James_Eh

I made some more progress this evening, and then realized that I hadn't actually tried out any of the new parts from 23.5 yet, and things got a bit away from me. I still hate the little tanks, but like every new bit I try to tame in the "game" ("lifestyle choice") I'm getting there. Thanks in particular to Taki117 : I will have to fiddle with those Oscar-B tanks. And thanks to all for the advice. I still hate these jerk orange circles, but less than before. Here was my final solution (heh):

Hmmm. I tried the following: pulled off the outermost cubic struts (engines came along) and threw them out. Then tried attaching a second ring of doughnuts and yep, they went on and clipped also. So yah, the above seems correct. But engines wouldn't attach. So I threw a cubic strut into the middles again, and then was able to attach engines. Up to 5500 dV! (2 engines per tank now to keep TWR up.) So, if I want to join the last two tanks to the main tanks in true asparagus fashion, I guess I need to have to build a wee tower of cubic struts so I can run a fuel line from them to the core somewhere? To be clear - there is no way to attach anything to these things except in the hole at the center? Seems odd to me. Maybe they just aren't meant for this kind of thing? PS - this modification allowed me to reach orbit, then deorbit and land safely. I was watching dV the whole time and was relieved to see it at around 150 when I touched down. Then I looked at the fuel levels remaining and laughed because I had something like 0.8 units left. Gotta love wee tanks!

So after deciding to build teeny things for a bit I'm having all kinds of issues with the toroidal fuel tanks. They only seem to want to attach to other things at the central hole. This leads to some strangeness, it looks like they are just hanging there. Plus it seems impossible to run fuel lines to them. Last, I can't figure out the rules about sticking them together. In the picture below, it is not immediately apparent but the pair at the top are somewhat clipped inside each other even though I don;t have clipping enabled or anything. I can't make them attach any other way. But on the side tanks, they will only attach normally - and then the engines won't attach to anything. I have resorted to using cubic struts everywhere, but that only got me this far. Any hints on how to deal with these infernal things would be appreciated.

Not so much moods shifting, as rocket size changing. Giant boosters = ACDC. Teeny little rockets get a song that I culled from a kids' cartoon a long time ago, dunno what it's called but it is mostly kazoos. One of the funnest afternoons I have spent on the game was trying to build a rocket that would throw away stages during key moments of "Thunderstruck".

Heh, never mind MJ, just pre-22 ASAS. (Or whichever version came before it was tweaked.) "What do you think you are doing, Jeb?" (D-D-D-D-D-D-D) "Just trying to turn RIGHT!!!" "I can't allow that, Jeb."

"Ant-engine"-only Tylo descent / reascent vehicle? That oughta push the part count into the multiple thousands and give the new computer a good ride. Ooohhh, and launch it from Kerbin with only Ion engines. (My spreadsheet just ran out of rows.)

Huh... non-steam, so I had to do a back-of-the-envelope calc which vastly depressed me. 1,200 hrs +/- 300. (Forums don't count.) Why in the world am I not better at this game???? Man, it will take me another (some number of years, can't be bothered to do the math) to get to 20,000 hrs = champion level. That's it. Time to play Wii bowling.

They are ridiculous. Here is a very very bad design. Each docking port is supporting something like 100 tonnes laterally. The thrust from the LV-N's was low, ultimately built to about 0.2G, and the two landers bent WAY back towards the main ship, but never broke. Even more crazy bending during Laythe aerobrake. At which point I decided I hated the ship so much that I crashed it.

I think it`s 42. (Nothing to see here, move along...)

Also, I have yet to see them doing any damage as they decouple, even though sometimes you'd be afraid that they would. Made of lead foil or some such apparently. Welcome!

Yah, I looked at the challenge when you posted it, briefly considered fooling with it, then decided that I had had just about enough of Tylo for a while. But I thoroughly enjoyed the writeup, and the detailed instructions!

Psssssst, Kashua - I don't think there's any atmosphere!

"Bill took a little detour" : Why are those the funniest pix ever? I had Jeb do the same thing. (edit: Then I looked at your team photo back on Kerbin and have started to wonder why Laythe's oceans are opaque. Investigation required!)

On Tylo the lander legs might not compress quite as far as on Kerbin. Would the ladder still be in reach if it was a little bit higher?

Well, you've clearly identified the "Evil 3" in Eve, Tylo, and Moho. I think it is really fun that each one poses a completely different challenge so that there is no particular "one size fits all" solution. I used to include Laythe in that list, but have since decided that it doesn't rank with the others, although missing teeny islands by a few km and splashing into the ocean is never a good start to a mission. Welcome aboard!

Aha - I didn't do it right. Here we go!

Yes, a motorcycle which was propelled forwards with a stage separator. It was very hard to keep it on the ramp on the way down. I posted this somewhere else also, but below is an example of the usual result. PS - So proud! My first post with the "Accomplished" ribbon!!! Can I be very nitpicky and ask that you include "no refueling" for me on the leaderboard? (edit - Oh rats! Where is my ribbon???)

Distance from top of ramp, or bottom? Because I either just jumped 55 meters, or maybe negative 10. (Fell off ramp! For the umpteenth time. More of a long fall challenge really...)

Frankly, I would. It would mean leaving my wife and (nearly grown kids) behind, and it would be the hardest decision I would ever, ever make, but the opportunity to be able to make that kind of contribution to the species as a whole, which I am quite positive I will never have otherwise, is something that I would not be able to turn down, assuming that my assessment of the mission gave SOME kind of success probability. What is that number? No idea. 40%? 50%. It's moot, because I am too old and underqualified for such an endeavor. HOWEVER: I remain fully convinced that the only successful one-way colonization missions will need to involve families, at the very least young couples. History supports this. Ocean voyages to new lands. Covered wagons to the North American plains. And so on. People did not just risk their own lives, but their families'. And this is where I begin to waffle immensely. What if the mission were only taking families? Would I accept the same possibility of death for my entire family? I suspect that is where I would back away from this. Could I take my kids on a 1 way trip to Mars even if the odds were 80% that we'd survive? I'm not sure I have that in me.

I did for about 10 years until I turned 30. It had always been a goal of mine since I had previously played French Horn and Oboe, and apparently the pipes were the third member of that group of "3 hardest instruments to play good". It really helped that I had owned a recorder all the way from age 8 onwards. Alas I never owned the pipes, they belonged to the marching band, and when I had to give that up the pipes went too. But hope springs eternal - I now live on a large enough property that I can play without immediate complaints from neighbours, and am considering shelling out the (not insignificant) cash for a set.

I should have been far, far more specific. I am trying to tame the power of the RAPIERs to launch a SSTL(aythe) vehicle. I find that (my rudimentary) planes are relatively easy, although I know others have done many amazing things with them. I have made lots of SSTOs too, but this is my first time fiddling around with these newfangled RAPIERS and really large payloads. I still think that the KSP gang did a great job in designing the exact runway length (and small downslope) to let players have the suspense of the last few metres of runway action. Plus, the two little signposts (or whatever they are) at the very end of the runway are a nice, evil touch. ("Leave wing bits here")

... making the runway and subsequent dropoff JUST long and steep enough for many many heartwrenching moments as space planes struggle to lift off. Another evening ruined where I had productive, real-life stuff planned. Now I am hooked on achieving liftoff sans tailstrike. Why, oh why, did I ever let my son (who can make these fool plane thingies fly wherever he wants) talk me into trying a radically different approach?!? (Oh yah - because, KSP.)

In the VAB, if you hold SHIFT while using WASD the parts rotate in 5 degree increments.

Sacrificed Gus a number of times:

Agreed. Except I usually put the seats on to the rovers in an incorrect orientation and the Kerbals have to ride around on the rover staring straight up at the sky. I will have to sit down to make a single-stage Tylo land/ascent vehicle. Although I have had it with the Jool system for a while, maybe I will finally upload HypedEdit to be able to do testing. That ship looks amazing! I have never used the Kethane mod either. Do all of the boxy structures come from it? PS - I'm taking a break from serious playing and am trying to figure out how to get a wheeled vehicle onto this: