"Look Ma, No Tractor Beams" Trophy (achievement) Video Tutorial

[Gunsnipe3795]

Okay, so if you were struggling (like me) to get the "Look Ma, No Tractor Beams!" Trophy (achievement) on either PS4 or X1, then here's a YouTube video I've put together. I show everything, from the construction of the two rockets to the rendezvous and docking. Keep in mind the video is long; but all the information is vital to do a successful docking and earning the trophy. So first things first, here's a detailed parts list that makes up both Docking Ship 1 and Docking Ship 2. Both ships are identical with DS2 not having a heat shield and parachutes. The list for both ships have the parts going from bottom to top.

Docking Ship 1 Parts from bottom to top:

1 - S3 KS-25x4 "Mammoth" Liquid Fuel Engine
4 - AV-R8 Winglets (placed in a + formation)
4 - TT18-A Launch Stability Enhancers (placed in an X formation between the winglets)
2 - Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tanks
1 - TR-38-D decoupler

Stage 2

1 - Kerbodyne KR-2L+ "Rhino" Liquid Fuel Engine
1 - Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tank
1 - FL-R1 RCS Fuel Tank (Offset it into the S3-14400 Tank)
8 - RV-105 RCS Thruster Blocks (4 on top of the tank and 4 on the bottom, both placed in a + formation)
1 - AE-FF3 Airstream Protective Shell (3.75m) (set sides slider down to two
1 - Rockomax Brand Decoupler

CSM

1 - RE-L10 "Poodle" Liquid Fuel Engine
1 - Rockomax X200-16 Fuel Tank
1 - FL-R1 RCS Fuel Tank (Offset it into the X200-16 Tank)
4 - RV-105 RCS Thruster Blocks (placed near the top of the X200-16 Tank in a + formation)
1 - Rockomax Brand Decoupler
2 - Gigantor XL Solar Array (placed on the decoupler
1 - Heat Shield (2.5m)
1 - Z-4k Rechargeable Battery Pack
1 - Mk1-2 Command Pod (put one Kerbal in it)
3 - Mk2-R Radial Mount Parachutes (lay them 90 degrees sideways, leave their sliders at default)
3 - illuminator Mk1 (placed near the top of the pod)
1 - Clamp-o-Tron Docking Port

Docking Ship 2 part list from bottom to top (this ship won't have a heat shield and parachutes, think of this ship as a defect):

1 - S3 KS-25x4 "Mammoth" Liquid Fuel Engine
4 - AV-R8 Winglets (placed in a + formation)
4 - TT18-A Launch Stability Enhancers (placed in an X formation between the winglets)
2 - Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tanks
1 - TR-38-D decoupler

Stage 2

1 - Kerbodyne KR-2L+ "Rhino" Liquid Fuel Engine
1 - Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tank
1 - FL-R1 RCS Fuel Tank (Offset it into the S3-14400 Tank)
8 - RV-105 RCS Thruster Blocks (4 on top of the tank and 4 on the bottom, both placed in a + formation)
1 - AE-FF3 Airstream Protective Shell (3.75m) (set sides slider down to two
1 - Rockomax Brand Decoupler

CSM

1 - RE-L10 "Poodle" Liquid Fuel Engine
1 - Rockomax X200-16 Fuel Tank
1 - FL-R1 RCS Fuel Tank (Offset it into the X200-16 Tank)
4 - RV-105 RCS Thruster Blocks (placed near the top of the X200-16 Tank in a + formation)
1 - Rockomax Brand Decoupler
2 - Gigantor XL Solar Array (placed on the decoupler
1 - Z-4k Rechargeable Battery Pack
1 - Mk1-2 Command Pod (put one Kerbal in it)
3 - illuminator Mk1 (placed near the top of the pod)
1 - Clamp-o-Tron Docking Port

Once you have the rockets built, follow the video and if you've done everything right, you'll have a shiny new trophy plus valuable knowledge of how to properly dock.

YouTube video Link:

Timestamp to the rendezvous and docking portion: 56:26

Edited April 15, 2017 by Gunsnipe3795

[Kerbal-Willie]

Nice work, thanks for guide will definitely be watching all of this tonight. 

[Alshain]

It's a very good tutorial.  The one tip I could offer you is to learn a little more how your prograde and retrograde behave on the navball when you burn.  You seemed to struggle with that around 1:40 ish. At one point you actually increased the gap between ships intersect.  You were pulling the prograde marker to the target marker, but if you aimed just a bit above the pink target marker, instead of straight at it, it would have pulled the progade a little faster without increasing your speed as much.  That way you have less wasted fuel slowing back down to keep from ramming your target.  Ultimately you really want the yellow and pink markers aligned.

You then killed your speed by aiming directly at the retrograde marker but that was a missed opportunity to align the makers as well in the same burn.  When burning, you "push" the retrograde marker and "pull" the prograde marker.  So if you had burned with the retrograde marker between your burn direction and the target retrograde marker, it would have pushed it up to align with the pink target retrograde marker (while that happens, prograde and target prograde are doing the same thing on the other side of the navball).  By combining these maneuvers you save fuel and can get really close to your target.

The only time you want to burn directly at any marker is if they are aligned.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Alshain

[Gunsnipe3795]

2 minutes ago, Alshain said:

It's a very good tutorial.  The one tip I could offer you is to learn a little more how your prograde and retrograde behave on the navball when you burn.  You seemed to struggle with that around 1:40 ish. At one point you actually increased the gap between ships intersect.  You were pulling the prograde marker to the target marker, but if you aimed just a bit above the pink target marker, instead of straight at it, it would have pulled the progade a little faster without increasing your speed as much.  That way you have less wasted fuel slowing back down to keep from ramming your target.  Ultimately you really want the yellow and pink markers aligned.

You then killed your speed by aiming directly at the retrograde marker but that was a missed opportunity to align the makers as well in the same burn.  When burning, you "push" the retrograde marker and "pull" the prograde marker.  So if you had burned with the retrograde marker between your burn direction and the target retrograde marker, it would have pushed it up to align with the pink target retrograde marker (while that happens, prograde and target prograde are doing the same thing on the other side of the navball).  By combining these maneuvers you save fuel and can get really close to your target.

Thanx @Alshain, I tried to replicate of my initial docking (when I got the trophy) as best as I could, that's why at the end I was struggling to keep the two ships facing each other. I remember when I did it last night that as DS2 was getting close to DS1, DS1 flipped around to face me and I was able to dock pretty easily; but when I tried to replicate it, it was all over the place, fortunately the micro bursts I did at the end was enough to get the end result and I had enough fuel to retrograde DS1 for re-entry back o Kerbin.

[Alshain]

Well I'm not talking about docking.  I was referring to the rendezvous. I said 1:40.. I read the wrong number, there is a whole period around 1:16 and went on for several minutes where you were killing speed while you weren't actually traveling toward your target.

[Gunsnipe3795]

2 minutes ago, Alshain said:

Well I'm not talking about docking.  I was referring to the rendezvous. I said 1:40.. I read the wrong number, there is a whole period around 1:16 and went on for several minutes where you were killing speed while you weren't actually traveling toward your target.

You mean the part where I was getting the two ships in their orbits?

[Alshain]

Just now, Gunsnipe3795 said:

You mean the part where I was getting the two ships in their orbits?

I mean where you are trying to get the two ships to come close enough to dock.  That's the rendezvous.  Give me a bit and I'll see if I can get some screenshots to explain what I mean.

[Alshain]

@Gunsnipe3795

Burn here to "Push" the Retrograde Marker away from you to the pink target retrograde marker while decreasing relative speed to the target.

 

Burn here to "Pull" the Prograde Marker to the Pink Target Prograde marker while increasing relative speed to the target.

When they are perfectly aligned, aim straight at the markers to simply slow down.

Try to avoid doing outside the 5km range.  In your video you had a very nice 0.6km intercept and actually made it further apart by attempting to keep them aligned too soon.  Trust your maneuver, if it says 0.6km, then you are on target, just wait till you hit that 5km distance to start making adjustments.  If you are going too fast you will have to burn earlier, but you really weren't, you should have had time to slow down with that engine and mass at a 5km range.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Alshain

[Gunsnipe3795]

2 minutes ago, Alshain said:

@Gunsnipe3795

Burn here to "Push" the Retrograde Marker away from you to the pink target retrograde marker while decreasing relative speed to the target.

 

Burn here to "Pull" the Prograde Marker to the Pink Target Prograde marker while increasing relative speed to the target.

When they are perfectly aligned, aim straight at the markers to simply slow down.

Try to avoid doing outside the 5km range.  In your video you had a very nice 0.6km intercept and actually make it further apart by attempting to keep them aligned too soon.  Trust your maneuver, if it says 0.6km, then you are on target, just wait till you hit that 5km distance to start making adjustments.

oh yeah now I see what you're talking about. I think I was trying to close the gap between the ships and I might've burned the engine on DS2 a little to much and it screwed it up a bit and I had to do the corrections. Then again the navball on KSP on PS4 and X1 isn't as accurate as it is on PC because SQUAD and blitworks haven't updated the game to the current version that the PC version is on so I pretty much did everything by eye. But like I said, this tutorial wasn't as clean as the initial run when I got the trophy last night, but it was pretty close.

[Alshain]

Just now, Gunsnipe3795 said:

oh yeah now I see what you're talking about. I think I was trying to close the gap between the ships and I might've burned the engine on DS2 a little to much and it screwed it up a bit and I had to do the corrections. Then again the navball on KSP on PS4 and X1 isn't as accurate as it is on PC because SQUAD and blitworks haven't updated the game to the current version that the PC version is on so I pretty much did everything by eye. But like I said, this tutorial wasn't as clean as the initial run when I got the trophy last night, but it was pretty close.

Well I didn't mean to say it was a bad tutorial or anything, just offering some tips.  Your initial setup to gain an intercept is exactly how I would have done it.

[Gunsnipe3795]

3 minutes ago, Alshain said:

Well I didn't mean to say it was a bad tutorial or anything, just offering some tips.  Your initial setup to gain an intercept is exactly how I would have done it.

Nah it's cool dude, you didn't offend me or anything, I appreciated the tips and all and as I practice a little bit more, I'll get better at docking itself. Next thing I'm gonna try and pull off is the flybys around the Mun and Minmus; but I'll wait till SQUAD and blitworks fix the mess flying tiger made before tackling that next hurdle.

[tab]

Achievement of KSP??? 

[Urses]

11 minutes ago, tab said:

Achievement of KSP??? 

Console only 

Urses