Caelib

When you visualize the ideal placement of struts and RCS ports on things you see in real life.

I have experienced this problem and I have moved to a model where I use two radial mounted engines instead of one -- the below image shows MANY radial mounted engines, but I would only recommend using two since it's a lot of additional mass:

I hope it is out before Memorial Day weekend ... having an extra day off to play with the new features would be great!

I personally don't use MechJeb, but if people want to use a mod that enhances their experience of the game in way that pleases them ... then does it really matter? No. I find more satisfaction in accomplishing difficult tasks with my own skills rather than relying on a bot.

Watch these tutorials: Rendezvous: Docking:

Yes, I think the community here is very good -- mostly because the game doesn't appeal to the class of gamers that end up tainting the forums with negative posts.

Nice work! How many hours did you invest in this project? My guess is no less than 200!

Let me also suggest that you start with extremely simple ship designs ... as simple as you can get it. Do this just to practice the mechanics of rendezvous and docking. Once you've mastered the mechanics, then you can worry about making your creative design something that can be docked.

Ha! Yeah. I usually throw a pair of static solar panels on all my craft somewhere just in case I forget to deploy the main ones.

Personally, I would rather see the stock game incorporate the best mods by hiring them as developers. I think mods are great, but there is limited support and let's face it ... people lose interest and they stop working with some updates.

Quicksave is a good tool for learning how to successfully do things like Mun landings -- without it, I would have never had the patience to actually learn how to land. I think my first Mun landing took 15 tries of reloading the quicksave.

I think the parts that are there work fine -- I would just prefer more options ... like smaller LIGHTS and more options for assembling smaller rovers (smaller dish/antenna, wheels, panels, thrusters/fuel tanks, etc) and landing them. I would also like to see more science-related parts ... robotic arm, camera, oven, mining equipment, etc. As far as travel speed -- rovers aren't meant to move quickly! You're supposed to land in close proximity to your exploration area.

Watch the two below tutorials -- I think they provide adequate information on how to rendezvous and dock. Try it yourself. Next, watch them again. Next, try it again. Rinse/repeat until you get it right! I agree that this aspect is one of the most challenging parts of KSP, but with practice and determination you will get a great deal of satisfaction once you succeed. Make sure you have RCS, ASAS, mono-propellant, and most imporantly have placed your RCS controls at CENTER MASS of your ship -- when using RCS, be sure to TURN ON ASAS or your ship will not move correctly! Rendezvous Tutorial: Docking Tutorial:

Heh, I was just going to post this ... you beat me to it!

I'm glad somebody said it! As much as we all want the game to be finished, it is not being rushed out the door and we should all be thankful of that.

Aside from using Fairing Factory to enclose my payload, I use all stock parts.

Well, it took me a very long time and a heck of a lot of trial and error ... but I finally conquered the Kerbol system (visited every planet). Yay for me (all of that hard work - I just felt like I had to tell somebody!):

Managed to finally get a unique-ish polar probe to Duna ... seemed like a good idea at first but it was not easy to get something this shape to work with multiple parachutes very well ... required a lot of retries to figure out a way to it to the ground safely ...

Buy a computer with a solid state drive and it will be super fast!

I have about 100 hours of gameplay time into KSP and I love it. Now, let me say that I like challenging games ... but the Spaceplanes in KSP are too difficult. I have watched numerous tutorials and spent no less than 30 hours in the spaceplane hanger designing different craft, but I have yet to be able to get one into an actual orbit. Personally, I have been able to fly one all the way up to 70,000 meters and get so, so, so, so, so close to an orbit ... but I just cannot come up with a magic combination of lift/balance/etc to carry enough fuel to get into orbit (let alone rendezvous). Basically, this aspect of the game is too hard -- I've spent almost a week of gameplay time trying to a spaceplane into orbit but that's the extent of my patience so I'm just giving up entirely.