HeadHunter67

Thanks for the tips - I'm considering starting a new build with FAR/DRE and maybe TAC Life Support. It will help to know how not to kill all my Kerbals.

SelectRoot continues to work just fine in 23.5, at least as well as it ever has. I still use it.

That's a wall that every one of us know very well... if you take a look, we all carved our names into it before someone else showed us the light! For many people, their savior was Scott Manley, for me personally it was Pebble Garden and Blizzy. And then NavyFish came along with his amazing plugin and now, the only time I have any docking trouble is when I'm flying a badly-designed ship (not enough torque and/or imbalanced RCS). Which reminds me - docking is way easier if your thrusters are perfectly blanaced, and the RCS Build Aid plugin is an easy way to make sure of that.

I was thinking the same thing - it's a very good idea!

According to SpacePort, version 0.4.7 is compatible with KSP 0.23.5.

Indeed - I use a stock Delta-like for most of my day-to-day lifter needs in KSP. When the job calls for more power, I now utilize an SLS Block II lifter made with the new parts.

I think that the Kerbals are the secret to the success of the game. They provide the player with a way to feel connected (as you say, part of the crew), but their dopey antics, zealous approach to flight, and claptrap engineering helps to soothe the inevitable sting of failure. If the pilot characters were little humans, it might be harder to bear when they crash and sometimes die - especially if they represented famous, actual astronauts.

In an effort to make the smallest useful lander possible, here's what I've come up with. It's mostly stock except for NP radial chutes and the HBI Sensor Module (contains all 4 science instruments and goo). It's 2.159 tons and has 1,155 dV - enough to return on its own from the surface of Minmus or the Mün. I can probably make it a bit lighter if I replace the stock RTGs with a pair of the smaller AIES probe RTGs.

Also, Blizzy has an interactive in-game docking tutorial scenario, but I'm not sure if it still works in 23.5.

I'd definitely be interested in using that plugin as well!

Two things that are guaranteed to make docking simple for you: NavyFish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator - you do not need an autopilot, it's merely a visual aid that makes docking dead simple. I wrote a very brief tutorial in the forum thread. PebbleGarden's brilliant tutorial video on intercept, rendezvous and docking. The "pushing the marble" technique makes it so easy to accomplish. So I strongly urge you to pick up the plugin and watch the video. I guarantee you'll find docking easy if you do. In no time, you'll be doing things like direct ascents to dock (who needs parking orbits?)

I had a bit of difficulty getting everything running properly, but I've finally got it working and it looks so beautiful! Thank you, you've done a fine job on making the game so much more visually appealing. I tend to play stock-ish (with the exception of little things like KSPX, KER, and the like) but to me, what really enhances gameplay is not new parts - it's the visual and auditory experience of spaceflight. So this is right up my alley! I expect that once I install the other mods and plugins I always use, I'll be porting my save over to this build - because I can't imagine going back to the plain looking KSP anymore.

The Russian modules contained the initial life support and computers. Now, Zarya is used for storage and Zvezda is sleeping quarters. And I said "truss", not "arm". We're talking about the spine of the station, to which all other modules are structurally dependent. And remember all those solar panels? [EDIT: Something else I discovered - Zarya is the property of NASA, not Roskosmos. So, basically, if the Russians wanted to take their ball and go home, they'd have only Zvezda, Rassvet, Pirs and Poisk. Good luck with that...]

How, exactly, do you think they're going to try that? First of all, there are no "Soviets" anymore, and the Russian modules comprise one short arm of the station - not even along the main truss. If they no longer wanted to cooperate, I'm sure they'd be cordially invited to jettison Zarya, Zvezda, and their dependent modules and see how they do on their own. Does that sound like a likely scenario? Didn't think so. Thankfully, astronauts seem unencumbered by your skewed geo-political views.

I'm not sure how China proposes to get all that to the Moon. Consider that it took a Saturn-V rocket just to get the Apollo CSM and LEM to the Moon. 45 metric tons of payload sounds like a lot - but that was just a 3-man command/service module and a 2-man lander. It took a Saturn V to put Skylab in a 430km orbit - imagine what kind of rocket you'd need to put something that small on the Moon! China does not have any experience at construction in space, so these modules would have to be prefabricated and sent to the Moon already assembled. That further limits the size of what they can send.

True, but that can really perturb the orbit of the command module - which means extra dV spent leaving orbit and returning home (Not to mention the risks in such a low orbit). Fuel is usually scarce at this stage of the operation, and it's better spent by the lander, which will be left behind.

Precisely! Out of the seven billion people alive today, and the hundred billion or so that came and went before us, only these two dozen men have ever set foot on the Moon. That's a more significant accomplishment than any of us will ever achieve. Not to mention, in the next 10-20 years, the remaining Apollo astronauts will certainly pass on - and something like this will be a pretty important object. That poster is a piece of history - you'd expect to see something like that in a museum.

I can't even seem to get part clipping to work now using Alt-F12. I tried it last night to no avail - enabling the option allowed nothing. I used to be able to do it, so what am I doing wrong? The biggest problem I have with micro-landers is in placement of RCS. Usually there's no good flat surface and thrusters are wildly imbalanced. If you intend to rendezvous with a station or an orbiting command module, it's pretty hard on engine power alone.

Meaning without having the eject system and parachute boxes for the capsules and in the VAB. Roxette helped to get me sorted, I had everything I needed but hadn't installed the parachute models.

Because they're not making any more of them. After all, 4 of those men are dead now. To the man selling the poster, it's worth $2900 - but to those who know what it stands for, it's worth more than dollars and cents. If I had the disposable cash, I'd have bought it without hesitation.

If you don't care either way, you're not in need of representation. Generally, people who are indifferent are not asked to influence a decision. You don't have a side because you don't care - so why care if the poll represents you? Abstention is no different than "no strong opinion". There's always going to be some sort of bias in a poll - that's how polls work. People who vote lean one way or the other.

It's called "Don't vote". You're not the sort who spends time and money to call a number to vote "No opinion"... are you?

There are several features that have been added because they were initially mods. A popular mod is a sign that players want that sort of gameplay, and a smart developer knows that incorporating features that many want, is a way to make a more successful product. You always have the option not to use the feature if you feel strongly about it. Precisely. And if I wanted a game that was going to be like math homework, I'd play EVE Online. I play for fun - I'm not the FIDO with the slide rule, I'm the Flight Director. Anyone who thinks I should just bust out Tsiolkovsky's Equation every time I want my craft's total or current Delta-V is hereby invited to stop using maneuver nodes, too.

Congratulations! That is the most thrilling of first milestones - I remember when I decided to finally learn to do it manually on my own. It was tough at first, but now it's not daunting or hard (still enjoyable, though). Today I docked 4 modules to my orbital space station, using direct-from-surface rendezvous (no parking orbit). If you told me a year ago that I'd be doing that in KSP without an autopilot, I'd have said "What the Hell is Kerbal Space Program?" Welcome to the forum, we look forward to your mission reports and mad creations!

Why not? "Because there's no air in space"? Remember that the oxidizer is included with the fuel.