Superfluous J

I breezed over this in my Let's Play, but I totally expected to be able to transfer fuel as well Amazing, only the hardest thing in the game left to do and you're our first winner! You've also earned your way off of the "Statement of intent" list I hope you get as much enjoyment out of this as I did from the original Caveman Challenge!

I guess I'm still where I was 2.5 years ago, though a bit closer to 6 now than I was. I have made and maintained several mods (never say never) but I continue to play other games (more so, in fact) I'm still not intimidated by Scott Manley, and he still knows more than I do.

The first time I tried it took like a half hour and who knows how many reloads. But then again, so did docking WITH RCS. And landing on Mun. And reaching orbit. And pretty much everything else in the game. The only difference is, if you bring RCS you never have to learn to dock without it. Unless you run out of course

Oh duh. I didn't notice the double big antennas. egg -> face. Still nice job. I'll do something similar if I need some extra Goo/Jr science before I can carry heavy stuff interplanetary.

Looking good! So you got to Solar Orbit and back by aiming yourself the correct direction before leaving comms range? Very interesting idea. My first Minmus probe failed because I thought the basic antenna reached out that far, and sadly the lowest tier probe cores don't have "aim at" options. Just post new posts, else you'll not update the thread and I'll not see any progress.

...obviously

Ahem... You don't have to use full throttle. If necessary, you can even cap the max throttle in the engine's right click menu in flight. But really, just tapping shift and ctrl works fine. I personally like the tactic of holding down ctrl and tapping shift, to give yourself a tiny bit of thrust in a short time. To quote the Matrix: When you're good enough, you won't have to. Not A Secret: I've been usng Asparagus staging since Alpha. I still refuse to bring junk into orbit that I don't need.

Yeah I went with the easy way to learn the process. Once you got it though getting the small ship in the right place is merely adding a step. And if you want to carry RCS everywhere when you don't strictly need it I've no problem with it. I'm just explaining how I avoid it.

I hope nobody tells that to all those Cities Skylines modders. Because there are some awesome mods for that game that work right alongside the paid DLC.

Target mode on the navball. Burn retrograde when the ships are very close to come to a stop next to each other. Aim each ship at the other. Burn very little with one ship to head at the other.

Amusing aside, I actually changed "evil" to "smarmy" right before posting.

No, that started when those money grubbing programmers started ... get this ... SELLING THEIR GAME FOR MONEY. And don't forget the whole part about how they're not even a software company. Because for some nebulous reason that makes them just all the more smarmy.

I'm thinking KER dV in the VAB, but nowhere else. But allowing things like Apoapsis and whatnot in flight, so I don't have to spend the ENTIRE play session in map mode. That's exactly what I did, whenever episode 3 comes out (Shooting for Tuesday but you can never tell with these things). My first upgrade was the Tracking Station and using that I not only docked in LKO, but then got to Duna with surprisingly little fuss.

I don't I'm sure it's around somewhere, but a pretty thorough search last year turned up nothing, both online and off. It WAS online a long time ago, but TBH it needed enough work that i'd have had to rewrite it from scratch. I was actually pretty proud of the "traveling through space" part. We had invented a drive that could essentially teleport you from anywhere to anywhere, but were still limited to basic chemical rockets otherwise and in teleporting, you conserved momentum. So, traveling around a system involved teleporting near a Gas Giant in such a way that it flung you around slingshot-style, and then teleporting away at the right time into orbit of the world you wanted when your velocity was perfect. I do like the idea, but don't quite get how it'll work with patched conics. I'd surely try it if it did work, if for no reason other than being able to see with my own (video game) eyes a world like the one I imagined so many years ago.

Yes, sorry I didn't specifically say that. I see "Rocheworld" and just think of that book. About 15 years ago I wrote the first draft for a book that took place on a Rocheworld that was capable of supporting not just life, but Humans. It was a mostly-realistic-science story in which I just ignored the whole "surface will be molten lava" thing, and explained away the fact that the system isn't sustainable by that we just happened upon it at the right time.

Well done! I'm really impressed with what you and Jetski Have been able to do within the restrictions. I've so far been floundering at both Duna and Eve, and am seriously considering giving up on my whole "No KER" personal rule. I mean, I'm already in the "Modded" category, right? right?

In the book, the planets were kept in equilibrium by a gas giant that orbited in such a way as to perturb the planets apart just as much as they were being drawn together. I assume the math worked. I'm not smart enough to figure it out myself.

It'd have to be something in its own class, like the mission builder. Something that's not just what we have now only different. So not a new part. But I'd pay for working hinges.

Not sure why this is in the Q&A forum, that's for actual help questions. But to answer the opinion question, I use RCS when I need to, which isn't often. Generally it depends on the size of the ships. If they're both large (say, larger than an orange tank) then yes. If one is small though (like a tug, or a puddle jumper type ship) then no, I just line 'em up and stick 'em together.

I'm in a weird place on this poll. I almost never use monoprop at all, but when I do I generally find that what's in the command pods is more than enough.

That "quote" is garbage. No, they didn't. If they had, Ars would have fully quoted them. Because that's what you do when you have a great quote that shows how evil the people you're trying to convince me are evil, actually are.

Another day, another freak-out in the KSP forums. Wake me up when something actually happens. If you're worried, back up your current game. It's not like the game's going to change that much going forward anyway. I'm not worried, and if I was I wouldn't need to back up my game. I've got a dozen copies going back several versions, already.

You mean "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra." Yes. I hated that one too. I liked the concept. A species whose communication was so esoteric that the Universal Translator couldn't help Picard and he had to actually come to an undersanding with the creature on a personal level. However, it left me wondering, if their entire communication system is built up on - essentially - memes... how do they learn to talk? Do they give all their children lifetime access to their own culture's version of knowyourmeme? Stargate did it much better, with Daniel forging an understanding between Humans and the Unas.

I finally got video one, in which I make no progress in the challenge, up. Regarding going interplanetary without patched conics... I don't. My first upgrade (which I just made, though the video will be a while coming. Stupid real life) was to the tracking station and my first interplanetary mission will be a one-way to Duna, where I hope to land on Ike to get maneuver nodes, and then on Duna to get another upgrade, probably to the launch pad.

I don't disagree with you (much) on this. I tinker with my throttle in the VAB, not in ascent. However, once you're mostly horizontal, throttle really doesn't matter because you're not fighting gravity anymore. For me, I don't use my altitude at all but instead the altitude of my Apoapsis, as that accounts better for my speed, altitude, and AOA than a simple altitude number. So long as I follow the rules from the start (and have decent TWR, > 1.2 but < 1.5 on the pad and not going crazy high in ascent) this almost never fails to get me a nice efficient orbit. Full throttle, straight up at launch. Tilt 5 degrees (to 85) when Ap is 1km Tilt 5 more degrees (to 80) when Ap is at 4km Keep tilting 5 degrees every 2km of Ap, or 10 degrees per 4km. You'll not hit it perfect, but it's not that bad. That's 75° at 6km, 70° at 8km, 60° at 12km, 50° at 16km, and 40° at 20km. If you did this all correctly, you'll be well over 10km by the time your Ap is over 20km, and you'll have followed prograde most of the way, probably chasing it a little or pulling it down a little. After you hit 20km, switch to 5 degrees every 5 km. 35° at 25km, 30° at 30km, 20° at 40km, 10° at 50km, and horizontal at 60km and above. At this point (and actually once you're over 40-50km really) throttle doesn't matter much anymore as you're not really fighting gravity anymore. If you're low enough, though, air drag may encourage you to throttle down. Heat related explosions will assuredly encourage it, if you have any This sounds really complicated, but it's not. It breaks down to "5° every 2km to 20km, then 5° every 5km to 60km. At 20km, you want to be at 40°."