Greetings from London

[micha]

Hullo,

Just thought I'd introduce myself briefly; no idea how active I'll be in the forums yet, but it never hurts to say G'Day, does it?

Bought the game spur-of-the-moment through Steam last Friday and been spending a bit of time playing. Have had a blast (pun not intended) so far!

Before I read/watched any "getting started" things and after a few test-flights, I managed to successfully send a Kerbal into orbit (you -don't- want to see the rocket that did it! I hadn't yet realised what the struts were for and the sticky-taped together contraption was anything but stable; in fact, the orbit ended up being almost polar!) - but without enough fuel to deorbit. Luckily just enough to dip his trajectory into the very upper reaches of the atmosphere though! 20 odd orbits later he was safely home. Or at least, back on Kerbin. Home was half a planet away as he landed quite close to the north pole..

I then spent a bit of time watching Scott Manley's very excellent "Intro to Career Mode" videos (and am now thoroughly enjoying his "Interstellar Quest" series) and am better for it. Even to the point of getting pen-and-paper out to calculate required d-v, and engineering rockets, instead of just sticking enough fuel-tanks and solid-rocket boosters on until it makes it to something resembling orbit.

Unfortunately that was too late for poor old Jebediah, who I had managed to get safely onto Mun in the meantime. Unfortunately again, without enough fuel left for the return journey. Needless to say, he needed a rescue ship, which I built and managed to get within a couple of km of his landing site. After a long munar trudge, he's safely back home. With all the samples to boot! What a trooper.

Looking forward how the adventures progress!

Cheers,

- Micha.

PS. Does anybody know of a mod to log all flights? I'd love a way to keep a history of every single launch with all the relevant statistics, similar to what is shown on the F3 screen.

[Pecan]

Welcome from due South of you.

I think the 'breadcrumbs' mod will record your flight details for you, 'Telemachus' might also be of interest. While you're at it put away the pen and paper - unless you love them - and install KER, VOID or MJ, which are informational mods that will tell you your deltaV as you make changes in the VAB/SPH, and a whole host of other information that isn't displayed by stock KSP. Another pair of mods that make docking much easier - and you seem to be doing everything else already - are Navyfish's docking alignment indicator or the more-minimalist NavballDockingAlignment.

The next version is coming out "Soon", with big changes to career mode, so you might want to just practice in sandbox for the moment.

[micha]

Already using KER - it's essential for building, and very useful in-flight.

Thanks for the suggestions though; I'll check "breadcrumbs" out!

Looking forward to a more balanced career mode. Doesn't seem to make so much sense to unlock probe tech so much later than manned (Kerballed?) flight. Especially with the reduced science when transmitting. Would make more sense (IMHO) to send probes first, transmitting what they find, then either a sample-return mission, and finally a Kerbal for eyeballs-on-ground. Anyway, I'm sure that's been discussed somewhere!!

[Random Tank]

Greetings from due North of you!

There is a mod that changes the tech tree (have a link) to be more realistic, starting with probes. Install that if you want!

I prefer VOID for its un-obstructive HUD, which gives off vital orbit info; plus all the build info like TWR, dV, air intake, weight, part count heading and etc. But use whatever you want!

[Pecan]

Better Than Starting Manned is a (hard) mod for probes-first in current career mode, but as I said I'd recommend sandbox for the moment. If you're looking for a mission-structure and shape to your KSP experience I use SCANSat (mapping satellites) in the tutorial in my signature, although they aren't necessary for that campaign. Another probe-purpose mod that's very popular is RemoteTech 2, which adds communications satellites. It makes things somewhat harder in that you can't control unmanned - yes, I don't bother with 'Kerballed' although some do - probes unless they have a communications link to mission control.

[micha]

Thanks for all the suggestions! Not really looking to make my life too hard just yet.. so while I love the idea of RemoteTech, Deadly Reentry, FAR, etc etc to make it more realistic (ScottM really does a fantastic job showcasing all of this!), I'm keen to get the more-or-less vanilla game down pat first.

I'll definitely check out some of the less game-changing mods for now though!

@Pecan, I've searched high and low (Google, forum search, Curse), and I can't find this "breadcrumbs" mod that you mentioned. Do you have a link perchance?

[Pecan]

Nope, I can't find Breadcrumbs either :-(

Telemachus is here though. Persistent trails might be of interest and, generally Community Mods and Plugins Library and The Drawing Board for looking-up just about anything.

SCANSat is very neat, only adds a few sensor parts and doesn't require you to change gameplay at all - but provides a useful reason for probes-first.