Youtube V.S. Me

[prof.paljas]

Hey there, after eageresly waiting for my new computer and in the meantime and a lot of youtube video's watching, I finaly yesterday was able to play this beautifull game myself. However, things were not as I expected them to be. For instance:

1) For some odd reason all my fuel gets used-up simultaniously although I have an asperge style motor lay-out. I've done everything the youtubers explained how, but the results are, I end up with all tanks empty at the same time. What to do?

2) Does anybody know how to transfer fuel, say from the space station to a docked vehicel. Again I've seen this on youtube, but when I dock, my fuel stay's where it is. I can't select anything that would make a transfer possible. Again; What to do?

- Is it (or in my instance: schould it) even be possible to transfer fuel or electricity from one part of my ship to another? So, internal fuel transfer?

3) On youtube I saw that people have a very active SAS with even the motors and the finns participating. You see them switching and wabbeling all the time. Not with me. I only see some changes when I press the wsad key's. Is my SAS not working properly?

4) On youtube I also saw that it is possible to have a look inside the cockpit. What is the key for that, because I coudn't find the command for it in the the settings, literally no key on my keyboard makes it happen and I can't select this option when I click on the module. What to do?

Please help a fellow player out

[vexx32]

Moved to Gameplay Questions & Tutorials.

Now then... let's see...

1. Make sure you have your fuel lines feeding fuel from the outer stacks to the inner stacks. The small arrows on the fuel lines will indicate which way fuel is flowing. The lines should also go from the bottom of the outer stacks to the top of the inner ones.

2. I've not been playing too extensively, but from memory you need to Alt+Right-click on the two tanks you want to transfer fuel between. Make sure you hold down the Alt button in between selecting the two tanks, or it may not work.

3. Your SAS is working fine. Jittery SAS is either deliberately reconfigured to be more 'aggressive', or the videos have come from a couple versions ago, before Squad (I think C7 was in charge of the SAS changes) made it more stable.

4. By default, it's C (the key assignment should be under Camera Controls... that section does exist, right? I might be confusing myself again...). V switches between external camera modes (Orbital, Chase, Free and Auto).

[stringyquark]

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Controls

you may find this helpful, along with the rest of the wiki.

welcome to the forums and happy flying!

[Kasuha]

The lines should also go from the bottom of the outer stacks to the top of the inner ones.

This part is not true. You won't break anything by it but it is not necessary. Bottom of outer stack to bottom of inner stack is perfectly ok and it usually means shorter line. The engine will draw what's behind the fuel lines going out from anywhere of the half-stack before it draws anything from the half-stack.

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[vexx32]

I stand corrected.

I've always done it bottom-to-top, because I wasn't sure how the fuel flow prioritised things. Thanks

[Spyritdragon]

I stand corrected.

I've always done it bottom-to-top, because I wasn't sure how the fuel flow prioritised things. Thanks

General rule of thumb is: your engines will always draw fuel from the furthest tank first. Connecting the bottom of your first asparagus to the top of the second makes sure you have a straight line of tanks in order without any 'junctions' in your line.

Take the example of a 4 jumbo tank asparagus with small pancake tanks underneath. Say you have fuel flowing from one pancake tank to the other. Upon starting the engines, the jumbo in asparagus one will be the furthest from all engines, being at range 2 for stage one and at range 3 for stage two. Once that tank empties, stage one will burn the pancake tanks fuel. Here's where the change lies: stage two engines will have the pancake tank from stage one at range 2, and the jumbo tank from their own stage at range 2 as well. This makes that for a very short amount of time, you are drawing fuel for the two mainsails in stage two from both the pancake tank and the orange tank. This makes the pancake tank empty ever-so-sightly later, but since you still have 2 full and two half mainsails feeding off the pancake, it won't make much difference.

http://i.imgur.com/ZEoCaJ3.png

Thats how it goes for asparagus in my memory.

Edit: Nevermind, my explanation is invalid.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Spyritdragon

[Tank Buddy]

vexx32- "The lines should also go from the bottom of the outer stacks to the top of the inner ones."

The fuel lines don't have to go the the top of the next tank, they can go on the bottom tank on the next stack too. It functions the same, pulling fuel from the first stack and not burning fuel from itself.

[Nao]

@Spyritdragon I believe the image is wrong, the game prioritizes fuel lines first so in the second part both engines will draw from the light gray tank. After separation the main stage will be full. You can check it in game.

[Kasuha]

General rule of thumb is: your engines will always draw fuel from the furthest tank first

That's not true. It might have been so in earlier versions of the game but now it is different. The distance of the tank does not play role. The set of rules how fuel is drawn is simple but a I have hard time putting them to words. In any case in phase 2 of your picture, the right engine draws fuel just from the pancake connected by the pipe. Only when left engine runs completely out of fuel, right engine starts drawing fuel from its own stack.

[Vanamonde]

prof.paljas, pictures of your ship would help others diagnose question #1. Can you upload some screenshots to a free service like Imgur.com, and then use their BBCode link in your post?

[Spyritdragon]

@Spyritdragon I believe the image is wrong, the game prioritizes fuel lines first so in the second part both engines will draw from the light gray tank. After separation the main stage will be full. You can check it in game.

This would make more sense yeah. My bad

[Andersenman]

1) For some odd reason all my fuel gets used-up simultaniously although I have an asperge style motor lay-out. I've done everything the youtubers explained how, but the results are, I end up with all tanks empty at the same time. What to do?

Because you DIDN'T do it like those Youtubers, and copied the boosters AFTER you connected the fuel lines to the center stack, if at all.

You need to daisy-chain the booster stacks with fuel lines first in the order of their separation and THEN connect the longest-burning booster to the center stack, and ONLY that one.