Scarecrow

Pretty sure this has been done before, but this is my take on the iconic X-Wing from Star Wars. Capable of reaching an 80 km orbit, all stock and straightforward to fly, what's not to like. Download from KerbalX : https://kerbalx.com/Scarecrow88/X-Wing-MkII Instructional video

My bi-plane spaceplane manages to get to orbit quite happily, though it doesn't glide too well and landing can be a bit dodgy.

Thanks

I've finally caved in and updated to 1.4.3 but am now experiencing a problem. In 1.3.1 if I was in map view and focused on my target destination, if I wanted to centre my view back to my craft, I pressed backspace. This doesn't work in 1.4.3. Have they re-mapped the key, disabled it, or is there some other setting I need to change?

We all know that docking is one of the most difficult things in KSP to master, but it's well worth the effort of learning how to do it. Well how about going one further; docking underwater. I imagine a few of us have dabbled with putting a base on the ocean floor somewhere, discovering which parts in the VAB/SPH float, and which will sink. But have you given any thought to resupplying that base once it's in position, or rotating the crew that man it? This challenge requires that first of all you install a base on the ocean floor somewhere. You can put it where you like, though somewhere just east of the KSC is most convenient. That's the easy bit. The main part of the challenge is that you build a submarine that is capable of reaching the base and then docking with it once it gets there. I have to say that in preparing my own effort, I found there are a lot of things that don't work as you would hope they would, which made it quite difficult to come up with a design that could actually achieve the goal. For anyone who manages to complete this challenge, not only will you be added to the Roll of Honour, but you will also be granted the Underwater Nymph badge to display in your signature. Rules. 1. You may use hyperedit to put your base in position, but you may not use it for the submarine 2. You may use wheels to drive your base to position, but your submarine must be 'free flying'. i.e. you can use wheels to get it to the water, but no driving up to your base to dock. 3. No Mechjeb 4. Stock only The following screenshots were taken from a number of attempts before I finally succeeded, but effectively show how I did it. Captain Nemo's Roll of Honour 1. Scarecrow 2. oAsAo

I also had that problem when I tried to edit my original entry, as I was hoping to delete it, but got the same message you are getting.

Thought I would do a video confirming the position of my reference buggy and the 5 sec burn after take off. I had made a slight change to the craft, removing the airbrakes which I thought would lighten the load slightly, but it seems it also massively reduced the drag, as in this configuration I managed 20.3 km. Although the craft was a little bit lighter, at 8.35 tonnes, my thrust of 165.52 still fell within the new max permitted of 167. I've speeded up the replay to 10x during the glide to keep the video length reasonable.

Please ignore my previous entry. I mis-read the rules and thought it was a total burn time of 5 secs, and not a max of 5 secs after lift off. Doh. That was 4.6km with 5secs burn from a standing start. Having moved my buggy reference to the end of the runway, I managed a slightly more impressive distance of 15.6km. Burning along the runway to build up speed means I needed to add a bit more fuel, but could also increase the thrust to compensate for the extra weight. New figures for my entry :- Mass : 8.45 tonnes Max thrust allowed : 169 kn Actual thrust : 165.52 kn Distance achieved : 15.6 km

Watching that video, you seem to have exceeded the maximum engine burn time of 5 secs by quite some margin. Here's my own entry. Glider mass : 6.89 tonnes Max allowed thrust : 137.8kn Actual thrust :@ 137.38 kn Launch point showing my reference buggy off the port wing F3 menu shot showing engines jettisoned at 5 secs Splashdown at 4.6km to qualify

I can heartily recommend Navyfish's Docking Alignment Indicator. It doesn't dock for you, but gives an indication showing when your docking ports are lined up parallel, and which way you need to move your ship so that they are in alignment. As the controls for moving your ship are all relative to the indicator, you don't need to change camera angle or orientate your ship in any particular direction so that 'up' is up or 'right' is right etc. I made a Youtube video showing how it works : You can download the mod from this thread which also includes a video from Navyfish demonstrating the mod :

Thanks for the challenge and the medal. Really looking forward to the next one.

Here's my Mun station, built specifically for this challenge. Includes a Cupola, hitchhiker storage and science lab for Kerbals, communication arrays and solar panels, fuel and monoprop, and 4 docking ports - 3 for arriving crew vessels and one for refuelling. All built using 3 main modules taking up 3 launches, and a 4th launch to deliver the refuelling tanks. First launch delivered the station core, which includes the habitation modules, basic comms and power supply Second launch added main power supply and principal comms module. It also added a further 2 docking ports. 3rd launch added the base for later addition of refuelling tanks 4th and final launch supplied the refuelling tanks First one almost in place Final station

This is probably my simplest and easiest to fly wing design that doesn't utilise vertical surfaces.

If you are not averse to using mods I can highly recommend Navyfish’s Docking Alignment Indicator. I even did a tutorial on how to use it and there are several others on YouTube

I went to the KSP store but couldn’t find anywhere that would allow me to download the Making History expansion. Is it only available on Steam?

The beauty of mine is that you use a quirky property of cargo bays to ascend or descend. With the cargo bays tied to Action Group keys, you only need to press those keys to start sinking. Pressing them again reintroduces positive buoyancy and the sub starts coming up. You can speed up the sinking/rising process by using the dive planes as usual.

I've just updated this one for KSP 1.4.3 UB-40

Is the Making History expansion the bit you have to pay for?

Until yesterday I've been soldiering on with v1.3.1 but decided that perhaps I should move along with the times and upgrade. Having allowed the dust to settle and some of the early bugs to be ironed out that you tend to see with any new upgrade, I have now downloaded v1.4.3. The problem is, apart from being able to select a different colour on a few components, I'm not seeing much of a change. What am I missing?

A lot of people struggle to master docking, which is hardly surprising, as it's one of the most difficult things to get to grips with in KSP. What doesn't help is having controls that behave unpredictably, with forward sometimes resulting in left, or right resulting in up. This happens because of the way the craft is oriented and the camera angle that you are looking at your ship from. This is why many people will suggest orientating your craft and target craft to north and south, and changing the camera view to Chase view. Using Navyfish's Docking Alignment Indicator mod does away with all that. There are simple indications to show when your docking ports are correctly lined up, and straightforwrd markers to show what direction you need to move to achiev a successful dock. Because the markers shown on the indicator are always relative to the port you have selected as a target, and the part of the ship you are 'controlling from', the control keys required to make any particular move always stay the same, irrespective of which way your craft is facing or which camera view you are using. This short tutorial shows the salient aspects of using the Docking Indicator mod so that your future docking attempts are a lot simpler, and dispense with the requirements to line everything straight up and down or make use of a sympathetic cameraman. If you don't already have the mod, you can download it here https://www.curseforge.com/kerbal/ksp-mods/docking-port-alignment-indicator

Way over the top. I have a craft that has 33k dV that can circumnavigate Kerbin, which is the equivalent of going to both poles and back in one flight. On that basis, that particular craft only needs 16.5k dV to get to one pole and back. In reality it is actually less than that, as the craft still has fuel when it gets back. ETA: Just to re-affirm my statement above, I have just flown to the pole and back in a single-engined interceptor style craft. It's not particularly streamlined, but by flying at about 15000m at 1100 m/s or so, which it can do on 1/3 throttle, I was able to get to the north pole and back to KSC using 16,800 dV.

Personally I think you'd benefit from using Navyfish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod. It doesn't add anything like an auto docking ability, just another visual representation of how things are lined up when you are trying to dock. It gives you information with regard to how the ships are lined up in respect to each other, and the translation control effects are always the same regardless of which way you or the camera are facing (assuming you have selected the right port to 'control' from). Once you get used to it, docking can be done in complete darkness just by using the indicator.

In a standard install, the default craft that come with the game are saved in a folder called Ships in your main KSP installation directory. Any craft that you create yourself are saved in a Ships folder that is found within your gamesave folder. So standard craft would be in something like C:/KSP/Ships and your craft will be in C:/KSP/saves/gamesavename/Ships

I've been playing KSP for quite some time now (since 0.17 I think) and have welcomed each upgrade as it came along. Along the way I have sent manned missions to all of the landable planets and moons, and actually managed to bring everyone home safe again. I've completed a career mode through to unlocking all of the tech tree, but for the most part usually play sandbox mode. I am still on v1.3.1 as I believe a few new bugs were introduced with 1.4 and the version I am currently playing seems quite stable. On top of that, I also understand there is new DLC, but you need to pay for that to have access. At this point I feel that I have had my money's worth out of the game and will no longer be chasing each new upgrade as it is made available. There are a couple of reasons for this. I've always enjoyed sharing my creations with other players, and have downloaded many a vessel from the Craft Exchange thread and KerbalX. As I don't feel inclined to hand over more money for the DLC (looking upon it as a slippery slope that is only likely to get steeper) it's obvious that my version of the game will soon be completely incompatible with the latest iteration, and such sharing will no longer be possible. As there appears to be no new gameplay content in the update, I can't see that it will offer me much more than I can already get from the version I am playing. Maybe I have become jaded after playing the game for so long, but I have to admit that it has been one of the best games I have ever played, have learned loads about orbital mechanics, and feel that you would need to look long and hard to find a game that gives anywhere near the bang for buck that KSP gives. But I somehow feel that for me, I have reached the end of the road.

In one of my saves I actually parked a station around Kerbin, Mun, Minmus, Duna and Jool. The Mun and Minmus stations had landers permanently attached for visits to the surface, and were fairly basic. The Duna station had a lander capable of both landing on Duna or making a visit to land on Ike and return. At Jool, the lander assigned to the station there was intended for making excursions to Val, Bop and Pol, though I think I updated to a newer version of KSP before actually using that lander in anger.