Hodari

Probably because anything based on drilling would require you to know exactly what the composition is of the rocks you're drilling in...and that will vary greatly based on exactly where you land. With the atmosphere, you more or less know what you're going to get.

If anything, this makes a very good argument against adding another gas giant. There's even less you can do with them since you can't even land on them. Though having a Saturn analog with a few moons and a ring system would be a cool way to solve that problem, especially if they could make the rings have their own "biome" to collect science from.

Yeah, the idea of having xp is probably good, but both the current method of earning it and the rewards for doing so are bad. I'm not sure what would be a good system for earning xp, but it should be something different for each type of crew and somehow tied in to them actually doing their job rather than merely sitting in a rocket while it goes to different places, And the bonus for leveling up needs to make more sense as well. Why should a trained pilot be able to point the ship at one navball marker just fine but need to fly to a different planet before he figures out how to keep it pointing at a different marker instead? Engineers need to go to Mars before they can figure out how to fix a broken landing gear? Having scientists be able to research faster and engineers better at running ISRU's does at least make some sense. The amount by which it speeds up is completely unrealistic, but that could at least be excused as being necessary for gameplay in order to make it meaningful...except that it really isn't important since you can just timewarp through it anyway. Until in-game time as some actual meaning, it's completely irrelevant how long it takes, so even that part of the current system becomes pointless.

Gimballing or more struts. But yeah, if it's oscillating that much then there's something wrong with the design and not just a problem with SAS(though SAS certainly has its own issues as well).

It might not be valid as a response when the mod in question is something that nearly EVERYONE agrees is something which should be part of the stock game. Things like having some way to see dV and TWR stats while you're building a rocket(and without having to manually recalculate it every time you change something). It becomes a far more valid response when you're talking about something like the tech tree. Even if everyone DID agree that the current tech tree is bad(which they probably don't), there's a huge range of opinions on how it SHOULD be. And let's face it, the tech tree is not designed the way it is for most of the people commenting here. It's designed that way for brand new players so that they can be introduced to the parts more gradually while still being able to at least get SOMETHING into space relatively quickly. As for more experienced players who want a more realistic experience, well, "There's a mod for that." works perfectly fine for PC players. Now that there are console versions as well, maybe having options for at least a few different career paths built in would be good though.

First of all, I think it's extremely unfair(and rude) to say that they "don't care". I'm sure they do care about it, but there are a lot of other things they consider higher priority. The current science system is far from perfect, but at least to some extent it works and serves its purpose of giving the game some sense of progression. Second, I can think of at least one "tweak" that would fix a lot of the issues with the current system, especially the ones raised in this topic. The problem right now is that as soon as you do an experiment once in a given biome, you're basically done. There's no points for doing that experiment again anywhere else in that biome, even halfway around the world. Instead, it should be changed to something more like the following: 1. Doing the experiment immediately gives a certain number of points. 2, Leaving the instrument in the same location for an extended period of time will gradually generate some additional data which can either be transmitted back or recovered later for more points. IRL, you don't just say, "Ok, this spot on the Moon is 15 degrees...done." You can learn a lot more by seeing how it varies at different times of the day or year. The rate at which points can be gained should probably decrease exponentially over time with some maximum amount that can be earned from one spot. 3. Traveling to a different spot in the same biome should allow you to earn more points. This new location would need to be a certain minimum distance away from any previous sites you have studied, maybe 1-2km at most so it's still practical to drive a rover there. Each new spot within the same biome will give an exponentially decreasing multiplier to the number of points earned right away and over time from that spot, again with a maximum amount of possible points you can earn from that biome. 4. All of the above are tracked separately for each biome, so going to an entirely different biome will give a completely new set of data that you can earn. 5. While they're at it, some adjustments to the relative values of transmitting vs. actually recovering the experiment should be made. Some things like temperature readings should be able to be transmitted for full value. IRL, it's pretty easy to say "Current temp is 75 degrees" and you wouldn't gain any additional info by actually getting the thermometer back. On the other hand, something like a surface sample should give little or no data unless actually recovered. Without an actual lab to analyze it, the astronaut is probably not going to be able to say much more than "Yup, looks like dirt..." Maybe a highly trained geologist(ie level 3+ scientist) could be a bit more specific and give SOME points, but certainly nowhere close to the full amount.

In KSP, failure is NOT an option...

If you go for a full-sized real solar system, you'll definitely want a few other mods with it to rebalance things. Just getting to low Earth orbit will need almost 10k dV and good luck getting that with early career mode stock parts. There are 2 main options for which mods to use. RO is better if you want to go straight for the biggest challenge and the most realistic experience. If you want something much closer to stock gameplay, but with the RSS instead, use SMURFF. Currently, I'm running a career mode game with RSS, SMURFF, SpaceY heavy lifters, SpaceY expanded, KER, Historic Missions for RSS, and Historical Progression tech tree.

Getting that close to the target is really the hardest part of docking(unless you started out close to it in the first place). Once you are close to the other vessel: 1. If you haven't already done so, in map mode, set the other vessel as target. 2. Click on the Navball and set it to Target mode. 3. Use your engines and/or RCS to kill all relative velocity between the two ships. 4. Right click on your docking port and select Control from here 5 Right click on the other vessel's docking port and Set as Target. 6. Rotate your vessel so it is pointing directly at the Target marker on your navball 7. If possible, switch control to the target vessel for a moment and repeat steps 4 and 5 from there, then rotate that vessel so the docking port is facing directly towards your other vessel. This will make the final approach MUCH easier, but if you can't do this for some reason, you'll just have to maneuver your vessel around to the correct side of the target vessel first and then point towards the docking port. 8. Once you're lined up with the two docking ports facing towards each other, use your RCS thrusters to VERY slowly move toward the target again. For the last 10m or so, you should probably only be going about 0.3 m/s. Also use the RCS translate controls (HNJKLI) to keep your target and prograde markers on the navball EXACTLY aligned with each other and rotate so you're pointing the ship towards them. 9. Once the docking ports actually come into contact, they should connect immediately if everything is lined up correctly,. If the ships are still at a slight angle to each other or not perfectly aligned, you might need to maneuver around a little to get them to connect. Also, at this point it might help to turn SAS off for a moment and let the magnets on the docking ports pull them together.

Even when you do get a plane that works, it's annoying since you have to spend half an hour or more actually flying it there, with 99% of that time being spent just making small adjustments to your throttle or pitch to keep it flying at the right speed and altitude(since SAS is almost useless for this and it's even worse if you try to use timewarp at all). As for which planet I hate the most though, gotta go with Moho. Getting at least some kind of encounter with it isn't TOO bad, but actually getting into orbit(let alone LANDING on it) always seems to take an insane amount of dV. I know that if you encounter it in just the right place and right angle, it will need much less dV, but never managed to get that perfect an encounter. Next time I get a career mode up to the point where I'm actually trying to go there, I might just make a refueling base on Gilly first and see if that works any better.

It certainly doesn't sound like the most efficient way to do things, but especially early on, it's not always about doing things efficiently or the "right" way. A lot of times, it's just a matter of doing whatever works with the parts you have available. Or even just about having fun and trying things out. And no, we're not laughing because most of us were in that exact same place not so long ago. Even the real life space programs had to learn a lot of things by trial and error.

Basically. this. Usually, my first "mission" will be just a command pod with a goo unit stuck on it, get the sample, crew report, 2 eva reports, and recover. That gives enough science to unlock the first couple nodes. After that, it's much faster to get more science by actually going to space and doing real missions as soon as possible and only use the kSC biomes when you need a couple more points to unlock something. The other important thing to consider is making sure you choose the nodes in the right order so that you CAN keep getting more science without needing to grind too much for it. The exact best path for this will depend on what mods you're running, but probably better engines and nodes which unlock more science experiments will be the main priorities. Bigger fuel tanks are also very important early on until you can afford to upgrade the VAB and not have to worry about part count. And of course, you'll probably need solar panels for anything beyond LKO.

It's probably going to be hard to give any sort of general answer on this since it will depend a lot on the craft being used(and perhaps somewhat on the person flying it as well). Best bet would be to start off with whatever your "typical" re-entry craft is in a perfectly circular orbit. Save the game there. Make your best guess as to where to do your deorbit burn and try that. If you end up being way off, just reload that save and adjust your deorbit burn accordingly. If you end up 30 degrees short of the KSC, then try doing your burn 30 degrees earlier in your orbit. Keep adjusting until you find the right place. Then you can experiment to see how it changes for different starting orbits or different crafts or different Pe altitudes.

Well, if you can't get your plane to fly, you can always FLAP

It's probably because a lot of aspects of this game are simply too complicated to properly explain in an in-game tutorial. There's a limit to how much detail you can put in something like that. They can show you the most basic aspects of how the interface works for building a rocket and maneuver nodes and things like that, but beyond that you basically have two options: 1. Use whatever knowledge of physics you have to start out with and then experiment on your own from there to find out what works and what doesn't. And after all, this is what real space programs had to do as well. 2. Look around online and see what other people have done. It's pretty safe to assume these days that almost everyone playing the game will have some way of accessing these forums or youtube or many other sites which have tutorials on just about every aspect of the game in FAR more detail than they could possible put into the in-game instructions. And again, even real space programs probably all watch what their competitors are doing very closely and copy whatever works from them.

The exact ascent profile and best time to switch engines/mode will vary for each craft, so you may have to experiment a bit there. For most of the ssto's I've built, I use only the RAPIER engines. While still in the SPH, I set them all to manual switching and then set up an action group which toggles the mode on all of my engines and also toggles all of my air intakes. I usually maintain a fairly constant angle of attack of around 15-20 degrees and then pitch up or down slightly as needed to control my speed. The RAPIERS sometimes seem to have a hard time getting past 320-350m/s, so might need to level out for a little while there. Once you're comfortably past Mach 1 though, the engine performance improves rapidly and you can climb again. At around 23km altitude, you'll notice your acceleration starting to drop off as your engines are no longer getting enough air. This is when you need to hit the action group to switch over to rocket mode.

No, the hard part is getting the elephant to lift its leg at just the right moment so Kerbol can pass by safely...

Wings definitely aren't needed. This sounds like a bug to me unless maybe it's requiring your Ap to be inside the atmosphere as well.

Slightly off topic, but it may be worth pointing out that this is not ALWAYS the case. You can also switch it to show orientation relative to other parts, most notably docking ports Back on topic though, it's also important to remember that while you're in the lower atmosphere, you need to be very gentle with your maneuvers. You're flying a rocket, not a fighter jet. If you try to turn too far away from your prograde marker, it's very likely to cause you to lose control altogether. Ideally, you want to do a small turn(10 degrees or so) just after taking off and while you're still going fairly slowly, then turn off SAS and not touch the controls at all. If you do it just right(the exact timing and amount of this turn will vary for each ship), gravity will slowly pull your ship over into a perfect ascent path. This is called a gravity turn. If your ship is somewhat less perfectly balanced, you can also mimic this effect by doing the initial turn and then using the "hold prograde" SAS function. Either way though, if you have to do any further course corrections, do them very carefully, especially while you're still in the lower atmosphere but starting to build up a lot of speed. Once you're actually in space or even the uppermost part of the atmosphere where aerodynamic forces aren't as significant, you can maneuver much more freely.

If you haven't already done so, I'd also suggest getting Kerbal Engineer Redux(or Mechjeb or any other mod that shows your rocket's delta-V). This way you can at least know that theoretically your design should be able to get where you want it to. Then just figure out how much dV you need for various types of missions. If you're really efficient about it, 3500 is probably enough for low Kerbin orbit, though I'd allow at least 4000 for now. 7000 should be enough to do a Mun/Minmus landing and return or for at least a flyby of another planet. If you search for "delta v map" you should find plenty of them showing exactly how much dV you need(those are minimum values though, so bring extra). But definitely practice getting into orbit efficiently first before trying to go any further.

It's certainly possible, but won't be easy at all. Your best bet will probably be: 1. Have a few radially attached engines pointing downwards and make sure they're either far enough away from the center or weak enough that they won't damage the craft you're landing on top of. 2. Also have some RCS thrusters around the sides of your craft so you can use those for lateral movement during the final docking. 3. Follow normal pinpoint landing process until you're directly over the target. Keep your craft pointing directly upwards and adjust the thrust on your main engines to control your vertical speed. Keep yourself just hovering 10-20 feet above the target. Use your RCS to perform fine adjustments to your horizontal position until you are properly aligned and then slightly lower the main engine thrust to SLOWLY lower yourself down.

Also make sure you're using the right size of landing gear and that you have enough for the weight of your craft.. And that your engines are all firing equally and one of them isn't flaming out sue to insufficient air intake.

Without being able to run huge numbers of simulations to find the best possible solution(like NASA would for a real mission), I'm not sure if gravity assists are really worth it in this game. If you really do want to try it just for fun though, first of all there's a setting somewhere for how many SoI changes will be shown on the map. Default is 3, but you'll probably want to increase that to 5 or more so you can see the full effect of your maneuvers. As for when to launch, the point of a gravity assist is to get an efficient launch to one planet and then pass close to it and use its gravity to redirect you towards the next planet. So I would assume you'll need to start by launching at the same time as a normal transfer window to your first target planet. Ideally, calculate how long this transfer will take and then make sure that when you arrive, the second planet will be in the appropriate place for a second transfer from there. And so on, if you're planning to do more gravity assists. Given how sensitive all of these maneuvers are to exactly where and WHEN you arrive, you'll probably have to do a few small correction burns as well(which will eat up much of the fuel you would otherwise have saved by doing the gravity assists)

Or rescue missions. Had far too many times where I finally rendezvous with their pod, only to find out that Bob snuck on board and there's no empty seats left

The only time I would really be worried about getting the perfect amount of thrust from SRBs is when doing part test contracts VERY early in career mode where you need to hit exactly the right speed within a certain altitude range.