The Info-pedia collective

[maceemiller]

The point of this thread is to hopefully help every player by having a collection of useful information all in one place.

I would think that most things have already been covered in this forum however my idea is to have your 3 snippets of information explained in a short and to the point way.

Maybe we can all learn something new regardless of game experience.

Well, here's my contribution:

1....10 thrust will lift 1 ton

2....The higher an engines ISP the more fuel efficient it is

3....In flight, hitting CAPS LOCK will switch your steering to "fine control"

[Bill Phil]

1: In orbit you're halfway to anywhere.

2: A Mun landing is easy, not crashing is hard.

3: Jool is both beautiful and terrifying

[PatPL]

1. Check your staging

2. Landing on Eve and Duna takes less deltaV than Mun landing

3. Add more struts to avoid Spontaneous Unplanned Disassembly

[Starhawk]

1. Mod-F5 (Alt-F5 in windoze) allows you to make named quicksaves and Mod-F9 allows you to load any quicksave.

2. Maneuver nodes can be slid around the orbit lines.

3. Caps-Lock not only engages fine control, but also RCS thrust balancing.

Happy landings!

[Thegamer211]

1. You can edit ships names in tracking station (apparently a lot of people did not knew this)

2. To focus the camera back on your ship in map mode, press backspace.

3. I recommend installing KER, KAC, and parachute safety indicator. They are very useful, and don't consume much ram. (Don't forget CKAN for easy installing)

[GoSlash27]

1: Landing gear exhibit less drag when mounted backwards.

2: A vehicle designed to waste the minimum amount of DV isn't necessarily the most efficient vehicle in terms fuel consumption, mass, or cost.

3: Specific impulse is useful for figuring out a lot more than just DV or wet-to-dry ratios. It can also be used to figure out thrust with fuel flow rates or vice-versa. Burn timers, staging models, etc. are all possible because of this.

Best,

-Slashy

[federicoaa]

1. Check staging

2. Check you have an antenna

3. Check staging again

4. Check staging one more time, your chutes are in same stage as your heatshield...

[sal_vager]

This thread really should be in Gameplay or Tutorials....

But anyway, how to use the re-root tool.

(1) Hold the Shift key and click your craft to pick it up (or click the current root part).

(2) Press 4 to enable the re-root tool.

(3) Click the part you want to be the new root.

Also, how to use the re-root tool on sub assemblies.

(1) Click a sub-assembly to pick it up (the ghostly parts of your craft you modkey(L-alt/R-shift/cmd)+clicked to copy).

(2) Press 4 to enable the re-root tool.

(3) Click the part of the sub assembly you want to be the new root (yes, you can re-root subs!).

And finally some special sub-assembly extras.

(1) Modkey+click parts of sub assemblies to make new sub assemblies of those parts.

(2) Shift+click parts of sub assemblies to cut them into bits.

Edited September 28, 2015 by sal_vager

[KerrMü]

1. Pushing elevons gently into a wing part with angle-snap on will align the control surface correctly to the wing (on most wing parts).

2. When on the way to another celestial body, pressing TAB in map mode a few times, until you focus that body, will show your flight path through its SOI.

3. Honestly. Check your staging!

[federicoaa]

This thread really should be in Gameplay or Tutorials....

But anyway, how to use the re-root tool.

(1) Hold the Shift key and click your craft to pick it up (or click the current root part).

(2) Press 4 to enable the re-root tool.

(3) Click the part you want to be the new root.

Also, how to use the re-root tool on sub assemblies.

(1) Click a sub-assembly to pick it up (the ghostly parts of your craft you modkey(L-alt/R-shift/cmd)+clicked to copy).

(2) Press 4 to enable the re-root tool.

(3) Click the part of the sub assembly you want to be the new root (yes, you can re-root subs!).

And finally some special sub-assembly extras.

(1) Modkey+click parts of sub assemblies to make new sub assemblies of those parts.

(2) Shift+click parts of sub assemblies to cut them into bits.

you enlightened my life

[Robotengineer]

Hit delete in the map view to refocus on your current vessel.

[T-Bouw]

1: An easy early Career science-gain can be had by exploring KSC itself.

2: To orbit, go horizontal also. Not only straight up.

3: Nosecones help!

[g00bd0g]

Wow, some great stuff in here. Here's some spaceplane tips.

1. The Center of Mass should always be forward of the Center of Lift, usually the two spheres just touching is good balance.

2. Make sure to distribute your fuel tanks as evenly as possible around the Center of Mass. Verify the Center of Mass does not change as the fuel is consumed by removing all the fuel from the tanks in the SPH. CoM should be the same (or very close) when full and empty of fuel.

3. Try to keep all engines in-line with the CoM. This prevents any unwanted pitch/thrust coupling.

[jean400]

Here's some random tips:

1. Jet engines have a Center of mass in front of the part. Put them on a hover with the nozzle pointing up, and the rover will have a COM below the ground, making it extremely stable.

2. Wings angled down (anhedral) can improve stability.

3. Pressing the Spacebar in the VAB will reset the camera to the default position.

[Feradose]

Here's some random tips:

2. Wings angled down (anhedral) can improve stability.

Isn't wings up more stable?

My tips

1. Use fins, sepratrons, or rolling your rockets to get rid of touchy-explody boosters.

2. Radiators are only good for visuals in stock game.

3. If all you want to do is go back to space from a surface, you won't need more than 2 TWR, on Eve or Gilly.

[Retread]

Nice thread. Here's some random stuff from me:

1. In map view, if you click on the indicator for an apsis, the display showing the altitude will stay on. Great while fine tuning maneuver nodes.

2. If your spaceplane flies fine, but you can only get it to take off by launching off the end of the runway, have a look at the placement of your rear landing gear. Having it too far behind your center of mass will keep the plane from rotating at any speed.

3. Once you've designed a spaceplane that can reach orbit, drain it of almost all fuel and fly a circuit around KSP. No point in achieving orbit if the weight distribution with empty tanks won't let you land again.

[CalculusWarrior]

Here's a tip from me: the Shift key can be held down to toggle 5 degree angle snapping, rather than the 15 degree snap or no snapping at all.

[Xacktar]

You can double click on certain windows and panels in cockpit view to zoom in or even turn back to look at your crew.

[EdusacconBR]

if you hold alt on SPH or VAB, you will disable radial attachment

[peachoftree]

(shameless self plug incoming) you can rename vessels in the tracking center: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/134910-you-can-rename-vessels-from-the-tracking-center%21

[Rath]

Wow, some great stuff in here. Here's some spaceplane tips.

1. The Center of Mass should always be forward of the Center of Lift, usually the two spheres just touching is good balance.

2. Make sure to distribute your fuel tanks as evenly as possible around the Center of Mass. Verify the Center of Mass does not change as the fuel is consumed by removing all the fuel from the tanks in the SPH. CoM should be the same (or very close) when full and empty of fuel.

3. Try to keep all engines in-line with the CoM. This prevents any unwanted pitch/thrust coupling.

. #1 was true until KSP 1. 0, now you want them on top of each other.

[maceemiller]

If you make a mistake in the VAB or SPH you can press CTRL X to undo your last action.

[juanml82]

1) Spaceplane parts have better heat tolerance than rocket parts, which can be useful when aerobraking/capturing

2) You can squeeze some 1,000+ extra dV out of a light lander by setting up a final stage which only keeps the lander can, a probe core, electrics, an RCS tank and two monoprop engines

3) To get science, get into a low polar orbit and keep taking EVA reports/gravioli analysis as you overfly most (if not all) the biomes of the body you're orbiting.