Vanamonde

With my example rocket and walkthrough? http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25008-How-to-reach-orbit-and-a-rocket-that-can-do-it-a-walkthrough-for-newbies

I've made a new version that flies better, and added a written walkthrough. I hope it is helpful.

You can move the files, but it causes all kinds of noxious headaches. Symmetry glitches such as the interface switching from 2x to 3x, struts placed in 2x symmetry diseappearing, etc., etc. As useful as the bilateral symmetry may be when it works, I've taken to just building my rovers in the VAB.

How about replacing the upper pairs of gray tanks with single oranges? That would give you fewer joints to flex/fail.

If you'd like to practice that part of a mission with ships that begin already close to each other, I made this trainer craft: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25425-Help-with-Docking-A-Trainer-Ship-for-Newbies

It's not just that OP is looking at the planet; I have noticed a definite reduction in performance since .20 came out. So far I've only been toying with designs around Kerbin and its moons, but it's pretty strong at Kerbin, even in low to middle orbits. When looking skyward, though, I think there's been a bit of a performance increase, so it does seem to be associated with terrain, and land terrain at that. In fact, as I watched a capsule come in for a splashdown at sea, it ran smoothly unless I rotated the camera to catch an island in the background, which caused my frame rate to slow.

1. There is a lot of wiggle in the engine-to-decoupler joins in the upper part of your rocket. That's going to allow the mass to bob around and force your guidance to fight a lot of transient deviations. 2. As other have noted, the length of the rocket allows the mass to swing around far from the parts that are attempting to exert control. 3. Fins in the middle of the ship have very little leverage to help steer the ship. 4. And SRBs are static and cannot contribute to steering, so you have a heavy, long rocket, and just about he only thing trying to keep it under control is the single Mainsail. But the good news is, those are all fixable problems.

Epic DaVinci is correct; you do not have 3 columns supporting that segment of the rocket, but one column and two off-center engines that are wiggling loose somewhat. But you still haven't specified exactly how the rocket is failing, so that may or may not be part of the problem.

As I recall, somebody did some testing, way, WAY back, and found that a crewed capsule accelerated more slowly under thrust than an empty one. That was many versions ago and may have changed, but I think crewed capsules do weigh more.

I'm afraid I have no sows to case.

I think there used to be a ladder on the tall tower, but I don't see one now. You can still climb on the three horizontal tanks. However, when my guy goes up the ladder on the spherical tank, he just bumps his head and falls off at the top, just like in .19.

You mean I can run a ladder right up to the doors of my capsules???

A picture of your ship would help.

If I may self-promote a bit, I've made walkthrough instructions that come with a ship, so the instructions apply specifically to that ship. It's here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25008-How-to-reach-orbit-and-a-rocket-that-can-do-it-a-walkthrough-for-newbies

Send a rover first to scout locations. Park it with its headlights pointed at the patch of ground where you want to start your landings.

Post 4 more times so that the forum believes you are not a spambot, and then you'll get permission to change your profile. Don't know about mobile versions, though, as I am sessile.

When you switch to IVA view, the navball resets to the orientation of the capsule in which the Kerbal resides.

Nothing satisfying. I built a generation of rovers, tested them on Kerbin and its moons, then flew them to other planets, only to have them fail due to problems that were not revealed in testing. Now I have to build another generation, test them, and fly them to other planets, just to see if they'll work better than the last batch. Not incidentally, the interplanetary ship I used to fly them there also turned out not to be workable, so I'll have to build and test another one of those before I can test the rovers on those other planets. It's been about a month since I made any progress in this game. I still like it, though.

Updated to use the new rover wheels, though I'm too lazy to change the screenshots. It's faster now, and you don't have to worry about those finking fragile tiny rover wheels breaking at the slightest bump.

If you have a joystick installed, make sure it is centered, even if you're not using it.

Point your nose at the retrograde marker and fire the engine, and adjust throttle to get the descent speed you want. But don't brake too high or you'll end up wasting a lot of fuel. The most efficient method is to shed all speed at the last second with an intense burn, but that's hard to do precisely.

Welcome to the party.

I think you meant "inexplicably" stable ship. By the way, it would be much easier to fly your gravity turn if you rotate the ship 90 degress in the VAB before launch.

As for the construction part, there's still my newbies rocket. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25029-A-moon-rocket-for-newbies

Just to clarify, the Oberth effect has to do with the speed of the vehicle, not the altitude. It works out that low passes work better for it because your ship is moving faster there, but there's nothing magical about the altitude itself.