Looking for ideas on more stuff to do...

[wildkittyv1]

Alright, this isn't exactly a challenge, but more of a request or question.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out more things that I can do in the game. At this point I feel I've exhausted almost all of my options until the next release with some new planets and moons to explore. I've done many different types of rockets with different launch vehicles and landers, big and small, stock and with mods, plain and eccentric. I've done skycranes (not using the Lionhead mod), drop pods, unfolding gear/bases, have different space stations and orbiters around each of the three bodies available, unmanned missions with satellite delay and a whole bunch of other stuff.

The only things I can really see available to me are things I really don't care to dabble in since they don't add much to the game in my opinion. These are things like the ZO2, Electrical Energy and new Kethane mods. All it really is is sacrificing a few fuel tanks on my landers or some of the body sections on my landed habitation modules and replace them with the necessary parts for craft that would function exactly similar had they not been there.

I've done a fair bit in the spaceplane hangar and have all different kinds of designs using as many different parts in as many different combinations I can imagine. I hardly ever fly the same aircraft/rocket twice since there really is no reason to.

Anyone have any suggestions on stuff I can do? Some inspiration for rockets to replicate or something along those lines? I'm just looking for some ideas at this point to keep me interested in the game until .17 rolls around.

Thanks in advance

[liquidmoose]

Hey! Nice exploring of all a game has to offer there

Why don't you try looking for bugs... try to see if you can break things and then test how it breaks and write it up. I am sure you will end up getting a lot of praise

[sal_vager]

wildkittyv1, you are welcome to try my StarRally, the link is in my signature and I have fixed it for 0.16

[khyron42]

See, having played since 0.9, I'm more excited about the Kethane mod than anything else I've seen in a long time.

Suggestions, and I apologize if they don't appeal or if you've already done these:

- try for difficult landings. Put a powered lander down directly on a Kerbin mountain top or precisely targetted into a pre-selected steep valley, complete with hovering and translating to select exact landing spot, without using any mods/mechjeb. Try a grand tour three-stage lander (launch from kerbin, land on Mun; leave behind a lander stage there and launch the upper half, land on Minmus. leave behind a lander stage there and return to Kerbin.)

- design craft with stock parts that can go to, say, a 10 million km orbit around Kerbol, circularize there, and then return to Kerbin afterwards. That last step is the hardest without using Mechjeb, but it can be eyeballed - I've done it back before orbit transition predictions were even added to the game!

[maltesh]

There are four bodies in the game.

Have you orbited Kerbol and returned to Kerbin?

Have you sundived?

[wildkittyv1]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've done the precision landing thing a bunch of times on Kerbin and both moons, ever since I learned about killing my horizontal velocity that's pretty much what I do every time - got big groups of bases of giant habitation modules and junk all over the place. And I never use Mechjeb, takes away half of the game in my opinion, especially so since I never really fly the same craft twice.

I suppose I could try for a Munarch landing, but I've heard things about the physics getting wonky when you try to approach it in vehicles. I've done the multiple lander thing, also, but not with stock parts so I could give that a go. My biggest gripe with stock parts vs. mods is that I play on a non-gaming laptop so I mods help me limiting the amount of parts I toss on my designs since you get more bang per part with them. I think once I clear a dozen KM up and dump the first stage I might be alright.

As for the Kerbol thing, no, I still haven't done that - you kept pushing that on me in IRC, too . I guess I'll give that a go next. Before I knew about Mun/Minmus rise for injection I used some not-quite-barbaric combination of algebra and geometry to get my injection timing correct, so I might be able to eyeball it - not interested in learning the math. I will say thanks again though, Maltesh, for helping me with the timing of my satellite drops. I finally got it polished and set up an intermediary network out to Minmus and I only get about a 3/4 second delay.

I'll give the Kerbol orbiting a go and look into the Star Rally; seems interesting enough and a way to improve my transition timing.

Edited August 18, 2012 by wildkittyv1

[DEADBEEF]

You can definitely eyeball your transfer from Kerbol back to Kerbin.

When you finish you circularization burn to put you in a higher or lower orbit around Kerbol, zoom right out, get a piece of paper and measure the distance between you and Kerbin. When you are this distance on the opposite side of Kerbin (after you've caught up with the planet or vice versa depending on whether you're in a higher or lower orbit) that is when you should initiate your transfer burn, then just keep burning until you get the SOI transfer indicator.

No MechJeb or fancy calculations required.

[bsalis]

My 2c

Main ones...

* Try some Challenges from the forum section

* Participate in KGSS and get naming some things

Other things you may not have done but possibly have...

* Do a double landing and return Mun and Minmus

* Visit KSC2

* Look for more mods... make a mod mebe? mess with the cfgfile?

Edited August 18, 2012 by bsalis

[Clouds]

What's fun for me in KSP is to set my own challenges and try to accomplish them, or see what other people have done and try to match/best them. For example, fastest time to 100km...build a seaplane...drag race for peak speed while stopping (alive) before the end of the runway...do a crew swap orbital rendezvous...build the most minimal Mun land/return craft possible...do a Grand Tour of Mun>Min>Kerbin with a nonlaggy launch...build a no-decouple Mun land/return craft (possible in .15.2, have not succeeded in .16!)...make a bomber plane and destroy a ground target (stock parts only)...

(Granted, the efficiency/minimalism challenges are almost pointless until .17 and the hopeful fix of all the fuel use bugs!)

[ThePath]

Hello there,

I usually get this feeling when you do all you think you can do in the new updates. My solution last update was to localize every Munolith/Kerbolith (however they were finally called) and deploy a "scientific station" right nexto to it. It is a very hard quest if you do it with no mods, if you don't feel like watching all over the place I suggest using the mod which has to parts that let you know if kerboliths are nearby. It is very entertaining since you need a plane able to fly enormous distances in kerbin, to localize the kerboliths, make power landings everywhere. Make a vessel able to hover on the moon so it's a challenge for disign and good landing skills.

The other thing I tried and i was stuck with this one for several days is to have capsule on the sea and your goal is to retrieve the entire capsule to the ksc. So you can introduce new concepts to the game, such as "boats" if you try it the easy way moving the capsule with a boat to the coast and the picking it up with a hovering vehicle. Or to go pure hovering over Kerbin.

Now in this update I am working with rendezvous. My goal is to have a satellite (of three kerbals) orbiting Kerbin. Then I launch a rocket able to have a 3 kerbal crew, but I leave one on ground (I usually kill him ). Then I rendezvous both vehicles and make a complete exchange of crews so all the 3 people on the satellite goes in the rocket and land on kerbin.

I hope that helped

[A Fat Pokemon]

Create giant craft, and attempt to get them into orbit. Im strictly stock, but I've managed to get a fairly large Halo ring into orbit, along with a fully traversable ship, a few space stations, and overall just strange things you would definently not expect to be up there.

[togfox]

The two KGSS journals are designed to expand your interest in KSP and real life science. Read those if you haven't already. There are 'real' challenges included as well. If you're tired of the old

1) take off

2) orbit

3) injection burn

4) land

5) return

then see if some of the KGSS articles can get you thinking outside the box (see my forum sig).

[Aletus]

Land twice on the Mun and back to Kerbal with same staged ship. Should pose some challenge.

[colonel0sanders]

One challenge I'm thinking about writing up, which would make things much more difficult (and kinda mathy) - is a challenge where you just have to perform basic tasks (get into orbit, land on the Mun), but *without* using the map view at all.

We used to do it before the map view was implemented.

[Bluejayek]

There was a challenge a while back to do a moon landing with no mapview and the UI turned off. Now thats tough.

[colonel0sanders]

Yeah, without the UI would be extremely difficult. I would think getting to the moon would be harder than landing on it - landing would be much easier to eyeball than orbital insertion or TMI

[Bluejayek]

Yeah, colonel, the mission profile was to do the entire thing, takeoff to landing, without the UI. This would entail around an 8 hour session however, as without the UI there is no time warp

[Seret]

Spell out your name on the surface of the Mun in pods, crashed parts and Kerbals.

[colonel0sanders]

I've just played around with it, and managed a perfect keosynchronous orbit without using the map view at all. On launch, I managed an apoapsis of 107k by blind luck, circularized that, and went from there. With a little figuring I managed to transfer from keosynchronous to munar orbit (harder 'cause you can't just burn when the mun rises), and finally broke down and switched to the map for the first time. Good thing, too, since I was on course to smack right into the middle of the Mun.

[SNapple]

Go into orbit, land on Kerbin, and back into orbit.

Also, an idea I had which was rather fun, design a rover... That goes into Kerbin orbit and then de-orbits, and lands Via parachutes.

An unmanned rocket.

A rocket that gets launched with a kerbal ontop.

Same as above, but crash into the Mun. Crashing into minmus is just...

Try aerobraking.

Try Lithobraking.

Land an already designed Munar lander upside down. Fun

Match the Mun's orbit (Geostationary Mun orbit, mofo.)

Do the same as above with minmus. Somehow.

Rendezvous in Kerbin orbit.

Try landing as close to the pole as possible. This is challenging because the camera begins to freak out.

Land on the mun, then minmus, with a single stage. No decoupling.

Water vehicle. I hear it's possible.

Land on the water vehicle.

Be the water vehicle.

Feel the water vehicle.

Advertise the water vehicle.

Try to decouple something and have it hit another ship.

Same as above, on the mun or minmus.

I'm making these up as I go.

Get into Mun or Minmus orbit using only RCS.

Angle your camera directly up in the VAB, and put your ship as high as possible. (With the clamps on, of course.) Trust me, it's fun.

[DEADBEEF]

This would entail around an 8 hour session however, as without the UI there is no time warp

'<' and '>' alter the time warp factor without needing the related UI elements.