What is the hardest aspect of this game?

[Richy teh space man]

I'd vote for space planes, but I don't see the option..

[EvilotionCR2]

Heh,Launching heavy things into orbit with original and cool looking launchers

[rodion_herrera]

I may be wrong, but I am guessing that perhaps the reason why some people have a hard time with in-atmosphere flight (and thus trying to build a good/reliable SSTO spaceplane) is because over 3/4ths of players don't use joysticks. I come from a flight simulation background, and have flown an airplane once, in real life, so it goes without saying that flying with the keyboard simply sucks--joysticks are a must if you expect efficient atmospheric flight in KSP. I'll post a video of what I mean soon.

-RODION

[Karriz]

SSTO (plane/rocket) is still a thing I haven't accomplished. I can get myself to ~ 1400 m/s at the height of 20km.

Then I fire up the aerospikes and climb up to 70km. However, I never have enough fuel left to circularize my orbit.

Maybe I should try other players' designs and see if I can fly them.

[RocketPilot573]

SSTOs defiantly, I've gone through countless designs (and Kerbals) and only a few planes have made it to space.

[Francesco]

Any good tutorials you can recommend? Thanks :-)

not that I remember of, there were a couple in written format but we lost them in the forum purge :/

youtube should provide you with plenty of video tutorials, maybe start with this one from good ol' Scott Manley

in general, I suggest you ask specific questions in the How To section, so that you can pinpoint the exact issue to work on.

a small tip: for SSTO spaceplanes, the only really useful air intakes are the ram ones.

[SecondGuessing]

I find landing a lot harder than designing an SSTOs, even space-planes. I seem to have somewhat good intuition when designing SSTOs, but landing I find to be a pain, and always underestimate the fuel requirement to re-rendezvous from the planet.

But orbital rendezvous was much harder to learn to start with than SSTO design or landing.

Edited May 20, 2013 by SecondGuessing

[nats]

I may be wrong, but I am guessing that perhaps the reason why some people have a hard time with in-atmosphere flight (and thus trying to build a good/reliable SSTO spaceplane) is because over 3/4ths of players don't use joysticks. I come from a flight simulation background, and have flown an airplane once, in real life, so it goes without saying that flying with the keyboard simply sucks--joysticks are a must if you expect efficient atmospheric flight in KSP. I'll post a video of what I mean soon.

-RODION

I only attach my joystick for flight sims and these days there arent many I play I guess if I was flying the spaceplanes a lot I might bother to dig it out and reattach it but I find the rockets far more fun anyway. I think the game is trying to do too much anyway with the rocket and plane design, they should stick to just rockets and do that part really well, the plane part seems so ... incongruous.

[that1guy]

This video should help with SSTO design. I also have other tutorials up for docking and rednezvous.

[rodion_herrera]

I only attach my joystick for flight sims and these days there arent many I play I guess if I was flying the spaceplanes a lot I might bother to dig it out and reattach it but I find the rockets far more fun anyway. I think the game is trying to do too much anyway with the rocket and plane design, they should stick to just rockets and do that part really well, the plane part seems so ... incongruous.

If you know the history of NASA (it was NACA before it became NASA), and have read Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff", you would realize why SQUAD incorporated the "aero" aspect in KSP. This game also caters to those who actually know and appreciate the development of rocketry, from the time of the Argus As 014 (V-1) up to SpaceX's Merlin. The roots of rocketry lie in atmospheric flights, and it would be a shame if this aspect of its development was not incorporated in a game that deals with rockets.

TO keep in topic, I haven't tried SSTO yet, but I'm willing to bet that with a joystick, I can achieve it with less perspiration than those who tried it without one.

-RODION

Edited May 20, 2013 by rodion_herrera

[comham]

Making a working spaceplane is something I find pretty hard. Looking at a guide would take the fun out of it though. Landing planes can be tricky as well, or at least, a bit more skilful than landing a leggy lander.

Docking was hard till I'd done it a few times and got an intuitive understanding of it. That was when orbital mechanics really clicked for me.

KSP is a nice easy game to learn. You can usually tell where you've gone wrong, and use that knowledge to try again next time. Barring bugs.

I can't say that using a joystick makes flying aircraft much easier, really, and I'm pretty good at flying in other games (Arma, Battlefield 1942, A New Zero). The main difficulty is that on default sensitivity settings (ludicrously high) it's very easy to get into an unrecoverable spin, or roll your wings off. Adjusting trim is never quite fine enough either, it needs to have two more decimal places of tuning available. These are mostly problems with the flight model, and the whole "one control setting used across totally different aircraft" thing. I haven't tried FAR. I just hope the flight model is better in 1.0

Edited May 20, 2013 by comham

[rodion_herrera]

The main difficulty is that on default sensitivity settings (ludicrously high) it's very easy to get into an unrecoverable spin, or roll your wings off. Adjusting trim is never quite fine enough either, it needs to have two more decimal places of tuning available.

I realized that the main reason why I found some of my designs to be "touchy" while I'm using a joystick with sensitivity turned down, is because I was simply using TOO MUCH control surfaces (i.e. LARGE ailerons, or ailerons plus elevators PLUS canards, etc). Now, one reason this is perhaps emphasized in KSP aircraft design (many control surfaces), is that it relies on the idea that the player is going to use keyboard as a means to control it. Now since keyboard controls basically act binary (on or off), the user is forced to enter force "digitally" (i.e. people count keypresses to estimate how much pitch or roll they are using--for example, in kurtjmac's videos, you can actually hear him tapping on the control keys frantically, while flying aircraft), then naturally, the way to compensate for no effect on ONE keypress is to naturally ADD more control surfaces--an act which is counter-intuitive if you're going to design an aircraft with a joystick in mind. That's how I see it.

Thus, by being conservative on the use of control surfaces (using tiny ones if necessary), I've managed the touchiness issue quite well, while using a joystick, on my end.

-RODION

Edited May 20, 2013 by rodion_herrera

[whatisthisidonteven]

KSP is one of the more easy games to learn, I've had trouble with a lot of things but after doing them once or twice it became easy.

[PrISM]

Building in the VAB/SPH. That's what irritates me the most in this game. Aside from that I'd say launching something somewhere only to find out it doesn't actually work wherever you're trying to go.

[Flixxbeatz]

SSTO Spaceplanes of course.

How hard could it be? Well based on my own definition, a full-fledged professional KSP player is anyone who has successfully launched an SSTO Spaceplane into orbit and landed it back to Kerbin in one piece.

[astocky]

I use the FAR mod to get realistic aerodynamics. That means for me the hardest thing is getting a SSTO with enough fuel to actually make orbit and still be light enough to take-off and not explode.

[rodion_herrera]

SSTO Spaceplanes of course.

How hard could it be? Well based on my own definition, a full-fledged professional KSP player is anyone who has successfully launched an SSTO Spaceplane into orbit and landed it back to Kerbin in one piece.

Ok. When I first started to read this thread, I have never tried SSTO spaceplane. So, after my last post, I followed some tutorials and in my third design attempt, I manage to reach orbit, albeit I ran out of F+Ox to really make a decent landing. Will now redesign to allow for extra fuel for re-entry and landing. I actually almost made it back in one piece, by landing at the desert "Dead Stick" (pure glide) fashion, which could have been an EXCELLENT example of how useful a joystick can be in such a situation. Unfortunately at the last moment, my fiddling with ASAS made my craft fly out of its useful envelope and I bought the farm, but I was thaaaaat close.

Oh you might be asking, "So how did you manage re-entry if you ran out of fuel?" Well simple, first I didn't really run out totally, I still had like 3% left, so burned all that retrograde...and here's the beauty...I had RCS tanks (which made my ascent really nice and smooth btw)...so I used translational RCS as added retrograde burn, and voila...re-entered...and of course you know the story of my botched deadstick landing attempt above...

-RODION

[Flixxbeatz]

Ok. When I first started to read this thread, I have never tried SSTO spaceplane. So, after my last post, I followed some tutorials and in my third design attempt, I manage to reach orbit, albeit I ran out of F+Ox to really make a decent landing. Will now redesign to allow for extra fuel for re-entry and landing. I actually almost made it back in one piece, by landing at the desert "Dead Stick" (pure glide) fashion, which could have been an EXCELLENT example of how useful a joystick can be in such a situation. Unfortunately at the last moment, my fiddling with ASAS made my craft fly out of its useful envelope and I bought the farm, but I was thaaaaat close.

Oh you might be asking, "So how did you manage re-entry if you ran out of fuel?" Well simple, first I didn't really run out totally, I still had like 3% left, so burned all that retrograde...and here's the beauty...I had RCS tanks (which made my ascent really nice and smooth btw)...so I used translational RCS as added retrograde burn, and voila...re-entered...and of course you know the story of my botched deadstick landing attempt above...

-RODION

I did managed got two of my spaceplane designs to orbit before, but both entered a stall spin after re-entering and crashed. Almost a professional.

[tntristan12]

Landing my SSTO is still hit or miss for me. I have gotten close so many times, but when I do land it on the runway I rejoice! Nothing feels so epic as to take a plane in from orbit with those new reentry effects and then line the crew upfor a photo op aftafterwards. KSP is one of the most rewarding games you can play!

[SkyHook]

Waiting for updates

..and finding a semi-realistic way to transport bases in pieces to other planets.

[zpox357]

I have sent many probe missions to the outer and inner planets, and landed kerbals on most of them. However I am still unable to even get a SSTO off the ground... well, in one piece anyway