MagicMagor

Started playing this weekend again after a several months long pause. The pause was mainly contributed to my inability to land anything: 1. First munar landing: Landed on slope, lost side-tanks and part of the landing gear. Science instruments and Jeb remain intact, but stranded on the mun. 2. Second munar landing - Rescue craft for Jeb - Same fate as the first one... at the other side of the mun 3. Various (countless) attempts to land a plane without exploding anything - i think i managed it once. So after coming back i focused on minmus. After obtaining a buttload of science from low-orbit EVA-reports (Thanks Bob) today i tried out some new parts and the end result.. I finally managed to land a probe on Minmus, without loosing any part. I only packed light science-instruments and probably underestimated the amount of dV required to get back, or overestimated how efficient i could do my burns. End result was only 270 dV left after landing - not enough to get back to Kerbin. So i did a small hop to the midlands and transmitted more science back. (On the second attempt, the first attempt wasted so much fuel going up, that i hadn't enough left to slow me down on descent). So now on to repeat that, with more science instruments and enough dV to come back.

After returning from my vacation i started playing a new career game with 1.04 yesterday. Learning how usefull manned Mun-missions are in contrast to unmanned (Val brought back over 300 science from her Mun-orbit trip, thanks to EVA over different biomes) i decided that today was the day for the first Kerbal on the Mun (and i had several contracts that required a Mun-landing). The honor goes to Jeb, since Val got the Orbit-mission. Took some time and fiddeling with the design to get my lander into LKO but i succeeded. Also the Mun-descent was pretty decent for my inexperience - but picking a good landing spot i have to practice. I landed on a slope so instead of standing firm on my landing legs i slid down - quite a way. Lost one side-tank (+ landing leg) on the way down but finally came to a stop. Did my science, planted a flag and got all science into the command pod. But despite various attempts and a nearly full main tank, i can't lift off. The area is way to uneven, at some point the engine collides with the ground and explodes. So i have to rescue Jeb somehow. The problem is, the area is really uneven and i don't know if i can find a good landing spot nearby - and i have no idea how much ground Jeb could cover during EVA. So i'm thinking of delaying the rescue a bit and explore Minmus first. With more science i can land on a good spot on the Mun with a rover later and drive to Jeb (and collect science on the way), as then the distance between Jeb and the rescue-lander wouldn't be so much of an issue (i think) - but i lack the tech for rovers yet.

Well now that i can build flyable planes i sent brave Jebediah Kerman on an important plane-mission. To explore the pole(s) (well ok, only the north one). It was successeful, somehow. But it showed clearly that after learning to build and fly a plane, i need to learn how to build and land a plane, without loosing most of it. But the science and Jeb survived, so all is good. Unfortunately, i forgot to take a screenshot

Thank you all for your answers. I managed to do some more kerbal stuff, but also had some successes on the way (First probe to Mun orbit is stranded in high kerbin orbit - not enough fuel to get back, first minimus-probe en route (with enough fuel)) but the biggest success so far: http://imgur.com/993L430 Unfortunately the first (flying) prototype of this craft crashed into the ocean which cost the life of Jebediah Kerman and due to a design-mistake/(or glitch?) the fuel tank goes right through the service-bay were the science-instruments were located, so no science or contract fullfilling from this flight. But at least i managed to get down in one piece (more or less, there is still some issue at launch).

Hello everyone, i just bought KSP last sunday when it was on sale on GoG. It's quite captivating (especially for a sandbox game, as these usually can't hold me that long). I'm currently playing a normal career mode and after several restarts (and various explosions) i think i have a fine grasp on the basics (currently finetuning my fuel-usage to get into orbit). However i have some questions, which i couldn't answer via the wiki or by browsing the forum, so i hope it's ok to ask here. 1. During the trainings-mission when activating SAS i get these vector-nodes besides my navball to tell my pilot to automaticly target this node. So far i have gathered that in career mode, how much of theses vectors turn up depends on the level of the pilot. My question is, do i also get these icons when using a probe-body (with SAS) on an unmanned vessel? Currently i have only unlocked the first probe body with SAS (the one after the sputnik) but no icons appear. Am i'm out of luck (as i find these quite usefull when executing maneuvers) or do higher tech probe-bodys have these little helpful icons? 2. Transmitting science data after conducting an experiment gets usually less science then keeping the data and returning the vessel. Until now i have witholded transmitting any data in fear that it would lower my total science i could get out of an experiment/situation-combination. But after reading a bit up i'm not so sure anymore. So can i safely transmit all material studys i conduct in high orbit (for example) and still reach the maximum science cap for that experiment? (Though it would take me more experiements then if i return it) 3. How to control a plane? I've unlocked only the first tech to build planes and thought i might try building a small one - after putting a lot more wings on it (so much that i didn't have enough parts left to put on some parachutes..) i finally managed to get one into the air, for about 20sec before i crashed it into the water. I know it's probably difficult to answer this without a concrete example, but most of the time i'm not sure if i crash because the design has some errors, or if the design could fly, and i just can't control it. Any general tips to found out? 4. Delta-v and return home I've read several nice tutorials here about delta-v and it's importance and since i installed kerbal engineer my rockets are becoming a lot better. Since after i got a good design to launch a satelite into orbit (with properly planned fuel usage - currently i have to burn to much of my last stage) i want to send a probe to the mun i'm thinking about how much delta-v i need. Figuring out how much i need for the trip to mun is not a big deal, but it seems the delta-v maps never contain the required delta-v for the hometrip. Or do i just need the same amount i needed for the first trip? (Lets say orbit -> orbit) Ok i think thats enough questions for now, since this is in the welcome-forum after all. Anyway thanks in advance for helping me out.