A warm hello and some questions

[MagicMagor]

Hello everyone,

i just bought KSP last sunday when it was on sale on GoG. It's quite captivating (especially for a sandbox game, as these usually can't hold me that long).

I'm currently playing a normal career mode and after several restarts (and various explosions) i think i have a fine grasp on the basics (currently finetuning my fuel-usage to get into orbit).

However i have some questions, which i couldn't answer via the wiki or by browsing the forum, so i hope it's ok to ask here.

1. During the trainings-mission when activating SAS i get these vector-nodes besides my navball to tell my pilot to automaticly target this node. So far i have gathered that in career mode, how much of theses vectors turn up depends on the level of the pilot.

My question is, do i also get these icons when using a probe-body (with SAS) on an unmanned vessel? Currently i have only unlocked the first probe body with SAS (the one after the sputnik) but no icons appear. Am i'm out of luck (as i find these quite usefull when executing maneuvers) or do higher tech probe-bodys have these little helpful icons?

2. Transmitting science data after conducting an experiment gets usually less science then keeping the data and returning the vessel. Until now i have witholded transmitting any data in fear that it would lower my total science i could get out of an experiment/situation-combination. But after reading a bit up i'm not so sure anymore. So can i safely transmit all material studys i conduct in high orbit (for example) and still reach the maximum science cap for that experiment? (Though it would take me more experiements then if i return it)

3. How to control a plane?

I've unlocked only the first tech to build planes and thought i might try building a small one - after putting a lot more wings on it (so much that i didn't have enough parts left to put on some parachutes..) i finally managed to get one into the air, for about 20sec before i crashed it into the water. I know it's probably difficult to answer this without a concrete example, but most of the time i'm not sure if i crash because the design has some errors, or if the design could fly, and i just can't control it. Any general tips to found out?

4. Delta-v and return home

I've read several nice tutorials here about delta-v and it's importance and since i installed kerbal engineer my rockets are becoming a lot better. Since after i got a good design to launch a satelite into orbit (with properly planned fuel usage - currently i have to burn to much of my last stage) i want to send a probe to the mun i'm thinking about how much delta-v i need. Figuring out how much i need for the trip to mun is not a big deal, but it seems the delta-v maps never contain the required delta-v for the hometrip. Or do i just need the same amount i needed for the first trip? (Lets say orbit -> orbit)

Ok i think thats enough questions for now, since this is in the welcome-forum after all. Anyway thanks in advance for helping me out.

[Ten Key]

Welcome to the forums Magic.

3. How to control a plane?

This is a great place to start when it comes to aircraft design basics. It helped me out quite a bit when I was first getting into the game.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52080-Basic-Aircraft-Design-Explained-Simply-With-Pictures

4. Delta-v and return home

Figuring out how much i need for the trip to mun is not a big deal, but it seems the delta-v maps never contain the required delta-v for the hometrip.

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I always just read the map "backwards" when figuring the delta v for the return trip. So a trip from LKO to low Munar orbit and back again might look something like 860 m/s --> 210 m/s --> 210 m/s--> 860 m/s. That last 860 m/s is avoidable if you use Kerbin's atmosphere to slow down instead of burning.

[Vanamonde]

1. You may get some or none of them depending on the model of probe core.

2. There is a certain amount of science to be had from each experiment in each biome. Transmitting or returning the data only changes how much of it you retrieve at a time, but the total available is the same either way.

3. This is a pretty complex question. Check the Gameplay Questions/Tutorials subforums for helpful answers from other players.

4. The dV cost to go one way is the same as the cost to go the other way, except in situations where one end of the trip has an atmosphere which can help you do some of the braking.

Welcome to the forum.

[Goddess Bhavani]

3. How to control a plane?

I've unlocked only the first tech to build planes and thought i might try building a small one - after putting a lot more wings on it (so much that i didn't have enough parts left to put on some parachutes..) i finally managed to get one into the air, for about 20sec before i crashed it into the water. I know it's probably difficult to answer this without a concrete example, but most of the time i'm not sure if i crash because the design has some errors, or if the design could fly, and i just can't control it. Any general tips to found out?

If you're starting out fresh, try to mirror a real life aircraft design. Then, some engineer in some big aerospace company has already spent millions (or billions) of dollars figuring out the aerodynamics of the thing on your behalf, and you can thank them in your .craft file credits when you post random bits of genius on the forums or elsewhere in time to come

This imgur album is quite messy but it pretty much shows the evolution of my Kerbal plane design skills from randomly copying high speed bomber designs to messing with ridiculous sci-fi craft then going back to simple, efficient functional light aircraft prototypes for low tech survey use.

http://lestoreadors.imgur.com/

You might even find a few youtube links to prove that once upon a time in a previous KSP version, they actually flew

[MagicMagor]

Thank you all for your answers. I managed to do some more kerbal stuff, but also had some successes on the way (First probe to Mun orbit is stranded in high kerbin orbit - not enough fuel to get back, first minimus-probe en route (with enough fuel)) but the biggest success so far:

http://imgur.com/993L430

Unfortunately the first (flying) prototype of this craft crashed into the ocean which cost the life of Jebediah Kerman and due to a design-mistake/(or glitch?) the fuel tank goes right through the service-bay were the science-instruments were located, so no science or contract fullfilling from this flight. But at least i managed to get down in one piece (more or less, there is still some issue at launch).

[Vanamonde]

Jeb doesn't stay dead very long.

[The D Train]

Jeb doesn't stay dead very long.

Hello and welcome, Magic! Jeb actually does and can stay dead for long... if you edit your save file to not allow "lost" Kerbs to respawn. I do this to add to the realism In my world, when they're dead, they're dead. No reincarnation allowed