sledgeweb

Hmm, I'll have to recheck it. I thought when I looked at KER with just the upper stage, and 70KM setting - it had enough DV to get back from Minmus on it's own. This thing is supposed to just sit on Minmus as a station, but I figured I'd provide an escape vehicle for one person to come home. Lol. Plus it fulfills the contract requirement of having enough space for 5 Kerbals. Still, at this point, I was just monkeying around trying to figure out how KER works and not really building for feasibility.

Okay. Makes sense. So, I hadn't set up the asparagus staging yet at this point. If I did that, does KER take into account how the fuel lines are set up for asparagus staging? So, I would shed two outer tanks, then two more, etc. leaving the large central tank and mainsail full to the end but burning the whole time? That should help my DV? I'll test this when I get home.

Okay, I downloaded KER and am trying to use it, but having trouble understanding a few things. Here's one problem I'm encountering: http://imgur.com/a/6m0aT In these two images you can see that in the first I have DV 3,173 in Stage 7. Now, in the next image, all I did was drag the large central engine from Stage 7 to Stage Stage 6. This results in 3,943 DV in Stage 5 (why stage 5?) and 1,669 DV in Stage 7. So, Stage 5 and 7 have more DV in this configuration? Also, Stages 0 and 3 DV increase because of this change? Also, all the DV readouts have ###/### format. What is the number before the "/"? And the number after? And, the readout at the bottom, seems to say the vessels total DV is the same as Stage 0? Thanks for the help, everyone!

Hello, So, my normal gameplay of KSP involves settling on a mission (getting to Mun, Duna, Eve, etc) and building a rocket based on previous experience that LOOKS like it might get me there (or there and back if it is manned). I sort of like playing this way, because it seems authentic to the Kerbal way of life. I end up with Kerbonauts stranded on moons or deep orbits and then having to rescue them. That's all good fun. That, and I do a lot of "Reset to Assembly" clicking when my design fails. Lately, I've been wanting to waste less time on trial and error methods, and move into better planning my vessels for their intended journey and destination. So, how do I go about doing this? I know I need to somehow figure out the Delta-V needed, and somehow calculate that - but I'm not sure how to do so. And, I'm not sure which resources are most applicable to 1.0. Any tips or pointers in the right direction? I'm using stock KSP only right now. Thanks! I'm looking for a way to get a rough estimate of what I have, and what is needed without it being too overly technical or complicated. Similarly, there are various methods to calculate orbit transfers - but I generally go with the ones that show you how to align the planets and where to burn.

This is early on in career mode. So, since the update, I have an odd experience where my rocket flies up to about 15k feet, then I separate. The upper stage immediately swings upside down and just sort of swings back and forth like a pendulum on a grandfather clock. The upper stage consist (from bottom up) of an LV-909, an FL-200 tank, the storage bay with a couple goo canisters inside, a small reaction wheel, and then the sputnik ball unmanned control pod. Something like this would fly correctly in previous versions of the game. I guess maybe it's balancing issues, and I understand there are new aerodynamics to take into account  but it just doesn't look right at all the way it behaves in mid-flight. Is this the way the mechanics are supposed to work now? It seems to me, in reality, if something like that was going in a certain direction - even if it's heavier at the top, the momentum is going to keep it going that way. There is nothing changing much aerodynamically when the first stage separates. It doesn't matter if I fire the 909 or just leave it off - as soon as I separate, the rocket immediately starts swinging upside down like a pendulum. It really takes me out of the game. I don't understand why they seemed to have the physics right on that before, and now it just seems silly. Is this just me?

Quick question... do I need to download from the site to update, or can I just launch KSP and let it update on it's own as it always has?

I think the problem with career mode right now is that it adds all these elements together but they still seem independent. I'd like to see the contracts serve as some sort of mission progression. The contracts feel like a separate thing that randomly tie into the game. I get contracts for parts I haven't unlocked yet or 10 contracts to test the same parachute. It would be great if the contracts aligned to a mission progression. Put wheels first. Make a rover. Then a glider. Then a plane. Then a rocket. Then satellite. Then orbit. Then mun. Space station. Etc. The contracts should be supporting this progression. And I think these should be tied together in a progression. Ksp doesn't make sense in a lot of ways. Why wheels so late? Why satellites long after orbiting kerbonauts? If they could tie this all together, career mode would be great. Right now, it seems like a sandbox game with restrictions placed on it, illogical part unlocking order, lack of progression objectives, and random contracts. I think it would also be great if kerbal knowledge of the world started out small. Use "fog" to hide unexplored parts of world. Then as you explore, your map of the planet expands. You unlock technology to discover moons, planets, etc.

Here is the version with transparency.

Thanks! And yes I can make a transparent version. It might be Monday but I'll try for tomorrow.

Eh, maybe 45 minutes. Type was easy, took maybe 30 minutes drawing the slug.

Alternate version for SlugCo:

An alternate version...

My career mode story thus far, for those interested: <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/lw9eG/embed"></iframe> <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/4XbRd/embed"></iframe> <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/Fy7Ys/embed"></iframe>

or

I have some solar powered unmanned rovers at various destinations. Driving them around is great, but gets rather boring after a while. I was wondering if there is a mod or anything that will allow you to designate a target (to do science in a different biome), and have the rover auto navigate to the destination? Isn't that sort of how the Mars rovers work?

I agree. In my universe, the Kerbals have only evolved "intelligence" and civilization in the last 500 years. They live mostly underground, but as they have evolved and are a rather curious species, they have started building and exploring the surface as well as the strange things beyond the surface since their emergence. I kind of envision them as immature children with a lot of energy who achieve through trial and error more than research, simulation and testing. Which, kind of goes along with my play style. I just got my first set of probes on Duna, and I didn't do any research on how to get there - just built a rocket that looked like it might make it, and tried it out. After a few failures, I was able to get there. Of course, the first two probe "landings" didn't go as hoped - with all my fuel spent, including my landing rockets, I only ended up "braking" enough to land on Duna by holding down the "W" key for 15-20 minutes to decelerate with RCS jets. That resulted in having no fuel for the landing, only parachutes - which didn't keep me slow enough and resulted in smashed but functional probes. My earlier Mun missions followed the same process - resulting in Jeb successfully landing on Mun in the first attempt aboard the Khonsu I (I didn't send any probes prior to this attempt though). I thought it would take a few tries, and that I might just orbit Mun on my first few attempts. But things were going well enough and Jeb pulled off a stellar landing. Unfortunately, I then found out I didn't have enough fuel to get home. And, at the time, I didn't have the resources for a rescue mission, so my space program came up with a "replacement" program in order to bring home a national hero and boost the morale of Kerbal civilization. Thus, rookie uknown Orlie Kerbin flew a ship to Mun, got off, and let Jeb fly it home. Later, Bill Kerbin would attempt a rescue mission of Orlie - but also didn't have enough fuel to land and take off. So Jeb, being the hero he is, flew a second rescue mission to pick up Orlie while Bill orbited Mun. All three flew home together, in two separate ships. Unfortunately, upon re-entry, Bill's parachute was ripped from the hull and he died on impact. It was a sad day for Kerbalkind and the Kerbin Administration of Aeronautics and Orbital Science (KAAOS), but at least we learned what the physical limits were for a single small parachute. Jebediah made the first Minmus landing shortly after this tragedy, and erected a flag to mark the occasion - which also contained a tribute to Bill's sacrifice and enduring inspiration. Soon, we will attempt to send the first Kerbal to Duna (and hopefully back).

I have been enjoying building experimental planes recently, but have noticed a few quirks. Are these bugs, or am I doing something wrong? 1. Stuck to ground. Lately, my planes have trouble lifting off the ground. Once I go off the end or side of the runway, and a downward slope takes the ground out from under me, I can pull up and fly/maneuver. But when I'm in contact with flat ground, I can't pull up. 2. I have some large craft with multiple sets of the large thin wings. I put the larger aileron/flaps on the back of them. If I have 2-3 sets, they don't act in unison. When I press W, some will go up and some down. How can I get them all working the same? I've tried rotating the misbehaving pieces. In all cases the symmetry is maintained. 3. I've also has flaps change the way they work after entering/exiting time warp. For example, I take off having to press W to move flap up and pull up. After time warp, W moves flaps down. This is also inconsistent when I leave hangar and go to runway. Even when I don't change that part, sometimes the W is up and sometimes it's down. 4. I saved a spaceplane as a sub assembly and brought it to the rocket building. I built a rocket and wanted to attach my plane to it shuttle style. For some reason the "connection point" of my plane wasn't the center of its belly. This was a small simple plane with cockpit, fuselage fuel body, engine all compact and simple. But it wanted to connect sort of off center. I've noticed part do this sometimes - any way to fix this?

Ahh, this also explains why longer wings are needed to get this working really well. The first inner segment of wings probably isn't providing much lift, but the second and third segment being further out, and covering more distance per revolution, are calculated to provide more lift. I'll take this into consideration for my next design. Would probably be too heavy, but I am wondering if you can have a design that takes off under propeller power, and then switches to rocket stages at 20k or so. Just for fun.

And this is with jet engines also mounted perfectly horizontally from the fuselage.

Okay, a little more experiment and I've confirmed it does indeed work. You just need really long wings. This design has the rockets attached to the body so they are perfectly parallel to the ground. Take that, naysayers!

This is an interesting problem. I've confirmed my designs that are working are due to the angled thrust. When I have engines parallel to the ground, I don't fly. But, if I angle the rockets slightly down, I do.

Hmmm. Interesting point. I'll try making the wings angled and the engines parallel to the ground.

Thanks for the feedback, got it working!

Ahhh. Interesting, hadn't thought of it that way. Thank you. So, in real life, this wouldn't fly either because the body is rotation with it? I'll try some modifications. I was thinking of those toys you spin in your hand that have a propeller at the top, on top of basically a stick, and when you let go they fly up even though the whole thing is rotating.