MarsUltor

Yeah, it gets really annoying when you have a razor thin energy budget... I sometimes need to make sure I have an extra 1000 dv just for Duna missions... hell, missions to bodies as close as minimus can go horribly awry because of it. I have a “sometimes“ solution... in fact it works in a minority of cases... and less after some of the updates... sometimes, if you gradually step up the warp speed, the trajectory won’t “twitch” as much as if you ramp it all the way up immediately... that said, if you’re trying to warp to a distant node, you cannot do a “warp to next maneuver” option, because the game automatically steps it up too fast.

To be fair, when KSP literally describes parts as being found on the side of the road, or in a junkyard, your example of a “campfire blower engine” isn’t far fetched. I think you’re putting the science way ahead of the game, and taking the hard science way more seriously than the game ever intended. While I get your perspective, interstellar travel isn’t a thing... so, it’s all just different levels of speculation at this point, some more grounded in demonstrable physics than others, but still on the fiction side of science-fiction. [snip] I remember learning all sorts of scientific facts that blew up my childhood preconceptions about how the universe works... you know what I did? I became I scientist. Sure, the game presents a lot of actual science, but it in no way presents itself as a prophetic game... and in no way presents itself as anything more than a game. While it has educational components, these are in the form of thrust, orbital mechanics, etc... but the game takes liberties to make for a more playable experience; for example, if you think asparagus staging works in real life, I hate to break it to you but... it doesn’t! So if you’re arguing over the fundamental physics of an impossible fuel source, but not concerning yourself with the physical impossibility of creating pumps that would allow for asparagus staging to be possible, please get off of the soap box.

Happened to me the other day... make sure to run fuel lines from any tanks you have to the base plate of the module.

I think this is what is getting most of us... you only need one maneuver to bring your kerbin Pe to 40k... if you’re coming in from the Mun, and you just want to enter kerbin without any orbital burns, you just need a single burn from Mun’s SOI to set your Pe to 40k (although from the Mun, you can even set it lower without a heating re-entry problem)... once you’re there, don’t bother with modifying your Ap, because you will definelty get pulled to the surface (even if it shows you have an elliptical orbit in the patched conic)... even if you are traveling fast enough, the atmospheric drag will automatically pull your Ap down below the atmosphere. Once your Pe is set to 40k, ditch your engine, set your capsule to retrograde, activate your parachutes, and wait until you’re on the surface (you’ll have to speed up time)... even if you are moving fast enough to “bounce off the atmosphere” and reescape, your Pe is already below 40k, and you’ll definitely drop on the next orbit without any correction burns. Long story short, get rid of your fuel filled payload when you’re in the atmosphere, that’s probably what is blowing up... or the overheating engine that your are seemingly burning while in atmo?

Cool off, take a breath... I’m sorry to repeat something you have heard multiple times, but “this game is not easy“... it has a ridiculously high learning curve. This game is lots of fun, but you almost need to be willing to get frustrated, because failure is part of the fun. First, check out the kerbal wiki, there are a ton of great tutorials and resources there that can give you a clue as to what your particular problem may be. Also, YouTube is a great resource to see how people design ships and mission plan... I didn’t fully understand many of the fundamentals until I saw some videos that helped me create more efficient lifter stages... Second, try some other contract... these have the dual purpose of earning you more cash and familiarizing yourself with gameplay fundamentals. Once you’ve earned more cash, at least, level up your tracking station to level 2... this way, you see patched conics (it shows your predicted trajectory once you’ve left a bodies SOI)... if you can also level up the mission control building, you can make maneuver nodes, which facilitates the ability to plan trajectories with a bit more precision. Third, perhaps make a new save game with an easier setting... this allows you to earn more cash and science easier (or play in sandbox mode and get used to all the gameplay elements without the constraints of science and funding) Many of us want to help you, but we need to see pictures, or need you to use more appropriate jargon, for us to fully under stand your problem. It seems like you are coming in “too steep,” meaning your periapsis on approach to kerbin is less than 25-30km, and/or you don’t have a heat shield?

Better refuel options! If I have an orbital refueler, I want it to fill ALL of the tanks of my attached craft, instead of having to pin each tank and refuel each one through its pinned window. For example, I want an option attached to docking ports that allows me to push fuel in a particular direction until all of the tanks are full, or the refill tanks are emptied on one side of the docking port. Also, I’m on the console version, so don’t tell me about mods that can do this... this should be stock, since many crafts have multiple tanks, and refueling a dozen tanks is tedious (only 4 windows can be pinned in the console version, so that means 3 tanks can be simultaneously refilled with 1 source tank)

Thanks for all the input everybody... I’ll try the method posted by @swjr-swis, but let me clarify the issue: with the console version you can only pin 4 windows at once... so if I pin the refuel tank, I can only refuel 3 Oscar-b tanks at once, meaning I have to go through the process 4 times for a 12 tank lander.

I guess you didn’t want to read the original post? Do you have evidence for this, or is it pure speculation? Everything creates drag, why would you expect a part to not create drag (especially one that is typically forward facing)?

Actually, you didn’t... you made a snarky response, that mischaracterized my point, and then you got upvoted for it... it is the latter part that annoyed me the most... I don’t disagree with this sentiment, but like I said above, you kind of mischaracterized my point, with snark, and got upvoted for it...

I tend to make landers with stacks of radially attached Oscar-b tanks, which in turn allow me to attach landing legs further off from the centerline of the craft, imparting more stability upon landing... I also like to keep these crafts attached to a refuel station, orbiting the mun (for example), so that I can use it as a rescue lander, collect my kerbals from orbit or the surface, and bring them to the refuel station, where I finally can collect them with a rescue craft to bring them back home... but I digress... My question is: is there a way to easily refill 12 Oscar-b tanks without having to do each one individually? Like, is there an easy way to tell my refuel ship to dump fuel into the lander until all of the tanks are full, or must I open each Oscar-b window and fill them manually? Also, I am on PS4, so no mods, or computer-related exploits...

Ok? Did I say cheating and enjoyment had any correlation? The whole topic is about CHEAT sheets; I provided an opinion on what I find constitutes as cheating, and why one should not feel bad about using these resources... if you want to download other folks craft files and fly them, I’m not telling you how to play, if you like the piloting aspect of the game... BUT, the game’s primary focus appears to be on building craft, seeing them fail, and learning from your failure. There was not a single letter of my post that would suggest there’s one way to “enjoy” the game, or the way I enjoy it is the “best.” I literally stated “so, it’s pretty much up to you...” in my post...

You’re kind of ignoring a handful of things... sure, hohmann transfers are easy... efficient hohmann transfer are tedious, and can be difficult to align. Sure, I just sent a random craft out of kerbin’s soi, and was able to get flybys with both Moho and eelo... but they were inefficient transfers, and I didn’t have enough fuel to perform an orbital burn, or make it back to kerbin... I was just screwing around with craft design, in sandbox mode, so I didn’t really care about round trips... but you can’t just launch and “find a window,” because there are lots of “windows,” there are a handful of mathematically optimal windows... especially if you have a specific mission plan. That said, I find it kind of silly to object to dV cheat sheet, and other online resources... for example, all science is built upon the discoveries of past scientists (We stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before us). Transfer window utilities are the most basic of which... the mathematics have existed for centuries, and you shouldn’t have to rely on trial and error, or your own math skill, to figure it out. When we start getting into atmospheric altitudes, the game is a bit thin on utilities, and there is no in game manner of determining aerobraking altitudes (it also seems to vary from craft to craft, and person to person)... so this is something that you’d either NEED to use an online resource or trial and error... if there are particular objectives you are planning, like a Duna landing, and return trip, you’ll never know how much dV you’ll need to reach Duna orbit, from the surface, without the resources (unless you wanna plug through all the math)... so, it is pretty much up to you... I feel like these resources are perfectly fine, because the game is more about craft design and piloting, and not your ability to generate pork chop plots. I’d say, it’s cheating once you start using other people’s designs... however, nothing wrong with other people’s designs inspiring your own...