Squad should play KSP (beyond Minmus)

[juanml82]

If the title sounds like a rant, it's because it is a rant.

I'm in the process of playing through the Gilly exploration part of my career game. Among other things, this includes:

Survey both Eve and Gilly for ore
Setting up a mining rig based on an MK3 fuselaje/cargo/cockpit rover which can hook to ships landed nearby with the claw or [COLOR=#0000FF]using the connector ports of the KAS mod[/COLOR]
Fullfilling the create station contracts on Eve and Gilly from 1.0.4 and sending more kerbals than needed to make them earn xp
Harvest all science from the space around Eve and Gilly, [COLOR=#0000cd]for which the Science Altert mod works great[/COLOR]
Detach a biome hoper with ion engines from the Space Station to get all science from Gilly
Use the same ion lander to complete two existing survey contracts, on the surface and orbit
Land and fill up the tanker ship I've sent so it can later dock with the incoming Eve lander which is coming within weeks
Land at Eve, plant the flag, collect science from whichever biome I land and get back
Return all kerbals to Kerbin

And it has become an exercise in frustration.

After this flotilla is ready in LKO, I use [COLOR=#0000cd]Mechjeb's maneuver planner[/COLOR] to figure out when the transfer windows are and I dispatched them some using MJ's calculator, some without manually created nodes [COLOR=#0000cd]carefully edited with the Precise Node mod[/COLOR]. Once I execute the burns, [COLOR=#ff0000]some of which take several minutes of staring at the screen[/COLOR], I use the [COLOR=#0000cd]Kerbal Alarm Clock mod[/COLOR] to set alarms for all the SOI changes for the flotilla and, again using [COLOR=#0000cd]Precise Node[/COLOR], I fine tune the encounter. (In the meantime I'm also handling many other missions, for which I use [COLOR=#0000ff]KAC[/COLOR], so it's not like I'm spending a few days solely playing with the Eve Flotilla).

So the flotilla makes to the Eve, I capture all ships and send them to Gilly.
Where the frustration begins.

I land the MK3 mining rig in the general area where one of the surface survey contracts is but since the mining rig doesn't have the gravioli thingy to fulfill that contract, it just sits there. That's fine, I wasn't planning to use a mining rig to fulfill that contract anyway and, after landing it, I came to think the mining rig was superflous. Since it takes so little fuel to land on Gilly, I could have attached the drills to the tanker and simplified stuff. But I didn't do it, so I begin to drill. Incidentally, since I made the rig during 1.0.4, it didn't have radiators because they weren't needed then, so I'm not sure how well, if at all, it would perform. [COLOR=#ff0000]In Gilly's low gravity, the rig keeps changing from "landed" to "about to crash". After clicking 'Esc' many times, I finally manage to nail a moment in which it's landed and I can go back to the Space Center[/COLOR]. Turns out it managed to fill tanks while on rails, somehow.
So, I land the ion lander nearby, to collect science and complete that contract. The rig is within the physics bubble.[COLOR=#ff0000] Reloading the game causes the mining rig to crash and explode, killing poor Lucan Kerman in the process. Using the cheat options to disable crash damage, turn unbreakable joints or hack gravity doesn't make a difference[/COLOR]. [COLOR=#0000ff]Neither does using or not the KJR mod[/COLOR]. [COLOR=#ff0000]So I end up reloading a 30 minutes old savegame[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000ff]which was saved by KAC, as otherwise I wouldn't have had a backup[/COLOR]. The mining rig is still there, the ore tanks are full, just in case, I send Lucan Kerbal outside.

I land the ion lander withing physics range to fulfill that contract. [COLOR=#ff0000]The mining rig is gone, but at least poor Lucan lives[/COLOR]. A biome hoper probably isn't the best thing to do surface survey contracts in Gilly (I wonder if there is a good thing to do them in Gilly, though), [COLOR=#ff0000]in part because the game doesn't allow more than 4x physics time warp below 8,000 meters and in part because there is no ghosting in the navball to indicate in which direction I need to turn to jump to the next spot[/COLOR]. [COLOR=#0000cd]The Waypoint Manager mod helps, as it shows the heading to the marker as well as the distance[/COLOR] - very useful to know when to kill horizontal velocity, [COLOR=#0000ff]for which I use the KER mod. I also rely on either KER or MJ to check vertical velocity and time for the suicide burn[/COLOR] (not that Gilly isn't forgiving anyway). [COLOR=#ff0000]In any case, I have lift vertically and guess which keys I need to press to head towards the markers[/COLOR]. Since Gilly is small and rotates fast, [COLOR=#0000ff]I use Mechjeb's landing calculator to see how well on course I am or not[/COLOR], as you can't point directly towards the marker because the moon rotates beneath you, as it should.

With that contract, and a land survey portion of the other survey contract done, I jump to orbit and go to hit the three orbital markers for the second survey contract. This time,[COLOR=#0000ff] I use the Trajectories mod to plan the burns since, again, I need to aim to where the markers will be when I pass over (or beneath) them and not where they are when I adjust my orbit[/COLOR].

I still have Lucan Kerbal stranded on the surface, [COLOR=#ff0000]and I have to decide if I expend funds to send another mining rig or tanker to replace the one destroyed by a bug[/COLOR], or if I land the tanker, jump Lucan on board and [COLOR=#0000ff]use the Hyperedit cheat mode to cheat the fuel the mining rig should have been able to provide[/COLOR].

Now, why the title? Many of the improvements I'd suggest to make this set of missions enjoyable instead of frustrating have been proposed and discussed many times. Things like increasing Gilly's time warp values have been asked for years and Squad never found the time to make that simple change. It's even in the What Not to Suggest List IIRC.
So I feel asking again for all those things is a waste of time. KSP doesn't feel complete. But I think the developers should take some time to play a similar set of missions as I set to myself (which is rather standard), try to play it stock and draw their own conclusions. Edited November 22, 2015 by juanml82

[manaiaK]

Thanks for this rant. My take-away point: go to Gilly once and once only; never accept contracts for Gilly. :)

But seriously: yes, the game is full of annoyances like the ones you list: usability bugs. What is the QA team doing? (Rhetorical question.)

[quote name='juanml82']In Gilly's low gravity, the rig keeps changing from "landed" to "about to crash". After clicking 'Esc' many times, I finally manage to nail a moment in which it's landed and I can go back to the Space Center.[/QUOTE]
I believe there's a fairly simple fix for this "flickering" behavior: never use single-precision floats. Doubles (for things on craft) or long doubles (for astrodynamics) all the way. There'd be about a 3% performance hit on Intel chips since they started using the "Core i" brand. That's easily bearable for more stable UI and gameplay. BUT the memory requirements of the game would go up a little, which is not tolerable in 32-bit Windows.

[jf0]

[quote name='juanml82']I use [COLOR=#0000cd]Mechjeb's maneuver planner[/COLOR] to figure out when the transfer windows are ... some without manually created nodes [COLOR=#0000cd]carefully edited with the Precise Node mod ... using [COLOR=#0000cd]Precise Node[/COLOR], I fine tune the encounter ... [COLOR=#ff0000]in part because the game doesn't allow more than 4x physics time warp below 8,000 meters and in part because there is no ghosting in the navball to indicate in which direction I need to turn to jump to the next spot[/COLOR]. [COLOR=#0000cd]The Waypoint Manager mod helps, as it shows the heading to the marker as well as the distance ... [/COLOR][/COLOR][COLOR=#0000ff]I also rely on either KER or MJ to check vertical velocity and time for the suicide burn[/COLOR] (not that Gilly isn't forgiving anyway). [COLOR=#ff0000]In any case, I have lift vertically and guess which keys I need to press to head towards the markers ... [COLOR=#0000ff] to see how well on course I am or not[/COLOR], as you can't point directly towards the marker because the moon rotates beneath you, as it should ... [COLOR=#0000ff]I use the Trajectories mod to plan the burns ... [COLOR=#0000ff]I need to aim to where the markers will be when I pass over (or beneath) them and not where they are when I adjust my orbit ...[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Yes, but actually you are playing the game wrong. You're supposed to do all that by trial and error. It would just be too realistic otherwise. At least that's what they tell me...