1st Day In KSP - What Am I Doing Wrong

[Behumat]

Try turning off the SAS (the T key?) I find this creates more drag and slow me down as I tumble through the atmosphere like an out of control washing machine. You could also try deploying the chute lower down. I like to wait until I'm around 1500m, well below the re-entry burn and wind. Lastly, if this still isn't working, it may simply be a case of too much mass creating too much stress. Try adding more parachutes.

[Tollazor]

"Intentionally deploying the chute "late" to increase the shock to the vessel in order to break pieces off is probably not the best advice for a person who is still trying to learn to keep their vessel in 1 piece. "

It might not be the best advice, but it is totally Kerbal!

[spikeyhat09]

2. FPS is estimated at about 2. (Its a relatively new machine with a good GPU)

now thats a problem in and of itself. keep in mind that ksp is really a cpu game... having a good graphics card wont get you many more fps

it sounds like when you built your machine, you invested more in the GPU than the CPU. or else there is something deeper going wrong. please give some more info about the specific CPU, GPU, and Operating System you are currently using.

my machine is pretty crappy atm ($500 laptop purchased 3 years ago, so yeah...), and even it can run ksp with decent fps until i reach around 300 parts, with 500 or 600 being the hard limit on what i can stand

[DisarmingBaton5]

Two questions:

1. Are you timewarping while within the atmosphere? High physwarp will occasionally tear off your chute casings.

2. Just how much are you putting under that one parachute? I suggest a simple command pod on a trashcan design (trashcan=RT-10 Solid Fuel Rocket). It shouldn't take your parachute off.

Hope this helps! And don't give up, it's a marvelously fun game once you get past those first few baby steps.

[Merinsan]

If your framerate is 2 FPS, I would suggest your game may be behaving as if you had high physical warp active, which would rip the chutes off. While I have no idea why your framerate is so bad - though GPU is mostly irrelevant, there are some things you can try.

1. Turn down settings for the game.

2. Look up while trying to land. Viewing the sky rather than the ground improves the framerate a little - it may help you.

3. Make sure you're not running other things in the background.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Now, this is off topic but you said it, 2 fps with a good machine. Currently, Unity isn't made for newer machines, and it is more CPU Based. And it only uses one core.

[Pipcard]

Try going into the settings.cfg of the folder where you installed KSP. Ctrl-F to find instances of "KerbinOcean", "EveOcean", or "LaytheOcean". Change the MinDistance to 3.

Oceans seem to be the cause of most of the frame rate drops.

And welcome from Orbiter-Forum!

Edited October 22, 2013 by Pipcard

[Sir Nahme]

go your science on the launch pad and runway without launching. That will give you enough points alone to unlock decouplers

[trekkie_]

first day in KSP = doing everything wrong, for everyone.

I'm willing to bet that almost everyone crashed almost immediately after their first launch

[adge]

Hello LTrotsky, and welcome!

A quick question:

On your descent, are you using the time acceleration feature? You'll know my how many 'triangles' are highlighted above your MET (Mission Elapsed Time) in the top-left of the screen. Using this at more than 2x acceleration (2 triangles!) can have nasty consequences when parachutes are deployed!

Also, as you build your rocket, on the right hand of the screen you'll see your staging ladder. Make sure the little parachute icon is in a separate - higher - "box" than your engine symbol. To do that, simple click the little "+" button near your boxes and drag your parachute icon higher (or engine lower).

[kalor]

It's Kerbals... if things are going well, you're doing it wrong!

Seriously though. Like others said, my advice would be to

1. Set the staging up so that parachutes are deployed LAST.

2. Find a good range to deploy the chute at. I find that deploying high (even above atmo) gives me some drag on the way down, so at 500m my speed is significantly slower, reducing shock. (Coming from model rocketry, minimizing "zippering" and such has lead me to deploy at the top of my arc, or as high as possible)

3. Try a simple ship first. The basic liquid fuel tank or solid booster, command pod, engine (if you use the liquid tank), and single chute, right up top. Set the chute to stage last, and let it go.

4. Stay away from time warp in atmosphere until you have the basics down, and are ready to reduce the Kerbal population, because you will, initially, kill some kerbals off using it.

Most of all... have fun with it.

[Gravaar]

Killing Kerbals in the most creative way possible is the main point to the game

Sending rockets to orbit is a minor secondary objective

And every one takes a while to get a ship into space AND recover it

Keep trying your first success is worth it

Edited October 22, 2013 by Gravaar
Typo

[Nibb31]

I find it silly that you don't have decouplers at the start of the game. It doesn't make sense to parachute your kerbal back down in a pod attached to the SRB and this makes things confusing for newbies.

The game should really start with the equivalent of sounding rockets: a basic science package (camera or an altimeter), no radio, a parachute, an SRB and an unmanned pod. The next step would be more like V2 technology: a decoupler, a radio and liquid engines. And manned pods and goo should be introduced on a third level.

[taccca]

The game should really start with the equivalent of sounding rockets: a basic science package (camera or an altimeter), no radio, a parachute, an SRB and an unmanned pod. The next step would be more like V2 technology: a decoupler, a radio and liquid engines. And manned pods and goo should be introduced on a third level.

I only started playing (read blowing stuff up) 2 months ago but with a little reading of the wiki and back stories of some of the kerbals it seems launching (read killing) kerbals straight up is part of the storyline/premise to the game thats just me though

[SRV Ron]

I find it silly that you don't have decouplers at the start of the game. It doesn't make sense to parachute your kerbal back down in a pod attached to the SRB and this makes things confusing for newbies.

The game should really start with the equivalent of sounding rockets: a basic science package (camera or an altimeter), no radio, a parachute, an SRB and an unmanned pod. The next step would be more like V2 technology: a decoupler, a radio and liquid engines. And manned pods and goo should be introduced on a third level.

That would make sense. However, according to Kerbal space history, based upon the first releases of the game and the demo, they started out with only manned flights.

[allmhuran]

Career mode makes you earn the parts by performing science. Believe it or not, you can go all the way to Minmus just using the parts available at the start of career mode

I see your 350 first launch science and raise you 1662.

[Guest LTrotsky]

Okay guys thanks for the encouragement. I think the problem was that I was running at max time accel during re-entry. Also, not having separation collars at the beginning was confusing. Rockets fell off during flight, assuming they didn't pitch over.

Anyway, I've learned how to construct pretty good launch systems with what I have. Still haven't landed on Mun, but its more fun to design launch systems that work.

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This "Jupiter" launch system has :

Stage 1 = 10 SRB (315 thrust each)

Stage 2 = 5 Liquid fuel engines, gimbal motor at #5, with 3x size 800 fuel for each motor - a total of 6600/5400 fuel.

The third stage is just an unmanned pod for testing.

This system put the unmanned pod into solar orbit. Pretty sure I can put a lander on the Mun with this.

Thanks all.

[Guest LTrotsky]

I see your 350 first launch science and raise you 1662.

That video is hilarious. Well done.

[SRV Ron]

This has worked well for a first suborbital with the limited parts;

Once you get decouplers, you can advanced to this for Mun orbit.

With probes, a lander can be built along with rockets for deep space. They don't need to be monstrous creations either. They just need to be efficient. This example uses 5.5 tons of launcher to place a ton in orbit. Asparagus staging was used on the cluster of six LV-30 boosters.

It has more then enough fuel to land on Duna and should be capable of landing on Eve or Laythe.

Edited October 25, 2013 by SRV Ron

[DanimalXIII]

If you just place a command pod on the launch pad, do an EVA take reports and a sample that should net you enough SCIENCE to unlock the next tier in the tech tree, which has stack decouplers; then you can be on your way to reaching space!

[Skyrunner27]

what are your settings, most importantly your MaxPhysics Delta-time.

[Dave Kerbin]

Start small. Really small.

Build a simple rocket with nothing but a command pod, parachute, single fuel tank and liquid fuel engine. Fly up as high as your fuel will take you and then right click the pod to record a crew report (your Kerbal will write down important science data about a rocket flying through the air).

Deploy the chute and land safely. For extra science have your Kerbal get out of the ship (hover over his portrait and click EVA) and take a walk around. Right click the kerbal to take a soil sample and to file an EVA report. If you can get back in your ship and in either case move your mouse to the top center of the screen (where the altitude thing is) to reveal a green 'Recover' button. Recover your kerbal or kerbal+ship to get science. If your just recovered your kerbal then go to the tracking station (the one on the right side of the space center that shows a map) and select your ship from the list on the left side. At the bottom click the green recover button to recover the ship and get the crew report you left inside.

You should now have enough science to unlock the first tech. This will give you some new parts, including the decoupler. The decoupler can be placed between stages on a spaceship, so that you can get rid of stuff when it is no longer useful. As a starting point you might build a ship with a lot more fuel tanks, but place a decoupler between the command pod and the top fuel tank. Make sure your staging on the right is setup so that the decoupler and the parachute are together and the engine is seperate. When it comes time to land your decoupler will let you detach from the heavy fuel tanks and engine, leaving just the pod and your parachute to safely descend.

[Andrew Hansen]

From what I've read on your original post, you sound like a person who learns quickly and doesn't need a "baby tutorial" to figure out stuff. Career mode at the moment is basically just introducing you to all the parts one step at a time, but I think for you you're ready to begin with all the parts. Start a new save in Sandbox mode and just read through all the parts' descriptions. Some of them are goofy so they tell you much, but you can also go on the wiki and learn a lot there.

Also, watch Scott Manley's tutorials, and you should be good! Have fun.

[Guest LTrotsky]

Lack of decouplers at the start of career mode means that you cannot recover a live Kerbal from any actual rocket flight. At the start of career mode the only type of parachute that is available is a standard (not radial) mount, meaning there can be just one (that works). This one parachute will fail every time if slowing descent of anything larger than a pod. Lack of decouplers means : you will be slowing descent of something larger than a pod, but not really slowing.

All the advice given here is fantastic for starters, especially those new to the career mode, which as I understand it has just been released. As I mentioned above, most of the online tutorials are for people *not* in the starting career mode - the zero tech, etc - and so watching someone on youtube talk about building a rocket with just two stages or using different low tech stuff doesn't apply *because it's not available at the beginning of career mode*.

The solution for me was to follow the advice of several and just put a pod on the pad and do a report and eva and so on. This unlocked enough science to get a decoupler, and some real (though still simple and low tech) rockets.

Because much of the advice here is so good generally, and some of it applicable to the new careerist otherwise unfamiliar with KSP this thread should be converted into a thread for people starting off in career mode, and building up through the tech tree. This is an aspect of the game which can allow KSP to really reach escape velocity, as it has a new appeal vector.

Thanks to all.

[Guest LTrotsky]

This has worked well for a first suborbital with the limited parts;

Once you get decouplers, you can advanced to this for Mun orbit.

With probes, a lander can be built along with rockets for deep space. They don't need to be monstrous creations either. They just need to be efficient. This example uses 5.5 tons of launcher to place a ton in orbit. Asparagus staging was used on the cluster of six LV-30 boosters.

It has more then enough fuel to land on Duna and should be capable of landing on Eve or Laythe.

Good stuff that has gone into my library Unfortunately I don't have the translation thrusters or the solar panels. I did send an unmanned probe to the Mun, without translation landing was difficult. For me, impossible.

Getting those is the next step.

Question : If a strut connects one stage to another, which one of your vessels does, the decoupling force will blow it off?

Comment : I've had difficulty with the asparagus clusters and using radial decouplers, in symmetry mode. I seem to not be able to build a sub-assembly consisting of one part of a larger stage, and then use those sub-assemblies to build out the whole stage. Your "Lander Probe 3" seems to have accomplished what I yet can't - did you build out that radially clustered stage manually or use subassys?

Edited October 25, 2013 by LTrotsky