Superfluous J

I've never completed a Grand Tour, but I'm doing that now When I'm done, I'll only be able to say I've never completed a Grand Tour without resupplying from Kerbin. Some day... Some day.

No, but knowing the date eliminates a lot of the trial-and-error involved in nailing the right periapsis on a minmus-kerbin transfer orbit.

Oh thank Jool. I am on the cusp of launching from Minmus to a low periapsis at Kerbin to eject to Duna, and while I *CAN* do it with stock tools, I'd MUCH rather have something telling me exactly when to go.

I have a similar amount of evidence that says they're at least biologically immortal, and in some universes capable of reincarnation.

Which is totally, completely, 100% psychological I am in no way saying that's a bad thing. I do it too. However, it's something very real that (the argument goes. I'm not nearly qualified actually have a valid opinion here) can keep someone from going Interplanetary. I specifically did my Kerpollo series to break myself of that habit, by the way. I sat down and said "Okay. For this save I don't give a lick about time warp or mission duration. I'm just going to go out there and actually SEE THIS GAME'S FRICKIN' DESTINATIONS ALREADY."

Maybe they should name it Böl to add to the remove all confusion.

I just comment on the most recent video when I need to do that. Anybody curious will go there to complain I mean ask what's up.

No but you can put down a tank, change its level, and then copy that tank with ALT instead of grabbing a new one. The copy will remember the level you set.

If there is a perfect conjunction of planets 18 years from now and you're ready now to do it, and all you as the player want to do is that, then time isn't a resource. it's a hindrance. Waste, even. It serves no purpose except something to get through to achieve your goal, and the game-provided way to get through it is to hit ">" several times in the tracking station and wait a few minutes. If you are unwilling to do that for any reason, it is a psychological reason. You are uncomfortable doing what the game fully encourages the player to do. I don't need to assume that Kerbals are immortal. I know they are. Put Jeb on the launch pad, time warp to the max, and go on vacation. When you come back he'll still happily be standing there. Note: I don't actually know when time will stop counting correctly in 64 bit KSP. I know there was actually a pretty hard limit for 32 bit that was something like 70 years, and I know that the 64-bit limit is far, far greater. As in, billions of years. I don't know how long a vacation you can take and come back within that time. However, I am sure that so long as you don't hit it, Jeb will still be alive and smiling on the launch pad.

My only real problem was the space pirate thing. If Watney never lost comms the 2nd time, he DID have permission to board the other Ares ship. The whole Iron Man thing was because in a movie you can't have the main character totally completely passive for the final, climactic 20 minutes. And for what they had they did it well. It thematically fit the entire rest of the movie (and the book). Over and over Watney gets an idea, tries it, fails, tries it again using what he learned, and succeeds. They didn't have time to detail it during the rescue* but they did show exactly that happening. *Sure, it's not exactly possible but neither is dodging a thousand bullets and nobody has problems with every other movie hero doing just that, in every movie ever** **Hyperbole

This is so beautifully put, I had to +like your post. Also, by "charging" for testing you're merely encouraging people to do all their testing in a different save. I actually used to do this, in a sandbox save with the "ships" folder symlinked to my "actual" save's folder. Then I started using Holodeck instead. Charging for reverts and quickloads is a good idea as well; I know it'd curb my use of them. However, I don't know how the game would discern between a quickload and quitting the game for RL reasons and then loading that quicksave.

I found a bug! Yay me! I'm not sure how fixable it is or even what the correct action should be when this happens, but I suspect it shouldn't be what DOES happen. If you switch vessels while GravityTurn is running (Say, to check out a dropped stage just for fun or whatnot) GravityTurn keeps controlling the correct ship (the one that you want to lift to orbit) but controls it is if the active ship (the dropped stage you just switched to) is that ship. So, when that stage starts tumbling GravityTurn turns the real ship the other direction and punches the gas. It reminds me somewhat of an old car I had that allowed you to turn Cruise Control on while in Neutral. It would happily burn out the engine trying to accelerate to the target speed.

You can add the module to all command pods in a similar way to how we used to add KER to them (before that became a part of the mod). Though the last time I used kOS I was dissuaded from it by the "let's make this like you're using 1960s technology!" aspect.

By "Fuel Cells" I assume you mean "Fuel Tanks" What is between your stages? docking ports (which you can turn staging on for) allow crossfeeding by default. Decouplers now have the option to turn on crossfeed, and if so they'll happily suck your upper tanks dry. In either case, you'll have to turn it off. If that's not it then I don't know. I'll need to see your ship and a list of mods you're using, if any.

I'm surprised nobody's suggested Stargate yet. Season 1 of the original was pretty rough but if you can make it through that it's a great ride. And if you can't you should at least try watching the last 2 episodes of Season 1. The penultimate is a recap "clip show" that does a good job of telling what what you need to know, and the last is a big season finale. Then, once you're hooked on the show, go back and watch the rest of Season 1 though expect some groaners.

Aww too bad. It'd be nice if there was a way to implement this into any existing model, but - like you said for yourself - that kind of black magic is beyond me.

I long abandoned looking at the direction and speed figures that all transfer window planners gave me, and for years now just use them to tell me the TIME of a good transfer. When that time comes (or, using precisenode, long before that time comes) I just drop a node and fiddle until I get an encounter. After a few (dozen) times, you get a feel for it. Basically, what @Plusck said.

Aha! I even know of this mod. At least, I remember seeing those screenshots on its first page. I never installed it because it looked like all it did was tell you where you were. I see now I was wrong (Or the feature was implemented after I had last seen it). Thanks!

I agree. For a while after 1.1 came out I did several interplanetary ejections without PreciseNode or Transfer Window Planner (though I did have Kerbal Alarm Clock because I'm not an animal) and while it took more work, the tools were perfectly serviceable. It was like hammering a nail with the butt end of a screwdriver. Sure you'd prefer a hammer but if one's not available and you really want that nail in place, it works just fine. I plan my missions to the nines. You could call me a "Ground Control" type person. I have never - EVER - though had a mission of any reasonable size go even remotely well all the way through. The idea that my planning ahead can possibly eliminate all the instances where everything doesn't come together is quite frankly laughable. Try this next time: Right click your apoapsis. The information (In 1.1 and later versions) will stay on the screen. Same with AN and DN markers, and I think even encounter markers. Also, you can push and pull each of the 6 gizmo handles on the maneuver node, and pushing them is more (less? I never know in this case) sensitive so you can make finer-tuned changes. I frequently push my prograde down instead of pulling on retrograde when making my final adjustments.

Is this a mod? I did a few google searches and can't find it. In fact, I can find precious few references to the word in relation to KSP at all.

I have no idea what makes it hard specifically or if this would work, but one thing I thought would be cool would be to give the "Recycle" ability to the Claw. You claw something, and then one of the options is to "Recycle" that thing (maybe listing how many rocket parts or metal or whatever it'd give you). Programmatically, the game would upon clicking that button detach from what you'd clawed, and then immediately recycle that ship the way the recycler does.

For what it's worth, If you dropped "Ker-" and just named Kerbin's sun "Bol" I'd be cool with it. He could even be - in Kerbin mythology - the brother of Pol and Bop. They betrayed him and bla bla bla Jool whatever.

Plus when she (read: you) screws up a docking or crashes into a moon, you can yell "STELLA!"

I think that's a great idea, though I think it should be a small planet. Maybe even a Pol/Bop type with a Gilly type moon. That would be a great stepping stone because you could ALWAYS go to it in the exact same, describable way without ever waiting for a transfer window. Forget Gas Giant 2, I want a Kerbal Trojan!

Need is a strong word. I don't need any mods to go interplanetary. However I won't bother to do it without: Kerbal Engineer Redux, or something that will tell me by-the-stage dV and TWR in the VAB at least, and in flight if possible. Kerbal Alarm Clock, if for nothing else so I can hit time warp, go refill my coffee, and come back paused at the SOI change or maneuver node instead of being thrown out of the system by a random gravity slingshot. PreciseNode, which I almost won't even go to Mun and Minmus without. Transfer Window Planner, which is extremely nice but not actually on my list, considering I'm doing a Grand Tour right now and am not using it.