Jarin

Okay, so here's my problem. Technically two problems. I'm trying to use a 4m (that's the orange tank width, right?) fuselage as my base "core", set horizontally, with the heavy lander legs in symmetry along the sides. However... 1. I can't extend the legs in the builder to see where it would line up to something else... and 2. I don't have a good way to vertically adjust the docking ports on another unit (say, a heavy rover). Sorry if that's not entirely clear. If need be, I can post some pictures this evening when I get home.

Okay, finally figuring out the subassembly mod has not yet made this any easier... but it's made everything ELSE so very much better, so I'll keep trying.

Okay, I'm looking for a bit of design advice here. I'm trying to move from orbital mechanics and the occasional docking maneuver to planetary outposts, but the methods of doing so are evading me. Specifically, I can't for the life of me figure out how to build structures designed to dock on the ground. I mean yeah, it's easy enough to just have horizontal cylinders with landing struts center-mounted, but what about vehicles? And how the heck do you dock something on the ground anyway? I think I've managed it once... and that was practically by accident while over-correcting. My biggest problem is getting docking ports line up on anything other than practically-identical structures. It's not exactly practical to test them by launching one on the launch pad, and then the rover from the runway and spending 5 minutes driving over every time I want to tweak the alignment of something. Heck, I can't even eyeball it, since landing struts can't be extended in the building interface. Any rule-of-thumb tips, maybe? Like, say... "X landing strut mounted radially lines up with Y wheel mounted two rotations off center" or something? How does everyone else go about this?

Mün. ... I have no idea how to phonetically spell that without the umlaut though. Myun comes close, I guess.

The power thing happened to me, too. See that escape tag on my solar ribbon? That would be an interplanetary drive test that I forgot to put solar panels on, and the controls died at full burn.

I just want Lagrange points... >.>

That explains so very much. I'll give that docking port idea a try. Panarchist, I don't have KSP here, but I'll give that design a look this evening. Thanks!

Assuming you don't "hardcore" it up, how long does it take for lost kerbals to show back up? Do you have to make room for them by clearing out the recruiting center?

I've noticed some significant troubles with the structural stability around ASAS and decouplers, with some decidedly weird launch-pad collapses.

So, I'm a huge fan of the LN-V engine. The efficency means that I have a ton of flexibility in my missions. That is... once I can get the nuclear-powered transit stage into orbit at all. And that's often the problem... Pre-0.21, I would use the tri-splitter, attached to that flat adapter piece, then sorta fudge decouplers onto the bottom of all three engines (it often had clipping issues), attach another tri-splitter to bring things back together, then just strut the hell out of the entire assembly. This tended to work on about half of my launches, with the other half having engines randomly breaking off or exploding at separation. With .21 and the shiny new large-size quad separators, I thought my job would be easier. Indeed, there were no clipping issues with separators anymore... but now I can't get staging to succeed at all. Every dang time, I blow those separators and most or all of my nuclear engines go flying, often with their staging sheaths still attached. Amusingly, my most successful design so far didn't even use separators on the engines... they just hung free above the main body, with the separation handled by a convoluted framework of cubic struts holding the top stage suspended above the lifter. So... my fail-designs aside, how do folks here go about launching nuclear powered orbital vehicles?

And now that I've heard about Engineer... I don't think I'll be using MekJeb anymore. I really just want the stats features.

I launched an unmanned test rocket, seeing what I could do with massed nuclear engines. Just forgot one little detail... remote control units require battery power. Mine died just after I started my circularization burn... and since I couldn't turn the engines OFF, it quickly became a planetary escape burn. Dang thing ended up on an elliptical solar orbit that nearly reached Jool by the time it ran out of fuel.

Also, how much mass does the absurd strutting arrangement add to the ship?

Okay, seriously... do the prime trio actually come back? This is desperately important information.

Entirely through trial-and-error. It's probably the one thing I'm truly proud of in my KSP career. I figured out docking without autopilot or tutorial.

KSP Development forum post, maybe?

Zero. I'm terrified of killing Jeb for good, so I'm being very careful.

Is that resolved at all in .21.1?

So, back on topic, then... are there still remaining problems with SAS and spaceplane control after the hotfix? I was just starting to dip my toes into spaceplane design and flight in .20, so if it'd be better to hold off for a bit before continuing, it'd be nice to know.

Works for me. Um... what mods are active around here for minor housekeeping of that sort? <.<

Try using the VAB and then not using symmetry on the rover-construction; just be very careful and use zoom and pick reference points to manually align the wheels and other parts.

Oh I know. I was just hoping not to have to do that anymore.

So, I was really looking forward to the new crew assignment system. I had big plans for it. But I loaded up today, built my dream ship, and realized... my hopes had been dashed! "Can assign kerbals to any part of the rocket" my left bumcheek! I can't load Kerbals into the External Command Seat Say it ain't so, Squad! Tell me this is just an oversight! Why must you deny me my missile-riding cowkerbals?

Great. 'Cause poor Jeb's been stuck in that cupola for two weeks now and is starting to smell a little ripe.

Really? Nifty! I'll have to remember to try that. Assigning action groups was just one more thing I forgot to do before launching. And yeah, EVA activation might have worked but... see: ladder blocking hatch. I figured mods like those probably existed somewhere. Thanks! Off to properly build my first mining outpost... Edit: One more question... anything that'll let me transfer kerbals from one location to another on a ship without EVA? Like supposedly moving through docking ports?