Quantum Incorporated: for all of your wormhole needs!

[QuantumInc]

I suspected for a long time that if I bought this game I would become instantly addicted to it. After playing a game called "Space Engineers" for 400 hours over Christmas I decided I needed to do something different...well not completely different. I played through the demo, the introduction to orbital both intimidated and intrigued me. Several hours later I decided to bite the bullet. My first rocket in career mode had three parts, RT-10 SRB, Mk1 Command Pod, Mk25 Parachute, it flew well beyond 5000m and conveniently landed in front of the astronaut complex. So Jeb just walked over for a beer.

I spent days and nights trying to see how many contracts I could fulfill in a single contract. When I started getting contracts to survey minimus I decided it was time for my first trip to the mun. I did a 935,000 contract to test the huge Liquid Fuel Booster in orbit, fortunately it turned out that it doesn't need to be actually full. Then I started developing a ship to lift an unused S1 SRB with a rescue ship on one end, and a massive lander with a science lab on top, oh and collect data from space and test this decoupler in orbit while you're at it. There was a ridiculous amount of trial and error involved with my method. It helped when I learned about struts.

Turns out the S1 SRB is more than enough to get a science lab to the mun from orbit. It also turns out that very tall landers are a very bad idea. Still with enough quick loads I managed to not only land but execute multiple hops, travel home with a minimum of fuel and collect 1527 science in a single trip.

Unfortunately the game had a tendency to crash at an hourly rate during all this. Something about the transition between viewing a spacecraft and viewing a space center menu completely boggled my old computer. Admittedly this was the same computer that would automatically reboot if I made the mistake of watching youtube for a continuous 15 minutes. I suspected the CPU was overheating, a problem that appeared a few months ago and had been getting steadily worse, so maybe I should have been more cautious and avoided attempting to alter the virtual memory. Altering the virtual memory ostensibly would allow me to install Active Texture Management to solve the hourly game crashes...potentially. However when I went to the bathroom the machine overheated, froze, and refused to turn back on. The CPU had melted, finally retiring several years of active service. I was thinking of buying a new computer anyway...

Although KSP ostensibly works better with 32-bit I've had no issues on the new machine so far, with or without texture management. I haven't touched the career save I fished alongside a lifetime of data from my old hard drive. Instead I've been investigating and testing the various mods.

Having VOID and Engineer Redux simply tell me my delta-V is awesome, so is the launch window planner. I'm definetely including FAR. My minimus ship will feature Universal Storage Wedges for all of the DMagic orbital science instruments, and the lander will have a Karbonite scanner. The name "Quantum Incorporated" originally came from HomeWorld: Cataclysm which features a lot of conveniently placed wormholes. I figured there must be a hyper-advanced yet unprofitable corporation creating them all. As such my endgame is to used the ESLD Jumpdrive Beacon mod to make a network. The mod allows you to jump between beacons instantly, but adds fuel requirements and some complicated line of site issues. It inspired RoverDude to change the K+ mod to work better with it. Apparently the original mod developer left, but somebody else updated it for 0.90.http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110487-0-90-ESLD-Jump-Beacons-KMs-fork-Dev-0-3c

I've also been thinking for a while that I really need to get into making mods for games. To live up to my name that might mean something similar to the ESLD Jumpdrive. Though maybe a "Kerbal Space Engineers" mod that allows you use "welder" modules to move and assemble absolutely any module (expanding on the Kerbal Attachment System). Or create a black hole mod, and make people visit the black hole in order to power their wormhole generators. Unfortunately I have more ideas that I have the patience or courage to actually work on.

[Vanamonde]

Hello QuantumInc. I suspect you will play this game for much more than 400 hours.

[Tex]

Welcome aboard! Sounds like you've found your way around the block a few times. Ever try interplanetary stuff yet?

[Yukon0009]

Welcome! You're waay better than me at career mode

[QuantumInc]

I have not really launched any interplanetary missions. Though I did notice that the space station scenario has a ship orbiting Duna and I eventually found a trajectory to get it home. Having your ship approach a planet from behind works well, also aerobraking. I noticed that in Launch Window Planner, there is a good trajectory to Moho for day 39. That will be my first interplanetary. I already launched a lander to Minimus with a single LVN and an exorbitant amount of fuel. With the well..minimal...surface gravity I've been able to hop to different spots over a dozen times (4 long range hops, mostly because of temperature scanning contracts).

While I was planning the trajectory for my minimus lander I accidently happened to get a munar flyby, I adjusted it to an intentional munar flyby, using the chance for a gravity assist and to test out the orbital science mod. When planning a trajectory back to Kerbin I again just happened upon a munar flyby, and then took the time to make a proper gravity assist flyby. Well, I suppose that the Mun is inbetween Minimus and Kerbin, so you ought to fly past it going both directions!

[Whirligig Girl]

I am super-duper surprised that your computer didn't vaporize playing Space Engineers!

Anyway, welcome aboard Quantum Inc, to the Forums.

Also, it's not entirerly clear, but are you using 64-bit version of KSP? NEVER DO THIS! It is truly the most buggy compilation of code possible*! KSP runs fine-ish on 32-bit on a 64-bit OS. Certainly better than the 64-bit version.

*this is what you call a "hyperbole"

Edited March 10, 2015 by GregroxMun