Starting a career game, noobie question.

[Scarredclown]

I got the game yesterday and i'm starting a career game. Is there any good tutorial ? I do the first 3 tutorial in the game, but i still have a lot of question.

[Specialist290]

Welcome to the forums!

I try to maintain a list of helpful tutorials at the Drawing Board, which is conveniently linked in my signature below. A fair number of these are specifically meant for players new to the game. Hope you find them helpful!

Edited May 9, 2014 by Specialist290
Typo fix.

[Starstrider42]

Also, try the Wiki: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorials. I used it extensively when I was starting KSP, and only some of my rockets blew up.

[Claw]

I got the game yesterday and i'm starting a career game. Is there any good tutorial ? I do the first 3 tutorial in the game, but i still have a lot of question.

Welcome to the forums!

There are always a ton of questions in KSP, so don't hesitate to ask even if you think it's a stupid question. A lot of people will be pretty quick to answer any questions about specific topics. It's generally a little harder to give general advice to a new player since there is quite a lot to learn. Starstrider's link is a good place to start for some basics. Specialist's link is really good for when you start having specific questions. There are a lot of really good tutorials in his list.

Also, this thread link will take you to the tutorials section of the forum. You can also find a ton of information in there once you start digging deeper into KSP. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/forums/54-Tutorials

[TechnicalK3rbal]

I would suggest everything that's been mentioned already, and the. Scott Manley's tutorials on Youtube. Also, when you get to docking, Blizzy's ingame tutorial is great.

[SRV Ron]

Start out career with the following missions;

1. Just place a capsule on the launch pad, EVA Jeb, take a soil sample, and file a report.

2. Spend the science points to unlock tier one parts.

3. Build a proper sub orbital space craft consisting of a capsule with a parachute on top, decoupler, and either a couple of fuel cans and the LV-30 liquid engine, or an SRB tweaked to 50%

4. Do a sub orbital flight with this.

5. Experiment with different designs and fly them to see how they perform. Learn how to do a gravity turn.

6. When you unlock tier two parts where you have the LV-909 that you can use in an upper stage engine, you are well on your way to orbital flight, Mun flyby or orbit, and beyond.

Enjoy.

[Glenathan]

I like this one: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62814-Tutorial-Beginner-Science

[Streetwind]

My recommendation:

Don't watch and read too many tutorials. The joy of this game stems from discovery, learning and pulling things off you didn't thought possible. The worst thing you can do for your own experience is blindly following some step by step guide on what to do and what missions to fly.

Throw yourself into it with an open mind and just try stuff. When you feel the point coming where you begin to get annoyed, then that's a great time to look for a tutorial on the subject, because that's when the game stops being fun otherwise. But as long as you're still happily tinkering, don't worry so much about what the guides say.

Also: Just plain wikipedia. You'll end up learning a lot of basic textbook physics, and wikipedia does a good job at presenting that. For example, while building rockets you might wonder what that strange "Isp" stat is that is found on all engines (and they even have two of them!). That's a great thing to look up on wikipedia.

[Claw]

My recommendation:

Don't watch and read too many tutorials. The joy of this game stems from discovery, learning and pulling things off you didn't thought possible. The worst thing you can do for your own experience is blindly following some step by step guide on what to do and what missions to fly.

This is some really sound advice. I'm actually taking the game incredibly slowly, and am almost embarrassed to admit how much I haven't done. Although I do love looking at some of the fantastic builds out there.

Get really good at the parts of the game that you like and the parts that make sense, then expand from there.

[ArmchairGravy]

I like this one: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62814-Tutorial-Beginner-Science

Yes, this is a really well-done science tutorial.

[michaelhester07]

As much as I agree with the don't read tutorials thing there are some things you'll want to grab eventually:

1. A Rendezvous tutorial

2. Some kind of mod that displays the delta velocity on your ship when built and while flying (I use kerbal engineer).

If you want to you can hold off on the dV display mod for as long as you want to but when it comes to the later missions you'll want to have something like that. It will help you build more efficient rockets.

[KeithStone]

Honestly, my reccomendation is to start a sandbox game, throw some stuff together, and watch it explode. There's actually a lot of fun to be had in the early time in kerbal, when you aren't sure what to do, and I sometimes wish I could go back to those early times and review some of the wild designs I had. It also gives you a good feel for what you can do in the editor without worry for science and unlocking things. I don't think I made orbit before reading a tutorial, but I still had a lot of fun the week prior to that!

[joekidd1992]

I'm new today, but I like the career mode better than sandbox. I just successfully did my first Kerbin orbit and had enough fuel to return. That spaceship was saved for posterity.

[SRV Ron]

I'm new today, but I like the career mode better than sandbox. I just successfully did my first Kerbin orbit and had enough fuel to return. That spaceship was saved for posterity.

Starting on Career is an excellent way to learn how things work without getting confused with a huge number of parts. As you gain more experience, you will have more parts available to play with to see what works and what doesn't.

Congratulations on achieving orbit and a safe return. Your next goal, do a Mun and Minmus flyby, then orbit them and return. Those missions should enable you to unlock a probe and solar panels. Then, your next goals are landing and return from Minmus, then Mun using a probe. Do your first landing on the seas in Minmus. You will soon see why you landed there first once you attempt a Mun landing. When you can safely acomplish those missions, you can send Jeb to collect soil samples to return to unlock some heavy rocketry for interplanetary flights.

Enjoy.

[Scarredclown]

I Watch a couple of Scott Manley's tutorial on you tube and found them greatly helpful. Thx to him i've done my first orbit yesterday !

[Jimor]

I have a video tutorial series as well that deals with getting science (

). It's a lot like the forum thread linked earlier in that it goes mission by mission with a variety of tips for maximizing science gained via easy-to-accomplish missions. Though episode 7, I've unlocked all but the final tier of tech with just missions around Kerbin and its moons. I still need to do some interplanetary missions to unlock that last, expensive tier, however.

I agree on the Scott Manley tutorials as well. Here's the link to his

.

[joekidd1992]

Starting on Career is an excellent way to learn how things work without getting confused with a huge number of parts. As you gain more experience, you will have more parts available to play with to see what works and what doesn't.

Congratulations on achieving orbit and a safe return. Your next goal, do a Mun and Minmus flyby, then orbit them and return. Those missions should enable you to unlock a probe and solar panels. Then, your next goals are landing and return from Minmus, then Mun using a probe. Do your first landing on the seas in Minmus. You will soon see why you landed there first once you attempt a Mun landing. When you can safely acomplish those missions, you can send Jeb to collect soil samples to return to unlock some heavy rocketry for interplanetary flights.

Enjoy.

Yes, that is my goal. To get to space with enough fuel to get to Mun (I've already done this but it was luck and was a surprise and I managed to get back somehow - since I was out of fuel), actually orbit WITH fuel, then get back having done a few experiments. I'm very close, since I have made it into Kerbin orbit with fuel and made it back with plenty of fuel left over. The question again is how do I get there with more fuel left over.

[SRV Ron]

Yes, that is my goal. To get to space with enough fuel to get to Mun (I've already done this but it was luck and was a surprise and I managed to get back somehow - since I was out of fuel), actually orbit WITH fuel, then get back having done a few experiments. I'm very close, since I have made it into Kerbin orbit with fuel and made it back with plenty of fuel left over. The question again is how do I get there with more fuel left over.

Experiment with different designs and multi stage crafts. Here are two designs that, with careful flying and power management, made Mun orbit and return. Do try for just a flyby first, then go for orbit. You can try the ones pictured here but will gain more experience by using the Kerbal School of Hard Knocks of building and testing your own designs. Put stuff together, see what works, modify the design until it works even better. Keep in mind that simple designs will work best.

Two early career Mun and Minmus orbiters;

A difficult to set up maneuver but guaranteed safe return Mun flyby. The NASA figure eight.

Early career ship based upon the design with the SRB in Mun orbit.

And, its return. Note battery life left on a ship that had no solar panels and used an LV-909 on its third stage.