If you are above the object of your docking desire, time a deorbit burn when you are a 1/4 orbit ahead (maybe less, drag the maneuver ring). If you are below, 1/4 behind. Much easier/likely to get a solution than at other times.
I'm obsessing about space stations and I barely managed to get a prefab one up! I'm jealous of you guys. I suck at staging for heavy things -- this took about a dozen tries -- but I finally used that maneuver tool you guys were talking about and success!
Here's tonight's fun: This was my test lander for Minmus...worked like a charm! Now a manned mission.
Here's the new heavy lifter I used for the minmus mission. And here's Bill Kerman on Minmus! Woo! Sadly I didn't put either a remote control or a pod on my rover so it didn't work. The little detach mechanism worked like a charm though :D
I'm having trouble figuring out how to get in Mun orbit. I can slingshot something with tons of fuel at the Mun but I don't know how not to get slung back to Kerbal. Illustration:
When in the Mun's influence you almost certainly need to burn prograde to circularize your orbit around it.
I figured it out! I basically just did what you said. I got a probe in orbit and was daring with my periapsis -- I set it to 1000m. Hey there's no air, why not! Here is why not: you crash into uncharted Munar mountains on the dark side. 2 seconds before the crash.
I actually failed a few times with my Solar Explorer by slingshotting and not noticing I was slinging THROUGH the centre of gravity of the Mun. Needless to say, BOOM. At one point I actually almost landed the ship by virtue of coming in horizontal to a plateau that came out of nowhere. Almost!
Emboldened by their recent successful Munar landing (and return - which for some reason was much less celebrated?) The Kerbals decided to reach for a bigger target. Or in this case, a smaller target, Minmus. Kearth's second, more distant, tinier, and uglier moon. Since he just barely had enough fuel to return from the much nearer Mun expedition, Jebediah was concerned there would certainly not be enough fuel to get him all the way back from distant Minmus. To allay his fears, the engineers bolted on two extra fuel tanks and an extra battery ring. Will This be enough to get Jebedia to Minmus? Will it be enough to bring him back home? Kearth and the Mun. Been there, done that. Approaching Minmus. He may actually do this! A successful landing. Look at tiny Kearth in the background. And the even tinier Mun. In the dark, Minmusis beautiful. And down here she is not so tiny after all. Jebediah tries to go home. Woah! There is like, almost no gravity here. Maybe a good jump...No...Too far away. Jebediah yearns for home. And his brothers. I forget their names. So Jeb begins his journey home. This moon sure looks lumpy in the daylight. Does Jebediah have enough fuel to make it home? He does! Welcome home Jeb. You have walked on two moons. Something no Earthling has ever done. Yet.
So .18.2 is out. A number of tweaks...major fix seems to be the RCS bug that basically caused RCS thrust to be almost infinite if placed near the COG of your ship. http://kspwiki.nexisonline.net/wiki/Version_History#v0.18.2
Well the activity in the thread has slowed down a bit though I've been playing almost every night still. Sadly the entire web site seems to be down at the moment so I can't get my forum fix. :(
I haven't posted anything because I am playing all the time. Also, I would rather post success stories and I am unable to generate them. Yeah , I know, horrible exploding crashes would be even more amusing for you, so, we will see... Anyway, I am trying to stage a successful round trip mission to the planet Duna. There are multiple learning curves to ascend. 1. Build a vessel capable of the round trip journey. 2. Get the vessel in to orbit. 3. Navigation. (Maneuver nodes help a lot - this much I figured out) I succeeded with navigating to Duna after many failed attempts but I had no fuel left so my Kerbonauts are stranded on Duna. I think I have built a good vessel now but it is too unwieldy and difficult to get into orbit. It keeps spinning out of control. And also there are many explosions. Some for no apparent reason whatsoever. Also unexpected and unpredictable explosions. It's like, the craft is ascending nicely, and then...huge unexpected explosion. Out of nowhere. Or when that doesn't happen, then there is wild spinning out of control. Also for no apparent reason. I have some more ideas I am going to try them out now.
Crash landing on Duna! A Kerman: "Say Jeb, how we gonna get back home?", Jeb: "lemme think about that" Still thinking... "Let's see. We need to fix this engine... and that one... and then we need fuel. Lot's of fuel..."
I managed to get Bill Kerman to Eve and back (no landing) even though I orbited Kerbin prograde (wrong way) by building my craft in orbit using about six segments docked together (mostly the 1440 2m fuel tank) My current goal is to use the same approach to build a ship capable of landing a remote lander.
According to that article, I need to check that my assertions are not accidentally turned off and causing integer overflows. I am going to do that now.
Jelly: if stuff falls apart on the way up check a few things: 1) strut between big fuel tanks - keeps stacks of tanks from falling to bits on their joins. 2) struts between your boosters and core need to be equally lined up - they need to be symmetrical - fuel lines too - or they induce a spin. If in doubt, add a strut to each side of a booster to increase the chance of "even" support.
Something I did not realize for a looong time is that struts detach when the parts they are stabilizing are jettisoned.
Thanks for the advice. Sometimes the craft explodes in the final launch stage where there is only one long tube of fuel tanks. So there is nothing on the sides to clamp the struts on, unless I am missing something. Also, it is hard to keep things perfectly aligned. Like when I am adding fuel lines one by one it is really difficult to make sure they all line up just so. If there was a 'snap to grid' feature, or an 'align all' button or something like that, then many less Kerbonauts would be meeting a fiery doom. Not sure which way is better. I will take a good look at all my struts and lines and make sure they aren't too skewed. Now I finally have a few interplanetary capable landers orbiting Kearth. But since I have been so focused the last few days on just getting them into orbit, that is now all I can think about. I keep coming up with more ideas to refine the booster stages and then I want to try them out. And now all these Kerbonauts are just circling Kearth and waiting. Also, occasionally witnessing their hapless brethren explode. Well, okay, frequently witnessing...
This program seems really cool. But given that it's supposedly just an alpha and they're charging $23 for it, I'm not sure about purchasing it. But keep the stories coming!
I've played this more than any other game in 2012 so far. It's incredible for an alpha release and if you like sandbox style games and physics and space then I can almost guarantee you're going to have a blast.
Jelly: yeh, lining up is hard - I like it when a tank has a few features I can match a fuel line or strut too. You can also mess with shift+mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Between that and tilt you can often end up with the camera in the gap between tanks, making lining up easier.
That. That is an AMAZING idea. You have got to keep us informed on how this progresses - preferably with shots of the pieces coming together in orbit! Holy shit what a great idea. And it neatly solves the issue of having to carry enough fuel to achieve escape velocity while also giving you enough for maneuvering and the return trip. Aggghh, I love that idea so much.
Thanks Spoofy. Just what I need - another "must have" game! Between that and Dominions and Dark Souls and... Heck, never mind the money, where would I ever get the time? ;)
It's actually a bit annoying in practice and the real challenge is that docking ports are kinda weak. My first ship was essentially a big tube and it really wobbled a lot. I'm now experimenting with a stockier ship...I'll post some shots later.
Here's my latest... I'm going for something where there are four fuel tanks and a capsule again but with two of the tanks on the sides.
Our interplanetary rescue mission ascending from the launch pad. Soon we will rescue our fallen brethren stranded on the planes of Duna! Up we go... Distant brothers of Duna, here we come to rescue you! Hopefully this stage will get us into orbit. The we will save our lost siblings from the clutches of Duna! 70 tons of metal and nuclear fuel orbiting Kearth. Next stop, rescue our comrades from Duna and bring them home to Kearth! Oh look, there is Duna's moon Ike. Looks nice. Let's land there! A successful landing on Ike. We did it! mission successful! Wait, did we forget to do something? Nah. Let's go home and tell everyone about our successful mission. Oh wait, we don't have enough fuel to get home to Kearth. No problem! I am sure our brothers back home will send a rescue mission to retrieve us!
Here's tonight's addition to my next Eve mission: Unfortunately the port fuel tank is not really oriented quite right. Not sure if I'm going to undock, correct, and then re-dock. I find it very difficult to get these oriented perfectly. Anyway, my next piece is going to be a lander module capable of bringing an unmanned rover to the surface. I hope.
Kerbal Space Exploration Command Center: "Let's see, we have Kerbonauts stranded on Duna and Ike that need rescuing. Fellow Kerbals, the target of our next mission is clear. We land on Eve!" Bill Kerman: "We are almost there. How much fuel do we have left?" Bob Kerman: "ummm, I hope we can use parachutes to land" Bob Kerman: "We can use parachutes to land. We are saved!" Bill Kerman: "Good because we are out of fuel!" The third Kerman" "I am not sure I should leave the capsule while you two are down there. Shouldn't someone stay inside just in case?" Those other two Kermans: "Come down it's fun. What is the worst that can happen?" A Kerbonaut: "This ladder is too short and doesn't reach the ground. And gravity on Eve is so strong we can't jump up to reach it, even with jet-packs on! We can't get back into the ship! Also, we are out of fuel and can't fly back home. We need rescuing!" Kerbal Space Program. Working hard to strand Kerbonauts on all the celestial bodies!
I downloaded the demo and played it. It was a blast and occupied about two hours of my morning. I haven't gone and pulled the trigger yet for a couple of reasons... 1. The demo was limited. I'm sure that's probably on purpose. I'm taking it from the screenshots that there's 10x more stuff to build than what's in the demo? Because I can't make anything that looks like your creations. 2. The learning curve seems pretty steep and physics ain't Blacky's strong suit. 3. I'm not sure how much gameplay is really in it. From your tales it seems like a bunch, but all I could do is get my Kerbals into low space and then watch gravity drag them down again.
You don't need to have an astronomer's knowledge to be able to play this game. The only thing you need to learn is orbits and you can get that from forums or Let's Play video's. I found One F Jef's videos to be entertaining and informative. After upgrading to .18.2 I've just launched my first sattelite into orbit. On the first try my delvery vehicle ran out of fuel just as I was aligning the orbit. I figured I'd use my xenon thruster to position the sattelite until the battery ran dry. Then I wanted to extend my solar panels to recharge the battery but oops! You need to have power to extend panels. On the 2nd try I added some more fuel tanks and made sure to extend the solar panels before using any electricity.
Well, I had a blast with the demo, but I think I broke it. With just the few tools available to me, I managed to build a spacecraft that could actually escape the gravity pull of Kerbin. Up, up, up we went until we could no longer see Kerbin or any other planets. Then the program crashed, so my Kerbals are now forever floating in space. What a blast this thing is. I'm sooooooo tempted to buy it now.
