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Everything posted by ArmchairGravy
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Help with calculating delta v and twr
ArmchairGravy replied to Screeno's topic in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials
My advice is to get KER and use the tape deck. It's too awesome not to use. -
Welcome to your new time sink!
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Once you get good at it, it'll take less than 10 units of RCS fuel. Keep practicing and welcome!
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Do you run missions in serial or more than one at a time?
ArmchairGravy replied to Invader Jim's topic in KSP1 Discussion
I do multiple missions at a time, especially with interplanetary missions. Science bases on Mun and Minmus, Eve probe, Duna mission, Jool probe, and tourism all going at the same time. Throw in the occasional asteroid capture for giggles. Kerbal Alarm Clock is my 2nd best friend (Engineer being 1st). I make sure to do a named save regularly to foil the Kraken. It doesn't matter if I'm doing sandbox or career I have to keep the launch pad busy. -
The grey tank is lander fuel. My final version used an adapter in place of the grey tank, and just used the Mk. 3 tank which still gives me plenty of dv for a Duna return. I'm going to mess about in sandbox with staged 1.25 tank designs. Since this is my 1st Duna mission in 1.0.2 I want to ensure a stable design, even if it's not as efficient.
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I looked back a couple of pages and didn't see anything specifically about LV-N's. Didn't mean to beat a dead horse.
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Updated OP with an equal fuel mass comparison. This comparison shows a 70% increase in dv using LV-N's and liquid fuel fuselages versus rocket fuel and LV-30's. I would say a 70% increase in dv is worth the heat management. If I use the 1.25m liquid fuel tanks and stage them off as they empty, this will improve the dv even more. I am back on board the LV-N bandwagon!
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Ah, you are right. I need to compare with equal fuel masses. Let me do that and I'll edit the OP.
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That will make designs....interesting.
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I've been putting together a couple of craft using LV-Ns, a probe and a manned Duna mission, and I've noticed something troubling. LV-Ns now seem to be not really worth the hassle of managing their heat. Let me start with the probe. The LV-N gives me 1752 m/s of dv. However, if I use a LV-45, I get 1687 m/s. That's only 65 m/s difference, roughly 4% So maybe LV-N's work better for larger vessels. Let's look at my Duna mission. The orange tank has been drained of oxidizer. The LV-N stage will give me 3300 m/s of dv. However, if I swap over to LV-30's and refill the oxidizer, I get 2905 m/s and a starting TWR of .54. With the 10k dv of the entire vessel, the 395 m/s difference is again a roughly 4% gain with the LV-N's. Once I throw in the hassle of heat management, I'm asking myself, "Is the 4% gain I get with LV-N's worth the longer burn times and the heat management issues?" My provisional answer is, "No." Are LV-N's worth the trouble? I'd like to see what the community has to say. I used to use them for everything heading interplanetary, but now I'm wondering if they're even worth unlocking. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ OK, NathanKell has a good point. I need to be comparing equal fuel masses. Here is the apple-to-apple comparison. First, the craft using LV-30's and an orange tank: Vessel mass of 82.8 tons, dv of the relevant stage is 2905 m/s. Swapping out the 36 ton orange tank for a Mk. 3 liquid fuel fuselage plus 8 of the 1.25 liquid fuel tanks, and swapping the engines over to LV-N's gives me this: (After posting I realized I needed fuel lines feeding the main tank) Vessel mass is 84.6 tons, dv is now 4934, That's 2029 m/s difference, almost a 70% gain in dv compared to the LV-30's. That's more like it, right? So, are LV-N's worth the hassle of heat management? The 70% increase in dv when doing an actual performance comparison makes me change my provisional "No" to an emphatic "Heck, yes!" Thanks to everyone for their feedback!
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Am I the only one who things the Big Four are overrated?
ArmchairGravy replied to FishInferno's topic in KSP1 Discussion
BadS's get the missions, the whiners get to run the labs, stations, and drills. Except Bob. I do like watching him scream. -
What's your refinery style: orbital or surface?
ArmchairGravy replied to ShadowZone's topic in KSP1 Discussion
I use an orbital refinery around Minmus. The low gravity means I'm not burning off my payload getting to/from the surface, and the refinery can then go refuel stuff. -
"Oh noes! The game isn't just what I wanted it to be so the game is crap and everyone who likes it is obviously stupid." This is what I hear some of you people saying. Get a grip and realize that not everyone wants the game to be the way you want it. While I applaud your passion, quit beating that horse. It's dead, Jim.
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Previously stable rockets wobble like they're drunk on the landing pad and fly even worse, neither rockets nor space planes fly without having to constantly tweak their ascent profile, rocket landing gear won't survive re-entry, fairings cause more drag than they're worth, and all of my .9 and 1.0 designs had to be binned. Good times.
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I spend 15% rep for science early, 15% funds for rep in mid-game, and then 100% science for funds after the tree's done.
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Dres is a loner. Look at is inclined orbit, not near Duna, not near Jool. It doesn't need or want your attention. I visited once. Dres didn't offer me any snacks. It gets no contracts. Yes, Dres is a loner, but it's better for Dres and us that it is.
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Having just gotten my first 1.0 spaceplane a) into a 75k orbit and back at KSC in one piece my conclusion is spaceplanes are now even more useless for actually doing something useful. They are a fun design challenge, but if I want to put payloads into orbit or change out crews I'm going to use rockets. Many hours spent with Mr. Trial and Mr. Error netted this design that could dock a whopping 2 kerbals to something in LKO. Something like this would previously get 6 kerbals and a small satellite docked. Spaceplane payload fractions have gone from small to minuscule.
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I thought .90's was too hard, but find 1.0 to be in the sweet spot. In .90 I was always grinding contracts for money, in 1.0 I feel like I have enough cash to do things I don't get paid for. I'm in late mid-game, have every building but R&D fully upgraded, and have 1.6 million in funds. My Duna expedition is en route, and that will give me the science to finish off the 300-level tech tree as well as the funds to upgrade R&D.
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I played stock until Engineer updated. Thank goodness I have a general idea of how to build those early rockets. The KER HUD should be stock. Constantly switching to map mode and trying to get those apoapsis/periapsis readings while staging is a complete pain. The dv readouts during construction are a bonus, but they do kind of take away from the "how about this?" vibe the game seems to want.
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*cough don't use them as you don't need them and they make your ship harder to control cough*
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Porince Avionics continued to laugh at the new heat and aero. Firstly, Porcine Avionics brought the science lab back from Minmus and landed it at KSC! Take that, heat! Secondly, PA launched it's Duna expedition using the same model lab. This will be able to gather science from both Ike and Duna and then return to Kerbin: Improved aerodynamics can't slow Porcine Avionics down!
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Is the LV-N broken?
ArmchairGravy replied to Argon's topic in KSP1 Suggestions & Development Discussion
I saw where it has overheating issues, limited it to 88.5%. Doesn't overheat, works fine when attached to a liquid fuel fuselage. *shrug* Poll should have a third option: Knows how to use it, works fine. -
I just messed about with a couple of my stock designs (a Mk 1 & a Mk 2) and yeah, back to the drawing board for me. It looks like the new design strategy is "more space, less plane". All of the air-based systems got knocked back by 10k it seems, so the solution is obviously MOAR BOOSTERS!