jkool702

The biggest thing I have learned so far is to SAVE YOUR GAME! I usually try to quicksave (F5) every few minutes and make a permanent save (alt+F5) at major mission points (pre-launch, LKO, 1st solar orbit, etc.). Considering how often the game screws up (like deciding that decoupler is going to randomly make your rocket explode in Eve orbit) and how often I screw up (once I literally forgot to put engines on my lander....) saving often and having LOTS of save points to return to has been invaluable.

Suborbital flight means you have to pass 70k altitude, but you dont actually make a stable orbit. If you make 80k orbit you should have completed suborbital flight. Note that the game likes to reset crew members after you change your ship....putting the tourists in there once wont guarantee they stay there. If you made 80k then maybe your tourists werent actually in the rocket?

My main motivation for this is connecting a lander to a main engine block on an interplanetary ship. While the main engine block is about the size of the docking port (a little wider since i use a Mk3 fuel tank), the lander is considerably wider (it has to be wide to be stable when landing). Initially struts keep it stable during launch, but after the first disconnect those struts are gone for good (at least on stock KSP they are).

Thanks for the tips on using decouplers and attaching from removable parts...I'll be sure to incorporate that into future designs (tho unfortunately I just launched a ship into orbit that wasnt built like that). I had an engineer on board and I quickly tried to use her to remove struts and couldnt get it to work....I dont know if I'm doing it wrong or if its not an option. So far I've been playing on stock KSP (I'm new to the game and figure I'll get what I can out of the vanilla version), but I'm about ready to start with some mods (already had a couple Eve and Duna Missions, about to send a craft to Bop so feel I've gone far enough with stock), so I'll keep KIS/KAS and Infernal robotics in mind.

Alright, thanks. I use the Clamp-O-Tron Sr. too, and find that while it works decently well it doesnt completely remove wobble from larger ships, but I guess I'll just live with it.

Is there a way to remove struts in space? It seems their only real use after launch and achieving orbit is increasing ship part count (and lag)...

I did a quick search and game across some threads that said multiple docking port configurations were possible (ex: a senior port in the middle surrounded by a few normal ports), but these threads were all really old and indicated that it was almost not worth doing due to how difficult it was and how it messed with the games physics engine. So now with KSP 1.02 are multiple docking port configurations better / easier to (successfully) make? And if so whats the best way to set one up? I gave it a try and it didnt work....not even a little bit....but I'd like to give it another shot.

Once you accept the contract, the "tourists" will be available as part of your crew members. Build your rocket such that it has extra seating, and then assign these tourists to one of the open seats (in the ship editor building). And, obviously, do whatever the contract requires of you (suborbital flight, orbital flight, landing, etc.).

How close I try to get depends on what body I'm orbiting. Something small like Minimus or Gilly I can usually pull off <1km no problem. Something larger like Kerbin I feel fine with 5-10km. If I'm trying to rendezvous with something orbiting Kerbol Im usually pleased to get within 100 Km lol.

You send something up that could attach to it with a claw (i.e. advanced grabbing unit), however you could just as well attach to any part of the craft (not just the radial attachment point). I believe that once attached it has all the same properties as a docking port (although I'm not 100% sure on that point).

Ah. I use maneuver nodes. Again set the target first. Get in an orbit either above of below the target in roughly the same shape, and then use a maneuver node (prograde or retrograde, depending on your orbit relative to the target). When your projected path crosses the targets path you will see 2 arrows indicating you closest approach to the target. play around with the maneuver node (move left / right, change speed slightly) until the arrows are aligned. Note that you may need to make one or more revolutions of your orbit to find the correct path, but eventually you will find a maneuver that gets you within a few km of the target. Then you can follow my previous post. If you don't have maneuver nodes you might have to wait until you unlock them, cause without them its pretty much impossible.

I just recently got a mining set up on minimus going, and gotta say it works really well there. i wanna say it works better than the mun cause of the lower gravity. I have the fuel tanks and ISRU in orbit, and have a lander go down. My lander has 6x LV-909 engines and 12x T800 fuel tanks, and can easily take 21,000 ore loads up to my station at 50k orbit with fuel to spare. It costs about 3500 ore to replenish the fuel spent by the lander on a round trip, meaning each trip brings a net ~17,500 ore to my orbital refinery, so its very easy to keep it topped off. Sorry that doesnt really answer the question of helping on the mun, if you're thinking about setting up a permanent mining setup I'd seriously consider thinking about setting it up on minimus rather than on mun just cause the low gravity makes things so much easier. pics: http://imgur.com/oXqqZRM,3CSGHUQ,G2yg3aa#0 http://imgur.com/oXqqZRM,3CSGHUQ,G2yg3aa#1 http://imgur.com/oXqqZRM,3CSGHUQ,G2yg3aa#2

This is what I do: (assumes you are already within a few km range of the target) 1) target whatever craft youre trying to dock with 2) change the navball so that it is in target mode (click where it says "orbit" or "surface") 3) burn retrograde to kill off any relatve speed between yourself and the target 4) use the navball to travel directly towards the target (pink circle with the dot in the middle) 5) when you get close to the target switch to retrograde to kill off any relative speed between yourself and the target (again) 6) repeat steps 4 and 5 until you are sufficiently close to the target 7) use rcs thrusters to make the final alignments once you are within about 100m (a little tricky but gets easier with practice) Hope this helps!

Is it possible to direct the resources produced by an ISRU converter into a specific fuel tank or a certain set of fuel tanks (rather than having it be equally spread between all fuel tanks)? I have a ship with an ISRU converter. It has a lander with Lf+Ox tanks, but my main ship is nuclear powered and has liquid only tanks, so being able to direct the ISRU output to only the lander tanks or only the liquid tanks for the nuclear engine would save a lot of time manually transferring fuel (also trying to manually balance Lf and Ox is kind of a nightmare). I would prefer a way to do this on stock but would be interested in any mods that can do this (TAC fuel balancer maybe?) Thanks!

Ah....oh well for that theory.

I have a theory why this is happening....I think it has to do with a rocket being too wide for the launch pad and having a clamp hanging off the edge of the launch pad. This leads to the clamp being grounded in mid-air instead of in the ground. See example here: http://i.imgur.com/Hb9D8JP.jpg The rocket shown in that picture experienced a similar problem (clamp was respawned and released several times during flight), and as far as I could tell it was always the clamp that was initially hanging that respawned. I haven't extensively tested this theory, so if anyone wants to give it a try go for it.

Hi all. I'm new to KSP but must say I really love the game. I have a lander / mining craft for my refinery orbiting minimus. It has 6 engines, each connected to a stack of 2x T800 fuel tanks. 4 of the engines / fuel tank stacks are working properly, but 2 of them are doing something strange. One drains fuel twice as fast as it should, and one (the one 180 degrees across from it) doesnt drain fuel at all until the quickly draining one is empty. Obviously this perfectly describes the behavior of there being a fuel line attached between these two stacks of tanks, however no such fuel line exists in my craft! Has anyone else come across this issue and/or figured out a way to fix it? Pictures: http://imgur.com/J0E23lj,Yf9TqdG,kWbKuAY#0 http://imgur.com/J0E23lj,Yf9TqdG,kWbKuAY#1 http://imgur.com/J0E23lj,Yf9TqdG,kWbKuAY#2 EDIT: here's some more info KSP 1.0.2 Windows 7 64 bit unsure if KSP is 32 or 64 bit....sorry link to craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wt7v7s0q3sk1y2s/Minimus%20Ore%20Harvester.craft?dl=0 I just relaunched this ship into orbit and its doing the same thing....if anyone could try it out and tell me if this is a legitimate bug or if a fuel line is invisibly connected I'd really appreaciate it. The craft file includes the launch vehicle, but its only the lander on top that I care about. Thanks!