Eskarina

I must say R&d is quite pretty, but at the same time overloads my computer quite hard also pd. I NEED MORE SCIENCE

i3 3,3Gh // 32Gbs Ram // GTX560ti // Win8pro64x // "27 Screen I will update stuff someday...

Since everything is pocket size, rockets can be pocket sized too.

I confess i've downloaded some stock Stols planes to learn why mines always crashes in the rollway.

Starting positions... you mean their relative positions from the sun? angles and such?

A year long burn will only be useful to reach kerbol escape speeds (already not implemented).

The thing about solar salis, is that although they are slow to catch up decent speeds, they ARE capable of reach decent speeds. A starship built around a solar sail must be planned around the very sail. That means minimum fuel, minimum engines, and minimum total mass. Yes I will be slow, but eventually it will catch up, and that means that as long as you have a star at your destination, you don't need an engine to move around at all This is a typical maneuver around the star. Since the photon "wind" is more noticeable when you are closer to the star, you need to arrange a close flyby around, every time you want to catch up escape speed. And more importantly, they are unable to reach the deeps of a solar system without gravitational assists. BUT it have it's strenghts And: So maybe they are slow to speed up, but they are very capable of speed up a lot. The issue then is in a game as kerbal, they are fun to use. Okay, now that I placed some science stuff, I want to join this group. I think they should be in the game. And my recommendations are: The mod presents a very clever solutions to implement "alpha" solar sails, but if I'll made some changes, there were: 1º. Engine and "fuel containers" should be removed 2º. Decent solar models, textures and animations for the parts (I cand do this! ) 3º. Solar sails should be slow to catch up, okay, but maybe they must be NOT SO SLOW to catch up that they are zero fun. 4º. In my opinon, they must have an efficency equal or higher of the ion engines, closer to the sun, and lost their efficency quickly when they are far away, as real sails do. A good compromise should be x10 the trust of the ion engine around the sun, x1 to kerbin distance, and then x0.1 from there and beyond. Since solar sails are fuelless, this should make a good compromise. I dunno if the current mods state allows for such calculations and operating parameters. BUT a piece of equipment that delivers the power of 10 ion engines around Kerbol, is enought to make it worthwhile, even if they have such limited radius. AND with a solar sail in your ship, you'll always have an emergency engine to trip back to kerbin (maybe slow, but good ) AND ofc they are angle / dependant, and of course they should be able to apply his magic in time warp x4.

Since nodes are created and implemented. Saying that is a very poor excuse. Nodes are GREAT and I'm saying that a little bit of polish could turn them into the PERFECT route planner that Kerbal deserves. It's true that lacks precission for 0.001 adjustments, but as I said plugins solves it rather good. Probably the addition of numeric input is the solution, but I'm not talking about precission, since plugins takes care of that. I'm saying the very nodes behaves against the actual user they should help. I think grouping the orbital information parameters in a separated window is a nice solution too. (no more blind tweaking at least)

I'll kindly follow your suggestion.

You're right, but node fine tuners are fixed today by plugins. So I that particular i'm okay. ¿It would be nice to implement them stock? Hell yes, but I'm talking about node behaivor here, and that is out of plugins reach now. That's why the argument. :/ Dude, already have.

It's really frustrating that the node editor, DAT very tool that you use to go here and there is so limited and lame. Here are few suggestions for it and why: 1- The node SHOULD remain open for tweaks as long as I say. It doesn't matter if im zooming, rotating or anything else in the map view. It's incredible lame to FIGHT a node that the only thing it really does well is deleting itsef, Minimize itsef, etc. SOLUTION TO THIS: The node editor only minimizes when I click the middle mouse button or other designated key. Having a button that does two things at the same time (click to rotating view AND deselect a node) is a BAD Ux choice. 2- The map view SHOULD display the orbital information ALWAYS when i'm tweaking the nodes. I saw the UNITY expo video that you guys made, and I agree too much information at all times is bad for the user. BUT in the other hand, Having ZERO information at all times is an equally bad design choice for the user as well. I NEED TO KNOW how much my orbit is changing when I'm dragging the sliders around. Let's say I want to flyby the Mün at a very close but secure height, let's say 5.500m height. So I place a node and then, I tweak for a second, then, hover the perigee point to see how close I am. (8000m) tweak again and hover (300m), and again (9000m), and again, (1500m) etc. This is stupid. And combined with the previous complaint, you guys know that Node tweaking is a ****IN NIGHTMARE. SOLUTION: Node information is ENABLED and ALWAYS DISPLAYING as long as I'm tweaking a node. I need to know the encounter times, the node ascending degrees, the escape times, I need to know my height at Apo. Etcetcetc Dam I NEED to know!. ps. A fine tune node editor would be nice also, but is not as BLOODY IMPORTANT right now as the other two requests. From my humble point of view at least. pd2. If you guys don't want to implement this solutions 'as is' PLEASE, PLEASE, at least add an option to enable / disable a full orbital information display in the map view. I'M BEGGING HERE. Thanks. :3

Dude, 20min for an ejection node is way too much. I recommend to set up that nodes without the node adjustement plugin. They are way too sensitive and you can spend +15min on it easily. I had this problem also. Remember that is more important to have an encounter that anything else. Is just not possible to set up a perfect 1-node encounter 100.000.000.000 meters away. The game uses a lot of reference windows, and scale transitions from map view to ship view. So I finally realized that, unless you are aiming for a moon, or something in the neiborhood, the precission for such a long trip, is so low that you will need to make course correction along the way from planet to planet. Also, remember that Moho, Dres and Eeloo are the only bodies that have a sightly inclination and eccentricity orbits. Maybe you want to use my method if you are doing a classic Hozltman: - from the map view, zoom out until you see the planet and you orbit at the same time. - locate the face of the planet is facing the sun and the one that is in the shadow - trace an imaginary line that comes from the sun and crosses the planet, and trace other at 90' angle, so you put an + in top of the planet. -Your ejection node will be almost always, in top of one of the lines of that cross, so when you burn, you will follow the planet orbit path, prograde or retrograde. - burn around 1000m/s and them zoom out again to check how close you are to the destination planet. - Fine-tune the burn to get an encounter at the apo. WARNING be sure you know WHEN is the correct date to do the burn and not fail your target miserably. Any encounter out of the apo. is 100% harder to tune. But a node planner plugin have its uses, for a precise aerobraking / slingshot maneuvers, I find it indispensable. I'm not a plugins advocate and certainly I do whatever it takes to archieve goals 100% stock, but I cannot recommend 'better nodes' plugin and similar ones enough. Hope this helps.

Nice video and nice explanations. I do believe ion probes are way too much fun to mess around. The requirement of long burn times and the relation between your point and the shadows of the objects, makes it incredible amusing for me. Big fan of your video.

Thank you for this, this should come standard ingame.

Thank you, I was stuggling with the system, keys and all, and this tutorial and the rendezvous was a real lifesaver for me. You did an incredible work helping n00bs like me. Cannot be grateful enough. Please add this as official tutorials. They teach essential concepts to enjoy the game even more.