Payload

OMG This! Hmm, I knew I was doing something wrong. My next mission will be named Duna Straight Up in honor of these guys.

Guys this is a mod issue. Open the game directory and remove all of your mods from the plugins folder and remove all of the parts from the generic parts folder for now. The updates to get most of these mods working are very minor CFG edits and I'm sure they will be updated soon. If your game isn't stock then you can't really report bugs. That is the way things work. Squad can't possibly be responsible for things that you have added that are not parts of the official game.

Decouplers and the grey flat plank things don't cross-feed fuel. FWI. I tend to use a decouplers to isolate engines from tanks so that I can route the fuel how I see fit.

Use Quantum struts. It works for me. Just never allow a Quantum Strut to attach to the Small Cubic Strut or the Small Octagonal Strut. You actually should never use those two parts unless you absolutely have to. They are kind of buggy in general.

MJ2 has customs windows. I have one window setup that has drag losses, gravity losses, steering losses, and dV expended. It also has my steering error and a suicide burn timer. There is a button that is called MARK that will reset the whole lot. You can just click mark before your maneuver and you will know how much dV it costs you. I use this all the time to decide how much fuel to pump into my transport units since they can generally carry many times more fuel than is needed to land at the mining site.

How long is a piece of string? Seriously, there is no answer to that question. It all depends on how your craft is built. From what I have heard, FAR actually makes is slightly easier to attain orbit if you do everything right.

The Soviets lost 190 people on the pad in one single incident. Including the director of the launch program, Mitrofan Nedelin! I would say that they have the U.S. beat by quite a lot.

This is happening because of your terrain settings. They need to be set to default. You are hitting invisible seams in the ground. All other settings are fine at the lowest. Terrain needs to be left at default.

Here is mine.

"Added settings window that allows switching to the MJ 1 GUI skin." Am I the only one that can't find this or what? There is no settings window that I can find anywhere. Problems that I have so far. 1. If you make any change to base PID values they apply to every ship. They are not saved per ship. 2. Launch profiles are not saved per ship. Again, global values are forced on every ship. 3. Landing autopilot settings are not retained ever. Suggestions. 1. In ILS guidance control the HOLD should not be altitude specific. Hold is pretty clear in it's meaning. I want to hold! Not descend or ascend to 1000m first. 2. Do not retain information from ships named Untitled Space Craft. It's pretty clear it is a testing craft. 3. Do not retain information from my ships more than one time and name them differently. Spamming of the Plugin Data folder is out of control. Just over write the prev. We don't need a new file every time. Alternatively, provide a save settings button that will save for that ship alone and not change default values. That way you don't have to be so indiscriminate in saving information. 4. Add a save as default button so that we can have a custom set of default values to use for our new crafts. Expose this button per window so that certain settings can be saved as default and not overwrite the whole file. 5. Expose Steering Error field in S.A.S.S. I am tired of having to make a custom window whenever I want to know if MJ is having problems steering my craft. This business of saving random information for no reason at all is causing problems. More problems in fact than before, where only one set of settings was available and retained. The current system is not an improvement yet.

You have to connect both the Fuel and Oxy tank to the girder directly. Those tanks are mounted radially. They need to be connected to something. Fuel doesn't flow unless there is a fuel line or a direct node connection. You could probably just connect the tanks to the capsule as long as there isn't a no flow or decoupler part between the capsule and the girder.

Have you checked to see if there is a newer version of it on the space port? Also, you may have to clear the plugin data for that mod. Per the author. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/isa-mapsat-3-3-4/

Guys, don't be afraid to use Jet engines as lifters for your first stage. Much greater than 15% mass to orbit is achievable quite easily. Most of what people do is disperse reaction mass all over the planet just so they can say they lifted something heavy. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/27103-best-way-to-add-dv?p=333750&viewfull=1#post333750 31tons to orbit with a 73ton launcher. They don't call me Payload for nothing. Most recently I have been trying to re-create Apollo, but going with no asparagus staging and no jet engines, I am failing hard. I am almost there. Just a few more tweaks.

OMG THIS! It's the most annoying thing ever. This has caused me many harsh failures.

FireSpitter has an electric propeller motor. I use it with the HooliganLabs balloon mods. It works as you would expect. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/firespitter-propeller-plane-parts/

You can try using the Avionics package. It is essentially the same thing as ASAS just with the values in the PID reduced for aircraft control. That should be a bit better. I have never seen as bad a PID implementation as is in this game. It's like everyone learned how to program a PID loop but they really don't understand how they work. Astronomical gains are the order of the day I guess. Just playing around with MJ2, I have found I can reduce the Proportional gain by nearly 10,000%. Institute a Integral of about .1 and reduce Derivative to 1 instead of 800. I know not every craft is the same, but the massive overkill is just a waste. There also seems to be a problem where analog control of surfaces and gimbals just doesn't exist. I don't know why, but there is no moving a surface to 50%. There is 100% or nothing. That has nothing to do with the PID and that needs to be fixed for PID to even function as one would expect. Also, the same gains are applied to every axis! Why? I can guarantee you that pitch and yaw require more gain than roll most of the time. PID that never settles is clearly incorrect. There are a number of problems that contribute to this as I have outlined above. Read this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller After reading more about it, I was able to actually get MJ2 to settle and only make minor course corrections on most of my crafts. You eventually run into the problem of the Bang Bang flight controls causing oscillation no matter what you do.

I have first hand experience with this and you are in luck. You do not need to worry about the placement of Mono tanks. Some of my refineries don't even have a mono tank. I just run the converter when the transport vehicle is attached to it. Specifically, LFO tanks are the only ones that need special care in a refinery rig.

Download the TAC fuel balancer. Leave out the fuel lines all together. That is what I do. Small planes are easy because you can balance them around one central tank or something. Huge cargo ships almost require the fuel balancer mod as a rule.

I'll bet you have no electrical power. It's not mechjeb that is your problem. I always put at least one RTG on my stuff so this doesn't happen. I do find it amusing how people blame MechJeb for all their problems. It must be that crazy computer you don't understand right? Not the million other things you don't understand about the game or space flight in general.

Seeing just how far I can take this in five minutes. Insert a few OP parts here and there. Like H.O.M.E. radial aero spikes. 73tons start. 31tons to orbit. I didn't even adjust the flight profile which really should have started quite a bit earlier. Lost tons of dV there.

Awesome! Can I name it? ThatBum, I always imagine rockets like that falling apart on scene load on the runway. Probably because I'm just crap at making them. Also, those tail sections are looking nice and I considered using them for clustering. They weigh a whole lot more that the structural ex-docking ports. If you can't tell, money is tight over here at Payload Space Industries. Why do you think we are down to launching Newzon Kerbal? Talk about the wrong stuff. Oh did I forget to mention. That space plane can get to orbit by itself from the runway. So why don't I fly it that way? Because it takes for ever and it's boring. Jeb and Bob haven't been putting in hard hours on the mun moving all that kethane for nothing.

You really seem to not understand what the point of my statements are at all. I'll bet the dV he needs is already in his ship if made more sensible choices. It's not about the size of the ship. The same concepts still apply. The inclusion of mechjeb is always more informative than just trying to explain what you are talking about. The information is there. All of the things discussed here by everyone will help for sure. I don't understand the need to be so combative.

You sir, are in a large amount of luck today. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/lazor-docking-cam/ One of the best mods there is. Makes docking fun even. I would prefer a more clear view out of the camera. It still serves the purpose well and looks 100% legit. I love Rom even if he did make me look at NyanCat for three weeks.

I have to keep remembering that everyone on the internet automatically thinks you are always lying. It's quite an odd concept to me. I just try what I read before I make any presumptions personally. I'm not personally offended. It's just a strange cultural phenomena. No worries chaps, I am not a gentile snow flake. Newzon seemed to enjoy the ride so much he forgot to do anything. Maybe he had to visit the water closet. Flying skills? No. Knowledge of what is wasteful perhaps... I remember doing this long before mech jeb even existed if that gets me out of the "ZOMG MJ is just about pushing buttons" Zone of insults. You still have to understand what the buttons do and I actually fly most of that profile without the use of MJ. He seems to not care which way my wings are oriented and that leads to early re-entry.

It's a problem in the real world also my friend. It's a problem of your ship being too heavy on the bottom. Probably. We really need to take a look at it so we can to make a better judgement call. If it's tumbling end over when you go for the G-turn, that is almost certainly the answer. You may be able to wait a little bit later to start the turn and get a more stable flight profile. Depends on how bad it is. I am all for a center of dynamic pressure indicator and a center of mass indicator in flight. Man that would make building the heavy lifters a whole bunch easier.