I bought this a few days ago and I have been having fun with it. :D
Nomadic and I have talked about it on IRC a bit... any other CBG Kerbalnauts out there?
My most recent accomplishment is landing on the Mun
[spoiler=Big image](http://i.imgur.com/v7sLwYT.png)[/spoiler]
I build big rockets that send upwards of a dozen Kerbals into long, distant elliptical orbits around the Sun, never to see their home again. Sometimes I also build space stations. Those are also typically in distant orbits.
It's definitely an amazing game. I think my highlight was pulling off a Jool transfer orbit where by chance I ended up intercepting Duna as I was plotting my burn. I used that to pull off a beautiful slingshot maneuver. Using an aerobrake at Jool to kill my momentum without burning any more fuel on arrival was just frosting on the awesome cake, I ended up using roughly a thousand dV less than I'd planned to and was able to use the extra fuel to go on a grand tour of Jool's moons. Most hilarious moment? Was going to Minmus and not paying any attention at all, managed to lithobrake at the Mun instead. My capsule survived the "landing" though by using my engines as a sacrificial "airbag" so I consider it a success and nobody can tell me otherwise.
I have a lot of fun with this game!
I'm feeling a little conflicted about it, because when last I put the game down, it was an old-version Career Mode game where I had just crashlanded Jeb on Minmus. The lander had no surviving engine (and was standing at a jaunty angle, because one of the landing struts broke off), but Jeb was in good spirits about the whole thing (and helpfully transmitted back a bunch of science). But since it's an older version, I'm not really going to be able to go back and design his rescue mission.
Career mode isn't that old to begin with. It was introduced in version 0.22, and they're only up to 0.23.5 now, so your save might still load.
I had to launch my own rescue mission, after noticing that my Mun lander did not have enough fuel left in it to get back up into Munar orbit.
I installed the KAS (Kerbal Attachment System) mod to be able to make a pipe, sent a second lander full of fuel to the Mun, and used much of the last of its fuel to hop the existing lander over to the new site.
The Kerbal krew was then on their way back home.
On their return, due to a navigation error on my part, they ended up in a very high (450km) orbit and I had to send up another retrieval ship to get them, but their craft was never meant for landing and I knew I'd have to shuttle them anyway, so this was not really an emergency.
[spoiler=Big Image](http://i.imgur.com/C00yb68.png)[/spoiler]
Pfft sparkle... all kerbal ships are meant to land, it's just that some of them aren't meant to survive the landing. Big difference.
Quote from: Nomadic
Pfft sparkle... all kerbal ships are meant to land, it's just that some of them aren't meant to survive the landing. Big difference.
Especially if the landing zone isn't meant to survive the landing either.
I need to figure out docking. I have some big ideas about space stations and whatnot, but they're all Some Assembly Required.
Quote from: Lmns Crn
I need to figure out docking. I have some big ideas about space stations and whatnot, but they're all Some Assembly Required.
Download the lazor docking cam mod (http://kerbalspaceport.com/lazor-docking-cam/), it will make your life so much easier with docking.
Or, if you're feeling really lazy (or would prefer to focus on rocket science rather than piloting) you can use MechJeb (http://kerbalspaceport.com/mechjeb/).
Beyond just the ability to dock, when assembling space stations and such I always use it to calculate the orbital rendezvous and such because I can never do that right.
I've been blowing up sending Kerbals to other worlds for a while now.
There are a number of things to keep in mind when docking.
The first is a fairly obvious one: you need to get the ships to the same place at the same time. Doing this means, by and in large, remembering how the period of an orbit is related to the size of an orbit. Lower orbits--that is, orbits closer to the parent body--are always faster than higher orbits. So let's say you've gotten two spacecraft (A and B) up into roughly circular orbits at about the same height, but spacecraft A is some distance behind spacecraft B. What you would want to do is raise the orbit of spacecraft B. This allows for spacecraft A to catch up, because spacecraft B starts moving slower, while spacecraft A starts moving faster.
When you start getting close, you don't have to pay quite as much attention to this. Instead, you want to start looking at your relative velocities. Luckily, the navball (http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Navball) has a target mode, once you set the object you want to dock with as your target. Using what are usually the prograde and retrograde markers, you get to see markers of your relative velocity towards the target. The key here is to kill your relative velocity by burning towards the "retrograde" marker, and then burning towards the target. You may, depending on how close you were to begin with, and how well you've killed your relative velocity, may have to perform this maneuver several times. Generally this will be done with your main engines, but as you get closer, you'll eventually want to switch over to RCS.
Note that when you get really close, you can target not only individual craft, but individual docking ports. It's no help if you want to dock to a specific docking port if the indicator is pointing towards the center of mass of the craft. You can do this by right-clicking on the desired docking port. You may also, depending on the shape of your craft, need to control from a particular docking port on it. This can come in handy if you want a large, multi-piece interplanetary craft, as it is much safer to pull than push due to the part physics in KSP.
Scott Manley recently updated his tutorial series. There are two episodes especially relevant here. The first is on rendezvous (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St515zjUZHY), and the second is on docking proper (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srsiLZLPiv0).
And one last thing: practice makes perfect. It took me a long time to get good at docking.
http://xkcd.com/1356/
love you guys
Quote from: Nomadicall kerbal ships are meant to land, it's just that some of them aren't meant to survive the landing.
Pretty much!
The Kerbal krew was sent out again on a second Munar mission, in the brand new
Ion 4, an upgraded ion engine powered ship, with the goal this time of being able to complete the Munar landing and return without need for rescue. They used a larger Munar lander that allowed them to land and take off again with (barely) enough fuel, but the greater mass of the ship meant that the xenon reserves of the ion engines-- normally not a problem at all so I didn't even think much about them-- were insufficient to get them back to a low Kerbin orbit for a pickup ship, nor to either of the little space stations that I had been building. Loathing the idea of having to call for rescue again (and not really sure what could be done anyway) Jeb instead gave their return trip from the Mun a 35km periapsis around Kerbin. Bill and Bob pointed out that their ship was never meant to actually land and had neither landing gear nor parachute... but of course such things are mere luxuries to Jeb. He managed to get the craft's speed down to a sufficient level that upon hitting the ground it was merely blown apart into hundreds of pieces rather than completely obliterated. The command module skidded to a stop amid the fireball, with Jeb feeling like the mission was a complete success, as they did manage to get back to Kerbin without calling for help at all.
[spoiler=Big Image](http://i.imgur.com/LKivEUu.png)[/spoiler]
Quote from: LordVreeg
http://xkcd.com/1356/
love you guys
Can confirm, am physics. Except the bit about NASA
Funny, I think I must have picked up this game the same time you did, Sparkle.
I've been having a major blast with it. I've managed a few Mun and Minmus landings and have stranded a few kerbonauts in a solar orbit...I'll get into details later, but felt the need to chime in. And delurk while doing so.
So I thought I'd share the craft that made my first Mun landing that remained upright and was able to return to Kerbin
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/K8D5gSEh.jpg)[/spoiler]
I may have gone a little bit overboard in my attempts to manage a stable landing. Current project is to modify this monster for some rescue missions for the people I left stranded there from earlier missions.
That is a quite impressive craft. It must have taken quite the launch vehicle to get that thing off of Kerbin!
My first Mun mission had a lot of trouble, too. I had to send a second lander with some fuel to help the stranded lander take off. The Kerbal Attachment System mod was invaluable here, because it let me actually attach a fuel port and transfer fuel over through a pipe that the Kerbals walking around set up. The goal of my second Mun landing was, as such, "get to the Mun and back without needing a rescue mission." The Kerbal krew did accomplish that goal, although it involved crashing their ship on Kerbin-- it was an ion-powered craft that was never meant to land on planets. But nobody had to come rescue them! And as Jeb put it, "Who cares? You know you were going to build a new one anyway." Considering their tendency to get stuck on the Mun anyway, the Kerbals are now considering establishing some kind of a permanent base on the Mun.
At present, I've got a probe on the way to Eve and have sent an orbital probe and an unmanned lander to Minmus. Of course, the unmanned missions went off without any trouble, it's only when there are Kerbals involved that things start to go wrong.
Quote from: sparkletwist
That is a quite impressive craft. It must have taken quite the launch vehicle to get that thing off of Kerbin!
Thanks! It did; the Herakles IV was the launch vehicle, which uses entirely rockomax parts, 4 stages not counting the lander, has a total of 15 fuel tanks and So. Many. Struts. I think a more skilled player than I who could manage it more efficiently could manage some impressive stunts with it. As proof of its might, I took off the lander, stuck a probe core on it, and flew one into the sun. And that was the Herakles III, which had slightly less thrust than the IV.
QuoteMy first Mun mission had a lot of trouble, too. I had to send a second lander with some fuel to help the stranded lander take off. The Kerbal Attachment System mod was invaluable here, because it let me actually attach a fuel port and transfer fuel over through a pipe that the Kerbals walking around set up. The goal of my second Mun landing was, as such, "get to the Mun and back without needing a rescue mission." The Kerbal krew did accomplish that goal, although it involved crashing their ship on Kerbin-- it was an ion-powered craft that was never meant to land on planets. But nobody had to come rescue them! And as Jeb put it, "Who cares? You know you were going to build a new one anyway." Considering their tendency to get stuck on the Mun anyway, the Kerbals are now considering establishing some kind of a permanent base on the Mun
Jeb is a boss. I'm impressed you managed it on your second go! Especially with such a complex setup. It took me several tries to land and make a round trip. Ion engines in this game make me happy.
KAS the mod sounds really interesting - how hard is it to use? I'd love to have some use for EVA. What other mods do you use?
QuoteAt present, I've got a probe on the way to Eve and have sent an orbital probe and an unmanned lander to Minmus. Of course, the unmanned missions went off without any trouble, it's only when there are Kerbals involved that things start to go wrong.
Man, I am impressed. I managed to get a probe to flyby Eve, but it didn't arrive with enough delta V to stop.
I've noticed that, too. I think it's partially because we care more when Kerbals are involved, so get nervous and make mistakes? Or maybe it's just that Kerbals are, well, Kerbals.
I give you my latest madness inspired construction:
[spoiler]
(http://i.imgur.com/8uuZoSO.jpg)
[/spoiler]
Also as an aside:
[spoiler]
I discovered a mod that adds MFDs to IVA mode. I'm so happy, just check out the beauty of this:
(http://i.imgur.com/PG7aUgn.jpg)
[/spoiler]
Ooo, that data in your cockpit - what mod gives you that? Because I want it, so badly.
That station is insane. I try to picture how some of that stuff got on there (especially the two parts that look like they're brushing up against each other) and my brain pulls a "nope." How long did that take?
Quote from: Xathan
Ooo, that data in your cockpit - what mod gives you that? Because I want it, so badly.
That station is insane. I try to picture how some of that stuff got on there (especially the two parts that look like they're brushing up against each other) and my brain pulls a "nope." How long did that take?
I'm using the KSI skin for RasterPropMonitor (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66198), it's amazing. It has several things in it for 3rd party mods so if you really want you can have the MFDs bring up camera views or satellite maps assuming you have the appropriate mods installed.
The station is 7 parts most of which were easy to get hooked up. Like you said the hardest part is the lowest down section in the image. For that I had the panels retracted, slid it in so I was almost but not quite docked, then used the gyros+caps lock to spin it down inch by inch until it was as close as I dared before docking. Only problem that I realized later is that the docking port cover is close enough to clip with the hitchhiker module next to it. Unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it at this stage and clipping doesn't actually cause any problems so it's just a visual annoyance.
With the 0.90 update I've picked this game back up again.
I've got a probe to Eve and a manned mission to Minmus on their way, but they're many days away and I haven't warped ahead because I'm messing around with other stuff, so they're not that interesting yet.
My big accomplishment lately was successfully getting a SSTO "jetrocket" (i.e., using jet engines to get to the upper atmosphere, then switching to rocket engines) up into orbit. It can't really carry much payload, so I'll have to work on that-- but at least it got up there. Now I'll have to figure out how to land the thing...
Out of curiosity, how much math is required to play this game?
Not a ton. You can get mods that will add some things but for the most part it's pretty basic.
I agree. I tend to just eyeball it most of the time and use MechJeb to help me with the fiddly parts, and I do fine.
Something possessed me to not equip the jetrocket with any sort of parachutes, and just try to land it via rocket thrust like it was some sort of moon lander. Which didn't go very well considering how difficult the thing was to control-- I didn't really build it with aeronautics in mind. Two aborted attempts resulted in catastrophic failure, and I eventually landed it so that pieces merely broke off instead of the entire thing exploding. Good enough. "If you're going for reusability, you have to bring us back something we can actually reuse" is certainly what the Kerbal engineers were saying... but still not bad for a first flight.
My manned (kerbaled?) mission to Minmus has landed.
[spoiler=Minmus Mission](http://i.imgur.com/vH8FsSN.png)[/spoiler]
Rather than a direct ascent style craft, I went with a separate lander this time. I used a slightly bigger upper stage that had enough fuel in it to be able to establish an orbit around Minmus, and dumped it there. This meant I could avoid some messing around with docking and such.
As we discussed in IRC, I really like the method you used to get to Minmus. Did you leave the upper stage in orbit, or did you frist get sub-orbital and let it crash into Minmus?
It's still orbiting Minmus. Space junk!
Lately I've been looking into more sustainable/reusable ways to launch things into orbit. My SSTO jetrocket is pretty good for ferrying kerbals back and forth, and is capable of launching small satellites, but won't be able to launch anything big at all. My next goal is to put a base on the Mun so I'm going to need to launch something pretty big, too.
1.0 is out. :yumm:
Had a blast playing it yesterday. :yumm:
I've found that the new aerodynamics model fun to play with. I've found some of the larger rockets, like those using rockomax parts, to be a beast and a half to turn while still in the thicker parts in atmo. I know the ideal gravity turn now is to start turning as you launch, but unless I try to turn when higher up I just flip, even from a tiny turn. Having to actually worry about re-entry heating is a whole new kind of challenge, especially with the heat shields being bugged and having no mass (If you watch in the VAB when adding heat shields, your COM doesn't change at all) so my return craft have an an annoying tendency to want to go in capsule-first into re-entry heat, which has almost cost me Valentina twice now. The fact that I usually stop getting re-entry effects at or under 8000 M makes coming back to Kerbin very harrowing - at one point, didn't pop chutes until only about 1000 m, only to discover that I hadn't opened the new capsule that my chutes were in, and barely got it open before having to resort to a lithobreaking maneuver.
Speaking of Valentina, I love the new female kerbal models - squad did a great job there. Also, the new tech tree is so much more intuitive, which makes me extremely happy.
I like the new aerodynamics. I like it more that the changes should keep people from building those absurd fat rockets that are like 27 solid rocket boosters all firing at the same time, because they'll probably flip over and explode... as they should. There were so many changes that I started my game over, so I have yet to try my SSTO ship under the new aerodynamics and re-entry heating model. I'm a bit worried-- it was never the most maneuverable thing to begin with, so this might make it even harder to control. It also has no heat shielding, so I'm a bit concerned about it blowing up, although from what I've seen and heard so far there is a decent amount of slack given on the re-entry heat model.
Oh, neat! Can't wait to try some of these things out.
I imported my SSTO Jetrocket in from 0.90 and decided to give it a try with the new aerodynamics. First, Valentina got to try some skydiving since the first flight of it was a complete disaster. I reverted and made a few minor changes as well as tried a more leveled off flight plan, to the point that it was starting to heat up during ascent. Still, I was able to get it into orbit, although there were barely fumes left in the fuel tank. I think the new version definitely makes flight more realistic-- or at least harder-- and it seems like the changes to the aerodynamics model made turbojet engines not nearly as powerful, either.
But anyway. The Jetrocket's flight into orbit was a success, albeit not a particularly resounding one, so it was time to bring Val home. Because it took more fuel than intended to get into orbit, the deorbit burn was quite short and I ended up coming in really hot. The re-entry mechanics are definitely fairly forgiving given that my craft was a flaming orange fireball and still held together, although some various components attached to the side did burn up. The worst of it was that my air intakes for my jet engines exploded-- meaning that any landing would now have to be unpowered. Still, the ship (mostly) held together, and the parachutes got to about 90% overheated but held up, so I was able to deploy them once it cooled off. The ship then coasted down to a rather bumpy landing.
So, the Jetrocket's first flight in 1.0 was successful from the perspective that it got Val into orbit and safely back, but the idea of it was that it was a reusable craft, and that is not happening when large chunks of it blow up during re-entry. I'll have to make some more tweaks and probably re-learn how to fly the thing.