Hiya!

[D1g1talDragon]

Discovered the game through the RPS article yesterday. And since I was out sick and the wife was out all day today for a photo shoot, I have spent all of my free time so far building/crashing/loosing landers and orbital craft. I am very impressed at the fun level already showing. For realsies.

I went from adding too many parts before I even tried it stock, to removing all of them and going to a default Silisko install, to adding back a ton more so I could play with building orbital stations and landers. Last night I managed my first stable orbit (albeit with almost no fuel left). An hour ago, I managed to accidentally make orbit with a payload I built, deploy it successfully, and get my little green spacemen home in more or less one piece. This pleases me. So I made a storyboard album to mark the occasion!

http://imgur.com/a/dxtSI

A few questions if I may? I often have craft shake themselves apart on the pad. Is there a standard way to avoid this kind of thing? Also, struts seem like magic when they work, but they almost always want to do something funky when I place the second half, and end up taking forever to set up properly. Any strut tricks you guys could share?

Anyway, thanks for the time you all put into making the game what it is. I look forward to a Mun landing soon!

[Capt'n Skunky]

Welcome to the KSP Forums!

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky

[Cezary]

Awesome pictures. Anytime you can get Jeb to look terrified without killing him is a bonus. About your questions;

Ships that fall apart on the launch pad: I use only stock parts so I can\'t speak for the mods, but it mostly has to do with mass and the strength of your (de)couplers. Also make sure when placing parts to use the symmetry tool as manually placing several congruent parts doesn\'t guarantee that they\'ll line up perfectly.

Placing struts so they are not 'funky': When placing a strut use the symmetry tool, selecting the same multiplier as the parts you are attaching it to. Watch the Symmetry tool as it might change by itself as you pass over various parts. Also I find that not all copies of the same part cause the symmetry tool to behave correctly. Stick to the 'original' part rather than the 'clones'. When placing the struts, try using the camera height (mouse wheel), the camera angle (right button and move) AND the camera zoom (SHIFT + mouse wheel). That way you can get a really close view of where you want to stick your struts. You can even change the camera position AFTER placing your first connection so that your second connection is perfect too.

Have fun!