The forgoten part

[Madscientist16180]

For the many hours i played KSP, and The number of timesi tought it would help, i never went as far as to make an actual check-list for when i build à craft. So i always tend to forget something.

I tend to build very "Kerbal", not overmathing it. I could calculate everything and be very efficient, but i feel KSP is funniest to play as a game then as a simulation. You can get really efficient calculating everything. But it is 100% possible to just wing it and see how it goes, that's my way. Anyways, i'm moving away from my point quite a lot lol

Not over thinking it, i most of the time end up on the pad, only to realise i forgot to put either KER part or fins. Don't know why, it's systematically one or the other. 

In the beginning, it was chute! So many reentry to go " ho... No chutes... Well, it was fun knowing you Mr. Kerman." I managed to outgrow this one, but still think i should make check-lists lol.

What, if anything, is the thing you ALWAYS forget to place on your ship at construction? And do you use any trick to prevent it?

[sardia]

Subassemblies and reusing rocket designs while updating them. After a certain point, old problems go away. Then that frees you to explore further, and experience brand new and exciting problems. 

Edited April 3, 2016 by sardia

[SgtSomeone]

47 minutes ago, Madscientist16180 said:

What, if anything, is the thing you ALWAYS forget to place on your ship at construction? And do you use any trick to prevent it?

For me it's usually one of: lights, solar panels, or RCS thrusters, because they don't really change the ship's abilities as I'm designing it. 

The solution for me has been to develop a mental checklist. Design my rocket however I want to, and before I click the green launch button, run through the list:

• Lights?
• Electrical storage & supply?
• RCS thrusters and storage?
• Chutes? 

If you get into the habit of doing it before you hit 'launch', it only takes a second and it's good enough that I catch 90% of my design oversights beforehand. 

26 minutes ago, sardia said:

Subassemblies and reusing rocket designs while updating them. After a certain point, old problems go away. Then that frees you to explore further, and experience brand new and exciting problems. 

Sardia also makes a good point. I've started designing LKO launchers and payloads separately so when I design an intricate lander, I can just slap on a trusted and well-designed 10T/50T/100T launcher and know it will all be fine. 

 

Edited April 3, 2016 by SgtSomeone

[StrandedonEarth]

6 minutes ago, SgtSomeone said:

Electrical storage & supply?

And unless you have RTG's (PB-NUKS iirc), don't forget to lock out a battery as a spare, for when you forget to deploy the solar panels, or leave your OX-STATS in the shade.

Edit: And staging. Don't forget to double check your staging. It always seems that during that first launch of a new career, the first spacebar seems to do nothing. Then I press spacebar again, and it launches trailing an open parachute

Edited April 3, 2016 by StrandedonEarth

[SgtSomeone]

2 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

And unless you have RTG's (PB-NUKS iirc), don't forget to lock out a battery as a spare, for when you forget to deploy the solar panels, or leave your OX-STATS in the shade.

Whenever I grab a probe core, the first thing I do is disable the internal battery as a failsafe. Though reading the 1.1 forums, it looks like even the battery re-enables become locked out now if the ship is out of power. 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Air intakes on jets.

Load to runway, throttle up, push caps lock, engage SAS, press space...

Nothing? ...what the fudge...why wouldn't...oh... 

Edited April 3, 2016 by Rocket In My Pocket

[StrandedonEarth]

9 minutes ago, SgtSomeone said:

Whenever I grab a probe core, the first thing I do is disable the internal battery as a failsafe. Though reading the 1.1 forums, it looks like even the battery re-enables become locked out now if the ship is out of power. 

That makes sense for real-life unmanned probes, but an annoying bug for kerbal ground control. I also learned to lock out a bigger battery than a 10ec probe core, after an Eve probe ran out of juice while transmitting science. When I unlocked the probe core battery, the antenna sucked out the juice before I could deploy a panel (and I was trying to be fast).

A manned, er, kerballed craft should be able to re-enable a battery by flipping a switch. Come to think of it, it should be possible to design a microswitch that can be triggered by hitting it with a strong enough radio signal, similar to how RFIDs work.

Edited April 3, 2016 by StrandedonEarth

[HebaruSan]

• Automatic Switching --> Manual Switching
• Action groups
• Empty the monoprop tanks for ships not using RCS
• Ladders
• Appropriate crew
• My AutoAction settings when it's installed

[spacebrick3]

Fairings. It seems so obvious, but for so many launches I would launch my rover/station/base and realise: "Wait. What is wrong with this thing?"

[worir4]

For me, I put too much on my craft. I often block the hatch with batteries or parachutes. 

The worst was a Moho mission that used all my funds on career. Paaaaiiiinnnnn...

[pipercarman]

Most of the time when I make planes I forget to put on any landing gear and air intakes. Although I hardly ever make any of them though.

[cantab]

The Kerbal, on any design where the root part wasn't the command pod.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

5 minutes ago, cantab said:

The Kerbal, on any design where the root part wasn't the command pod.

The tourists!

Nothing like getting all the way out to the Mun...

"Boy that was some trip but were finally here guys! Isn't she beautiful? Just look at those craters! ...Guys? ...Guys?! ...You there....?" *crickets chirping*

Edited April 3, 2016 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Tw1]

2 hours ago, SgtSomeone said:

For me it's usually one of: lights, solar panels, or RCS thrusters, 

With me, it's usually just one set of RCS thrusters.  Opps, looks like my ship can't go that way. 

 

Though I usually test every ship pretty thoroughly. 

[magnemoe]

I always forget light, RCS a couple of times. You also has the horror stories like making an 8 rover cluster and forget to add probe cores on them. 
 

[KerikBalm]

Ditto on the probe cores... I made a "tractor" tug with a docked "adpator" craft with a 2.5m docking port on one end, a 1.25m port on the other end, RCS thrusters and monoprop storage, electric storage/generation, even an antenna for when probes will need those to work.... and I forgot the probe core... Yes I'm going to edit the save file to add one if I ever need to reconfigure my tractor tug (at the moment, the "bottom" 2.5m node is attached to a payload which has a 2.5m docking port... if I need to pull something via a 1.25m docking port... ugghhh...  for now I don't have anything so big with a 1.25m connection that I can't push it on the other end... but... yea...

I forget probe cores on multipart vessels that are launched as a single part... one part often can't be controlled after undocking.

[Columbia]

RCS, Solar panels, intakes and (embarrasingly) the probe core itself.

[N_Danger]

The light for sure.

The most embarrassing missing part was an un-kerbaled rover, with all the science instruments I had researched up till that point, that landed on Duna. Without an antenna. 

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

To avoid missing parts, at the end of design, I actually look through ALL the parts in the sidebar one by one:

"Have that, have that, don't need any of those... have that... ooh! I forgot one of these!"

[Superfluous J]

My big forget it the opposite: I forget to REMOVE RCS fuel from command pods. My missions are never quite so well planned as for it to matter, but it still bugs me.

I also frequently forget batteries, so much so that I've actually gotten quite good at conserving power.

[XrayLima]

LADDERS!!!  Every s£%ing time.  Multipart Duna vehicle with Hab modules and attached lander for Duna and reentry vehicle for Kerbin.  Somewhere near 700 parts all told.  Built in orbit, crew sent up.  Waited for transfer window, low G burn so it didn't flex like crazy.  Aerobrake into low orbit.  Send down lander and crew. Hours of work coming to fruition.  EVA Jeb..... and.... "OH Bloody Hell, not again...".  Crew forced to return without ever stepping on the planet... Urgh....

Edited April 4, 2016 by XrayLima

[StrandedonEarth]

51 minutes ago, XrayLima said:

LADDERS!!!  Every s£%ing time.  Multipart Duna vehicle with Hab modules and attached lander for Duna and reentry vehicle for Kerbin.  Somewhere near 700 parts all told.  Built in orbit, crew sent up.  Waited for transfer window, low G burn so it didn't flex like crazy.  Aerobrake into low orbit.  Send down lander and crew. Hours of work coming to fruition.  EVA Jeb..... and.... "OH Bloody Hell, not again...".  Crew forced to return without ever stepping on the planet... Urgh....

I'm pretty sure you can use the EVA jetpack to get back to the hatch on Duna. It's a slow lift, but doable. Unless you're loaded down with KIS parts, but you can just drop those.

[Freshmeat]

Enough battery for science has gotten me a couple of times, but far more common is missing either solar panels of radio antenna.

[FancyMouse]

Intake and probe core are my common forgot parts discovered early stage.

Late stage common mistakes includes forgot putting science instruments, used non-retractable solar panels for aerobrake, not enough solar panels beyond Kerbin orbit.

 

OTOH, my pods are usually filled with monoprop - they are such a great monoprop container. I never need more than 10 units for docking, and using a dedicated tank is such a waste. One pod gives both reaction wheel and monoprop that covers up to 10t payload range, and it makes me pretty happy.

[Jetski]

I generally get a scanning probe to Moho, catch a Polar orbit, open scanning array, and get a "No comms found on vessel".  Forgot an antenna again.  Same with MPL loaded with science