Possible Eyes Turned Skyward AARP

[G'th]

So, would you guys be interested in seeing an AARP for my Eyes Turned Skyward inspired playthrough that I'm currently preparing for (IE, designing all the rockets, getting and editing the mods I'm going to use to reflect ETS, etc etc)?

The plan for it is that for the pre-divergence part of the timeline, I'll just hit the milestones of the American space program (IE, Explorer 1, 3 Mercury Missions (1 each for the 3 main kerbals), and a couple of the Gemini Missions along with the probes I can launch provided by the US probes mod) and then follow the American parts of the timeline as closely as I can right up until the Artemis missions (IE, return to the Mun) at which point I'll divert from the ETS timeline and visit Minmus and then Duna, and from there I'll likely start a colonization program.

Unfortunately, due to the wonkiness of the stock tech tree (and mod tree's not quite doing what I"d want) I'll have to play the game with all science nodes unlocked (By cheating the science for the nodes I can unlock, and zeroing out what I don't use). Not only will this help with properly doing the missions as they were, but it will also help with the general aesthetic of the rockets and spacecraft I create. To balance this out (So its not just sandbox), I'll start the game with zero funds and will only be able to get funds through Contracts and strategies. I'll also be playing with reverts and respawns off along with Kerbal Construction, to make things even more balanced with having the full tech tree unlocked from the beginning. So throughout my playthrough of the timeline, I'll also be completing random contracts to generate money when needed. Mainly I'll be going for satellite contracts (as the entire point of this playthrough is to have a save that actually has a history and is full of things. Most of my saves are fairly deserted compared to the likes of Scott Manley's Interstellar save), but I'll likely also do unmanned missions to the Mun and Minmus.

Also through this playthrough, I'm going to just presume the presence of the other nations rather than actually have their assets in the game as well. This is mostly a technical limitation as the mods I have to use to cover the American side of things (on top of the general graphics mods I refuse to play without) only just leaves me enough wiggle room to add bits and pieces here and there. A lot of the soviet/russian mods are just as demanding as FASA (where the bulk of my parts come from) and the Chinese and European rockets wouldn't be as great as the American or Russian equivalents.

As I said earlier, I'm already in the preparation stage for the playthrough as I've begun to design several of the American rockets in ETS as well as much of the spacecraft. FASA has provided most of this capability, as all it took to create the Saturn 1C (a 1B replacement that uses an F1-A engine in the first stage rather than 8 H-1's) and have it look good (and fly well) was some tweakscale additions to the 5m tanks:

Which has the same general capabilties of the Saturn 1C from the timeline. (It is slightly more powerful, as it I usually have to ditch the tanks with fuel still left in them, even with KIDS enabled to compensate for FAR. I have a feeling this has more to do with me using 2 clipped F1's rather than an F1-A analog, but considering I like the look of the two clipped F1's better, I'm okay with it being a little off performance wise)

But anyway, if there is some interest (or rather, a lot of it) then what I might choose to do is follow the timeline more directly and accurately (I only plan on doing Apollo 11 close to where Apollo 11 actually landed, mostly because I've never seen the monument myself), doing each mission from Explorer 1 onwards. I'll have my Mercury 7 astronauts, the New Nine, etc (with the titular three replacing Neil, Buzz, and Micheal) and will copy orbits, landing sites, etc where possible. Otherwise, I'll keep it easy on myself and just copy the general point of each mission.

[Pecan]

What is an AARP?

[G'th]

After Action Report, ie, Mission Reports.

[The Yellow Dart]

American Association of Retired Persons

[MajorThomas]

Ah, thought it was the American Association of Retired Persons...http://www.aarp.org/