Catthedragon

Alright, that's annoying. Thanks everyone for all the help.

What do you mean it's "on backwards" this is how the game connected it to the attachment point in the vehicle assembly building

This thread is meant to serve as objective proof that "docking" is impossible and anyone who claims to have done it or shows a (staged) video of it being done is in on an elaborate scheme to make us think this game is winnable. I have spent the past hour and a half trying to dock from this position: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=30dhyps&s=8#.VMAlZEc4aFU There is no "magnetic force" as Scott Manley describes in this video (at 15:00) I finally realized that docking is a lie when I watched the metal layers of my docking ports slide over each other, mere inches at a time, taking 30 seconds to go just from the tip to the base... and then bounce off completely disconnected. Do not believe the lies, my friends

I have found the solution: First, to settle once and for all whether or not it was an energy issue, I tried replacing the Stayputniks with manned cockpits. The same thing happened. So energy issues could be completely ruled out. My clue came when, as I was spinning out of control, increasing fuel flow to the main engine actually decreased my control over the vehicle. That's when I realized it was a structural integrity issue. The top of the ship was tipping over at its weak point, the docking port just under the orange tank (you can see a small space there in the first picture). I rectified the issue by attaching some bars from the side tanks to the adapter to help hold it together. This worked perfectly, and the bars came off without any issues when it came time to disconnect the Kerbodyne engine/fuel tanks. I also moved the boosters a bit lower down the rocket because they were having issues with colliding with the Kerbodyne tanks when jettisoned. With these changes, the rocket made it into orbit, with (hopefully, I'm assuming) enough fuel left to make the dock. I don't know why the dropbox link is not working for people, or why I can't just post attachments, but here are tinypic links to the "before" rocket that was in the OP and the "after" rocket that did its job correctly after the modifications. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=1zy7hk&s=8#.VLw1iUc4aFU http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=21jbxgn&s=8#.VLw1pUc4aFU Changing "unanswered" to "answered". However, one question still remains. This explains why I was losing control of the craft at random stages of the launch, but not what was happening the times when I could not manipulate the engines (pressing shift or ctrl would simply do nothing to the slider). That may have been a bug.

I don't know what RemoteTech is, just playing the vanilla game. Controlling from the docking port actually sounds like a good idea, I'll try that and get back to here. Thanks. - - - Updated - - - Nope, it happened in the lower atmosphere this time. The boosters were at about 30% and the thing started tipping over no matter how much I mashed QAS. And the liquid engine on bottom was going full blast, so I should absolutely have had control over the vehicle. This is after I had closed the game and come back in. You said the picture was suboptimal. I was trying to get the entire rocket in one picture. what would be a better angle?

There is a battery on each side-fuel tank just below the Stayputniks, you can see one in the image. However, the solar panels are on the main rocket, on the adapter. I do not think power is an issue, though. I mentioned in the OP that both Stayputniks were at full power as I lost control.

I did have a picture in the OP, but it was weird and bugged. I fixed it.

I'm a moderately-experienced player, I've made it as far as crash-landing on Vaythe with single-launch rockets, now I'm trying to dock for the first time so I can expand my horizons. But there's something really, really wrong with this particular rocket. I've already got the top half of my docking rocket (cockpit and landing unit) into orbit, now I'm trying to get the main fuel tank up there as well. But for some reason, this rocket will randomly stop responding to controls at varying points throughout its flight. Sometimes it will happen in the lower atmosphere just as the solid fuel boosters are about to expire, just now it happened as I was trying to migrate from a sub-orbital trajectory to a full orbit. The effects of this phenomenon vary. Sometimes the game won't let me activate stages or use the engines, but it will let me turn the aircraft. Other times, it will let me control the engines and progress through stages, but it won't let me turn. Now, I'm piloting this craft with two Stayputnik MK1s (Stayputniks so they can be detached and discarded after docking, two to counterbalance weight as one cannot be put on top of the docking port), and of course my first thought was that they ran out of power. But nope, they're each equipped with batteries and solar panels, and they were each at 100% power as my ship was spiraling out of control. Can someone explain to me why this is happening? Is it a bug? Pic related, it is the problematic craft. (Also unrelated question, but do adapters have fuel crossfeed? That small fuel tank on top is for smooth transitioning between the parts of the finished craft, but I'd like to know if it can feed into the orange tank or if it's just dead weight)

Let's say that I decided I liked Gilly and wanted to make it Kerbin's instead of Eve's. Is it theoretically possible to fly over an enormous assembly, piece by piece, all upside down, and push Gilly out of Eve's orbit and into Kerbin's? I'm sure it must be physically possible, but I'm asking if the game is coded to handle changes in orbits of the Kerbol bodies.

Let's say you have a command pod, an orange tank, and a mainsail. That'll get you halfway to the Mun on its own, because its lightweight. But if you tacked 3 solid fuel boosters onto that, you could have that same setup start at 8000 feet rather than on the ground. By that logic, bigger rockets should be directly better than smaller rockets with absolutely no downside. Why is this wrong? I know it is.

I've been playing KSP for a couple weeks now, and I've been on youtube looking at people doing things in this game. There was one video where someone made it to Gilly *and* Minmus with only 5 parts in their craft. My question is: How? It takes me 6 solid fuel tanks and 2 orange tank mainsails just to make it into orbit, let alone to one of Kerbin's satellites. I'm trying to figure out how to get to more distant bodies, and it just baffles me how people do it so effortlessly with a tenth of the parts I already have. How do you do it?