Couple of questions regarding caveman challenge

[king of nowhere]

I'm trying a caveman challenge, and I have a couple of questions to cope with the low tech buildings:

1) It seems I can't set targets. But when I was playing a no contract career challenge, even with the tracking station and mission control level 1, I was still capable of setting up rendez-vous by targeting the target ship. here it seems i really cannot. is it something that changed in past versions? is it a glitch that I can revert somehow?

If it's something that I have to live with, any tip from experienced cavemen on how to manage rendez-vous? I mean, the general tip about raising/lowering orbit to go faster or slower, ok, but once I get within a few kilometers this way, I'm lost. if there are small differences in inclination, I don't even know where to start on fixing them. And if I manage to get within 50 meters, can I align the docking ports manually? will i have enough precisions to touch docking ports if I can't look in the navisphere?

2) I remember there was some chart detailing where you need another planet relative to you in order to eyeball a transfer. like, 50 degrees forward or stuff like that. So far, I could eyeball a few mun transfers, but they were orribly inaccurate. now I'm shooting for minmus, which is much smaller and further away. any help in pinpointing it would be great

[18Watt]

14 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

It seems I can't set targets. But when I was playing a no contract career challenge, even with the tracking station and mission control level 1, I was still capable of setting up rendez-vous by targeting the target ship. here it seems i really cannot.

Level 2 Tracking Station is required to see orbital information, like AP/PE, AN/DN.  The Level 2 Mission Control is required to set maneuvers.

Without the upgraded TS you won’t have any of that information.  

To hit Mun from LKO I burn when Mun is about 100 degrees ahead of my ship, and put the AP a little beyond Mun’s orbit.

To hit Minmus, I try to launch into Minmus’s inclination.  If not, you’ll need to match inclinations by just eyeballing it.  Then same thing, burn when Minmus is about 100-110 degrees ahead of your ship.  Even doing that I often do not hit Minmus right away, it may require multiple orbits to get close.
 

Try this for guessing departure angles:

https://ksp.olex.biz

For rendezvous, my method is probably not the best, but it will work:

• Match inclinations by looking at the orbits from the side.  When the lines cross, that is the Ascending or Desccending node.  Burn Normal or Anti-Normal at that point until the lines are on top of each other.
• When the two ships are fairly close to each other, match orbital periods as close as you can.
• Depending on wether you need to catch up to the target ship, or it needs to catch up to you, adjust your orbital period in very small amounts.  Then take multiple orbits to slowly catch up to your target vessel.  
• When you get within 2 km or so, close the gap using brute force- by pointing at the target vessel and burning.  If you are drifting one direction, point your ship the other direction and burn.
   

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by 18Watt

[Blaarkies]

16 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

1) It seems I can't set targets.

Get within physics range of the other craft, then in flight mode, double-click on the other craft's square marker. This sets it as target. The range is either 2.3km, or hopefully the larger 12km measure (I don't remember which one)

Getting to Mun, do your best to aim for an intercept, but rather undershoot than overshoot. When undershooting (Ap lower than Mun's orbit) you won't hit the Mun itself, and this can save you from an important failure in the early flyby missions.

For Minmus you need it to be about 95° ahead of your spacecraft, and then overshoot Minmus' orbit by as much as its SOI. This increases your chances of hitting the SOI. Obviously do this at the ascending/descending nodes

[king of nowhere]

37 minutes ago, 18Watt said:

Level 2 Tracking Station is required to see orbital information, like AP/PE, AN/DN.  The Level 2 Mission Control is required to set maneuvers.

Without the upgraded TS you won’t have any of that information.  

 

 

I know that, but i was asking specifically about setting a celestial body or other ship as target.

EDIT: ok, blaarkies answered this.

Edited December 28, 2021 by king of nowhere

[EveMaster]

On 12/28/2021 at 5:50 PM, Blaarkies said:

Get within physics range of the other craft, then in flight mode, double-click on the other craft's square marker. This sets it as target. The range is either 2.3km, or hopefully the larger 12km measure (I don't remember which one)

The range for setting another ship as target is 100 km.

If you time your launch correctly, you can get this close to a ship in orbit during launch and use the target marker to rendezvous on the first orbit. Especially in Caveman mode this is much faster than approaching over multiple orbits but usually costs a bit more fuel because you have to act quick, which means less precision.

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by EveMaster