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Kerbal Space Program : like model rocket building but better and [no longer] free

Bought full game and in second flight managed to send of poor Kerbalnaut into solar orbit lol. Of course, with no way to return back home :D

Much easier to reach orbit in this last version, but tricky as hell to hit a Mun or even that other planet :)
 
The mun and minmus are easy once you know how to read the navball and change orbits. well, there's still the matter of building reasonable rockets but a lot more of them become viable when you're not wasting fuel in silly maneuvers.
 
The missus was genuinely amused by my stupid smile when I finally got into orbit around Kearth this weekend.

I've also managed to get out of the pull of the gravity of Kearth. Now to figure out how to get to Mun and land
 
The mun and minmus are easy once you know how to read the navball and change orbits. well, there's still the matter of building reasonable rockets but a lot more of them become viable when you're not wasting fuel in silly maneuvers.

Getting back though......:P
 
Getting back though......:P

Actually, getting back is really easy. I mean, the basics are to litterally just drop back on Kerbin, and getting into orbit is simpler without atmosphere (and, on minmus, with so little gravity a sneeze you get you there). There'll be all kinds of new fun with the new planets that include atmospheres though.
 
From breaking the lander's legs to running out of lander fuel, it's not been easy for me.



Btw, does anyone find that the bigger fuel tanks and engines are much too heavy and powerful for the available couplers? Te lower parts of my rocket tend to want to go through the upper part after takeoff.
 
Holy. Shit.

Ok, so I was dicking around building a rocket with the huge FL tanks and rockets and managed to get one in orbit with a fair amount of reserve fuel. Ok, guess I'll shoot for the mun (never been there yet). Swing around to the opposite side of Kerbin from the mun, burn the engine and push out the apoapsis towards the mun. Works great, a little too great as I accidently push the apoapsis well past it. Nothing I can do so I float towards the mun, past it, and back to Kerbin. This time I retro burn the other direction to bring the apoapsis back in line with the Muns orbit, I have no idea if our points in orbit will meet again, but I head out and unbelievably about 4/5ths of the way there orbit tracker changes to show I'm going to be captured by the Mun! Amazing! But I have a problem. It shows that while I'll be captured by the Mun, I'm just going to be flung off into space. I know I have plenty of main rocket fuel to make the necessary burns to prevent that, but my RCS is almost out, and I probably won't be able to maneuver to burn in the right directions to get back to Kerbin. So I'm left with a choice of staying on course and drifting into space, or retro burning and crashing into the Mun. I pick the latter. With the last of the RCS I flip away from the Mun and burn to slow my speed. It works as expected and my trajectory changes to show in impact. I start tumbling into the Mun and see an opportunity. As a last ditch effort to save my crew I time the tumbles and burn the rockets full force right as they're facing downward to try and break away from the weak gravity. The last of the fuel burns away, and, defeated, I check the world map. Unbelievably my last ditch effort had worked! My crew made it into orbit at the last possible minute, my periapsis is just 2,300 meters off the surface. So now their just floating around the Mun, waiting to be rescued. Sorry for the long write up, it was just an awesome moment.

TL;DR- This game is fucking awesome.
 
Holy. Shit.

Ok, so I was dicking around building a rocket with the huge FL tanks and rockets and managed to get one in orbit with a fair amount of reserve fuel. Ok, guess I'll shoot for the mun (never been there yet). Swing around to the opposite side of Kerbin from the mun, burn the engine and push out the apoapsis towards the mun. Works great, a little too great as I accidently push the apoapsis well past it. Nothing I can do so I float towards the mun, past it, and back to Kerbin. This time I retro burn the other direction to bring the apoapsis back in line with the Muns orbit, I have no idea if our points in orbit will meet again, but I head out and unbelievably about 4/5ths of the way there orbit tracker changes to show I'm going to be captured by the Mun! Amazing! But I have a problem. It shows that while I'll be captured by the Mun, I'm just going to be flung off into space. I know I have plenty of main rocket fuel to make the necessary burns to prevent that, but my RCS is almost out, and I probably won't be able to maneuver to burn in the right directions to get back to Kerbin. So I'm left with a choice of staying on course and drifting into space, or retro burning and crashing into the Mun. I pick the latter. With the last of the RCS I flip away from the Mun and burn to slow my speed. It works as expected and my trajectory changes to show in impact. I start tumbling into the Mun and see an opportunity. As a last ditch effort to save my crew I time the tumbles and burn the rockets full force right as they're facing downward to try and break away from the weak gravity. The last of the fuel burns away, and, defeated, I check the world map. Unbelievably my last ditch effort had worked! My crew made it into orbit at the last possible minute, my periapsis is just 2,300 meters off the surface. So now their just floating around the Mun, waiting to be rescued. Sorry for the long write up, it was just an awesome moment.

TL;DR- This game is fucking awesome.

Hahahaha awesome! Now you'll need a whole bus to go rescue them haha.
 
Made it to the Mun for the first time with a three quarter tank in my lander left. Unfourtunately I haven't quite figured out how to get back into a decent orbit around Kerbin from Mun. I had to burn all my fuel to get into orbit, with nothing left to slow the orbit and land back safely.

I am having major trouble aligning my rocket to get into a nice stable orbit after take-off. My orbit's plain doesn't align with the Mun's plain.
 
Made it to the Mun for the first time with a three quarter tank in my lander left. Unfourtunately I haven't quite figured out how to get back into a decent orbit around Kerbin from Mun. I had to burn all my fuel to get into orbit, with nothing left to slow the orbit and land back safely.

I am having major trouble aligning my rocket to get into a nice stable orbit after take-off. My orbit's plain doesn't align with the Mun's plain.

Always aim for 90 degrees when you take off so that your orbit follows Kerbin's ecuator. Aka turn right after lift off hehe.
 
To do a landing on the mun, I have to kill sideways velocity with my second to last stage, the lander module itself is only equipped with the weakest engine and not strong enough to slow me down enough.
I'm using 5 big tanks with 3 of the biggest engine to get me into orbit and then 5 400l tanks with the middle engine to get me to the mun. I would love to take more fuel with me, but I doubt I'll even get off the ground thenl. The rocket is already unstable enough, so adding more engines is out of the question and I can't really cut anything. Hmmm...
 
From breaking the lander's legs to running out of lander fuel, it's not been easy for me.



Btw, does anyone find that the bigger fuel tanks and engines are much too heavy and powerful for the available couplers? Te lower parts of my rocket tend to want to go through the upper part after takeoff.

The big couplers are crappy, you need to supplement them with a few struts. I hope they'll reinforce them in the next update and amp the power a bit, since I often have problems with them not ejecting the stages far enough.

Not breaking the lander is really just a matter of hitting the ground at a reasonable speed (say, under 10m/s), which also means as little lateral speed as possible. And the key to doing that without wasting fuel is to not decelerate too early. Once you're on a landing trajectory there's little point in decelerating below 200m/s above 10km or so (unless you engines aren't too beefy and need a little room to decelerate).

Worthy of note, the plane landing gear is a good deal more resistant to impact (though it lacks a handbrake) so there's actually viable options in using it for the landing then switch for struts to stay in one spot.
 
1024x576.resizedimage


I went for a larger lunar lander for my latest mission. Last time I didn’t have enough fuel to return to Kerbin. I wouldn't make that mistake again!

Things were looking great for this mission. I made it to the Mun with plenty of fuel, had a near perfect landing without burning excess fuel. After a fun little jaunt on the Mun I was ready to set off back home. I checked my fuel tank, main tank almost empty but the small four side tanks were all full. Fuck yeah, plenty of fuel. RCS tanks were very full too.

So I begin my launch off Mun, set my orbit, pro burned and see that I will be captured by Kerbin (rather high orbit, but a capture none the less). Now orbiting Kerbin I am ready for my final burn that will put me back on the surface of my beloved home planet. Double check fuel, main tank is on fumes but all four reserve tanks are full. Brilliant, no way to fuck this up. I begin my retro burn…and it stops with my Pe some 215k m out. Wtf! I look at my ship, I have fuel lines attached from the reserve tanks to the main tank. Shouldn’t this allow fuel pass through to the engine? Guess not. I am at a loss. If only I could EVA and move a fuel line! But no, I am stranded again, forever orbiting home. But wait, my RCS! I have plenty of fuel and my lander was designed with eight single thrusters on the bottom of the craft in addition to the multi-directional nose thruster array. I orientate retro and burn. I watch my Pe slowly edge toward Kerbin. 150K m….100K m…so close, come on RCS go, go, go! Finally the orbital path converges on the surface of Kerbin. I can go home! I nearly destroy my command capsule as I jetison my remaing stages in a panic as I forget to dial back the warp. Thankfully my three parachutes slow me down and open as planned. A successful mission!

TL;DR - Over building can sometimes lead to unintended benefits, go RCS! Second, always, always test your fuel line systems and later stages before setting off on your mission!
 
As a complete space geek, I felt it would be irresponsible of me not to buy the full version. I'm having a little trouble reliably getting into orbit. Well, at least anything resembling a circular orbit. I am terrible at reading the attitude ball and piloting the craft. But I'm slowly getting better.

What addons does everyone suggest? I'm just using stock parts right now, but I'm itching for some cooler stuff.
 
As a complete space geek, I felt it would be irresponsible of me not to buy the full version. I'm having a little trouble reliably getting into orbit. Well, at least anything resembling a circular orbit. I am terrible at reading the attitude ball and piloting the craft. But I'm slowly getting better.

What addons does everyone suggest? I'm just using stock parts right now, but I'm itching for some cooler stuff.

First off watch some of these tutorial videos. The orbital mechanics one is great and it looks like some new ones have been added about achieving orbit.

It seems tempting to get a bunch of mods and facilitate some short comings with them but for me, only a week and a half in playing KSP, I really like using vanilla parts only. There is something more fulfilling to me when I make my own weird crafts with existing parts than just simply attaching, "lunar rover" part to the top of some mostly pre built rocket and delivery system. I think I am going to hold off for at least .17 before I install any mods. So much to do with the parts already available. That is just personal preference.

At the very least I would recommend getting the basics of launch, orbit and a few Mun missions under your belt before going mod crazy. MechJab mod can really become an early crutch from what I understand. But once again, this is just how I enjoy the game. I am sure some people love mostly only the mod stuff.
 
1024x576.resizedimage


I went for a larger lunar lander for my latest mission. Last time I didn’t have enough fuel to return to Kerbin. I wouldn't make that mistake again!

Things were looking great for this mission. I made it to the Mun with plenty of fuel, had a near perfect landing without burning excess fuel. After a fun little jaunt on the Mun I was ready to set off back home. I checked my fuel tank, main tank almost empty but the small four side tanks were all full. Fuck yeah, plenty of fuel. RCS tanks were very full too.

So I begin my launch off Mun, set my orbit, pro burned and see that I will be captured by Kerbin (rather high orbit, but a capture none the less). Now orbiting Kerbin I am ready for my final burn that will put me back on the surface of my beloved home planet. Double check fuel, main tank is on fumes but all four reserve tanks are full. Brilliant, no way to fuck this up. I begin my retro burn…and it stops with my Pe some 215k m out. Wtf! I look at my ship, I have fuel lines attached from the reserve tanks to the main tank. Shouldn’t this allow fuel pass through to the engine? Guess not. I am at a loss. If only I could EVA and move a fuel line! But no, I am stranded again, forever orbiting home. But wait, my RCS! I have plenty of fuel and my lander was designed with eight single thrusters on the bottom of the craft in addition to the multi-directional nose thruster array. I orientate retro and burn. I watch my Pe slowly edge toward Kerbin. 150K m….100K m…so close, come on RCS go, go, go! Finally the orbital path converges on the surface of Kerbin. I can go home! I nearly destroy my command capsule as I jetison my remaing stages in a panic as I forget to dial back the warp. Thankfully my three parachutes slow me down and open as planned. A successful mission!

TL;DR - Over building can sometimes lead to unintended benefits, go RCS! Second, always, always test your fuel line systems and later stages before setting off on your mission!

Awesome story. The RCS has saved me several times too, and running out has doomed me, a lesson learned to always bring plenty of fuel. Did you diagnose the problem with the fuel lines? Maybe they broke off during launch?
 
Did you diagnose the problem with the fuel lines? Maybe they broke off during launch?

Not yet, didn't have time last night. I thought in some previous design I had a working pass through setup like this. It may be related to when you move a large part with a lot of other parts attached, struts and fuel lines auto reattach in weird configurations.

Worst case scenario I can just run lines from each reserve tank to the engine and just disable fuel flow on them until I am on the moon.
 
While trying to show the game off to my girlfriend today I decoupled the capsule while my periapsis was still a bit too high, and I kept bouncing off the atmosphere. Not willing to wait 45 minutes until the capsule would finally slow down enough to deorbit, I had Raybert Kerman EVA at the apoapsis and push the capsule retrograde a few times. At one point he hit the capsule a bit too hard and ragdolled, and I thought he was totally fucked, but he managed to regain control and the periapsis was brought down enough for a safe water landing.

I love this game so much.
 
sup.

http://i.imgur.com/xPaFp.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

Lol his face in the corner says it all.
--

I've been taking the game in stages after buying the full version. I've had fun reading everyone's stories so I thought I would share mine.

First I wanted to build a good land based vehicle for the future missions. Unfortunately, I had to resort to mods to find anything that would go faster than 20m/s without the physics freaking out and blowing it up randomly. The landing gear always ends up shaking violently and exploding if I go any faster on terrain. So, after plenty of speed tests on terrain, I decided upon this design which I was able to get around 200m/s top speed before it becomes unstable:
[IMG]http://i.minus.com/iJzBSvemRutTZ.png


After that was done, next I wanted to get a reference point into orbit. I chose to build a large space station. This was my proclaimed ISS (Not very creative):
ifyXu2ozl89qM.png



I didn't anticipate it's great size causing me so many problems. Getting it airborne became very difficult. I had problems between balancing, weight, and power output. Breaking even the 2000m barrier was very difficult. Eventually I took advantage of the games new jet engines as a cheap, light, thrust source for the first stage:
i2nwAjhHHg59N.png



I was finally able to get it into orbit. The cool thing about it is it contains the 'space station dock' mod so when I get lazy I can just teleport crafts to start from my space station now. It's made for an amazing testing platform.
ibtreZ37gQwwYV.png


Unfortunately, while gathering the screenshots for this post, I blanked out and clicked the dreaded 'end mission' button. So it looks like I am going to have to relaunch it again.
 
...
After that was done, next I wanted to get a reference point into orbit. I chose to build a large space station. This was my proclaimed ISS (Not very creative):
...

Haha. This is awesome. I love seeing people set super ambitious goals and then shoe horn in the engineering with insane solutions like that. Love the jet engines for the first stage. Great stuff. I think I need to set some more lofty goals. Built a nice space plane last night, nothing mega but it worked well.

 
As I begin my space program with the goal to land Kerbals on, and return them safely from, the Mun and Minmus, I've decided to chronicle my progress. My space program will roughly correspond to NASA's flight plan in the 60s: test out and master rudimentary mechanics of space flight in a one person capsule before moving on to a three person capsule which will then take me to the Mun and Minmus. Here's a mission recap of my third mission, the first where I actually set out with a goal in mind beforehand*.

Mission: Mercury-Atlas I

Rocket: A three stage rocket with a single person capsule, nicknamed Mercury-Atlas.

qAQzX.png


Primary Objective: Achieve a circular orbit.

Secondary Objectives:

  • Achieve a circular equatorial orbit
  • Test out and practice with RCS

Results: While the full rocket seemed wobbly off the pad, it maintained a steady ascent and constant heading though the entirety of the burn of the first stage rocket. After jettison of the first stage, the wobble disappeared, and I soon began the roll to prepare for orbit. The second stage was used for 2 separate burns, one to prepare for orbit, and the other for my orbital insertion. The fuel tanks in the second stage ran dry just before achieving orbit, forcing me to use the rocket on my final stage to finish the orbital insertion. Orbit was achieved successfully and I let the spacecraft cruise for most of an orbit until attempting to circularize the orbit. This is where I made my first significant mistake, as before the circularization burn, I attempted to change my incline, but did so with the wrong attitude. This just resulted in a slight decrease in my apoapsis. As a precaution, I scrubbed any other chances to change the incline. The circularization burn went very well and I ended up with a 1km difference between periapsis and apoapsis.

MO9Ag.png


Testing and practice with the RCS while in orbit was completed successfully. I allowed the spacecraft to complete one more orbit before bring it down safely in the ocean.

Findings: Although it was unintentional, the separation of the second stage just before orbital insertion turned out to be a blessing, as it meant the second stage did not create orbital debris, but instead fell back to Kerbin. As a result, I have made detaching the second stage just before orbital insertion part of mission protocol. The failure of the inclination correction burn as lead to a change in my mission protocol. From now on, the orbit will be circularized first, then the inclination will be corrected.

Next Mission: Redesign rocket to reduce or eliminate wobble in first stage and attempt to achieve a circular, equatorial orbit.

* My first mission was a short suborbital flight that landed in the ocean adjacent to the Kerbal Space Center, while the second was a single orbit flight that had an elliptical orbit.
 
"The Twirly Bird"

mPbi3.png


A terrifying experience. Besides spinning around about 3 rev/sec, it's also semi-stabilizing, so it falls horizontal, then goes back upright, then falls horizontal, then goes back upright. Until it crashes of course.
 
Great posts. In fact, they inspired me to get active again and finally relaunch that station so I can start working on new stuff.
 
Damn... I gotta buy this game. Too bad this POS laptop cannot run it properly... nor anything else.
I need to buy that new computer ASAP...
 
Completed the 4th mission in my Mercury program, which I have now rechristianed as Kercury. It will be the final mission on the Kercury program. The Kerbollo program is up next.

Mission: Mercury-Atlas II/Kercury-Atlas II

Rocket: Modified variant of my Mercury-Atlas rocket. Control surfaces were moved, 4 small vectoring engines were added to the first stage and an Advanced ASAS module was added to the Service Module.


Primary Objective: Attain a circular, equatorial orbit.

Secondary Objectives: None

Mission Briefing: First stage still had a wobble. Orbit was attained pretty easily, with both first and second stages being jettisoned to impact the ocean. Circularization happened nominally, though due to miscalculation of when the spacecraft would reach apoapsis it took several small burns instead of the desired one large one. After attaining a circular orbit ( < 1 km difference), I attempted an incline correction burn. It was successful.


After a few more orbits, I brought the ship back down to Kerbin, attempting to hit the water right next to the KSC. I was slightly off, as the capsule hit the ground just to the west of the KSC, though close enough that I could see the lights on the runway.

Findings: I'm still not sure how to get rid of the wobble during the first stage ascent. I think it might be inherent to the design. It's not a big concern though, since I'm moving on to a new design for my missions to the Mun anyway.

While my circularization and incline correction burns weren't perfect, they were very good. More than good enough to move on to focusing on reaching the Mun.

My landing technique needs a little work. I forgot to take into account how the capsule slowing due to the friction of the atmosphere would change my trajectory. This can be easily fixed during the next flight.

I've had the same Kerbal for every mission so far. It's good because it means I've brought him back successfully every time, but I just wish he wasn't such a pansy. The look on his face was always horror, even when sitting still on the pad on essentially the same rocket he had just rode successfully 3 times before. He was cruising majestically through space in a thoroughly tested rocket with plenty of fuel to get home, and couldn't have looked more terrified.


My program needs more Kerbals like Jebediah. He has the kind of guts I can only dream of. With some luck, I hope to make him the first Kerbal to step foot on the Mun.

Next Mission: Building and testing my Kerbollo Mun rocket. I could probably get away with just making some minor adjustments to my existing Mercury-Atlas mk II rocket, but where's the fun in that? Besides, that wobble does concern me.
 
"Welp, got my thing back in orbit... guess I'll take a break."
*Sees Oozers awesome story.
"Back in the game I go!"
 
Really amusing game when playing for fun.
I was crying from laughter when I have finaly launched my first set of creations.
 
Since i bought a new laptop (now waiting for delivery), i guess i could buy this game as well. The trial version was a lot of fun.
How much is this at the moment?
$18? So, 14&#8364;. Yup, gotta buy this one.
 
Since i bought a new laptop (now waiting for delivery), i guess i could buy this game as well. The trial version was a lot of fun.
How much is this at the moment?
$18? So, 14€. Yup, gotta buy this one.

I easily got my $18 worth and I haven't even done a lander mission yet. Love this game.
 
Neil Armstrong died today. I thought that should be posted in this thread. Quote from his family:

The next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.
 
I built a rocket and lander really quick last night for a Mun landing before going to bed to honor Neil Armstrong. Things went smoothly, a fitting tribute it seemed. After a quick Mun walk I got back in my lander and set off for home, only to qucikly realize I forgot the damn fuel lines for my reserve tanks again!!! So Neil Kermstrong remains stranded on the Mun now, I guess that is just as fitting.

 
Bought. Now to build some rockets.
Once the download is complete anyway...

Are there any recommended mods? Any "must-haves"?
 
Bought. Now to build some rockets.
Once the download is complete anyway...

Are there any recommended mods? Any "must-haves"?

This page has some good ones:
http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.net/kerbal-space-program-mods

The only one there I can't live without is the buggy. Make sure you read the readme.txt to see how it drives if you get it.

Search the Kerbal Space forums for the more bigger ambitious mods like the space station mod.

Many people like to play the game vanilla though so they feel the most accomplished.
 
Ok, thanks. I'll see about the buggy if i ever manage to leave the atmosphere.

Now i need to name my rocket series.

Kerbil?

EDIT dammit, why is my framerate so low? My system does exceed the system recommendations by far.
EDIT at launcpad, that is, about 20. Very simple and small rocket.

EDIT ok, found my issue i guess, the shaders. Disabling them boosted the frame rate to 30 at launch pad.
 
wow this seems so intriguing yet so intimidating as well..

To a TOTAL noob with not basically no prior knowledge about rockets, physics etc. how hard would it actually be to get into this game without having to watch like 50 tutorials?
 
I assume the game isn't using GPU very much at the moment? Because for such... crude graphics, it doesn't perform particularly well.
Guess they'll focus on optimization later on.

As for the mods, it seems i'm going to need some. I'd like to have more realistic parts, shield sections for cargo etc and some sort multi-rocket connectors, currently the game has only one with triple attachement points, i'd like to have one with 4 or more. Would love to emulate Soviet rocket looks.

My Kerbil-series of rockets had survival rate of 100% but otherwise they weren't really succesful, not breaking even 100km limit. Time to retire the series and commence building the next one, Krat-series. More crew, and generally bigger rockets, probably with some control surfaces this time.
EDIT need to figure out the name for series-3 too, Krabbit? Also need a name for series-1 space planes... Krog?


wow this seems so intriguing yet so intimidating as well..

To a TOTAL noob with not basically no prior knowledge about rockets, physics etc. how hard would it actually be to get into this game without having to watch like 50 tutorials?
You don't really need to understand any of those. Just remember Newton's Laws, specifically the third one.

Download the demo and just start building rockets, trying them out is the fun in this game :)
 
thanks, i tried the demo on my laptop and unfortunately it ran like crap even with downscaled details and resolution, so i will give it another go next time on my desktop :)
 
thanks, i tried the demo on my laptop and unfortunately it ran like crap even with downscaled details and resolution, so i will give it another go next time on my desktop :)

Yeah, it (that is, even the newer full version) doesn't run too well, even on a better machine. Very unoptimized but then it is still alpha, more or less. Or even earlier...

Krat 1 was failure. Gained maybe 40km of attitude, didn't have enough power to reach 100km. Oh and i managed to, umm, "eject" the pilot, who proceeded to land on water with his jetpack, too fast. The jetpack doesn't work in Kerbin, it seems.

Let's see about mark 2 model...

EDIT my main goal at the moment is to get something to orbit Kerbin at least once, preferrably more. I'll worry about landing later on...
 
Everyone in here needs to get the MechJeb add-on. It makes flying and orbiting so much easier. It's just as fun, too. Some may find it too easy but I enjoy it. Makes me feel like someone sitting in the NASA mission control.

The mod also features probe like command modules. No more dead kerbals!
 
Removing dead kerbals and launch accidents is like removing the chocolate from a chocolate cake. It works for some but it's kinda missing the point and getting rid of the flavour. Mechjeb has its uses (see Scott Manley's august youtube vids where he used it to have a ship carry autonomous probes) but I don't use it for anything I can't do well myself.
 
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