So I recently bought this game, it is great fun.

So far I've built a few rockets, starting from knowing nothing to finally getting into orbit and re-entry with a soft landing.

My current Rocket design is the Toll Mark 8, many a Kerbal perished reaching this Milestone.

A trip to Mun and back is on the horizon, the Toll Mark 9 rocket will hopefully make it to Mun at least.

What are some of your exploits and current mission?

have been following this game for a little while now, the devs are doing top notch work on it.

love the youtube plays of it too;

currently trying to break speed records in a plane,

1745m/s, is my best,

only once have I been to the mun, but many many many probes/kerbals are out in deep space

Kerbal is what life would be like without H&S Officers. Rapid progression and endless prototyping. Lots of deaths but.

Love this game, I recommend the lazor mod too, who doesn't love laser guided missiles?

I'm trying to build a space port but finding the docking to be tedious/I'm bad at it.

That video was great! First I've heard of this game. Will definitely be checking it out, thanks!

Heaps of my friends are playing this. I'll hold off for an xmas 75% off sale. But im a tight ass when it comes to games spending.

Heaps of my friends are playing this. I'll hold off for an xmas 75% off sale. But im a tight ass when it comes to games spending.

Ha, you should've got in early. It was $7 when they first started selling it on their website.

f***, not bad, too bad i only pay attn to steam, GMG and f*** all else.

I got it at $22 on steam, worth it.

I'd seen it previously, and knew it was around ~$20 direct from their website.
I'd held off for a while to see how it'd pan out and was about to buy it when it appeared on steam so it was an easily spent $20.

I think it's worth it for concept and execution thus far.
I think the game has some serious development potential but I have NO idea how they are going to implement 'career mode'.

It also helps to hit home [for me]just how much effort it takes to hurl objects into the outer atmosphere, much less other stellar objects.

It's pretty inspiring when you assemble and achieve your objectives; but for the most part I'm still well and truly buried at the 'piloting' rather than 'designing' part of the game (Largely because I'm horrible at the design part).

Dav0, I usually do the same thing with games, (with a few exceptions) but in this case I was happy to throw $20 at this because (aside from valve getting a cut), for me, it's humbling to know that the cash is going directly to the team working on the game (instead of the $40-90 spend of anything EA/Activision/other-large-software-publishing-house-esque-body and everything associated to that).

Pretty awesome game, would of preferred to have thrown money at this than sim city lol.

god damn it

I got to 1984m/s, at 26000m, then ran out of fuel, so damn close to 2000m/s, either way it is plane that covers half the globe at mach 5+ (before running out og fuel, and gliding into a flat spin)

Ive had a few visits to both moons around Kerbin (and came back) .... and came within half a million K's from the next planet, Eve. So frustrating when your delta-V to get captured by Eve is more than how much fuel you have left :( So close, yet so far.

Bought it today. Built a high altitude plane that got me to the north pole easily but handled like a dog. What caught me out was the jet engine needing an air-intake! Without one the motor would cough when I hit spacebar and that would be it. Finally figured it out.

Tried building a shuttle and hit the same problem but with a liquid fuel rocket engine (whatever they're called). It refuses to work connected to a body part that contains fuel, it must be connected to a tank. Damn frustrating at first.

I hope they add to the game some sort of design validator that points out stuff that just plain work, like the example I hit with no intake... would've saved me a good hour.

You mean jet engines don't work in space?!@?

Bought it today. Built a high altitude plane that got me to the north pole easily but handled like a dog. What caught me out was the jet engine needing an air-intake! Without one the motor would cough when I hit spacebar and that would be it. Finally figured it out. Tried building a shuttle and hit the same problem but with a liquid fuel rocket engine (whatever they're called). It refuses to work connected to a body part that contains fuel, it must be connected to a tank. Damn frustrating at first.I hope they add to the game some sort of design validator that points out stuff that just plain work, like the example I hit with no intake... would've saved me a good hour.

it tells you if a part is crossfuel, (meaning the fuel will flow thru it), for those parts that dont have cross fuel, there is a pipe that will bridge the gap

You mean jet engines don't work in space?!@?

They don't, but no, I was referring to trying to take off horizontally.

it tells you if a part is crossfuel, (meaning the fuel will flow thru it), for those parts that dont have cross fuel, there is a pipe that will bridge the gap

Thanks, I'll have a look next time.

Tried building a shuttle and hit the same problem but with a liquid fuel rocket engine (whatever they're called). It refuses to work connected to a body part that contains fuel, it must be connected to a tank. Damn frustrating at first.

A body part contains liquid fuel but no oxidizer, whilst a fuel tank has oxidizer and liquid fuel. Oxidizer should transfer with all parts that say it can crossfuel.

I can now easily get into orbit with plenty of fuel left over to perform orbital changes, my current goal now is to get 2 capsules in orbit and dock them together.

A body part contains liquid fuel but no oxidizer, whilst a fuel tank has oxidizer and liquid fuel. Oxidizer should transfer with all parts that say it can crossfuel.

Makes sense, thanks!

Saw this trailer, now I want it. Do I impulse buy it right now?

Try the demo.

I've got the hang of docking now (well auto-pilot styles). I use an add-on called MechJeb absolutely essential if you want to play the game without having to do lots of equations.

So I've got my first space station. Toll's Midway Station, it is in orbit at about 500,000m. It has about 2000 units of fuel and 2x2 rockets, that will absolutely let me drop it into orbit midway between Kerbal and Mun. For my future mission of landing on Mun. Next up, is sending a satellite out to map Mun for anomalies to explore.

Have no idea how to make a rover, a few test flights at Kerbal launch center might be in order.


Still haven't even touched Space-plane mode.

Yea it's worth it Carson, it's one of those things that will only go up as the progress through alpha more.

I got it. Man, it's so hard getting things in to orbit. I think I need to look at some more indepth design tutorials. It's a lot of fun. At the moment I'm just trying to send probes in to get the hang of sending things in to orbit.

Yeah I bought this yesterday, I can see it being alot of fun when you get the hang of it, I finally worked out how to orbit the mun, just need to work out how to land. I find youtube videos awesome for more information there is a channel some guy called 'Steve Marlow' or something he seems to know his space s***.

Do you mean Scott Manley? He has a ton of good Kerbal Space Program videos and tutorials. Robbaz has quite a few too, but they're probably less helpful and more just funny.

Once you don't just fly straight up getting to orbit isn't so bad, one of the British guys has a decent video, basically start turning a fair bit once your ou I the first thick part or the Atmosphere, and you need to start getting both speed and height to keep an orbit that dosnt decay in hours/days :)

So does it come with some kind of tutorial built in? Cos I watched some of those videos and it looks awesome, but I can't tell if thats stuff you can figure out from just playing the game or you have to actually know engineering :S

Yea there is some basic tutorials.

Once you don't just fly straight up getting to orbit isn't so bad, one of the British guys has a decent video, basically start turning a fair bit once your ou I the first thick part or the Atmosphere, and you need to start getting both speed and height to keep an orbit that dosnt decay in hours/days :)

Yea I made that mistake at first, much more efficient when you start a grav turn at about 15000m. Get it right and your circularize burn will be really short and thus needing very little fuel. Simple way to do this of course is MechJeb.

Getting into some sort of orbit without a clue is fairly easy once you build a rocket that is capable (hint: Simpler is usually better).

Making your orbit circular takes a little understanding of apoapsis and periapsis. Those two points are very important for a number of maneuvers.


Still, I can't recommend MechJeb highly enough. To use it:

1. Download it
2. unzip the contents into your Kerbal base directory
3. If you managed that, a new part will be in the 'control' tabs, a little walkey talky thing, just attach that anywhere and BAM! a couple new windows will appear on your screen.
4. Enjoy Kerbal without raging.

Also, in case you have a few performance issues:

1. The game has a pretty horrible bug for 32bit OS/s. It tries to allocate more RAM that it can and crashes every 2nd or 3rd launch. Not much of a fix for this. Forcing affinity to 1 core can help.

2. antivirus programs don't work well with Kerbal, so add Ksp.exe as an exception to your anti-virus.

3. Enjoy.

So does it come with some kind of tutorial built in? Cos I watched some of those videos and it looks awesome, but I can't tell if that's stuff you can figure out from just playing the game or you have to actually know engineering :S

The tutorials are very basic, and I couldn't understand how to get to the Mun (Moon) in the last tutorial, not to mention it doesn't teach you how to land on planets yet. Obviously still a lot of work ahead but so far a fantastic game, I find the YouTube videos are awesome for learning and help a lot.

This is the guy I made mention to, he has some awesome in depth tutorials they are a bit lengthy but helped me out a lot and taught be things I may never have known.

Simpler is usually better

Yep this is the path I took, built a small rocket got it up and parachuted down, then worked from that model to make it bigger and faster to get into orbit.

So does it come with some kind of tutorial built in? Cos I watched some of those videos and it looks awesome, but I can't tell if thats stuff you can figure out from just playing the game or you have to actually know engineering :S

They do, but I've been scouring the wikis and gonna hit up some youtubes.

This is a good place to go for getting your first satellite in to orbit. http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Basic_Probe_And_Satellite_Building

I have two now, while the in game tutes gave me the basics (bare min) it took a few launches before I was able to fully understand how to get things in to orbit. Now I'm going to toy with designs.

This game has a heap of potential. It's the new minecraft.

Yep, Scott Manley has been very helpful. This video of his helped me figure out some design issues I was having.

Oh, and these are quite helpful for learning how stuff has changed in newer updates (many of the vids you'll find are using older versions): WernherVonKerman vids

Nose cones are only for show, they don't help drag!

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorials

Is also a good place to read, starts from basics and works up, gives you rocket layouts to help if you want.

Did I mention MechJeb yet? Because MechJeb is awesome.

I have been using ORDA but just for docking and teleporting huge items :), will give mecjab a go

I got MechJeb but I don't know if it's working or not, do you have to enable plugins beyond dumping them in the proper folders?

I got MechJeb but I don't know if it's working or not, do you have to enable plugins beyond dumping them in the proper folders?

If installed correctly you will see various mechJeb parts when building a ship. Once you have one on the ship and are on the launch pad you will see the MechJeb tab on the right side.

I got it working and it's f***ing unreal. Though it makes it a little too easy to get in to orbit, I was struggling a lot with certain things.

Now to get to a moon and back!

MechJeb does indeed make it HEAPS easier, however you also learn stuff by using it. So use it for a while and you can start doing all the required moves without it.

I launched a MapSat satellite to the Mun this evening and it just finished mapping it. I have 7 anomalies to explore, and know where all the flat areas to land are. Next up, my manned mission to land on Mun, explore, and return back to Kerbal without losing a Kerbian.

I'll launch into orbit and circularize without MechJeb. I'm not sure how to align the plane of my orbit with my target, so my use MechJeb again for that. I may attempt a Hohmann transfer to intercept the Mun on my own.

Landing is going to be tough, I also still haven't built my first Rover.

After (or maybe before) I'll try my hand at making a SpacePlane.



It is interesting, so much to do and it is only Version 0.19 I hope to see economy built into the game, so you have to build 'budget' rockets and try and re-use components that you eject from your rockets.

I'm not sure how to align the plane of my orbit with my target

Once you've set a target, you'll see two green markers, which indicate when you cross your target's plane. The degrees indicated show how off you are from it. Set up a maneuver from one of those markers, and drag up or down on the purple axis to change your angle until the green markers spin and indicate 0 degrees. Then just do that burn at the right time and hey presto, aligned orbits.

Alright, the demo hooked me. Now lets see if I can build some stuff lol.

MechJeb 2 is a bit more complicated than the 1.9 version. You'd just hit the button on the launch thing to auto orbit, now you have to do some complicated things. So I'm working it out, slowly.

I have no f***ing idea how to build rovers then pack them in to a rocket to deploy. I think I got the MapSat addon too, I intend on mapping once I've figured out how to use MechJeb a bit better.

Honestly, with how easy it is to install plugins, this is what minecraft should've had from day 1.

Waiting for someone to re-create the skycrane maneuver that dropped the rover on mars

I have no f***ing idea how to build rovers then pack them in to a rocket to deploy.

Do it the Robbaz way:

ahahaha

Cheers, euphoria. I'll give a bash at docking with Midway Station unassisted. I'll refuel there and continue to Mun, with a full tank of fuel It should leave room for plenty of mistakes during landing/escape.

lol @ bob having od/stroke.

How does awesomeness on this level go through 19 updates before we find it!.

anyone tried making apollo 11 from the tutorial on kebel wiki,

i seem to get awefull amount of flex it wobbles more than rolf harris wobble board

I find that if I use a standard S.A.S it wobbles the crap out of eveything. I'm not sure, the pivot point may be set to whatever is you set as your control center.

I now just build my rockets without a S.A.S (I have Advanced S.A.S though). They seem to wobble far less.

Although having a S.A.S in space is useful, so I'll be adding them again although I hope to be able to turn them off at launch.

You can also use struts (under structural) to help give your rocket some rigidity, I use them mainly for side-mounted rockets of my first stage, it prevents them wobbling around and spinning my rocket out of control.

lol @ bob having od/stroke.

How does awesomeness on this level go through 19 updates before we find it!.

anyone tried making apollo 11 from the tutorial on kebel wiki,

i seem to get awefull amount of flex it wobbles more than rolf harris wobble board

Try Quantum Strut mod for re linkable stability.

I've started sending satellites up in the air. I'm mapping Kerbal now, but I started to head to the other celestial targets. Problem is I keep forgetting to extend my solar panels and end up running out of electricity by the time I get to a moon and can't do s***. One of my mods must've made electricity do something maybe?

I've got a heap installed. They add so much more.
MechJeb2 - toll pimped this and it's worth it!
Mapsat - lets you map other planets
Home - adds more materials to build moon bases and the like
KSPX Parts Expansion - adds a s***load more parts for space stations and rockets and everything
KW Rocketry - adds more rockets

I think one of the latter two is making my game run a bit chunky between launching and getting in orbit. Haven't worked it out yet.

MechJeb and Mapsat are definitely the best two to get.

MapSat will make your game run chunky between 6(7)000M and 120000m or something, you need to bring up the MapSat Gui prior to launching and turn mapping OFF during your launch. Turn it back on when you get into orbit.
Turning it off will turn it off for all satellites, so remember to turn it back on.

I am having trouble getting into a safe orbit with enough petrol to play around in space, at the moment I have a pod orbiting around Kerban with a PE of 50,000 - 80,000 km worst part is there is no fuel left so the poor Kerban is just floating around on his own lol

Instead of building my Maned Mun Mission Rocket. I spent a bit of time making a SpacePlane, or more accurately a Plane, since it can't make it to space yet. A lot of Kerbans died during the many test flights. It is easily thrice as hard to build a SpacePlane than a rocket.

They are also pretty unforgiving to fly.

I just want you guys to know, I had 5 days off last weekend. I downloaded this game on wednesday night. I have lost my entire long weekend due to this game.

Last night I safely landed my first probe on Mün. I was hoping to bring it back to earth for a return trip, but didn't have enough fuel to get into a transfer orbit. Now it will spend eternity orbiting the moon above it's landing site. No mods were used.

s***ty shot with my iphone at touchdown (I forgot the key for taking a screenshot at the time).

http://i.imgur.com/mbHx0mJ.jpg

I'm suprised none of the tutorial videos I've watched so far use the solid rocket boosters, I mean I guess I've only really watched absolute beginner ones that are going for the simplest designs possible, but I find strapping on a few solid fuel rockets to get me through that initial burn phase to get into the upper atmosphere saves a tonne of fuel you would have otherwise wasted, since thats the stage when you're burning the hardest.

I've been going without mods so far, cos I'm stubborn mostly. I've made it into orbit and back down to earth/kerbal without mods, wondering if I can make it to the moon without mods, but I might cave and install mechjeb before then. I haven't really gone looking at mods yet, but it sounds like mapsat is worth grabbing too, that sounds fun. I hope they really go far with this game, I want to be able to build self sustaining colonies and s*** on other planets and start terraforming!

Making it to the moon and landing without mods wasn't that difficult. I haven't watched any videos either, just did the 4 in-game tutorials. The one that teaches you how to modify your orbit is the best one.

Click on the moon and select set target. That will tell you where your ascending node is, that is the spot to do your burn at for greatest efficiency. Click on your orbit in map mode, and there should be an add maneuver option. Play around with the trajectories until you get a transfer orbit. Then Modify your transfer orbit so you get captured by the moon. Then circularise and lower your moon orbit to around 6000m. Then slow your orbit speed to 0 at your periapsis and control your descent to the surface. Make sure you touch down at less than 5m/s.

Terraforming isn't planned by the dev's apparently. However a modder will sort it out, maybe even you Khel ;)


Boosters don't really add much to your delta-v, they are really for (I think) to give extra thrust for heavier payloads.

MechJeb gives you invaluable data when building your rocket. It tells you the delta-v of each stage as your building so you can figure out what is helping and what isn't. I've found that sometimes adding an engine actually makes things worse.

The Kethane mod is also great. It adds a bunch of extra 'gamey' mechanics. You first use a satellite to find kethane deposits (Mun has some, maybe Kerbal too, plus other planets), then you mine it and store it. It can be used as fuel directly for jet-engines in non-oxygen atmosphere, and it can be converted by orbital converter units into the different fuel types. This makes for interesting options for orbital refueling and whatnot.


TLDR: Must have mods:

MechJeb 2.0.7
MapSat 3.3.4
Kethane ?

These don't really contain any 'cheaty' parts. As far as structure and propulsion goes it is stock (except for kethane fuel).

MapSat will make your game run chunky between 6(7)000M and 120000m or something, you need to bring up the MapSat Gui prior to launching and turn mapping OFF during your launch. Turn it back on when you get into orbit.
Turning it off will turn it off for all satellites, so remember to turn it back on.

Cheers! How do you turn it off before launch?

I don't have any mods yet, but it may be possible to automate it by adding it to the launch action group, then a custom action group to turn it back on after exiting the atmosphere.

I do something similar with solar panels. They open automatically when I jettison my terrestrial stages.

When you load the launch pad and rocket is waiting for your Spacebar of DOOOOM, you toggle it then. Use the little compass thing on the bottom left, just near your pitch/yaw/spin dials.

If the compass isn't there, you need to get MapSat version 3.3.4 (not the one linked in the 1st page of the Kerbal MapSat forum post). Get it from SpaceDock.


My mapping of Mun went smoothly, From launch to Mun orbit without MechJeb. I find I use MechJeb now for when I couldn't be arsed doing it manually.

I don't have any mods yet, but it may be possible to automate it by adding it to the launch action group, then a custom action group to turn it back on after exiting the atmosphere.

I do something similar with solar panels. They open automatically when I jettison my terrestrial stages.

I'll give it a shot.

Do you find extending your solar panels effects the ships handling once in orbit? I keep forgetting to test them out when in orbit to see if they'll fall off when I do maneuver burns.

All my solar panels have stayed intact. I did have a wonky space craft docked to another with solar panels and the engines where in the wrong spot really, so when I did a burn I had to blast the RCS thrusters non-stop just to keep the vessel somewhat stable. It was also a bitch to turn on RCS alone, too much mass in the wrong spots. Retracting the Solar Panels helped a little.

I'm considering throwing that space station into Kerbal's atmosphere and watching the show. That Kerban piloting that maneuver is going to have one hell of a trip. He will hopefully get a chance to undock mid fall without exploding...

I seem to be unable to disable MapSat. Here are screenshots of my hud.
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/597002149152742778/2AF55273437116C60517C6A2A4351BC3D2D204E7/
Not sure if I am missing something that would allow me to disable it. I downloaded and installed all the files from 3.3.4 again.

In honor of the Kerbals that I launched into a stupidly high orbital eccentricity instead of heading to Minmus, we salute you. Steering isn't my strong suit yet.

Does the latest version give you a way to design a workhorse rocket and then swap out the payloads?
Googles says there's a mod/app called Payloader but it's a bit of a hack, anyone tried it?

The only way to do that so far is with mods unfortunately.

Carson, that is strange indeed, it should have an option to turn mapping off/on.

I can see the MapSat dish on your rocket, do you also have the GPS unit on your rocket? If you do, take it off. You only use the GPS unit for non-mapping missions.

The only way to do that so far is with mods unfortunately.

Carson, that is strange indeed, it should have an option to turn mapping off/on.

I can see the MapSat dish on your rocket, do you also have the GPS unit on your rocket? If you do, take it off. You only use the GPS unit for non-mapping missions.

I have a GPS, I'll try taking it off. Send me a screenshot of your mapping rockets and interface so I can see the differences?

Turns out it was the GPS. Everything is hunky dory now.

Hooray! What a save!

So many dead Kerbals. Take a moment to honour their sacrifices.


...




My SSTO SpacePlane designs are have difficulties. I can build a Spaceplane that works fine up till about 20Km then it starts to have significant issues.
I've become quite good at recovering from a stall and spin. Although it takes about 8km of free fall to regain control sometimes. Many Kerbals died to that point... Many still do. Some on the run-way.

What about adding a separator & parachute to the cockpit and bind it to the abort button, kind of like an F-111 ejection sequence.

I installed MechJeb last night, almost makes things too easy now.

http://i.imgur.com/DFHDgkDl.jpg

Not enough fuel to get back, so a rescue mission is in the works.

Yup Mechjeb does indeed help. Think of it as a tool to do the mundane maneuvers, and leave it off for the fun stuff like landings and docking.

Sounds like that rescue needs a SpacePlane!



As for ejection capsules, that is no way to commit soldier.

Yup Mechjeb does indeed help. Think of it as a tool to do the mundane maneuvers, and leave it off for the fun stuff like landings and docking.

Sounds like that rescue needs a SpacePlane!



As for ejection capsules, that is no way to commit soldier.

I tried mechjebs auto docking last night, didn't work at all. Changes to my RCS configuration may help it though.

Edit: Yea covering more axis with RCS fixed it.

The DazMinmus 2 mission was a success. :D

If you count success as my shortsighted lander design meant the legs weren't long enough to reach down past the booster...
That and the semi-soft 7m/s landing which broke apart the lander but still let the my three little dudes get out and explore with jetpacks as soon as the capsule stopped rolling.

Kerbals are pretty robust, but they splat humorously like lemmings when the jetpack runs out of fuel and they hit the ground at 50m/s. A core focus of the DazMinmus 3 mission will be getting the little buggers back home again.

I didn't want to install Mechjeb in case it took the fun out of doing things myself, but I'm wasting too much fuel just getting into orbit that its making more ambitious missions more difficult than they need to be, so I think I'll be installing it tonight :p

http://vostok.smugmug.com/Other/Random/i-WXhmQZV/0/XL/266765_209425515770202_209419809104106_576304_2766750_o-XL.jpg

I didn't want to install Mechjeb in case it took the fun out of doing things myself,

Yeah, for that reason I was hesitant at first too but if just use it as a fast forward button for boring bits it's great.
Unless you absolutely f***ing love ascent stage, it's well recommended for that alone.

I didn't want to install Mechjeb in case it took the fun out of doing things myself, but I'm wasting too much fuel just getting into orbit that its making more ambitious missions more difficult than they need to be, so I think I'll be installing it tonight :p

It's good to have because it lets you know terminal velocity and drag. You don't have to use any of it's features except it's output if you wanted. It'll help for conserving fuel in launches as you don't want your burns to be higher than your terminal velocity otherwise you just waste fuel.

I don't suppose there's a MMO version where you can host a server and you can work with people to create a space team? Like one person works on the rover, the other on the rocket, and a third on building parts of modular space base or something?

I only watched the 30 minute video posted near the top of the thread and it seems like what i would think minecraft does well, combines multiplayer creativity, with something i care about.

(i didn't play minecraft because.. well i didn't understand why building land into different shaped land was cool :P)

I think i could actually be pretty proud of something i built in kerbal but would want to do it with others, you know communicate docking standards etc and getting together to test flight stuff and whatever.

My SSTO SpacePlane designs are have difficulties. I can build a Spaceplane that works fine up till about 20Km then it starts to have significant issues.
I've become quite good at recovering from a stall and spin. Although it takes about 8km of free fall to regain control sometimes. Many Kerbals died to that point... Many still do. Some on the run-way.

Click on the engines to get info on the thrust etc when you get to the point it's failing, pretty sure you will find its getting oxygen starved.

You prob need dual stage, with a booster rocket to get you out once air breathing engines are starved.

Yeah, for that reason I was hesitant at first too but if just use it as a fast forward button for boring bits it's great. Unless you absolutely f***ing love ascent stage, it's well recommended for that alone.

Yea it gets past the tedious stuff, so you get to the good stuff.

O my latest SpacePlane gets to 70Km then runs out of juice, about another 500m/s to get an orbit of about 80km. So close.

I can get my planes up to 1500m/s, however when I'm going that speed it is pretty much horizontal and I can't get any more vertical lift, even when I fire the rockets, perhaps 45* angle will be better.

So close, also it is a SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit) SpacePlane, I don't want to have any staging. Otherwise it would be pretty easy (comparatively) I would think.

There is no multiplayer planned at the moment for it, but they haven't ruled it out. It's just that it wasn't designed in the game in the first place so it'd be hard to implement. I would love some mp too Skythra.

I'm mapping Mun and Kerbal at the moment. I need to find a good guide or video to give me an idea of how to make a buggy and get it to space. And space stations too, I have nfi how to get them in space and put them together in space.

I finally build a SSTO SpacePlane. I get into orbit at 120km, with enough fuel left over for re-entry and landing, and just a little short of intercepting Mun. I'm trying to refine my design so it can make it to Mun and back without a refuel.

I decided to make myself a Mün buggy that could be delivered during a single mission and left behind when my Kerbal returns to Kerbin.

Worked really well on the Mün, not so good on my first trip to Minmus since there was hardly any gravity.

http://i.imgur.com/OHQO8xMl.jpg

I'm currently watching Scott Manley's 22 part reusable space program series where every single part either stays in space or gets parachuted back down to the planet. The guy is a machine, I'm so naming my first interplanetary base after him for his extensive helpful explanations.

Bump... How's everyone going?

KSP should come with a warning about how addictive it is. 43 hours sunk over the last two weeks and it's still awesome & I've hardly even scratched the surface.

The DazMinmus 1 mission made it to orbit but ended up too eccentric and not enough delta V to change it so I ended up deorbiting. Here's a dude bouncing around on the low grav surface after DazMinmus 2 the first semi-successful landing.
The DazMinmus 3 mission target was the same site mission 2 and lined up well, but the landing was still horrible. Slightly more successful though, the capsule landed the right way up that time at least.

http://i.imgur.com/psB41TN.png
http://i.imgur.com/G2I3HXT.jpg

After figuring out the basics of landing on Minmus, I gave Mun a shot wtih an experimental lander Mun X-1. Kinda worked, then instead of throttling up again to take off I popped the stage like an idiot. :/
http://i.imgur.com/NohGZTr.png

I got a feel for the difference in gravity to Minmus, so DazMun 1 was a success, but came within a whisker of spinning out crazy because I hadn't fully grokked the RCS controls yet. Also, it turns out those little spindly legs wobble on the surface like crazy.

http://i.imgur.com/BwqUZWQ.png

My first Mun & Minmus landers were tiny so I beefed them up for another and worked out how to control using RCS. Docking ports on the sides cos the idea was to build a base with a set of modules like these, but the spider legs made it stupidly hard to get the two together and dock, even after I extended the docking ports out in Mk2.

Mun (Mk1) - this screenshot is a little cheaty, the touchdown was within 10km so I moved DazMun 1 over so the crew could share some electricity at least :D
http://i.imgur.com/Ns7tjVR.png
Minmus (Mk2):
http://i.imgur.com/3HXQ1L5.png
http://i.imgur.com/MBBBtAi.png

Here's the latest construction, a refuelling station for later missions. Docking in space is tricky, gotta take it so slow. Docking the first fuel tank was ok (even though I didn't realise the backwards boosters cause the prograde/retrograde controls to reverse, lol). Slotting that second one in without bumping anything was a bastard though.

http://i.imgur.com/e2shMwI.png

MechJeb is great for listing delta V calculations but it freaks out trying to pilot my SS launch vehicles because something's unbalanced and causing it to spin slightly so all 6 ascents for the station were on manual. I don't mind doing ascents so much now that I have a better idea of getting into the orbit I want and I know how not to build stupid rockets.

Only one space station construction casualty... I went to clean up some debris from the space station orbit and miscalculated :/ He was some redshirt, not Bill, Bob or Jeb though so it's alright.
http://i.imgur.com/DdIChA0.png

Awesome :) I think this gamesim is awesome to watch but i like people's shorter versions haha. I'm already doing enough to barely even touch starcraft (once in 4 weeks :( ) so i am happier to catch up this way.

Everything for me was going fine, then all of a sudden I get massive FPS lag and can't save my game.

I was meeting my SSTO SpacePlane with my MunLander and it just bogs down all of a sudden and becomes unplayable :(

Well I figured out my issue. I just sped through a bunch of orbits, that cleared it.


I got my buggy/lander to Mun, landed it. Has a Kethane drill and converter on it. The plan was to mine some kethane, fill up the tanks and meet Bob in Orbit with spare fuel and send him back on his way.

Unfortunately Jeb was the driver of the buggy. He was fanging it around the moon and bounced a little and flipped it. I didn't have enough mono propellant to flip it back so now it is stuck upside down. Even further humilating for all Kerbal kind was that due to budget and complexity cuts during buggy design a mechanism to flip it over using rotators was cut.
MunBug 1 had it and it worked, MunBug 2 was designed to mine kethane and dropped the rotators in favour of kethane equipment.

To make matters worse, the Hatch of the MunBug 2 is blocked and jeb cant get out. He is stuck in there until help arrives. It will be a pretty odd operation, going to have to design something to flip the buggy back over, some sort of forklift.

So bottom line is, Jeb is stuck in his tincan, Bob is stuck in mun orbit without much fuel, he may make a dareing attempt to rescue Jeb by landing on the Mun and slowly pushing Jeb's MunBug 2 back over. It is a SpacePlane so it should be pretty easy to land....


Overall, Kerbal Central Command has rated the Mission a partial success, the only reason it wasn't a full success is because no Kethane was mined..

After dropping a few probes onto Duna & Eve, it is time for a manned mission to Duna.

In order to get there & back I have constructed a space station at a 605km orbit (high altitude to allow maximum time warping). The space station is an orbital construction/fuel depot.

My Duna lander was sent up in 3 stages: A large fuel tanker (to leave in orbit around duna for refueling), the lander itself, and a Duna buggy (an afterthought)

The lander will carry the buggy on it's top docking port, and the fuel tank in its bottom docking port, park in orbit around Duna, release the fuel tanker, and swap the buggy to the bottom docking port for it's landing configuration.


In this screenshot you can see my lander with the buggy attached at the top along with two orange fuel tankers. Parked on the port truss (red nav light) is an RCS refuelling tanker, and on the starboard truss (green nav light) is the crew transfer/escape module. (click for fullsize image in new window)

http://i.imgur.com/9x6v1xa.jpg

Nice,

However a perfect Manned Duna mission does require Jebediah kerman.

I haven't had time yet to send my rescue mission to get Jeb back. I imagine he is having a great time in his little overturned buggy listening to Queen Kerbtube.

I'm kicking myself now, because I thought of a way I could have flipped the buggy back over. If I had of turned off all the RCS ports except the ones distal to the COG on 1 side only, and perhaps only ignited 1 of 4 rockets I could have flipped it back over.

O well. Lessons learned for next time.

Agreed. Jeb, and 2 additional crew members are on the space station as well, sleeping in the hitchhiker compartment. The three kerbals in the screenshot are the space-station crew.

Nice one
Just planning a Duna mission now myself, and failing miserably on the launchpad... lol
Kudos to whoever achieves a Duna mission in a single rocket, that s*** looks tough.

Man, you guys have amazing stations. I just can't figure out how to make them and get them all attached to each other. Or how to get rovers in to space.

The station construction is relatively straight forward, each piece gets delivered separately and assembled in space. It was the figuring out orbital rendezvous part that was the tricky bit - docking is pretty much a special case of rendezvous.

I tend to do it in staging mode (i.e. without going into docking mode) although that's probably doing it the hard way. I also usually have my RCS annoyingly unbalanced, in theory hitting IJKL with RCS enabled is supposed to translate you 100% left/right/up/down but I always bugger up the RCS port placement and have them at odd distances from the centre of mass so I always end up rotating a little (or a lot).

I don't know if this is necessary for the docking magnets to kick in, but right clicking on the docking port on my craft and selecting 'Control From Here', then right clicking on the other docking port and selecting 'Set as Target' helps with lining up the right markers.

One discovery that also helped me is that you can use WASD in the vehicle assembly building to rotate parts until they're connected/in the right orientation and balanced on the top of the delivery rocket. That works with fitting individual parts and for the whole payload if you have the command pod selected.

It'd be the same for a rover, you can build the rover flat to test it out on Kerbin then when you're happy, rotate it & toss a docking port on one end or at the top, and connect it to a delivery stage, then connect that to a rocket (if it wobbles you must strut it, strut it good). Also, docking ports apparently have better compressive strength than shear strength so they work better on the ends of rockets than on the side.

Adapted one of Robbaz's crazy designs to make a rocket for a one-way trip to Eve:
http://i.imgur.com/oszZ20J.jpg

Was ambitiously trying to land it on it's engines; of course it flipped over backwards and now my little green guy is stuck in there, unable to open the canopy :/

One discovery that also helped me is that you can use WASD in the vehicle assembly building to rotate parts until they're connected/in the right orientation and balanced on the top of the delivery rocket. That works with fitting individual parts and for the whole payload if you have the command pod selected.

Ready to have your mind blown?

If you hold SHIFT with WASD it will rotate the parts in much smaller increments..

Ahh yep, that too. Though so far I've only used shift-WASD to do aesthetic stuff like change the angle of the satellite dish & lights on my lander. :D

Edit: Oh, and in the screenshots I flared out the legs on my second lander a little bit by rotating them inward. Made touchdown 10x easier when the base was wider!

It is particularly useful for when building Space planes, to put the wings at slightly elevated angles of attack, or placing landing wheel in the just the right orientation., o and for .. well I use it a lot. Although I build mostly space planes.

I have a simple lifter design that has 1 asparagus stage, then 3 separation stages that delivers 3/4 full orange fuel tank to orbit. I use that to hitch rides on when I want to send something to a 140,000m orbit. My Mun Buggy that is still trapped on Mun used that and my current Spaceplane design to get to Mun.

So much awesome stuff in this thread, frustrating tho because I can barely fly the f***ing things, too much crawling before walking for me :(

Sorry for the long post but I thought my manned trip to Duna was worth documenting.

Original launch:
http://i.imgur.com/sifszdRl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/INDe6MGl.jpg

Docking with space station:
http://i.imgur.com/QRvnM8Pl.jpg

All parts delivered:
http://i.imgur.com/zOgJh1jl.jpg

Undocked from space station for final construction:
http://i.imgur.com/8SNA9Bul.jpg

Docking the fuel tanker:
http://i.imgur.com/65GorYgl.png

Buzzing the tower:
http://i.imgur.com/u2Udl9wl.jpg

Powering off to intercept Duna. All the docking/undocking messed up my stages, luckily I programmed the essential stuff into action groups:
http://i.imgur.com/r0zVfHTl.jpg

Intercept:
http://i.imgur.com/ntzzrnZl.png
http://i.imgur.com/ilfEm7ql.jpg

Fuel tanker empty, so time to ditch it (I was hoping it would last longer):
http://i.imgur.com/CwESIgMl.jpg

Swap Duna buggy from top to bottom for landing configuration:
http://i.imgur.com/XLzLlgwl.jpg

Getting close:
http://i.imgur.com/c1UhAbNl.jpg

Deciding on a landing spot:
http://i.imgur.com/u6etsill.jpg

Entering the atmosphere:
http://i.imgur.com/S7DA0dXl.jpg

Chutes deployed:
http://i.imgur.com/SyOewr5l.jpg

Chutes opened (not shown is the massive braking burn needed to slow down enough to allow the chutes to open without tearing the ship apart)
Atmosphere is too thin, even with 9 parachutes, I still need to feather the engines so I don't break a landing leg:
http://i.imgur.com/97ERGTcl.jpg

Success!
http://i.imgur.com/pMQKZuZl.jpg

Undocking the Duna buggy:
http://i.imgur.com/N5vpAqAl.jpg

About to take the first Kerbal steps on Duna:
http://i.imgur.com/BU7TWJRl.jpg

Jebediah Kermin, the first Kerbal on Duna:
http://i.imgur.com/xPvZJxxl.jpg

Group Shot:
http://i.imgur.com/ohbXe7hl.jpg

Going for a ride:
http://i.imgur.com/WIMfKLel.jpg

While I'm here I want to try landing in a different spot on Duna and also land on Duna's moon. I'll have to fly another big orange tank and park it in orbit so I can refuel and complete the mission.

That is awesome Furgle, I can just imagine the last shot there with the dude in the buggy fanging it on the surface. :D

Wow, were you using any mods? I got no idea how to use space stations and refueling stations.

I am just finally getting stuff into space and able to orbit.

Aviation lights so I can tell which side of my ship is which for steering during docking

Mechjeb to automate the more mundane tasks (everything I get it to do I must master manually first)

KSPX for some extra non-cheaty stock-style parts

Crew manifest for transferring crew between docked vessels

i cant barely get my ship into a stable orbit - anyone got any good rocket builds?

Konstie.

The best advice is to keep it simple.

For a rocket that will get you to a Low Kerbal Orbit (LKO), around 100km up. Something like the following will work.


Docking Port.
Command Module.
Monopropellant.
ASAS.
720 fuel thing.
200 power engine.
separator.
Big Orange fuel tank.
Smaller 720 fuel tank of same diameter.
Mainsail Engine.

Pepper it with RCS control ports.

You will need to use struts to 'stitch' together the Big Orange fuel tank and the smaller fuel tank. The reason for the 2nd fuel tank is to greatly reduce the heat buildup of the mainsail, it wont overheat.

That should get you to orbit.

Fire up the main engine on launch and let her rip. For better efficiency you don't want to exceed your current terminal velocity for the altitude. Using MechJeb's accidence guide is really useful, as is the 'surface info'

The main engine will come close to getting you to your orbital height, the 2nd stage will do your gravity burn and put you into orbit.

You want your orbit heading in an easterly direction, otherwise you waste fuel counteracting the velocity given to you by Kerbal.

You need roughly 3500-4000 dV to get into LKO.


If you want to put a decent size payload into orbit, attach 4 orange tanks radially to your main orange tank, add the extra fuel like before and add mainsails to each stack. To really get the benifit of this setup you need to do what is called Asparagus Staging it looks complicated but is actually quite simple with the above setup.

I use that as my fuel tanker lifer, I get into LKO with most of the middle orange tank full. Or I chuck a chunky payload on it and easily get it into orbit.

konstie, use Asparagus staging: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Asparagus_Staging

Edit: Doh, beaten by Toll :D
Watching the MechJeb ascent module with a stock rocket is really helpful
When you're doing ascent yourself, the MechJeb vessel information screen is invaluable, it gives you delta V and Thrust to Weight ratios for each rocket stage. Like Toll said, you should budget 4k+ delta V and TWR of at least 1.5 to get anywhere in decent amount of time (TWR 2.0+ is better, at 1.0 your thrust is only enough to counteract gravity).
Stay under 200m/s until you're out of the thicker atmosphere. Plan for a gravity turn around 8-10km or so, and burn until you can see your apoapsis height in the map screen (or MechJeb 'Orbital information' popup) reach the desired orbit, cut throttle and coast until you reach the apoapsis then burn again (prograde direction) to circularize.


My mission to Duna was an abject failure. It has plenty of fuel but I can't even get the thing to Mun.

I got the delivery vehicle into orbit fine, rendezvous with the station (so much lag!), fuelled up, separated the mainsail engine and docked the lander vehicle onto where the mainsail was and was ready to go... but then I realised I'd forgot to strut the command pod on the other end of the double orange fuel tanks. The three nuclear engines now aren't attached correctly so can't go past half throttle without them wobbling and snapping off. :( Even at full throttle the required Duna burn appears too long for the window it needs to be done in.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Haha, my Mun Rescue mission was a spectacular failure too.

The rescue crane has a motorized hook (thanks damned robotics mod), 4 small white liquid engines and a 1 nuclear engine, the 4 engines are for VTOL and the nuke engine for intersolar travel. I launched it and got to Mun no worroes, in fact the nuke engine was more efficient then I thought, so had plenty of fuel for a landing. Everything was going well, my planned landing was pretty spot on. Got to the last 2000m of height doing about 100m/s so I flipped the Nuke engine off, kicked the lander 90deg and fired up the liquid engines and a medium burn.

This was completed around 1500ms from the surface. This is when I learned a lesson. The Mun is not flat and my landing zone was 1100 meters above the 'surface', so fired up the rockets to full and cringed as Bob plummeted into Mun at 70m/s.

Good news, Bob does not need Rescuing. Jeb is still waiting.

Bahaha, yeah I remember learning that lesson early on.
I'd landed on Minmus first, in the really low flat icy area ("sea level") and KSC is effectively at sea level also so the altimeter lulled me into a false sense of security and I made the assumption it'd be the same everywhere.
There was a surprise waiting on Mun when my landing calculations had a 2km discrepancy...

God damn it, now I have another Kerbal to rescue.

I landed on the mun, missed my target by a few KM's and didn't really have the fuel to use my crane engines to shift over there.

I did manage to extend my claw to tilt my ship a little on an angle and fire my nuke engine and start and I could use the claw as a skid. Worked pretty well.

Until I got cocky and went too fast and it flipped, engines exploded. The capsule survived the destruction and now I have 2 kerbals to save.
On the plus side I'm getting better at landings, I think the next one will be pretty accurate.

The next rescue mission will be scaled up. With a rescue lander, buggy and plenty of fuel. The orbiter will also need plenty of fuel....

holy f*** this game looks sweet, can't believe I haven't been watching this thread :(

cheers toll, dazhel - worked a treat!

got a lander to the mun, the game said I had >1000m until I hit ground, and then i exploded on the mun. frustration!!!!!

but fun flying there, so i'm not complaining to do it again!

Anyone else watched StompThompson's videos? I've leant a lot from his earlier vids - basic stuff that a lot of the newer vids assume you already know.



Was failing miserably at docking before I watched his earlier stuff where he explained all the various symbols on the nav ball.

Yeah, half the fun is watching the youtube stuff on KSP, that ISS replica is great.

So I managed to fire off a couple of unmanned probes, one landed on Duna and the other in orbit around Laythe.
I think I need to meditate more on rocket design to get a manned mission there and back again though, wow.

Something hasn't sat right with me since the start of my game though.
What do you do with a off-world base in a neighbourhood full of junk? Move it!

Delivering the first buggy:
- Delivery stage
- De-orbit imminent

I would not recommend this configuration, getting the buggy down was a PITA involving a tiny burst of thrust from the lander, then a crazy separation and RCS juggle. Also the small wheel base is to get it high for the docking port so in the low grav it handles like a 6 metre tall Toyota Tarago:
- Landed!
- Start your engines
- Docking

The first lander had a small probe to control it after separation and plenty of fuel but stupidly no solar panels or docking ports, so there was only one thing left to do before the charge ran out.
I highly recommend smashing a ~40 part vehicle into Minmus at 2,000m/s:
- Boom!

Delivering the second buggy at dawn:
- Landed! (again)
- Getting good at kicking these things off
- Lights on
- Docking
- Second attachment

The second lander has solar panels, plenty of fuel and a docking port so it's more useful to me:
- Bring it over

The moment of truth arrives:
- Legs down
- Legs up! Sweet.
- Now for the fuel

Will it bend? That is the question:
- Legs down
- Straining hard!

Alright, let's roll:
- Bye bye junk
- 9m/s top speed
- (Elevator music)

The final kit was surprisingly stable, the ice was slippery but the flat surface was forgiving.
The only minor incline caused it to bounce like a bendy bus.
Infinity Base, in the new digs.

Dazhel, Quantum Struts is your friend.

:D

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/30553-KSP-0-20-Released

Woot, When I get home I'm gunna do what everyone else. strap a chair to a Solid Booster and set it alight...

I've read it pretty much breaks every mod. I may restart from vanilla though.

What's the deal like though, does KSP automatically update or can you keep playing 0.19.whatever until you feel like updating
(i.e. until mods have time to catch up)

You can continue to play 19.whatever until you upgrade. You can turn off automatic updating, if it is a steam version turn it off there too.

By most accounts the game runs significantly smoother, even for higher part counts. Most mods are broken but fixable if you want to take the time altering the parts files slightly.

Otherwise I expect the major mods to have a new version out within a few days.

MechJeb still works apparently. I hope quantum struts work too, I've got a few ships that kinda need it ...

Can't wait to make a super light weight buggy. It should be possible to launch from mun into Mun orbit with RCS thrusters and a tiny buggy...

http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/BEdvR8qqRIQ/mqdefault.jpg

do u need a mod pack to build a satellite like this?

Yup, U think. The two rings don't look stock.

Is it possible to build warp drives and that later on? Can you discover alien life?

No, there may be a mod for it. No other alien life.

The game is about building rockets and spaceplanes and all manner of contraptions and sending them other celestial bodies. Just doing that there is plenty to do.

The game will have resource gathering/mining, and an campaign mode with economy and research tree's.

The rings are just structural fuselage. I don't see any modded parts.

O, that they are.

Well, at least now that monster Space Station won't run like laggy poo.

how do you make it a ring though!? it's tripping me out. :)

Shift + WASD makes different angles

HOLY s*** YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND

Shift + WASD makes different angles

Why does everyone forget Q and E?

I hope they make connecting parts up a little easier eventually... Even when you have a symmetrical group of parts that should just click into place, trying to juggle the weird angles and make them green is a little more annoying than it should be IMO.

The ability to develop and research better and more advanced space exploration would be amazing.

The hunt for alien life is an intergral part of space exploration.. I think it would be awesome as a mission you receive some response from the SETI program and have to build a spaceship good enough to travel light years away.

Perhaps I'm thinking too much along the lines of that game where you start as an organism and slowly evolve up to space travel.

Apparently people have reported things connect easier..

Ahh sweet, ta Toll.

Single Stage to Orbit, not an easy thing to do. So many fails on my part. Definitely have to try this:

During my early SSTO attempts, I didn't realise that I needed to shut down my jet engines (via action groups). They'd flame out due to lack of air and cause my craft to spin out of control (with unfortunate results).

... and cause my craft to spin out of control (with unfortunate results).

Spinning, yes, very familiar with that!

If you can manage it, the best way is to have a single jet engine (the big one) in your vehicles center. Then you can leave it on much longer, as when it starts flaming it out, it wont send you into a spin.

So when you bust your rocket engines on, you get more air rammed into your intake and it keeps your jet engine burning a little longer. That little extra proves to be highly useful getting to orbit.

I've got a few SSTO space planes that can make orbit now. If you need any tips, just ask. It took me ages to make one that got to Orbit with enough fuel left over to do stuff.

I've taken a different route. I'm building a SSTO rocket. In that configuration, hitting the rockets doesn't improve airflow (not fast enough vertically).
Can't do much with my current craft except get into low Kerbin orbit and then deorbit. And I can't land yet as trying to land a rocket with jet engines is kinda hard.

Using 1 central aero spike engine + 4 radial jet engines. Had to cheat a little by stacking the ram air intakes (allow part clipping via debug panel).

Woot! My first successful mission to Mun, and my return landing was a thing of beauty. 10km from base!

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6678/firstmoonmissionreturn.jpg

That said, I did crash land on Mun about 5 times before getting it right! Thank goodness for quick load.

Nice aim, next up a Duna landing or STTO Spaceplane!

I think I want to try come up with some fancy landing craft that makes landings more like a rolling landing... not sure how just yet. I'm not thinking full space plane, more like a rover but with rockets pointing down for thrust. Probably will result in a Top Gear rating of "ambitious but rubbish".

That sounds like an awesome idea. I don't think there's any stock parts that won't explode in that sort of scenario, but possibly there's a mod out there with airbags or something

Going to try use only stock parts. Failure is always an option.

I'm done with Duna for now, after sending a mission capable of return after multiple landings and take-offs on Duna & Ike. (Space-station, lander + rover).

Next up, Eve. From the probes I've sent, I know it has high gravity and a thick atmosphere. Any lander I send will not get back out of the atmosphere. I figure I'll use the thick atmosphere to my advantage and use a space-plane for a lander (maybe with a vertical parachute descent).

I played around with spaceplanes all day yesterday. Holy crap it's hard to make a useful stable plane that can make it into space and still have enough juice left over for anything useful. There's so much to this game!

I'll have to check this out, looks cool.

KSP is 33% off on Steam this weekend (USD15.40)

Having fun with ISA MapSat at the moment, I don't know why I didn't put it on sooner. :)
I have no idea how you're supposed to find the easter egg stuff on the moon without plugins, some stuff is stupidly hard to find even if you have the exact co-ordinates of where they're supposed to be.

Hahaahah! Loved that vid Mantorok

I knew I shouldn't have sent Jeb & Bill to Eve, they're stuck there for now. Apparently jet engines don't work on Eve :/

Now I somehow need to land a fully fueled super-rocket with 13000+ Δv next to them for a rescue mission.

I did it! It wasn't easy, and took me hundreds of hours, but I managed to rescue Jeb & Bill from Eve.

Problem:
I sent Jeb & Bill to Eve in a spaceplace, without realizing jet engines don't work in Eve's atmosphere.

http://i.imgur.com/s0tsmDal.jpg

It can't be too comfortable living in a cockpit, so here's a habitation module, and some refuelling trucks for the coming rescue mission

http://i.imgur.com/KqZ2TZGl.jpg

After numerous failed attempts at rescuing from sea level, a new rocket powered plane is required to move 300km to a higher plateau

http://i.imgur.com/hzI6gXXl.jpg

Almost there

http://i.imgur.com/vbDpjnql.jpg

Docking & refuelling with transfer tug

http://i.imgur.com/FP1l6bal.jpg

Here is the ultimate rescue rocket attached to it's own portable landing/launchpad & to another space tug, I expect this to be able to lauch from 4km above Eve's sea level and make it into orbit.

http://i.imgur.com/IOtp9sPl.jpg

Arriving at Eve

http://i.imgur.com/Xvzt4WWl.jpg

Down we go

http://i.imgur.com/3LJv1cJl.jpg

Climbing on board

http://i.imgur.com/Jr7ZYH0l.jpg

On our way to a higher area of Eve

http://i.imgur.com/BiT7FM7l.jpg

Another surface fuel tanker arriving at Eve to transfer fuel to the rescue ship on the surface.

http://i.imgur.com/iu8EJ9kl.jpg

Coming in for a perfect landing

http://i.imgur.com/sSxIiSll.jpg

Awaiting the rescue ship

http://i.imgur.com/sC31uEzl.jpg

Down we come, feathering the rockets to stop the chutes ripping the ship apart

http://i.imgur.com/QhDreEfl.jpg

Touchdown

http://i.imgur.com/e8r9biZl.jpg

Driving the refuelling truck to the launchpad

http://i.imgur.com/vctaCLol.jpg

Refeulling (thanks KAS!)

http://i.imgur.com/m94cKUIl.jpg

It's a long way up

http://i.imgur.com/wTvuFGkl.jpg

Seated and awaiting launch!

http://i.imgur.com/VUwDPByl.jpg

Jettison parachutes to remove weight

http://i.imgur.com/7Lsd119l.jpg

Launch! Don't forget to detach the launchpad!

http://i.imgur.com/Inn54cHl.jpg

Staging

http://i.imgur.com/BC38p6gl.jpg

Staging

http://i.imgur.com/qJnI16Cl.jpg

Staging

http://i.imgur.com/keFrbFzl.jpg

Final stage

http://i.imgur.com/SU0SCwOl.jpg

Made it!

http://i.imgur.com/uyko1Jwsl.jpg

Transfer vessel arrives piloted by Seerod Kermin, (constructed from the remnants of an earlier failed attempt)

http://i.imgur.com/xD2FNw0l.jpg

Lets go home!

http://i.imgur.com/OCmgeYpl.jpg

Remains of the launchpad on the surface

http://i.imgur.com/DcPoDCal.jpg

Homeward bound

http://i.imgur.com/rvPIOSnl.jpg

All Kerbals accounted for!

http://i.imgur.com/5IUWK0wl.jpg

whoa, that's impressive.

Can you share all of your designs? i want to tinker with them :)

Bravo, well done sir!

Holy crap, that's excellent work.

holy crap how did you manage all that furgle? all ive managed to do was launch a couple of rockets out of kerbals orbit and thats when i found out i can use mech_jeb to help me stabilise flights :(

Well done. Did that rescue ship lag your PC out? How many parts? I find that that around 300 parts on a ship lags pretty bad.

Wow!

Lagged like a bitch. For some parts it was so bad I had no choice but to let mechjeb do its thing while I left the computer to do other things. 20 minute burns when time runs at 1/3 speed are not all that captivating.

Most of the lag was travelling to Eve with the big ship. Once I dropped the launch pad on eve, the lag stopped.

Hadn't heard of KAS, this it? Kerbal Attachment System v0.3.1 I haven't installed any mods yet.

I have been thinking about building a large ship in orbit but need a way to connect fuel tanks together after construction (docking), this might be just the thing I need?

I've put my Kerbaling on hold waiting for them to go a bit further with developing, mailing waiting on the resources stuff and further optimisations.
There are a class of mods being developed called 'procedural' (procedural wings, Procedural fairings) These can allow you to build bigger spacecraft without increasing part numbers. An example, instead of attached 5 wing pieces together to make a large wingspan, you put this part on and 'extend' it to the length you want, using only 1 part.

Space Planes are win.

O and also I'm hoping they will revamp the aerodynamics soon, I partly want to use the FAR mod for better aerodynamics and partly want to wait until it or something similar is integrated in to Kerbal Space Program properly.

Yeah, I saw a youtube vid with the procedural wings, looks great. I hate trying to cobble together the wing shape I want from random bits of standard parts than then become weak points.

Right now I'm concentrating on creating a massive space station with an insane amount of fuel just for the hell of it. Many orange tanks. :)

Bumping thread, because one of the old regular youtube guys (StompThompson) has turned up with a new channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZQ4B7h_8Y4

I got all the way to Jool today, tried to aero-brake in its atmosphere and overdid it:
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1452/l7px.jpg

Hit F9 for quickload and the game crashed. :( So, will be starting all over.

Furgle are you the guy that did the SSTO video? that is frackin' rad.

I have no idea if what's been posted in this thread is impressive, but the responses seem to indicate it is. This game has me curious. Is it a massive time-sink like Civ5 though?

It is a single player game, spend as much as you like or as little.

The problem is, you'll want to spend much ;)


It does come down to the person though. If you are the type of person who loves to learn 'stuff' there is a self-adjusting learning curve for this game. You can learn a couple of basics and just muck around knowing that for a while and build up some more knowledge and much around and so forth.

Or you can focus on a particular goal, like getting to orbit, then intensively learn everything you need to do that. Both are quite satisfying and you'll find yourself swapping from one to the other.

In the end, a time sink ;D

Yeah, put it this way:
I'm quite happy to sink 100 or so hours into [Insert Bethesda RPG Here] but at the end of it I often look back and go "wow that was a big slog". With Kerbal Space Program last I looked I've put in 150+ hrs, still haven't done all the things I want to accomplish but I've had so much of a blast that I have no idea where the time went.

Agreed. Right now my current project is to get my recently designed rover onto various moons and planets and drive around on them. I made it to Jool's moon "Vall" and landed but am out of fuel for my ship, so I'll get to drive around but will then have to come up with a rescue ship to get the 3 Kerbals back home. Totally unplanned for, but that's going to kill 10 hours at least, lol. I could always just strand them there, but that seems a bit harsh. :)

Whelp, went and put down my 25 clams for KSP.
...

Ah s***, now I remember why I'm single.

>/kspg/'s mod list & FAQ
>READ BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS
http://pastebin.com/ZY24TZqS

>Changelogs
http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Version_History
>Game site
http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/
KSP also on Steam.
>Latest news (weekly)
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content.php
>KSP mods and extra parts (warning – contains autism and kids submitting their vanilla ships as mods)
http://kerbalspaceport.com/
>Dev stream
twitch.tv/ksptv

>Flags
http://imgur.com/a/h8yAe#0

>/kspg/ approved rendezvous and docking tutorial
http://imgur.com/DbXanP7
>Aerobraking calculator
http://alterbaron.github.io/ksp_aerocalc/

>Wiki
http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Version_History
>Official forums
http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/forum.php
>Planned features
http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Planned_features

>Hotkeys for operating your spacecraft that are never mentioned anywhere else
http://pastebin.com/vLmE1QbY

I installed FAR mod last night. It makes it both harder and easier.

It adds much more realistic aerodynamics to the game instead of the basic placeholder that is in Stock.

In Stock, you don't have to worry about the shape of your vehicle for instance. Drag is calculated based on an arbitrary 'drag' value on each part and modulated by the parts weight. There are 3 or 4 different atmosphere densities which are used to calculate all the aerodynamic stuff.
It basically means that using Nose-Cones actually hinders your craft, by adding both weight and drag for no benefit other than appearance. It also makes unrealistic rockets preferable, so big, short WIDE rockets are better than tall, skinny rockets.

With FAR, things are much different. It calculates drag/lift and other aerodynamic features based on the surface area of a part and other factors such as angle of attack. So aerodynamic nose-cones and fairings make a BIG difference.


It makes designing a aerodynamic vehicle a bit harder, however when you get it right, it can take less fuel to reach orbit.

Highly, highly recommended.

Thanks Phooks, some info there I didn't know about! Most relevant right now is docking mode while driving rovers! That'll make life easier!

people should upload their ship designs for me to leech.

i'm looking at you Furgle

What can I say, I'm selfish :P

Anyways, most of my stuff was lost with the 0.21 update, and anything left over doesn't work because of the way they changed ASAS, reaction wheels, etc.

I'm currently having heaps of fun playing around with the Infernal Robotics & Kerbal Attachment System mods, building cranes, planes that can do parachute cargo drops, tow-trucks, etc.

Also playing with the Keythane mod, setting up a mining outpost on Minmus.

The crane was particularly fun, since I had to use that to lift my trucks designed in the SPH onto the top of my rockets designed in the VAB, since my Subassembly Loader mod wasn't working at the time.

I'll get around to posting some screenshots sometime.

Built a few basic rockets last night to get to learning (without RTFM), but I could see they were quickly becoming more difficult to keep stable as they got bigger. Haven't managed to keep a rocket stable enough to put a Kerbol in orbit yet.

The biggest problem I'm having is connecting fuel hoses (they seem to not attach to everything at certain points, so you need to know what they can attach to), and recognising what parts are once they're added. It would be nice if when you hover over a component it told you what it was (better yet, all the details of it like you get when you pick it to put on).

I also had a lot of un-explainable problems with rockets firing but no lift being generated, and trying to actually group rockets so they're represented together not independently - and, occasionally, stage rockets firing before other bits broke off ;D

For basic rockets you shouldn't need fuel lines.

Also, use struts.

Post pics of your rockets.

For basic rockets you shouldn't need fuel lines.

I tend to overcomplicate things.

I'll get shots when I get home, but:

The most basic rocket I built was a 'simple' three-stage pillar rocket with a mix of solid/liquid fuels and boosters, and flaps. This took my guy to about 40,000m comfortably, although at 30,000m on the way back down I realised a parachute had been overlooked.

I then went outwards rather than upwards - a main fuselage below the command capsule and stabiliser, surrounded with three symmetrical fuel liquid each with a booster on their base. Each of these tanks had a vertical decoupler.
Then, attached to each of those was one of those massive liquid fuel tanks - again each with a decoupler, and a large rocket on the base of each. I very quickly realised these were trying to tear themselves apart, so added struts to stabilise. Each vertical fuel tank also had a nose cone.

Unfortunately this was incredibly unstable, and favoured acting like a falling penny rather than a rocket. Adding wings with flaps helped a little, but still required an insane amount of manual correction just to maintain the will to fly in a direction resembling 'up'.

I was able to get this to about a 700m/s launch by the first stage had depleted its fuel, and that's when it all went horribly, horribly wrong... and evidently I need to learn more about how you specify separation and rocket burn.

last edited by Raven at 12:02:31 21/Aug/13

last edited by Raven at 12:03:06 21/Aug/13

I also had a lot of un-explainable problems with rockets firing but no lift being generated

Possibly too much fuel/engine not big enough - engine thrust rating here.
When your thrust to weight ratio is < 1.0 engines can be firing at 100% throttle and you'll sit on the pad going nowhere until enough fuel burns up that the TWR reaches > 1.0 (or the rocket topples over, whichever happens first).

Scott Manley's youtube series on KSP is really helpful, for beginners "KSP 101" is one that you might get the most out of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgPr4q5tj-Q

Ah, having that detail on the total weight of the vehicle is certainly useful to know. While I know those details are listed on the components you'd have to basically write them down to figure out the total weight and thrust.

I think what probably happened there is I accidentally removed the engines, it wouldn't let me re-attach them, so I had to re-jig things and very likely put different, smaller rockets back on by accident.

Is there a way to show the total weight/thrust at each stage and for each engine group?

Raven, do yourself a favour and get the MechJeb mod.

You don't have to use its many, highly useful functions. There is a part, in the control tab, Mechjeb, looks like a radio. Attach that anywhere to your ship.
On the right hand side of your screen a mechjeb window will appear. Click the delta-v info button. This will give you all the info you need.
You current delta-v, for each stage, and the thrust to weight ratio.

Basically at ground level you need a ratio of >1 to get any lift, as you get higher that can go down.

I wont tell you how much delta-v you need to reach orbit.

Now for rocket stability you have to keep in mind that each part you add will want to wobble a little bit, the longer the part the more that wobble will become apparent.

Attaching two of those big orange tanks together will wobble a fair bit for instance.

Each engine has different stats, 1 important one is Thrust vectoring. This allows the engine to have some control over the direction you are going. I highly recommend using engines with thrust vectoring.

All control pods have SAS, when you are on the launch screen hit 't' that will enable SAS, this will greatly help maintain your vector. You can still move with it on, however it will attempt to hold the vector you are on without your input, it is limited to the crafts ability to control its direction though.

If you are having trouble with fuel tanks wobbling too much, then you can stitch them together with 2-4 struts. Attach one end to the upper tank and one end to the lower tank. That will help HEAPS.

Nose cones in Stock are useless, they add weight and drag and only give you appearance.


I just recently started a new.

I've installed these mods:

Kethane
FAR
MechJeb <3 <--- honestly probably wouldn't bother playing without it
Procedural Fairings
Procedural Wings
Procedural Tanks

Part of the reason you want Procedural mods is that each part decreases your performance, eventually you get a 300 part ship and it can get a bit choppy. By using procedural tanks for instance you can have 1 tank doing the job of 4 tanks, all balanced to be consistent with fuel/weight as stock.

Will install for next play:

Infernal Robotics
Kerbal Attachment System
Maybe some more parts



My first mission was building a SSTO Spaceplane to test FAR, after a few failed attempts I built a simple SSTO spaceplane that made it to orbit nicely.

2nd mission was to send up a basic rocket and paylod, payload was a 3 manned cockpit, bit of fuel, engine and a kethane detector. I then put it on a 60' incline orbit and mapped out the Kethane deposits on Kerbal. Massively overshot my landing target, but everyone survived.

My next mission is going to be a Large Plane with attached Kethane Miner, to mine some Kethane on Kerbal, as I haven't done it before and not sure how it works.

Also, if you're new and haven't done the tutorial missions, do them. They were the biggest factor in my learning the game and everything else was built on top of that.

pfft Tutorials are so unKerbal.

I haven't done any of them haha. You learn by flinging rockets. That is what Jeb would do.

I wont tell you how much delta-v you need to reach orbit.

I assume you're talking about a random orbit, because achieving geostationary or geosynchronous orbit would take a bitch of an amount of fuel to get right.

...
Well s***, I just took this comment as a challenge and went and calculated the geostationary orbit and orbital speed, amongst a few other parameters, based on Earth, Mars and Kerbin.

I should do some work.

Also, below 12,000 (thickest part of the atmosphere), stay below 200m/s, otherwise you're pushing up against the air too much and just wasting fuel. Begin a slow gravity turn towards 90 degrees (to benefit from the rotation of the planet). Maybe 15 degrees off vertical, and then at 25,000 go to around 45 degrees.

Here's a recent tutorial video (so using the latest version of the game) by Scott Manley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmAMGJm-bwU He provides great detail on how to get to orbit efficiently. Definitely watch it.

Start the grav burn at 5km and gradually move it to 90 at your orbital height, that is if your craft can handle it.

Pushing past terminal velocity does cost more fuel than it is worth. Mechjeb helps will ALL of that ;D

O also a must have mod:

Subassembly Manager

It allows you to save chunks of craft to reuse, instead of rebuilding it.

For example your standard heavy lifter can be saved. You design your new payload and load the heavy lifter subassembly and save yourself heaps of time.

Subassembly Manager

Or wait... the team has said it's coming in next version. But yes, it is very handy.

So I built a large cargo plane to transport a Kethane miner across the planet. Then I got distracted:



http://i.imgur.com/2YNT0lS.jpg

Does it fly?
Why yes:

http://i.imgur.com/9LIdwr1.jpg

And does it!

http://i.imgur.com/3QtmdqV.jpg

The Zipper Mk 1 and my Crane Truck Prototype: (ps, the brave Kerbal who tested it, is no more)

http://i.imgur.com/b1jG1a0.jpg

Behold! The SSTO Space plane. It does reach a 100km orbit and land.

http://i.imgur.com/xcytxnG.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ME1VPph.jpg

Nice! I haven't installed the Kethane stuff. But am getting tempted because, while getting to planets and driving around is fun, it does seem a bit like "okay, I'm here, now what?" at times.

Yep this is the path I took, built a small rocket got it up and parachuted down, then worked from that model to make it bigger and faster to get into orbit.

I got it. Man, it's so hard getting things in to orbit. I think I need to look at some more indepth design tutorials. It's a lot of fun. At the moment I'm just trying to send probes in to get the hang of sending things in to orbit.

Behold! The SSTO Space plane. It does reach a 100km orbit and land. شركات نقل العفش


http://i.imgur.com/xcytxnG.jpgشركات تغليف ونقل الاثاث بالرياض شركة تنظيف بيوت تنظيف بيوت تنظيف المسابح بالرياض شركة تنظيف واجهات زجاج وحجر بالرياض مكافحة حشرات نقل اثاث تسليك مجارى على مودك نقل اثاث بالدمام شركات سياحية نقل اثاث بمكة نقل اثاث بجدة نقل اثاث بالمدينة المنورة نقل اثاث بالرياض نقل اثاث بالخبر شركات مكافحة الحشرات بالرياض كشف تسرب المياه والغاز بالرياض مكافحة حشرات بمكة مكافحة حشرات بالدمام مكافحة حشرات بالمدينة المنورة مكافحة حشرات بجدة مكافحة حشرات بالخبر شركة تنظيف شقق بالرياض شركة كشف تسربات المياه بالرياض  شركة تسليك مجارى بالرياض شركة تنظيف واجهات زجاج بالرياض شركة عزل خزانات بالرياض شركة تنظيف مسابح بالرياض شركة تنظيف مجالس بالرياض تخزين اثاث الطب البديل الجن الطاقة الشيطان الرقية Personal Branding شركة تنظيف خزانات تنظيف خزانات ابواب وشبابيك شركات سياحة رحلات تركيا رحلات الى تركيا السياحة فى تركيا رحلات تركيا من مصر شركة جلي بلاط شركة تنظيف فلل بالرياض
alt="link" />http://i.imgur.com/ME1VPph.jpg

Nice! I haven't installed the Kethane stuff. But am getting tempted because, while getting to planets and driving around is fun, it does seem a bit like "okay, I'm here, now what?" at times.

^^ what?

If ever there was a post needing to be nuked, it's that one. Link spam anyone?

You guys are f***ing crazy. Im still struggling to get my rocket a decent distance into the sky. Havent even got the two stage thing to work yet.

My first crane, seemed like a good idea at the time, until I started using subassembly manager.

http://i.imgur.com/2GxGKWGl.jpg

My heavy lift cargo plane. Can take off with a truck with full orange tank of fuel. Since the trucks are too big to drive up the rear cargo ramp, I inverted the cargo bay doors and elevated the front of the plane so they can drive in underneath and use cranes to winch into the belly.

http://i.imgur.com/SyIYTzMl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1vKb1atl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZQbUjaPl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cIVQgoGl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7oWNoG5l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Nt7nsidl.png

Circling around to make sure the cargo drop went as planned

http://i.imgur.com/jTtwtpll.jpg

A little buggy I can air drop to help with jacking up heavy trucks to fix a blown tire

http://i.imgur.com/J1vQhPMl.jpg

Sending my kethane refinery to Minmus. Minmus was chosen because of its flat frozen seas, and extremely low gravity. I wanted to build something that looks like a proper oil refinery.

http://i.imgur.com/AOnyJNCl.jpg

Removing the refinery from its lander

http://i.imgur.com/vx1Awwil.jpg

Putting the refinery on a dolly to move it 4km from its landing site to the main base

http://i.imgur.com/EF8LeULl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8fTS5QBl.jpg

Refinery in place

http://i.imgur.com/xjaXcoKl.jpg

Using my RCS scooter to transport crew to a freshly delivered fuel tanker truck. Heaps faster than surface travel

http://i.imgur.com/RYTzaVkl.jpg

Drilling for keythane gas

http://i.imgur.com/kgktLYAl.jpg

Hooking up to the refinery to transfer the keythane to the processor

http://i.imgur.com/QPp3yPPl.jpg

Refining keythane into fuel. I even added a pilot light just for the sake of it.

http://i.imgur.com/wFP39OSl.jpg

Night time shot

http://i.imgur.com/XOwHKdYl.jpg

wow!

Holy s*** furgle i don't even play the game and i am impressed

Nice man.

I'm currently working on a VTOL Heavy lifter, it looks similar to yours.

Everything is going fine, except the payload doesn't quite fit in, I might just tow it under with KAS lines.

Furgle, I'm guessing by that refinary launch you are not using FAR?

You should also use Ironcross Crew Support mod, it adds life support functions to the game. Another level of complexity for those awesome bases you are building.

I don't use FAR, haven't really tried it, but I'm more interested in fun than realism.


I've been playing around a lot with Infernal Robotics. My latest toy is a swept wing F14 type plane.

http://i.imgur.com/9T9veq9h.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/eZkSGgRh.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/hXB25Yjh.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/UsRNgcSh.jpg

FAR makes it more fun. As the atmospheric stuff is changed so that it is more intuitive. Like using Nosecones on parts to reduce drag. Highly recommended.

Go to Mars

http://www.mars-one.com/en/