Waxing_Kibbous

One thing I always use are 4 of the delta deluxe fins at the bottom of my middle rocket, and for really small ones the small fins. Just sometimes I get a lot of drift away from the 90, the only thing I can figure is that some parts up top that are attached asymmetrically are causing the nose to veer off.

Thanks CobaltWolf, I'll give that a shot

It's getting pretty predictable when a launch will go sour for me (and I may be using the wrong terminology, hopefully the idea gets across). If my rocket starts to drift off the 90 degree vector, going above or below it on the trackball, adjusting it back to the 90 generally causes the ship to go upright (it moves back from the prograde), or in extreme cases flip and lose control. How do the pros handle such drift elegantly?

Is there a specific group of parts that have to be used to make these work? I made a satellite using the green telescope (for planets and moons) a probodobodyne octo, solar panels, basic antenna, and batteries (plus 3 small ring tanks and a spark), and maybe it was ksp glitching but clicking on the scope did nothing, no actual icon showed up in the map view but the orbit did, when I went back to KSC to the control tower my satellite was gone.

This is happening on every vessel I make from now on

If you aren't opposed to mods give Kerbal joint reinforcement a try, http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55657-0-24-2-Kerbal-Joint-Reinforcement-v2-4-3-7-25-14

Ah that's too bad, but I imagine it's easier to support cpu only because AMD/ATI don't use CUDA. I wonder if there is an experimental flag that can be turned on somewhere...

A good solution would be able to organize parts by number of times used so when one has a lot of parts unlocked they don't have to keep going to the third page for commonly used parts.

I'm curious, would it be worth it to upgrade one's video card to improve performance in KSP 1.1? PhysX is a Nvidia technology, which apparently will offload calculations to the gfx card which I am all about. I'm not sure how the Unity/KSP integration will handle this though, most talk is about multi-core cpu/Win 64 support.

You may want to check out Krita https://krita.org/ to add to the list of free software, it's really a nice painting tool. Symmetry modes, normal map brushes, wrap around texture mode, etc.

Science is certainly an area that has a ton of potential still. I like the idea of discovery/obtaining data about planets via science as opposed to just having the planetary info at hand. This could open up the possibility of a mode where the planetary parameters (and/or the entire Kerbin system) are randomized so that one would need to find out about them before exploring, adding a ton of replay value. A space telescope could give the visuals, the various other units would let you know about the gravity/atmosphere, etc. I think that part of the game is still pretty young though and look forward to the next versions. As a side note I cheat and use the For Science mod/start with a bit extra because it is a bit grindy for my taste. Somewhere I stumbled across a mod that has the options for starting a game as stated earlier, like infinite money, all science unlocked, etc. but I can't seem to find it again.

The ladder drift is an issue too, I agree. I've had Kerbals just sort of pop off during EVA in orbit and I didn't know what I did. I think the grabbing issue comes into play on lower gravity bodies where they tend to hop as opposed to walk.

These planets look incredible Sido, awesome job.

I thought saw somewhere that in recent KSP versions the Kerbals will burn up in re-entry

If you haven't relaunched yet, I sent an unmanned science probe on my first sun mission, and got lucky enough to get a chance at an Eve encounter as well. Pack a bit of dV onto the probe, maybe you can pick up some bonus science without too much effort (and get some practice at intercepting another planet).

Hang out for a bit until you get a Mun contract that will allow you to both fulfill it and pick Bob up. If you have a shortage of scientists then sure go grab him, but I'd wait for an appropriate Mun contract. I mean, look at Bob's face and tell me he isn't enjoying himself up there!

I've noticed when landed on a moon that the Kerbals have a bigger tendency to want to climb flags than ladders- you have to be lined up really precisely to get the go ahead to grab a ladder. I think making them solid or increasing the grab range would be a good improvement.

Wow, I just made a truly KSP rocket haha, if I decide to launch it I'll post the mission recap. At this point it's a matter of pride- currently my next Kerbal hire is 200,000, rescuing the Kerbal only gets me 33,000. My rescue unit is 10,900, the trainwreck that is supposed to get to to Mun is 76,000 in total. I'm still ahead if I just get the Kerbal then forfeit the contract. But really, what fun is that? Fun Fact: Jeb saw this and it wiped the smile off his face: It looks like a wonderful sky castle

Here is my poor man's version- I have the big can there for dV purposes, unladen it has about 3,350m/s (I'm thinking 1500m/s is very comfortable to get back to Kerbin). Seems cheap and effective- only question is, with the can gone and the claw in it's place how the heck to I get it into space?

Alshane: Yeah, I've got pretty good at meeting up with a vessel at launch, but there are times, like doing a multiple rescue, or meeting up from one orbit to another where things are harder to sync. That technique is nicely displayed here if anyone wants a video version: Retread: I think you said what I did, only much more coherently But yeah, that's what I've been doing and it seems to work out well.

I'm getting some good ideas here, thanks team! Since I know it's most likely the 4 kerbal can I will do some tests on Kerbin like a proper scientist/engineer. That flinger this is awesome

Just looking for some feedback on this method I stumbled on by accident. I found that if I am a far off from my target that I can burn a bit to make an elliptical orbit to get a close approach at Pe as opposed to simply time accelerating and play catch up. When I near the target I kill my speed relative to it, getting me back into a similar orbit . The downside is that obviously more fuel needed, but it's not that much really. Anybody else have any tips for efficient orbital interception?

I always thought forgetting something important was how the game was meant to be played My dumbest/awesomest moment came when I sent Bob into orbit, but there was no parachute on the pod. I was too lazy to send something else up so de-orbited him. I don't even know how high it was but at less than 240m/s I EVA'd him thinking I'd hold on but he got blown off- I did full downward force on the rcs pack until I hit a mountain on the downslope, tumbled a bit, AND GOT BOB BACK.

I think with my limited precision flying skills the rover/rocket hybrid may be a good place to start. It's going to be one ugly vehicle, some Road Warrior stuff happening there

You may want to look into the Kerbal Engineer Redux mod if you haven't already, it will show you how much dV you are packing, which helps a lot. I'm still pretty new and I try to get my first stage (aka the main launch sequence that can include solid rockets and maybe a simple asparagus setup) comfortably above 3500 dV, the second stage can wrap the orbit up and get me where I need to go after orbit. Since my launches are still random/sloppy I generally like to go a bit overkill- it's a lot better than losing a flight. Once you get into the 2.5m rockets getting into orbit becomes much easier, and expensive, but it's almost fun to do. This is a good series: https://youtu.be/6ffdsuZxAfc?t=682