Returning Player - So how is KSP doing?

[Audiopulse]

Hi everyone,

just yesterday out of the blue i reinstalled KSP via steam, found some mods and started a few test-games in sandbox-mode. Immediatly I found my Planes continuously bumping up and down on its wheels, without touching any buttons first, and went to check if I was the only one with this issue.

It looks like I am not, but its rather hard to get some definite answers with so many topics flying about - is everyone having these rocking motions? Is there a fix or can I fix it myself, somehow? Is it a known bug thats aknowledged by the devs? Is it still Squad behind KSP or did the clear the seat for TakeTwo? When why and how did TakeTwo take over and what did they change? Whats the huge Community-clash I heard about and why does it look like most mods are having hard times fighting with bugs?

Ive played KSP when decouplers even werent in the game yet, but nowadays I feel I am pretty much out the loop. Reading into 1 or 2 topics in here it sounded almost like KSP is not the game I remember. Id be happy if someone filled me in.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Starter gear is a bit buggy atm. Turn on advanced tweakables and crank up the Spring Damper and play with the Spring Strength a bit, should sort it out.

Everything else is fine. Modders are struggling to keep up as we've had a few small patches back to back recently, and another one on the way. No big deal.

T2 is just a publisher, Squad still makes the game, not much has changed. The "clash" as you put it was just a big drama fest over nothing as per usual, it's over now. Having been playing KSP for years now I'd say it's in a better state than ever. A perfect time to jump back in!

[Audiopulse]

Im glad to hear - really am! Sounds like I was just unlucky returning right before some new bugs being squashed.

What are you referring to with advanced tweakables? Is it a mod? I rightclicked the wheels on the runway yesterday but didnt get any options to fiddle with springs or dampeners.

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

It's in your game settings, I think you can only get to it from the main menu though.

Well then, welcome back!

[RealKerbal3x]

Yes, welcome back to KSP @Audiopulse! KSP’s doing fine at the moment, though 1.4.x is not quite at a stable state yet—for example the landing gear bug you talked about.

Like @Rocket In My Pocket said, T2 just owns KSP. Squad is still developing it.

[Atkara]

5 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Starter gear is a bit buggy atm. Turn on advanced tweakables and crank up the Spring Damper and play with the Spring Strength a bit, should sort it out.

Figured the dampers must've been the reason why my planes didn't seem to jump up and down. Had them cranked to 2, as part of my 1.3.x "stop making my stuff jump to their destruction" solution. I did have to set my springs higher for 1.4.4. Most of them are now sitting at 0.8.

[Audiopulse]

Thanks everyone - Indeed I found the advanced tweakables in the settings, when I opened them from the main menu.

Right now my Springs are set to 0.5 and the Dampeners all the way to 2.0 - it still bobs a little up and down, but much less so!

[Audiopulse]

Since this topic is resolved anyway - what does everyone do to grind for money?

The contracts Ive got right now are not too appealing to grind with, right now. I remember there was a goldmining-mod for that - is that still a thing?

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Tourist contracts are great for grinding money.

If none of your available contracts seem appealing, just decline them; the rep loss is tiny and who cares about rep really anyways?

In stock you can mine ore to turn into liquid fuel, or oxidizer, etc... if you do that on Kerbin it's basically free money.

[Snark]

49 minutes ago, Audiopulse said:

Since this topic is resolved anyway - what does everyone do to grind for money?

Different folks have different approaches.  A few things to be aware of (which may or may not be news to you, depending on how long you've been away):

First, there are a bunch of "world first" events that pay off a goodly bit of cash when they happen, automatically, even if you don't have a contract for them going. These are typically things like "do a flyby of celestial body X" or "land on X", etc.  So if you just play, and go to new places, you'll have some cash coming in right there.  For example, when you first get to the Mun, there's cash involved.

As for the contracts and cash-grinding:  Myself, I try to optimize for contracts that, 1. pay a lot of cash per amount of my time invested, and 2. are for things I'd be doing anyway.    Where possible.

"Build a station around Kerbin" (or the Mun, or Minmus) contracts pay a reasonable amount of money for the effort involved.  Ditto "land an outpost on Mun" (or Minmus).  You won't get those until you've at least researched docking ports, so be aware of that, and grab the docking-port tech when you can.

The best ones are "build a new station in a solar orbit", which come along a bit later.  They don't come often, but when they do, jump on them with both feet:  they're worth a lot of cash, as in around 500K to 700K, and they're quick and easy to run.  (Just launch 'em unmanned and don't bother retrieving them afterwards.)

The "place a satellite around Kerbin" contracts aren't super interesting, but I usually take a few of those while I'm in the process of building my communications network, because I need to loft comsats anyway so I might as well get paid forit.

The "Science data from space around X" contracts are great because you don't need to do anything for them, as long as you've left a satellite parked in the right place.  "Science data around Mun?  Okay... <switch to Mun satellite>  <take temp measurement> <transmit> ... done."  Doesn't pay a huge amount, but literally takes less than a minute, so it's great in terms of funds-per-amount-of-your-time.

Once you've gone to the Mun or Minmus, the "Plant flag" contracts are nice add-ons, since chances are you're going to be going back there anyway, so it's an extra 120K-ish funds for basically no work.

[Audiopulse]

Thanks a lot! Those are some really good tips!

[Atkara]

33 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

who cares about rep really anyways?

I do  

[katateochi]

22 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Tourist contracts are great for grinding money.

and if you want to really cash in on tourism, the Tourism Plus contract pack is great. 

22 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

and who cares about rep really anyways?

 Doesn't rep influence which contract become available? or has that changed?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

1 hour ago, katateochi said:

Doesn't rep influence which contract become available? or has that changed?

It does somewhat, yes. More rep = harder contracts offered obviously. That hasn't changed. As I said though; who cares? The average player doesn't want to be offered the absolute hardest contracts anyways.

You can't max rep, and you can always make more. (In regards to the original topic, the -1 rep for declining a contract is also so small as to be negligible.)

Of the 3 resources, it's the least valuable, most easily obtainable, and thus; very expendable in my opinion.

Edited July 13, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Fearless Son]

Everything @Snark said is good advice.  One thing I would add when doing contracts is to see how many of those contracts can be "grouped" together.  For example, if you have a contract that involves landing a tourist on the Mun, and there is an available contract to plant a flag on the Mun, then go ahead and take booth contracts and do them in the same go.  If you have a contract to "Retrieve science data from space around Kerbin" you can nab that on the way easy.  None of those contracts may pay particularly well, but they don't require much expense to do and you can complete them all in a single launch, so the return for your time is pretty worthwhile.

Also, if you play career at all, be sure to unlock parts.  The kind of parts you don't have limits the kinds of missions you can do.  For example, you can't retrieve debris to return to Kerbin without an attachment arm, you can't dock a couple vessels in an orbit without docking ports, you can't build space stations or surface bases without power generators, docking ports, and antennas, etc.

[StrandedonEarth]

You can also stack contracts, and use the same craft for multiple contracts. Station contracts are good for this. If you can grab  contracts for Kerbin, Mun, and Solar stations (or solar and then Duna or Eve), then launch one station and use it to complete all three contracts. Even better are stations for Ike and Duna, or the Joolian moons. Less grind, more profit.

For the earlier game, you can do the same with satellites in the Kerbin system, for less fundage, of course.

[Fearless Son]

17 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

If you can grab  contracts for Kerbin, Mun, and Solar stations (or solar and then Duna or Eve), then launch one station and use it to complete all three contracts.

Incidentally, this is something I like to do when they have a "Bring tourists to the Mun and back" and "Land a surface outpost on the Mun" contracts.  They both tend to have a lot of similar mission requirements (power generators, docking ports, antenna, and capacity for an arbitrarily number of Kerbals) so why not do it in one go.  Return the "base" (which is more of a lander) to Kerbin to refund its parts. 

Easy money.