xandalis

Aye, I'm quite familiar with the VAB. But as I said, not every person has a computer capable of even loading that beast (in your case), let alone launch with some semblance of having frames per second. Again, such cases would make manual control near (if not completely) impossible due to not having an accurate "picture" of what the rocket is actually doing at any given physics calc of the game engine (check the debug log and look for "frame skipped," or something to that effect, entries. That's the game saying "screw it, I'll just run the next frame's numbers and hope I didn't miss too much"). If you've got a rig that can handle ~1700 parts smoothly, good on you. But that doesn't make it an engineering challenge. I see this more as a "how bad ass is my system" challenge. The point of all that is really just trying to express that for most of us, such a launch would not be possible without mechjeb (even if used only as a "fly by wire" assist, like using Smart A.S.S. on KillRot or Surface for heading/pitch holding, instead of full ascent guidance control). But if you still think this is nothing but "I don't wanna, so I'll blame my computer instead," post the craft file, and I'll run it myself and see if it's even loadable on my rig.

All you'd have to do (for simplicity's sake) is add one of the lazor controllers (the radial, or two stack variants) to the ship the kerbal would be on EVA from. No requirement that you use it's functionality or even turn it on in flight. Though if you wanted to avoid the parts entirely, I suppose you could go into your part.cfg's and find the appropriate MODULE{} lines to add to your command pods. That would probably still load the base functions though. I'm unsure of how you could just get the EVA part to load for kerbals though. Such as: MODULE {[INDENT]name = LazorSystem[/INDENT] }

"Soylent Kethane is Kerbals! AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Ah, I suppose that could do it. Not going to bother replicating, my system gets a bit twitchy around 1k parts, ~700 is pushing stability as-is in VAB/at launch (random crashes, 5 minute "hangs," showing a part as highlighted but not grabbing the correct part, etc...).

So, messing around with the RGB now, and wow. Major jump compared to before. I'm actually getting a fairly descent FPS now (comparatively), about 4-5 on one of my ~700ish part SHLLVs as a test launch. Before I was getting maybe 2-3 fps. Not a huge boost in numbers, but we ARE talking about something that's happening x-times per second. Much like that huge difference between one NERVA and two on a ship's acceleration. So, sweet, worth it for me. Can't wait to see how much smoother my sub-500 part builds run after this.

@UmbralRaptor: All mods I run are (supposedly) 20.2 compatible and/or only for 20.2, as far as I know. current list: kethane, KAS, B9, KW, RemoteTech, Spherical Tanks, Crew Manifest, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Lack Luster Labs, Hooligan Labs (minus SQUID), Romfarer's Lazors (plus weaponry&robotic arms, the weaponry for de-Kesslerizing my LKO zone), I've got Hakari's spacejunks (love the deadweights for testing), and I recently dumped the dev build of MapSat because I was starting to have many problems from that. I may be missing a few items on this list, though very few of my deigns include parts from all mods at once. Mostly I build stock and use mods to fill the gaps in parts/functionality. I expect ships that are mod-heavy to be a bit harder on my system even on a good day. @Lolbster: Yeah, I've dropped terrain detail, unless I'm going for pretty screenshots. @Otis: Thanks, I'll check that out, see if it helps. It's kind of frustrating though. I know my rig isn't bleeding edge, but it's also no slacker, usually technically exceeds most "recommended specs" on games by a long shot, or at least meets them. Though in fairness, some of my problems may not be computer-related at all, but power-grid related. The local grid around here is a bit dated, and I doubt I'm getting anywhere near a constant 110-115 VAC at the wall. Might have to look into getting an APU that also includes a filter. Also, I should note that my rig isn't off-the-shelf. Built it from parts, desktop, so at least I don't have to worry about that annoying "My video card says it has 4Gb of memory... oh wait, 3.5 of that is virtual/actually co-opting system RAM..." Though, then again, I've noticed that very few 32 bit apps/games can actually make full use of the hardware. Anyway, thanks for the info guys, I'll switch this over to Answered, and check out the Game Booster. I'll post back with the "results" of that after some food and DW.

I agree, that many parts requires MJ to get it off the ground for most computers that are technically capable of supporting KSP with those part-monsters loaded. My rig can handle well over 700 (mind you, I get like .1 fps during the entire ascent, and usually have to leave the flight as soon as it's achieved orbit, quit KSP, then come back to it), but there's no way a 700 part beast could be manually controlled with any chance getting to even the first stage sep. And also, in those screenshots, what are those icon-less items on the stage list? Thought stock-only didn't have blank icons.

Alright, so I haven't seen anything on this (I'm sure I'm not the first to ask though)... My current rig is running on a Phenom x6 1045T 2.7Ghz, has 8 gigs of ddr3 10666 RAM, and Radeon HD 6750. OS is Win7 Ultimate 64. Any suggestions on how to get KSP to use these resources more effectively, or am I going to be stuck with stuttery performance?

Alright, finally calling it "done." Here's the link to the album on imgur: http://imgur.com/a/R5ULS#0 I'll upload more screenshots after I complete it's trial mission to the Mun. I'll leave the scoring speculation out for now. Edit: the album is mostly ordered "correctly," but it was a rush-job. Relevant screens should be mostly in order at the front of the album. Edit: Mission debrief Well, after several tries, and several bouts of technical difficulties on Jeb's part (I swear, my Jeb is a bad luck charm... in this particular save anyway, EVERY mission Jeb's been on has had some form of mishap, this being no exception...), I call this a partial success. Got the lander portion onto the Mun's surface, near Jeb's earlier crash site(s). However, it did not have enough fuel left to take off again. I tried to bring one of my service tugs (already on the surface nearby) over to hook up for refueling (the other ship has KAS, and is fit for field work, including spare radial mounts for use on non-KAS equipped vehicles), but, tragedy struck, and the pilots were killed when they misjudged the sub-orbital hop's breaking maneuver, and slammed the entire tug down at about 150m/s. RIP Hertop and Johndrin Kerman. So, once again, Jeb is stranded on the Mun (Lonely astronaut anyone?) in a bone-dry lander, with 85ish tons of fuel in orbit... that he can't reach. So, my scoring estimate: 665 parts on pad, -30% no jets, +20% no mainsails, +20% no rockomax 2.5m engines, +10% spent stages deorbit, +10% has docking ports, +10% sustainable long-term service, +10% (RCS, manned/probe core backup, power) Jeb on board, -999%/+999% Jeb got to stare at not just one, but TWO ion engines, ??? Final mass after attaining a 105x100km orbit, 174.26 tonnes estimate: 243.96 Link to the craft file on dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rgm8dz6ab4fo4x0/XD-Type%20SHLLV%20proto%20R5a1d.craft

Thanks for the responses. I did indeed have a bad loop, caused by a phantom fuel-line (this build has been plagued by VAB bugs). Not really sure if was actually a phantom fuel line, or some other part (say, an engine?), but I finally did get it to stop bleeding fuel.

I'm starting to agree with this, at least based on the entries I'm seeing. Though I should note that I was speaking purely on a technical aspect: the payload is whatever is left after the lifter stage(s) have been expended and jettisoned. lots of empty tanks (deadweight) that aren't intentionally still there, is poor engineering/design in my eyes, but hey, not the challenge creator. Makes me kind of reconsider my time spent on this, since I've been trying to design an actual lifter AND payload around this challenge. Which, if I understand the scoring, those part-count modifiers are for part count at pre-launch/sitting on the pad.

Well, if the tanks (empty or full) are still part of the final payload that remains in orbit... they are still part of the payload, therefore calculated into the final mass. Besides, if you plan on later sending up smaller loads of fuel to transfer into it, tada! Self-serve Space Fuel station. Useful for finding out just how long Bill and Bob CAN stand to be stuck in a capsule with Jeb...

So, sounds like I'll have to go tweak the positioning of the lines. As for mods, non-issue: this is a stock build. Thanks for the tips, but no screenshots will be posted until it's ready for entry into the challenge. Yes, I'm a secretive-type when it comes to development.

Alright, so I'm working on a lifter/payload for The Simple Heavy Lifting Challenge, and I'm running into some problems. My problem, is this: the 4th stage in (stage 2 in this case) reads as having let's say, 1200/1500(ish, I'm rounding here) dV on the pad. After liftoff, by the time the previous stages have been dropped and stage 2 is the current stage, it's down to about 800/1100 dV at stage sep. I'm using 3-fold asparagus symmetry, and do not usually see this happen. I suspect that it's my engine clusters (I'm not using rockomax-engines) of LV-T45's causing the problem. Anyway, a bit more on the staging flow (as intended anyway): S5 stacks feed into S4 stacks, which feed into S3, which feeds into the primary lifter body in S2. Should I try adding more fuel feeds, or is this more of an inherent problem with asparistagers that I haven't noticed on my others until now? -Edit: Also, the primary stack core is a 1m stack with 3 2.5m stacks radially mounted, all 4 stacks have engines, and I've "loop fed" the fuel lines between the 1m core and the 2.5m radials to ensure (in theory anyway) even fuel distribution at this stage. (again, the stage that seems to be eating fuel for no reason). This is really starting to cause some hair loss on my end, so the help would be greatly appreciated

Well, I think I'll take a stab at this. Still tweaking (also read as fighting with the VAB, I've suddenly been plagued with a string of corrupted .craft files) a version of an existing lifter I use, that's more in-line with the challenge (it's still part-heavy b*tch). So, expect my entry soon... *scurries back to KSP*

I seem to be having some form of conflict between this, and the available .20x compatible mapsat dev build. I uninstalled mission controller (as it was the most recent change to my mod setup when problems started), and now mapsat also does not work. Currently trying to figure out how to get mapsat working again. It could be an entirely unrelated issue that's popped up suddenly that's unique to my mix of mods, I'm still troubleshooting. I love the idea for the mod, kind of hitting that point otherwise where I have a general lack of direction in the game. Edit: Okay, seems to be a problem with mapsat. Will yoink that out and see what happens when I put MC back in. Also, nature of the problem: loading a vehicle for launch on the pad or runway, was freezing mid-load every time. Alright, no problems with Mission Controller now that I got mapsat out of the way. Kind of sucks though, still can't figure out why mapsat went bonkers suddenly.

So, wow are those lights bright. I might put up a station in sync with the Mun's dark side just to make it the brighter side. Oh, and love the dead weights: 200 tons of gold to LKO for the hell of it.

*Gir's voice* Yay!

This is fantastic! *Downloads*

Yay, I have a sig now

Welcome, happy rocket-engineering! Hehe, I only lasted about 5 minutes into the demo before I bought it.

The first "new" thing I played around with was... Yup, the command chair. Even got a kerbal's-eye(actually slightly from inside the head) view of it at one point. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=147120629

*spies new version available...* SKEE!!!!!!! *Digs in*

Thanks guys Currently letting KSP run in the background as I play around with the Kethane pack, on a manned orbital survey of the Mun. Though I'm curious, why did it take until "now" for me to see my own post? Some kind of authentication delay on new accounts I'm guessing?

So hello all, Xan here. Recently found KSP, and well... I'm sure you know the rest.