Jets in career mode?

[jfull]

Admittedly, they don't have much of a purpose if your only focus in Career mode is acquiring as much science as possible. However, there is a lot of fun to be had with building jets and SSTOs.

Also an SSTO is the most efficient way to return from the surface of Laythe.

[Caelib]

I do hope for a rebalancing of the tech tree eventually.

I am under the impression that the ARM Patch will tweak the tree a bit.

[Aragosnat]

Jets can be fun as well as useful. My first science gathering rover was Jet powered. True I did have landing gears for wheels so that I could go 40 m/s+ across land and able to clime 60°+ angles with ease till it either runs out of gas or speed.

[Othuyeg]

Jets are there for the absolute fun factor they have. I love my spaceplanes.

But remember, if someone is starting the game for the first time flying a jet would be simply way too harsh a start and they would never get to orbit if jets were a requirement for advancing.

[Bloodbunny]

Yes the default tech tree is ridiculous. This is why I use mods... my current career mode started me out with just the mk1 cockpit, basic batteries and rover wheels.. had to collect your first science without leaving the ground. After teching up, I got Firespitter biplane parts and flew around to the biomes collecting science in the lower atmosphere. Then got to better propeller engines, then to basic jets. The first rockets don't show up until around the time you get jets, and even then all you get are the .625 meter fuel tanks and engine.

That said, it isn't for everyone, and I know that plenty of folks would leave KSP if they couldn't get to space on their first mission.

[jwenting]

I'm strongly against cheating in MP, because you gain an unfair advantage. If you want to restrict yourself, set yourself some rules or do a challenge...

except KSP is single player. These "guys" want to dictate how other people play their single player game, and feel offended if anyone can select "easy mode" if they themselve elect not to use it...

[Mipi]

I have never truly used the SAB. I tried it once for some small brainless testings, but nothing more. I´m happy with the VAB.

I hope they don´t change the tech tree in a way, that one has to use planes.

Would be great if they offer 2 seperate trees for instance. One for VAB, one for SAB (just as a rough start. You probably need parts of the VAB in the SAB and vice versa etc.)

[cantab]

Maybe it's just because I'm not used to it, but I find the SPH a right nightmare. Landing gears in particular never want to go where I want them.

[MKI]

Once part prices get thrown in, SSTO designs will come into their own.

Since SSTO's generally run on jet parts, they will be extremely useful for multiple flights.

[Jouni]

If part prices are ever implemented in KSP, rocket-based launch stages will become obsolete, unless there is some major rebalancing. You may not even need SSTOs and reusability: disposable jet boosters can be cheaper than the big rockets they replace, even though turbojets and ram air intakes are ridiculously expensive.

I can already see turbojet pancakes replacing asparagus staging as the preferred method of launching large payloads into orbit.

[Kryxal]

I actually do that already for smaller loads ... if it can get off the ground, it can hit 20km up before kicking in the first rockets, at which point I drop all the radially-mounted jets and they all go flying...

[Drenlin]

Maybe it's just because I'm not used to it, but I find the SPH a right nightmare. Landing gears in particular never want to go where I want them.

If you're trying to put them on the bottom of a wing, try turning off angle snap.

I found jets to be pretty useful for gathering science, tbh....I stuck a whole bunch of the small science modules onto it and just flew around and landed in different spots, grabbing data until I had no more room, then landed and recovered. Tons of data in a short amount of time.

[MKI]

If part prices are ever implemented in KSP, rocket-based launch stages will become obsolete, unless there is some major rebalancing. You may not even need SSTOs and reusability: disposable jet boosters can be cheaper than the big rockets they replace, even though turbojets and ram air intakes are ridiculously expensive.

I can already see turbojet pancakes replacing asparagus staging as the preferred method of launching large payloads into orbit.

The part prices will probably be changed to where Jet Parts are far more expensive than their rocket counterparts. As we all know the jets and SSTO used parts are much more powerful than anything we can build in real life, so these must be fairly advanced. So they will be expensive and an investment. I doubt the current Jet parts will be made cheap enough to use once and throw away, as SSTO designs bring them back, which gives re usability to them.

I feel the lower powered jet will be cheaper, but the high performance Jet will be much more expensive as it is superior than its counterpart in helping rockets/spaceplanes get to space.

[Endersmens]

Jets will be a whole lot more useful if there is a sizable science boost for returning science to the KSC. as in literally returning to the KSC for recovery. like if you recover your craft in the KSC biome, then you get a sizable science boost. dunno if the devs have ever thought of that. and for cost effectiveness. Recovering craft may cost money when an economy is implimented. So like maybe the farther from the KSC the more money is spent in returning the science. Another reason to want to return to KSC <-purely speculation

[Jouni]

I feel the lower powered jet will be cheaper, but the high performance Jet will be much more expensive as it is superior than its counterpart in helping rockets/spaceplanes get to space.

The basic jet is already very useful in helping rockets to get to space. For example, this thing can land on Minmus and return back to Kerbin:

It should be entirely 90-point technology, so you can build it early in career mode. For a similar performance, you would need two rocket boosters similar to the core.

The price of the jet boosters is currently 1200 for the decouplers, 1100 for the fuel tanks, 1900 for the engines, and 4000 for the intakes, for a total of 8200. When you get access to Supersonic Flight (160 points), you can switch to circular intakes, dropping the price to 5560. With rocket boosters, the price would be 1200 for the decouplers, 4900 for the fuel tanks, 1700 for the engines, 1300 for the fuel lines, and 100 for changing the core engine to LV-T45 for thrust vectoring, for a total of 9200.

[Bishop149]

Yep, pretty much every "rocket" I build has a jet first stage. Such use of jets basically enables much smaller lighter ships, like the one posted above.

The ship below for example is able to get a single Kerb to Laythe and back again with no refuels and, for such a task, is quite small.

The advent of the SABRE engine has however has limited my use of normal jets for SSTO's. They are ridiculously efficient! The ship below weighs 12.6 Tons, 5 Tons of that is payload that contributes nothing to is own lifting. That's a 40:60 payload to lifting body ratio. . . . I challenge a conventional rocket to beat that. I reckon I could probably do better too.

[Seret]

I only use them to do acrobatic stunts over KSC.

You say that like it's not important!

[Nepos]

The basic jet is already very useful in helping rockets to get to space. For example, this thing can land on Minmus and return back to Kerbin:

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/stuff/jet-boosted_to_minmus.jpg

It should be entirely 90-point technology, so you can build it early in career mode. For a similar performance, you would need two rocket boosters similar to the core.

The price of the jet boosters is currently 1200 for the decouplers, 1100 for the fuel tanks, 1900 for the engines, and 4000 for the intakes, for a total of 8200. When you get access to Supersonic Flight (160 points), you can switch to circular intakes, dropping the price to 5560. With rocket boosters, the price would be 1200 for the decouplers, 4900 for the fuel tanks, 1700 for the engines, 1300 for the fuel lines, and 100 for changing the core engine to LV-T45 for thrust vectoring, for a total of 9200.

You know in all my time playing KSP I would have never thought of doing this. Thanks for the ideas

[Frank_G]

I love building jets and especially SSTOs. I wouldnt enjoy my Duna base as it is, without the SSTO i use there (ok... It uses rockets, but also with my LKO-Station). And of course its fun to explore Kerbin by plane and collect science from all those places.