Hello fellow astronauts! Just got this game and would appreciate some pointers!

[KevKerbin]

Hi all,

Just got the game and really have a blast with it! I was just hoping for a few pointers though, because I've died countless more times than successful missions.

Anything would be appreciated! I have been to the Mun twice, but my crafts are super fuel inefficient. I guess some of my key questions would be...

1. What are the fundamental "builds" of a rocket? It's fun experimenting, but I'd just really like something to build around. There's just a ton of fuel tanks and engines, I'm not exactly sure of the advantages of each.

2. Is there a way to tell which direction WASD points to? I usually spend more time than usual in space because after camera changes and a few ship rotations, D no longer tilts the ship right

3. I'm sure there's a lot to do, but what's the next step up after I manage to go to the Mun and back?

Thanks everyone! Really getting into the game and your help will just make learning that much easier!

[sjwt]

1) Build light and don't over complicate things.. I just responded to someone else issue with getting a ship into orbit, the main issue was they had a larger heavy engine for the final stage, just switching it down to a light engine made all the difference. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/40184-Orbiting?p=520193&viewfull=1#post520193

2) Try toggling the camera with the C key, you will want it to be on 'Chase'

3) Have fun and do want you want to do, KSP is a sandbox with the only limit being that which you put on it. Start your own space program, pick a goal and go for it! Use mods or dont use mods, its all upto you, their is no such thing as cheating.

[Vanamonde]

After a while you'll learn how to stay oriented, but until I figured it out, I used to place some light (so as not to mess up the balance) but easily visible part over the cabin-up direction, so that I could tell at a glance which way my ship was facing.

[UmbralRaptor]

1. The LV-T30 is good for most-anything, the LV-T45 can be added to LV-T30 groups to provide control, the Mainsail is good for lifting large payloads into orbit, and the LV-N and LV-909 are good for interplanetary maneuvers and landing on airless worlds. (I'd be tempted to ignore other engines for now.) The only difference between the non-probe fuel tanks is size -- a stack of 32 FL-T200s will behave much like a rockomaxx jumbo 64.

2. Keep an eye on the navball. D will always move the ship right on it.

3. Could be a Minmus trip, could be building a spacestation, could be bringing a rover to the Mün, or something else entirely.

[tomf]

2. 90% of the screen is just to look pretty. All the real flying is done from the navball. Anything else will get you confused.

3. After Mun and Minimus the next target is probably Duna. I downloaded the ISA mapsat mod and sent out mapping probes to Duna and then all the other solid bodies.

[Keome]

1) Build light. Don't over-complicate things by adding far more than you need. The more mass you add, the more thrust you'll need, which adds more mass, which needs more thrust to lift it. Learning how to setup your staging is important to help with all of this, by dumping empty tanks and using more efficient engines on your upper stages once you've gotten up into the thinner atmosphere.

Don't slap on way too much fuel. If you're getting to the Mun and your transfer stages have a lot of fuel when you drop them for the landing, then you can take less fuel and it will result in a much lighter rocket.

Don't add too much RCS and RCS fuel if you're not going to use it. Carrying a bunch of dead mass you don't need just means you'll be carrying extra fuel to haul around stuff you don't need.

2) Watch the navball. WASDQE will always move you the same way regardless of which way your camera is pointing. Q and E always rotates counter-clockwise (Q) and clockwise (E). WS and AD are always to the same edges of the navball.

3) It's up to you as too what you do. I am building a working interplanetary system of stations as I work on exploring and colonizing. I use the Kethane mod, so I have refueling stations orbiting the Mun and Minmus. I am currently working on getting out to Duna. One goal I set to help with my Kethane mining was to make light, efficient designs that would be more economical in moving fuel from the Mun or Minmus up to the refueling station. If you're burning more fuel that you're mining, it doesn't work well. See #1 above.

Your goals and enjoyment of things will vary.

[Epic DaVinci]

Welcome to the forums KevKerbin.

I can onlty re-itterate what others have said, don't try buildinig some behemoth of a ship at first, start small and light, Ive just got a satelite into a high kerbin orbit using two of the small solid rocket boosters to aid the lift stage.

As for the next step, this is the beauty of teh game, its totally up to you , if you want to try and visit every plant, you go ahead, if you want to crown Kerbin with countless satelite, you do so. Nobody can tell you that you are playing the game wrong (even though some may try), But mst of all, have FUN. If you get stuck, or need advice, we are here to help.

[SRV Ron]

Start with simple single stage single engine sub orbiters. Do probes first before committing to Kerbals that you want to bring back alive. Then design a simple 2 stage orbiter. from there, get gradually larger as you expand your range for exploration.

This design is a bit more complex but can be used to land probes on Mun or Minmus once you are good at getting into orbit with it. It is also good to get you familiar with using thrusters for orientation and transverse maneuvers. (Transverse maneuvers, except for forward and reverse, work best if you ditch the second stage.)

Redstone Probe

Probe Stage;

1. Stayputnik

2. ASAS controller

3. 2 2100 battery packs placed on Stayputnik

3. Set of the four instruments placed on top of the ASAS Controller.

4. FL-R25 RCS Fuel Tank

5. Set 4 RV-105 Thruster pack placed near base of the ASAS Controller

6. 8 fixed solar panels.

7. Stack Decoupler

Second Stage

1. FL-T400 fuel Tank

2. LV-909 engine

3. Stack Decoupler

First Stage

Stack of;

1. FL-T200 fuel tank

2. FL-T400 Fuel Tank

3. FL-T800 Fuel Tank

4. LV-T45 engine

5. 4 Delta winglets place as low as possible.

6. 2 Launch Stablizers.

If you are coming up short on getting to land on Mun, add the following to the design;

Add a set of four TT-38K radical decouplers and attach a set of 4 RT-10 Solid Fuel boosters. Start the Gravity Turn after the boosters burn out, are dropped, and the first stage engine powered up.

[Arran]

K.I.S is you're friend (Keep It Simple) like many said, dont over engineer ships (hence my first rockets where way too complicated) and they just never got me far. My simplest designs gets me the furtherst, fly and behave well..

Dont go for super big ones right away, i find the 1.25mtr rockets perfect for learing/testing, and use 2.5 only when i really need some serious lifting power..

Also staging rockets can be hard at first, lateron when you start too learn what parts do what, too what effect, you can start using more complex staging, and more advance stuff..

KSP is in that manner really a spaceprogram, you start small learn the basics, and go from there.. Dont try too make super large multible section spacestations right away, or set Jool as you're first goal.. You just get dissapointed..

Learn too get in Orbit, then learn too get a stable orbit, then try too make a higher orbit and go so on..

In time you slowly master the game, get into more complex designs, Multi staging rockings, spaceplanes and so on..

Read the forums (most people are more then helpfull, ignore the occasional High Horsed ones) we all started small, most of us had like most new players absolute no idear how too play the game..

Hence i was one of those as well, still learning on a daily bases now stuff, and playing it over a year now, and still havent accomplished yet everything ..

[capi3101]

2) Try toggling the camera with the C key, you will want it to be on 'Chase'

V-key...C puts you in IVA mode.

[KevKerbin]

Thank you all for the great responses! Will have to try these out later today when I get the chance

Just a few other questions for now, after I studied a few videos.

What's the most fuel efficient "burn" level? Does it matter once you're out of atmosphere? I'm not sure if it makes a difference if I jack it up to 100% vs just keeping it at 10%...

What are the benefits of using a cluster of engines vs 1 big engine like the mainsail?

[capi3101]

1) I'd look at the Historical Mission Tutorials on the wiki. If nothing else, they'll give you good ideas for getting started. There is some other information there that may or may not be helpful...the Basic Rocket Design tutorial is how I got started.

2) I'd highly recommend flying with the navball, as others have suggested. If you need help with that, ask.

3) After the Mun? Minmus is a good way to learn how to hit a target that's not on the same orbital plane. It's an easier landing and it takes less delta-V to get there and back than it does from Mun, so you can use the same designs. After that, it's whatever you want to do. Me, I farted around with probe designs, then building boosters that didn't leave debris all over the place, and then I started sending missions to Duna/Ike and later to Eve/Gilly.

[KevKerbin]

Ah, thanks again.

Forgot to mention this in addition to my other questions:

SAS or ASAS? Which to use?

When I use ASAS, I always seem to wobble until my rocket just has a structural failure somewhere and I blow up. When I use SAS, nothing really seems to happen.

[UmbralRaptor]

What's the most fuel efficient "burn" level? Does it matter once you're out of atmosphere? I'm not sure if it makes a difference if I jack it up to 100% vs just keeping it at 10%...

(Unlike real engines) KSP engines are 100% efficient at all throttle levels. If you're not in atmosphere, a short burn tends to be more efficient (if harder to control) than a longer one, but that's orbital mechanics rather than engine performance.

What are the benefits of using a cluster of engines vs 1 big engine like the mainsail?

In some cases, a cluster of smaller engines offers greater ÃŽâ€V. A notable example is 3 LV-T30s (or 2 LV-T30s and an LV-T45) vs a Skipper.

SAS or ASAS? Which to use?

When I use ASAS, I always seem to wobble until my rocket just has a structural failure somewhere and I blow up. When I use SAS, nothing really seems to happen.

I lean towards ASAS.

SAS has a built in torque system (...and a PID controller) to stop your rocket from turning. ASAS also tries to keep you from turning with a PID controller, but uses it to generate control inputs instead. The major problem with the stock ASAS is that it's poorly tuned for most and tends to overcorrect. Reducing control authority by turning off thrust vectoring for most engines, struts, and retuning the ASAS (currently only possibly by editing the part.cfg) help.

[Nurph]

ASAS is a computer that uses whatever control authority your rocket has (SAS, gimbals, RCS, etc.) to maintain your current attitude and it can be rather, aggresive, at times. If you're suffering structural failures add more struts/space tape and disable the gimbals on any of your radial boosters. It will also fight your inputs, so turn it off if you need to change attitude.

As far as I know, SAS modules only provide additional roll control.

[KevKerbin]

Thank you everyone for the help! Just loaded up a very old rocket build that I struggled with and managed to get to the Mun and back

[AnalogAddict]

The NavBall is invaluable - its always correct regardless of your ships orientation in perspective to the camera.

[SRV Ron]

As far as rocker clusters, the LV-30 and LV-45 in clusters can be more efficient then a Mainsail when you don't need its power but need more power then the Skipper. In that case, you can use a trick with the small cube to mount a cluster of four under the Rocomax fuel tanks. LV-30s are non vectoring and are good for the outer ring. Use LV-45 in the center stage so the ASAS and manual control can steer your rocket. I refitted one design where Mainsails were too much power for launch while Skippers were not enough and realized a significance increase of tonnage place into Mun orbit which included the launch vehicle second stage having done that job. Expect some frame rate lag when you are firing up 24 LV-30s and 4 LV-45 at once.

[fattony4200]

I've had the most success with rockets where the payload is the center stack and the lifting vehicle is built out around it. Nuclear engines are ideal for once you are already in orbit. I would highly recommend installing MechJeb to take some of the guess work out of your rocket designs. It will tell you how much deltaV you have. DeltaV is change in velocity. I think you need around 3000 for a good higher orbit around Kerbal. Plenty of others already answered the camera view question. OH, and if you're having trouble where your rockets are shaking apart, use radial decouplers, small hard points, and struts to connect across stack decouplers. It should look like tension wires running down the side of your rocket but elevated. Helps me a lot.

[capi3101]

I think you need around 3000 for a good higher orbit around Kerbal.

1) It's 4550 m/s for a 100k orbit.

2) It's Kerbin. Kerbals live on Kerbin, which orbits Kerbol, and all (most?) of the Kerbals are of the family Kermin.

[Kimberly]

1) It's 4550 m/s for a 100k orbit.

2) It's Kerbin. Kerbals live on Kerbin, which orbits Kerbol, and all (most?) of the Kerbals are of the family Kermin.

They're of the family Kerman. It's a complicated system.