Kerbal Space Program

[Drax]

B9 if you want to try your hand at space planes. All of Roverdude's stuff is good, and adds a bit of complexity to gameplay. Gives you resource mining, space and planetary colonization, and other nifty little things to support them.

EDIT - Also get Mechjeb. I know there are purists out there who swear by doing it themselves every time, all the time, but trust me when I say it starts to get tedious in the later stages of play. I mean, if you want to try your hand at manually plotting an interplanetary slingshot to rendezvous with an asteroid on your way to explore the Joolian system for the satisfaction of being able to do it yourself, go for it. But after the 100th launch you get to the point where you just say "fuck it" and let Mechjeb handle the ascent and circularization burn.

I'll check them, thanks.

And yes, I have mechjeb, first of all because all the information windows about EVERYTHING and then because yes, when you are launching a swarm of comsats, by the 4th launch of the SAME ROCKET WITH THE SAME PAYLOAD shit can get tedious.

 

[Drax]

Interstellar sucks, is to op and the models are ugly. Get Karbonite, and for your overpowered engine needs get Karbonite+. Also can get a stand alone Alcubierre drive by RoverDude, which works the same as KSPI one.

Yeah, I planned to use Karbonite in the future but the last time I tried it, some parts gave me some intense lag, even with ATM. (It was probably some shit with the models, may be fixed by now).

I've never used Interstellar before, mainly because you don't really need warp7engagemisterdata to fly around a planetary system, but I wanted to give it a try now that I played enough with "vanilla" physics.

I've only used FAR as that was the only option when I started playing and I picked it up just fine. The tools you have available in the VAB can be a bit overwhelming, but they're not, strictly speaking, a requirement for designing space planes. You will, however, end up reverting more flights without'em as design becomes a trial and error process. A bit like measuring dV requirements without KER.

Other than that, there's the mach effects that I mentioned. It mainly impacts space planes, but you'll notice rockets handling a bit differently as they break the sound barrier.

I'm sure the FAR thread does a more thorough job than this little post in explaining the differences.

Ok, so I'll install FAR and try not to DIE. (too much)
Thanks.

 

[Ashery]

B9 if you want to try your hand at space planes. All of Roverdude's stuff is good, and adds a bit of complexity to gameplay. Gives you resource mining, space and planetary colonization, and other nifty little things to support them.

EDIT - Also get Mechjeb. I know there are purists out there who swear by doing it themselves every time, all the time, but trust me when I say it starts to get tedious in the later stages of play. I mean, if you want to try your hand at manually plotting an interplanetary slingshot to rendezvous with an asteroid on your way to explore the Joolian system for the satisfaction of being able to do it yourself, go for it. But after the 100th launch you get to the point where you just say "fuck it" and let Mechjeb handle the ascent and circularization burn.

I'll check them, thanks.

And yes, I have mechjeb, first of all because all the information windows about EVERYTHING and then because yes, when you are launching a swarm of comsats, by the 4th launch of the SAME ROCKET WITH THE SAME PAYLOAD shit can get tedious.

This is why you use satellite clusters.

Like this:

Spoiler

Seven (Or was this design eight?) sats in one neat little package. One set of burns to LKO, another set to whatever body you're delivering the satellites to, and then two sets of burns when inserting the clusters into their holding/delivery orbits (One equatorial, one polar).

 

[Data4]

...which highlights another great mod, Procedural Fairings. Add Procedural parts and Procedural Wings too. Both allow you to prune your install of fuel tank and wing part bloat.

 

[Ulminati]

ScanSat's another good mod and it synergizes well with Remote Tech.

Yeah, I have Scansat, forgot to put it in the list.

The only aerodynamic mods I know of are FAR and NEAR, and NEAR is just a stripped down version of FAR. NEAR lacks the mach effects and some other nuances that make it less overwhelming for players that aren't familiar with real life aerodynamics.

Have you tried both? Is FAR too much for normal people?
Thanks

FAR will make your rockets flip out and crash in hilarious fashions until you get used to it. Just like base KSP did. You get used to it pretty fast though. It's not exactly rocket science. (Except it is!)

If you get far, be sure to get procedural fairings as well to help with the aerodynamics of your payload, or you may have a lot of rockets flipping over.

 

[Drax]

Is procedural fairings working ok now? That's another mod I tried some time ago but was buggy as hell.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

PF worked pretty nice last time I checked. It also has auto-struts for payload so that the thing inside won't wobble.

 

[Ashery]

PF worked pretty nice last time I checked. It also has auto-struts for payload so that the thing inside won't wobble.

Which has never worked for me, though it's certainly possible I've been making mistakes with it somehow.

That said, you can always manually strut payloads if they wobble a bit too much.

 

[Hellraiser]

Details are pretty sparse this week but they reveled what the pilot skill does:

Basic level allows you to use (old, whatever they mean by that not, not sure if the OLD OLD SAS or simply the one we have now) SAS, as you level up you can use SAS+pilot skill to auto-lock the vessel to vectors. Supposedly that is level 3 5 skill. I hope that higher ones get relative angle above horizon (useful for planes). This will be great for landings when you want to kill all relative velocity and retrograde goes all over the place.

Of course in sandbox Kerbals act as if they have max skill levels on everything so you don't need to unlock stuff like this.

 

[Ashery]

Stability Assist (The level 0 piloting skill) acts as, and replaces the current SAS module that's on the various probe cores and command modules. You'll still need additional reaction wheels if you want more torque.

Also, from what I gather, there'll be more expensive probe cores that confer piloting levels to the probe.

 

[Ashery]

Experimentals have begun for 0.90, which means a release is likely around the 16th and almost definitely before Christmas.

 

[Hellraiser]

Experimentals have begun for 0.90, which means a release is likely around the 16th and almost definitely before Christmas.

They hit experimentals sooner than expected. I thought they would do it sometime next week. Well, at least I know what I am doing for christmas.

 

[Ashery]

Experimentals have begun for 0.90, which means a release is likely around the 16th and almost definitely before Christmas.

They hit experimentals sooner than expected. I thought they would do it sometime next week. Well, at least I know what I am doing for christmas.

Same here. I've actually been wanting to pick the game back up for over a month now, but the combination of my slow pace of play with the fact that 0.90 already seemed far into its development meant that I was better off waiting. As much as I love the early game, repeated Mun and Minmus trips along with setting up a bunch of communication satellite networks can get pretty tedious. Hell, with the new biomes in 0.90, I might not even need repeated trips to Kerbin's moons, so there's another perk to waiting.

 

[Absalom]

You know, the biggest thing lacking from my kerbal experience is a mod auto-updater. That would make everything so much less tedious.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

well, some mods support CKAN, which is like CPAN for kerbal mods. It's full auto if you combine it with cron (or equivalent windows thingy)

 

[Absalom]

well, some mods support CKAN, which is like CPAN for kerbal mods. It's full auto if you combine it with cron (or equivalent windows thingy)

Lol. It was looking great, until I noticed it uses the goddamn terminal. Seems to be more of a tool for modders than users atm, though I'm trying it out now.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Yeah, it could use an UI. But if you are smart enough to enjoy KSP, you should be smart enough to figure out couple commands.

 

[Hellraiser]

Some details on Kerbal Experience and Facility upgrades have emerged. Ulminati you're going to love some of these.

First thing, probe cores will now have "levels", that is the more expensive and hi-tech cores integrate some, but not all, types of SAS lock-on that pilot kerbals can gain with exp. Stayputniks gonna have crappy SAS with basic functionality, Hex cores good ones.

Engineers repack parachutes, repairs landing legs and wheels. It was mentioned that in the future they will do more (Drilling for fuel when mining gets added? Placing parts in flight?), but those features are secret for now.

Scientists are pretty dull, increase science output, though hopefully the traits are specialized like "reduced transmission data loss" or "more science from atmo experiments".

KSC upgrades however look quite fun. You need to upgrade mission control to receive more contracts and to unlock maneuver nodes (first upgrade unlocks those). Without tracking station upgrades you have neither patched conics or orbital lines(!!). VAB/SPH levels limit max number of parts while launchpad/runway limit max tonnage of the craft, of course max level takes off part/mass limitations.

Research facility has a cap on maximum amount of science you can spend to unlock a node (basically you can't unlock nodes that cost more than X science until you upgrade).

Astronaut Complex limits your max kerbonauts and allows you to train them.

Supposedly difficulty options can make some stuff, like maneuver nodes, appear with higher upgrades (or may be disabled for good).

Pretty solid features, definitely a reason to fire up Career mode once again.

Fine Print mod guy talked about how he changed rover and aerial survey contracts for the mod's integration into the stock game in 0.90.

Basically now there is a single survey contract type. Waypoints may still require being on the ground or flying around but how you get there is up to you. That is you do not need a rover or plane, you can use an ion engine hoverbike if you wish (which reminds me that I need to build one some day). But they now require you to do specific experiments at points, which I think is pretty good. The above waypoints are color-coded to indicate which belong to which contract.

 

[Drax]

That sounds pretty awesome.

 

[Raapys]

Guize, did anyone try Buzz Aldrin's Space Program manager yet? Just noticed it was out: http://store.steampowered.com/app/308270/

Gewd? Bad? How doth it compare to Kerbalz?

 

[Burning Bridges]

I tried to review it but it's too tedious. They did a pretty good job in copying the original but forgot the fun.
It would imo be a fine example to study of how not to make a game.

 

[Ulminati]

That is you do not need a rover or plane, you can use an ion engine hoverbike if you wish (which reminds me that I need to build one some day).

I built one of those for minmus. It used an ion engine for hovering and rcs for thrust. It was 'k for skimming across the lakes, but practically impossible to steer on rough ground.

 

[jcd]

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[Raapys]

I tried to review it but it's too tedious. They did a pretty good job in copying the original but forgot the fun.
It would imo be a fine example to study of how not to make a game.

Ye I tried it out myself, and though the gameplay elements are there it's just...bland, boring. Maybe it was the charm that made the first one good, or maybe we've since been spoiled by Kerbal, I don't know.

 

[Burning Bridges]

The first one was good, they did not study enough what made it good.
Also the UI is not good, that also accounts for tedium.