Feelings about being able to fly without MechJeb

[LitaAlto]

I know some other KSP players on various social networks, and it always feels weird when they act like my being able to fly a rocket manually is freakish.

I get people who use MechJeb because they'd rather focus on ship design than flying.

I don't get people who act like you must be some sort of savant in order to fly manually.

[dryer_lint]

I don't see anything wrong with using Mechjeb (who wants to fly a ship into Kerbin orbit 100 times or spend 10 minutes pointing at a maneuver marker), but I still feel as if you're missing out on a big part of the game by using it all the time.

[tater]

What does mechjeb do, exactly?

[EndOfTheEarth]

The reality is that no real-life rocket has ever been flown 100% manually. There is always a computer helping with navigation, and often executing the actual burns. This is the common justification I've seen for MechJeb.

That said, every rocket that has flown with people aboard has flown with people who are trained in what to do when the computer fails or bugs up. This is where KSP players tend to differ. I do not know why.

I used MechJeb some time ago, and while I haven't tried more recent versions, MechJeb left these impressions on me (and me alone; others can and will disagree):

Pros:

1) Mechjeb will always arrive in orbit with more fuel than you.

2) Mechjeb will land you precisely where you want it to land.

3) Mechjeb will always conduct its burns in a timely manner.

Cons:

1) Arriving at a destination with MechJeb does not provide an equal feeling of satisfaction to getting there manually.

2) MechJeb knows nothing about the shape of your ship, the shape of your target, or the grade of the slope you are landing on, resulting in things crashing into other things.

2a) MechJeb does not recognize obstructions, such as moon arches, and will try to land 'through' them.

3) MechJeb does not understand that staging while pitching yawing is a bad idea.

Therefore, my feelings on MechJeb are as follows:

You should be able to fly and land at a destination once manually before handing it over to MechJeb, so that you know what to do if something goes wrong. After that, feel free to use MechJeb all you want, but keep an eye out for flight anomalies.

[technicalfool]

What does mechjeb do, exactly?

Basically, it's a flight computer. It provides a dV calculator, ascent autopilot, descent autopilot, manouver planner and various other functions that are slowly unlocked via the tech tree.

[NecroBones]

Yeah, that is strange.

I don't have many friends who happen to play KSP, but of those who do, they wanted to learn to do things manually before installing mods. I made sure I had a firm grasp on things, and everything was routine before allowing myself to use MJ as a time-saver.

[Laie]

What does mechjeb do, exactly?

Nearly everything, and the opposite as well.

It has numerous information displays (much like Kerbal Engineer), also several autopiloting functions (most popular are auto-ascent for rockets, and executing maneuvers automatically) including timewarp to the maneuver or timed lauch. A maneuver node editor. And a maneuver planner (just click "circularize at next apoapsis" and the node is there, proper delta-v and everything).

That's not everything, but I think you get the gist: most standard situations can be auto-solved and auto-piloted by a few mouse clicks. You still need to know what you want to do, but Mechjeb can take care of the actual doing to a very large degree.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

not sure if this is a humblebrag or actually serious...

[NathanKell]

So, KSP is a sandbox game. That's why we love it, I think. But you know what that means? That means people get to play in their own sandboxes, and other people shouldn't come by and kick the sand.

I both fly my aircraft with a full-on HOTAS setup (and get up to some crazy hijinks, believe you me) and automate most of my spaceflight, because that's how I fun.

So feel free to talk about what's good or bad for you about any given addon, but please don't tell others how to have their fun.

[Climberfx]

That is not true, at all EndOfTheEarth, for the 3 first topics you number.

When you learn to do all the things MJ does, and improve yourself with time and experience, you will surpass easily MJ in it's doings.

And for you to know, Mj do wrong a lot of times, is easy to see it going crazy. These are bugs, not always avoided, and some times it get into catastrophes.

So, The best is Learn manually everything in game, and then, you can use Mj. That way you can avoid been lost.

I am the one that like to build and do missions, and fix wrong projects do not lost crew of missions. And today i only fly with Mj. Don't use it to everything, but it is my big tool in the game.

From PE to AP, speed, all the info that help been on screen, to show land predictions, but i prefer to point and do the manoeuvers my self in big part of it.

[cantab]

Flying manually is easily. Flying well manually is not. I'm still iffy when it comes to efficient launches to orbit - of course my launchers have a margin that lets me be iffy. And I can't precision land in atmosphere, but then I think if Mechjeb had predicted my Laythe landing site that would have taken a lot of the excitement out.

[regex]

I play KSP manually on a keyboard and mouse in RSS, with skill.

[Tortoise]

I agree with everything you said.

[Sirine]

Same with me. I believe new player start with mj tent to ask some weird question.

[Seshins]

I learnt from day one and have conducted all my missions manually. If the game took on more of a tycoon type feel, i would use MJ and KAC so i can focus on the bigger picture.

I think its good if people learn the basics first, then hand over to MJ as others have suggested. But still, its a game, people can play it however they want.

[SkyRender]

I still remember when MechJeb was new. Back then, the divide between "MechJebber" and "not MechJebber" wasn't that big a deal, because quite frankly, the game was so hard at the time that not many really looked down on players resorting to an auto-pilot mod. (Also, this was when the game wasn't even a year old, so technically nobody was good at the game yet!) I was one of the ones who decided that I'd rather not rely on an auto-pilot, and kept playing without MechJeb. I still fly everything manually, and sometimes even without the comforts of SAS enabled. It's just more fun to do it myself.

[LitaAlto]

not sure if this is a humblebrag or actually serious...

Serious. I don't like bragging, but I get confused when I offer to teach people and they act like it's utterly beyond their comprehension.

[Claw]

Serious. I don't like bragging, but I get confused when I offer to teach people and they act like it's utterly beyond their comprehension.

And that's okay. Some people overwhelm easier than others.

[godefroi]

not sure if this is a humblebrag or actually serious...

Humblebrag is my guess.

[Tank Buddy]

A quote from awhile ago:

Installing mods early on the game can seriously affect the learning curve of the game: the basics of orbital mechanics and astrodynamics. Mods should be used only when you have mastered the techniques by yourself. I agree, sometimes performing the same maneuvers over and over again can be boring, and having an automated aid for experienced players surely is handy, but it would be ill advised to use it without knowing to perform them by yourself.

I would particularly emphasize the first sentence.

I'm not telling anyone how to play the game; that's totally up to them. That's just my suggestion and opinion.

[Taki117]

I refused to use MechJeb until I understood everything that I was doing. This includes transfers, landings, getting into orbit. While I know everything about getting another planet, I haven't actually manually flown to another planet, can never get close enough, but I'm still comfortable that I can take over should problems arise.

[Aethon]

Oh hey, a Mechjeb thread. ( Facepalm. Pops popcorn ) In before the lock.

[LitaAlto]

And that's okay. Some people overwhelm easier than others.

I guess. I just like to help. Anyhow, it sounds like things are already getting nasty in this thread so I'm going to bow out. :/ Thank you.

[smart013]

Humblebrag is my guess.

My guess too, as is soooo often the case. By the way i_killed_jeb, thanks. Learned a new word (for me) today that explains alot of postings here and in reddit (for me)

[r4pt0r]

-opinion redacted-