Any tips for a (sort of) newcomer

[Bradvh97]

I've been playing the demo for the past week and I've successfully landed on the mun 4 times. Twice I've not been able to get back and therefore abandon the flight and the innocent Kerbal's who trusted me. The other two times I managed to land (once in the dark) and successfully return to Kerbin. I've watched tonnes of videos on this game e.g. Scott Manley, HOCGaming, Yogscast Duncan and would appreciate any things I should be aware of before I go on a mass murder spree of Kerbals. I'll be picking this wonderful game up tomorrow on Steam.

Thanks

[Akinesis]

Send another ship to rescue them

[Bradvh97]

I had to end the flights since I can only have 3 at any time on the demo. A quick question, even if you end the flight do the Kerbals and spacecraft remain where they were?

[Skyrunner27]

Asparagus Staging it is a life saver.

[bonyetty]

Always place at least one static kolar(solar) panel on your craft. I have (edit)NOT always done this and so have too many dead metallic lumps floating in space.

Edited August 8, 2013 by bonyetty

[Space Ace]

Always place at least one static kolar(solar) panel on your craft. I have (edit)NOT always done this and so have too many dead metallic lumps floating in space.

Aye Solar pannels or a PB-NUK Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

Because your Remote controlled Parts run out of power faily quickly.

And be true to your Kerbal - when something doesn't work: add more rockets!

On second thoughts maybe not the very best idea but it's certainly a fun one

Yeah I'm totally overdoing it...

[Themohawkninja]

Study your orbital mechanics very well. The more you understand how it works, the more you can go on a given amount of fuel.

Also, REMEMBER TO OPEN YOUR SOLAR PANELS BEFORE MASHING TIME WARP! I still forget, and I am quite experienced at the game.

Thirdly, you can never go wrong with more struts.

[lammatt]

my tip is...

have lots of mods in your gamedata folder

mods are what making this game so uniquely fun.

[Guest]

Avoid MechJeb as long as you can, learn to pilot manually, do all the hard stuff. That way, when you eventually get MechJeb, you'll have a solid understanding of how to fly in KSP and will know when to use it and when not to.

[SkyRender]

Patience is the single best piece of advice anyone can give you for Kerbal Space Program. Orbital mechanics depart considerably from terrestrial mechanics, and it takes time to master the concepts behind many things that would seem routine down here on Earth (such as how to get from point A to point B efficiently, how to bring two objects close enough to rendezvous and/or dock, and how to efficiently land on an airless or barely-aired body). As long as you go into it with an interest in learning how things work instead of just finding a pre-made solution by someone else that will work and not really getting why it does work, you should be fine.

[Tank Buddy]

Well congrats and welcome to space. First of all, keep up watching Youtube videos, and be sure to look back at old videos and tutorials. Videos from .18 onward should be applicable, for the most part. Like everything else, it just takes practice to make less disaster. Some times you just have a moment where everything fits together and from that point onward you can preform tasks with minimal effort, like docking, TMI, gravity turns, Rendezvous, etc.

I would make some recommendations: under the first tab of flight controls, change the default translation keys to the arrow keys and Rshift and Rctrl. This is much easier and allows to rotate and translate while docking. You will have to clear the "move camera" controls before you use this because they are bound to the arrow keys as well. Also keep in mind that you can drive rovers with the arrow keys if you use arrow up and down for forwards and back, and shift and control for up and down.

When docking use chase camera so you are properly oriented.

Other than that, good luck!

[stringyquark]

Higher orbits are slower, lower orbits are faster. Single most helpful thing to know when you want to rendezvous in orbit.

[skyace65]

bigger doesn't always equal better.