Madrias

From having used repulsors as anti-lithobraking devices on lighter crafts, I could give a bit of information. Maximum Altitude is not what you want, contrary to popular belief. I've found it can make craft a little bit unstable. Around 75 to 80% of maximum is preferred. Strength, set somewhere around 80% or so. Powerful, but not pushing those risky boundaries (again, I've noticed some respond fine to 100% power, but others get touchy and do stupid things, like spinning or auto-destruction.) Dampening, around 20% to 70%, depending on the craft. Lower values are better for heavier craft from my testing. Higher values are good for light craft traveling rapidly across rougher terrain, where the ability to absorb that bump, terrain seam, or momentary loss of ground is more critical than your ground clearance. That many repulsors, I'd be worried about power draw concerns. Try removing about half of those rearmost repulsors, make the needed adjustments, and see if the ship is more stable. Also, keep in mind that repulsors will not steer you, nor will they slow you down. You'll need an action group to slowly turn them down and eventually off, and you'll need landing gear to touch down on, preferably some with brakes. Note: I'm not a developer for the mod, so my mentions of what things do is more based on what I've gotten from playing about with the settings. I've done my testing, but I'm not always 100% right.

The crooked landing gear isn't helping matters, either. Straighten those out using the Rotate tool and you should eliminate some of the speed wobble.

Throwin' it all in the bin and starting over. My aircraft division will need a major overhaul, so it's easier to build new ones there. I may have to clear the spiderwebs and large spiders out of the VAB and try rockets if making an spaceplane is too difficult. The Class A floating around the Mun isn't important enough to keep. I'll get a new one. That, and I'll need to upgrade all the mods I'm using (and if the theme holds, eliminate 30% of them to make up for the memory-gobbling going on in every update).

Occ, the extend/retract function used to be like an on/off switch, but after much testing revealed the destructive power of suddenly-engaged repulsors, it was set up to raise or lower the repulsor power in increments of 5, I think. Tapping Retract should eventually get you to the ground and shut the repulsors down, and tapping extend will gradually raise your vehicle back into the air.

0.23.5 Good blend of everything, and very playable. Really a lot of fun. Flown many planes.

1.0 should focus on stability. I hate to say it, but new features have been what's proven the game is unstable in the past. For me, 23.5 x64 was stupidly stable (more so than the x86 version, as it reduced the memory problems). 25 x64 was so unstable that I had to drop back to x86 and the memory leaks started to kick my butt. 90 added more stuff, and so I looked to -force-opengl to cut the memory costs before I felt comfortable playing. Yes, I use mods. I can go back through my saved versions and notice with every update, I had a decrease in the size of my GameData folder. So if I had to choose between Even Moar Features! and Let's Squish The Bugs! I'm going to say, Kill the bugs, plug the leaks, and release a clean game to the public. Because, let's face it, you're going to get eaten alive by critics (never met a nice one, at least). It's better to be called out for having "Not enough features" than to be called out for having "Way too many bugs." Consider it this way: the Kraken may be our playful way of dealing with crashes, bugs, inexplicable savegame losses, and generally anything dealing with explosions. Critics won't have this in mind and they won't be laughing when their ship suddenly explodes, they get the Hell Kraken, and can't load their save. If you want to release cool features for 1.0, then you need to release a 0.99.0 release full of bugfixes.

I've used RCS for a lot of things, actually. Deorbit: Both planned (RCS used when fuel remained) and unplanned (Ran out of Oxidizer with a periapsis too high to aerobrake). Docking: Always. I don't care how much torque you've got, you need something to push you sideways. Low Grav Landing: Not so much as the primary landing engine, but as delta-V assistance once 90% of the descent velocity is eaten up by the main engine, then the last 20 meters or so is all RCS. Course Corrections (turning/reorienting): Yep. SAS torque is good for small vehicles, but once you've got your Jool-Class mothership moving around, you need something to move you around. Stability Control: On occasion, but yes. Once you're high enough up that your control surfaces are lacking authority, but your main engines are still pushing some thrust, you need something to give you some direction. And now for things not mentioned in the main list. Rover Propulsion: Landing gear, a few girders, a cockpit, and some SAS thrusters. Instant Kerbaled Rover. Action Group: Anyone who's played Career mode knows this one. I need something to open solar panels. Low Gravity Main Stage: Four O-10 engines around the Rockomax RCS can with your remaining rocket pieces on top. Leave your landing crap behind and power up. Takeoff-Boosters: O-10 engines, some RCS fuel, and up you go with even your heaviest planes. Satellite Adjustment Systems: Using your RCS to adjust the orbits of your satellites when they're now in the way of your debris field.

I can fly some of my planes with SAS off, and I've accidentally flown orbits with no SAS. Otherwise, I generally just leave it on, even for planes. I try to build so that taking the hands off the keyboard with no SAS active will continue to fly the aircraft on a slight downward path.

6.4x in my 0.90 install. No FAR, no real fuels, just 6.4x Kerbin. I find it a fun little challenge.

Oh, that looks like it'll be good! Can't wait to try 'em out (even without IVA, for now) and I know they'll be better once there's some way to peek out from inside. Looks like good high-visibility driving cabs.

Trust me, Thorbane, it's better this way. I tested a few experimental repulsors that showed the depth of this problem, and it's not pretty. Even the default ones could be devastating when they first started up. We're talking "break the craft and crater the runway" bad.

Gotta admit, these parts are a lot of fun.

When 1.0 releases, I'll probably be playing in dual-mode again. .90 for my modded stuff, 1.0 for a semi-stock playthrough. (I'm sure some mods will still work... And even if they don't, that won't stop me duplicating and config-modding some parts.)

Build efficient primarily, then make it look good. If done right, you'll only sacrifice a little of your delta-V to achieve a look that you can enjoy.

Gotta admit, that tug cockpit is nice!

A Simplified, cartoony spaceflight simulation game with building elements. Kinda like Space Legos except without the whole "We do your imagining for you now" thing. I spend as little time in the VAB as possible. I just don't find rockets fun. I build everything in the SPH, and on a lot of occasions, do really crazy, kinda stupid things to get my craft into orbit. For me, KSP ends up being the game that lets me be creative, yet is as "open world" as it gets. I just wish there were cities on Kerbin so I had some reason to land more precisely. After all, landing in some farmer's field with your brand new, still-hot-from-reentry spaceplane probably should incur some reputation loss...

Sandbox with no quicksaves or reverts. It's more fun that way. Yes, I know, one game glitch and it's game over, but it's risk vs. reward. Landing the Kerbal Equivalent of the Space Shuttle on the runway after a trip to the Kerbal Science Station is more rewarding when you only have one shot at it. Accidentally launching a plane or rocket with no way to return the crew safely becomes a situation, rather than "Oh, crap. Revert to Assembly." Breaking up on landing has you on the edge of your seat, because you're hoping the capsule comes out safe on the other side of the boom. And you get instant rescue missions when things go wrong. That ship with no parachutes you brought back from the Mun, because the chutes were left on the Mun Lander System, that's on a sub-orbital trajectory with no corrective fuel left... Well, you've got that much time to go rescue the crew, or they'll crash and burn. And lately, I've added 6.4x Kerbin to the mess, without FAR. Because I like a good challenge.

Flying fast stunt-planes around Kerbin, trying to skim as close to the ground as I can without crashing, following the terrain. Also enjoy flying on other worlds with atmosphere.

Sepratrons and chutes. On smaller craft, spin-dumping does the job.

I've been having fun by increasing my game difficulty. Made the whole solar system bigger. Also said "No thanks" to FAR.

Been a long time since I've seen staged horizontal takeoff. I've done it, but not so much as "lift the nose" as "Get this thing moving!" Very few aircraft, thankfully, need an RT-10 shoved under each wing just to make it to takeoff speed before running out of runway. That thing back in 0.23.5... Takeoff velocity at 330 m/s. Cargo capacity? One Science Lab for the space station, plus two Kerbals, plus pilot.

Are SSTO's overpowered? I don't see it as such. Sure, you can chuck a cheap, disposable satellite into orbit with a handful of parts. Congratulations, you have, what, one satellite that can't go anywhere but Kerbin? As for my area of building, SSTO aircraft, they seem overpowered at first (and some designs take it to the ridiculous and extreme), but they counter themselves with the design time, RTO duration (runway-to-orbit), and minimal payload capacity. Most of my SSTO's are great... For transferring crew to stations, returning crew to Kerbin, or filling up the slots on a colonization ship. Sure, I can chuck a satellite in the cargo bay and do something with it, but it's not really worth doing. I'm going to spend the next hour flying the bloody thing to orbit, put a satellite in orbit, and come home. In that same time, I can launch a 2STO or 3STO rocket, toss an extension onto my space station, put a satellite around Duna, and transfer some crew home from Science Station Alpha. What I've found overpowered is Jet-Assisted Rocket Takeoff Systems. Slinging your rocket upward on 3 to 6 screaming jet engines, only cutting them off before flameout, then igniting your primary rocket stage to make orbit is a bit more... crazy. Then again, is it really 'overpowered' if you're having fun? Might have to give 6.4x Kerbin a try. I could use a good fun challenge.

You could always take something like a Basic Jet and make a duplicate of it, config-modded to consume ElectricCharge and IntakeAir as part of your launch kit. I've got about half-a-dozen like that in my save files. Done right, you can make it as inefficient as needed to feel balanced (just reduce ISP and fuel needs go up, both in Air and Charge) and reduce the thrust to more reasonable levels. As for how you can claim it works: Ducted Fan. For getting into space, however, you'll need a bit of a kick to get there, as the atmosphere becomes too thin to throw out the back. At this point, you'll need some form of propellant, even if it's a huge Ion Drive with greater-than-1 TWR and really, really horrid efficiency, consuming tons of electric power and roaring through your Xenon supply. Best method would be to make a different fuel resource than Xenon be used, because Xenon, from what I've seen, draws from the entire ship and could leave you stranded in orbit without fuel. Then again, I also use KSP Interstellar, mostly for reactors (I hate, absolutely hate, solar panels. I always break the stupid things, or I've angled ships so I can't get any power.) for station-power and long-distance ships. What I'm saying is, it's easy enough to make some all-electric spacecraft, if you're willing to put time in to mod it. Ducted fans work in atmosphere, at some point, you need mass to throw out of the ship (some form of fuel) to get into orbit, but once you're there, you have some more options.

I'll admit I haven't yet figured out how to use the hitch.

To some extent, yes. There are some Kerbals who are my designated test pilots, some who 'retired' and bought a ticket to the space station to live in the home they helped build, some Kerbals who have a ship named after them because of something awesome that happened, and even some Kerbals who have vowed never to fly again. As for me? Strap cameras to a probe ship and go make a completely 'first person' flight.