What did you do in KSP2 today?

[Casellina X]

In the last couple days I've put together a few more basic planes and dealt with the Kraken. Once on a revert to launch post lithobrake induced RUD.

And another while trying to play with an ill fated Xenon powered probe. 4 large solar panels is not enough to power 3 engines on the dark side of Kerbin.

Today I decided to just hang out around the Mun with Tim C. Kerman, seeing if I could spot any points of interest from ~35km. This is probably the first time I've sat and just watched an orbit happen.

Tim was in awe.

I think - think - that I was able to capture Duna in shot, right above the arrow  on the helmet. I don't know if it'll translate in picture.

One last Kerbinrise before leaving Tim to his own devices.

At this point I shifted thoughts to building a space station. In my mind, I wanted a station orbiting Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus, acting as shuttle terminals to/from the respective surfaces, and among each other. I think when orbital VABs are introduced it'll be a game changer for me personally, since I won't have to fuss with gravitational constraints as much. Launching heavy (what I consider heavy) is a struggle:

I put together a habitation module built with LG parts. I knew flex would be a factor; I almost welcomed it. But you can see the first proper launch attempt in action here (insert your favorite joke here). I thought that maybe strutting each part to the one above/below it would heavily mitigate things. While it may have had some affect, it wasn't the right direction, however that major flex point is between stages. I also noticed that launch supports don't seem to work quite right on runway vs on launchpad. On runway the rocket slid off them immediately, launch pad they held as expected.

Surprisingly the second proper launch attempt was a success. You'll notice that this time I strutted that stage joint. While still flexing, it did enough of a job to get me through the atmosphere with little issue. At this point I cut loose the nose cone and oriented to circularize.

Panels extended, on our way to an AP of 1Mm to raise the PE as well.

And finally parked in the target orbit. Next step is to get some Kerbals on board, think up a good fuel delivery system, and then maybe some good shuttles and landers. Does anyone know off hand: can a smaller docking port mate with a larger one (insert your second favorite joke here)?

[Casellina X]

After 15+ minutes of trying to dock this fuel module (first iteration, it all went belly up on circularization):

I learned the answer to my question the hard way

You most certainly cannot dock mismatched port sizes. Either that, or I'm an utter failure at docking. I had enough of a time trying to align after a fairly solid rendezvous. RCS on this thing was not efficient so it was a fight the whole way. I expected the magnetism to take over but it just never really kicked in. Radial dock, nose dock, nothing. This is the last, and most aligned attempt of the day. So as is, this is a failure of a station beginning. I have to send up a module that has a LG and some MD and SM ports before I can attach the canister.

I'm leaving it in orbit as a testament to failure. I should scrap it so that it doesn't affect the station, but at this point I'm over it.

[Audaylon]

I've been trying to put together "lookalike" Space Shuttle.  It 'LOOKS' like the space shuttle, but the weight distribution and lift is horrendous for vehicle control.  

I swear I spent like 2 days, lol.  

 

[Casellina X]

Made a hub adapter so that I could get the fuel canister attached. Although it seems like there's a bug with fueled stages attached to an engine being bugged.

In both the existing station and the fuel canister, the fuel was gone from the active stage. In both I had deactivated the engines to avoid any erratic button presses causing more problems. Dock the adapter and the main tank empty. Switch to the fuel canister and the engine stage was empty... but luckily it was a filled fuel canister so I could transfer from the main tank to get some dV and make the docking happen. So eventually the whole thing will be come inoperable.

[GOOMH]

Finally got around to building a space station in KSP2, Even Jeb seems to like it.
 

Spoiler

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by GOOMH

[The Aziz]

I... I don't know really. Did (again) the rescue mission, hoping it'll work this time, but I broke the game yet again in ways I didn't know were possible.

You know it's weird when in 63000-lines long game log, 1049 are "NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object", and 43974 are "[Flight] Divide by zero Warning in Vessel SAS UpdateMaximumAcceleration, a component of moment of inertia tensor is zero. Falling back to maximum angular acceleration of 1. SAS performance will be degraded."

[Sp1f]

Flips!

 

[mcwaffles2003]

Played for the first time since april and im happy the frames definitely got better

[The Aziz]

I landed floated a rover on Minmus.

Cuz the wheels are actually few inches above ground.

[Audaylon]

@The Aziz I hope you packed enough batteries!  

[DylanSP]

Testing a rover I made from scratch after getting inspired by all the awesome people in this community! 

[Socraticat]

Against my better judgement, I went for another big slurp of KSP2 brain freeze. I made a rover inspired by Sojourner and Pathfinder and mounted them atop something that looks vaguely like Delta II.

Oh my entomology... what an ordeal. It's not everything I wanted it to be, but it is about the size of a microwave, and it did land splendidly on Duna.

I'm very excited to comb through footage to show you all, but I'm too tired, so I'm settling on just telling you all how cool it was before I get on my edits tomorrow. 

[JohanFos]

Purchase the game

[Socraticat]

EDIT: I thought it was an anchor issue, but that wasn't it... It's built from top to bottom- It's so strange that everything just falls apart after the first staging incident. This was supposed to go soooooo much farther than LKO.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Socraticat
Update on Kraken fighting- Kraken Wins

[Casellina X]

First attempt at a piloted rover. Not very effective...

Sluggish and top heavy, and I wasn't quite sure how I'd shuttle it off somewhere else anyway. This eventually morphed into several failed light aircraft designs, but I didn't take screenshots.

[Socraticat]

27 minutes ago, Casellina X said:

I wasn't quite sure how I'd shuttle it off somewhere else anyway

Looks ready for a sky-crane, but that's another can of Krakens. Rover's are pretty close to fun if the ground contact issues and bouncing wheels were fixed. Soon enough...

Even more broken is the water. I tried boat launch for the first time today and learned that water is worse than I had anticipated. I knew it was wonky, but holy moly- it's not even close to ready. I don't know how @Audaylon does it.

[Casellina X]

12 hours ago, Socraticat said:

Looks ready for a sky-crane, but that's another can of Krakens. Rover's are pretty close to fun if the ground contact issues and bouncing wheels were fixed. Soon enough...

Even more broken is the water. I tried boat launch for the first time today and learned that water is worse than I had anticipated. I knew it was wonky, but holy moly- it's not even close to ready. I don't know how @Audaylon does it.

I had half a mind to try and use RCS thrusters to orient it after decoupling. Might fail on Mun but be a success on Minmus. Anything other than basic rockets tends to be an extension of my capabilities. I find it funny that I'm willing to try this stuff in KSP2 where it's less likely to work, vs KSP where I could probably see success.

[Socraticat]

3 hours ago, Casellina X said:

I find it funny that I'm willing to try this stuff in KSP2 where it's less likely to work, vs KSP where I could probably see success.

Every time I go back to KSP I get the itch to go back to KSP2. For me, it's in good enough shape to dream about its future.

Case in point...

16 hours ago, Socraticat said:

Rover's are pretty close to fun if the ground contact issues and bouncing wheels were fixed. Soon enough...

I did one circumnavigation in KSP2 already- never did one in KSP.

After seeing another attempt at Circumnavigating Bop, I feel compelled to try it myself. But here's the thing: the craft that took me all the way around Gilly now has new bugs preventing me from breaking through LKO. I've found a workaround, but my point is that I'm having more fun breaking through bugs to play KSP2 than I am regressing to KSP.

Having said that, I feel like I'm getting better at both, with each inspiring me to do different things in the other.

[Audaylon]

@Socraticat lots of struts, lol

[Casellina X]

I made quite the EVA mistake today.

I was trying to EVA back to the landing can. I touched it once but didn't press space bar in time... it was also rolling out of control because I thought it would be fun to do that, and then let go.

Just looking into the abyss. Who knows what's down there?

I think I uploaded the wrong picture, but this should be post splashdown. The Kerbals are an astonishingly resilient being. Splashdown at ~70 m/s after a trip through a (thankfully) heatingless atmosphere. No option to recover from the escape menu so there Jeddiah (I think) will stay until I decide to recover or the next big patch hits.

[Infinite Aerospace]

Right now in KSP2 I'm working on something of a Kerbalised 'Project Constellation'. I've just launched the second of my nuclear transfer vessels, NTV-02 'Columbus' to partner 'Magellan'. The aim is that these transfer vessels act akin to the nuclear transfer stages of Constellation, ferrying around payloads, habitats, station modules to where they're needed before returning to Kerbin for refuel and crew rotation.

[Socraticat]

I'm still loving this game. I think a part of me will be sad when the Kraken is less prevalent. A very small and mischievous part of me.

 

Reading the community at large and seeing some of the onlookers ask about the status of the game, I decided to make a video showing folks a more unpolished play session. This was recorded over a 2 days and comes from probably 4 hours of gameplay altogether. I didn't plan on making this video- I just wanted to do another small moon Circumnavigation. But after just trying to get to Bop with a vessel I had already circumnavigated Gilly in... I had to share the struggle.

And I'll load it again tonight and keep playing... because it's still a joy to experience what I've been waiting for for years.

 

Here's to the next update! CHOO CHOO!

[Socraticat]

I took what I learned from suffering to get to Bop and made those cubic struts my biscuits. Now we have Kerbal Tetris Program!

 

Go stick that in your bug forum.

[Socraticat]

Well, I did stick it in the Bug Forum, then I did it again. And again, and again... because anything worth doing once in Kerbal is worth doing until you're sick of it (mileage may vary)

 

[Socraticat]

FIN

Anyone wondering what a "Hard Crash" is... its a crash that's hard to take- it hurts my feelings. Otherwise it's just a game restart. Anyway, I'm moving on now. Not from the game, of course, but maybe to something less terrestrial.

Now, where did I leave my novel inspiration...