Kerbal Space Program

I think I've mastered the art of crashing on the moon, but I haven't quite got the hang of landing. Anyone got tips for killing horizontal momentum?

Might have to practice non-parachute lands on Kerbal for now.
 
Art said:
I think I've mastered the art of crashing on the moon, but I haven't quite got the hang of landing. Anyone got tips for killing horizontal momentum?

Might have to practice non-parachute lands on Kerbal for now.
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I just had the same problem, although it was my first time even orbiting the Mun. I'd guess it's probably to do with de-orbiting with one large burn instead of simply firing backwards until the periapsis (sp?) intersects the surface. I had no idea what sort of speed i should be landing at though, so i kept getting scared and firing too hard. I must have been skipping across the surface for about five minutes :D

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I'm using the Soyuz mod (which i dutifully named Zond). Yeah, it's nice experimenting with your own designs, but there's something to be said for using a design you know is going to work and trying to get it right, especially (as a space buff) when that design is inspired by one of the (if not the) best real world rockets going. I guess it depends on your play-style...
 
best bet is to get into a orbit first, before slowing down to land. Then you can choose ya landing spot better (big craters are flatish).
 
Yeah, well i just tried my idea of using a larger burn to de-orbit so you come in steeper, left it far too late with the slowing down burn and ended up crashing into the ground at about 300m/s. Is it just me or does it get much harder to maneuver as you get closer? Or is it just that it matters more?

I heard something about the caps lock key 'unlocking' precision movement, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. What are the shortcuts for speeding up time?
 
Well after just about landing on the mun in one piece, i've been having some thoughts about this game. Or rather, the planned updates. It's a lot of fun. But it doesn't have that much replay value, currently. To counter this the devs seem to be planning to add things, mission goals, space stations etc. Which sounds great. But the way the game works currently you have a lot of eyeballing, a fair bit of praying and a whole load of "that'll do."

I think to make these updates work without being incredibly infuriating or down right impossible you'd have to change or add to the control system in such a way that makes it easier to do actual calculations, precision maneuvers and planning. Without changing that i can't see rendezvous and docking becoming anything other than a niche for people who've spent hours perfecting every single event. The question is: can they do this while keeping what makes the game fun, and not turning it into a full on simulator like Orbiter? Not that i've got anything against Orbiter mind you, i just don't think we need two of them.
 
I agree, Once you have done it, theres not much else to do. Hence i been trying to lift bigger and bigger parts to the moon, or orbiting extremely close to the Sun, then trying to return back to Kerbal. Problem with missions like that is its all luck really because you have no way of knowing where Kerbal is going to be without working out loads of sums yourself.
 
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I've managed to land on the moon a few times now, but I keep fouling up the return to Kerbin in some way or the other.

Yeah, well i just tried my idea of using a larger burn to de-orbit so you come in steeper
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I think this is the best way to do it. To be honest I don't even go into orbit around the Mun before landing on it, if you get your transfer from Kerbin right the flight path will take you pretty much head-on into the surface of the Mun and then the horizontal braking you need to do is minimal.

I'm not sure about the shortcuts for speeding up time, I think someone has mentioned . and , . I just use the arrows in the top left.

I agree about the replayability though. I think someone on the official forums had some sort of mission simulator program they'd written but I've not tried it. If they don't want it to be an unltra-niche product they really need some way to make it more accessible to new players.
 
Not much left to do on next release :D, I love this game. Starting to get big updates now.

Marked in green they've implemented, ones marked demo will be in demo. The rest you will need to pre-order.

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Damn it. I can barely get to orbit. I keep suffering the wobble of deat.

Why did I read this thread. I've already busted three hours and can't stop till I get stable orbit - then TO THE MUN!
 
X2 is to unstable. Ithought as I had to wait in today for courier.i would have a proper attempt at landing on moon. Finally got a rocket which gets plenty of fuel to space. Bit had to tilt over to 270 heading though. Twice ive got into a 100k orbit at exactly 270 heading ad bam, hit space to release first stage and start second stage and it freezes. Happened twice now. Other attempts have not frozen but I've got myself in wrong orbit. :( I'm sure I could easily land with this ship. Hot plenty of fuel, landing legs and all
 
updated to x4 far more stable.

and NOOOOOOO finally made it to moon with two stage. then totally miss judged burn and hit it at 600m/s

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yes yes yes, i made it.
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first time. destroyed the lander though :( but kerbals survived. Vertical speed was fine, just had a to much horizontal speed.
 
I'm sure you could make it work to thumb pad things what ever they are called and a few buttons. Although there's a few keys, you don't use them at same time.

But anyway, they aren't going to do it, not in the next year at least. I reckon it'll take them at least another year just to finish it. It's an awesome game and I can't wait for it to be a game with finance, kernels and research.

I nee to find a video on how thru horizontal speed off when landing on min, I can't figure it out.
 
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