Your KSP rules to live by!

[Dr-Drunk]

Hey all!

So as I'm sitting here waiting for my 31 minute Ion Drive burn to finish........ I thought I'd start a fun little thread! So let's all share our own personal space programs rules to live by. They can be as real or as wonky as you'd like. I'll start off with mine:

1. Always respect the Kraken... If Kraken is not respected.. Kraken will kill you and everything you love.

2. Never let Jebediah near any mission of any sort of significance.

3. There is no such thing as too many struts. If neccesary, connect struts to struts for better effects.

4. A rocket isn't a good rocket if it isn't capable of achieving mach or re-entry effects on escape from Kerbin.

5. Mission Control is evil. Always check, check and double check contracts before accepting anything.

6. Upon completion of rule number 5, check the contract again before designing anything fit for the job.

7. Discarding nuclear engines in Kerbin's atmosphere is a perfectly viable waste disposal plan. After all, those green skins don't tan themselves.

8. KSC will do everything neccesary in the name of science. Every mission is to advance the future of all Kerbal kind.

9. Disregard rule 8 and defer to mission payouts for future missions.

10. Any damage to KSC assets, vehicles or facilities are to be brought into a direct deduction out of Jebediah's paycheck.

So what's your rules to live by? Share them all here!

[Norpo]

"If it falls apart, then take a screenshot. FOR SCIENCE!"

[Tank Buddy]

Add. More. Boosters.

[KrazyKrl]

What do you mean live? This is KSP.

Just remember, airline pilots have a 100% success rate. We never left one up there.

[Dr-Drunk]

There, the probe is finally on it's way to Jool...

Great submissions so far guys! Have some reps! And keep em comming all!

[Stratzenblitz75]

1. Cut down on part count: Ask yourself, do you absolutely need this part? If not, get rid of it!

[Kowgan]

Mine:

- Never send a Kerbal to the completely unknown.

--> I'll always send satellite probe to scan the body first, make sure it's not a Kraken disguised of planetoid;

--> Then, a Rover. Gotta make sure we can touch it without exploding;

--> Lastly, goes the Kerbals plant their flags and enjoy sunsets.

- Always praise the Kraken. Kraken is our Kod, and we must regularly pay him explosions offerings for all He've done for the Kerbalkind.

- QuickSave/Load are only to avoid The Kraken Mod bugs and crashes. A blown up rocket is a blown up rocket.

Edited January 8, 2015 by Kowgan
spelling.

[Engineer of Stuff]

Always send an engineer with a rover.

My career mode Mun rove failed due to a flat tire, as the rover fell off of the lander too fast. Poor Bill (I think it was Bill) was very sad that his rover could not move. I will bring him home in a couple day.

[Streetlamp]

Don't explode.

[SAI Peregrinus]

Work backwards. Build your rockets from the last stage to the first.

[tygoo7]

For my 0.90 Career mode these are some of my rules that I use for myself.

-Never let a Kerbal be stuck in space without snacks (Snacks! mod installed).

-Send a probe to land on the planet or explore it first before sending Kerbals to it, unless they are Mun or Minmus.

-Never use Nuclear Engines in the atmosphere or use them for landers.

-Failures come and go, when they come, just enjoy the explosions.

-No asparagus rockets, make it realistic.

-Do not explode buildings! They are the snack supply!

-When sending a mission to a planet out of Kerbin's SOI. Don't time warp 300 and something days into the future to get there. Time warp a little then do a mission then time warp again. Just do that until you enter the new SOI.

-Remember, everything is FOR SCIENCE!!!

[Kowgan]

Nice rules, Tygoo7. I might make use of some of these. Thank you.

[Bill Phil]

1. Rockets point towards space.

2. Ignore Rule 1 if Jeb is involved.

[KrazyKrl]

1. Rockets point towards space.

2. Ignore Rule 1 if Jeb is involved.

Rule #1: Top of rocket should be on top at least some of the time.

[Heartstrings]

1. Never let one of the three veterans get killed.

2. Because of 1. Never send one of the three veterans on a mission beyond Kerbin's SOI.

[monophonic]

Never decline a contract. Any impossible or otherwise unwanted contracts must be left to expire at their time.

[RainDreamer]

1. On flying: Preflight check list. Never press launch before completing it. Do it again on launch pad before engine start.

2. For space craft design: Functionality. Aesthetic. Cost. Most of the time you can only get 2 out of 3.

2b. If you get all 3, post that up on forum!

3. On naming vehicles in flight: Anything you like, as long as you can look at a list of 100+ active flight and still know what things are, where they are and why they are there. My personal format: "[initials of orbiting body] - [coded purpose of craft] - [craft name] - [# if there are more than one copy]". For example, K-RB-Whisper-4. This is the 4th Whisper model relay beacon orbiting Kerbin.

[prophet_01]

1 get no one killed, especially not jeb, bob and bill

2 don't recover anything if that increases the danger of screwing up reentry (remember 1!)

3 contracts, especially sat deployments, may be completed as cheap/crappy as possible (1000% return of investment ain't immoral, it's the foundation of my space program!)

4 you shall not quickload unless the kraken strikes hard (soi warping not included, that can be avoided!)

5 if you kill a kerbal or are about to do so, there is no quick load or revert to. deal with it

6 testing new lifters, shuttles etc has to be done in career, it's neither supposed to be cheap nor safe for the test pilots (poor victims strapped to a

seat)

7 don't reenter nervas on kerbin. Kerbals are green already, they look weired enough without a suspicous glowing in the dark...

8 do you want to get stuffed into a small metal box and shot to the other end of the solar system? give em a hitch hiker of something for any mission that is planned for longer than a week or two

9 deorbit spent stages yourself, deleting is too easy

10 don't do manned missions after 01:00am... coffee is not the answer to everything

I'm using about 10 mods atm: most noticeable DRE, FAR, Remote Tech, TAC LS, b9 and some fancy eye candy mods

My current career has the hard settings except for the quick save and revert restrictions. I revert a lot directly on the launch pad due to crew selection and the game still has some bugs that screw up hours of work from time to time

[eddiew]

- Science income at setup must be no more than 30% for a modded tech tree, or 10% if using the stock tree. Use Contract Science Modifier so that contracts do not pay science. Never use the Outsourced R&D policy.

- Use Kerbal Construction Time as the primary reason to let time pass. No big timewarps unless building vessels.

- All manned missions outside of Kerbin's SOI must contain an orange suit command it.

- No (intentionally) one-way manned missions.

- If the crew survives a crash, and has enough TAC supplies to wait for rescue, then they must wait for one and not use F9.

- F5 regularly, but F9 is only for when:

a) KSP doesn't play fair; krakens, dodgy pilot manoeuvres, weird breakages, randomly changed orbits, a stupid default staging order that you didn't notice, etc. Player error is the player's problem.

the game doesn't give you enough information before you try something, e.g. aerobraking with FAR installed cannot be predicted

c) kerbals didn't survive a crash, or would starve prior to rescue. I'm too softhearted to let them be dead...

- All manned landings must plant a flag with the name(s) of the crew and the biome type.

- No debris left in orbit, anywhere.

- Don't research nervas until you have a mission you can't figure out how to do without them (Eve return?)

- Rescue a kerbal contracts must be accepted on sight, and done within 24 hours.

I'm quite tough on myself, with the exception of not being emotionally capable of killing kerbals

[Cirocco]

1. No one dies, no one is left behind*.

2. Always plan and pack enough fuel for a return trip.

3. Quickload and revert to hangar/launch is only acceptable to avoid bugs

4. Hyperedit is a perfectly acceptable tool if you use it for "simulations" (read: teleporting to the intended destination to test equipment on site and reverting once test is completed)

4a. Rule 3 also applies for simulations.

5. Re-usability should be high on the priority list, space debris should always be minimised.

5a. SSTO spaceplanes are awesome.

6. Spacecraft should look at least halfway believable. Asparagus staging with more than 2 steps should be avoided unless designing an Eve ascent vehicle.

7. There is no such things as a mission that is too difficult. (I have regretted this rule on many occasions but I'm too damn stubborn to let things go )

8. Never forget to just sit back and admire the view once every so often.

9. Space is pretty.

10. Spaceflight is really cool.

11. Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace....

*note: being stranded for indefinite amounts of time is okay as long as you intend to at some point in time pick up a stranded kerbal.

[SorryDave]

1-Send kerbals in rockets to measure delta-V, before risking expensive probe cores.

2-Build and launch incredible large cool unrealistic rockets for fun-before it is too late

3-Do what you want, but don't impose on others

[prophet_01]

@cirocco I like rules 8 - 11 ^^

[Highlad]

1. No one dies, no one is left behind*.

*snip*

*note: being stranded for indefinite amounts of time is okay as long as you intend to at some point in time pick up a stranded kerbal.

"No Durdos, we're not leaving you there, we're just not coming back for you anytime soon!"

[Cirocco]

"No Durdos, we're not leaving you there, we're just not coming back for you anytime soon!"

"No this isn't revenge for the whole snacks-and-rocket-fuel incident,we swear! We just don't have a decent launch window for the next couple ... you know... decades"

@cirocco I like rules 8 - 11 ^^

thank you

I forget rule 8 far too often in the frustration of watching yet another test go boom.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Cirocco

[Dr-Drunk]

Hahaha awesome rules everyone. I see that I'm not the only one with policies such as minimal space debris, no deleting, no quickloads to save Kerbals etc.

I'd give a bunch more of you Rep points for your posts but I've just hit my 24 hour cap so I'll get back to handing them out once I'm able.