What do you do to test a design?

[Wolf Baginski]

There are mods which provide various ways to "cheat", and a lot of argument sometimes about what is a "cheat". There's a fuzzy boundary.

But if I want to test a design, some of those cheats give consistency, if you call them cheats at all. Some can take out all the tedium of a long voyage to a world such as Laythe when you want to test a lander. They're a bit better than just using a savegame.

The mental model I have is that, at least for sandbox use, using such cheats is having a bunch of Kerbals standing aroud the KSC Kray (And it almost has to be a Kray-Z) waiting for the simulator run to finish. And then Seymour Kerman drops a stack of print-out on the table and runs for cover.

(The printout will by the old-style green-lined fan-fold with the perforations down the side.)

Wernher von Kerman tries to stand aloof from the Kerbal feeding frenzy, though there is a glint in his eye, and when a bold Kerbal brandishes the final page, bearing the slogan "Mission Ending Criteria Achieved" he has been known to smile slightly.

That's how I see the use of mods such as HyperEdit. If you have doubts about MechJeb, it fits with that mental model.

[eddiew]

Kerbal Construction Time - allows you to run 'simulations' starting in orbit around any body you've visited already; but there's a cost associated so you don't feel like you're cheating If you're not careful it can get to the point where the sims are costing as much as the mission though, so overusing it is unwise.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Well, when I wanted to send an orbiter/rover mission to Duna, I sent the first one I built around the Mun and back, and watched how the reentry vehicle behaved when I released it into Kerbin's upper atmosphere. I knew that I wasn't simulating the gravity correctly, but it turned out to be a reasonable test.

[cantab]

I just do tests around Kerbin. Where applicable I'll apply a correction factor, for example if I know Duna's air pressure and gravity I can estimate the fall speed under chutes on Duna based on the fall speed on Kerbin. Or I'll do an aggressive re-entry to simulate returning from an interplanetary trip, which is pretty much how NASA tested the Orion capsule.

[Warzouz]

I usually put the "testing vehicle" on the pad and stage everything. Sometime I hyperedit it into space and redo the same test, to check if everything works correctly.

Then back to VAB, I select the crew and stick a prebuild Cygnus SSTO launcher and fly it 10/20 days before the transfer window.

As I play multiple missions at the same time (thanks KAC), If I fail something, I reload using specific save points. On don't wait the next window. Exceptions : Mun and Minmus (when I botched my lander, I just send another on from Kerbin and crashed the old one to the ground)

Edit

Ah, I forgot the most important : when I prepare a big mission, I don't test it in sandbox. I do a specific savegame and do all the testing in my career game. When I'm ready I reload the save and launch the mission

Edit2

For specific missions such as Eve landing, I also used Hyperedit. I did probably 30 tries and still don't get it right...

Edited October 6, 2015 by Warzouz

[Red Iron Crown]

I hyperedit the heck out of things when testing. Nuclear orbital ship testing, but no lifter yet? Hyperedit. Aerobraking concept for Eve? Hyperedit. ISRU miner? Hyperedit. Some might call it cheating, I don't care. My play time is limited so I try to make the most of it.

That said, sometimes I use an untested design for a full mission just for fun, though not often outside Kerbin's SoI.

[OhioBob]

I just do tests around Kerbin. Where applicable I'll apply a correction factor, for example if I know Duna's air pressure and gravity I can estimate the fall speed under chutes on Duna based on the fall speed on Kerbin. Or I'll do an aggressive re-entry to simulate returning from an interplanetary trip, which is pretty much how NASA tested the Orion capsule.

That's the same thing I do. I test everything that I can test under simulated conditions on and around Kerbin. What I can't test directly, I use physics/math to verify a design in principle. I've never used hyperedit, though that's not because I consider it cheating. I just prefer to devise other ways to test my craft.

[StainX]

I just use the "Revert to..." feature on Kerbin (enabled it in hardmode career), i don't think its cheating at all with quickload disabled.

For the rest i use KER and Trajectory mod.

On interplanetary missions, i always send a probe ahead, to get some data like deltaV usage, atmosphere density and re-entry heat...

[artao]

Kerbal Construction Time - allows you to run 'simulations' starting in orbit around any body you've visited already; but there's a cost associated so you don't feel like you're cheating If you're not careful it can get to the point where the sims are costing as much as the mission though, so overusing it is unwise.

That's what I've done as well. The cool thing is that you can turn on/off the bits of KCT that you want. As such, for this career at least, I've turned off everything but the simulator. It really integrates well with the vanilla game, I think. You have to pay per time-segment, and more complex craft cost more and more. Saves the time and trouble of going into sandbox mode.

Now I've turned off revert, and am considering turning off quick-save. I really should turn off quick-save. I think I'll turn off quick-save.

[Kerbart]

Revert to and HyperEdit, as mentioned before.

I also have no qualms about using revert when finding out that I forgot to readjust the staging order when the editor decided to move those TT-18's back to their own stage (after putting them in the right spot), or when I just frontdoor in general. Because "in reality" you'd have an engineering team to take care of that, although one can observe that my only (lack of quality) is representative for the failure of my Kerbal engineers.

[Tourist]

"What do you do to test a design?" You ask.

Not enough, I answer.

Usually trial error, reload. Repeat until success achieved.

Although recently I did a bit of save-game editing to complete a mission that would not complete due to not fault of my own (A "new" spacestation, instantly become not new enough once I attached it to an asteroid). So I am now more willing to tinker with this capability to lessen the trial and error.

[Vanamonde]

I run 2 saves at a time (or more). One is a "real" career in which I don't use any shortcuts, and the other is a sandbox, which I consider to be the Kerbal's simulations. In the sim, it's useful to use Hyperedit to test a lander on another world without having to build and fly the delivery vehicle there first, or to replenish the fuel of an engine test, etc. Once I have a design tested sufficiently, I copy it to the "real" save for actual missions.

[Randazzo]

Press spacebar.

I kid. I don't really find myself needing to test the majority of my designs anymore. I have a pretty good idea of what will work where, and I'm not overly ambitious in my vehicle designs. If it works, no need to change it. There are some exceptions, like planes/spaceplanes and recoverable launchers. Those need testing, (see above for method) but I just revert if necessary.

[RocketBlam]

I've used Hyperedit to put Eve landers in orbit there, simply because they are so hard to design that you would go bankrupt, and quickly, actually testing them live. I always revert and launch the real mission in the end.

[magnemoe]

Sandbox game called test for experimental stuff. Here I use hyperedit a lot.

For minnor stuff like rovers I mostly test at pad and revert

[zarakon]

In career, I test on Kerbin and eat the costs. There's some fun in doing it that way, figuring out the easiest/cheapest ways to test things and designing missions in a way that makes them easy to test each part

[keeper]

In my career I make payloads first. I never seem to just test that on the launch pad.

It's just over engineered in the VAB/SPH - then streight onto the launcher stage.

If a launch goes wrong, I can revert to launch (thank the kraken for revert), and that goes down as a trial run.

If it gets to orbit, then I can either scrap the "test" and continue as a "real" mission, or continue the "test" and try land on kerbin. Have not yet landed on Duna, did my first crash land a week or so ago havn't had chance to play since!

I have a sandbox game aswell where I can feel free to timewarp to test stuff on other bodies. But not using that mod to put ships places.

[StrandedonEarth]

Pack the can full of green spam and light that candle! Hey, they have to get mystery goo from somewhere