I think I need more stages... (what is your max stage count so far?)

[Pbhead]

So.

basically.

Its getting a little hard to work on my rocket to plant a flag at sea level on eve, and (hopefully) return home safely.

yep.

oh. wait. did you want to see the rocket?

~600 parts before i start some serious strutting if you are curious.

and I am not totally sure if I am done adding fuel tanks/ mainsails yet... It doesnt have an interplanetary stage... It (in theory) gets the lander into orbit, and the lander should be able to get off eve, but, getting to eve is not quite possible yet. oops. but thats what the docking ports on top are for. refueling, and a drive unit.

note: the sepratrons on the emergency almost-anywhere-back-to-kerbin-abort-button-has-a-purpose system messes up the isp, and thus the delta V on that last stage is not quite right.

My favorite part of this rocket is that on the eve ascent, there are 7 mainsails, and when 2 are dropped, three aerospikes above them are turend on, until there is 18 aerospikes, and 1 mainsails firing, then the final mainsail is dropped and replaced with a nuke, before the aerospikes start asparagusing. in theory.

So. of course. My question is: What is the highest amount of stages you have put on your rocket?

[AmpsterMan]

Two stages on my lift vehicles with stage zero boosters that either feed to the core stage or are SRBs.

[Red Jester]

I'm lucky if i can get 3 stages of oranges to work, let alone this masterwork/monstrocity Seriously though, including lander detatchment and ditching srbs and so on, I tghink about 5 or 6

[Godot]

I cannot remember ever having mnore than maybe 25 stages

[magnemoe]

I would recommend launching the lander with some boosters, say add six orange tanks+ mainsails around it and use as an outer asparagus layer. This way you get the lander engines to help lift themselves, the orange tanks just supply fuel to the lander and the mainsails lift the orange tanks.

[Christian365]

8 stages was my record. I usually combine the separators and rockets so that they fire at the same time. It reduces your stage count significantly.

[RawChicken]

Just wow, i can get anywhere in 3 or 4 stages, but never tried an Eve go and back trip

[Cipher29]

At first I thought, "There's no way that thing could get off Eve at sea level," then I realized that middle stage was part of the lander

Anyway the most stages I use is about 10 max, I try to stage in groups to reduce the debris count.