SpaceyCLE

KSP is a lot of work. And learning. I got a probe to Duna, sent back some basic info (and its moon, Ike). I keep trying to fulfill the contract for landing on Duna and getting science info there too so I can rack up some serious science, rep points and money. I only have a bit over a million bucks and I'm realizing that's not much in the grand scheme of things. Also, I'm struggling with learning how to build a plane. I mean, I have no idea how to attach the ram air intake part or even the wings. Sounds stupid, I know, but the tutorials I've been looking at are assuming I already know how to do this. Well, I don't. Label me a dummy, but give me a BASIC tutorial on how to attach and build a craft! I have yet to dock too, but at least I figured out the parts for that. Seems stupid to have a docking collar as the top part, though, if you ask me. Isn't there a structural part that would jettison a nose cap? Or a part that encases a lander to protect it (a la Apollo style). Maybe I'm thinking a little too conventionally with this game? I just feel like I'm stuck in a rut when it comes to this game. I will say, however, that MechJeb basically rescued me from abandoning this game. Despite what some people might say and/or think, I feel that it *enhances* my experience. Yes, it makes gameplay "easier" in the sense that I don't have to crunch the numbers myself and get a degree in physics, but so what? There's still a lot that I do myself, like landing! I also successfully completed a rescue in orbit without MechJeb, although it required a *LOT* of trial and error. I learned that the bulk of flying in this game is simply experimenting with the maneuver node and its vectors (and placement of said node). So I do some maneuvers myself where MechJeb doesn't quite cut the mustard. The advanced transfer to planet on MechJeb is an awesome little feature, I have to say, which is yet another great teaching tool. Part of the puzzle now is trying to figure out the timing of my launches and burns which, of course, is dependent upon the orbits of the bodies I'd like to visit. Still lots to learn and do.

NASA lent their hand in the making of this movie and my wife said she listened to a piece about it on NPR last week, interviewing a bunch of scientists. They all agreed that the science in the movie was spot-on with maybe a couple of minor quibbles (like a storm on Mars wouldn't be anywhere nearly as bad as portrayed). I also knew that there would be no sound on Mars (or very, very little) as the atmosphere was a near-vacuum, but it *is* fiction, after all. The book is much more detailed with math and science, but the author, Andy Weir, did a masterful job at making it accessible and compelling.

So my wife and I went to see The Martian last night, in glorious 3D and on a giant screen (only way to see it, really). What a great movie, and I read the book too, which I also highly recommend...unless you have a problem with staying up until 3:00 AM because it's the kind of book you say to yourself repeatedly: "Just one more chapter!" The flick followed the book pretty well, with some parts understandably left out. I mean, they can't expect people to sit through a 3-hour movie every time. The scenes were awe-inspiring and gorgeous, but 3D on a giant screen? It was an experience to behold, I tell you. Anyway, to the point! There were many parts of the movie that dealt with space travel, talking about gravity assist, orbital mechanics, Hohmann transfer window, etc. Because of this game, I got a huge kick out of actually understanding what they were talking about and doing! I don't know if it's a little sad, though, that I was thinking of KSP during the movie, lol! Suffice it to say, however, score major points for KSP actually teaching some real science-y stuff that applies in real life! The game also made me *greatly* appreciate how vastly difficult space travel is and what a job NASA had on their hands from the 1950's and on. To think they did the entire Apollo program with computers running on a fraction of the power of today's home computers and slide rules just boggles my mind. I think it might be time to rewatch HBO's From the Earth to the Moon miniseries. If only they would re-master it in blu-ray and widescreen...

Lots to learn. Learned how to use those strut connectors and that they will safely break away after decoupling. This would've been nice to know a ways back. Learned about those photovoltaic panels and how valuable they are for saving my bacon in electricity. Learned more about fuel crossfeed and how they make my engines much more efficient. Still to learn: efficient rocket design, delta-v (I know, I should know this, but I'm too lazy to get into the math of it), building planes and a bunch of other stuff. I really should get to building a plane so I can zip around Kerbin's biomes and pick up science points. Did send a probe out to Jool, though, barely did a flyby and transmitted a few things back for some points. Not as much as I would've liked, though. Seriously, somebody should write a KSP for Dummies book. I don't think I've ever played a game with such a steep learning curve. The hardest game I ever learned how to play was probably Freespace 2 (for those who don't know...absolute classic, get it on gog.com). I do have Combat Flight Simulator and IL-2, but wouldn't you know it, I haven't really played either much in the years I've owned them. Stupid, I know. Say...is KSP compatible with a gamepad or even a joystick? I have an old Force Feedback 2 that should still work fine (not that I'm expecting force feedback in KSP, but that would be so cool!).

I fly on a somewhat frequent basis. This game would be such a perfect time-killer on those flights and in between. As it is, however, I have Bastion, FTL (such an awesome game), and KOTOR to keep me occupied.

Oh...well, that's that then. Yeah, I saw that Simple Rockets app, I dunno...maybe if they had a trial version or something. I DESPISE "freemium" apps.

Except it's probably way too resource-heavy for the iPad to run. Not to mention hogging massive amounts of memory. Maybe KSP Lite? As the ever-wise Captain Picard is wont to say: MAKE IT SO!

I went back to Minmus, but with a scientist on board this time. It was nice being able to reset those experiments and get mucho science points in one mission. That fly-by-wire part sure helps a lot. Expensive, tho. That was after I spent a few tries trying to rescue some poor Kerbonaut in Kerbin orbit. Rendezvousing is proving to be a mite more difficult than I thought, but I know it's critical if I'm to take some serious leaps and bounds in this game. I'd like to fulfill the landing on Duna contract, and I figure I better learn some of the more advanced stuff in the game if I'm going to make it that far. And make more money. A LOT more money. Time to grind again? Maybe, but now I have a lot more parts for building planes! Experiment with that a bit, see if I can't use it for traveling on other celestial bodies.

It is done. I've landed on the Mun and got back to Kerbin safely! Well, kinda. My launch off Mun went off a little bit crazy because I forgot to engage SAS but at least I didn't crash back into the Mun! Over 400 sweet science points, woohoo! I still have 128 or so to spend, but debating on what to get. I got the bigger rocketry node (thank you mainsail and boar engine!) and those fuel tanks for RCS and the orange jumbo tank. I'm thinking of getting the node with the 3-man pod, but don't have the heat shield for it. Not yet anyway. Decisions, decisions! I think my next stop is landing on Minmus! Oh yeah, surface samples now, even more points! I have yet to explore all the biomes on Kerbin, though, let alone the Mun. I need to build a proper plane for that. Maybe I should do that first? Fun stuff...

All right, a lot has happened since. I finally got to orbit Minmus and back, but I did that after orbiting the Mun and got back. Learned a lot more about how to get back to Kerbin and re-enter safely and can now do that on my own after seeing how it's done (score more points for MechJeb). Added heavy rocketry and electrics nodes, that rechargeable battery stack and kickback booster sure comes in handy. Now, I'm trying for the big accomplishment, landing on the Mun and getting back! After quite a few tries (and more crashes than I care to admit), I finally got my craft to land and STAY upright on the Mun. Killing horizontal speed is awfully hard, especially without RCS. It wasn't until I discovered MechJeb's Translatron that I was able to cheat a bit and saw how much was involved in keeping upright. Geez. To be fair, though, I did land it upright on my own before MechJeb only to accidentally hit the shift button to zoom out (a la VAB) and ended up launching before I got to do anything. Oops. I landed successfully a second time, but after launching back into Mun orbit, my inclination was perpendicular to Kerbin and ended up wasting too much fuel to get back. Went to bed. If at first you don't succeed...

Sooooooooooooo close! I nearly made it to Minmus and back! Alas, I plumb ran out of electricity before I could make it safely back to Kerbin. I fried like 10 seconds into re-entry. Maybe sooner than that. I was blazing in at over 3500 but I thought I angled the altitude pretty good. Unfortunately, being pointed nose down is generally frowned upon. Well, I was hoping I might get lucky with no electricity, but you kinda need that for the chutes too. I gained a MUCH better idea of how maneuver nodes work. That was an "AHA!" moment for me. MechJeb continues to be a wonderful teacher for me, but I have to admit that it makes boring tasks like circularization much easier to do. Ascent is still a big challenge for me (why can't rockets ever do a gravity turn gracefully instead of jerking over and then wobbling back and forth?). I suspect my rocket designs still leave a bit to be desired. Adding LOTS more batteries and gonna try Minmus again. Getting to understanding orbital mechanics bit by bit!

Been a little while since my last update. I was wrestling with the math of doing a rendezvous in orbit, which I found to be FAR harder than I thought it would be. I was trying to fulfill the contract of doing that and killing relative velocity while remaining in sight of each other. I'm not going to lie, I "cheated" a little bit and used MechJeb for this. I also used it to go orbit the Mun with a probe. Truth be told, I'm actually kind of happy for this mod, not because it's made the gameplay much easier (and admittedly more fun), but I also find to be an extremely useful teaching and guidance tool. It's teaching me what I should do in order to perform a Hohmann transfer and how to create a node in the game. Handy little mod, that. In the meantime, I'm in grind mode again, fulfilling contracts so I can make some money for upgrades (I have my eye on upgrading research so I can get to the 100 science points tree and beyond). Trying to get the heavy rocketry node, that should make life a lot easier for me. Next "freestyle" mission? I'm thinking of swinging by Minmus with a probe to say hello and get mucho points.

WOOHOO! I've done it! I've made it to the Mun and back! I didn't land on the Mun, but that's fine, a flyby does nicely for me. Racked up 148 science points on this trip alone! My craft, which I dubbed Longshot, delivered! I had barely enough battery power to make it back, turning off pilot-assisted SAS at the last moment to conserve the last bit for the chutes. It got a little nerve-wracking trying to keep my craft in retrograde (it was wobbly due to my Science Jr making things difficult). I thought at first I missed my shot to return when I skipped out of Kerbin's atmosphere. I was afraid to go in too deeply and 'splode, but saw that my aerobraking was reducing my apoapsis anyway. I orbited a few times, skipping out but watching for my apoapsis to finally dip below 70K and knew I was coming home one way or another. I should've kept my engine on to make correction burns, but no harm done! Just took a little longer than usual is all. Now, to decide which nodes to research! I might have a bigger problem, though, I only have about $35K in my pocket. I think it's time to fulfill some contracts. Side note: I finally downloaded and installed MechJeb with the express purpose of letting it do the Delta-V calculations for me and help me out with the gravity turn and determine best flight paths. Too much math for me to learn, I just wanna...I just wanna FLY!

I made it! To the Mun! Not back to Kerbin, alas. Well, I did, but a little too quickly. With a speed of over 3,000, well, I knew I was going to fry to a crisp, even with a heat shield. I tried blasting my little engine retrograde until the tank was empty, but that did no good. All those science points I amassed...*snif*. To be honest, I got to the Mun totally by accident. I designed a rocket that I wanted to take me to a super high altitude, and it did that. But after burning my engine briefly, I saw that my altitude was shooting through the roof, so I figured I might as well make it to the orbit line of the Mun...only, the Mun was close by! Sheer luck, really, that I happened to have my craft on intercept course with the Mun. What a glorious moment! Only to have it come down in flames. Literally. Now that I've had a taste of it, though, I'm going to try again, but with a strategy of some kind to re-enter Kerbin at the appropriate angle. I know that means a burn somewhere at the right time. Can't be too hard, right? ....right?

OK! Racking up some points and getting somewhere now. Decided to take the aerodynamics and science nodes for 90 points each. Little did I know that the 4-Kerbonaut habitat is HUGE and not appropriate for the rockets I've been building. Meh. Next node will definitely have to be for the FL800 tank so I never have to worry about running out of fuel again. Getting that next 90 won't be easy. I'm under 100K in money too, so I can only afford so much. I'm trying to fulfill a bunch of contracts, but most are pretty unrealistic for me, like planting a flag on Mun or sending data back from Duna. I don't even know how to GET to the moon yet! Right now, I'm focused on trying to build a stable flying jet so I can explore Kerbin's biomes and rack up points that way. Easier said than done. Landing? Sheesh, so touchy! It might be easier for me to just stage my jet and parachute down to my landing points, but I'm afraid it might wreck my craft and lose the parts. Time to study up on plane basics. It sucks that I'm stuck with just the one elevon part to take off.

Yep. Started over again. Got science points WAY quicker this time, though. Getting smarter about spaceflight too. I find it easier and more efficient to get into orbit by going *really* high then burning at peri and getting into orbit quickly (having a heck of a time with gravity turns, why are they so hard?). After I did that, a light bulb went off, I realized maybe I can go to the moon this way! The problem? How the heck do I set a course? When and where do I burn? Also learning the optimal re-entry angle, although I'm still figuring that out. Too shallow and it takes forever to finally get down. Too deep...well, you know...boom. I sense this has a lot to do with precision landings too. Now I finally got the needed 90 points for level 5 in the tree, but I'm waffling on which one to take. I'm thinking the advanced flight control as the RCS looks mighty tasty to me for greater control. Then there's aerodynamics, I can build a plane and go anywhere on Kerbin, right? (Except for those stupid fixed wheels creating drag). Or the fuel systems for that awesome 800 fuel tank. Or the big booster in heavy rocketry to get into orbit easily and make a moonshot. Tips? Advice? Good ways to rack up science points quickly and lots of them? I feel like I'm not doing something that I ought to be doing...

Oh. Huh. I've been launching the 64-bit version in Steam using the path to it in the launch options in my Steam library. Just deleted it so it should default to the 32-bit version. Now I wonder if I need to start over as I bet my science points were out of whack and I should've been progressing further than I actually did. Time for a new game?

Thanks for the heads up. I took a look at it, but alas, I'm using the 64-bit version of KSP and it says not to use it if that's the case. Then again, I did a little more reading... Are there problems with the 64-bit version still? Do I need to start over with the 32-bit so I can get the science points more properly? I feel like I'm missing something here...

Can you say grind? Geez, it's taking an awful long time to rack up science points and I'm trying to think of ways to get them quickly and in decent amounts. Racking up money and rep points isn't too bad as I basically take contracts and fulfill them as I go. I even implemented the strategy in the admin building to yield more science points. My flying is getting better, but I need to learn how to build a plane better. And get retractable wheels. And get the SAS module so I can use my scientist Kerbonaut to get even more points. I think, besides completing those little easy contracts, I'm going to focus on the moon fly-by. Grind...grind...grind...

Argh, I think I've run into a wall with the game. Now I have contracts that I *appear* to fulfill (I activated the stage once all conditions went green), but for some reason they're not complete? So far the "Test Skipper" and "Test Ant" engine contracts are unfulfilled, even though I met all the required conditions. Weird. Am I missing something here? The "wall" is trying to rack up science points. Can't get much of them at the moment. I successfully built a flying plane. Kinda. Sorta. Okay, I flew for a little while before crashing and burning. The point is, I can build a flyable machine now! I think I have to get a couple of more nodes in the science/tech tree before I can really go somewhere. I'm getting ambitious now, trying to build a rocket to fly by the moon! I don't wanna sacrifice any Kerbonauts, even if it's in the name of science, so I'm using a probe with lots of batteries and the small reaction wheel to give it some control. Got a few challenges here, namely, getting it into space without flipping over (really, wth?) and figuring out a flight plan so I can get to the moon as efficiently as possible. Question: Where and how do I design and file a flight plan? To the tutorials I go...

Yet another discovery! Well, a couple of them, anyway. The administration building? Well, that was new to me. I didn't know there were all kinds of strategies to boost money, rep and science points. Upgraded that building so I can get some more money and science points and progress a little faster during the game. Other discovery? That a really high orbit resulted in higher science points! I came home with over 100 points on one mission, and that was with losing my mystery goo container due to re-entry! I learned I had to slow down my craft considerably getting closer to Kerbin lest I become a very expensive firework that no one would see. Also figured out a pretty neat design to ferry a couple of civvies and not fall too fast to deploy the chutes. I added small delta wings and a tail fin to create an ad-hoc glider upon entering the atmosphere and *then* deploying the chutes behind me into the water. Nifty, eh? Still figuring out how to do the planes, though, but I think I need more parts that I don't have access to yet. I'm learning that the planes will be pretty important for fulfilling certain contracts that would be otherwise difficult to do with spacecraft.

So I started over again. I quickly came to the realization that I was spending my money rather unwisely and basically painted myself into a corner. This time, however, I got a lot smarter about how to not only spend that money, but also how to get more science points. I didn't know I could keep using the mystery goo and science lab in different places at different altitudes. Now I'm really having some fun! Next challenge? Trying to build a flyable plane. I've never dabbled in this part of the game before, and I'm finding it to be quite confounding. I got your basic jet plane built, engine and all, but I can't seem to take off! I can go like a bat outta hell on the ground and then tumble and explode, but not actually lift into the air. What am I missing? Do I need parts for flaps and ailerons or are those already built into the swept wings I used? I assumed they were...

Geez, I finally completed the contract for testing the flea booster in orbit. My biggest challenge was (and still is) the gravity turn. Unless I used the swivel engine with the 400 tank, the boosters didn't give me much leeway to pitchover. I've experimented with different configurations, most of them with varying degrees of spectacular failure. Before I even dive into Delta-V, I need to practice my gravity turns and learn a bit about them so I can get into orbit efficiently. Also, got my needed 45 points to get the next research node, but trying to decide which one. I'm split between the science node (which would give me Stayputnik, batteries, etc.) or the aviation node. I'm leaning towards the science node so I can pick up more points quickly. I've never dabbled in the spaceplane hangar (yet). Also, pretty sure the next money I spend will be on the VAB so I'm not stuck building with 30 parts or less.

Well, that was new. Didn't know I had to upgrade facilities in order to advance the game. I mean, I knew they upgraded eventually, but I thought it was automatic, like it would happen once I gained XP. Now I know better. Getting to orbit, finally, was easy. Especially in light of the fact that I had a lot of practice before this version. What I'm finding to be more complicated, though, is *when* to launch, especially if I gotta go rescue some poor Kerbalnaut stuck in orbit. More than that, how do I know to pinpoint my landings, like if I want to land by the space center in the water every time? (Hypothetically, that is!) I'm also vaguely aware of something called delta-V. I know it plays an important role in fuel conservation, but I suspect that I'm not flying efficiently. Besides the wiki, can people suggest good and easy tutorials to read? No video suggestions, please, as I am hard-of-hearing and most videos aren't captioned. Fly on!

So. Close. I previously had no problems getting into orbit before version 1.0, but now with the mass limitation, it's *really* hard. I knew I needed the Terrier engine so I wouldn't eat up all that precious fuel in no time, but breaching the atmosphere AND getting the gravity turn with less than 18.0 total mass? It doesn't help to have only a scant few parts to help me too. In the meantime, I'm reporting everything I can think of to report to rack up the points needed to get me to the next level. I want to take some of those lower prestige contracts, like ferrying a couple of tourists, but that means I need the mk1-2 capsule, no? Oh, I think I just read on how to upgrade my launch pad...see if this works.