In praise of the new aerodynamics and rocket flipping

[Nathair]

Im tired of people complaining, I went through career mode hard up to level 4 and had none of the problems people complain about early game career.

Since we're sharing... I'm tired of people popping into these threads to epeen about how they never had any of these problems and so therefore the people having them are just lame whiners. Not helpful.

[ArmchairGravy]

Things that stopped my rocket somersaults were fins on the first stage and making sure my TWR stayed between 1.5 and 2. It's really easy to over-thrust, especially near the end of a stage. If stuff still wants to act squirrelly, I add SAS and/or go for a shallower ascent profile. I've gotten some stupid stuff orbited. If finesse doesn't work, brute force will!

[eataTREE]

I am having moderate problems getting stuff to orbit -- at least, more problems than I ever used to have. Little rockets and simple rockets fly pretty well. Bigger rockets fly sometimes. The biggest problem seems to be getting any sort of big aeroshell-wrapped payload up there. They want to be really unstable, at all speeds and all altitudes, and then flip out at 30,000 meters regardless of current speed or deviation from prograde. As for my spaceplane... well actually it flies like a champ. Even my weird space-shuttle-esque three-stage spaceplane works.

I think those of us who are having the hardest problems were those of us who thought of ourselves as working in Rocket Engineering, not the Astronaut Corps. My experience of playing KSP used to be designing the rocket, then handing it off to MJ for all actual flying-related tasks. That just doesn't work anymore -- even if you use MJ, you have to keep a close eye on it and keep tweaking the flight parameters as you go if you want to get to orbit successfully. The days of "Build rocket, press launch button, go make pizza" are over.

Notwithstanding the increased difficulty, I set a probe down on the surface of Eve for the first time ever in my current 1.0.2 save. Jeb, Bill, and Bob are chilling out in low Eve orbit waiting for their return window. (To pass the time, I imagine them playing poker with all the science points.) So it's not like the game is now impossible by any means. Just a little harder.

[magnemoe]

Things that stopped my rocket somersaults were fins on the first stage and making sure my TWR stayed between 1.5 and 2. It's really easy to over-thrust, especially near the end of a stage. If stuff still wants to act squirrelly, I add SAS and/or go for a shallower ascent profile. I've gotten some stupid stuff orbited. If finesse doesn't work, brute force will!

This, if you launch someting wery non aerodynamic you want to climb higher before turning much.

Upper stages are dangerous lower down to at least with large fairings

[Fraggle]

Good job.

Iv had similar issues myself... well.. kinda.

Flippy rockets (heavy payloads).

Did some thinking, and realized that if I cut my acceleration down and kept it around 15 - 17 my rocket wouldnt flip any more.

Astounding!.....

Why?.. Oh, yea.. drag.... If my rocket has a fat head and a slim arse its going to be aero heavy on the nose... and want to flip over.

Solution?. redesign the payload (yea, nuts to that) or keep a close eye on the acceleration and make sure I have a reasonable balance between the drag of the nose and the thrust of the tail. By feathering the throttle.

Oddly enough. There was a thread last week where someone complained about the thrust default being set to 50%... and a bunch of people suggesting that it was stupid and they just set their to 100% before take off. Im guessing these might be people still playing with 0.90 who are scared of the aero changes?...

[TK421d]

Since we're sharing... I'm tired of people popping into these threads to epeen about how they never had any of these problems and so therefore the people having them are just lame whiners. Not helpful.

also, in response to the same guys post: KSP is meant to be a game not a hardcore astrophysics simulator.

[regex]

Since we're sharing... I'm tired of people popping into these threads to epeen about how they never had any of these problems and so therefore the people having them are just lame whiners. Not helpful.

Since we're sharing, I'm tired of people thinking people saying "not a problem" is some sort of bragging; it's not. Maybe people should stop whining and ask some actual, honest-to-god questions, or maybe do some actual research. Instead of "THIS GAEM IS UNPLAYABLE!!!1!!111!!!!eleven!!!!" they should maybe construct a question like "How do I successfully launch in KSP 1.0.2?" and then make a post with pictures of their LV. The first statement comes off as a troll post and will rightfully be replied to as such. The second will undoubtedly be met with many helpful comments, if my experience here on this forum is any indication.

Not Whining And Asking Real Questions: It Works.