Kerbal Space Program

bainbridge · 10 Jul 2013 at 08:11

Still can't dock :mad:

Got within 100m but because the orbits weren't on identical planes (just a few metres out) the target ship drifted off to the side and when I thrusted after it I shot by.

Thinking of building a moonbase with a big fuel depot for interplanetary missions instead.

Overlag · 10 Jul 2013 at 09:37

Docking is a fine art and very frustrating at times. The new RCS / SAS will make it much better. You need a nice balanced ship to use RCS and remember a few meters per sec is enough. Shouldn't be using main engine. Scott Manley videos on YouTube will help.

bainbridge · 10 Jul 2013 at 10:32

Overlag said:
Docking is a fine art and very frustrating at times. The new RCS / SAS will make it much better. You need a nice balanced ship to use RCS and remember a few meters per sec is enough. Shouldn't be using main engine. Scott Manley videos on YouTube will help.

Yes thanks, I think this is the problem, both the ships I'm trying to dock are very sluggish to control with RCS, might just build a couple of small ships with no real load to practice docking.

Overlag · 11 Jul 2013 at 10:11

bainbridge said:
Yes thanks, I think this is the problem, both the ships I'm trying to dock are very sluggish to control with RCS, might just build a couple of small ships with no real load to practice docking.

probably a good idea. Docking larger parts (like space stations) is rather hard if the balance is off.

Huggie86 · 16 Jul 2013 at 14:48

Got this in the Steam sale. Must say its utterly fantastic and the best £10quid I've spend in ages.

The learning curve gave me a massive headache though, its very addictive.

quickshot89 · 16 Jul 2013 at 18:32

The sas issue has had me giving up on kerbl for sometime, couldnt do anything I wanted until it was sorted. Cant wait for 0.21 now

Seanoog · 16 Jul 2013 at 19:15

Huggie86 said:
Got this in the Steam sale. Must say its utterly fantastic and the best £10quid I've spend in ages.

The learning curve gave me a massive headache though, its very addictive.

Hello an welcome to the community.

Any questions, please feel free to ask here.
I'd also recommend registering on the official forums, for all the latest 0.21 information.

Happy Launching.

quickshot89 said:
The sas issue has had me giving up on kerbl for sometime, couldnt do anything I wanted until it was sorted. Cant wait for 0.21 now

Do you care to expand on that?
Totally out of curiosity, as it functioned perfectly, task wise. It just could have been more polished in application.

Davey_Pitch · 16 Jul 2013 at 19:26

Seanoog said:
Hello an welcome to the community.

You do know the word is "and" don't you?

I don't think I've ever seen you write the whole word

quickshot89 · 16 Jul 2013 at 19:53

Seanoog said:
Do you care to expand on that?
Totally out of curiosity, as it functioned perfectly, task wise. It just could have been more polished in application.

I was just getting loads of failed launches with it. It could have been the mods I had installed but it was getting frustrating at best

rebel rebel · 17 Jul 2013 at 00:51

I also got this in the sale. Great game.

I finally managed to build a craft to make it into space!

Davey_Pitch · 17 Jul 2013 at 01:09

Yay, finally got my first Mun landing tonight. Had a lot of trouble at first as the rocket attached to my command module was just too powerful when trying to land, so hard to control. Rebuilt the whole thing using a much smaller rocket connected to the command module, and landed it first time, though it was a bumpy landing. Bill looks very happy!

Managed to get back to Kerbin safe and sound as well, so a very successful evening's work. Now I just need to decide if I want to try and land on another planet, or look into building satellites or a refueling station, and try some docking in space.

Overlag · 17 Jul 2013 at 09:25

I sent a craft out to orbit as far as possible from the Sun, unfortunately the solar panels dont work past a certain difference, so when it got to AP it was dead so i couldn't circularise. Took FOREVER to get there even at max time acceleration. The sun looked like a tiny pin ***** kinda like the ones in the skybox.

Im carrying on my "normal" game now, that ship wont return to the inner system until... well i dont exactly know because it went past the games limit and time doesnt seem to work correctly. The game said 24years, Mechjeb said something like 65400years

iostream · 18 Jul 2013 at 04:40

Picked this up in the sale and can't wait to give it a go

Not back at my rig for another 3 weeks though, it's a shame my wee laptop doesn't have a dedicated graphics card

dorgoo · 18 Jul 2013 at 06:36

Also bought this in the sale, gonna give it a whirl at the weekend.
What's the learning curve like?
I understand there's a modding community aswell, what's that like?

Doomedspeed · 18 Jul 2013 at 07:32

dorgoo said:
Also bought this in the sale, gonna give it a whirl at the weekend.
What's the learning curve like?
I understand there's a modding community aswell, what's that like?

I gave this a go for the first time last night..

The learning curve is easy but steep..

Building and lauching a rocket is quite easy, its then about what you do with it..

Watch a few tutorial videos first, it'll teach you how to get into orbit and how to change your orbit pattern.. You may not of built a rocket to get you too where you want to go but you'll know what needs to change (obvoiusly it'll be too late by then but oh well)..

My plan is get a few craft into kerbin orbit, then do a mun reccy...

Not really looked into a mun landing yet, is it easy? What do i need?

Davey_Pitch · 18 Jul 2013 at 08:40

dorgoo said:
Also bought this in the sale, gonna give it a whirl at the weekend.
What's the learning curve like?
I understand there's a modding community aswell, what's that like?

I'd say that if you tried to do everything on your own, the learning curve would be quite steep. Thankfully there are a ton of great tutorial videos on YouTube that give you great insight into how to get into a stable orbit, go to and land on the Mun, and so on. I would advise just messing around and building a few rockets of your own first. Understand how things like staging works, how the different size rockets not only affect your speed but your acceleration and your maneuverability. When you have a basic grasp of those things, check out some vids on YouTube

Doomedspeed said:
Not really looked into a mun landing yet, is it easy? What do i need?

I found landing on the Mum difficult at first, mainly because I wasn't using a small enough rocket on my command module, meaning it was nigh on impossible to slow my descent speed in a controlled manner (engine was simply too powerful). When I was using the correct rocket, it became much easier. You'll obviously need to make sure you have some landing struts, and unless you're planning a rescue mission, you'll need to make sure you arrive with enough fuel to return home. The amount of fuel you need left though is tiny compared to the amount you use to get there.

I managed my first Minmus landing last night (the other moon around Kerbin), on my first attempt, using the same rocket design I used to land on the Mun. Just about had enough fuel left to get home. Landing was much harder I felt as it's nowhere near as flat a surface as the Mun, or at least it wasn't where I was landing. Good fun though. Next target is one of the other planets I think.

Fire_fly · 18 Jul 2013 at 09:26

Doom have you played through the tutorial scenarios? They can be a bit basic, but are rather helpful, they just need to add the second part of getting to the Mun.

I have mainly been focused around sending satellites into Orbit, around both Kerbin and the Mun. I'm still yet to orbit a Kerbal as I need to redesign my rocket.

Glaucus · 18 Jul 2013 at 10:30

And don't just stick mechjeb on straight away, you realy do need to understand the nav ball, inclination changes etc.
as said some great videos on youtube.

Doomedspeed · 18 Jul 2013 at 12:16

Davey_Pitch said:
I'd say that if you tried to do everything on your own, the learning curve would be quite steep. Thankfully there are a ton of great tutorial videos on YouTube that give you great insight into how to get into a stable orbit, go to and land on the Mun, and so on. I would advise just messing around and building a few rockets of your own first. Understand how things like staging works, how the different size rockets not only affect your speed but your acceleration and your maneuverability. When you have a basic grasp of those things, check out some vids on YouTube

I found landing on the Mum difficult at first, mainly because I wasn't using a small enough rocket on my command module, meaning it was nigh on impossible to slow my descent speed in a controlled manner (engine was simply too powerful). When I was using the correct rocket, it became much easier. You'll obviously need to make sure you have some landing struts, and unless you're planning a rescue mission, you'll need to make sure you arrive with enough fuel to return home. The amount of fuel you need left though is tiny compared to the amount you use to get there.

I managed my first Minmus landing last night (the other moon around Kerbin), on my first attempt, using the same rocket design I used to land on the Mun. Just about had enough fuel left to get home. Landing was much harder I felt as it's nowhere near as flat a surface as the Mun, or at least it wasn't where I was landing. Good fun though. Next target is one of the other planets I think.

there are a lot of helpful videoes, iused one to sort out my orbiting problems. (there is a poor little kebin floating around in a little unpowered pod.

)

I may go for a moon orbit to start with.

Thanks, id like to here how you get on with your next adventure.. Where are you aiming for?

Fire_fly said:
Doom have you played through the tutorial scenarios? They can be a bit basic, but are rather helpful, they just need to add the second part of getting to the Mun.

I have mainly been focused around sending satellites into Orbit, around both Kerbin and the Mun. I'm still yet to orbit a Kerbal as I need to redesign my rocket.

I have a few of them, may go through the rest agian, they are helpful.

Not even looked at satelittes yet, how easy are they to get up?

Davey_Pitch · 18 Jul 2013 at 12:19

Doomedspeed said:
there are a lot of helpful videoes, iused one to sort out my orbiting problems. (there is a poor little kebin floating around in a little unpowered pod. )

I may go for a moon orbit to start with.

Thanks, id like to here how you get on with your next adventure.. Where are you aiming for?

I started with a moon orbit as well, partly as when I got to the moon I knew I wouldn't have enough fuel to get back

Not sure on where I'm aiming yet. My current rocket design is fairly basic, but good enough to get me to the Mun and Minmus with no trouble. I'm sucking slightly at building more powerful rockets, so I may look at getting a few satellites into space, or perhaps a refueling station somewhere. That's something I have absolutely no clue about, so it'd be a good challenge for me!