Scarecrow88

What's the difference between a decoupler and a stack separator?

Let me start by saying that I am a complete noob, so my experience of rocket design is nil. I have a station in orbit, using the stock station body, and thought it would be nice to add a fuel tank to re-fuel craft in orbit. Don't know why as I have only been to Mun and Minmus so far, but heck, why not. Originally I just stuck a jumbo tank on the nose of the capsule at the top of the launch vehicle, but even with struts this thing shakes like a strawberry jelly having a fit during launch. I was wondering if there is a more accepted way of attaching spare fuel tanks to a launch vehicle and in what configuration are they added to an orbiting station?

As I have only just started this game, I thought I would create this thread for reminiscing over at a later date. Whenever I reach one of the goals that allows me to add something to the ribbon cluster, I aim to add a photo of the occasion. Should be interesting to see how I develop as I get to grips with the game. First few images are from the last couple of days. The Kerbin station was achieved today. First achievement was a Kerbin orbit followed by a flight to Minmus and back, courtesy of one of the tutorials listed in the sticky at the top of the 'How to' thread. Quickly followed by a flight to Mun And today's launch and rendezvous of K.I.S.S. (Kerbin International Space Station) Will add more as the events happen. With the introduction of flags in v.0.20 I thought it only right that I should go back to the Mun to plant one. Was also my first night landing which was interesting, as the ground I landed on was 1700+ m high. Came up a bit unexpectedly.

So you've downloaded the game, watched a few tutorials, built some of the featured rockets to learn the trade, but there comes a time when you have to branch out on your own. Deciding to start small, I thought I'd try creating a craft that would allow me to put a 1 Kerbal capsule on the Mun, and bring him home again. That went fine but I found myself ditching stages that were still carrying fuel, Hmm, I think, I wonder if this craft could also get to Minmus and back, so I tried it, and it did. Nice warm fuzzy feeling from building a craft that fulfilled the original brief and was good enough to go a step further. I guess the next step is to get 3 Kerbals out there and back.

At the moment I'm chief nappy changer and bottle washer, rarely venturing outside the VAB because things out there keep going bang, and I mean BANG!

Oh dear. This was never meant to be a yes v no thread, but as I said in my OP, most threads on this forum seem to include comments one way or the other at some point. My original point was just to have some fun with the oft used phrase 'it isn't rocket science', but I can only assume the same crack has already been made so many times that it completely passed everyone by.

I've only been a member of the forum for a few days but I am already getting a sense there is a distinct splitting of opinions regarding the use of Mech Jeb. Personally I have found that the very basics - launch, achieving orbit, circularising and even extending the orbit to allow passage to the Mun or Minmus to be quite straight forward, and am struggling to imagine that you would need to use an autopilot to manage even these simple tasks. I mean, c'mon guys, it's not rocket science. Oh, hang on a minute!

I had to start fresh, as my original unzip didn't have a Screenshot folder or a Username folder in the vehicle saves, which meant F1 wasn't taking snapshots, and I couldn't transfer the vehicles I designed between my laptop and desktop. The new unzip has solved that, but I seem to have another problem. Designed a completely new vehicle to get one man to Mun and back, and it seemed to work very well, plenty of fuel. What I found whilst landing though, was that I didn't get a shadow to warn me when I was close to the surface. With the altimeter showing just under 1900m I was fortunately going slow enough that I touched down without crashing, but I didn't realise I had actually touched down to start with, as there was no shadow. Is this a known bug in the game, or has something gone awry with my graphic settings?

Excellent. thanks for that Doc.

Yes another basic noob question, and I did do a search on Keyboard but didn't find anything. Just wondering if there is a definitive list of all the keyboard key functions that are used in this game? You learn really early that A,W,S,D,Q,E are used for flight control, SPACE for staging, M to switch to map and back, R for RCS, T for SAS and . and , for time warp control. Oh, and L SHIFT and L CTRL for throttle control and X for engine shut down. But I know there must be more, and whilst you learn a few new ones when you watch some of the video tutorials that are out there, there's a lot of tutorials to watch in the hope of learning all the keyboard functions. If there was a list somewhere, it could make things a lot easier.

At the moment it is in C:\Program Files\Kerbal\KSP_win Maybe I should try a fresh unzip to a cleaner directory. Oh and I'm using the store version. ETA: Ok I've moved everything to a directory with a cleaner structure C:\Kerbal\KSP-win The Screenshots and Playername save folders are now present, though I have lost my previously saved flights. Not a big problem as I have only just started and had one ship on Mun, and two docked in orbit around Kerbal.

I know this is going to be a bit boring for all you old seasoned hands out there, but I am sure you can all remember your first successful Mun landing, and what it felt like to achieve that first hop. Well I have just managed said feat on my 3rd attempt, and I'm quite chuffed. First attempt had too much lateral movement so crashed on touch down. The second attempt used too much fuel trying to avoid making the same mistake as the first, and I didn't have enough fuel to get back. I also had the wrong landing legs attached, they were too short! The landing was good enough that I touched down on just the engine and stayed upright, but I didn't dare do any EVA for fear of knocking it over. So it was 3rd time lucky.

Hmmm. They must be saving them somewhere else, as there isn't a Screenshot folder in my KSP folder, and the only files in the Saves folder are the scenarios and training folders. Screenshots aren't too much of a problem, as I can do that using the windows screen shot function, but not being able to find the vehicle saves folder is a bit of a bummer.

Just figured that one, as I currently have a craft on the launch pad so I pressed 'G' to see what would happen. Don't know why I thought they would only work after you had launched.

I tried using F1 to take a snapshot of a daft situation I got myself in to, but I have a weird keyboard that doesn't use standard F keys so I am not sure if it actually took a picture. Where do the pictures get saved if it was successful? Also, where do ship designs get saved, as I would like to transfer a couple of designs from my desktop to my laptop so that I don't have to build them from scratch.

How do you road rest something like the landing legs on Kerbin?

I have no idea why it took so long for me to hear about KSP, so I've only been playing for a few days. Having said that, the wealth and quality of tutorials out there have made trying to find my way around the game so much easier. I have already seen comments in the forum pro/anti the Mech Jeb add on, and can only say that thanks to the tutorials I have found, I can get in to orbit, have landed on Minmus and returned, and have even managed two successful rendezvous and docking manoeuvres, though I found this the most difficult so far and will need to practise a bit more. If I can do that after a couple of days just following tutorials, I guess I won't be using Mech Jeb at the moment as I am getting a lot of satisfaction out of learning and doing things myself. I understand others could get frustrated if they can't get their mind around a particular principle, in which case Mech Jeb might be the answer, so I am not going to knock anyone who does use it, as I might find myself in the same position with some other aspect of the game that I haven't encountered yet. Meanwhile I think this is a great forum, and to all the people who have gone to the effort of making the tutorials and providing answers and solutions in these threads, a big thank you from me. p.s. I need to learn how to take pictures, as I sent a lander to Mun, and only when I lowered the gear when preparing to land did I realise that they weren't long enough! However, I managed a perfect landing resting purely on the engine nacelle but couldn't figure out how to take a picture to share.

I too found Pebble's tutorial on docking really informative, having watched it yesterday. Am now trying docking for the first time myself, having got two craft in orbit (not Pheonix clones!) but on searching for the video to have a refresher on how to do it, it's telling me that they are private and that I need to have access granted by the owner. Confused.

Hi fellow Kerbonauts Just logging in to say that I have only just found this game, so have only been playing for a couple of days. However, thanks to some brilliant tutorials out there, I have made a few successful rockets, have put some in orbit and brought them safely back, and even put a lander on Minmus which I also managed to bring back. Currently having a look at how to dock whilst in parked orbit, as I am sure this manoeuvre will be the key to future successful missions. Haven't even looked at space planes, or maybe a simpler type of atmospheric craft simply to explore some of the land masses of Kerbal. I understand there is a runway on the island just offshore from the space centre, so will definitely have a look over there at some point. And I love experimenting, so hoping to create some wacky, but functional designs. Scarecrow