Brainlord Mesomorph

No I guess this is just somthing I do to myself. When I first started playing KSP I would build a rocket to completion in the VAB before I would put it on the pad, and then it would fall over. Learning from that mistake, I started testing rockets earlier and earlier in the design process, these days, as soon as I put an engine, a fuel tank, a nose cone, and some fins together I stick it on the launch pad for quick test. Then I start adding parts… And even though I’m testing periodically, apparently by the time I get the payload bay filled, and add the final things like solar panels, ladders, and RCS ports, I'm adding just enough weight and drag to ruin it, and *then* I’m done for the night.

Does it seem to anyone else like a perfectly functional ship you design one night simply doesn’t work the next day? This week, I’ve been trying to design a low tech Duna lander, and I’m on my fifth version of various short squat two stage things that will make LKO. (I figure that means it has more than enough aerodynamics,dV and TWR the land on Duna with parachutes, and still make orbit again). But it seems like five times now I designed something that makes orbit 3 or 4 or 5 times, and decide “yes that will do” and I’m done for the night, and then the next day the damn thing won't make orbit! Now I have no idea what I’m doing differently, I can’t imagine it’s the game, but I actually thought about writing this post last night before I decided to design version 5! And now version 5 won't make orbit! Does this happen to anyone else?

There was another thread a week ago about the Kerbal emotional sim. I think they get scared whenever the engines are on. Which makes sense for rockets (loud noise, explosive fuel) but is backward for planes. I noticed they are usually happy plummeting out of the sky. But then again how many processor cycles do you want to spend on facial expressions? The framerate is slow enough as it is.

There is no rest of the Kerbal Universe! Its just a painting on the inside of a giant sphere. That said, if you want to try to bring other stars into the game I guess they would have to be in scale, as would the interstellar distances. But THAT said, I don't that would work either, because while we scale the sizes we don't scale the gravity. If Alpha Centauri was half a lightyear away, stars would be colliding! So I think an interstellar sim would have to be full scale. (why can't people just play THIS game)

To avoid missing parts, at the end of design, I actually look through ALL the parts in the sidebar one by one: "Have that, have that, don't need any of those... have that... ooh! I forgot one of these!"

Most recently KSP has ruined the following movies for me: 2001 A Space Odesseyy 2010 The year we make contact. The Martian

Thanks. Clearly no.. I don't have the tech yet. I can send a manned mission to Eve. (I have a transfer window) but they'll looking at it from orbit. I'm now designing atmospheric probes. @Snark its as pointy as it can be.

So simple you wont need a pic: one big SRB with more big SRBs around it and a minimal capsule on top. 100 tons Launching from the KSC it goes interstellar! Kerbin orbital velocity 5100 m/s. is it enough for Eve?

Duna seemed logical.

The other day I used left -click to try to roll around to the other side of a PHOTO OF AN ACTUAL SPACESHIP

Why lift ore? Lift fuel. My new expermental ISRU platform is two large drills, one small ore tank (300 units) one small refinery and empty tanks for 40 tons of fuel.

My Logictech extreme 3d pro joystick has a top-hat switch. I use that for translate up/down/left/right and then two thumb buttons for translate fore/aft (and the 3 axis joystick for rotation)

I would point out that the horizontal stabilizers/fins are probably causing more drag than you need. If they were half that size it might save some fuel.

I want to test SSTO spaceplanes. But I keep falling asleep.

Forget the speed of light for a moment, has anyone noticed the speed of SOUND in this game? Things explode 20 km away and you see the flash and hear the boom at the same time!

Its a matter of perspective. I think the OP was fondly remembering climbing the learning curve. I remember my first couple of weeks in a sandbox game. After the Mun, and putting a bot on Duna, I saw Laythe for the first time. And I HAD to splash a probe down in that ocean. I didn't know Isp or dV were, or even the nuke, so it was just trial-and-error with a series of progessively larger LFO interplanetary stages. (the one that finally worked was the big Kerbodyne Tank and a Mainsail). the satisfaction of just watching that thing bob in that ocean, big green planet in the sky.... But yes, the OP thinks we're all having fun wrong.

nope, I like them looking like string beans with googly-eyes stuck on them.

My current project is: MISSION TO DRES! (btw I pronouce it "drez") I built my first (in this career) interplanetay cruiser and ts just my next holmann window. I'm sending a crew of 5, 3 landers, a roverbot (that will stay there) labs, the whole sha-bang! I have no contract to go there, its a pure science mission Departure in 22 kDays.

How about a "semi-natural" satellite.

Not to reignite a flame war but I was mousing around a ship yesterday, and I moused through the CM (looking at the inside of the external model) and I thought,"it *would* be cool if Jeb and the controls were in here" (i'm sure the game cannot afford the cpu overhead)

I've had to finish my Kerbin aerobraking insertion burns using retrorockets on more than one occasion. My nuclear lander (that uses LFO for final decent) ran out of oxidizer about 30 m up. came down hard, broke most of the gear, but survived. Had to drop the payload module and leave one man behind (woman actually) to get the thing to rear up on its hind legs and engage the nuclear drive to get off the ground. She docked with the mother ship tattered and broken, but got home. The next version of that thing had twice the O2.

I’m sorry, I didn’t actually post this to the support forum. they moved it here. I posted in the General forum, asking if there was a ship fixing utility, and if anyone had any insight on whether my game file was corrupt or my ship files were corrupt (yes, and yes). And (unfortunately, no one’s going to read this tucked away here in the support forum) I’ve learned to avoid multiple kinds of symmetry, and alt- clicking on the same spaceship. Thanks but I really wasn’t expecting “support.”

In another thread I have corrupt ship files that will half dissapperar and turn Kerbin into a digitized white ball if you load them Thank God persistent backups! EDIT: In that thread I postulate that we bring some of these issues on ourselves, by encountering strange behavior and continuing anyway, instead of going back to a saved game or a saved ship. OP: tell me, did this plane act at all oddly in the SPH as you were building it? its not rage-quitting if it keeps KSP from autosaving a corrupt game.

Hi guys, I don’t think Squad needs my corrupt spaceship file, I’m sure they have plenty. Stock game (except KAC, and hyperedit-which I never use a career game) So, to recap, what made these ships different was 1. heavy use of multiple kinds of symmetry, 2. I rotated the root part on one of them. This seemed to be the cause of symmetry just not working. 3. Heavy use of alt–click to duplicate parts. Once symmetry stopped working, I was using alt–click all over the place, and eventually noticed that it would stop working, a duplicate part just wouldn’t stick to the model. I would have to delete it, do a save as, reload the vehicle in the SPH. I have now rebuilt both of these ships from scratch, seemingly without any corruption. (actually, I started to get corruption, and had to stop and go back) here’s what I did: 1. An absolutely paranoid number of incremental saves 2. I only used one kind of symmetry. Mirror (bilateral) in this case. (there’s not much you can do with radial symmetry that you can’t do with multiple pairs of bilateral symmetry) 3. I avoided rotating the root part. I made the root part the probe core, not the sideways lander can, it remained pointing forward. 4. I stopped using alt–click. Not at first. I actually got to version 2C of one of the ships before alt–click started screwing up. I stopped, tried to save and reload the ship, and I could look at it, but couldn’t click on it. Turns out, version 2B was broken too, and I had to go back to 2A, and redo a bunch of work from there. And I don’t tolerate any weirdness in the SPH/VAB. As soon as anything strange happens, I stop, go back to a previous incremental save, and test the model on the launch pad, before I continue. With those new rules I haven’t encountered any corruption (since version 2c). I sure will be glad when this game is out of beta.

I have that Logitech Extreme 3D Pro too. And I use it for rockets and rovers too, it depends on the vehicle and maneuver. A pure roll is easier with buttons. But I love using my top hat setup for retro translation. Trigger toggles RCS and the thumb button suspends SAS (F key), makes docking MUUCCH easier!