Hi fellas! Modder from other series fallin' in love with this.

[msyblade]

I'm a 37 yr old american, sci-fi nut. My interests are astronomy, physics, and WWII. I studied much of WWII growing up, learning old Sub sims (Silent Hunter), and ALL the flight sims (Aces over Europe/Pacific, to falcon 4.0) Other than that, I had the consoles to play the usual mario and such, but being a physics/astronomy guy, never really got the "calculation" intensive release that I kind of longed for deep down (Battlecruiser 3000 A.D. anyone? No?!) Not only has Squad filled a hole in my world that needed planted, they do it with lighthearted humor, and a true support of the community (or is it the other way around?) Ennyway, I wrote the Hotel Hades 2 and 3 mods for Legend of Grimrock, know some LUA coding, some blender for modeling, even some animation (no really, i suck. . .). I'm just poppin in to let you guys know that I LOVE WHAT YOU'RE DOING. N that goes to the Dev's, and the community. Kudos! I'm gonna be around, may fall enough in love to start building parts/mods, although, from outward appearances, things like mechjeb and MAPSAT are way beyond my skills, I see this going VERY FAR. Squad, if you guys see this, a couple of things, I would say to you from ground level: 1: Keep the humor/disconnect part of it, NEVER take it from this lighthearted, "serious" fun, to "Serious /Serious". And B: I think youve reached the time in Dev, that the foundations are laid for the external physics/exploration part (I know, theres SO much to DO!) but I really think, the next step, for these hardcore guys/supporters, is an interior AVAILABILITY. Large command capsules for space station/moon bases, that can be walked around in, EXPLORED. (The current engine would be fine, even. Although a "planted on the ground" approach would be an awesome start for everyone that you could tweak later) with a couple of consoles that can be interacted with/cause catastrophe for humor. Let em BE Jeb, and Bill. This is NOT conceivable from a dev standpoint, but from ground level, new fan status, what if, one day, I can BE bill, in the command pod, eating the last yogurt, and leaving a note on the dashboard for Jeb. (Use the 1 Person command pod with radial viewports if you dont know what im talking about, in fact, it's quite blurry, and I may have misinterpreted it. Dialogue welcome on the subject!) So, nice ta meet ya guys, I'm 2 weeks in, and JUST tnite, cracked the nut of how to stage long term missions. You must make a refueling station, in stable orbit, that can refuel your large ships after using so much deltaV to break orbit. You use a space station to replenish before leaving for Jool. I was actually to the desperate length of building 17 stage rockets to pull it off, wasted time, but MANY engineering lessons. ANOTHER great point about this game/community! Okay, I'll save that for a later rant Nice ta meet ya!

[Specialist290]

Welcome to the forums!

Glad to hear you're enjoying the game. I definitely agree that KSP has filled a niche I've been wanting to see filled myself for a long time. I've always wondered what it would be like to build and launch my own rocket into space, and I've been a science fiction fan as well since I was very young. I also cut my teeth on some of those older flight sims, although my particular poison was Red Baron from Dynamix back in the day.

The idea of a more interactive IVA experience has certainly been bounced around the forums a bit, and I think the developers have mentioned they do want to eventually give your Kerbalnauts the ability to move around and interact with elements inside the spacecraft. I wouldn't worry too much on that front.

Long-distance missions are fairly simple once you understand that the timing of the mission matters just as much as the rocket you've built does. There's tons of resources on conducting interplanetary transfers listed on the Drawing Board (link in my sig), as well as many other tutorials, guides, and references as well, intended for players of all skill levels. You can also enlist the people over on the How To forums to help troubleshoot specific aspects of design or piloting.

Finally, I'd like to suggest breaking any future long messages into paragraphs. Large walls-o-text can be rather hard on the eyes when you're reading from a computer screen, and breaking your message into small chunks by topic helps give it a little structure and makes it a little easier to follow.

Happy landings!

[Capt'n Skunky]

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager