gforce527

Why the weird counterbalance thing with a decoupler? I just plop a capsule on a girder on a launch clamp and paste on a 1x1 flat panel to walk the kerbal over to the command chair.

Has anyone tried the stock Dynawing final approach scenario? All of a sudden aircraft (And my SSTOS's ) seem to be made entirely out of eggshells. First I went 1 heavier landing gear up on my 37T SSTO and they still broke off. I went back to small gear bays, but doubled them up, still broke off. I had to put on the second heaviest gear to get into the air with the wheels still on, but that essentially made it useless as it cut payload weight. Besides that I spent almost an hour trying to land the stock Dynawing thing and it disintegrates on the runway almost every time even when flying <80 m/s with ROD of +/-5m/s. My other main beef is now I cannot switch batteries off on probes to conserve power - once all power is switched off, it cannot be turned on again. I start a new game with every update, all I was trying to do was send a stayputnik on a Muner flyby. The ship was a stayputnik with 1 battery small fuel tank and 45 swivel engine. I got my encounter, then went to switch everything back on so I could crash it into the Mun instead of leaving it in orbit, but when I went to do that - nothing. I shouldn't have to bring up cheats or go into my save file to simply switch a spare power source back on!

0. VERY steep learning curve. Embrace it and Joy will be yours. Learn to crawl, take baby steps, they will eventually lead to orbit. I've only ever played the vanilla stock version of KSP. I've gone from barely getting a rocket into the air to doing some pretty amazing (IMO) stuff: Namely, I've crashed tons of rockets and stranded dozens of Kerbals in Kerbolcentric orbit just learning to get to the Mun. I've made an ion drive lander that seats 2 for minmus and minmus-like worlds, I've built an nuclear powered SSTO that can (all in the same flight) a:park over 2000 fuel and accompanying oxidizer on my fuel station in a 350km orbit b:launch a small probe that can land on the Mun or Minmus or hit a contract orbit (or several) c:transfer up to 6 crew up to said 350km orbit and d:make a dead-stick (or near dead-stick: <90 liquidfuel) landing right next to the spaceplane hanger. I've flown kerbals to Duna only have them miss Duna, and never see another planet again. Conversely, I am skilled enough now to do rescue contracts that require you to retrieve a Kerbal from orbit with only the first tier of KSC buildings, and pulling it off in just a few orbits. 1. Always crash your rocket/spaceplane. That's how you learn to build rockets/spaceplanes that work. I personally spent over $20 MILLION designing and crashing my first SSTO which cost between $20,000 and $30,000 per test flight. 2. Always slap in an extra battery and switch it off, it will save you grief when your engines are pointed at the sun and your solar panels are lost in shadow. 3. Always slap in a probe core that has SAS. This will let you test your new designs without killing off all your favorite or experienced Kerbals. This will also let you send that Scientist or Engineer solo to the Mun and elsewhere. It will also let you send said Engineer/Scientist on a proper, potentially suicidal test flight. It will also let you retrieve expensive hardware that gets left behind when your Kerbal tries to do something awesome like make minmus orbit with just the jetpack and fail. 4. Make checklists. Remember when you were a kid (I grew up in the 70's-80's) and played "spaceman" or "astronaut"? Having a tinfoil and cardboard spaceship and calling out items and saying "check!" was fun right? It is essential in KSP. A couple of important items to say "check!" to are a:Your Navball Mode, you will waste a lot of fuel trying to do that orbital maneuver with your navball in target mode. b:Engines and Vessel "Command from Here" again, you will waste a ton of fuel burning your nose to nose docked lander/command module without first turning off one set of engines and designating the correct command seat. 5. Have fun. Do whatever it takes to make the game fun for you. If you need any or all of the tons of mods out there to make the game fun, go for it. That being said, don't forget to challenge yourself. If you are playing KSP chances are you are an intelligent person, so toss out those training wheels when you know how to ride the bike.