Hello all, new here and have a question.

[Moencino]

Hey everyone!

New to the game since yesterday, and absolutely loving it. Landed on and returned from the Mun for the first time today - challenging and great fun. So much to learn.

So, I've run into my first real spot of trouble. Rather than start with a small rover for the Mun as I should have, I went and built a mobile drilling platform. I was building horizontally for the first time, and while it was fun, things didn't go very smoothly. Parts wouldn't click together, and the symmetry feature seemed bugged. It became very noticeable once I started the lifting stage when I tried to attach 6 decouplers - they flowered out in a weird pattern rather than radially around the fuel tank.

Any idea what's up?

Thanks to the authors for making such a bloody fantastic game for those hours I don't feel like being terribly productive

Cheers,

Moencino

Edited August 19, 2013 by Moencino

[Rhomphaia]

The problem is that symmetry is based on the orientation of the root part.

So either build the launcher on the end of your rover then move the whole thing to the bottom. or use Subassembly manager

[Moencino]

Ahhhh, brilliant, thanks Rhomphaia! I had a feeling it had something to do with the horizontal command part at the front. I'm assuming that's the root part? I haven't tried any addons yet, but I'll check out the one you mentioned. Thanks again.

[Spyritdragon]

What the person above me said. Your 'root' part, the first part you placed, was most likely the rovers probe core. Since you oriented that horizontally, as you would when building a spaceplane, the symmetry will think of your entire rocket as being placed horizontally, like the centre 'stack' of your rover.

This is going to be very tricky to solve, and im afraid you're going to have to memorize the build of your rover, take it apart, remove the rover core , then add a core to your stack and rebuild the rover.

The problem is that you're going to have to make the core on your stack the first part. Only, when you take combined parts off of your main body, i believe it will only have a single attachment point, being the one by which your perviously attached it to the main body. If you were to take the main body off of your rover, remove the rover core and put it into the stack, the only attachment point your rover will remember is the nose-oriented one where your probe core used to be.

So i'm afraid you're going to have to rebuild the rover. Unless you use the subassembly mod, or are brave enough to start using huge spaceplanes already.

Edit: remember that in this build, your rover wheels are pointing downwards. You'll want to make sure you install a way of getting the rover off your central stack when you've landed, or a way to land the rover when you've seperated from the central stack (a skycrane).

Edited August 19, 2013 by Spyritdragon

[capi3101]

1) Take the bits off your probe core. Do not ditch the parts, just separate them.

2) Rotate the probe core 90 degrees.

3) Reattach.

4) ???

5) PROFIT.

[esinohio]

Very nice rover there my friend! Glad you have the root part orientation problem sorted out. Maybe we can get some action shots of your rover on the mun sometime soon? I shouldn't say rover, that looks more like some ruff and tough off roading thrill ride.

[Epic DaVinci]

Hang on, you have had the game 1 day and your building that!! Bravo, it took me a week to learn that pressing T helps an awful lot.

[Moencino]

@ Epic: Ha, thanks . My favourite toys as a kid were my Erector set and Lego, plus like many here I'm guessing, I've been pretty passionate about all things relating to manned space exploration my whole life. One of my favourite parts about the game is finally understanding some of the technical elements of all those Nasa events I've followed over the years.

@ esinohio: Thanks! Oh, I don't think my crew will be doing any thrill riding in the rover (catchy acronym coming for it soon); she's a top-heavy workhorse that wise Kerbals will drive conservatively. Knowing there are no wise Kerbals, I've installed a set of RCS thrusters at the top of the drilling rig which, while untested, I'm hoping will right it on the numerous occasions it'll be lying on its side with a terrified crew strapped into the elevated command chair.

@ spy and cap: Thanks for the advice guys. I was lucky to find the solution was simply to delete the booster stage I'd started, then flip the rover vertically. Any time I had to add radial components I'd just flip it, add them, then flip it back if I needed to. The whole flipping lesson turned out to be useful on a number of occasions where parts wouldn't click together in one orientation, but when flipped they would. Again, thanks for the detailed guidance!

I intentionally didn't do any research on rover delivery methods in order to enjoy just seeing where my imagination took me. Well, I did see someone's built a Mars sky-crane, which blows my mind - I've a lot to learn from you guys. I didn't see any parts with cables and winches in my inventory, so I'm guessing those are addons. I'll investigate those eventually, I'm sure. After about 50 crashes while testing and tweaking the courier stage (inspired by Scaled Composites' White Knight idea of a piggy back solution), I think I'll be able to land it and safely detach the rover. My challenge now is the lifting stage, which was gyrating like a drunken hula dancer in my initial efforts. My solution isn't pretty, but I'll save the details until you can all facepalm over the horror show I've built. The experienced builders use something I think you call asparagus staging? All very efficient and well-planned. I call mine fire drill staging, with each booster trampling over the other in a mad dash to get the hell away.

More tomfoolery to share soon...

[Moencino]

Turns out this thing is exactly as aerodynamic as it looks. This is going to be a challenge. If all else fails I'll start an international pizza delivery service: "From our oven to your door world-wide in under 11 minutes. Guaranteed hot. Flaming hot, in fact."

Poor Dansby...if only he knew that once I get him to the Mun, I'll have to abandon him until I return with a rescue mission. At least he'll have a cool car to drive.