RatchetinSpace

There are rover parts...why not make one!

Haha, okay, maybe, but a key part of that is the rocket being replaced by an enormous fireball.

Yes I have seen these mods, and I'm grateful to the mod makers for creating them, but they just don't capture the essence of a rocket explosion as you mentioned. I've tried modifying the BAM config files to make bigger explosions but the problem is the animation has a fixed timing so it disappears just as quickly.

KSP is all about trial and error, and many rocket explosions in the process of building a successful mission. I'd like to see the explosions from rockets enhanced a bit because at the moment they are far to small and quick. There is no magnificent fireball like a real rocket failure, and given this is such a core element of the game I think it could do with some more detail, and add spice to an otherwise disappointing design failure. We know the game (and most computers) can handle better effects because they are used when KSC facilities are destroyed. Anyway, if the devs don't want to dedicate time to this, or they don't think all computers could handle it, I think it'd be nice if they were able to enable modding of the particle effects. Currently (as far as I can tell) the explosion particles cannot be changed/modified to reflect their real-world counterparts. This is what I think failures should look like:

KSP is worth more than $40 IMO, but if you're not willing to pay full price it regularly goes on sale on steam.

I found 1.3 more unstable. I upgraded to 1.3.1 because the fairing bug in 1.3 was destroying all my craft.

I've played around with planet mods before, the problem I have with them is that kopernicus seems to bog down my KSP framerate by about 25% for some reason (even if I have no planets installed). I'd like to see extra planets supported by official code so this sort of issue can't happen. I do like some of these mods but they just impact performance too much. With regards to my comment on extra star systems, I was assuming that a warp drive would never be added to stock KSP, therefore it would be silly to add extra star systems. If a person is hypothetically installing extra star system mods then they can/should by all means use a warp drive mod, I just decided to try it out with stock parts to see how feasible making an interstellar mission would be in the base game. It wasn't too hard to be honest, but the craft ended up being a small ion spacecraft with lots of RTGs for power and loads of Xenon fuel. Burn times were hilariously long, and the mission time took 750,000 years. I just don't think those kinds of missions have a place in the stock game, I would rather keep those to the modding community.

I don't have a problem with other people using mods. I personally don't like to use parts mods because I want to try and engineer my way around problems with stock but that's all personal taste. KSP is a single player game so it ultimately doesn't matter what other people modify their game with.

Asteroid belt: Add two or three Gilly-ish sized asteroids near the orbit of Dres and some randomly spawning untracked asteroids there as well. That'd pretty accurately represent the Solar System's own belt. Asteroids are actually really far apart so they aren't much of a concern to spacecraft. Plus you could never get out of the way in time anyway, they'd be moving several kilometers per second relative to your spacecraft. New Planets and Moons: I'd like to see two more gas planets. I imagine a larger gas planet than Jool (like 2x as large) with 7+ moons and untracked asteroid moons, and a third gas giant, smaller than Jool with maybe 3 moons and really far away, so that Solar Power is essentially useless. This planet could also be a 'super-earth' as was discussed back in 0.17 with massive gravity and a very thick atmosphere. Star Systems: I think are a waste of time in this game. They're just too far away to be practical to add. Time Warp would have to be updated to have several more iterations because spacecraft would take thousands of years to reach their targets (believe me, I've done it with mods). 5 Meter Parts: Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe 5m parts are being added in the Making History Expansion.

This would just be mean. Many people's crafts fail due to design errors, so trying to trouble shoot design problems would be a nightmare with randomly failing parts.

I would write a long winded response about why you're wrong but you clearly have no concept of multiplayer.

Oh boy, Jool mission friend can wait for 3 years while space station junkie hogs the low time-warp setting. Just No. Also stop bumping old posts and bringing up this silly topic.

I like the easter eggs as they are. They're very quirky and interesting, and quite shocking when you stumble across them. I don't think there's anything wrong with them. BTW, the Mohole is a bug, they just decided not to patch it and rebranded it as an easter egg (it might be unpatchable for all I know).

I think Kerbal Alarm Clock (for transfer windows) and Kerbal Engineer for Delta V readouts and surface information. Trajectories is also useful, it tells you roughly where you will land on a ballistic trajectory based on aerodynamic forces. It's not 100% accurate but it's good for SpaceX-style first stage returns or for aerobraking.

That's a good way of creating large landing legs!

A small body deep in Jool's gravity well would require significant Delta V to decelerate to and then escape from. This.

Ah I see I recommend trying to go interplanetary, it's really satisfying when you manage to pull it off.

Really? Have you never left the Kerbin system? I go through an average of 2-3 years per day.

Jeb regularly does this. It's so annoying when you send a rover to Duna's surface unmanned then land to find Jeb has snuck onboard and you don't have the seats to bring him back. He's sitting in an abandoned Duna rover right now. He's probably Mark Watneyed the crap out of it.

I had a save where I went interstellar for a mod with stock parts. That save clocked over 600,000 years in one mission.

Planetoids with large mass are more likely to hold onto larger atmospheres and more likely to capture nearby asteroids. Planetoids with smaller mass (Gilly) are less likely/able to. If we assume the Kerbol system formed like Solar Systems form in our galaxy then it's just a byproduct of gravity doing its thing.

Personally I think larger landing legs and grid fins. Grid fins are used all over in rocketry, in guided bombs and missiles, on the Soyuz launch escape system and the Falcon 9. I think larger landing legs would be good because the current static landing legs constantly break when landing large 3.75m craft. Maybe an electric propeller as well. NASA is thinking about sending a helicopter to Mars with the 2020 rover so it is relevant, plus they could be useful for initial Eve ascent.

Every planet and moon, though some more than others. I've done manned missions to Jool (all moons), Duna, Mun and Minmus, and probes everywhere else. I've also done some interstellar stuff with mods.

I've seen the Blast Awesomeness Modified Mod but the mod just uses the stock explosions. If you see a real rocket failure the explosions are not only more massive but they have a fireball and smoke cloud aftermath that lasts minutes. I've looked in the game files to see if I can slow down the default explosions but I haven't been able to find where they are located. Does anyone know if it is possible to slow down or otherwise modify the default explosions so we get better explosion effects? Here's what I'm talking about (this looks the most like a kerbal rocket failure IMO) - Caution: Keep volume low, or you might be deafened

Where are the SOI's in this scenario? Are you saying the SOI of the ghost is 1x1M or is it an infinite like Kerbol? It'd actually be pretty easy to find. Just slow your orbital velocity to 0, lowering periapsis to only a few meters and you'd shoot by a fake body getting an insane gravity assist.