My name is nobody

[Personne]

Hi everyone, new french Kerbonaut right here!

Lets skip the IRL part quickly : 29y old, currently living in Paris, fun fact : I used to work on real satellites testing their mechanical and thermal resistance

 

 

I was confident when I first launched this game.

I knew it's a hard one but, eh? I have both a good scientific + videogame background so it should be easy right? I mean at least I should be able to land on Mun quite easy.

So I read a few beginners tips and here we go, let's start the career mod.

The firsts flights are quite easy, I leave the atmosphere, watch the goo, do some crew reports, deliver some basics contracts and win a few science points (cause you know, science love yeah).

And, sooner than I expected, I'm stuck.

Can't even place my spaceship on orbit around Kerbin...

At that point I think hanging out on this forum might be usefull.

I'll try yo sumerize my situation.

First of all here's the tech I've unlocked :

- General Rocketry : I thought I needed a lot of power, so I upgraded the rocketry first

- Stability : Mostly for the radials decouplers

- Survivability : Why not?

 

My actual rocket is a 3 stages + boosters, this is how far I goes with it :

- Launch : I toggle SAS on and start the two BACC "Thumper" booster

- 8000m I start rotating with E in order to slowly reach the 45* east between 10000-12000m

- I throw the boosters and start the RT-10 "Hammer" wich allow me to reach 60000m, then I throw it and place my rocket horizontaly

- then I start my last engine part (a LVT 45 with a FLT 200 fuel tank), trying to accelerate when I reach the apopsis.

 

But I can't get on the orbit, I burn all my fuel before I reach it...

 

At this point I'm posting here to know is there anything I'm doing wrong?

I'm not asking for a step by step tutorial, I really want to understand the game, not reaching orbite whitout knowing how.

TL;DR : Hi, I'm new to this game, sucking at it but loving it

 

ps : Sorry for my english, you know how french people struggle with foreign languages....

[Superfluous J]

It sounds like maybe you're following some old tutorials. Before 1.0, you had to go up 8-10km before turning. Nowadays, you want to start turning slowly once you're going about 50-100m/s, and slowly arc your way over so you're going about 45 degrees at 10km or so. It's far more an art form than a cooking recipe these days (and far closer to how actual rockets rise).

Also, solid rockets are great for boost (and cost) but terrible for control. For your upper stage I suggest regular engines and fuel tanks, so you can throttle and steer.

And your English is far, far better than my french!

[Personne]

hey thanks!

yep it seems like the beginners tips I've seen are'nt up to date anymore...

I'll try turning earlier.

The solid rockets are only for launch?

With how many stages/engine should I be able to reach the orbit?

I'm currently using boosters for launch then first stage to reach the orbital and 2nd (and last) stage for speeding up when I'm on spot, but I run out of fuel before reaching the good periapsis (in fact I can't even see periapsis on map) :/

Edited May 12, 2016 by Personne
damn you autocorrector

[Dman979]

Yeup, what 5thHorseman said sums a lot of it up.

I wonder what else you have at the top of your rocket, besides a capsule (and chutes, too, I hope!)? To me, it seems like you have plenty of power, you just have too much payload. In KSP, we define that as "anything not used or discarded to reach orbit."

Some other tips I've learned, over the years-

Fins go on the bottommost stage, and no others. It's a mistake I made my first few flights, and it's not one I do now.

Don't put anything on the bottom of an SRB which isn't discarded before firing. This includes engines.

If you have more questions, I'd suggest checking out the Gameplay Questions or Tutorials subforums. Once you get to orbit, you're halfway to anywhere! (No, really. the largest ∆V requirement in most missions is getting into orbit.) Also, I'm going to ping @DuoDex, our favorite French-speaking moderator!

Malheureusement, je suis loin de vos compétences dans une autre langue. Si vous penze que les français sont mauvais à l'apprentissage d'autres langues, je vous invite à jeter un oeil à l'Amérique. Je suppose que cela est pratique pour nous deux d'avoir la lingua franca soit notre tounge native.

 

[Personne]

ahah thx a lot for the answers! I know my english is'nt "too bad" but it's way easier for me to speak it than write it, I'm always wondering "did I write it right? Is it "there" or "their"?" X)

I'll probably post in the gameplay section with screenshots of my spaceship as soon as I get home.

On the top of the rocket there is the pod, 2 antenna, 1 parachute and 2 goo jerrycan (I wana study this thing!).

 

ps : If anyone wondering why I choose this title, "Personne" (my nickname) means "Nobody" in french

I'm a huge cinema/western fan.

[Endersmens]

Yeah, you'll want to start turning when you hit about 100m/s. Maybe less. Gradually turn. You want to be about 20 degrees above horizon by about 20km, or so. Can change depending on rocket. Make small adjustments, never pull more than 5 degrees angle of attack. SRBs are mostly only for first stage, so I wouldn't recommend using them for anything except helping your first stage. Once you're about 45km up you should be pointing at the horizon, burning to put apoapsis up. Then circularize. Tweak from there if it doesn't work. If you're turning too fast and can't get apoapsis height, try starting your turn a little past 100m/s, and being more gradual. If you're still going very vertical, try less than 100m/s. It all depends on the player and the rocket.  

[fireblade274]

3 hours ago, Personne said:

 "did I write it right? Is it "there" or "their"?" X)

Native English speaker and I still have to think about it lol

 

[Gaarst]

Hi nobody !

Welcome to the forums, I hope you'll like the people here !

There is a French section in the forum (there was, now it's just a thread, but nvm), be sure to drop by and say bonjour to meet the other French people hanging around here.

[Starhawk]

Hello Personne and welcome to the forum!

Glad to have you aboard.

Happy landings!

[TheSealBrigade]

Hello Personne! Welcome to the forum!

[KAL 9000]

For your orbit question:

MOAR BOOSTERS never hurt anyone.

[Parv Kerman]

bonjour perrrsone! comment allez vous?

je mappe'lle parv kerman, et vouz?

[Plusck]

There are an inordinate number of people from Paris on these forums. Or this is a solidarity thing since Charlie or November 2015 (but I don't think so).

Or they're lying and they're actually in Toulouse.

[EliasDanger]

Welcome!

Download and install Kerbal Engineer. You can use that to see how much Delta-V your ship has. You want about 4000 dV to get to Orbit.

[Personne]

On 20/05/2016 at 9:41 PM, Plusck said:

There are an inordinate number of people from Paris on these forums. Or this is a solidarity thing since Charlie or November 2015 (but I don't think so).

Or they're lying and they're actually in Toulouse.

Actually I really am from Paris.

I mean I leave in Paris since 2 years now, but I'm from the south of the France, near Cannes