Kerbal Space Program.

Mr Benevolent

Thanks for that. Finally got to Eve last night, I sent two identical craft. Reentry was fine once I bled off speed by 4-5 aerobrake orbits. I got lucky as I'd put 8 of the B9 airbrakes at the top of the craft. Halfway through entry the bastard thing wanted to go nose first, so I opened the airbrakes and it recovered.

Next problem was the chutes. Eve's atmosphere is seriously thick, so when the drogue deployed at 2500m it ripped the command pod off the ship! I had a Kethane rover attached to the bottom of the craft and released it at 2000m so I didn't land on top of it, but it must've blew up on chute deployment or touched down very hard as it's gone. Used lots fuel getting the speed below 50 m/s to ensure the main chutes didn't come off, and the last few drops trying to get the touchdown below 10 m/s. The other craft went in on a steeper entry and was torn apart.

All in all an eventful KSP evening, with 3 of 6 Kerbonauts dead and the others utterly stranded with almost no chance of being rescued. No idea how to rescue them. Next idea is to send a Kethane mapping satellite in a polar orbit and start long term mapping ops.

Tip: On the first highly eccentric aerobraking orbit make your Pe 70km, then raise it to 75-78km and let the orbit decay naturally.

Came across this in AH:

it's not rocket surgery

In KSP it feckin' is!

IRLConor

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

Next problem was the chutes. Eve's atmosphere is seriously thick, so when the drogue deployed at 2500m it ripped the command pod off the ship!

I find adding extra radially mounted chutes further down the craft can help avoid this.

Mr Benevolent

Got my friend into KSP the other day, her was impressed, Ended up needing to rescue 3 Kerbals from the Mun, so I send up a lander with 3 External Command Seats. I seem to only be able to EVA 1 Kerbal and the ship gets uncontrollable after he gets out. What am I doing wrong?

Weirdly, I was hover-taxiing my Rescue lander to the vicinity of the stricken landers. When I was about 300m away Bob comes out of nowhere (we'd left him on the surface on his own) and SLAMS into the dead lander, blowing it to pieces. Some of the pieces were 20km away in under 3 seconds.

CptMackey

Anybody have this on mac? Current laptop won't run it. Have been thinking for a while about a mac book but not sure. If this runs tho I might get one.

Glico Man

CptMackey wrote: »

Anybody have this on mac? Current laptop won't run it. Have been thinking for a while about a mac book but not sure. If this runs tho I might get one.

I do. It ran up ok-ish until one of the latest patches but then it just makes everything jittery and take an age to do anything. Took about 20 minutes the other day to take a rocket from launch pad to space

My macbook is from 2007 though and I've not upgraded to Snow Leopard or beyond, so I'm sure anything produced in the last 3/4 years will run it just fine.

My name is URL

Just purchased this yesterday after messing round with the demo for a few days. Is there any good (easy to follow) beginners guide to using it.. because frankly I have no idea what I'm doing.

Mr Benevolent

My name is URL wrote: »

Just purchased this yesterday after messing round with the demo for a few days. Is there any good (easy to follow) beginners guide to using it.. because frankly I have no idea what I'm doing.

Scott Manley on Youtube is the best source of info.

Akrasia

I got this game last week and it's taking over my life.

I've been trying desperately to get to the Mun but my pesky 8 week old daughter keeps needing attention or something and many a poor Kerbal has been lost to orbit around the Sun

One day soon I'll get there, and probably crash into it, but I'll be back, and that time, I'll bring a lander!

I really want my 12 year old brother in law to start playing this game cause he's used to games that require no effort or thought and this is the complete opposite of that

IRLConor

Akrasia wrote: »

I got this game last week and it's taking over my life.

I've been trying desperately to get to the Mun but my pesky 8 week old daughter keeps needing attention or something and many a poor Kerbal has been lost to orbit around the Sun

One day soon I'll get there, and probably crash into it, but I'll be back, and that time, I'll bring a lander!

I really want my 12 year old brother in law to start playing this game cause he's used to games that require no effort or thought and this is the complete opposite of that

Give it time, it took me ages to figure out how to get into orbit!

Last night I made it all the way to Duna, successfully landed, got out, planted a flag and then took off for the return trip only to find that I had accidentally deployed all of my parachutes (I have a lot on my lander) and I crashed while cutting the lines on all the chutes.

Akrasia

IRLConor wrote: »

Give it time, it took me ages to figure out how to get into orbit!

Last night I made it all the way to Duna, successfully landed, got out, planted a flag and then took off for the return trip only to find that I had accidentally deployed all of my parachutes (I have a lot on my lander) and I crashed while cutting the lines on all the chutes.

I made it to the mun last night. I looked like I was in for the perfect landing with plenty of fuel for the return trip. When It touched ground the rocket engine fell off and the whole craft fell over.

The landing legs I had used were too short for the rocket engine I was using
Feck it, Poor Bob is stuck on the Mun

I tried to rescue him, I was on course and about to burn into a lunar orbit when I realised I had left the SAS on during the warp and my batteries were flat and the ship wouldn't turn, it just spinned aimlessly. I burned the rocket to charge the battery but by then I had missed the window. I chased the Mun a bit to try and get a second go but it was useless so I made it my mission to make sure Jeb got back to Kerbal safely.

It was close but we just about made it.
Tonight we're coming back for ya Bob

IRLConor

Akrasia wrote: »

The landing legs I had used were too short for the rocket engine I was using

It's worth building the lander first and taking it out onto the pad to play with. That way you can iron out the kinks in your lander before bringing it all the way to your destination.

Akrasia

Good idea!

I was a little bit too gung ho that time, I tried to extend the legs in the hanger to check them but it wouldn't let me, and when I got to the launch pad. I figured what the hell and launched.

Surprisingly, the kinds of strategy usually employed by Bruce Willis don't work so well in KSP

CrinkElite

Akrasia wrote: »

I tried to rescue him, I was on course and about to burn into a lunar orbit when I realised I had left the SAS on during the warp and my batteries were flat and the ship wouldn't turn

Don't be afraid to use quick save/load.

Akrasia

CrinkElite

http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1244:_Six_Words

Akrasia

So, at the weekend, I managed to launch a successful rescue mission to the moon.
I landed the rescue lander 7 kilometers from the downed ship and then I tried to walk Bob to the rescue site. Man do Kerbals walk slow. I then learned how to operate the EVA suit and tried to fly him to the rescue ship.

Thanks for the quicksave/quick load tip, cause Bob met with several accidents while trying to eva his way to the rescue site. Eventually he got to the rescue ship, strapped himself into the external seat and we blasted off back home. We managed to get back with barely enough fuel to spare Bob didn't enjoy re-entry so much but he toughed it out and has earned the right to sit out the next few missions

Good for him too cause I decided we needed to launch a space station to orbit. After a few practice explosions, I managed to get into a stable orbit about 300kms up, I was just about to detach the engines in the final stage when disaster struck. The docking pod must have gotten damaged and it came off along with the engines. Now we have a space station in stable orbit but there's no way of docking with it.

Does anyone know if it's possible to add a docking bay while the object is in orbit?

Otherwise it'll be another daring rescue mission

Mr Benevolent

Akrasia wrote: »

Does anyone know if it's possible to add a docking bay while the object is in orbit?

Otherwise it'll be another daring rescue mission

Nope, nothing can be added without a docking port. However, you can send up a rescue mission with a Hitchhiker pod, EVA the Kerbonauts across and bring them back safely. In thoery you could use the Kerbal Attachment System addon to rope both ships together, but what with orbital dynamics that's bound to go wrong.

I have so many rescue missions to perform now that I've no idea what to do. I've 3 guys on Eve, 3 on Duna and at least 5 on the Mun. Maybe I should get them back before they go nuts. Any idea how to mount an Eve rescue?

Mr Benevolent

I moved onto KSP 0.21.1. The Mun looks much better up close, far more craggy. Sent an Apollo style mission over to take a look, but ran out of fuel just after Munar circularisation due to a slight malfunction during launch (first stage broke off). Anyway, the lads are waiting for a fuel resupply. Sent a girder-based rover along for the ride with its own rockets for easy travel as the new Mun is VERY cratered.

BonkeyDonker

Just got the demo of this a few days ago and liked it so much I got the full version. It is good fun - but still getting used to everything. Any tips appreciated?

andy_g

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

Just got the demo of this a few days ago and liked it so much I got the full version. It is good fun - but still getting used to everything. Any tips appreciated?

Practice, practice, test and practice

IRLConor

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

Any tips appreciated?

Getting around the game is all about energy management. You want to minimise the amount of wasted effort at every stage of your flights. Here are some things you can do (roughly ordered from simple to complex):

• Understand how to do gravity turns. This is how you'll get into orbit with enough fuel to do interesting things.
• Don't burn too hard low down in the atmosphere. There's a bunch of complicated maths behind this if you want, but my rule of thumb is to stay below 200m/s until you hit 10,000m.
• Maneuver early. In general, you can make small course corrections early or bigger ones later for the same effect.
• If you're changing an orbit's apoapsis or periapsis, the most efficient burn points are:

At|Burn|To
Apoapsis|Prograde|Raise Periapsis
Apoapsis|Retrograde|Lower Periapsis
Periapsis|Prograde|Raise Apoapsis
Periapsis|Retrograde|Lower Apoapsis

[*] Solid fuel boosters are for early launch stages, nuclear engines are for interplanetary travel, liquid engines are for everything.
[*] Don't bother with nose cones until they update the drag model.
[*] Aerobraking is a great way to avoid expensive de-orbit burns.
[*] Use other planets to change your orbit when possible. (Gravity assist)
[*] Learn about asparagus staging.


Other tips:

• Duct tape is your friend.
• Test your landers on the launch pad before strapping them to the top of a rocket. You don't want to get all the way to your landing site and find that your landing gear is too short for the attached engine.

Today I got to Eeloo, landed and planted a flag. I didn't have enough fuel to make it back home though. I think I need to build a bigger lander to get back from the outer planets.

My name is URL

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

Just got the demo of this a few days ago and liked it so much I got the full version. It is good fun - but still getting used to everything. Any tips appreciated?

Install Mechjeb. People will say it's 'cheating' but bollix to that.. it teaches you how to properly play the game and gives you a chance to see how things should look and feel when you start doing everything manually.

andy_g

My name is URL wrote: »

Install Mechjeb. People will say it's 'cheating' but bollix to that.. it teaches you how to properly play the game and gives you a chance to see how things should look and feel when you start doing everything manually.

Cheater :P

My name is URL

andy_g wrote: »

Cheater :P

I did feel bad about using it at first, but it's worth it now that I can actually get to the Mun unaided.

I can't get back off it but it's better than I could do before :pac:

IRLConor

I also use MechJeb, but mostly to do the things that I can do manually. Every flight starts with a launch to orbit but it's usually not the bit I'm interested in.

Adyx

I found MechJeb to be a great learning tool actually, especially version 2.0xx onwards. The ascent guide is good for new users to get an idea of what type of speeds to be at, when to start your gravity turn etc, even if you don't use the autopilot. It also has some other handy tools like the maneuver node editor and the vessel stats. It's actually so much more than just an autopilot now and as IRLConor said it's handy for the more mundane tasks.

That said, if you can't get into orbit without it, maybe you should go back to flight school.

andy_g

Think im going to update the virtual flying charter so we can issue bans to mechjeb users

So much better to fly and land manually.

Mr Benevolent

Mechjeb is not cheating. Astronauts don't have to manually calculate dV and intercepts, why should Kerbonauts?

CrinkElite

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

Mechjeb is not cheating. Astronauts don't have to manually calculate dV and intercepts, why should Kerbonauts?

Fair enough but half of the fun is flying by the seat of your pants. It may not be realistic but it seems to fit well with the whole Kerbal culture. It's a matter of preference really because you choose your own challenges, and therefor your own difficulty level. The game can be very difficult even with MechJeb installed.

I imagine there will be some sort of automation in the final version as the Kerbals now have stupidity/courage stats.
I suppose they'll have to come into play in some way further down the line.

It's a promising development and one that will hopefully make experienced Kerbals more valuable which will incentivise rescue missions.

BonkeyDonker

Thanks guys - I will look for mechjeb, I have no objections to a little help now that I can get into orbit most of the time, and have managed to rendezvous (eventually - it took several attempt and alot of time) and dock. I have orbited the mun, but not landed yet.

I have started to build my own rockets, and have several base launchers for different weight (5, 10 and 45k loads so far). I have found building these and getting them into a standard orbit to be good, if not time consuming fun.