What are your limits?

[Spence1012]

Mine is part count. Darn AMD 8 core chips just don't have enough single threaded performance to deal with uber rockets I can get a smooth launch at like 500 parts I think but beyond that it just chokes. Guess 4.6 Ghz isn't enough Counting on that multicore support coming sometime near full release of the game. I should be able to launch ridiculous rockets at 20 fps, in theory.

However, I've made it to every planet with the stock parts (except moho and tylo) and back IIRC. It seems like I'm really good at designs and more often than not my first attempt of a design is plenty to get to where I wanted to go. I just am running out of stuff to do in this game. I have a maxed out tech tree and have bases and missions going everywhere from Laythe to Duna. Plus, Tylo and Moho are boring IMO. At least on Laythe I can fly around in a jet and explore as much as I want because I have a giant jet fuel tanker on wheels with the Romfarer Lazor system attached that lets me transfer fuel.. I've probably got enough jet fuel to keep Jebediah messing about on Laythe for years

[hobbsyoyo]

I still FAIL at jets. Tried to build one yesterday and it immediately yawed to the left for no reason and flipped over.

[magnemoe]

Mission creep. I add more and more missions to my missions until the missions have missions.

This is severe with space station efforts. My space stations all tend to wobble severely and are typically destroyed by the so called kraken. I've not ever built a mission ready spacestation in orbit. Efforts to assemble interplanetary ships based on multiple engine compartments similarly end in wobble or violent center of thrust problems.

Not sure how the new version has improved things in terms of how many parts a ship or station can handle reasonably.

Do not talk about mission creep, I tend to launch missions to add more features to interplanetary ships before they leave.

Like adding four probe rovers to my Duna mission to explore the poles on Duna and Ike, Duna has high mountains at the poles Ike does not.

my last mission in the 0.22 career mode is the Eve mission. I needed an Eve lander, lets add an rover to it for exploring, add two probe rovers for exploring the poles, add an probe to explore the atmosphere as its hard to do wile landing the main lander.

You save fuel by sending the Gilly lander from low Eve orbit to Gilly instead of using the mothership but you need an larger lander.

[Scrogdog]

Just three little things.

Science, math and engineering.

[Oderus]

My lack of 'Scott Manley-esque' skills is my biggest limitation. I used to have nothing but problems with docking/rendez-vous but time and effort fixed that. Docking is easy once you learn the tricks.. burn towards target until you get close, then burn retro until the 'target m/s is 0', rinse, repeat. I also learned tips via Youtube such as how to lower/raise your Peripapsis during Interplanetary Transfers by pointing your craft towards the top-most/bottom-most gimbal (either red/blue). I have built several space stations, mun/minmas bases but never outside of Kerbal.

[tanuki_chau]

The best part about station building outside of Kerbal is it's essentially the exact same process only upside down. Instead of trying to get your components up into orbit, now you are trying to get them down into orbit. The easiest way I've found by far to do this is to plan out your stations. Basically figure out what you want it to look like and what it's primary purpose is. After that try to find good places to split it up where size and weight won't be an issue. (Important part): Find a lifter and interplanetary drive system that works and base your station design criteria on that. Then you know it will get to orbit and get to the other planet, you just need to make sure it doesn't fall apart before that. Then decide on an altitude and off you go. Basically station building requires some amount of planning to be really successful.

[OrtwinS]

I still FAIL at jets. Tried to build one yesterday and it immediately yawed to the left for no reason and flipped over.

0.22 taught me jets (or actually, I forced myself, since I now MUST have a way to get to other places on Kerbin with accuracy).

1) dont attach your landing gear to flimsy wings, the flexibility o the wing will yaw you off the run way. Attach them to the fuselage (make it 3 wide for your starter plane).

2) when constructing, watch your center of weight and center of lift. Keep your center of weight in front of the lift (all planes I tried with lift in front of weight would do uncontrollable back-flips upon takeoff)

3) KSP planes seem to require canards (little wings up front)

4) to land (toughest challenge for me): you can't land with 120+ m/s. Approach low, reduce thrust to 50%, enable landing lights (by default built in the landing gear), for the last km cut your engines, float down to the ground, watch your vertical speed, you want to brush the ground softly.

With that tactic, I've landed a plane on top of a mountain.

Edited October 30, 2013 by OrtwinS

[Starwhip]

Those. Stupid. SSTO. Spaceplanes. Never can get them into orbit. (but I've put one over 150,000 meters, if that's anything.)

[tanuki_chau]

Once you figure it out it's not 'as' hard. You are going to have to either watch the altimeter and the navball like a hawk or just stay in map view a lot. Your first flight should be the shakedown. Don't expect to go to space that day. you are going to want to fly as high as you can with a very small angle of attack. Your job is to figure out when flame out is going to occur. After you figure it out, you need to plan to be almost level about 1000-2000 meters under that if possible but still behind the apoapsis of the arc. Basically you are going to want to park there and build up speed, all the while just barely increasing your altitude.

One of three things can happen depending on the design of your ship. You will either break escape velocity (always good) and the apoapsis will go higher while you are staying level. You will flame out, or you will run out of jet fuel. For each of these there is a solution and you can very easily still go to space. Here is how I've found to best handle each issue.

Reaching Escape Velocity: My favorite. Basically lift your nose to about 10 or 15 degrees on the navball and start slowly throttling down your jet engine. It seems counter intuitive but you can prevent flame outs and still use all that lovely DeltaV the jets make if you turn them down. Usually past 30k you want the thrust to be roughly 75-80%. past 35k and you want to be around 35-45% thrust. When you finally see the tell tale sign of imminent burnout (the plane lurches to one side slightly) very quickly toggle to your rocket engine and shutdown the jets and close the air intakes. It's totally possible to get a 70km or more orbit just by jet power alone. After the burnout and switch to rockets it's more or less using the rockets as maintenance to maintain the apoapsis until you are high enough out of the atmosphere that drag is no longer a concern.

Flame Out: Don't panic. If you flame out hard and you start to spin throttle down and toggle to your rockets. If you can accomplish this before your space plane has totally slipped around you are doing awesome. Try to reorient yourself so you are facing forward, toggle the jet engines back to on and slowly begin throttle up. Just be gentle with it and you should be able to recover and still go to space...albeit you may need to grab some wet wipes if your kerbal was eating sammiches at the time. If you do end up starting into an uncontrollable spin, all is not lost. If you are having difficulty regaining control of your plane you may need to drop altitude and speed. If you packed enough fuel you may be able to make a second attempt, just try to remember the circumstances of the flame out. Was the angle of attack high, was I at full throttle, what was my altitude, and what did my air intake readout state. Use that data and try to skirt the edge of that flame out condition.

Running out of Go Juice: Moar FUEL!! No seriously, if you are running out of fuel then you may need to either change your orbital ascent profile, or alter the design of your ship to accommodate more go juice.

Just a final thought. The more air intakes you have, the happier you will be.

[aven17]

Powered landings. Either I burn too much fuel preventing a return, start my deceleration too late and impact, bounce and flip over, hit too hard and break things, misjudge the terrain, land on and subsequently roll down the side of Mount Everest, and pretty much anything else that can go wrong on a landing. I am the Mr. Bean of landing.

[Barefoot Friar]

I cannot dock to save my life. Thank goodness for MechJeb, although it inhales RCS like nobody's business. What I can't stand is that WASD (or IJKL or whatever) is always slightly different, depending on which way I'm pointing, etc. If I could press a button and be put in a certain, specific camera angle and the keys respond predictably, I might could do it. At the moment, though, it's sheer and utter chaos.

[Skyrunner27]

Remembering which way any other body besides Kerbin rotates

[hobbsyoyo]

I cannot dock to save my life. Thank goodness for MechJeb, although it inhales RCS like nobody's business. What I can't stand is that WASD (or IJKL or whatever) is always slightly different, depending on which way I'm pointing, etc. If I could press a button and be put in a certain, specific camera angle and the keys respond predictably, I might could do it. At the moment, though, it's sheer and utter chaos.

You want the chase camera mode. You will have to google the button for it (can't remeber off the top of my head) but it allows you to place the camera directly behind so that the buttons are always the same.

[Commander Zoom]

I haven't been able to fly planes. Previous versions had terrible joystick support. Has this finally been fixed?

Barefoot Friar: I can tell you that MechJeb has been much improved in terms of (not) wasting RCS propellant, if you've not tried it lately.

[ls612]

My limits are mainly related to how much I can reasonably lift into LKO with one launch. That, and spaceplanes.

[spudman2]

Is it just me, or is docking one of those things where one day you could dock the empire state building onto the back of a moving roller coaster, then the next day you struggle to dock your index finger with your left nostril?

This. I think it's mostly due to placement of RCS blocks, and mainly orientation of the craft relative to the camera. It's really hard to dock when all your controls are rotated 90 degrees.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

You want the chase camera mode. You will have to google the button for it (can't remeber off the top of my head) but it allows you to place the camera directly behind so that the buttons are always the same.

the control key is "v"

[Tidus Klein]

Is it just me, or is docking one of those things where one day you could dock the empire state building onto the back of a moving roller coaster, then the next day you struggle to dock your index finger with your left nostril?

O.0...... Hem hem excuse me sir as I commence to Roll along the floor wiliest laughing my hind courters off

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah....... Ha!

[alacrity]

Other then part count... which is systemic not skill based limitation... my majof fail whale area is planes... any planes. Stock, Modded, prop driven, jet powered, rocket assist, in atmo only, suborbital, or lko. None of mine work as planned.

In the current carreer mode I have totally skipped anything atmo related I can get away with because I have never really used them after 4 versions worth of attempts.

to be honest I son't tend to build big so not sure what my tonnage limit is... I usually hit a part maximum first because I build complex multi mission systems more then heavy lifters.

Current personal bests...

heavy lift : 280- tonnes LKO and Dock at 125 km (307 parts)

Light orbital : 78 tonnes to orbit (beginning weight, orbit 85km 123 parts)

Station: 27k LOx capacity, 1030 tonnes, 324 parts (could no longer dock things with it at this point due to lag)

Largest rover (stock): 27 tonnes high stable speed ~41 m/s range infinte (until solar sails died)

Furthest permanent station: Tycho (203 parts 13k LOx docking for six ships)

Furthest landed base: Duna (base included air supply, ship building mod, derigible propulsion w/ propellers, Kethane rigged, 43 tonnes central base, 6 aux buildings, two light rovers, 1 heavy rover, mobile ore driller, Capacity 6 (16 in emergencies))

biggest Base (stock): 25 tonnes, capacity 6 emergency 12, located on Mun, 2 light rovers

As far as carreer mode i am still in kerbin space, ut designing duna ship now (don't have the super heavy lifter kit, so no mainsails or orange tanks).

alacrity

[briansun1]

limits is going out side of KO

[FacticiusVir]

Frickin' Eve, man. I don't have the patience to screw around with asparagus staging, and Eve is the only thing that necessitates it.

[Moach]

For me, the limit is more often than not something related to lag or CTD's... That's usually the thing that stops most of my über-ambitious projects from going any further - I just keep making those things bigger and bigger until the game simply can't take it anymore

I do tend to pile up on addons somewhat manically, I have to admit...

[sumghai]

- With the exception of derping around with the stock SPH crafts, I have not yet built any aircraft, much less an SSTO

- I have only scratched the surface of exploring Kerbin and the Mun; I've been too busy maintaining my add-ons to continue my main savegame.

[ThatBum]

My limit is interplanetary spacecraft that can return to Kerbin from their destinations.

Also, Jool.

[relin]

Finding the patience to wait for interplanetary transfer windows. Also, SSTO.