[Curious...]

Ah! sweet thanks

[Curious...]

So I was watching an episode from Scott Manley's interstellar quest on youtube, and was wondering: How does he make those crazy looking elevons for his space planes/jets? I mean, they look like they're pieced together from smaller ones, but I also wasn't sure if it's a mod or what...it's episode 39

if you take a look you'll see. Any ideas?

[I accidentially fired/deleted all my main kerabals]

Ouch, damn those misclicks. I don't know if it would work, but you could see if the "respawn missing crew" option is checked in your settings. It might make them come back

[Conflicted....losing/lost interest in playing...]

I gotta say, I understand the need/desire for realism out of *specifically* KSP. It's a fantastic game with just the right amount of humor and proper science. I know it's aggravating to learn the math and number for made up things, however you must keep in mind that the principal is not too far off. I mean, many of the people who play this game have learned complex mathematical algorithms that without, may never have even crossed their path of interest. These maths aren't exactly way off base. These are the same calculations that physicists and engineers have to do to figure these things out in real life. That being said, as many others have already said there of course are the RSS/RO mods that make this game immensely realistic, right down to the build time of your rockets chemicals needed for different types of fuel tanks.

I guess the point I'm trying to get at is I feel ya, but don't let the non-realism get you down. At the root of all the silly stuff lie truths in physics that can *somewhat* easily be translated to real life. I love this game so freaking much, it has actually reverted my "give up on college" mindset, and inspired me to start the long grueling RL work it's going to take to get a degree in physics. I have such an immense interest in space, astrophysics, rocket science....I truly believe that life off of earth is the true answer for humanity, and I couldn't be happier that a game like KSP exists and can inspire people to learn about this stuff.

[Seeking suggestions to better my gameplay.]

These are some great tips guys my new iron man career save is actually going pretty well. I decided to spend my first large chunk of funds on upgrading my R&D building FIRST so I don't run into that problem later. I've also managed to upgrade my launchpad so that weight isn't such an issue any more, and I'm still managing to keep my funds dancing around 100k, which is good for me No loss of kerbals yet, and I'm almost ready to get the tech I need to launch unmanned sats into orbit. Keep tossing the ideas!! I use them! I'll also post a couple pics today so y'all can see how it's going

[Seeking suggestions to better my gameplay.]

Rescue missions do not require docking if you can EVA off Kerbin, just get within a KM or so with a similar speed and EVA the rescuee over to your vessel.(I have yet to see a pod to rescue that has a docking clamp, so you need either EVA or the Klaw to bring them back)

(if you target the other vessel, you can get the relative speed by switching to Target mode, in that mode the retrograde marker will also show you which way to thrust to slow your relative velocity)

Rescue missions also give you lots to rendezvous practice where close is good enough, so you can practice without putting your mission at risk.

This is really good to know. I didn't realize that's how the missions went as I haven't really tried them yet. Makes alot more sense now, and seems less an obstacle

[Seeking suggestions to better my gameplay.]

Your call, and you'll need this encouraging tap on the shoulder.

*tap*

But maybe it's a bit like wanting to have your cake and eat it too. : )

Encouragement appreciated! Lol I'll get there eventually. I'm just starting to skim the surface of rendezvous and docking, so those rescue missions will be mine eventually! But yes, sounds like I need to just buckle down and get some of the less exciting contracts taken care of as efficiently as I can.

[Seeking suggestions to better my gameplay.]

Apparently, Random Hooded Stranger is not that much struggling to get more science points, seems like he's running out of kredits/kerbits/money. Though your advice about finding enough science points within Kerbin's SOI is right, Randazzo.

Minmus is a good choice, landind on Minimumsnm is easier than landing on the Mun because of the very low gravity there. However, to take surface samples, Random Hooded Stranger would have to upgrade his research center first. Same problem.

There's also a significant number of mini-biomes at the KSC. You can build a small vehicle and just go from one building to another, and perform crew & EVA reports & temperature scans there.

For your money problems :

Go slow at first, ferry a few tourists (suborbital flights missions, if they are already available to you). I usually try to combine a few tourists missions in a single flight.

Do the "test [device] landed at Kerbin" missions.

The "test [device] in flight" ones can be done as well, but beware, some can be tricky to achieve, because of the altitude and speed requirements.

Don't accept all the missions that pop at mission control. Accelerate time til the unwanted ones expire and new ones become available... Or you'll get stuck with missions you can't complete because of your funds problem. The max number of active contracts is very limited at first.

Also, what's the difficulty setting of your career game ?

Do you save your game before your missions, or during your flights, so that you can revert and fix what went wrong ? This could help you avoid expensive catastrophes.

EDIT : Man, am I slow.

Hmm that is true, I'm pretty bad at doing the tourist and testing contracts. Not bad as in can't fly, bad as in don't because who needs to test parts?! just get up there and use 'em! *boom* oh...

lol guess I never really viewed KSP as a grinding game but I think that just clicked into gear xD

[Antennae shouldn't auto retract]

Why not auto-retract?

Also, as far as I know you can manually extend them by right clicking.

I thought that only happened if you're using Remote Tech

[Seeking suggestions to better my gameplay.]

Going interplanetary is a leap, and it requires a fair bit of successful capital to start pulling off. Missions get more expensive with more and more complex rockets where a larger percentage of them are not-recovered.

Which R&D upgrade level have you purchased?

That's actually the thing, the first upgrade is so expensive I haven't yet been able to afford it. I tend to get roughly 600k funds after my first launch, atmosphere escape, and orbit. Then I usually upgrade VAB, Launchpad, sometimes the tracking station or astronaut complex, and save the rest for vehicles and such.

- - - Updated - - -

Going interplanetary is a leap, and it requires a fair bit of successful capital to start pulling off. Missions get more expensive with more and more complex rockets where a larger percentage of them are not-recovered.

Which R&D upgrade level have you purchased?

- - - Updated - - -

Aha! So you are playing Ironman Mode. I get it, it's a cool way to play. Here is what I suggest - do what NASA did, each and every new kind of flight was tested on the pad 100% before they ever lifted off.

Set up your rocket so the whole thing stays on the pad, essentially. Test all the staging with rocket motors turned off. All the way through parachute and recovery (if applicable). You'll be able to retrieve 95% of the cost of the parts during recovery before you make your main launch.

Testing the staging on the launchpad like that won't destroy anything?

[Seeking suggestions to better my gameplay.]

Time accelerate.

I'll leave it at that.

lol

Practice in sandbox? I doubt that most of us learned by doing only career.

Re your exploding missions: can you elaborate? Maybe it's just something specific that you're doing wrong.

Ah, well those are the typical human error explosions. Let say I'm throwing together a small asparagus staged rocket to send out a munar lander probe annnnnd I forget to triple check the staging and two of the outer tanks take off and ram into the probe destroying 30k worth of parts...I guess I should mention that I play with no quick save, no reverts, and no respawns. You know, cuz RL = no do-overs, lol. I kinda set myself up for frustration that way I suppose, so I guess I'm just looking for a way to not obliterate my space program in the process lol.

You do not need to leave Kerbin SOI to unlock the majority of the tech tree. The Mun is generally the most obvious target, but you're better off hitting Minmus first. It doesn't take very much more to get there than it does to get to the Mun, and once there, you can do a lot more on the same fuel. You can easily hit five biomes in one trip without going very far. Get samples and EVA reports from each one. Tons of science at expenditures far lower than interplanetary travel.

That....is a grand idea. I haven't ever really spent a lot of time on minmus. Mun and back is tough for me as is, but if the dV is about the same then yeah.. ok starting a new mission entitled "screw the mun!" lol

[What Is Your Biggest Accomplishment in KSP thus far?]

I think this is probably the best thing in KSP I've managed so far. My frist try at rendezvous and docking, I managed to assemble a small Interkerbin Space Station in orbit.

And here's Bill having some fun

Although, I did manage to find this one day!!

Jeb died shortly after trying to land only a couple km away seeking science in a slightly different biome. R.I.P

[Seeking suggestions to better my gameplay.]

Okay so it seems that every time I get to the 90 science tier in my tech tree, everything starts to go wrong. In my career game, every time I start getting unmanned science probes into orbit, my next few mission just...explode. I don't know if I'm getting carried away with success in the early stages, or if I'm poorly managing my money in career, but I always seem to hit this bottleneck where I can't afford to upgrade R&D to be able to continue to progress. Then desperation breeds more mistakes as I get idea's to travel out past minmus for science, and I'm not quite good enough at the game to pull off the rescue this or that kerbal. Any suggestions? I keep running my ksc into the ground!!!

[Squad 'stealing' mod content?]

Their right to steal the mod is defined by the mod's license. And we must remember, Squad doesn't hate us at all, they don't want to steal from us, they are just trying to make a good space video game in Mexico.

Lmao exactly xD To be honest, and without a complete knowledge of Squad's history, my first impression of them is that they are some of the less money-grubbing video game tycoons out there, and they seem to quite value the players opinions.

[Squad 'stealing' mod content?]

I'd be willing to bet that even if Squad did or want to steal a mod, they're perfectly in their right to do so. A lot of games have some kind of clause in the ToA and EULA that state anything created with or for this game in some way belongs to the creators of the game or something. Not that Squad would need to resort to such methods. From what I understand, most folks would be all too happy to have their creative content released into the full version of the game. It's like getting a shout-out for your own work and can open doors to real career opportunities.

[Do you have a screenshot that makes you laugh every time?]

https://twitter.com/DutchSelf/status/604036956452868096?s=09

couldn't do much better with my phone, but this is one of my favorites Bill floating outside

[Lifting, delivering, trying not to mess up.]

Haha, neat! xD

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

1) there's an unlimited supply of kerbal's even though there are no cities.

2) there's an unlimited supply of fuel on kerbin.

3) there's an unlimited number of materials & supplies on kerbin.

4) you will constantly be testing bullets 1-3 above.

5) sleep is unnecessary, the fix for your current design is only a few minutes away so just keep at it until it's working.

6) nasa will not accept ksp veteran as an acceptable training reference for a job as an astronaut or engineer (or space janitor).

7) the kraken will find you.

8) 64 bit is bad

9) never let jeb drive, especially when sober.

10) cannot play with any efficiency without a mod installed.

11) use the [ or ] keys to change between nearby ships/kerbals

omg, this o_o

[Hello and Welcome!]

Hello and welcome.

1. Divide Thrust by Mass (weight), dumb enough? Seriously - in the VAB/SPH when you mouse-over engines their max thrust is shown, so you know that bit. There is an 'i'nformation button at the bottom of the screen that will tell you the vehicle mass. (Thrust / Mass) -> TWR; <1 means you're glued to the ground, =1 means you can hover or maintain vertical speed but that's all, >1 means you can fly! Minimum recommended launch TWR is 1.2, 1.6-1.7 is 'usual'. As you burn fuel your mass decreases but, since the thrust remains the same, the TWR increases. When you jettison stages the whole thing changes so you ideally work all this out for each stage, working backwards from the last (topmost).
   
2. DeltaV is 'potential change in velocity vector'. 'Velocity' = 'speed', 'vector' = 'in a particular direction'. Together, it's all a measure of how much you can accelerate, slow down (accelerate in the opposite direction) or go sideways. For Kerbin launch you need ~4,500m/s deltaV and gravity and the atmosphere grab most of it, in space once you're moving you keep moving because there's no atmosphere to slow you down. You therefore use deltaV (by burning fuel -> changing 'potential' into 'actual' change in velocity vector) to change where you're going or how fast you're going there. The rocket equation looks difficult but basically means "the more efficient your engines are and the more fuel they have, the more they can do", which makes sense :-) Use a spreadsheet or one of the MechJeb, Kerbal Engineer Redux or VOID mods to work it out for you.
   
3. Isp is engine "Specific Impulse" (mathematicians are wierd, so that's "I"mpulse "specific" in jargon). Just think of it as the engine fuel-efficiency, look it up in the VAB. same as thrust in 1 above. for the engines you're using and stick it in the rocket equation to calculate your deltaV in 2 above.
   
4. Worry about that when you start going to other bodies, stick with Kerbin for now! Best answer anyway is look on the wiki
   

Wow sir, amazing answers! Thank you very much, that made it quite a bit more clear than the equations I was looking at for TWR. Still might take me some practice with numbers to have it down but I do get it now. So much information! *nerdsout*

As far as DeltaV goes, the explanation is perfect, I just don't quite understand how the math behind it works. But that's okay! I has brane and lern real gud! Lol seriously though this game has inspired me to find out not only how this stuff works in KSP but in RL too :3 Thank you again for the answers!

[How well can you fly without SAS?]

Hmm...long story short, no SAS in atmosphere means explosions. I'm so-so in space without it though :3

[Glad to be here!]

Title pretty much says it all. Been lurking the forums for a bit, been playing the game since last May. See you all in the Spacecraft Exchange and Mission Reports!

Welcome! I'm new as well (both to the forums and KSP) Happy Kerballing!

[Hello and Welcome!]

*deleted double post - mod please delete? *

[Hello and Welcome!]

Hello everyone I'm a fairly new player to the great game of ksp. I've managed orbit, I've managed one or two moon landings, and I've managed to strand a kerbal on duna. All of these accomplishments are from about a year ago, and recently just bought the game for myself (had been using roommates shared copy on steam). So I am now basically learning the game all over, and after listening to my favorite kerbal podcast with Biff and Nos, and watching TONS of Scott Manley (sp?) I'm starting to realize that I can't honestly even count those accomplishments because 1.) Didn't know what I was doing when I did it (lol) and 2.) can't even remember how I did them. I did however put some of my newly found knowledge from aforementioned media outlets to use, and just (and I mean JUST) achieved an orbit around kerbin with only a 5km differential! I was rather proud of this but I still have so many questions. So...here they are ^-^

1. How do you calculate TWR? I did google it but...I may need a 'for dummies' version.

2. ... is Delta V? I googled that as well but the answer was less than explanatory.

3. What is ISP? Haven't gotten around to checking out that one myself yet

4. I know I need to know what the gravitational pull of a celestial body is to figure out the TWR for a particular stage/craft to lift off...how do I find that out?

Thanks in advance, and hello all!