Do people still use mechjeb?

[magnemoe]

I like all the orbital info that it gives. But I still fly my ships myself (except if I need to do a 30 min burn:D).

Doing one myself, ship was so nimble around Minmus, did not realize the burn to Jool would be 35 minutes. Had added an bunch of engines on the last fuel tank I docked if I had know but the game showed TWR based on minmus so it kind of confused me.

[Dirty Bob]

Didn't use it for the first 200 hours of gameplay. Mostly I use it as an easily placed unmanned probe on my later stages. It helps keep the space debris down.

[JedTech]

I'm a pilot too and I know these sayings, but they are not about the auto-pilots.

Airplanes with complex enough auto-pilots are not flown by newbies. What do you mean? A newbie that doesn't know how land properly will fly an Airbus A380 and rely on the autopilot to land?

And "macho"? They think they are better than the auto-pilot so they don't use it? xD (I hope you realize how stupid this is, without me explaining it more)

In real life autopilots are used so you don't have to fly straight for 5 hours and things like that, not for 2 minutes tasks (like launching in KSP).

Even training aircraft have glass cockpits and autopilots these days. No they don't fly category 1 approaches, but yes, autopilots sometimes get pilots killed.

Yes Macho. It is one of the Hazardous Attitudes that you are undoubtedly indoctrinated about. I didn't mean to imply that this was the sole or primary symptom among pilots with Macho attitudes. But yes a Macho attitude can lead a pilot to think they are too good to use an autopilot (as evidenced by some KSP players in this thread and by several student and Private pilots I have flown with.)

Auto-pilots and glass cockpits (similar to what MechJeb simulates) can be used for many things besides sitting back for 5 hours. An auto-pilot can ideally be one of your essential resources to conduct a safe and efficient flight.

[6.forty]

If you find it useful, use it. If you don't, then don't.

Do you use your car's cruise control? Have a coffee pot on a timer? Scheduled recordings of a TV series with your DVR? I don't see how Mechjeb is any different from those things.

[Guest]

the fact that the devs intend us to repeatedly doing the tedious stuff is sketchy regex. i for one prefer to let autopilot handle the long burns or the tedium of repeated dockings. the fact I can set mechjeb to DOCK onto a specific port lets me do other things like swapping crew around while it docks. efficiency at its finest.

That's a pretty cool story you got there. I'm happy for you.

[Sandworm]

The only time I miss mechjeb is during launches. As in real life, nobody can do it better than a properly programed autopilot. I never used it for docking. It was just too slow and wasted so much rcs.

[HafCoJoe]

Mechjeb is quite useful for learning intercepts and also correcting mistakes if not done right the first time. It helped me learn!

[CommandantAce]

All the time not.

[Accelerando]

I use it for pretty much all maneuvers except fine docking and landing. That's the most interesting stuff to me.

[cantab]

I've not used it yet, but I am thinking about it. After a hundred+ hours of play, launching to LKO is getting a little old. Even though I am still lousy at it (but then again, I'm flying barely-controllable rockets a lot thanks to my challenge game). And while I don't find the manouvre nodes in the stock game that bad, a numeric editor probably would fit with my thinking style.

I do know that SAS is not remotely the same.

[Sandworm]

I've not used it yet, but I am thinking about it. After a hundred+ hours of play, launching to LKO is getting a little old.

Have you tried launching to anything other than 0 and/or 90* inclinations? The first step of getting to any asteroid will be a careful launch into their plane. That means accurate direction and timing, something that isn't much of an issue for a 100km/90* orbit.

[kinnison]

as i have limited play time, i use it to speed things up

[federicoaa]

I got fond of the way MJ visualizes data, so I just use it to see orbital and surface info. I tried KER and VOID but I find hard to change.

Also the only "autopilot" thing I use from MJ is the Hoffman transfer, but as in next release we can move nodes several orbits later I guess I won't need that anymore.

[Hodo]

Have you tried launching to anything other than 0 and/or 90* inclinations? The first step of getting to any asteroid will be a careful launch into their plane. That means accurate direction and timing, something that isn't much of an issue for a 100km/90* orbit.

I know I have, and it still gets old.

Before I started over with RSS and RO I had a 24 satellite network setup in different orbits around Kerbin and the Mun. All done without MJ, now that I have done that, I have found MJ is useful for setting up my current network, without me doing all the work again.

[cantab]

Have you tried launching to anything other than 0 and/or 90* inclinations? The first step of getting to any asteroid will be a careful launch into their plane. That means accurate direction and timing, something that isn't much of an issue for a 100km/90* orbit.

Once or twice, not often. And yes, it's tricky to get the timing and the inclination really spot on.

[nadreck]

Used it once I mastered getting into orbit in 0.20 when I started with KSP. Career mode in 0.22 made me want to run stock, forced me to learn to land and dock without MechJeb. Missed it for the first 100 crashes on Mun, but by my first Joolian expedition in 0.22 I managed to land on every Joolian moon except Tylo and take off and rendezous with my mother ship. I don't miss it now, and I have no problem (and never did) with converting fuel left to delta-v etc. I am not the best lander and use more fuel than optimum, but I am comfortable with my ability levels. Still wouldn't rule out using it again if I go back to mod'ed play.

[rockbloodystar]

Yes they do.

[thiosk]

I learned how to do everything I needed to do vanilla- flying, docking, landing, etc.

However, I use MJ extensively for the DV calculator (engineer wasnt updated yet, so I learned MJ)

For highly routine missions (circularizing an orbit after an aerobrake, for instance) I've just started to toy with using mechjeb to do that. Sometimes I find it annoying to hit a zero inclination so I'll ask for that and go get a cup of joe or what have you.

and setting maneuver nodes, occasionally executing them. If I need to do a 15 minute nuclear burn, I might just let mj do it.

Any time I've tried to use it to do something more sophisticated, its been a disaster. I asked it to dock once. What a nightmare. My ship exploded from severe uncontrolled wobble.

[Frank_G]

I installed mechjeb for the first time about 6 weeks ago... And threw it out 2 weeks ago.

It has lots of nice features and delivers a really complete package, but it took too much spice out of the game for me. And i personally hate mods that add parts just for information display... I stick to VOID for all those useful infos and keep flyin' by hand.

[bonyetty]

I have a 7 month old son and a 6 month old Mecjeb install. For 6 months now I can play with 2 of my favorite things at the same time(he is not really a thing but you get my point)

[bonyetty]

Oops double post my net went down.

Edited March 27, 2014 by bonyetty

[TranquilTempest]

Even training aircraft have glass cockpits and autopilots these days. No they don't fly category 1 approaches, but yes, autopilots sometimes get pilots killed.

Yes Macho. It is one of the Hazardous Attitudes that you are undoubtedly indoctrinated about. I didn't mean to imply that this was the sole or primary symptom among pilots with Macho attitudes. But yes a Macho attitude can lead a pilot to think they are too good to use an autopilot (as evidenced by some KSP players in this thread and by several student and Private pilots I have flown with.)

Auto-pilots and glass cockpits (similar to what MechJeb simulates) can be used for many things besides sitting back for 5 hours. An auto-pilot can ideally be one of your essential resources to conduct a safe and efficient flight.

Fine, I'll bite, with the caveat that I haven't used mechjeb in a while. Mechjeb, like any piece of software, does what it's told, even if that doesn't happen to be what you want. Autopilots make assumptions about the kind of craft they're flying, and the more critical the task, the more important it is that those assumptions be correct. Having a low TWR or slightly off center mass (usually) won't stop mechjeb from executing a simple maneuver node, but if it tries to land a ship that doesn't suit the autopilot's PID controller, your Kerbals get to buy a farm on the Mun. Similarly, it didn't do as well as I did with keeping large wobbly ships on a good ascent path, and it uses a lot more RCS than necessary for docking.

As for the non-piloting features, there are more tightly focused mods that do a better job of those niches, maybe mechjeb would benefit from a diet, focusing on the things there isn't a better option for. For example, alarm clock is better than the warp helper, kerbal engineer is better than the information readouts(with the exception of feedback on ascent efficiency), and IMO, the docking port alignment indicator is more useful than mechjeb's autodock.

Ultimately, I see mechjeb as a mid level teaching tool. When I started using mechjeb, my efficiency, precision, and survival rate went up. When I stopped using mechjeb, my efficiency, precision, and survival rate also went up. There's a similar situation with maneuver nodes, you get much more precision than mechjeb can manage if you remove the maneuver node before it's completed, and decide when to stop burning based on comparing the actual orbit to what you wanted the maneuver node to do. Hell, you don't need mechjeb OR maneuver nodes if you're simply after precision: http://i.imgur.com/YUEntFy.png Yes, mechjeb is still useful for repetitive and tedious stuff, but this is a game, and i can choose not to fly missions/rockets that rely on repetitive or tedious stuff. I'm not the kind of person that launches the same ship a dozen times to visit every biome on the mun and minmus, when I can go to Duna or Moho instead.

Edited March 27, 2014 by TranquilTempest

[Jouni]

As for the non-piloting features, there are more tightly focused mods that do a better job of those niches, maybe mechjeb would benefit from a diet, focusing on the things there isn't a better option for. For example, alarm clock is better than the warp helper, kerbal engineer is better than the information readouts(with the exception of feedback on ascent efficiency), and IMO, the docking port alignment indicator is more useful than mechjeb's autodock.

I would agree, if we were playing KSP 1.0 a year after its release. Right now, we are playing a rapidly changing game, and mod developers are trying to keep up with the pace. All software we are using is far from being mature, and there are many bugs caused by using multiple incompatible mods. In situations like this, using less mods is likely going to cause less trouble, even when the individual mods are complex.

From usability perspective, I also prefer using as few mods as possible to achieve the desired functionality. Currently the mods can't update themselves automatically or even notify when there is an update available, making the keeping of the mods up-to-date an unpleasant chore.

[Boris_T_Roach]

I can fly ships from Kerbin to Laythe without mechjeb.

So why do I still use it... mostly for the data readouts (AP/PE DV etc) I view it as a pilot assist , as in yes I could use it as a full on auto pilot, but its much more fun not to.

Boris

[blizzy78]

I use it all the time, mostly because I just HATE to babysit things like long burns, or ascents. And the readouts are of course really helpful.