What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Sharpy]

47 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Did you run the whole thing by hand? How do you cope with the hours of sheer boredom?

All by hand, and trying to maintain ~17m/s at 3x phys warp at all times. At >20m/s 3x Trucky tends to get flippy. At 1x I can even go near 30m/s, but 3x17>30.

I actually enjoyed the experience quite a bit. Planning the next leg of the journey. Planning for a place to wait through the night. Enjoying the sights. Hunting for places to get good views. Music - Jarre. More energetic, heavier pieces playing during dust storm made it an epic experience. Some light reading from the other screen while watching my speed. Managing power when sending science - for each biome I'd pick a full batch for the container, and send a second one - while driving, as power allowed. Often straying or stopping to check out some more curious feature of terrain. Remembering about saves, POIs and screenshots Evening Downhills - driving into the night until battery runs out, then driving more until slope runs out - sometimes covering a good distance. Intense reading of ScanSat maps, choosing a route that allows for good speed, is interesting, and leads where I want to go. Recovering from close calls when exceeding safe speed... or recovering through F9, which was less fun. More long-term plans - the ascent vehicle is really not meant to carry 5 kerbals and an extra MK2 cockpit, Bill will have his hands full again.

And from time to time taking a break to do other things. Sending ScanSats, collecting science from labs, driving over Minmus (one more circumnavigation which I completed but didn't write about - nothing really impressive), experimenting with the sandbox...

Generally, I enjoyed that quite a bit. There were some more boring parts, but not many really comparing to the interesting ones.

Also, big kudos to author of Atmospheric Scatterer. Due to its bugsfeatures Duna presented some very interesting atmospheric phenomena that left quite an impression.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Sharpy

[Clipperride]

@MR.Mac please ignore - tablet browser won't let me delete the "at" grrrrrrr.

 

In other news, I tried (for the first time) adding nose cones to the back of my space plans engines to see how it reduced drag.  I flew the same (well similar as it was done manually) ascent with and without the addition and was surprised by the difference. Without fuel/ox remaining by LKO was 840/538 and with 949/672. Quite a saving!

[Galileo]

I released an official v1.0 of Galileo's Planet pack today and the day is still young.. maybe ill actually be able to play... probably not.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Galileo

[Thrawn889]

So it's been a while since my last update. I left you all last time with a successful Mun Landing under my belt and plans to go to Minmus i was looking at what i could do build and spend the science Valentina brought back. In the end i used the money and the science to fund the building of 

This was a success(mostly) Valentina, bob and Bill managed to reach Minmus: 

Maybe not the most efficient of course but it worked. 

Now i got a successful intercept and even orbit of Minmus. But then realized there is a really dreadful design flaw in the ship. I didn't have any Landing gear.... So landing aborted and a orbit to flyby of Minmus was performed.... I then sent them back with Landing gear so they can land... 

So again i launched and got a better encounter which they then landed on Minmus

So yeah a lot faffing around but i managed to get the science from one biome.  

They returned successfully  

So in the intervening days since i had this. I've returned to the mun with a better lander the MK 2 pod, i managed to plant a flag on the mun this time. I had a contract to do this and i now have to do this again XD. 

I've had an abortive attempt to build an orbital science platform over Kerbin 

i didnt try to launch this... 

my partner challenged me to go to Duna. 

This is where I'm at now  I have another Munar landing to plant a flag to do. I'm 75 days off a Duna encounter. Whether i try and land or not i haven't decided if i find i can get to Ike easier and land on Ike with less fuel needed i will do that

Thanks gals and girls for reading my stupidly long and pointless update... 

 

 

 

 

 

[JadeOfMaar]

3 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

What's that big center fuselage section from? It looks even bigger than Mk4 parts!

I don't use MkIV Spaceplane Parts so I can't compare (but I assume they're still bigger). I use OPT Spaceplane Parts. That fuselage is the Humpback form factor from its separate Legacy pack.

What I did in KSP today? I did some rigorous final testing, helping the release of Galileo's planets.

Edited November 16, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[septemberWaves]

18 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

I don't use MkIV Spaceplane Parts so I can't compare (but I assume they're still bigger).

Going by what appears to be Mk2 parts on the sides of that cockpit, I'd estimate that the main fuselage of your (incredibly good-looking) spaceplane is approximately the same size as Nertea's MkIV parts - though that being said it might be a bit bigger.

[ROXunreal]

Launching the first base for this career soon, to Minmus.

Today I tested the Base Assembly Vehicle and docking the various base modules.

Positioning the landing struts is somewhat puzzling due to Kerbin's gravity working on their springs a lot more than the gravity of Minmus would, I really don't want things to be misaligned. Maybe I should tweak the suspension? Haven't tried that.

Also my Mun Prospecting Rover landed and successfully surveyed the Lesser Flats for a place where the base will be established.

I can really never not ever get tired of the way Minmus looks up close with SVE

[XB-70A]

I tried out my new lander Mercury II. Able to reach Minmus with 7 souls onboard and full array of science parts in the cargo bay then jump to the Mun, land on it, lift-off once again, then reach Kerbin and land on in a single part (and still enough fuel to ensure a controlled and powered landing).

But while braking on the descent I noticed something unusual (at least to me)...

 

A part from the transMunar stage has survived the contact with the surface!

 

This was a glorious day for the Wolf's Dragoon! 

 

[Talos]

I created a new campaign based on Alternis Kerbol. My main campaign was safely placed in my backup folder so that it isn't messed up by Alternis. However, I made some quick progress in getting as far as mapping out Kerbin and docking two ships together. I also made an extensive first gen relay system to cover any mission within the starting area (which for Alternis, means I have access to quite a few planets.)

 

 

 

[adsii1970]

Played around with a UFO... a bit unstable but was able to take some excellent screen shots I plan to use in the next chapter...

[ComradeGreen]

Today, I pulled off 2 missions at once.

First, The Fire V was launched and set up in a parking orbit, I set up a timer for Jool.

Then, I launched Clymene I, an asteroid capture tug, it grabbed a C Class Asteroid (Dubbed A-"P"01) nicknamed Pandora and dragged her into a high Kerbin orbit, an issue arose however when i noticed her orbit intersected with the Mun, and would eventually break the orbit. I launched Clymene II and brought her down to a closer orbit.

By now the Fire V window had opened and I launched, reaching Jool with %1 Communications. This was a major issue and it rendered the craft inept, though I managed to orbit it in time. The current problem comes in the form of the Icarus III, a probe given to the Fire V to explore Jools atmosphere. I forgot to realise that power from solars decreases the further out you go, and now my Fire V cannot sustain itself, or send its data. This calls for desperate measures, I have begun Operation Ideal, which will attempt to send a second probe to Jool in order to recover the mission. This will be a side mission second to the coming Hyperion I mission to Duna. after Fire IV managed to set up a basic relay and land a probe on Duna, the space program has announced plans to send a Kerbal crew there. hopefully, this will turn out better than the Fire V mission in Jool.

On a second note, Fire VI is being prepared to head out to Dres to expand our communications array so we can actually talk to Jool. It will likely be carrying multiple satellites. Hyperion I should come with an extra satellite or two as to assist this mission. Hyperion I will be landing at the site of the Spark II, which is landed on Duna's largest crater.

Edited November 16, 2016 by ComradeGreen

[ruiluth]

Today I sent a six-part craft to Duna and Ike which had two mapping probes for each, a lander for ike, and the transfer stage had a big relay. Mission was a total success, although bad timing on a couple burns meant I had to waste fuel rescheduling them to occur within radio contact.

[memes in space]

Made good on my username.

[The Raging Sandwich]

52 minutes ago, memes in space said:

Made good on my username.

Nice usage of Pepe

 

[memes in space]

19 minutes ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

Nice usage of Pepe

 

Kek

[ComradeGreen]

1 hour ago, memes in space said:

Made good on my username.

inb4 banned for hate symbol

kek

 

[Benji13]

On 11/16/2016 at 8:37 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

From the same company that delivered a fully functional USS Enterprise to Kerbalkind and basically all my alien designs comes a new experimental SSTO with a fraction of the SSTA power. Deep Sky™ presents: the MPV Nero L, wearing the flag of the king of @Galileo's planets... Nero.

Nero in Nero Orbit. Because why not???

Are those OPT parts? I'm thinking about moving from MkIV parts to OPT.

Edit: Never mind, I read up a couple posts. Good job on GPP by the way!

Edited November 17, 2016 by Benji13

[Brownhair2]

Didn't do much.

I figured I'd actually try to get the Peregrine to space, since it was night, lowering Titanus's glitchy terrain down to tolerable levels. Now I can say with certainty that it will not make it to space.

Then I did some testing to see if Kerbals could get into orbit when launched on a suborbital trajectory (No, I did not shoot them out of a cannon. I used a plane.) Results were conclusive: they could not. So it looks like the Pulsar probably won't work on Titanus.

So let's meet in the middle, shall we?

The Mako features a scramjet and 6 Candle radioisotope engines for maximum efficiency. That being said I still don't think it'll be enough to get into orbit, but it'll come close enough (hopefully).

 

[Francois424]

About a month ago, I decided to go to the Mün (after a very lucrative Minmus mission)
It took quite a while to get all the Biomes, but I managed.  Many times, the clock would turn yellow and slow down to 1/2 real-time... KSP or EVE?  Hard to tell, but it wasn't so bad in the long run.
Here's the expedition in a few pictures highlighting the more important parts . . .  Enjoy !

What's left of the launcher will bring the skycrane to the Mün, and land the Eureka rover there.

We're here !  However the real work is about to begin.

The Skycrane is slowly decelerating, lest uncontrollable rotation occurs. Everything's fine tho.

The final landing maneuver... On a flat spot for once.  We decoupled the rover and the skycrane flew off to crash somewhere unimportant.

 

The Eureka Truck, a jewel designed in the 0.23-era, will be doing most of the driving for the next RL month.

Might not be much on the Mun, but I like it.  Of course I will become sick of it by the time the mission is over

Driving fast ( > 25 m/s) does create some... interesting situations every now and then.  I'm going to say it keeps you awake, that's for sure.

The crew taking a break, and planting a flag at the Mün's Highlands. Valentina seems to be enjoying herself.

The 'Rescue-Three' arrived hours before the 'Eureka' got to the rendezvous point.  But everyone made it safe and sound.

Planting the last flag on the last Biome before heading into the 'Rescue-Three' lander

 

An Apollo-esque take-off, only using the Ares Capsule's engine to get home . . .

. . . gets the crew in a nice path and cosy 35km re-entry.

Errrm... Getting uncomfortably hot here. What do you mean this capsule does not have a built-in heat shield !?

The crew is safely landed back home.  Now let's see if we got enough science to begin a real exploration program !

That's a lot, but I was missing 800 more science to unlock the last of the tech tree...  Maybe skipping the dangerous 'Polar Lowlands' biome wasn't such a good idea...

 

So I sent another Eureka Truck to Minmus using same skycrane, and managed an extra 1200.
Now I am done with the unlocking and starting to work on my Deep-space Network of satellites. 
Unfortunately, another 0.24 design I brought over automatically calls the Kraken when switching back to it.
I'm going to have to rebuild my "Fairies" from scratch in 1.2 it seems.

Noticed a couple of things doing these missions that I have to watch out for:
 - The Mobile Processing Lab's science gathering distance is too short to allow collection by a Kerbal.  I had to edit Squad's part to change the distance to 2.5 and it fixed that.  Had me quite puzzled for a while.  Might be fixed in 1.2.1, but I haven't downloaded that version yet,
 - The "Ares Capsule" does not have any science container by default, So I could not grab the science from the Eureka and board the Ares without dumping all experiments.  A quick edition of the part fixed that issue. 
 - The Ares' engines do not work on Monoprop. I needed to restart the mission because I assumed it was the case.  I am considering changing it go from 3 fuel (LF+O+Monoprop) to Monoprop only to keep it simple... 
 - The Ares also does not have an heatshield, so won't make that mistake again.  Not changing it as it's fun making mistakes with new parts every now and then.
 - I **really** need to do my satellite network. Loosing comms in the middle of a mission is annoying.
 - The skycrane on the lander induces annoying spin.  I tried using rotation tool to adjust it, but somehow it does not work.  No more 2.5m-to-3.75m fuel adapter as a crane fuel tank from now on.
 - The Mün is far bigger than I remembered...  Then again last time I roved on it was back in 0.23.5 so a very long time ago.  Next time I'm making a hopper/rover hybrid instead (like I did on Moho for 1.0.2)

So chapter one of my space program is finished.  The Kerbin SoI is done.   Time for a mothership and some serious exploration !
Looking forward to it !

Edited November 17, 2016 by Francois424

[JadeOfMaar]

@Francois424 Missed you, dude. That's an epic post.

[Francois424]

Just now, JadeOfMaar said:

@Francois424 Missed you, dude. That's an epic post.

Thanks, Real-Life being a pain and slowing down progress.  updating abandoned/un-maintained 0.22-0.23 parts into 1.2 is taking a lot of time too (testing and re-testing).
My install is almost complete, but then 1.2.1 happened... I'll say I am annoyed as some of my mods hadn't been properly updated for 1.2 yet.  But I don't want my game to break.  Might create a separate install when everything I need is ready. 

I need to redesign a new Mothership(pen'n'paper concept is over) after doing my satellite network, but I'll see if I can post a tidbit every now and then  
Hopefully I can get my science grand tour rolling sooner than later.

[JadeOfMaar]

4 minutes ago, Francois424 said:

Thanks, Real-Life being a pain and slowing down progress.  updating abandoned/un-maintained 0.22-0.23 parts into 1.2 is taking a lot of time too (testing and re-testing).
My install is almost complete, but then 1.2.1 happened... I'll say I am annoyed as some of my mods hadn't been properly updated for 1.2 yet.  But I don't want my game to break.  Might create a separate install when everything I need is ready. 

I need to redesign a new Mothership(pen'n'paper concept is over) after doing my satellite network, but I'll see if I can post a tidbit every now and then  
Hopefully I can get my science grand tour rolling sooner than later.

Heck yea. I'd like to do a science grand tour sometime too. I'm just about to start that kind of game for once.

If you're interested. OPM released for KSP 1.2.1 today, right after Galileo's Planet Pack. Will you hit the Outer Planets in your grand tour?

[GDJ]

I built a copy of a LTV A-7 Corsair II for a current challenge.




 

Edited November 17, 2016 by GDJ

[Francois424]

Just now, JadeOfMaar said:

Heck yea. I'd like to do a science grand tour sometime too. I'm just about to start that kind of game for once.

If you're interested. OPM released for KSP 1.2.1 today, right after Galileo's Planet Pack. Will you hit the Outer Planets in your grand tour?

Of course. OPM has been taunting me for a while now, I just didn't have the time, then I needed to build my install/game up.  It does mean a more streamlined lander, and possibly with a Mining attachment (extra tanks/drills), so more part counts.  It also means refilling the XENON Mothership, but I have this idea on paper using air intakes+atmospheres+ISRU unit...  I like the challenge it's providing tbh, and if it all works, will provide some interesting mission reports.  Of course I have yet to build a streamlined rover that has modular mining apparatus and enough tank capacity that I liked.  That will be the biggest challenge I think, the 3-in-one lander (Light/Heavy/Mining).  Once I have that tested and ready, the grand tour begins.

And Laythe, Tekto, and dunno which moon of the other gaz giants will have mining outposts to produce stuff and store it for Mothership refueling.  If my xenon thing works, it's going to be a slow production rate.
Basically, I set up the rovers, the outposts where applicable, and the Kerbals go down to do their missions afterwards.  I have a good idea for most of the planets/moons, but Tekto...  Not sure, will be my fist (serious) time there; I don't even have a clue where the Biomes are, and I am not cheating by looking it up. 

Going to be fun !

[The Raging Sandwich]

Did my first actual abort. Accidentally pressed one of the buttons for an action group and the capsule decoupled from the rocket as it was still going, so I had do choice but to abort. The Kerbals landed safely, though.