[1.2] Real Solar System v12.0 Dec 8

[Starwaster]

OK... I think I've installed everything you said I reed for what I want but it hasn't really worked. Ships that could get to the moon now cant even get to orbit.

I might not have explained myself very well...

Say I have a stock ship that has enough DV to get into orbit on the stock game.

Is there a way to make it so this same ship now has enough DV to get into orbit on RSS?

No of course not. You have over 100km of atmosphere to get through now instead of 70. You need more dv which means more fuel bigger fuel tanks and better engines to lift the extra mass.

There are different engine configurations available depending on tastes. One of those is the stockslike listed on front page.

[AndreyATGB]

I'm not landing on this planet again, it took about 30 minutes real time of falling.

[Mulbin]

No of course not. You have over 100km of atmosphere to get through now instead of 70. You need more dv which means more fuel bigger fuel tanks and better engines to lift the extra mass.

You're saying its impossible for a mod to exist to rescale the DV of stock parts? I'm not sure thats true.

Nevermind everyone, I've fixed it myself by rescaling the ISPs with the ISP scaler mod. Now stock ships that should get into orbit, get into orbit without having to use something 20 times bigger than a saturn V (or a mod pack).

Edited February 22, 2014 by Mulbin

[NathanKell]

Mulbin: ah, you didn't mention you wanted it to take no bigger rockets than stock, just that you wanted to need only stock parts.

Yes, KIDS is the way to go with that. a 3x multiplier for both atmospheric and vacuum Isp should be right to go from Earth-scale to Kerbin-scale.

[gleedadswell]

Use this by AbeS a few posts back. Although figuring out when the correct phase angle occurs is trivial when you know the orbital periods and starting positions.

No, that's not what I mean, though that is an awesome little web app! And it partly answers my question, since it gives the date of the launch window, which is better than eyeballing the phase angle on the screen (but does the "add body" feature have enough flexibility to do RSS instead of the stock Kerbal system?). But, like I said, I know how to do the calculations by hand (I've got a fairly large physics background). What I'm finding difficult is, for example, once you know that you want to do a burn out of Kerbin at a particular ejection angle there is then some difficulty in actually executing it since there is not much info. available in game on things like where your spacecraft is in relation to the direction Kerbin is going in its orbit. My problem is not calculational, which I'm pretty good at. My problem is with executing what I've calculated. It's like the reason most physicists are not overly good pool players, even though pool is just applied physics.

Later edit: no that web app doesn't appear to be able to do the RSS. In particular, it doesn't appear to have a way for you to edit the mass of the sun, which would be the first requirement to be able to use it for RSS. But in any case, the calculations aren't my problem, though using that app would have been much faster than the pen-and-paper methods I'm doing now.

Edited February 22, 2014 by gleedadswell

[AndreyATGB]

No, that's not what I mean, though that is an awesome little web app! And it partly answers my question, since it gives the date of the launch window, which is better than eyeballing the phase angle on the screen (but does the "add body" feature have enough flexibility to do RSS instead of the stock Kerbal system?). But, like I said, I know how to do the calculations by hand (I've got a fairly large physics background). What I'm finding difficult is, for example, once you know that you want to do a burn out of Kerbin there is then some difficulty in actually executing it since there is not much info. available in game on things like where your spacecraft is in relation to the direction Kerbin is going in its orbit. My problem is not calculational, which I'm pretty good at. My problem is with executing what I've calculated. It's like the reason most physicists are not overly good pool players, even though pool is just applied physics.

Later edit: no that web app doesn't appear to be able to do the RSS. In particular, it doesn't appear to have a way for you to edit the mass of the sun, which would be the first requirement to be able to use it for RSS. But in any case, the calculations aren't my problem, though using that app would have been much faster than the pen-and-paper methods I'm doing now.

You are using either Kerbal Engineer or MechJeb right? You're not gonna have a good time trying to play RSS without some serious information both during building and flying. The ejection angle isn't stated for a node unless you use the maneuver node precision mod but ejection isn't a big problem as you can just drag the node around until you have the right angle. Remember to eject from an equatorial orbit.

[Mulbin]

Mulbin: ah, you didn't mention you wanted it to take no bigger rockets than stock, just that you wanted to need only stock parts.

Yes, KIDS is the way to go with that. a 3x multiplier for both atmospheric and vacuum Isp should be right to go from Earth-scale to Kerbin-scale.

Yep, I just really badly phrased my original question! Playing around with KIDS now to get a playable but challenging balance.

[Scripto23]

No, that's not what I mean, though that is an awesome little web app! And it partly answers my question, since it gives the date of the launch window, which is better than eyeballing the phase angle on the screen (but does the "add body" feature have enough flexibility to do RSS instead of the stock Kerbal system?). But, like I said, I know how to do the calculations by hand (I've got a fairly large physics background). What I'm finding difficult is, for example, once you know that you want to do a burn out of Kerbin at a particular ejection angle there is then some difficulty in actually executing it since there is not much info. available in game on things like where your spacecraft is in relation to the direction Kerbin is going in its orbit. My problem is not calculational, which I'm pretty good at. My problem is with executing what I've calculated. It's like the reason most physicists are not overly good pool players, even though pool is just applied physics.

Later edit: no that web app doesn't appear to be able to do the RSS. In particular, it doesn't appear to have a way for you to edit the mass of the sun, which would be the first requirement to be able to use it for RSS. But in any case, the calculations aren't my problem, though using that app would have been much faster than the pen-and-paper methods I'm doing now.

I believe mechjeb will give you any number you can dream of. You don't have to use the automation functions if you don't want to, you can just use it for information.

[brooklyn666]

no that web app doesn't appear to be able to do the RSS. In particular, it doesn't appear to have a way for you to edit the mass of the sun, which would be the first requirement to be able to use it for RSS.

Sadly true, especially since AbeS did wonderful work on that. Does anyone have the physics/coding chops to try and make a brand new launch window calculator for RSS, with a correctly sized sun?

[Starwaster]

You're saying its impossible for a mod to exist to rescale the DV of stock parts? I'm not sure thats true.

Nevermind everyone, I've fixed it myself by rescaling the ISPs with the ISP scaler mod. Now stock ships that should get into orbit, get into orbit without having to use something 20 times bigger than a saturn V (or a mod pack).

Yeah I'm pretty sure I said no such thing.

[AbeS]

The one looking for a launch window planner, check out the link in my signature. I DID change the mass of Kerbol and modified all the planets to the current RSS settings (it looks exactly like the default calculator but it isn't). I left the names as they are because when I tried changing those it stopped working

[Mulbin]

The one looking for a launch window planner, check out the link in my signature. I DID change the mass of Kerbol and modified all the planets to the current RSS settings (it looks exactly like the default calculator but it isn't). I left the names as they are because when I tried changing those it stopped working

Ohh... I've been looking for something like this Nice work.

Next problem, I don't know if this is RSS or another mod causing the problem but thought I'd check if it is a know bug. My pods (and kerbals) cant splash down properly, they shudder about in the water and their status remains "flying above kerbins water". I can usually retrieve the pod after a few minutes clicking as the button appears and dissapears at the top of the screen, but any kerbal that tries to swim in the water is doomed to either die or have the flight reset.

[Captain_Party]

I've been playing on 6.4:1 scale Kerbin, and the Kethane grid clips through the terrain on the map. Is there any workaround this?

EDIT: I got it, just mixed around with the settings in the 'Grid.cfg' file.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Captain_Party

[BahamutoD]

I'm trying to build a rocket to take a lander to the moon and back (taking cues from apollo of course), and even with KJR 2.0 and no matter how many heavy struts I use, the connection between the massive first stage and second stage breaks when physics loads. How do you guys keep your heavy crafts together without breaking on the launchpad?

[cardgame]

Well, how big/heavy is it?

I secured my 3.75m rocket with just a few medium struts between the stages, but together they only weighed ~100t.

[AndreyATGB]

I'm trying to build a rocket to take a lander to the moon and back (taking cues from apollo of course), and even with KJR 2.0 and no matter how many heavy struts I use, the connection between the massive first stage and second stage breaks when physics loads. How do you guys keep your heavy crafts together without breaking on the launchpad?

I changed the struts file to allow for stronger connections and made them longer as well (basically multiplied strength and length by 10). I usually don't need struts between stages but if yours is breaking you either have a ridiculous second stage or you need to use the cubic octagonal strut method to strut the stages together. In case you don't know, place 4 or so cubic octagonal struts on both stages and strut them together. This has the same effect of the struts going directly between the stages.

What you're more likely to be doing wrong is using launch stabilizers, which don't work at all. Make your own platform to hold the rocket for a second before you hit space since the stock launch stabilizers will rip it apart at the moment. Make sure your second stage is using hydrogen, or at the very least your lunar injection should use hydrogen.

So I was playing with PlanetFactory CE and was trying to make Earth and Moon. I noticed RSS 6.0 uses pretty much the same things (height, color and normal maps) to change the terrain of Kerbin to that of Earth. I've made Moon, Mars and Venus so far. The terrain seems accurate, but I haven't been to any of those planets so I have no idea if it's accurate. What I can tell you is that they're not the same as the stock ones (Venus is very, very rough).

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Nathan could you briefly explain what deformity in the cfg does? There's a bunch of them. I'm guessing they do something with the rounding of the planet, as the height map seems to exaggerate a lot of hills and mountains in map view.

Edited February 23, 2014 by AndreyATGB

[gleedadswell]

I'm trying to build a rocket to take a lander to the moon and back (taking cues from apollo of course), and even with KJR 2.0 and no matter how many heavy struts I use, the connection between the massive first stage and second stage breaks when physics loads. How do you guys keep your heavy crafts together without breaking on the launchpad?

Are these stages connected with a procedural interstage fairing? As much as I love the procedural fairings I have to admit that sometimes it is difficult to get the interstage fairing to correctly hold what is above it. It seems to be a matter of getting the right radius of the top of the fairing, but I haven't figured out how to tell I've got the right radius except to go to the launchpad and see if the thing falls apart.

[maccollo]

I'm trying to build a rocket to take a lander to the moon and back (taking cues from apollo of course), and even with KJR 2.0 and no matter how many heavy struts I use, the connection between the massive first stage and second stage breaks when physics loads. How do you guys keep your heavy crafts together without breaking on the launchpad?

When you get above a certain size you have to strut things right, otherwise it will collapse, even with joint reinforcement. If you don't strut it right "more struts" can often cause the rocket to become even more unstable with joints disconnecting at random.

This is the largest stable craft I've build, and it's large enough to perform an Apollo like mission with 3 kerbals.

It weighs 2900 tons and holds together without the joint reinforcement mod. (requires TAC life support and deadly reentry)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22015656/apollo11.craft

My favourite way of strutting between stages is like this. It holds them togeather pretty well while allowing for little bit of flex.

I'm not sure how well it would work with 3.75 meter parts tho.

[NathanKell]

Deformity is how much variation in height for the terrain (in meters) but multiple mods stack. More when not in phone.

[BahamutoD]

I'm using stretchy tanks, so the first couple stages are much wider.. perhaps 7 or 8m. I switched to hydrogen and cryo balloon tanks for the upper stages to make it lighter, and removed the launch clamps. Was able to get a launch off without anything breaking unexpectedly, but had to make adjustments to the craft to squeeze out more DV. Now, the connection between second and third stage are breaking on spawn T-T. I can never win. I don't get it, its the same method of connection between the first and second stage, which doesn't break anymore. I'll keep trying..

Edited February 23, 2014 by BahamutoD

[Skyler4856]

How is the lag associated with this mod?

[Spica]

For me it actually increased my Framerate, believe it or not.

[AbeS]

There isn't much difference between RSS and stock for me, and I have a really crappy computer

[JonSpace_CEO]

@NathanKell Yeah, I moved it a bit to the east, and it's all sorted now

(quoting from a discussion long finished)

If it's all sorted now, then i would love the save file (or at least the settings), as i have also been trying to launch from Woomera, although that's kinda impossible if it's embedded in the ground

Also, Google spell-checks woomera to boomerang...

[AndreyATGB]

This took me a few hours, but I'm finally done.

Here's a version of metaphor's config file for RSS 6.0 with PlanetFactory. It uses RSS' own texture replacing for all planets and moons, TextureReplacer only replaces the skybox. Credit to metaphor for collecting all the maps for most planets and moons. I was trying to find them as well but it was getting extremely tedious especially for less explored areas. I haven't adjusted the fading distances much so they may be very random, most are around 100km.

This will eat your RAM for breakfast. It loads without memory reduction mod with only the required mods but it runs out of RAM on my actual install, so you should use the active memory reduction mod, even then I have 2.8GB at KSC.

Edited February 23, 2014 by AndreyATGB