Francois424

I really wish for throttle for wheeled rovers sometime in one of the future patches. Right now the only work-around (beside smashing an object on the accelerate key) is to put one or 2 ant engines and carry an ISRU with you. When you run out of fuel, break and mine. Ants have good gimbal too, and with reaction wheels can help a lot keeping steady... but the heavier the rover, the lower the control authority. Indeed. That's why I use Ion/Ants/Nerva in the meantime on heavy rovers.

Seen it once in 0.24.2. It's pretty rare I guess

Things I have done with parts : - Electrical Jet engine (when not installing FireSpitter or other propellers) that can operate in an atmosphere, any atmosphere, and only eats electricity. - 4x Weight/cost/heat... and thrust, 2,5m Nuclear engines... Radiators are not useless at all anymore, I love the really big ones. - Using procedural parts, a single Ion engine can replace 32 of it's smaller siblings, while still not being unbalanced (heavier 4200ISP still, need a whole lot of electricity). - (Mot Recent) my own nuclear reactor that replaces A LOT of RTGs, but require heavy Uranium to operate. Good efficiency. - I calculated every science equipment's weight that I used, and combined it into ONE part... the Science Lab... Works like a charm and no need to search on what to click. I think B9 did that too back in 0.25 or something. Convenience parts for the most part...even without the reactor; Stuff to reduce part counts (between procedural parts and a few choice editing, most of my interplanetary "Jool-5" types are between 175-250 parts instead of 350+) The most cheaty thing I made was a 2,5m engine that ran on Xenon and electricity with about 80'000 ISP(vacuum), and a "Super-Rapier" combining the best of the jet engines and a rocket ISP/THR hat was borderline broken (I retired it after a launch or 2, it was too unbalanced). Both where created when the tech tree was completed. I never mod parts until the tree is done. Consider it my own version of an "Interstellar Mod". Never thought of rebalancing the capsules the way you did tho... I didn't think there was any need (most of the time). It's fun to play with parts file every now and then, but I wouldn't do that to... say beat EVE. I still have not done it, and I wont 'cheat' to do it.

I'd like to know if this is fixed in KSP1.1/Unity5 as well. I'll try to reduce the terrain scatter, thanks for the tip.

So since KSP tells me "Nope!" for prop plane (or Firespitter leaking memory; which is more probable), I decided to concentrate on my Vall Exploration. I already had my Tharsis vehicle with 3 crew in orbit of Duna so I sent it to Vall. At the same time, I got my rover designed... An Ion craft with a nuclear reactor and 6 crates of 12.5k Xenon. Launched it, barely made it with available d-V (Note: IMPOSSIBLE to aero-break in 1.05 around Jool/Laythe, everytime I tried it lasts 3 sec and BOOM... very annoying and cost me a whole damn lot of Delta-V I did not want to spend, thankfully I had lots to spare). But I made landing and explored Vall a bit. The vehicle is heavy but stable, can go to 60 m/s no problem but has a hard time breaking... Lots of explosions ensues... It's a charm to drive tho. It can sit on medium plane landing gear (more durable, especially for high-speed, but more susceptible to loss of control) or an 8-motricity rugged wheel which has a tendency for flat tires and stuff, but much more stable (especially in the 10-20 m/s range), it does great to climb heavy slopes (> 12,5 degrees, which the Ion cannot handle if I don't have any speed built-up). Also, when the Reactor or Xenon runs dry, it can still operate on the rugged wheels thanks to 2 RTGs stashed on the undercarriage. Full suite of (stock) science experiments for my 1.1 career game eventually. Here it is, the Vall Explorer :

Would make a great InterplanetaryShip cockpit !

Today for the first time since god knows how long (My Moho expedition around x-mas I think), I decided to play KSP remotely seriously and started working on an electric plane powered by a nuclear reactor (the one I developed for my Tharsis reproduction of last week). I've since then rebalanced the reactor where I felt satisfied with it's performance versus weight. So I build the plane, test it, retouch it, test it again.... test landing, rigidity, climbing/balance, test optimal altitude (~3000m from lack of surface wings)... And decide to test it by going to the north pole. Well, halfway thru I ran out of memory. I had quicksaved remembering too well the memory crashes of KSP 0.25, So I reload and fly some more due north... Nope game crashes 30sec in now. Reason? Out of memory. So much for playing KSP a tiny bit seriously. Oh well, looks like I am grounded to VAB until 1.1 hits, and boy it can't come quickly enough. On another note, I think my crashes might have something to do with the electric propellers or maybe ground scatter (again). I guess I'll forget electric planes for now and concentrate on reliable regular rovers... umm I sense a Vall exploration coming up. Keep you guys posted. Oh and sorry no picture, but I can't leave you empty-handed... ummm... Oh yes! I have something representative of my afternoon session

I'm still waiting for the "Jool-5" contracts. In many saves I'd be able to get contacts to get stuff from Eve, Val, Jool, and maybe a 4th one. I never could build the Jool-5 contract by cancelling all the old ones... with this new rep hit each time, not doinf that anymore. What I really wanted is "Explore the Jool System" - Send science in orbit high above Jool - Send science in orbit low above Jool (Repeat these 2 lines for every body in the system) - then add lines for landed on X, such as collect samples, eva's, "in Laythe's atmosphere" and so on. The mother of all contracts as far as exploration goes. You don't have to take it, in case you only want to do say, Pol. But I'd love such contracts. Could be done for every bodies out there. Getting one like this for Sarnus/Urlum/Neidon and Plock if you have OPM installed would simply rock !

I've designed/worked/working on stuff planned to be used in KSP 1.1 - A good interplanetary ship (I have 2 models, one stock, the other not so much but with half parts count if not less... 1.1 will make the choice for me) - Scott's Feather: a quad-electric rotors atmospheric lander/biome hopper. Originally made for Tekto but with better (more powerfull) electric rotors it should work for any atmospheric bodies. - A nuclear Reactor... It still needs balancing in regards to Uranium weight and amount to be available in the reactor (with it's current efficiency I can reduce the amount by 1000), and I might get the interstellar reactor model for looks instead. - A low-tech Rover for low-G worlds (low-G as in Gilly/Minmus and the likes) working with RCS jets only. Good for completing the tech tree. - A mid-high tech Rover for any type of airless worlds. Not 100% satisfied with the design but close enough given that stuff might change in KSP 1.1. I have a few paper models of the type of stations I'd like to build, and I still have to build an amphibious rover and a worthy sea plane... Making something good enough and to my taste is quite challenging.

Cheating (for me) is using unlimited fuel, no crash damage, Hack Gravity (which I often use to test out things in space since I don't have that mod to "teleport" my crafts in orbit). Another form of cheating would be to create a magic engine. Say 25'000 thrust, 1'000'000 efficiency, that only eats electricity and nothing else. ( To note that Electric propellers aren't cheating in my book as they do not work in space, nor on any world without an atmosphere... Even the best one "flame out" around 38k on Kerbin. It does make a good biome hopper tho) TweakScale / Tweakable fuel tanks / Procedural parts are kinda cheat-ish... but not by much and require tech levels to work 100%, and are kind of a necessary evil when you start losing frames with a ship 150 parts and over. Usually if I want to do a Jool-5 and say... tell all the forums about it, I will only use stock landers only. The mothership will be bunch of procedural parts, and maybe even a nuclear reactor. I guess if you don't want to spoil the challenge (because cheating will), don't use any mods (parts mods) until you have explored every planet with a Kerbal + explore a couple of it's biomes + safe return, including eve and a Jool-5. After that, you can install stuff and "Mod it 'til it crashes!" Whatever helps your interest and fun in the game.

@Kuansenhama I'm an amateur modder. I take existing parts and copy them then change them. I don't do textures and all. But if you have the Origami Antenna working, it would just be a matter of changing/adding the solar panel stuff in the (new) part file. But if any modder want to tackle it, it would make a nice part indeed.

Looks like something out of Space 1999

@Kuansenhama That Origami antenna was a thing from a mod not so long ago... don't know if it's still maintained for 1.0.5 tho... Having same thing for solar panels would be really nice. Flat Fuel cells would be kind of nice as well. I've experimented with TweakScale and the 2,5m Ions are 64 kilo-newton. Pretty good. I've also modded a nuclear reactor... The game is far more interesting with all of these conveniences. Thanks for the spreadsheet, pretty much illustrate what ppl want. Hopefully it'll influence Squad once 1.1 is done and they start looking for parts suggestions.

Spent last night watching that new survival game "Tharsis" where a crew with a damaged ship tried to make it to mars... felt inspired. I was having issues with powering the 3x 2,5m Ion engines (total of 192 Kn of thrust with 4200 ISP really rocks)... However, A friend of mine who's a physicist in RL and was watching me play blurted out : "Why the F[bleeeep!]k aren't you using a Nuclear Reactor ?" Told him stock KSP did not have one and he said: "Well, Mod one, this is ridiculous"... It was easier than I thought. He provided efficiency vs regular LOX and weight quotes as I was adding Uranium as a resource and setting the physics stuff in the appropriate files... Turns out I have about 11k Delta-V and it's not because of me running out of Uranium, lol ! So with our immediate power crisis remedied, we managed orbit and set a Rendez-vous with Duna... Enjoy ! Ship doing departure burn for Duna : Ship has arrived at Duna and now performing capture burn: We made it... Unfortunately, 15m/s landing proved too hard for the ship (4 parachute + 4 Drogue chutes)... but all the modules survived ! A flag was planted to celebrate.

Well if you have Kerbal Engineer you can save your ship to another name and modify it to see how much Delta-V each configuration gives you. ie: just remove the fuel from your 2 tanks and check how much you have. then remove them entirely and add the weight to your main ship, check again.

I use whatever link provided by the Original topic of whatever mod I want (please Please PLEASE update your Original post with proper version support and files modders... I hate going to page 179 to find the "updated, good working file") Given the choice, I will always pick Kerbal Stuff just because I find the layout pleasing and easy to use.

Vector is often not worth it in my designs. I've built Tylo landers, big, massive ore miners, Interplanetary ships... Very rarely is the engine so OP that I want to use it on all my ships. Cost is kind of irrelevant, late in tech tree means that it's seldom used in career if at all (like the Ion-engine since they moved it to the end-tree) - The weight makes it unpractical as a "extra-thrust" switch, - with the gimble/sas bug I worry of using on Kerbin (although restricting the Gimbal works... but not always, causing lots of reverting to launch/vab) , - the ISP is good, but not spectacular, so It's not finding much use on my Interplanetary ships... I'll gladly stomach 30min burns if it means I double my Delta-V in the long run. The best use I have found for the Vector is LF boosters. Extremely good at that too ! I love the color/exhaust color/shape of the engine tho it looks awesome.

you could check my latest one which fits your criteria to a Tee. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/27292-what-did-you-do-in-ksp-today/&page=855 (Mine is slightly below half the page. Sorry I don't know how to link to a specific post in the page) Although I split the Lander and the Miner into 2 different entities for efficiency (Miner being better adapted to haul 50k ore from planet back to ship to refuel the drive section, and lander being adapted to be able to lift-off from everywhere except Kerbin and Eve), I am sure you could combine the 2 into some kind f super lander. The whole ship makes out ~280 parts and has ~9500 dV fully fueled with the ore tanks of the miner empty. You could fill her up and refine fuel during the long transfers for (I assume) most likely a 50% range increase. It's not stock tho. I would have absolutely no problem rebuilding it stock... Except that the ore tank alone would add 32 parts, the engines would add 36 parts, the LF tanks would be 18 more parts (+ struts), and the solar panels would add 16 parts. Nothing in my ship is an unbalanced part, all of them are for reducing part count EDIT: On the picture, there are about 10-20 struts holding it together, those are mandatory as the ship wants to tear itself apart without them. Which mean you'd also have to have 'Kerbal Attachment System' to "re-strut" after each mission of the landers.

I am always surprised at ppl making inter-planetary ships using the "minimalistic approach". How much D-V did it have ?

You reap what you sow. You guys at Squad pushed thru from timid beginnings of KSP where escaping the atmosphere was almost impossible to science mode, to career mode, to stick aero and having a base game that hits 3 gigs un-modded that everyone wants to play and runs out of memory on.... and keep coming back for more. This game has : - Exiting, finger twitching moment of intense stress (landing on the Mün / Eve / Tylo), where a slight distraction or small mistake costs you your mission (Hope you F5'ed) - Pretty epic moment of awe (first time entering a place like Jool, or starting at Kerbin from the Moon and the likes. - Mind-crushing design phase in the VAB where you wonder where that half-degree rotation while at full throttle is coming from <-- this feel like back when I was a programmer... vulgar language ensues, I'm telling you. Or trying to squeeze that last 500 delta-V without making your perfect design look like crap (thanks for rotation/clipping tools btw !) - Relaxing moment where you get to catch your breath (missing from Many, many modern games), where you just stare at the screen or let your ship do that 20min burn on auto-pilot - Excellent replayability (not even factoring-in mods here) and completely open-world... Nothing prevents you from going anywhere with anything (whether you come back home or not)... - Nothing on rails except the science tree, which is about the only thing I'd wish for a new stock customization option. - No time limit (did you fix the negative clock bug in 1.1 ?). You want to keep playing your game for 2000 Kerbal years ? then you can do so. - it has for limiting factor your hardware/memory (even moreso with 1.1 coming). You can push the game as far as you want, mod it until you have 50 gigs of mods. Not many games can allow for this. - Simple but elegant graphics and gameplay logic... it's as complex as it needs to be (well, it needs at least Kerbal Engineer once you know how to reach orbit reliably). - it has insane modding community (KER, KAS, OPM, EVE, and so many others). How can it NOT win something? Don't sound so surprised and congratulation !

My first Jool probe back in 0.23 I wasn't even planning to do it. I asked a friend who was visiting and spending the night over to pick me a target. He thought he was smart and said Jupiter. ( Obviously this was Jool ), so I whipped some kind of transfer stage in about 20min, and build an Ion probe on top and launch the whole thing with a gazillion boosters. To note that at the time I had never went anywhere beside Mün and Minmus, but still had a lot of "Engineering time" in the VAB... Well, I made it with D-V to spare, so I circularized on the same plane, between Laythe and Vall, and renamed my probe the 'Jool Fairy' I only have 2 pictures that survived to this day... This one is the transfer stage just after (before?) aerobreaking at Jool : The Next one is a somewhat limited view of the 'Jool Fairy' with panels extended :

I think the idea stems from the fact that Mods needs to be maintained. They need to be maintained for almost every patch, and not everyone has the time to (freely) fix their mods in a timely manner. I had 2 favorite mods of mine stopped being supported, and because of a license thing, could not be fixed by a 3rd party and re-uploaded. And don't get me started on conflicts mods can cause with the game, either benign small little glitches or straight out game killing ones. Now on the other hand, stock features are automatically supported, debugged, and maintained. You *know* the thing will work well and you don't have to wait 1-4 weeks for them after each update. I would believe that the most important mods to be "Stock" would be an EVE-alike, and obviously Kerbal Engineer. Kerbal Attachment system (even without the wrench and tools) would do wonder since we now have ISRU, and would be useful to strut your motherships up in space after assembly. Thankfully, the 3 I just mentioned tend to update themselves rather quickly after an official version release. Then comes the hundred of parts ppl feel are missing from the stock game, which are dispersed in over 30 different mods or more, which may or may not get updated and the parts might glitch or not work anymore (just like the Orion capsule I managed to find, only to noticed it was glitched as hell and would not attach at all in the VAB). Stock makes everything better... for the most part. Still not satisfied with the current aero here, but better than it was.

I guess it depends how much you hate lag. I once needed to send 6 probes to Jool... Both for mapping the moons, and a huge Relay satellite in high orbit of Jool. I could send a 1000 parts launcher (Down to 750 after the launcher is gone), which takes about 7 sec of RL time for 1sec in-game. Do one planning, and one burn. Or I could send each of the probes with a 20 parts Ion drive for 9k delta-V (so who cares about transfer windows), I went with the mothership, and I'm telling you, it was very painful and killed-off most of the fun for a while. Releasing each probe from the Main ship once at Jool was fun tho. But I'd be weary of making another craft like it before 1.1 and maybe after. I still like making Big ships, but I try to seriously cut down on the parts count by any means necessary. I don't have a bad system, but sinc eI like playing KSP with a green clock that means no more than ~200 parts unfortunately. I hope 1.1 gives us a 100-200% increase in the green (Unrealistic hopes, but hoping nonetheless).

If you want "non-cheaty" but efficient engines, I suggest MRS (ModRocketSys) mod as it holds a part that combines 4 Nervas into one part. Good for reducing part count. You could also get tweakscale and Procedural parts for the same reasons. I was able to build a 200k LF container from 2 parts, very very useful. With tweakscale , the Ion engines and their 4200 ISP are good candidates to be used more as the 2.5m variant pushes around 30 thrust, and it does not stop at 2,5m in size either. Tweakscale alone also does not change your available stock parts, but allow them to be bigger (Or Smaller) to suit your needs. I would also seriously suggest the Outer Planets Mod (OPM), it's simply amazing (even better if you can get clouds to work), and adds no less than ~13 places to land on and explore. So MRS, OPM and TweakScale are my suggestions, maybe Procedural Parts/Tanks but the latter will change the stock look, and it might be changing too much for your liking. Good Luck.

Does not appear that it does nope... But it's still undergoing tweaking; just added an RCS tug I had forgotten to do the assembly, and I'm still missing the 2,5m base to 10m inflatable Heatshield. Now that I think about it, it does feel quite heavy when loading and/or transitioning to the Launchpad. Thank god the final version will be assembled in orbit in about 3-4 launches. Oh and make that 3,7 million Kerbucks / 1875 tons / 281 parts (woo, more lag... where are you 1.1?).