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What are your limits?

hobbsyoyo

By hobbsyoyo
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hobbsyoyo

hobbsyoyo

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I'm sure most of us have hit some limits as to what you can do. Whether it's building MEGA rockets, space planes, docking or whatnot, there's just that one thing you can't ever seem to pull off.

What is that one thing?

If any common themes emerge, maybe this thread could also serve to point out topics worthy of threads in the tutorial section or could help users point out existing tutorials to others.

I have a couple of major hang ups:

I've hit the absolute limit as to how big I can build my rockets. I've copied Whackjob's strut/girder system and even that won't allow me to build any bigger. I'm not sure on the exact tonnage, but to give an idea of how big I'm talking, my last failed launcher was 8-way asparagus. Each booster had 3 orange fuel tanks and one small gray one with two mainsails at the bottom. The central core also had the same configuration and the payload was over 200 tons IIRC. It blew up or fell apart every.single.time.

I'm actually going to post a thread about building tips for MEGA rockets here soon.

The other hang up is airplanes. I just suck at it, so much so that I basically don't even try anymore. In fact, the first SSTO that I built was actually a jet/rocket hybrid that was vertically launched and did not have wings. I am not even sure I want to learn how to build proper aircraft/spaceplanes at this point.

So what are your limits?

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hobbsyoyo

hobbsyoyo

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Space Stations. I have, to date, not completed a single modular station. :(

That and large rockets, huge payloads never really appealed to me personally, nor did the need to have huge asparagus rockets.

I am only okay at docking, I could be a lot better.

But I love being able to launch massive payloads because the extra deltaV margin helps me deal with my crappy piloting and it also means I have to do less docking.

Jet engine SSTOs. I hate them.

I've made some of them and flown them into orbit successfuly, it's just that I don't have the patience for something like that.

Rocket-only SSTOs are much easier.

HzjMmgt.png

0.2 tons to orbit. :P

yeah, even my jet/rocket SSTO took forever, both in development and in flight. It took around 20 minutes to get to orbit and was extremely tricky to fly. You really have to watch your instrument panels.

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Alistone

Alistone

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My hangup is fear of trying missions with nothing more than IVA view. No map; no maneuver node. Maybe once in orbit I'll allow him to EVA to get some bearings.

For all the "talk" about doing launches by going straight up instead of establishing orbit first I am strongly tempted to point out that if you figure out your launch window for straight up that it is MUCH easier from in IVA perspective to go straight up to the mun instead of first trying to pitch over for orbit and then figuring out when/how to burn from orbit to intercept.

I haven't tried it hardly at all yet; but... it would be really interesting if SQUAD could include this sort of "feature" that would limit 3rd person perspective and limit map view and actually have an "impossible" difficulty that only supported IVA navigation. Maybe even have a 1st person EVA perspective.

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Sternface

Sternface

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Exceed C.

Seriously though, if you are having trouble with airplanes, I highly recommend using a joystick, and FAR.

FAR may seem more difficult at first, and it may be less forgiving, but it is significantly more intuitive in terms of design. Experiment a bit and learn the patterns of behavior. But once you get a hang of it, the planes will preform pretty much as expected.

It also forces you to consider different Mach numbers and their effect on aerodynamics when you design. But you really do develop a "feel" for it, and as a result, I have found my designs and atmospheric flying to have improved quite a bit from when I first started.

Mrs. Kerman is very happy too, since Jeb doesn't die 4 days a week :P

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Epthelyn

Epthelyn

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My hangup is fear of trying missions with nothing more than IVA view. No map; no maneuver node. Maybe once in orbit I'll allow him to EVA to get some bearings.

For all the "talk" about doing launches by going straight up instead of establishing orbit first I am strongly tempted to point out that if you figure out your launch window for straight up that it is MUCH easier from in IVA perspective to go straight up to the mun instead of first trying to pitch over for orbit and then figuring out when/how to burn from orbit to intercept.

I haven't tried it hardly at all yet; but... it would be really interesting if SQUAD could include this sort of "feature" that would limit 3rd person perspective and limit map view and actually have an "impossible" difficulty that only supported IVA navigation. Maybe even have a 1st person EVA perspective.

I've tried this for a trip to the Mun. The only real issue is guessing where your apoapsis will be on ascent and therefore when you must begin to circularize. Other than that it's just a case of remembering certain orbital velocities and positions (e.g. In a 100km orbit around Kerbin, burning to 3km/s at 'Munrise' will get an encounter).

My limits:

- Anything that requires more than a central orange tank and a maximum of 4 orange tanks to lift into orbit. It just falls apart no matter how many struts I put on it. This morning I was working on a craft to launch a 5 half-tank fuel depot to the Mun, yet whatever I did with struts and structural pieces one part always fell off. I blame performance causing physics to go wrong; the craft weighed in at 1038t on the pad and had nearly 500 parts which is just about all my computer can do and still be playable

- SSTOs. The only ever SSTO I've built required manually transferring fuel from the jet tanks into the rocket tank because the rocket burned up all its fuel. Until recently it was all planes, but I've got quite good at building things that fly AND landing them.

- Can't get to Tylo and Moho for anything bigger than probes. I certainly can't get back from a landing - Theoretically I have a craft with enough dV to get to Tylo and back, but it runs on LV-Ns and the TWR is too low to land safely on Tylo, let alone get off the ground.

- Can't return from Eve

One thing I've never tried, and this is possibly the reason I have goals that I just can't quite achieve, is assembling a craft in orbit instead of launching everything from Kerbin. I imagine this is almost a requirement for anything with enough dV (and TWR) to get everywhere and back.

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Raikoutrio

Raikoutrio

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Landing? Easy enough. Spacestations? I can do that fine. SSTOs? Not a chance. I have nightmares about the hideous whine of the jet engines, the rocket vainly attempting to push the plane out of the atmosphere. It's a horrifying experience. I've tried everything i know how to do, but stupid physics won't cooperate with me. One day, many, countless years into the future, i might possibly maybe make a successful SSTO. But not today. Or the next 5-1000 years.

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TheDarkStar

TheDarkStar

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I can make decent airplanes, but I can't do SSTOs. I've landed everywhere and returned from everywhere except Tylo and Eve. I've done a few missions that involved a mothership, but I run into trouble with longer-ranged ones, since I usually run out of fuel. I've been working on a lot of minimalist rockets so that I can make smaller ones for Tylo and Eve.

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Dynamo

Dynamo

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Interplanetary vehicles out to the planets. I'm slowly etching my way out to other planets, but my ability to design, fly, and hold stable the Big Rigs is poor at best. I do hope that will improve with experience, however, as i believe i've got the background knowledge and piloting skills to adapt further to IP travel. I have also just conquered the SSTO front, though just barely. I would love to improve on them and create some real haulers i can park and refuel for another mission taking a crew rotation or something of that nature.

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spikeyhat09

spikeyhat09

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hardware limitations. i would get so much more out of this game if i were able to pull off the crazy stunts people show off on the forums with mind boggling part counts on their i9 5770k's OC 8 GHz

when multicore comes (not if, when), perhaps i will be able to some of those things

but when that happens i will still be left in the dust when other people can practically encapsulate the planet in strut beams

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