Clipperride

That's a nice little "run around" aircraft Val has. I hadn't thought about attaching the tail section like that before.

LMR - Report Three. MET Day 26 Hour 3 Minute 36 Current Location. Scenic Bluff. [5° 4' 1" N : 168° 27' 32" W : Elevation 5239m] After another long Munar night at our prolonged stay location, it was so nice to see the sun rise again. We paused for a couple of hours to enjoy breakfast and allow the sun to rise high enough to illuminate our route, before setting off in a generally Westwards direction. Due to the number of large craters in the area, we are forced to head back towards the original Landing Site. There doesn't seem to be any opportunity to head out in a different direction until we are almost back at our start point. As a safety measure, we travel with the large solar panels retracted, which requires us to pause every so often to recharge the batteries. Although they were only half way depleted, we stopped to take in the view and check for alternate routes at a point 18km from West Point and 13.7km from the landing site. As there were no engineering tasks to attend to, I took the opportunity to jetpack across to the crater rim and take some pictures. Distances here are still hard to judge and I was surprised it was actually just over 1km away. It looked so much closer! The return trip burnt 3.9 units of fuel. On returning "home", I checked the Rovers tanks and the propellant level is currently : LF 674 : Ox 824. Valtrude at "Scenic Bluff". MET Day 26 Hour 4 Minute 45 Current Location. Western Way [3° 23' 2' N : 173° 14' 34" W : Elevation 4729m] Valtrude checks out the descent stage. We finally made it back to the landing site, paused to examine the remains of the landing stages (plenty of propellant on them, but we have no way to syphon it off) and pushed on for another 4½km in as Westerly direction as the ground would allow. Here we set up camp for our rest period and will continue later in the Muns day. The LMR against the sun.

Whilst we are being grateful to Squad..... I'm happy to see the Enhanced Edition which allows me to play KSP once again. Not perfect (yet) but a very welcome addition, especially for us Science Mode players, as this seems to skip the bugs. Relaxing on the couch is definitely the way to go if you're always "just" trying one more thing before bed

Having your RCS thrusters equidistant from the CoM really helps when docking. If you don't have a mod to help, use an extended ladder, placed on the docking stages CoM, as a measuring tool. Place one set of thrusters, rotate the ladder 90° and place the second set the same distance away from CoM. Remember 1) reduce the fuel in the docking stage to match the actual conditions when docking 2) remove the ladder when you've done!

I see that Squad now describe the concole patch as "very close", so hopefully you won't have much longer to wait. As @ruairiau points out, once you have got the hang of the controller, it's easy to use in almost all situations and, dare I say it, easier than the keyboard for some tasks.

Now you've said that, I'm doubting myself! I know I tried to assigned the RWs to an action group and wasn't able to. I'll have to double check to rule out "design incompetence"!

On the PS4, Radial Control preset, the left stick controls pitch and yaw, whilst the larger bumpers (R2 + L2) control roll. I've had a similar issue to the OP as, when using the left stick to accelerate or brake a rover, you are also pitching up or down. Turning the reaction wheels off does help, although there are situations when SAS is really handy if you get your rover off the ground, going over a hill. You don't seem to be able to assign an action group to toggling the reaction wheels on/off, which is a bit of a pain. Luckily, my Mun Rover is quite large (mass 22t) so it's only been a problem when trying to brake quickly, using both the brakes and reverse at the same time. That can cause the Rover to do a wheelie, lifting the front wheels off the ground and so slowing deceleration. I haven't looked too deeply in the "settings" to see if that provides a solution, but I'll report back if it does.

News Summary. As well as another successful launch of a Deep Space Probe from the SSTO A1 MK3, we have two reports this evening - One from each of our moons. LMR - Report Two MET: Day 3 - 2:01 Current Position [5° 6' 37" N : 163° 24' 40" W : Elevation 4985] - West Point We remained at West Point to eat dinner, play a few rounds of "Who's Kerbals Hat?" and make a start on the vintage Port. Unfortunately, we paused a little too long on the Cheese course and by the time we were ready to move off, we found ourselves in darkness. The sun was just visible over the next ridge, so we drove as quickly as we dare up a nearby slope, to recharge the batteries and make ready for the long Munar night. With attention on the ground about to turn to the upcoming Minmus mission, we may get the go ahead for a prolonged, 20+ day, stay at this location. Minmus - Generic Lander Report Research and Development is in constant demand of new data to help in their work and they lobbied hard for one last GL flight to Minmus. After the R&D department called "Rock" to the Space Plane supporters "Scissors", the arrangements were made and the next launch was towards the Minmus Highlands. The first landing was a little short of the target, but did return valuable science from the Slopes biome. A short hop up the hillside gave a second set of results, this time from the Highlands themselves. An uneventful trip home with around 1,000 science points seemed to satisfy the R&D crowd for a while.

Darn, that's a lot of mods. It'll be interesting to see what you do with them all, especially as I'm playing "vanilla" KSP!

It's good to hear that the Enhanced Edition patch is now "very close". Looking forward to finding out the release date.

Hehe - I find it strangely relaxing. Here's a map of my previous (PC) attempt. Each flag in the arc from lander to lander (the rover is close to the Southern lander) is 40km apart. That's straight line distance, not accounting for the actual route. I would have gone back and done more if I still played on PC. Although, I found it impossible to travel any further South due to the steepness of the slopes. The final slope they tackled was a little over 45° and it was an exercise is avoiding damage rather than actual driving! I prefer building space planes from the MK 2 pieces as I like the look of them better. The drag issues are a pitty and the reason behind the current prototype. Next step is to extend the cargo hold or replace it with passenger accommodation.

SSTO News. Prototype Flies High. Having been granted unlimited funding, the space program continues to develop in different directions. Here we see the newly built A1 MK3 Prototype as it readies for take off. Few details have been confirmed so far, however we do know there have been three successful test flights, with two achieving orbit and runway return in a single orbit. The named is rumoured to be inspired by an ease in finding the relevant file quickly, in a growing manifest of vehicles. As the SSTO program was tasked with the lofty goal to "Take something that does something" into LKO, we see a hastily constructed small Deep Space Probe. A series of these will be launched on escape trajectories from Kerbin to "...see what happens.". It is also thought that a variant of the A1 MK3 will, one day, carry crews to and from interplanetary craft in LKO. We shall bring you more on this story in a special tomorrow evening.

Cheers. Although, please don't think this is the end for the LMR! The visit to Farside was only ever intended as an aside to the main mission, which is to drive as far West as I can be bothered to, before turning North and heading for the Polar Biome. Sometimes they might sit a while at one location, but I'll keep returning to them until they call for the return vehicle and end the mission. I actually quite enjoy driving on the Mun. Having a larger rover helps with the low gravity and having to plan a route to avoid the steepest slopes is part of the challenge for me.

As others have said, there are still problems with the console version of KSP, especially for those playing career mode. I have been playing the Enhance Version for the same reasons. I don't currently have access to a PC, but I did get a PS4 for my 50th birthday last year. I'm playing Science Mode and haven't encountered the more annoying bugs that Career Mode players have reported. So, for what their worth, are my thoughts; 1. I'd say it's easier to learn the game on PC as the mouse/keyboard combination is just so intuitive. That said, I'm quite impressed at the way they have managed to map so many commands onto the controller. But, I think it was easier for me, having previously played the PC version. 2. Mods and DLC might (probably?) never come to the console version. That's much less of an issue for new players as the base game has so much to do. However, it's worth bearing in mind if you want to expand the possibilities in the future. 3. Patches. I'm prepared to take in good faith the assumption that the console version will get a patch that sorts out the game breaking issues that can occur in Career Mode. If that were never to happen? I'd be disappointed that I'm stuck with Science and Sandbox but, for me, it's better than no KSP. The Trophy system on PS4 still gives me goals to aim for without having to earn the funds, which I get less pleasure from. The sensible advice is still, as your friend suggests, wait a while and see what happens with patching the current problems. Assuming that goes as planned, I'd go for the console version rather than miss out on the awesomeness that is KSP. If you had the choice I'd still recommend the PC version over the console for ease of use, mods, updates etc, but I am loving the ability to play once again! In summary - PC version is preferable to Console Version, which is preferable to not playing KSP! My thoughts only - your experience may differ My PS4 Mission Reports

** To Read Further, Please Click Here **

Large Mun Rover (LMR) - Report No. 1. MET Day 2 Hour 5 Minute 4 Current Location. West Point [5° 6' 37" N : 163° 24' 40" W : Elevation 4985] Crew: Pilot - Katlinne. Scientists - Mitman & Gillie. Engineer - Valtrude. Landing Site - 4° 4' 11" N : 172° 10' 9" W - Elevation - 4518m After a somewhat hair raising landing, I'm glad to say the LMR was deployed without incident and the minor damage was soon repaired. We carried out the mandatory 2km test drive, again without problems, before we were given the go ahead to venture further afield. We initially headed East, towards the giant East Farside Crater complex, in the hope of taking measurements and samples. Navigating on the Mun is hampered by the closeness of the horizon and the need to keep such a large Rover on fairly forgiving ground. We wound our way both North and South, avoiding the secondary craters, formed by the debris thrown up during the formation of East Farside. At one point, we were even forced to travel back, due West for a time. We occasionally sent up our drone (ok, zoomed out, but back to the story...) to get a wider view of the route we had planned, but quickly became bogged down. The LMR seemed to have difficulty maintaining a steady speed up even fairly modest slopes. So much so that we had to resort to using the "Twitch" Engines at one point. This caused some real concern as, before the mission, it was thought the "Twitch" Engines would only be needed in extreme circumstances. With strictly limited amounts of fuel & oxidiser available for the entire mission we made an unplanned stop [3° 13' 39" N : 165° 34' 44" W : Elevation 4802m] to make some adjustments to the Drive Limiter, Friction Control & Brake wheel settings. These made a huge difference and we continued towards East Farside. Passing "Deep Valley" [4° 16' 27 N : 164° 58' 23"] The further we travelled towards the crater rim, the rougher the ground became. Travelling towards the sunset was also starting to become an issue. Scouting out the area ahead, it became obvious that we would not be able to descend into the crater from this position. We are currently camped at "West Point", at a straight line distance of 31.4km from our landing site.

Nice work! I'm hoping to go further afield with my current game.

As I seem to be able to keep up to date with my Mission Reports, I've decided to make a "consolidated thread" to make it easier to find the latest post. This way you can click the links rather than scrolling through old "news". Reports - Science Mode Game. 1. A False Start. 2. A New Beginning..... 3. Testing the Large Mun Rover 4. Destination Mun - Transporting the LMR. 5. LMR - Report One 6. The A1 MK3 SSTO. 7. Minmus & Mun Reports (including LMR - Report Two) 8. LMR - Report Three 9. LMR - Report Four (running Westwards) 10. LMR - Report Five, A1 MK3 News and thoughts on Career Mode. Reports - Career Mode Game i. Settings 1. Here We Go Again 2. News - Going Global & Interlude - Making one story out of two. 3. A Quick Update - Why no new posts?

Well done!

A shortcut to having to pin each menu open when playing the Enhanced Edition. Open the first fuel tanks window (square on PS4 - Radial Control preset) then hold down the upper right bumper and open the second tanks window. Save a bit of navigating back and forth across the screen.

Thanks to @The Dunatian mission reports for inspiring this venture..... Destination - Mun. Last night's KSP session was rather strange! After completing the deployment and field tests for the Large Mun Rover (LMR), I decided to build a launcher and do a quick test. The test went so well that I just kept going. Therefore, some of the images were taken after the event to illustrate the mission. 1. The test launcher and payload on the pad. Luckily, I had included a full crew in the unlikely event that all went well 2. A close up of the actual Rover. The Separator connecting the Rover to the Lander is offset to account for the payloads CoM. 3. The launch went surprisingly well, although the crew did need to transfer the propellant from the landing stage to achieve orbit. A refuelling mission was quickly dispatched. 4. Getting ready for the capture burn as we approach the Mun. 5. The descent stage ended up being way overpowered. The decision was made to use this wide descent stage, in the hope it would provide a stable platform. 6. As soon as it touched down, the top heavy combination started to topple over. Having had recent experience of a similar situation with the Generic Lander, a quick stage and flight to flat ground saved the mission. 7. Three landing legs withdrew to allow the Rover to deploy. 8. Separator Rockets fired and the craft tipped over. 9. The front wheels were damaged during the launch, but it'll be an easy fix for the teams engineer. 10. All ready to explore the Mun and produce some extras science points 11. Map showing the Landing Site.

Thanks for the tips @Geschosskopf. On Kerbin, the rover topples over as soon as the 3 legs are retracted. I'm not sure how it'll behave on the Mun, so the Sepratrons are there for backup. I have turned down their burn time to minimum in the tweakables.

We are proud to be able to exclusively* present these amazing images from the recent "Large Mun Rover - High Fidelity Field Test"! We can confirm** that this is almost exactly what NASA would have sent to Earth's Moon had they had the Kerbals budget skills. Legal Notice. * They are not exclusive as they are also on Imgur. ** We can confirm nothing of the sort. 1. Initial testing of the deployment system. After landing, three legs are retracted and a cluster of Separation Rockets fire. That tips the LMR over onto it's wheels ready to separate from the Lander. The truss structure was removed after this test as it became fouled in the LMR wheels. 2. Bob ventures out onto the front step, ready for a simulated EVA. The ladder is mainly for Kerbin tests. When asked if the flight model will include a ladder, a spokesman replied, "The things been balanced now, nothings moving." 3. Rolling Westwards, towards the towering mountains, at over 65mph (30m/s) takes it toll on a rear wheel. The mission will carry an engineer to carry out basic repairs. 4. The crew celebrate after a successful shake down trial.

Are you allowing yourself quick saves? If so, I hope you are doing them regularly? It's heart breaking to wreck the vehicle and find the last save was 10km back. We await further news.....

Thanks for the kind words and feel free to use any ideas from this thread. One of the joys of KSP for me, is seeing how other people do things. I've copied been inspired by plenty of ideas I've seen on the forums. Jeb wasn't on the most recent Mun landing and continues to cause problems around the Space Launch Complex. At this rate he will certainly be on the first mission to a more distant target! Generic Lander - Mun Report Although only mentioned in passing in the above news summary, the GL Mun mission had one rather hair raising moment. When playing on the PC, I had all the graphics options turned down so low, I was never able to read the dials inside the capsules properly. Now I can clearly see the radar altimeter, I was using the internal view between 2,000m and 100m, trying to a make a more fuel efficient descent. When the crew looked back out of the windows, it became obvious that they were coming straight down on a steep looking crater wall. The discussions about whether or not to panic took so long, that two of the Landers legs touched down (uphill side) and the whole vehicle started to slowly topple over before a decision was reached. Some quick thinking and fancy throttle work sent the Lander up to around 100m and away from the crater wall, allowing for a successful second landing attempt. Tea and medals were served on the crews return.