Fraggle

Right before the weekend. Nice.... "Hey, nice mods you have there... annnnnnnd.. There gone."

Iv got me feet up in the MC and someone drops a manila folder into my lap.... and then scurry's off. With some hesitation I opened the rather plane container and read the latest contract request. "Build a Habitat on the Mun to house at least 8 Kerbals". Well great, Im glad the guys asked my opinion before accepting this one. So.. off I went. Raided a few old pinball machines and scavenged some motors from old washing machines in the scrap yard and bingo. A mostly leak proof 12 Kerbal habitat with toilet facilities and mini fridge included. We also threw in some scientific equipment too. Seemed like a shame not to since we were going to the Mun anyway. Just 6 hours from launch and the countdown is put on hold while they figure out a new landing site. Apparently 'someone' told Seecot (our remote science lemming in the Mun science Pod) that we were sending him some supplies, toilet paper and such. So we had to wait 14 hours for the mun to be in a better position to land this new Hab as close to the science pod as possible. We missed it by 5km. Which wasnt too bad for our math department. Once down, we all held our breath as the ols washing machine motors whurred into action and the lander lifted itself from the spent engine, and then began its slow migration 5km NE to come to rest by the Science Lander. Contract filled, cash in hand. Not a bad few days business.

Today my KSP took another important step with their orbital science and fuel platform. The second module was added. Still no sleeping quarters but they are on the to do list for the next orbital mission, but at least Bobs EVA can now be terminated because the KSS has enough room for him. (Bobs been hanging on to the outside of the KSS after an EVA from his doomed mission, and Bill refused to open the airlock..) There something very satisfying about watching your station orbit. Especially when you are constructing it the fun way. My next docking attempt should be a lot quicker. Each time Im learning.... like this time.. Lights..... Lights would be good. Because of course, your final docking maneuvers always happen when your in planet shadow.

You mount Docking ports backwards, and dont realize until you try docking with it in orbit. ^ You mount docking ports and immediately add a separator under it.

Yup yup.. That was my break through. I ditched the 100% rapier engine method. Totally inefficient I found. The system in the above image uses 2 rapiers upto 10k, then the Ramjet is activated which throws it hard upto 20k. By 23k the Ramjet blows out and I coast up to 24k on the rapiers before I close the air intakes and go closed cycle into orbit. A method I shall be experimenting with for my next HeavyLifter SSTO attempt.

Good job. Iv had similar issues myself... well.. kinda. Flippy rockets (heavy payloads). Did some thinking, and realized that if I cut my acceleration down and kept it around 15 - 17 my rocket wouldnt flip any more. Astounding!..... Why?.. Oh, yea.. drag.... If my rocket has a fat head and a slim arse its going to be aero heavy on the nose... and want to flip over. Solution?. redesign the payload (yea, nuts to that) or keep a close eye on the acceleration and make sure I have a reasonable balance between the drag of the nose and the thrust of the tail. By feathering the throttle. Oddly enough. There was a thread last week where someone complained about the thrust default being set to 50%... and a bunch of people suggesting that it was stupid and they just set their to 100% before take off. Im guessing these might be people still playing with 0.90 who are scared of the aero changes?...

use "-force -d3d11" to Force it into DX11 (with the right drivers and shaders you can get way better visuals than DX9) Look up the KSP x64 Unity 4 hack to make the Unity 4 engine run in x64 mode and expand your available memory beyond the 4 Gig limit. "warning" some Mods may not work with the x64 mode. So far Iv found one.. the Achievement mod.

Indeed. I had 1 issue with a service bay doing the old shake rattle n roll on the contents at take off once. After that I use docking ports to nail that S*&t down in there. My single biggest "ah, nuts" moment was landing and one of the door clipping the landing strut.... and the entire lander slowly going over and slamming to the ground in a massive crash n burn. Fun times.... 'oh the humanity' could be herd in mission control as the 3 drones involved in the mission were rendered into small pocket calculator sized chunks on the Munar surface. Jeb pointed and laughed yelling "it wasnt me this time!"...

Im totally fibbing. Its a really bugger to deal with.. But once you get it figured... Piece of cake! Im glad its not going full Aero models like some Simulators we know and love, but this micky mouse version they have is brutally unforgiving... I love it! "If it were easy, it wouldn't be fun!" Anyway! Hoorah! Finally got a spaceplane, a reusable SSTO version too! (design number 5) into orbit (for the most part) and had 4 Kerbals long for the ride. The Areo in 1.0.2 is a bugger, but fun as hell. Notes: Breaks!. The whole thing was glowing danger red on the way down, getting the speed arrested was problematic. But, it stayed together and the crew enjoyed a nice soft landing and roll out. Its so strange when you play about. For the longest time I was using just the 2 engines and those big Delta wings. It refused, totally refused to get over mach 1.1 or 15km. Dumped the current design, pondered my Kerbal Science Bomber design. Swapped the wings, added a singe Ram Jet engine and Blamo... left the atmosphere first attempt in the new design. Comparing the two different setups, (and remembering to add the "Close AirIntake" action group) I understand better what was going wrong. So! Orbital science platform plans can now be drawn up, and spaceplanes can be the reusable Kerbal shuttle system.

:\ Well huge hairy horse nards..... Initial mission to Minmus. Scanner ready. Fuel guessed well. Kerbin orbit ok. Intercept with Minmus calculated and aim point locked. Fold down Panels before main burn. Correct minor drift. Trajectory perfect. 24 hours from Minmus calculate burn for 1k orbit. Orient for burn..... orient for burn?... Hello?. Maneuver you worthless pocket calculator?. Check propellant..... Ok. Check electric.... ...... oh f..... Someone forgot to disable SAS and extend the panels after the primary burn from Kerbin. Im going to blame ground control.... Lesson learnt.... Another item for the Post-it note check list...... This is why we fire probes first. Now to wait for another launch window....... Iv yet to fire a Kerbal off into deep space.... but its going to happen at some point.

Today I launched my first Kerbaled mission to the Mun. Following the success of the probe mission, it seemed like the next step and the bods in mission control seemed very confident. But, they do seem to be shuffling their feet when the idea of getting the pilot back is mentioned.

Ye. Whos PewDiePie? Cynical Brit, Angry Joe, FrankieonPC, QuickieBaby and The Mighty Jingles.... I know. Never herd of this chap though. But looking at his channel I agree with a few of the above statements... Probably the wrong crowd. The shotgun approach to publicity only really works of you can get into enough places quickly enough with enough material. But for this kind of game, I dont feel it would work too well anyway. I think KSP requires a more targeted approach. Face it, KSP is going to have a smaller player base than Battlefield.

Finally. After three attempts I got my lander and rover onto the Mun!. The orbital platform is relaying the data happily. Robo-missions on the moon.... engage! After some serious data acquisition it will be time to plan the first Kerbaled visit to the mun (orbital only first). Took some RCS wrangling to get the Comm aerial facing Up on the lander though. Bob insisted we take the atmosphere analyzer... Hes happy to have found out there was in fact no atmosphere on the Mun to examine.

Landed it!. Right after this post in fact. Apparently I just had to vent frustration and go lighter on the controls. Although the Lander fell over.... But it survived and is continuing is job. So... No big deal. To Rover, is alive and well and Roaving..

Wow. Holy fek do I suck. I watch others take a Mun lander. Hover over the surface. Drop a rover, then move away and land on the surface. me?. Not yet... When I try to get my lander down to drop my Rover its horrific. Like watching those old VTOL experiment reels from the 50s. I have a real issue getting my fingers to co-ordinate properly. more thrust, less thrust, correct drift, correct angle, no stop ascending now.. Why did you decide to point at the horizon, yes... spinning.. lets do that now.?. (i just realized my previous three attempts were with SAS on, maybe I should kill robo-SAS). Ill get it though... Now I have the de-orbit properly licked and a good decent speed.. Its those last few meters that are kicking my arse.

Just got mine up to a whopping 455kb. LOL

My rig is built for Prepar3d (flight sim) so its got 16 Gig of physical ram, and another 16Gig in a swapdisk on a SSD. Also running the x64 hack so KSP and memory is not an issue for me. Experience and general knowledge of the game is. lol

First Kerbaled Satellite into orbit! Today sucked, but ended well. Today I kicked Bob off Kerbal for a stint in the new Science Lab. Orbit of 5k Ap and 1.5k Pa. Hes going to be taking important readings about Gravity and Magnetism in preparation for an un-kerbaled orbit of the Mun. This feels like a big step forward. Interestingly I managed to get almost exactly the right amount of fuel for the launch. Total guess work. lol. No explosions, no bits falling off. Very unlike my program so far. Stage 1: Establish Orbit around Kerbal. Stage 2: Pre for Ap burn @ 5k to establish target orbit (and admire the view). Stage 3: Confirm orbit trajectory. Detach final stage rocket and apply some RCS thrust to stabilize orbit and escape debris. (also turn the lights on in the Lab and make a cuppa tea) Bob is not looking too thrilled with his new home. I dont think anyone told him it was going to be an extended stay.

Its about as agile as a brick... But looks really nice. Rather easy to land too, which is nice..

Well.. oops. Satellite... Check. Rechargeable Battery... Check. Solar Panels... Check. Enough fuel to get to an 11,000,000 orbit... Check. lots of boosters... Check. Initial orbit... Check. Burn for the 11,000,000 Apo.. .... .... Hello?.. Why you no fire engine?... Fire engine damit!... Someone forgot to deploy the Solar array in orbit. No juice in the command module, no worky worky... Attaching Rabbit to Booster and firing into orbit...... Does the energizer Bunny need a space suit do you think? Todays mission.... Uh... Fail. Muct remeber orbital check list in future..... - - - Updated - - - Technically it was proof of concept, so not a total failure... right?.... right?... lol.

Hoorah! I just realized one very simple thing I can do to get more Tech unlocked... (because of my recent science unlock). Next mission is to catalog some more of the Kerbal surface. Unlock more goodies, and then figure out my next space mission.

Happy day today. First Satellite into orbit. Minor mistake at separation added 5K to the Apo. But a stable orbit, hoorah! (also in the news.....) Bill tested the new Jet Glider. Jeb carries out a test flight in the new Command Module.

You mean from the pad? That does seem weird. But in mid flight it makes more sense. (im a noob) Iv discovered that if the output from my Liquid engine is too strong after my Solid boosters are done, that sudden change in thrust and torque can initiate... a spin (or tumble, or some other vomit inducing reaction). But If I start with 1/2 throttle and then gently apply the power I can keep the rocket under better control. This of course only applied when Im launching Bob or Bill into orbit. No SAS... and I suck at steering at the moment.

Procrastinating a little? Welcome to the fun.

This is true.. But you gotta get it. That can be trouble some. Just ask my Bill K who almost did a re-entry sans Lander... lol.