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

[Sharpy]

Right and wrong placement of radiators by the LV-N engine.

The two radiators are placed in the right places.

The two stubs after radiators that were cleanly blown off by the engine cover when it was ejected are in the wrong place.

[Sharpy]

You can triple ISRU output (and power usage) by producing simultaneously [Lf+Ox], [LqdFuel] and [Ox].

[GeneralVeers]

Since somebody in another thread was asking for help because he couldn't get a Mun landing to happen no matter how much fuel he threw on his ship, I figure this one is important enough to post.

Don't overbuild. Scott Manley wasn't cheating in that YouTube video where he made it to the Mun and back with an incredibly tiny ship (I just tested it myself to be sure). A Mun lander consisting of the vanilla one-Kerb capsule, a single 90-ton fuel tank, and one 48-7S "Spark" engine (total mass: just over 2 tons) can deorbit from 50 km over the Mun, land, and reorbit back to 50 km with fuel to spare. Use that as your starting point when designing a lander. (advance note: this 2-ton lander with the single Spark engine was pretty damn fast!)

[Wolfox]

Now I just wish for such a hint as to which way a wheel turns when you press the "forward" key. I built a fine backwards-driving lab-rover...

Thats actually determined by the control part, not the wheels. Try to rotate root part (lab in this case presumably) by 180 degrees and re-attach wheels, that should do the trick.

[cutlercollin99]

If you have too many Mods to the game, bad things happen. Also if you need a reference for how many mods are apropriate here is a link :

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130338-How-Many-Is-Too-Many-Mods

[Garbonzo]

1. Don't rely on MechJeb or other mods that do the work for you. the sense of accomplishment diminishes that an AI did all the heavy lifting. "But I'm not good at KSP" then learn! Trial and error is the best way to get good and landing, docking, launching. Be patient.

2. You don't need to be Scott Manley. You don't have to have a perfect launch with a perfect 100,000 orbit to be good at Kerbal space.

3. Explore with mods. Mods are great. Of course, you can do everything with stock parts but mods are so fun and very useful.

[Red Iron Crown]

Trial and error is the best way to get good and landing, docking, launching.

I have to respectfully disagree with this, at least as a general statement. People learn in different ways, what works best for one may not be the best for another. Some like videos, some like written tutorials, some like watching what an autopilot does, some like trial and error.

[jackboy900]

1. Don't rely on MechJeb or other mods that do the work for you. the sense of accomplishment diminishes that an AI did all the heavy lifting. "But I'm not good at KSP" then learn! Trial and error is the best way to get good and landing, docking, launching. Be patient.

2. You don't need to be Scott Manley. You don't have to have a perfect launch with a perfect 100,000 orbit to be good at Kerbal space.

3. Explore with mods. Mods are great. Of course, you can do everything with stock parts but mods are so fun and very useful.

I would agree with 2/3 but I used to not use MJ and was finding it hard to stay focused after 10+ launchings and revert to VAB. MJ means my Minmus miner can get there autonamously and I can test my fixes. I find building funner than flying so MJ helps there. Also MJ can get an orbit to a degree of circularity that I can't (under 1KM between periaps and apoaps)

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When in doubt add more SAS Modules. RCS needs fuel and balancing but SAS has infinite (with solar) movement capability. Anything after my first satge has SAS between every tank and anywhere else it fits.

[Champ]

When in doubt add more SAS Modules. RCS needs fuel and balancing but SAS has infinite (with solar) movement capability. Anything after my first satge has SAS between every tank and anywhere else it fits.

1 SAS every tank seams like a lot. I usually put a SAS ring for 2 or 3 tanks

[MaxwellsDemon]

My Kerbal log only has a few dozen space-hours in it (IRL, not counting time warps.... IG, I'm rounding out Year 1), so I don't have tons of wisdom to impart... but perhaps a few "For Newbies, From A Newbie":

1. Take all advice you read or watch as general guidance, instead of gospel. Quite a few things may have changed since the advice was written.

2. Ignore the MechJeb controversy and get it. Even if you don't use it for autopiloting, it's worth it for the "Orbit" and "Surface" info screens alone, all of which is basic and useful information (including the parts you don't understand yet-- but will). (An old Orbiter junkie like me misses the MFDs and finds the piloting information in vanilla KSP woefully sparse.)

[Further: I find some MechJeb modules more useful than others. Having kids and dogs in the house, I don't have the luxury of spending uninterrupted hours with KSP, so it's worth it to set up a launch, go do something else, and then come back to find my payload in orbit-- especially if it's a design I've already launched successfully a dozen times or more. On the flip side, I much prefer to do my approach and docking manually, and also prefer to set up my own Hohmann transfers, even if I then tweak them in the MJ node editor...]

3. Otherwise, go easy on mods until you are comfortable with vanilla. (Though, being a bit of a space probe junkie [Hail the Probe!] I did install ScanSat very early on.)

4. Don't be afraid to fail. Failures typically teach more than successes do.

Oh... and regarding the Kessel Run... the version I heard was that, yes, the apparent confusion of "parsecs" as units of time rather than of distance was deliberate, but it was supposed to be an obvious blooper that would tip off the audience that Han Solo was trying to dazzle his potential customers with his brilliance, but Obi-Wan knew perfectly well that Han was trying to baffle them with bull... Han was originally written as a bit of a sleazier character, but became so popular (thanks in large part to Harrison Ford's portrayal) that everything the character uttered about the Millennium Falcon was immediately accepted as canon, including the parts he was lying about!

Edited August 10, 2015 by MaxwellsDemon
Additional thought

[Dcseal]

Your halfway anywere in space when you can orbit kerbin.

That's all i've got, i'm on the same boat as you.

[jondugger123]

-While Mechjeb is a useful tool, I have to say I rocked about 100 hours of gameplay before I even touched mods outside the eye-candy category. I just didn't think about it. I did learn how to get to orbit, get to the Mun, Minmus, Duna, etc all without Mechjeb. Since using it though, it is hard to go back without knowing how much delta-V I've got, and what my orbital info is. Never much used auto-pilot.

-Simple is always key though, for the most part.

-You should have a mental design for space stations in mind as well. I always make the mistake of adding modules without much thought of where they'll go and how they'll piece together with everything else.

-Alt-L locks your staging. Very useful for when you're on your way to Duna for the first time and you accidentally decouple most of your fuel for coming back. Learned that the hard way.

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One last note, always pack batteries and solar panels. The amount of times I've built a super elaborate ship for interplanetary travel, just to get to Kerbin orbit and realize I have no electricity production.

[FyunchClick]

The back of the mk3 cockpit is actually also a crew hatch. If you put a cargo bay right behind it you can EVA straight into the bay by clicking on the crew hatch. Useful if you're on a high g planet where you can't jetpack around and want to be able to access your science equipment without spamming Pegasus mobility enhancers.

[FyunchClick]

Put the torque on your rear landing gear to max, and your front landing gear to half, that way when you touch down the rear wheels have the greatest drag; the CoM will tend to want to be in front of your rear wheels, and your plane quickly stabelizes in your traveling direction even if you had a pretty messy touch down.

[jeffindenver]

Most important thing I learned from KSP is that parachutes only work in real life.

[KSACheese]

RCS, SAS, struts, power supplies, and most importantly, parachutes!

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Don't forget to add the part of why you're sending a spacecraft into space. For example, I sent up a probe to dock onto a ore detection craft because I had forgotten the antenna. As I reached within 700 meters of docking, I then realized that the emergency comsat that I sent up had no antenna.

[StrayHunter]

-SAS and RCS is the second coming of video game tools' Jesus, always use them

-Master the GUI and the basics, it is the first step to become a KSP veteran.

-Always quicksave, you can not know what is going to happen next.

-Master the orbit basics, it is the barebones of efficent space travelling

-Use even the smallest, tiniest detail and addition in the game. They might change the tides of your flight.

[NielsBohr]

In hindsight it was probably a good idea playing the first many hours in KSP without mods. It simply forces you to learn the basics of the game through trial and error. The main reason for the absence of mods in my start, was ultimately because of my unawareness of this forum or any mods. I simply just bought KSP in early access, started it and enjoyed it so thoroughly, that I missed any mention of mods.

But as I stated above, it was probably a good idea, since I learned how to play the game, before downloading mods, showing me how to.

There is a profound satisfaction in figuring things out yourself.

When I then discovered all of these amazing mods, it completely changed my game and made it so much more enjoyable, vast and indeed challenging. The tremendous skills of the KSP modders is simply awe-inspiring. So the most important lessons I learned is, for me personally:

1) Start stock and figure things out.

2) If things fail; it is probably due to an insufficient amount of struts.

[Spacetraindriver]

2 things:

Struts

Boosters

[Clear Air Turbulence]

• There's an undo. Ctrl and Z like any other program. It may seem to freeze but give it a few seconds and it'll work.
  

Really??? Wow. I was convinced there wasn't. Thanks!

[ezequielandrush]

Really??? Wow. I was convinced there wasn't. Thanks!

I Discovered Ctr+Z when I made my first mess in VAB. I pessed ctr+Z almost instinctively and it worked!

Since theen I am a careless builder

[Yukon0009]

Don't ragequit during early failures. Or you'll come to regret it.

[Right]

Driving my car uphill fast reduces gravitational d/V (fuel) losses! Even if it means flooring it to get up to the speed limit at the base of the hill LOL

[The Optimist]

What's this mechjeb you speak of?

[*Asterix*]

1. KSP is not really a game, since you don't master it overnight like other games.

2. Mechjeb, KIS, KAS, and TextureReplacer make gameplay much more fun, and EVAs actually have a purpose, like constructing station trusses (super fun btw).

3. When going to the Mun, Minmus, etc., do it at least 5 times. That way you know what you are doing, and if any common problems occur, you can know the procedures for the future to handle them. The first time to me means 5-10 launches.

4. The best way to make yourself successful is to keep your VAB ships organized. This basically means that you shouldn't be making a brand new launch vehicle for every mission. Get a good launch vehicle that can hold a good payload, like the shuttle, and when you get new tasks for harder missions, make a variant or add on to the current. This is how I constructed a 4 module space station in less than 2 hours.

5. Youtube. Youtube. Youtube. When I started KSP in March 2013, I sucked. And then I watched Scott Manley. And then, I didn't suck anymore. Watch lots of people like Scott Manley, HOCgaming, EnterElysium, and for the pyschopathic glitch exploiters of KSP, Danny2462. Besides that, Scott Manley and other guys on Youtube mentored me in docking, rendezvous, getting to orbit, landing on the Mun, and so much more. It's a great thing to do when starting out.

Yeah, I'd say if you're a newbie, follow these tips. They'll help. After 2 years on this game, I know what I'm doing. In that Jebediah Kerman sort of way, if you know what I mean. KSP jokes...