new space pilot... and new questions

[Kaelin]

Hello, my name is Kaelin, and space planes scare me *laughs*

sorry had to.

I'm feeling 'hurrah' at the moment. After countless amusing explosions, i finally got my first satellite up into orbit. Aside from realizing I had put a too small of a battery on it, and wishing there was an easy way I could geosynch it so that the 'dish' i built on it, always pointed at kerbal, I said hurrah and 'left' my satellite in orbit.

Went ground side and looked at the radar... and noticed 'hey' i've got 2 pieces of debris floating in space. A bit of checking.. oh yeah the booster rocket, forgot a way to de-stabalize the orbit. And the coupler, since i had used a stack separator, instead of an explosive coupler. Cleaned those out, and took a good long look at the the various things on there. Probe, rover, lander... SPACE station? YOU CAN BUILD THOSE?

I'm like 'wow, SO MUCH overload... i know my next goal'. After making one or two good 'orbits' of kerbal with a manned pod, i want to start dropping 'rovers' on the various planets (solar powered of course).

Then, A space station.

SO, my question is... how does 'kerbal' decide if its a rover, or a lander, or that. I mean, if I take a pod, put wheels on it, and drop it on the 'mun' then does it count as a rover?

and on the side question how DOES one build a space station, I'm pretty sure you DONT build the thing then launch it all in one piece.

OH. On rocket building. I've figured out how to zoom in and out, how to move 'up and down' the rocket, and how to rotate it. Is there a way to move your focus 'front or back'... like if I want to attach something to an auxillery booster, but can't see it easily where I want to put it?

Newly minted Space explorer spaceplanes are confusing

[Deadweasel]

Hello, my name is Kaelin, and space planes scare me *laughs*

sorry had to.

I'm feeling 'hurrah' at the moment. After countless amusing explosions, i finally got my first satellite up into orbit. Aside from realizing I had put a too small of a battery on it, and wishing there was an easy way I could geosynch it so that the 'dish' i built on it, always pointed at kerbal, I said hurrah and 'left' my satellite in orbit.

Went ground side and looked at the radar... and noticed 'hey' i've got 2 pieces of debris floating in space. A bit of checking.. oh yeah the booster rocket, forgot a way to de-stabalize the orbit. And the coupler, since i had used a stack separator, instead of an explosive coupler. Cleaned those out, and took a good long look at the the various things on there. Probe, rover, lander... SPACE station? YOU CAN BUILD THOSE?

I'm like 'wow, SO MUCH overload... i know my next goal'. After making one or two good 'orbits' of kerbal with a manned pod, i want to start dropping 'rovers' on the various planets (solar powered of course).

Then, A space station.

SO, my question is... how does 'kerbal' decide if its a rover, or a lander, or that. I mean, if I take a pod, put wheels on it, and drop it on the 'mun' then does it count as a rover?

and on the side question how DOES one build a space station, I'm pretty sure you DONT build the thing then launch it all in one piece.

OH. On rocket building. I've figured out how to zoom in and out, how to move 'up and down' the rocket, and how to rotate it. Is there a way to move your focus 'front or back'... like if I want to attach something to an auxillery booster, but can't see it easily where I want to put it?

Newly minted Space explorer spaceplanes are confusing

Welcome, and glad you're having as much fun with it as we do! To try to answer your questions:

The program takes into account the general layout of your craft to determine what it is by default, but I don't know how it works. You can change the designations though, by right-clicking on the control capsule and clicking Rename Vessel. You can change the name and type in there.

As for building a space station, that's going to be all about docking. I recommend launching a couple of very small ships into orbit and getting comfortable with rendezvous and docking before attempting to build a station. For some ideas on how it's done, look at the video series from Scott Manley on YouTube. He's an awesome KSP resource for learning new things.

[Promii]

IIRC by default, everything with a probe body starts as 'Probe' and anything with a capsule/cockpit starts as "Ship". All the other designations are user defined when right-clicking to rename.

Edit: I seem to recall lander cans starting off as "Lander" as well.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Promii

[FITorion]

OH. On rocket building. I've figured out how to zoom in and out, how to move 'up and down' the rocket, and how to rotate it. Is there a way to move your focus 'front or back'... like if I want to attach something to an auxillery booster, but can't see it easily where I want to put it?

Newly minted Space explorer spaceplanes are confusing

Not really sure what you mean by change focus. up down = mouse scroll wheel. Rotate = right mouse button. Zoom in out = number pad +-. Those are all the camera positioning functions I'm aware of.

If you're trying to place something that's been buried by fuel tanks and such you can zoom in until you clip through the outer tanks so you can place things like struts or fuel lines on the inner tanks.

Edited July 18, 2013 by FITorion

[draeath]

There's no way to move the camera pivot. There are mods that add fixed-position cameras though; )

[Merinsan]

Generally people build space stations in orbit, by docking parts together with docking ports. However, I have seen entire stations launched from Kerbin. They generally require huge launch stages and masses of lag. I myself have launched whole bases and dropped them on the Mun.

In my opinion, both bases and stations look better when built from multiple launches, since you can build asymmetrical designs. When launching from Kerbin they pretty much have to be symmetrical.

The game decides what a ship is based on the root part. If it is a probe core, it becomes a probe. If it is a lander can 1 or 3 man and I think Cupola also counts, it becomes a lander, any other capsule counts as a ship. For Rovers, Bases and Stations, you have to set that yourself. Debris is debris when there is no control part on the thing, after separation.

For the VAB, moving up and down you can use page up and page down. Left and right arrow rotates the view. You can also use the mouse. I'd tell you how to use the mouse, but I can't remember - you need to click and drag, and I think hold ctrl or something. I know how to do it when on my game computer - it's just automatic!

[Captain Sierra]

Welcome sir! I strongly advise you to not start with space stations. Those are pretty hard to get the rendezvous down but once you do, you can disregard this because it gets easier with practice. Holding shift and right clicking and dragging does something do the camera. Holding shift and scrolling zooms.

As for space stations, here is the basic procedure. THis is of course under the assumption you know how to do a hohmann transfer rendzvous. For that, watch this. Scott Manley does great KSP tutorials and this explains it better than I can.

My guide to station assembly:

1) build station core

2) put core in orbit (I suggest over 120km)

3) assemble module(s)

4) put module(s) in orbit

5) Rendezvous and dock with station

6) de-orbit (or end flight) the docking stage used to attach module(s)

7) ignore step 6 if it is a re-usable tug you are using; instead, dock it with the station.

I suggest a fuel module (with some liquid and PLENTY of RCS to refill the tug(s)) and a habitation module as your first. These are fairly simple to build and the basic necessities. For ideas on the station core, there is a stock one (though I don't like it a whole lot).

[CCKinnison]

Zoom "in" and "out" in the VAB with + and -.

Took me forever to find that trick out. As for "front or back"... if you mean you want to, say, strut the INSIDE of a "tank farm"... you can do it, but it's ugly. Zoom in so that you're INSIDE the rocket. The scroll up and down and rotate your viewpoint... and lots of experimentation.

Hope that helped.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

If you right click on any pod/probe core on a ship you have an option to rename and change the type of ship

I also recommend getting a manned mun landing perfected before you try to go interplanetary with your rovers

[ComradeGoat]

IIRC by default, everything with a probe body starts as 'Probe' and anything with a capsule/cockpit starts as "Ship". All the other designations are user defined when right-clicking to rename.

Edit: I seem to recall lander cans starting off as "Lander" as well.

Indeed. I'm using the small lander can on my latest SSTO space plane (it's light and I can put a docking port on the front), and the game insists it's a lander. I landed one on Minmus to keep it happy!

[Kaelin]

hi hi. thanks for all the answers. I'm in the middle of building a space plane, and accidentally detached the thruster/scoop from the back. sadly since I had put struts through the middle of the air scoop part... i'm trying to 're-attach' the engine to the part... I see the 'connect here' ball... but i cant seem to connect to it. Anyone know any hotkey overrides or that that I can connect to that 'attach here' ball, then trying to attach the engine in an awkward place?