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

[moogoob]

The abort button does nothing by default - this means you can make it do anything you'd like!

Personally I use it to pop fairings/nosecones etc.

[Clear Air Turbulence]

This may be a known one, but I only found this out yesterday, and I haven't see it in the list: KSP adjusts maneuver nodes to compensate for V lost during aerobraking

When aerobraking for capture, while in your final approach to the body, make a maneuver node placed a little after periapsis. Place it as soon after peri as possible, just after emerging from atmosphere. Adjust so that you end up with your capture orbit.  

It does not matter if the total dV required for the burn exceeds your fuel capacity.KSP automagically adjusts the amount of retrograde burn to compensate for your velocity loss during aerobraking, so that you end up with the same final velocity.

As you lose speed, you will see the maneuver node adjust automatically.  

This makes it much easier to plan planetary insertions, because you know ahead of time whether you have lost enough V  or not.

A small thing, but I was really pleased to find it out!  

 

Edited December 15, 2015 by Clear Air Turbulence

[Venusgate]

2 hours ago, Clear Air Turbulence said:

KSP adjusts maneuver nodes to compensate for V lost during aerobraking

It also adjusts it for diminishing Oberth effect. Try doing a long transfer burn with a low TWR, the farther past the perapsis you are, you may start to see your burn dV climb even if you're at full burn! XD

[davee]

I'm a newb in the forum and with KSP, but I've been flying it for a few weeks and am getting totally hooked so much so that I'm losing a lot sleep. I can't put it down. But I do put it down now for sometimes a few days.

Okay I learned a couple of things that I want to mention:

1) I upgraded from 1.0.4 to 1.0.5 and for a while I guess I couldn't use MechJeb and after installing RSS and RO, I wanted to do moon transfer orbits using the real moon. First issue was How on earth do I align planes with the real moon, now that my home planet and the lunar plane are mis-aligned by so much? (23 degrees or something like that?) And I'm now launching from Florida. I wanted to use an alignment burn. Uh uh. Too much delta-v needed. Then I tried and tried to figure out how to launch in the proper direction and how to know when I'm in alignment before I take off.

Answer:

I learned (on my own) that the Kerbal Engineer's rendezvous  GUI shows the "Relative Inclination" of the moon when it's the target. And the big learn was that the nav ball shows 90 degrees to launch into the pro-grade direction. So learned to watch the RI field go down close to zero by warping, then launching pure prograde during that time and it lines perfectly with the lunar plane. I watch some great YouTube tutorials (4 20-minute parts) to gain an understanding of how to use the nav ball. Still need to learn more on the nav ball from experience, though.

 

2) During a manual ascent, if the time to reach apoapsis (?)  is dropping and reaches 0 while I'm trying to reach orbital velocity, then the launch will fail and become sub-orbital unless I correct it asap and should be able to get the time value to start going up again, instead of going down.

(Jan 18/2016. added one more thing)

I've learned that my last comment is not correct. The time value falling negative only means that I passed the top of the arc but the orbit is not lost yet as long as I keep accelerating. But if I'm not high enough, it will be lost.

Cheers!

Edited January 18, 2016 by davee
amended last item.

[Alienmasters]

I'm a long time KSP player and forum lurker, and love this thread. Here are mine:

I saw this mentioned briefly once earlier and had to post in agreement: KSP is best played for me with a pencil and notepad handy (and frequently used).  Especially in Career mode when trying to get the most cost efficient performance out of my designs, I record my ascent profiles and de-orbit profiles to refer to in the future for adjustments - or to nail that perfect return from orbit to the KSC runway.  I jot down design changes to make for future flights based on performance.  Heck I even map out goals and order of contracts in a launch schedule format.  Like any sandbox game I find the goals i set for myself are what makes it engaging and keeps me coming back for more.

Playing Career with quicksaves turned off is a real adrenalin rush!  I sometimes hate myself for playing this way but it's also given me some of the best gaming moments ever in a lifetime of gaming.

Finally, two mods I never fly without: KerbalEngineer and Chatterer.

[MagicFireCaster]

Here is mine, if you have problem trying to get a big rocket into orbit you can always send 2 rockets and merge the ship on orbit using docking ports, sometimes it is even cheaper to do it than trying to get a huge ship up there on a bigger rocket. 

[Evanitis]

- Success is fun, but failure is fun too. The best is a mix of the two.

- There is no wrong way to play the game.

- Air intakes work underwater.

- The tier 0 airstrip is the bumpiest surface in the known universe.

[Curveball Anders]

8 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

- Success is fun, but failure is fun too. The best is a mix of the two.

And what's even more fun is that one can learn new things from both success and failure.

 

[Nightshift83]

Never give up! One of my most memorable moments was when starting from mun surface I realized I didn't have enough fuel and than used the jetpack to at least get Jeb into a stable orbit. Have read some stories like that later on, but I was so proud and happy when I did it back than - like in some rogue like game with permadeath and so on.

 

Though I thought the title of the thread implied more of "what did you learn in KSP that you can pass along your grandkids later on"..

Well I guess the mun moonlandling was real after all, even with the potato-computers back than. Although now I think it's entirely possible without any computers at all .

 

Oh and I really sucked in math back in school, but since KSP I find it increasingly fun and for the first time usefull.

 

 

[JackBush]

On 1/29/2014 at 4:36 AM, ShadowDragon8685 said:

I'm really starting to get annoyed hearing people poo-poo MechJeb.

If I wanted to learn to fly a rocket for real, I'd be sending my CV to NASA. Or playing Orbiter.

Doing things the manual way sucks, especially given the time invested in a single mission and that it can all come to an explosive halt at the very end because I krakensed up a tricky maneuver with the keyboards. More importantly, there's a crap-top of complex maths behind the scenes that not only do I not know how to do myself (watching Scott Manley illustrate some basic orbital mechanics on paper made my head go aaaaagh!,) even if I did, KSP does not give me the tools I would need to make use of that math - things like a precise Hohmann transfer, for instance.

Without MechJeb, I'd be lucky to manage to make an orbit, let alone an orbit with an apoapsis and periapsis within 10K of each other, and I could definitely forget about an orbit at the actual inclination I want. Maneuver nodes are practically no help whatsoever, because they require fiddling with the bloody awful maneuver node interface rather than, say, letting me input a maneuver to circularize my orbit at apoapsis, let alone getting any kind of an inclination change done without it making my orbit go all wonky to hell.

So please, please please stop trying to give "don't use the one mod that you literally couldn't play Kerbal Space Program without" and "learn to do it without the numbers, you big baby," as advice, because they're not advice. They're as helpful as "Just cheer the hell up already!" is to someone struggling with grief and/or chronic depression, or "just find a job, you lazy bum!" to someone grappling with chronic unemployment.

So there, I'll make that some serious advice for newbies: Don't pass down judgmental "advice" based on telling them not to do things they find work for them.

Hear hear!

[Wemb]

MechJeb is invaluable many levels and I never travel without it - firstly, it gives you vital engineering information that isn't found elsewhere in the stock game - this is essential to success.

I also really appreciate it for the tweaks to the UI it adds that make it easier to fly rockets - e.g. Manueveur Node Editor - Trying to adjust a node while focused on a distant moon, id ridicioulously difficult, and the MNE is a great additional UI to assist in setting up manual maneouvers.

Thirdly, it's a great teaching aid -  Not sure what the sensible way to circularise an orbit is? Not too sure whether or not a Hohmann transfer is available in this orbit? Ask MJ to work it out and Watch and Learn. Fourthly, it allows me to set some sensible limits to how I manually fly the ship (preventing overheating, auto-throttle down to at Max-Q, etc) 

Fifthly, and this is right at the bottom of the list - it's a autopilot.  But with the exception of SmartSAS, this is very much a minor function. 

There isn't a wrong way to play KSP - but relying on MJ to do the flying for you is probably the least best way to play it :-) 

Wemb

[Kerbal101]

1. MechJeb. Its like playing FPS game with Aimbot. With it, KSP goes from "Challenging" into "Easymodo".
There is sandbox mode to experiment, Kerbal Engineer Redux and similar mods to deliver you more information and hints.

Mods should provide aids to ease the work, but not ease the work by replacing pilot/engineer. Real-life pilots do use more and more sophisticated autopilots, but merely because there is no "Load Button" in real life and manual "experimentation on living patient" is only encouraged when lacking any other options.

The only real argument for keeping MechJeb, is when pilot wants to be a strategist, and KSP should play as a round-based strategy as virtually all real-time challenges are lost.

2. I don't need orbiting for planets without atmosphere or with acceptable gravity - and can save tons of fuel.

3. SRB have no thrust vectoring, no ability to control - which is a BIG minus. Without KER or manual calculation of stage 1 T/W to be between 1.5 and 2, using SRB is asking for trouble. It may not explode, but it will burn through more fuel due to inefficient ascend.

4. Thrust-to-Weight is everything for Stage 1 (uplift) and Stage 2(orbiting) or combined Stage 1 for Single-Stage-To-Orbit designs.
If you have too much fuel, but too less thrust from engine - you will fall down, spin at higher atmosphere or waste fuel (Stage 1) or will not be able to circularize (Stage 2).

5. Less is more applies only to payload. For engines and fuel - Thrust-to-Weight ratio and Asparagus method - rule.

6. Playing more KSP allows to navigate using navball only, even in total darkness.

7. I like retractable Solar panels

---

8. Ion engine suck, if there is any gravity. Either splash or stranded alone.

9. KSP wings suck for bigger planes. Procedural wings mod - is a godsend

10. KER rules.

11. KIS, KAS, KAX, USI - the big expansion four.

Edit:

12. If you build a lander and want to land on the feet - its shape must look as a "bug", not as a "bottle". The very same hint is given by the game at start screen.

13. Invest in science! Create a biome x scientific experiment zone table! Hunt science! Create a rover on four wheels with a basic jet engine, and do a science tour around KSC for over 120 science.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Kerbal101

[Kerbal101]

On 12/15/2015 at 0:05 AM, davee said:

(snip)

1) I upgraded from 1.0.4 to 1.0.5 and for a while I guess I couldn't use MechJeb and after installing RSS and RO, I wanted to do moon transfer orbits using the real moon. First issue was How on earth do I align planes with the real moon, now that my home planet and the lunar plane are mis-aligned by so much? (23 degrees or something like that?) And I'm now launching from Florida. I wanted to use an alignment burn. Uh uh. Too much delta-v needed. Then I tried and tried to figure out how to launch in the proper direction and how to know when I'm in alignment before I take off.

Answer:

I learned (on my own) that the Kerbal Engineer's rendezvous  GUI shows the "Relative Inclination" of the moon when it's the target. And the big learn was that the nav ball shows 90 degrees to launch into the pro-grade direction. So learned to watch the RI field go down close to zero by warping, then launching pure prograde during that time and it lines perfectly with the lunar plane. I watch some great YouTube tutorials (4 20-minute parts) to gain an understanding of how to use the nav ball. Still need to learn more on the nav ball from experience, though.

(snip)

This sums up the controversy around MechJeb pretty much.
It helps by removing big part of gameplay - big area to experience, learn, big part of challenge.
The question is - do you want this challenge? Game should be enjoying experience, in the end. The answer defines the need for MechJeb. If you don't want to learn from failures or if you are simply bored by sheer amount of real (micro-)action, then MechJeb is a positive feature.

[Red Iron Crown]

Let's not get into the MechJeb debate in such a useful thread, it's been done to death many times over.

[Jeb Coleman]

What I have found is that if I start in sandbox mode it is easier to master basic skills due to the fact that you have more part available. Also learn the basics of flight before getting a mod like Mechjeb.

[Cornholio]

I have learned that some mods pretty much are essential to gameplay: Engineer and alarm clock.

Minimizing burns for orbit changes is key to longer voyages:  correcting Hohmann transfer inclinations weeks in advanced as opposed to after entering the SOI could mean an extra biome hop worth of fuel. 

Above all else: docking..  Learn to dock quickly and efficiently.  Learn all of the engineering that goes into docking vehicles (RCS thrusters with multiples of 4 symmetry as far out towards the end of the vehicle as possible for maximum torque.)

[dangerhamster]

Something I never noticed until recently. Kerbals on EVA can interact with parts, such as extending a solar panel or lowering landing legs. Saves an awful lot of hopping between vessels.

[SSgt Baloo]

Perseverance. Every setback is an opportunity to learn something you did not know, before.

[dyno101]

I'm no expert, but I have played KSP for quite a while, and here's what I have to say:

1. Trial and error. The learning curve of KSP is quite steep, so failing is the best way to learn not only what doesn't work, but why it doesn't work. If you can't go fast enough to get a good speed to work with to get to orbit, get a more powerful engine. If you overheat, slow down or slap on some heat resistant panels.

2. Simple. Don't complicate if you don't need too. You can skip orbit to get to the mun. You don't have to worry about moving for orbital momentum until you're in space. Always look for ways to do things with less steps.

3. Screw around. I can't tell you the laughs I've gotten from doing stupid things in KSP.

 

 

[SurrealShock]

.

Edited April 25 by SurrealShock

[Andem]

1) If you feel bored, then do any (or all) of the following:

Uninstall mechjeb

Play some career

Watch some Danny

Use RSS and RO

Mod until your computer tries to kill itself from the agony of loading KSP.

 

2) Don't rely on the f9 key. You will get bored.

3) Every accident can be awesome! say your lander impactor leaves two kerbals stuck on minmus... don't leave them there! rescue them! make a convoluted plot and turn it into a cinematic!

4)Learn how to do a gravity turn. quickly. you will be so much happier.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Andem

[RocketBlam]

On 11/23/2015 at 5:54 PM, sdrevik said:

I played LOTS of games before figuring this out:

I actually landed on a couple of the Joolian moons before I figured out there was a save feature.

You want to talk about nerve-wracking...

[EVA_Reentry]

Tweakables! All hail the right-click god! And also, the saying in the Kerbin Interplanetary description of Kerbin, 'that he who gets his hip into orbit is halfway to anywhere', is totally true. Don't wait for two months to look up a tutorial.

[Nicole]

When you want to be able to making a small adjustment to an orbit, like for rendezvous of any kind, you can use the tweakable thrust limiter on any engine to greatly increase your precision. Throw that slider right down near the bottom when you're cleaning up a manoeuvre and suddenly your entire throttle is only throttling a few percent of the engine thrust. No need to try and tease a very sensitive control and jerk your way in or overshoot. At least it is a useful tip to me I do not know it is commonly known.

[LiteralBomb]

Two things I've learnt (I've only played a few hours so far):

- When you are just starting, learn the controls and basics using the pre-built Rockets & spaceplanes.

- Don't use good astronauts like Jebediah Kerman unless you know you won't crash him. Just send some random dude.