Hi I'm Wam and I'm a Kerbaholic.

[Wamphyri]

... it all started with a 40% off sale on steam.

since then i go out less. my friends send me texts asking why i'm not shooting people in the face with them on bf3 or 4. i talk less at work; its because i'm designing a new something in my head and can't be bothered with human contact. my girlfriend just shakes her head at me when she catches me giggling like a schoolgirl because of some successful maneuver.

it was a purchase of less than $20 that made me rethink my free time entirely - made just as .21 was released, and since then nearly 500 hours have been logged. it took several, several hours of youtube videos by scott manley and harv to get my skills and designs to where they are now. and i'm still finding so much more to learn and do.

all that being said, i'm very pleased to say hello to what seems like a very polite and enthusiastic community - which is something sorely lacking in most other forums. i've lurked this forum for quite awhile, and have seen some very inspiring projects. its only now that i've decided to say hi and show off a couple of my more photogenic (and successful) moments.

i do use mechjeb. however, i promised myself that i would never allow mechjeb to do anything that i have not learned how to do manually. other mods are being used as well; most recently the remote tech mod, which has caused me to completely rethink my satellite deployment strategy. if a kerbal dies on my watch, then its time to restart my program. and no space junk. these are the rules i've imposed upon my program.

anyways, hi all of you. you guys got a great looking community here. i look forward to more lurking, and maybe now even posting a time or two.

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[Specialist290]

Welcome to the forums!

I'm familiar with that sequence of events you've posted up there in your first paragraph. For the first few months I had this game, I hardly touched anything else. It really is the sort of game that sinks its hooks in deep and doesn't like to let go of you once it's got a hold of you and your free time. I'll give you fair warning, though: Do set a little bit of time aside every so often to focus on anything but KSP for at least the whole day, or else when your KSP-induced "high" starts to crash, the results will not be pretty. (Speaking from personal experience, here: There was a point where I just got so sick of the game that I couldn't stand to pick it up again for a little while, just because I had overloaded on it before. I got better, though.)

At any rate, it sounds like you've got some accomplishments under your belt already, so feel free to spin a few yarns about some of your favorite missions. You might also want to help a few players newer than yourself out by answering any questions that they might have -- though don't be embarrassed to share any you might have yourself as well. Above all, enjoy your stay.

[larsmaehlum]

Hi Wam.

Welcome to this forum, where you can feel safe together with your fellow Kerbaholics.

[Kialar]

We should found a self-regulation group... not.

[turbo917k]

Welcome.

Thanks for sharing the nice shots! All the best with your program.

T

[Commissioner Tadpole]

all that being said, i'm very pleased to say hello to what seems like a very polite and enthusiastic community - which is something sorely lacking in most other forums.

Not.

This community, like every other in the world, is not all sunshine and happiness. It can be pretty much a death trap, especially if you don't get things right or don't have a sense of humor(like me), hence why I've been getting more and more arrogant.

But other than that, welcome. Good luck with your missions.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Commissioner Tadpole

[Liowen]

Not.

This community, like every other in the world, is not all sunshine and happiness. It can be pretty much a death trap, especially if you don't get things right or don't have a sense of humor(like me), hence why I've been getting more and more arrogant.

But other than that, welcome. Good luck with your missions.

I guess either I have been very fortunate, or just not noticing, or care to be honest, when someone is being rude. Honestly I feel this place has a much better community feel than some forums I have been to, but there is always one or two even in the good ones.

Also OP welcome aboard, I picked the game up just before the sale but it was money well spent....though my instructors at the college might not think so LOL.

[Wamphyri]

Thanks all for such a kind welcome.

- Specialist290 - i have to agree there have been times i've completely burned myself out on some games in the past; some of which i never returned to. the fact is that i have to spend a lot of time at my desk every day - i'm a student (double major, programming and networking) and i keep ksp running a lot on one machine while i'm doing actual work on the other.... and a movie or music on the other. sometimes i'll just send a craft to some random planet just cause and watch it from time to time for a few hours while doing homework or research.

- lars - its ironic that you thanked me in my first post - i was watching some of your youtube videos just the other night. i made a promise to myself to go back to some others in your series later.

- tadpole - i have seen a few random spats on the this forum her and there in my past few months of lurking, but i still stand by my original estimation that at least compared to the *vast* majority of other forums i've seen, this one is still much more positive and easy-going. i think it has to do with the learning curve of the game keeping some of the more squeaky wheels on the internet from joining.

to all others i didn't mention, thanks again for your welcome.

[larsmaehlum]

Thanks all for such a kind welcome.

- lars - its ironic that you thanked me in my first post - i was watching some of your youtube videos just the other night. i made a promise to myself to go back to some others in your series later.

Sweet. Which series? The Hard Mode one, or the stock stuff?

[Commissioner Tadpole]

I guess either I have been very fortunate, or just not noticing, or care to be honest, when someone is being rude. Honestly I feel this place has a much better community feel than some forums I have been to, but there is always one or two even in the good ones..

- tadpole - i have seen a few random spats on the this forum her and there in my past few months of lurking, but i still stand by my original estimation that at least compared to the *vast* majority of other forums i've seen, this one is still much more positive and easy-going. i think it has to do with the learning curve of the game keeping some of the more squeaky wheels on the internet from joining.

I've seen multiple, right yesterday and tuesday. Both of them making fun of my habit of easily snapping. They were actually two, but then others began joining in them simply to overwhelm me.

Just like bullies.

In other words, don't completely trust everyone just because 'most' of them seem friendly. I thought the same and I paid the price.

[Wamphyri]

Sweet. Which series? The Hard Mode one, or the stock stuff?

the hard mode series. i was doing a search on examples for good satellite placement. the addition of remote tech has caused me to rethink how i'm doing my program, and i looked at your example, as well as a few others.

[TheSuperintendnt]

Those are some nice screenies you have there, and I wouldn't worry about peoples behavior as your right, for the most part people behave. Oh and I almost forgot WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

[larsmaehlum]

the hard mode series. i was doing a search on examples for good satellite placement. the addition of remote tech has caused me to rethink how i'm doing my program, and i looked at your example, as well as a few others.

Cool. I have two dedicated videos on RT as well, but not much that's not covered in the series

[Wamphyri]

Those are some nice screenies you have there, and I wouldn't worry about peoples behavior as your right, for the most part people behave. Oh and I almost forgot WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

thanks for the compliments. i don't now how much detail you can see from any of those pics, but any advice, criticism, or comments are more than welcome.

Cool. I have two dedicated videos on RT as well, but not much that's not covered in the series

yeah i looked at those too, but was more interested in the hard mode series. your video and scott manly has inspired me to create a multi-satellite launch platform that can be shipped off to another planet.

[keoki]

I launched a multi-satellite launch platform that separated into a total of 21 different mapping probes.

The concept is that I launch to Jool, use aerobreaking in multiple passes to get into a reasonable Jool orbit, deploy probes to each moon, and map the system in one go.

My first pass worked pretty well, but only two of the 21 probes has engines, the rest are passive drop-off satellites. The two powered ships have 3 and 16 passive probes each, as well as being probes themselves for a total of 21.

That was the first design. There are places where the design has efficiency, and places where it was inefficient, or at least came up short. I've already unlocked everything in my current career mode, so I have all the parts at my disposal. I'm thinking the passive probes were good, but 16 is too many for any one ship. One ship has plenty of fuel for a single planet/moon mission, in general, so for each planet/moon you need one powered ship, then as many probes as you would like to use to make scanning faster. This is particularly important for planets/moons that are hard to scan without a lot of orbital changes to cover the whole surface. For example, I found moho difficult to fully map without a lot of orbit changes, my orbits tended to follow the same ground path regardless of how high I was, so I got coverage by shifting my inclination.

So a basic plan would be to drop off a probe with a polar orbit of 750km for the HI SAR Then another at a 300-350km orbit with the rest of the S.C.A.N line of orbital antennas. Then, depending on the object you are scanning, I would deploy additional 300-350km satellites at varying altitudes or varying inclinations... Whatever it takes to get scan coverage of 100% of the surface.

Of course the powered craft also has enough science tools to take advantage of the science opportunities, if you still need the science points. The SC9001, the goo, and the gravioli detectors are great for orbital science collection, log their results at every altitude multiple times. You should be able to pull in ~2000 science points for each object you orbit.

My 21 probe ship weighed in at about 100 tons by the time I left Kerbin orbit. I'm thinking the next design will weigh twice that since it will have multiple powered craft, and be carrying a lot more fuel and engines. The passive probes weigh almost nothing.

[Wamphyri]

i would be interested in seeing what your active and passive satellites looked like.

i've only 2 satellite designs i've created so far that are worth mentioning; my long/short range comms satellite, and my short range/kethane/science satellite. my goals were to create a one size fits all system for basically any body in the system.

i'm realizing now, though... that i might need to simplify my designs a bit. i don't see how i could still achieve these goals and still create a suitable deployment system that is still relatively lag free.