AgentPaper

I don't think it really makes sense for radiation to play a really big design role in most missions. It's probably better to just assume that (basic) radiation protection is baked in to the existing parts, and thus their weights. One way to implement radiation would be to make it only a concern when you get really close to Kerbol, starting somewhere between the orbits of Eve and Moho. This would make Moho a more difficult (and thus potentially more rewarding) destination. Of course, this would still require adding some way of making radiation protection into an interesting game mechanic. If it's just an extra part you have to slap on, that doesn't really do much. If it used a lot of power, that might be more interesting. Perhaps something like a "magnetic field generator" that uses a bunch of power (requiring an extensive solar array even with the increased efficiency) to fend off the radiation. The amount of power required could increase based on how much radiation you were getting dosed with, and perhaps the part itself could degrade over time, so you have to be careful in how you plan your mission to ensure you have sufficient power, and aren't spending too long in the dangerous radiation. This would also make for a fairly interesting "Sun-Dive" mission profile, where you try to get a probe (or later, perhaps even a kerbal) into low Kerbol orbit, likely requiring late-game power generation and a very aggressive burn to get close enough before your shielding degrades fully. This could also be used elsewhere, for example by making one of Jool's moons slightly radioactive. It wouldn't be as harsh as getting to Moho, but your power generation options would also be more limited, so it would add some unique complications to the mission profile.

"It works great. Thanks"...

There already isn't much reason to recover craft.

I really love the new science system, but it definitely has some bugs to be worked out. Most of them are fairly minor, but the one that really sticks out for me is just the sheer amount of clicking involved. To get the full value out of an experiment, you need to transfer it anywhere from 50 to 500 times, depending on how much science it's worth. My suggestion is to make it so that experiments return 100% each time, just like crew reports, so you only need to generate and send them a few times, maybe a dozen at most for the really high-value ones. Of course, to keep things balanced, the amount of data that needs to be sent back for each experiment should be increased hugely as well, so that it takes roughly the same amount of time and electricity to make the transfer as before, just with far less clicking.

Right now, the various pods and control systems seem to be very poorly laid out. You have some control systems that give SAS, some that give Reaction Wheels, and some that do both. You have some pods that have SAS in automatically, and some that don't, without any seemingly logical reason as to why. To simplify things and make it all more transparent, I'd like to suggest the following two changes: 1) ALL command systems have SAS installed automatically. This goes for all the manned pods, the Remote Guidance systems, and yes, even the tiny little probe cores. They should also all have Reaction Wheels, but usually fairly weak ones. 2) ALL control systems are changed to be Reaction Wheel parts, and named as such. This way, you don't have to worry about whether or not you have SAS installed, since you are guaranteed to have it installed on every ship that is controllable. It also makes the control systems easier to understand, since they all do the same thing, just in different sizes. This should help clear up a lot of confusion about the new system, and also allow for cleaner and simpler rocket designs.

Just wanted to share a few compact solar arrays I made: First a small one designed to fit in a 2.5m expanded fairing: And a larger one for a 3.5m fairing: One thing I'd really like to see would be a telescoping cylinder that can extend to at least 2-3 times its compact length, but is less sturdy than the normal cylinder, as well as a 1.25m wide cylinder that extends about as far as the current one, and has fuel transfer and such enabled to allow you to make a sort of extending ship. Could also come in a 2.5m version if you're feeling generous.

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind seeing a more legitimate gliding challenge. Just disallow infiniglide, and limit engine power to a single RT-10 Solid Fuel Booster.

Well I mean, I guess I could spend 10 minutes moving this thing around if you want, but really, there's no way this thing is stopping any time soon:

Currently having a strange bug: Whenever I launch a ship with a Heavy Drill on it, the drill deploys automatically as soon as the ship loads, and I can't seem to re-pack them either. When I right-click on one of them, it just has a button for "Deploy Drill", which when I click on it, nothing happens.

Ok, here's the up-close pic as promised: I actually made a very minor alteration here compared to what I set the record with, in that I only have 1 wheel instead of 2. That doesn't really affect the performance much.

Ah, yes sorry I can upload a SPH shot later today, once I get back from work. MC is the mission control interface button. I have mods installed there, but none of them affect the flight performance and I didn't use any of the mod parts.

Perhaps there could be a limit on the ship's starting elevation?

They do have mass, though not much. I tried adding a few to reinforce the parts that break, but all it seems to have done is slow the ship down. It doesn't fall apart anymore, but I think that's more due to the much reduced G-forces and slower speeds rather than it actually being significantly more robust. Not sure why it slows down so much, must be some weird drag calculations.

And without it, anyone can glide, well, nowhere. Might I suggest a modification to the contest? First, ban infiniglide (you'll basically need to use the honor system, since even a seemingly normally-designed ship can pull it off), and second, score based on fuel used for a full circumnavigation. The less fuel, the higher the score. That way you encourage gliders, but allow propulsion enough to actually do the job.

Haha, yeah a separate category is frankly probably more than I deserve. I made this for another challenge and broke this one kinda on accident.