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

[flashcactus]

You *Will* forget something and/or make stupid mistakes when planning&building any even slightly complex mission so double-check everything, then test every single element, then test it all together, and only when you're sufficiently sure that it all works as you want it to, you can launch.

But have a bug-out plan and some backups anyway. Because it sucks to have something break or go the wrong way (and it probably will even if you did all of the above) far from home and not be able to do a thing about it.

[Janos1986]

1. Always have a Plan B.

2. TWR and DeltaV are the key to success, or at least to avoid certain demise.

3. Keep it lightweight.

4. Always recover when possible, even spent lifters. Except booster.

5. Have fun. If some contracts pay well but feel more of a chore than a challenge discard them, unless you're broke. You're playing, not working.

That's all that comes to mind for now. Maybe I'll expand.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Janos1986

[Ace Eman]

"1. You do not have to follow the perfect ascent: turn at 10km and keep turning until at 70 km. Turning to 45 degrees at 10km and staying there until you're apoapsis is at 75km+ is fine."

Not Good. You should start your turn at 8k, click on your nav ball to switch to orbital mode and follow the prograde marker starting at 45% and following it down to the horizon. Stayin at 45% for the entire ascent is not efficient.

[eddiew]

If a contract wants you to make a station supporting 'at least 5 kerbals'... you don't need to have 5 kerbals in it. It just has to have space for 5 kerbals. Not sure if you have to have any, even, but my 5-kerbal Duna station contract completed when there were only 2 crew present.

This makes things a lot easier for users of life support mods!

[Yukon0009]

1. Always, always include a docking port somewhere.

2. Landings don't have to be 0.1 m/s, those landing legs aren't made of paper you know.

3. Power and electricity is more important than you think (even for manned spacecraft) Always include a battery, static solar cell or RTG somewhere.

[Kelderek]

Electric charge behaves just like any other fuel which means you can control its flow. For example, you might consider adding an extra small battery to your ship and disable the fuel flow from it and viola! you have an emergency power supply. There are lots of reasons why this might be useful: if you do too much activity on a solar powered ship while in the dark shadow of a planet, or if you leave SAS on while time warping at 100,000X, etc. You can also power down docked portions of your ship that won't be used for a long time.

[bdito]

If a contract wants you to make a station supporting 'at least 5 kerbals'... you don't need to have 5 kerbals in it. It just has to have space for 5 kerbals. Not sure if you have to have any, even, but my 5-kerbal Duna station contract completed when there were only 2 crew present.

You don't need to have any. I routinely send unmanned stations with space for 5 kerbals to complete contracts.

[Alchemist]

Don't point your separatrons directly at the central stack (or other boosters in case of asparagus) - this can result in unexpected damage (like blown up mainsail). They work quite fine even when deflected by 45 or 60 degrees (to just miss the nearby bosters)

Also, it's not the smartest idea to drive Moho-grade assembly into Ike orbit. There are other better means to get extra fuel for multiple Duna/Ike landings than to pilot something with almost no TWR in Duna system. Especially if that thing can't even reliably predict burn times.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Alchemist

[trevize1138]

Don't be afraid to fail!

I would have learned a lot much earlier on if I threw caution to the wind and didn't worry so much about stranding a Kerbal in orbit around the sun or crashing on Duna.

- - - Updated - - -

You don't need to have any. I routinely send unmanned stations with space for 5 kerbals to complete contracts.

Don't forget a probe core

I mean ... not that I've ever launched an expensive, 5-Kerbal station with an attached satellite only to have the station lost in a solar orbit between Kerbin and Jool orbit after detaching the satellite ... I'm too experienced to make a rookie mistake like that... *cough*

[Mush_Morton]

I agree. I often refer to it as the "isolated battery." I heard that term in the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon." I usually select the battery that come stock in the manned pod as my "isolated battery." This way if you run out of juice, you have a protected emergency supply to do something as simple as change your orientation just enough to put a fixed panel back into the sunlight.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't point your separatrons directly at the central stack (or other boosters in case of asparagus) - this can result in unexpected damage (like blown up mainsail). They work quite fine even when deflected by 45 or 60 degrees (to just miss the nearby bosters).

THAT was HUGELY helpful! I naively assumed you wanted the sepatrons aimed inward at the core to give them something to push against. But alas, they too often blow my main tank to bits! The light bulb just came on that if they ALL are canted 45 degrees they will push away evenly and not hit each other.

[NASAHireMe]

Hey all,

Updated my condensed list of all your tips and tricks with the latest changes since I last posted in here.

[Norpo]

Every. Gram. Counts.

Seriously. This is the most important thing I've learnt, and it's also applicable to real-life rocket design.

You can't avoid the tyranny of the rocket equation (yes, that's a real thing), but you can optimize it and make it's impact as little as possible. Simply put, for every kilogram of payload mass, you need 3 kilograms of propellant. And for those propellant masses you need MORE propellant on a lower stage. Ad infinitum, or at least for however many stages your rocket has.

Need only 2 parachutes? Throw the third one off! Don't need giant solar panels? Throw the Gigantors off and put on some smaller ones.

The savings at first may seem insignificant, but it adds up.

[Alchemist]

Speaking of mass: sometimes reducing fuel in the rocket improves its payload capacity. In cases of low TWR asparagus it may prove more efficient to not top the central stack off. Try this if you find yourself at a bit too low TWR a bit too early when the last boosters are dropped.

[theh5]

No-one can hear you scream in space... (Sadly this was one of the things Jebediah never realized as he was to busy laughing).

[Invader Myk]

The truth of apparent paradoxes.

Less Is More.

The more you add to a rocket, the more you need to add to the rocket. The easiest rockets to put in orbit are those that barely have enough fuel and thrust to get to orbit.

Fast Is Smooth, Smooth Is Slow, Go Slow To Go Fast.

Going just fast enough and slow rotations are all that is necessary. I have not not (behold a grammatically correct use of a double negative) used precision control mode since pre-0.19.

[Ossie]

can some one please post on how to save games and then reload same game next day I have followed the same save game path but its seems the game dosen`t work that well with same game 6 hrs getting ahead yesterday only to log on to day and not one of my save games is their , and why is so hard to save games in this version , why hasn't the devs followed and given a simple way to save your games and load ,

its getting frustrating having to restart from scratch every day or so

[Xannari Ferrows]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/107932-Planning-your-rockets-What-is-Delta-V

[PSOliver]

1. Use SAS for everything it means you don't have to control it that much.

2. Don't have CS systems on a launch thats not planing to dock with anything, use reaction wheels instead.

3. Put drone cores in your rockets and spaceplanes so you can test it out without killing kerbals.

4. Use the smallest drone core you can put on it.

I might have more later but this is it for now.

[kStrout]

You HAVE to turn over to get to orbit. This seems to be a difficult concept for some of my friends. Not 15 degrees, not 45 degrees, at around 40k you should be basically completely sideways. Early players will sometimes do this and get crazy elliptical orbits.

[quietsamurai98]

If I could give one piece of advice to a new player, it would be this:

When you are playing the game, do some googling whenever you are confused about the more scientific stuff. If you play the game without knowing the science, you will get confused and frustrated.

For example, say that I read that it takes 4500 ÃŽâ€v to reach orbit. I have no clue what ÃŽâ€v means, but I know I have 4500 units of it. I could either learn what ÃŽâ€v means, or play without comprehending what exactly is going on.

I recommend using KSP as a way to learn about rocket science. Dig deeper, learn something new. Sending a hand made craft into space is great, but KSP truely shines when the player knows the science behind the gameplay.

[vixr]

There is more than one way to skin a cat... (insert any catchphrase you want to imply that you just need to keep trying stuff until it works)

[Warhawk]

Like many games, KSP can be as serious and as deep as you want to make it. At some point you need that kind of depth, otherwise it gets old. The only question becomes: Will you even bother? KSP has seen me binging for months, and I've learned more about space exploration, colonization and technology in that period than I ever expected. KSP is one of those "springboard" games where all it takes is a little gumption and it'll send you flying into Wikipedia, NASA publications, engineering treatises and the like. I only wish more people saw it the same way, since from where I stand players never seem to really cooperate on any regular basis. Kids posting in roleplay threads is the best I've seen, and that falls far short of a "design bureau" like I'd hoped for.

[Red Iron Crown]

Save early, save often. Whether building or flying. Even if you're a skilled player or want to try "hard mode", because sometimes bugs rear their heads.

[627]

I've landed on all planets and moons before I even thought about installing any mods like mechjeb or kerbal-engineer or anything.

Purely stock, with just trial and error and (of course) these forums, youtube and the wiki brought me anywhere, even landed on tylo (on the 4th try, though).

Now I recently installed mechjeb to see what it can... ok... that thing basically plays the game for you. I like all those stats like Delta-v and twr and what not, but that autopilot is very mighty and should imho only be used if you can do the same without it.

[mpk10]

Park a Probe/rover with batteries and solar panels near Kerbal Space Center, somewhere just off the runway or Launchpad.

Two reasons:

1) You can use it to target landings/splashdowns when it's nighttime at KSC.

2) If you have Engineer installed, you can switch to it after putting an interplanetary craft into orbit and time warp faster to the correct phase angle for a transfer burn to the target planet with full use of all levels of timewarp, then switch back to your orbiting craft for the burn.