.24 Preview Vids are on Youtube

[EvilotionCR2]

I remember the good 'ol days myself, but I hear Miguel and the current chap are doing great jobs...so.

Yes, but it will never be same without you. Still awesome to see you here. Qa'plah

[Dielos]

I haven't seen this mentioned in any of the videos. Does anybody know if hiring Kerbals will cost funds? I know that rescuing them will add them to your rooster though.

[Kerano]

Does anybody know if hiring Kerbals will cost funds? I know that rescuing them will add them to your rooster though.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Kerano

[CaptRobau]

That's also 2 more than the number of manned flights we've done to Mars, yet people send Kerbals to Duna all the time. I don't think it matters if it works or not in the real world. The game punishes you for not recovering stuff, and then handicaps your ability to recover stuff. That doesn't seem fair.

The game doesn't punish you for not recovering stuff, it rewards you for recovering stuff. You get money for finishing contracts and from what I've seen that seems ample to run your space program. Most people will not need to recover more than their command pods to finance their career mode.

[Levelord]

I have a very pressing question to ask regarding recovering rocket parts. What about the normal stages that you decouple to get into orbit?

1) Do they count as recovered parts?

2) Do you need to add a parachute in order for them to be regarded as recovered booster parts?

3) If they are recovered, is it only a 50% recovery cost?

[SebFierce]

I have a very pressing question to ask regarding recovering rocket parts. What about the normal stages that you decouple to get into orbit?

1) Do they count as recovered parts?

2) Do you need to add a parachute in order for them to be regarded as recovered booster parts?

3) If they are recovered, is it only a 50% recovery cost?

Currently you can attach parachutes but the craft despawns while you continue your journey to space in the upper stage. You'd need to fly two crafts at the same time to recover the lower stage. On large rockets a second or possibly third stage would need a heatshield too to get back to the planet.

My guess is: no recovery for standard rockets.

Hopefully someone mods in reduced costs for parts you use very often (economies of scale) so we can go with a big dumb booster concept.

[RidingTheFlow]

I think people worry about need to recover too much. From what I've seen, funds you will be getting for contract completion (and advance payments) are pretty generous that you won't actually even need to recover much as long as you complete contracts on time and keeping ship design cheap.

[Schmonzo]

Yes, but it will never be same without you.

I agree, but don't necessarily think that is a bad thing... And I don't mean that damien is not a nice person or something like that, but as community manager - not for me (of course this only my opinion and should by no means offend damien, since I am an a*hole and am sure that many people would disagree with me )

Edited July 15, 2014 by Schmonzo

[magnemoe]

The game doesn't punish you for not recovering stuff, it rewards you for recovering stuff. You get money for finishing contracts and from what I've seen that seems ample to run your space program. Most people will not need to recover more than their command pods to finance their career mode.

Yes, recovery is a bonus, note that the bonus is useful as you might want to expand a plant the flag mission to do science to unlock more parts.

Fun to see how many missions people can practically do in one go, saw in one of the videos than they did an parachute test without realizing.

Edited July 15, 2014 by magnemoe

[Parkaboy]

Funny thing, this doesn't actually impact much on my plans for "reusable" designs*, which consist basically on three stages:

--> The payload, usually a ship (for a Mun landing I'm leaning more on a single ship mission, instead of an Appollo-like approach, since the whole ship could be recovered)

--> The rocket itself, with enough fuel to put the payload in LKO; a probe body, batteries and excess fuel enough for landing back at the KSC

--> Expendable SRBS for the initial boost, since I'm assuming these are probably cheaper than LF/O engines

* not actually fully recoverable, since the SRBs are expended.

[geb]

I have a very pressing question to ask regarding recovering rocket parts. What about the normal stages that you decouple to get into orbit?

1) Do they count as recovered parts?

2) Do you need to add a parachute in order for them to be regarded as recovered booster parts?

3) If they are recovered, is it only a 50% recovery cost?

According to this video:

you can't recover anything for funds unless it has a command pod or a probe core. Stages discarded as debris, or broken sections of ship, don't get any money back at all even if recovered.

There's no workaround to allow stuff dropped in midair to be preserved.

[cpast]

That's also 2 more than the number of manned flights we've done to Mars, yet people send Kerbals to Duna all the time. I don't think it matters if it works or not in the real world. The game punishes you for not recovering stuff, and then handicaps your ability to recover stuff. That doesn't seem fair.

Right, but when people bring up reality as an argument, it's legitimate to counter with reality. I was replying to a post saying it's needed to replicate real designs by pointing out there were only 2 real designs, ever, which used it. If someone said that something was needed to replicate real manned Mars missions, pointing out that those don't exist would be legitimate. I'm not saying KSP has to match reality; gameplay trumps realism, but the post I quoted was the one that made the realism argument,

Edited July 15, 2014 by cpast

[jcraft]

According to this video:

you can't recover anything for funds unless it has a command pod or a probe core. Stages discarded as debris, or broken sections of ship, don't get any money back at all even if recovered.

It looks like author simply doesn't realize that debris is not recovered automatically when you recovering your active vessel and it must be done separately (from tracking station). Recovering science from debris worked, so I don't see a reason why doing same thing with funds wouldn't be possible.

Edited July 15, 2014 by jcraft

[NecroBones]

If that's really procedurally generated briefing text, I'm seriously stunned as someone who's studied A.I. & linguistics and made a few attempts at procedurally generated text. To cram something that well done into a game is an accomplishment in itself.

It's probably less exciting than that. I suspect it's more of a "madlib" sort of thing. They probably have a list of phrases that can be inserted into specific parts of the pre-written sentences.

[LordFjord]

What I haven't seen in any of the vids so far is the revamped tech-tree. I am curious how the research paths were changed and adjusted.

[FleetAdmiralJ]

It looks like author simply doesn't realize that debris is not recovered automatically when you recovering your active vessel and it must be done separately (from tracking station). Recovering science from debris worked, so I don't see a reason why doing same thing with funds wouldn't be possible.

In a comment, they said they tried doing it from the tracking station, but that's all the context we have. We know you can get science from "debris" so it would be odd if you wouldn't also get money back. I also seem to recall a dev or tester saying before that one could recover fuel from debris (i could be mistaken though), which would also seem to contradict it.

So I guess until we get the game or someone else who has played with the experimentals version can confirm or deny the debris thing, we don't really know for sure how that works.

[Sma]

In a comment, they said they tried doing it from the tracking station, but that's all the context we have. We know you can get science from "debris" so it would be odd if you wouldn't also get money back. I also seem to recall a dev or tester saying before that one could recover fuel from debris (i could be mistaken though), which would also seem to contradict it.

So I guess until we get the game or someone else who has played with the experimentals version can confirm or deny the debris thing, we don't really know for sure how that works.

I think the problem comes in with the 2.5km or whatever despawn range. If say, you dropped a liquid fuel booster stage with parachutes at say, 9km, without a probe core it'll just disappear as soon as you are 2.5km+ away.

My initial thought would be to stick the tiny probe core on anything I want to recover.

[cpast]

I think the problem comes in with the 2.5km or whatever despawn range. If say, you dropped a liquid fuel booster stage with parachutes at say, 9km, without a probe core it'll just disappear as soon as you are 2.5km+ away.

My initial thought would be to stick the tiny probe core on anything I want to recover.

Probe cores do not affect this behavior in any way.

[FleetAdmiralJ]

I think the problem comes in with the 2.5km or whatever despawn range. If say, you dropped a liquid fuel booster stage with parachutes at say, 9km, without a probe core it'll just disappear as soon as you are 2.5km+ away.

My initial thought would be to stick the tiny probe core on anything I want to recover.

That's not what he was saying, though. He was saying even things marked on the debris on the ground wasn't getting recovered for money. Whether that means he didn't do it right, or he didn't notice that it had when it did, or whether it really didn't refund money, we won't know until we get confirmation in some way.

And even things with a probe core will disappear after 2.5km so that won't help despawning problems.

[Temeter]

That's not what he was saying, though. He was saying even things marked on the debris on the ground wasn't getting recovered for money. Whether that means he didn't do it right, or he didn't notice that it had when it did, or whether it really didn't refund money, we won't know until we get confirmation in some way.

That would be understandable, though. Otherwise you could just deorbit used spaceships, let them crash and recover their Debris for money. I don't think that's the point of recovery.^^'

[BMBender]

Probe cores do not affect this behavior in any way.

Yea it would be nice if they could shoehorn an on/off toggle for the 2.5k atmo range. For me it's an annoyance but I understand why it bugs th outta some people. This game does attract a higher grade of OCD than say, angry birds:D

[JimmyAgent007]

What about a claw equipped ship to go and collect stuff, soon as you hook on you recover and THEN get the money back. Might work. Id like to know if we can get money for asteroids we land and recover.

[FleetAdmiralJ]

That would be understandable, though. Otherwise you could just deorbit used spaceships, let them crash and recover their Debris for money. I don't think that's the point of recovery.^^'

Well, unless you strap parachutes to things, they'd blow up anyway. If you go through the trouble of strapping chutes to things and bring them up, then I'd say why not. At least to me, if you can "recover" it from the tracking station, you should probably get money back for it.

What about a claw equipped ship to go and collect stuff, soon as you hook on you recover and THEN get the money back. Might work. Id like to know if we can get money for asteroids we land and recover.

I don't see why you couldn't attach a claw to something and recover it, as it would be considered one ship. As for asteroids, you can't "recover" those currently, right? I would think if you can't recover it now, you probably can't recover it for cash in .24.

[Temeter]

I'm actually planning to build a space plane designed to bring some clawable parachutes into space and then push the used ships into the lower atmosphere.

Well, unless you strap parachutes to things, they'd blow up anyway. If you go through the trouble of strapping chutes to things and bring them up, then I'd say why not. At least to me, if you can "recover" it from the tracking station, you should probably get money back for it.

I was just talking about debris. Precautionary putting parachutes on every ship could be the easiest way to deal with recovery.

[magnemoe]

I think the problem comes in with the 2.5km or whatever despawn range. If say, you dropped a liquid fuel booster stage with parachutes at say, 9km, without a probe core it'll just disappear as soon as you are 2.5km+ away.

My initial thought would be to stick the tiny probe core on anything I want to recover.

This only affect stuff flying in the atmosphere and it 2.5 km from the craft you control, probe or not does not matter, even stuff who splash down stays.

As other says, put goo containers on a fuel tank below a pod, splash down at 5 m/s tank will be destroyed but not engine or goo containers who can be recovered and give science.