What are the most important things you've learned about playing KSP to pass on?

[John FX]

Asparagus for launch,

breadcrumbs for in flight,

spam intakes,

pancake instead of spaghetti,

less is more,

double check fuel lines, struts, staging, power, action groups

you only need 1 engine to gimbal

On craft larger than a probe always put 1 RTG somewhere for those dark times.

I like to make a station that sits at about 251km and is a fuel buffer. I launch as many orange tanks (usually 5-7 empty) as I can in one go to LKO fitted with a few docking ports of each type, batteries and a couple of RTGs, some lights and storage for 1500 mono (emptied except for 50) and some RCS control. Next I launch some dorm space for Kerbals, maybe 10. Every craft launches to it with pretty much the same lifter so there is a variable amount of leftover fuel which is transferred to the station. The last stage of the lifter then detaches and has the capability to deorbit itself with seperatrons. The payload is then parked at the station until it is time for the mission, when it departs. It gives pilots a break (I like to think there is a small bar) and lets them rest up on their way.

After a while this gives me the ability to launch a much larger craft empty of fuel that will dock with the station and then carry on fully fueled. This lets me do missions that would normally be above the tonnage of my lifter.

I have also set up an interplanetary tug operation that can take people (Kerbals are people too) or small payloads from anywhere to anywhere. I just took the crew for a Duna mission to the Duna station from Jool while their lander was sent from Kerbin unfuelled, they both met at Duna, the crew got into the lander, fueled it from the fuel stored in the station, did their mission, redocked with Duna station, the lander was deorbited and the crew went back to Laythe station. The tug went back to Kerbin station after dropping off some fuel at Duna station. (the Tug carries about 7KDv of fuel so there is usually a bit left from any round trip)

[Benno]

.... I'd be lucky to manage to make an orbit, let alone an orbit with an apoapsis and periapsis within 10K of each other, and I could definitely forget about an orbit at the actual inclination I want. Maneuver nodes are practically no help whatsoever, because they require fiddling with the bloody awful maneuver node interface rather than, say, letting me input a maneuver to circularize my orbit at apoapsis, let alone getting any kind of an inclination change done without it making my orbit go all wonky to hell....

Really? I'm all for people playing the game however they see fit, but if you don't know how to do at least this yet then you're really missing out on a good bit of what the game has to offer.

Aw shucks, here you go:

1) Put an engine under a fuel tank and launch. Does it go up really quickly? If so, add some more fuel. If not, use less fuel or a bigger engine. Did you run out of fuel? Try adding a second stage, and maybe some boosters. Did it wobble and explode? Add some struts.

OR

Install Kerbal Engineer and make sure your rocket has a TWR above about 1.5 or 2, and a delta V of at least 4500. If you've got those two right, you can orbit.

2) Turn over to 20 degrees at 5000m and 45 degrees at 10000m, higher if a big rocket, less if a small rocket. Feel free to keep turning as you get higher, or to smooth the whole turn out a bit rather than tip straight over.

3) Check your map. If you click on the little blue "Ap", it will keep displaying the apoapsis after you've moved the mouse away (there's my tip for the thread). Once your apoapsis is where you want it, kill the engines.

4) On your map, add a maneuver node right on your apoapsis. Use the little green thingy to drag it out until you have a circle. As above, left click on your proposed periapsis to have the number appear and stay there. Fiddle with the green thingy until the periapsis is where you want it (yes, it's a little fiddly but I can get pretty damn close to where I need to be, or install precise nodes if it really bugs you).

5) Look at your Nav Ball. See 'time to burn' and 'time to node'? Fire up your engines once your time to node is at half your time to burn. Watch your actual periapsis (click on it as above) and kill the engines when it's where you want it.

6) you're now in an almost perfectly circular orbit.

7) Add a maneuver node and drag the purple thingy until your inclination is where you want. Repeat step five. If you're not in a circular orbit, then make sure to place the maneuver node at the Ap, Pe, or halfway between the two depending on what inclination you want, or you will end up wonky.

There you go, now you can save your Kerbals the next time MechJeb can't work out which one of your engines is supposed to be on and decides to send the top half of your rocket on a journey to the centre of Duna, and the bottom half on a tour of interstellar space. There are other benefits too, as there are many things you can do in the game that MechJeb cannot help you with, but I'll leave that for another day.

[Benno]

You quoted my incomplete answer while I was editing, please check back and make your judgement from there. Also I´m not telling anyone to do what I want, I´m sharing my experience and advicing over it.

Also you can install the game, download a proven ship from the forums, tell MechJeb to do the work and bam, autoplay and autowin. No fun.

Now seriously: installing mods early on the game can seriously affect the learning curve of the game: the basics of orbital mechanics and astrodynamics. Mods should be used only when you have mastered the techniques by yourself. I agree, sometimes performing the same maneuvers over and over again can be boring, and having an automated aid for experienced players surely is handy, but it would be ill advised to use it without knowing to perform them by yourself.

I see a lot of people advising against mods, particularly early on. Just a word to any newbies reading throught this, that I think most of these people are referring to mods that make the game easier, like mechjeb. There are some absolutely brilliant mods that actually make the game harder and more realistic, or just add a significant level of depth to the game. Mods like remotetech, FAR, various life support mods, Kethane, etc. KSP was built for modding, and to be honest I don't think I'd really enjoy the game much anymore without some of these mods that I consider 'core' now.

[Dwight_js]

Intense discussion going on here. I get the feeling that to a certain degree ShadowDragon8685 and Wooks are talking about fundamentally different things. Somebody asked how he's supposed to practice docking when he can't even rendezvous, so S Dragon said "MechJeb" - and he's right, it'll let you skip rendezvous and get straight down to docking practice (Hyperedit would let you do that too). I don't really see a problem with that. As the discussion progressed, S Dragon seems to be talking about using MJ to help fly ships that, because of their design, are difficult to fly. Nothing wrong with that either - modern war planes would be un-flyable without computer controlled fly-by-wire systems. Wooks and a few others seem to be advocating a certain progression for people to follow so they get a complete understanding of how the whole sequence works: launch-orbit-align planes-synch orbit-rendezvous-dock. That's great too. We're all free to choose the method we want, and everybody always pays lip-service to the "I'm not telling anyone how to have fun", but then why do people get so upset when someone advocates a way to play that is different from their own?

I guess one thing I've learned about this game is that it offers a nearly limitless range of game-play types. From doing calculations by hand, to "push a button to go", it caters to a very large range of player types, and I hope this is carried through to the final version of career mode.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Dwight_js

[John FX]

Also, if you get any mods at all get Kerbal Alarm Clock.

It lets you cope with stuff like this.

f you click on the little blue "Ap", it will keep displaying the apoapsis after you've moved the mouse away (there's my tip for the thread).

That I did not know. Glad to have learned that.

Edited February 20, 2014 by John FX

[LostElement]

I only use Mechjeb for orbital and surface information. I can do just about anything on my own.

[JTDismang]

When I first started I didn't use Mechjeb, I managed to do a multiple mun/minmus landings, but two things I couldn't learn, not even from all the how to tutorials or videos, was Hohmann transfers and docking. After watching Scott Manley's tutorials countless times I still couldn't do it, then MJ came around and after watching it, seeing how it made corrections, set up intercepts, and maneuver nodes. That is what taught me, I learn from seeing things done right in front of me, not reading a manual or watching a video. Everybody learns differently, do what you want to do, play how you want to play.

1. The "Interactive Illustrated interplanetary guide and calculator" helps a ton on planning optimal transfer burns and planetary alignments.

2. Delta V charts/maps, helps a ton on ship planning and design.

3. Mods, not for everbody including me when I first got the game, but if you are like me and want a wider variety of parts and options I really recommend KW Rocketry, B9 Aerospace, KAS, and Kethane. I would start off Stock first, but mods to me are answer to keep interest in the game, Kethane gave me objectives, and permanent/self sustaining bases of operations in outer planets, part mods give me the option to build rockets that allow me to follow my build style by removing some restrictions (Ships and Rockets that resemble ones IRL)

Everybody has their own play style and KSP has endless possibilities so make the game fit "your" needs not others.

Edited February 20, 2014 by JTDismang

[3viL_M0nk3y]

1. Failure is part of success. - In my first days of Kerbal I didn't have any idea what I was doing, then I had my first Minmus landing that made all my 'prototypes' worth it.

2. Scott Manley is your friend. - Not trying to be cliche, but this man has taught me so much, mods or not, he is one knowledgeable fellow.

3. Bigger is not always better. - Grabbing an Orange tank and strapping on 6 radially attached orange tanks and some boosters will probably give you a little bit of a hard time. Instead research Asparagus staging. It is a Godsend.

4. Check your staging - For how many times I have caught myself having to load a quicksave because of staging problems. So simple but yet we forget.

5. Think outside the box - This game rewards creativeness. Getting some more complicated designs from players on the forums or spaceport can give you some ideas to get the juices flowing. I have downloaded tons of user crafts, but I usually don't fly them, I take them apart to see how they work.

[TheScareCake!]

This is important one, if your lifter is wobblying, dont add more struts, just lock the gimbal of srbs and/or first stage engine, but you should add a extra sas module to the lifter.

Edited February 25, 2014 by TheScareCake!
missplaced comma that changed the point.

[DrD]

As a newbie I had a lot of trouble with nodes, they're very sensitive and fiddly. For circ burns I've learned to use them as guides only. Specifically, I set one up at my initial apo and pull prograde until I get a roughly circular orbit. I used to struggle to make this perfect but not anymore. What I do now is start the burn as per the node, when I get towards the end I throttle way down and watch the orbit in map mode. With a low throttle your new apo will rise nice and slowly and you can easily hit X at just the right time. To me this is much easier then it is to try to get the node just right (and then burn it exactly.)

I can now achieve perfect circular orbits every time.

I've also had some success with a related method for going to the mun. With the nodes I find, again, they're very sensitive to changing position. For example I may show an encounter with a peri of say 1.5 million, I move the node only ever so slightly and suddenly I'm on the other side and no encounter.

So what I do again is set the node as a rough guide, then watch the map as I burn. I also burn a bit late. So if for example I set the node and get an encounter with an peri of 100k, and if it looks like moving the node a teeny bit to the right (clockwise around Kerbin) would help me get a lower peri, then rather than try to move the node that last tiny fraction (and blowing it) I'll just start my burn a bit late, which is the same as rotating the node a bit. Through trial and error you learn about how late to burn. Last night my peri per the node was about 150k, by starting my burn at the time of the node (rather than splitting it half before and half after) I got a peri of 30k. Again it's very helpful to watch your orbit while you're burning so you get a sense of what direction it's going, and if burning more or less will help or hurt. If you misjudge just burn a bit retrograde. Plus it just looks cool!

[Giggleplex777]

Aircraft landing gear are massless.

[Gunso]

For people that dont have a lot of free time like me this was really useful http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/w/images/7/73/KerbinDeltaVMap.png

if u like to fly yourself use kerbal engineer redux. if you dont, then use mechjeb. Mechjeb wont have any problem flying big rockets with low FPS which i found really useful when my PC is lagging due to huge number of parts.

Once u understand the basic then fly manually, a lot of unconventional design need to be fly manually. Like a vtol or a large spaceship that turns too slow that u need to have boosters in front of them to slow down and use action group to switch, mechjeb cant do this.

Build whatever you want, because this game lets u enjoy doing it............and blowing it up

[Benno]

In order to keep two satellites the same distance apart, they don't need to be on exactly the same orbit, you just need to set their orbital periods to be equal, which is much easier. And, if you set the orbital period to be the same as the planet's rotation, they will be geostationary.

Very handy if using the Remotetech mod.

[Red Iron Crown]

An eccentric orbit with orbital period equal to planet rotation is not geostationary. Land on Duna somewhere where you can see Ike, crank up the timewarp and watch Ike bounce in the sky.

[Benno]

An eccentric orbit with orbital period equal to planet rotation is not geostationary. Land on Duna somewhere where you can see Ike, crank up the timewarp and watch Ike bounce in the sky.

True, but it's close enough for my purposes, e.g. rather than trying to get Ap and Pe at exactly 2868, I can just go to the nearest 100km or so. It will wobble around a little bit over my target, but on average it will stay over that position. Perhaps more importantly though, it won't slowly catch up to the next satellite that's 90 degrees away.

[Pds314]

Dude, you don't need an autopilot, and you don't need to be Scott Manley (who, by his own admission, isn't even that good of a pilot). What you do need is 1: To understand all the steps. 2: PRACTICE THEM.

Yes, that means you may have to spend an hour or two just launching practice ships and trying to rendezvous with them. Yes you will fail the first few times. Yes it will be a little frustrating. But it's like learning how to ride a bike, at first it seems impossible, then it's just difficult, and then it becomes so natural you could do it in your sleep.

If you don't want to take the time to learn how to do it that's fine, no one's making you give up MJ. But please stop telling new players who are having trouble that they should just give up and let mechjeb do it for them, they might get the wrong idea that you know what you're talking about.

How does one fail a rendezvous? Crashing into something? Running out of fuel? Every time I've ever "failed to rendezvous" was because my ship had insufficient delta-V I remember one case in particular where I tried to rendezvous with and bomb my Brother's satellite (which was technically a station) that was in a highly elliptical and inclined orbit around Kerbin. I got my ship within 9 km when it ran out of fuel. I then fired the unguided rockets and they missed by about 50 meters problem was my fighter didn't have the delta-V for such a severe change in its orbit and it wound up 80 degrees off on launch due to a mistake in how I thought the other ship orbited.

[Pds314]

True, but it's close enough for my purposes, e.g. rather than trying to get Ap and Pe at exactly 2868, I can just go to the nearest 100km or so. It will wobble around a little bit over my target, but on average it will stay over that position. Perhaps more importantly though, it won't slowly catch up to the next satellite that's 90 degrees away.

The issue is that your position above the ground will not just librate, but unless the orbital period is precisely 6 hours, it will also progress in one direction. E.G. I got a spaceplane to KEO with a period of 6 hours and 2 seconds. That means that every day, it falls behind another 350 meters.

[Pds314]

Aircraft landing gear are massless.

YES! very important one.

Also: B9 landing gears are bugged. Don't use them for anything over about 15 tonnes.

[Justin Kerbice]

Maybe already wrote before: in order to rdv & dock with Mechjeb, don't forget to add two medium monopropellant tanks and 4 RCS thrusters (Mechjeb is not very easy on monop) and make sure your launcher is bit oversized to keep some margin. I use always one or two Munshine level higher than needed, ie: to put 5 t into a circular 200-300 kms orbit, I use 10 or 15t Munshine launcher.

It's better to have some debris we have to dispose later than an abandoned vessel we have to save later.

Also, always reinforce docking port/stack connector/decoupler connection with strut connectors when "gap" is quite high and mass upward connection quite high too. I have had some "folding" issue despite jointreinforcement mod. Even without such extreme issue, when vessel part tend to move back and forth on one axis, rocket has a big chance to crash.

[Alchemist]

How does one fail a rendezvous? Crashing into something? Running out of fuel? Every time I've ever "failed to rendezvous" was because my ship had insufficient delta-V I remember one case in particular where I tried to rendezvous with and bomb my Brother's satellite (which was technically a station) that was in a highly elliptical and inclined orbit around Kerbin. I got my ship within 9 km when it ran out of fuel. I then fired the unguided rockets and they missed by about 50 meters problem was my fighter didn't have the delta-V for such a severe change in its orbit and it wound up 80 degrees off on launch due to a mistake in how I thought the other ship orbited.

It's failing to rendezvous and dock with the amount of fuel you took - that means you have 2 options: perfect your piloting skills or take more fuel.

My funniest recent story was when the supply ship ran out of RCS fuel during docking with an interplanetary mothership... Then I found that the empty mothership has better maneuverability than the full supply ship, so I still could dock.

So, the best lesson about KSP - you always have multiple ways and even more combinations of them to achieve your goal

[wasmic]

I see a lot of people advising against mods, particularly early on. Just a word to any newbies reading throught this, that I think most of these people are referring to mods that make the game easier, like mechjeb. There are some absolutely brilliant mods that actually make the game harder and more realistic, or just add a significant level of depth to the game. Mods like remotetech, FAR, various life support mods, Kethane, etc. KSP was built for modding, and to be honest I don't think I'd really enjoy the game much anymore without some of these mods that I consider 'core' now.

Still, starting out with RemoteTech is probably not a good idea. I think it's smart to play without mods for a while, then maybe install some part addons, and then go on to the plugin-powered mods.

[SkyRender]

I can give some useful tips on spaceplane design that I've picked up. That seems to be a tricky thing for a lot of people.

1. Center of lift slightly behind center of mass. This is the spaceplane mantra. Learn it, love it, live it.

2. Your distribution of lift control is also critical. A plane with only two control surfaces will fly about as well as you'd expect a brick with wings to fly. At least put on forward, rear, and tail control surfaces.

3. Center of mass can be kept consistent throughout the flight. Just don't put any fuel in the central fuselage of your plane; mount the tanks to the side instead, perfectly level with center of mass. That's how commercial jets in the real world tend to do it, in fact.

4. You can toggle intakes between open and closed. So set up an action group to toggle all intakes and all engines, and only use that to activate your rockets (and deactivate your jet engines). Voila, instant RAPIER-style engine switching even if you're using rockets and turbojets.

5. Struts! They're more important for planes than you realize. The #1 cause of planes drifting on the runway is wobble, not aerodynamic instability.

[Red Iron Crown]

When testing a new design, press F3 right after physics kicks in on the launchpad/runway. This will quickly reveal if anything non-obvious has broken before ascent.

[AntiMatter001]

i'd say the best thing i've learned is to make a checklist... so many times i've come into kerbin orbit and forgotten parachutes... or even worse i burn too much and end up struggling to get it to speed up enough to glide with a space plane...

[cantab]

The single most important page on the Wiki: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Basic_Maneuvers

EVAing:

• The coastline is further away than it looks. Don't swim for it unless you want a long wait.
  
• Don't go on long walks on Kerbin, especially at timewarp, you'll probably explode. If you must, quicksave early and quicksave often.
  
• R turns on your jetpack.

Flying:

• Check your staging before you launch. In particular make sure you release all the launch clamps and fire the first stage engines together.
  
• Hit T before launch to turn SAS - automatic stabilisation - on. Helps keep the rocket pointing up.
  
• Parachutes tear off if you're in timewarp. And they open 500m above the ground, your altimeter shows altitude above sea level, so if you're over mountains they can open earlier than you expected.
  
• You've got a throttle. Use it. See the Basic Maneuvers page for how fast you want to go when launching.

Rocket design:

• Fins go at the bottom of the rocket. It's not a plane.
  
• If you're not making orbit, you don't only need more thrust, you need it for more time. Just adding boosters at the bottom isn't very effective.
  
• Struts come off by themselves when you separate stages. You don't need to run them to decouplers of their own.
  
• Set up an abort action group. I suggest separating your uppermost stage, igniting its engine, and shutting down all other engines. Then when your launch goes wrong you can hit backspace and save your Kerbals.
  
• There's an undo. Ctrl and Z like any other program. It may seem to freeze but give it a few seconds and it'll work.
  

PS: Regarding autopilots, ie MechJeb. KSP lets you build rockets and fly them. You want to just build and let the autopilot fly? Cool. You want to just fly stock and downloaded craft and never bother building? Also cool.

Edited March 8, 2014 by cantab