Playing with Realism Overhaul modset

[jondugger123]

Greetings fellow Kerbonauts. I'll try and make this as short as possible;

I've got the moves of stock KSP down pretty well, and I've tried playing with RO a couple of times, but I just can't seem to get a handle on it. I've made it to orbit a few times if I'm lucky, but anything past that is nearly impossible. I set up my fuels, keep in mind the engines and the ISP's and everything like that. I just can't seem to figure it out. I'd really like to know how to properly use it, the satisfaction of successful missions would be fantastic.

Any tips/tricks/snacks you guys are willing to share? Can't seem to find anything on youtube either.

[Red Iron Crown]

Moved this over to General Add-on Affairs.

I've been playing RO for a relatively short time, so I sympathize with your difficulties figuring things out. Some things that I found helpful:

- Put RCS on everything. Everything. Useful for ullage and fine-tuning orbits, plus reaction wheels are nearly useless.

- Use lower thrust engines for orbital maneuvers than you would in stock KSP. Since you can barely throttle a lower TWR lets you be more precise.

- Learn the best fuels for different jobs. Kerolox for lower stages, LH2/LOX for upper stages, then hypergolics for long duration missions.

- Learn to launch into the desired inclination for your next maneuver. Plane changes are murderously expensive in LEO.

- Don't try to SSTO.

- Use Procedural Parts for making tanks. Lowers part count and allows you to finely tune stage size/duration.

Above all: Don't get discouraged. It is just another learning curve, you'll figure it out.

[regex]

Start your tilt at 100m/s, depending on TWR (higher than 1.5 you can tilt a bit early), follow the prograde marker. Depending on upper stage TWR you may want to use the first stage to "pop-up" the second so you have time to circularize as you fall. Pack around 10km/s of vacuum delta-V while using the appropriate lower and upper stage engines; you'll get to orbit pretty much every time. Remember that most engines have only one ignition and aren't throttle-able so your launch will be a full-blast affair; learn your rocket and what trajectory it likes, and know when to stage to prevent ullage problems (or use pre-ignition of a stage like the Soyuz). Bring RCS along for ullage and maneuvering because magical torque wheels don't exist. Pack extra fuel, like NASA does, to make sure you cover all eventualities. Use the proper tank for your fuel. If you're at all concerned about boil-off bring hypergolics and reduce the payload. Launches are longer but you have much more time to fine-tune your trajectory and recover from mistakes.

Tips for interplanetary flight (others probably have better advice):

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130234-Need-Tutorial-and-Tips-for-RSS

Anything else you need to know? MechJeb isn't required, contrary to popular belief (I certainly don't use it), but delta-V readouts are pretty much crucial so either that or Engineer are a must.

Realism Overhaul is a learning experience, just like stock KSP, it just seems more daunting because stock KSP babies you when it comes to spaceflight. Stock KSP is a toy, Realism Overhaul is a sim.

[jondugger123]

Thanks for the tips. I admit I tried using mechjeb and some of the tools it comes with like SmartASS and the Ascent Guidance, but that just seemed to make it worse than manually flying my rockets. Maybe I'll give it another go. I'm constantly wanting to play with RO, but I always end up installing it and all the other mods with it, and deleting within an hour or two.

Thanks guys. Fly safe.

Side-note: I tried to change this thread to 'answered' but for some reason the option isn't coming up. Sorry.