Youtube videos for this game are especially helpful. Just seeing what other people are building, how they commit certain manoeuvres, listening to what they are discussing - you will pick up a LOT of tips in a short amount of time. But there are also a lot of great text tutorials on the forums, too! You replaced one liquid booster, which is one thrust point with one center of gravity and one vertical alignment (not sure if that's the correct terminology), with four solid fuel boosters, each with their own thrust points/vertical alignments/centers of gravity, which you may or may not have attached at the center of gravity of the main orbiter. There are also issues of mass, how wieldy four boosters are in comparison to one long stage, what decoupling four heavy units will do for your stability, etc. I'm not sure that qualifies as bizarre behavior/no change - REALLY small stuff like that, which you might not think about in a lesser simulator, plays a big role in this game. :)
The only thing I can see youtube being especially useful for is in displaying how certain maneuvers are executed. In terms of building stuff, etc: text and a photo or three would, IMO, be more effective. I watched a LOT of youtube today, and I found precisely one video that was worth the time I spent watching it. Granted, a good part of that is because most of the people who make youtube tutorials are terrible at it. That's not to judge them because - again - conveying information verbally is really really hard. But it's still an uncomfortable fact that renders Youtube a least best option in terms of providing useful tutorials, at least from my total newb perspective. FWIW I found the same to be true for Dwarf Fortress; I tried out various Youtube tutorials and found them mostly useless; whereas Calistas's tutorials are like mana from heaven. edit: incidentally, the one useful tutorial was of the text overlaid on the screen variety. So maybe it's just the poor voiceovers that I can't handle! Anyway, regarding Up Lifter I-B: I should have been more clear: the instability was not during the SRB phase; they sent me straight up (as hoped) and I jettisoned them correctly. The instability occurred during my next phase; which was not changed at all. I basically entered my second boost stage with the exact same parameters, only a good 3k meters higher. And yet the thing went to hell. :(
I made this nightmare just to see if it would work. First stage is 12 solid boosters, second stage is 6 solid boosters, third stage is 6 regular sized rockets on the jumbo tank, fourth stage is a long range satcom with rocket. It works quite well (without fins [hidden] it spins in circles because all the boosters bend towards the center of the rocket and wobble quite a bit, though with the ASAS it self-negates and the fins keep it from spinning).
I believe these are the video tutorials you are referring to / looking for. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com...Mechanics-101-A-Kerbal-Space-Program-Tutorial Watching them is how I learned to play. They are stickied at the top of the Kerbal forums. And no voice-overs.
A space-shuriken!? Are the Kerbs looking to start some interstellar melee? They seem like such a peaceful bunch, all cute and green. Why are you leading them astray? It looks awesome. I wanna see how you launched it! Is it a space station or satellite or?
Huh, the second launch of my SRB based Up-Goer worked just fine. Wonder what happened on that first launch; it went totally out of control. Oh well! If I leave a Kerbal in orbit, will he eventually die? Or does the game not model resource consumption in the space capsule yet?
Cool. I'm going to let Jeb hang out up there for a while, then. I tried launching a rudimentary satellite. Nothing functional, I just tried adding a rudimentary capsule beneath my orbiter stage, in the hopes I could just insert something successfully into orbit. Apparently my rocket was operating on the edge of efficiency though; the main liquid booster was subsequently unable to get up to orbit. Disappointing. At some point I'm going to have to start doing the maths on making efficient rockets. Are there any good telemetry recording mods? I'm specifically interested in knowing what my velocity, acceleration, and altitude are at any given t during a flight.
From Spaceport mechjeb is the most commonly used, or VOID, but there is also a telemetry mod which outputs graphs to a web page on your network - trawl spaceport :) Mostly I use mechjeb because it gives you T/W ratio stats as you build, as does Kerbal Engineer mod, btw.
Cool, thanks. I did some trolling on the mod site, but so much of it seems to just be MORE RANDOM PARTS. I'm already overwhelmed with the parts I have! :)
I'm getting really f&@#$ing angry about "Activate Dish" YES YES YES I want it activated! Default to activate! Is that too much to ask? I wish I knew how to mod remote tech to default these damn things to ON.
I can't figure out how to do anything at all, no idea how to assemble a ship, I can only see nose pods, or launch one of the pre-made ones, it just sits there. I have to quit out of the game to see the input control card. How are you supposed to get started with this?
The first thing you have to do when constructing a spaceship is add a command module. Drag a nose pod thing into the vehicle bay and it will open up a lot more options.
OK, thanks. How do you launch a ship? I tried to launch the ion probe, by turning up the throttle, but that seems to do nothing.
Install a bigger engine, for starters. An ion probe will not get you off the ground; it's meant for gentle nudges up in space. In general, you fire each stage (including your starting engine) with the spacebar. If you're using a liquid fueled engine, you'll also have to use the throttle. Solid boosters know no throttle, they just gogogogo. To get a feel for it, just build a basic ballistic missile; don't even worry about achieving orbit. From the top down, you'll want 1-man command module (stick a parachute on top of it), a vertical separator (controlled explosion to separate rocket stages), an SAS module (keeps the damn thing stable, hilarity ensues without them), a decent sized liquid fuel tank, and then a decent engine. That'll give you something to get comfortable with. From there you can start thinking about boosting up into orbit; which will probably necessitate additional stages). Incidentally, someone needs to make a nuclear warhead mod. :D
I tried the Kerbal X premade rocket. Looks like you hit space twice to unlock the lock? Also EVERYONE DIED! Thanks!
That is AWESOME. It kills me that there's so little interest in your LP - I guess there's not enough high school sparkly eyed romance going on for people to be interested in it. Just awesome science, engineering, and orbital physics. :/ I hope you keep it up, though, I'm loving your ambition and designs.
Everyone died is great progress! If you manage to kill dozens, nay hundreds, of Kerbs you may too some day land an unkerbed rover on Minmus! Voila!
Honestly it depends on the vehicle. I believe the launch process for that one is activate engines -> throttle up -> release clamps. Not all rockets have clamps!
Hey Calistas, I don't suppose you'd be kind enough to talk me through the basics of setting up a comm satellite network? I guess what I am looking for is: 1) How do I build a comm satellite? 2) Do I need anything on the ground to maintain it?
So Jeff the really short version which Calistas will undoubtedly provide an exemplary tubing of is this: 1) Pick the small remote tech remote control as your pod. 2) Build a smallish lift vehicle underneath it. 3) Provide, say, 90 units of liquid fuel with some smallish rockets to power the sat into a stable orbit once high enough. 4) Make sure to put RCS thrusters and at least one small RCS fuel tank (these things are life savers...slow but they never seem to run out) 5) Make sure to have at least one antenna (non-directional) on the sat part of the vehicle 6) Make sure to have 1+ small sat dishes on the vehicle. 7) Make sure to have at least one small battery (triple-K) on the sat. 8) Make sure to have at least one solar panel or other generator on the sat 9) Launch sat and get into stable orbit (alternatively, get into a decaying orbit, decouple, then power to a stable orbit with sat engines.) 10) Make sure to activate sat dishes and extend solar panels! 11) Point sat dishes at Mission control or Kerbin or whatever 12) Profit!
So here's tonight's fun. Final landing on the Mun for a while. Mun Kwidditch. We didn't need that leg. Time for a ride! Gudnight Mun.
That is a sweet rover! I just installed a bunch of wheel parts last night from the depot, can't wait to see what monstrosities we can construct!
I figured I would share a couple of pics. This is my Kerbal aerospace program's first - and incredibly overengineered - attempt at a long term space habitation module. They went crazy, stuffing every possible scientific device on it that they could find in the pull-a-part nearby. They even guessed that, should the mission be successful, this could serve as the initial stage of a multi-faceted space station. It took numerous iterations of the launcher (including one incredibly ill-advised iteration that was top-heavy and lop-sided due to the tri-ion-drive in the final stage) and the sacrifice of dozens of our bravest test pilots, but we finally did it, we finally managed to doom our kerbals to a slow, cruel and merciless death at the icy hands of empty space. This is a fine day indeed. (This first picture is what the final iteration of the launcher looks like with the intermediary stage and habitation module on top of it.) And on that note, Calistas very kindly assured me that multiple Let's Plays not only wouldn't be a problem, but would in fact be awesome, so I'll probably be starting another LP tomorrow. :)
Don't have time to update the LP tonight - so here's a screenshot letting you know what I've been up to. Took forever to get (had to lose thousands of m/s in velocity. Ouch!)
Jeb finally landed safely on the Mun. Jeb succeeded in landing once previously but the landing was rough. And only the command pod survived. So Jeb and his two other brothers just got out and wandered around the Mun. Which was cool. But they had no way to get back. Which was not cool. So anyway, this time Jeb touched down safely with the rest of the lander intact. Jeb wandered around alone on the surface of the Mun, all alone, as his brothers were too scared to try again after the last time. Then it was time to head back to Kearth, with almost no fuel left. Also, no battery. So the automatic stabilizer thing didn't work anymore. Jeb kept on trying various trajectories and what not. But they all resulted in running out of fuel in orbit. Then Jeb would reload his, uhh, autosave and try again. Finally, what worked was to leave the Mun's orbit, then get caught back in the orbit a second time, slingshot around, and fall back to Kearth. Entrance velocity was sooo fast, but somehow the Kearth's atmosphere slowed the pod down enough and then the parachute came out and the pod touched down safely back home. Seems like magic to me how all this works. I can't believe that rocket scientists landed people on the Moon and brought them back safely to Earth by scribbling equations with pencils and not having that blue line to follow in the orbit map :). Anyway, welcome home Jeb.
Have folks been using the maneuver node system introduced in 0.18? It's quite powerful. I was showing the game to a friend last night. I slapped together a two stager with SRBs and was able to get not only into orbit but a stable Mun orbit. Sure I ran out of fuel so he'll never get home, but it was super easy with creating the node, aligning the orbits, and then sliding the node around to get a capture. You can even do sequential maneuvers to get a stable orbit after capture.
I think the casual attitude to dooming Kerbals to an eternity of solitude and boredom is quite possibly the best part of the game.
The maneuver system is great, thank god go autocorrect or I would never be able to spell it though. I like trying to set up slingshot moves, either out to Kerbol (the Sun) orbit, or Mun slingshot to Minmus. It is quite hard. I would love some more general guides out there on setting up the conditions for a successful interplanetary slingshot.
Yeah, the manoeuvre system is awesome! I used it to a stunning degree of accuracy last night to try and attach my auspicious multi-dock to the above habitation unit, but, alas, like an idiot, I launched it while the unit was on the complete other side of the planet and ended up playing a game of cat-and-mouse for the better part of two hours. Newzon came within 500 meters of success on his very last attempt but ran out of liquid fuel right at the last moment. Being the brave Kerbal that he is, he opted to use his monopropellant to deorbit, and as with all good Kerbals, his final moments were spent in song with his fellow kerbalnauts. Less flowery: I think my big mistake was that I didn't launch while the habitation unit was directly overhead (12 o'clock or so?) Kerbal Space Command. I believe that if I launch while it is overhead or perhaps coming up to being directly overhead then it would be fairly easy for the habitation unit to "catch" my docking unit instead of vice versa. I'll have to try that tonight. Thoughts? I'm worried that 566km might be too far up for a space station, but I'm thinking not.
Is that line the official slogan of the game? If not, it should be. It just guaranteed I'd be buying a copy.
