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[Wulfonce]

Just a few questions I can't seem to find answers for:

Spaceplanes:

1) why do my turbojet engines start to shoot out sparks and eventually fail soon after takeoff?

2) are you suppose to use rockets to boost you the rest of the way into orbit once in the upper atmosphere?

3) is it practical to lift parts of a spacestation or rovers into orbit using a plane?

Spacestations:

1) when designing a spacestation, should the engines be in the front? (I'm having stability issues with rear mounted engines, it acts like a blade of grass in a strong wind when under throttle)

Contracts:

1) Will the contracts become more challenging and require some thought and planning? (for example, explore areas of the Mun or other planets, which would probably require a space station?).

2) If a contract expires without accepting it, does it ever come back?

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks in advance for any answers.

***EDIT***

More questions.

I downloaded the Remote Tech mod, and I really like it. I want to put my first satellite into orbit around Kerbin, however I'm really confused about the many dish options available. I'm seeing 3 different units of mesurment, Gm, Mm, and Km. I don't really know the differance between them (Kilometers seems obvious).

Which leads into my next question...

I understand the concept of satellites (sending and receiving data to and from Kerbin). For my first satellite I assume the dish with the longest signal range would be the best? However the cone angle is the smallest. Would this mean it would hardly ever be able to receive a signal while orbiting kerbin? Maybe something without a dish would be better? Do the satellites or the dishes turn automatically to send/receive signals?

So I'm only into day 3, and I've already got the entire tech tree researched (way to easy imo). Should I be using my science points for Rep and or Money from now on?

What does rep even do?

Edited December 28, 2014 by Wulfonce

[Pecan]

Welcome - some good questions there :-)

1 - rockets take oxygen for burning the fuel from the fuel-tanks themselves (oxidiser), jets don't. You need to add air intakes to jet-equipped vehicles so they can take it from the air.

2 - it's possible to get to space, with quite a respectable periapsis, just using jets but as they don't work without external oxygen (above) you will need a rocket to circularise your orbit at apoapsis, if you want to stay up there.

3 - yes, although it gets difficult with heavier loads and a SSTO rocket/vertical jet is a lot easier.

1 again - joints, especially docking ports, can be wobbly so generally it is better to pull rather than push complex vehicles.

1 a third time - yes they do

2 - probably not, although a lot of the more basic ones come up repeatedly

Edit for below: Hoorah for us, it must be the timezone. At least we gave the same answers, they might even be right :-)

Edited December 27, 2014 by Pecan

[Anquietas314]

Spaceplanes:

1) That means they ran out of fuel or intake air - probably the latter. Solution: MOAR INTAKES!

2) Yes, sortof. With turobjets you can actually get out of the atmosphere without using rockets, but of course you can't get to orbit because they don't work in space - that's where rockets come in.

3) With Mk2 spaceplane parts, small station parts and rovers can be lifted to orbit, yes. It's not trivial to make that happen though. You technically can lift larger pieces using the Mk3 spaceplane parts, but this is considerably harder due to the weight of the parts and lack of accompanying wings/intakes/engines suitable for the scale.

Space stations:

1) A space station should not have engines - the idea is they stay put. For a long, thin design though, it may be easier to move it using engines placed at the front, yes.

Contracts:

1) Yes, they get harder.

2) Contracts are randomly generated, so yes but it won't be exactly the same for e.g. survey contracts.

EDIT: Damn you Pecan!

[Wulfonce]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to play around with space planes alot more. I'm finding the extra challenge very enjoyable.

[Wulfonce]

***edited***

[Anquietas314]

I'm seeing 3 different units of mesurment, Gm, Mm, and Km. I don't really know the differance between them (Kilometers seems obvious).

The prefixes G M and K mean Giga, Mega and Kilo respectively. Basically, 1 Mm = 1,000,000m, 1Gm = 1,000,000,000m, and you of course already know Kilo. The Mm dishes are what you should use for transmitting to Mun and Minmus (and back), while you're going to need to use Gm ones for reaching the other planets and such. Be very careful not to use a dish with too much range though, because those have a very narrow focus; even right next to the sun the longest range antennae doesn't really have a wide enough focus to stay locked on to long-range satellites beyond Mun's orbit if you just set it to target Kerbin (makes life easy because you don't need to constantly switch between your long-range satellites as they get near to going behind Kerbin/Mun/...).

I understand the concept of satellites (sending and receiving data to and from Kerbin). For my first satellite I assume the dish with the longest signal range would be the best? However the cone angle is the smallest. Would this mean it would hardly ever be able to receive a signal while orbiting kerbin? Maybe something without a dish would be better? Do the satellites or the dishes turn automatically to send/receive signals?

Ahem, see previous answer You should probably use the shortest range antennae that can still reach KSC from the satellite's orbit. Since you should be pointing one dish specifically at mission control it doesn't really matter, but the short-range ones don't have much mass which keeps launch costs down

So I'm only into day 3, and I've already got the entire tech tree researched (way to easy imo). Should I be using my science points for Rep and or Money from now on?

What does rep even do?

It sounds like you should bump up the difficulty settings , but rep is basically what unlocks the better contracts - high rep = good contracts. But yes, convert science points to something useful - if you keep losing Kerbals you may want to convert to rep, but usually money's the better choice.

Edited December 28, 2014 by armagheddonsgw

[Wulfonce]

The prefixes G M and K mean Giga, Mega and Kilo respectively. Basically, 1 Mm = 1,000,000m, 1Gm = 1,000,000,000m, and you of course already know Kilo. The Mm dishes are what you should use for transmitting to Mun and Minmus (and back), while you're going to need to use Gm ones for reaching the other planets and such. Be very careful not to use a dish with too much range though, because those have a very narrow focus; even right next to the sun the longest range antennae doesn't really have a wide enough focus to stay locked on to long-range satellites beyond Mun's orbit if you just set it to target Kerbin (makes life easy because you don't need to constantly switch between your long-range satellites as they get near to going behind Kerbin/Mun/...).

Ahem, see previous answer You should probably use the shortest range antennae that can still reach KSC from the satellite's orbit. Since you should be pointing one dish specifically at mission control it doesn't really matter, but the short-range ones don't have much mass which keeps launch costs down

It sounds like you should bump up the difficulty settings , but rep is basically what unlocks the better contracts - high rep = good contracts. But yes, convert science points to something useful - if you keep losing Kerbals you may want to convert to rep, but usually money's the better choice.

Thanks for the info.

It appears that "normal" is far to easy so I started a new game on "hard". Only options I enabled is quick loading and reverting flights. We'll see how it goes

[Anquietas314]

Thanks for the info.

It appears that "normal" is far to easy so I started a new game on "hard". Only options I enabled is quick loading and reverting flights. We'll see how it goes

That's how I play Works great for me, although I added the StageRecovery mod to alleviate some of the tedium. Plus technically it's really just fixing a long-standing "bug"/feature.

[worir4]

Just a tip for the space station one. Make sure you don't have any solar panels in the path of your pulling engine cluster. It has undesirable results...

[Anquietas314]

Just a tip for the space station one. Make sure you don't have any solar panels in the path of your pulling engine cluster. It has undesirable results...

I take it you were unaware the game models the fact the exhaust plasma can push things?

[worir4]

I take it you were unaware the game models the fact the exhaust plasma can push things?

I know it does but for me solar panels are things I often don't realise will extend into the path of the engines.

[Janos1986]

I also noticed that if you obstruct one of the engines with another part, like placing a girder too close to the nozzle, it now tends to reduce the output drastically, spinning the craft out of control or killing your thrust dramatically.

I discovered this the hard way while trying to land on the mun and burning up all my fuel without slowing me down a single bit.