Kerbart

I thought timewarp was not a big deal (I always thought it was, but I'm happy that it appears I'm wrong on that) and that the multiplayer mod showed how it could be dealt with? With that out of the way, the biggest challange in cooperative multiplayer mode are griefers, I think. But that's nothing a ban hammer can't fix either.

You are probably going too fast to open it. If the chute icon is red, don't deploy; it will get destroyed. Wait until it gets yellow or green.

Actually, there is. Larry Niven suggests so in Ringworld; build a giant (superconductor) network into your ring (or sphere) and use the generated magnetic field to keep the star in place. I have no clue about the amount of energy it takes but hey, if you can imagine a dyson sphere, you can imagine that, right?

Well at least one fool has added his marker, so it appears to be working!

The movie we all love—listed third on "moviemistakes.com" list of movies with the most mistakes of 2015. Before, one would assume more accurate, movies like Ant-man, Sharknado and San Andreas (really? yes! Really!) http://www.moviemistakes.com/film11214 Go knock yourself out!

Well if they do inflatable things now... Maybe they should look into the Bigelow inflatable habitat. And if there's a mod out there that replicates that, make it part of stock. Of course, they'd have to trust the mod creator and hope he'd have no problem with his mod parts being incorperated in stock, but one can hope, right? ...yes yes yes... trust me, I know.

Have the undocking bugs been fixed? I learned the hard way that the 2.5m ones at one point no longer have an "undock" option and tend to use them only for putting things together that are not supposed to be decoupled (ie. space stations). But that's a behavior I picked up around .90 so things might have gotten better.

The cynic in me says it's either pork or it will be used as a bargaining chip when the budget votes come up. If not, it's great news!

"Free" is a pretty big factor. You can use smugmug, or zenfolio or picbase or another image sharing site but it's going to cost you. Imgur is free so it used by most people.

I've rebooted career many times, over many different versions of the game. I'm a weekend-warrior space agency director and not a semi-pro like some here, so maybe my advice is unsound. However, I've learned that part of the challenge of the game is to make career mode work for you. Use the contracts to get paid for the things you want to achieve; don't execute the contracts merely for the sake of executing contracts. In many cases I'd except a contract that goes along the way of what I want, wait for another contract to show up to make some extra cash along the way and then use the contract to build a space station, or an addition to it, etc. A science mission to the Mun? Not unless I have a tourist to pay for the ride. Stocking up fuel in orbit for my shuttles to Mun and Minmus? Not unless I find a contract to extend a station with a ridiculous amount of fuel. Testing parts? Usually when I'm sending a probe up for a contract, and let the part hitch along anyway. I have a notebook full of notes, rotation schedules for the crew to get them all experienced, etc. It's a big puzzle but I enjoy figuring it out.

Snickelstuben -- the hissing sound you make when you discover why your contract isn't fulfilled as you see that your craft needs, for some obscure reason, a docking port.

I have rapidly upped my lawyer skills with those contracts. Especially when the contract offers a juicy bouncy. $300,000 to put a probe in Solar Orbit? That sounds too good to be true... Aaah, 179° inclination... Yes, it is... On the other hand, sometimes it pays to think things through and accept seemingly lossgiving contracts. I've accepted a few contracts for stations within the Kerbin system that required large amounts of fuel and where the payment did not come close to the launch cost. And yet I accepted them. Why? I'm going to need a large amount of fuel in stock in orbit anyway, and this will pay for a good chunk of the launch costs.

Landing is lift-off in reverse. If there's no atmosphere to help you in slowing down, it is going to cost lots of fuel. From low orbit to landing will take about 600 m/s ∆v. You can google "Rocket Equation" if you don't have at hand how much ∆v you have in your craft; MechJeb and Kerbal Engineer can tell you. If you don't have a tool to give you an estimate of your ∆v budget you can always do it the old-fashioned way: calculate it. ∆v = Isp×g×ln(mstart / mfinish) with Isp the specific impulse of your engine (usually somewhere around 300 s; you can look it up in the VAB or in the wiki), g is a standard g of 9.81 m/s.s (a little bookkeeping trick in the delta-v calculations) and you multiply that with the natural logarithm of your wet mass (at the beginning of the burn) and the dry mass. Your max delta-v would be based on total mass with propellant (fuel + oxidizer) divided by total mass without propellant. If that sounds like abracadabra, consider this: around 20% of the mass of your lander should be propellant (fuel + oxidizer). If it's less, you will not be able to land in one piece.

I think the suggestion of badges has merits. It'd be awesome to see for each of my brave Kerbals on what planets/moons they have set foot, how many hours spent on th esurface, in orbit, flight, etc. In addition how many Kerbals rescued, surface samples collected, etc. I agree that from a realism point field promotions make sense, and from gaming point of view they do not. Here's a suggestion: There are experience points and skill points. Both are acquired in same fashion and quantity; when you gain 3 xp, you gain 3 skill. Experience is purely optical for the stars and paygrade and for basic tasks Skill points is the currency you buy skills with. Skills cannot be refunded, and can only be awarded at the astronaut complex. For an engineer, skills are simple: the ability to operate mining equipment, operate the ISRU, repair wheels, repair solar panels, repack parachutes, etc. For a scientist, skills could be research enhancements and higher quality surface samples For a pilot, the existing skills can be copied; pro/retrograde, normal/radial and target/marker In addition the cost of training can be adjusted to support the game. Training scientists for certain skills should be easy (cheap) as you need them mainly in the beginning of the game, where training engineers might be more expensive to reflect the need later on in the game.

Interesting concept. Not the most comfortable crew quarters, but hey, for science! You could leave the Science Jr bay out. That will likely cut the need for one fuel tank and gets you something much shorter. Of course now you have no science bay but perhaps a second probe without the service bays and the Science Jr only would do the trick. One large lander pod might be too long but perhaps two shorter ones could do?

Q: I don't understand why the game doesn't include [feature x]. It would be so much better with it! A: There is an entire sub forum dedicated to suggestions. However, make sure your request is not included in the list of features already suggested, or on the do not suggest list. Keep in mind that being on the do not suggest list doesn't mean it won't be implemented; female Kerbals were on that list, for instance. It just means that Squad is aware of these requests but cannot guarantee such a request would be implemented or even entertained. Also, while stock might not offer your feature, it's very likely that there's a mod for it!

Q: what is the official name of the kerbal currency? A: it's called Funds as in "the rocket costs 100,000 funds"

Let's not forget that there are two memory hogs in the game: Textures for parts Memory leaks (which seem to be accelerated by some mods) Having some convulated roll-out-your-own EMS/XMS driver seems a bit of overkill for implementing on-demand texture loading, solving the first problem. As for the second problem... no amount of memory will ever solve that.

Roscosmos will have to rely heavily on selling services to other space agencies. It doesn't help them that NASA announced to get out of ISS as quickly as possible. $2B per year doesn't get you a lot. New Horizons alone cost $700M...

I would add that the other part that makes a space plane efficient is that you get all of it's parts refunded after landing (assuming it's a brilliant landing — not merely a good one you walk away from, but an exceptional one where you keep the plane in one piece!) as opposed to all those expensive rocket parts you dump in the ocean. Of course, if you land your SSTO rocket (in one piece) that argument is moot.

There's definitely an overhaul needed. Here's my thoughts: Science and Reputation are the two "currencies" that generate income. Every month you get a budget from the Kerbal government, based on your current Rep and Science. Rep is the actual base for income; science acts as some kind of multiplier. Rep decreases rapidly over time, so timewarping to generate money won't work. Science doesn't decrease but the incentive to get it higher is that it significantly accelerates your income needed for long distance exploration Science is generated by experiments like it is now. However, the amount of science you can get from a planet or moon is capped, forcing your program ever more outward. Contracts generate Research and Reputation. Research points are the currency of what is currently "science"; you use it to access slots in the tech tree. Rep is.. well... rep. Research contracts can provide interesting shortcuts in the tech tree (see below). Tech tree is a bit more involved. You'll need research points just like science right now. Research cost for top tiers goes up significantly, requiring a good amount of science to get to a certain level. However, once you have enough science (it's only a multiplier), unlocking an entire column in the tree should be relative straight forward. In addition, unlocking technology isn't merely a matter of unlocking the node in the tree. Instead, you'll unlock research contracts that might (over time) appear in mission control. Contracts will unlock a node when fullfilled, or maybe just a part. A research contract could be to test, say, a certain kind of wheel in the east crater of the mun. It shouldn't be too hard to create a matrix that indicates what biomes are suitable for what parts, so that you don't have to test a parachute on the surface of Minmus. Obviously the techtree Benefits: No more caveman challenges. They're fun of course, but if the entire tree can be unlocked in two or three missions, something is obviously wrong. I think that this system could prevent that. Unlocking the tech tree should be the result of consistent gameplay and research, not a matter of doing five crazy launches that collect everything at once. Discouraging science grinding. First of all, your science maxes out pretty quickly per planet. Second of all, the multiplier effect makes it really attractive to collect as much science as possible, especially since the results are compounding Part testing is no longer just fun, it's necessary, making the contracts a feeling of usefullness instead of "how silly is this" Additional Research What would be really cool is when research unlocks data in the game (especially when coupled with randomized parameters). Want patched conics within a planet system? You'll have to scan the gravity with a probe first. Maybe the same for atmospheric properties. They could even be part of the tech tree ("planetary research" with nodes for each planet)

Q: Is Mechjeb cheating? A: The object of the game is to enjoy it. If you enjoy the game more using mechjeb, do so. If you enjoy the game more by not using it, don't use it. Don't let anyone tell you what the "true" way of playing KSP is! Q: I'd love to use mods, but that's not the way Squad intended it to be played, right? A: Did you notice the weekly showcase of mods by Squad on Modding Monday? The mods are there to enhance the game as you see fit!

And their circulation fluid is blue. Hence the oceans.

The short answer: physics. The long answer: the center of mass of the docked ship is not aligned with the axle of thrust. This will cause torque, which causes the docked ship to twist. Think of holding a car battery right in front of your chest. Doable, right? Now stretch your arms horizontally in front of you and try to hold the same car battery. If you can, impressive, but likely, you cannot. And yet, it's the same battery! The "turning force" is called torque and is proportional to the distance of the pivot point. If you push or pull directly in line with the center of mass there will be no torque, and no twisting. Offset the force (or the mass) and things will start to twist and turns. Welcome to the world of engineering

Ah, But what if you don't use Stylish? How to get rid of the white bars?