Tinkerer reporting for business, and a career in rocket surgery!

[DexterBelgium]

Hi, I'm a 34 year old man from Belgium who likes to build virtual rockets in his spare time (not that I have any, but eeh well).

I'm fresh off a succesful landing mission to Minmus (900+ scienceseses) (been playing the game roughly a week now), and I have only touched career mode. Sandbox feels too "open" to me. I'd rather have my toolset limited, and have me figure out the basics (using the mass of excellent content created around this game) rather than having to figure out what in the name of Kerbol the exact difference is between all of the 700 different engine types.

I do find myself reaching for quickloads and revert flights much more than I would like. It seems the greatest stories on here are rescues and/or disasters (*ahem* I mean, lithobraking, unplanned sudden disassembly and/or the good old "please proceed to the nearest emergency exit and scatter yourselves over a 25 km wide area on the surface of kerbin"-situation), but I tend to hesitate to send kerbals to die for Science and explosions! I guess I'm just a bit of a softie.

Other nasty habits: quickloading to a quicksave on a PREVIOUS mission... (seriously did the "hail mary, please grant me some gravity effect to throw me into kerbin atmo from Mun with less than the dV I seem to need" 4 times due to that), hitting [space] when I meant "X" (why is my chute hanging out, and where is my rocket engine going, it's far from empty... oh...), forgetting proper staging ([space] wait, why is there fire coming from THERE? *KERBLOEIIEE*) and pissing away my fuel without regard for the return journey.

Questions that are bothering me right now:

- where do I add my signature on these forums?

- whereto next? I'm either thinking probe some things (use some unmanned probes to try some "further out" targets) or try to land on Mün.

- is there an easy overview of the different science things and where/when you should use them?

- I have to find an easy way to get science off most if not all of the mun biomes

- has anyone got an easy way to record your past missions? Something automated/addonlike.

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[ProfessorJeb]

Welcome!

Yes, you should land on Mün. It is the easiest way to get a lot of science in short time. Try to land to places where several biomes are really close (like those craters with canyons where you can easily get science from 3-4 biomes). Materials Bay give you the most amount of science after crew reports and EVA reports (and surface samples). I usually tend to spam Mystery Goo probes in the beginning and send them all around the Kerbin system so that I don't have to add them to the future rockets (makes them a bit lighter).

[Vanamonde]

- where do I add my signature on these forums?

You will automatically be granted personalization options after you've posted a few more times, and the forum software is convinced that you're not a spambot.

[DexterBelgium]

Thanks for the suggestions and answers, guys.

I actually went further and shot for the moon... welll, not THE moon, A moon. Not even Kerbin's moon. I thought to just throw a probe out and see where I could go do some automated sciences. Turns out Duna and Ike are actually quite reachable if you have no need for getting back. 2k odd sciences for that one, and a ton of useful info. The Lander is now a permanent automated presence on Duna for its troubles.

After that success I thought I'd shoot for the moon, .... well, the Mün. As suggested here. Got there pretty much Ok. Jeb's parking skills need some work (bouncing three times, while entertaining, is NOT ok, Jeb). That meant I had not nearly enough fuel left over for a return journey, so as we speak, Jeb's waiting for a ride, towel in hand. That has taken me down the path of trying to get a three-man pod up to the Mün and back, and that in turn has led to all sorts of brilliant advances in pyrotechnics, both nuclear and non-nuclear. The latest effort is now in an orbit overtop of Jeb's position, but I'm mighty apprehensive whether Bob will be any better at parking than Jeb.

Also thanks for the sig answer, I was wracking my brain on that one. I can assure the forum software that I am NOT a Stayputnik attached to a pc posting on the interwebs. That would be lud... *hang on, I haven an idea...

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[TheSuperintendnt]

Oh *smiles slyly* your gonna to fit right in here. Welcome aboard!

[Zuni]

I have a mission suggestion for you.

Send a 5 man ship to lithobrake on Moho and return.