About to start an all IVA career save

[G'th]

This should be fun, I would think. After experimenting with RasterpropMonitor and a bunch of other mods that make going all IVA truly feasible (including Lazer Mod which gives first person EVA. Still has a third person transition between IVA and EVA, but I can deal with that as a limitation of the game) I've decided to dedicate an entire save to doing nothing but that. All IVA (or more accurately, first person) missions, all the time.

Naturally I'd have to use third person for testing purposes past Apollo level (I already have a set of crafts I can rebuild in my sleep that will accomplish everything up to Apollo rather easily) as well as for probes and such but beyond that I certainly think I could do it, and it would probably be the most immersive experience ever frankly. I already have experience going first person from flight simulators (particularly combat flight sims, so how I'll be able to react to problems whilst in IVA will be interesting) so, much like the real astronauts, I'll have at least some idea of what I'm doing going in.

Right now I'm getting a save started and my first rocket launch will be completed shortly.

But, before I really get into it, anyone have some mission ideas or even mod suggestions (i've got almost all the major ones already. And I mean that. See mod list below) to throw at me? I can't imagine there's many mods that I don't have already so mission ideas are more what I"m looking for beyond the basic Mercury and Apollo missions I plan on doing (gemini is meh. I already know the technology works )

Here's the mod list I'll be using, as they appear in my folder:

AIES Aerospace

ASET

B9 Aerospace

Chatterer

Crew Manifest

Deadly Reentry

FASA

FScience

Home Grown Rocket parts

RasterPropMonitor (With MFD)

Kerbal Attachment System

Procedural Fairings

Joint Reinforcement

Kethane

Klockheed Martian (Shuttle engines)

KW Rocketry

LackLusterLabs

MechJeb (I plan on limiting its usage to docking (because i still suck at anything more than the Apollo turn around) and lift off on some of my more fickle rockets. Possibly also for any maneuvers I don't trust myself to make)

Spherical and Toroidal fuel tanks

Modular Fuel Tanks

Final Frontier

6S Service Compartments

NovaPunch

Porkworks Hab Modules

LAZER Mod

ScanSAT

Starshine Industries (stock alike parts. Can't remember how the mod was called on here, sorry!)

Station Science (PLUS Costly Science)

Stretchy SRB

ThunderAerospace (TACC Life Support)

Kerbal Alarm clock

Tweakable Everything

As for how I can fit all that into one stable game, welp, magic. That and I delete a lot of the odd parts out of NovaPunch that I've never found a use for. (No offense intended there )

[Captain Sierra]

Good luck to you! Make a long detailed thread in Mission Reports so we can read all about the successes and failures!

[Levelord]

I run roughly 6 mods and my game loads significantly longer, I don't know how your PC will handle all of those mods loading O_o

[G'th]

Takes about 5 minutes or so (i don't know, I usually alt-tab out while I wait for the music to come on)

Not all that bad all things considered.

[Hyomoto]

I'd recommend dropping the ones you don't intend to use. I suspect you are using my MFD for this? I'll be interested to read your reports!

[DevoidLight]

Without MechJeb docking would be next to impossible. I definitely couldn't blame you for using it.

[WhiteKnuckle]

Are you not going to be using the map mode at all? Or Just not using the third person view while not in map mode?

If it's the latter then I can't see why docking would be impossible. Map mode to set up the intercept, nav ball inside the cockpit to get close (<100m) and null out relative velocity, and LAZOR to do the final docking.

[Garek]

I would suggest using Ferram Aerospace Research. It fits nicely with Deadly Reentry, TAC-LS etc. for a semi-realism playthrough. Also, fairings are actually counter-productive without it because of the way stock drag works. Of course, you would need to redesign some rockets (safe 1km/s of delta-v to LKO by building aerodynamically, consider aerodynamic stability) and adjust your ascent profile (never go more than 5° off prograde while in atmosphere).

[Javster]

Docking without MJ2 is possible, if you have enough cameras from RasterProp.

[Hyomoto]

Without MechJeb docking would be next to impossible. I definitely couldn't blame you for using it.

Woah, woah woah. You might be bad at docking, but I'm afraid its FAR from impossible. Just check out 'Kerpollo', I did a Apollo-style lander retrieval as the OP suggests, but I also docking from the surface of the Mun to the return module in orbit ALL IVA. No map. All IVA. That entire mission is done in IVA. It is not impossible. MechJeb is one of two things, an excuse to not get better at the game, or a series of tools to help out with complex tasks.

I wouldn't blame you for anything. It diminishes the impressiveness of all missions ever, but impressing other people and having fun are entirely separate. After all, anyone can all-IVA with MechJeb. Anyone can anything with MechJeb. That doesn't hurt THEIR fun, it just makes US bored hearing about it.

[Savage117]

Iv already done something like this, and I found it to be a blast. Hyomoto's MFDs are a really big help. I didnt use Lazor though, its a memory hog, im already very close to the cap, and has some kinda cheaty modules. I also use F.A.R. it can be a boon as well as a pain in the butt to use. The others are right, fairings are useless without F.A.R.

If you want to improve your docking experience, get either NavyFish's Docking Assistant mod or use the docking assistant on Hyomotos navball MFD, I prefer NavyFish's though, it has a little more detail, but I use it in conjunction with the MFD. I constructed a space station all IVA although I did use EVA to help me decide where the pieces would go and third person to target docking ports.

Is there a way to only add the first person EVA thing from Lazor and target docking ports from IVA?

[Rickenbacker]

Docking without MJ2 is possible, if you have enough cameras from RasterProp.

It's doable without mods too, but lining up properly is hard, since there's no indication on the navball. But if you know your target is lined up N-S, for example, it's very possible.

[Garek]

It's doable without mods too, but lining up properly is hard, since there's no indication on the navball. But if you know your target is lined up N-S, for example, it's very possible.

There is a mod which just adds an alignment indicator to the navball. Something like "Navball Docking Indicator" or "Navball Alignment Indicator" or something.

[G'th]

Welp, the first few flights were incredibly successful considering I never build my initial rockets to go any higher than 70km. My third flight sent Bill into an almost orbital flight with an apoapsis of ~200km. Took me a bit to realize I needed to be paying attention to my apoapsis on the Orbit screen rather than starting at the navball the entire time. Next flight should be orbital. Mission reports will follow here soon.

However, for the sake of simplicity in designing my ships (and because I'm too lazy to deal with finding a realistic tech tree that I like) I've decided to unlock the entire tree after I do my first orbital flight. Now, that being said, I'll still be following a general progression (IE, I won't jump from my equivalent of John Glenn's first orbital flight to Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon in the next flight) with my ships and of course, they will all still be flown by IVA. Its just that now I won't end up in the Apollo area of progression and still be reliant on one-man capsules.