asb3pe

I'm doing it right now, I'm following along with Scott Manley's youtubes. Episode 8 he builds a Mun lander, and Episode 9 he rescues Jebediah from the Mun where he apparently had crashed between episodes. I think Scott messed up his staging and ended up crashing on the Mun after episode 8 ended because my staging is different from his and I don't see how his could possibly work correctly. Here is episode 8. The Mun part begins about halfway thru, after the discussion of installing Engineer Redux mod. By the way, episodes 6 and 7 are about landing on Minimus. The reason he goes to Minimus before Mun, even tho its a lot farther, is because the gravity on Minimus is very low compared to Mun, which makes actually landing there and returning home in one piece much easier.

Another question if anyone reads this... how come the fuel lines that I put onto my subassembly are broken when I grab a new copy? I always have to reset the fuel lines connecting the tanks together.

So I built a launch stage and saved it to Subassemblies. Then I built a lander, and grabbed the launch stage and put it underneath the lander. Then I decided to change the lander and I dragged it to the left side of the screen to delete it. As soon as I did that, my subassembly that I had dragged out into the VAB became grayed out. I could no longer interact with it, move it, delete it, nothing. Additionally, the entire subassembly disappeared completely. In fact, the subassembly tab has disappeared completely, it's no longer there. I rebooted my game and its still gone. Why did this happen? I experimented and it appears that dragging your capsule to the left side to delete it is a bad idea, it messes up anything left in the VAB? Still experimenting, I guess if I drag a new capsule out then I can interact with what was in the VAB again. But I need my subassembly back. Nevermind, the subassembly tab is back and so is the launch stage subassembly I built. Either I'm going nuts or the game is. I'll vote for the former.

Nevermind, I guess I just need to fiddle and experiment a lot more. I took the bottom 3 boosters and attached them, then plopped a 4th booster on top once they were attached. Now the stack is attached in the middle, just like I wanted.

One more question - I have a stack of four boosters and I want the radial decoupler to attach right at the center of the booster stack. However, if I grab the stack of four boosters in the middle of them, they separate into two pieces. To use this technique, I have to grab the top one of the four boosters so they all stay in one piece, then mouse-over the decoupler. But then I can't slide the booster stack upward very far, as soon as my mouse pointer leaves the decoupler, the booster stack no longer attached to it properly. So how do I grab a stack of four boosters in the middle and keep them all together as one to attach to the decoupler? Can I group the parts somehow and then they won't come apart? Edit: Actually, I can grab the booster stack in the middle and it won't come apart. But when I slide my mouse over the decoupler, the mouse position suddenly changes and now I'm grabbing onto the top booster (instead of where I actually clicked). That's kinda odd behavior.

Thanks as well, yes this is the key I guess, and for some reason (I think I have some Kerbal blood in me) I just never figured that out while fiddling and struggling.

Wow, your tips paid some immediate dividends, I just tried what you said. The key seems to be to grab the booster stack and slide the mouse pointer right onto the decoupler itself - then it does indeed "snap" into a proper connection. I could even slide the booster stack up and down vertically while it remained "glued" to the decoupler. THANK YOU STICKYDUCK! I hate to post such simpleton questions, but I also hate to sit here and pull my hair out.

I get so darn frustrated trying to get solid rocket boosters to attach to the radial decouplers when I'm building a rocket. Why is it so difficult to get a proper connection? What am I doing wrong? Are there any tips or tricks that someone can recommend I try? If I want the booster to go "that direction" slightly, it goes another direction instead. The camera and movement options are aggravating (because I'm still a rookie). Even if I do get a connection, it's usually off center even with the symmetry mode on. I feel like a dog chasing its own tail, I just go around and around and around and never get anywhere. LOL Please help. Is there a way to use the keyboard to move a part into place instead of trying to use the mouse? Why don't boosters "snap" to the decoupler when they get close enough to each other? That sure would help me.

Love the idea - I even just found it in the wiki, http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Mobile_Processing_Lab_MPL-LG-2 As for the ladders, Scott Manley just used the jetpack during his Beginner Tutorial youtubes to get on top of the materials containers, no ladder needed. He even put his mystery goo on top of the containers, but he just jetpacks up there to collect the data to take it back to the capsule. I guess on some planets that won't work tho, he was on Minimus.

I'm finding it slightly ironic that the orbital mechanics part of the game are easier to learn and execute than the science part of the game is. Realize that I'm speaking as a total beginner, but it's my honest impression so far. We can go zipping to the farthest reaches of the Kerbol System within hours of play, but days later and we're still trying to figure out how/where/when/why to do crew reports and samples and EVAs and keep data and transmit data and use the mobile processing lab... Someone on here posted this for me as a useful reference... http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Science this section is also important So transmissions give 30% of the science points, but processing them in the Lab gives 50% upon transmission. But if you "Keep Data" and return it in the capsule or on the Kerbalnaut, you get 100%. Remember I'm a noob trying to give advice so please correct me if wrong. I'm trying to figure this all out too. Question: Do you have to transmit from the lab (for the 50% science) or can you store data there and then physically return the Mobile Lab to Kerbal for 100% science?

I'm following the Scott Manley tutorials on youtube and he skipped all the biome science without any apparent troubles in career mode. Every episode he's unlocking a new high level with his career points, and he also is showing the apparent strategy - you should focus on unlocking new scientific experiments which means your points keep piling up at an increasing rate. I'm on episode 8 now, at the end of each episode he takes the points he earned during it and spends them to unlock a new level, then the next episode is a mission using some of the newly unlocked items. Skipping all the biome science doesn't seem to be slowing Scott down at all, and he does mention that the science is there and available if you need those few extra points to unlock a new level, that's probably where a small "side mission" to a biome could come in real handy. Kinda like reserve points for when you really need a few of em.

Does anyone have anything I could read on the proposed upcoming changes? I'm new to the game and didn't know this, although obviously I'm hoping for more to come - most especially I think they need "real" re-entry physics most of all. Is that coming in 0.24? P.S. Yes I do know there are mods out there for "real" re-entries... but since I'm new I've decided not to get into any mods yet, I want to learn the "vanilla" game first.

Scott Manley youtube series entitled "Kerbal Space Program - Tutorial For Beginners". Episodes 6 and 7 are the ones you want to watch, he goes to Minimus and lands there (he says its further than Mun but much, much easier to land and take off from due to low gravity). I'm learning everything I know about the game from these youtubes, they are terrific and Scott is a superb "explainer".

I think they could allow W/S to move you up/down the ladder but they could also keep the R key enabled. If you don't press R, then W/S moves you on the ladder, but if you do press R, then your jetpack activates and W/S moves you forward/backward instead. In fact, this WAS how my game was working... and it made logical sense to me. Except it wasn't working every time, which left me confused and frustrated.

Aha, thanks. Yes, my routine was to press "EVA" then immediately press "R" and only then would I move away from the ladder. What's odd is that sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Obviously, letting go of the ladder before I confirmed that my jetpack is actually working was NOT my idea of a wise decision... thus I never thought to even try that. Kerbals aren't really all that bright, are they? LOL

Thanks for the advice Kashua. I think shifting focus is going to be what I need, I didn't know the keyboard shortcuts. My focus is on my ship, always, and I'm trying to chart an orbit out to Minimus and I tend to angle my view so I can see my ship and Minimus at the same time. Does that make sense? So Minimus is just a little tiny few pixels out there, and I can't distinguish the peri marker from the apo marker, that sorta thing. By being able to easily change focus between ship and Minimus, that should resolve this issue for me (I hope!). But then the adjustment marker icons will be way back at the other end of the focus near my ship, so... let me try it out and see.

I know I must sound like a broken record, but Scott Manley's youtube series "Tutorial For Beginners" which was posted in Jan. '14 covers this subject. I'm a new player with no clue what I was doing and within a day of watching his videos I've already gone to Mun and Minimus (with some problems and errors, but that's what it's all about). I really suggest watching episodes 6 and 7 which is where he goes to Minimus. My problem lies with the Orbital Map screen. It's difficult to get the whole thing into one view so I can see if I'm close to an encounter with a planet or not. Right now I'm not good with changing views and focuses and whatever else I should be doing. I'm in orbit around Kerbal and trying to set a course to Minimus, and the periapsis marker out there is so small it's nearly impossible to read and click on to keep it readable while I adjust. Editing orbits has, at times, been very tedious and annoying since its too easy to pick the wrong adjustment slider, etc.

Due to an emergency (or shall we call it a fuel blunder?), I've been forced to use multiple EVA's and push on my capsule's back end with Jebediah and his handy jetpack to slow my capsule down and get back to Kerbin. When I exit the capsule and am on the ladder, a simple press of the "R" key is supposed to toggle the jetpack. However, it doesn't always work for me and I can't find any reports of this problem or solutions. I've been trying a mixed bag of tricks - returning to the Space Center, then double clicking on my ship to return to it... and using Alt-F5 quicksaves. Both of these methods have allowed a non-working "R" key to suddenly re-enable itself, but it is intermittent and seemingly random. I'm kind of at wits end here with this. Sometimes the R key works, and sometimes it doesn't. I have to enter the capsule to refill my jetpack fuel over and over, but when I exit the capsule, the R key usually doesn't work until I try these random things to solve it. Caps lock key is off, can't think of anything else to try. Help appreciated.

I'm gonna call this thread "Answered" because I got into a large Kerbin orbit with the last of my monoproellant, and now I'm using Jebediah's jetpack to push on the capsule and pull my periapsis down to the surface of Kerbin. Jebediah would like me to pass along his gratitude to you all for the advice. I'm not sure he's all that pleased with his Mission Controller right now, but hey, at least he's home and alive, that's all that really matters, isn't it?

It seems as if we never want to transmit data unless it is the only means for returning the science back home (i.e. a one-way probe to deep space). I pretty much always click "Keep Data" until the game tells me I can't (such as I've taken a second crew report), and then I try to do something with it so I don't lose the science points altogether. The wiki is very helpful, thanks, but this subject is still awfully confusing to beginners and I think the game designers should somehow try and remedy that. But what do I know, I'm just a noob.

I probably should start a new thread on this, but then again, I'm certain this topic has probably been discussed ad nauseum on these forums (it must be the most confusing part of the game once you have a semi-grasp on the orbital mechanics concepts). So I'll do a search first before I start asking my million questions.

That is what I had, I was going about 1100 m/s when I got there so my delta-v was indeed like 900 or so. But my remaining fuel only got me about 700 delta-v before it ran out. The monopropellant thrusters gave me the other 200 or so to get me into a reasonably circular orbit, its barely elliptical but I forget my apo and peri numbers. What I don't understand is how Scott Manley got to Minimus and he was only going 224 m/s when he arrived... I'm going to have to review his video and watch his numbers more closely and see what he did that I didn't do. Edit: I think I recall him lining up with his retrograde vector (not sure if that's correct term) and firing his engines to slow down before he got there? Would that make sense to do that on an approach? When you arrive at a planet, once you're an expert at this stuff, you probably have a "target velocity" you want to arrive with, is that correct?

Yes, this was Scott Manley's advice in his tutorial - he acknowledged the possibility that those following along might have run out of fuel (he still had plenty of course), and he said that since the Minimus gravity is low you can actually get back just by using the RV-105 thrusters. However, I haven't tried yet because I have less than 20% fuel remaining in my last tank and I just didn't think that would be enough. But with Feniks' suggestion to use Jebediah and his jetpack to possibly assist in adding some ship velocity, perhaps its time to give it a go. But yeah, as davidparks said, the rescue mission would be a great learning experience even if I don't exactly have the confidence in my abilities yet to make it all happen. Only one way to get such confidence - give it a go, and make it so!

Now there's a handy tip, thanks - glad I asked! This is my first run-thru at the game so I'm using saves to help me learn quicker. But it also seems like cheating in a way, it certainly takes almost all the risk out of career mode.

I have a plan, but I don't know if it makes any sense. I'll make a ship that has the Mobile Processing Lab because that has room for two Kerbals, then I can do science while I'm there. Right? I really don't know much about the Mobile Lab yet. I also still don't have a complete grasp on science in general, it sure can be confusing between "keep data" and "transmit data" and "store data" - when to do which one.