The Grand KSP 1.2 Discussion Thread

[Jasper_f]

2 minutes ago, swjr-swis said:

No, they are still there in 1.2.0, but you may have to enable 'Advanced Tweakables' in the game settings.

Lifesaver. Thank you so much!

[Aegolius13]

I tend to see it the other way around - in previous versions, there was not much of a reason to send manned ships. Since an unmanned upper stage can be very light, this pays rocket equation dividends down the stages.

Yeah, you can get more science with manned, but I've maxed out on science before going interplanetary anyway.

And while Commnet nerfs unmanned to an extent, that's counterbalanced by a big buff with the science container, and a smaller buff with KerbNet.  So I see unmanned as still more practical for a lot of missions.

[Jovus]

Unmanned craft save on weight, thereby making designs smaller, simpler, and less expensive. Further, there's no reason to worry about bringing Probe #102-A14 home safe from its Eve trip, because its originating factory isn't going to get a letter from the Kerbal Space Program that makes her cry if it's lost along the way.

What's that? You don't feel like those are good enough reasons? But I do. You don't use unmanned craft; I rarely use manned craft; balance achieved I say.

[emaier138]

I'm having the same problem, especially in the VAB when rotating or panning around a craft (even a small one)(edit: it seems to only occur when looking down from above in the VAB, if i pan below the craft the lag disappears). Despite never having any framerate problems previously even with high part count crafts.

Running a mac pro retina with 2.7 Ghz i7, 16GB RAM, OS X v10.8.5

Edited October 12, 2016 by emaier138

[Foxster]

I suppose that to me it just seems that if you aren't doing a mission for the science and/or you aren't taking a Kerbal along so he can bask in glory of the achievement then what's the point of the mission?

Edited October 12, 2016 by Foxster

[Guest]

The main reason I don't use unmanned craft much is that I find them rather boring. Return missions are much more interesting to plan and execute, and if you're doing one, you might as well go the whole hog and make it kerbaled.

Unmanned probes can be a major part of them though.

[Aegolius13]

5 minutes ago, Foxster said:

I suppose that to me it just seems that if you aren't doing a mission for the science and/or you aren't taking a Kerbal along so he can bask in glory of the achievement then what's the point of the mission?

I agree with the latter part, and generally do manned missions after maybe sending an initial probe.  But this is more for role-playing / fun, and for the extra challenge, than for pure efficiency.

And maybe this is all realistic. IRL probes today can do a pretty good job of song science.  But we still want to go with real people, even if there is not a practical reason beyond the distant prospect of colonization.

[Guest]

Install a life support mod.

Probes will become a god's gift to kerbalkind.

[Foxster]

2 minutes ago, Aperture Science said:

Install a life support mod.

Probes will become a god's gift to kerbalkind.

Well, yes, but I was kinda talking about the stock game here. 

[Daveroski]

I suppose everyone must play differently.

I'm playing a vanilla game right now.

I use both manned and unmanned.

I have a reusable probe attached to my space stations to get the science using equipment. This returns to the station where they science the heck out of it all. It is then refuelled and made ready to go again.

I have 2 dedicated landers to each station. One for getting samples and flag-planting and a second large dedicated lander which also gets a sample and plants a flag when there are enough crew to fill it.

Early in the game I send two-part probes which land and get the data, store it and then detach from all the heavy stuff and return to Kerbin with the data. The heavy stuff contains a core, batteries, solar panels and a set of relays for a ground station and all the science equipment.

I find it to be a lot of fun getting that data back home. The trip back through the atmosphere when I lose connection for a while is quite exciting.

 

 

[MagicFireCaster]

13 hours ago, blowfish said:

Right click KSP in Steam, go to Properties, got the Betas tab, and in the dropdown select 1.1.3

And then copy your KSP folder out of Steam, do a fresh install of KSP, and never mod your Steam install again 

Thanks a lot! 

[Majorjim!]

NO offset limits is STOCK now! Cheers Squad, very smart move.

Hmm, no it's not.. It seems you can offset decouplers infinitely but nothing else.

Forget that.. I am seeing some odd behavior. Some parts I placed in the previous version are allowing infinite offset. Odd. Ho hum.

 Does anyone know if you select strong nodes and or auto struts if they are also enabled if someone opens the craft file?

Edited October 12, 2016 by Majorjim!

[Daveroski]

I suggest making sure that you don't have anything else running in the background. Don't play through Steam, and turn off your anti virus software while playing.

[DerekL1963]

1 hour ago, Foxster said:

Then there is the requirement to establish a radio network to be able to fly probe craft much beyond Kerbin orbit. 

Only if you turn occlusion way, way, way up...  or turn off the additional DSN stations.

1 hour ago, Foxster said:

Which means carting around a bunch of them.

Only if you run missions that visit a bunch of places.

1 hour ago, Foxster said:

So, other than for the considerable extra challenge, why would you want to use probes rather than manned craft for most missions? 

In a world where there was "considerable" extra challenge, that would be a reasonable question.  I think the real problem here is that you, like so many people, are locked into a particular playstyle and a particular way of climbing the tech tree - and you simply can't imagine there's any other way of doing things.  Me, I've topped out the tree without ever sending a Kerbal beyond LKO.  The key is focus in climbing the tree.  (Once you can build an asparagused 1.25m rocket, you can go practically anywhere.)

[Racescort666]

56 minutes ago, Jovus said:

Unmanned craft save on weight, thereby making designs smaller, simpler, and less expensive. Further, there's no reason to worry about bringing Probe #102-A14 home safe from its Eve trip, because its originating factory isn't going to get a letter from the Kerbal Space Program that makes her cry if it's lost along the way.

What's that? You don't feel like those are good enough reasons? But I do. You don't use unmanned craft; I rarely use manned craft; balance achieved I say.

My gf gives me a hard time about stranding kerbals in various locale. Like landing a ship on Mün but not having enough dV to get back to orbit I get, "what would their families think that you just left them there?!" So then I end up staging an elaborate sub-orbital docking maneuver trying to rescue the poor kerbals. Some of the best flying I've ever done was skimming just a few hundred meters off of the surface of the Mün.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

ESU takes a while to get? By ESU, you mean experiment storage? If I'm remembering right, I already have it unlocked. I put it on the first orbital ship of my new career.

[juanml82]

Well, anyone can play as they want. I always ended up with a combination of manned and unmanned missions, with the probes running support missions:

For instance, a fleet heading for Duna would include a mothership (manned), landers for Duna and Ike (manned), an ore surveyor ship (unmanned), a mining rig for Ike (manned), a tanker (unmanned), maybe a crew ferry just in case something goes wrong (crew capable, but unmanned). The relay network adds a couple of unmanned relays as well

[Foxster]

21 minutes ago, DerekL1963 said:

 I think the real problem here is that you, like so many people, are locked into a particular playstyle and a particular way of climbing the tech tree - and you simply can't imagine there's any other way of doing things.  Me, I've topped out the tree without ever sending a Kerbal beyond LKO.  The key is focus in climbing the tree.  (Once you can build an asparagused 1.25m rocket, you can go practically anywhere.)

Damn my hidebound playstyle and lack of imagination! Luckily I have a free-thinking and imaginative master in yourself to learn from. 

What, pray, are the sort of unmanned missions I should be doing after LKO?

I know it is possible to do an unmanned completion of the techtree after a bit of early manned but it is grindy and not nearly as slick as doing it manned. What I was hoping, with 1.2 having a lot of emphasis on supporting unmanned missions, it might now be a practical and interesting alternative, albeit one that required the deployment of a communications network. 

Edited October 12, 2016 by Foxster

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

Tech Tree was slightly rearranged. For example, stuff like the thermometer comes before the Science Jr. They also adjusted the prices of some things (I know the barometer used to be really pricey, it's better now)

[worir4]

I havn't had much chance to play yet. Could some one explain what the point in the science container is if you can just store experiments in command pods any way?

[jrolson]

Yes, how do you use the science container?

[DerekL1963]

 

31 minutes ago, Foxster said:

I know it is possible to do an unmanned completion of the techtree after a bit of early manned but it is grindy and not nearly as slick as doing it manned.

That's a personal opinion and a personal decision, not a function of the game.  There is a difference.

 

33 minutes ago, Foxster said:

What I was hoping, with 1.2 having a lot of emphasis on supporting unmanned missions, it might now be a practical and interesting alternative, albeit one that required the deployment of a communications network. 

I see - we're not talking about the actual KSP, but how it varies from something you've created of whole cloth.

[Francois424]

So, balls deep into 1.2 right now... but I am in a situation where I should not be getting a connection to Kerbin (Several Kilometers thick of hard rock between my rover and home).

What is the setting I need to adjust in the game to make the signal not pass thru planets (or part thereof) ?
And to what end of the slider should I drag the option to ?

KSP1.2 is so awesome, really loving it.
Thanks for any help, and to the devs/testers for making it a reality.

 

[Gameslinx]

Has drag been significantly reduced? I made a mk1 SSTO with two rapier engines, cruised to about 5km and hit full throttle. Bearing in mind this plane weighs roughly 20 tons, I easily passed the 900m/s mark.

And, with reentry, I can go for a lot longer before significant slowing begins.

I didn't see anything in the patch notes related to drag, can anyone tell me if it has been reduced?

I kind of think it is a good thing, since before 1.2 I was able to nearly hit Mach 2, but now I can pass Mach 4

[Curveball Anders]

1 minute ago, Gamel0rd1 said:

Has drag been significantly reduced?

It's been reduced for pointy objects and increased for blunt ones.