Public Service Announcement: Dealing with New ISP Calculations!

[Red Iron Crown]

Doesn't this also mean that Eve ascents will go from extremely difficult to nightmare mode? Atmospheric thickness there would have even more detrimental effects on surface Isp than Kerbin. Couple that with heavy gravity and even Mainsail landers are looking iffy.

Possibly. I'd assume that if dV to LKO is reduced then so will dV to low Eve orbit, while keeping TWR up with pressure reduced thrust will add to the challenge. There's also the fact that the typical pancake Eve ascender design will presumably be very draggy under the new aero. We'll have to wait and see how it balances out.

[Renegrade]

By the way, just in case it wasn't clear from my original post, the concept is to install KIDS, set it up as shown, and try flying to see what would happen.

This is the main reason rockets in real life have boosters - to provide a lot of extra umph on the ground when the rocket liquid fuel motors have lower thrust. As you climb out of the atmosphere the rocket motors really pick up some steam.

Well, that's one of the reasons. There's also fuel mass, drag, and even gravity (upwards of 11% difference at a 400km orbit on Earth, 20-27% for Kerbin @70-100k)!

Possibly. I'd assume that if dV to LKO is reduced then so will dV to low Eve orbit, while keeping TWR up with pressure reduced thrust will add to the challenge. There's also the fact that the typical pancake Eve ascender design will presumably be very draggy under the new aero. We'll have to wait and see how it balances out.

Actually it's probably (assuming nothing insane happens) less draggy under the new aero. It just won't be as less-draggy as a proper shape, hehe.

(Assuming nothing insane happens. I might be going out on a limb with that assumption though :/)

[Temeter]

While engines will have less thrust in low atmosphere, I expect starting rockets to be a lot easier in general. FAR needs around 30% less D-V to reach orbit compared to our beloved soupusphere, and we can expect the new stock aero to behave similarly. For the early stages, just follow the classic KSP solution to everything: Add more rockets! In this case, SRBs.

Tbh, I'm kinda hoping the engines will get balanced back to be a lot less efficient in atmosphere, FAR feels a bit too easy at times compared to the haywire monsters I send to space in old stock. Otherwise there will be scalers and mods for all kinds of tastes.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Temeter

[EtherDragon]

While engines will have less thrust in low atmosphere, I expect starting rockets to be a lot easier in general. FAR needs around 30% less D-V to reach orbit compared to our beloved soupusphere, and we can expect the new stock aero to behave similarly. For the early stages, just follow the classic KSP solution to everything: Add more rockets! In this case, SRBs.

Tbh, I'm kinda hoping the engines will get balanced back to be a lot less efficient in atmosphere, FAR feels a bit too easy at times compared to the haywire monsters I send to space in old stock. Otherwise there will be scalers and mods for all kinds of tastes.

I don't mind if it's "30% easier" (to oversimplify) to reach orbit, as new players picking up the game will be able to get hooked into the space race more easily. The other milestones are still just as hard, rendezvous, docking, Mun / Minmas landings, and going interplanetary don't get hardly any easier with new aero.

In fact, some of these tasks get harder because now we have to worry about reentry heat!

[Temeter]

I don't mind if it's "30% easier" (to oversimplify) to reach orbit, as new players picking up the game will be able to get hooked into the space race more easily. The other milestones are still just as hard, rendezvous, docking, Mun / Minmas landings, and going interplanetary don't get hardly any easier with new aero.

In fact, some of these tasks get harder because now we have to worry about reentry heat!

Reaching orbit is never hard as soon as you've learned the basics (especially with patched joints). Making the game easier for accessibility shouldn't really be a factor, you could use that argument for every single part of the game. KSP's difficulty level has been proven to be accessible enough to reach a, maybe surprisingly, huge playerbase.

It will scale down the part of building rockets though. Which always was a central part of KSP, especially for a beginner.

[Laie]

I'm dumb and confused. What will the new model 'feel' like in terms of a typical rocket launch, say the Kerbal X?

You'll have a lower TWR than expected at launch time. A KR-2L would have a thrust of 1800kN on the pad. As you gain altitude, it's thrust would quickly improve to something like 2300kN @5km, eventually reaching the nominal 2500kN@30km (all figures based on it's current ISP wich may no longer apply when v1.0 drops). You know how TWR improves during flight because the rocket sheds mass? Under the new model, you will have a second factor that also increases your TWR as you go; and during the first 20-30 seconds of the flight, it may well be the more important factor.

I guess that typical rockets will be barely able to lift off, yet still gains speed quickly.

I also foresee that "kicker" boosters may become fashionable: short burn time, medium thrust, just enough to get you off the ground and to altitudes where your main engines really kick in.