To Mech-Jeb or not to Mech-Jeb, that is the question...

[Chruschtschow]

It depends...

I like to start my rockets personally, but not always. Especially not, when it is the sixth start of a slightly modified new launcher that I'm testing.

Right now, I'm sending vessel after vessel after vessel to Minmus. I like to do my injections personally and they are often less fuel intensive and have a nice equatorial orbit. But if it's the x-th ship again, I just start the script that goes from launch to Minmus orbit, while I look after the kids.

And I love the informations. I was a little baffled when I found the nearly total lack of flight data. Where's my inclination? Where can I see my pe and ap without doing some mouse over? Where's my dv? WHERE'S THE MASS OF MY SHIP?!?

And the Smart A.S.S. is so awesome. I always get the buttons for pitch and yaw wrong.

[smilingmonkey]

I find I can blow my shiny new designs up with or without it.

I think I am in the camp of getting to know the basics. Get an orbit, with a ship you design, fly to other planets, land, take of again, dock, return to Kerbin and land near the spaceport..and then get automated systems.

Believe me, you will have to take over from them sooner or later, and that training will mean the difference between a successful mission that has gone all wrong, and just 'ending flight' and starting over.

Ultimately though, play the sandbox however you want. There is no right or wrong in your own game.

[rolandh]

I use Mech Jeb all the time, I find the the accomplishment from actually building something that can actually get into space or a Planet.

I can manually fly a ship into Space & land a pod back on Kerbel, but have never really got the hang of manually setting the nodes to Orbit Kerbel after trying loads I just end up with it ending in disaster when my ship comes crashing down prematurely.

I also find it essential for Orbiting as the Orbital Operations Altimeter is more accurate than the stock Altimeter.

Roland

[nats]

For me the piloting part is the most enjoyable bit of the game so Mechjeb is definitely out. But that doesn't mean I might not change my opinion later on if I ever get fed up with the piloting lark.

[Gniuz]

I use mechJeb to point me where I want to go, save me having to turn my ship in the right direction.

I did however only start to use it for that after I was confident enough to do it by myself. I also like the info it outputs for you.

I don't use it for orbital operations, docking, ascent or such.

[rosenkranz]

I'm with rolandh. For me the accomplishment isn't the manual flight, it's the mission.

Manual flight is a set of accomplishments all it's own and I think folks do it an injustice by lumping it into the mission. The mission is also cheapened by lumping it into the flight.

As an example, I've got a mission to Laythe I'm currently working on. it consists of the following:

Two base command modules (just in case)

Five base generic modules

A station core module

Three auxilery station modules

Two Kethane rigs for Vall (just in case)

Two Fuel lifters

Two Fuel carriers

Three nav sat carriers

That is a pretty good sized fleet going to Jool tomorrow (still have to launch the nav sat carriers).

The mission is to set up a nav sat constellation, a station, at least one base and a mining operation.

There is going to be quite enough manual stuff going on there that I am not going to feel cheated if I get whatever help I can get from tools like MechJeb, ORDA and Lazor.

[tommygunyeah]

I tend not to use it for it's autopilot, some of the info it gives out is pretty awesome and very helpful. Also, when it plans maneuver nodes it can be helpful too

[Keymaster]

The answer to the question is, definitively, 'personal preference'.

This! And i like it...

[The Space]

I personally don't use it but i wouldn't mind if some features of it were added to the game as long as they don't add autopilot. That would just make the game too easy in my opinion.

[irichey25]

I only use MechJeb's Smart A.S.S or if I'm trying to get into orbit and when I'm adding maneuver node and when I try to get it a perfect circle around Kerbin and the orbit looks all ****ed up, I'll have Mech Jeb do that correction for me.

[A Fat Pokemon]

Oh, the thread necro

[CozmikR5]

I use it and I love it. If that makes me lazy well I'm a happy lazy. Besides, you have to go manual on a lot of things anyway.

[sal_vager]

Oh, the thread necro

It's been just over a month, so add some decent comments guys

I tried MechJeb a few times and needed it for some challenges, but after it crashed my ship into the Mun for the N'th time I stopped using it, plus it struggled with my designs.

I expect it's a lot better now but I prefer to fly by hand now.

Edited June 1, 2013 by sal_vager
Accidentally a word

[Aphox]

It's been just over a month, so add some decent comments guys

I tried MechJeb a few times and needed it for some challenges, but after it crashed my into the Mun for the N'th time I stopped using it, plus it struggled with my designs.

I expect it's a lot better now but I prefer to fly by hand now.

I stopped using it for a while back when it was around v1.5 because of that. The landing system seemed off and liked to smash my ships into the ground, and the autopilot couldn't handle a lot of my designs and sent them into an unstoppable spin.

These days, I use it for the amazing plethora of information it feeds you, along with some of the Smart A.S.S. features just to make things easier.

I hand fly all of my missions sans-MechJeb before using any autopilot just to make sure it's actually a pilotable, working design.

Mostly, I use autopilot to fly things that I've done several (hundred) times in the past on designs that I've hand-tested, such as orbiting or Mun transfers, just because it saves me the time and the ever-so-sarcastic feeling of "Oh, I get to do this again."

[Piggius_Max]

I agree, MechJeb chops out a huge amount of learning curve for players, though I can see why pros would use it, it makes some of the more difficult maneuvers possible.

I don't mind if people use it, but for challenges and let's plays MechJeb should be 'declared' at the start, because for alot of us we watch the videos to learn the gradient and steps to climbing the learning curve without mechjeb, if mechjeb is suddenly introduced then the viewer isn't really finding out any information.

Just my opinion, everybody else is entitled to their own.

[CozmikR5]

I actually love the way MechJeb can destroy a rocket; it's a great way to find and cure design flaws.

[Finnerty]

Not to Mech-Jeb, that is the answer.

[Nuke]

its fun to go all mercury astronaut on a space craft. they didnt just want to be ballast, they wanted to pilot the thing. of course eventually the fighter jock was replaced with the scientist and the engineer. who just wanted to get into space, do their job, and come back and were happy to let the computer fly the shuttle. as for me, i did the fighter jock thing in orbiter, years before ksp, and in ksp initially, before we had plugins or even nav nodes. im so good i can manually fly most things into space in my sleep, stock or otherwise. i can even fly a lot of things that mechjeb cant. but that doesnt mean mechjeb doesnt have a place. like when im away from my computer but want it to boost assets to space for me while im not there. i dont really have the time to micromanage all my launches and do stuff in space as well. so i use mechjeb mostly as a time saver.

[s20dan]

I use MechJeb for just about everything.

Playing the game: 'Line up the yellow circle on top of the blue cross and keep it there' gets really boring really fast. So I let Mechjeb handle that.

But saying that, there is only one task that MechJeb can perform better than me: Mechjeb always turns the correct way to find a Node. But I have to rely on the Navball, so I have to waste RCS trying to find the node that is out of sight, because you can only see 180 degrees on the navball. (+90 and -90)

[MUTED BOX]

I sometimes use Mechjeb for ascent, circularizing, docking, ,and initial landing sites.

soooo I like Mechjeb.

Edited June 1, 2013 by MUTED BOX
Grammer

[Climberfx]

You are using a game, made in a computer, playing in a computer, and don't like to have a computer in your rocket? in 2013?

Man, you got serious problems, find a doctor.

MechJed is for KSP, what a GPS dream to do for a car.

I know how to do all the things Mj do and more, in a better way in almost all of then. but after i learn all in deep, the Mj come to make me a contemporary man, using manual only for joy. Other, all automatic...

Edited June 1, 2013 by Climberfx

[jahnj13]

Look I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but whenever NASA or any other space agency for that matter sends a rocket up, thousands of people have had to do their jobs correctly in order for that mission to be a success. In my mind mechjeb is that large support staff that allow astronauts to fly. Using isn't a cheat, it's a way of making a 1000 man job possible using just 1.

[Shadow86]

I don't judge people who use MechJeb, but at the moment it's not very attractive for me since it does feel a lot like cheating, considering half your job is flying the spacecraft you build.

But different people enjoy the game in different ways.

I might use it in the future, however, to do the most repetitive tasks, such as launching and circularizing orbit around Kerbin. I'm guessing that around my 100th launch, it'll feel like a chore.

[Bloodbunny]

I use it for launches, because that's how its done in real life. Docking, rendezvous, etc I do manually

[wasmic]

I never use mechjeb for anything I haven't done manually before. But it is quite nice for setting up maneuver nodes and aligning orbits.