Vanamonde

The surface isn't that dark for me, so it sounds like you're seeing the same glitch some people experienced at Ike in v20. Oh, I just noticed your included pics, but I don't see the problem you're describing.

Updated for 21.1.

Except for the EAS-4 structural connector, each child part can only connect to one parent part, which is the piece you stick it to in the VAB. You can make a pretty strong connection by putting those struts between two parts you want to link, though, but just the fact that two parts touch doesn't mean there's a link between them. Orange tanks are heavier, and therefore the same force that a smaller piece survives might crush an orange. That's just a fact of physics. Getting them aloft is just a matter of balancing thrust against weight. So you need to apply enough force to lift them, but not enough to crush them. It can be difficult, but is definitely do-able.

Updated for 21.1. (Just removed the old SAS module.)

Move over a tab. It's under "staging."

Updated for 21.1.

Unless your ship has ungodly amounts of delta-V, you'll need to do a Jool aerobraking at around 118kms. Ideally, it should look something like this, though the chances of Vall being in the right place for an intercept are quite small. Usually I just get close to its orbital height and warp until I get close enough for an intercept.

Cool. blahblhacharacters

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The medium lander legs have always been catastrophically springy. Don't use them on anything but small probes.

I'm not clear about your question, but this thread may answer some points: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/30238-How-to-Read-the-Navball (I have no idea why this is in Italics, nor do I understand why I can't turn them off.)

That is a problem with your ship design rather than your steering skills. Either the thinner air at the higher altitude is allowing an existing problem to become evident, or the balance of the ship is shifting as you burn fuel. As Painking said, posting a picture will help people help you.

The game has always done that. What your rockets the next time you send one up; you'll see little instants where the flame animation cuts out and the ship jiggles slightly. It's just more noticeable on planes.

Good job on discovering an arch. Now go find the other 2.

The small one made it to Moho? I haven't tried that myself. How much cargo was it carrying?

I would like to see .23 in .22, and then we could start a discussion thread for .24.

comiquaze, the launch vehicle needs Mainsails to get the mass off of the ground, but they aren't very fuel efficient. So after they've lofted the ship to orbital altitude, I use the right-click menu to pump the fuel remaining in the boosters into the ship itself, eject the boosters, then complete orbital insertion on the fuel-efficient LV-Ns of the ship. It does reach orbit with almost no fuel remaining and needing refueling, but I think that's a better choice than trying to make the launch vehicle even larger.

I'm back, and things are NOT going well this morning. That same little test ship is unable to simply fly straight up. Those canards are capable of this degree of deflection under manual control, but this is the extent to which the SAS calls upon them during flight. The canards do twitch, and even deflect slightly, so clearly the SAS is telling them to do something. But what is it trying to tell them to do? And why isn't it telling them harder? I would like to ask for some official word on whether this ship SHOULD be able to fly straight on ascent without active steering from the player. But as it stands, the ship is simply chasing its prograde marker, wherever the prograde marker happens to roam. Potential factors: Fresh download from KSP store, running Windows, joystick unplugged.

I suspect that Squad hasn't said much because, at this point, they don't know what to say. A bunch of people are reporting problems, and a bunch of people are saying everything's fine, and the guys at Squad are trying to sort that out and figure out IF something is really wrong, and if so WHAT is wrong. When they've figured that out, they'll say something. This is how responsible adults handle conflicting feedback.

Guys, please don't get caught up in which kind of control surfaces I'm using. Remember, I tried the regular flap-types first, and only switched to canards in the hope that they would be stronger. But the problem was the same either way. However, to further confuse matters, in reponse to somebody's suggestion I just unplugged my joystick and then flew 2 test flights in which there was little to no deviation. This can only mean one thing; I have no idea what the F is going on. And on that note, I'm knocking off for the night. 　 And just to be clear, I am not at all angry with the developers, and merely trying to figure out what's causing the problem.

The ones in my pictures are the slab canards; the WHOLE thing pivots. (Zoom in on it: they even have a little warning sign about moving parts. ) As for power, when I right-click on the cabin, its charge is declining but it does have power during the ascent. And in case it is an issue, I get my games through the store and not Steam, and I'm running in Windows.

I downloaded a fresh copy of 21 and built the ship in this version. I often place canards on the low end of my launch vehicles without problems, but even ignoring that issue, I originally mounted the Delta Deluxe Winglets and had the same problem, which is why I replaced them with the larger canards in hopes that they would be stronger, but it didn't help.

This test ship has cabin torque, both versions of the inline thingy, canards, and a gimballed engine, but just coming straight up off of the pad with no input from me, this is how quickly and severely it wanders from its heading. Now, am I misunderstanding something, or are all those control devices combined not supposed to be enough to make a ship this size fly straight? For the record, it was built in a fresh download of 21 and not carried over from a previous save, and I have no mods installed. SAS mode is on with T, and I tried tapping F, which made no difference. I tried the design with each control piece type separately, and then combined them; NO permutation of control parts can hold a heading, though some deviated more slowly than others. When watching the ship zoomed in, I can't see the engine pivot at all, and control surfaces only move slightly.

This test ship has cabin torque, both versions of the inline thingy, canards, and a gimballed engine, but just coming straight up off of the pad with no input from me, this is how quickly and severely it wanders from its heading. Now, am I misunderstanding something, or are all those control devices combined not supposed to be enough to make this thing fly straight?

I am baffled. I tried a small rocket and launched one test with each of the guidance pieces, and NONE of them could hold a heading even just coming straight up off of the pad. I tried combining the ASAS with the others, and still nothing. Surely there must be some way to make a ship simply fly straight without constant admonishments from the player?