Cos

Patience of a saint. Ability from the gods. I give you ferram. He is the man. Look after him.

Anyone concerned about memory issues (which I can understand if you are running mods) who is using Win x64 as a 'fix' should revert to Win32 and run Active Texture Management. Maybe there should be a link in the OP? - some new users born and raised on 64 bit may not be aware that there is another way....

'Rescue a Kerbal in orbit who has no monopropellant'. Doable - but a bit more challenging.

KSP may evolve and improve but my stupidity shall remain undimmed......... A catalog of errors or a comedy of errors.. I'll let you be the judge. Contracts - Explore the Mun Sent Jeb in a lander with 3 x Goo, 3 Materials, Temp etc - I want that science (High / Above / Landed). Land in Farside (almost an anagram of fastdie isn't it?), get science, collect samples - all done nicely and it's time to take off. WAIT! - I can get extra EVA reports for 'above highlands', 'above midlands' etc. Take off - lean over and start aiming for a 12km orbit. Hmmm. I turned a bit early better just make sure I don't hit - AHHHHHHHHHH! - PANIC! Point straight up - full power - too late - the bottom of the lander *clips* a ridge - at this point I'm sure Jeb is dead but...... .....he lives! The bottom of the lander explodes but incredibly the pod is still in one piece - albiet on a sub-orbital trajectory. At apoapsis Jeb retrieves the science stored in the capsule and begins his orbital burn using his jetpack - success! One rescue mission later and Jeb is back in the Kerbalnaut complex being bought drinks for telling his tales of a lucky escape - except in this cruel world there is no escape - only temporary respite from the next disaster......... ....and so it goes....... Just days later the countdown begins - Jeb grasps the controls and prepares to go where no Kerbal (except for himself) has gone before. After a textbook flight Jeb lands safely and collects the science once again - mission control (that's me) advises him to take a steeper ascent profile this time and he returns safely to orbit. A quick, seemingly innocuous, plane change enables him to collect a lot of EVA reports over the varied Biomes - time to go home.... WAIT! - a qucik look at the Kerbal Engineer readouts indicates we have only 230m/s Dv. I'm not sure but I'm sure I needed at least 250m/s last time. Sure enough our manouver node says we are about 20-30m/s short. At this point Mission Control (me) makes a bad decision. Rather than send a rescue ship I decide that with a few doses of jetpack fuel Jeb can get out and push us back into Kerbins atmosphere... ...and so Jeb once more heads for an apointment with danger....... We begin the burn and sure enough we have a Kerbin periapsis of about 1000km. Jeb unclips his harness and EVAs to the back of the ship. Once EVA burn later and we have dropped to about 850km periapsis. Another six of those and we're home! At around burn 3 mission control (your truly) is pretty tired and very thirsty. At mission control my lovely assistant offers to make me a cup of tea (what a star). As she passes she sees the ship being pushed. 'Is that Jeb *again*!?' she asks incredulously. 'Yes it is.' I think she feels a certain pity for Jeb (or maybe it's empathy - she has to put up with me in real life!). Burn 5 - cup of tea next to my left hand and all is good. Only a few more to go...... So thirsty...... My left hand is guiding Jeb forward and so my right hand reaches across the keyboard and grabs the tea.... so refreshing....... As I put the tea back down I have a nasty feeling - I can monotask but I can't multitask........ STOP! Noooooo! Jeb has 0.02 monopropellant left. I try - I really do. Tiny taps on the translate keys - like a woodpecker tapping a tree trunk. Of course it's no good - Jeb ends up close - tantalisingly close but there are no cigars in space (especially on EVA). Both he and the ship are on a highly eccentric orbit around Kerbin. Mission control solemnly finishes the tea and thinks......... How long have we got to get them back? They are in eliptical orbit but what if it sakes them close enough to the Mun SOI in a few orbits.... that could be a problem.... The scientists devise a rescue tug. The body is covered in ladders as the ship will have to 'drift' into Jeb as he has no EVA fuel [this would make a great contract BTW - rescue a Kerbal in orbit with no EVA fuel]. At the front of the ship is a makeshift claw (girders and landing legs) - we've not discovered docking yet. More worryingly we have not dicoverred RCS. Bob gets the ungainly device into LKO and plots an intercept. We'll pick up Jeb first and get him in the capsule and put Bob on the ladder. Then we'll manouver over to the lander containing all the science, grab it with the claw, drop it into a re-entry trajectory and EVA Bob into the lander pod. Easy! Eventually the green smiling (why!?) face of Jeb comes into view. On the third attempt Bob stops the ship about 3 to 5m from Jeb in a position that will allow him the disable the ASAS and rotate the ship to touch Jeb.... Bob begins the rotation....... Mission control shifts it's focus to Jeb and some tense moments later it happens..... ....GRAB! GOT IT! Amazingly we are in a position to rescue Jeb and the science! Mission Control is ecstatic! The feeling of relief is incredible! Except in this cruel world there is no escape - only temporary respite from the next disaster......... Mission control inexplicably, accidently, unacceptably, unfathomably, non-sensically, moronically, stupidly, unforgivably presses the space bar...... The pod (with Bob inside) seperates form the tanks and engine (with Jeb on the ladder). Pod + Tanks + Engine = Ship. Pod - Tanks - Engine <> Ship. This time there is no panic. No screaming. No shouting. Just emptiness. Mission control places its head in its hands and takes a deep breath. My lovely assistant says nothing. She can sense (as can all good assistants) that all is not well at Mission Control. It's late now and mission control needs time to think. And so mission control thinks. And sleeps on it. And dreams. And awakens. Mission control decides to relate the whole sorry saga in the hope that others may learn. And in Mission controls dreams there is always hope. Bob and Jeb are alive. Nothing is lost, only misplaced. And that which is misplaced can be found. WILL be found! -Cos

Hi folks, First post so let me first say thanks to Squad for creating and continuing to improve a fun, educational (and sometimes infuriating!) exepriece. With the addtion of the science system I was thinking about how I've seen tech-trees and science systems worked elsewhere. One that many here will be familiar with is UFO Enemy Unknown or XCOM Terror from the Deep (if you're not you then owe it to yourself to have a look). Basically a library for recording what you know and what you have reserached. It could be divided into a few catacgories comprising a knowledge base of: a) Components which have been researched. Components which have not been researched but are available for research. c) Celestial bodies. The last section in particular could be expanded as the player progresses. For example at the start of the Game there could be very simple list of bodies with a very brief description (Moon / Roid / Gas Giant etcc...) and some very basic information - colour / *estimated* mass / size / composition etc... As the plyer then exlplores the Solar system and performs experiments more information can be added regarding Geological Makeup / Temperature / Gravity / Effect on Goo(!) / Barometic Pressure etc... even any discoveries of ancient artefacts. Perhaps a note of the ship / crew / date that made the observation. Thanks for taking the time to read through - I'm sure the comunity will have their own take on the shape this could take. -Cos