[CLOSED] Northstar's United Kerbal Exploration Effort

[Northstar1989]

EDIT: Sorry guys. I accidentally corrupted the save for this game while making changes to my installed mods. As such I am going to have to close the thread down and start afresh (next time with more starting Funds/Science so I don't have to repeat so much of the initial effort).

I'm at it again! I'm making a Career Mode thread documenting my progress, and adding in a healthy dose of writing/explanation/narrative...

This time, though, I'm going to try and keep it much shorter and more to-the-point. Expect only screenshots/videos/live broadcasts of the more interesting missions- no more frivolous contracts! (unless something particularly hilarious happens)

And, keeping that tendency in mind, here are the screenshots for my first flight (yes, a *FLIGHT*- I started with enough Science to purchase the Aerodynamics tech node, and am running Firespitter)

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The plane was called the "Griffon" because I had thoughts about re-using it. However FAR is acting *extremely* weird (with all sorts of phantom forces and instabilities on many perfectly good designs- rockets and planes are a LOT less stable they should be, or were in 0.24.2, with the first 0.25 release), and refusing to allow itself to be controlled either with MechJeb2 or its own Flight Assistance system- so I decided to shelf the idea of performing lots of plane flights after the tedium/annoyance of having to constantly manually correct this plane's Angle of Attack...

My mods (subject to change/addition)

Active Texture Management

Ferram Aerospace Research

Deadly Re-Entry: Continued

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

Atmospheric Trajectories

Flight Manager for Reusable Stages

NovaPunch2 (fairings deleted)

RealFuels + "Stockalike" config (engines ONLY- using stock RCS for KSP-Interstellar ISRU ability to manufacture Monopropellent)

Procedural Parts

Procedural Fairings

Procedural Dynamics (aka. "Procedural Wings")

KSP Interstellar

Near Future Solar

Precise Node

Firespitter

MechJeb2

Regards,

Northstar

Edited October 19, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Northstar1989]

And here is my second mission- a suborbital manned mission for !SCIENCE!

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Regards,

Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Sorry for the delay since the last update. I was working on trying to fix an issue related to accidentally pre-deploying a parachute (for some reason, KSP doesn't give you a way to cancel pre-deployment) and losing a vessel as a result by editing the save file to set the parachute back to "Stowed". Eventually I figured it out...

Anyways, the news is, Jebediah Kerman is now dead!

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Although my rocket was able to withstand the high G's of this re-entry and landing (except the Science Jr., which crumpled on splashdown as the landing legs were unable to protect it during the 8.4 m/s ocean landing...), Jebediah's fleshy body was not. The G-forces just barely exceeded maximum crew tolerances. Too bad there's no way to give Kerbals with a "badass" tag like Jebediah 1 or 2 extra G's worth of tolerance (or a few more seconds beyond the limit- which is all it would have taken for his survival...)

Even with my best efforts to bleed off speed high in the atmosphere (by deploying the landing legs and turning the craft sideways), nothing was effective- and Jebediah now rests in an honorable grave (the capsule was safely recovered, even though the pilot was dead), a martyr to the cause of Kerbal science...

He will be remembered. Future generations of Kerbals will sing praises in his honor.

Regards,

Northstar

[Northstar1989]

A few new mods I've installed that felt significant enough to be worth mentioning.

First of all, there's RealFuels mod. NathanKell just released a new update of it that adds all sorts of deadly-toxic fuels that were actually considered during the Cold War era thanks to their superior performance characteristics... Should be fun.

Also, I've been working quite ardently to try and get a better RealFuels/KSP-Interstellar integration config out. So far, I've come up with a few lines of code myself, and got another player involved in writing more to fix whatever other issues he can identify (as well as ones I pointed out to him- like the inability to store LqdWater resource in the RealFuels modular fuel tanks; or the inaccurately-low ISP of the Interstellar Meth/LOX engine compared to its real-life analog currently in-development: the Space-X "Raptor"). Still, more players with some experience using either KSP-Interstellar or RealFuels mod (or especially, both), and preferably with some understanding of how to roll configs would be appreciated. Message Dreadicon if you're interested in helping...

Second, I installed Procedural Parts, Procedural Fairings, and NovaPunch2. So expect MUCH bigger rockets in the not-too-distant future.

Finally, Flight Manager for Reusable Stages makes a comeback in this Career playthrough. It's worked out a few of its bugs/issues since previous versions, and although not half as necessary this time around (while not using Real Solar System), it's still a nice utility that makes Space-X style reusable stage *much* easier, if I want to bother with them (something that was *HIGHLY* necessary to keep down costs with RSS 6.4x, but is not nearly as vital now without it...)

I was tempted to start over with RSS 6.4x again, now that it and so many of the mods that make it playable are up-to-date, but decided against it: I intend to rely *heavily* on Microwave Beamed Power in this save, and would require exponentially more of it to accomplish the same goals with RSS installed (due to the larger Delta-V requirements for almost any missions in turn necessitating higher thrust on my spacecraft and launch platforms). In real life, they can do things like build a single MASSIVE beamed-power array, and make 300 launches a year to amortize its cost: but I don't have that kind of time in my playthroughs of KSP...

Regards,

Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Unfortunately, this save had to end in the worst possible way.

While attempting to delete a contract from the persistent file involving a NovaPunch2 payload fairing bulkhead (as I decided to delete the NovaPunch2 Fairings folder to save memory- Procedural Fairings is MUCH better), I accidentally created a parsing error. I had saved a backup of the persistent file beforehand, and loaded that back up, but KSP refused to recognize the save as no longer being invalid after the first time...

As such the save was corrupted beyond reclamation, and I had to delete it. Thus ends this Career Mode story- but I will be starting another one soon. Also, to avoid much of the initial grind, I will be starting with a large amount of Science and Funding, so as to simulate all the progress I've lost from *several* deleted saves by this point...

Regards,

Northstar