Hallofo

A few I've personally seen/done/experienced: - The "trying to click-drag a screenshot" issue - Saying to myself "apply more retrograde Delta-V" instead of "brakes" while driving. - Converting my driving speed to m/s - Figuring how much delta-V to apply to my car to prevent "port-free docking" with other cars on the road. - Doing my best to spread the KSP "infection" at work... - Trying to explain to my 2-year old that his lego rocket needs more fuel and struts. - After my first career-mode Minimus landing I was quite pleased... "Yeah, baby FIRST TIME'S A CHARM". My wife asked what has up and I told her my first attempt had been a perfect landing. Her reply: "Oh, must not be very real then" (with a twinkle in her eye). - Explaining orbital terms to my otherwise extremely intelligent friends and watching their eyes glaze over.

Excellent story and mission! The screenies and commentary really make it. I have a ratehr bad case of "revertitis" and tend to try again instead of salvage. Also, when I screw up it's "mess up big or go home"... like, mess up at 600+ m/s and have a little bit of dust to rescue. Ohh, that's an idea! make a "broom and dustpan" mod to collect the little fragments of Kerbal left of from "energetic kinetic force transfer events" (EKFTE).

Awesome ships! I like how you've thought of both the "Mod" and "Vanilla" communities.

So.. what does Gen 1-3 armor look like?

Welcome, and happy launching!

Welcome and Happy Launching!

You have a good plan. Make sure you get good and hooked with "vanilla" first, then you can REALLY appreciate the mods. Welcome aboard!

Welcome to the fun! Have a good time building and flying!

One thing that seems to have been overlooked in this thread is another important topic: manufacturing. Think of this: you can research those awesome-cool Nuke Engines, but you need to have a zero-G environment to make them. Or perhaps modules that have a hydroponics bay that produces O2 and food. Yes, these aren't there *yet* but it gives a few ideas for future modding or what have you.

No, but it will effect how maneuverable it is and how it reacts to impact (say, by docking too hard). Velocity is how orbits change.

My first moon landing happened pretty quickly. Like, 600+ m/s quickly. This was in my "Pre-understanding-retroburning" days. My first landing that did NOT result in a rapidly expanding cloud of gas has pretty uneventful for the ship - I was so strung up and tense that I about pooped myself relaxing after I touched down!

From what I've read and noticed, the CoL being pointed off vertical shows that you have a lift imbalance. Try rotating some of your lifting surfaces in 5 deg increments (hold Shift while tapping w/a/s/d/q/e) to bring it as close to straight up as possible - this will give you a more stable craft.

I've been out of KSP for a bit (have to move, start a new job, etc...) so I haven't really sat down to play since around .18. I managed to have a nice play session last night; I decided to wipe out all my old save data and start fresh due to all the new content. My first exploits involved trying out the new ASAS system, the results of which are posted elsewhere on the forum (High G's made ship break, recovered the pilot with a mix of skill and luck). I figured I'd settle back in gently: landers to the Mun and Minimus! Objective: to land on the Mun and Minumus safely, EVA on the surface, return to Kerbin safely. I put together a nice lifter/lander combo that used a asparagus staging and a few other tricks I've picked up and in the end, I had an excellent result! I nailed the landings, 2 for 2 on my first pass. I had one reload due to being lazy (too much retro burn over Minimus tweaked my orbit horribly), but no disasters. I had a staging issue on the first trip (Mun) that was corrected for the Minumus run, but did not require a revert. So all in all: yay! I took pics, but need to upload them to a hosting site to play show and tell. Next objectives: - Multi-part LKO space station (the core is already up). - Mun base - Duna trip with return

There's nothing super special about it, it's just my version of a DerpN3rd SSTO bird. This is the best pic I have of it: The things that look like diagonal stabs are not, those are solar panels.

Awesome Vids Pebble, I too wish I'd found your guides sooner! At least now I can see where I could use some improvements and practice. As for your next set of guides, I'd ask for either a multi-part interplanetary ship, or a multi-part Mun base.

My first Munar mission was successful in reaching the surface..... at ~600 m/s. This was before I really understood the intricacies of retro burns and not having atmo to slow you down...

I found this after some serious surfing from this thread: http://gravitymovie.warnerbros.com/index.html Looks like "Live action Kerbals: the Drama"

Awesome guide! I'll most certainly be trying this out soon. I had never considered using rover parts like that to move stuff around. Previously, I had MJ to land parts "close enough" and then RCS-hop my way over.

Just this last week: Testing out the new SAS/ASAS power use, I put up a simple orbiter and waited for the dark side of Kerbin. I put it into a VERY fast lateral spin and hit the SAS toggle to watch the electricity drain. Satisfied, I lined up for a retrograde burn and hit the throttle.... nothing. Gave it some more..... still nothing. I started looking around and noticed that the spin was fast enough to make the main engine fly off! Fortunately, I had enough RCS juice to burn it into a aerobraking orbit and the Kerbal was recovered. Next, playing with my first (working) SSTO plane: I had finished my proof of concept flight, 100% green across the board. Made it to orbit, maneuvered into a circular orbit and retro'ed down. I undershot KSC by about.... 1/4th of a Kerbin, so I had a looong atmospheric flight to get there (lucky, I had plenty of fuel). While lining up for final approach I noticed that the plane seemed to "jerk" really bad when correcting the course. Even with SAS on, making fine adjustments was next to impossible. I chalked it up to poor aircraft balance with the fuel partially burned off. I landed, gave myself a high-five and then noticed.... I had landed with level 3 time compression! No wonder the movements seemed jerky! In both cases, the Kerbals beat the odds (and my poor skills) to survive!

Perhaps if you had a mounting "bay" close to the centerline of the ship (as opposed to on the sides) so that the mothership was not terribly off balance when you drop a probe? I can't post pics atm, but think of a strut/girder segment in between your fuel/engines and command pod with a bunch of doc-o-tron mounted probes. If your probes are still too heavy and throw it off balance, maybe try manually shutting down a main engine or two to balance the thrust better? Just a few ideas off the top.

I'll be trying out a few modifications of these designs this week - excellent guide Temstar! I'm also going to try it "vanilla", since Mods are The Devil (I kid!). Other than the obvious Kethane, what other mods were you using?

Monkeh is quite right, do whatever you want... if you want to, that is. I also lean in a geek-type direction and love how "real-ish" world maths can be used here in a cartoony environment.

Yes, I have MUCH wisdom.... as long as the subject involves flinging Kerbals to their doom! My first Mun landing attempt was successful, in that the crew made it to the surface..... at 600+ M/s. Crew moral afterwords was quite low. I have, however, since established bases there and made minumus landings. As soon as I get to 10 posts, you'll see a few ribbons (all of them with black lines!).

Welcome, Lach! I hope you have a fun time building, flying and... landing with significant force.

(sorry if this is a double post, my first attempt is not showing up) Anyhoo, I've been around since .16, so I know a thing or two about catastrophic Kerbal killing - never on purpose, but it just seems to happen a lot. I'm really diggin hpw everything is going, so I figured I'd finally sign up! I've spent most of my time poking around Kerbin and her moons, with a couple of highly unsuccessful attempts to go to Duna. I just recently started playing in the VAB with real gusto, having made and flew my first SSTO craft this afternoon (loooooots of time in the VAB). I tend to "wander" between games from time to time, so I might be into KSP for a month, only to go to Minecraft, followed by Planetside 2. Such is life and my fickle interests. I look forward to having a blast on the forums though, hopefully it will keep my interest alive!