Kerbal Space Program

Roalith · 13 Aug 2013 at 14:01

Really must get back into this game, just never have any joy with it when using a trackpad.

Greeny1994 · 13 Aug 2013 at 14:20

It would look like shoving a load of aerospikes on would be the best way. but you get capped at 5500 m/s and a TWR of 1.7

One · 13 Aug 2013 at 14:22

Nerusy said:
Just rendezvoused with my stranded in the solar orbit Duna crew hatch at vel of 9,340 m/s and altitude of ~15mil miles to save 3 brave cosmonauts. Hardest thing I done so far, spent so much time and fuel trying to match the orbit, pressing RCS control for a split second changes intersection by like 40k miles. Din't really know how to rendezvous before but now I'd say I am an expect, trial by fire

Easiest way is to point the objects in easy to 180 directions. So point target ship, directly up at the 0 degree point, then in your obkect you point directly down and just use the rcs. Connect at about 1m/s

Reaper 392 · 13 Aug 2013 at 15:22

Greeny1994 said:
It would look like shoving a load of aerospikes on would be the best way. but you get capped at 5500 m/s and a TWR of 1.7

hence the need for nukes in the upper atmosphere

Do you all want to feel inadequate? Good, I thought so. This really puts the achievements of nasa into perspective

Boycey0211 · 13 Aug 2013 at 15:28

thats awesome, just made me fire it up again because it cant be that hard

Greeny1994 · 13 Aug 2013 at 15:52

Wow, never realised that xD

Boycey0211 · 13 Aug 2013 at 19:46

I think i've broken the game, tried creating the smallest spaceplane I could, runs out of fuel after about 40 seconds, but I forgot to put any power modules on it.

So, I trun it round at about 1000m to land it, run out of power and now its just gliding in circles at 9.2m/s descending at about 1m per min! Will upload screenies later...

Reaper 392 · 13 Aug 2013 at 20:10

The aerodynamics of KSP are incredibly poor. You can make a craft with no form of propulsion that will go at hundreds of meter's per second by making the flaps flap up and down as fast as you can. With the old autopilot on small planes it was incredibly easy to see this effect.

I dont know if this is what is causing your incredibly low rate of descent but it is very likely

Boycey0211 · 13 Aug 2013 at 20:16

on another note I've made my first cargo plane! has a working ramp and cargo area using only stock parts, will be making a rover for it later

~Tealeaf~ · 13 Aug 2013 at 20:58

anyone using a joystick with the game? for rockets as well as planes? would be cool to get one for docking and stuff i think

Drake5 · 13 Aug 2013 at 21:05

Where's the best place to learn all about this game? The only thing I can seem to do at the moment is build a rocket that goes into Orbit but then slams back into Earth.

PinkFloyd · 13 Aug 2013 at 21:18

I use my Xbox360 pad for all flying, whether it be a plane or a rocket. Really comes into it's own on planes though.

Greeny1994 · 13 Aug 2013 at 21:20

Tom_D said:
Where's the best place to learn all about this game? The only thing I can seem to do at the moment is build a rocket that goes into Orbit but then slams back into Earth.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYu7z3I8tdEm5nyZU3a-O2ak6mBYXWPAL

PinkFloyd said:
I use my Xbox360 pad for all flying, whether it be a plane or a rocket. Really comes into it's own on planes though.

I tried that, my pad seems to veer to one side when not touching it, think i need a larger dead zone

Fire_fly · 13 Aug 2013 at 21:21

Tom_D said:
Where's the best place to learn all about this game? The only thing I can seem to do at the moment is build a rocket that goes into Orbit but then slams back into Earth.

This is a good starting point, although it may be a little dated.

hamesy · 13 Aug 2013 at 22:08

Fire_fly said:
This is a good starting point, although it may be a little dated.

Might be a little dated but it cleared a few things up for me

Glaucus · 13 Aug 2013 at 22:50

Started again, new mega geo stationery com satellites being launched, on number 3 39.9tons each :eek:

Getting them much more precise as well.

However once the 4th one gets up I need to put one in front and one behind the mun on same orbit and matching speed, however I need to know how far the muns sphere of influence stretches out, and I can't see to find this, but it must be there somewhere.

Greeny1994 · 13 Aug 2013 at 23:26

Glaucus said:
Started again, new mega geo stationery com satellites being launched, on number 3 39.9tons each

Getting them much more precise as well.

However once the 4th one gets up I need to put one in front and one behind the mun on same orbit and matching speed, however I need to know how far the muns sphere of influence stretches out, and I can't see to find this, but it must be there somewhere.

On the Wiki

Sphere of influence 2 429 559.1 m

Glaucus · 13 Aug 2013 at 23:35

Thanks, now just have to some how place it just out side of that, then match the nuns speed precisely.

Edit - getting really annoyed now, this 4th one just not launching. Identical rocket,nothing's changed but it keeps falling to bits.
One of the side minted rocket either falls off, just after launch, or just before geo stationery insertion, main booster seperates from satelite, no reason. Nothing's changed.

Reaper 392 · 13 Aug 2013 at 23:37

Tom_D said:
Where's the best place to learn all about this game? The only thing I can seem to do at the moment is build a rocket that goes into Orbit but then slams back into Earth.

It might not be the best way, but i got along fine with the in game tutorials for the very basics, and a few wiki pages for a bit of extra info. after that i just stuck bits on and tried it out

wiki page i used: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Basic_maneuvers

Also, I found the Apollo 11 recreation from the wiki to be a very good learning tool since it lets you practice docking the lander to the service module before you do the moon landing and need to do an orbit match. I only used the command, service and landing modules though, I designed my own stages to get into orbit: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Apollo_11

Glaucus said:
Thanks, now just have to some how place it just out side of that, then match the nuns speed precisely.

Edit - getting really annoyed now, this 4th one just not launch. Identical rocket,nothing's changed but it keeps falling to bits.
One of the side minted rocket either falls off, just after launch, or just before geo stationery insertion, main booster seperates from satelite, no reason. Nothing's changed.

Check that some struts havent disconnected themselves. On one rocket i would often have some of the struts disconnecting whenever i reloaded it in the VAB. thankfully they were very visible so I found the problem pretty quickly. if all else fails, just add more struts

Gambisk · 14 Aug 2013 at 10:01

Just downloaded this last night and I'm hooked. I started out just sending a number or unmanned single stage rockets into the sea just to experiment with the different engines. I then build a few 2 stage rockets and got a satellite into orbit but forgot to add solar panels so its currently just floating up there dead. Next up I sent a kerbal into orbit using the same two stage rocket from my satellite launch.

That all went very well apart from a few mishaps with SRB decoupling on my first few rockets.

I then tried to send 3 Kerbals into orbit using the larger rockets and it all went to hell. I read the asparagus method and tried to implement it as my first stage, but it just resulted in a really wobbly rocket on the launch pad and then none of the engines would decouple when they ran out of fuel. The wobble I think is down to lack of struts the decoupling thing however I've no idea about, can anyone offer some advice? So far managed to get that far using only the in game tutorials but I watched the KSP 101 video this morning and that's helped a lot with the manoeuvring side of thing but I'm still unclear why my rockets refuse to separate.