A question about construction...

[Apophis775]

How do you guys track weight? Is there a way to view it in the program, or a mod? I've been using a calculator and dry-erase board to calculate my TWR and other things, but it would be nice to be able to see the weight without adding it up myself or having to visit the launchpad (since after about .2 my loadtimes have increased a bit).

Any suggestions?

[luchelibre]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-18-1-kerbal-engineer-redux-v0-5/

Attach the engineer part to your ship to see the readout.

[Scotius]

Or MechJeb

[antiquark]

MechJeb has an info display in the VAB for all sorts of parameters, weight, delta-V per stage, etc.

[FITorion]

Because I play all stock ... I don't.

The engineer mod is something I can see getting built into the game eventually. Once the new space port gets up and running and it's easier to put mods in and take mods out of the game I will probably change my all stock ways and get mods that provide useful info like that. Only reason I don't do it now is that mods seem to break or break the game with every update and the updates happen way faster than I'm willing spend time futzing with mods for.

[KerbMav]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/tac-part-lister-0-2025may/

Counts parts, shows total mass and lists every part with its mass, clickable to highlight and identify faster on your craft.

Also good to find the odd bugged double-part-in-same-place.

[Epthelyn]

Because I play all stock ... I don't.

The engineer mod is something I can see getting built into the game eventually. Once the new space port gets up and running and it's easier to put mods in and take mods out of the game I will probably change my all stock ways and get mods that provide useful info like that. Only reason I don't do it now is that mods seem to break or break the game with every update and the updates happen way faster than I'm willing spend time futzing with mods for.

Since when have Kerbal Engineer or MechJeb been hard to install or uninstall? Both consist of a small number of files which are clearly named and can be found and deleted.

If the game updates and those two mods are no longer compatible, then the parts either stop working or disappear from your craft. Since both make next to no difference to mass, this will have no effect on any rockets/planes using them. You're more likely to encounter save-file incompatibility due to core mechanics changing than MechJeb or KE breaking the save. You can live without them for a couple of days and then reinstall them when they're updated.

In other words, your reasons for avoiding (possibly, opinion) the two most useful mods ever made are terrible.

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Yes, I know people don't like using mods. I just feel that people are trying to convince themselves that they don't like them based on misguided evidence.

[KOCOUR]

Use mods, and dont listen to stock hipsters.

[Zorrm]

I personally use mechjeb for this, as the amount of information it is able to give you is invaluable.

[SRV Ron]

Sometimes, just old fashioned trial and error can be used by observing the performance of what is built. If it takes off too fast, it is either overpowered or can lift more weight more efficiently. If it barely gets off the launch pad, it is underpowered or too heavy. If it wobbles, it needs stitch bracing. If it wants to spin or fly apart, a problem common with strap on boosters, it needs cross bracing. If strap on boosters move inward when they burn out, they needs diagonal bracing to the center core top and bottom. That will often fix the spin issues. If boosters hit the center core upon staging, they need to be more centrally mounted to the radical decoupler.

[shand]

Fully recommend Kerbal Engineer Redux if you just want the numbers. Mechjeb has autopilot features that are awesome, but if you dont want them theres no point having that over KER

[SofusRud]

I usually load my payload up on the launchpad to see its mass

[Inchoately]

you can easily learn manual rendezvous/docking/hovering/landing by YT-tutorials and/or with trial and error. If you wanna use an autopilot for such maneuvers, use MechJeb which additionally provides your requested information. If you just want to see simplistic information like TWR per stage and relative to the target celestial body I fully recommend Kerbal Engineer Redux

[Monkeh]

Engineer takes around 10 seconds to download and install, seriously. It also hasn't broken my game for a whole one update so far.

You will like the engineer redux, it's great.

[lazarus1024]

Meh, I do it the way the Russians did. I guess and then launch a bunch of rockets until one of them makes it to space.

Actually, that is pretty much exactly the way I do it. These days I've been building rockets long enough I generally have a good idea +/- about 10% how much thrust and dV I need for various payloads. I generally enjoy the process of iterative design and testing, so most of the time I'll throw together my payload and test it on the pad. Then I'll put together my upper stage and test it with the payload, then the next stage down and so on. Just to make absolutely sure I haven't messed up staging or not strutually sound, etc. By the time I hit the 1st stage I rarely need to tweak the design more than maybe once or twice at most to get the rocket right.

Other times if the payloads are more modest the design is complete with no testing, I hit the launch pad and go. 95% of the time the rocket is at least adaquete and maybe only 1 in 5 times is the rocket overkill of that 95%.

When money comes along, I do hope that SQUAD adds a feature in the VAB that will tell you a lot of the things that Mechjeb/Engineer do, like dV, TWR, etc. That would likely help me squeeze at least 10-15% better cost efficiency out of my rocket program (I am assuming in career there will be a method to test and/or recover failed launches without financial penalty...if not due to cut down testing, knowing exact dV and TWR, etc ahead of time would probably make my rocket program at least 100-200% more cost efficient taking in to account the occasional botched launches and somewhat lower rocket efficiency (IE overkill built in)).

Edited September 5, 2013 by lazarus1024

[mellojoe]

You can also take the partially finished ship, "Launch It", then while on launch pad switch to orbit view (press M), and then hit the littie "i" in the corner. That will give you part count and weight.

It is a little clumsy since you have to wait through loading screens. But it does give you real numbers in stock game.