New to KSP

[Angelo Kerman]

Hi all,

New KSP director here. I finally decided to give the game a try and I'm having a blast. Literally, heh. I started in Career Mode, added a couple of PC Gamer recommended mods like MechJeb and Chatterer, and have been learning what works and what doesn't. Thus far my "Death Wish" series of rockets- I'm up to MK 5- have enabled me to orbit the Mun and Minimus, though Minimus was a real bear to figure out how to fly to. Apparently MechJeb doesn't fully unlock until later so I've been flying things on manual and banging my head on the wall figuring out how to plot orbital maneuvers with the add maneuver thingy. Quite fun. I've yet to make a precision landing a KSC but hey at least I can land. I've only killed Jeb a couple of times thus far. Er, he's gone MIA, like a Spartan. Hm, how I have a vision of a kerbal in Spartan armor...

I actually had an idea for a similar rocket building game back in the 90s, but never figured out the math or game technology, so I'm happy to see Squad's accomplishment working so well- and it's not even done yet. Unity really makes game development easier, much easier to pick up than XNA or DirectX (I abandoned those efforts years ago). I have my own game idea in mind, and have been teaching myself Unity, and I spent my free time last year switching from trueSpace to 3DS MAX. I'm also learning to write stories for games- all in my free time of course, so it's slow going. Programming is the easy part, I've been doing that for years; it's what I do to earn a living.

I can see that KSP has plans to deduct a cost for the rocket components, but what about making money? Is there some sort of commerce mod available already? Sort of like the old Earth Orbit Stations or Space M+A+X games? I can envision different experiments like the old Project Space Station had as well. Speaking of which, what space station modules are there in KSP?

-Mike

My 3D Art Gallery

[Boosterspice]

Welcome! Glad to see another victim, hrm, player joining. As for the station modules, there are few stock modules, however excellent mods like this, and this, and oh my, look at this! are available to you ^^

[Specialist290]

Welcome to the forums!

Glad to hear that you've been enjoying yourself with the game. Feel free to ask questions or swap stories with everyone else, as it takes your fancy. If you run into any further trouble, or even if you just want to learn something new that you can use to make your rockets that little bit better, feel free to check out some of the resources I've listed in the Drawing Board (conveniently linked through my signature).

The sentiments you've expressed about KSP being the sort of game you wished was available for many years is a pretty common one; in fact, it's one I actually had myself. This game is the sort of thing I've wanted to play since I was very young; various other games had some of the other mechanics in place (craft construction and customization, realistic physics, etc.), but none of them quite combined it into the "full package" I was looking for until I discovered KSP myself almost a year ago. (Wow, has it really been that long?) Of course, in the '90s I was still in elementary school, so I couldn't be quite as proactive about it as you apparently were

As far as economy-adding mods go, let me point you in the direction of Mission Controller Extended. I have yet to try it myself, but it's on my to-do list, and from what I've heard it might be something like what you're looking for.

Hope this helps!

Edited March 31, 2014 by Specialist290

[Superfluous J]

Welcome to the game and forums! Hope you have as much fun at this game as I have (and still am having).

[Xaelath]

Hi! Welcome to the forums and have fun playing KSP!

[Angelo Kerman]

Thanks for all the links with the mods. Also, is there an SDK for KSP? Just in case I want to add stuff as well... Actually, I did want to clean up all the space debris orbiting Kerbin. I know I can select the debris and hit Terminate in the tracking screen, but you know, that is no fun, not to mention contributions to the Kessler Syndrome. What I want to do is build a ship that can grab the debris and de-orbit it. I don't know of any grabbers that would let me do that.

Meanwhile, I have successfully landed probes on the Mun and Minimus, collected data, and brought them back. Lots of good science that way. To get them there, I had to build the Mark 7 Death Wish booster:

The 16 solids on the bottom push the stack up about 6km, then the 8 liquids ignite, which just about get the core booster, Kerbin Departure Stage, and probe into LKO. So, it's overpowered. From there, the core booster becomes the Kerbin Departure Stage, which pushes the stack to either the Mun or to Minimas. The former Kerbin Departure Stage becomes a handy crasher stage, so the probe has plenty of fuel to land with. After touchdown, the probe takes readings and blasts off again. The three outer engines can get the probe back to Kerbin and de-orbit it. Originally I designed the probe's core engine to do that work, but now it just helps slow the probe down during its plunge into Kerbin's atmosphere, and slows the stack enough so that it isn't jolted by the chutes opening.

Of course with the new tech tree unlocks, the Death Wish MK 7 is now obsolete...

[crasher925]

hehe heh welcome to the forums and welcome to ksp

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Welcome! And you have to build your own space station modules....

[Angelo Kerman]

Well, I'll definitely have to give that a try once I work through the tech tree. Finally got to the point where MechJeb will autopilot the ascent. Pretty nice, I've been flying on manual and there are times when I just want to hit go. I still do landings manually though, MJ likes to turn my landers into missiles, heh.

Oh, and the NASA Asteroid Robotic Redirector Mission dropped today. Maybe the claw (the claaaawww!) will do what I need to grab space debris. Now that I think of it, cleaning up space debris would make for a good mission too!