Long-term Laythe Mission (pic heavy) - ^_^ With Part 45 ^_^

[Cydonian Monk]

The real reason that I've been stacking up the used Tugs is so that I can bring them all back as one ship, rather than having to herd a whole fleet of ships back to Kerbin. Plus, it looks cool.

Reminds me of an old science fiction story where there was an alien race that used small, glowing stones as their unit of money. (Asimov? Perhaps. Adams? Probably.) Eventually they developed banking, and as the banks grew larger and larger, they started to give off more and more heat. Until finally, one last large deposit was made and the "bank" of (uranium? plutonium?) coins went super critical.

Your tugs are getting a bit warm I think....

[RocketPilot573]

Good to see everyone is ok! How many parts is that mega tug again?

[Tangle]

Wow. Have the beta particles been destroyed?

Considering conservation of mass and energy... I hope not! They probably just passed through. Any alpha particles were stopped by the metal.

[Scotius]

How much dV and what TWR your 'super-stack' Tug have now?

[sdj64]

You already said you were okay with file editing, couldn't you add back in the reaction wheel to the OKTO2 part? I actually like this change, because now that probe core isn't just the all around best, there are some for each role: QBE for rovers and sacrificial atmosphere divers (no reaction wheel, lightweight), OKTO2 to add SAS assist functions to a manned craft so you can have just an engineer or a scientist, HECS for more functional probes, Stayputnik then OKTO for early career.

I agree it would mess up long-term save files. Did you see that the battery life was not changed over? Probe cores in ships designed in 0.25 or earlier still all have 10 Ec.

[Brotoro]

How much dV and what TWR your 'super-stack' Tug have now?

The 8 active nuclear engines give it a thrust of 480 kN. And the mass of the ship is 193.65 tons. So that gives it a TWR of about 0.253 (using the g value for Kerbin).

With the fuel destributed as shown in Part 41, MechJeb says the stage has 2,685 m/s of delta-V.

[Brotoro]

You already said you were okay with file editing, couldn't you add back in the reaction wheel to the OKTO2 part? I actually like this change, because now that probe core isn't just the all around best, there are some for each role: QBE for rovers and sacrificial atmosphere divers (no reaction wheel, lightweight), OKTO2 to add SAS assist functions to a manned craft so you can have just an engineer or a scientist, HECS for more functional probes, Stayputnik then OKTO for early career.

I don't mind editing my game file, but I generally don't like to use edited parts files. The point about playing a stock game is that anyone familiar with KSP parts can tell at a glance the capabilities of the parts you are using. If you go editing your parts files to change the stats of the parts, this is no longer true. Also, with modified parts, you have to remember to keep migrating your part mods when you change to a new version of KSP. So I'd rather not.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't EVER edit parts... When the clearly buggy updated version of the landing legs came out in a previous version (and ships would just sag over), I continued to use the previous version of the part until Squad fixed the legs so that the suspension could be locked. And now I don't need to keep using the old leg files. I made an exception in that case because my GasStations simply would not work at all for refueling my BirdDogs with saggy legs.

But if Squad decides to stick with the torque-crippled OKTO2 probe cores, then that's what I'll deal with. I can replace all my dead comsats...and limit what the Laythe kerbals may choose to do until they get new comsats for better communication coverage. It won't kill me. All my other important ships that use OKTO2 probe cores have other, more powerful reaction wheels installed, so those will keep working.

I was always under the impression that the variety of probe core shapes were to give players more options in building vehicles with different symetries and asthetics. I never once used a HECS core, for example, because I never made probes with 3- or 6-fold symmetry. The variation in probe core capabilities does not thrill me...and the loss of all torque from the OKTO2 is especially sad.

Edited December 25, 2014 by Brotoro

[JumpsterG]

Well done Jumpster! Does this work for all older saves, or does it need to be tailored to suit a file? I also have an old save that could do with some fixing.

Sorry! I didn't have time to share the tool I made before needing to leave my home for the holidays (visiting family).

It parses a save file and creates a new copy with the fuel lines fixed. In a few days I'll have access to a PC and will be happy to share the fix as a windows executable.

Feel free to PM me a link to a copy of your save AFTER having loaded it at least once in KSP .90 (good idea to keep the .25 copy, just in case, but I should just need the .90 file). I'll run it through first thing so you can get to playing sooner. Otherwise, you can wait till I make the tool available.

[Deserdi Verimas]

Regarding the now tumbling comsats; you could always employ a similar system to that used in Mariner 10. The antenna and solar panels of the spacecraft were used to orient the ship in the direction desired, using the force generated against the surface by the solar wind. Not actually in the game, but then neither is the phantom rotation you picked up during the 0.90 beta storm. Might be useful to get a few of your satellites functioning in a last-ditch attempt to contact someone?

[Tw1]

Feel free to PM me a link to a copy of your save AFTER having loaded it at least once in KSP .90 (good idea to keep the .25 copy, just in case, but I should just need the .90 file). I'll run it through first thing so you can get to playing sooner. Otherwise, you can wait till I make the tool available.

That's alright, I won't be playing until some time after christmas either. Will use when you are ready to release.

[Major999]

Part 42 needs a hitchhiker's guide reference. just saying.

[Ikaneko]

Man, this series is the BEST!

Well done Brotoro, I'm more hyped about this than the Bond film coming out!!

[2001kraft]

I don't know why, but I always think of Brotoro as Thompbles (in a good way).

[Deddly]

Is there a bad way?

[AppleDavidJeans]

Brotoro, check out what just popped:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/105399-0-90-S-A-V-E-automatic-backup-system-0-9-9-281

[JumpsterG]

In case anyone has need, I've made available the tool that fixes fuel lines in a 0.90 save that was converted from 0.25:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/100018891/BrotoroFuelFix/FixFuelLines.zip

FixFuelLines.exe creates a fixed version of the file you select. You should backup the original file and replace it with the newly generated file.

The "brotoro" folder in the zip contains the source code (a vb solution with one form). This is a windows program, so if anyone is running Mac or Linux and can't use it, feel free to PM me a copy of your save and I'll be happy to run it for you. I'll post this over in the Tools subforum also.

[SelectHalfling0]

I read "beta particles" and busted out laughing. Great job on this episode!

[macdjord]

@Brotoro: For the OCTO probes, have you considered just editing the part.cfg to give them torque back?

[Deddly]

@Brotoro: For the OCTO probes, have you considered just editing the part.cfg to give them torque back?

I don't mind editing my game file, but I generally don't like to use edited parts files. The point about playing a stock game is that anyone familiar with KSP parts can tell at a glance the capabilities of the parts you are using. If you go editing your parts files to change the stats of the parts, this is no longer true. Also, with modified parts, you have to remember to keep migrating your part mods when you change to a new version of KSP. So I'd rather not.

Hope that answers your question, macdjord

[Zephram Kerman]

Still loving this thread. The fact that it is done using such a venerable save makes it even more impressive. You do KSP right.

Just wondering (maybe I missed it) when the team went to Vall, did they visit Vallhenge? I've always been curious about that thing.

[Scotius]

Not during the last mission. But Brotoro covered Vallhenge exploration in one of early-ish chapters. There are 41 of them, so...Eh, just read everything from the start - it's absolutely worth it.

[Zephram Kerman]

I was pretty sure I had read them all. But my memory is not so good and... uh... what were we talking about?

Well then here I go back to the beginning. This might just be the first time one of my favorite shows went into reruns while still producing new stuff!

[Scotius]

http://www.mindspring.com/~sportrocketry/ksp/tylovall.html

Here's a link to relevant mission. Actually it's not a part of Long-term Laythe Mission - it's an earlier adventure in the same save.

[Deddly]

Brotoro also went in this Long Term Laythe mission (Vall Venture):

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/27552?p=730472&viewfull=1#post730472

Edited January 11, 2015 by Deddly
It sounded like I was pointing to another thread

[Brotoro]

Vall Venture Part 4 (part of the post linked here) describes Emilynn & Hellou's traveling to and exploring Vallhenge.