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[AcAnchoa]

After more than two years, yesterday I finally landed at Moho, and just barely. It was a small probe and as it touched down it run out of propellant. Felt so good after being trying for so many years and achieving a borderline SOI orbit at best. Next step is figuring out how to send something and make it come back to Kerbin, but I think I'll wait until the 1.1 version.

 

[Mengy]

So majestic. I now have a Burning Man art installation / functional science lab on Minmus.

I love the way you Mun lander looks. I've got one up there now too but mine looks much worse than yours, lol. It does have plenty of battery power though, and it can mine for materials to create fuel that can be burned for power as well.

She may not look like much but she got it where it counts!

 

[Jintor]

Rescue mission escalation is great. It reminds me of how I learned computers as a kid. It wasn't until everything started going wrong that I figured out how to do them right.

Have you tried an Apollo style lander for the rescue missions yet, where you keep the return vessel orbiting the Mun and then just send down a small lander craft to pick up your guys. The rendevous and docking adds some extra complexity but it is an easy way to keep assure your return vehicle had plenty of fuel.

update: i successfully landed, picked up all three, took off and ran out of fuel making my re-entry manouever into kerbin. Now I'm manually pushing my rocket so periapsis is within atmo.

this game is great

 

[jotun?]

I had a satellite in a specific orbit contract, but the target orbit was way out past Jool. Not a big deal, but as a result I had to warp several years to complete it. Luckily only two minor contracts expired in that time. However, once I completed the mission, I figured I would check my Minmus Base science station pictured in my previous post. Of course it was completely full up on science, ohhh yeah 500 science to transmit back home. I click transmit....out of battery when only ~30% complete. Fuuuuck. There is no way I can beam back all that sweet sweet science without more battery capacity. Luckily, part of my Minmus base contract required a docking port, which I placed at the tippy top of my base. No problem I thought. I will just build a battery pack "hat", with a docking port on the bottom, fly that shit to Minmus and land her on top of my base. For whatever reason, I forgot to add RCS to my flying power hat, so I only had regular throttle to perform this maneuver. Can't be that bad right?

Dear lord, it was so nuts. It was by far the most challenging piloting skill I have ever done in this game. I didn't have advanced SAS either, so it was only stability control and the rest was purely manual. I should have just left it on Minmus or in orbit and launched a second craft with RCS. In the long run, I was happy I didn't because it felt amazing when I finally landed that puppy on top of my Minmus base. Plenty of battery power now, and I was able to transmit back over 1,000 science already with it. Such an awesome KSP moment.

Comin hot. No way I was going to be able to go straight from orbit to a perfect docking hover without RCS. So I got close to the base then landed.


I had to drop my thrust limiter down to 5.5 on all four engines to have a finer control throttle where I could find the hover point. Slowly took off and inched toward my base.



After miss after miss, I finally got that son of a bitch on there. Power hat is go!!!

So majestic. I now have a Burning Man art installation / functional science lab on Minmus.

Next time you try something like that, retract the solar panels first!

 

[Lonestar]

damn, had Kerbal Space program for probably a year, never really started it up, and now I almost can't stop. Thanks alot, Giant BEast.

Would have figured I'd kept playing The Witness, seeing little line puzzles everywhere in real life. Instead, I go to sleep, dreaming of orbit adjustments.

 

[gutterboy44]

Next time you try something like that, retract the solar panels first!

You can't anymore!! (with the basic 1x6 and 2x3 panels) That shit threw me for a loop. Some where either at 1.0 or just before 1.0, they made it so the non shielded (the two OX models) solar panels can only be deployed and not retracted. The shielded ones (SP models), withe the white casing, those can now be retracted and deployed over and over. The gigantor panel can also still be extended and retracted. I think it is a smart move. It helps differentiate the solar panels now. I completely forgot about this change and deployed my giant fuck stack of solar panels as I left Kerbin atmosphere only to severely regret it as I tried to dock my power hat.

 

[danthefan]

I've started career mode and I've a question about science. I've read some guides which talk about squeezing every last drop off science out if every build and launch but I don't find that a particularly fun way to play. Is there always a way to grind out science no matter what or do I need to be maxing out the science I get from every single contract?

 

[Jintor]

I've started career mode and I've a question about science. I've read some guides which talk about squeezing every last drop off science out if every build and launch but I don't find that a particularly fun way to play. Is there always a way to grind out science no matter what or do I need to be maxing out the science I get from every single contract?

You'll probbbbbbbbbbbbably be okay just doing whatever. The science squeezers are for people who know what they want to do with the toys they unlock and who want to unlock those toys faster. If you're still learning what to do with everything, I think taking the relaxed approach is better.

You'll pick up a craptonne of science the further out from Kerbin you get anyway.

 

[danthefan]

You'll probbbbbbbbbbbbably be okay just doing whatever. The science squeezers are for people who know what they want to do with the toys they unlock and who want to unlock those toys faster. If you're still learning what to do with everything, I think taking the relaxed approach is better.

You'll pick up a craptonne of science the further out from Kerbin you get anyway.

Ok cool, I have no idea what I want to do other than just learn the game and enjoy myself.

 

[mrklaw]

After miss after miss, I finally got that son of a bitch on there. Power hat is go!!!

So majestic. I now have a Burning Man art installation / functional science lab on Minmus.

I can't believe you landed that without knocking over the lander. Amazing.

Have they changed something about science transmitting? Before you could just start transmitting and u ran out of power it would just trickle the data as your solar panels topped up.

 

[Jintor]

People talk about landing wide-bottomed crafts for landers, but how do you get them up into space in the first place? Or is their drag more or less negated by strapping seven solid fuel boosters together and trying to get out of atmo first?

 

[Quote]

Kerbal: Project B.E.A.S.T - Part 08 - Giant Bomb / YouTube

 

[runningjoke]

Spoiler

two hours long

:O

 

[gutterboy44]

I can't believe you landed that without knocking over the lander. Amazing.

Have they changed something about science transmitting? Before you could just start transmitting and u ran out of power it would just trickle the data as your solar panels topped up.

There is a partial transmit option that I was unaware of. That allows you to transmit, drain battery, top up, continue to transmit like it used to be. However it seems to give you a slight science deduction from "data loss" when you do it that way. I like enough power to transmit all the science anyway so I can just quickly check in on my space labs and beam all their science back home. It also just ended up being a very fun challenge to set out for myself. I have never done a hover docking on the surface of an object.

 

[danthefan]

I'm still very early in career mode and I'm not sure I can get into orbit yet but I'm trying to just get up into space and back in one piece, like straight up and straight down. Every time I try to land on land my guys die in a horrible fireball. The parachute only becomes safe to open too late and then doesn't slow me enough to survive. Last time was 40m/s or so which is the best I've done my miles.

Other than try to land on water, is there anything else I can do to slow down more?

 

[runningjoke]

I'm still very early in career mode and I'm not sure I can get into orbit yet but I'm trying to just get up into space and back in one piece, like straight up and straight down. Every time I try to land on land my guys die in a horrible fireball. The parachute only becomes safe to open too late and then doesn't slow me enough to survive. Last time was 40m/s or so which is the best I've done my miles.

Other than try to land on water, is there anything else I can do to slow down more?

Try going sideways

 

[gutterboy44]

I'm still very early in career mode and I'm not sure I can get into orbit yet but I'm trying to just get up into space and back in one piece, like straight up and straight down. Every time I try to land on land my guys die in a horrible fireball. The parachute only becomes safe to open too late and then doesn't slow me enough to survive. Last time was 40m/s or so which is the best I've done my miles.

Other than try to land on water, is there anything else I can do to slow down more?

Try going sideways

Yep, you need to prolong your time in the atmosphere to fully utilize its aero braking properties. If you are coming in at a very steep angle, you will go through all of the atmospheric layers very quickly and have very little time to deploy your chutes in the safe zone. Air brakes and drogue chutes can help you get away with more aggressive re entry angles but you won't unlock those until a little bit later. So yeah, as runningjoke said, go more sideways.

 

[danthefan]

Try going sideways

Yep, you need to prolong your time in the atmosphere to fully utilize its aero braking properties. If you are coming in at a very steep angle, you will go through all of the atmospheric layers very quickly and have very little time to deploy your chutes in the safe zone. Air brakes and drogue chutes can help you get away with more aggressive re entry angles but you won't unlock those until a little bit later. So yeah, as runningjoke said, go more sideways.

Haha it's so obvious now that you point it out to me. I'm an idiot.

Thanks guys.



Another daft question, how do you make a plane? I've watched videos on it but people in the videos have different engines and air intakes to what I have available, I cannot get the intake onto the plane and equally I can't figure out how to get the engines onto the wings.

 

[runningjoke]

You can put fuel tanks on the wings and put your engines on those. Before you try to build your own spaceplane maybe get some flight hours with prefab planes in Sandbox mode or download some. Flying these is much harder than any rocket I've used.

 

[gutterboy44]

Spaceplanes are really fun but surprisingly challenging. If you are in career mode, I wouldn't waste any science on unlocking them until you've flown a few in sandbox mode. I haven't done any spaceplanes since 1.0 but I imagine it is even more challenging than before with all the new aero. But flying a plane straight to orbit, docking with space station, then flying back home is an amazing experience.

 

[gutterboy44]

This week's Project B.E.A.S.T was the best one yet. So great. Glad Vinny is doing the leg work in between episodes to keep things moving forward.

 

[mrklaw]

Are earlier episodes worth watching? I only watched the last episode where they kinda sorta made it to the mun. But that was painful to watch - they have very little patience to even stabilise an orbit and were fixated on super low orbits for some reason (which for beginners you'd think they'd want more leeway and go higher).

 

[StopMakingSense]

Are earlier episodes worth watching? I only watched the last episode where they kinda sorta made it to the mun. But that was painful to watch - they have very little patience to even stabilise an orbit and were fixated on super low orbits for some reason (which for beginners you'd think they'd want more leeway and go higher).

If you are that bothered by bad orbits I do not recommend earlier episodes, where Vinny just knew he had to turn, but just not necessarily turn to the East. I do highly recommend the latest episode, though.

 

[gutterboy44]

Also, that confirmed GB East + Scott Manley chatter during this week's ep.
http://imgur.com/KvIb6nG.gifv

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Also, that confirmed GB East + Scott Manley chatter during this week's ep.

Yeah you can tell, they are getting to good at it. I really like them fumbling around

 

[renegade_dewitt]

What looked like a promising mission ended up in two failures all because of Vinny's mismanagement of the craft upon re-entry. Damn disappointing. The 2nd one especially. Aggravating like hell!

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I wish they'd release Project BEAST on Tuesdays instead of Mondays. For completely selfish reasons. I don't work on Mondays, but I like to save Giant Bomb videos to watch in the office. So I'd rather it release on Tuesday so I would just watch it at work instead of sitting here on a Monday and being super tempted.

Also, I do wish they found a way to "justify" space planes (or shuttle-like vehicles) from a career mode standpoint. In theory if you're landing it at KSC you're going to make all or most of your money back, but like pretty much every game ever money eventually becomes not a problem, so there's little reason to use a space plane over a disposable rocket.

 

[Jintor]

first successful orbital rendezvous!

question: is it feasible to do apollo 8-style 'one kerbal in a command pod orbiting the mun, one lander dropped down that can boost back up to the orbiting fuel' stuff for reals? When you separate does the other stuff automatically become debris or if you have a kerbal in it do you end up with two ships?

 

[runningjoke]

first successful orbital rendezvous!

question: is it feasible to do apollo 8-style 'one kerbal in a command pod orbiting the mun, one lander dropped down that can boost back up to the orbiting fuel' stuff for reals? When you separate does the other stuff automatically become debris or if you have a kerbal in it do you end up with two ships?

You can totally do Apollo style missions where you have a lander and orbiter in a single launch. If you split your ship it'll become two ships until you dock them together again. The parts will need to be Kermanned or have a drone core to keep control.

 

[mrklaw]

Do you need monoprop tanks going to the mun? Been a while since I played and I think I usually have a science bay thing so I put some in there. But doesn't your capsule have a small supply? Tbh landing on the mun I just used the big engine to manouevre

 

[gutterboy44]

Do you need monoprop tanks going to the mun? Been a while since I played and I think I usually have a science bay thing so I put some in there. But doesn't your capsule have a small supply? Tbh landing on the mun I just used the big engine to manouevre

What size craft are you landing, small or large? You tend not to need RCS for any small crafts. Large, they start to become more necessary. If you are just using the default single seat capsule, don't worry about RCS. You should have enough torque to maneuver for nodes and when it comes to landing, you really don't need to move around much. Just retro until your retro marker is pointing straight up, so you are falling straight down, and modulate thrust on your main engine until you land soft.

 

[mrklaw]

What size craft are you landing, small or large? You tend not to need RCS for any small crafts. Large, they start to become more necessary. If you are just using the default single seat capsule, don't worry about RCS. You should have enough torque to maneuver for nodes and when it comes to landing, you really don't need to move around much. Just retro until your retro marker is pointing straight up, so you are falling straight down, and modulate thrust on your main engine until you land soft.

I'm just watching the giant bomb guys

They're also about to crash into the mun and didn't bother even trying the other manouevre nodes to see if they could get into orbit. They were doing so well up to then.

 

[runningjoke]

I'm just watching the giant bomb guys

They're also about to crash into the mun and didn't bother even trying the other manouevre nodes to see if they could get into orbit. They were doing so well up to then.

The giantbomb guys only use RCS to turn quicker, they don't really need it.

Vinny only knows pro- and retrograde so that's what he uses. May have been for the best, it's easier and more efficient.

 

[gutterboy44]

For a Mun and back mission, their ship is total overkill. They could remove half the shit they have on it. All they needed to do was understand the glory that is the Terrier engine for small crafts.

 

[mrklaw]

The giantbomb guys only use RCS to turn quicker, they don't really need it.

Vinny only knows pro- and retrograde so that's what he uses. May have been for the best, it's easier and more efficient.

Oh vinny what the hell. You have tons of dV. At least pop it into a big orbit first..


Less haste more speed

 

[ThreePiMatt]

Man, the first half of the video annoyed me with how cautious they were playing. And then they threw it all away on the return. I was in tears from the shock.

 

[fleck0]

Got my first Rover to the Mun, spent way too long doing it today. I didn't anticipate how light it was so it flips all over the place with the slightest acceleration. Next up I'll have to make one heavy enough I can effectively rove in it.

edit: some research makes it sound like actually I'm tipping because the control pod is trying to put to much torque on it when i use WASD, seems reassigning the driving keys will fix it.

 

[gutterboy44]

That is a pretty robust landing craft. I like your rover. It is fun to start building up a collection of things on the surface of the Mun. Soon or later you will find yourself landing a few clicks near an old site without even being aware.

 

[gutterboy44]

I have a contract for a Mun base, but I first wanted to level up some scientists to send along in it to better utilize the reasearch lab. So I built the, "XP Getter" craft. Its purpose, to take 3 kerbals (the ship brings 4 kerbals so one pilot can always stay on board the orbiting craft) to the Mun, land, to Minmus, land, and back to Kerbin. It uses Apollo style landings where an orbiting craft stays put and sends down a little 3 kerbal pod to land, get XP and rendezvous. The mission was a very un-KSP like success. Everything went according to plan. I had ~1,000 delta V left over at the end.


Here is the wonky looking beast.

Got her up into orbit without much fuss. Love the new gravity turns. Soooo much better than the pre 1.0 model.

Mun obit. EVA'd my peeps to the descent craft. Ready for Mun landing.

Nice thrill ride coming in low and fast.

They landed without much fuss and headed back for the rendezvous and docking. Of course I forgot proper RCS again!!! and only had one off balance RCS array on my orbiting vessel, so I just got the lander close and then switched to the orbiting vessel and slowly docked. This is my first time ever using the docking HUD mod. Very cool.

Off to Mimus now.

The crew ready for their Minmus landing.

Everyone planted their flags, grabbed a sample and promptly returned to the lander.

Plenty of fuel to get a return orbit to Kerbin. Jettisoned my reaming tanks well away from Kerbin to avoid any mishaps during reentry.

Damn this game is pretty.

We have chutes! Back home safe and sound and now all two star ranked. Woot woo. Let the Mun base commence.

 

[MadYarpen]

Bought it yesterday. So great. Couldn't go to sleep. Just one more launch...

Does anyone have experience with running KSP on Ubuntu? Demo was not running super smoothly on this system, full game runs good on windows on my laptop but I prefer using linux recently... Both systems are on the same computer (lenovo y580).

 

[gutterboy44]

Well, I finally made my first trip to Eve. It was only an orbital trip and return (next time I will land) but it was really cool. Love the color of the planet and atmosphere.

This is the ship that got me there.

So lonely in space. Lots of fuel left and I already am in Kerbol SOI.

What's that beautiful purple ball in the distance, why it's Eve!

Neat looking surface. Apparently she has a thick as fuck atmosphere and lots of gravity. I did my aero braking at 81Km without heat shields. I had to still do a retrograde burn but it saved me a bunch of delta V.

Thank god I packed the retractable solar panels. I would have surely lost them in the aero braking if they were left out.

Love the purple glow of the horizon. So pretty.

The return trip went perfectly. All three kerbals back home safe with a good chunk of science and now all rank 3 to boot. I think I will do a space station around Eve and Duna, then start the landing missions.

 

[Brashnir]

Well, I finally made my first trip to Eve. It was only an orbital trip and return (next time I will land) but it was really cool. Love the color of the planet and atmosphere.

This is the ship that got me there.

And you call Vinny's ships ridiculous. I love it.

 

[AcAnchoa]

I was building a new SSTO spaceplane and as soon as I fired the engines (two R.A.P.I.E.R.s) the one in the right side died while the left one was at full thrust, so my ship started spinning, went off the runway and exploded. Turns out I hadn't put air intakes and the left engine was in closed-cycle mode.

After fixing that, I noticed the horizontal stabilizer was overheating and then I realized it was just behind the engines, so the exhaust gases were heating it to death and dropping its performance. I replaced the tail section entirely and now with a T-tail the ship is finally working like a charm.

I feel such an idiot when building planes in this game... there's always some oversight.

This is the ship that got me there.

That looks beautifully oversized.

 

[gutterboy44]

And you call Vinny's ships ridiculous. I love it.

Except I needed that delta v! Haha I think I dumped 1,900 delta v at the end before reentry so yeah it was overkill. I like having excess delta v when visiting a planet or moon for the first time so I can dick around. Compared to the new extra large parts, the classic early days 9 orange tanks + mainsails in asparagus stage doesn't do a whole lot. That set up used to be able to get anything in to orbit with ease. Now it is inefficient, which it should be. I like the new aero model so much better. Every launch is a challenge. With that science I earned from my Eve mission I unlocked the extra large tanks and engines so I can now build proper looking ships. I still have a soft spot for the Ol ' orange tanks though.

Edit: Wow, looking at delta v maps I could have landed and maybe got back to orbit from eve with that ship. I think it was 11,000 delta v total.

 

[mrklaw]

What are the major changes since pre 1.0? Someone mentioned new gravity turn mechanics, new aero, new parts. So a bunch of my old ships probably won't work well/at all if I dip back in?

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I think the big thing with the 1.05 changes is that you can't just take off full blast now. I actually watch the g-force meter because you want to keep it in the green during liftoff. In 1.0 you could take off full throttle, but now I generally let my solid boosters do most of the lifting while my main engine is around 25% or so then I throttle up when the solids burn out.

 

[Saganator]

How much harder is it to get to Mun and back? I've done it a few times pre 1.0, and the last time was around when they introduced career mode. Do you still have to do silly things like EVA during launch to get a reasonable amount of science per mission?

 

[gutterboy44]

What are the major changes since pre 1.0? Someone mentioned new gravity turn mechanics, new aero, new parts. So a bunch of my old ships probably won't work well/at all if I dip back in?

Previously there was no aerodynamic modeling, only a rough drag estimate based on each part. You could launch a tennis court in to orbit without issue. In addition to modeling aerodynamics, they better modeled the layers of the atmosphere. As ThreePiMatt said, you can no longer just gun it from launch to orbit. You want to manage your early G's and speed so you aren't wasting fuel pushing against the thick lower atmosphere. This adds a much bigger challenge to both rocket design and piloting during launch. Because there is now proper aero, real gravity turns are possible where you can do one pitch over move right after lift off and naturally have your ship move toward horizon as you go up without touching a thing. It is so awesome when you get it right.

I would suspect some of your ships would be fine if they are somewhat aerodynamic, while others might be too cumbersome to launch or the delta v is not enough. I know some of my beta ships would never fly now.

How much harder is it to get to Mun and back? I've done it a few times pre 1.0, and the last time was around when they introduced career mode. Do you still have to do silly things like EVA during launch to get a reasonable amount of science per mission?

I think Mun and back is only a little harder, depending on if you have done lots of launches and re-entries since 1.0.5. You have to be more mindful of launch profiles and you can't just come straight down into Kerbin atmosphere anymore, even with a heat shield. The actual Mun landing part is the same I'd say.

You don't need to EVA during launch. For Biomes though, you still do EVA's in orbit but you only need to do a bunch of those early on. Once you get science labs and visit other planets the science pours in. No need to go crazy at the start getting every last drop from Kerbin, Mun and Minmus.

 

[Lettuce]

So what are good graphical mods to use that dont bring the framerate to its knees?

 

[AcAnchoa]

How much harder is it to get to Mun and back? I've done it a few times pre 1.0, and the last time was around when they introduced career mode. Do you still have to do silly things like EVA during launch to get a reasonable amount of science per mission?

Once you figure out how the gravity turns works now and how to come back without blowing up in the atmosphere during reentry I'd say it's a bit easier than before because of the reduced delta-v needed to get to LKO (like 1300 m/s less).

I can't answer the science part, since 1.0 I've only played sandbox.