What did you do in KSP2 today?

[Xacktar]

Messed about making a ship from Star Trek, then played with rocket sleds, and lastly broke the game on a moon mission.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Xacktar

[modus]

First mun landing, no enough fuel to get back. The 'first stage got emptied' bug.

Still, had fun!

[Klapaucius]

59 minutes ago, Xacktar said:

Messed about making a ship from Star Trek, then played with rocket sleds, and lastly broke the game on a moon mission.

That looks fantastic. Being able to paint it green really makes it work.

[KSACheese]

Inspired by the recent success of the Strongbow suborbital rocket plane, the Atmos Aerospace Agency's new Aldrin Program has sent its first satellite to orbit the Mun, pictured below.

Not really sure why the clouds aren't showing up, it's kind of a bummer. Will continue to update on the Agency's progress.

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by KSACheese

[Periple]

I want to do a mission to Duna. I designed a rocket-powered space plane and flew it to orbit with some jet boosters. Then I designed a SWERV-powered spaceship that would take it there and be a home away from home, flew that to orbit, and docked with the plane. Now I'm waiting for a transfer window.

Main bugs that are getting in the way:

• The unreliable and flaky dV and TWR readouts. Really hard to plan if you don't know if you have 2,200 or 4,800 m/s.
• Reaction wheels suddenly just not working, or working in ways that just make the craft spin weirdly. Good thing I packed RCS.
• Weird phantom forces that look like asymmetric thrust, making the rocket roll or yaw.
• Good God but are these bigger rockets noodly. I first attempted to get my atomic spaceship into orbit with boosters under it but it was so noodly it was uncontrollable. I had better luck strapping the boosters to the sides. After that I just had the phantom forces and missing reaction wheels to deal with.
• Oh and also my plane's tanks drained while I was away designing the mothership. I left them about 1/3 full but when I got there, they were totally dry. 

It's kind of funny that planes work so much better than rockets at this time. Maybe Intercept has had so much fun with planes and rovers they never got around to the spaceships yet . I don't think I could ever go back to Lego wings after this, the procedural ones are just so good. The parts also blend together so well, and you can make the craft look really pretty with paint jobs.

It has been fun but it will be even more fun when they patch out the worst bugs!

Edited February 26, 2023 by Periple

[Bej Kerman]

200-300 day transfer to Jool using the new maneuver nodes and persistent thrust

[Janderklander]

I found an easter egg in Minmus:

 

[ZAJC3W]

On 2/24/2023 at 2:05 PM, Alexoff said:

Nothing, KSP2 is blocked for purchase in my country.

Good,  you saved bunch of money and lots of frustration with a "game" where nearly nothing works.

Bought this lemon, played for 90 minutes trying to build and launch a moon landing capable vessel, closed the game after not succeeding.

Maxed out graphics is pixelated and loks like anisotropic filtering and antialiasing are off(both on, toggled and re-checked)

VAB is half funcional

staging is broken bayond 1 engine per stage

Part manager breaks when staging breaks so even manual engine activation is not possible

EVA has 50% chance of sumoning kraken

manoeuvre gizmo sucks

Trajectory plotter has 50% chance of showing capture/escape nodes in revrerse.

Trajectory plotter lacks ability to display selected node info(ap/pe altitude) when manoeuvre gizmo is active, making trajectory adjustment major PITA.

We were promised feature cut version to ensure quality and we got ksp0.18.3 free demo feature list with ksp0.11 bug list.

removed and do not plan reinstalling for next 12 months.
 

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by ZAJC3W

[Kerb24]

Sent a probe into the Sun.

[Stephensan]

Nice five year space station in a mun low orbit before the "parasite drag" came and took its life, here is 2 minutes before explosion.. i tried to save it with the rcs but the drag was to much

no way i could have saved it reverting and everything didn't work, the amount of hours it took to get this entire thing in one piece here was in the hours on just kerbin alone due to the fps, hate to see it go like this... might just take a break.. idk at this point

 

 

[XLjedi]

2 hours ago, ZAJC3W said:

Good,  you saved bunch of money and lots of frustration with a "game" where nearly nothing works.

Bought this lemon, played for 90 minutes trying to build and launch a moon landing capable vessel, closed the game after not succeeding.

Maxed out graphics is pixelated and loks like anisotropic filtering and antialiasing are off(both on, toggled and re-checked)

VAB is half funcional

staging is broken bayond 1 engine per stage

Part manager breaks when staging breaks so even manual engine activation is not possible

EVA has 50% chance of sumoning kraken

manoeuvre gizmo sucks

Trajectory plotter has 50% chance of showing capture/escape nodes in revrerse.

Trajectory plotter lacks ability to display selected node info(ap/pe altitude) when manoeuvre gizmo is active, making trajectory adjustment major PITA.

We were promised feature cut version to ensure quality and we got ksp0.18.3 free demo feature list with ksp0.11 bug list.

removed and do not plan reinstalling for next 12 months.
 

 

Well sure, but what's not to like?

[Casellina X]

Started a new save and rounded out the tutorials. I decided to pay closer attention to see if there were any small KSP2 related tricks one might miss coming straight from KSP. One of the more useful tips is that you can freely move the camera. If that was in KSP1, I never figured out how to do it. so now if you chase perfection on a AP/PE maneuver node placement, you can get your click dead on center. Then press Home to reset the view on your craft. I hoped to learn more about the intercepts for a new SOI - maybe the only thing I absorbed was the new graphics that show entry/exit clue you in on which is the entry/exit. The rings will either radiate or converge from/to a point. The rings that radiate from a point are your entry, the rings that converge are your exit.  Unfortunately, this still does little to explain your trajectory over the body until you enter the SOI and the arcs draw.

I hope there's a more advanced set of tutorials on the books that maybe take you from KSC Launchpad, to orbit, to Mun, and back in one go. The current set give you the tools but leave it up to you to experiment and fill gaps on your own. I'd also enjoy seeing some tutorials on launching relays, delivering payloads, and of course a reintroduction of rendezvousing, docking, and asteroid capture tutorials. Stuff that goes a step beyond haphazardly throwing Kerbals into the sky. It's hard to grasp what's possible until you see it done. For example, I had made many successful Mun landings, but never tried a Mun lander and tug combination until recent months. Same thing with airplane building and such. I don't think people should feel compelled to seek a YouTube tutorial unless it's something on the level of launching a clothes hanger at the Mun arch.

[LameLefty]

I visted a special place on the Mun.

 

The "Stargate" Munarch, of course. 

Jeb says hey.

Edited February 27, 2023 by LameLefty

[DwightLee]

Second Mun Landing today

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by DwightLee

[justmeman117]

Last night, the release of this game made me want to watch The Right Stuff again, lol. Holy crap, it's like a 3 hour movie, and a lot cheesier than I remember. Still, I enjoyed it.

Watching that made me want to build my third aircraft, this time to go to space for the first time. I decided it'd be a cool challenge to try to do so in an NF-104 inspired aircraft (the plane Chuck Yeager crashes in both the film, and in real life).

The NF-104 was the predecessor to the X-15. It was a standard F-104 Starfighter, that had been modified with wing tanks removed, a hydrazine rocket in the tail just above the engine exhaust, and the radome replaced with an RCS system (monopropellant tanks and a few thrusters for maneuvering in the rarified air).

My build is not quite a 1:1 replica, instead it's just inspired by the real deal. I wanted to use my ejection cockpit from the jump jet build, whereas the inline cockpit would look better for an F-104 replica, so I decided not to adhere to an exact replica. The major difference (besides the cockpit) is relocation of the RCS thrusters to the wingtips and just behind the cockpit, instead of trying to place them in the tiny nose this cockpit affords. Some of the proportions are also a little off, mostly because I built it from memory.

I didn't get any screenshots of the ascent unfortunately. I didn't know this was going to be a successful flight, so I didn't document that part. I'd already had a couple unsuccessful flights that usually peaked around 60,000 meters. BTW, I tested the ejection cockpit again at 1,200 m/s at 13,000 meters on one of these flights, and it still worked great, came well away from the plane (I thought I'd have to add more separatrons for those speeds). Most of the plane's fuselage is precoolers, because they're fairly low drag intakes that work well at high speeds and altitudes. They also fit with the plane's aesthetic. I also didn't want to use fuel tanks in the main fuselage, as I knew I'd have to keep weight down. I spammed 4 precoolers and 2 of the small intakes to try and keep the whiplash running into the highest altitudes possible.

I had already exchanged some mono-propellant for more methalox tanks, but it was still failing to get to space. I decided the only way to get that last 10k meters without changing the aesthetic of the plane was to go light on fuel, so I reduced my methane fuel load to 1/2 of what it was before... This plane was light on fuel already, so this is a sketchy decision.

Long story short, it was a 15 degree climb on the Whiplash up to about 18,000 meters, then a shallow 10 degree dive to 12,000 meters to get up to 1,200 m/s as fast as possible. Then a full pitch up into an 80 degree climb. Another reason for the dive is to maximize the amount of time the Whiplash keeps running during that 80 degree climb. Diving back into thicker air also improves authority over the elevator, so you're not taking forever to pitch into the 80 degree climb. Any lower than 12,000 meters though, and you start to bleed too much speed. Then, upon your pro-grade reaching 80 degrees, I fire the Thud rocket. I don't wait for the Whiplash to quit, firing the Thud a little early improves airspeed for more ram air, feeding the Whiplash a little bit longer. Once the Whiplash gets weaker, I use a hotkey to close all the intakes (it makes a huge difference on drag). The Whiplash uses whatever intake air is left in the closed intakes, and chokes out around where it would fail anyway.

This flight, it JUST barely made it to 71,000 meters, just enough time for a 60 second space walk.

Reentry was pretty sketchy, about 900 m/s at about 70 degrees below the horizon for prograde. The fully moving elevator helps arrest the descent around mach 1, and around 12,000 meters. Then begins a LONG turn for home, since the wings arent very effective at that altitude. But I dared not go lower, for a very important reason.

Now the hard part. I left with only 2 tons of methane to begin with. I reentered with just over 1 ton left, and by the time I finished my turn, was down to 900 kilos. That's all I had to get back, and for such a normally thirsty engine, I wasn't sure if I could get back.

If these engines have a regime in which they could be called "efficient", it is at 12,000-18,000 meters, at their maximum speed. At these altitudes, it doesn't burn quite as much fuel because there's not quite as much air to mix it with. And, it doesn't matter too much if it drinks it quickly, because you're covering over a kilometer of ground per second. On a mileage basis, it's actually a pretty efficient way to travel. This is why I did my turn for home at 12,000 meters, any lower, and it would have been a struggle to get back to that altitude without burning off the rest of my fuel.

I left it in a shallow climb, until it was running at around only 30 KN of thrust, sipping gas, and cruising at 1,200 m/s. This put me in a parabolic arc up to 24,000 meters. At that altitude, I could literally cut the engine entirely (not that it would run well anyway), and just.. Coast. I turned off the intakes again, and again, let the engine quit on air starvation. This is actually proving to be a pretty useful trick, I gained a decent amount of altitude and speed during that time waiting for it to starve, because the engine still runs on stored intake air, but you don't suffer the drag penalties of open intakes.

It actually had a decent amount of legs flying it this way, it probably could have flown much further on that 900 kilos. I left the SAS at about 10-15 degrees above prograde. Although this caused drag, it extended my flight time in that high altitude air where drag is minimal. Although it slowed me down, with the engine off, from 1,200 m/s down to 500 m/s, I had only gone from 24,000 meters down to 22,000 meters. This equates to far less drag loss overall, then allowing it to maintain speed, but descend. And by that time, I was almost straight over the KSC, and had to descend anyway.

I spiralled down, bleeding off speed and altitude as much as possible. I still had about 610 kilos of fuel left, which is enough to ensure I made the runway, or even do a go around (which, as you'll see, I should have).

I almost botched the landing. I was surprised by how fast the runway was coming up to meet me despite my low airspeed, and 4-5 FPS made the plane almost uncontrollable... It was weird, normally I get 10-15 at the worst around the KSC.

... Yeah, lol, maybe you can spot the problem with this picture... I had turned up the timewarp to descend faster, and had forgotten to go back to 1x for final approach and landing. With how narrow the wheel base is, and how bouncy those landing gear are, not to mention the tiny wings and a plane that flies like a brick, this wasn't going to be an easy landing to begin with... And I'd made it way harder than even that out of inattentiveness.

Because of the timewarp, it bled speed too fast for me to react well whenever I cut power. I'd allowed it to stall out way too high, and it clunked down onto the main landing gear VERY hard from probably 50 meters up. The one thing that saved me was the decision to use the bigger landing gear for the main wheels.

Then, because of the tall suspension and narrow wheel base, it swerved side to side down the runway, striking both wing tips. Again, a decision I'd made in building saved the plane. I'd insisted on using the LARGE wings, even though this was about the smallest wings you could possibly make with them (they have minimum chord/tip lengths and thicknesses). I like using these wings, even on small planes, if I can, because they have a very high crash tolerance. This kept them from getting destroyed during the wingtip strikes.

I didnt realize my mistake till I had tried to EVA for a photo op. The game wont let you EVA at timewarp. I was like "Well hell, now I'm surprised I landed that at all".

I decided to recover the plane instead of revert to VAB, for posterity, since it survived the flight. The recovery screen confirmed that I indeed broke the lower roll RCS ports on the wing tips during the wing strikes, and interestingly, I apparently broke the main landing gear...  I think maybe KSP 2 is going for a more complicated damage model than KSP 1 because, although this records the landing gear as having been broken in a hard landing... They didn't explode or anything, the wheels were still actually attached to the aircraft. It makes me wonder if landing too hard makes the suspension give out or act weird (kinda like how in KSP 1, you can  physically break wheels without completely destroying them).

If this is the case, I think it's a cool feature.

[Patupi]

I struggled real hard to get things to work. Dunno if I was just unlucky but trying twice to land on the Mun, once on Minmus, and none of those worked. Staging failed so lander was stuck to descent stage. Fuel burned evenly on all tanks in ALL stages, so none left for lander when it disconnected. Weird issues with staging where things got stretched and torn apart.

 

Then the first time I try for Duna and it worked? Go fig.

 

This game is fun... but still all over the place. Plus... that ship was just an overpowered Mun lander. Wasn't designed for Duna! The parachutes were for a return to Kerbin, not landing on Duna. But once I launched and found I had way more dV that had been indicated in the VAB I thought... why not?

So first landing in KSP 2 on Duna it seems. Ah well.

 

Footnote. I think Jeb and Val will be stuck on Duna for a very long holiday!

Edited February 27, 2023 by Patupi

[Stoup]

Made my first landing on Minmus, and discovered that the gravity is low enough that you can use the new magboots to walk up and down your rocket while it's on the surface!

But if you stop moving you slide down like you just slammed into the glass window of a skyscraper

 

Also are we going to make an effort to keep discoveries in spoilers? Hate to be that guy but if you could wrap it up I'd be much obliged @DwightLee

Edited February 27, 2023 by Stoup

[Patupi]

4 hours ago, ZAJC3W said:

Good,  you saved bunch of money and lots of frustration with a "game" where nearly nothing works.

Bought this lemon, played for 90 minutes trying to build and launch a moon landing capable vessel, closed the game after not succeeding.

Maxed out graphics is pixelated and loks like anisotropic filtering and antialiasing are off(both on, toggled and re-checked)

VAB is half funcional

staging is broken bayond 1 engine per stage

Part manager breaks when staging breaks so even manual engine activation is not possible

EVA has 50% chance of sumoning kraken

manoeuvre gizmo sucks

Trajectory plotter has 50% chance of showing capture/escape nodes in revrerse.

Trajectory plotter lacks ability to display selected node info(ap/pe altitude) when manoeuvre gizmo is active, making trajectory adjustment major PITA.

We were promised feature cut version to ensure quality and we got ksp0.18.3 free demo feature list with ksp0.11 bug list.

removed and do not plan reinstalling for next 12 months.
 

 

It is way more buggy than I expected (KSP 0.11 wasn't anywhere near this buggy! I remember that.) But I expect with all the playthrough a lot of this will get fixed soon *Crossed fingers*

[Bej Kerman]

1 minute ago, Patupi said:

(KSP 0.11 wasn't anywhere near this buggy! I remember that.)

Trusting your brain to remember things correctly is not a good idea.

[Patupi]

Heh, I played a lot back then, though most of my stuff was between 0.13 and 0.15. Heck I did a load of stuff on the forums and most of that started in 0.15

[Poppa Wheelie]

21 hours ago, FuelX said:

A space truck with a trailer.

 

@FuelX, please post some screenshots of how you lifted this into orbit.  I would be very interested.  Nice!

[CatWithAJetpack]

Flew this epic aircraft:

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

I almost did a thing!

Okay - well, really I did a thing... but this was more fun.

Reporting that Bill is alive and well:

[SoulCandy]

Jool/Laythe orbit

[Xacktar]

Docked these two monster Hydrogen Ships together only to find out that once docked they corrupt any save they are in.

Turns out the game can't load a save file with a ship that big in it.