Is it ever desirable to start a mission with engines at half throttle?

[cephalo]

One thing that gets me every mission, and why I probably couldn't handle hard mode, is that every time I forget to set my engines to max throttle, and every time it mucks up my mission forcing a revert. Is there a way to force the throttle to default to max? That would eliminate a lot of do-overs.

[Starwhip]

I don't know, but the reason for the half throttle is the failure of many new people to ever throttle up their liquid fuel engines in the first place and being frustrated when their rocket does nothing on ignition.

[UmbralRaptor]

Barring some highly marginal (read: fragile) rocket designs, starting at 100% seems preferable. And the marginal ones would be well served by a sometimes safer starting at 0% default. 50% is pretty much the worst of all worlds, but a lot less annoying since we got a full throttle button.

[regex]

Generally if you're launching at half throttle you've overbuilt the rocket.

[klgraham1013]

The 50% throttle decision makes little sense. It people are confused that their rocket didn't do anything when they hit space bar, then, maybe, they should learn the controls.

How did they even know to press space bar?

[Starwhip]

The 50% throttle decision makes little sense. It people are confused that their rocket didn't do anything when they hit space bar, then, maybe, they should learn the controls.

How did they even know to press space bar?

Fair point.

[adinfinitum]

I've got at least one rocket that starts at half throttle. It's got two SRBs on the sides, but their thrust isn't quite enough for lift off. Adding a third would be overkill, so having my main engine at half throttle gives it just the right amount of thrust.

However, the majority of my rockets are tuned for full throttle lift off, so I do wish it started at full instead of half.

[Gaarst]

How did they even know to press space bar?

Makes sense to me: someone gives you a big pile of explosives with a controller, what is the first thing you do ?

Press the biggest button, which on a keyboard is the space bar

[Temeter]

Generally if you're launching at half throttle you've overbuilt the rocket.

It was more common in old KSP whith it's very unreliable joints and lots of physic bugs. I'd assume that's where the half-throttle thing is coming from.

[regex]

It was more common in old KSP whith it's very unreliable joints and lots of physic bugs. I'd assume that's where the half-throttle thing is coming from.

There were ways around it.

[Alshain]

Yeah, I agree. We are talking about a one time occurrence for each new player vs. annoying everyone else all the time. It's worse for those of us that have a HOTAS, it starts at 50% even when the throttle on the flight stick is at 0. So you have to do this weird throttle up/throttle back down thing before each launch to get them to sync up.

[Ulzgoroth]

I think almost every rocket I've launched didn't really want to have the throttle at 100% when it ignites the first liquid stage.

Having the throttle start at 50% isn't particularly helpful for that. I don't think there's any other level that would be reliably right either, though.

[MGCJerry]

My new approach is I launch at 2/3 throttle or so, then go full throttle once I get to about 10K. I'm still working on my ascent profile though.

[SkyRender]

I recall watching a video back in the day of someone playing KSP who did figure out how to launch rockets, but never figured out that the throttle could be moved up or down. He also never realized that you can move the root part up and down in the VAB, so needless to say, he never really made it to space (or even close). This was with 0.8.4, mind, so it's not likely he would have made it to space even if he had known what he was doing...

[TothAval]

i will add the suggestion to be able to set a value for launch throttle to my QoL list tomorrow, let each and every player decide for him self, if he or she is unsatisfied with the 50%. i kinda like this setting, because my first stage is almost everytime composed of solid fuel boosters and it's not a bad thing to start at 50% on the second stage and to have the ability to tune it in either direction as needed as quickly as possible

Edited May 7, 2015 by TothAval

[Guest]

There is 10s similar threads in this forum, and devs did not changed it. Shame.

[Acet]

If you've tuned the throttle percentage in your rocket's boosters so that roughly you're climbing at around terminal velocity, then it often makes sense to use the throttle and a liquid fuel engine to fine tune ascent speed.

That said, usually at launch you will want full-throttle on that liquid fuel engine to get up to 120 m/s (roughly sea level terminal speed in Kerbal) as fast as possible.

[sal_vager]

The devs changed it to zero throttle from 50% originally due to player feedback, so many new players were stuck on the pad that the advice to "hold shift to throttle up" was in the official Squad FAQ.

It's more trouble that it's worth to have throttle default to zero, but a settings option would be nice.

Also there's one situation where I often leave the throttle half way, 100% throttle is overkill with many flights with small planes

[Entropiated]

If you've tuned the throttle percentage in your rocket's boosters so that roughly you're climbing at around terminal velocity, then it often makes sense to use the throttle and a liquid fuel engine to fine tune ascent speed.

That said, usually at launch you will want full-throttle on that liquid fuel engine to get up to 120 m/s (roughly sea level terminal speed in Kerbal) as fast as possible.

This is where I am now. I use solid fuel boosters (kickbacks) as my main lifting force, and have tuned them to keep me at about 200 m/s in the lower atmosphere with my liquid engines at just under 2/3. Not only does this keep atmospheric effects from destroying my stuff, it also saves me fuel I can use later on.

[Drethon]

I typically launch with 100% throttle and cut back at 100 m/s or so, though that was mostly pre-1.0. The only times I'd consider less on launch is with overpowered SRBs but I'd usually cut the set thrust on the SRB in that case.

[klgraham1013]

The devs changed it to zero throttle from 50% originally due to player feedback, so many new players were stuck on the pad that the advice to "hold shift to throttle up" was in the official Squad FAQ.

It's more trouble that it's worth to have throttle default to zero, but a settings option would be nice.

Also there's one situation where I often leave the throttle half way, 100% throttle is overkill with many flights with small planes

Teaching new players once is a far better solution then annoying all players all the time.

[magnemoe]

Generally if you're launching at half throttle you've overbuilt the rocket.

Yes, with the old aerodynamic you tend to have to throttle back once you reached 100 m/s with the new you have overbuild for this to be an problem.

[Steppenrazor]

forgive me if I'm wrong..

but I thought with the new atmosphere effects, and stuff like drag.. it was considered more effective to start at about 1/2 throttle? even going lower at times to avoid massive drag slowing you down and basically wasting fuel? until you reach about 20k or so, then bump it up to full or nearly? at least with the early tech rockets?

know I saw a video a chap made, in the tips/guides area. where he was able to get a rocket with all lvl 2 tech. into orbit. (11 fuel cans, 1 engine, 3 boosters.) I followed his advice, and being fairly new.. (I got the game back with Science was first brought in. played VERY little until release

anyway - you set the boosters to like 65%, leave throttle at 1/2.. I followed his advice, and managed to get that rocket into a 73/72 - ish orbit..

?

[regex]

Yes, with the old aerodynamic you tend to have to throttle back once you reached 100 m/s with the new you have overbuild for this to be an problem.

I don't recall ever caring when using #LOLAERO. It shouldn't have mattered beyond excessive drag losses anyway because the optimal ascent was straight up until the atmosphere thinned enough to start building horizontal velocity, it's not like you were turning early and had to pay attention to aerodynamic stresses...

[sal_vager]

Teaching new players once is a far better solution then annoying all players all the time.

That's just it though, it wasn't

It's easy for experienced players to press Z or X though.