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[gutterboy44]

You gotta bit the bullet and do multistage rockets.

If they are asparagus staged much better, but I think a simple three stages rocket should take you to the mun and back.



If you are spinning add an advanced SAS module to the rocket; if you are still spinning, add directional jets and RCS fuel and start the RCS on you navball at the same time as your SAS, so the SAS can take advantage of them (you have limited RCS fuel so use sparingly).

If things are still bad you can always cheat and press + to increase the time rate and then - to immediately make it back to normal, cause time warp stops your rocket from moving over itself.

Ok, it is very common to have a misconception about SAS and ASAS modules. SAS modules will stabilize your craft with their torque. More SAS modules = more controlling/stabilizing torque. ASAS modules do not themselves stabilize your craft at all, they are the controller for the rotational force of your command modules, gimbal engines,rcs thrusters and controlled winged surfaces.
Putting 5 ASAS module on your craft won't do shit.

Adding an ASAS module without controlled winged surfaces, gimbal engines or SAS modules will do very little to stabilize your craft during launch. You should also try to place your ASAS modules in a stable central part of your craft. If they are on a flimsy part of your craft that wobbles a lot, the ASAS module is subjected to that wobble and will over correct its perceived excessive wobble via the controlled wing surfaces or SAS modules.

You shouldn't ever use RCS within Kerbin atmosphere, it is a waste of RCS fuel. RCS should be for orbital maneuvers and landing on planets, muns etc. Within Kerbin atmosphere you still have air to utilize wings and controlled wing surfaces. A static winged surface will act like the flight on an arrow and help reduce rotation during launch. A controlled winged surface will act like the rudders on an airplane and correct rotation and stability when SAS is enabled and a ASAS module installed on your craft.

So awesome to see more people playing KSP! This has been my favorite game for two years now. I always find something new to try when I fire it up. If/when I have kids, this is the first game I am introducing them to!

In addition to tutorial videos I highly recommend taking the time to read the descriptions of all of the stock parts in KSP in the wiki to get a better understanding of their functions. Check them out here.

Looking forward to .21!

 

[Kainazzo]

You gotta bit the bullet and do multistage rockets.

If they are asparagus staged much better, but I think a simple three stages rocket should take you to the mun and back.

Because I'd never used asparagus until recently, I had no idea how much it improved fuel efficiency. It almost feels like cheating, since I can purposely under engineer designs as the asparagus boost is so large. I'd almost suggest that new players stay away from it, so that it doesn't become a crutch. Using 6 mainsails with the Jumbo tanks in asparagus is just so good 0_o. I'm convinced you could SSTO then to Eeloo in under 50 parts that way.

 

[SJRB]

Can anyone do me a favor and boot up these the Kerbal X stock rocket and shoot it into space to see what happens?

Either I am missing something extremely obvious or my game is somehow messed. I'm getting a weird problem I never had before with every vehicle I launch [random tilting/not responsive to SAS/uncontrolable].

 

[gutterboy44]

Can anyone do me a favor and boot up these the Kerbal X stock rocket and shoot it into space to see what happens?

Either I am missing something extremely obvious or my game is somehow messed. I'm getting a weird problem I never had before with every vehicle I launch [random tilting/not responsive to SAS/uncontrolable].

You using mech jeb, other controllers like joystick? Did you accidentally remove a fuel line that would effect the uniform draining of radially placed fuel tanks? I find that happens with asparagus staged rockets. It will take off in a horrible tilt because I got a fuel line wrong and one side of the rocket is draining fuel much faster than the other so it goes way off balance. I can take a look at the Kerbal X rocket in a few minutes.

Edit: Looks like it is missing an ASAS module. Once you put a ASAS module on there you can utilize the winglets and main engine gimbal to control your craft. Even with the ASAS added it is still a bit wobbly but nothing a few struts can't fix!

 

[ElFly]

I am used to gimballed engines but yeah.

 

[gutterboy44]

I am used to gimballed engines but yeah.

I would make sure your center of mass and center of thrust are both in the center-line of your craft. If you are off center in thrust or mass you are likely to get some tilt or rotation. Keeping your craft symmetrical is always a safe bet at keeping things stable during launch.

Try adding a SAS , ASAS and some tail fins (non-controlled winged surface). See if that stabilizes the rotation during launch. A screenshot of your ship would help.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

Any idea on when .21 Is releasing? All I've been doing is crashing things into Mun and making planes. But I actually bothered to put something into orbit and want to take things "more seriously" but if .21 Is going to break save compatibility I'd want to hold off.

 

[FillerB]

If things are still bad you can always cheat and press + to increase the time rate and then - to immediately make it back to normal, cause time warp stops your rocket from moving over itself.

And if your rocket is wobbling: add some structs! They'll keep it more stable and thus less likely to spin out of control in the first place.

 

[SJRB]

You using mech jeb, other controllers like joystick? Did you accidentally remove a fuel line that would effect the uniform draining of radially placed fuel tanks? I find that happens with asparagus staged rockets. It will take off in a horrible tilt because I got a fuel line wrong and one side of the rocket is draining fuel much faster than the other so it goes way off balance. I can take a look at the Kerbal X rocket in a few minutes.

Edit: Looks like it is missing an ASAS module. Once you put a ASAS module on there you can utilize the winglets and main engine gimbal to control your craft. Even with the ASAS added it is still a bit wobbly but nothing a few struts can't fix!

Thanks mr Snipes, you were right. Adding an ASAS module helped a lot. So much to learn haha, can't wait until it's weekend and I can try some proper space mission.

 

[thefil]

Is there any way to lock gimbals in build mode? I hate having to do it for every launch of the same craft.

 

[Aleph]

Is there any way to lock gimbals in build mode? I hate having to do it for every launch of the same craft.

You can use Action Groups, which are basically personalized keybinds that allow you to do many things with one key. Wiki link. You can find them by pressing the button next to the "Parts" button in edit mode (top mid-left, I think).

 

[akira28]

She packed my bags last night. Pre-flight. Zero hour, 9 am.

I'm gonna be high...as a kite by then.

 

[SpudBud]

I got Jeb back into Mun's orbit. Now I have to build something to get him back.

Edit: I had enough fuel after all. First successful round trip.

 

[Brashnir]

She packed my bags last night. Pre-flight. Zero hour, 9 am.

I'm gonna be high...as a kite by then.

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

 

[Walshicus]

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids.

It's cold as hell!

 

[Disorientator]

Not closely following KSP developent(s) - I had no idea they were working on a new KSC.



1st pic:

SPH building exterior. Ah, please note: the background is just a static image (skybox), just like in SPH and VAB interiors. It's one of the few that come bundled with Unity. Sorry to blow your cloudy hopes up!

2nd:

Tracking center dishes. They work as a synced array, switching targets from time to time.

also:

We forgot to tell you, but you can now move the camera in the space center menu.

Looks/sounds great!!

KSP Weekly, July 16th - New KSC

 

[DSix]

So, should I wait for the next update before making any permanent bases/stations?

 

[gutterboy44]

Decided to make some weird shit with lots of SRBs last night. I though a metal work "core" would be neat too. Didn't turn out half bad. I made it all the way to Jool's orbit with fuel to spare.
A nice base of large SRBs topped with a triple nuke vessel

The struts should keep that thin core shaft together right?

Ok, so I added some more lift

Orbit without much fuss. Had to rearrange some stages but I made it. Little solar panel array and ASAS hidden at the base of the core shaft

All that is left, Jool bound!

 

[Gareth Bale]

I managed to dock for the first time! It took me a few hours and I had to watch a few youtube tutorials. It also took me ages to realise I had to burn retrograde to get the target speed to 0m/s rather than burn opposite the target marker. Also, when I got to within 20 metres and tried to use my RCS it didn't work. And then I realised RCS needed fuel, which I didn't put on my rocket because I'm an idiot. So I had to dock using the engine.

 

[Alien Bob]

Your first dock and it's without RCS? Jeez

 

[Windom Earle]

Oh fuck, i need this.

 

[Gareth Bale]

Your first dock and it's without RCS? Jeez

I really couldn't be fucked with another launch.

I'm sure NASA would have done the same.

 

[GK86]

Decided to make some weird shit with lots of SRBs last night. I though a metal work "core" would be neat too. Didn't turn out half bad. I made it all the way to Jool's orbit without a fuel to spare.
A nice base of large SRBs topped with a triple nuke vessel


The struts should keep that thin core shaft together right?


Ok, so I added some more lift


Orbit without much fuss. Had to rearrange some stages but I made it. Little solar panel array and ASAS hidden at the base of the core shaft


All that is left, Jool bound!

Holy shit that looks badass.

 

[ElFly]

Landing on Minmus is easier compared to landing on the Mun.

Well I landed on the side and broke one wheel from my rover which completely ruined it. For reference, in my landing on the Mun the landing module exploded and the capsule somehow survived so the kerbals could do EVA but no hope of coming back IT STILL COUNTS.

Using RCS I managed to upright my ship. I probably would have been able to not use RCS cause the gravity on minmus is so low. Used mechjeb to get me to the orbit of minmus since I have done it a few times and was only interested on practicing my landing.

I had to activate the stage of the rover which send it flying away 300m into the air. I need to plan better for the next Rover. With the hatch free, my kerbals can EVA now. At this point I notice I forgot to add parachutes to the landing module but this will be a moot point in the next image.

For some reason, when taking control of the module to take out the third kerbal for EVA, the damn thing took off. Still dunno what happened, I could not turn it off; maybe it had to do with my activation of the Rover stage, but then again, I could take two kerbals off the ship before it happened.

Last kerbal bails out of the out of control ship.

His apoapsis is 38K. I tried to break his fall with his little jetpack to no avail. Out of respect I will not show the kerbal shaped hole he left on the surface of Minmus when he died.

Well at least the surviving kerbals found the wheel. Not that I can do anything with it but at least it's good for a photo and gives them something to play with while I figure out how to rescue them.

 

[gutterboy44]

I managed to dock for the first time! It took me a few hours and I had to watch a few youtube tutorials. It also took me ages to realise I had to burn retrograde to get the target speed to 0m/s rather than burn opposite the target marker. Also, when I got to within 20 metres and tried to use my RCS it didn't work. And then I realised RCS needed fuel, which I didn't put on my rocket because I'm an idiot. So I had to dock using the engine.

Wow man, that must have been a bitch. Very impressive. Docking with RCS should be cake for you.

 

[gutterboy44]

Sneak peek of .21 with Scott Manley. Looks great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9oH49oFlN8

 

[SJRB]

Sneak peek of .21 with Scott Manley. Looks great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9oH49oFlN8

Looks awesome!

The drifting trucks in the hangar are great, haha. The redesign looks aces.


Edit: wow the Mun redesign is GREAT.

 

[GK86]

Stupid question time, does this save automatically? Finally got a satellite into orbit, I wanna make sure I don't lose the progress.

 

[MJLord]

Looks awesome!

The drifting trucks in the hangar are great, haha. The redesign looks aces.


Edit: wow the Mun redesign is GREAT.

Yeah the Mun looks amazing. I think the terrain is a little TOO uneven though. Maybe that's just me then.

 

[Mindlog]

Decided to make some weird shit with lots of SRBs last night. I though a metal work "core" would be neat too. Didn't turn out half bad. I made it all the way to Jool's orbit with fuel to spare.
A nice base of large SRBs topped with a triple nuke vessel

Pancake staging. As Lord Kerbin intended! The overkill was particularly excellent.
It's great to see all these new space programs starting up. I'm going to finally start an Eve round trip program after the next patch. All automation off of course.

 

[weekend_warrior]

Stupid question time, does this save automatically? Finally got a satellite into orbit, I wanna make sure I don't lose the progress.

No, if you put something in orbit and want to leave it there and come back to it later after doing other stuff you want to select the option to "go to space center" not "abort mission".

 

[GK86]

No, if you put something in orbit and want to leave it there and come back to it later after doing other stuff you want to select the option to "go to space center" not "abort mission".

Thank you!

 

[ElFly]

Electrocharge used to rotate the ship may be annoying, but I guess it was ridiculous to do it for free.

 

[s_mirage]

Electrocharge used to rotate the ship may be annoying, but I guess it was ridiculous to do it for free.

I predict this change ending up being a bit contentious. As it is the game is extremely fun, and seeing as the absurdity of it all is part of that, I'm not sure adding more limitations is the way to go. Not while it's still a pure sandbox at least.

 

[DSix]

Electrocharge used to rotate the ship may be annoying, but I guess it was ridiculous to do it for free.

Yeah, I just hope it wont take too many solar pannels to work reliably, and that the batteries are integrated into the cockpits. Too much clutter on ships wont be too good for my framerate.

Maybe limiting the power need to SAS would be a better idea.

 

[MJLord]

It shouldn't be too bad considering the flat solar panels are pretty much costless. My ships are covered in them for decor anyway.

 

[SJRB]

Just a heads-up: there's a cool marathon going on over at Twitch where different guys from the community take turns in completing challenges and stuff like that.

Going on since yesterday, will go on until tomorrow.

 

[Chev]

Electrocharge used to rotate the ship may be annoying, but I guess it was ridiculous to do it for free.

I don't mind it but they need to add electricity generation on the LV-909. I'd also like a part that can use fuel to generate electricity, just relying on solar panels is a problem during the night and the radioactive rod thingies are kinda ugly.

 

[Woorloog]

I don't mind it but they need to add electricity generation on the LV-909. I'd also like a part that can use fuel to generate electricity, just relying on solar panels is a problem during the night and the radioactive rod thingies are kinda ugly.

Things being ugly is part of rocketry.
OTOH, it wouldn't be a problem if they would finally add fairings (hide "ugly" stuff behind them), don't like using mods to get them, especially since i haven't found a mod that adds only them and nothing else.

 

[SJRB]

There's a live .21 update showcase going on right now at the stream I linked.

 

[microtubule]

Watching the twitch early access stream now, thanks for the heads up. The terrain looks much improved among other things!!

 

[gutterboy44]

God I love this game. I have been building rockets for over a year now, never running out of stuff to do, then I realize, I don't touch the space planes much. Now I am obsessed with building SSTOs. Can't wait for the new SAS in .21 it looks like it will improve the flying substantially.

 

[Gareth Bale]

I managed to land on Minmus. I got to the Mun with my own rocket, but for Minmus I just installed Rocketry and used one of the stock ones that I added RCS to.

I installed Mechjeb as well and messed around with that for a bit. I'll probably use that to get to the other planets once I fully understand it. This game is so much fun.

 

[Aleph]

Today I managed to get to the Mün and back for the first time (I had managed to get there before but ran out of fuel). It's amazing to see the difference in fuel used between going to the Mün and returning from it.

 

[SJRB]

Jesus, I finally got a rocket into Kerbal orbit. After trying the entire weekend with the most insane constructions I finally did it by going back to basics and build a super simple rocket.

I always ran into fuel shortage problems, but I figured out I could save a lot of fuel by not burning after my apoapsis reached 75km. I also figured out I made a fundamental mistake in burning to the wrong side in order to gain full orbit.


But anyway, even though I only figured out the absolute basics of this game I'm glad I actually made some progress. This whole ordeal has been pretty frustrating, haha.

 

[pheonix991]

Jesus, I finally got a rocket into Kerbal orbit. After trying the entire weekend with the most insane constructions I finally did it by going back to basics and build a super simple rocket.

I always ran into fuel shortage problems, but I figured out I could save a lot of fuel by not burning after my apoapsis reached 75km. I also figured out I made a fundamental mistake in burning to the wrong side in order to gain full orbit.


But anyway, even though I only figured out the absolute basics of this game I'm glad I actually made some progress. This whole ordeal has been pretty frustrating, haha.

Does anyone actually do the tutorials? You should have been able to do this within an hour of getting the game if you followed the tutorials up to getting into orbit, then going and building your own rocket.

But, I feel your pain. I was overbuilding my rockets, eventually had to lighten them up, and amazingly, I can pretty much go anywhere in the solar system I want with my "Go to" design.

 

[gutterboy44]

Shit, space planes are a bitch. I keep trying for an SSTO but anything but a single jet engine in the center results in flat spins when you hit the flame out zone. Still lots if fun, guess I will just keep my jet engines in the center and the rocket engines outboard.

 

[MJLord]

Shit, space planes are a bitch. I keep trying for an SSTO but anything but a single jet engine in the center results in flat spins when you hit the flame out zone. Still lots if fun, guess I will just keep my jet engines in the center and the rocket engines outboard.

I still have to build an SSTO that can get into orbit consistently.

 

[HundredEyeMonk]

Finally got into space, did some orbit maneuvers to do some large orbits and then really shallow orbits, and then managed to get my orbited to parachute down right next to the space center in the bay there.

Can't wait to start trying to launch satellites, stations, lunar landing, etc.

 

[Kainazzo]

Shit, space planes are a bitch. I keep trying for an SSTO but anything but a single jet engine in the center results in flat spins when you hit the flame out zone. Still lots if fun, guess I will just keep my jet engines in the center and the rocket engines outboard.

I've had a lot of success using ion engines for SSTOs. Using a small, 1-seater plane, I put 6 ion engines and as many Gigantor solar arrays as I can around the craft, then keep a low altitude as I build up horizontal speed. Eventually you'll "skip" up higher, flameout, then transition to the ion engines. Once you're in orbit, you can pretty much go anywhere, albeit not very quickly.

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