thereaverofdarkness

+1 Keome, not Kiome. And I'd go for Geome too. But Biome insinuates that the region has life. Region wouldn't work so well because it's determined more as a type of place than a specific place. For instance, the Mün's Far East Crater is a region, but the Mün's midlands is not a region. Both, however, are distinct from one another yet similar to oneself by regolith composition.

That's how they already happen. I wanted them to come earlier because sometimes (a lot of times) I'm ready to go before the game thinks I am. By lowering the bar for starting these contracts, players are allowed to start large missions earlier, if they feel like it. Or maybe just making them all available from a separate menu is enough.

In the current release (0.90), you get explore contracts by completing previous explore contracts, and visiting a planet/moon before its explore contract shows up can cause that contract to never show up, and possibly ruin further explore contracts. Also, many times when you are ready to go somewhere, your explore contract has yet to show up and the game is unclear on how you are to go about getting that contract. My suggestion is to first make all explore contracts available from a separate menu, so you can accept them at any time. Second, entering the sphere of influence of a planet or moon should make its explore contract instantly pop into your main available contracts list rather than causing it to never show up at all. Third, I would change the order in which they show up in the list from the current fairly linear fashion to a more branched model: After you successfully launch a ship into the air and beat the 3000 meter record, you get the Mün and Minmus explore contracts. After entering the SOI of either the Mün or Minmus, the Eve and Duna contracts will show up. After leaving Kerbin's SOI, all planet explore contracts show up. If you accept a planet's explore contract, its moon contracts will all show up. And all of these explore contracts should exist in a section below or above the randomly-generated contracts, separated by a line to make it easier to sort between the two. This could develop further into a system of projects that you complete only once each per game, and these would be separate from the randomly-generated contracts. Here are some rough ideas for projects: 1.) build a fueling station in Kerbin orbit with a docking port and at least 720 liquid fuel and 880 oxidizer 2.) dock two craft in space 3.) bring a ship to orbit with 40% or more fuel/oxidizer mass, and which has LN-N(s) for propulsion, and a mobile lab -- good for later use to go to another planet 4.) catch the first Duna Hohmann Transfer window (with a very vague estimate given for leave time, and some basic instructions) 5.) aerobrake at Duna and enter into an orbit or land (project only verifies that craft entered atmosphere and then either went back to space or landed without being destroyed--the rest is for the player to discover) 6.) land an air-breathing plane on Laythe 7.) various projects to discover various anomalies (with very rough estimations as to their appearance and location--the Kerbals picked up something on scans?)

Eve never showed up because I landed (read: crashed) on it too early. That must have made the Eve explore contract never show. --------------------------------- I started a new game and blitzed through the explore contracts (with infinite fuel): 1.) After reaching orbit (or space perhaps), Explore Mün showed up. 2.) After exploring Mün, Explore Minmus showed up. 3.) After exploring Minmus, Explore Duna showed up. 4.) After exploring Duna (and avoiding entering Ike's SOI), Explore Ike and Explore Eve showed up. 5.) After exploring Ike, Explore Jool showed up. 6.) After waiting several days for new contracts to spawn, Explore Gilly and Set base on Pol showed up. It looks like what Laie said is about right, and the explore contracts really must be completed in sequence. If I am also right about breaking the sequence, then you must be very careful to never enter the SOI of any body for which you have not received the explore contract, even Ike, which avoiding it is like missing the toilet seat.

I would rate KW Rocketry as either a 3 or 2.5 at least. Not only do they offer a lot of options, but many of the options are just a lot better than stock. Quick examples: 1.) The Wildcat is not only a more powerful 1.25m rocket but also has a much better TWR than the LV-T45 without sacrificing thrust vectoring or much of the specific impulse. 2.) The Vesta is both more efficient and more powerful than the LV-909, and has a better TWR. Now I haven't used it in a while and most of these details come fro memory so I might be a bit off, but I remember the Wildcat and Vesta being far more effective that stock engines, and as a result I didn't use much of anything else for 1.25m. Secondly, I would rate MechJeb at 1, not 3. MechJeb only assists with piloting and maneuvers, and is less competent than a well-trained human at pretty much everything it does. It lacks too much in judgement to make up for it in precision even in maneuvers that require a high level of precision, partly due to the tools available on the navball. I have never used MechJeb and I've yet to see anyone (MechJeb included) that can do any maneuvers I can't also do. It's not much to brag about, it's just a fact that the most difficult maneuvers are still pretty easy once you have enough experience. MechJeb is training wheels; you cannot ride as fast until you take MechJeb off.

I did have a lot of contracts left to be done, so that might have had something to do with it. It wasn't rep as I also had over 900. I hadn't yet bothered with exploring Duna because I wanted to go to Jool. I don't see why I should have to do Duna first but maybe that's it. I also suspect that with any contract in which completion unlocks another, failing to get the first one will jinx your entire game and prevent you from getting all the rest that follow. For instance: if finishing Duna explore unlocks Jool explore, visiting Duna SOI before being given Duna explore contract would prevent Jool explore from ever showing up.

What is the actual method to cause the Explore Jool contract to show up? I still haven't figured that out because everything I tried failed to do it.

I used the OKTO2 for my second entry and scored 2 points. I wasn't able to get to orbit, but I passed through the Mün's SOI before heading on out of the Kerbin system. It takes a lot more mass to get a reaction wheel, but that just means you need more decouplers. It can take a pretty beefy computer to do it, but with a bit of know-how it's not too hard to get one to orbit with current probe cores. And once you get to orbit, you're halfway to anywhere. The nice thing about using the decouplers for thrust is that every stage gives you the same delta-v as the previous stage. That means a ship that can go anywhere is only twice the size of a ship that can only reach orbit.

It didn't seem to work. I deleted the entry and then finished up my Explore Gilly and Explore Ike contracts, so I had no more explore contracts available, and Explore Bop showed up, with none for Jool or any other Joolian satellite. I finally just made 5 copies of the Bop contract and changed the relevant body to all 8 through 13. Now I have all the contracts, and they all have exactly the same rewards and are from the same company. ~X( *walks away muttering about KSP being broken* edit: I'm still looking for an answer!

You should add in this mod for the challenge: edit: I think that might be the video you were talking about

It's clearly about 20rpm, despite anything they claim it to be in the film.

I haven't had that problem but I have been rather frustrated by the automatic reset that causes you to be unable to post on a forum post window that has been open for too many hours. When you try to post, you get the error that you've been re-logged since the window was opened, and refreshing does not fix it. You have to open a new tab and copy+paste the link into the new tab to be able to post. Then you have to copy your post from the old tab and paste into the new tab. It's annoying to have to do that. I leave tabs open on posts because I often can't find them the next day if I don't.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/105674-Stock-0-90-TR-38-D-Decoupler-Propulsion ^ ^ ^ my new challenge ^ ^ ^ http://imgur.com/a/vhzNW ^ Kerbin escape ^

Yes, I have not been able to confirm any increase at all in science gain from having scientists aboard. Seems they do nothing.

This is probably more of a challenge for your processor and RAM than it is for your engineering skills, but I want to see what you guys come up with. I especially want to see what allmhuran comes up with. Rules are simple: the only propulsion you are allowed to use is from decouplers, and all parts must be stock. I advise you to use the TR-38-D 3.75m in-line decoupler because it is massless, but I'll leave the choice of decoupler(s) up to you. Other tips: 1.) cubic octagonal struts are massless, and so make good structural components 2.) you might need fins or a reaction wheel to be able to turn it because even a giant massless "rocket" still can be sluggish 3.) yes you may assemble multiple parts in space. If one of the docking ports happens to be massless, more power to you! (I don't know if they are) Entries will be judged on what you accomplish: Atmospheric: entries that do not reach space are ranked by maximum altitude achieved Suborbital: entries that do not achieve orbit but do exit atmosphere are ranked by maximum velocity achieved Orbital: entries that achieve orbit or greater are given points based on various accomplishments: Kerbin orbit: 1 enter Mün or Minmus SOI: 1 each Kerbin escape: 1 Mün or Minmus flyby under 10km without landing: 1 each Minmus landing: 2 Minmus takeoff and orbit or escape: 1 Mün landing: 5 Mün takeoff and orbit or escape: 3 enter SOI of Eve or Duna: 3 each Gilly flyby without landing: 1 Gilly landing: 2 Gilly takeoff and orbit or escape: 0.1 (too easy!) Ike flyby without landing: 1 Ike landing: 5 Ike takeoff and orbit or escape: 3 Eve landing: 2 Eve takeoff and orbit or escape: 100 (failing to achieve orbit will score you partial credit!) Duna landing: 4 Duna takeoff and orbit or escape: 4 Enter SOI of Dres, Moho, Jool, or Eeloo: 5 each Dres or Eeloo landing: 6 each Dres or Eeloo takeoff and orbit or escape: 3 each Moho landing: 10 Moho takeoff and orbit or escape: 4 Collect Jool upper atmospheric data with any science tool (screenshot must show that data counts as upper atmosphere): 1 Return to space after collecting Jool upper atmosphere data but not lower atmosphere data: 3 Collect Jool lower atmospheric data with any science tool (screenshot must show that data counts as lower atmosphere): 1 Return to space after collecting Jool lower atmosphere data: 9 Enter SOI of Joolian moons: 1 each Land on Laythe: 3 Laythe takeoff and orbit or escape: 8 High-resolution screenshot of Tylo pass under 2km altitude and over 2000m/s: 2 Tylo landing: 7 Tylo takeoff and orbit or escape: 4 Vall landing: 4 Vall takeoff and orbit or escape: 2 Bop or Pol landing: 2 each Bop or Pol takeoff and orbit or escape: 1 each Being allmhuran: 1 Additionally, for each accomplishment on this list, each planet afterward will score you +50% points: * Mün landing * Orbit around any planet: Moho, Eve, Duna, Jool, Eeloo * Laythe landing * Tylo landing note: the score bonuses only apply to the part of your craft that enters orbit or lands. If you send off lander A to Eve, that will not cause lander B to get +50% score for its Joolian tour. The most possible points you could get would be to takeoff from Eve and enter orbit after having done a grand tour everywhere else, but I don't think even allmhuran can do that one. Prove me wrong, I dare you! Just post screenshots of everything you accomplished and I'll put you guys up on the Leaderboards as per your accomplishments. For entries that do not go beyond Kerbin orbit, only two screenshots are necessary, one for max altitude (in atmosphere), max velocity (in space), or map-view screenshot of orbit with mouse over periapsis, and the second to show your starting vessel. Leaderboard - Orbital: * thereaverofdarkness: 2 points Leaderboard - Suborbital: Leaderboard - Atmospheric: * thereaverofdarkness: 53,133m - - - Updated - - - My entry: 53,133m http://imgur.com/a/5wy9b#0 - - - Updated - - - My second entry: 2 points http://imgur.com/a/vhzNW

It's covered in spruce already, isn't it?

http://imgur.com/a/5wy9b#0 Thank you, OP, for this beautiful event.

Once you know how to put an orbit within tolerances, it ceases to be difficult. I could put one probably within 0.0001% inclination pretty easily, with my probe's apoapsis and periapsis both right on top of the markers (to the pixel when zoomed in), and with the apoapsis and periapsis within about 0.1 meters. I could get the Ap/Pe altitude even closer but it doesn't display units of less than a meter.

What I have figured out about rep: 1.) you get it up to 1000 super quick. Then it does nothing for you and your gains are basically useless, while selling them off won't get you much either. 2.) uh....actually that's about it.

Long story short, in trying to make my Explore Jool contract show up, I possibly prevented it from showing up. I still have done zero exploration of Jool, one pass through its SOI with a science-less probe, and I have fully explored Duna and finished its contract, twice at once actually. I tried using the debug options to force the contract to show up but that didn't work either. Anyone know what I can do to make that contract show up? I don't care what it involves, cheating, code-writing, I'll do it. If I can't find a way to make this happen, then this game I've spent dozens of hours on is a bust.

I'm loving the discussion guys, definitely keep it up. But just the same, this is the closest I've gotten to an answer to my question: and I wouldn't call it a satisfactory answer. I'm hoping to keep up the discussion but also hoping to get a good answer. But if I have to, I'll switch it to [Discussion].

Those contracts that send you to a body to do a thorough examination are really a good source of income. But there are some problems that can make it almost impossible to get the contracts. When the triggers for making the contract show up are unclear, unintuitive, and easy to break, you have a situation in which players who don't know what they're doing will try going to a body they haven't been to, hoping to make some great discovery. The last thing you want to do is make that discovery be that they jinxed their contracts and prevented themselves from getting the explore for the place.

Oh my gosh that's retarded. I never had a problem getting it to show up in other games when I was ready, but now I'm supposed to go to Dres first? I've never even gone to Dres once, not in any game! Is there some way I can fix it so it doesn't act like I've been there, or force it to give me the missions?

I noticed this also when I first started 0.90 but then it seemed to go away. I can't get it to happen again. I don't know what caused it. Everyone says it's about the new piloting mechanics but I had a standard rocket fly out of control when it was being piloted by Jebediah and with SAS on.

You could try saving before you dock, then try docking with the new station in control. If it doesn't work, quickload and control the old station as you dock. I don't know if that will work but it sounds like it might.