Moencino

I'll check it out, thanks Derek. I'm still hoping for input on the whole retrograde orbit if going to Duna thing. Is that a bad suggestion, and should I launch to the East as usual before heading to Duna? Any input is appreciated, as I'm just going off 'flying to Duna' guides I've found online.

Thanks again to you both. Thus far I've only been to the Mun, and have spent the last couple weeks building and testing a base, lander, and refueling/utility rover for a Duna mission. One guide I read suggested sending more than one ship at a time to take advantage of a given launch window. So I'm sending 3. Might send a fuel barge as well, not sure. Anyway, the guides to Duna I've read suggest starting from a retrograde Kerbin orbit. Is that just bad advice?

You're totally right, Narcosis! I'm glad you two figured out my screw-up...I was wondering what the hell I was doing so wrong that I couldn't get it into orbit. This also explains why getting the various chunks of my Duna expedition into Kerbin orbit required far bigger boosters than seemed to make sense based on my Mun expeditions. Total facepalm moment. I love how much there is to learn in this game about real life considerations for space flight.

DOH! I totally missed that part of your post! That must be the problem! I just flew your exact profile as described and still couldn't make it work. I think you've figured out why. Thanks! Off to confirm...

Again, thanks for the detail, Temstar. I'll go try it right now.

The heading was really arbitrary - I'm just studying the benefits of this particular booster style compared to what I've built myself thus far. Since I'm planning a Duna expedition, I've taken to Westerly departures.

Thanks for the detailed flight profile, Temstar. Ok, well this is a good thing, because clearly I can learn something about flying a better launch. Can you please tell me what I'm doing wrong? Here's my flight plan: Launch Prep: Full power, SAS engaged. Launch 2900m - 1st pair booster separation 10.8k - 2nd pair booster separation and roll to 45 degree angle facing 270 degrees. Hold that course and monitor Ap as it climbs toward 75k 31.3k - 3rd pair booster separation. Still holding 45 degree angle at 270 degrees. Ap now 39.7k. Ap 75k - cut power, rotate to prograde, drift until about 30 seconds from Ap intercept then bring back to full power. Burn time remaining in S1, 46 seconds. Fuel exhausted in S1 with Ap at 76k and Pe at -519k I'm assuming I'm doing something terribly wrong with where I'm burning. Could I get some input please? Much appreciated!

After reading about your booster designs, I gave them a try. Aesthetically they're awesome, and I love the clustered centre booster. Just looks awesome. My problem is that I can't get them into orbit. Has something changed in the game since these were released such that the stock craft can no longer get to orbit? I run out of fuel every time. So far I've tried the Nova and Zenith Vll, neither of which could I get into a stable orbit. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong? Asparagus staging is something I've become very familiar with, so that's not the problem. I'm launching with the stock payload - only thing I'm adding is the Engineering mod so I can track stats during launch. I separate the 2nd pair of boosters just after 10k, do my gravity turn and hold it at 45 degrees until I get the apoapsis to 75k, then I burn prograde until I run out of gas - I never even get close to getting the periapsis wrapped around the back of Kerbin. I'm assuming we're not expected to transfer fuel from the payload to complete the burn. Any thoughts? I'd love to make these great looking boosters work. Thanks for the effort made in building and sharing them!

Absolutely LOVE this mod. Adds so much to the atmosphere and fun. Thanks very much for all your hard work on this!

Ahhh, ok, I'll try that. Thanks J.

Love these struts! I agree they could use some love in the texture department, and for my taste the orange is a woefully day-glow (something a little more rugged n' weathered would look fantastic), the style is fantastic. I wanted to use them in my first station, but alas...one of the key parts simply won't work. Photos below, but basically the 6 way adapter won't connect regardless of what I do. It'll connect on the round side, but not the triangle side. Sadly, that means I can't make it fit the plan I had. Any thoughts on what's going on? No problem connecting the round side: No amount of spinning, rotating, or adjusting camera angles will let me connect the triangle side. It clicks into place like it wants to connect, but won't actually attach.

Ahhh, that would explain a lot. Including the 4gb cap. I just did more reading on this, and discovered also that PhysX can't handle multi threading. Yikes. 3/4 of my computer is sleeping! Hopefully the future holds 64bit and multiprocessor support.

I have the Engineer mod, which shows me the stuff I'm most curious about. Again, I'm sure MechJeb is overflowing with useful stuff, but I'm going to hold off on automation a while until I feel I've mastered the various maneuvering disciplines. Maybe if I knew what I was missing I'd be in a bigger hurry to install it, but the whole ignorance is bliss thing...

That's my feeling too, but the app I use to monitor my memory never comes close to tapping out. Perhaps KSP isn't taking full advantage of all that RAM? Either way, I agree in that something has to give - I'm just trying to figure out what the most efficient thing to give up is, so that I can keep some of the less demanding toys to play with.

After having learned a LOT in my first week (thanks largely to the kind folk who've responded in such detail here in the forums), I've wiped my computer clean of KSP, and done a fresh install. I foolishly forgot to save my screenshots, but it's a small thing. My motivation was this: I'd put a handful of addons in, including the FusTek station parts, and discovered terrible lag in the VAB when on the 'pods' tab - especially if my camera was facing the door. As long as the pods tab wasn't selected, the lag wasn't too bad. But it got much worse. In orbit, I was getting increasing lag, to the point where it just wasn't all that fun. I deleted the FusTek parts I wasn't using, hoping that would somehow help. It didn't. As I wasn't sure what was causing all the lag, I decided to start fresh, and find a balance between cool addons and playability. Thus begins my experiment to see how many toys I can put in my toybox. Fresh install addon list: B9 (Despite it being HUGE, there's no perceptible lag in the VAB. Is this a bad idea? The beautiful designs, textures, and animated cargo doors n' such are such nice eye candy.) Improved trusses and girders Engineer FusTek common birthing mechanisms Chatterer (super fun little addon I just installed) Crew manifest [WIP] THSS - Tri-Hexagonal Structural Strut (just discovered this addon and love it) Quantum struts (haven't tried them yet, but didn't like how badly my station wobbled in my previous post) Infernal Robotics (just installed it, and ermahgerd it looks freakin' awesome!) Lazor docking cam (one of my faves so far) I think that's it. I seem to be the only one not using MecJeb, but thus far I haven't felt the need for an autopilot. I'm sure certain things will become tedious eventually, at which point I'll investigate it. With all the above installed, it's running smoothly at maxed settings, 1920x1200. But I haven't actually built anything yet. So, my question: What exactly causes lag? Something in the FusTek station pack did for me. If I delete parts I never use from their respective folders, will that reduce resource demand? Or it is unrelated? I'm not sure which the culprit is: plugins associated with addons, part count of a ship, a specific addon, a specific combination of addons, my early 2009 PowerMac, or a combination of them all. I'm really looking for the empirical feedback that might ensure my continued enjoyment of the game until Apple releases the new PowerMacs in the fall. Are there specific things I can do to minimize lag while maximizing use of fun addons and the rich look of the game?