Confess your KSP sins

[r4pt0r]

I'm a real-life pilot, and love flight-sim games, but I cannot safely land a spaceplane in KSP to save my life. The controls are just too awkward/atypical for me.

As a result of this, my spaceplanes/SSTOs still use a detachable cockpit (sometimes a regular capsule) with parachutes. *hangs head in shame*

might also be because gliding is impossible with aerodynamics as they are

[panzerknoef]

I have done every planet, but I still can't build spaceplanes...

[Cirocco]

I have done every planet, but I still can't build spaceplanes...

Don't feel too bad about that one. I can build spaceplanes without issue but I have never gone further out than Duna/Eve and I never did a manned landing on anything outside of Kerbin's SOI other than Duna and Ike.

[RocketscientistV]

I use Mechjeb for flying around Kerbin.

I have a Jool ship sitting in orbit because I'm afraid it will fail.

On one of my SSTO launches, I forgot to pause the game during the orbital insertion and it ran out of fuel while I was Walking my dog.

[khyron42]

On two separate occasions now, I've launched a rescue mission but forgotten to leave an empty seat; Kerbals already on my roster don't earn me a dime, so out the hatch they go.

Bill is still in orbit from the first time. The second time happened just now and I kicked poor Kenlas Kerman out the hatch on a suborbital trajectory. Luckily his backpack had enough dV to stabilize his orbit until I get around to rescuing him too.

[tjsnh]

Additional confessions:

I neither wait for launch windows, nor fly interplanetary missions "direct" from inside Kerbin's SOI. I break orbit, break SOI, and get in orbit around the sun then just make a maneuver node with a pro/retro burn, and move the node around my orbital path until it looks like it is close to intersecting the destination and tweak from there. This is for probes and manned missions.

I've landed on, and returned from, everything except Jool (obviously) and Eeloo. Even still, I've never used an aerobreaking maneuver. I always just use the inefficient method, where you simply get into the target's SOI, fly to aps, and retroburn until your flight path turns into an orbit.

In career/science mode, I frequently neglect to name unmanned science-return probes (go to mun/wherever, get science, return and land on Kerbin) and/or flyby missions and/or other objects which don't "remain" after the mission is done.

On the first stage of my rockets, I've occasionally attached an extra-large-size engine to a regular-large size fuel tank.

I've flown a manned mission from Kerbin to Pol, landed and returned, using nothing but ion drive power (excluding ascent from Bop, I used some seperatrons for that) after getting it into Kerbin orbit. This was a self-test of my own patience and to see how small I could make a viable interplanetary rocket. Trust me, this was a sin...

My worst sin of all, once I walked a kerbal out onto the launch pad to stand under a huge rocket as it launched. This was a punishment for piloting a failed munar flyby mission that ran out of fuel and missed it's munar intersect.

Edited August 5, 2014 by tjsnh

[Scottiths]

I got one of my ships stranded at the Mun without enough fuel to get back. So I did the sensable thing and EVAed to remove parts and reduce weight (by using KAS which is a great mod). However, for some reason when I detached something it would reset the surface velocity of my kerbal to zero so he would instantly start falling toward the Mun. I used hyper edit to basically put him back in orbit near the ship and proceeded to continue stripping it till I had enough Dv to get home.

[Mahnarch]

I still can't dock.

After several (in the teens) attempts and burning all the fuel out of the refueler that is meant to refuel the station core I finally got to within spitting distance and slow enough to see Jeb in the window of the station core pointing and laughing at me.

I destroyed the entire project out of spite. Even though I had enough mono to properly de-orbit both crafts.

[zekes]

I tend to, rather than improve a craft, build 40 craft similar, untill one of them works better.

[Jetwave]

I once got Jebediah stranded on Eve, and instead of rescuing him I renamed another kerbal to Jebediah and pretended nothing happened.

[Megalodon 720]

I once killed 50 kerbals at a time in an attempt to see if there was a worse colour than red in the rep bar.

[Tandy45]

My biggest issue is my fear of Docking, which I allow mechjeb to do mainly because for the last 67 times - Yes I counted! I either run out of fuel, get so close before realising I'm on an escape or sub orbital trajectory or generally burn far to quickly and miss said station/kerbal/craft. Everything else - Planetry/orbital/mun transfers I am able to do with a reasonable degree of success. Heck I can land and return on my own accord with my eyes shut, however docking and Rendezvousing remains an elusive catch. Watched mechjeb the last 10 times and still mess up.

[StrandedonEarth]

I'm just letting them rot. I have 2 kerbals on the Mun with tipped over landers. Left'em. Science labs and surface hoppers around the Mun and Minmus are sitting unused while I fly my Duna and Eve missions. The Eve trip was one-way and he knew it, too. The dude heading for Duna? We'll see if I decide to bring him home, there's no reason he can't make it. Maybe after my Jool probe 6-pk completes its mission.

Good thing I'm not running LS this time....

[Ruthgar]

My biggest issue is my fear of Docking, which I allow mechjeb to do mainly because for the last 67 times - Yes I counted! I either run out of fuel, get so close before realising I'm on an escape or sub orbital trajectory or generally burn far to quickly and miss said station/kerbal/craft. Everything else - Planetry/orbital/mun transfers I am able to do with a reasonable degree of success. Heck I can land and return on my own accord with my eyes shut, however docking and Rendezvousing remains an elusive catch. Watched mechjeb the last 10 times and still mess up.

One of the problems i have with rendezvouses is that my transfer stages always seem to develop either a spin or wobble as I get close, even using the timewarp to kill the spin/wobble only keeps it still for a few seconds before it starts to move again This happens 1 out of 3 rendezvouses so I just edit the quicksave and take the fuel from the transfer stage to the lander and then force the lander home.

[syfyguy64]

I have done sins that even satan would think foul of.

A lot of stuff inspired you can find in /kspg/ mixed with threads from /b/ on 4chan.

The most PG thing I can post is that I committed Kerbal genocide by launching several icbm like warheads aimed at every mountain range.

10 MIRVS per ship. With a rover or flag at every target along with 50 kerbals.

All stock, so that's something.

[Mahnarch]

I once got Jebediah stranded on Eve, and instead of rescuing him I renamed another kerbal to Jebediah and pretended nothing happened.

You're the only "parent" who actually followed through with the "I brought you into this world..." threat.

[aceassasin]

I once disabled deadly reentry because i was returning from Jool and kept burning up no matter what i tried.

I compulsively use quicksave

[Tandy45]

One of the problems i have with rendezvouses is that my transfer stages always seem to develop either a spin or wobble as I get close, even using the timewarp to kill the spin/wobble only keeps it still for a few seconds before it starts to move again This happens 1 out of 3 rendezvouses so I just edit the quicksave and take the fuel from the transfer stage to the lander and then force the lander home.

I haven't ran into that issue yet as I can just about make a stable craft, I just can't for the life of me make a rendezvous, I still feel bad using mechjeb to dock but it takes care of a frustrating problem and has helped in refuelling my Eve craft between Minmus and Mun for trials.

[Roskerbos]

I tend to lift the (admittedly not very good) orange doughnut wheels and put them earlier in the tech tree. This allows me to just build a buggy and visit the coast, the grasslands, the Highlands, etc cetera, and get early science. It has always struck me as mad that we can discover heavy rocketry before we discover the wheel. Alternative methods, such as rolling multiple mk1 pods around on their sides, seem hopelessly unrealistic.

I also sometimes edit out, and delete altogether, many Squad parts that I never, ever use (either because there's a better looking part, that fills a similar role, in a mod that I use, or because I don't bother with space planes). This helps keep the part count down and gives me faster load times.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Roskerbos

[Colserra3]

Whenever Bill, Jeb or Bob dies I always bring them back to life (but I put Kerbal Lost on my ribbons).

I use quicksave too little. E.g: I finished my space station, did another mission, then failed another. Quickloaded, then ragequited.

I never do Career Mode because I can't stand the start of it (having no parts).

[Colonel_Sanders]

On Duna, my lander fell on its side, so I used hack gravity to put it on its legs. I don't feel too bad about it, though, because it was a "mess around" mission with infinigliders anyway.

[Vaporo]

I jetpacked to Pol's surface, then, becuase I was too lazy and too much of a bad pilot to do it right, I used infinite fuel to return to my mothership (I had enough fuel to return, just didn't want to waste too much time getting my rendezvous right).

[ThinkOutsideTheHangar]

When I dock with something, I kill my velocity with it first, then burn towards it. The result? Swinging past the object at 200 m/s.

I tried to land on Laythe with nuclear engines.

I did an Apollo-style mission to Duna, and un and redocked in solar orbit, but the docking ports were glitched and I forgot to do to crew transfer. I had to warp forward and rendezvous in Duna orbit.

I always use cheats when I do a Mun landing in Career mode

I had to do a powered landing on Duna, when I didn't bring enough parachutes.

I crashed a proto-type K-drive into the sun.

I wasted half my fuel on a Mun lander trying to get near the Neil Armstrong Memorial.

I used mechjeb to make a polar base, and when the modules were to far from each-other, I used hack gravity to roll there.

I nuked the Insular airfield.

I used cheats to return to orbit from Eve because my lander was too weak. Still took 20 minutes on 4x time warp.

I killed all the astronauts I had hired on DarkMultiPlayer with my friend trying to design a Duna SSTO.

I bombed the KSC with mystery goo.

I landed on Duna and Eve, but haven't sent a probe into Munar orbit yet.

It took 20 orbits for me to aerobrake on Duna and Eve because I was too afraid to get my periapsis lower.

On my first Mun landing, I landed on the far side.

I forget to plant flags on half my missions.

I transmited all my science data on a Career game before realizing it was worthless.

I made a list of KSP sins that are way too long for a normal person.

[adge]

I use MechJeb to do my launches and Mun/Minmus transfer/landings, because I am bored of them.

I cannot design sleek looking craft such as a Saturn V with LEM extractor etc.

I only discovered the "Badlands" and "Great Flats"/"Flats" biomes on Kerbin and Minmus respectively today.

I cannot dock or rendezvous to save my life.

I have never built a rover as I can never figure out how to attach them to my craft without looking like a drunken lego session.

I tried FAR, but my rockets kept cartwheeling at ~8000m, so I raged and deleted it.

[Feldynn]

Started a new career mode for 0.24 and filled out a good 3/4ths of the tech tree just by doing contracts around Kerbin (didn't even get to Mun / Minmus for science), amassed 11 million in funds, felt a bit dirty so I restarted a new career mode game vowing to only do most Kerbin area high science value contracts once if at all (and manually deleting science points gained from any repeats if I needed to do them for money).

In my entire KSP history I've only ever been to Mun and Minmus, I haven't even been to Duna yet. There are lots of things I want to do, missions I want to run, probes I intend to send out and so on. It's not that I don't know how in theory, I just never seem to get around to actually doing it.

I still haven't actually been to an anomaly or Point of Interest, not even the monolith thing near the KSP (I think there's one not too far away from the runway right?). Haven't visited a Mun Arch or the Memorial Monument thing, nor the Face Of Duna or been to any of the other interesting places.

Haven't captured my own asteroid yet, I did the tutorial for it but that doesn't count since it's a scripted event, I need to actually build my own rocket and go get one.

I have so many ideas for things to build or missions to run in KSP, ranging from the sensible to the ridiculous, the majority of them never get beyond the "hey it'd be cool to build an..." stage of planning. I need to remedy that!

As soon as I reach a reasonable level in the tech tree to build a fancy 3-kerbal ship station I invariably send Bill, Jeb and Bob off on an extended vacation to a safe orbit around Kerbin. High above the KSC, so they don't accidentally wind up piloting any of the potentially self-destructive ships I design and become little green skidmarks on the runway of progress .