Is there any skill/ ability that you still haven't mastered in KSP?

[ARS]

KSP is a single player sandbox game that's unlike most sandbox game out there. In KSP, it takes more skill than just build stuff, there's a skill needed to fully enjoy the KSP such as the skill to fly rockets/ planes/ SSTO properly, do efficient orbital burns, landing a plane, doing reusable operation, setting up a base, docking, and doing advanced maneuvers such as gravity assist or pulling off acrobatic move with aircraft.

Some people is able to master a skill faster than others. Some needs a few trial and error. And some needs to "think outside the box" for compensating for lack of a particular skill

So, is there a skill in KSP that you still haven't mastered yet (or still in the process of learning)? Let us know what you think

I'll start: the skill in KSP that I haven't mastered is surprisingly, docking. A BASIC DOCKING. I want to build space station, so docking is a necessary skill for it. 3 years attempting to dock never ends well for me, so I take an "outside the box" approach: SINGLE LAUNCH EVERYTHING! most of the stuff that I posted in what did you do in KSP today is either single launched, or using overpowered mod engines (like SpaceY lifters)

[steuben]

Building small and light, and a launch that doesn't take less than 4.1 k/s dv

[PT]

Spaceplane with MkII parts. Drag from lifting body screws up everything.

[cratercracker]

Build big, heavy vessels.

[Just Jim]

Boats and subs... We have working water and bouncy, but I haven't really messed with making any kind of boats or subs.

[adsii1970]

1 minute ago, Just Jim said:

Boats and subs... We have working water and bouncy, but I haven't really messed with making any kind of boats or subs.

Ah, those are easy... making brain-pods, now that's hard!

[MiffedStarfish]

SSTOs. And Turboprops. Could never get them to spin fast enough...

OP, as long as you can rendevous docking isnt too hard, or atleast my method isnt. I rendevous to about 50-100m, control from the docking ports i need docked, select "target hold" with SAS and tap the throttle. Works every time (don't sue me) and dosent even need RCS.

[tater]

Aircraft, since I have no interest at all in building any, I don't. Odd, since I've been a flight sim person for... decades.

[ARS]

1 hour ago, MiffedStarfish said:

OP, as long as you can rendevous docking isnt too hard, or atleast my method isnt. I rendevous to about 50-100m, control from the docking ports i need docked, select "target hold" with SAS and tap the throttle. Works every time (don't sue me) and dosent even need RCS.

The problem that I face every time I try to dock is during rendezvous phase. What usually happen is like this:

1. Finished setting up maneuver node, got at most 900-500m of distance towards the target, starting burn.

2. Burn finished, time to match my speed with the target, burn again.

3. Burn finished, now just wait until I'm close enough.

4. When the target is closing in, I switched to RCS and slowly match and fine tune my speed as I approach the target

5. Here's where things usually go wrong. As I approach the target vessel, sooner or later, the distance between me and my target slowly start to increase and we're getting further and further apart

6. Usual cause? Either:

-Matching speed with target after maneuver burn changed my orbit to suborbital trajectory

-Like above, but worse: I'm back inside atmosphere when I approach the target. The target still going, but the atmospheric drag slows me down and the target overtakes my vessel

-RCS/ LfOx depleted

At that point I just going "screw this, I'm gonna do it in 1 launch"

[MiffedStarfish]

The tutorial says to just burn around 15km away from the target, but I found that was unreliable. The way I do it is  I set up an encounter about 1km away, then just after doing that burn I set up a manuever node at the closest approach, and match the manuever orbit apoapsis and periapsis to the target's orbit within about 1km. This usually leaves you with about 5m/s relative speed, which can be cancelled out easily. Then I do my docking procedure above.

[qzgy]

Eve return vehicles.

Oh, and my turboprop game could also use a bunch of work. Bearings are never perfectly smooth...

[Tyko]

33 minutes ago, ARS said:

-Matching speed with target after maneuver burn changed my orbit to suborbital trajectory

Being on a suborbital trajectory for part of a rendezvous isn't a problem as long as you circularize before you hit the atmosphere

33 minutes ago, ARS said:

-Like above, but worse: I'm back inside atmosphere when I approach the target. The target still going, but the atmospheric drag slows me down and the target overtakes my vessel

You may want to try setting your targets in higher orbits. At a minimum I'd want the orbit to be 15-20Km above the atmosphere so you have room to maneuver

There's a great rendezvous tutorial here:

 

Edited July 27, 2017 by Tyko

[PT]

21 minutes ago, ARS said:

The problem that I face every time I try to dock is during rendezvous phase. What usually happen is like this:

1. Finished setting up maneuver node, got at most 900-500m of distance towards the target, starting burn.

2. Burn finished, time to match my speed with the target, burn again.

3. Burn finished, now just wait until I'm close enough.

4. When the target is closing in, I switched to RCS and slowly match and fine tune my speed as I approach the target

5. Here's where things usually go wrong. As I approach the target vessel, sooner or later, the distance between me and my target slowly start to increase and we're getting further and further apart

6. Usual cause? Either:

-Matching speed with target after maneuver burn changed my orbit to suborbital trajectory

-Like above, but worse: I'm back inside atmosphere when I approach the target. The target still going, but the atmospheric drag slows me down and the target overtakes my vessel

-RCS/ LfOx depleted

At that point I just going "screw this, I'm gonna do it in 1 launch"

You may have forgotten to match orbital planes and match orbital velocities 

When in doubt, fly with MechJeb

[qzgy]

1 minute ago, PT said:

When in doubt, fly with MechJeb

I personally don't like mechjeb, I want to be able to fly myself and not rely on some crutch.

[PT]

2 minutes ago, qzgy said:

I personally don't like mechjeb, I want to be able to fly myself and not rely on some crutch.

I build big space stations and big spaceships. 20 launch, encounter, dock... in a row can simply get boring

I leave preparing maneuver nodes to eggheads in flightcontrol and executing them to computers, just like in real space programs :>

Edited July 27, 2017 by PT

[qzgy]

Just now, PT said:

I build big space stations and big spaceships. 20 launch, encounter, dock... in a row can simply get boring

Yeah, that would make sense then for someone else to fly.

41 minutes ago, ARS said:

The problem that I face every time I try to dock is during rendezvous phase. What usually happen is like this:

1. Finished setting up maneuver node, got at most 900-500m of distance towards the target, starting burn.

2. Burn finished, time to match my speed with the target, burn again.

3. Burn finished, now just wait until I'm close enough.

4. When the target is closing in, I switched to RCS and slowly match and fine tune my speed as I approach the target

5. Here's where things usually go wrong. As I approach the target vessel, sooner or later, the distance between me and my target slowly start to increase and we're getting further and further apart

6. Usual cause? Either:

-Matching speed with target after maneuver burn changed my orbit to suborbital trajectory

-Like above, but worse: I'm back inside atmosphere when I approach the target. The target still going, but the atmospheric drag slows me down and the target overtakes my vessel

-RCS/ LfOx depleted

At that point I just going "screw this, I'm gonna do it in 1 launch"

ARS, are you burning retrograde when in target mode (you know, the navball thing)?

I assume yes, but from what it sounds, the orbits still aren't perfectly matching up.

Also, try going into a higher orbit. 100km should work.

[Clonos]

Landing at KSC. If there's anything that annoys me it's landing there.

[qzgy]

2 minutes ago, GenesisPlayz said:

Landing at KSC. If there's anything that annoys me it's landing there.

Trajectories mod? Very helpful for getting a rough estimate.

[Clonos]

Ok, will check that out. But i mean landing at KSC without mods, just aiming.

[qzgy]

1 minute ago, GenesisPlayz said:

Ok, will check that out. But i mean landing at KSC without mods, just aiming.

Ahh, ok. There are youtube tutorials out there for that.

[Clonos]

Ok thanks. Like, everytime i fly an SSTO the mission is easy, landing is hard.

[cubinator]

Useful SSTO planes. Sure, I can get a Mk1 cabin up to orbit with a Whiplash and a Terrier no problem, but then it's just a fancy toy.

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

turboprops are my nemesis 

[KerikBalm]

Sounds like the OP is doing rendevous wrong. (S)He probably needs some patience and to be willing to wait a few orbits to get closer (if target is ahead of you, lower your orbit.... but not deep withing the atmosphere! - if you can't go any lower, well start your station construction in a higher orbit)

Docking and assembly of large craft isn't a problem for me:

Spoiler

And this was in a 3x rescale game where low kerbin orbit requires a velocity > 4,000 m/s

37 minutes ago, GenesisPlayz said:

Ok thanks. Like, everytime i fly an SSTO the mission is easy, landing is hard.

Before the 1.0 aero update, it was hard, now that wings work "properly" at high speed, its not so bad. Of course, saving some liquid fuel for adjustments can help.

If stopping on the runway after touching down is a porblem, consider breaking chutes:

Spoiler

This was again 3x resized, making the precision needed 3x more I would think

 

29 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Useful SSTO planes. Sure, I can get a Mk1 cabin up to orbit with a Whiplash and a Terrier no problem, but then it's just a fancy toy.

Oh, I've got that covered, that earlier example of dokcing to assemble large ships: each part of that was launched by an SSTO... in a 3x resized game with stock parts (>4km/sec orbital velocity, but rapiers won't provide over 1.6 km/s

Spoiler

Yes, I admit, this looks a bit funny, it started like this:

 

 

23 minutes ago, RoadRunnerAerospace said:

turboprops are my nemesis 

57 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Oh, and my turboprop game could also use a bunch of work. Bearings are never perfectly smooth...

Agreed.... I've never done any stock bearings

54 minutes ago, PT said:

You may have forgotten to match orbital planes and match orbital velocities 

When in doubt, fly with MechJeb

Come on, Mech jeb is not needed. I've never used it nor downloaded it

 

[ARS]

1 hour ago, Tyko said:

You may want to try setting your targets in higher orbits. At a minimum I'd want the orbit to be 15-20Km above the atmosphere so you have room to maneuver

Okay, I'll gonna try again next time from higher altitude. 100 km should be enough?

1 hour ago, PT said:

You may have forgotten to match orbital planes and match orbital velocities

You mean those ascending/ descending node? I tried to match the orbital plane and try to make those nodes as close at 0 degree as possible

1 hour ago, qzgy said:

ARS, are you burning retrograde when in target mode (you know, the navball thing)?

I assume yes, but from what it sounds, the orbits still aren't perfectly matching up.

All vessel launched from my launch pad goes to east to make an orbit, so from KSC perspective, my vessels orbits from west to east. Usually as soon as 1st part of the station is in a stable orbit, I launched 2nd part when (looking kerbin from above) 1st part is around 45-90 degree angle while 1st part is at 0 degree angle. From there when the 2nd part makes a stable orbit, they go in the same direction, so I fine tune my 2nd craft to make sure it isn't overtaking the 1st part, but usually it ends up the 1st part overtaking it while I'm going suborbital

Is there anything wrong in my procedure?