What are the most important things you've learned about playing KSP to pass on?

[FREEFALL1984]

There is no such thing as a five minute design session. And my wife is a "KSP widow" too.

It takes longer than 5 minutes just to load on my machine

[roblamb98]

you can still use mechjeb's info without using its autopilot, it would be simpler than getting another mod.

[Alchemist]

There is no such thing as a five minute design session

It might be 5 minutes for you... but mind the timewarp!

[Alchemist]

Couple useful things I posted in another threads:

Transfer window planning with maneuver nodes:

take an object in orbit - plot escape with almost no relative velocity at the edge of SOI - here's the plotted orbit that's almost identical to the planets orbit - plan your transfer!

You don't have to send anything just out of SOI, just plot the escape and use the predicted orbit to place and adjust the transfer maneuver node. It also is very useful for finding your transfer windows from other planets - just use the craft to place the maneuvers.

Of course, never follow this flight plan, just wait for your transfer time and then recalculate proper ejection.

Sending low TWR crafts to other planets:

Low TWR values are not too much of a problem (0.05 g is pretty doable). It might result in ultra-long burns and be a bit inefficient, but nothing to avoid.

Just some tips:

1) you won't leave Kerbin in 1 burn. Spend several orbits raising your apoapsis (get it to 2-5 thousands km), then make the escape burn

2) have periapsis of the elliptic orbit a bit before the theoretical ejection burn position - you'll initially get escape trajectory that's much closer to parabola. (I'd say about 20 degrees between major axis of your elliptic orbit and the plotted ejection vector is good).

3) during late phase of the ejection (and the burn for Jool transfer might last up to until halfway to the Mun) watch your ejection vector - try getting it as close to initially plotted as possible. When your interplanetary trajectory starts approaching the desired, recalculate the rest of the burn (last couple hundreds m/s) to ensure you'll not miss the planet.

4) When approaching target, check your circularization burn time before entering the SOI - it might be necessary to reduce the relative velocity just after or even slightly before entering the SOI (even with my Moho craft I usually start the injection about halfway between edge of SOI and periapsis, but you have to be sure you have enough time to make the orbit closed)

5) you don't have to circularize in 1 go, just make the closed orbit. Maybe you don't even need to bring the entire craft to low orbit.

P.S. Here I explained a bit about how I do the ejection with a low TWR craft

[ioexcept]

That there is simply never enough planning - plan, plan, plan, plan ... crash, run out of fuel, go tragically off course ... etc

[grockstar124]

1. DONT timewarp if you have a big rocket

2. Dont trust the command pods SAS.

[DoToH]

Best one:

1. Have fun! Don't panic if your spacecraft falls apart/crashes/explodes the 5th time--it's all part of the game.

2 - Everybody forgot once to put parachutes in the re-entry capsule. Learn from mistakes.

3 - Aerobraking is very useful but be careful, ambitious aerobraking leads to lithobraking.

4 - Check for a ladder in your lander. Your Kerbals can reach the capsule with EVA packs or jumping on Mun or Minmus, but my second mission to Duna was a rescue mission to get Jeb, who couldn't get to the hatch after a nice Duna walk. Mistakes give you experience and nice rescue mission opportunities .

5 - Docking is easier in high circular orbits. Don't try to dock in a 20km Mun orbit if you don't master docking in a 120km Kerbin orbit.

6 - Don't listen to anybody telling you to use/not use Mechjeb. Test by yourself and uninstall if you don't like it. There is no "correct" way to play KSP. Do it your way. You can reach every moon or planet without mechjeb. Have fun is the only rule here. Remember: KSP is a game, you are supposed to enjoy it.

7 - There are a lot of cool mods/plugins. Try them. You will love some of them. Mod the game to fit your tastes or play stock if you want. Apply point 6 to any mod/plugin.

Like rebel spies in "Return of the Jedi", many Kerbals died to bring us this information (the whole thread, I mean). Use it wisely.

Edited May 5, 2014 by DoToH

[Kasuha]

When putting parachutes on something heavy, always add a few drogues. Use cubic octagonal struts to stick them radially if needed. They'll save your ship much more reliably than elaborate schemes with staged chute opening.

[Javster]

Use the navball. It's (almost) all you need for RV.

[KJ2022]

The best advice anybody can have is just practice. I learned everything from Scott Manleys videos and now the games almost too easy. Oh, and ignore people who say MechJebs the antichrist, if you're playing career, you're gonna have to do a lot of flights yourself before unlocking MechJeb. If you are in a general mood where you CBA with orbit burns and things, let MechJeb handle it, if you dislike Mechjeb or you don't have it installed, that's your call. If you're proficient enough to do your burns with and without MechJeb, then great.

[Overjay]

Everything can get worse anytime.

Space is big, and we are small. Yep.

[Korr]

If you click on the little blue "Ap", it will keep displaying the apoapsis after you've moved the mouse away

When testing a new design, press F3 right after physics kicks in on the launchpad/runway. This will quickly reveal if anything non-obvious has broken before ascent.

Thanks guys!

Here's a few I didn't find mentioned...

You can turn off batteries. Especially important on early tiers with no solar panels. Why power things when you're just in time acceleration?

Your Kerbals can repair parts in EVA. Broken rover wheel? No problem.

Your Kerbals can remove and install parts in EVA. This rover needs a battery, I'll just tear one off my lander... yoink!

Your Kerbals can repack chutes in EVA.

You can board an external seat from a distance. You may not need that ladder. Test on Kerbin, but you can probably just enter the external seat from the ground.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Korr
No AG for battery toggle! doh, guess I'll keep doing it manually

[Tex]

Your Kerbals can remove and install parts in EVA. This rover needs a battery, I'll just tear one off my lander... yoink!

Whaa... Is this KAS, or is it Stock? I've never been able to do something like this before...

[MircoMars]

1. use the "f"-key

2. use the F-keys

3. rule of thumb for ascentvehicles: payload weight times two is the needed fuel for about 2000m/s deltaV

4. Cubic. Octagonal. Struts.

[Franklin]

Whaa... Is this KAS, or is it Stock? I've never been able to do something like this before...

It's definitely KAS, I've never seen this option.

- - - Updated - - -

Press L to turn on your Kerbals' helmet lights while EVA. I didn't realize this until hours of gameplay, and it made lander lights almost unnecessary. Those things are bright.

[FanaticalFighter]

I've never seen this anywhere, its not in the wiki (AFAIK) and its nowhere in the game tutorials (again, AFAIK) but I found that if you hold Left Shift with the Right Mouse button, and drag your mouse inside the VAB, (or the spaceplane hangar) you can translate your camera left, right, forward, and back. Never knew this, just passing it on!

[Red Iron Crown]

I've never seen this anywhere, its not in the wiki (AFAIK) and its nowhere in the game tutorials (again, AFAIK) but I found that if you hold Left Shift with the Right Mouse button, and drag your mouse inside the VAB, (or the spaceplane hangar) you can translate your camera left, right, forward, and back. Never knew this, just passing it on!

Ye gods, that's a useful tip. Thanks!

[Kasuha]

I've never seen this anywhere, its not in the wiki (AFAIK) and its nowhere in the game tutorials (again, AFAIK) but I found that if you hold Left Shift with the Right Mouse button, and drag your mouse inside the VAB, (or the spaceplane hangar) you can translate your camera left, right, forward, and back. Never knew this, just passing it on!

Works only in SPH for me, and the shift key is not necessary - right middle mouse button + drag is all it needs. No translation in VAB.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Kasuha

[SlimeCrusher]

Umm... Lets see...

1. Learned that docking is not as hard as most people think it is, did my first docking on my second try and i was so happy!

2. Learned that mods don't really help that much if you're a newbie, a bit of reading on the forums and some videos are way better to learn actually, never used MechJeb and im proud of it.

3. Learned that before dropping a probe from a 2-probe vessel, first deploy solar panels, this happened while i separated my Duna lander from my Duna orbiter, forget to deploy solar panels on the orbiter, it's batteries were drained when i decoupled

4. Learned that you don't need a huge, 400 parts craft to go interplanetary, went to Duna with a fairly small craft without much trouble...

Aaand that's all i can remember... Yea

[xrayfishx]

When placing struts, don't just slap a few hundred on and see if it works. You can safely attach even the biggest boosters with 2 struts at most, you just need to understand how the forces move in the craft. Make a proper 3-point connection with the 2 struts and the radial decoupler (or whatever you're attaching that booster to).

Stay the hell away from mods. I fell for that crap as you can see by my signature. I can't play for an hour straight without problems unless I'm flying only one mission for that one hour. It worked fine, actually, until I installed RSS and the associated mods, but I will never remove it.

[Master Tao]

If you're having trouble placing landing gear on a plane, shift-click it (or click the root part) and flip the whole plane upside down.

[Benno]

You will spend far more time building spaceships than actually flying them.

[Benno]

Aside from some precalculated charts of various circular orbits around Kerbin, there's no easy way (AFAIK) to predict where you will land on a body with atmosphere (particularly if you're using FAR), unless you are happy to burn an insane amount of fuel and do a vertical drop. But...

Note your longitude before starting your descent burn and again after you land. With the help of a quick save, you can then reload and apply this difference to get reasonably close to your target.

Some would call it cheating, but NASA seem to have some pretty accurate models for predicting landing sites, so I'm cool with it.

[viktor19]

1. Like in real estate business (location, location, location), only here it is: quicksave, quicksave, quicksave.

2. "I'm not saying it's rocket science... but it is"

[Russoft]

I've enjoyed this thread so much that I'll dedicate my first forum post to passing on some of my own lessons learned. Some of these will be repeats.

1.) even on a manned mission, you need electricity. If you run out, there's no way to steer your vehicle. You may end up with kerbals orbiting between Mun and Kerbin with no way to get home but plenty of fuel left.

2.) On moons: fly around. Those EVA jetpacks the kerbals have are amazing pieces of technology.

3.) Back up your save folder, especially after significant progress or achievements. This game can crash and corrupt your career in the process. It's happened to me twice. Also, it's possible to repair your saved game by modifying the save file in a text editor. For me, it was a vessel that I had to delete from the save file which restored the career to working order. If it helps, both times it was a probe on an interplanetary transfer. I rarely let unmanned vessels travel without being monitored anymore, especially if they're important to me.

4.) Nuclear engines and ion engines are awesome if you have a dual monitor setup. Start an interplanetary burn and then watch a Scott Manley video or the Apollo landings on Youtube while you wait. Burns can take a long time.

5.) Test everything - especially your landers and rovers. Testing can be fun. Read about the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Each mission tested maneuvers and vehicles that would be used in later missions. A few things I've had repeated problems with: make sure lander legs extend low enough below the engine(s). Make sure you bring enough fuel for descent, ascent, and rendezvous/return to Kerbin. Put lights on your lander for night landings. Rovers should be low and wide and heavy, and they need electricity. Lastly, don't forget antennas on unmanned missions. Science is useless if it can't be transmitted home.

6.) Orbital rendezvous is easy, and docking isn't that hard. Don't be intimidated by them. If you've succeeded at a Mun shot already, then watch a few tutorials, get a solid understanding of your navball, then go for it.

7.) You don't need to bring science experiments home. Kerbals can remove the science and carry it with them. Just return the kerbal home.

8.) Don't waste your time matching thrust/Isp/burn time of real rockets in KSP. Your rockets won't work. I know. I tried to build the Saturn V. It barely made it into orbit. Allow real rockets to inspire you, but don't try to replicate them exactly.

9.) During interplanetary transfers, mid-course corrections are your friend. You only need a fraction of the fuel if you adjust your course early. Often the deltaV requirements are so low you can just make corrections using RCS fuel. If your target has an atmosphere, adjust so that you can aerobrake in the atmosphere. You'll need a fraction of the fuel you would to slow down and achieve orbit otherwise. It's more time consuming than time warping to the planet, but it'll save you fuel and reduce the size of rocket you need to launch. In career mode it means interplanetary mission on low-tech engines.

10.) I recently discovered that parachutes are somewhat optional when landing on Eve. Expect the bottom of the landing craft to be obliterated, though.

11.) Cheap autopilot for the gamer who wants to play stock: a keyboard with "cruise control". Often a feature of gaming keyboards. I've had kerbals walk kilometers across the Mun while I spend time with the wife.