Overusing MechJeb

[KerbinExplorer]

I don't use mechjeb and never have. But what I've seen from screenshots of the VAB, I would love to have all the stats displayed there (TWR, total mass, etc).

But on that note I think autopilot is a bit lame, takes the fun and challenge out of the game, might as well just watch a movie of your ship flying there. =P

Real Manley pilots of KSP set their own maneuver nodes and fly the ship by hand all the way.

[HeadHunter67]

Real Manley pilots of KSP set their own maneuver nodes and fly the ship by hand all the way.

Mr. Manley has been seen to have used MechJeb at times, too.

[KhaosCorp]

I don't use mechjeb and never have. But what I've seen from screenshots of the VAB, I would love to have all the stats displayed there (TWR, total mass, etc).

But on that note I think autopilot is a bit lame, takes the fun and challenge out of the game, might as well just watch a movie of your ship flying there. =P

Real Manley pilots of KSP set their own maneuver nodes and fly the ship by hand all the way.

There are other mods that give like info, though I don't think any have as much info as MJ2 does.

Also, most of your statement is pure opinion. You say autopilot takes the fun and challenge out of the game....I say there is not a damn thing fun or challenging about launching my goto refueling tug for the 45000th time. I love to fly my missions, I still do most of the flying myself, but missions like that...mindless stuff I have done so much....let the computer do that dullness. I also think mucking about with maunuever nodes is stupid...I hate it lol...silly thing always move to fast! I let MJ plan nodes, and then fly them myself (Since MJ has poor throttle control imo).

Honestly...not sure if Jebs brain was the best to use for this project....we would all probably be alot better off if it was MechBill or some such =)

Really, I think HeadHunter said it the best it can be said.....

Use it to make the game more enjoyable for yourself. That should be the criterion for any plugin or mod.

[Der Kosmos]

Scot Manley uses mechjeb. That's all I need to know.

I will say however that my current mission to Eve WITH mechjeb is fairing worse than another Eve mission I did in an earlier playthrough which made minimal use of mechjeb. It still dosn't play nice with new SAS and is very finicky.

And yeah, what the other guy said, I think I'd rather have MechBob (please not bill, his stupidity is max)

Edited November 10, 2013 by Der Kosmos

[Traches]

Posting mostly because my sig is relevant. The only thing I leave working is the S.A.S.S.

And I take offense to people who say MJ is a better pilot than a human. Mechjeb is sometimes a terrible, inefficient pilot, and is frequently a merely mediocre pilot.

[Ravyne]

Or you could play the single player game anyway you like, not conforming to the ideas of 'legitimacy' that others have.

[DaveofDefeat]

I don't understand the need to validate your personal play style with the opinions of others.

[Tank Buddy]

I would just use if for information if I were you, but I feel that in a game about piloting spacecraft, anything that does that for you will detract from your experience.

[ScottyDoesKnow]

I installed it for precision landing on eve, but I plan on uninstalling it now. I just don't want to grow too reliant on it.

[Dingbat1967]

Holy cow! To whomever posted about the blacklist, thank you so much!

I've been using mechjeb solely for SMART A.S.S and the info displays. I always wanted to turn the rest off. Now I know how!

Thanks!

-- Dingbat.

[sorcerymon]

MechJeb can be very useful for testing minor tweaks to rocket designs, since mechjeb can replicate the exact same ascent as many times as you want, something a human could not do.

That way you dont have to wonder if that slightly decreased fuel usage was due to improved design or better piloting.

And you get more conclusive test results.

[Demon_82]

I'm still surprised by the fact that every two weeks there's a new thread about MechJeb, with the same previous arguments as the last fifteen times. Just let the people play as they want, and don't ask for aproval of your play style. This gets very boring. Use it, or don't use it, but don't tell us or try to convince us xD

[sorcerymon]

I'm still surprised by the fact that every two weeks there's a new thread about MechJeb, with the same previous arguments as the last fifteen times. Just let the people play as they want, and don't ask for aproval of your play style. This gets very boring. Use it, or don't use it, but don't tell us or try to convince us xD

This is may be a bit unfair, as the threadstarter asked a legitimate question.

It is however unnecessary for people to derail it with these "my opinion is the only right one!" replies.

[Seret]

Use it for as little or as much as you want. I find it useful for speeding up rendezvous/docking if I don't have lots of time. Everything else doesn't really need it IMO.

[vetrox]

Use it. If you get bored or dont like it. Stop using it.

I found it really usefull for preventing jet flameout. I really wish i still had it just for that reason!

[McKerbin McDerbin]

Hey man, I feel you on thinking you use MechJeb too much. When I started playing this game (~ 0.14) MechJeb actually got my crafts off the ground! I mean I could build ones that fly, but to achieve any kind of orbit I had to use MechJeb. After not too long though I started to notice how MechJeb was maneuvering my crafts. Pretty soon I was able to do the whole ascent on my own only using the Smart A.S.S for stable flight. My suggestion to you is to just watch closely how MechJeb actually flies your crafts. You will be surprised on how quick you will be able to mimic what it does.

[dawg]

I would just use if for information if I were you, but I feel that in a game about piloting spacecraft, anything that does that for you will detract from your experience.

I thought it was about building/designing/delivering spacecraft to celestial bodies and exploring them. If I'm not mistaken, real space agencies have observatories and trip planning. We have "look at the map and launch when Kerbin is at X o-clock and Target is at Y o-clock", followed by a relatively-imprecise transfer.

Mind you, this is coming from someone that only started using it two earth days ago after weeks worth of real-world hours of flying (I think the Steam clock is over 300 hours). Eventually launching becomes a monotonous chore. This lets me sleep more (IRL), too, as I'm not planning and doing tiny correction burns manually. It's not completely mindless, either, as it sometimes really screws things up (wastes tons of monopropellant, electricity, etc). I definitely see why it seems like practically everyone making videos is using this mod... Automation really makes the process far more enjoyable and consistent.

[therealcrow999]

Yeah I have to agree back then and even before, I've been playing since 0.7, that MJ was a very useful tool to have. It really helped to get into orbit and make a descent looking orbit. SAS back then on rocket sucked and there weren't a lot of good control surfaces or reaction wheels to help out flight. Back then MJ didn't have the tons of things it can do now, but they were very useful never the less.

Today MJ is still very useful, but can be not totally over used. Stock KSP has a lot of things to help piloting skills, better SAS, control surfaces and of course maneuver nodes. So I tend to use less of MJ, I still like to use Ascent Guidance because I can the maximum of my fuel efficiency. If my rocket isn't as efficient as I like or notice something I can change, I can do it. MJ allows me to compare launches and tweaks rockets. I could do the math and set up Engineer Redux mod, which I use, but only way to find out is to do a launch and get a orbit.

Hey man, I feel you on thinking you use MechJeb too much. When I started playing this game (~ 0.14) MechJeb actually got my crafts off the ground! I mean I could build ones that fly, but to achieve any kind of orbit I had to use MechJeb. After not too long though I started to notice how MechJeb was maneuvering my crafts. Pretty soon I was able to do the whole ascent on my own only using the Smart A.S.S for stable flight. My suggestion to you is to just watch closely how MechJeb actually flies your crafts. You will be surprised on how quick you will be able to mimic what it does.

As far as piloting skills, I would not use MJ at first. This way you can acquire the right skills to say in a imaginary situation take over the control of vessel at any given moment. If you as a player reading this is in realism, Apollo Astronauts used flight computers to control their vessel. Their were some precise maneuvers and burns that only a computer can do. During Lift off and all the way until a parking orbit, they had no control of vessel, the computer did it all. There was no way to precisely control a rocket while being put under those harsh G forces.

Like I said I've been playing KSP since early days, so I have acquired those skills. I still use it for Ascent Guidence, Smart A.S.S. to charge orientation while in orbit to do my retro burn or prograde burn. I use the orbital info a lot, I don't like jumping to main view to map to see where my PE or AP. When I land I use Surface info stuff. I personally like to land the craft myself, feels more rewarding. Sometimes I use Smart A.S.S to help retro down, but the KSP SAS is much better these days.

That's basicly what I use MJ for. Its up to you what makes you feel rewarding and what things you want it to do. Its still a tool to use, not a crutch to hinder your KSP skills, but a tool to help those skills grow.

[hansman1982]

My main complaint with MJ is that it is nearly unusable with FAR. Far too many times I have watched rockets flip end over end and I am noticing it gets worse as I get bigger rockets. I added wings to the base of my rockets to control this and increase the ascent angle but I finally chose MJ over FAR.

Something to think about. (unless I am doing something wrong and then please, dear God tell me)

[therealcrow999]

Yeah I had that problem. I don't personally use FAR because of other things that don't involve MJ. You can fix the problem of it flipping, by changing the Ascent Path Editor, making the turn very sharp. Like maybe 60%, 70% or higher depends on ship. This way when ship turns it will stay closer to the prograde marker on nav ball. If turn is to far ahead of nav marker it will slip ship. It doesn't show in game without FAR, but its still good practice, because it saves full. You rocket will properly thrust in the direction.

Try clicking on limit on Limit Acceleration to button and put something like 14, or anything that will keep throttle at 3 quarters area or more. Or tweak it to your liking for ship, this will really help the ship go in turn better. A rocket needs to go into those turn slower. Once over the turn you can turn off Limit Acceleration. You can tell visually when turn is bad, when your take turn and your engine flames are shooting out and then the smoke isn't at same angle, it looks sharply vertical to ground from flame.

My main complaint with MJ is that it is nearly unusable with FAR. Far too many times I have watched rockets flip end over end and I am noticing it gets worse as I get bigger rockets. I added wings to the base of my rockets to control this and increase the ascent angle but I finally chose MJ over FAR.

Something to think about. (unless I am doing something wrong and then please, dear God tell me)

[JeffreyCor]

Use it all you want. In reality, unless something goes wrong astronauts don't generally use manual control.

[Traches]

My main complaint with MJ is that it is nearly unusable with FAR. Far too many times I have watched rockets flip end over end and I am noticing it gets worse as I get bigger rockets. I added wings to the base of my rockets to control this and increase the ascent angle but I finally chose MJ over FAR.

Something to think about. (unless I am doing something wrong and then please, dear God tell me)

You're probably flying your launches wrong. Do it by hand, and Instead of starting your gravity turn at 10km, start it right off the pad when you hit ~50 m/s, and pitch over 10-15 degrees or so. If you kept those fins on the bottom of your rocket, after that you won't have to touch a thing till you're nearly out of the atmosphere. Just let the nose point itself at the surface prograde marker. If your launch is too steep (passing 10km and you haven't hit 45 degrees yet, or so) you can throttle back or cut your engines off until you hit 30 degrees ish.

[hansman1982]

I found a launch profile of starting the turn a 2 KM and doing a 90% turn worked well enough some of the time but it seems like any time I dont pay attention it goes bonkers. Oh well, I dont use space planes and the delta-v difference isnt that great (non-scientific eyeball test alert)

[Nuke]

thing that keeps me from using mechjeb all the time:

it cant fly half my ships without destroying them.

[FenrirWolf]

It's fine for what it does. If you wanna use it for whatever purposes you wanna do then cool, go for it. All I ask is that if you're streaming KSP, don't be one of those guys who never says anything and has mechjeb do everything. It makes the experience less of watching someone play a game and more like watching someone watching a computer play a game.