Just got game, few questions haven't seen/found answered.

[Cschmidt76]

Hello! Just go KSP and I'm absolutely loving it. Just a few questions I have that been able to find answers too. (Please note i'm only playing in sand box mode)

1) I understand that the [space] key triggers the stage, but how do i get it to trigger the first stage, i.e. starting the engines. I'm trying to get 3-4 solid boosters to all start at the same time and i cant seem to do and clicking them individually sends your rocket way off course when they run out of fuel at different times. Is there a trick to getting them all to start at the same time and to getting your clamps to release at the same time?

2) Once i get a probe into orbit is there a way to end the mission? I managed to get a probe to fully orbit Kerbin (and the Mun actually too!) but i couldn't figure out how to end the "mission" out side of reverting back to to launch/vehicle construction while a successful rocket flight ends when you recover the vehicle.

3) If you switch to IVA mode, how do you get back out???

4)Why do some of my Kerbals just go floating off into space when they EVA yet others do not? Is there a way to get them back?

5) This may sound cruel to the poor Kerbal pilots but i managed to get a pod to "land" on the Mun but didnt give him any way to come back am I forced to to end the mission the same way as in question 1?

Thank you immensely for any and all help!

[Johnno]

1) I understand that the [space] key triggers the stage, but how do i get it to trigger the first stage, i.e. starting the engines. I'm trying to get 3-4 solid boosters to all start at the same time and i cant seem to do and clicking them individually sends your rocket way off course when they run out of fuel at different times. Is there a trick to getting them all to start at the same time and to getting your clamps to release at the same time?

Pressing space after you load on the launchpad fires your first stage.

To get stuff to stage at the same time drag them to the same stage in the staging list (bottom one for first / current stage). So once you load on the pad you'll want everything for liftoff in the first stage. You can drag (click-hold and drag - drop) stuff from one stage to another both in the VAB/SPH (vehicle assembly building / spaceplane hangar), and on the pad / inflight (during any point of your mission).

2) Once i get a probe into orbit is there a way to end the mission?

Click Space Center from the escape menu, then go to the tracking station (buncha big dishes on the space center view), click the flight you want to end and then end flight from the bottom buttons.

3) If you switch to IVA mode, how do you get back out???

Press C or V. C toggles IVA/camera view while V goes through the different view options (chase, orbital, free, auto).

4)Why do some of my Kerbals just go floating off into space when they EVA yet others do not? Is there a way to get them back?

Sometimes depends if parts are attached near the hatch, other times I guess they just don't feel like holding on. You can press R once on EVA to enable your EVA rocketpack and steer with WASD, Shift for upward and Ctrl for downward thrust. You can rotate with Q and E plus spin your kerbal upside down by leftclick-dragging on him, but be adviced that your kerbal will realign its movements to your camera view once you start moving again.

Kerbals can also toggle EVA lights on their helmets with L.

5) This may sound cruel to the poor Kerbal pilots but i managed to get a pod to "land" on the Mun but didnt give him any way to come back am I forced to to end the mission the same way as in question 1?

No, you can leave him there for the time being. He'll have boardgames and snacks in his pod for the foreseeable future, so don't worry. You can send a rescue ship once you're more comfortable with orbiting, transits and landings. Good thing to look up / practice / learn is 'pinpoint landing'.

A few helpful links:

KSP Wiki Main Page

KSP Keybinds Wiki Page

Welcome to the forum.

[Dogface]

No, you can leave him there for the time being. He'll have boardgames and snacks in his pod for the foreseeable future, so don't worry.

LOL. Nice thorough answers.

[casey28xxx]

4)Why do some of my Kerbals just go floating off into space when they EVA yet others do not? Is there a way to get them back?

Is there any correlation between the Kerbals stupidity level and them letting go of ladders perhaps? I'd like to think so. Anyone tested that out or is it just down to glitchy exiting from the ship or parts around the hatch?

[Evrion]

Pressing space after you load on the launchpad fires your first stage.

To get stuff to stage at the same time drag them to the same stage in the staging list (bottom one for first / current stage). So once you load on the pad you'll want everything for liftoff in the first stage. You can drag (click-hold and drag - drop) stuff from one stage to another both in the VAB/SPH (vehicle assembly building / spaceplane hangar), and on the pad / inflight (during any point of your mission).

I want to add:

When you are rearranging the staging, the parts you are hovering over in the staging menu will light up green on the actual rocket. Or if you hover over the part on the actual rocket, that part will highlight in the staging list. This is massively useful as rockets get more complex and the game has no idea how it's supposed to work and you need to do a lot of rearranging.

Personally, I like to have a decouple and next stage ignition on the same stage.

[allmhuran]

It looks like it's just glitches, because the same Kerbal, doing an EVA from the same craft, will sometimes hold on and sometimes not.

However, I have a hunch that it might be something to do with the orientation of the pod relative to the object being orbited.

[toomuchbrew]

Not sure if this was mentioned, but in order to return to the tracking station, the throttle must be set to zero. If you ran out of fuel, it may still be set to full and thus not allowing the tracking station option. Maybe that changed. Haven't tried it due to habit

[Sirrobert]

Hello! Just go KSP and I'm absolutely loving it. Just a few questions I have that been able to find answers too. (Please note i'm only playing in sand box mode)

Welcome. I'd suggest you actually start with Carreer. Unlike what you'd expect, carreer helps you learn the game very nicely. This is because you start with a few basic parts, and slowly unlock more complex things. Makes it easier to get used to what each part does, rather than getting thrown in a huge bag of hundreds of parts at once. Ofcourse, you indicate you already understand what most parts do, so you might already be beond that point.

1) I understand that the [space] key triggers the stage, but how do i get it to trigger the first stage, i.e. starting the engines. I'm trying to get 3-4 solid boosters to all start at the same time and i cant seem to do and clicking them individually sends your rocket way off course when they run out of fuel at different times. Is there a trick to getting them all to start at the same time and to getting your clamps to release at the same time?

Space key triggers all stages, including the first one

2) Once i get a probe into orbit is there a way to end the mission? I managed to get a probe to fully orbit Kerbin (and the Mun actually too!) but i couldn't figure out how to end the "mission" out side of reverting back to to launch/vehicle construction while a successful rocket flight ends when you recover the vehicle.

Why would you want to end it?

Reverting doesn't end, it just sends you back in time to when you were launching it. Basicly the game saves at launch, and gives you the option to load that save. Once you get it in orbit, just leave it there by clicking 'space center'. You can go back with it from the tracking station. Alternatively you could land the probe (if it has chutes) or crash it back into Kerbin if you want to remove it later

5) This may sound cruel to the poor Kerbal pilots but i managed to get a pod to "land" on the Mun but didnt give him any way to come back am I forced to to end the mission the same way as in question 1?

Again, that doesn't actually end the mission, but I already explained that. You don't have to worry about him dieing, he can stay up there and play with his Munrock collection until you send someone to pick him up and bring him home.

And don't feel bad about your landing. That's basicly how all of us landed there the first time. My kerbals weren't so fortunate to survive my first attempt. Or my second, or...

[toomuchbrew]

I too have killed a few Kerbals when I first started. I also just found out one of my capsules that ran out of fuel before I could get back to Kerbin had escaped and is now floating on a solar orbit with three Kerbals on board.

[KSK]

Click Space Center from the escape menu, then go to the tracking station (buncha big dishes on the space center view), click the flight you want to end and then end flight from the bottom buttons.

Putting my pedant hat on here, it depends what you mean by 'end mission'. If you mean 'end mission and get rid of spacecraft' then yep - what Johnno said. If you mean 'end mission so I can go do something else', then don't bother ending the flight. The game is persistent, so that satellite you put in orbit around the Mun will happily stay there while you launch other rockets.

[Specialist290]

To round out the "end mission" answers: If you safely bring back a craft to Kerbin's surface, you also have the option to recover your flight, which allows you to reuse the pilot(s) (if any) for future missions. You can either hover over the altimeter until the button appears, or you can recover from the Tracking Station screen.