Magzimum

Fully agree with this comment. Turning the other ship to a convenient orientation makes life easier. If the docking is especially hard (e.g. very large ships) I will turn the docking port of the target ship to (anti-)normal, as that orientation stays constant for the entire orbit. Then I get my ship in front of the docking port on the target ship, and turn my ship to (anti-)normal too so that the docking ports face each other. That is assuming that my docking port is at the front of the ship of course. After that it is a matter of using the IJKL NH keys to do some fine tuning. If you are going to look up the controls for your Xbox game anyway, look up how to switch between ships. In this wiki on the key-bindings for the PC game that is called "Cycle through active ships", and you use [ and ]. Note that sometimes the docking ports just have a bad day, and refuse to dock. Just patiently try again. Oh, and press quicksave at the right moments!

When you right click on the text in this forum to try to move it to center screen and improve your viewing angle on it. Anyone else? You know you played KSP too long when...

Ok, so I am actually on the right path with this, but haven't over-engineered it yet. More wheels, and some fins/airbrakes. I'll put them on another separator, together with the parachutes (that I have not put on yet while testing). How do you deal with the obvious lack of aerodynamics that a girder with airbrakes has at the top? Fairing? Or just moar boosters? First time ascent, so not sure where I will land... In all fairness, I don't know Eve so well yet, and I decided to find out while playing rather than reading and asking online. But now I did need help cos I wasn't even getting there.

So, I built this large lander to get Jeb a chance to hop around on Eve. It keeps flipping. I already tried to keep it as short and wide as possible, with its CoM (center of mass) as close to the heat shield as possible. The ship has 8 Advanced inline stabilizers (that's the Mk1 reaction wheels) and plenty of electricity to keep them running for a few minutes. Would anyone care to comment how I can keep that heat shield under the lander? p.s. Other comments on the lander are welcome, but not the purpose of this post.

Regarding the crashes, I just had a crash (while constructing my newest lander), with no programs open other than Caja (that's Linux' file explorer). Soooo... sorry for causing confusion, but my previous comment that the browser may have something to do with it seems to be complete ****. I've also edited in a comment in my previous post.

Maybe not related, and maybe not even a fix... I used to keep my Chrome open in the background, to alt-tab to the forums and other online help while playing. I noticed that I get less (or none at all) crashes if I close the browser. I keep some very light program open to still be able to alt-tab out of the game, and open a browser if I need one. But that is for the PC game (on Linux Mint 17.1). But I tested this not enough to claim that this is a fix for all crashes. It just appears to help me. [edit] I just had a crash without the browser open, so forget about this bit... sorry for confusion. As I said above, you can still get crashes with Linux. But I do recommend Linux - it's a great operating system, and there are days where I get no crashes at all... so the problem is small for me.

If you're not aiming for any planets, you can always use the Mun as a slingshot. Good chance to give that some practice! In my (very limited!!) experience, the dV savings are in the order of 200-300 m/s if you use the Mun to get out of the Kerbin SOI. Apart from that, I am not sure that it matters which direction you choose, as your frame of reference for this mission is still Kerbin and Kerbin alone... but let's wait what others have to say on this.

I think it is torture to lock up a Kerbal in solitary confinement for anything over a few days, so I send multiple Kerbals on the long missions, even if it is not strictly necessary. I don't do part-clipping, except sometimes some of the science overlaps a little with the batteries (like on a corner)... but nothing major. No mods other than KER. The "cheat" I use the most: when a huge launcher with small reaction wheels is finally facing the right way, but is about to overshoot the marker because of the stupid auto-pilot, I time warp for 1 second, to make it stop moving. I don't consider it a big cheat, because the same ship can still be oriented the right way if I had more patience, but I don't have more patience.

Biggest facepalm: Building a very efficient rocket with KLAW as well as tourist accomodation, to do a Minmus tourist-landing and to retrieve some lost piece of equipment around Minmus. Nailed two missions in a single flight, only to find out I forgot to add parachutes to my ship. I had save games, so I had a good laugh, fixed it and nailed it completely in the next hour. Biggest actual problem: My Eve mission consisted of 3 ships: A lander, a return vessel, and some auxilliary fuel in a 3rd drone ship. Took me 2 days to build it, test it, fly it to Eve, refuel the lander in Eve-orbit, only to find out that no matter what I try, the lander would flip to prograde (the heat shield was at the back side) in Eve's atmosphere, and then explode. I had to go back to my saved game of several days before and just start from scratch.

Have a checklist. It takes only 15 seconds before you launch. Mine simply checks: Got control? (RSC/reaction wheels) Got power (battery / solar panels) EVA access: got ladders, hatches not blocked? Landing gear: legs/wheels/parachutes Staging sequence ok? Got the right crew? GO! (Which boxes need to be checked depends on the mission, but I prefer to quickly run past this list, as it contains everything that has gone horribly wrong in the past).

"FIRST!!"

Jeb's Towboat & Time-traveling Special Operational Network (JeTTiSON) will come and throw it back to the past. Waiter! BP is drilling for oil in my soup!

Just to get the problem completely clear: when you pass through the Apoapsis, is it (1) already "very large", or (2) do you pass through apoapsis at normal altitude, but then the apoapsis becomes "very large" afterwards, while you fall back into the atmosphere? Since your apoapsis is "very large", it sounds like you have enough power. So, you just need to use that power differently. If we are dealing with: (1): you basically ascend straight up. Make sure to go horizontal earlier, while you are still in the atmosphere, going up. If you can't, add more control surfaces (e.g. Delta-deluxe Winglet), or make sure that some of your engines have a Gimbal (the nozzle of the engines can be used to steer): Most liquid engines have that, but the solid boosters don't. (2): you probably need more power. You have enough fuel, but the burn takes too long, and you are already back in the atmosphere by the time you used all the fuel. Solve this by either aiming higher (getting a higher apoapsis), which gives you more time to burn all that fuel while going horizontal, or get a more powerful engine so you can consume the fuel quicker.

Thanks everyone. I actually managed to connect my 2 ships for refueling. KSP can sometimes have a steep learning curve, and this was one such a moment for me. Nice to have a forum that gives good tips!

That is what I am doing now, but feels wrong to waste fuel on that (even if it is just a few m/s). Was hoping that there is another (more elegant) method!

Is it possible to hit an equatorial orbit on Eve on the first approach? My ships are still far away, but no matter in which direction I adjust my velocity (pro/retrograde, normal/antinormal or radial in/out), it seems I cannot get my periapsis with Eve to move near its equator, although I can make it more polar if I want. The problem seems to be that I approach Eve from below its orbital plane. Most tutorials for getting to Eve seem to be content to just hit Eve and land... but I want to attempt an Eve landing and take-off (a manned Kerballed mission), so I will have a 2nd ship in orbit with more fuel to get the guys home. It's important to get my ships on a practical orbit around Eve for a rendezvous later on. Equatorial seems the most practical, except that I cannot figure out how to do it! *shakes fist angrily at Kerbol*

I have 2 ships that are on a trajectory to Eve. For both, I accelerated from LKO (Low Kerbin Orbit) until I got an encounter with Eve. It shows a periapsis now. It seems to me that I should match the orbital plane as soon as possible, so that I can also do the fine-tuning of the encounter early. But the ascending/descending nodes do not show, because my trajectory has en encounter with Eve (as soon as I accelerate a little and lose the Eve-encounter, they show up). How do you guys do this? I would rather leave the Kerbin system on a trajectory that I know will encounter Eve, rather than just eyeballing it, fix the orbital plane, and only then aim for Eve properly.

I typically install some upwards-pointing RCS (the Place-Anywhere RCS), so that it pushes me onto the surface in case I really need it... and for the rest, I make sure I it is a low vehicle that does not tip over quickly... (Testing is fun, as I get to drive around the Space Center like a maniac, trying to tip it over.) As for the lander, I always made a skycrane-type of ship, with 2 rockets on the side of the rover, and something (a flat Mk2 fuel tank, or girders) overhead that the rover hangs on (I use docking ports for the connection). One time, I equipped my rover with wheels as well as landing legs, so that it would be pushed up a little by the landing legs when they are extended. That allowed me to dock my rover again with the skycrane, so that I could rove on multiple locations on Minmus. It was a little over-engineered for its original task, but that's what KSP is all about, isn't it?

My 2 cents: The [ ] keys are used for switching quickly between ships that are near each other (*). I think it can switch to anything within a 2 km range. Use those keys to switch to the target ship, rotate the docking port of the target ship towards that of the approaching ship, then press [ (or ]) again, and continue flying with the ship that approaches. Or alternatively, rotate the docking port into bright sunlight, so that it is easier to see... Either way, use that to make your life easier. It's a really easy trick (worth only 2 cents)... but it is a pain to do if you do not know the keys, and have to go through the Tracking Station or map to switch between ships. (*) It will also switch to an EVA Kerbal, and back to a ship, if you have a Kerbal jetpacking around in space.

Did your orbit have both apoapsis and periapsis above 70000 m altitude? (That is needed to count as "orbit", if the periapsis remained under 70k, even if your ship was in space, it is suborbital...). Often the VIPs demand to get suborbital flight on Kerbin as well as orbit around Kerbin (and I guess the smart guys at mission control extort the VIP for a few extra funds for that suborbital "extra")... but the nice thing for you is that you can check the mission, and see if the "suborbital flight" already has a green check, but the "orbit" does not. Other than that, these type of contracts are really easy. Take off, orbit, land safely, get paid.

Although I am a newbie, let me try to give you an answer. At first, Kerbin re-entry is a toss of the coin. You get yourself into the atmosphere, and the atmosphere will slow you down and will choose your landing spot for you... But if you play a little longer (I have been playing for roughly a month now), you start noticing that your landing spot is always a certain distance away from the point where you enter the atmosphere. It depends on a lot of things, such as the angle at which you enter the atmosphere and the weight/aerodynamics of the craft, but there is something predictable about it. Next, rather than try to avoid hills, which is difficult, just try to hit the ocean, which is a large target. Some of the experts here can probably land a ship on the launchpad, but I am happy if the ship stays retrograde, and does not explode. So I just aim for daytime landings, on the ocean, or on large patches of flat land. And I still get it wrong sometimes. In that case, the quicksave is my friend. As for the rolling: if your ship does not tip, it does not roll. Put the parachutes at a point well-above the center of mass, and it should come down bottom first.

Thanks for the feedback, and for the confirmation that the game time is rather irrelevant. I am planning for my first ever manned Eve landing (and return!), so although I ran a bunch of tests with the craft, the real test will be the landing and take off on Eve. And from what I read on the forums and other places online, this is one of the hardest missions to do, so better not have any missions in the meantime, because the chances of something going wrong are... huge? Btw, I have a team of 12 Kerbals (the original 4 and 8 rescued Kerbonauts)... so the HR department won't complain if I have multiple missions. I am considering to just send 2 or 3 of the same rockets to Eve. At least that way if one fails all will fail, and I have a good reason to load an old save game My only consideration now is whether I just fast-forward to the transfer window, or whether I do a few Mun/Minmus missions in between. But I consider this question answered! Thanks!

I read several wikis and FAQs on how to get to Duna, such as this one. They recommend that you set throttle to max while in Kerbin orbit, and keep pushing it until you get a trajectory that meets up with the planet (e.g. Duna). I tried, and failed, a lot with this method. Personally, I prefer the much easier method of getting out of the SOI of Kerbin first, where I depart from roughly the same place and keep the throttle open until I am on an escape trajectory. Then once I am in an orbit around the Sun, I plan and execute the Duna-intercept. Around the Sun, I can move the maneuver node along the Solar orbit, so if the planets weren't aligned correctly, I can correct this by just moving it ahead by a few days (or even a year if I launched at a rather bad moment). The ship will just follow along at roughly Kerbin's orbit, until it gets to the node, where I throttle up and get my Duna intercept. Maybe I am a newbie, but results with this method have been more successful, and certainly less frustrating. I know of the Oberth effect, which says that I should accelerate when at the highest velocity (in this case that would probably be in low Kerbin orbit), so my strategy is a little less efficient, but in my opinion quite a lot easier. Does anyone know how much less efficient this is? Can it be quantified easily? Any other opinions?

Is there any point to the Total game duration in the Career mode? It appears to me that, unless there are some unhappy landings, Kerbals can live very long lives. Jeb has been an active pilot for decades. (What a guy!). I have now come to the point in my Career game where I start missions to the planets, which take years to complete. If you do all these missions sequential, they will take decades if not centuries to complete. Do you care about that at all? I considered to launch some easy missions (e.g. Minmus plant-a-flag) while my guys were on their way to Duna, but finally decided to put that Minmus mission on hold, so that it doesn’t hurt me as much if I have to load an earlier save game because I screwed up the design for the Duna mission. I may do parallel missions if I have more confidence in my designing skills. What’s your take on this? Just being curious.

Thanks for the feedback on my question. Much appreciated. I started putting a little less solar panels on my ships without running into problems, and I am quite happy that I started to look into this. As for the science transmissions, I will have a look into it. It is not too relevant for where I am currently in my career game.