Superfluous J

From what I can tell, you're not asking which version is our favorite, but what update brought the best stuff. With that in mind, I find it hard for anybody* to say 1.3 had their favorite additions. Probably a quick rundown of the super-major points of each is in order. 1.1 - No major features, Unity 5 1.2 - Commnet, Kerbnet, Fuel flow overhaul 1.3 - Localization 1.4 - Texture variants, EVA chutes 1.5 - Improved burn time, New suits 1.6 - dV 1.7 - Orbital info and maneuver node UI 1.8 - Big Unity update, Planet graphical improvements, Action group editing in flight. So which of these is the biggest deal to me? dV's HUGE, as is the orbital info and maneuver node UI. Each of those totally eliminated my personal need for mods that I considered "may as well be stock". I can't though imagine the game without Commnet, and the ability to use texture variants is a great visual plus. I've not played 1.8 enough to really get a feel for the new textures. If I had to answer, though, I'd say 1.6 has the best thing. dV in-game is a sea change. * At least, anybody who speaks English as their primary language. I can imagine if my favorite game that I had to learn the words for was suddenly in my language that could be a HUGE boon.

I hope modifying planets' orbits and axial tilts are a simple change to a config file. I hope the same for the locations and ecliptic tilts of each star. I don't need full Kopernicus to be a stock thing but It'd be nice if the basic stuff was easy.

Ah yes I hope that as well, that the stars are distributed in 3d space with randomly tilted ecliptics. If they are not and it's possible to modify them to be so, I will be doing that as one of the first things in the game, right after I make the changes to the base system that I've always wanted and wished they were doing Not sure how much of a savings it will give, if you accelerate to a fraction of c and then slow back down at the destination, it'll be akin to the savings you get by coasting down your driveway before starting your car to drive cross country.

The whole asteroid tracking interface could use a rethink IMO. Even if you could get an asteroid's orbit before tracking it would be a huge boon. It's not like tracking it is any kind of cost except user time. Right now it's over over asteroids until you find one in a class you want, click it, track it, see its orbit sucks, untrack it, say yes to untracking it, and repeat. Slightly better would be hover over an asteroid, see its class and orbit and if they're both what you want, click it and track it. Even better would be to click "asteroid mode" which shows the orbits and classes of all asteroids and you can just click the one you want and track it. Equal in betterness is OPs suggestion

Plane, as that's basically how every system would be. Captured planets can orbit any which way (but even they tend to end up in the plane unless they happen to have very young or very resonant orbits) but anything big enough to be interesting would be expected to be more or less in the ecliptic. So a system that has no discerning features except fuel scoops work a little better? Sure why not? I wasn't paying attention back then, and didn't take pictures.

Well done! I know nothing of FF except the half run I did of FF5 about 6 months ago that I never went back to. What's the story behind that docking port still being attached to your ship as you came back to Kerbin?

This is more a "mission idea" than a challenge, but really it's neither. There's just no forum for "ideas on how to play the game differently than was intended." And I have a pretty strict definition of grind when it comes to science. If I have to pay attention to it outside of the VAB and mission summary screen I feel like I had to grind too much.

A lot will. It looks like we won't get robotic parts and that may also imply that all DLC parts are possibly out, but at least the big parts (engines, fuel tanks, pods, etc) will likely be in KSP2. This is all hearsay of course based on things people said and implications of the trailer they released at PAX.

Both have their minuses, but a mod to automatically collect science eliminates the grind in it for me. I like the idea though and may try it in a future run

I didn't know it so I must be even less suspicious.

This is actually untrue in space. The problem with lifting a ladder is you're fighting gravity. In a 0-g environment the reaction wheels will turn the ship around the center of gravity in exactly the same way (barring minor mathematical differences due to the simulation being on a computer) no matter where it's placed.

The engines aren't turning you, your command pod is. It has reaction wheels that can rotate your craft at the cost of electricity. As to why it doesn't work sometimes, my only guess is sometimes you're out of power Because they're trying to hold your command pod exactly in line, and like to overshoot and then shoot back. It's best to only use RCS when SAS is off, or for smaller ships that won't flex as much in reaction to them firing. I don't know, but they're very nouveau.

IS MY OFFICE CHAIR DYING!?

I'm a bit surprised I didn't state this, mostly likely because I myself used ForScience to be able to not just reset - but totally ignore and automatically collect science from - the Goo and Jr packages. And also default Science Mode everybody's level 5 to start so no leveling is necessary. But yes. If you want to lug the mass and not get the free science from it then by all means utilize the other functions of the MPL. I'll modify the rules post.

IMO you should anyway and I always do, but no, this will work fine so long as your docking port and whatever you're controlling from are in line with each other (as usually they are if your port is on top of your command pod). Forward is the same way for both of them and if the target is offline for one, it's offline for both.

Another trick is to rebuild the station section exactly in the VAB except with the docking port the correct way, put it on the launch pad, and alt-f12 to "orbit" it into "rendezvous" with the errant station section. Then delete the one you don't want and pretend it was right all along.

The best advice I can give is to not ask for general advice, but ask specific questions as they come up.

Oh I thought "while offline" meant he had no access. I never even considered they wouldn't have a headless server option. And if they don't, you could just leave the full game up.

So like pay someone else to host a server? I'd assume this is possible as it's pretty much a staple in any popular multiplayer game with private servers. But, as with most everything else about KSP2 we don't know for sure yet.

That may be because it used to. I don't recall when it changed, just that I was happily surprised to discover it had.

I was looking for something to to on Twitch and maybe fixing your rocket would be fun. Could you upload the craft file somewhere like KerbalX? It looks stock, so it shouldn't be a problem loading it.

They're all in gamedata\squad\resources\TechTree.cfg (Note: I didn't just know this. I found it by using the best program ON EARTH - grep - and a simple command: D:\ksp\GameData\Squad>grep -r advActuators *

...ended up pretty well, at least according to reviews. The same way shooting arrows at the bad guys teaches you how to craft better backpacks. Really, if you want anything remotely approaching a realistic technological progression, play Sandbox mode.

Someone's getting ready for National Novel Writing Month.