DesertPhoenix

This would be perfect. I'll go have a look for it.

I've used this mod, and it's the closest to what I'm thinking of. The only change I'd make is rather than needing to ship 'building units' (or whatever they're called) up from the surface, just having the cost increased by some algarithm using the the apoaxis and periaxis - to (hopefully) accurately represent the cost of getting it into orbit. In a sandbox, it can pretty much be whatever you want it to be. My 'end game' was going to be launching a 20-kerbal mission to Eeloo with the life-support mod enabled, have enough supplies for them to stay for ten years - as well as kethane mining and processing plant - which would be used to refuel a second ship, 10 years down the line, aiming for another (imaginary) solar system. I never got the first ship, or set of ships put together, because the additional headache of having the already massive modules arodynamic enough to get into orbit, with enough fuel and thrusters left to dock with the other modules, made the entire project feel more like a chore than fun - especially when such a thing would be build either in space, or on the moon in real life. *edit* I should have mentioned that each time I tried, I did get two or three ships into orbit before I lost interest. Each ship required multiple launches to get into LKO, then a refuelling run to get it into a standing orbit of 1,000,000 km (had a 'home rule' that the nuclear engines wouldn't be allowed to be used closer to Kerbin). Spending a hour ferrying fuel from a launch pad to an orbiting craft is not fun - especially when you know you have another 3 or 4 trips exactly the same after it.

I was pretty much thinking an orbital VAB, with increased costs and a medium to low upper weight limit. And one you have to lift into orbit yourself.

Ok, I know there are mods that allow you to build in orbit, but hear me out. As it currently stands, the end-game is clunky. The difficulty in building ships capable of interplanetary travel, landing and re-orbiting, and finally returning to Kerbin is multiplied by the need to get the ship into orbit into first place. Given that landings on other planets are usually taken after fly-bys, and moon landings, getting stuff into orbit isn't a new skill, and nor is it one that an orbital construction facility would bypass. Perhaps unlocking the technology to build the facility fairly late in the tech tree, and requiring the player to launch the (super-heavy) facility, as a kind of late-game boss. Launching new ships from the facility could cost more, to represent the cost of getting the materials into space, but completely bypass the tedious shuttle-runs currently required.

Title says it all, even if it is a bit unwieldy. When my spacecraft enter the visual range of my orbiting space station, the reported targets velocity immediately starts increasing at an alarming rate, even though neither craft is applying any thrust. I might be leasurly drifting towards the station at 10 m/s, but have a reported velocity of about 500 m/s. My current 'solution' is to use Alt-F4 to exit the game (did I mention the 'space center' menu button no longer works?), re-enter the game, and use the auto-save from when they entered the visual range to start again. The glitch isn't present after the reload. Needless to say, this isn't an ideal solution. Has anyone else had this problem, and know how to get around it? I'm running the latest version through steam, and have the ISA Mapsat mod, the farings mod, and the Lazor cam mod installed.

It took me a long time to land on the moon. One of my failures involve me in an orbit around the moon, and suddenly realizing I hadn't used radial decouplers to attach the 3 large empty fuel tanks. Testing craft before you spend an hour getting them to location is good...

Hi all. I've been playing the demo for about two weeks now, and lurking the forums (and youtube videos) for about one week. I have purchased the full game on steam, but am resisting the urge to install it till after my exams are finished, in 10 days. So far, I've landed, and returned safely from Mun, launched capsules into orbit around Kerbin and done the closest I can at docking within the demo, and launched thing out of the Kerbol's range of influence. I look forward to playing with docking ports, rovers and the like... and especially look forward to participating in some of the challenges. I spent a large section of last night trying to comprehend the mathematics of orbital physics, from what I could find on Wikipedia. I didn't succeed, though by the end my brain was dribbling out of my ears. Is it possible to calculate delta-v, orbital requirements, gravity assists and so on using just maths? And if so, what aspects of maths do I need to study? the equations in wikipedia made no sense to me at all. It would be nice to be able to draw up a flight plan, including burns and planet intercepts, before I leave the launch pad.