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

[Starwhip]

In Docking mode, double-tapping the Spacebar lets you activate "hold" mode, where holding down the spacebar puts you in the second mode (rotation if you are in linear, linear if in rotation), and letting go reverts. Double-tapping again disables.

[Bev7787]

Don't launch straight upwards. You don't get anywhere.

[Deutherius]

You can alt + right click turbojets on SSTO's and tweak their thrust limiters individually to easily avoid assymetrical thrust/flameouts.

I have always avoided two or more enginned SSTOs for this reason and now I have no excuse anymore

[Rematog]

Don't launch straight upwards. You don't get anywhere.

Wrong. All Kerbal Spacemen know that with enough delta V, anything is possible. Wait until Kerbal Space Port is pointing at Duna and blast straight up until your in Kerbol orbit...... The H E double hockey sticks with Holmann, thrust away (we are playing Starbell Krek, right, infinite fuel.....)

Founding member of Kerbal Astronautics Office of Safety....... KAOS

[Jean Deaux]

1) There's an unlimited supply of Kerbal's even though there are no cities.

2) There's an unlimited supply of fuel on Kerbin.

3) There's an unlimited number of materials & supplies on Kerbin.

4) You will constantly be testing bullets 1-3 above.

5) Sleep is unnecessary, the fix for your current design is only a few minutes away so just keep at it until it's working.

6) NASA will not accept KSP veteran as an acceptable training reference for a job as an astronaut or engineer (or space janitor).

7) The Kraken will find you.

8) 64 bit is bad

9) Never let Jeb drive, especially when sober.

10) Cannot play with any efficiency without a mod installed.

11) Use the [ or ] keys to change between nearby ships/Kerbals

Edited March 20, 2015 by Jean Deaux

[Random Hooded Stranger]

1) there's an unlimited supply of kerbal's even though there are no cities.

2) there's an unlimited supply of fuel on kerbin.

3) there's an unlimited number of materials & supplies on kerbin.

4) you will constantly be testing bullets 1-3 above.

5) sleep is unnecessary, the fix for your current design is only a few minutes away so just keep at it until it's working.

6) nasa will not accept ksp veteran as an acceptable training reference for a job as an astronaut or engineer (or space janitor).

7) the kraken will find you.

8) 64 bit is bad

9) never let jeb drive, especially when sober.

10) cannot play with any efficiency without a mod installed.

11) use the [ or ] keys to change between nearby ships/kerbals

omg, this o_o

[lance0625]

#1:mechjeb:abuse it to no end.

#2:mods:they will crash your game,delete one add 5 more.

#3:space stations:look cool but not that useful.

#4:ion engine:don't put them on a large vessel as primary engines,it will never work.

#5:auto-landing(mechjeb):don't use it,just don't.

#6:auto-docking(mechjeb):even with 100k of monopropellant,you will never dock with it.better go manual.

#7:ssto:.... couldn't make one.

#8:f5:your best friend even if not using f9.

#9:to have an stressful horror movie:take some pop-corns and sodas and hit that auto-landing.

[davidpsummers]

You can alt + right click turbojets on SSTO's and tweak their thrust limiters individually to easily avoid assymetrical thrust/flameouts.

I have always avoided two or more enginned SSTOs for this reason and now I have no excuse anymore

I didn't quite follow this. Are you reducing the trust on them together so they don't flame out? Why not just cut back on the throttle?

[Skorpychan]

Read up on orbital mechanics.

Rendezvouses are like getting encounters.

Docking is simple. Really. It is.

Maneuver nodes: The blue marker indicates where you've set the burn for. Half the burn before the node time, half after.

[pertrep]

1: Upgrade to unlimited contracts as early possible, accept them all, use the up front cash to do the fast-turn around contracts.

2: Try to complete as many contracts as possible with each flight. Test flights can complete 5 or 6 in one go.

3: Get patched conics as early as you can. You can really get economical with transfers to other bodies.

4: Wait to execute your satellite contracts until you have three or four and build a satellite that will do them all progressively. Fuel is the problem so have plenty and work outwards to the moons and planets.

5: Unmanned outposts and orbiters make good temporary satellites on the way there.

6: A single tank single delta winged aircraft will land almost anywhere at under 40m/s, even uphill and will take off under 35 m/s. Light, not fast, very maneuverable. It will float and travel to close-by beacons at around 3 to 6 m/s (parachute splashdown first).

7: Kerbal Alarm Clock is a must. Helps run dozens of flights at the same time. Run as many as you can so that you don't miss any contracts due to elapsed time.

8: If you can manipulate the maths, http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/40053-Estimate-the-duration-of-a-burn has the method to calculate your own burns. Deadly accurate and far better than KSP or MechJeb. Saves loads of fuel, reduces number of nodes used and very satisfying. Put it on your own spreadsheet. Will even give you fuel required.

9: Leave a few Kerbals out in the provinces with some well fueled small ships capable of getting down and up a few times on low gravity bodies. Then pick off the "flight over" and "EVA" and climatic checks as they come along. Very rewarding financially (no lift-off costs).

10: Strategy: trade prestige for cash, prestige for science and take hard negotiations. Seems to keep money and science flowing in at about the right rate.

11: Upgrade buildings only when your have to, not because you can. The hard way is more fun, when you only just have enough of anything to make it work.

12: Knowing the science doesn't seem to matter. Learning the science makes it much more interesting.

[Deutherius]

I didn't quite follow this. Are you reducing the trust on them together so they don't flame out? Why not just cut back on the throttle?

Sorry, my explanation here was probably not all that clear. Please refer to this post where I explained it (hopefully) a little better.

[Alchemist]

A tip on getting into transfer trajectories with high inclination (a.k.a. how to launch directly into the plane of Moho's orbit. You won't be really using it for external planets, but with Moho it's better to make the plane change right at the start):

1) you might start in equatorial Kerbin orbit. It can be fixed. Ensure that Kerbin is near the target planet's orbital plane.

2) plot the ejection so that your interplanetary transfer gets right into the correct plane. Yes, use normal/antinormal vector in addition to pograde. Yes, it's a ridiculous number. No, you won't be spending this much.

3) Burn prograde at the maneuver node (or slightly before it, if you have low TWR) until your apoapsis is like 2500 km (or higher, but you don't win much by getting much higher). (if your TWR is teribly low, you might need several burns to do it)

4) Now at the apoapsis perform plane change so that you are in the plane of the previousy plotted ejection trajectory

5) recalculate the interplanetary transfer

6) PROFIT!

Alternatively, you can calculate ejection on a small probe and then change the probe's orbit so that it's in the plane of your ejection trajectory. Then use the probe as the reference to launch your actual craft in the properly inclined Kerbin orbit.

[gforce527]

0. VERY steep learning curve. Embrace it and Joy will be yours. Learn to crawl, take baby steps, they will eventually lead to orbit. I've only ever played the vanilla stock version of KSP. I've gone from barely getting a rocket into the air to doing some pretty amazing (IMO) stuff: Namely, I've crashed tons of rockets and stranded dozens of Kerbals in Kerbolcentric orbit just learning to get to the Mun. I've made an ion drive lander that seats 2 for minmus and minmus-like worlds, I've built an nuclear powered SSTO that can (all in the same flight) a:park over 2000 fuel and accompanying oxidizer on my fuel station in a 350km orbit b:launch a small probe that can land on the Mun or Minmus or hit a contract orbit (or several) c:transfer up to 6 crew up to said 350km orbit and d:make a dead-stick (or near dead-stick: <90 liquidfuel) landing right next to the spaceplane hanger. I've flown kerbals to Duna only have them miss Duna, and never see another planet again. Conversely, I am skilled enough now to do rescue contracts that require you to retrieve a Kerbal from orbit with only the first tier of KSC buildings, and pulling it off in just a few orbits.

1. Always crash your rocket/spaceplane. That's how you learn to build rockets/spaceplanes that work. I personally spent over $20 MILLION designing and crashing my first SSTO which cost between $20,000 and $30,000 per test flight.

2. Always slap in an extra battery and switch it off, it will save you grief when your engines are pointed at the sun and your solar panels are lost in shadow.

3. Always slap in a probe core that has SAS. This will let you test your new designs without killing off all your favorite or experienced Kerbals. This will also let you send that Scientist or Engineer solo to the Mun and elsewhere. It will also let you send said Engineer/Scientist on a proper, potentially suicidal test flight. It will also let you retrieve expensive hardware that gets left behind when your Kerbal tries to do something awesome like make minmus orbit with just the jetpack and fail.

4. Make checklists. Remember when you were a kid (I grew up in the 70's-80's) and played "spaceman" or "astronaut"? Having a tinfoil and cardboard spaceship and calling out items and saying "check!" was fun right? It is essential in KSP. A couple of important items to say "check!" to are a:Your Navball Mode, you will waste a lot of fuel trying to do that orbital maneuver with your navball in target mode. b:Engines and Vessel "Command from Here" again, you will waste a ton of fuel burning your nose to nose docked lander/command module without first turning off one set of engines and designating the correct command seat.

5. Have fun. Do whatever it takes to make the game fun for you. If you need any or all of the tons of mods out there to make the game fun, go for it. That being said, don't forget to challenge yourself. If you are playing KSP chances are you are an intelligent person, so toss out those training wheels when you know how to ride the bike.

[Starhawk]

Have fun by learning through spectacular failure!

Achieving a specific objective is often easier than you think - Don't be daunted.

Achieving a specific objective is often harder than you think - Don't give up.

Happy landings!

[Endersmens]

Most important thing I've learned: The learning curve has been replaced with a learning wall. Better bring your rock climbing gear, cause once you get to the top you will never have felt better!

[vixr]

expect to throw away a craft that you spent HOURS designing and testing...sometimes the craft just will not work.

[MoffKalast]

Most important thing I've learned: The learning curve has been replaced with a learning wall. Better bring your rock climbing gear, cause once you get to the top you will never have felt better!

Not quite, there isn't a wall at all. Actually there isn't anything to climb up on. You have to fly up there with a rocket

[Indy]

1) Mission Failure does not equate to total failure. I've learned more from botched missions and crashes than any tutorial or training vid out there.

2) The learning curve is STEEP. It's alright to be intimidated, but don't let that stop you from trying. You learn from experience.

3) Space is sideways, not just up.

[Maukse]

Refueling lander with several tanks looked like a pain in the a** until I found a "better" way (maybe not the best ?)

Alt-click on every tank of the lander, alt-click on your main refueling tank, and on the refueling tank, select "OUT" for both oxy and fuel. It will refuel all of your other select tanks, no matter which size they are, no matter how much fuel is left inside.

It will only stop once all the tanks are full, or once your refueling tank is empty.

[Alchemist]

The learning curve is as steep as your ambitions. The higher and faster you throw yourself, the stronger you'll hit the ground. Unless you succeed at achieving orbit.

[bdito]

The biggest thing I learned was that I truly knew nothing about orbital mechanics. I thought I did but I really didn't. There are no straight lines in space travel.

[Calacorm]

Learn to use a Delta-v map with kerbal engineer mod to design rockets that make it there and back again. Otherwise it's trial and error.

[cephalo]

I learned that the Wheesley jet engine has an absolute ceiling of 13000 meters, so don't take contracts above that altitude unless you can fit rockets into your plan.

[Venusgate]

I learned that the Wheesley jet engine has an absolute ceiling of 13000 meters, so don't take contracts above that altitude unless you can fit rockets into your plan.

With exception to daring "skips" above that up to 14.5km

[caitiemew]

The biggest thing I've learned: Test often. If you're building a space plane. Get the basic design flushed out, take it to the runway, just to make sure it won't go veering off. Test it once you've got wings added, to make sure they don't fly off. If your back landing gear are placed rather far forward, test it to see if the plane is going to tip back onto its ass. Test. Test. Test.