New here

[Dave Kermin]

Just started playing this game for about a month. 
I have the tech tree about a quarter the way finished.

Upgraded my rocket assembly building, launch pad and the astronaut complex so far.

Completed a few contracts as well.

Its tough in the very beginning, but as you start rolling along it gets more interesting.

I really like how you are free to play the game as you want to, not really just one way to play.

[AlamoVampire]

@Dave Kermin welcome to the forum! Look forward to you sharing your exciting exploits!

 

011610122020

[The Kerbal Ruler]

I never did the tech tree, i just started putting mods in my game, then worked. Got so crazy that i installed over 20 mods, but deleted some of it, three were left.

[Serenity]

5 hours ago, Dave Kermin said:

Just started playing this game for about a month. 
I have the tech tree about a quarter the way finished.

Upgraded my rocket assembly building, launch pad and the astronaut complex so far.

Completed a few contracts as well.

Its tough in the very beginning, but as you start rolling along it gets more interesting.

I really like how you are free to play the game as you want to, not really just one way to play.

Make sure you enable Advanced Tweakable in options.

You can unlock Autostruts in tech tree and mostly using grandparent by right clicking any part will make your crafts very ''tight''.

Also a lot of useful context menus open up after you enable it.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Boyster

[Vanamonde]

Howdy and welcome to the forum.

[Dave Kermin]

14 hours ago, Boyster said:

Make sure you enable Advanced Tweakable in options.

You can unlock Autostruts in tech tree and mostly using grandparent by right clicking any part will make your crafts very ''tight''.

Also a lot of useful context menus open up after you enable it.

Thanks for the tip on the Advanced Tweakable option, I’ll have to check that.

Yes Autostruts seem to be a good thing to have for I have been noticing my longer rockets being quite wobbly on the pad and after lift off. Seems to stop once I’m in the upper atmosphere though.

[jimmymcgoochie]

A few hints from me-

• Autostrut your engines to the root part, it makes your rockets much more stable when you turn physics warp on when the engines are producing thrust (either during atmospheric flight, or by pressing control and < or > in space).
• Bigger isn’t always better; a small and lightweight probe launched by a small rocket can often exceed the range of a much larger one due to the much higher mass of the latter, as well as being cheaper.
• Save regularly to avoid lost progress due to game glitches/crashes (or pilot error).
• In stock KSP the best way to do a recoverable rocket is to use a core stage that can reach orbit, drop off its payload and then deorbit itself when it comes back around to the KSC, with small strap-on boosters (if needed to help it off the launchpad or boost its range a bit) that drop really early in the ascent and can parachute back to the surface before the rocket moves out of simulation range. Other designs will require mods such as FMRS or Stage Recovery to catch and recover the dropped stages and boosters, as anything that drops below ~25km altitude over Kerbin while outside of simulation range is automatically destroyed by the game and you don’t get any refunds.
• You can get a great deal of science from the KSC itself if you walk/drive/fly around with some science experiments and get readings from all the areas and buildings; there’s also a whole lot of science to be had from Kerbin itself without ever having to leave the atmosphere, so you don’t need to go racing to other planets when there’s so much easy science to be had at home.

[Serenity]

8 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

A few hints from me-

• Autostrut your engines to the root part, it makes your rockets much more stable when you turn physics warp on when the engines are producing thrust (either during atmospheric flight, or by pressing control and < or > in space).

Root part sometimes is kraken friendly like the heaviest one, i do not recommend for new players, except if you turn it off after going to orbit or select the visualize autostruts and make a ''tree'' of root and heavy ones.

Its better just to put grandparent in every part or most parts and have a peace of mind when you dock/undock load/unload crafts.

8 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

• Other designs will require mods such as FMRS or Stage Recovery to catch and recover the dropped stages and boosters, as anything that drops below ~25km altitude over Kerbin while outside of simulation range is automatically destroyed by the game and you don’t get any refunds.

No, this is not true, there is a way, of course not the easiest but i have a reusable rocket that can take 85t easily on orbit and have both second stage go in orbit and first stage land safely with no mods.

I use a landing legs mods just to expand where i can land but you can land on engines with high chance success.

Here is how i think its the best way to do it without mods,

Launch a two-stage rocket, raise your apoapsis to 100-110k with a semi-aggressive gravity burn and then immediately separate the stages,

Switch to second stage and start an aggressive circularization burn, the goal is to reach Periapsis 70k as fast as possible, before the first stage goes into atmosphere(its very doable).

After you reach orbit with the second stage, switch to First Stage.

Now you have two options, you can try to burn back from where you launched or do a ballistic land close to where you heading.

Eitherway you gonna waste a lot of fuel.

Remember to put 3-4 airbrakes, do a few burns to slow down etc.

After you reach kinda close to the ground, burn and hover your rocket, zeroing every vertical and horizontal speed

keeping the SAS locked to retrograde, when you reach close to zero speed press F to quickly toggle SAS and that lifts the lock to retro.

then let it go and burn again close to ground, just waste the fuel to keep that tricky horizontal speed to zero.

To land i recommend https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/195546-110-kre-kerbal-reusability-expansion/ for landing legs.

Or else you can land on your engines but you need to be on very flat terrains.

Here is one of my ''old'' builds, full stock except those shiny landing legs.

First Stage only, the second stage can vary, and it can take huge 2nd stages(Even a sizeable shuttle etc) and many tons payloads:

https://imgur.com/MWVglVd

 

Edited October 14, 2020 by Boyster