "after 1.0" update? Thanks!

I'll admit, I have not read every one of the 25 pages...but I'd like to bring up the fact that resources haven't really been talked about much. I know SQUAD has mentioned that they'd be in 1.0 and maybe they were just quick and simple to add in, so it didn't rate much discussion on the weekly dev announcements...but are they still in? Are we going to get a discussion from SQUAD at some point about what kind, what modules and how they work? I hope they are still in 1.0. Also how reentry heat is going to work. SQUAD has been very good in the past with dev blogs on how various new features work before just releasing them in the wild. Just getting a little nervous that it'll all be "go figure it out" since 1.0 is apparently not in experimentals, which often means anything from 1-4 weeks before the new release gets released. I'd rather them be spending time squashing bugs and developing new features...but if they can spare an hour to tell us how some of the new features are going to work, that would be awesome too. (I may be most excited about the new aero and fairing stuff though).

Actually I've been building some pretty big stuff. Nothing like I do on my desktop (i5-3570@4GHz and GTX750), but I think I've hit up around 120 parts or so been been okay. Launch is still at least half speed till you get up kind of high/change the camera view to look up at the sky, but its smooth with the physics slow down and in space it's okay. I've built a few Mun/Minmus/Eve/Gilly missions and been fine. This includes "Apollo" style things with CSM and 2 stage LEM and it all worked okay, though a little slow down here and there near planet side. Not so bad it isn't highly enjoyable. I'll never manage a real Jool mission or any of my 13 Kerbal space stations or dirt side bases or anything, but it can be fun. I am VERY much looking forward to Cherry Trail to see what it can manage. With possibly 2-4x the GPU power and at least a good 25-35% more CPU power (than my z3740) it should be able to run KSP pretty respectibly, at least if they come with 3/4GB of RAM instead of 2GB (might not be able to turn up anything past 720/768p with the GPU RAM requirements that would entail as just running the game stock uses something like 1.7-1.8 of the 1.9GiB of available RAM with zero mods at 720p). I think its a combo of GPU and CPU limitations (and RAM) here, but the much more powerful GPU should at least allow something like 768-900p at somewhat better detail settings (maybe still no AA, but maybe 1/2 res textures and medium details instead of everything turned to minimum). With the more powerful CPU, probably will allow somewhat smoother/closer to full speed physics (though that is maybe more of a GPU issue near planets) most of the time as well as somewhat larger part ships. It'll still be nothing like a full laptop, let alone desktop gaming machine, but from "okay and ejoyable" to "nice and enjoyable". I do NOT think I'd want to play this on a Bay Trail equipped laptop. The faster clocks and the slightly faster GPU would certainly help, but not nearly as much as the much larger screen will show just how low all of the details and settings are turned down to make it run okay (fine at 10.1", on 11.6-13.3"...probably pretty yuck looking).

I built my first real space plane. Like, it works and everything! I've played with space planes previously, but I've honestly never been able to make anything that worked at all. I tried a space shuttle, but it keeps tipping over and imolating itself on the pad from being too unbalanced. So I mounted 4 of the large 1.5m tanks around the space plane with 4 of the regular SRBs and it makes it to space BARELY and I can put a satellite in to orbit from the payload bay. I think if I reduced the thurst on the SRBs to more like 60% or so from 75% (going WAY to fast in the 8k+ range and wasting fuel on aerodrag), it'd give me the extra dV to either haul a more substantial satellite (IIRC, it is around .75t what I tested on the launch) or more comfortably achieve orbit (I manages a 105x81km orbit with zero fuel left, but enough RCS to retro-"burn" and return after launching the satellite). balanced enough with enough glide rate that I can pretty easily set it down. Only breaks off the engines 1 in 3 times (if I am not careful), but I have had zero crashes which broke up the entire space plane!!! It is a bit unbalanced if there is still fuel in the space plane though, which is a bit of a bummer, but between 80-100% full and 0-10% full (just the onboard fuel) it is extremely well balanced.

Meh, could be worse. I build one, landed it and it wouldn't complete. Then I looked closer...said friggen GILLY. DOH! At least I could still revert to launch, tweak things a little on the launcher for a few hundred more m/s dV and get it there (the Minimus launcher for the hab had a few hundred m/s surplus dV). Thank goodness for Gilly's low gravity. I ran out of fuel when I was barely in Gilly's SOI and still had to slow way down and land. I had JUST enough RCS to pull it off. I think I was left with about 20 units of monopropellant as I touched down. Phew.

Still haven't been to Eloo, Bop, Pol or Tylo. I plan on doing that before the next update. Well, I had PLANNED to. I assume I will, the recent round of updates don't seem to break saves, so I'll just keep plodding along. Still need to hit Dres and Moho in this save, but I have been back to Jool, Eve, Minmus, Ike, Duna, Laythe, Mun and Gilly. Then I'll move on to the "never visted before" places.

Can we get an actual Jeb on a shelf? I would buy it in a heart beat and I know my son would LOVE it (he is almost 7). -"You better be nice or Jeb is going to tell Santa Klaus that you don't need moar boosters for Christmas"

Ahhh, okay. Thanks!

A 2 kerbal Gemini style capsule would be nice. I'd also like to see a manned rover capsule, a la something like this (the front cab bit) http://www.dexigner.com/news/image/19475/Manned_Mars_Rover_01, either as a single Kerbal, or a 2 Kerbal module. A box kerbal container would be cool too, for habs and/or rovers (2-4 kerbal capacity), like the hitch hiker module, but obviously in a box shape for adding to bases or rovers. Lastly, I'd LOVE to see Porkjets inflatable habs added. We already see his space plane parts, the habs would be whicked cool too.

An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. There is the straight definition. Extreme manner is not something that would be met by this. It is a combustion, not an explosion. Also chemical reaction is not necessary. You can have an explosion from electrical discharge (explosion is the rapid phase change of a solid/liquid to a gas and the extreme high temperatures resulting in expansion in an extreme manner), pressure release/failure of a containment vessel of a gas under extreme pressure, etc.

Please oh please oh please if resources are added, add them in such a way that asteroids can also be used for getting resources for whatever, not just planet side bases. Of course you'll maybe have to figure out how many resources an asteroid has or what not, but I'd think that would be perfectly doable. Latch on fuel extractor, begin extraction at set rate that is not acceleratable (well, maybe physics acceleration works). Once tanks are full, transfer fuel to whatever. I do hope they keep it rather simple in terms of mechanics and parts. Maybe just 1-3 parts. Super simple, just a fuel extractor that needs electricity and the fuel resources from a dirt side or asteroid resource source and it pumps out refined fuel to whatever fuel tanks are attached to the "ship". Moderately complex, but maybe not too bad, resource extractor that needs the above, but it pumps raw fuel in to regular fuel tanks...which then has to be refined in to oxidizer and liquid fuel using refiner part and electricity. Next most complex would require seperate tanks (maybe inflatable????) that store raw fuel before it is refined (IE can't use regular fuel tanks). Most complex would have seperate liquid fuel and seperate oxidizer fuel resources and possibly refining parts. My hope is the least complex, or maybe one step up where you have to extract and then refine, but regular tanks can store it. I do hope it is "time limited" like resetting/cleaning science experiments are now. I also hope it takes a resonably impressive amount of electricity to do the job (not ridiculous amounts, but there should be a fun and good reason why you need a base with 8 giant solar panels on it).

If you have a controlled explosion, either you have an awesome Orion engine, or else you are doing it wrong. Nothing is exploding at any point (controlled or otherwise) (if it does, you have pieces of rocket raining everywhere). Also, generally you only have a volitile fuel source being mixed with an oxidizer being lit with a match and exhausting out a hole in the bottom. In the case of some rockets, you have a couple of fuel sources mixed with an oxidizer, lit with a match and exhausted out a hole in the bottom. Ideally at some point we'll figure out a way to mix that fuel source with atmospheric oxidizer a match and exhausted out a hole in the bottom. Right now though, scramjets are proving real hard. But maybe someday will get it right (Scramjets typically range from around 1,400-4,000s Isp, compared to a rockets 220-430s, so even if you can only use a scramjet for a portion of the launch, that can make a HUGE difference in terms of payload capacity and or launcher size).

This is very cool, but I'd also like to see Porkjet's habitat stuff added too. Now that his spaceplane stuff is stock, the habs would be REAL spiffy. They are fun to play with and considering some of the new contracts need you to do things like build a space station with a capacity of 20 Kerbals, or a base with 12 or what not, the inflatable habs would be a good way to get cracking on some stuff like that.

Thanks guys! Now I see how to do it. Follow on question...just how tolerant are some of these? I tried for probably an hour last night with a Jool survey stuff and I feel like I was probably within...dunno, 20-40km horizontal and maybe only 10km from the survey points and nothing. I am guessing it needs to be a lot more exact (and maybe Jool surveys are NOT the way to go)? Thanks!

Am I missing something? It appears like it isn't possible to actually view where a survey mission wants you to go before you accept it (obv. you can see the planet and what the waypoints are, but that doesn't necessarily tell you a whole lot). I was hoping/am hoping I am missing something and you can, for instance, view it on a map before accepting one. Thanks!

I abuse NERVAs like no-one's business. I really shouldn't, but I do. Generally anything over around 25t (ship mass, not payload mass) and I tend to reach for a NERVA(s). Then again, a lot of times once I start getting in to that mass range, I am often buidling or using a re-usable tug. My common designs are a pair of NERVAs on the end of a 1.5m jumbo tank, with a bi-coupler to a docking port. For bigger loads I'll go with a quad adapter with NERVAs and fuel tanks. Then if I need more fuel for a mission, I'll launch up a fuel section to go between the drive and payload sections and jettison fuel tanks as I go. To counter act the ridiculous burn times, if I have the ability, on the end of the ship, attached to the payload section, I'll often have a Skipper with a large 2.5m fuel tank and whatever fuel is left after everything has been assembled and topped off. I'll burn that till it is empty, flip the ship around and then burn with the NERVAs. Ideally at some future point, it would be nice to see KSP have a couple of options, a "vaccum only" chemical engine that has terrible atmospheric ISP, but awesome vaccum ISP (like 240-260s sea level and 430s space) with a thrust in the 75-120 range and maybe 1-1.5t. Then an "electrical" drive engine, like a VASMIR that is pretty light, like 1-2t and either 1.5m or 2.5m and can produce 30-75 thrust, but uses a prodigous amount of power. To go with, the option of a fairly heavy (maybe 4-8t), but huge electrical output (100 units a second?) nuclear power plant that can feed the drive at full output. Or you can do lots of RTGs, or big solar panels, or lots and lots of batteries or some combination if you want. Also stick some of that stuff even higher up the tech tree so that they are ultimate "end game" engines.

I've kind of been wondering for a bit now if there will be other damagable/repairable bits added to KSP? Rover wheels, chutes and landing legs can all be repaired/repacked. However, solar panels also can be damaged, but they can't be repaired at the moment. I wonder if anything else will be able to be damaged at some point and repaired. Maybe docking ports? Engines?

I can't think of the largest launcher I've ever made. Been a long time since I've made a truely stupendous one. I am a big believer in orbital assembly. Probably only in the 500 ton range. For an interplanetary ship, around 250 tons. A BIG beast to get to Moho in one go. Carried a medium-small space station, a small permenant ground base with rover and return ship (to head back to the station). In addition two ground probes to determine the best landing site as well as a return ship (using the drive stage with the return capsule attached).

There has been a couple of times over the years where I ran out of fuel or knew I'd run out of fuel after investing hours and hours in to a mission. So I exited, edit the save file to refuel my ship and continued playing. I haven't done this in ages. Generally I just send a fuel tanker if I botch my design/manuevering and run out of fuel. Sometimes though when you've invested a dozen hours in a mission, it is just too much to give up because you ended up with 100m/sec too little dV on your Moho and back run.

So I finally got around to trying out this whole "asteroid" thing even though I've been playing KSP for something like 2 years now and they've been around for months. I went for a big boy and instantly regretted. I mean, it was cool, but my puny little dual NERVA engine "tug" could barely put a dent in its velocity and even doing my best to aim for CoM on it resulted in it spinning quickly. So I tried the same tug with a class C. Lot of time and effort invested, but I did get a capture on it and parked in Kerbal orbit in a 600km to 4,500km equitorial orbit. Still wobbly/rotate-y, but I managed. Only had to fuel up my tug once to manage the "feat". Of course the rock probably doesn't weigh much more than my tug does (medium rockomax tank with dual NERVAs, MKIII capsule, solar, lights, RCS, docking ports to refuel. Basically it). I plan on building a station off of the thing, for fun. Then probably jettisoning the tug once I've pulled all of the fuel out of it for the station. Just gotta design the first station module now, launch and attach it.

I'd like to add in some part expansion. Spaceplane parts got an expansion this time around. I'd like to see some more science and/or rocket parts added. Maybe some new top tier propulsion stuff. VASMIR? Nuclear power plant (both?)? Things like robotics would be nice for a robotic arm. Maybe probe soil sample containers to do unmanned sample returns/science.

Yup, that might be one of my favorite parts (the rescaled reaction wheel). Nah, I love em all!

Speaking of, it would be cool if at some point a high ISP, low/medium thrust engine were added at some point above the xenon engines and possibly below the NERVA engine. My thoughts are something like a VASMIR that takes either a lot of solar panels, or requires a nuclear power plant to power it, but can produce something like 20-40 thrust, around 1t of weight (1.5m part) and has an ISP in the 1,500 range. Maybe a far future Fusion drive engine or something as a 2.5m part around 100 thrust, 3t and an ISP around 2,000. Just vague general thoughts. Anyway, it would be nice to having something with better ISP than the NERVA, vaguely similar thrust (+/-50%), somewhat less mass (probably, even if it requires a nuclear power plant weighing a few tons to power it, or multiple) and "futuristic". Something to aspire to above the current top of the tech tree, even if no FTL is ever added to KSP, it would be cool to see some more futuristic drive types at higher than current tech trees (just like it would be cool to see an honest to goodness scramjet eventually, maybe even something like a Busard Ramscoop to as a topest level engine tech that has "unlimited" ISP, but produces modestly low thrust at modest weight, but takes a huge amount of power).

My "biggest issue" with science and the research tree is, I feel like, at least making it fun, you have to go pretty far up the research tree to start doing serious exploration beyond the Kerbin-mun-minmus system. At least if you want manned missions, especially manned return missions. I realize you can do it pretty low down if you want to make massive, "illogical" rockets, but it doesn't feel as fun (to me). Then once you've done enough science to get up there...you don't really need to do more science to build the big rockets to get anywhere you want to. Within reason, once you can get to Duna, you can get anywhere with the science you have. I guess some of it is the propulsive stuff to me. Some of the later stuff is "nice to haves" to unlock, especially for fewer launches for big missions to Jool and beyond, but once you have the NERVA engine, you don't really get anything "better" for deep space. I just wish there was something above and beyond it. Like a nuclear lightbulb rocket, or VASMIR or what not at the toppest stages or something. Or maybe right up among the top science unlocks you could unlock bonuses to your space program enginnering. Like the top tier propulsion adds +5% ISP and thrust to all rockets. Top atmo tier unlocks 10% higher threshold for flame out and 5% better ISP on all engines. Top structual tier reduces mass by 5% or something. Top science tier provides +10% more battery capacity and generating rate on solar panels and RTGs. So on. Give something other than parts at the highest tiers, so it makes you really want to keep going...and so it costs 1,000 science points to get a top tier science area unlocked, but it gives you across the board bonuses to your space program that can be potentially meaningful, if not enormous.