Kerbal Space Program.

seamus

Playing it right now, there's a tutorial for getting into alignment and docking!

BeardySi

Must investigate!!! I've dipped in and out of this since the early stages so it's great to see it finally get a full release!

Akrasia

There's so much stuff I'm really looking forward to doing with version 1.0. Will probably keep me going for years

Turtwig

Back into this after long a hiatus. (Back into gaming actually.)

Oh how I still love this. As mentioned the re-entry thing is great. Overall, considered I purchased this as an early access whatever. I'm delighted to see the project come to full fruition. Next step now is to get the NASA/ESA and similar mods. Install it in primary schools across the country and get kids building awesome fcking rockets! We'll have our own space program eventually! (Sure with the amount that was spent on the bailouts, we could made a LEO.)

Akrasia

The re-entry heating is pretty unforgiving!

I was playing career at the weekend and managed to bodge myself to the mun, got there but had only 16 seconds of fuel left to get back to Kerbin. After many failed attempts (bless you F9!) I managed to get myself into an elliptical orbit with a slingshot from the Mun and from highly elliptical orbit, it takes hardly any fuel to fall directly into Kerbin with a burn at the Apoapsis.

Unfortunately, this left me with a re-entry speed of over 3500m/s and my little capsule exploded into a billion pieces on re-entry (The heatshields, they do nothing!")

I F9d it again and deployed the parachute before re-entering the atmosphere and this managed to slow down the capsule before detonation and Valentina Kerman touched down in the desert alive and well.

It's not particularly realistic that the parachutes didn't burn up on re-entry, or get torn off from the force of slowing down the capsule from such a high speed, but it kept her alive god dammit.

BeardySi

Aaah the joys of building controllable rockets without all the parts I've come to rely on! Poor old Jeb just can't get enough spinning and pinwheeling...


edit: So it seems the atmospheric model is much improved and now we've got to fly a more realistic ascent profile rather than the old 45deg @ 10k gravity turn that was the norm for 0.x versions.

Back to flight school for me so!

Akrasia

Treadhead wrote: »

Aaah the joys of building controllable rockets without all the parts I've come to rely on! Poor old Jeb just can't get enough spinning and pinwheeling...


edit: So it seems the atmospheric model is much improved and now we've got to fly a more realistic ascent profile rather than the old 45deg @ 10k gravity turn that was the norm for 0.x versions.

Back to flight school for me so!

Yeah, it's very different. Also, the SAS tends to wobble the rocket a lot, so I've been flying manually, but I noticed that if you have multiple gimballed engines on one stage, it can confuse the SAS, so I've learned to limit thrust vectoring to the central engine only and lock the gimbals on radial engines (or use engines without thrust vectoring)

I've kept to the 200m/s speed limit below 10,000 metres as before though as this seems to be more fuel efficient (although I haven't got any figures to back this up.

iggyigauna89

Akrasia wrote: »

I've kept to the 200m/s speed limit below 10,000 metres as before though as this seems to be more fuel efficient (although I haven't got any figures to back this up.

I've been doing this too, keeping it between 150 m/s and 200 m/s below 10,000m then turning to 45 degrees and giving it full throttle until my apoapsis is at 80-90km.

I find it the easiest way to get to a stable orbit with a reasonable amount of fuel.

andy_g

Just started playing career mode, have to say i love it but miss my usual part heating effect are also really good.

Heat shields seem to work well when entering at the right angle have learned the hard way.

What does everyone think of the contracts?

Akrasia

andy_g wrote: »

Just started playing career mode, have to say i love it but miss my usual part heating effect are also really good.

Heat shields seem to work well when entering at the right angle have learned the hard way.

What does everyone think of the contracts?

I've just spent an hour trying to get a satellite into orbit and when I exactly matched the orbit I was given, it never marked as complete, I think I sent it orbiting around in the wrong direction...
Bastards... but now I get to send another satellite into orbit in the correct direction and possibly see a spectacular space crash

andy_g

Im still doing sub orbital stuff not enough power or fuel as im still working to the 18T limit

Turtwig

Why is that I keep forgetting solar panels. Every. Fcking. Time!:mad:

andy_g

Turtwig wrote: »

Why is that I keep forgetting solar panels. Every. Fcking. Time!:mad:

dont forget the solar panels

Akrasia

Sometimes solar panels aren't enough

I was trying to launch an ultra light weight satelite so I thought I could skip the battery and rely solely on a couple of solar panels, but it kept running out of juice every time it went into the shadow of Kerbin and I kept missing my manouver nodes.

"gah!" I said.

BeardySi

*le sigh*

Unlocked patched conics so I could do me some rescue missions. Right click on orbit - no maneuver nodes? I guess they need to be ubnlocked or requite a level 2 pilot or something - Oh well... I spend ages getting the hang of making nice intercepts without them.

Do a few successful ones, am smug.

As I'm deorbiting my latest I accidentally left click on the orbit and up comes a maneuver node.... *facepalm*

On the other hand, I rather like the new warp to point option...

Akrasia

yeah, that's a really useful function. Be careful with it though, sometimes it misbehaves and you just warp past your node.

I've just come across a brilliant little mod manager

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/releases/tag/v1.6.16
CKAN lets you install or remove or disable almost any mod from within a tidy little window, and it automatically updates them and it checks for conflicts and warns you if they might make your game unstable.

Turtwig

And the award for most stupid space engineer goes to...

Akrasia

is that a parachute over the crew hatch?
Yeah, maybe not such a good idea

Yesterday I was doing a contract to rescue a guy from orbit and it was all going swimmingly until re-entry when I detached everything from the command module and was orienting for re-entry when suddenly I ran out of power because I had left the SAS turned on while I warped back to Kerbin

I panicked thinking I was going to burn up in re-entry and released the parachute to slow myself down which instantly burnt off resulting in a high speed impact with the ocean.

Maybe Danfred Kerman should have taken his chances with the infinite vacuum of space.

BeardySi

It's an RCS thruster over the hatch isn't it?

Oh for a solar panel! I've found that SAS only drains the battery when it's set to maintain pro or retrograde (and probably higher level functions I'm guessing my pilots don't have access to yet) - position hold doesn't seem to be a drain.


On the subject of dead Kerbals, do the original orange four respawn if they die? I know they did in earlier versions but I don't particularly want to kill off Jeb to find out!

Turtwig

Treadhead wrote: »

It's an RCS thruster over the hatch isn't it?

Oh for a solar panel! I've found that SAS only drains the battery when it's set to maintain pro or retrograde (and probably higher level functions I'm guessing my pilots don't have access to yet) - position hold doesn't seem to be a drain.


On the subject of dead Kerbals, do the original orange four respawn if they die? I know they did in earlier versions but I don't particularly want to kill off Jeb to find out!

They respawn after some time but they lose all their skills and experience. Believe me once you get used to a level 4 pilot it's very hard to readjust to aligning everything yourself.

Note to self: Not needing a parachute for a moon landing does not mean you won't need a parachute for the entire mission. Suffice, poor Bill, Bob, Jeb and Valentine were in need of a rescue mission because they can't attempt re-entry. There's a bit of a hiccup though, even though their orbit was a very wide one, they are on a return back to Kerbin. I needed to figure out how to intercept that orbit and save them. So I did exactly that. Chuffed I was. Only I was out of fuel. Now five kerbins needed rescuing and although I had them on an orbit around Kerbin, it was a decaying orbit. Alas, they were fcked.

I really really, don't understand why I wasn't more generous with the fuel on my rescue ship. Yet, another Kerbal Space Program failed rescue mission for the history books.

Also Andy this is partially your fault. Minimal parts rockets you said. Well, I hope you're happy now!

Actually it wasn't a total failure. Managed to nab this lovely shot.

Akrasia wrote: »

is that a parachute over the crew hatch?
Yeah, maybe not such a good idea

Yesterday I was doing a contract to rescue a guy from orbit and it was all going swimmingly until re-entry when I detached everything from the command module and was orienting for re-entry when suddenly I ran out of power because I had left the SAS turned on while I warped back to Kerbin

RCS Thrusters.

Thanks to my solar panel amnesia I constantly disable the electrics before warping time/ abandoning flight control. It really will spare you some grief if you can get into the habit of it. Right click all the modules that drain juice and just click the arrow thingy beside their meter(s). I think you bind it to group actions too. I don't bother though, clicking's handy enough and a great way to convince myself I've done it. Because. Fck. Solar Panels! :mad:

Akrasia

I spent ages planning a return trip to Ike in career mode and it was all going fairly ok until I started my descent to Ike's surface and I realised I had put the landing struts on upside down.

It was my first time making a ship where the lander docks with an orbiter and it required an apollo style manouver in Kerbin orbit to detach the lander from the delivery stage and re-attach it to the nose of the rocket for the journey to ike.

Luckily Ike's gravity is so low that I was able to land on just the engine and not explode, and when it fell over, the reaction wheel had enough momentum to allow me to point the ship towards the sky enough to take off.

BeardySi

Highly successful Minumus mission last night

Did manage to invoke the Kraken on the way home though - in a fit of impatience (and minor inebriation) I really cranked up the warp on the way home (I'd burned for a direct re-entry as I was low on juice) and hit hit Kerbin at massive warp - cue large explosion and no Kerbin!!!! some part of the ship must have survived as my view was flung out of the Kerbin system with massive velocity...

Thank feck for f9!

Turtwig

You can destroy planets?
Cool, I did not know that. I must try this!:D

BeardySi

Gotta love late night Kerballing...

So I'm sending a biome hopping lander to the Mun followed by an orbiting fuel tank for it... The lander is the first one to approach the Mun and all goes well with the munar capture. Only fumes left in the transit stage by now, so with the last dregs of fuel Jeb drops his PE just below the surface and drops the stage. All good so far...

Round about this point I think right I'll just raise my PE back above the surface straight away - one quick burn later and I've driven the lander straight through the (thankfully empty) jetissoned stage. Stage destroyed and big bang ensues - the lander comes off seemingly unscathed until on later inspection I notice the docking port is gone! Looks like Jeb's going home sooner than he thought. I suppose I can be happy I noticed the missing port before I burned all the fuel aboard the lander and marooned Jeb...

Akrasia

Treadhead wrote: »

Gotta love late night Kerballing...

So I'm sending a biome hopping lander to the Mun followed by an orbiting fuel tank for it... The lander is the first one to approach the Mun and all goes well with the munar capture. Only fumes left in the transit stage by now, so with the last dregs of fuel Jeb drops his PE just below the surface and drops the stage. All good so far...

Round about this point I think right I'll just raise my PE back above the surface straight away - one quick burn later and I've driven the lander straight through the (thankfully empty) jetissoned stage. Stage destroyed and big bang ensues - the lander comes off seemingly unscathed until on later inspection I notice the docking port is gone! Looks like Jeb's going home sooner than he thought. I suppose I can be happy I noticed the missing port before I burned all the fuel aboard the lander and marooned Jeb...

The great thing about KSP is that the more ambitious you are the more rewarding failure is You can think of it as failing to explore the mun, or a glorious apollo 13 style recovery from disaster

Akrasia

My last KSP session ended as a damp squib (squid)

I was trying to rescue a guy in orbit of the mun and another guy stranded on the surface of the mun (contracts) in the same mission, so I wanted to make the lightest possible lander. I figured external command seats would do the trick, so I bolted them onto a small fuel tank with a very small engine and micro struts thinking that these would be enough to land and return to an orbiting return vessel if the orbiter was in a really low mun orbit

The problem was that when I tried to get Valentina to sit on the external command seat she just wouldn't climb on board. I tried over and over but there must have been a glitch or something so I had to just return home without rescuing the guy from the surface of the mun.

Adyx

So the Xbone is getting in on the reaction along with the PS4 now...

See what I did there?!! No? Okay

Subcomandante Marcos

Just downloading the demo for this, am I about to get sucked in?

BonkeyDonker

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

Just downloading the demo for this, am I about to get sucked in?

Yes.

Akrasia

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

Just downloading the demo for this, am I about to get sucked in?

It will probably take you a bunch of goes to get into orbit, (many explosions await you) but after then, you have about 200 hours of Scott Manley videos on youtube to explain to you how sh1t moves in space

Enjoy

Subcomandante Marcos

Akrasia wrote: »

It will probably take you a bunch of goes to get into orbit, (many explosions await you) but after then, you have about 200 hours of Scott Manley videos on youtube to explain to you how sh1t moves in space

Enjoy

I got out of the atmosphere handy enough but trying to establish orbit is so hard. Bit the bullet and bought the game anyway and now it's even worse. I literally have no idea what I'm doing now, messing around on sandbox and it's so bloody hard even figure out which parts to string together to build a decent rocket.

Akrasia

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

I got out of the atmosphere handy enough but trying to establish orbit is so hard. Bit the bullet and bought the game anyway and now it's even worse. I literally have no idea what I'm doing now, messing around on sandbox and it's so bloody hard even figure out which parts to string together to build a decent rocket.

Half the fun in the game is figuring out the best rocket design but it's a bit overwhelming for the newcomer

One important tip is to use struts to strap everything together and stop them from wobbling around and exploding

It might be a bit easier to start out with a career or science mode game because they limit the parts available to you so you don't get too overwhelmed

If you want to stick with sandbox, a tip is to sort the parts by size or by mass. This makes them a little bit easier to sort through because in general, the bigger the rocket, the bigger the parts you'll need

If you wanna build a huge big rocket, you'll usually be looking at bigger parts for that

Keep it simple at the start, just the essentials, command modules reaction wheels, fuel tanks, engines, stack separators, batteries, parachutes, struts, fuel lines and solar panels.

figuring out your own rocket design is what makes KSP so much fun, but when you get stuck there are tonnes of youtube tutorials for every aspect of the game.

Thargor

Do they include a tutorial these days and is it playable in Vanilla without having to dick around with 50 different mods?

Thargor

Getting back into this while waiting for Fallout, couple of questions though.

In Career mode, is money a problem? Do I need to be hitting contracts with every launch etc? I cannot find a single explanation for the latest version of this online, for example can I be left with a situation where there is no more money for launches and the game is unplayable? Or can I just speed up time and let it build up again like in other management games.

Same for Science, is there a list of science objectives I should be hitting?

For the current version that is, theres a million tutorials out there for old versions.

Akrasia

Thargor wrote: »

Getting back into this while waiting for Fallout, couple of questions though.

In Career mode, is money a problem? Do I need to be hitting contracts with every launch etc? I cannot find a single explanation for the latest version of this online, for example can I be left with a situation where there is no more money for launches and the game is unplayable? Or can I just speed up time and let it build up again like in other management games.

Same for Science, is there a list of science objectives I should be hitting?

For the current version that is, theres a million tutorials out there for old versions.

I think it definitely is possible to run out of money if you play with hard difficulty settings, (especially if you have an accident and blow up an important building) but when you start your career, you can choose the multipliers for science and cash, so I went for extra cash and extra science for each objective because I wasn't looking for the kind of micro management of assets and resources challenge that others might enjoy.

When you lose a Kerbal in space, it costs more money each time to replace them. The costs go up exponentially, so I reckon the hardcore player has enough to keep himself occupied. Kerbal on hard mode is unbelievably hard.

It's pretty damn hard on easy mode too, but for other reasons, and at least it's more forgiving of mistakes.

Thargor

Thanks, and when I do fail is it true Im not losing money or Kerbals when I hit "Revert to Launchpad/Flight Centre" etc?

Akrasia

Thargor wrote: »

Thanks, and when I do fail is it true Im not losing money or Kerbals when I hit "Revert to Launchpad/Flight Centre" etc?

Nah, if you go back in time there's no penalty other than your own shame for forgetting (again) to correct the staging order so that the lander retro boosters don't deploy before the main engines.

Thargor

9 out of 10 of my launches the parachute deploys when I hit space to start the rocket on the final stage, the Kerbals make strong parachute string

Akrasia

KSP version 1.1 has just been released today

It's the biggest update in ages, but the main benefit is that it now supports 64bit processing in Windows using the Unity 5 engine

This means it can use more than 4gb of ram, and multiple cores in your CPU and the performance is way smoother and your mad creations can be much bigger and madder without everything slowing down to a crawl

There have also been lots of little improvements and changes to the UI and controls, as well as a whole new tutorial and help package to make the impossible trips slightly less impossible.

Alcoheda

All versions after this release have been crashing intermittently for me.

Seems a lot of people are having an issue.
I'm wondering how many of you are experiencing it.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/140001-bust-11x-crashes-your-help-requested/&page=7

http://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/8241