Initial thoughts – RCS and airbags

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Hey I’ve just picked this game up and it’s really great, I’m a Unity developer myself and this is very very good, well done! I’ve got a question about RCS – I figured this was just for directional movement (turning etc) is there a way to use RCS to actually thrust? I tried shift with RCS enabled and nothing happens, but maybe I’ve misinterpreted but it sounds like people are able to use RCS as a thruster ie to move! Is it possible to do this?

Also a suggestion – I’m playing on a laptop with no mouse and it took me 2 days of gameplay to work out that I need to map plus and minus to zoom. It might be worth making that the default for future updates (extending my solar panels while zoomed out wasn’t fun, and I didn’t even know you can zoom out to see the Mun properly!

I also noticed that you don’t have any “crash pads†– I wanted to land on Duna with a harsh landing and lots of airbag type things like they used for some of the Mars missions, but you don’t seem to have those. Seems like something that should be added for us folks who don’t know how to land properly!

Thanks

[SRV Ron]

The thrusting commands are HNKIJL. Go to http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Key_Bindings for the complete list of key commands.

Wireless mice are very inexpensive and now come with a tiny USB receiver that you can't bump to break off.

Crash Pads could be an idea for a future modded part for probes.

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Thanks for the reply. I play without a mouse for preference and + and – really work fine; it’s just a case of making those default controls rather than having to be mapped out!

With regards to the RCS, what is it useful for? I take it it’s not good for massively changing your orbit and you need rocket engines for that? Are H and N thrust up and thrust down or do they use lateral movements like the EVA?

[SRV Ron]

Thanks for the reply. I play without a mouse for preference and + and – really work fine; it’s just a case of making those default controls rather than having to be mapped out!

With regards to the RCS, what is it useful for? I take it it’s not good for massively changing your orbit and you need rocket engines for that? Are H and N thrust up and thrust down or do they use lateral movements like the EVA?

RCS thrusters are most useful for orienting heavy craft that the ACS gyros cannot do. Use short burst rather then long ones for changing orientation and the same number of short thrust to stop those movements. If you need to turn the ship around, do so slowly. let that maneuver take a minute or two to save the fuel as well as to make stopping the movement a lot easier. H and N are forwards and backwards. The other are sideways movement for each plane such as left and right or up and down. Those are useful for docking maneuvers. Thrusting forwards is useful for fine tuning changes in your orbital path or trajectory to other locations. Otherwise, use the main engines for larger changes and save the RCS fuel for other maneuvers.

Edited June 27, 2013 by SRV Ron

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Hey thanks for your reply, I have a few more questions.

1. Are struts permanent? I saw in a tutorial somebody strut some stages together, when you disconnect the stage does it destroy the strut?

2. Are fuel lines permanent? Can you make one that you can retract and extend or is there a way to stop fuel going through them?

3. Can you attach things to landing legs? My idea being to make a folding spacecraft that unfolds once in orbit.

4. How do hitchhiker modules work?

5. Do solar panels break off if you perform a harsh burn in space (no atmosphere)?

[gunnyfreak]

1,2) struts and fuel lines are gone when the thing its attached to stage off

4) it's just a place to put kerbals, not filled in the beginning and the kerbals in there don't actually do anything, they're just hitchhikers

5) no

[ouion]

RCS can work for WASD for Changing position of the craft.

welcome:D

[Jpegman]

1. No The struts are not permanent, they are destroyed when you jettison the part it is attached to.

2. same as struts, they destroy when the part gets jetissoned

3. no, but there is a few good mods like damned robotics (broken with 0.20), but you can use docking ports to assemble your ships in orbit, you can even make a ship out of modules with docking ports, you disasemble the modules once in orbit and you can rearage them

4. i don't know what it is ^^

5. no

[Tw1]

Pretty sure + and - are default. Or perhaps that's because I have a full keypad on my laptop.

I discovered them one day when I'd brought my laptop somewhere and didn't have a mouse with me, and wanted to play KSP. Not as smooth as playing with a mouse though.

[Xiphos]

extending my solar panels while zoomed out wasn’t fun

For this, you can add the solar panels (among many other things) to action groups. And for Kerbalsake, get yourself a mouse

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What are action groups?

Also can anyone answer whether it is possible to make a folding spacecraft?

[Sirrobert]

On the RCS:

If you need to dock modules tougether (for example to build a bigger space station. You can't launch such a thing in 1 go), you can use RCS thrusters for tiny movements.

The difference is that normal engines only go 1 way (up), while with HNIJKL you can translate in all 6 axes, really usefull for when you need to get ports alligned EXACTLY right (which you need, if you want them to dock). At the same time, WASD can pitch and yawn.

And install Mechjeb mod. It will save you alot of frustration with smart ASS and translatron (translatron can hold vertical speed for example, allowing you to hover over the surface while you move, not having to worry about your altitude)

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Thanks but I really think I want to play vanilla, I've seen Mechjeb and I'd rather do that job myself!

[olex]

For a folding spacecraft, you'll need a mod that allows you to have folding/moving parts - take a look at Damned Robotics, it's the most-used one for the purpose.

[Cydonian Monk]

What are action groups?

Action groups are set up in the VAB/SPH when building the craft. In the upper left-center of the screen there are two buttons - one for parts, one for action groups. The action groups button brings up a dialog with a list of groups: 1-10 and things like Abort, Gear, Lights, etc. When you click on a valid "part," the actions you can set to an action group will appear in the second column of the action group dialog. Just click on the action to add it to the selected group. (Ex: "Toggle Gimble" when a gimbled-engine is selected.) You activate the group by pressing the key mapped to that action (or 1-10 for the number groups.)

[astropapi1]

No, you can't attach stuff to landing gear, but you can use the damned robotics mod (Sorry, I didn't find it).

Here's a tutorial on action groups. They basically let you do a lot of stuff with one button:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dyZw-zA5Zk

For example, you can set 1 to open all of your solar panels, and when you press 1 in-flight all the solar panels will extend.

[Eric S]

As for the airbags, I haven't tested it to make sure it still works in 0.19 or 0.20, but I used the mod CP Airbag System back in 0.18 and it worked fine then.

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[RocketTurtle]

Good job! By the way F1 is screenshot and F2 is to hide the GUI/Instruments to make screenshots look nicer.

[alacrity]

So to summarize

RCS...

Controls are w,a,s,d for turning the craft (pitch, yaw and roll)

Control are h,n for forward and back

Control are i,k for Up ad Down

controls are j,l for left right.

and all these are based in facing of the ship not relative to outside reference. It is used mainly for docking maneuvers, landing control, and separating space craft. I also use them for thrusters for a couple of my Hooligan Blimp designs (blimps are another mod) for primary thrust on Duna.

Strut and fuel lines.

All disconnect when related stages separate

Myself I like the Quatum Struts... it's a great mod that allows adding binding struts almost anywhere including in space (haven't tried since 20.2 so I am not sure if that function is still functional).

Air Bags.

They were in but for now have not been updated to the new 2x.x standard. Fingers crossed.

Hinges and such.

Damned robotics was the standard but again not updated to the new standard (all fingers crossed for the new update).

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/37707-Magic-Smoke-Industries-Parts Here is a link to a new robotics firm. Infernal seems to be making headway in the realm of robotics with rotating docking ports and such.

Hitchhikers modules

are simply living space. Fits 4 kerbals, connects easily, and has a lot of surface area for putting Solar panels and such on. A favored central piece for large landers.

Solar Panels.

Fragile... Very Fragile. They will rip off very easily in any atmo with almost no speed. In vacuum they rarely do unless you (a) touch them with anything (kerbal, other part, random bolt, snickers wrapper) or ( get your ships really wiggley. It acts the the caranary in the mine, being the first thing that falls off before the whole thing explodes like legos.

Action Groups

These are really important especially for low definition low speed rigs (like laptops, older machines). Any actions of a part can be programmed on to make them easily controllable in groups. Most people put there solar panels into an action group as a back system, since when you run out of juice you can't manually open them. Action groups get around this problem. I use them to do full deploys on my probes (panels, antennas, Mappers and Kethane surveyors), activate my lander legs, and giving fine control to engine packages (rear facing breaking engines on blimps, rotational engines for orbiters, Nuclear power plants from the HOME mod)

Finally Cngrats on the Mun landing... hope to see many more.

Alacrity Fitz

[CCKinnison]

Crash pads - I've seen some designs that enclose objects in a web of girders that shatter on impact, giving some protection to the object in the middle. It won't save your kerbals from a full unpowered reentry, but it can turn a really bad landing into something they can walk away from.

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Following my first Mun landing, I’ve designed a second, larger craft which carries 3. The problem I’m having is that I can’t seem to get enough fuel to get this larger beast to the moon. No matter how large and how many rockets I put on, I am running out of fuel after burning into Kerbin’s orbit, and having to use my lander engine to burn to the Mun! I tried adding another stage but that required more fuel and it seems to be a horrible cycle I’m in of adding more fuel and rockets. What am I doing wrong?

[bebini]

First time i made succesfully full mission to land on "minmus"(or something like that) and come back..... and I just wanted to kill everyone when it occured that all that screenshots "taken" by me using "Print screen" key...... dont exist....

Dev team should really make screenshotf by print screen key

[Xiphos]

Have you tried asparagus staging? It should boost your efficiency up to like 60% or something. Every single rocket I make uses it now. The orbit tutorial I have in my sig goes into great detail about asparagus staging if you're interested. Good luck!

[SRV Ron]

Following my first Mun landing, I’ve designed a second, larger craft which carries 3. The problem I’m having is that I can’t seem to get enough fuel to get this larger beast to the moon. No matter how large and how many rockets I put on, I am running out of fuel after burning into Kerbin’s orbit, and having to use my lander engine to burn to the Mun! I tried adding another stage but that required more fuel and it seems to be a horrible cycle I’m in of adding more fuel and rockets. What am I doing wrong?

My Nova Probe, with Skipper engines, is able to reach Mum insertion using its second stage. It can carry a one Kerbal capsule. My Saturn probe, using a much larger fourth stage that can carry the three Kerbal capsule and requiring Mainsail engines to get off the ground, requires the lander stage to get into orbit and lunar insertion.

It is an issue of the tonnage of the second craft where you will need a lot more power and fuel to get to Mum. Adding an extra stage to get to orbit seems to be a point of diminishing return in the added weight of the engine VS the extra handling problems during orbital insertion. Use asparagus staging. Use the second stage engine for launch where its fuel tanks are kept full until the first stage asparagus have been used and jettisoned. The goal is to get all of that weight up to the Orbital turn and about 20,000 meters so the second stage can carry enough fuel for orbital and Mum insertion.

Otherwise, try the Apollo setup where a separate lander is taken to Mum and left in its orbit.