Who still uses mechjeb?

[regex]

I had to uninstall KER. It (at least yesterday) hasn't been updated. Dv calcs are completely screwed up in KER as well. It only works on linear rockets, it won't calculate anything on the side. Nor does it calc ion engines. It also will lock up during flight and show you completely incorrect or no values at all.

Try this:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/72062-Test-of-new-KER-deltaV-simulation-code

[lammatt]

another you-use-mechjeb-you-are-bad-in-this-game guy.

nothing interesting here.

[Galacticruler]

I use it for the reed-outs and autopilot...but only the accent autopilot, the spaceplane and rover autopilots seem to be brain dead to me.

I do, however, turn off the autopilot with my engines on a stage, as it over throttles them and they both overheat and explode, as well as apply deadly Gs to all the parts ahead of them.

[BGog42]

Delta-v calc in editor, readouts mostly. However when I'm doing big assembly projects that take a couple dozen launches, I'll use the auto pilot after the first couple because it get so tedious to launch and rendezvous so many times in a row.

[sumghai]

I use it all the time.

(Dammit Jeb, I'm an engineer and infrastructure manager, not a pilot.)

[Nibb31]

Same here. Never stopped using it. I get my kicks designing spacecraft and flying missions. Doing all the low-level manoeuvering and is just tedious monkey-work.

[Tic-Tac]

This pretty much sums it up, I never even touch the autopilot.

I also love the windows editing, I used Engineer a bit and I don't think it's THAT costumizable.

[Demon_82]

another you-use-mechjeb-you-are-bad-in-this-game guy.

nothing interesting here.

People never gets tired of this old argument. Anybody says "MechJeb!" and people starts bragging about how they are pro pilots and never use it except for one time when it casually failed on them, to add to their argument.

I can do all the manuevers by hand, but face it, I get tired of re-doing them manually a sh¡tload of times. I'm lazy and MJ2 does the task as well as I do. But anyone can play this mod-friendly game as they want to, no need to praise every 2 weeks for the stock only master race xD

[Rastaman]

I also use it for the control of burns. I want inefficiencies to be caused by my bad planning, mission and rocket design, not by clicking the wrong button. I also fine tune maneuvers with the node editor. Sometimes I only control the throttle, sometimes I let MJ have the full control. Standard maneuvers like circularization or plane changes I let MJ plan and execute. Transfers and maneuvers performed at non standard points or with elliptic outcomes I plan myself.

Because MJ can't handle Ferram's atmosphere, I always do ascents myself, and I have found I standardize my staging and button presses. Stage 1 has 1500 m/s with a TWR of 1.05, stage 2 has 2000 m/s with a TWR of 1.3-1.5. At 45° bank angle I aim for around 500-550 m/s surface speed at an altitude of about 25 km. I found this gives me the cleanest ascents. If MJ could do it, I would let it ascent for me though.

Landings I generally do myself, although there is something terrifying and fascinating about switching to a Kerbal standing in the landing zone and watch from the outside as MJ lands a craft automatically.

[wasmic]

I use mechjeb for informations. IMO, it steals from my fun if I actually use the autopilot. The only cases where I use the maneuver planner is for inclination changes when I have to really get the inclination right.

[Dooz]

Iv used it only for launches of undelicate objects i cant trust mechjeb to safely accend my pre ARM 120 ton launcher once it orbit i do it all manual.

[Red Iron Crown]

I use it all the time, both for informational and autopilot purposes. I don't play KSP for the piloting.

[costermonger]

I fly planes for a living. I use the autopilot because it can often outperform me in terms of precision, but it needs to be set up properly in the first place and sometimes they don't behave, so you've got to be ready jump in.

That entirely describes mechjeb as well.

[MajorThomas]

I'm a pretty good KSP pilot but like costermonger, see the benefits of MJ in terms of precision. I like to use it during launches and landings as it can handle the timing and actions of 3 or 4 different tasks, that if I were to do them all I'd not do them as well. Such as managing throttle, staging and steering at the same time, not to mention following a profile.

The result is fuel savings, plain and simple. Aside from launches and landings, I don't use MJ that much.

[TK421d]

i use the maneuver/transfer planner for about 1/4 of my events, maybe less. mostly for repetitive things like re-supply or transport missions.

i heavily use the maneuver planner for things like survey probes, changing orbits or inclinations.

i use the ascent module almost every time, but only after a new craft is vetted manually.

i used to use the rendevous auto before i learned how meet up in orbit, but now its just a gigantic fuel waster and time drain. same goes for the docker.

i dont use the statistics that much, i prefer engineer and void.

[Drunken Hobo]

Except for my first ships in every update, I use MJ on every mission.

That's pretty much what I do. When a new version comes out I'll fly a few missions without MechJeb, such as capturing an asteroid or doing an Apollo mission. But after that, it's just kind of tedious to do every launch manually, or fart about trying to figure out where my manoeuvre node is.

I also like the precision it brings. Really don't like having to guess when it comes to interplanetary injection burns. Also lets you do far more complex things, such as aerobrake around Laythe to bring you into a Pol-crossing orbit. Would need to reload several times to get that right without MechJeb.

[GoDores]

I fly planes for a living. I use the autopilot because it can often outperform me in terms of precision, but it needs to be set up properly in the first place and sometimes they don't behave, so you've got to be ready jump in.

That entirely describes mechjeb as well.

This. Once you get beyond the simplest of airplanes, managing the autopilot is as much being a "real" pilot as yanking on the controls yourself (and this is certainly true of any real spacecraft humans have launched).

I don't really use the stock maneuver nodes, but a system that lets you guess at what to do and tells you if you're right seems more "cheaty" to me than a proper autopilot where you have to know what to do and then tell it.

[dawg]

I use it for:

- All the information windows. You need to know all of this and most either isn't available in the base game or is tedious to get.

- Ascent when it is available (career mode).

- Most maneuvers. It allows me to do other things while they're happening. I can do them without it, but it takes that much more time.

- Landing, because throttle control isn't fine enough for me.

- Rendezvous/Docking. It was incredibly useful when I was doing my JOOL-5 mission because I could set each of my reconfiguration "ships" to do something different simultaneously. Flying each one manually would have been very inefficient time-wise, and I don't do this for a living.

Being able to use it well is almost as hard as learning to do the maneuvers manually. If you don't know what you're doing, it really can't help you, and using it wrong is very wasteful... I don't think I'd spend as much time playing if I didn't have it because it would be too much of a time/attention sink.

[blu3wolf]

KER is my info mod of choice... I did install it once, but it seemed too cluttered.

I guess its like a calculator. For best results, learning how to do it without the auto readout is wonderful. I was so happy when I came across KER though, as before that I was adding up the mass of parts individually and applying 'rocket science' I had scraped together from a cursory reading of Nyrath's amazing Atomic Rockets site.

certainly took a while... on the one hand, it taught me to keep part counts as low as possible even before I started to comprehend the tyranny of the rocket equation, but on the other, it was slow going. KER made things a lot quicker. I guess the fun in KSP for me is planning the mission, designing a ship that meets the requirements, and successfully flying the mission. Things like MJ, or using the quicksave ability to revert stuff ups, just takes the challenge out of it really. A bit like using a rewind function on a racing game, or hiring a driver in Forza.