Tips and tricks you found out yourself

[dazhat]

When holding on to a ladder, you can press shift+W/A/S/D and the kerbal will look in that direction.

For example, if you're on a ladder and hold shift+D, the kerbal will look to the right, and if you press space while doing so, he'll jump in that direction!

It took me more than you would think to discover it.

That's amazing, I had no idea!

[celem]

That's amazing, I had no idea!

Yeah that one is awesome.

I was also blown away by 'hold shift to run on EVA'. Though I have Sirine's sig to thank for that. I played probably 2 months before I learned it and at one point walked Jeb 22km to a rescue ship across Minmus.

Edited January 11, 2014 by celem

[Spartan125]

Always look for a gravity assist if you have a gut feeling you are going to run out of fuel before you can complete a direct transfer (this is how I have been getting around the whole Joolian system in Alternis with only about 1 km/s of delta-v).

[Wampa842]

Building NASA-style space shuttles the easy way

1. In SPH, select a part you want as a "dummy". It should be the fuel tank you'll be using in your lifter.

2. (opt.) Add a radial decoupler on top.

3. Add the fuselage part that will be attached to the booster, then build the shuttle. Cockpit, wings, landing gear, everything that goes.

4. Save the shuttle as a subassembly.

5. Build the booster stage in VAB, add a decoupler, attach the saved subassembly, secure it with struts.

6. Profit. Or explode.

[Themohawkninja]

Fixed that for you.

No, it should be between 14 and 15. Any less and I smash into the ground.

[wasmic]

On all atmosphereless bodies other than Tylo, you should do your ascent like this: Give yourself some upwards velocity, and then do the gravity turn instantly, within a hundred meters of taking off. You should also flip your ship over to parallel with the ground the instant you have enough upwards velocity to not hit a mountain.

[Nick7892]

I found out you can repack parachutes and repair rover wheels .

[Mitchz95]

No, it should be between 14 and 15. Any less and I smash into the ground.

Duna's atmosphere is practically a vacuum until you hit 10km. That's my experience, anyway.

[StrandedonEarth]

I found out you can repack parachutes and repair rover wheels .

I found that after repacking 'chutes, they have to be manually opened by right-click (I didn't realize the need to action group them yet) because spacebar will no longer work.... Also to make sure you put the landing gear down before you land....

I discovered both of those on the same landing, on my first return from Duna. By the time I got all the chutes open I didn't have time for the gear to fully deploy.

[Penguinhero]

part clipping with the cubic octagonal strut

[Rickenbacker]

This (and the corresponding error of forgetting to FOLD them before aerobraking) is why most of my big ships have a few of the small, flat solar panels somewhere. So that when I inevitably forget to deploy the big panels, I'll always have enough power to do so.

[sdj64]

always put an RTG somewhere on your ship (or small panels if not unlocked yet in career)

Jool kills extendable solar panels, even if you're parachuting at 1 m/s.

and, to rendezvous with another ship it's easier to start ahead of your target than behind it.

[Snarfster]

part clipping with the cubic octagonal strut

Works wonders when you try to put 5 engines under the wide tanks.

[Vanamonde]

While holding a key to make a Kerbal walk, if you alt-tab out of the game without letting up on the key, he will just keep walking, even if you alt-tab back into the game. The problem is that the only way to get him to stop again is to hold the opposite walk direction key, then return to KSC. Still, useful for covering long distances in circumstances such as hiking to a rescue ship.

[MrPopcup]

I found out ( a long time ago, maybe in .17 or .18 ) that if I want to decrease my looooooong burn in space ( you know, in space you cannot use physics time warp, only in atmosphere!) BUT I found out that if you hold alt and press on the time warp button it'll toggle physics time warp! and BOOM!

[Brotoro]

While holding a key to make a Kerbal walk, if you alt-tab out of the game without letting up on the key, he will just keep walking, even if you alt-tab back into the game. The problem is that the only way to get him to stop again is to hold the opposite walk direction key, then return to KSC. Still, useful for covering long distances in circumstances such as hiking to a rescue ship.

Well, THAT's a cool thing.

[DMagic]

Still, useful for covering long distances in circumstances such as hiking to a rescue ship.

Or fearless driving? Does this work with rovers too?

[Giggleplex777]

Quick-saving and then Quick-loading before starting a LV-N will remove its fairings.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[iornfence]

How to use octagonal cubic struts to create engine clusters, by attaching the engines to a bunch of cubic struts on the bottom of a tank.

[Vanamonde]

Does this work with rovers too?

I haven't tried it because even if it worked, it would accelerate as long as it can, and then tend to fly over a bump and destroy itself.

[Mr.Rocket]

I've got one.

Putting Nukes on the quadcouplers and activating them seems to have their sheilds destroy the others, right?

Before you activate them, quicksave. Then activate them, they should all have their sheilds blow off and break all the other engines. F-9 back to last quicksave. Your ship will appear with no sheilds, and you can activate the nukes with no explosions. Took a while to figure this out.

[Lazro]

Shift-tab to scroll focuses (foci?) backward. Just de-activate your engines...

[LordFjord]

Found out by accident on an EVA that I can repair broken landing legs and even repack parachutes! No more double chute packs for Duna missions, hurray!

[Whackjob]

Found out by accident on an EVA that I can repair broken landing legs and even repack parachutes! No more double chute packs for Duna missions, hurray!

Make sure you have an action group for chutes. Because space will only open chutes once.

[Brotoro]

Make sure you have an action group for chutes. Because space will only open chutes once.

If you quicksave and then load, the repacked parachutes will work again in the staging sequence.