Greetings from an explorer

[Vermil]

Hi. OK, I've played this game for a few day. I play the science sandbox, as I need to experiment a lot, rocket builds etc.

I like the fact that I'm forced to accomplish things with limited technology, before getting access to more.

I don't really want to know too much of the game, as a lot of the enjoyment comes from exploring it, just like exploring a real space program.

But sometimes it's tad frustrating when you feel you lack keys of information in the UI, and suspect there is, somewhere. You just haven't found them and the tutorials don't get into them, but perhaps mentions them (WTH is 'maneuver nodes'? It sounds like something I've been looking for.)

Also, on that note, the asteroid tutorial is incomprehensible to me and I'm getting nowhere.

State of my game, currently, is that I've managed to go into orbit around the Mun and go back.

[troyfawkes]

That's not bad, actually, Vermil The Mun is a huge challenge for a lot of people. KSP isn't really fully built out right now so you'll find a lot of things rely on information from outside of the interface.

Delta V, for example, is probably something you aren't familiar with since the vanilla UI doesn't really show it, despite being incredibly important. Or how and when to do planetary transfer orbits. Or TWR at launch...

For now you can get those basic UI tools from mods (Kerbal Engineer or Mechjeb) and the training from Youtube (Scott Manley) and the forum Good luck!

[Lhathron the Elf]

You're about as far along as I am, and I've been playing (not very consistently, mind you) for about a year or two. If you ever need help with anything, you can email me at aaronc01@hotmail.com. I'm usually available.

Maneuver nodes, by the way, are the little blue, purple, and green markers on your Nav-Ball. (The little blue and brown ball in the bottom of the UI. The two green nodes show where you are going and where you are not going. If the green one with the X in it is in the middle of your navball, that means you are pointing retrograde. In other words, you're going backwards. If you're pointed towards the other one, you're pointed Prograde, meaning you're facing in the direction you're moving in. If you have a target set, the two purple ones show you if you are pointed toward or away from your target. For example, if your target was Minmus there would be two purple markers showing where to point your nose if you want to point toward Minmus or away from Minmus. Hope this helped!

Your friend the wood elf.

[Lhathron the Elf]

Also, one thing I forgot is that the IRC chat can help if you have any simple questions.

[Vermil]

Thanks a lot guys. I was hoping to avoid installing mods, so I'll wait until I'm totally stumped.

I did manage to figure out the forward and backward markers, thanks to one of the ingame training sessions. But the rest, well I still don't see the point of the target markers? I didn't understand them because I actually figured they would/could be of some use, but I now see they aren't. So no more experiments burning in their direction...

I actually played the game the whole time without SAS. I had no idea 'T' activated it, and I didn't care since I assumed you would have to have some stabilizer module to use it. And such was not available.

So I did up to the Mun orbiting and return, without using SAS. Now, with SAS, everything is much, much easier. In a way I'm disappointed . Anyway, I've managed to visit the other moon too now. I've not gone into orbit yet though. I came from the wrong direction, my orbit being clockwise, so I didn't dare risking being slingshot into some orbit I wouldn't have enough fuel to return from. I did that once before, with Mun. My lowest passage was still some hundred km when my fuel ran out. In sheer desperation I just turned up time and hoped for another disturbance from a Mun encounter. And crazy luck had it it happened, after a while. I wasn't sure Jebediah and the pod would survive the 'collision' with Kerbin. But they did. Burning up in reentry is apparently not implemented yet.

My ambition is to not kill the Kerbals. I did kill Bob, though. Not my fault but the game's, so I loaded the game immediately again, before the state was saved. The game's fault because the EVA rocket physics are implemented wrong. At least it seems so to me. I'll experiment some more.

One advantage of playing without SAS: You learn to build better rockets. :-P

[Pecan]

Read more ;-)

Read the wiki, read the keybinding list on the wiki, think "I have no idea what those keys mean, there must be more to the game than I've found so far". Then read tutorials - the drawing board stickied at the top of the tutorial section is a great place to see what they're about. Watch videos if there's a particular thing you can't picture or need to see demonstrated.

The thing is, if you want to explore it all yourself then you won't know what is and isn't available - how could someone explain manoeuvre nodes without explaining that you can go to other places, rendezvous and dock with other vehicles, etc. It is perhaps best to read and look for specific things, then ask in gameplay questions when there is something you especially miss. More than 80% of players in a (fairly) recent forum poll wanted to see deltaV and TWR information in the VAB/SPH, for instance, but just as you have found, Squad do not think that's appropriate for their view of KSP so you will need to work it out by hand or install a mod.

My first question was so basic it's incredible that I still haven't found any tutorial that mentions it - "what's a flag?"

However you find out, finding out is fun :-)

[TheFlyingPigs]

Um, it took me 1 month of game until I reached the Mun, 30 went into Kerbol orbit, 7 crashed, and I finally landed one! It then took me 2 months for a EveSat to be operational, then I became adventurous and went to Laythe in 1 Month.

You improve very, very fast.

[jaddbo]

Scott Manly has a whole

where he plays though carer mode and tells you just about everything there is to know. he also has a whole lot of other

on ksp. if you have any other questions, fell free to ask!

[Starwhip]

Not exactly what you're looking for, but my docking tutorial has some tips and tricks for maneuver nodes and the navball. There's a link in my signature.

Hope we can help you with whatever needs helping.

[Vermil]

Um, it took me 1 month of game until I reached the Mun, 30 went into Kerbol orbit, 7 crashed, and I finally landed one! It then took me 2 months for a EveSat to be operational, then I became adventurous and went to Laythe in 1 Month.

You improve very, very fast.

Well, I'm an engineer, so I understand the fundamentals behind rocketry and celestial bodies in motion well enough. I've found the game a wonderful learning and revelation experience when it comes to the actual details though.

Another thing is that I only play this in one science sandbox mode. That narrows down the choices early in the game, so maybe I have better focus? The game is probably more finished now, with whatever that involves. I've logged 43 hours so far. I've been in orbit around both moons and returned. Now I'm thinking about trying to build a moon lander.

Observation: I actually try to avoid watching Youtube movies, but I've looked at a few harmless. To me it seems a common mistake, even among the more experienced, is to not have enough Oomph in the first or early rocket stages. Strong acceleration from the start is the key to a successful lifting rocket design. Just saying.

[Vermil]

Scott Manly has a whole

where he plays though carer mode and tells you just about everything there is to know. he also has a whole lot of other

on ksp. if you have any other questions, fell free to ask!

Than you so much. My main pleasure from playing KSP comes from imagining something, wondering if it's possible, and trying. So I'm not so sure this is what I want. But some of the tutorials might come in handy. There are some pretty terrific navigation problems to tackle, if one wants to visit another planet, for instance. I'd love to try to do that by hand and my trusty old HP50G, but I'm unsure if the game actually gives up enough information in the UI. But we'll see.

[Vermil]

Not exactly what you're looking for, but my docking tutorial has some tips and tricks for maneuver nodes and the navball. There's a link in my signature.

Hope we can help you with whatever needs helping.

Thankyou. That might come in handy.

[Pecan]

...To me it seems a common mistake, even among the more experienced, is to not have enough Oomph in the first or early rocket stages. Strong acceleration from the start is the key to a successful lifting rocket design. Just saying.

An 'ideal' launch TWR is generally considered to be 1.6 - 2. As fuel is burnt during the launch stage this will increase, aiming for an average TWR of just over 2 during the burn-time. The point of this is to reach terminal velocity as soon as possible without exceeding it and losing too much energy to drag. As people become more experienced they tend to reduce this launch TWR for two reasons, i) loading extra fuel will increase mass and deltaV, ii) more realistic aerodynamics models (FAR being the standard mod for this) punish excess thrust and favour a more realistic launch TWR of ~1.2.

Most importantly, a very high TWR - over 3 or so - can tear your vehicles apart, which as an engineer you'll recognise as "a bad thing". Incidentally, the tutorial in my signature contains 10 or so launch vehicles for various payload masses if you wish to try them.

[Vermil]

An 'ideal' launch TWR is generally considered to be 1.6 - 2. As fuel is burnt during the launch stage this will increase, aiming for an average TWR of just over 2 during the burn-time. The point of this is to reach terminal velocity as soon as possible without exceeding it and losing too much energy to drag. As people become more experienced they tend to reduce this launch TWR for two reasons, i) loading extra fuel will increase mass and deltaV, ii) more realistic aerodynamics models (FAR being the standard mod for this) punish excess thrust and favour a more realistic launch TWR of ~1.2.

Most importantly, a very high TWR - over 3 or so - can tear your vehicles apart, which as an engineer you'll recognise as "a bad thing". Incidentally, the tutorial in my signature contains 10 or so launch vehicles for various payload masses if you wish to try them.

I lean towards thinking you're right. KSP does punish with aerodynamic drag quite hard. I don't know why. I'll keep experimenting, so the last word remains.

I get my kicks from developing my own rockets from scratch. So thanks, but I avoid looking at other's stuff. Also, my science has been very basic, with only early components available. Recently, that has started to change, since I'm discovering how to earn science points.

Meanwhile, there's been progress. I finally learned what a maneuver node is. O. M. G! I was wondering why people talked about "green" prograde and retrograde, since mine were yellow. You click on the orbit and choose 'add maneuver'! Then suddenly everything makes sense! Those are green. And I can do anything and watch the results before committing and burning fuel. What a cheat! Lol. Anyway, that was exactly the kind of navigational aid I was looking for.

Just in: Newsflash, Kenbus Kerman today became the first Kerbal to set foot on another world. It was the pinnacle of a series of events, that saw the first soft landing on, and recover from, the moon Minmus.

It was an unsheduled event during development testflights of the 'Crazyrocket' program. Though both MegarocketZ2 and Munrocket_C5 are still highly viable and capable lifting vehicles, potentially able to put a lander in a moon orbit, Dr Vermil Kerman, head of the space program, decided to apply the learnings to an entirely new rocket project, aiming at putting an as heavy as possible load into very low orbit around Mun or Minmus. Progressive testflights and modifications followed. The testflights almost always ended up in orbit around Mun or Minmus, since that was the design target.

So it came around that CrazyrocketD, piloted by Kenbus Kerman, a highly respected astronaut, ended up in a circular 7000m orbit around Minmus with a spectacularly healthy fuel budget. Not only did the last stage have both a FL-T400 and a FL-T100 tank for 25% extra fuel, but also the penultimate stage was still operational and had decent amount of fuel left. Probably enough for the return trip without using the last stage. The last stage was however only marginally equipped as a lander, featuring only three primitive landing struts, precauriously tall due to the extra fuel tank, and void of ladder, any extra control, science or electricity setup. So positive was the fuel situation, that a landing was contemplated, the fuel-paranoic Dr Vermil Kerman for once at ease. The electricity situation, however, was something different. Battery charge was low. No extra battery technology or solar panels invented yet. It became clear that to succeed and return, utmost maneuvering economy must be achieved.

Dr Vermil finally suggested the return flight should be made without an attempt to land, science points be used to develop solar panels and larger batteries for a future attempt. At that moment, Jebediah Kerman is rumoured to have snatched the microphone and yelled: - Go for it Kenbus!

Whatever may be, fact is that Kenbus successfully landed CrazyrocketD on Minmus Greater Flats, planted the flag and cavorted around before boarding again and successfully launching the return flight. On re-entry, the Minmus lander still retained 75% of its fuel. Something Dr Vermil predicts will give credence to plans for a future Mun landing.