Greetings to the KSP community and question about rocket diagrams

[unevoie]

Hi all - I'm currently playing the free KSP demo and just getting my bearings in the game. I actually came across it when I stumbled across a discussion of friendliest online game communities (and from what I've seen, I definitely agree), and I decided that KSP sounded cool to try, even though I have no experience with anything flight related.

I'm finding that the game tutorials are a little above my head still. I'm having trouble remembering the different parts and what they do. I've found the glossary in the wiki, but was wondering if anyone has a great resource for a beginners rocket diagram or glossary of just 'must know' terminology (or anything else you can think of to help me get over the initial knowledge-hump!). 

Thanks in advance for any pointers!

[Starhawk]

Hello unevoie and welcome to the forum!

The Wiki is definitely a great resource.  A great place to get valuable knowledge is the Gameplay Questions section and the Tutorials subsection.  One thread to take a look at is the Drawing Board.  This is a goldmine of valuable info.

If you have a specific question and can't find the answer anywhere, feel free to post your question in the Gameplay Questions section I linked above.

Hope this helps.

Happy landings!

[Vanamonde]

Where was this discussion of friendly forums? 

[Tex]

Welcome aboard!

As Starhawk mentioned, and provided the links for, the Tutorials section has all sorts of technical mumbo-jumbo to wrap your head around. Most of the basics you'll come to master soon enough, and it'll all become second nature. Off the top of my head, I know that you wanna pay attention to your delta-v, or change in velocity (think the overall range or power of your rocket) so it can get where you need it to go.

[Snikersnee]

Welcome! The demo is actually one of the earliest versions of the game, so in my eyes it doesn't accurately portray the final game. Although parts are easy to understand. Engines/RCS thrusters provide thrust which moves the vehicle, fuel tanks hold the fuel for those engines, and command pods hold kerbals, the characters of the game. You need those. 

[HebaruSan]

18 hours ago, unevoie said:

Hi all - I'm currently playing the free KSP demo and just getting my bearings in the game.

Welcome!

18 hours ago, unevoie said:

I actually came across it when I stumbled across a discussion of friendliest online game communities (and from what I've seen, I definitely agree)

It should be noted that much of the credit for this belongs with our benevolent forum moderator overlords. It's not an accident; there are rules here, and they're enforced aggressively. This group has its fair share of flare-ups like any other place on the internet, but here they get warned, deleted, and locked. Not only does this make things appear more friendly than they might really have been at the time, but it also stops silly feuds quickly and limits the amount of long term bad blood that develops.

18 hours ago, unevoie said:

I'm finding that the game tutorials are a little above my head still. I'm having trouble remembering the different parts and what they do. I've found the glossary in the wiki, but was wondering if anyone has a great resource for a beginners rocket diagram or glossary of just 'must know' terminology (or anything else you can think of to help me get over the initial knowledge-hump!).

I've been playing this game and reading tutorials for years now, and I'm still learning new terms, rules of thumb, formulas, etc. Ask anyone what they think the key concepts are, and you're likely to get overwhelmed with assorted tidbits that you'll have little chance of remembering without context. My advice is to pick a goal, try to accomplish it, then if you don't, try to figure out why, and if you can't, then ask a detailed question on the forum. This way the concepts will come at your own pace.

[unevoie]

On 3/16/2016 at 9:05 PM, Vanamonde said:

Where was this discussion of friendly forums? 

It was this one on AskReddit.

[unevoie]

Thank you to all for your replies - I'm already feeling like I have some better ideas about next steps, and I appreciate the heads up on the demo version being an early version.  I figure I'll get out a notepad for some of the terminology, and maybe get my brother to give me some tips on flight controls since I'm finding that although I'm now actually using them, I'm super inefficient since I'm just sort of pushing buttons until I seem to be going the right direction (I hope that's not how actual flying works!).  In any case, your welcome and insight is very much appreciated.

[Dman979]

Hi @unevoie! Don't worry, mashing randoms buttons is fine. My first month, I was launching retrograde for all my orbits, and putting LF/O nozzles on the bottom of my SRBs.

And brothers are always a great place to go for help.

Welcome aboard!