Stock versus Modded Game

[stupid_chris]

I'd just like to say here that I only use Lazor System. Even then, I use that only for informational purposes (physical parameters, phase angles) and stuff like that. I haven't used MechJeb at all.

I think some people use MechJeb so "confidently" that they're not cheating by using it, that they use it so much they practically are cheating. I've been to Duna and back without any mod but Lazor System (used informationally).

I may eventually get MechJeb, but I'd probably make a restriction that I'd have had to already do the landing on my own (Apollo 11) and then use MechJeb for all the other landings and such (Apollo 12,14,15,16,17).

I am really interested in its landing feature but I'd have to use that with caution.

And I'm not a purist, but this is just how I've sort of introduced myself to the game. I sort of felt hurt when I found out people had effectively made it into orbit without doing anything with MechJeb, when I spent 2 weeks trying to get into orbit the normal way.

The thing is, this is a singleplayer sandbox, and there is no such thing as cheating in such a game. It's a sandbox, meaning you can do whatever you want. You could overpower all your engines and that wouldn't be cheating, because who are you cheating against? Yourself? That's your decision in the end, it can't be considered cheating.

I learned with MechJeb. By sitting back and watching how he does ascents, landings and transfers and all, I learned how to do it, because to me tutorials are often hard to understand when you are new to something. Watching something do the "ideal" pattern for everything thought me how to do it right.

And by the way, there are different ways to play this game. Some play it to pilot, obviously like you. But some, like me, play it more to see space. I don't get my fun from piloting, but from building cool stuff and seeing it in orbit, going to another planet, and seeing stuff and how they behave. Piloting to me is secondary. Most often I do the piloting myself, because it' can be more efficient, but sometimes I just let MechJeb do the whole job. Because I just don't feel like it and I just really want to go on Dres.

No matter how you play this game, there is no way of cheating. People can play it differently than you, but don't worry we won't force you to play like that too. I'm having just as much fun as you and I don't feel at all that I'm missing on anything.

[Conarr]

sigh, i guess the point of this post was completely lost. I just wanted to see if anyone else ever goes back and tries things manually sometimes to see if they can still make orbits, rendezvous, docks, etc...

[jheriko]

I still haven't bothered with MechJeb at all... I downloaded it and tried it but it went when I realised how much it lowers the barriers to doing things I became afraid it might ruin my experience. So far i have landed on mun, eve, duna, ike, minmus and put things in orbit of everything except eeloo and moho... docking is fun to some degree but huge (for me this is 700+ parts) constructions end up destroying the framerate for that :/

On the other hand I have built a vm with a very simple assembly language in the hopes of programming a flight computer without any cheating using the 'game code senses' by adding parts for sensors, comms etc... should be fun and nearly impossible. The input will be more like the original DSKY from Apollo than the fancy MechJeb UI though. This is just for my amusement though - I cant imagine the sane non-programmers out there will want to subject themselves to this ever. XD

[NeoMorph]

sigh, i guess the point of this post was completely lost. I just wanted to see if anyone else ever goes back and tries things manually sometimes to see if they can still make orbits, rendezvous, docks, etc...

Yup... I have Mechjeb installed and yet I still manually do my node, rendezvous, docking, final landing etc manually. When I have to do a very precise landing (ie when I want to place a lander right next to my target I use it to get me in the vicinity and then I do a P66 and land manually (ie with Translatron handling the descent rate because the keyboard just doesn't give fine enough control of the main engine).

I use Mechjeb like a calculator. I have to do the main work but for grunt work I use MJ. I was in the first group at my Grammar school who were allowed to take calculators into exams. You should have heard the uproar saying that using Calculators was cheating in exams. Look at the situation now with some calculators that are allowed. In my time they were plus, minus, times and possibly square root. The fancy ones had memories too.

[stupid_chris]

The fancy ones had memories too.

I loled.

tenchars

[Guest]

sigh, i guess the point of this post was completely lost. I just wanted to see if anyone else ever goes back and tries things manually sometimes to see if they can still make orbits, rendezvous, docks, etc...

I most certainly do. There are times automation simply fails. Rather than fight a glitch and lose the mission, it's simplest to disable the automatics and go manual. This can reveal useful debugging information, because if you can't fly the vehicle manually thanks to a design flaw, MJ certainly won't be able to do much better. Of course, there are times you may want to see if you've still got the touch.

[rodion_herrera]

From an educational standpoint, MechJEB is a great learning tool--instead of relying on it more and more, I found that since I now know how it flies an ascent or how it lands my vessels, I can now be more confident in doing manually. Like I said before, MechJEB to me feels like a robot flight instructor, and initially I sit on the right seat, but after a while, I get the confidence to sit on the left seat and be PF/PIC.

[NeoMorph]

MechJeb isn't foolproof either... I once glanced away at something else for about 30 seconds and found that my simple journey to Minmus was now somewhere into interplanetary space and north of the ecliptic. It had met a brief slingshot around the Mun which it didn't take into account.

In fact Mechjeb has killed my Kerbals MANY TIMES... landing upside down... spinning like a loon when taking off... not staging (needs a nudge at times). MJ is not an all wise guidance computer... It's a bit like the eccentric uncle that comes around at times and does unpredictable things. "Oh, you wanted to go to London? Welll then WE'RE OFF TO PARIS, FRANCE... no... let's go to Paris, Texas... I DON'T CARE THAT YOU WANT TO GO TO LONDON...We're going to Paris... No, I don't care that Paris Hilton is in London at the moment... OOOOOH... LOOK... DISCOUNT!". Yup... that's Mechjeb for you.... SQUIRRELS!

[stupid_chris]

Well at least he knows how to get to Paris

[jheriko]

In my time they were plus, minus, times and possibly square root. The fancy ones had memories too.

Wow, now I feel young. Mine even had a divide /and/ a decimal point... and that funny percent button that just did divide by 100, as if that was worthy of its own button

[Rickenbacker]

I just started using MechJeb, after hand-flying everything. I just got tired of doing the same launch over and over to get a station piece up . I mainly use it for that kind of dull task, and for planning out maneuvers, plus the very handy SmartASS (it does a good job of holding pro- or retrograde while doing long burns. It's an aid, not a do-it-all magical autopilot, at least in my book. AND pretty close to what real spacecraft have used since the 60's too.

What I don't use it for is docking. MechJeb uses an INSANE amount of monopropellant if you let it play with the RCS at all... My manual dockings are much smoother and use a fraction of the fuel.

[stupid_chris]

What I don't use it for is docking. MechJeb uses an INSANE amount of monopropellant if you let it play with the RCS at all... My manual dockings are much smoother and use a fraction of the fuel.

To that, if you ever get bored of doing dockings or just want an autmoatci one because the low framerate is killing your patience, I reccommend HydroTech RCS. It uses and insanely low quantity of monopropellant for dockings on automatic. It also give great tools if you want to do it manually without breaking the game in such a way of "press this button to be docked". I won't go through the features but give it a try you'll see.