Cheat-roleplay suggestions for weaker CPUs.

[Cataclism]

Cheat-roleplay suggestions for weaker CPUs.

 

Hello, everyone!
Here comes a LOT of words, so if you wish to skip the tedious-personal note crap, please feel free to scroll down to “here goes the role-play”.

First things first: THANK YOU! REALLY!
Thank you, developers, for this lovely game; thank you guys in the forums, for such a bunch of good-will for many elucidative answers; and thank the “heroes from the first versions” videos (Scott Manley, Matt Lowne, Chris Pryor, Raiz Space/EBD, Marcus House, Hazardish [the ones whose vídeos I use to watch]). I´ve just discovered KSP a few months ago (no, I have NOT been living in a cave – enviromental laws wouldn´t allow me to do so...) and even before I´ve bought the game, even before I´ve bought a new computer, I´m pretty sure I´ve spent more than 150 HOURS (Earth-time) reading and watching tutorials and creative ideas´ vídeos. I can honestly say that, if it wasn´t for these, I would not even try the game (no way I could master the traveling skills on myself). As an old HO scale-railroad modeller since many time, I remember we use to “divide” us in two groups: those who like to plan/model/build and then watch the things work for theirselves, and those who prefer to actually pilot and control their own creations; I´m part of the prior group, and still haven´t got enought ability (and patience) to proper pilot my ships - so I allways use MechJeb.

 

Well, regarding to the FPS and lag issues due to an average or weak CPU, everyone should know their own pockets and finances, so it´s not worth – nor polite- to get into questions like “why don´t you just go and buy a better computer?”. It doesn´t matter and, honestly, nobody cares. I´ve brought this subject awake ´cause, even nowadays, I see a lot of players still having difficulties do deal with the lack of vídeo-FPS when trying more massive, 3D-complex spaceships. And I´m one of them. It doesn´t matter which strategy I try, it has been very hard for my computer to handle maned vessels which could actually takeoff, travel, land and return let´s say, from Kerbin to Duna and Eve – and it get´s worse as more fuel/more boosters/more 3D objects are needed.

In my case, it´s still my first playtrough ever, straight for a carreer mode on level hard, EXCEPT for the Science and Money earnings, which I´ve set do 300%/700% (I´m sorry, but real life already gives me enought problems regarding to money...). So, what´ve happened so far, after more than two game-time years, more than 70 rescued Kerbalnauts avaiable for missions (man, MechJeb´s got HUNDREDS of rendezvous-maneuvers´ days performed!), a fully unlocked tech-tree and more than 500Milion credits in the account (yeah, a lot of small tourists, Science and rescue missions to Mun and Minmus – two or three at the same time), I´ve decided to go and dispach my Kerbals past Minmus and set a hole bunch of commSats around Kerbol System.

But – always a ‘but’ -, in my notebook, the most “awesomengly gigantic” thing I can build and play is a ship properly capable of take up to seven Kerbals to Duna and Ike, or Eve and Gilly, and come back. If I decide to add cool stuff like, maned landers, hotshot-sci probes or a few commSats - to use the same travel costs to estabilish a distant network -, the game will have a big lag, right at the editor, when all the rockets-and-everything-else come togheter.

At the time I´ve wrote this, I was not using any kind of heavy-changes mod, like suvival time and that stuff. This was wrote for version 1.4.5 + Making History, and I had installed Mech Jeb, Maneuver Node, Eng.Redoux, Alarm Clock, KAS+KIS, Buffalo and Kolonization (which seemed to not be working properly for 1.4.5). Play-styles which consider the time and resources for survival may have some problems with these tips bellow.

 

So, my intention here is to present a few suggestions, concerning the way I´ve been playing since my first atempts to extraplanetary maned travels in KSP. YES, IT DOES USE ONE OR TWO OF THE MAIN CHEATS but, if you apply on them a little bit of creativity AND some old role-playing spirit, I believe you can live with your cheater-dark side and still have a lot o fun.

 

The “main cheats”? Which ones? (Hit [Alf+F12] – debug tool)

HERE GOES THE ROLE-PLAY

-Infinite propelent, which you could use as some kind of overkiller type of overdeveloped nuclear fuel from Kerbals (there is that pink-matter stuff harnessed by the Darels, on Matt Lowne´s “Eve Expedition music vídeo”, that maybe would do the trick);

-Instant orbit, which could easily pass for some kind of FTL driver or even a more effective type of quark-teletransport (like those hillarious things we used to watch on Star Trek).

I would NOT recommend instant rendezvous, nor the rendezvous itself (despite the fact that it´s a LOT of fun!), because depending on the lag problems you´re having in the engine-burn, with the stoped built ship itself, or even in the building process in the editor, these problems will persist and lag or even crash your game at the time you rendezvous your stages on space.

I dare to say it all depends on which kind of problems you have been dealing with:

1.)    You still cannot build a ship with the proper balance/structure to get into orbit;

2.)    You´ve mastered the step above, but your computer CANNOT handle the necessary memory to couple several parts of a massive-three (or more) stages spaceship;

3.)    You don´t have the issues above, but the lag comes and the FPS hang when you start to perform a burn with several boosters/rockets.

Please note that I haven´t included further heavy-graphic problems or glitches that may appear due to visual enhancements (unfortunately, they happen to me).

Well, you may prefer diferent strategies depending on the kind of games you use to play. As a non-massive RTS lover, I´m used to give those commands like “build THIS and act like THAT!” – but I´ve left this side of mine in a long-term stand by since I´ve started to play KSP.

 

Here are my suggestions on how to “fix” that, in the same computer you´ve been (trying to) playing so far:

 

1.)    The fisrt issue is the most direct and easy to solve: build your craft the darn way you want, hit [Alt+F12 -> Infinite stuff -> set Orbit], have fun and be happy! Specially because you are the MANAGER and COMMANDER of the Space Center – the engineering, building and piloting skills should be other kerbals´ problems, not yours. All that you know is what MUST be done and, like most of the good RTS´s, HOW it is going to be done is not up to you.
 

2.)    -Plan/draw you ship in any other place but the editor.

- Once you have your finished idea, build a separated ship/file for each one of the stages (DON´T forget to build the huge-lifter as well!), as they were actually ships for different missions but, for the sake of “reality”, don´t forget to add the decouplers/docking doors that would have attached the stages to each other in a regular ship. It´s very likely they won´t be able to takeoff, due to unbalancing, lack of deltaV, thrust and all that stuff, so take them to the launchpad and hit Instant Orbit to KERBIN.

-Hit the initial value and, once in the space, Quicksave and play a little bit with those numbers until you get the feeling. The “696969” will set your ship around the 90Km orbit. Indulgently burn a little prograde, so the game won´t show those little blinking glitches on the map view. As you must take your building to the launchpad to be allowed to instant obrit, the necessary money/resources for the current endeavour are actually deduced from your account, so after you´ve completely “launched” all your separated stages to orbit, it will be just like you´ve spent the same amounts of a sigle launch – and it may help you to feel more “real”... .

-Right now, depending on your hardware limitations, you may try to rendezvous all of your stages in a single interplanetary vessel, after ejecting and discarding what could have been the fuel tanks necessary for the takeoff and complete orbit – as for now they would be empty -, unless you´ve planned a craft which would have to wait for a refueling process around Kerbin before the trip. In this last case, you could use the same role-play process: build the refueler, take it to the launchpad, instant orbit, and then rendez-vous or just consider the original lifter as refueled from this moment.

-You could advance time a few days, specially if you have Kerbals in your ships, not only for eventually wait for a transfer window, but that way the ship and the crew would gain some “MET” time away, just like simulating that they have had a proper launch and orbit process.

-And finally comes the time to burn for outer space. If you can´t get your complete vessel coupled togheter for the burn, you could dispatch only what would be the “freighter”, per se, into an extraplanetary trip – but only if it doesn NOT gives you unbalancing problems due to the thrust burn, which is very usual in an unfinished vessel -, roughtly saying, you send only the “middle” (the after-orbit) stage away. If you wish to perform any kind of science experiments during the trip, you should remember to add´em to this stage, because, in fact, it´s the only on who will be actually passing through the sun´s (Kerbol) SOI.

-At this moment, if you wanna be honest to yourself, let ALONE and UNTOUCHED the other stages/vessels that should be part of this journey, but could not have been atached. Remember that, from now on, they ARE traveling away, and no longer belong tho the Kerbin´s initial orbit. You could have not “launched” them yet, and waited for the time your freighter arrives at the destiny, but in that case they would not gain the same “MET” time. Think like this: it would be nice if, for this moment, we could storage the other vessels in a box, and let them there until the objective completes, just like they´re traveling along with the freighter.

-When your freighter/middle stage reaches its destination, you may perform the additional necessary maneuvers to set its right orbit, transfer for a moon and all that stuff. After you´re satisfied with the point you´ve reached, you may finally “cheat-bring” the other vessels to the same point. Again, if you have FPS problems due to the amount of ships and parts, DO NOT perform any kind of rendez-vous – select instant orbit instead, for every other ship of this same mission, but try diferent values on the “major-axis” field (don´t forget to change the celestial body to the one your freighter is currently orbiting). That way, you will have all your “stages” in a similar orbit, but far away from one another, enought to don´t screw your FPS. If you intend to transfer crew or even smaller parts, like an Apollo-style decoupling lander, for instance, you may want to EVA every Kerbal, or separate every small-vessel, and then perform a manual or cheat-rendezvous just for THAT controlled unit, so that you won´t need to overcharge your computer´s memory banks.
-EVA, detach, land, perform Science, plant a flag, reorbit, rendez-vous and use the same process for the returning journey.

 

3.)    Here comes the part that may actually make a difference on your feelings about the way you wish to have fun – and use more cheats. If your lag problems happen even with a burn of the necessary bunch of boosters for the freighter alone, we could conclude that your computer will not handle the effects for many rockets, it doesn´t matter if you have a lot of stuff and stages attached to it or not – it just won´t happen.
-In that case, you can still have ALL the fun of a regular trip, unless the part of performing the actual trip, as long as any kind of Science that you could do while orbiting the sun.
-In this case, you could use the same hole process above (item 2): build separated or integral ships and cheat-orbit them to Kerbin´s space.
-When the transfer window or your desired departure time comes, instead of actually performing the burn, create the maneuver node, find your desired encounters and take the notes for the necessary time for the entire travel. But, again, do NOT perform de burn.
-Now, you can either create and alarm using “Kerbal Alarm Clock” for that specific moment that your ship would be arriving in a legal burn, or simply adding the unused node to create the alarm itself.
-Just like the item 2, from now on and until your ship WOULD be finishing its trip, DO NOT perform anything with any of the pieces that are part of this mission – remember, they “are not” there, but travelling away.
-Warp time or just go and perform other missions in the meanwhile and, when the arrival time comes, you close the alarm and cheat-orbit your freighter and/or other vessesls to the desired celestial body, just like explained above (item 2). Which means, they´ve been hanging in Kerbin all this time, simulating the travel-MET, and now they ARE orbiting the objective.

-Enjoy, have fun and all, and do the same to your trip back.

 

Well, that´s it. I´m pretty sure there isn´t anything really new in my tips, but I believe they´ll help with some ideas the people who could not enjoy the huge fun and potential of this game due to some weaker computers. They may, of course, “loose” the fun of the interplanetary travel, with all those miscaculations and emergency maneuvers, as well as be denied the evolving of some piloting skills, but all of that may be practicized in many other ways – including using some cheats to make “impossible” ships encountering “impossible” situations.

I hope it was worth reading, and my non-native english have been good enought for understanding – without much laughing.

[Snark]

Moving to KSP Discussion, since this is about the game itself (Kerbal Network tends to be for other kerbal-related things, such as the forum).

[Aeroboi]

@Cataclism

1: Good enough for non native english, just a lot to read
2: There are no rules to this game, you can play it whichever way you like. If simulating spent stages rather then actually burning them, putting a whole rocket into orbit to simulate the funds cost and then timewarping to specific MET all to avoid lag problems is good enough for you then it is yours or anyone else to enjoy it that particular way. Apparently the cheat *cough* debug menu gives useful application for people with clear self motivated motives and if your happy with it then who is there to judge? Nobody! You wrote it as if you were advising people to do similar and honestly, I must admit, I haven't read anyone taking it as far as you do. So I'm curious as to who will pick it up and replicate your playing style.

Personally I have used either the cheat menu or Hyperedit (mod) to test stages for complex missions where I also dropped entire stages without burning them to simulate aspects of a mission and after I was done I felt like I already flew the mission of the launchpad to the destination and back again. So suffice to say, doing it your way knowing that you can actually perform all the mission steps feels already glorifying. Creating a vessel and piloting while pulling it off is what activates the reward center in our brain when playing Kerbal space program. If all mission steps were proceeded by using cheats while doing all the mission steps independently but realistically it is close to doing the actual launch from the launchpad.

Only problem is, you haven't actually tested the liftoff out of the atmosphere. While you can make a launcher that works it doesn't necessarily mean that launcher is stable with the heavy payload on top. So you may want to somehow test that with very bad framerate just once to see if it is stable. A dummy weight should work, it shouldn't have to be a complex multi part payload. You might have already done that but you didn't mention this so if you forgot to test this I hope I reminded you.

3: Bad framerate is also subjective. I have a computer on which I play Battlefield 1 at Ultra settings at 100-120 Fps on a UWQHD monitor and I'm used to this smoothness so I'm very intolerant to low framerate. I know others who take less frames per second and don't whine while I'm acting like a spoiled brat. In KSP it is the physics simulation (as far as physics goes) that encumbers mostly the CPU known as the processor part in a computer. It's that part that you want to be fastest for smooth framerate in a game like KSP. You don't have to buy a whole new computer, at best/worst a new motherboard, memory and this so called CPU. If you have a really bad processor at the moment you could even get a second hand motherboard, memory and cpu a lot cheaper since early high end generation cpu's may be quite cheap second hand and much better then the one your currently having and make KSP run much smoother.

On another note, many of the videos you see online by hazardish and matt lowne are video edited. They may launch gigantic vessels that look like 500-1000 parts (sometimes these specifics are states in the video description or commentary)
500-1000 part vessels will always launch with skippy framerates and frequent stuttering. What these youtube uploaders do is record their video in real time, then speed it up to real time in relation to the slow down of the clock and then put commentary over it as if they were playing it in real time while they actually don't. In other words, these guys are illusionists, don't be fooled.
If their MET timer is in yellow in their video time is slowed down and if the timer is in red it is slowed down massively. If the video is then showed as smooth, it has been video edited.

I try to avoid ships of ~500 parts all time and preferably less to maintain smooth gameplay and I have one of the fastest processors that is also overclocked.

Also you say you have slow framerate happen to manned vessels so you only do probes from the launchpad. How many parts is such a manned vessel? The part count will usually tell you how much calculations have to be done that in KSP often dictates the smoothness of a vessel during gameplay.
Is it the complexity of some of Matt Lownes vessels? This could be 200-300 parts. You wouldn't want a very slow processor for that.
Most processors should do 100 parts with relative smoothness unless your computer is actually ancient. You may also have to little RAM (computer memory). While 4 Gigabyte is required to play KSP as per the states system requirements a part of that memory is used for your operating system (windows, mac or linux) and complex vessels will increase that memory usage during gameplay especially with mods installed. When going over it you will use page file that will severely slow down the application to unplayability. Most people don't run into this as few people have less then 8 gigabyte but if you have 4 gb you may run into this problem.

I would really investigate whether it is possible to upgrade your computer cheapish because if performance is really bad and you just want it more playable it won't necessarily mean you'll have to buy a whole new computer. Even if you don't want to install the computer parts yourself you could have that done by a local computer store if you desire. I think if priority is high enough you should have ~100 USD to spare and should be able to boost a ancient computer to a playable state.

What is your computer hardware?
If your on windows 10 open start and type "msinfo" and press enter.

In the window that opens there are 2 lines...

Installed physical memory (showing amount of memory in mb or gb)
processor (show name of the processor and speed)

Share this information with us.

Above all, keep having fun

[Cataclism]

Oh, I appreciate all those nice observations and comments. I´ll sure post a proper reply for every subject, as soon as I reach a place with a decent internet connection.
Thank you! (y)