Things I Never Knew

[Superfluous J]

It also allows you to use physics warp with quickly flip over rovers on the surfaces of low gravity worlds where it normally isn't allowed.

There I fixed that for you

[LeFudge]

Explain yourself, my friend!

If you're hauling a big load to Jool using 2 LVNs,the burn time is like 5 minutes and your games running at 1/4 speed, you can hold Alt+. to time accelerate while the ship is throttled up. Gotta be careful though.

[loknar]

If you're hauling a big load to Jool using 2 LVNs,the burn time is like 5 minutes and your games running at 1/4 speed, you can hold Alt+. to time accelerate while the ship is throttled up. Gotta be careful though.

Thanks to all. I got it now!

So basically, hit alt while setting time warp to allow physics and throttle.

[boomerdog2000]

Yep although with the standard "it is more likely to randomly explode this way" disclaimer.

[Lone K.]

Yesterday I learned two things.

2) Apparantly, at high warp, you can fly right through a moon.

I managed to do a 180 degree turn using Ike for a gravity assist. I didn't think to much about it, and setup the maneuver without zooming in that closely. I was warping way too fast and overshot what I was trying to do, so I reloaded the quick save from just before the encounter, and did it slower... and realized that the trajectory I had taken was right through the planet and the 180 was only possible because I passed very close to the center of mass.

Two days ago when I was on a return trajectory to Kerbin from the Mun (after collecting much needed SCIENCE!), I accelerated time warp up to its maximum, and guess what? I shot straight through the planet, and I was obviously surprised. So I just made sure next time to not set it to 100000x time warp when in Kerbin's SOI, or any planet or celestial body for that matter.

[rodion_herrera]

If you're hauling a big load to Jool using 2 LVNs,the burn time is like 5 minutes and your games running at 1/4 speed, you can hold Alt+. to time accelerate while the ship is throttled up. Gotta be careful though.

Even more useful if you're using Ion drives.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I never knew that ion engine craft could have a TWR >1 on these bodys (the ones i already knew are in bold)

gilly, bop, pol, dres, the mun and minmus and ike

on anything bigger then minmu though, you need some thing like 10 ion engines to a tank+solar planel, so you can only have pulses of thrust.

[Octobomb]

If you click on the speed indicator above your navball, it switches between surface/orbital/target speeds. But I knew that. I discovered, if you switch to orbital when you are landed it shows the direction of the planet's rotation, so to get into orbit you just tilt towards prograde then switch back to surface. Does this make sense?

[Goatgas]

I find that if using the Kethane converter to make fuel(mono etc), is not turned off when launching from (mun in this instance) planets. the ship starts spinning wildly while still ascending. turn off converter spinning stops. with asas and mono stopping the continued motion.

[boomerdog2000]

I find that if using the Kethane converter to make fuel(mono etc), is not turned off when launching from (mun in this instance) planets. the ship starts spinning wildly while still ascending. turn off converter spinning stops. with asas and mono stopping the continued motion.

Was it still converting kethane at the time? Since I believe KSP does not do too well with instantaneous changes in the center of mass during acceleration.

[Blackstar]

That when the Navball is in Target mode, the prograde and retrograde indicators change to indicate increase and decrease of relative velocity to the target. Makes matching velocity during rendezvous much easier.

[zpox357]

I discovered that when Alt + Shift are held down in the VAB or SPH, grabbing any part will move the entire vessel, rather than having to find and drag the main Pod.

It saves time trying to clip the camera through things, in order to find that tiny probe core you buried under a mass of scientific parts.

[Andrew Hansen]

I... just learned that, from you. I always thought it was just a structural part, like the Small Hardpoint. I feel ignorant.

Nope, don't feel ignorant. I learned it from somebody else too. I don't know who.

[Andrew Hansen]

It also allows you to use physics warp with rovers on the surfaces of low gravity worlds where it normally isn't allowed.

So you mean on those low-gravity moons you could actually have enough gravity to drive around? If so, I've got to try that...

[DMagic]

I never knew that ion engine craft could have a TWR >1 on these bodys (the ones i already knew are in bold)

gilly, bop, pol, dres, the mun and minmus and ike

on anything bigger then minmu though, you need some thing like 10 ion engines to a tank+solar planel, so you can only have pulses of thrust.

Yep, and I've landed on all of them except Dres. The Mun doesn't work though, the TWR of the ion engine itself is sufficient, but the extra mass of the solar panels necessary to power them is too much, not to mention the mass of the structural components and the xenon.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Yep, and I've landed on all of them except Dres. The Mun doesn't work though, the TWR of the ion engine itself is sufficient, but the extra mass of the solar panels necessary to power them is too much, not to mention the mass of the structural components and the xenon.

Try a 50:1 tank+solar panel ratio, it does work, but you'll get about 7 seconds of thrust and about 8 batterys

[boomerdog2000]

More like something I never thought to do. If you're doing an interplanetary burn and have an intercept that relies on 2 maneuvers, one you're doing now and say an inclination change later, you can burn the engines from map view and hold the second maneuver node with your mouse, which causes that maneuver to update to your current orbit every second. Instead of burning, replacing the maneuver node, and then tweaking its values. Not too useful for larger burns but can help with little tweaks you need to get an intercept.

[annallia]

It took me forever to learn that you could actually drag maneuver nodes around the orbit to change where they'd execute. I had always assumed they were fixed.

I apparently just learned something new...

Other things I learned by accident (though admittedly my fault for not looking to see..) I can deploy solar panels manually on eva, can fix rover wheels, and that I can repack parachutes.

Oh and jets don't work on eve...

[nhnifong]

There is actually a hidden module in KSP that was added when the module system was introduced that gives wings a more realistic aerodynamic model (like FAR) but I cannot remember it's name :/ It could theoretically be turned on with a cfg edit.

[magnemoe]

Yep, and I've landed on all of them except Dres. The Mun doesn't work though, the TWR of the ion engine itself is sufficient, but the extra mass of the solar panels necessary to power them is too much, not to mention the mass of the structural components and the xenon.

Use the small struts for structure, use groups of 1x6 solar panels instead of the large one. The large is mostly for kethane mining and huge science ships.

I did not know that Duna atmosphere is so thin you can take off with solar panels out.

Forgot to take them inn before takeoff and was to busy doing science reports to notice.

Also you can pack parachutes after returning to orbit, yes it make sense

[KerbMav]

Kerbals can repack flags and put them somewhere else.

[Rassa Farlander]

I learned that this exists

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Key_Bindings