Kerbal Space Program.

[Geo]

Course, now the tourists want to go to the Mun.

 

Next you know, they want to live on it! I suggest investing in hydroponics.

[Unorthodox]

I researched the first unmanned probe, but it unlocked no satellite contracts.  Hope they aren't gone.  Maybe I need solar panels first. 

Contracts stay static now, they used to refresh every time you launch, now you have to manually decline them to get new ones. 

The tourism difficulty creep is interesting:

Take one person to space
Take 2 people to orbit
Take 3 people to the Mun
Take 4 people to Munar orbit. 

SURE you could do those in stages, don't have to be all at once, but it become less than cost effective if you split them up. 

At present, my launching facility declares I can't make a rocket big enough to launch 4 people, and might not have enough to do 3 to the mun, will be close (they are in orbit ready for munar transfer when I play again, fuel will be close). 

Overall liking the increased emphasis on how am I going to get that research or how am I going to pay for that. 

Thus far unimpressed with fairings.  The only part I have with one is my heat shield, and it can make some real ugly crap depending on what I hook up to it.  There might be some new hotkey for editting those I don't know yet, gotta look that up. 

Hotkey to toggle air resistance markers defaults to the steam screenshot key...gotta change one of them. 

Really steep ascent profiles are not that bad.  Waiting till ~20k to make your gravity turn instead of the old 10k.  Less air resistance means you don't go out of control as easy.  Fuel tradeoff is not terrible, and keeping that long gradual ascent with bigger rockets can get dodgy. 

[Unorthodox]

Took me a while as we've been busy, but just finished my first mun landing, able to finance it with a healthy profit by completing a couple munar missions at once. 

Unlocked most of the techs available to the level one science building, still not seeing satellite missions.  However, I think they are coming, and with an actual purpose this time. 

Looked deeper into the tree, and there's actual satellite parts later on.  Mapping modules, resource scanners, etc.  Looking forward to seeing what they are capable of, hopefully something continuous/permanent. 

I've read nuclear engines require more thought to use than the older version, so any deep space missions might get interesting.

[Unorthodox]

So I'm finally in a comfortable financial situation where every launch is not driving me to the brink of bankruptcy and I don't need to ferry tourists just to pay the bills. 

However, the available contracts offer very little science.  I did finally get a couple satelite missions, and they pay better than tourists, but after the first 'explore the moon' standard, there's been nothing.  The next science oriented mission is exploring Duna, which I could probably send a probe. 

Minmus is totally overlooked and ignored from the contracts. 

So, after my second science mission to the moon, I decided I'm going to explore minmus on my own dime, doing what missions come up on the way. 

Got a 'put a station in orbit' mission, and after it completed, I moved it out to minmus orbit.  Nothing fancy, and I'll need more infrastructure to get it useful, but baby steps.

Next, I'm accepting a satellite mission, and once I drop off the satelite, I'll move a lander module up to the minmus station.  It should be able to do enough science in orbit to unlock the last needed piece, the science lab, which I'll have to lift on my own dime, so I can explore minmus via the lander returning to the station several times and processing science results in the lab.   

The fairings are fun and get rid of ugly rockets, though I don't know how much they really improve performance.  They are also occasionally buggy to deploy.  Sometimes sticking, sometimes rocketing off at high speed.  Both are just asthetic issues, as the parts once deployed don't really 'exist' as far as the game engine is concerned. 

All the engine tweaks make silly lifter designs unneeded.  I'd venture to guess they'd be rather cumbersome as well.  I still think we need solid boosters able to vector.  It's a real thing people.  Ah well. 

Got pics to upload, just didn't have time. 

[Unorthodox]

I know the contracts are procedurally generated, but there appear to be a few bugs. 

Read carefully that middle one's request. 



Suborbital flight on the sun...If the damn thing didn't have the 'return them safely' modifier I'd be tempted to hurtle the guy into the sun just to see what happens. 

Wasn't specifically attempting to hit the arch, don't really have the tech to have fuel enough to pinpoint landings, just happened to be within visual distance when I landed, so hiked over. 



Fairings letting me put up a brick of a satellite. 



Still too low tech to be able to make totally pretty rockets, but that fairing at top looks nice.



Bigger cargo bay letting me store all sorts of components instide, not sticking out and ugly. 



Minmus station, I need to get an updated pic, since have added the science lab. 



Of note is the science lab has vastly changed how it works.  It used to analyze a sample/experiment and reduce the data loss for transmitting the science instead of returning. 

Now you take that data, put it in the lab, and begin to research, generating science over time.  Do not know if data gets comsumed as science is generated or not, the power consumption to research is notable (good thing), and my current lab can't support it, was built for the old style use a bunch then recharge, not constant drain.  Going to have to send up a power module. 

[Unorthodox]

So...

one of the updates messed with something.  My computer started really slowing down when I tried to play.  Looking, it was tracking over 300 pieces of debris, and though I have this set to automagically eliminate all but a few pieces normally, one of the updates put it back to default. 

So I was going through manually deleting those, and accidentally deleted my entire program as well.  2 space stations, a lunar base, and a minmus base.  Countless mapping satelites. 

It's taken me a lot of grinding to come up with the funds to replace the Kerbals this action killed, and just launched the newest space station.  So, slow going. 

Have my first mission to one of Jools moons (Jupiter analog), but need a bit more funding first.

Going to do an Eve mission that will tick a couple contracts at the same time first, then think about sending a Jool probe.  Gotta see where it is first, it's on an eliptical orbit, and the far end is hard to reach. 

[Unorthodox]

All the grinding specifically for cash, I've spent a bit of time getting things VERY efficient, something I usually just ballpark and not worry about. 

Teeny Tiny satelite to a specific munar orbit, very little fuel remaining/wasted. 



Minmus station at the height of it's existance, just before getting accidentally deleted.  Lander, science lab, the initial contract defined station, a power module, and a refuel tanker for the lander.  This think was solely responsible for me climbing most the tech tree. 



A return ship from Minmus, bringing back samples/experiments. 1300 science.  I probably deleted this much more.



New heat modeling makes using those NASA pack rockets all but untenable.  At least until you get some cooling systems later.  (perdy fairing up top though, yes?)

[Unorthodox]

On my way to Jool with my probe.

All this was under that fairing.  The radial tanks get disposed of as they empty, making my thrust to weight better the closer we get. 

they've changed the nuclear engine to ONLY take liquid fuel, but they don't have any big liquid fuel tanks, thus the wierd configuration.  This is just after depositing the first two tanks, just outside kerbin orbit. 



Retro burn on entering Jool's influence, fuel to spare cause I wasn't expecting a gravity assist from Duna to get here, my mission is to the brown moon there, doing a flyby of the green highlited one (Pol) for science! 



Coming up on Bop...



...a rather ugly hunk of rock.  Don't think there was a flat spot on it.  Fortunately the gravity was low enough I was able to use the RCS thrusters to lay it down gently on it's side briefly, to accomplish the mission and gather a quick science, then lift it back off and point it skyward before it slid down the mountain and exploded.  Couldn't get a snap of it on the ground with all the rcs firing (qweasd and ijklhn keys all going at the same time).

Still enough fuel I could probably land on another moon, though RCS is running low after that maneuver.   

[Buster's Uncle]

 

[Geo]

(qweasd and ijklhn keys all going at the same time).

You need 12 keys to operate all the rcs thrusters?
The second bunch aren't even all located adjacent (on my keyboard).

[Unorthodox]

The first set handles pitch and rotation (turn here or there), the second translation (maintain orientation, move the whole ship in one direction or another, mostly used for docking) and elevation. 

So, we touched down the engine lightly, slowly tipped it the whole rocket against the slope with pitch and rotation to lay flat against the side of the mountain while maintaining it's position on the mountain with the elevation, to be "landed", then had to continually toggle the elevation (no throttle on rcs thrusters) to keep it from sliding while I performed the science (with the mouse), then translate and elevate (lifting it up horizontally) away from the mountain then pitching back toward the sky and firing the main engine again.  It was honestly the most impressive flying I've ever done.   

This is why a lot of people install mods to do such things for them.   Mechjeb mod adds a part that is essentially an autopilot. 

I manually configured the second set how I wanted, the default controls kept messing me up, as you click to toggle between pitch and translation on the qweasd keys.  I like to have both simultaneously. 

The announced PS4 version makes me drool thinking of how flying would handle on a controller.  But, there's a lot of things that a controller will make cumbersome as well. 

[Geo]

Essentially you pulled a Philae, but better.

[Unorthodox]

Yep, had I left it to the SAS, it would have tumbled down the hill to some ravine somewhere, if it didn't blow up from the fall. 

[Unorthodox]

tiny lander failed because the solar panels somehow got damaged despite being inside that shielding



Eve base dragonfly inspired design, worked REALLY well. 



On the precipice of uncharted tech and parts for me.  Mining operations, etc.  Need to upgrade the lab, and that costs a bit, time to grind out some missions. 

[Unorthodox]

So I have to make money to get the rest of the tech tree open.  I have a mission to another moon of Jool, but the former ship has simply disappeared.  I didn't delete it, but it's gone.  Making a new one didn't interest me.  So, I lined up 3 missions on Eve.  Land. Science. Plant Flag.

Build a nice big interplanetary ship that should have been able to land and return a kerbal to that dragonfly station...and the VAB isn't big enough to support the rocket.  Upgrading THAT (thus further putting tech behind the cash curve) and we don't have enough money to launch the big ship.  I can't cancel the contracts either without serious hits to cashflow....

So, I got to make a suicide mission with no return.  At least, not for a while.  I MIGHT send a rescue later.