katateochi

What these guys said is probably your problem. On simple planes its generally a wheel not being on perfectly straight. One more complex ones, which yours looks to be, it's the bending that is often the problem. Where you have a weak connection, ie that docking port in the middle, it can cause issues. Even a single strut being asymmetrically placed can result in slightly more bend to one direction causing you hell on the runway. Generally not a problem once airborne, that is if you can get airborne!

After several good tests something went horribly wrong. The accident investigation found that a slight change to the payload resulted a single strut being left out and the payload fell sideways, so it was certainly not going to space, the rest of the LV however seems to be going somewhere.

Yeah, just tested. I was so surprised by what Pulstar said I had to check it out. As UmbralRaptor says, they have a mass in the VAB/SPH, but loose it as soon as you get outside. Lifting them off the ground does not cause a change in weight. Made this silly craft, without wheels it was 5ton. with 4 wheels it was 7 ton. Launched it and straight away its mass was back to 5 ton. Lifted wheels off the ground, still 5 ton. (science is great)

I got a single seater SSTO to Mun orbit, but needed to refuel to get home again. I'm sure it is very possible. Well thats a good enough reason, but I think there is a "practical" reason. I'd really like something that could SSTO (or SSTMAB!) as a means of doing crew transfers to Mun bases. So it would need to be able to take a number of Kerbals too. There is just something rather satisfying in the idea of being able to do a 'meaningful' mission, return to land at KSC, refuel and then set off again without having to load/reload another craft. High on my list of things to attempt.

I like the feathers!! the shadow it casts really looks cool, actually looks like a bird of prey's shadow. Anyway, I was testing out a new exploration and science lander. It travels in one configuration then a part moves and docks to a different section for descent, BUT something went just a little bit wrong; It was like every single part took a sudden and instant dislike to all the other parts. I think every single part separated from the ship, very little went bang, and just the one of the command pods was left behind with 3 very puzzled Kerbals on board.

with rockets it's MOAR boosters, with planes it's MOAR wings! Also getting the right balance of COL and COG counts for a lot, but with larger things, they just need more lift. Having some control surfaces toward the front can help, depends really on just how big the thing is. Largest plane I made was this, just had to keep extending the wings till I got enough lift. There prob is a more elegant solution, but this was the brute force method of MOAR that eventually worked.

Thanks. hmmm, I'd not thought about that being a problem. I've bundled mods before and no-one has complained. I'll list the mods anyways, my problem is a roll with so many and use them with reckless abandon I generally have no idea which mods I've used in any particular craft. So I've written a script that reads the craft file and just builds a part bundle to save me the hassle. When the new parts structure comes out I'll be able to make the script determine which mods are used, rather than just the parts, so that will make listing them easier.

over 500. Too much really, got carried away! With the new B9 parts pack (and a touch of insanity). It comes with a range of structural panels, some of them are HUGE, so that helped keep the part count down. Ground floor is basically just 2 of the really big ones and the walls are the medium ones. The windows are sets of the railings that also come with that pack stacked on top of each other. It's almost entirely just B9 panels, in the middle is a probe core (somewhere), a rover-mate part and several girders from another pack. and lots and lots of struts! Oh and oscarB fuel tanks for bar stools, naturally.

The spam-a-like title was intentional, for jokes, hope that it doesn't scare too many peps away thou! Yeah, I kept saying to myself "small house, build a small house", then, as usual, got carried away. I blame B9 for making those lovely structural parts. It is pretty laggy which is why I land the wing section of the rover over 2.5km from the house. Thanks! tbh this didn't take too long, making the house took an evening. the rover-plane was another evening. Flying it out took a bit longer to get right, always the way thou huh. You can make anything, but can you make it fly? That's the billion dollar KSP question. I think I spent one evening trying various ways to lift it and another one actually flying it out, crashing it untold times into the ocean, then realising the garage was too small for the rover, so had to extend it and do it again (my fault for not testing that on the runway, doh)! Ironically the hardest thing to get into place was the fuel tower. Tried to use conventional rockets to get it out there rather than helicopter engines, much harder!

Thats so Kerbal, we need to ask Scott Manley to attempt that in a vid! I've tried this, big mess, bigger headache. Almost anything KSP is impossible under the influence! Most difficult docking I've done was on the night side, pitch black and I'd forgotten to put any lights on either craft. Couldn't see a darned thing. So I one aligned prograde, the other retro, so I knew the ports were facing in the right direction and then did the dock using just navball feedback. It was very satisfying and darn good training. When doing docking with a port not on the crafts axis, I select the offset port and set "control from here" on it. That makes it a load easier as it shifts the control round.

So while we're all scampering to the far reaches of the solar system to set up colonies to live in, I realised that Kerbin now had less man made structures than most of the other planets. So to that end I build a massive house for Jeb, Bill and Bob to live in when they are off duty. As this shows, you can go rather nutts with a home world base, not having to get it into orbit means more scope for daft construction. Yes, this one even has a bar; more pics of interior and download links in this thread So what bases have you guys built on our home world? Post your non-space faring bases here!

All astronauts need a place to kick back after returning from a long mission. After the cramped confines of small command pods they need a spacious pad to call their own. Situated on an idyllic peninsula just a short (60km) hop from the launch center, this fabulous 3 bedroom house boasts a spacious open plan ground floor with dining area and large, well lit lobby with a high ceiling. The 2nd floor has two bedrooms and a landing overlooking the lobby and access onto an open terrace above the front door. On the top floor there is a large master bedroom and a larger terrace, complete with a bar that offers stunning ocean views. What better place to relax late into the night. Transport is also provided. Housed in the garage is a 3 seater hybrid rover which can plug into the house to re-charge. Parked just 2.8km away, by a convenient fuel tower, sits a set of wings which the rover can dock with for the 60km flight to the KSC. No expense has been spared, designed by rocket technicians at the KSC, this house was crafted from the very best B9 materials and then airlifted by quardro-copter to it's new location, where it sits on adjustable TT foundations to give it a firm and level base. Ok, its not actually for sale, you can have it free! That's right, a whole house and a plane for free! Download the house Download the rover-plane Mods used; Primarily theB9 parts pack also KAS, KSPC, FireSpitter, Quantum Stuts, TAC fuel balancer, TT modular wheels, Station Girder Pack I think that is it, might be more, let me know if you can't get it to work with those. OR download a bundle of all the parts used; download parts/plugins needed for both Warning: house is over 500 parts, don't try to run this on a potato. It comes with the quadro-copter attached. err ummm, it flies rather like, well, a house, ie; not at all well. In the end I also added several drop tanks under the house (not included) depends where you want to fly it to. took me over 45 mins to fly it 60km away (the rover-plane does it in under 5), its not very well balanced, thou considering its shape its not too bad, work with its natural inclination to tip in one direction and adjust heading so that is forwards. Landing is fun, DONT try to lower it on the KAS that's just asking for a pile of rubble. Also, it floats surprisingly well (at least bits of it do). actions groups 1-4 toggle the lock on the houses height adjustment rams so each can be moved independently. they work by toggling the ram, then use the throttle to adjust how much to extend it, the toggle it again to lock in place. \ + z opens and closes the front door. On the plane action group 1 toggles central engine, 2 toggle other two engines 3 opens the TAC fuel balancer 4 centers the front steering wheel and \+z turn it. 5 toggles steering on rear rover wheels 6 toggles ram on wing section, used to prop the wings up when the rover leaves them (wings have probe core so can be controlled on their own to make height adjust) 9 decouples/undocks the rover from the plane 0 toggles the Qstruts incase they don't re-connect automatically.

Good to see that the much older players are still welcoming to new players, even after new-playerish threads like this. threads like this represent the biggest change in the community, not the new players who come and go. This thread is going to be locked (one can only hope). Come one come all to the wondrous world of rockets.

see now I feel like an idiot!! lols, I use them everyday, but I'd always called them launch clamps and never looked too closely at their name!

!! I had no idea !! I'd just not tried that! you mean those failed missions, hours wasted, could have been saved with a simple EVA!? grrrmumblemumbleDOH. ...just went and tried it and it works!! result; -that moment when you go EVA to open a solar panel and just after it opens you crash your kerbal into and break it off. That's so NASA!! OP (or anyone), what is the LSE? London Stock Exchange!? - that moment when you take you take your eye off the mission to read the forums and hear a loud crashing sound.

For refuelling is does not matter where the port is. Even if it is connected to something that is not "fuel crossfeed capable" the menu driven transfer of fuel will work between any tank on any part of a connected craft. It only needs considering if you building a multipart craft that needs to use fuel from connected tanks as it travels. But as already said, most parts aside from decouplers are crossfeed capable.

I am sooooooo glad that the deployment sound of the medium landing legs got taken out. It was cool for the first few times, but when editing videos, hearing that sound again and again, it was driving me nutts! Not saying that legs shouldn't make a sound, but that was just a pretty harsh sound. I also use those legs for other things than their intended purpose so I got a bit of an overdose of that sound. I still get a sound when parachutes deploy and that's a softer sound so it doesn't offend when heard countless times.

tbh I think the really good modders joining the core team is a good thing (mostly). I'd hope that they will still have time/inclination to keep their personal projects going, only now they are closer to the core and can really see how it works which will help with their 'side' projects. It also really shows that Squad regards mods as part of the game and wants to roll the good ones into it. There is a book which I'd recommend for any developer (or anyone interested in running a large project). It's called "The Mythical Man-Month" by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. Basically it says what Harv was saying in that blog, that as a projects grows the effort required to move it the same distance is increased. From a good working idea that to many might seem complete (a working alpha) it generally takes about 9 times more effort to take that to a finished product, but the apparent change to outsiders is less and less. It also (hence its title) talks about the myth of adding more people to a team to get the job done faster. When you add another person to a team you don't get the linear increase in productivity that you would expect. While there is more potential manpower, there is also an increase in management overhead and initially there is a decrease in team productivity as the new person is brought up to speed by the rest of the team. The more people on a team, the more effort is required to manage that team, pass information around and the decision making process is slowed down. A 4 man team sitting in one room can function extremely fast, making decisions on the fly and keeping everyone in the loop without effort, but when that team gets bigger they have to stop work to have meetings, write reports and follow more rigid processes to ensure that everyone is kept up-to-date with design decisions. Very effective small companies can often suffer badly as a consequence of growing too fast. Growth is needed, but it's a very fine balance.

I have docked without RCS, but that was awhile ago when I forgot to put RCS on, now RCS is kinda like struts; a Mandatory requirement for a viable craft.

@SkyRender & Read have Read; great minds work alike ^^ OP, As you're using the KSPX mod I guess you don't suffer "total mod aversion syndrome" so what I'd suggest is you put two mods onboard; Protractor and Mechjeb (or kerbal engineer, but I don't use that one so I can't tell you how to talk to it). Mechjeb is just for the info it provides when you're building (or once you have it docked in space), on the vessel information tab. It will tell you what the craft's dV is and protractor will tell you how much dV is needed to get to the various planets (or use the above two posts). That will tell you if you have enough dV to get somewhere, but don't forget you will need to capture orbit, but in Duna's case you can do that entirely with aerobraking. I do like the look of your lander, thats pretty cool. My one concern for it would be that Duna has a thin atmo so you will still be going quite fast when the parachutes deploy, which can rip a craft to bits; MOAR struts and a couple 'drouge' parachutes can help with that. Good luck.

Amen to that. This is a game (i hate calling it a game, its MOAR) that you end up feeling passionate about. And not just about the Kerbals (although how many other games do you care so much to spend hours doing rescue missions) but its about the distance (in terms of understanding) that you go, the things you create, the hours spent dreaming of what else you can do. Truly KSP is an amazing work of art.

oh, yeah. That's a good point. I had a very frustrating time cos of that ages ago with the old (pre stock) wheels that had really springy suspension. And back then docking and DamnedRobotics didn't play nice, so In the end this whole problem drove me to ridiculous extremes;

I'd suggest using mods, without mods the best you can do is get it so it works as rryy says, on the runway or land round the space center. Then you can take it to Mun, and then find that now you're on a slight hill all that careful alignment is for nothing and you're a few annoying mm out again. A pair of Dammed Robotic hinges can be great to move a port slightly up and down and adjust angle, or just the hydraulic ram from the same mod. That or restrict your landing sites to perfectly flat areas. sometimes if you are a few mm off and using the rover idea, you can ram the thing you're trying to dock with, causing it to tip over slightly and fall back again. I've managed (with many failed attempts) to get a dock like that before. But at that point using a mod like DR seems to be actually more sensible!

Scott Manley cos you learn a lot, not just about KSP but general random space things too. Danny2462 cos you will fall out of your chair laughing. There are other good ones, but those two stand out the most I think.

There are some really cool stations in here, and all so different, nice one everyone!! Here's mine from a while back;