Starhawk

I still have trouble with gravity assists to some extent. Also precision landing a heatshield/parachute type craft in atmosphere. To land at/near KSC, I use a fixed reference that I've found to work by trial and error. I establish a 75x75 equatorial prograde orbit. When 1/4 orbit before being directly over KSC, I point retrograde and burn until the orbit trajectory enters the surface of Kerbin and moves until it touches the next spit of land that lies directly to the east of KSC. That usually brings me down quite close to KSC, but there is some error due to eyeballing it. Using this method with a spaceplane, I'm always close enough to angle for a landing or turn around after slowing and come back west to the runway if I overshoot by a bit. For precision landing on airless bodies, Slashy's Reverse Gravity Turn method seems to work quite well. Happy landings!

This is difficult with heatshield/parachute craft. That's why I like spaceplanes so much. For non-spaceplane craft, Mechjeb can calculate atmospheric drag and predict a landing site fairly accurately, at least in stock. Not sure about FAR. Good luck and happy landings!

I found some play value in the strategic planning in hard mode, but it tended to highlight the balance problems that the newer game elements still have. I enjoyed that at first, but after a few times I found that it got stale for me. One of things I enjoy most in the game is building and flying planes and spaceplanes. So the early part where I have to grind and grind before I can unlock the aircraft landing gear seem more like an impediment or a barrier than a challenge to me, especially after I've done it a few times. Happy landings!

May as well set up housekeeping! That thing is never going to leave the surface of Eve. A return trip from Eve's surface is one of the most challenging tasks in the entire game. Approximately 12000 m/s of delta-v are needed to achieve orbit from sea-level on Eve. Good luck. Hope you pull off a rescue mission one day. Happy landings! edit: Also, as you noticed, ladders are extremely important at Eve.

Each new version mandates a new save for me. Whenever I try out new mods, I start a brand new save. When I feel a sense of completion with a career, and want to try different difficulty settings, I start a new save. I feel that in many ways I'm still exploring aspects of the game itself, and still have much to learn. Therefore, I don't tend to build up a lot of infrastructure yet. I usually concentrate on planning, engineering, and piloting one mission at a time. So I'm not giving up a lot with a new career save, except having to do the early-game grind again.

I think the part you're missing is 'Eve SSTO'. An SSTO that can land on, and then achieve orbit from, the surface of Eve.

When you set up a maneuver to another planet, or when you make course corrections during the trip, you can set your trajectory so that you come in on either side of the target. One side will put you in a prograde orbit, the other side in a retrograde orbit. Once you have an encounter set up, focus on the target body to see which way your encounter will leave you orbiting, and adjust if necessary. Hope this helps. Happy landings!

Thanks for saying hello. There is no doubt that this community has great qualities. I don't participate in online forums, with the exception of this one. Happy landings!

Laythe is the choice for me. Oxygen means spaceplane shuttles can efficiently carry Kerbals from orbit to surface and vice-versa. Oxygen (and water?) make it a good place, and the views... wow. Plus easy access to all those other places. Happy landings!

If you open your settings page (the button/link is at the top right) you will find a link on the left side which will allow you to edit your signature. That is the one you want. Cheers!

Just keep right-clicking (I think it's right-click) on the zoom window. There is a small readout that shows how much you are zoomed in.

There are small moving beads of light which indicate the direction of travel in the orbit. The most common problem with these is orbiting the wrong way. Happened to me on my second satellite contract I ever did. The contract called for a keosynchronous orbit, which I mistakenly read as a keostationary orbit. I had the orbit perfectly matched in reverse. I didn't have enough delta-v to turn it around, so I had to terminate it and launch a new one. Good luck and happy landings!

Welcome, HorkyBlah88. Glad to have you aboard. Happy landings!

Not. Even. Close. May I direct your attention to this thread? Happy landings!

Farewell, Starwhip. I'm sure we'll see you in the future. Happy landings!

Welcome, cain546! The KSP learning curve is rather steep (some have called it a learning wall) and enormous fun. Docking is possible once the docking port parts are unlocked in the tech tree. There are many tutorials in the Tutorial section of the forums and in the Tutorial section of the wiki. Getting to orbit is the first step. Once you take that step, you can slowly learn to walk, and even run. Some videos assume a fairly high level of knowledge, but others start off slowly and introduce the concepts for the new player. Further, there are several in-game tutorials that can significantly aid a new player who is getting started. If you have a specific question you want answered, ask it in a thread in the Gameplay Questions section. Hope this helps. Happy landings!

I'm not sure that I understand. Are you thinking of leaving out resources? Won't that make it impossible to balance the career mode playability in such a way as to still be balanced when resources are introduced? Are you thinking of leaving out female Kerbals? It seems a shame after they've been announced with such fanfare. You're obviously not leaving out the new aero model, and therefore you must be including reentry heating. I'm really not seeing what things you guys are actually thinking you can leave out at this point. The best feedback I can think of giving at this point is that career mode must 'feel complete'. Not only must the tech tree be balanced, but it must be balanced with progression in Kerbal experience, facility upgrades, contract generation/completion, and overall exploration. As stated before, career mode must feel like a complete game, not a bunch of disparate systems tacked together. Then it all has to shine and play so smooth you can't even tell it ever needed polishing. I can't imagine creating that experience and then trying to add in resources and rebalance the entire thing again. I realize that you may not want to release specific information regarding which features you are thinking of leaving out, but that limits the specific feedback we can give to vague, maybe unhelpful, posts like this.

Hello, Planetfall, and welcome to the forums! There is a link to the FAQ at the top of the page. You will be able to create an avatar after three post, I believe. Hope you enjoy the forums.

I believe it is possible to connect two craft using multiple docking ports. I'm not sure if the loop configuration might be a problem for the program, but it seems far more likely that you have encountered the docking port bug. As mentioned above, save file editing is the resolution I have seen discussed on the forum. Good luck and happy landings!

I have looked at this a bit, and I'm not sure whether there is any rhyme or reason. I do know that 'Ground Distance Covered' is wildly inaccurate. It also seems to vary from one craft to another from what I have seen, or maybe even from one install to another. This screenshot shows the F3 readout for a craft which has circumnavigated Kerbin twice. I have also see screenshots from other players, which obviously showed a much larger distance for 'Ground Distance Covered' than what they actually traveled. I don't know of any way to accurately measure distance traveled in the game. Happy landings!

If you need pointers, there are lots in the Tutorials section of the forums and in the Wiki. Also, if you have specific questions about how to play, you can post them in the Gameplay Questions section. Happy landings!

KSP doesn't have a learning curve it is more like a learning wall. - Gravaar edit - ninja'd

Welcome, Winters! I expect that the game will become as addictive for you as it has for me. Happy landings!

He starts playing KSP at 3:37 or so.

Welcome to the forums! Can't learn without crashing. There's an amazing community here. Hope you have fun. Happy landings!