Limited Infinity

I think this is a key point to the idea of a balanced sandbox. A sandbox is both always balanced and never balanced depending on the discipline of the player verses the skill of the player. If squad finds a part to be useful for career, should they change it for sandbox, or should they allow the sandboxer to choose how to use it, as that is a virtue of it's own. ^^ This! Very Much This! ^^ I think I remember an interview on ARM development where squad explained that before the science tree, the only thing they had to balance to different parts were other parts and they were excited that as science and economy come out, they can make parts that are plain better. I'm sure by the time we see final release, all parts will be revisited for balance. A large problem is also that players could escape the Kerbol Sun with pre-ARM parts. I bet more than a few here could escape with 1.8 parts. It could be viewed that any parts that come out from here will be OP'd and I say if that makes a few engines the obvious choice, I think I'm OK with that. I keep a few older versions of KSP in case I want to go back to a particular challenge, but sometimes I just want to get my ridiculously over-engineered craft in space or my big @$$ space station to Jool after already having launched 5 of them in pieces to other places.

Launch tower: T - 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ASAS: Wow! Nice ship flies straight as an arrow Launch tower: You've hit 10k. Begin gravity turn. RCS (sings): "I like big buts and I can not lie" ASAS: WAIT! What! (Also applicable to docking)

I put my Munar lander into orbit docked and refulueled for final descent. It's on a combined rescue/ exploratory mission. It has enough room to bring back the first Kerbal, who's rocket only broke two struts on landing, as well as bringing a pilot able rover to the Mun to check a strange anomaly witnessed on the surface from orbit. I can't wait to see it in person.

Well that looks a quite a bit more stable than the one I built. How does she fly?

I have had the struts seemingly blend into other pieces. If you can zoom inside of the piece with shift scroll or middle click you can sometimes find them when the reverse polygons aren't rendered. I also find this helpful for alining struts. Zoom in right be hind them and aim where you want to connect right above. This should give you a nice straight strut. I learned docking the old fashion way with tutorials and a lot of practice. I know some people frown on mods, but I say what ever makes the game fun. I see mods as breathing new life in a game that may be getting a little stale. I like to get as much as I can out of vanilla and once I've done that use mods to add longevity to the game.

I'm trying to get the .craft file up on Spaceport, but it doesn't show yet. If that doesn't work I'll try some thing else. I do find the smaller tanks struted helps some with linkage, but does add a little more wobble. Mainsails on the jumbotanks also overheat faster. I saw a youtube video by AddMeGamers with the mainsail firing connected to different tanks and it seemed I liked the X200-32 the best. All those struts will go away when the tanks are decoupled. I am not certain what the part count is, but the first 5 stages or so will bring a frame rate to a crawl. Edit: O.K. I don't know what's going on with space port, but here it is. https://www.dropbox.com/s/amb75txilh5sppk/Bactrian%20MkII.craft I warn you, frame rates will crawl when you try to fly it. Here are the flight instructions. Sorry for the wall of text, but she's a bit touchy and may 'splode if you don't handle her right. Action Groups 1 Activate forward engines / Shutdown aft engines 2 shutdown forward engines / Activate aft engines 3 Toggle forward docking ports 4 Toggle aft docking ports 5 Toggle Gimbal for all engines except central engines Launch Schedule Pre-Launch: Toggle Gimbal (Action Group 5) - This usually takes two presses. I suggest right clicking on an engine so you can see the Gimbal option. Then hit 5 twice so you see the Lock Gimbal option switch to the Free Gimbal option. This will lock the Gimbal for all the engines except for the center Mainsails for steering, reducing wobble. Activate SAS (T) (Optional) - You can keep SAS on the whole flight except for gravity turn and completing the orbit (when you obviously need to turn ) or you can fly manually. Thrust Engines to Full (Shift) - Don't worry about heat on the lifter. I have lift throttle at full through the whole launch and have not lost a engine to heat. Launch (Space) - Only the free Lifter engines fire. I wanted to save the crafts engines and fuel for space since it is a tanker. It seems foolish to have to fuel a tanker. Stage 10 (Space) - Around 2600 m Drops for tanks. Just getting rid of weight. Get ready for stage 9. It comes quick. Stage 9 (Space) - Around 3200 m SRB separation. Stage 8 (Space) - Around 7K Drops outer Tank. More weight dropped. A little rotation by this point, but manageable Gravity Turn - 13.5 K Here's where things get a little tricky. If you're better with orbits then I am, you might know a better way. Turn off SAS if you are using it. I go straight for 45 degrees on 90 (east). You can use RCS to assist the turn. You want to make sure your well out of the thickest stuff (at least 13K) before turning as you have lost a lot of stabilizing struts have been dropped in previous stages. Stage 7 can creep up on you if you do not nail the turn. If the stage get's real close. I'll stop my turn anywhere on 90, even out, and turn SAS back on. Stage and then continue turn. You can turn SAS back on after the turn is complete. Stage 7 (Space) - Around 22K Drops lower middle Tank. Here's where things get really delicate. We've lost a lot of our stabilizing struts and you'll start to get some shaking. I have lost some tanks at this point, but it seems like as long as I just hold her straight, she holds together. Stage 6 (5 Space) - Around 39K (your gravity turn may alter this) At this point we're just shooting for an Apoapsis of 70K. We won't hit this at this stage, but we have to plan a little. We'll be dropping the lower center rocket with our Gimbal, because our upper rockets have more struts keeping the craft stable. As you near the stage right click one of the upper mainsails for the menu so you can see when Gimbal is activated. As soon as the lower rockets empty, press 5 to reactivate Gimbal and then space to stage. Those orange garbage cans have had a lot of shaking at this point. Be gentle. they can still fall off. Complete Orbit - Around 48K (a lot can affect this, but this where I am as I write this) At this point we're preparing to burn horizontally at 0. We're going to start a little early, because the LV-N's need a lot of time before Apoapsis to be effective. When the Apoapsis gets to about 65K cut thrust (x or ctrl all the way). Gently maneuver to 0 degrees on 90 (East). RCS may be used. I like to keep 30 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds in front of my Apoapsis. We'll be finishing with the LV-N's. As I'm writing this I crept past my Apoapsis, but was able to push it ahead by bringing my heading up to 30 degrees on 90. Let's try to get our Periapsis to 60K. Stage 5 (Space) Final launch separation. I have the separation in it's own stage, because it forces me to stop and think and keeps my for and aft engines separate. If you want to combine stages 5 and 4 feel free, but realize it will reduce all previous stages by 1. At this point, The final engines are either heading back to Kerbin, or have a Periapsis below 65 K and can be de-orbited at your leisure, or stuck at a stable orbit. They are drones with small docking ports so they can be refueled and de-orbited later if you're stickler for such things. Stage 4 (1 or Space) Main thrusters activated. Action Group 1 also activates thrusters, so at this time we can lock stages and just use 1 and 2 to switch between thrusters. I find the LV-N's don't have a lot of Gimbal for this whale of a beast. Feel free to use RCS as there's a ton (possibly literally ) but with a little patience it is not necessary. With forward and aft engines, you won't need to do any crazy 180's. Now we're at one of three positions. First and worst case our Periapsis is below 60K. If this is so burn those LV-N's as high as you can with out heat. These will over heat quite quickly at full throttle. Bring your nose out maybe to 10 degrees at 90 to avoid over taking your Apoapsis. Go ahead and throw RCS forward with H key if you need to. If you pass your Apoapsis and your orbit is shrinking, I'm sorry, but it's time to abort. Second, your Periapsis is between 60 and 70 K. This is where I usually fall often on purpose to make sure my last stage can be de-orbited. As long as you are more than 30 seconds in front of your Apoapsis you should have no problem burning at 0 degrees to finish your orbit, other wise see above. Third, your Periapsis is over 70k. Congratulations. You are now in space with a stable orbit and well over 19000 fuel and 6500 monopropellent. As I write this I'm at 19406 Liquid, 23718 Oxidizer, 6601 MonoPropellent. That should get you to most Kerbin orbits with 4 full jumbo-64's and 4 full FL-R1's Note's on final stages: These are if you ever want to de-orbit the craft. Stage 4 - Forward Engines At this stage 1 key and 2 key can switch the action groups for forward or aft engines saving 180 degree turns. I just like to keep the the engine groups visually separated in the stage list. Stage 3 - Aft Engines. At this stage 1 key and 2 key can switch the action groups for forward or aft engines saving 180 degree turns. I just like to keep the the engine groups visually separated in the stage list. Stage 2 - Decouples the body from the module. I keep this separate from the parachutes to give the module a chance to get away from the body. Stage 1 - Parachutes. Again sorry for the wall of text. Enjoy

I'm no rocket engineer, but here's my largest lifter: It's a pain to fly and took me forever to get it to work, but it can carry 4 large fuel tanks with 4 large monpropellent with plenty of fuel for orbital maneuvers. It's hanging out at only 300K, but had mor than 75% of it's fuel left. It took two trips to stock my station. One to bring the four perpendicular tanks up and refill the shuttles. The second to park for future orbits. My hope is that it'll be an interplanetary fuel tanker. If you want the craft file I'll post it somewhere, but like I said it's a pain to fly. I shot myself in the foot using the covered docking ports. I think they're cool but I had to lift entirely with radial support Veterans don't laugh. She's ugly and inefficient, but I got her off the ground with only an asparagus tutorial for help

I love this! I had make my own. Introducing the Pangolin Class based off Mihara's design, or as the Kerbals call it, the Spin Cycle Vomit Car: The command pod has more torque and I was able to make one that can go 4.1 meters per second. It has room for 2 Kerbals and it can climb the ramp back onto the VAB launch pad. Unfortunately the MkIII has limited power generation and won't rover for long. The MkI performs nearly as well but is heavier with the generators. Edit P.S.: Steering is very twitchy as it uses roll for forwards and backwards and yaw to turn, but left and right flop as it rolls. I tried adding SAS for more torque, but alas it only added weight and slowed it down Edit: P.P.S: (last one. Promise ) The Pangolin MkV Solar panels for unlimited day time rover and just as maneuverable and same room for 2 as the MkIII.

So far I've found docking to any port will allow fuel transfer. Doesn't even need to be one from the fuel portion of a station. For example a station with a fuel portion, a crew portion and a solar portion in that order would still be able to transfer fuel to a craft docked to the solar portion.

6 hours!?! That's amazing. It took me a few days. But I didn't know about quick saves I did find videos like this one useful. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDQQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAHkY3FusJIQ&ei=msWRUdH_EuG3yQHbi4GYBw&usg=AFQjCNGNdOBc8Pr8ko754Ep_E-IpLl0oKA&sig2=bqI-6_myFc14ctlDY6LLqA I would definitely try practicing with smaller more agile craft first.

It's definitely hard. Have you docked smaller ships? I love the Scott Manley videos, but I'm a sucker for a Scottish accent. He's a scientist who understands all the math, but I find his videos very accessible. Docking two smaller vehicles is easier than docking one vehicle to a stationary one, but if you can get this down, the learning curve gets much easier. I'd create a practice game and try fallowing this a few times. Hope this helps. I'm not sure what kind of craft you're docking.

My two cents as I've had to go through a lot of learning to get to docking. As you can see in my badges I'm a beginner, too. Watch every tutorial on docking multiple times while practicing. Sports players often watch videos. Studies show that watching can be nearly as beneficial as practicing because the mind will go through the motions. Kind of like when the brain fires the same synapses for moving as when just thinking about it. I like to have engines that point both directions especially for heavy loads. Make the prograde engines activate with the 1 group and deactivate with the 2 group. Likewise, make retrograde engines deactivate with the 1 group and activate with the 2 group. Avoid the toggle option as this can bug out. This saves me a lot of hassle of spinning my craft around. Not necessary, but huge help with big pay loads like space station parts. My most useful advice and one that hung me up, is make sure your RCS is balanced. I had a real problem getting my tanker to dock until I finally scrapped the lifter and redesigned my RCS paying more attention to center of mass. I then used a mod to put it in orbit and made sure translation (I J K L) didn't cause any rotational drift. This helped so much. If you want tips on RCS balance I might be able to help you out.

I name mine after animals. My heavy tug is a Mule ( fairly common in sci-fi ). My light tug is a Pony. My mobile fueler is a Camel. My heavy fueler designed to bring tanks to my station is a Bactrian. I'm calling my stations a Hive, but I'm not sold on it. My probes will either be humming birds or bats. I'm leaning toward bats since there's some similarity between sonar and radar.

Do you mean shift scroll to zoom in?

I was thinking of putting 3 or 4 satellites in Kerbin's Clarke belt for constant satellite coverage. Then I realized my orbital mechanics understanding is a bit inadequate. Would some one here help me out before I waist hours / days figuring this out the Kerbal way? Plus I'm at work and can't play so I resort to some theory crafting. 1.) Is it feasible in KSP 2.) What is the orbital altitude to Kerbin for Geostatinary Orbit. Edit: Just found this on the wiki: 2 868.75 km and a speed of 1 009.019 m/s 3.) Would orbit degradation affect this? Would Geostationary require constant fidgeting with the satellite to maintain? 4.) Should I be saying Kerbalstationary? I could probably get through the math with a little hand holding, but I'm more interested in the generals. Thanks in advance.