A New Launch Pad

[Chris.KFQD]

Greetings everyone!

I'm really excited to have found Kerbal Space Program. I remember seeing a trailer for KSP several, several months ago, but to the best of my knowledge, wasn't released yet... or at least I couldn't find it. I happen to have been lucky enough to find the Demo version a couple of days ago. Wow! Completely better than I'd have expected and more options and parts than I know what to do with. ... ... Needless to say, after I finished drooling on my keyboad for two days, I had no choice but to buy the full version. I'm now more mezmerized than before, and I think my brain exploded 3 hours ago!

I've found several excellent tutorials and videoes (really impressed with Scott Manley's YouTube Videos) and have had the time of my life experimenting with different parts and getting to know the controls and screen layout. I've made it to orbit quite a few times and even circled the moon once.

KSP is truely amazing.

One thing that I can't seem to find much information on however is, "Adding Manuevers" via the Map. When adding a manuever, several "draggable" icons pop up. Anyone have a link to better info describing what these do in a more "3rd grade level"? I'm certain they have to do with changing and altering your orbit and trajectory, but am having a difficult time understanding them.

Thank you so much, and happy flying.

Chris.KFQD

[unwisemonk]

I dont have a link but if you experiment with them it isnt too hard to figure it out. The green one without an X is the prograde or will make your orbit bigger. The One with the X does the opposite. The purple triangles are used to change the inclination of your orbit. (If you use the purple nodes I believe you have to do that at the ascending or descending nodes. The blue ones take a bit of testing to figure out and I dont know how to explain.

Hope this helps.

[CCKinnison]

What the monk Said.

You can add burn in 6 directions (+/- on each axis).

Prograde, or straight ahead. This adds velocity, and (once in orbit), expands the orbit (to a slower orbit, but let's not go there just yet)

Retrograde, reverse, or staight to the rear. decreases orbit size/used for dropping into the gravity well/re-entering.

The purples change the angle or inclination of the orbit. Useful for a rendevous/correction of an irregular orbit.

... as a general thing, you'll probably want all orbits to be either in the plane of rotation/ecliptic, or a polar orbit of the body in question (survey orbit).

The last two are for thrust directly inward or outward. These are actually poor ways to alter your orbit inwards or outward. They CAN be useful in adjusting rendevous qith the mun, other bodies, or stations. Or for finer adjustments on slingshot orbits, etc.

Of course, you can do several of these, and the final maneuver (and target on the navball/burn) is calculated as the sum total of the vectors you add.

Edited June 21, 2013 by CCKinnison
Added information

[9911MU51C]

each button is a direction, by the way. Dragging one part just shows the effects of going in that direction

-Green 0 is prograde, or pointing at the direction you're heading. Speeds you up

-Green 0 with X in it is retro-grade, pointing in the opposite direction you're going. Slows you down

-Purple markers are going Perpendicular to the orbit, if the line was your orbit, the ^ would be the direction

----------------------^----------------- for example

-the Blue marks are Vertical to whatever body you are orbiting. Pushes you away from the planet/gravity

my best advice is to just pull each one and see how it effects the orbit. Just think of it as directions of thrust

How to do them is, on the nav-ball (orange and blue ball on bottom of screen) is a blue mark, you point your rocket at this blue mark. Next to the nav-ball, is a timer. That counts down to when you hit your maneuver node, and the est burn time is how long you'll have your engines on.

Edited June 21, 2013 by 9911MU51C

[JacaByte]

The green markers indicate the direct and retrograde burn directions and are tangental to your orbit. Burning direct will increase your orbital speed and burning retrograde will reduce your orbital speed.

The purple markers indicate inclination, ascending and descending, and are binormal to your orbit. These are useful for rendezvous, burn ascending at the descending node and vice-versa to match the inclination of your orbit with your target. (ascending is towards the north pole of your parent body and descending is towards the south pole)

The blue markers indicate your normal and anti-normal, and are normal to your orbit. Burning in these directions will change your rate of ascent/descent, and are useful for fine-tuning a circularization burn. (Normal is away from the parent body, anti-normal is toward the parent body IIRC)

[Capt'n Skunky]

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

[Chris.KFQD]

Thanks everyone for a speedy response.

It's been nearly 2 weeks since my original post. Since that time, I've grown decently accustomed to the game as a whole (and getting reaccustomed and mods reinstalled after the latest update).

I've found a wealth of information reguarding nearly every subject and question I've had. It's truely amazing at how detailed and realistic KSP actually is, not to mention the slew of mods and addons available to make it even more realistic. The possibilities are endless!

Here's a quick list of mods that I've found, that add to the overall realism, or ease of use. (for me)

MechJeb (Using primarily as a training tool. Has helped greatly in understanding various terms, angles, trajectories, thrusts)

Kethane

Kerbal Attachment System

Engineer

Damn/Infernal Robotics

Romfarer Lazor

Parts Group Filter

Nova Punch

Extraplanetary Launchpads

Keramzit Procedural Fairings

Magic Smoke Industries Docking Washers

Sunbeam

I'm now able to visit Mun, and even landed nearly a dozen times now! All MechJeb-less!

If anyone has any suggestions of others I should try, toss 'em my way!

[Redjoker]

These make the game more difficult in some respects but not horribly so. Ioncross life support adds oxygen requirement but you have plenty in every pod to go to the moon and back. Remotetech makes all probes with its cores require a connection to KSC either directly or through a satellite network.

[Captain Sierra]

KSPX is a bunch of parts like stock. Many of them have already been integrated into the stock game. Personal favorite KSPX part (that hasn't gone stock yet ) is the large NERVA.

KW Rocketry, though unoptimized, is good for heavy lifting and B9 is great for planes (but it really only looks pretty when used with just B9 parts).

Ferram Aerospace research is great for realistic flight (but makes SSTO construction a b**ch). Be advised, many of your designs will need tweaks, modifications, and heavy redesigns to fly under Ferram.

[josea74]

Welcome To the forums!