Large Fuel Tanker Rover - How Do I LAUNCH It?

[-Velocity-]

No, it can't. Unless you have a mod that sets your vertical velocity to 0, in which case we are talking about different things. Yes, with the Vertical Velocity Control mod you can hover for hours. You can go get a cup of coffee while hovering if you so choose. If you're controlling your ship with the keyboard, though, you're going to be tapping shift and control the whole time, going up and down as you go. And if you're not used to doing that (and who is, out of the people who've never tried this before?) then it's a new skill to learn and new muscle memory to train. And the penalty for making a mistake could include the destruction of your base.

I understand what you're saying. Landing on docking ports is my preferred method to do ISRU. I've done it dozens of times and am totally comfortable with it. Not one little bit of that changes how hard it was to learn and perfect.

Sorry, but I control the ship with the keyboard too (because in my experience KSP doesn't work very well with joysticks and throttles) and I find vertical docking extremely easy, and it was extremely easy the first time I tried it, far easier than I was expecting. You can nearly cancel out gravity exactly. True, it's an oversimplification to say you can hover for hours. BUT all you need to do is tap the RCS or make slight throttle adjustments. And though you don't perfectly cancel out gravity, guess what- you're going to be accellerating upward or downward at like 0.05 m/s^2 Big deal. Tortoises can accelerate faster than that. Tap the RCS every once in a while and you're golden. I don't see what the big deal is. Maybe I'm missing something that have made my vertical docking maneuvers easier than what the average person will encounter (like perhaps if you have low frame rates, it's harder to precisely adjust your throttle?- my computer is reasonably fast).

I guess it just goes to show you that what we find difficult or easy is not universal; undoubtably there are some things in the game I found difficult that you have done/do with ease. I do certainly believe though that vertical docking is far easier on average than most people who have never done it believe it to be. Therefore, I believe that people should be encouraged to try it. For me, frequently the hardest part of docking is getting axial alignment correct (this is especially true for docking a maneuverable vessel to a non-maneuverable one). Therefore, vertical docking under weak gravity, where axial alignment is already taken care of for you, is certainly easier for me than docking in weightlessness.

[11of10]

If you're worried about destroying your base, just put the docking port on the ground next to it. Also, Velocity, on that picture, do you use KJR or not? It's important, I think.

[Clipperride]

HavingHaving driven on Minmus for the first time today, I can't over emphasis the usefulness of some down thrust! I'm so glad I fitted my large (based on Mk2 crew module and Mk2 large rocket fuel tank) test drill with some vernier's on the roof.

EDIT - I've just been trying to fit struts and a fairing to an odd shaped lander and discovered another work around. My rover is attached with struts to girders with in turn sit on decouplers on the landers radial tanks. By adding the fairing at the top and building it downwards, you can then go back and attach lower stages that poke through the end of the fairing. Add a nose cone and its time to see if it'll fly

Edited September 11, 2015 by Clipperride

[-Velocity-]

If you're worried about destroying your base, just put the docking port on the ground next to it. Also, Velocity, on that picture, do you use KJR or not? It's important, I think.

The only mod I'm using at the moment is Mechjeb. Is KJR "Kerbal Joint Reinforcement"? Why would it be important?

[11of10]

Because Kerbal Joint Reinforcement does exactly that. All the connections between different parts of the vehicle are strengthened, which in turn has a large effect on flexing of the structure.

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For instance, my univerasal self sustaining rover ATAV holds it's shape perfectly when used with KJR, and without it, tends to break in two when moving from runway to the grassy plains below.

Edit: I'm an idiot. I saw that picture up there with that huge mothership docked on the ground, and failed to notice all the struts.

Edited September 15, 2015 by 11of10