Rouady Central

1.1.2 released (glad I didn't go to 1.1.1).  Waiting for mods to transition still. Updated mods Community resource, Karbonite, Karibou, Sounding Rockets, the USI set, KJR and achievements. Needed to remove surface experiments for the moment due to a Sounding Rockets conflict (should be fine when I need them). Did a satellite that covered Sputnik-1, Explorer-4 and a Satellite Contract.  Probably not fair but I am building up my bank account ($2.42M). <Minmus Adjust> I don't have any active contracts so I am spending some time build Duna Craft.  The lander has no legs, it just parachutes down and lands on its heat shield.  The orbiter probe will fulfill an orbital contract as well so it should be very profitable and science value.  I do not plan to address Ike at the moment. <Satellite Cash>

The new 1.1.1 has been released but so many of my mods have not made the journey yet that I am sticking with 1.1 for now.  Hopefully my save game will move over once the mods are in place since it is just a hotfix. I updated 3 mods Contract config, Historic Missions and Portrait Stats.  Forgot to remove Hullcam yet. I plan to send a scanner to Minmus. But first, I need to do the REAL Explorer I! (First US orbital, I don't know what that other contract was, probably an error). Success (simple orbital) <Explorer I> Minmus mission was clean. <Minmus LoRes Scanner> I had a crash after Explorer-2  I hope it kept my game.  Will save on re-entry.  Did delete Hullcam in the process. Some weirdity, but I got some satellite contracts adjusted and two scans completed so we are in good shape! <Many Contracts Complete> Handling some more Historics.  NO Russian to be found?  I guess that bug was not fixed. <Vanguard-2> Also did Explorer 3 as part of it. Awesome Minmus mission.  Got science from both high and low space.  Also set up a polar satellite and got big bucks.  My $ is 2.211M! <Minmus Sat A>  

Mod Updates to B9 Parts, Indicator Lights and Distant Object Enhancement.  Added Surface Experiments and Engine Lighting. Word on the forum is that Hullcam VDS does not work very well.  I will attempt to use it but may remove it if it acts up. Mun Flyer is ready for another test launch. 5672 dV with boosters.  Larger final stage. G (gear) is the high space science.  B (brakes) is the low space (under 60km) science for Mun. Odd that the focus and center remained on an invisible part of the craft below.  Was able to reset the control point and it is now okay.  Is it the camera? 1745 dV in orbit.  Need 842 for TMI. Going back to -Another Sat Contract- Since the ship is really messed up. I hope it is the Hullcam so I can remove it and not have this happen..  The ship is losing its center, it is not maintaining focus, etc.  I hope it is not a bigger issue. Needed to add contracts back and research the fairings (invalid parts).  I have removed the camera and will now try the launch test again.  If this does not work, I will be very confused. So, the focus appears to be fixed.  Mun Flyer has control problems on Stage 2 even with wings.  The non-gimbal engine seems to be the issue. 1601 dV in orbit (due to bad stage 2 transition).  Need 841 for TMI.  Fine. It does not appear that the Sounding Rocket experiments function outside of the Kerbin influence.  Oh well, lesson learned! Flyby was successful. <NASA Explorer 1> Send the Munar Scan mission (go for 50km orbit, best for both). Doing a SCAN and Mag scan.  Using the orbital satellite scanner base (plenty of dV, 6319).  Two contracts, scan and orbit. Picture perfect mission. <Mun Scan Underway> <Kerbin Scan Adjust> <R2-A Contract>

One mod update, Historic Contracts got a fix that may have been blocking the Russian contracts. I hope that means there are more of them!  There had been none for a while. <Another Sat Contract> So I did another satellite contract.  I had the MechJeb apparent error again.  It seems it just loses the ability to set the point properly.  I went back to Spacecenter and back but it still happened.  I went to another satellite, set something and it worked.  I went back, and it worked.  Odd.  Probably should load the exception tracker and send a report.  I feel pretty confident it is MechJeb related but it is not necessarily true. Now, I am doing my first Mun mission which will be followed by a Mun survey mission.  First a flyby and science project. Launch Test of Mun Flyer 5218 dV with boosters.  Weird launch. Added upper stabililzers to see if that helps in a later test.

I have no new mod updates at the moment.  It is possible that the problem I saw was related to MechJeb.  Some others reported odd behavior in map view with MechJeb so I plan to check that out and possibly post the issue. Wide satellite contract 19,328kn x 15,222 km (1.5 deg incline) 936 dV at conclusion.  Starting dV 6345 (2 stages, no release of 2nd stage, Sat 2 style). Some weird visual jumps but everything did function with no errors so far. <Good Sat Contract> Blossom-1 Mission (Simple Suborbital use.  20th V-2 Historic Mission) Manual limit to 25 m/s2 accel.  Turned to 75 deg at 100 m/s speed. Clean Flight.  Good splashdown. $750K in the bank! <Blossom-1>  

Some mod updates:  First the updates to Mkerb, SpaceY set, and Kerbal Alarm moved to CKAN. Also added the Near Future Solar and Electrical, Hullcam VDSm Texture Replacer, Star Trek Tunics, Docking Port Align and Indicator Lights. Using a variant of the Simple Suborbital, I did a couple basic contracts to test the landing gear in flight and the radial decoupler after splash down.  Got some bucks which we will need soon to increase our research abilities. "Orbital Satellite 2 Scanner" This is the scanner missions. Manual launch put me at an inclination of 71 degrees. I finally have Manuever Planner so I am adjusting to 200km orbit and then will adjust incline before starting the scan.  I need 85% for the cash. Shutdown the engine and started the scanner at a 200km altitude.  Reporting "Ideal". <Kerbin Scan Underway> Prepping the reverse equatorial satellite for another good $$ contract. What was intended as a straightforward reverse equatorial satellite mission became a bit of a mess on multiple levels.  To start, the orbit itself was almost exactly the same at Mun orbit (in reverse) so it was hard to plan for it without the craft getting flung in the wrong direction by Mun However, the real problem was that the game was getting messed up badly, and I don't know why.  It started in the Map view where it seemed to jump around a bit.  Than MechJeb was creating nodes with no dV associated with them.  I could not get it to stop. I could not set the maneuver node manually.  When I went back to the SpaceCnter, the sky was black and the ocean was missing.  Obviously, a serious error had occurred.  I restarted the game.  I was able to get the orbit partially in place but the same odd errors started occurring again.  I eventually got a stable enough orbit to fulfill the contract.  When I went to leave, the ocean was missing again. I hope I am not seeing some problem in 1.1 for the first time.  It messed everything up.  It seemed to be related to the map view but maybe not.  Maybe Mechjeb was getting calc errors because of the weird orbit conflicts?  I don't know.  It certainly put the game in a funk.  I have a lot of mods, it would be hard to figure out the culprit.  I guess we will see. <Weird Eq Orbit>

A few mod updates today.  Interstellar Fuel Switch Core, Kopernicus, Module Mgr, and Raster Prop (2 parts).  Still using a candidate version of Final Frontier was manually updated to 1.0.2-2131. "Orbital Return Probe v2" 5257 dV in VAB (MJ) Goal is to have an orbit that can do high space (+250) for science and return for contract. Using B (brakes) for causing all the science to occur. Testing probe. Very good mission with one failure occurring that was okay.  The heat shield decoupler did not appear to work.  It did not separate at all until the heat shield itself was jettisoned.  The engine section was left attached during reentry until the heat was done and then the heat shield was jettisoned. That worked and the touchdown was gentle. Also, the fairings on the science experiments did not need to be decoupled since the action groups triggered the science.  They were moved to the top of the staging stack, but could be disabled (might want to leave it possible in case access is needed) Notes from the voyage (manual): Reached an elliptical orbit at 92km x 171km with 684 dV. Increased apoasis to 307km with 595 dV left. Did experiments once 250km altitude was reached. Reduced periapsis to 17km for reentry at apo - 519 dV left and released. 136 science recovered.  Contract fulfilled.  Money $306k in the bank. Just wanted to do 2 simple suborbital contracts. "Simple Suborbital"  Huge pain on recovery because it is so vertical and I don't want to lose the engine recovery cost. This was a total pain.  Bottom line, the cost of the rocket is not worth the may efforts to recover it.  Got the 2 contracts.  Too many f-ed up flights later... <Couple Contracts> Game errored, would not let me exit the mission control.  Needed to force shutdown.  Happened after I upgraded my control center.  On restart it appears I have a few mods to upgrade.  I'll do those a bit later. Attempting to do the Zaltonics satellite contract.  Good bucks if I do it. "Orbital Satellite 2" - 5980 dV (MJ) Successful placement (o incline) 396 dV left.  Is it enough for other contract?  Could be close. <Sat Contract A>  

I am going to name these differently since coming up with new names all the time seems hard!  I may add some descriptive names to the log #.  This is now (likely) a set of mundane contract missions of ever-increasing orbits or sending probes hurtling off to the Mun or Minmus.  Let's see what the contracts offer! "Orbital Return Probe" This is designed to go into orbit, collect science, and return the samples.  It will fulfill a contract for Radial chutes that should cover the mission cost. 4124dV according to MechJeb. Needed to upgrade building (more than 30 parts). Did NOT achieve orbit.  I got my science, but orbit was way short.  Odd.  It said I had the dV.  Not sure where the error is in my setup. Chute contract fulfilled.  Science 39.0 earned. Not good for orbital missions... <Near Space Return>  

I am focusing on unmanned missions before we get to the manned.  Collecting science and fulfilling some early contracts to build up funds. Sounding Rocket Gamma Launch 1256dV (1075 on pad) with the goal of 18K-70K altitude for science Came up way short of 18K.  Added a stage, KER is odd.  Does not report multiple stages.  Just a total of 1591dV on pad. Need to add a 2nd set of fins for control after stage sep. Adjust 2nd stage to fire and separate together. Made about 12K and reset as I now understand the staging issue, the rocket core item is the engine (sounding rocket) so when that separated it stayed with it,  need to move that to the last stage. Can't really make 18K with Gamma (way short on two stages) but I can do some nearby ground science so I am doing that by adding a reaction wheel to turn the puppy. Did an instant turn towards the water on launch Got some science flying low over Kerbin water (thanks xScience).  Do the same mission and get science in the water next. Launch 1: 22.4 science Launch 2: 17.6 science <Nearby Science> Local Missions going left over grasslands: Launch 1 (in air): 22.4 science Launch 2 (on ground): 13.2 science <Nearby Science More> Built "Upper Atmo Alpha" 2228dV (1945 on pad?) to get above 18K (above 70K?) Uses the Hammer solid fuel booster. Thrust at 25% to keep TWR  around 1.5. First test had a slow turn and did no make altitude.  Needs reaction wheel. Reset and relaunch. Reached height 52,420m, safely reached Grasslands Science 45.6 earned. <Upper Atmo Success> Built "Upper Atmo Beta" 2796dV Uses Proc. SRB with Thrust 70kN and 341 fuel. Launch at small angle towards water. Successful SubOrbital!!!! Reached an altitude of 109,410m.  Did the set of 6 experiments.  Water landing.  Used the engine as the heat shield (before it flipped). Science 52.0 earned. $375K in the bank (2 suborb contracts) <Suborbital Success> <Contract Tests> Testing Orbital Satellite I 3440dV pn pad (?) Flipped over.  Trying different fins.  Also larger tank (4072dV in VAB) 3805 dV on pad. Successful Launch and orbit!  Orbital Contract Fulfilled.  Decent orbit done manually. Transmitted goo back for a little science (not much). Satellite named Premiere. <Premiere in Orbit>

I saw the conflict yesterday and thought that may be a conflict between SVE and EVE, so I will remove EVE and see what happens. Also, it looks like there were a variety of new mods potentially added that I did manually previously so I want to change those to be CKAN installs. None of this is surprising since 1.1 is new and the mods will be tweaking quite a bit.  I expect I may have many different 'careers' eventually but it won't be based on mods, but different ways I play the game.  The advantage will be not needing to have separate installs for each one. Couple hiccups but it seems almost in place.  The following items were now CKAN available so I removed the manually install: Ambient Light, Launch Countdown, KAS, KIS, Achievements, and Toolbar.  However, it did not appear that CKAN saw them as gone manually until I cleared the trash.  Maybe it just needed some time, I am not sure.  However, I was able to install all of the EXCEPT Ambient light because that is reporting a download failure.  No big deal, I will do that again later.  Not critical. I am removing EVE to see if that prevents the conflict notice as well and also looking at any other mods that may have become available. Cannot remove EVE.  The SVE depends on it.  Odd, I wonder what the conflict is.  I may need to remove SVE to see if that resolves it?  It might be Distant Object, so I will remove that first (not that critical for me). No new mods that I found. Removed Distant Object, still got compatible message.  Trying SVE. Not SVE.  Maybe Kopernicus?  Not Kopernicus (although I won't reinstall for now because I don't need it until I add planets I think). Next up, ELP.  That was the culprit.  Okay, I am leaving it off for now (it is a late game mod) so no big problem.  Probably conflicting with USI stuff. Run test appeared successful.  Much less clouds on Kerbin and Duna, I am wondering if that is related to Kopernicus?  I may test that but for now it is fine. A little while later, Tweakscale became available.  I also updated Raster prop., re-added ambient light, and added Kopernicus back.