RatchetinSpace

Upon first time loading the robotics parts work great. After reloading the craft (going to tracking station and back again) the parts seem to be fine at first, but when I click on one of the sliders to change an angle, extension, etc, every robotics part on the entire craft begins to freak out. They all start extending/retracting at random. Anyone else encountered this bug or has a fix for it?

ScanSat is already in the stock game in the form of KerbNet. It isn't exactly the same, but you can use it to observe topographical features and hunt for anomalies just like scan sat. All you need is a comm connection and a probe core on your craft and you have access to KerbNet. I think a transfer window/alarm clock would be an excellent addition to the stock game and potentially encourage more players to venture to other planets.

I sympathize with a lot of your complaints. Many suggestion topic posts have low effort implementation. The classic example is: "plz add multiplayer thx squad" - without any context or surrounding framework on how that might possibly work. I will disagree slightly about repost topics. Reposting ideas gives a current-affair look into how the community feels about a particular suggestion, and keeping it on the front page makes it more visible and in discussion.

Sooooooo.....squad will just print out money instead? You can't expect a game to continue development without income.

Take some fuel out of fuel tanks and lower thrust limiters.

Good luck getting to those destinations in any reasonable amount of time. ADVANCED CONTRACT: FLYBY OF RED DWARF STAR Contract expires in 20,000 years

After seeing how the ISS was built and is now maintained, I really think a robotic arm would be a great addition to KSP. Robotic arms were very well used in the shuttle missions and could be good for servicing missions, space station construction, EVAs, debris cleanup, berthing, etc. Right now, if you want to build a complex space station you have to either equip every module with RCS (which dramatically increases part count) or use an RCS tug which can be incredibly tedious and annoying. My suggestion would be just add a single long part with articulations and a grapple end on one side similar to how the claw currently works. I think a part like this could open up many more interesting station designs and make space-station and base construction easier for new players. I could also see this as a good DLC part for addition to a space-station or modern parts DLC. I've looked at robotic arm mods that do this but they are all either outdated or incredibly glitchy. The Canadarm2 mod has very unreliable gripping and isn't compatible with docking craft together, and there used to be a very good robotic arm mod with the buran pack but that went extinct a while ago.

I'm completely dispassionate about this. People shouldn't be having computational problems in the VAB anyway. After all, if your craft lags in the VAB, how the hell is the game going to be playable on the launchpad?

This is what most players (including me) do. The game as it is currently setup cannot seamlessly switch on and off mods because it loads all the GameData on startup. You'll notice that if you modify a GameData file while in-game, nothing changes until the game restarts and the file is reloaded.

This is fantastic. Agree with everything pretty much 100%.

I actually play my career mode exactly like this. I like having the limitation of money and a set goal in mind, without being part-restricted.

I personally haven't found many problems with the latest release. No performance issues and no game-breaking bugs. I've only had the landing gear bug to deal with but a few bugs here and there is not unusual for a KSP update. That doesn't mean you aren't allowed to criticise buggy releases, but I don't think this is a result of the TakeTwo take over, even if you don't agree with such ownership. What are the 'show stoppers' you've run into?

If you've been playing since 0.17 you should get the DLC free. 0.18 came out December 2012.

I shy away from using modded parts but I consider DLC parts stock because they are officially supported.

Welcome to the forums! 1 problem. Nuclear engines run on only liquid fuel, no oxidiser, so your craft won't have optimal dry mass with your chosen fuel tanks. That said, the craft should have plenty of delta V if fully fueled. Those fuel tanks you listed total 12,060 L of liquid fuel, equal to 60.3 tonnes of fuel (no oxidiser). Plugging it into the rocket equation with nuclear engines you get 4881 m/s delta V. Now I'm not entirely clear as to what your mission profile looks like. Are you just going for a flyby or do you want to slow down at Duna as well? If so, what orbit are you aiming for? Do you intend to return to Kerbin afterwards? For a simple flyby, 4881 m/s would be overkill. If you want to flyby Duna, then get back to LKO I'd budget 2800/s just to be safe, so you'll need 6000 L of liquid fuel. If you intend to stay at Duna you'll have to slow down. You can do this through aerobraking but that can be risky if you don't have a heat shield. If you want to slow down propulsively, budget 1800 m/s (1000ish to leave Kerbin and 800ish to slow down). Then to return again you'll need 1800 again, for a total of 3600 m/s, meaning your craft needs 8138 L of liquid fuel. My best advice for going interplanetary, budget loads of fuel and quick-save often. You may not find yourself on the optimal trajectory and find you have to waste loads of fuel getting back on track. If you have the time, I'd recommend just filling your ship to the brim. From the sounds of things, your ship should be good to make the journey.