Really worried about how rescue missions are going to mess up life support.

[RoboRay]

If you know the inclination ahead of time thanks to the tracking station, I'm sure you can take off and be pretty close to the right inclination and then adjust. Especially if you set them as a target before take off.

It's not quite that simple... you also have to wait for Kerbin's rotation to bring KSC into the plane of the target's orbit. But with a planetary rotation rate equal to the six-hour life-support capability, you should have at least one and possibly two reasonable opportunities even for a target in polar orbit. Assuming 30-minute orbits, as a worst-case scenario, your launch point won't be more than 30 degrees out from the target's orbital plane and should average about 15 degrees. That's doable.

Edited July 15, 2014 by RoboRay

[StuntMax]

And anyways, I'm sure that the life support mod dev could think of a way to make rescuing Kerbals more fair in his mod. Like, maybe having the Kerbals spawn in command pods or hitchhiker containers, instead of by themselves, with a fair amount of life support so that rescue would be entirely feasible.

This one is ludicrously easy... i don't know how TAC works, but I'm familiar with BTSM way of killing kerbals, and it would take me 5 to 7 minutes to edit (manually!) the persistence file to grant a stranded kerbal just enough life support resources to survive until the contract (heh) "deadline"... mod developers can easily tackle this issue in a matter of hours.

[Alshain]

Someone brought up the WNTS list as evidence that we won't get stock life support, but that isn't really evidence either way. Another list, the Already Suggested List, has "Physical/Mental Health" labeled as "Not planned ever". So Squad's current plan is that we won't be getting stock life support ever.

I think that refers to Physical Injury and Mental Illness, not necessities of life. I've seen nothing to say we won't ever have stock LS but I wouldn't plan on it anytime soon.

[dryer_lint]

I think that if it ever happens, they should limit life support to just oxygen. I know TAC Life Support adds a bunch of resources but that seems like overkill... If they ever did add life support, they could just put the stranded Kerbals in a spaceship (out of fuel but with a good amount of oxygen)

[Renegrade]

I think that if it ever happens, they should limit life support to just oxygen. I know TAC Life Support adds a bunch of resources but that seems like overkill... If they ever did add life support, they could just put the stranded Kerbals in a spaceship (out of fuel but with a good amount of oxygen)

Yeah, I agree. it is kinda overkill and really clutters up the resource panel. I'd hate to see what the panel would look like with Interstellar and TAC Life Support together... Does the panel have support for scrolling? Hehe

BTSM handles the life support issue by having a single resource appropriately called "Life Support". Giving it a generic name like that has the added advantage in that it lets us imagine whatever bizarre biology we want for Kerbals.

They'll always be mobile, semi-intelligent plants to me...

[Temeter]

I think that if it ever happens, they should limit life support to just oxygen. I know TAC Life Support adds a bunch of resources but that seems like overkill... If they ever did add life support, they could just put the stranded Kerbals in a spaceship (out of fuel but with a good amount of oxygen)

Will that even be an issue? You can live a while without eating, having oxygen is much more important. Or does TAC instantly kill kerbals when it's ressources go to zero?

[pizzaoverhead]

Replace stranded kerbonauts with probes that need EVA repair or data recovery. Job done. Having the craft disappear after the contract's mission is completed is no less believable than having it appear when the contract is accepted.

[Levelord]

Replace stranded kerbonauts with probes that need EVA repair or data recovery. Job done. Having the craft disappear after the contract's mission is completed is no less believable than having it appear when the contract is accepted.

A rather simple idea would be that the Kerbal doesn't start using oxygen until he gets within render range. Unrealistic I know, but it's still a relatively simple fix that still adds a bit of urgency in the timing.

[Seret]

The better question is why these missions appear to be available before you have any 2-man parts, mandating the use of silly rocket configs.

Is having two pods in the stack really that silly?

[Moar Boosters]

How on earth is a player who's not that great supposed to pull that off before they die?

Hopefully the contracts will cater to a range of player abilities. If there aren't missions tailored specifically towards highly skilled players, then the update is going to be pretty pointless for those guys and they'll continue making their own challenges in sandbox mode.

[dryer_lint]

Is having two pods in the stack really that silly?

I prefer one pod. Rescue the stranded Kerbal, and leave the rescuer in orbit.

logic

[FlowerChild]

Is having two pods in the stack really that silly?

Empty pod + probe core is also an option.

[Seret]

Yep, lots of options.