How do I improve my rockets?

[fenland]

Hi I have just started and a little perplexed as to how i graduate to the next stages?

Do i have to achieve orbit to get more equipment? And if so what height is that?

So far with 2 single boosters stacked on each other on top of a triple section I have managed to about 55Km above, but am struggling to get any higher.. Any suggestions or ideas would be a great help...

If i try stacking my fuel tanks (ie more than one) my rocket just sits on the launchpad burning fuel...

[Col_Jessep]

The game gives you all the parts you need. Liquid tanks and engines, solids, decouplers... There are a lot of mods made by the community though and many screenshots feature some of those parts. The challenge in this game is to find out what works best for yourself, so I don't want to spoil too much. You can find a lot of videos on Youtube if you need inspirations. Just play around and test different configurations. Some might work, others might blow up horribly... No worries, there are enough victims volunteers for the crew!

[fenland]

hehe... Thank you!

[Aladran]

If you go straight up, you will find difficult to acheive anything but escape the planet gravity

I'd suggest you to curve your ascention at about 15km by about 15-20degrees. Then point straight the horizon at 35km.

You should be able to easily acheive a stable orbit by doing so.

Once you've mastered the orbit technique, try to vary your orbits altitude. There's a good orbit calculator here that will tell you what speed is needed to transfer orbit.

One you are bored with those games of orbit, try some little challenge, starting by trying to land at the KSP Center

Once you acheive that you'll be a real rocket pilot

[Millitron]

If i try stacking my fuel tanks (ie more than one) my rocket just sits on the launchpad burning fuel...

Hold shift for a second or 2 before you take off, that sets your throttle to max, making your liquid engines much more powerful. I find that a single liquid engine can lift a little more than 3 fuel tanks, meaning that's the cutoff at which adding more fuel tanks does not improve altitude reached.

[The_Stargazer]

Hold shift for a second or 2 before you take off, that sets your throttle to max, making your liquid engines much more powerful. I find that a single liquid engine can lift a little more than 3 fuel tanks, meaning that's the cutoff at which adding more fuel tanks does not improve altitude reached.

Bingo!

You can make a pretty impressive 3 stage stack with 12 liquid fuel engines on the bottom, followed by 3 engines, followed by 1 engine. Each with 3 tanks stacked above it. (all using no ad-ons)

While this is overkill at this point in the game (far more thrust than you need to orbit), pretty fun to put two almost full stages in orbit to play around with.

[foamyesque]

Bingo!

You can make a pretty impressive 3 stage stack with 12 liquid fuel engines on the bottom, followed by 3 engines, followed by 1 engine. Each with 3 tanks stacked above it. (all using no ad-ons)

While this is overkill at this point in the game (far more thrust than you need to orbit), pretty fun to put two almost full stages in orbit to play around with.

I should like to see how you managed that with no addons or SFBs.

A single LGE can move more than four tanks, sticky pad bug notwithstanding.

[The Phoenix]

Aight, here we go: For a first stage, I HIGHLY recommend using a solid booster. Then you may use another solid stage if you wish. After that, you need a liquid engine with a fuel tank. Also: SAS modules. Lots of 'em. If you don't use them your rocket might think its in the Blue Angels.

There, nice and simple. No mods needed. You can add more fuel tanks, but this one got up to about 160,000.

[The_Stargazer]

I should like to see how you managed that with no addons or SFBs.

A single LGE can move more than four tanks, sticky pad bug notwithstanding.

Foam,

sure I'll post a photo when I get a chance.

Basically I used 3 solid boosters as structural elements only, they don't 'fire' until they've already been ejected.

[The_Stargazer]

I should like to see how you managed that with no addons or SFBs.

A single LGE can move more than four tanks, sticky pad bug notwithstanding.

Here, took a quick photo using my laptop, but no mouse, so difficult to move it to a nice viewing angle. Will post better photos later.

Basically there's a central 3 engine 'core' with three cores strapped on by structural solid boosters that are never used for lift, simply as structural elements. (by changing where they 'fire' in the stage order to a point after they already separate).

Then there are 3 of the new structural bars used to bind the largest stage together. I actually managed to get this to fly before the latest patch and the addition of the structural bars, but only about 1 time out of 10.

Could easily used this design idea to build massive 'pyramid' rockets like those envisioned by Robert Heinlein and 1930s sci-fi authors. But not much purpose for them in the game at this point since there's no destinations. This rocket as posted has more than enough power to escape Earth (as I accidentally found out the first three times I tried to get to orbit)