Behemoose

Thanks for this! I've gotten pretty good at eyeballing it but it's nice to have exact numbers!

Is there any kind of mod that changes the code so that more than one port will connect after the fact?

So I'm building a ring-shaped station: As you can see, it's nearly finished. But I'm having trouble with the two docking ports on the lower right-hand side. When I try to dock that fuel depot module with the station, I can get one port to dock (either), but not both. Any suggestions?

I'll start with this disclaimer: I'm very happy with the contract system as it is. It adds challenges to the game and hence replay value. One question, however, has plagued me since the advent of contracts: Why aren't there contracts for anything besides testing, rescues, 'collect science from orbit', and planting flags? They'd dovetail perfectly into career mode. To start out, you could be tasked with retrieving a surface sample or sending a crew report from a certain biome. As you unlock more science instruments, you could get contracts to collect data from a certain biome and altitude. This could work with other items in the tech tree too. For example, once you unlock docking ports you could get a contract to rendezvous and dock with a ship or station in orbit for the purpose of transferring crew. They already do something similar to this with the rescue missions. Subassemblies could be added in the same manner in which experimental parts are added, with the requirement that they be delivered to the rendezvous as cargo. As you advance further, there could be 'test pilot' contracts where you're required to reach a certain velocity at a certain altitude, test a stock aircraft or a player-created one at a certain amount of g-force, and so on. The above contracts (and I'm sure I'll think of more) could be set to be offered at random when the player reaches a tech level that makes the mission possible. These would add even more variety and more replay value than what's already offered and what's on the slate for adding FinePrint in .26.

Behold the Kerbal Clipper! In the days of wooden ships and iron men, clipper ships were built for speed. This VTOL SSTO takes its name from those storied vessels, and from the fact that I shamelessly abused game mechanics to stick all the parts together. She's faster than a jackrabbit on a date and more potent than an onion fart in an express elevator! She'll achieve LKO on just 150 units of fuel, with plenty left over for whatever booties you've a mind to plunder. Thanks to CupcakesLanders for the inspiration.

In response to a memo from Jebediah Kerman in which he expressed the Space Program's scientific need to 'blow stuff up', we proudly present the K-16 Falkon. Based on General Dynamics' legendary fighter aircraft, the F-16, this Kerbalike equivalent's handling is what one would expect from its pedigree; it's sharp and responsive, with power to spare. To accommodate Jebediah's request, this model also comes complete with four Kerbal Direct Attack Munition (KDAM) bombs and two AIM-9K Sidekerbal missiles. Adult supervision required. Here are the keys, Mr. Director, now I just need you to sign this contra... what? You didn't need to blow stuff up? Then where would Jebediah have gotten that idea?

First and foremost, if you're the same guy, I LOVED your Minecraft mods. My experience with rovers is that no matter where they are, they handle like there's very little gravity. They love to bounce around and flip over. That said, you can make them more forgiving. You could try putting the wheels at the end of modular girder segments to widen the vehicle and lower the center of gravity. That will make it slightly less tip-happy. Something like what I've shown here, but not as ugly.

I played around some more with that first design and ended up getting a top surface speed of 2176 m/s at 48,000+ meters. The orbital speed was far north of 2300, though I don't remember exactly how much. That was on one turbojet and two radial intakes. Holy cow. That was also my first circumnavigation.

I'm inclined to agree. I was having the same trouble with one earlier tonight. I strutted the hardpoints together and it helped. Another thing that might help is anything that induces shaky SAS. Make sure you're not using too many control surfaces, or that they're too far out to the edges of the wings. That can cause the SAS to lose its mind.

Whenever I've had this problem it was because the docking port was clipped on another part or was installed backward. If you've checked for those problems, I'd suggest restarting KSP to see if it behaves.

Here's one I just built: Completely stock, no clipping at all, only two radial intakes, and it uses almost no rocket fuel at all to reach orbit. Flight profile makes the difference, in my opinion. Oh, and here's an airhog I mess around with: As a general rule, if it's not possible or workable with a real aircraft, it feels cheaty to me.

I hope your 610 works out better than mine did. I had lots of compatibility issues with it, and the cooling fan sounded like it was trying to become an SSTO itself. For about $150 you can get a 400W PSU and a GeForce GTX 650Ti like I'm running. As far as bang for the buck goes, it doesn't get much better.

So this was the original design. It maxed out at 2,188 m/s at just under 32,000 m before flaming out. I added a tank of rocket fuel and a couple of radial engines, moved the landing gear, and came up with this. After getting to about 1500 m/s at 27,000 m, I pointed the nose up, lit the rockets, sneezed twice and ended up in a 150x150 orbit.

I'll have to agree with Claw here. If your wings are flexing at all, it's going to cause the gear to bounce, which will induce the yaw you're talking about. Make sure you've used plenty of space duct tape on those wings.

AMD [email protected] GHz (Not OC'd yet but will be soon, the liquid cooler is already installed) 16 GB G.Skill Sniper DDR3 2133 GeForce GTX 650Ti Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit

Also, if there was not a full crew in the lander, the game might have 'forgotten' that there were Kerbals in it.

What Geschosskopf said. The biome map is a great starting place; if you aim for the middle of a biome, it's going to be more flat than around the edges.

I've already built a couple of SSTOs. I have a conventional one and a VTOL. And Marvin, I have seen what you're talking about. I'm trying to stay level and it keeps wanting to ascend.

I have PF and MechJeb installed. I'm not using either at the moment; I don't even know how to use MechJeb yet! My best efforts at high-altitude flight so far have resulted in flameout at around 20 km. I'm still in flight as we speak and I'm up to about 32km and just over 2200 m/s.

I built a very simple aircraft. It has one turbojet, two radial intakes, and a couple tanks of fuel. I'm in stable flight at about 31 km and my velocity is around 2200 m/s. I didn't think this was possible.