most dull thing in KSP?

[PeggleFrank]

Forgetting to put solar panels on my kethane miner. I had to do some maneuvering to get the lander upside-down, and then I had to wait while my rocket burned through my fuel to generate electricity so I could actually do anything.

Oh, and I forgot batteries too. So I had to do that about 20 times to get a decent area scanned.

[Tw1]

Due to some error, I ended up on a retrograde Kerbol orbit while trying to reach Eve. My probe was partially made up of a module that was intended to carry a future manned mission home.

The only way for that probe to succeed was to give up on the idea of the return module, and use it to slow down. It was hybrid ion powered, my computer was crawling, and it took ages.

That said, ion powered burns to get to the sun are a pain. I was setting up a counter-Kerbin probe, and didn't realise circularising around the sun wasn't necessary to get to my intended final orbit. That was two long burns I didn't need.

Yay for giving the thing an insane amount of Delta V. And for mechjeb, that looks after the long, boring bits while I go have lunch, or sleep.

[SargeRho]

I found building space stations around other planets or moons to be fairly dull. Minmus for example. I have a huge kethane depot there...was fairly boring to build.

[TwoHedWlf]

De-orbiting a lifter using only 2 lateral RCS thrusters

Heh, For me deorbiting my spaceplane using Jeb. Long burns normally aren't a problem, set it burning, alt tab out and do something else and just check every few minutes. But when I used up all my spaceplane's fuel getting to orbit all that was left was to get my kerbal to jump out and PUSH. Can't just let it burn on its own because the plane ends up rotating due to offcenter thrust, has to be adjusted frequently. Run almost out of fuel, jump back into the cockpit and out again for a refuel... Took about 45 minutes.

[Nuke]

you want boring:

any mission involving ion engines.

really i think we should be allowed to physics warp when using ion engines.

[Giggleplex777]

you want boring:

any mission involving ion engines.

really i think we should be allowed to physics warp when using ion engines.

Hold alt+>. this will allow you to warp in space.

[SkyHook]

Well, after landing, there's not much to do but..go home! That's the most dull thing about KSP right now I guess.

[lobsterbark]

One time, I has an ion probe that was supposed to get into low orbit around the sun, but I ended up in the exact right angle to not get any sunlight. I was at max throttle, so I couldn't go back to space center, or even timewarp. So I just ended flight, but imagine if I had waited until I was at the right angle to produce power. I would take literally days, with no time warp.

[Spatzimaus]

Well, after landing, there's not much to do but..go home! That's the most dull thing about KSP right now I guess.

That's what mods are for. Really, I'd highly recommend the Kethane mod. It's good practice for the resource system we'll be getting in the next major update. It gives your probes something to do in orbit (map out the resource deposits), and it gives you a reason to design big honking rovers (mobile refineries). Most importantly, it forces you to not only land on moons/planets, but to aim for specific spots (where the resources are), which adds a whole new level of complexity to landings on many bodies.

Even without that mod, you can always try to find all the anomalies. ISA MapSat can help you see where most of them are, or you can search for yourself.

But honestly, this is one thing I think a career mode could help with. There'd be a tangible payoff to hauling along and deploying a "science package" of some kind; even if it was just a box with blinking lights and/or beeping sounds, getting it there safely, placing it nearby, and turning it on would be a big part of how you'd pay the bills, assuming you don't then trip over the power cord while jumping around in low gravity.

-----------------------------

To the OP, there are a lot of answers. The thing is, many of the "dull" bits are avoidable; you can always put more engines on if your LV-Ns/ions just take too long to get where you need to go. Mods help with this, as some add larger versions of the nuclear/ion engines, but even the stock game has plenty of ways you can put more engines on something. And in most cases, a long burn is just an excuse to go read the forums or something, so it's not like you have to actually sit there and watch it thrust for ten or fifteen minutes, unless you left off any ASAS (like on a small ion-using probe). There are very few things in this game that actually require your full attention while taking a long time; landing on Gilly, since you can't time warp, or ascending from Eve's surface come to mind.

[nimbim]

I found aero-braking in Jool's atmosphere to get into a low orbit with minimal ÃŽâ€v to be quite boring and yet you have to pay attention at every turn. Or do math beforehand, I guess.

[Enture]

you want boring:

any mission involving ion engines.

really i think we should be allowed to physics warp when using ion engines.

As it turns out, you can! Just make sure to do it using your time-warp keyboard shortcuts.

EDIT: Ninja'd long ago...

[Panzerbeard]

Well, after landing, there's not much to do but..go home! That's the most dull thing about KSP right now I guess.

Except jetpacking around the place like a hyperactive wasp for an hour or two, of course

[Klajan]

For me it was getting to laythe with my spacestation. I knew I should have build a larger engine for this thing. It has a total weight of 600t and used my old enginemodule, designed to have enough thrust for ~50t... It sure if fun burning with an ship wobbling all over the place, while having the TWR of a Probe with Ionengine. I was burnign for a looong time until I left Kerbins sphere of influence... Well at least I had around 20k dv to get to jool.

But hey, thats what mechjeb is for. Doing hours of burning for you...

[Khrissetti]

My first 'round the world suborbital flight.

"I've been going supersonic for about an hour on 4x warp, let's see how much further we have to go... aww maaaannn.."

[Devo]

I would have to say my most dull moment was having to sit through a NERVA burn to get a full orange tank to Jool, that was dull. I'd have to say, but I had Iggy Pop to make it worth it.

The only thing I find dull now is the VAB and SPH floor... I see it so much I'd like a bit of a change of scenery

[Ben Kerman]

One time, I has an ion probe that was supposed to get into low orbit around the sun, but I ended up in the exact right angle to not get any sunlight. I was at max throttle, so I couldn't go back to space center, or even timewarp. So I just ended flight, but imagine if I had waited until I was at the right angle to produce power. I would take literally days, with no time warp.

Iirc (haven't really played any KSP for several month) you still can throttle down/cut throttle using X when your space craft is dead, or am I not recalling that right?

-----

Anyway, my most dull moment was the ion burn I performed without the dynamic timewarp mod.

[Aeshi]

Launching from Kerbin into space, simply because you can't timewarp (without your rocket turning inside-out, anyway.)

[Tiron]

My first 'round the world suborbital flight.

"I've been going supersonic for about an hour on 4x warp, let's see how much further we have to go... aww maaaannn.."

My first round the world suborbital flight was with this, and took less than 50 minutes because it's just that fast: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/ravenspear-mk3-d-manta-stock/

Here's a screenshot of the test flight for that model: http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/576731339815250873/564244E5F9DAA815B5FC6D7231FAC6E75DFDF44B/

Iirc (haven't really played any KSP for several month) you still can throttle down/cut throttle using X when your space craft is dead, or am I not recalling that right?

You can indeed, but it won't change the actual setting on the engine unless the craft is 'alive'. Given it was an ion engine, it should've still been able to warp after cutting the throttle since the engine can't run without power anyway (preventing the 'you cannot warp while the ship is under acceleration message).

[Nuke]

Hold alt+>. this will allow you to warp in space.

undocumented (or poorly documented) features for the win.

not that i would read the documentation.

instructions? i dont need no stinking instructions!

[antiquark]

It would be cool if there was something to "collect" when you're on a planet. Even if it was a text-only thing, such as an icon with the words "IGNEOUS ROCK" or whatever, then there would be a purpose to driving around on a planet. Plus, if they were worth money, then more reason to collect them!

[Ford_Prefect]

Efficient Mission to Moho.

Achieving orbit.

[Flixxbeatz]

Any burn times higher than 5 minutes, like a 16-MINUTE BURN for a Moho intercept before from solar orbit, and a 12-MINUTE BURN to put my ship in orbit around it.

Also, repetitive stuff (launching the same rocket with the same payload over and over again until the needed number is reached), like putting station/interplanetary ship components, resupply/refuelling missions, and crew delivery launches. Sometimes, docking.

And before 0.11: Watching Kerbin disappear from the surface as you go away from it and watching your ship to see if it had already orbited the planet or not.

Achieving orbit.

Since it's an integral part of spaceflight, anyone just go and get over with its dullness, especially those who do it by themselves.

[PwnedDuck]

Taking off my semi-stable interplanetary cruise stages. Again and again and again. Utterly uninteresting but requires full attention. That's the main reason I downloaded mechjeb.

Also, using said cruise stations to push large stations out to Jool or Moho. more than enough delta-v, but doing it from within Kerbin SOI saves about 1000 each time. That, however, necessitates 30 minute burns which mechjeb can't do, so I have to babysit this slowly burning station orbiting round and round again and again and again...