Jump to content

Hello from Cape Town


Clear Air Turbulence

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone, greetings from a wintery Cape Town.

Have just started playing the demo, and enjoy it, but am wondering about buying the full programme.

I have told myself once I can get a rocket in orbit in the demo programme I will buy the full version, but I have had many launches now (& killed quite a few Kerbals ;.; ) without ever attaining orbit so I am suddenly wondering whether I have have, you know, the right stuff :cool:

Is there a manual for this thing? There are all kinds of things folk like Scott Manley talk about (like debug mode, and the aerodynamic forces overlay) which I can't seem to activate in demo.

Anyway, if I get hooked on this game (which seems likely), I might post in here every once in a while

Hot jets! etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forums! :) Glad to hear that you've been enjoying the game.

I'm presently experiencing a very hot and rainy summer myself up on the East Coast of the United States. As always, it's good to see people all over the world are able not only to enjoy the game, but also to connect with one another and share that enjoyment.

As for your piloting woes: There isn't really a single manual as such (at least in terms of anything officially-licensed though I personally would be very happy to see one in the near future). However, you may want to take a look at the Drawing Board, which is conveniently available through the link in my signature. It has all manner of tutorials and other resources on pretty much any subject you can think of that's relevant to the game, and many of them are specifically aimed at new players.

Hope this helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Clear Air Turbulence, and welcome from a summery Canada.

There is no manual as such, but there are several valuable informational and tutorial tools such as the KSP Wiki, the Gameplay Questions section, and the Tutorials subsection including the Drawing Board.

Many useful tutorial videos exist on youtube, including many by Scott Manley.

Hope this helps.

Happy landings!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way, is it actually possible to get a rocket into orbit in demo mode? I have not managed so far...

The moment I have enough fuel to get into orbit, the thing gets top heavy and wants to start tumbling in the air. If I put in lots of solid booster rockets, the speed gets uncontrollable. And try as I might, I have little ability to steer the thing...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many firs achievments in this game seem to be followed by rescue missions. My first attempt at a Mun mission turned into the reason for a rescue mission, as did my first Mun landing.

Rendezvous can be a bit tricky. Be patient. Good luck!

Happy landings!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you Rendezvous?! I have over 600 hours in the game and I have never been able to Rendezvous, you are a god!

It's tricky, NASA didn't know how to do it either. They told Neil Armstrong to screw around up there and studied what happened. :)

I've got a tutorial on it in my signature (Which is now HORRIBLY outdated, yeesh, I should fix that. The basic concept is the same, ascent is not.)

Good luck on your endeavors, Clear Air Turbulence!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not managed to rendezvous yet.

I sent up an empty capsule, controlled with a remote guidance unit. Followed the various rendevous/orbit matching tutorials very carefully, using Manuever nodes with finicky care to get it exactly right.

Final approach was odd. The orbits were very close to each other, and those little intercept markers were very close to each other, but the delta v recommended was insane (2 minute burn). I thought I would do it anyway.

Realized too late that I had been trying to go in the wrong direction. Trying to do a u-turn while in orbit is not a good idea. Fortunately my fuel ran out before burn time elapsed, or I would have intercepted the stranded capsule at a couple thousand metres per second.

This is what sandbox mode is for, I guess :)

@ Starwhip, thanks for the tutorial - I will check it out!

Edited by Clear Air Turbulence
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They do have Jetpacks, on EVA just press "R", and yes, that would work, rendezvous is very hard though and almost impossible in demo as I dont think you have access to RCS. And jetpacks aren't very effective for manouvres only moving kerbals in low gravity or a vacuum. If you want to cheat to get them down try pressing Alt + F12, to turn on infinite fuel to get them down again, but as far as I know that isn't availible in demo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you Rendezvous?! I have over 600 hours in the game and I have never been able to Rendezvous, you are a god!

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who dreads rendezvousing. I've tried it a few times but I finally just started sticking mechjeb on all my craft, set a target and let the computer do the work. Normally I'll do the docking myself, unless I'm either low on fuel or just want to get it over with. I built a space station in LKO and mechjeb was a godsend(after several failed attempts at getting my station parts to the actual station).

I'm gonna start trying to do it legit just so I can have some confidence in my abilities to do so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thus far I have had some success in getting into a very similar orbit - precisely on the other side of the planet. Does that count?

For what it's worth, I've never been able to launch directly into a rendezvous. I always have to go into a parking orbit first, then set up the rendezvous from there. The trick here is that higher orbits are "slower", and lower orbits are "faster". You can think of it like a circular racing track divided into separate lanes, with each lane representing a different orbit. The inside lanes are "faster", because they trace out a smaller circle.

95700514.uwcFCdJj.IMGP1326.jpg

If you put your rescue craft into a lower orbit, it will eventually overtake your stranded craft. A higher orbit, and the stranded craft will eventually catch up to it. From a lower orbit, the rendezvous burn will occur while you're still a little behind, and from a higher orbit, while you're still a little in front.

Once you've completed the rendezvous burn, RCS thrusters are a great way of fine tuning your approach distance. Pulse them forwards/backwards until you're happy with the closest approach distance. Once the burn is complete, you do not need the orbital map view anymore. Everything you need to dock is on your NAVball.

Once you close to within 200 meters of your target, you can right click on individual docking ports to target them directly, making approach easier. You can switch your focus/control to another spacecraft (or EVA'd kerbal) with the ' [ ] ' keys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I do understand the physics of things at different orbits going at different speeds, and, more problematically things at the same orbit... at the same speed. At the present configuration I should have a relatively painless rendezvous after a couple of thousand times around the planet :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...