EtherDragon

There are many ways to get science, make sure you are right clicking on everything you have in the VAB to see how it can be used to gather science. Crew Reports (from a Command Pad) or EVA Reports (from a crew person on EVA, unlock space EVA for 75k-funds at the Astronaut Complex) give you lots of available Science to be easily found around Kerbin Orbit. EVA reports from orbit are particularly useful because you have lots of biomes you can look at. Kerbin's Highlands, Lowlands, Shores, Ocean, Desert, and Poles to name a few. Build a jet and fly around to get a bunch of Crew Reports from similar locations, but in the atmosphere instead. Take an antenna - and you can transmit each new Crew Report without having to fly back home. It's quite easy to make a plane with just the first Aerodynamic Science Node (Basic Jet Engine) that has a really long range. If you've unlocked other instruments like the Too Hot Thermometer, or Pres-Mat Barometer, then take those too.

I also disagree. However I take a different approach than klgraham1013 on how to address this. The real issue, for me, when I think about the Newbie Experience is that the Kerbal Space Center is way too busy to start off with. You load up a new Career - now what? Where do you go first? There are 12 buildings in front of you... The core game is about building and successfully launching Rockets. Instead, Career Mode has all these buildings around, most of which are pretty useless to start. It's confusing to immediately start with Manage Strategies, Hire Crew, Accept Contracts, Tack Satellites, Build Space Planes, in addition to Build Rockets / Launch Rockets The very first newbie launch should be along the lines of - here is the VAB, here is the Launch Pad - and that's it! Build Rocket / Launch Rocket / Don't Die (or die spectacularly and laugh so hard it's worth trying again)! The other buildings shouldn't be in the picture at all until certain milestones are reached whereby they become useful. Mission Control - unlock only after the first successful recovery. R&D - unlock only after 5 Science has been earned. Space Plane and Runway - unlock only after the first "aerodynamic" node is unlocked. Tracking Station - unlock only after Orbit has been achieved. Astronaut Complex - unlock only after you buy it. Administration - unlock only after you buy it. Rocket Science is Hard! Trying to Manage a Space Program with all these buildings while also learning Rocket Science is really really hard!

Yes, it really is, actually. If you place yourself just right you can end up with a Kerbin escape trajectory with just a little more Delta-V than you would use for a basic Mun encounter. A lot of players, like myself, who plan Munar free-return trajectories find that the same amount of Delta-V for a good free-return is just the right amount for a good departure from Kerbin SoI.

I made my first jet for new aero yesterday while recoding a Career Mode 1.0 Let's Play. It was a joy to fly - my first try in the new aero, and she was a little flight-sim dream! Ultimately the contract I was after failed - but that was because the craft wasn't capable of completing it. (Its flight ceiling was about 13km, and the mission called for 18km+) I recognized the failure and just did some Crew Reporting and Transmitting Science instead (jet engine + crew report + antenna = OP) Despite the failure, I'm going to have to install and use my joystick for KSP for once!

I took the Stock Kerbal-X to a Mun Landing and full return without issue last night - first try! I did have some 1.0 Career Mode, so learning the capabilities of each part a little bit already. Here is the trick! Speed Kills: There is not need to go rushing past terminal velocity as fast as you can! In fact, doing so is a recipe for a flipped rocket, overheating parts, or any other problem that will cause a rapid unscheduled disassembly. With the Kerbal-X: Go up-ish to about 1,000m and push her over to 10degrees off of vertical. Now, here's the real trick - TURN OFF SAS. Don't use it, YAGNI. You are in a gravity turn, let gravity - turn you! The Gravity Turn: Allowing gravity to turn your rocket is all about being hands-off. No control inputs! NONE! - don't do it, it's a trap! Instead, throttle back, it's really ok, you don't have to fly your ship - a well designed rocket wants to reach orbit. At lower throttle the rocket will naturally tip over to about 45 degrees above horizon. The lower your throttle at first (after initial ascent) the faster this happens, play with this a bit until you find a routine you really like. Give'n Her All She's Got! Once you're at your desired ascent angle, "Z" it up - go whole hog until your Ap is where you like it. Orbital operations work just like they did before.

I bet that kind of thing will be a hotfix - 1.1 is to introduce new features (or add significantly to existing features). The industry generally doesn't do a 1.x without a lot of stuff to put in. A 1.0.x, however that would be a maintenance patch, I would expect it pretty soon, actually! I bet these guys slept for 24 hours strait to get caught up on some sleep dep (let the Tequila settle) and to let version 1.0 steep for a bit to get a batch of feedback for them to sift through. I started a career play on my channel, and found that you really don't need to bother with the heat-shield at all if you're just doing orbital stuff with the command pod. They survive reentry just fine. AND you can get around the whole issue of trying to bring your Science Jr and Goo Canisters back in one piece by unlocking EVAs. The unlock costs 75k (normal difficulty) and you get a ton of science by doing EVAs around Kerbin while in Orbit. EVA to the Science Jr. and you Goo Cans and pick up the experiments. Stow them all in the command pod - decouple all the useless weight, and voila - reentry with the command pod and a single chute - easy peasy.

Excessive speed KILLS in version 1.0 Terminal velocity seems to be right around the sound barrier at low altitudes, and is a bit more forgiving at high altitudes. I have generally found, if I just reduce thrust of any SRBs and keep the throttle lower for a while, I have no problem getting to orbit with more fuel available than I used to - with the same ship! For example: I have never been able to take the Stock Kerbal-X and do a full Mun landing and return. With 1.0 - I can. The key to not getting that huge rocket to flip out is to keep speeds a little lower going up. I'll be putting together a detailed tutorial on my channel - with luck I might publish it tonight!

\0 Take a look at all the great info in the Tutorials section! All-though, a lot of them need to be updated for 1.0.

The requirement to upgrade Mission Control and the Tracking Station is new to career mode, as of 0.90. Luckily getting those buildings upgraded is relatively easy within a few short flights.

Wow, long time player. Welcome to the community!

Goodbye .90 and hello, Pax!

ftfy. =d

If that's the case, that's a big oops! lol.

Awesome! Can't wait. There were so very many strategies that were completely useless in 0.90 because by the time I had enough of the currency to kick them off, I didn't need them.

Yep, that's pretty much exactly correct. All textures have been DDS converted and optimized for faster game loading.

Career mode, or Sandbox?

In a later update, from what I understand.

It's only Kerbal Parkour if it happens on the Mun.

Having not seen the tourist mission first-hand... Suborbital means you have to reach space, but not an orbit. It MIGHT require the periapsis to be above ground, but not out of the atmosphere? Have you gotten your rocket more than 70km in height? Have you raised your periapsis to at least say 20km?

Specific nerfs? I don't have all the new stats on all the engines. Mainly the change to the game was instead of ISP changing with atmospheric pressure - Thrust (KN) per unit of fuel (KG) changes with atmospheric pressure. Flow rate remains constant, but thrust decreases in atmosphere for rockets.

Congratulations @spaceplane69! Yes, potatoes can space. Hey - here is a tutorial to help you expand your knowledge on how to potato orbit!

Big huge serious thank you to the following teams: SQUAD's dev team: I haven't seen your hard 1.0 work, first hand, just yet. But all comments are overwhelmingly positive - so thank you (in advance) for all your great work, attention to detail, and unwillingness to put forward an unfinished feature for release. SQUAD's community team: Handling this release was top notch. Seriously great props for giving all of your fans plenty to do and see during the count-down to release. I know it was a fever pace to keep up with all the ravenous fans who would probably have just eaten you on sight. But, you always kept your towel on-hand, kept your cool, and carried on! SQUAD's testing team: The polish and attention to detail isn't complete when left up to developers alone; it's a team game which requires good offense and a good defense! From the QA team to the Experimentals team, every one of you should be proud of your work with the dev team to give us all such a great new product to play with today. The KSP Community: It's so refreshing to have such a large passionate community gathered around a silly game regarding Rocket Science! We have our occasional spats, sure, but they are so minor as to be hardly worth mentioning. That leaves this a positive place for old and new players to keep playing this game, and learning Rocket Science along the way! I can't wait to get home today, and begin work contributing with my very first 1.0 video. Thanks for giving me such a great medium and atmosphere to draw me into making YouTube videos in the first place!

Version 1.0 is a free update for anyone who bought the game during early access.

In order to have the node control available, you need to mount an adequate PROBE control part, or have a PILOT on board.

Hi! Welcome!