What would you have wanted to know when you were new?

[fangorn0]

Hi All,

I\'ve only played KSP for a few hours, and I am loving it! When I see people on the forum talking about mun (it feels really strange typing that) landings and space stations, etc., it seems really impressive to someone still trying to get the hang of the game.

I have a couple questions for you:

1) What do you wish you had known sooner than you did? Did you learn things the hard way that you could enlighten me about? I\'m wondering about all aspects of the game: construction, controls, settings, flying tips...

2) What addons do you use that you think are really indispensable? If I just play vanilla KSP, what am I missing that would really change my experience?

Thanks ahead of time for your advice!

[Capt'n Skunky]

Welcome to the KSP Forums!

1. I wish I knew more about rocket science. It\'s still all a mystery to me and I just like building and blowing things up. Waiting on the ability to build space stations.

2. NovaPunch and C7 are the two best packs. NP has a lot of really nice toys to play with and C7 lets you make awesome space and atmospheric planes.

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

[Korbat]

Welcome to the KSP Forums!

1. I wish I knew more about rocket science. It\'s still all a mystery to me and I just like building and blowing things up. Waiting on the ability to build space stations.

2. NovaPunch and C7 are the two best packs. NP has a lot of really nice toys to play with and C7 lets you make awesome space and atmospheric planes.

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

yeah you\'re right. but i only don\'t have the problem with not knowing much about rocket science i\'m studying for spacecraft engineer at the Delft University

[kreller1]

The difference between SRB\'s and LFE\'s, and which one can throttle.

[madmat]

MUST have Tosh\'s CART,,found in 'plugins' section,,Makes EVERYTHING more fun ,,,,and welcome to the Madhouse ???

[wired2thenet]

That SRB\'s can mean the difference between getting off the ground, or a very ... short ... flight, when configured improperly.

That separating a full throttle engine before the fuel has run out can create very ... interesting ... expressions on my Kerbonauts -- and lead to interesting beauties...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvblkSmKzqQ

FINALLY! YouTube doesn\'t hate me!

That the command module only functions correctly with a parachute when you actually REMEMBER to place a decoupler immediately below it ... and that your Kerbonauts will smile happily upon touchdown when you do remember.

That parachutes DON\'T work in a vacuum (sorry, it was a panicked abort phase).

That an extra fuel tank or two doesn\'t necessarily get you into orbit.

That Warp is not ALWAYS a good thing to do when you\'re very close to the Mun (3 kerbonauts learned this the hard way, and are now ... er were, until I reset the persistence file ... in a Kerbol orbit with no hope of return).

Most of these are n00b mistakes, but I seem to continue making them from time to time.

[Polecat Industries]

That you can\'t retract a parachute when you didn\'t want to open it. I hate waiting.

[SpacemonkeyX]

HA! there\'s some good lessons learned here. I\'m just about to start failing missions myself so i\'ll pass along any i come across.

[Tim_Barrett]

Ah, the SAS toggle is T.

I held down 'F' without knowing about a toggle button for a week...

Alternatively, if you turn SAS on using T, and then press F, it unlocks it for as long as you hold it. Good for orbital insertion.

[Millst0ne MK II]

Welcome to the forums!

Tip: ADD MOAR BOOSTARZ Bigger isn\'t always better.

[witeken]

Welcome to the forums!

1. How the game works. Maybe you saw some videos on youtube of people playing it the first time (read: yoscast). The first month, I was like them. Now, I know how the game works and less or more how to do things like changing apoapsis etc.

edit: and also how the navball works[/edit]

2. I like pretty much everything that is small (like the northwood addon) and overpowered (too much fuel etc). I like the vanilla parts too. And of course the plugins.

[PeriapsisPrograde]

Ah, the SAS toggle is T.

I held down 'F' without knowing about a toggle button for a week...

Alternatively, if you turn SAS on using T, and then press F, it unlocks it for as long as you hold it. Good for orbital insertion.

I remember the days of 0.7.3. There was no SAS toggle. :\'( ???

I would have liked to know that our only instrumentation was the navball. Orbiter spoiled me there.

[Tim_Barrett]

I remember the days of 0.7.3. There was no SAS toggle. :\'( ???

I would have liked to know that our only instrumentation was the navball. Orbiter spoiled me there.

Thats probably why I learned much later that toggle existed, because I assumed there was none until what, .8? .8.3?

[Kitchen_Duty]

1. Alt + L locks the current stage, so you don\'t accidently screw up an hour worth of precise maunevering and jettison a stage.

2. plug ins and parts packs really make the game more interesting. I highly recommend the novapunch pack and mechjeb autopilot.

[Cepheus]

When I first started (back before map view, and all that good stuff) there was a tremendous learning curve in orbiting. I understood the general concept (the fact that you\'re falling 'around' the planet), but nothing past that. It was trial and error, really. You only knew if you were orbiting or not by waiting for a half hour or so, and seeing if you ended up crashing into the atmosphere.

[dylan1234]

well I know alot about rockets and sience I know some great rocket designs.

[dylan1234]

hi I\'m Dylan,I know alot about rockets. :) :) :)

[spike8760]

1. How to properly build a rocket. 'MOAR SOLIDS' isn\'t the answer.

2. How to maintain an proper orbit, or even get in one.

These two things would have saved me from staying up all night building rockets. (Though I\'ll contend, I\'ve had alot of fun doing it) 8)

[Guest]

What all those Navball markers mean. I still haven\'t figured out the purple ones.

[Trekkin]

A few things I would have wanted to know:

1. You can toggle a setting in settings.cfg to snap VAB parts vertically, so you can distribute the weight over really wide rockets with lots of nozzles better.

2. Your command module already contains a pretty good SAS system.

3. ASAS is only a control computer, not a gyroscope. By itself, it does nothing, and you only ever need one.

4. Building the biggest rocket you can isn\'t nearly as viable as building the smallest rocket you need, and lag is the universe\'s way of letting you know that.

5. The navball has the green mark without an X as your prograde vector, the one with an X as your retrograde vector, and the purple ones refer to your vector to the KSC.

6. You can click on your orbital velocity display to change it to surface velocity. This is good for landings so you can have zero lateral velocity.

7. Basic orbital mechanics. Speed up(go prograde) or slow down(go retrograde) at apoapsis to raise or lower your periapsis, respectively, and vice versa.

8. Your Kerbals bear a striking resemblance to phoenixes: born to die in fire. You will lose many of them, and can recover them by restoring persistent.sfs if you find some you particularly like.

9. As a general rule, Kerbin\'s SOI is about 80,000,000 m, and the Mun\'s about 2,000,000 m. If you see your orbit apoapsis higher than that, you probably will change SOI and orbit something else when you get there.

10. Fuel lines are your friend. Try to have as few tanks draining simultaneously as possible so you can jettison them as you go.

11. LFEs will keep their last throttle setting when you change stages away from them, but you forfeit control when you do. If you\'re trying to escape a wreck in progress, throttle down till you hit the stage you want, THEN throttle up.

12. Failure is not an option. It\'s an inevitability, and pretty fun at times.

13. You can get back from the Mun and make a safe landing on one full half-tank of fuel and a mini engine. Anything over that is very probably excessive mass, and you\'ll need more engine power at launch to account for it.

14. If you want space junk cleared, you can delete the saves folder.

[spike8760]

What all those Navball markers mean. I still haven\'t figured out the purple ones.

its the launch pad, and the direction its facing.

[sss]

Hi All,

I\'ve only played KSP for a few hours, and I am loving it! When I see people on the forum talking about mun (it feels really strange typing that) landings and space stations, etc., it seems really impressive to someone still trying to get the hang of the game.

I have a couple questions for you:

1) What do you wish you had known sooner than you did? Did you learn things the hard way that you could enlighten me about? I\'m wondering about all aspects of the game: construction, controls, settings, flying tips...

2) What addons do you use that you think are really indispensable? If I just play vanilla KSP, what am I missing that would really change my experience?

Thanks ahead of time for your advice!

Well, i think that mechjeb might help you. you can see what it does, and you can try to do what it does.

[UmbralRaptor]

That T toggles (A)SAS. (It wasn\'t listed in the tutorial when I started)

That made my early rockets much more successful.

[N3X15]

1. How to properly build a rocket. 'MOAR SOLIDS' isn\'t the answer.

What is wrong with you?

Also, X to shut off everything (except boosters because boosters are too awesome for silly MECO commands).

[Cthulufaic]

The Launch tower is closer to the pad than you think it is... Build up, not out(unless you don\'t like wobbly rockets; WOBBLY=BETTER)