Scarecrow88

Just tried the rendezvous tutorial and overall I thought it was very good. Only improvement I would suggest is on the Closing In section. You say to burn towards the target marker to move towards the target, and to burn retrograde to brake, and to repeat steps 1-3 until you are close. What you don't say, and what will probably not be obvious to a newbie, is when you would start braking and/or why. Most of us that are comfortable with this manoeuvre will know that at some point it's likely your prograde marker will start to drift away from the target marker, as the intercept course starts to drift. Also the experienced player will know that this is the point that you would reduce your closing speed by burning retrograde, and then do a new burn towards the target again, but a newbie will probably not recognise that this is the point when he should be doing that. A couple of lines on this page of the tutorial will solve that, and perhaps also give a greater understanding of the rendezvous process as a whole.

I planted a flag at each of the anomalies I visited to make them easier to find on future missions. Just a thought and small tip.

This was my rover and the lander that put it on the surface.

Tylo is a pig. Almost the same gravity as Kerbin, but no atmosphere to slow you down. Laythe is quite easy by comparison, especially if you equip your lander with chutes. Not only will this help for landing on Laythe, but Duna too as that also has an atmosphere.

If you intend to land near either of the poles, you are better off if you can alter your flight path before you reach the Mun to come in over the poles as it uses a lot less fuel than going for an equatorial capture and then doing a plane change once in orbit.

I've never used hyperedit (don't even know how to open it) so have to put everything in position manually, but yes, I guess if you know how to use it, that would be an easier way of setting everything up..

As a general rule of thumb, I climb fairly steeply initially to get out of the thickest part of the atmosphere to reduce drag. I will then flatten out to allow speed to build up without climbing too quickly in order to avoid the jet engines flaming out due to lack of air. When it gets to the point that I got as much speed from jet power as I am likely to get and the jet engines are about to die anyway from lack of air, I switch to rocket power and continue the ascent as per a normal rocket launch.

I did a mini tour of the two local moons, using a craft I originally designed to operate like the Apollo missions. Quite happily went to Minmus and back to Kerbin, via the Mun. Had to do Minmus first, because the lander is 2 stage, and I wasn't sure if I could get it all off the Mun on the landing engine, but knew that wouldn't be a problem in the lower gravity of Minmus. After returning from the Munar surface, fuel in the command module was a bit low for getting back to Kerbin, but a bit of aerobraking to assist meant that everyone got home safely.

Don't know about a tutorial, but I have done a couple of scenarios. Start a new game to keep it separate from your other games. Build and launch your craft, or basically put everything where it needs to be at the start of your scenario. I did one for practising Mun landings, so I started off by building and launching a suitable craft that left a lander in Munar orbit. Once you have created your 'starting' position, quit out of the game. Find the persistent.sfs file in your new game save folder and open it in an editing program like Notepad. In the first few lines of the persistent file, change the title in the Title = line from Game save name (Sandbox) to something more meaningful. In my case I called it Mun Landing. Add a description in the Description = line Change the line scene = 5 to scene = 7 In the FLIGHT parameters; Change CanLeaveToEditor from True to False Change CanLeaveToTrackingStation from True to False Change CanLeaveToSpaceCenter from True to False Change CanLeaveToMainMenu from False to True Save this persistent file to the saves/scenario folder, using the same name that you used in the Title = line That should be it. Your scenario will now appear in the scenario list and, once you try it, you should be able to restart it at any time, using the restart button in the scenario list screen. Have fun.

If you have used the symmetry button when placing your landing struts, you shouldn't be having a problem. Maybe there is something else wrong with your craft.

I take it you haven't used the Lazer Docking cam mod then as it's overlaid with translational and alignment markers, much the same way as Navyfish's mod, and also gives measurements for how far you are off in each direction, which is more than the Docking Alignment mod gives. In fact I have used the Docking Cam mod to dock in complete darkness when there is no image to be seen, purely by using the additional information that the mod gives. Don't get me wrong, I have used both, and am currently using Navyfish's purely because it comes on automatically and is simple to use, but the docking cam mod gives an in-game appearance more akin to what NASA actually used.

I quite like the 180 and -180 in the current version and am not sure that 0-359 would be an improvement. With regard to the big orange arrow, what about replacing it with a pink pro-target marker, similar to the one on the nav ball? That could float in the appropriate sector to show which way to make the initial correction, and disappear the same way the arrow does once you are near the correct heading.

Welcome. While in orbit burn retrograde until your touch down point is a little beyond where you actually want to land. This allows for Mun rotation (assuming you have an easterly orbit) and braking that will shorten the distance to your actual landing point. That should get you close to where you want to be. For greater precision, you will need to make adjustments during the descent to fine tune where you end up.

Minmus serves a useful purpose where it is. Smaller and slightly further out than the Mun makes getting an intercept a notch up from what the Mun requires, and is also useful for noobs learning about inclination changes. The low gravity is also a useful training tool for when striking out to visit some of the smaller moons in the system.

That's why I said it's a possible problem.

A possible problem of using Minmus as your starting point is that it's in an inclined orbit which may not work to your advantage.

I hate chase camera mode, and never use it. If you are using the docking indicator, that tells you which way you need to translate, no matter which way up your craft is.

I've just put a ship in orbit around Moho for the first time, using a ship that successfully went to Eeloo and back, and it's way underfuelled. I even had to use the lander engine and fuel just to slow down enough to get captured. Needless to say, even though the orbit is stable, my Kerbals don't have enough fuel left to make a landing and definitely not enough to get home again, so I've go to work on putting a refuelling rig together to top up their tanks. At least the fuelling rig will only be making a one way trip.

Double post

Build a hovercraft and avoid the problem of torque reaction completely.

Also you may find it useful if you develop a 'standard' for your group action keys. I use 2 for lights, 3 for solar panels, 4 for ladders, and so on. That way, if you dock 2 different craft, they will both have the same action for each key.

I usually stop my warp 2 or 3 minutes before the SOI change and try and get a feel for where the intercept is going to be with relation to the target body. If I think it's going a bit high/low it's easier to change the further out you are.

Excellent find - thanks for that.

If I think I am going to be returning at high velocity, a periap below 30,000m is usually enough to ensure you slow down enough not to go whizzing by.

This was mine. More than enough to get to Jool and back, and no lag due to high part count.