jimmymcgoochie

While the title might seem similar to what you’re seeing, this topic was opened in 2013 and is almost certainly not related to your issue, which sounds like it’s happening in KSP 1.11.1. I suggest you start a new thread in either gameplay questions or the relevant tech support section (if you use mods, the modded section, if not then the unmodded section) as it will be more likely that someone can find the cause of your problem there. Please also read this first so you know what information to include, how to get it and what to do with it once you have it: Good luck with your issue, and welcome to the forums.

The workaround is- just don’t use the extra SAS modes until your pilots level up enough to use them. Prograde/retrograde is at level 1, radial/normal at level 3 and target/node at level 5 I think?

Just to confirm- your rover has power, the control point is pointing forwards, the brakes are off and the wheel motors are switched on? Try moving its position a bit with the set position cheat and see if that helps.

I’ve had some issues with this mod before, depending on which configuration you’re using some of the craft lose their storage for vital resources such as fusion pellets to run the reactors or (in the Ranger’s case) the intake atmosphere needed to actually run the VTOL engine. It’s possible that you’re just running out of power for the engines as they consume A LOT of power, after all they’re meant to be nuclear fusion tech! The solution I found was a simple module manager patch to add an RTG-style generator to the Ranger, Lander and Viper parts that would generate the power their engines required to function but continuously; it’s a bit cheaty, but the reactors are so efficient and use so few fusion pellets anyway that it doesn’t really matter as long as you don’t abuse it by sticking one of them onto a station or base to power the whole thing.

The in game tutorials were what got me through the early days of playing KSP, gradually getting an idea of what I was doing in bite-sized chunks. Try the tutorials first, that’s what they’re for, but after that you just have to learn by trial and error. There are a variety of video series etc. which can also help you, along with the stock craft files which can give you some ideas for your next design and KSPedia which has some information about a lot of things. Ultimately it’s just like learning to ride a bike or play a musical instrument- practice, practice, practice.

I had to re-read this whole story when the latest chapter came out. Someone took the phrase “first contact” a bit too literally there- crashing into a stationary object (well, as stationary as it gets in space at least) and dinging the bodywork. You’d never catch me doing something like that, nope, not at all... (except the time I reversed into my own house and smashed the rear windscreen )

I really thought I’d fixed the jetpack-related issues I’m having with RP-1 in KSP 1.11.1- I commented out the part of ROKerbalism that makes the jetpacks use nitrogen as their propellant, thinking it would then default back to EVA propellant, but no- now they use hydrazine! I still can’t get either the jetpack or the Kerbals to actually store nitrogen (or hydrazine for that matter) so for now I’m restricted to doing EVAs by clinging on to the side of the pod for a while. This may call for drastic action, in the form of undoing the changes 1.11 made to the kerbalEVA* “parts” so that they behave the same as they did in 1.10 and earlier which in turn might fix this problem. Serves me right for jumping to the latest game version when it isn’t supported, I suppose...

I've seen that issue recently, but in KSP 1.11.1; it was most likely due to using a version of scatterer that was incompatible with the graphics mods I was using (in my case, RSSVE for Real Solar System). Check that you're using the correct version of scatterer for 1.8.1 and that any other visual mods you might be using (AVP/Spectra/SVE/etc) are also compatible with 1.8.1; a mod list would help here.

Astronomer's Visual Pack and Spectra are two that are up to date; personally I think Spectra looks better and it also seems to require less computational power than AVP does, but Spectra is only for the stock system whereas AVP also works with the Outer Planets Mod and adds its effects to those planets too. I've used SVE in the past, in my original career game in 1.7.3 and I think some of the effects in there are really nice (lightning effects and such), but I don't think it's up to date any more and might not work in more recent versions of KSP. If you just want some nice clouds on Kerbin, the default EVE config would do that for you; if you want nice looking atmospheric and ocean effects, scatterer does that; if you want some souped-up terrain, look at Parallax; if you want plants and moons to reflect light onto your spacecraft, that's PlanetShine; if you want to see planets, moons and even other spacecraft at a distance, Distant Object Enhancement is for you; all of them can be used separately or together depending on what effects you want and whether or not your PC can handle it.

I was launching a crew of 2 into low Earth orbit, when this happened: The whole rocket broke apart just as I was about to hit the abort button, tearing the parachutes off the pod in the process, so it looks like the crew are going to need their own parachutes. Except that one of them, despite having a parachute in his inventory, didn't have the option to deploy said parachute, and the other did deploy his parachute but then got Kraken-ed into the sea at a terrifying rate for no reason at all. If that's the way it's going to be, game... REVERT! And magically everything worked perfectly the second time round. Except for the heatshield running out of ablator and exploding during re-entry, but that was my own fault for not putting enough ablator on it.

As Moon landing preparations continue, it's time to test the second half of the operation- the Gemini pod that will carry the crew of two out to the Moon and meet up with the lander so one of them can descend to the surface. The current design uses three RL10A hydrolox engines due to their extremely high ISP and 10 restarts, instead of the RD-58 based designs I tried before which were heavier and yet had less delta-V. Testing showed that this design could fly out to the Moon, capture into a low circular orbit, stay there for about a week and still have enough fuel left to come back (boiloff is a real issue with liquid hydrogen, even with the maximum 50 MLI layers to insulate the tanks). The plan is to do the Moon landing and come back within 2 days, but the lander has enough supplies for three days and the Gemini in this setup can support a crew of 2 for about 16 days in total- more than enough to complete the mission. I also tested a modified lander which is more stable when landed and uses the Agena docking port so it can dock to a Gemini: It has generous fuel margins for both the descent and ascent, but that will be needed to rendezvous and possibly dock with the Gemini pod before and after the landing. With the designs tested (except the rendezvous/docking part which I can't simulate) and everything looking good, the designs have been finalised and two new vessels are added to the queue- Yellow Crumpet, the Lunar Gemini, and Yellow Scone, the lander. I'm thinking of sending some kind of docking target out to the Moon so the first Yellow Crumpet can practice the rendezvous and docking part of the mission before doing the whole thing for real with the lander. The original design for the Lunar Gemini, Yellow Shortbread, has been scaled back- only one built instead of two- and will instead act as a flyby mission to find out how the Gemini pod deals with re-entering from a Moon-intercept orbit. In more Moon-related news, Blue Nougat 1 set off on its quest to land on the Moon, gather some samples and then bring them back to Earth: Touchdown! The fuel ran out just as it landed but a quick burst of the ascent stage's RCS was enough to stop it tipping. Incidentally, this mission is a whole decade ahead of Luna 16, the first sample return probe to the Moon and the third mission to return samples after Apollo 11 and 12. With the sample gathered and some extra data to boot, the return section flew back into orbit of the Moon leaving the descent stage on the surface to gather a bit more science from the Mare Fecunditatis. The science return wasn't huge due to the landing happening in a biome I've already visited before, but the design has been proven successful and the contract was worth the effort: KCT points into R&D, which incidentally has just finished upgrading to allow more expensive nodes to be researched and adding an extra research speed bonus. Full album: https://imgur.com/a/P3FoF7b Coming up next time: How to get a thousand science in two easy missions.

Try the AnyRes mod to set your screen resolution in the game instead of reloading every time it changes. There's also 4kSP which allows you to dynamically change the sizes of various UI elements in game. I've found that running KSP at a resolution that's different to your PC's display resolution often results in KSP changing its resolution to match the PC's settings if you're in fullscreen mode and switch around to other windows- especially in loading screens; AnyRes can fix that in 2 clicks.

Kopernicus is clearly broken, but that by itself wouldn't tend to cause the game to stop loading- it would just not load whatever planet mods you have installed. The exception is much more likely to be the cause, to track down what caused it and how to fix it you'll need to provide the logs: Follow this guide to find the log files and what to do with them so others can take a look- please don't copy and paste them straight into the forums as that's a real pain to look at on a PC, let alone a tablet or phone.

I'd like to see the in-flight construction system expanded with the ability to make new parts in-situ using ore and/or other parts, within reason- no turning a load of cheap fuel tanks into RTGs and making massive profits! Bugfixes are a given, then some improvements to part textures and models focussing on the parts that haven't been revamped recently/at all. Oh, and the ability to trigger specific Kerbal animations (either in IVA or EVA) at the press of a button so you can get a picture of all your Kerbals saluting/dancing/flapping their hands in panic at the same time instead of waiting for hours for it to happen by chance.

Progress in terms of the in-game calendar has been slow lately, but a lot of effort has been going into designing, planning and simulating the next few missions: crewed flights in LEO, a Lunar sample return probe and eventually a crewed landing on the Moon. This is Blue Nougat, the sample return probe. At almost 19km/s of delta-V it's by far the longest-ranged craft I've built in this career, but it will need that fuel to get into space, out to the Moon, down to the surface, back into orbit then back to Earth again. The next load of simulations were for a crewed mission to the Moon's surface, which as it stands will require two launches to send the lander and the Gemini pod out to the Moon separately before they meet up, do the landing, meet up again and then the Gemini comes back. The lander with its transfer/insertion stage weighs almost 45 tons and is pushing the limits of current technology just to get into orbit: As you can see, the delta-V margins are perilously slim- barely 10m/s left both when launching into LEO and capturing into LMO. A few minor upgrades since then have improved the margins a bit, but it's still going to be pretty close. That... wasn't what I had in mind. But it does prove the concept- I can land it on the Moon intact, with enough fuel left to get back into orbit. With that qualified success proving the concept is sound, it was time for a real mission- the first crewed launch in 1.11.1: Two very different expressions on the crew's faces. Once in orbit, they completed their contract before attempting an EVA and, er.... That little speck above and to the left of the pod? That's Ann Horton. Turns out my jetpack patch didn't work, necessitating a long and difficult chase to get the pod close enough that she could grab on and get back in. Still no EVA report available, but I think I know why- the three different suit types (regular, vintage from Making History and future from Breaking Ground) are all different 'parts', but RP-1 is only looking for the regular version. I force-completed the first EVA contract- totally deserved after the hassle of chasing a drifting Kerbal around in space with a pod which has RCS that doesn't do translation controls properly, then brought them back down. No crew science unfortunately, that got broken by the update to 1.11.1 so I've had to make another one and fix the other Gemini missions on the build queue. And finally, an abort test for the Gemini half of the Moon landing: Despite the many explosions and the swarm of loose engines, it went according to plan and the pod was safely thrown away from the rocket to float back down under its parachutes. Full album: https://imgur.com/a/p1ai34B Coming up next time: Finalising the Moon landing designs.

The delta-V map is a good start, but fit doesn’t tell you how much delta-V you’ll need for your specific craft going from A to B at that specific time, it’s just an average. Use it as a guide when building your craft but don’t rely on it entirely. There are a couple of options for in-game tools (mods) to help you get around: MechJeb’s maneuver planner can plot just about any type of maneuver you like, from a simple circularisation to an interplanetary transfer with a pork chop plot that shows you all the combinations of delta-V, time to node and time to destination so you can either pick the most efficient time, or find a faster transfer that’s more convenient. MechJeb can do a lot of other stuff too and can make your life a lot easier, but some players say automating everything is “cheating”- you can make your own mind up about that; Astrogator is good for getting approximate timings and delta-V requirements to most planets and any moons within the current body’s sphere of influence, though the numbers can vary a bit; Where Can I Go works both in the editors and in orbit, giving you a good idea of exactly where you can get to with your current delta-V based on the above delta-V map (so it has the same caveats about accuracy), plus it can calculate return trips and do the calculations including or excluding a launch from the launchpad- exclude that to plan your trips with just the payload, then include it when you add your launch rocket; Slingshotter shows where planets and moons will be in the future, helpful for planning gravity assists (or avoiding them when they’d throw your probe right out of the solar system- looking at you, Tylo!) which can save fuel. Gravity assists are difficult to do but allow you to get a lot of ‘free’ delta-V by exploiting a planet or moon’s gravity to change your relative velocity, and are most commonly used around Jool as it has three pretty substantial moons all orbiting at the same inclination, ideal for gravity assists.

It's here! Now in shiny new KSP 1.11.1! It's better, it's newer, what could possibly go- Ah. I take it the engine failure RNG is working then... The next launch also lost its first stage engine, but at a much higher altitude so it managed to get into its target orbit. Double contracts again, I'll keep doing these as long as I can until I accidentally accept the contract that cancels one/both of them. Am I the only one who finds it hard to look right at that picture without blinking and looking away? This time there were no inexplicable inclination changes and a perfect Mercury flyby ensued: The science gains weren't as good as for other planets due to the speed of the flyby and Mercury's small SOI, but nevertheless a lot of data was gathered and the contract paid well too. Next to launch, the first Green Condor contract satellite: Sure, it's a bit chunky looking, but that's just to save on tooling costs. Contract completed, but I forgot to check the small print and it cancelled another contract as a result. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last either. I took this one for some extra cash, now that the designs are close to complete. More on that in the next update! Final scores for today: Full album: https://imgur.com/a/hCUng2p Coming up next time: Another LEO Gemini mission and a lot of simulating for both the Moon sample return and a crewed landing.

A PC can be made far more powerful than any console could ever dream of, has vastly more control input options (keyboard, mouse and a joystick versus a little console controller), can access more games which cost less in many cases, don’t have to pay for online multiplayer stuff, and can be justified as a useful thing outside of playing games on it (for schoolwork, coursework, or just work work) in a way that a console just can’t. Most of the KSP player base are on PC, as are all of the mods. With all that in mind, just be glad KSP is available on consoles at all and that the sequel will also be released for consoles at all.

Rule number one of contracts- ALWAYS read the small print. I’ve shot myself in the foot a few times by accepting or completing a contract that then made another contract I had previously accepted unavailable, which caused it to fail and cost me most of the gains from the contract I had just completed.

I'm seeing an incredible list of NullReferenceExceptions from Kopernicus in your logs. It all seems to start because Kopernicus can't load Ceres' config and throws an exception, then because of that it can't find the Sun and then everything goes off the rails. The game keeps trying to load, but Kopernicus keeps throwing exceptions and it gets stuck in a loop, never going anywhere. There's also a d3d11 texture error being spammed in there too which in my experience is caused by an out of date graphics driver. You should probably update your graphics drivers, otherwise the graphics can freeze but the rest of the game is still running which is never a good thing. You've made the rookie mistake of putting mods into a Steam-controlled copy of KSP. Don't do that- Steam tends to interfere and may have corrupted something; instead, copy the entirety of KSP (C:\Users\your_user\ProgramFiles(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program, grab the KSP directory) somewhere outside of Steam's control, like your desktop, and then add mods to it. You should try deleting all your mods from the Steam instance, verifying the game files and making sure everything is OK first, then copying KSP and adding the mods back in.

I don’t see the need for another boring grey rock- Ike and the Mun (and Dres, I suppose...) have that covered already. Each planet or moon should have a USP and I don’t see one for a smaller, more cratered version of Tylo.

I just updated my 1.8,1 RSS/RO/RP-1 game to 1.11.1, there were a couple of minor issues relating to visual mods and the Kerbals’ EVA packs and parachutes were missing (I patched them back with a hanky hack that was at least partially successful) but those are normal teething troubles when version-upping a heavily modded game. I’d suggest using 1.10.1 though as the inventory and RCS changes that were a big part of 1.11 are actually more of a hindrance than a help for RO or RP-1.

Not all spaceplanes need to be SSTO- there’s no shame in using drop tanks, wing-mounted boosters or any other detachable bits to get into space, the point is actually getting to space. If you’re looking for a workhorse SSTO to use instead of an expendable rocket, take a look at this: https://kerbalx.com/Kronus_Aerospace/Kronus-LowTech-20-Ton-SSTO It’s easy to fly with or without a payload attached and only needs a level 2 R&D so is great for career/science modes, plus it has scope for upgrades that can boost its payload capacity; I put a single NERV on the back and managed 25 tons to LKO, then flew it back down to land on the runway.

Use the ‘insert image from URL’ button to insert the images instead of just putting text links. 9500m/s should be enough to reach some kind of orbit. Instead of those squat, fat upper stage tanks, try building them long and thin- 0.3-0.4m diameter and long enough to burn the engines 5 seconds beyond their rated burn times. Swap the top stage to the AJ configuration and make the avionics on top as light as you can as well as streamlined so you can ditch the heavy fairing. The way I did this contract was- RD103 engine (though the NAA should be fine), decouple the avionics from the first stage when it burns out and use that with RCS to point, spin and ullage the upper stages, then 2x AJ10-27 upper stages to get into orbit plus a further six AJ10-27s as first stage boosters. I’ve been documenting my own blundering through RP-1, here’s how I got into orbit: https://imgur.com/a/fHNFYSZ Most of what I’ve been doing is based on Next Small Step, you should take a look at it as it contains a lot of useful hints and tips:

I finally put together a Moon lander that can feasibly get from Earth’s surface into Earth orbit (barely, and running on fumes in the second stage at that point), then on to Lunar orbit, then down to the Moon’s surface (not easy with a 10 minute burn time!) and... It tipped over. There was enough delta-V left to get back into orbit, probably, but thwart I failed to check was that once the landing stage is depleted the entire lander becomes very top-heavy and the landing legs weren’t wide enough plus I landed on a slight slope with a bit of downhill horizontal velocity. Some design changes were made to improve stability- moving the landing legs out a bit- and I’ve started building the launchpad needed to actually launch the thing, as the rocket needed to put the lander plus transfer/capture stage is far too heavy for the existing pads.