Scarecrow71

I will assume that a variation of everything I'm about to say has already been said. But, you know, I'm gonna say it anyway. Scientists are the most important Kerbals in the game. You can either bring multiple copies of science gadgets, or you can let Bob collect and store all the data. You'll save weight on those unneeded copies, which will give you more dab in the long run. This, however, means... ...Always bring a pilot on trips outside Kerbin's SOI unless you use MJ for maneuver planning. Only pilots can create nodes without line of sight to the KSC. MechJeb is by far the greatest mod there is. Yes, you can land manually. But why? Let the computer do the heavy lifting. The single-most important thing I learned: there is no wrong way to play this game. If you do something that gives you enjoyment, it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing. You do you.

Slightly, but not entirely, related question. Have the devs indicated how they are even going to handle interstellar travel? Will it be a simple "fling yourself in this direction and hope for the best", or are they going to use future tech stuff like jump gates or hyperspace? Black holes/wormholes?

I'm working on Mohollo right now without docking ports. I've got the lander/return vehicle at 7000ish dV, but ran out of time to finish the whole thing. I figure if I can pull off Moho with no ports, then I can get Dres and maybe Eeloo. Trying so hard to not have to dock.

I was a member of another site dedicated to gaming, and that site had a forum lounge game called "Guess that Video Game". Someone would post an image of a game, and the first person to guess what the game was would post the next game, and so on. Ok, so shortly after 1.8.1 came out, someone posted a few shots in that thread from KSP. The ine that caught my attention was the shot of the VAB, with a ship in construction. When someone finally named the game, I went out and Googled it. Haven't looked back since

Say? No, I'd sing:

Well, you are in the right place if you are looking for a challenge. Heck, this subforum is full of them. I'm doing the first two myself. The third one ends up getting done as part of the first one.

Janeway > Picard and Kirk combined.

The link to the Mission Report for Munpollo.

Instagram is just Twitter for people who can't read.

@Superfluous J The link to the Mission report for Minpollo.

That is what I thought, but I had to ask to make sure. Just have to get the dV for the Mun trip right...and then learn how to land. Thank the Kerbal overlords for quick-saves and reverts. Although, Minmus might be easier to do first. Hmmm.....

Roethlisberger was down short of the goal line.

In the Cheat Sheet there is a Maximum dV chart that shows the maximum dV for each engine. The page also has a serious amount of math in it that you could use to calculate the precise dV of each engine in a build based on mass, total fuel, etc. Cheat sheet - Kerbal Space Program Wiki

So, although I’m in the middle of the Kerpollo challenge, I realized that I need to practice certain skills in this game. So, I’m going to take on this challenge at the same time. I have the following mods installed, none of which alter gameplay: Not sure if the Atmospheric Autopilot violates the terms of the challenge, but I don’t see it listed in the rules. And the settings for the new career on Normal difficulty: I’m not sure if reverting flights is allowed or not. I don’t see anything in the rules post that states they aren’t, but I do wonder about it. If they aren’t, I can easily enough alter the settings to be that way. One note on the science points gained here: I will invariably forget to state when I earn science points for breaking a world record or doing a world first. This is not intentional, nor am I trying to hide anything. I simply forget, plain and simple. Please assume that, should anyone go through my math and find that I am off, I simply forgot to announce the world’s firsts. From the start, need to farm some science from the KSC. Goo container on both the launchpad and the runway, with crew and eva reports, nets 13.8 science points; this is enough to unlock Basic Rocketry and Engineering 101: Now to farm more science from the launchpad and runway with the thermometer unlocked, which nets 4.8 science. Not enough to unlock anything else yet, so let’s pick up that contract to launch our first vessel and do some science gathering right above the KSC. Lots of science points (relatively speaking) for the goo container, thermometer, crew report, the contract completion, and the world’s first launch (along with speed and height records); netted 27.1 science points with this little beauty flying straight up: I did this with 25% thrust and 50% fuel; I don’t want to be screaming up into the atmosphere just yet. I could very well have done that, but I am just trying to farm science at this point. This gives me enough science points to unlock General Rocketry and Survivability: And now with the barometer unlocked, I can now farm science at the launchpad and runway with that component, as well as another straight up flight (like the last one). This in total nets me 16.4 science points, which leaves me just a bit under the amount needed to unlock Stability. Thankfully, I can pick up a couple of contracts: Test Heat Shield (0.625) landed at Kerbin, and Test TD-12 Decoupler landed at Kerbin. These are gimme’s for science points; just strap the parts onto a capsule and test them at the launchpad. This nets 2.6 science, which now allows me to unlock Stability: 2 more gimme contracts: Test LV-909 Terrier Liquid Fuel Engine landed at Kerbin, and Test RT-5 “Flea” Solid Fuel Booster at the Launch Site. And I’m going to combine this with flying due east, landing in the water. Why? Farm science there from the goo container, thermometer, barometer, crew report, and an EVA report. This nets a total of 22.2 science points. Not enough yet to unlock anything on the next tier, so I’ll fly due west and get some science off the grasslands – 11.9, which is still not enough to unlock anything else. One more run to the west, this time with a Hammer engine at 85% thrust; this is enough (with a world’s first speed record) to get me to land on the mountains and farm out 15.9 science. This is enough to unlock Basic Science: And now I have the SC-9001 Science Jr. unlocked…which means I get to farm that data from the launchpad, runway, flying straight up, flying east to the water, and flying west to the grasslands. This, in all of its glory and entirety, nets me 50 science points. This allows me to unlock Advanced Rocketry: Now it’s time to head to orbit. Although I’ve flown several times to this point, they don’t really count, do they? I mean, I never got above 11km, so I don’t really consider that flying in this game. That’s just the appetizer; you know, it’s what we eat before the meal to make us more hungry. Anyhow, there are 2 contracts we can pick up here: Escape the Atmosphere, and Orbit Kerbin. I’m headed that way, so this is just free science for doing what I was gonna do anyhow. I built this bad boy, taking a page out of the existing caveman posts: 3634 dV sitting in the VAB (or on the launchpad), with 22 parts at a mass of 17.928t. Now, I’m not all that good without MechJeb, so not having it available is going to make this a bit more difficult than I’d like it to be. But, I gotta learn somehow, right? And away we go: Stable Ap of 72.1254km, and a stable Pe of 70.9824km. The bare minimum, but that’s orbit. With 384 m/s dV remaining to boot. That’s better than I thought I’d do, considering no MJ. Anyhow, gather some science and return to the surface for a net of 74.0 science points. Wow! Spending 45 on Aviation. Why? Well, I need wheels so I can farm science all over the KSC. But before I do that, I’ve got 42.3 science points right now, and I only need 45 to unlock something else in R&D. I’m going to pick up a contract: Test TT-38K Radial Decoupler in flight over Kerbin. Doing this gets me 3 science points, which means I can unlock Flight Control; this now leaves me with 0.3 science points. I now only have General Construction left to unlock in Tier 4. That's not bad for about 2 hours worth of playing, starting from scratch and not being able to update any buildings. I'm going to try finishing this off in the next couple of days, in-between working on the Kerpollo challenge.

@Superfluous J So, I've got a question on this challenge. This literally states that you need to do this in 9 launches, with each launch representing a different body to be landed on. However, some of the later stages of this are you landing on multiple objects in one launch (Duna and Ike, for example). Which leads me to believe that one could, in theory, take some of the challenges and combine them into a single mission. Say, for example, Mun and Minmus, assuming you have the wherewithal to craft and launch a ship in the early stages to do that. But that got me to thinking: Are we truly bound to landing on a body in each stage? Would this still count as completing the challenge as long as we did this in a total of 9 or less launches? Why am I thinking this? Primarily because I have a personal problem with landing manually. And by "personal problem", I mean "I can't do it". I am almost 100% reliant upon MechJeb to land for me...and that cannot be done until you pick up Advanced Flight Control in the 4th tier. According to the rules of the challenge, you have to purchase everything in a given tier before you move on to buying stuff in the next tier, and I am fine with that. Except that I have yet to pick up both Flight Control and Aviation in the current tier, and that's 90 science points. Add in Advanced Flight Control, and that's 180 total. Getting that much science is easily do-able in 1 launch...but can I (personally) do this with having to land manually on the Mun first? Ok, so it's time to bring this all together and head for home with the meat of the issue. Is it against the spirit of the challenge to do a launch that takes you to Mun orbit, collect a bunch of science from both high and low Mun orbit, and then return to Kerbin without landing on the Mun first, spend that science, and then undertake one larger mission to land on both Mun and Minmus in the same launch? I get that one of the launches would not be landing on an object, but the second launch would be landing on 2 objects, thus "balancing" the total of 9. I am guessing this might fall under the gate-crashers category, but I want to ask before doing anything, including having to go through the landing tutorial again. Whatever the answer/ruling is, I shall respect it!

So, I'm going to partially answer my own question. After doing some looking and thinking and reading, u realize I'm trying to do too much with the first stage. I need to add a transfer stage between the orbit and lander stages. Yes, I am an idiot at times.

Before someone else asks...got any screenshiys of the original ship's orbit? I'm assuming the orbit you are trying to match isn't circularized, no?

So, it's been a while since I've played this, and I've gotten back into it. And I am running into the same problem that a lot of new players have: How the frak do I get to Mun and back? I know I have issues with design, and I know I have issues with dV. But I've done this before...and now I can't. No matter what I do, I end up without enough dV to get to the Mun and back. Here's some shots from a recent attempt. First, the tech tree: That's not all that impressive, but very do-able. I know there are people who have done far more with far less in this game. Now, the Lander: Sitting in the VAB, she's got 2978 dV. If she were in LKO, according to the charts and maps and videos I've seen, that should be more than enough to get her to the Mun and back. And now the entire rocket. That's 5539 dV sitting on the launchpad. I know that when I launch, the 2978 shown for the lander goes up due to reduced weight of the craft, less pull from gravity the higher up you go, and less air resistance as the air gets thinner. However, once I do the transfer to the Mun, this puppy has less than 2000 dV remaining, which is about 1000 less than I need to get there and back. So, what am I doing wrong? I don't know, which is why I'm out here asking. I am not the greatest at gravity turns, and in the case of this thing, if I start turning at 75.0 m/s, she wobbles way off course and then eventually passes Ap and starts heading down towards the surface. So I have taken to not starting the turn east until I hit 10,000 meters, at which point I hit 45 degrees at about 23,000 meters. And that's stable enough to get me to LKO. I am quite certain that part of the answer here is "Pick up Flight Control and throw a reaction wheel on this thing somewhere"...but I can't. I am attempting to take on the Kerpollo Challenge, primarily because I've never been beyond Minmus before. I want to push myself, and right now I can't even get one foot out the door. I know that there are design issues here, but I don't know how to correct them. I hate that the lander is far too vertical, which is probably part of the problem. But I'm not sure how to flatten it out to and keep the dV I have. I also am aware of the "moar boosters" method, which I'm not opposed to...but again still unsure how to effectively make it work. Whenever I add weight, whether through engines or fuel or whatever, the dV goes down (which I fully expect; more weight = more thrust needed to reach the same speed and all). I hope I've stated all of this properly. My issue, at least through my own lens, is design. But I can't seem to crack the code on what to do to become more effective at this. Anybody got some pointers to throw my way to help me out here? I know I've done this before; I'm just not sure how I did it, or how to do it again.

@Superfluous J EDITED: I created a Mission Report thread for this, and I will link back to that here so as to not unnecessarily clog up this thread. I know, nobody cares if I do or not. I care. Anyhow, the link to the LKO launch:

NM - PEBCAK error.

New machine, so I had to install KSP 1.8.2. Downloaded CKAN and installed MJ2, Reentry Particle, and Atmosphere Autopilot. CKAN indicated that the module manager toolbar was also auto-installed. Did a reboot on my machine, launched KSP...and none of them show up. Checked CKAN to validate that they are installed, and CKAN says they are. When I check the GameData folder, I can see them there. Checking each of the individual folders, I can see that there are files in them. Did I miss a setting somewhere perhaps? Is there a reason why none of these are showing up on launch when CKAN says they are installed and the folders are in the proper place?

So, when checking the graphics settings, I've already got Aerodynamic FX Quality set to Normal, and there is no other setting for FX that I can see in the settings. My guess is that something else is amiss here, and I'm hoping the reinstall I did this morning corrects it. If not...I'll have to go out and get the mod that adds plasma trails. I may be in the minority, but I like the fire effects.

No, it's not. Saw the same thing this morning and immediately uninstalled and reinstalled KSP. Thought my computer was infected. That's not a very cool easter egg.

As I indicated in my last post, I try to search for answers first. And now I've got 2 problems that the answers I found don't solve. 1. When engaging the Autopilot feature in MJ, no matter the altitude I set, as soon as I click Altitude Hold, the craft wobbles up and down. Flies straight as an arrow without this turned on, but it's wobbling uncontrollably when turned on. I found an answer to turn on "Use Stock SAS" in Attitude Adjustment, but I can't find that option there. 2. When reentering Kerbin's atmosphere, the fire effect is now missing. The parts on craft start to glow, but the actual fire effect is gone. I found ananswer indicating to turn this back on in graphic settings, but u can't find that option. This all started happening this morning. I had Advanced Tweakables turned on, but I never used any of them, so I turned it off. Anybod know what is happening here, or how to correct it?

After spending countless hours trying to eyeball transfer windows and calculate dV required and determining correct ejection angle...I decided to use MechJeb to do this for me. In a nutshell, using the Maneuver Node creator in MJ does the following: Determines the appropriate time to do the burn to transfer to another planet; Determines the correct point on your current orbit to place the created node; Determines the correct amount of dV to burn; Determines the correct amount of time to do the burn. I can literally save my game, launch a vessel and use MJ to calculate the transfer, and then write down all of the information I need. Then I reload the saved game and not only fast-forward to the appropriate time, but then make sure the vessel I'm crafting has enough "oomph" to get to the target. Not necessarily there and back, but at least there; I don't care if I strand a Kerb or three on some remote rock for a while because hiring new astronauts is cheap enough AND you can always go pick them up. If you remember you stranded them in the first place. Which I seldom do until I run out of pilots and then go look in the AC and see that I've got 5 of them out there in space somewhere. I realize that, for some people, it's not in the spirit of the game to get the calculations and then load a save to get it right. But, this is what works for me, and it's how I like to play. Your mileage may vary. Greatly, in some cases.