[It's been a while so I've started over.]

KSP seems to have hit it's final version 1.12.5

I have the DLCs

I tried KSP2 and it's not working for me at the moment. I figured there's a lot of people still playing the original and new players coming in and I thought, why not do a beginners sereies?

I am using the name Peppermint Barnstorm as she is my Elite Dangerous pilot.  My new channel will feature KSP primarilly but will branch out into other space based games all played in Linux.

I know my voice isn't great and neither is my presentation but it's something I will get better at ( along with editing skills )

Here's Episode 1
 

 

[Minmus Jolly in an Underpowered Linux Machine.]

 

My system is as follows:
Core i7-7700
GTX1660Ti  (nVidia 525 Driver )
16gb Ram
Kubuntu 22.04

I am playing KSP2 using Proton Experimental ( Steam Play ) and I want to share my adventures with you.  I took many screenshots, a few of which didn't.  I may well do this mission again in the same vessel for Youtube.
TLDR  I made it to minmus and back and I get the following frame rates:

Kerbal Space Centre 10 to 15 fps

Vehicle Assembly Building  15 to 20 fps

Atmosphere 10 to 15 fps

Low Kerbin Orbit 10 to 15fps

Map  up to 50fps

Minmus Orbit 10 to 15fps

Kerbal Space Centre at night 30-40 fps

View the full Gallery with comments here:  https://imgur.com/gallery/9V6AwsT

 

On the Launch Pad. The "Unnamed Vessel" sat proudly. I got 15-20 FPS in the VAB and 10-15 on the launch pad.

So I made it to minmus in the normal way. Sorry for the lack of screenshots. Some of them didn't. Suffice to say I got ~15fps in LKO. Up to 50fps on the map screen. 30fps in deep space and about 15fps again around Minmus.

Here I am doing a stepped burn down to Minmus' surface. Framerate is getting towards 10fps.

Last Little Nudges

Did my exit burn from minmus with 170m/s to spare and a PE on Kerbin of 45km.  However on SOI change I found that I was actually in an orbit around Kerbol 
( ; _ ; )#!  I had just enough dV to correct this and got an actual entry into Kerbins Atmosphere with 24m/s to spare ( used up later )

Finally on a final descent after aerobraking around Kerbin, I detach from the main part of the craft.

Parachute! Deploy!

It deployed.  However!

It Took a few attempts to realise that the deploy altitude of 1000m was sea level, not ground level as in KSP1.

Finally down in Kerbin's deserts at, yes you guessed it!  10-15fps.

The KSC at night gives me a good 35fps!

These are the settings I played on.  I didnt realise that one of them was on high.  Turning terrain detail to minimum gave me another 5-10fps in the dark letting me get over 40fps at the KSC ( in the dark ).

 

All in all I consider this a huge success.  I feel that in time as performance improvements are made it might actually be playable on my machine.  In patch 1 I was only getting 5fps across the board.  So 10-15 fps across the board is a HUGE improvement.  Personally I can, and will, play it on my system.  Though I understand a lot of people would consider this utterly unplayable.   I say fair enough.  Eventually I will get a new graphics card and for the moment I am pleased that it works as well as it does.

[Making a mobile refinery]

My personal solution to this is:

Given that the best source of fuel to Kerbin is Minmus Greater Flats I just build a mining base on Minmus  and a "Fuel shuttle" that is basically a large orange tank that can land on minmus and dock at the mining base.

My last version used robotics to rotate terrier engines such that it could land flat on wheels and then scoot along the flats to the base.  Then take of vertically. pitch up, rotate the terriers to flight mode and thrust away.  I don't have that save any more though or I'd demonstrate.

This time I have added a mod that gives me large Vernor engines to achieve the same thing via RCS controls.

[Making a mobile refinery]

Off the top of my head:

design your ISRU ground truck with whatever you want on it.

put on the truck a servo to rotate in the ground plane.  Then on that put a piston that can go up and down.  Then on that put a piston that goes forward and back.  That way the end of the second piston can describe a cylinder  when moved through all it's possible positions.

On the end of the piston put a docking port jr.    

Make sure ALL your craft to be refuelled have a similar docking port jr that can be reached  by the one on your truck.

Why a docking port Jr?  because it allows fuel transfer and is small and light.  

It might even be possible to use an engineer to connect a fuel line from storage on the truck to a tank on the craft and save messing with robotics.

 

 

[Orbital Construction Question]

Sorry for being slow here and thanks for answering guys.

I have worked it out - Jimmy's answer gave me the correct clue.

The dropped parts had changed vessel type when I moved focus from my engineer doing the building to the ship in order to move a kerbal.

I think to rebuild ships in orbit you have to plan it very carefully.

[How to use the External Camera?]

As the title says -

How do I make use of the  JSI External Radial-Mount  Cameras?

Is there a key binding I have missed ?

I tried the group actions but there's nothing other than same vessel interaction to toggle.

I I tried pressing V multiple times hoping it would add camera angles to cycle through.  I tried pressing V while in cockpit view but it just took me out of cockpit view.

I have discovered that it is not a stock part and was added by Raster Prop Monitor.  I will figure it out - sorry this isn't in add-on discussions.  I had no idea it came from an add-on.  I thought it was a breaking ground addition.

 

[Orbital Construction Question]

I am experimenting with constructing ships in orbit.

I have no docking ports available yet so I was looking into the practicality of launching individual or groups of parts into space and then using an engineer to assemble a vessel in space.

This was working for me until I dropped a fuel tank and was then unable to pick it up again in construction mode.  I could move everything else on the rig.  Just not the fuel tank floating in space.

Is this because I switched Kerbals mid construction?

I found out that I cannot move the root part of a craft.  What are the other limitations of orbital construction?

[Resonant Orbit Calculator v1.4]

I still find this very useful.  I have worked out that often the orbital period is more important than precise AP and PE when you want satellites to stay in roughly the same positions relative to each other.   Resonant orbits are very handy if you have stack that you can place in one go to get the positions roughly correct ( it's NEVER perfect) after that it's Orbital Period that keeps them looking tidy.

Also when deploying sats - have some engines on them to adjust the orbits and set your separator force to almost nothing.

[How do I change inclination]

One thing that's not been mentions is the Ascending and Descending Nodes on your orbit.  There are on the "mid point" of your orbital inclination and are the easiest ( least dV ) points at which to change your inclination.

As you experiment in orbital dynamics you will get a feel for this.  

[Using Terrier Engines with RCS controls]

I have found a mod by @Smeagol Bigger Vernor RCS.  It has the functionality I want.

[Using Terrier Engines with RCS controls]

Hi Guys,  I am kind of back again at the moment.  Planning a new "lets play" in KSP to get my eye in again before KSP 2 comes out.

One thing I've always wanted to do is use LF engines ( not Vernor - they are weak ) as more powerful RCS thrusters.  Has anyone managed to do this with action groups?

I did once write my own mod which took the engine parameters of the Terrier and made it into an RCS thruster but I couldn't use the terrier model.  I had to use a scaled up Puff engine model for the mod to work, it did work very well and I had supreme control of one of the old orange fuel tanks ( it became my fuel barge from Minmus Surface to a station in LMO )

I'd like a more practical way of doing this.  In my head canon tying in full LfOx engines into the RCS system is a very Kerbal thing to do so I have no issues in trying to remake my mod if it's not possible any other way.  

If people remember the Eagle ships from Space 1999 - that's basically what I want to recreate in KSP with their 6 degrees of control ( or if you prefer (or haven't seen Space 1999), think of it as an LfOx drone )

[New Career Game]

It's been a while since I played so I figured I would start a new career game to learn some of the new stuff that I haven't really used. 

I have  Kerbin's SOI all Networked up with 8xRA2 relays.  They are upgradable via docking ports of course ( though I realise I can do limited builds in orbit now ).
I've repaired a rover on the surface of Minmus.  That was quite fun.
They said put a Satellite in orbit of Minmus - so I did.  Quite pleased with the minimalist nature.    Though it was BONE dry by the time I made the correct orbit and I didn't think it was going to make it.

They said build a new station around the Mun.  This one I played with some of the new robotics parts.  I didn't use a controller.  But I did put Sparks on Servos so they can be simply rotated to get reverse thrust and I put solar panels on modular girders on hinges to pack them in the fairing and to make them look cooler.  The transfer stage had an abundance of fuel left as well as full tanks in the station itself so rather than ditch the transfer stage onto the surface of the Mun I undocked it to break the struts and then docked the station back with it once I'd extended the solar panels.

[No Experiments Stored in Command Pod!]

Just a post card so please don't move this to mission reports

[No Experiments Stored in Command Pod!]

I have realised what happened.  I had reloaded to a previous save to check something before exiting the game last time.

I realised this because I noticed my Mun Lander had full fuel when it should have been bone dry.

So now I have built the Sat Net and Drone rescue ship for a ship that technically doesn't need rescuing right now. 

Oh well. I guess I shall send the Kerbals down and up again now that they are  pre-rescued.

[No Experiments Stored in Command Pod!]

Absolutely sure.  I'm not new to KSP.  I had my scientist collect the data and reset the experiments so I could re-run.  

The only thing I can think of is that I must have loaded a save prior to the science being done.  ( It took several attempts to get to orbit as I was Very light on fuel )

 I guess I am just going to have to do the mission over.

[No Experiments Stored in Command Pod!]

I have sent my Kerbals to the Mun
Valentina, Arbert ( Engineer) and Helnand ( Scientist)

They did science on the surface,  collected samples. Temperature logs, Air Pressue, Science Junior, Goo. 

They took off from the surface but only had enough fuel to achieve orbit (* my bad )

I sent a second drone ship to rescue them

When I use Helnand to retrieve the science from the command pod there are no longer any stored experiments. 
ALL the data from the surface is gone!
Has anyone got a clue what happened?

When I right click on the Command Pod with Helnand All I get is the option to look at the inventory.

When I put her back into the pod and right click there is no option to "review stored experiments"

 

[Can anyone explain mining to me?]

Of course I know how to do mining.

A Convertotron 250
A Drill
Some Ore Tanks
Some Fuel tanks
Some Power
Some Cooling 

What I want to do is fine tune this though.  Given a surface percentage of 13.6% ( my spot on minmus ) How many drills do I need to feed a convertotron 250 doing a single conversion?  I think I can ignore the level of the engineer as it's just a multiplier and affects both convertotrons and drills equally.

[What did you do in KSP1 today?]

I have been reconstructing Minmus Orbital Relay Station which was built in a previous ( now lost ) playthrough.  Attached to the station's core you can see Rockomax  Fuel Tanks, A robo-tug and the Sky Crane which is my main tool for dropping modules for Rura Penthe Forced Labour Colony   Luxury Holiday Complex.  

The station will be expanded as needed.  It will form the waypoint for a fleet of re-usable craft to be refuelled and parked when not needed.

There are docking ports at the end of each tank module.  Along the core ( for small ships or expansion booms ) and at either end - currently at either end are engine clusters which is how MORS got to Minmus in the first place.

[It's been a while. Part III]

Just some screenies of the rest of the mission.

The lander on approach to the surface.  Then Landed.  Waited until dawn to take the mandatory group picture.  Then The crew scanned a rock.
 

The landing site was actually carefully chosen.  One that would easily allow the Joules Vernor to visit all three of Gilly's biomes.    Highlands, Midlands, Lowlands.   Basically It rolled down a hill.  Kind of a long way to go for what was basically nothing more than a tobogganing jolly but there we go.  Kerbals will be Kerbals.

After the fun was had it was time to leave and return to Duna.  Bye bye Gilly.  The Joules Vernor was docked to the side of the Spirit of Nemo.  It was left with a tiny amount of fuel in it but most was transferred to the Nemo.  The  Gilly Impactor was fired at Gilly for good measure even though it turned out that it was not needed.   The crew  had forgotten a needed piece of equipment for the ground experiments!  The antenna! But it probably would not have worked anyway as they had no connection to the Comms Net.

 

 

By sheer luck there was a transfer window back to Kerbin in around 24 days.  This gave the crew just enough time to finish their celebratory snacks and drinks.
Not going to bother with pictures of manoeuvre nodes.  Just the mandatory Kerbin approach and rentry.

 

 

4864 Science was earned going to Gilly. 
I seem to be following a 1 science gathering mission per planet style so,
Next Stop:  Dres.

Never been to Dres before so I'm probably going to brute force it with lots of dV.

 

[Probe Cores VS Remote Guidance Units]

It's the probe control point that I'm not understanding.  Why do you need a connection to the KSC from the controlling mother ship if you have a pilot on board?  I thought it would be for those times when your comms network was out of range and the pilot on the mothership could control the probe that was in range.  Oh no.. my bad.. it does exactly that!.  

Thank you.    Dyslexic brain went word blind on the first sentence "A Probe Control Point is a specific vessel which allows you to control a probe without any connection to the KSC."

[Bird and Insect Sounds]

Hi Guys,  

I think I found where the bird and insect sounds have been coming from!

[Probe Cores VS Remote Guidance Units]

What's the difference between Probe Cores and Remote Guidance Units?

I'm not sure I get it.  I seems to me like an RGU can operate on the surface of a planet if it has a link to an orbiting spacecraft as long as said spacecraft has a kerbal on board that can control it.
Is that right?

Can an RGU Function as a probe core if it has a link to the KSC?

Or am I missing it completely?

[It's been a while. Part III]

Leaving Kerbin turned out to be more trouble than expected this time.  What was supposed to be a ~1100 m/s burn to get an Eve encounter turned out to be a bit of a shock once it was complete and a few days out.  The encounter just upped and vanished!   My guess is the Mun or Minmus snuck up on the Spirit of Nemo and sandbagged it while the crew were busy watching the projected path further out.  A rather expensive ( 273m/s ) mid course correction however got another encounter.  Then a second correction was needed as something odd happened again.  This cost more dV.  However at last an encounter with a PE of  45Mm was achieved and decided to be good enough as it was fine tuned to be just outside the Orbit of Gilly.

 

The Eve capture was then converted to an eliptical orbit to the edge of Eve's  SOI.  The inclination was changed to match that of Gilly's orbit and then it was just a matter of time until an encounter with Gilly occurred.   173 m/s at Gilly PE gave the Spirit of Nemo a nice Eliptical orbit around Gilly.  I chose eliptical orbits each time to save on dV and circularising.  The Joules Vernor lander had plenty of dV on board to descend to Gilly's surface.  The image shows a planned circular orbit but I decided against it.  Once in orbit around Gilly, Remo Kerman made her debut and did a little science.   The crew then transferred to the  Joules Vernor and detached, ready to descent onto the dusty surface of Gilly.
 

 

[It's been a while. Part III]

So I made this monstrosity to put the 74 tons of Mothership and Lander into orbit.

Kind of onion staged.  It shed the ancilliary liquid fuels first and then the SRBs.  The remaining core then circularised at 100km and separated from the Mothership which is now known as "The Spirit of Nemo" .
I do now have a huge chunk of debris in orbit but thankfully I have grabbing units now so I will be launching a side mission to de-orbit that chunk of liability.

 

 

I wonder when my next transfer window to Eve is?

 

 

Oh in case anyone is wondering the little tags sticking out either side of The Spirit Of Nemo are more vernor engines.  This time on pistons coming out of a payload bay.  This is to facilitate fine tuning of orbit around Gilly without having to rotate several decatons of spaceship to burn either prograde or retrograde.

Also in the top right picture - I didn't have any seperatrons available so I simply put Mite SRB's upside down and stuck them to the sides of the twinboars to make sure the LF Boosters cleared the core completely.  A test launch previously suggested they were necessary.  Rather spectacularly I might add.  Clean separation of the Joules Vernor though.  At 12km.

[It's been a while. Part III]

The plan:

During Kerbin -Eve transfer adjust PE to about 10k above the atmosphere.  Adjust capture inclination to be as close to Gilly's Orbit as possible.  At Eve PE burn retrograde to produce an elliptical orbit  to the edge of Eve's SOI. 
At AN or DN of this orbit adjust inclination to match Gilly.  Then at PE reduce AP just below Gilly's Orbit ( so I don't smack into it. ) Then wait for an encounter.

I've now got a mothership with 3.5k of dV in it AND a small rocket impactor that can be launched at the surface.  A cheat test gives me about 30 seconds before it hits so I can switch back to the ground crew and get experiments running in time.  I hope.

Knowing my luck I will actually manage to hit my ground crew.