Hilarious the science tree gives us Skipper before Mainsail

[Merinsan]

NEW CHALLENGE:

Overheat every single engine so it explodes at the exact same time

Just kidding

Overheat a Nerva

dam things are impossible, they heat up to half bar and then stop :/

Overheating a Nerva is easy. Stick it on an orange tank and light it up.

I don't mind that you get Skippers before the Mainsails. I put a 3 man capsule into orbit and then on to Duna using Skippers alone. What I find ridiculous is the Poodle comes before the Skipper. I did actually try to get a poodle transfer stage into orbit with small engines for about 20 minutes. I think it would be possible with a lot of work, but I gave up in the end.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Merinsan

[Kasuha]

I use skippers on first two stages of my asparagus lifter. Mainsails on third stage and nervas on fourth. It gives me pretty balanced performance - mainsails lift the cargo, skippers lift fuel for mainsails. It gives me better performance than what I was getting from my previous lifter using seven mainsails and twice the fuel.

Besides in career mode Skippers were more than enough to make an interplanetary probe. In rocket design, less is sometimes more. One skipper even traveled all the way with the ship and helped with braking at the destination.

[lammatt]

overheating a skipper is fairly hard

[SargeRho]

The Skipper is my new favorite engine, an has been sufficient for all my needs.

This is my currently most used medium-heavy lift launcher, using a total of 6 Skippers (4 boosters ,1 core, 1 upper stage), and 4 of the largest 1m rockets.

The 1m rocket engines in the core stage are set to fire when decoupling the boosters, raising the thrust to close to what a Mainsail gives at full thrust.

[spudman2]

I wonder if you can overheat the rockomax probe engine? Will test.

[dudester28]

My only problem with unlocking the skipper first is its description compared to the mainsail. The skipper's description makes a little more sense if you know the one for the mainsail.

Other than that, it makes sense.

[DisarmingBaton5]

~imgsnip~

Does it count as cheating if I used two mainsails aimed at the skipper?

...Yes, yes it does. Only Whackjob is allowed to be that crazy *slap*

[Oddible]

The Skipper is my new favorite engine, an has been sufficient for all my needs.

This is my currently most used medium-heavy lift launcher, using a total of 6 Skippers (4 boosters ,1 core, 1 upper stage), and 4 of the largest 1m rockets.

The 1m rocket engines in the core stage are set to fire when decoupling the boosters, raising the thrust to close to what a Mainsail gives at full thrust.

Why not just use a Mainsail then?

[Apophis775]

I don't think I can overheat the skipper even if I tried.

Challenge Proposed?

Edit: NEVERMIND

I just ran one for 10 straight minutes and it refused to do anything except continue to function as the magnificent bastard it is.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Apophis775

[LameLefty]

I like the Skipper quite a bit. I find that a 2.5m core with a central Skipper and 4 radially mounted Mark 55's gives pretty good first stage performance. Use 3 of them with cross-feed or four in an asparagus arrangement and you get very impressive lift. Since I haven't yet unlocked the Mainsail, this design has become my default medium to heavy lifter in my Career save.

Trivia: before the Skipper was added, wasn't there a more or less equivalent called the Atlas in one of the major mod packs? I seem to remember that from the 0.19 days.

[FlamedSteak]

I've always been a fan of the Skipper. Usually i'll surround a central mainsail and aspargus 4 to 6 orange tanks with Skippers.

The Mainsail is great for raw power but it's like watching your fuel gravity-fall out the back of the tank.

[spikeyhat09]

my main complaint is not the order of skipper > mainsail (also i thought the skipper was called "atlas"... whatever), but that it takes so damn long to unlock the blasted cubic octagonal struts... i had no idea how much i depended on those little guys for structural integrity on by big rockets until i had to do without them... without the classic reinforcement between two stages, my rockets just fold and cripple like a cheap suit

Edited October 22, 2013 by spikeyhat09

[Odo]

Why not just use a Mainsail then?

Because several smaller engines is more efficient and just as powerful as one big engine. I almost always do clusters instead of mainsails, the performance of said clusters is fantastic.

[Specialist290]

my main complaint is not the order of skipper > mainsail (also i thought the skipper was called "atlas"... whatever), but that it takes so damn long to unlock the blasted cubic octagonal struts... i had no idea how much i depended on those little guys for structural integrity on by big rockets until i had to do without them... without the classic reinforcement between two stages, my rockets just fold and cripple like a cheap suit

I'd like to point out that technically you don't really need the octo struts in that case; if you place them correctly, the bracing struts will actually clip through the decoupler.

[SargeRho]

Why not just use a Mainsail then?

Because I haven't unlocked it yet.

[40s]

It does seem odd to get a large intermediate before the large first stage. it just discouraged me from using the larger parts at all for the first 2/3 of the tech tree. I'm not complaining though it forced me to play with other designs I would not have attempted in the playground where I subscribe to bigger is better.

[Supernovy]

Hey guys, you can totally use Poodles as launch engines:

You just have to help it a little. Atlas-style 1.5 stage to orbit.

(Picture taken several versions ago, but the concept is workable in Career.)

[Uncle Mort]

I like the Skipper quite a bit. I find that a 2.5m core with a central Skipper and 4 radially mounted Mark 55's gives pretty good first stage performance. Use 3 of them with cross-feed or four in an asparagus arrangement and you get very impressive lift. Since I haven't yet unlocked the Mainsail, this design has become my default medium to heavy lifter in my Career save.

Great minds...

[TUFOM]

NEW CHALLENGE:

Overheat every single engine so it explodes at the exact same time

Just kidding

Overheat a Nerva

dam things are impossible, they heat up to half bar and then stop :/

Nervas can be overheated with this design. Strangely not always but sometimes @full power over 30 seconds.

[spectrhz]

You can overheat any engine if you use it as a lander for Kerbol

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

You're confusing the Mainsail with the Skipper. Besides, the Mainsail has been adjusted and it barely overheats.

Not exactly the Engine but the tanks have been adjusted to create less heat on the engine. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51872-How-does-Overheating-generate

Edited October 22, 2013 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[S4qFBxkFFg]

My only problem with unlocking the skipper first is its description compared to the mainsail. The skipper's description makes a little more sense if you know the one for the mainsail.

Other than that, it makes sense.

I think we're meant to assume that at that stage in the game, the engineers do know about the Mainsail, but it's still very much a lab-only item.

i.e. still blowing up on the test stands whenever they fire it up, but in every Kerbonaut's mind as something that'll be great for the space program once it finally works.

[gompasta]

This is another necro thread. What is going on around here? Albeit not as bad as the others though...

[Trux]

This is another necro thread. What is going on around here? Albeit not as bad as the others though...

What on Kerbin are you talking about? This thread is 2 weeks old, nowhere near a necro thread.

[gompasta]

What on Kerbin are you talking about? This thread is 2 weeks old, nowhere near a necro thread.

I... What... October...Novemb.... WHY DID I THINK OCTOBER WAS BEFORE SEPTEMBER I NEED TO SLEEP GOODBYE.