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[Brewster's Wallet]

Been a good 6 months since I played this. Going to have get back in and remember how the hell to play it again

 

[DBT85]

I just managed my first orbital rendezvous. I feel like a god.

Well done! Was it docking as well?

Keep practising, it gets much easier the more you do it.

Been a good 6 months since I played this. Going to have get back in and remember how the hell to play it again

What's to remember. Mo' struts, mo' boosters, mo' lyfe.

 

[PjotrStroganov]

I really don't like the mini contracts for testing stuff. But the bigger stuff like rescuing kerbals is quite a fun thing to do.

 

[Saganator]

Love me some KSP. Awesome OP. Think I might have to jump back into this! For any new players out there, I highly recommend checking out Scott Manley's tutorial videos on YouTube. He's a really bright buy and does an excellent job teaching the basics like getting into orbit and advanced things like docking.

 

[Morat]

Well done! Was it docking as well?

Keep practising, it gets much easier the more you do it.

Nope, just one of the standard rescue a stranded kerbal ones. Using his RCS to get him into the pod was nailbiting! Going to try orbital docking once I've unlocked the parts

 

[gutterboy44]

I really don't like the mini contracts for testing stuff. But the bigger stuff like rescuing kerbals is quite a fun thing to do.

I felt the same way until I started building space planes to do the single part tests that are within Kerbin atmosphere. Once you unlock a handful of the space plan parts you can build ridiculous planes that have all sorts of parts lumped on it, and then just cruise up to your altitudes and speeds and fire them off! It was too chaotic to try to do multiple test in one rocket launch, but now with a space plane, I feel like I am flying some mobile research lab, conducting my own wildly unsafe scientific experiments. Simultaneously testing two parachutes bolted on top of a plane at 23,000M and 400 m/s... what could go wrong?

Love me some KSP. Awesome OP. Think I might have to jump back into this! For any new players out there, I highly recommend checking out Scott Manley's tutorial videos on YouTube. He's a really bright buy and does an excellent job teaching the basics like getting into orbit and advanced things like docking.

Yep, Scott's videos are great. I included them in the OP for that reason.

Nope, just one of the standard rescue a stranded kerbal ones. Using his RCS to get him into the pod was nailbiting! Going to try orbital docking once I've unlocked the parts

To make docking much, much easier. Don't forget to balance your RCS on both ends of your ship. This allows you to easily translate (like strafing in a FPS) up/down/left/right while maintaining your exact heading.

Here is a quick sketch I made illustrating what I am talking about.

Not noted on the sketch, those RCS Thruster blocks are placed on on the space craft using quad-symmetry. For average sized ships, a symetrical block of four at the top of your craft and at the bottom of your craft should keep it balanced during RCS translation. Ships with drastic asymertrical centers of mass or other unwieldy designs may require more RCS on one end than the other, but the principle remains the same for easy RCS translation. Your SAS can only keep your ship pointing straight to some extent.

 

[DBT85]

To add to that. Always check the centre of mass for whatever the final part of your craft is, and place your jets accordingly. You're going to want to not only rotate on your axis but also move left, right, up, down, back, forward, so make sure you have enough jets to cope. If your ship is a fatty then you'll need more!

Also for docking, get used to using your left hand on WASD for orientation and your right hand on ijkl for translation. Much easier than swapping back and fourth.

EDIT: your space plane idea for part testing is quite appealing. Frankly I ignore part tests right now as some of the conditions are mental for a normal rocket.

 

[Saganator]

Yep, Scott's videos are great. I included them in the OP for that reason.

Whoops! I missed that. I should've known since your OP is great.

 

[Woorloog]

This game needs coordinate system for ship-building. Sometimes i need to but RCS to very, very specific spot for maximum efficiency.

 

[gutterboy44]

Damn, you need the placement that accurate? I don't think I have ever done anything in KSP with that level of accuracy, hahaha. I know there are mods that offer exact angles when rotating objects in the VAB, so it is possible there is a mod out there that will give you what you need.

There is this mod to help with RCS placement
This one displayed the angles of parts

 

[PjotrStroganov]

How do I capture poor Gerdock Kerman? I thought that I would be able to control him when I'd get close but nope. Bumping into him also doesn't help It would be nice to be able to grab him with your own Kerbal.

 

[Woorloog]

Well i don't really need that level of accuracy in practice, just when planning stuff, but i do like perfect symmetry.
Example, a rocket with twin boosters, and each booster having four Sepatrons... but getting them to point to the same direction AND being exactly placed is impossible. Coordinates would help with that, or expanded "symmetry" options.

EDIT interesting looking mods but such functionality is something i want from the base game.

 

[gutterboy44]

How do I capture poor Gerdock Kerman? I thought that I would be able to control him when I'd get close but nope. Bumping into him also doesn't help It would be nice to be able to grab him with your own Kerbal.

Use the bracket keys, [ and ] to cycle through near by vessels. You should be able to switch to him, then press R, to enable his EVA suit's RCS controls, and now you can fly with your jet pack to your rescue ship. The EVA suit also has lights which can be turned on with L pr by clicking the lights button at the top of the screen next to the altimeter.

Well i don't really need that level of accuracy in practice, just when planning stuff, but i do like perfect symmetry.
Example, a rocket with twin boosters, and each booster having four Sepatrons... but getting them to point to the same direction AND being exactly placed is impossible. Coordinates would help with that, or expanded "symmetry" options.

EDIT interesting looking mods but such functionality is something i want from the base game.

The trick to getting symmetry like you described is to build your ships on a single side first, then mirror it using radial symmetry or by copying parts by holding the Alt key.. So in your booster scenario, build just one complete booster on any side of your ship, add the top pair of seperatrons using dual symmetry, that keeps them lined up, then hold alt and click those two, and drag them to the other end of the booster, now all four of those are pointing in the same way. Once that booster is complete, click the stage seperator that holds the booster to your main ship, and then while you have the booster "held" click X to bump up your symmetry to two or four (whatever you want) and now you are exactly cloning that entirely completed booster with the four seperatrons placed.

 

[Morat]

How do I capture poor Gerdock Kerman? I thought that I would be able to control him when I'd get close but nope. Bumping into him also doesn't help It would be nice to be able to grab him with your own Kerbal.

You should be able to control him by pressing [ or ] when you are within 1000 meters of him. I didn't realise this the first time I tried a mission, which was irritating to say the least!


Edit: Ninjad

 

[PjotrStroganov]

Ah thanks guys!. I've been prodding that guy with my ship for minutes now

 

[Woorloog]

The trick to getting symmetry like you described is to build your ships on a single side first, then mirror it using radial symmetry or by copying parts by holding the Alt key.. So in your booster scenario, build just one complete booster on any side of your ship, add the top pair of seperatrons using dual symmetry, that keeps them lined up, then hold alt and click those two, and drag them to the other end of the booster, now all four of those are pointing in the same way. Once that booster is complete, click the stage seperator that holds the booster to your main ship, and then while you have the booster "held" click X to bump up your symmetry to two or four (whatever you want) and now you are exactly cloning that entirely completed booster with the four seperatrons placed.

Too complicated... I get what you mean but still. The game needs expanded symmetry options. Or coordinates.

 

[gutterboy44]

Too complicated... I get what you mean but still. The game needs expanded symmetry options. Or coordinates.

Dude, once you get used to this system of building, you can actually save way more time making ships, and it is much easier than driving yourself crazy by eyeballing parts. It seems convoluted at first, but you can use it to your advantage once you know the quirks of the VAB systems.

Yes, something much more transparent to help with mirroring and alignment would be nice, but the simplicity of the system can easily be exploited once you know its limitations. I picked up on a lot of the more advanced building techniques from watching live streams on KSP TV. Some of the streamers put together insane ships in very little time from smart building techniques like using radial symmetry from single parts out like I described above.

Edit: I should correct myself. Seperatrons are their own pain in the ass, because radial symmetry never mirrors them correctly. My bad, I forgot about that. Other parts work better to clone using one part built to "completion" and then cloned, opposed to building all 2,4,6 parts at once.

 

[Woorloog]

Dude, once you get used to this system of building, you can actually save way more time making ships, and it is much easier than driving yourself crazy by eyeballing parts. It seems convoluted at first, but you can use it to your advantage once you know the quirks of the VAB systems.

Yes, something much more transparent to help with mirroring and alignment would be nice, but the simplicity of the system can easily be exploited once you know its limitations. I picked up on a lot of the more advanced building techniques from watching live streams on KSP TV. Some of the streamers put together insane ships in very little time from smart building techniques like using radial symmetry from single parts out like I described above.

Edit: I should correct myself. Seperatrons are their own pain in the ass, because radial symmetry never mirrors them correctly. My bad, I forgot about that. Other parts work better to clone using one part built to "completion" and then cloned, opposed to building all 2,4,6 parts at once.

We shouldn't need to exploit the system to get the results we want.

And yes, you can't build Sepatrons so easily. Or at all really... not symmetrically. Usually that won't be an issue... but i just know one day i will have a freak accident due to imperfect symmetry.
Probably going to be something lie the Sepatrons spinning the detached part to the main rocket...

 

[gutterboy44]

Yeah, it isn't perfect, but definitely usable. I just count keystrokes when I rotate parts like seperatrons. Hold shift, nine presses with A or D ='s 45 degrees.

 

[DBT85]

To see your dV and the stats in game, I use the Kerbal Engineer Redux mod. Available here.

I completed my first career rescue this evening and took screens as I went which might help others. It's all about rendezvous which is always useful to know and is something I've mostly got down perfectly now.

I should note, actual rendezvous is much easier with RCS. Its a much finer approach than blasting your main engine and is of course omni directional, but I didn't have that yet .

First attempt was an empty command pod controlled by a probe. Would have worked fine and was easier to lift, but with no solar power and no batteries yet available, I rapidly ran out of juice.

So up went Rescue MkII, two pods stacked on top of one another with a decoupler. One empty and one piloted by none other than Jebediah.

So here is Rescue MkII, with 5,113 m/s dV, considerably more than needed to get to orbit (4500m/s dV) but with enough spare for maneuvering. The three boosters fire first, once depleted they fall away and the center stack lights up, to be followed by the final stage. With no fuel lines yet available, this was the best staging of these components for maximum dV.

My target was at an orbit of around 97km, so with my initial launch giving me an Ap of 97km, I shut the engine down and prepared a circularisation burn. As you can see I launched a little late and so my target is ahead of me. For me to catch up I need to run part of my orbit lower than that of the target. I set my Pe to be around 70.5km, the lowest I can fly without touching atmosphere. My intersect node shows me that on the next pass, I'll be 75.7km behind the target still.

In the meantime, my orbit is slighty off axis to that of my target, about 1 degree. So at my Decending Node I ran a tiny burn to correct, and being my orbit axis perfectly in line with the target. I'm normally not bothered if it's more than about 0.2.

With the first orbit just complete, you can see my target is still ahead of me, but my next rotation will put it 54km behind me. That's becasue my Pe of just 70km is making me run a much shorter distance than the target. To intercept, I need to bring my Pe up a little until my Intersect is closer to 2km. Burn Prograde slowly and watch those Intersect nodes shift.

Main burn complete, my Pe was brought upto 82km from 70, and so my flight path is now longer than before, but still shorter than my target. I'll now get to within just 2.2km of the target on the next orbit.

Now in closer proximity, this is where RCS thrusters are best for fine tuning, but I don't have any! Here I'm burning toward my target trying to put my Prograde marker on top of it's own. By putting my nose in line but below and burning my engine slowly, my prograde marker will head toward my nose, and so sit on the prograde marker for the target. Once it's on top, just keep it there. Some people call this technique "pushing the marble". Small thrusts to keep one marker on top of the other. I'm currently approaching at 47.2m/s though. I'll have to turn about face, put my nose on the retrograde markers for both ships (should be aligned) and burn to reduce that approach speed to something a little more manageable. With RCS, you can do all this with better control over your closing speed and accuracy of your marble pushing.

My pushing paid off, I've got an intercept just 100m apart. Just need to be sure I've slowed my approach enough so that I don't sail on past. As you can see, this maneuvering has pushed my orbit to 100x80km. The target is in a 100x96km orbit. It might sound like a huge change, but only small amounts of speed make that difference.

A quick tap of [ once I'm close enough and I can control my lost man with my RCS thrusters (R). Hop aboard ship and separate from the main stack, once a burn to bring use back to Kerbin is complete.

Tips for Rendezvous.
1) Try and time your launch to get you closer. It means less orbits to close the gap and likely less fuel needed.
2) If you are behind your target, bring part or all of your orbit lower than the targets to catch up. If you are ahead, make your orbit wider to allow the target to catch up.
3) Get your axis aligned. Hover over your An or Dn markers to see what the difference is. Make a node right on top of one and pull the purple nodes as needed (you can also use scroll wheel down to make minor adjustments, or up to make large adjustments).
3) Autosave is your friend! Even now I cock up occasionally and burn the wrong way or something stupid.
4) If you are building a probe ship, don't forget power and batteries. Without both you'll be dead in a few orbits.
5) RCS makes life easy!
6) Once you have docking rings and solar power, put something in orbit with several docking ports on it. I just put a small fuel tanker there. Then build a rocket with a probe and fuel/RCS on board to practice your rendezvous and docking. I had three command pods all docked at one taker before I brought them all home and did it again.

 

[gutterboy44]

Nice rendezvous write up.


Wow, I feel like such a fool. I never really took the time to "game" the science system in KSP since it was implemented, and I never bothered looking up tips or biome maps. I knew you could get a ton of science in a single mission, but I had no idea how insane it was until I watched Scott Manley's Part I of his new vid where he maxes out the tech tree in two missions in .24.

You can take multiple EVA reports and store them!@? How the fuck did I not know that? Ugh. Sooooo many wasted missions since science was put in KSP. Oh well, luckily I haven't wasted too many missions in .24. My third mission was very fruitful. Need to hit up Minmus tonight.

 

[Woorloog]

Career makes science so much more interesting. Never cared for the now-Science mode alone.
Concerned about the money though. I take it contracts are unlimited?
I think this game needs more, a resource mining system, stuff to find and sell, stuff to find and get special tech (alien tech you know?).

My career mode is called "KHOAM", a Kerbalized version of Dune's CHOAM, Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles... except with K, Kombine.
The flag is the same but inverted:

 

[Nostremitus]

Ok, so I need to launch an orbital refueling platform and practice rendezvous while filling it with fuel. From there I can start planning missions to other planets?

 

[DBT85]

Ok, so I need to launch an orbital refueling platform and practice rendezvous while filling it with fuel. From there I can start planning missions to other planets?

Well an empty station is easier to launch initially of course, but you'll then be carting more fuel up to fill it. I just put a few tanks up there nailed together and flew small command modules with enough fuel to get there and back. The smaller the ship you use to practise your rendezvous the more agile it'll be and so the easier it'll be.

 

[gutterboy44]

If you really want some fun, make a space plane that can carry a full orange tank of fuel to space. It isn't that hard bringing full orange tanks to orbit with regular rockets, just gonna be costly in .24 budget. I think the space plane fuel transport might be a pretty cost effective, besides a fun challenge. I had some SSTO's but they weren't to haul fuel, just to stop at the refueling space station.

Space planes are a lot of damn fun. If you don't have a joystick (I don't) I recommend hooking up an Xbox or PS3 controller and use it to fly it. Much more fun and intuitive.

 

[Woorloog]

THAT'S IT! I RESKUED (k intentional, my ship was "Reskue [type] 2"...) A STRANDED KERBAL!

Took days to adjust the orbits until they intersected.

EDIT also landing at local dawn... nice!
EDIT well, splashdown.

 

[Nostremitus]

If you really want some fun, make a space plane that can carry a full orange tank of fuel to space. It isn't that hard bringing full orange tanks to orbit with regular rockets, just gonna be costly in .24 budget. I think the space plane fuel transport might be a pretty cost effective, besides a fun challenge. I had some SSTO's but they weren't to haul fuel, just to stop at the refueling space station.

Space planes are a lot of damn fun. If you don't have a joystick (I don't) I recommend hooking up an Xbox or PS3 controller and use it to fly it. Much more fun and intuitive.

Is there a malware free way of connecting a PS3 controller?

 

[gutterboy44]

Is there a malware free way of connecting a PS3 controller?

I don't remember the PS3 one, motionjoy I think? There is also drivers out there for PS4 controllers. I guess they are spotty via bluetooth but solid wired. I use a Xbox360 controller that I bought just for PC.

 

[Nostremitus]

I don't remember the PS3 one, motionjoy I think? There is also drivers out there for PS4 controllers. I guess they are spotty via bluetooth but solid wired. I use a Xbox360 controller that I bought just for PC.

Yeah, Motioninjoy was the one with malware according to this thread.

Oh well, maybe I should break down and buy a 360 controller...

 

[DBT85]

THAT'S IT! I RESKUED (k intentional, my ship was "Reskue [type] 2"...) A STRANDED KERBAL!

Took days to adjust the orbits until they intersected.

EDIT also landing at local dawn... nice!
EDIT well, splashdown.

Well done Its a great feeling when you finally get there.



This evening I fancied a trip to the Mun to get some science, and a contract I had spurred me on. I wasn't going to get as much as Scott Manley did in his video (2500 from one trip with early parts!) but enough to get me well into the tree to make life easier.

I still have no struts or fuel lines, and I wanted to take no science equipment. I would rely solely on EVA reports, crew reports and soil samples.

First attempt I buggered up the radially mounted boosters so that they didn't detatch lol. Revert to the VAB and then off we go!

At take off Kerbal Engineer is saying we have about 5,400 m/s d/V, however it's being lied to slightly. The three tanks around the lander module are not connected to an engine (no fuel lines). So I actually have more d/V than shown, but to access it I'll have to pump it around and that in turn can make the craft unstable as the centre of mass shifts around. Fuel lines are handy! (Got fuel lines after this and went back to the design, By attacking those 3 tanks to the center one my d/V went up to 8,290 m/s!)

I have got the top lander stage, the Munar insertion stage, circularisation stage and lift stages. Thanks to the lack of struts, this one spins like crazy on launch until the SRBs are gone, so some fins were added to control it a tiny bit.

SRBs are gone and now the boosters are taking the load. When depleted they'll fall away and the main engine will fire up.

Munar burn plotted. Should bring me in beteen 15 and 20km above the surface.

Munar circularisation plotted. As you can see my insertion stage only has 38m/s dV left and I need 266 m/s for my burn, so I'll have to use some juice from the lander.

Mun, Kerbin and Kerbol in shot. On an EVA trying to nab some science from passing over one of the many biomes on the Mun. Overall I got out several times to perform EVAs to get those reports. A Mun biome map can be seen here. Kerbal Engineer will also tell you which ones you are currently over, and which one you are going to land (crash) into.

Having got all the eva reports from my current orbit, I shifted slightly to get over that big crater on the right, and another one a little farther around.

Eventually touched down somewhere and got a ground sample and another EVA and crew report. I visited one other crater on this trip. I attempted a third but didn't quite have enough fuel to take off again, so had to go back to my save and burn for home instead.

While doing all this I was also juggling my fuel around to keep it in the center section. Unless you do it evenly your center of mass will be off and can cause a right headache when maneuvering. To move fuel between any cells, Alt+Click on one, and then Alt+Click on the other. Then just click in or out.

My mission a success, I burned for home, having just 7m/s dV left over once I'd got my orbit sorted! 650 science obtained with no instruments or goo pods at all. Just crew reports and a couple of landings. That gave me enough to unlock a fair chunk of the tech tree, making my next lunar mission much easier and less wobbly!

Thursday I shall visit Minmus. I already have a new rocket and modified lander ready to fly and it's been tested!

 

[Woorloog]

Well done Its a great feeling when you finally get there.

I've played KSP pretty long time but this was the first time i did any kind of rendezvous properly.
I get side-tracked by all kinds of spacecraft ideas i never finish...

 

[PjotrStroganov]

Lol, just rescued two Kerbans from space. One was Thompburry. Who was the mission goal. And the other was Bill. Who had to be left behind in an earlier rescue mission as 'ground control' had forgotten to let Bill disembark from the single seat capsule.

 

[DBT85]

Lol, just rescued two Kerbans from space. One was Thompburry. Who was the mission goal. And the other was Bill. Who had to be left behind in an earlier rescue mission as 'ground control' had forgotten to let Bill disembark from the single seat capsule.

Ha, yeah did that myself a couple of times. Once, I got there and had no fuel left to de orbit lol.

 

[Woorloog]

I remembered i wanted to try my hand at re-creating Falcon 9 1.1R in Kerbal Space Program.

Engines and the main body are not really an issue. One LV-T45 in the middle of a Rockomaxx-sized fuel tank, and 8 more attached to radial attachment points around the middle engine. A bit expensive, and probably not the most efficient arrangement in KSP but that's closest to the real thing.

The problem is the landing gear. Neither landing strut type in KSP is simply good enough, the game needs heavy-duty landing gear that is both longer and bigger and has higher impact tolerance (20m/s should be okay compared to standard one's 12m/s) just in case.
Custom-built landing gear can't be retracted... and it got a wobbling problem, at my prototype had that. Worked better at preventing the rocket from falling at least.


The game also needs quite a lot more parts i think.
-Small passenger compartment, we have a big one (Hitchhiker storage container) but not one for smaller radial size.
-Cargo bays, small, big, mk2, and m3 types are needed.
-Alternate launch clamps, the ones have too short horizontal part.
-Launch towers, various types, just for the visual factor. Guess one could build such but...
-Erector system, for transporting rockets horizontally and then lifting them, like the Russian Soyuz is launched. If such can be attached to other parts, we could make transporter erector launchers.
-Generally speaking Soviet-style parts would be nice, for visual variety as the current parts are all inspired by American rockets. Some Soviet-styles can be emulated but making it easier would be nice.
-Ability to paint rocket parts would be very nice too.

 

[DBT85]

Well my mission to Minmus was a roaring success

Surface samples from all bar one biome, EVA reports from all of them.

No run through as it's so similar to the Mun, except easier.


Mahoosivly overpowered ship. Had about 1500 m/s dV left over by the time I got back home.

Also tried a new texture mod. Planets look pretty!

My rewards!

 

[gutterboy44]

Patch is out. .24.1

Release notes are here

Pretty minor tweaks and some bug fixes.

 

[Oozer3993]

It's been months since I gave this a go. Might be heading back in soon. The 45th anniversary of the first moon landing got me in a space mood.

I have landed and made safe returns from Mun and Minmus. I have explored the sands of Duna and the shores of Eve. I have even seen Jool rise over the oceans of Laythe.

I still can't perform an orbital rendezvous

I have rendezvous'd two craft in orbit. I have successfully docked to a space station. I have built a craft in orbit.

I still can't get to another planet without MechJeb doing everything for me

 

[Woorloog]

That landing leg issue i had? Found a solution: More landing legs. 4 clusters of 3 landing legs did the trick. Now if the game would actually support re-usable rockets...


Have a lot of ideas but i feel like doing them without mods makes no sense. Gotta have point in using space stations and such, "just because" is not a good enough reason for me. Besides, i know i can do such (not easy, i just know i can do it).
Would like to establish bases to other planets for science and stuff*
Just what mods to use? It doesn't help that some that are interesting are received updates relatively often, have bad experiences updating mods mid-game.

*This game really needs science bases. Just make them so that if you have this special module with them, they produce science (and funds) at a constant, if slow, rate. Profit and science should decline over time of course, making establishing new bases important. And the hard to reach the place is, the better profit and the longer it works.
On planets, special biomes and non-equatorial bases should be important, better than easy ones. Kerbin space station wouldn't worth as much as a space station on Duna. Etc.

EDIT Real Falcon 9 has 3.7m diameter? So in practice, the largest parts added in the asteroid pack are the closes to the real size. Used the Rockomax parts so far.

 

[DBT85]

If you want a reason to have to make satellites, try the SCANsat mod. There are three grades of satellite to put into different polar orbits which map the planets surface.

 

[Woorloog]

If you want a reason to have to make satellites, try the SCANsat mod. There are three grades of satellite to put into different polar orbits which map the planets surface.

Hmm.
I think i might use RemoteTech, and TAC Life Support with USI Kolonization. What else... anyone recommend Interstellar? I want some in-situ resource utilization mod too really. What others there are, Kethane and Karbonite, anything else?

EDIT oh, and just how sturdy docking ports are? If utilizing one big or two small ones (not juniors)?
Because i'm planning on building a massive ship in orbit, and because of that, it will be built from modules. Just... are the docking ports sturdy enough for a massive ship?

 

[gutterboy44]

I was on a science mission to Minmus last night. Things were going great. I decided to grab some surface samples from the slopes and then the top of the flats. So I jet packed up to the top of the flats and then jet packed back down to my ship. I've done this a ton of times, it is really fun trying to get your trajectory exactly back to your ship. Anyway, I was switching between map view and 3rd person while holding down RCS controls, for some reason when I switch back poor Jeb is in some crazy death spin, RCS won't stabilize him. As I am attempting to get out of this spin, I realize that it is draining my mono really fast. I made the mistake of using the last bits trying to land softer. I tumble for a while. When all is said and done I must have been several clicks away fro my lander. No mono to get back, just a long sad walk. I watched half of the F1 race while holding down W. Ugh, what a bitch. From now on, I am always attaching a probe module to my landers.

 

[DBT85]

Lodge a coin in your keyboard

 

[Woorloog]

Is there any mod that adds "micro-klaws"? I was thinking that i'm going to need a small space tug, something consisting a small lander can, some monopropellant and RCS... and it needs something that can be used for pushing and pulling stuff around.
The Advanced Grabbing Unit is too big.

I know Infernal Robotics or some such adds robotic arms but i reckon those are a tad too complicated for what want.

EDIT for aesthetic reasons, having a pair of mini-klaws would be ideal.

 

[Nostremitus]

I finally broke down and installed mech Jeb. Holy shit does it save time. Feels like cheating though...

 

[DBT85]

Then use it for things you can do while you are asleep, but not for things you can't.

Well toniggt I've planned myself a little mission.

1. Put a dry Orange tank (Rockomax Jumbo-64) in orbit with docking ports, solar panels etc.
2. Rendezvous with a vessel large enough to put some fuel in.

Thus far, stage 1 is complete. No fuel at all, but equipped for RCS once it has some connected via a docking port. Should have put a reaction wheel on the launcher as it was a bugger to rotate once in space before I jettisoned the final stage.

Time to launch a tanker!

Skipped the boring bit. This is a fuel tanker half the size of the orange tank. I first tried docking with the fuel left in the final stage but the RCS couldn't handle it as the center of mass was all off, so I tried again after jettisoning that stage.

Anyway, get into the rendezvous as normal. Once within about 2.5km, the Dock Alignment tool will open up and select a docking port automatically, as indicated by the purple marker on the orange tank. You can select which port you want by clicking the arrows on the alignment tool.

In the image, I've rotated my craft so that the orange pip is in the center of my alignment tool. That's showing me that I have the right orientation for docking at that port. CDST and CVEL in the bottom right are currently telling me that I'm 1.4 too high (I'd hit it) and increasing that at 0.02 m/s.

By using my translation controls for my RCS (IJKL & HN), I've moved as needed to put the two green lines on my alignment indicator right in the center of the display. I'm perfectly aligned, 2m away and closing at 0.08m/s.

And we have capture and I've started my fuel transfer. My ship has a little Mono left and is fitted with parachutes, so I dumped all the liquid fuel and oxidizer into the station and undocked, burned only about 1/3 of the Mono I had left which was enough to drop me to a 40km orbit close-ish to KSC for recovery from the water.

With my station just half full, I need another mission to fill up, and another to deposit a module filled with Mono tanks. After that, who knows!

 

[FloatingDivider]

To add to that. Always check the centre of mass for whatever the final part of your craft is, and place your jets accordingly. You're going to want to not only rotate on your axis but also move left, right, up, down, back, forward, so make sure you have enough jets to cope. If your ship is a fatty then you'll need more!

Also for docking, get used to using your left hand on WASD for orientation and your right hand on ijkl for translation. Much easier than swapping back and fourth.

EDIT: your space plane idea for part testing is quite appealing. Frankly I ignore part tests right now as some of the conditions are mental for a normal rocket.

I feel like a retard, I've succesfully visited virtually every planet (by luck and gross overengineering D.V wise, because fuck me is orbital manuevering complex, and the node thingy is terrible for anything outside of kerbins system) and I didn't know you could translate with ijkl. It's frustrated me to no end and for some reason I've never actually checked the controls menu. This should make sauntering about to get to the different biomes a lot easier because now I can actually use rcs to do so . I was wondering if there was no easier way to do it but now I know.

I returned for the contracts but I find them slightly lackluster, the requirements for the part testing are absurd and require specific crafts built for it which wouldn't fit any logical purpose otherwise. I only accept the part testing contracts if the condition is a landed test which you can just do from the launchpad. I also wish the stock game had any sort of functionailty included for some of the things you'd expect space programs to do like launching satellites and building bases on planets/moons.

 

[gutterboy44]

Had fun using a SSTO spaceplane to deliver a SCANSAT satellite over Kerbin (I need to build a better satellite, this one didn't have enough battery to survive the darkside of Kerbin)
She was at least stable to fly.

Payload tucked away. After circulization, will deliver the baby.

Payload delivered.

I forgot to take screens on the way back down to Kerbin, but it was relatively painless. I had to reload once because I forgot to transfer fuel back forward in my space plane to have it more balanced when I was back to flying in the atmosphere in Kerbin. She landed silky smooth. I was able to get below 30 m/s without stalling.

PS - The SCANSAT mod is a lot of fun and adds motivation and rewards for building satellites and sending them to planets ahead of your main missions and contracts.

Protip for mapping, set your satellites in a north to south (or south to north) orbit around the body you are mapping. As the planet or moon rotates, you will get to scan across all of it making it easy to 100% map in no time. I just realized this the other day in a massive face palm moment on the Mun.

Edit 2: Crap, realized I made these screencaps using the in game F1 screen cap button instead of my SweetFX screencap button. So, no SMAA on my sceens sorry for the jaggies.

 

[DBT85]

I've still not experimented at all with planes. I like the simplicity with rockets. POWAHHH!!!!

I've got tonight to enjoy KSP so I'm hoping to fill my station and supply it with a RCS module at a minimum.

I might also send something in the general direction of Duna. I've never been further than Minmus before!

 

[gutterboy44]

I've still not experimented at all with planes. I like the simplicity with rockets. POWAHHH!!!!

I've got tonight to enjoy KSP so I'm hoping to fill my station and supply it with a RCS module at a minimum.

I might also send something in the general direction of Duna. I've never been further than Minmus before!

The most rewarding thing about space planes is flying them. Some rockets can be crazy challenging to fly, but seldom are they as involved as a normal space plane flight, so you feel like you achieved something great just getting them in to orbit. Space planes, there is a ton that can go wrong, a lot of efficiencies you can maximize and good piloting can make or break a mission. There is just something bad ass about flying into space. They can be great for reusable payload delivery systems like for your space station. SSTOs are a challenge, but you can always slap a SRB or drop a fuel tank to make your life easier without sacrificing many funds.

I haven't made it back to Duna in .24 yet, but I still remember my first mission there. It was actually only last year. I play a ton of KSP, but I kind of bite off the planets one at a time and more often than not, get completely side tracked with some weird rocket design or just building space stations around Kerbin. Duna missions are great because you can utilize air braking to establish orbit, and air braking is always awesome. Air braking finally made me understand the line in Apollo 13 where they are like, "too shallow and they will just skip off the atmosphere into space, too step and they'll burn up!"

Entering Duna you also get to use the super fun drogue chutes..if you want. Also, replicating the skycrane mission with Curiosity is super fun. I need to get back to Duna too!

 

[Icefire1424]

Every single time I enter this thread I'm reminded how inadequate my current space program is 0_o. My current achievement is achieving orbit around Kerbin, and that one time doing a near pass of the Mun.

Doing...something?...with a satellite might be fun. I have no idea what exactly, but the prospect of putting something into orbit seems somewhat interesting anyways. Might pave the way for further understanding on how to get a space station up there, for example.