& We have Lift-off! (of another KSP Player)

[Turk_WLF]

Hello my Fellow Kabelnauts,

I have been interested in space ever since I saw Columbia (OV-101) Lifting off from Pad 39A on STS 1. Fast forward to today I have logged 30 hours in KSP & I’m getting Jeb mad at me because I haven’t reached orbit yet.

I’m wondering about something, as I understood it KSP Launch Pad originally had a Launch Tower, why was it removed? Also where should I post a question like “How is there a mod that will help me get into orbit?â€Â

Thanks,

[Vanamonde]

Hello Turk_WLF, and welcome to the forum.

The first set of spaceship parts in the game worked with the launch tower just fine. But later as we got larger parts and built bigger ships, they started to overlap, and the tower was causing ships to crash or explode on the pad. So it was removed. Sort of. It's not actually entirely gone from the game, but I'll let you find that out for yourself.

As for your other question, there is a forum sub-section for matching up players with the mods they want. You can find it here.

[Rizendell]

Mechjeb sounds like what you are looking for. You can use the Delta V window to help you plan your rockets. make sure you have > 1 TWR and at least 4500 delta v. If you dont want to have the autopilot features, you could use the Engineer mod instead. http://deltavmap.com/ is helpful to plan missions for other planets and so on. If you are looking for something to visit on the map try using http://www.kerbalmaps.com/

[Linear]

welcome

type in scott manley on youtube, find his tutorial playlist, it'llbe awesome

[SRV Ron]

Before you resort to mods, learn how to build multi stage ships and how to do the orbital turn. But, do start with sub orbital flights with single stage, then work your way to two and three stage designs. And, design simple. It doesn't take a monster ship to achieve orbit and return. These two early career designs are Mun orbital capable.

[Torrack]

Turk_WLF,

Welcome to the KSP forums and to the game! About the best advice you can get will be found on a YouTube channel by a man named Scott Manley (the resident Rock Star of KSP). Don't be dismayed at first glace; his channel has a ton of content and some if it is pretty advanced stuff. The reason I recommend you view his videos is he also has many "beginner's guides" and "getting started" videos. While playing KSP is loads of fun, it can be difficult for the new player as the "tutorial" portion of the game is still under development and isn't "fleshed out" yet.

A few quick tips to help you on your way:

1.) Bigger isn't always better! More rockets, while fun, means more fuel and more weight to lift; you will rapidly approach a point of diminishing returns.

2.) Find a way to drop the parts of your ship you don't need during flight. A quick search on Onion Staging and Asparagus Staging will serve you well.

3.) Only attach parts to your rocket that you NEED; again, while redundancy is fun, it does mean more weight to lift.

4.) Maneuver nodes, don't forget that a single long burn to orbit is not always the most efficient (and easy) way to get there. Often burning the right amount, at the right time, for the correct length of time will make an otherwise failing craft soar into the heavens.

Hope this helps and best of luck. Again, welcome to KSP.

[Northstar1989]

Welcome to KSP!

I'm sure if you posted screenshots of one of your rocket launches on an appropriate subsection of this forum an experienced player would be more than eager to help you out.

If you want a mod that make the physics of getting to orbit a little easier, try Ferram Aerospace Research. It replaces the stock/default aerodynamics model with a much more realistic one- and rockets with good aerodynamic design will perform better than with stock aerodynamics as a result. I've just switched over to it myself, and was amazed how much better my rockets now perform.

Regards,

Northstar

[SlimeCrusher]

Yes, i recommend you FAR as Northstar said, but you will have to make realistic gravity turns or else you'll flip out of control easly.

If you're REALLY wanting to get into orbit without ANY effort other than pressing a button, install Mechjeb, although you wont get the full experience of acomplishing it yourself, as Mechjeb is essentially an autopilot, but if you want to try it out...

Now, you can also watch youtubers play the game, i recommend you Scott Manley, wich has alot of tutorials, and HOCgaming, he plays normaly, you can still learn alot.

Also if you want to laugh, i recommend you Danny2462, he makes funny videos about KSP, but i warn you, when you watch one of his videos, chances are that you won't be able to stop watching!

You can also search for tutorials here on the forums, its full of them too!

[Turk_WLF]

I’m very grateful for all of the suggestions, I originally thought that I needed to have MechJeb just to play KSP but over the weekend & rereading your posts, I tried to make several Launch Vehicles and most of them I managed to get into a sub-orbital flight by the time I set up my orbit I have past the Maneuver/Burn Point.

I think I know what I’m doing wrong but I’m always low on fuel & my timeframe was generally like 13 seconds from the time I hit M to the apoapsis of the orbital plane of the sub-orbital. With .24 just released I can’t get MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer Redux to work but no biggie, that just a matter of time.

I have to say, this has been the most welcoming Forum that I ever joined!!

[Pecan]

My advice would be to avoid career and science until you know what you're doing.

Why limit yourself in parts and cost when you're just trying to find out how to fly something, anything, to orbit and get used to the interface?

The career/science tech-tree is awful for beginners so just play sandbox until you know how to put a rocket together, how to get it into orbit, what the manoeuvre nodes do and how they work.

THEN you can start crashing and exploding with relish!