Geoff-AU

Don't get me started on solar panels.. I sent maybe 4 or 5 unmanned probes to the Mun before realising the reason why I couldn't control them or fire their engines on approach was because the remote guidance unit had used up all the power. They were fine up until late on the intercept course and would die just before I needed to burn for Munar capture. Further down the track I designed a probe with an Ion engine and a few large solar arrays.. which was all working swimmingly well on its way to reach Laythe until... Jool obscured the sun during a burn and ruined everything. One thing I still haven't got my head around is gravity boosts. I've seen Scott Manley videos on how to zip around the solar system without using any fuel and I just can't figure out how he strings them together. You basically have to approach a planet at a 90 degree angle to get a decent boost (theoretical maximum is a 180 degree slingshot but that would be quite difficult to pull off). I've had a few happy coincidences in the Jool system that would have sent me to interstellar space but that wasn't my goal at the time..

Loving this game. Bought it around 0.18, just before 0.22 came out I set myself a target to take 3 Kerbals to Laythe, land them and then return them home. Managed to do just that at long last, the only stretch of reality was aerobraking through Jool and Laythe's atmospheres to achieve capture (and aerobraking into Kerbin too). I was only pulling 1-2G's so it was a mild maneuver but I do wonder about the temperature load on the craft. I know there are mods to enhance that aspect anyway (deadly re-entry mod), hopefully one day the game will model it natively. As a result I just got around to starting career mode the other night and the bug has bitten all over again. Well done guys

yes, deliberately so because I have a strong aversion to dumbing things down. One of the things I really like about KSP is the difficulty level is pitched just right. You can make a mess of things or you can be successful. I don't think dumbing it down so that everybody is successful is the right way to go. You will stop some people from complaining it's too hard but others will find the game superficially easy and stop playing. They won't complain it's too basic they'll just get bored and stop. The other thing to bear in mind is that career mode is brand new and the documentation and how-to guides haven't caught up yet. That's where the forum is great because people are posting info all the time as they learn. In that way it's a journey of discovery for everyone rather than giving them a canned solution with 6 easy steps to finishing career mode. Again, BORING!!!. Ultimately, if you want help then you should say "guys, I'm having trouble staying aloft more than 1 or 2 orbits without losing power" and we can rattle off a list of things to look at. Being a keyboard warrior and saying the game sucks because you don't understand it and you're not willing to put in the time to learn anything or ask questions in a mature manner just makes you look like a kid chucking a tanty, and I'm not inclined to help that style of personality because it just provides positive reinforcement that it's an acceptable way to behave.

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Parts#Parachutes Try the MK25. I noticed this yesterday, it has 4 times the semi-deployed drag and fully deployed it opens much earlier (2500m). The final drag is not enough but if you follow it up with one of the other chutes you will get a staged deceleration and less of a jolt at 500m.

Sooo.. why exactly are you going for a job in spacecraft design? If you can't hack this game, you can't hack the job IMO. As for KSP itself, yes it has a learning curve. No, your first few craft will not be successful. This is part of the fun for me. You do get annoyed when despite your best efforts you can't get the damn thing into orbit but if the game was easy it would be BORING!!. The difficulty is what makes it a lasting, rewarding game to play. I would definitely recommend starting off in sandbox first, with a full complement of parts to play with. Watch some instructional videos on youtube as well (Scott Manley) it will help.