Slim-Shuttle on Pol, Underwater launches and other silliness with the new Mission Builder

[Klapaucius]

As someone who is just setting up a teaching program for KSP with students, I have been really interested in the Mission Builder. I'm still in the early stages, but there are some very cool aspects to it, and naturally I got very distracted.The biggest one: you can build a launch pad nearly anywhere: any planet or moon other than Jool and any location on the map. Here are some pics. 

 

One of my many failed attempts to get a large rocket into orbit from Eve:

On the side of a mountain on Kerbin

At the bottom of lake near the ice sheet on Kerbin

at the bottom of a river (notice they've modeled all the underwater topography.)

Underwater cliff:

 

Beachfront view:

Parked on Pol:

Takeoff fail:

Flying through Eve's ocean:

It crashed almost immediately after this shot.

Taking off from Laythe

 

It's all a bit silly, but I really found the EVE launch to be a great challenge, which I have not at all succeeded in solving.  I'm pretty new to this, so I have a LOT to learn.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by Klapaucius

[Northstar1989]

How hard is it to get a precise location on the first try?

I.e. what if I wanted to add a launchpad in the mountains west of KSC, or in one of the even taller ranges elsewhere on Kerbin.  How hard would it be to get a launchpad on a mountaintop, rather than side?

Also, I understand that Mission Control, Administration etc. are all disabled in a Scenario?

Edited April 11, 2018 by Northstar1989

[Foxster]

3 hours ago, Northstar1989 said:

How hard is it to get a precise location on the first try?

I.e. what if I wanted to add a launchpad in the mountains west of MAC, or in one of the even taller ranges elsewhere on Kerbin.  How hard would it be to get a launchpad on a mountaintop, rather than side?

Also, I understand that Mission Control, Administration etc. are all disabled in a Scenario?

You get a zoomable orbital view of the body you want to place the launchpad on. It's not hard to pick an interesting spot. 

It looks to me as though anything to do with career is not available, which makes sense as there is no integration.  

[Klapaucius]

15 hours ago, Northstar1989 said:

How hard is it to get a precise location on the first try?

I.e. what if I wanted to add a launchpad in the mountains west of MAC, or in one of the even taller ranges elsewhere on Kerbin.  How hard would it be to get a launchpad on a mountaintop, rather than side?

As Foxster said, you can zoom in very precisely.  

Look to the right panel, and you will see a drop down that says "Position."

In the expanded window, I have chosen the Mun, which gives me a global representation which I can rotate and zoom in on. I can also change the time of day using the slider. (The slider is currently showing the longitude position, but if you click on it, it converts to the light cycle).

 

You place the launch site by clicking on the map. You can do it from a distance and then adjust, or zoom all the way in. If you click it again, it places it in a new position.

 

Now I just zoom in:

And in some more, and of course you can see you have the fine positioning sliders--the same tool as in the SPH and VAB.

And here we are, on the edge of the crater:

 

 

[Kerbalstar]

16 hours ago, Northstar1989 said:

How hard is it to get a precise location on the first try?

I.e. what if I wanted to add a launchpad in the mountains west of MAC, or in one of the even taller ranges elsewhere on Kerbin.  How hard would it be to get a launchpad on a mountaintop, rather than side?

Also, I understand that Mission Control, Administration etc. are all disabled in a Scenario?

There is also a Latitude and a longitude box.

[Zeiss Ikon]

Nice.  It'd be a nice addition to be able to do that in career.

[Klapaucius]

7 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

Nice.  It'd be a nice addition to be able to do that in career.

I think if you could just make them appear anywhere, it would not be in keeping with the game aspect of career mode. Having said that, it would be great in future updates if there is a way over time to construct Vehicle Assembly Buildings, runways and launchpads at other locations. 

I don't think they should make it easy, but it would be cool if the game allowed you to do it in such a manner that, once built and running, you could simply go to them as you do now with the VAB, SPH and the two launch sites.

Either you could carry parts to the selected location and build there or perhaps manufacture on site if there are enough resources.  It would also be cool if you could add improvements to the Woomerang site, as you do at the beginning of any career game in KSP now with the standard launch site.

[A Soviet Tank]

Escape the mohole anyone? Place the launchpad as deep as you can so you have to make the thinnest rocket possible to escape back to kerbin.

[Ultimate Steve]

57 minutes ago, A Soviet Tank said:

Escape the mohole anyone? Place the launchpad as deep as you can so you have to make the thinnest rocket possible to escape back to kerbin.

If I wasn't going to go to a band competition in 30 minutes I would try this immediately.

[Ultimate Steve]

MOHO!

Spawned my ship sideways, just barely poking out of the terrain.

So I EVA jetpacked down. Did you know launch pads have ladders?

RIP Jeb.

General consensus - it glitches out and doesn't work well.

[Northstar1989]

On 4/6/2018 at 5:44 PM, Klapaucius said:

I think if you could just make them appear anywhere, it would not be in keeping with the game aspect of career mode. Having said that, it would be great in future updates if there is a way over time to construct Vehicle Assembly Buildings, runways and launchpads at other locations. 

I don't think they should make it easy, but it would be cool if the game allowed you to do it in such a manner that, once built and running, you could simply go to them as you do now with the VAB, SPH and the two launch sites.

Either you could carry parts to the selected location and build there or perhaps manufacture on site if there are enough resources.  It would also be cool if you could add improvements to the Woomerang site, as you do at the beginning of any career game in KSP now with the standard launch site.

You completely miss the point that this is a Sansbox game, and players should be able to do as they wish in it.  Not to mention, it would still be a "Scenario"- just having the ability to take missions and manage Funds in a Scenario like in Career is all I'm asking for...

[Klapaucius]

12 hours ago, Northstar1989 said:

You completely miss the point that this is a Sansbox game, and players should be able to do as they wish in it.  Not to mention, it would still be a "Scenario"- just having the ability to take missions and manage Funds in a Scenario like in Career is all I'm asking for...

I see what you are saying, but I was responding to @Zeiss Icon's post which specifically mentioned that it would be useful in career mode, so I was thinking in terms of the way career mode plays and having to work up to it. But yes, you make a good point that in regular sandbox mode, it would be nice to just do it in the way you do in Mission Builder.

Edited April 11, 2018 by Klapaucius

[equyst]

subscribed, this seems like a very interesting thread 

[Northstar1989]

14 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

I see what you are saying, but I was responding to @Zeiss Icon's post which specifically mentioned that it would be useful in career mode, so I was thinking in terms of the way career mode plays and having to work up to it. But yes, you make a good point that in regular sandbox mode, it would be nice to just do it in the way you do in Mission Builder.

You still don't get it.  I'm talking about being able to play scenarios like Career Mode, with Funds and missions, *not* "regular Sandbox mode".

This is a Sandbox *Game*, and we already have tons of ability to customize our Career games (starting off with piles and piles of Funds and Science on Custom Difficulty, for instance).  This would just be one more way.