Superfluous J

I personally define 'deep' as < 70km

Note that the forum is kinda picky if you EDIT that string. Let's say you have 3 pictures named image1.jpg image2.jpg and image3.jpg. Sometimes, if you paste the link to image1, then paste it again and edit the 1 to a 2, when you hit enter the image simply won't show. In these cases you have to actually copy the link to image2 and image3, or you have to paste the link into Notepad or something to make the edit and then paste the new string into the forum. Also, it's the act of physically hitting enter that does it, so pasting a long set of multiple image links won't put the links in.

I was wondering if they bothered to remove the contracts to fetch nonexistent objects...

From some quick testing, I've found that IN GENERAL things with autostrut will just stop if, on their way through the ship tree on the way to the target part, they find a robotic part. However, so far I've seen odd behavior when that autostrutting is to heaviest part. When the heaviest part has no robotic parts, you strut to it. Like before. But, under some circumstances, you just don't get an autostrut. If you strut to root or grandparent, it works as above, but for some reason, under some circumstances, strutting to "heaviest" just doesn't get a strut at all. I think it may have to do with radially attachments to other robotic part but I'm not sure. So to get good autostrutting chains, you need to tell every robotic part between the think you're strutting from and the thin you're strutting to, to autostrut to that thing so you continue the chain all the way from the remote part to the root, or the heaviest part. And there's a chance that autostrutting to the heaviest part will be broken along the way. This does not work a lot of times as you frequently chain robotic parts to other robotic parts, and then you're just autostrutting across a part-to-part connection, which doesn't actually help. The whole point in strutting is to make triangles and this just makes a line. Also, they will chain through regular struts. I think possibly the game always did this we just couldn't see it until now (more to come, hopefully)

There are a lot of threads and posts about autostruts and robotic parts. Some of them deal with autostrutting, and others with wheels having locked autostruts. I'd like to bring the discussion into one place so we can figure out what's supposed to happen, what does happen, and how to (if necessary) file a bug report. I'll start. If you turn on "Visualize Autostruts" as described in this thread, you'll see some... interesting results. Note the line does not go to the heaviest part but instead goes to the piston. This seems to be by design. When the craft is launched and the pistons extended, they work as you'd expect because the autostrut does not change. Ignore that the craft is upside-down. It's not a very good craft. But when you go back into the VAB and turn the piston around, and then re-launch it, you see that extending the piston changes the length of the autostrut on the fly. All this seems to be coded within the game so autostruts work even when put on robotic parts. However, in some circumstances they don't seem to work like this, and I think that's a bug. But I don't know if it's one because I'm actually having a lot of trouble recreating the problem. I'd like to know others' experiences. I'll be playing around more and will post my own.

We've noticed that they don't ALWAYS do that. Only sometimes. I had a craft that the pistons wouldn't move very far due to autostrut, then I reverted to launch and it worked as expected - pistons were able to move wheels even though they were autostrutted to root. I personally think they're supposed to work but there's something buggy, but I can't reliably recreate it so can't submit a bug with a craft file that will fail 100% of the time. If you have such a craft, I suggest you report it.

Use a KAL-1000, and put it in there, then tie going up and down that timeline with action keys. You have 4 sets of 2 keys, and have 5 things you can set to them so technically have 20 smooth motions you can go between without even using the normal keys. I set /*, 89, 56, and 23 on my numpad to be the decrease/increase of action groups 1, 2, 3, and 4. I'd be curious to know what others use.

For all intensive purposes those are alot different.

I've also noticed that you can run your mech craft through an animation and then work on it, then run it back and work on it some more. How you save it is how it'll load. This allowed me to work on my asteroid grabber "inflated" until I liked it, and then collapse it down so it'll fit in a fairing.

Thank you! I feel dumb for not noticing that button.

Sort of. I'll admit I didn't try it earlier because I didn't see why one autostrut would be different from anotehr but the large wheels are acting *different* than the landing gear. Though, they're most assuredly not always locked. In fact, @KerikBalm said it best: I had it happen, then I reverted and now the craft acts exactly as I intended and as you'd expect. I can't guarantee it's always when reverting but that's interesting. And then when I re-loaded the craft entirely (I made a slight edit) it was fine on the first load. I'm convinced right now that the intention is that the autostruts should work with robotics in a logical way and they do sometimes, but other times they do not. If I can find out a consistent reason or at least a consistent way to get it to happen, I'll submit a bug report. If another does the same, I'll happily add myself as another tester and then upvote it.

I always thought it meant almost the opposite, that the question being asked was making an assumption that it shouldn't have, so it's begging a question that confirms that assumption. "Why isn't the NERV, with great ISP, a good lander engine?" "Well that just begs the question, is ISP the only important stat in a lander engine?" (to take an example from a question I just answered in gameplay questions)

Your understanding of ISP is fine (other than calling it ISV ) but you're missing the fact that the NERV is HEAVY. It's just not suited for a small lander. The Terrier is the right tool for that job. Also, just in case you don't know, the NERV doesn't need oxidizer so if you are carrying that in your tanks you're carrying dead weight.

So there's going to be a 1.7.2?

My ire may have been misplaced. When I wrote that, I took on faith what others had said. I just attached airplane landing gear to an assemblage of hinges and pistons and the hinges and pistons worked perfectly fine, moving the landing gear. In fact, I see no indication that they're actually autostrutted to anything at all.

Or better yet have pistons and stuff work in spite of autostruts. Or at least turn autostruts off while robotics stuff is moving.

Okay I think I finally have a workable design for the asteroid plane. Well, until it gets in the atmosphere at least Extended: Retracted: Of course, it doesn't have wings or a tail, or landing gear yet. Those are just details. Very very important details, but still. Update: It's *just* big enough to sneak a class-b through at full extension.

In action groups, there are sets now. I truly don't know for sure that they came with Breaking Ground because I never really used action groups much, but I've never noticed them before and I *do* go in there sometimes. What are they? Is it a way to toggle between different modes? Like, I can have 4 (or 5?) different modes and then my keys will control different things? Or is it something else entirely? I'm betting on that because my first guess is usually wrong about stuff like this.

Affect is an Action because they both start with A. Effect is... well... the other one.

No clue. I don't have anything on sale at Steam.

What!? A retailer setting their own price for things they sell!? Next you'll tell me car dealers don't sell for MSRP.

Both, and I paid for them both. I've now officially more than doubled my initial investment in the game.

I built a test helicopter. It actually flew. And I also started prototyping a little ... uh... let's call it a space plane.

I don't know. When I was in college I had to watch a lot of (short, thankfully) movies made by those around me who had a 'bit of talent' and I gotta tell you, I don't think any of them even approached anything in the MCU. Well, maybe the Hulk movie...

Reminds me of the old Science Jr where you could have your head inside the doors and not be able to collect science. Seems maybe the interaction distance needs raised.