Complete and utter noob

[bootsam]

Hi to everyone. This is post #3. My 1st start was yesterday when I bought the game and Ive not done much to generate further posts. Ive killed many Kerbals on the launchpad and on recovery. I hope they dont harbour grudges.

Post#4 will undoubtedly be a stupid question, so please roll eyes and sigh in preperation.

[James Kerman]

Welcome to the forum @bootsam.

Not only do kerbals not hold grudges, they have the ability to pop back into existence after being flung into the VAB at 400m/s training accidents (depending on your game settings).

The game has a very steep learning curve for beginners so please feel free to ask for advice as there is no such thing as a stupid question both in life and KSP.

[bootsam]

Well, I was hoping post #4 would be a daft question. But the occassion has risen to use post #4 to thank you for your welcome. Post #5 shall prob be the daft question. Heres to post #5 which is likely to centre on how to recover a kerbal from deep space.

[micha]

13 minutes ago, bootsam said:

Well, I was hoping post #4 would be a daft question. But the occassion has risen to use post #4 to thank you for your welcome. Post #5 shall prob be the daft question. Heres to post #5 which is likely to centre on how to recover a kerbal from deep space.

Respect!

Only 1 day and 4 posts in, and you've already stranded Kerbals in deep space?

Oh, and btw, welcome to the foums!

[Gargamel]

Welcome to the forums!

Don't worry, we've all been there.   Even today I learned something about the game that I haven't bothered to learn before.  So, yeah, it's one of those games you'll always keep learning.

[Mikenike]

My only advice I can give you is; Try Try Try again, and Take you're sweet time.

[guesswho2778]

welcome to the forums bootsam i hope you dont have to much of a hard time learning the complicated game that is kerbals space program surprisingly no has said this yet but (not trying to tell you how to play) i would recomend starting in sandbox and playing in that for a while learning the mechanics of the game with no mods (some such as kerbalism make it extremely hard to do anything outside of kerbin gravity well and then slowly work towards a career save

Edited July 5, 2019 by guesswho2778
Added a "dont"

[micha]

4 hours ago, Mikenike said:

My only advice I can give you is; Try Try Try again, and Take you're sweet time.

I thought the only legit advice was "have you tried moar boosters?!"

[bootsam]

Hooray for post #5. I spent most of the evening last night doing the tutorials. Badly. Generally, I dont do tutorials. I like to learn the hard way. However, with consideration to the Kerbals I decided to try to limit their premature expiration. Well, that didnt quite go to plan. The horror...

[Mikenike]

@micha, not always!!

[Aegolius13]

On 7/2/2019 at 2:55 AM, bootsam said:

Generally, I dont do tutorials. I like to learn the hard way.

At least in the old days, the reentry "tutorial: would kill you every time until you independently found and changed a fairly obscure setting (the altitude for parachute deployment).  For some reason the tutorial (unlike the regular game) started with an unsafe setting.  So I'd say that was the hard way.  I think (???) this is long gone, thankfully.

[ResonantWaves]

Welcome to the forums! I see you have already undergone the emotional trauma  gut-wrenching sobbing saluteable funerals with sad music  the pain of losing several kerbals to failures. No worries! I killed Bob and Val before successfully landing from orbit so I'm not giving the greatest advice.

[bootsam]

F5 and F9 are my friends. That much I have learnt.

[Gunnerline]

12 hours ago, bootsam said:

F5 and F9 are my friends. That much I have learnt.

Truer words have never been spoken.  The biggest help I found early on was actually reading delta-V maps.  And with the updates to the game, you don't even need mods to see how much delta-V is in your rocket.  It made it much easier to understand why certain designs were actually less useful than I believed.

[bootsam]

When you are prograding from orbit to shift your apoapsis to intersect the mun, occassionally a blue or purple offshoot will appear with what appears to be a rotate sign on the end, what does this mean? I have a hunch Im supposed to do a moanouveur here, but have been unable to get any clarity. I only discovered manouveaurs by chance last evening hunting the wiki for answers. Any help greatly appreciated as Jeb is getting fed up missing the mun.

[Snark]

20 hours ago, bootsam said:

When you are prograding from orbit to shift your apoapsis to intersect the mun, occassionally a blue or purple offshoot will appear with what appears to be a rotate sign on the end, what does this mean?

It's not a "rotate sign", it's a marker to show where you transition from one body's SoI to another. For example, when you succeed in aiming close enough to the Mun that your projected path intersects the Mun's SoI, i.e. you hit the target.

 

[James Kerman]

21 hours ago, bootsam said:

occasionally a blue or purple offshoot will appear with what appears to be a rotate sign on the end, what does this mean?

It's a little hard to understand your comment and in this case a picture really would say a lot about what you are seeing but here's my guess.

I think what you are seeing is the effect of your interaction with the Mun, known as an 'assist'. As you enter the Mun's sphere of influence (SOI) it exerts its gravity on your vessel. If you pass behind the Mun (relative to it's prograde orbit) you get a slingshot effect, gaining velocity. If you pass in front of the Mun (once again relative to prograde orbit) it tugs you the other way and slows you down a little. I'm guessing the rotate signs you are seeing is your vessel's exit point for whatever body's sphere of influence you are in. Hover your cursor over it and it should say and give you a time.

Some orbits can have multiple encounters with the same body over consecutive orbits. In this case you would see the projected effects of each assist in map view as different colored trajectories. In the case below I will first enter the Mun's SOI at a low orbit (the purple bit). If I wish to enter orbit I would burn at the periapsis (Pe) of that purple bit. If I do nothing I will get an assist from the Mun by passing behind it resulting in the green orbit which will then pass behind the Mun again (the red bit) and I will then be flung into solar orbit (the path of the blue bit).

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by James Kerman
Grammark

[bootsam]

Manouveaur! Why did I not know about this until now. Well, day before yesterday to be clear. Plus why is it such a pain to spell? This is a godsend and makes my Munar tourism effortless. As long as my too steep and too fast re-entry is ignored. God rest their little kerbin souls. F9 revived them and I fared better on 2nd attempt.

 

Thanks to all above, I feel less of a complete and utter noob. Just a plain old noob now. Soon to be simply a trainee once I land there, but thats for this weekend perhaps when Ive unlocked some more R&D.

[bootsam]

Yay! After much difficulty I landed on the Mun. Did loads of science, wandered about and then took off. Wrong trajectory, insufficient fuel...oh dear. Forgot to F5 the landing. I thus shook my fist unmerrily at the screen, decried the existence of Gods and went off and sulked in front of the telly. This daft game drives me nuts.

[The Dressian Exploder]

My friend, we're all nuts here...

[bootsam]

Success! I landed again, did science, paid note to where kerbin was and took off in that direction. I also landed pretty close to the launch site by some form of fluke. I wasnt aiming for it. I think Ive got the hang of this now. Got a bit nervous landing on Mun as I was still too fast but it just slowed in time to feather it down. I was mightily impressed. My wife just looked at me like an idiot. 317 Science. yay!

I think Ive got all the normal anti normal, radial etc etc stuff sussed out. I picked my spot on Mun and landed there. So, Im simply a trainee now.

Now Im off back there using the bigger capsule for 3 kerbins and a better rocket. To try a different biome. Then I should try some aircraft maybe.

Bloody daft game, but strangely satisfying.

[Vanamonde]

Oh, sure. You think you've got everything figured out. What's when KSP strikes again! 

[Reinhart Mk.1]

4 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Oh, sure. You think you've got everything figured out. What's when KSP strikes again! 

[bootsam]

Ahem, indeed...I successfully landed my 3 crew module and was then distracted by dinner. I launched and re-entered Kerbin perfectly. My smug self satisfaction was soon removed. Upon my return I noted I'd forgot to do my science AND plant flag whilst I was there...All that way for nothing. Ah well, at least my larger rocket has been tested fully. I feel like doing a Basil Fawlty to my PC.

[bootsam]

Been doing the staellite missions. The ones round the Mun were easy enough, but one round Kerbin has been doing my nut in. Its not equatorial, tilted about 170 degees. I am pretty well bang on as I can see it, but still not got completion. Alas I have zero fuel and as far as I can see, I calculated the feul load bang on. So Ive got the hump. Is refuelling a satellite possible? I need a gnats chuff...or should I just shrug, go meh and launch another?