Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
I'm starting to get better at this docking business! Even expanded my space station to have two additional solar panel pylons before I accidentally ended the flight and deleted my space station forever!
Kerbal Space Program
- Thread starter Leonel
- Start date
hobbsyoyo
Deity
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Dude, that's a real bummer. I fear an accidental deletion constantly.
Did you accidentally click 'end flight' when you were trying to get back to the space center? Or did you accidentally end it from the flight tracking center?
I noticed that with 18.1, it tracks debris and spent stages as seperate unknown flights and you have to individually end each one of those 'flights' to get rid of them.
Did you accidentally click 'end flight' when you were trying to get back to the space center? Or did you accidentally end it from the flight tracking center?
I noticed that with 18.1, it tracks debris and spent stages as seperate unknown flights and you have to individually end each one of those 'flights' to get rid of them.
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
Oh I'm not hugely saddened. I now know that I can build a space station, I know the best time to launch to get as close to it as I can, how to use the game's rendezvous guides to get close and I know I can make it better next time.
Now I need to figure out how to build a spaceship that can go to a planet and back!
Now I need to figure out how to build a spaceship that can go to a planet and back!
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I was reading about this game on reddit some time ago, and the consensus seemed to be that it was fun, but it had some sort of a flaw.. or that it got boring quick.. I can't remember anymore, but I passed on it for some sort of a reason that seemed big enough at the time.
It seems like the game has gotten a lot better since then! based on what I'm seeing here and what hobbsyoyo has said in another thread. I think I will have to buy this and go antisocial this friday night
It seems like the game has gotten a lot better since then! based on what I'm seeing here and what hobbsyoyo has said in another thread. I think I will have to buy this and go antisocial this friday night
hobbsyoyo
Deity
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It was probably both (with respect to boredom and flaws). It's only in alpha, so it does have flaws, though these get fixed with each update.
As for the boredom, yeah, earlier versions didn't have a lot to do. However, this is no longer the case.
All of the recent reviews I've seen have been overwhelmingly positive. Crap, I was going to write more but I really have to dock this motha of a tanker.
Welcome to the party!
As for the boredom, yeah, earlier versions didn't have a lot to do. However, this is no longer the case.
All of the recent reviews I've seen have been overwhelmingly positive. Crap, I was going to write more but I really have to dock this motha of a tanker.
Welcome to the party!
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Bought the game, installed it, trying to figure out how to get into the "first flight tutorial" and feeling like an idiot for not being able to figure it out..
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.. I think that without doing those tutorials first, I am going to be screwed though
I have been looking quite a while and feel like an incredibly huge idiot for not being able to find it.. but.. I'm going to have to quit for now and make dinner.
I have been looking quite a while and feel like an incredibly huge idiot for not being able to find it.. but.. I'm going to have to quit for now and make dinner.
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.. I think that without doing those tutorials first, I am going to be screwed though
I have been looking quite a while and feel like an incredibly huge idiot for not being able to find it.. but.. I'm going to have to quit for now and make dinner.
My recommendation for starting out is to put an Adanced SAS module on your craft, with an RCS fuel tank, and at least 4 RCS thrusters. Then, you can hit the R and T buttons, and the computer control system will use the maneuvering thrusters to automatically right your rocket and stop it from erratic movement (it will automatically focus on wherever you were pointing on the navball at the moment you hit T). Then, you can toggle T off again and make your course adjustments. If you mess it up too badly, just hit T again, let the computer stabilize your system, then try again.
If you are getting the shakes on lift-off, and it's breaking your rocket apart, look for the grey struts and fasten everything down. You'll get better at design as you get experience, it's a real trial-and-error kind of thing.
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
Getting lined up to a station is hard enough with the wonky orbital nodes, but actually attempting to dock with the current control scheme for RCS wasted four hours of my time buzzing around the god damn station. I want to punch the developer in the face. AND THEN THE GAME CRASHED.
So it's fun, right? :3
It helps to have RCS thrusters balanced around your center of mass so translations don't rotate you as well.
WASD » rotation
IHJKLN » translation
IJKL = lateral
HN = forward/backward
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
I was able to rocket station parts up to orbit rather easily with the targeting cues when you select the station as a target. When you get close enough and after you select the station as target, your gimbal will switch to target relative and m/s. At that point it's just a matter of decelerating and aiming your ship in the direction of the purple indicator.
hobbsyoyo
Deity
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On top of what Cardgame and Leonel said, I find it is significantly easier to dock if you keep your space craft oriented in the 'normal position'. What I mean by this is to make sure that your craft is aligned so that your nav marker is parallel to the horizon.
In the picture below, my craft needs to be rolled to the left almost 90 degrees to make the nav marker parallelt to the horizon (shown with the yellow arrow).
This is really invaluable when you are about to dock because it means when you press a key to go 'up', you will actually go up. If you are oriented at some weird angle with respect to the horizon, when you press the 'up' key, it may send you off to the right.
It took me a while to figure this simple thing out, but once you've got it, docking becomes a lot easier.
Oh, and I now have 4 full Orange fuel tanks hooked up to my station guys.
What should I add next?Attachments
Construct a Grand Tour-capable probe. Visit all the planets and moons.
Build a backup interplanetary fuel tug and fill up from the orange tanks if there's any left; put it in orbit around the second or third destination you plan to visit.
Build a backup interplanetary fuel tug and fill up from the orange tanks if there's any left; put it in orbit around the second or third destination you plan to visit.
hobbsyoyo
Deity
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I hope you don't mind Warpus if I repost some of your questions from the PM's here. I want to use them to give context to the guide I'm putting together for you.
Moho (Mercury analog) - very very hot with a highly eccentric and inclined orbit - no moons or atmosphere
Eve (Venus analog) - extremely dense and 'tall' atmosphere. It's atmosphere extends up to 90km (the top of Kerbin's atmosphere is ~70km) and the atmosphere is also 5 times as dense as Kerbins. It's gravity is a little less than 2 times as strong as Kerbin's. Landing at Eve is easy because of the thick atmosphere, but taking off again is very challenging. Eve has a tiny moon called Gilly that is basically just an asteroid.
Kerbin - Kerbal's homeplanet. The atmosphere extends to roughly 70km, it has the same gravity as earth and the atmosphere is as dense as Earth's. Kerbin has two moons, Mun (just like the real Moon pretty much) and Minmus. Minmus is smaller than the Mun with less gravity and it's orbit is eccentric and inclined. Neither of these moons have atmospheres.
Duna - Duna is a Mars analog. It has a thin atmosphere that extends to around 35km. Duna has a moon that is between the size of Mun and Minmus that is called Ike. Ike has no atmosphere
Jool - Jool is a Jupiter analog. You cannot land on it and it's atmosphere extends to 132km. Jool has five moons - Laythe, Vall, Tylo, Bop and Pol. Laythe has a thick atmosphere and Kerbin-like gravity. It is a beautiful waterworld with many scattered archaepalegos. Vall is an ice world that is unremarkable. Tylo is a large planet with nearly the same gravity as Kerbin but has no atmosphere, so it is very difficult to land on. Bop is a captured asteroid much like Gilly. Pol is a new moon that is very rocky and is twice the size of Bop.
______________
(I'm really sorry about the confusion, I didn't mean to frustrate you)
First off, all capsules have SAS built in. SAS uses gyroscopes or reaction wheels to put a torque on your spacecraft. This will stabilize the craft and keep it pointin in one direction when you hit T and you see the little SAS icon light up above the navball. If SAS is not lit up, this means you can freely manuever the craft and change it's orientation. When you are manuevering, instead of exerting torque to stabilize the craft, the SAS is exerting torque to move the craft. You do not need to place an SAS module as the capsule has it built in. You only need extra SAS modules if you have a very large craft.
ASAS is advanced SAS. It is not built into the capsules, so you will need to install a module with this. ASAS does not exert any kind of torque, instead, it controls the control surfaces like movable fins, the RCS system and the thrust vectoring of thrust vectorable rocket engines. If you turn on SAS by hitting T or F (F only turns on SAS as long as you press the button, T turns it on or off with one press), then the ASAS will use your fins, vectored nozzles or RCS thrusters to stabilize the craft. It will automatically control the fins and vectored nozzles (the nozzles will only do anything when you are burning your engine) but for it to control the RCS system, you have to turn on RCS by pressing R. A little indicator above the navball will show when they are activated. Make sure that you attach the ASAS module on the first segment below your capsule. If you put it on a lower segment that you jetison when it runs out of fuel, then you will lose ASAS functionality.
*There is not a separate indicator for ASAS. If you press T and the SAS indicator lights up, then ASAS is also on.
**RCS thrusters require RCS fuel tanks. They come in different sizes and they do not have to be attached to the RCS thrusters. If you have an RCS tank somewhere on your rocket, then you can attach RCS thrusters anywhere and they will work even if not connected to the RCS tank if it has fuel left in it.
***Turn off RCS during time warps if you leave SAS on during warps. If you don't, the SAS system will drain all of your RCS fuel during the time warp making unecessary corrections.
Both SAS and ASAS require electricity to run. During launch, the engines will provide the needed power to run it. However, when the engines are off, you lose power. To provide power, you have two options:
1) Solar pannels and batteries (make sure to deploy the panels after you are out of the atmosphere by right clicking them; you also have to install panels and batteries seperately, they are not a single unit)
2)Radioisotope Thermal Generator (RTG) - If you install this, you don't need other batteries or solar panels, as long as your power requirements are not greater than what it provides, though you can install multiple units.
If you have forgotten pannels, batteries or an RTG, then your A/SAS will not work and your mission will fail.
Also, if you press T and the SAS indicator above the navball doesn't light up and you have panels/RTG or are during the launch phase when the engines power the systems, then you might have a bugged game.
If you press T and the SAS indicator does light up and you still veer off wildly, then your rocket is unstable. Place fins on it, RCS thrusters and make sure it's balanced out (as in make sure the design is symmetrical and not wobbly [correct wobbliness with struts]). A thrust vectored engine will also help you out.
__________
Now that you have had time to play, does the PM I sent you about apopasis/peroapsis and prograde/retrograde make sense? If not, let me know and I'll throw up another tutorial with pictures.
Godspeed Warpus, may your Kerbals not die very frequently,
hobbsyoyo
Yes, they are called Kerbals. The planet they live on is called Kerbin. The sun is called Kerbol. There are 5 planets in the game so far (list from closest to Kerbol out):
Moho (Mercury analog) - very very hot with a highly eccentric and inclined orbit - no moons or atmosphere
Eve (Venus analog) - extremely dense and 'tall' atmosphere. It's atmosphere extends up to 90km (the top of Kerbin's atmosphere is ~70km) and the atmosphere is also 5 times as dense as Kerbins. It's gravity is a little less than 2 times as strong as Kerbin's. Landing at Eve is easy because of the thick atmosphere, but taking off again is very challenging. Eve has a tiny moon called Gilly that is basically just an asteroid.
Kerbin - Kerbal's homeplanet. The atmosphere extends to roughly 70km, it has the same gravity as earth and the atmosphere is as dense as Earth's. Kerbin has two moons, Mun (just like the real Moon pretty much) and Minmus. Minmus is smaller than the Mun with less gravity and it's orbit is eccentric and inclined. Neither of these moons have atmospheres.
Duna - Duna is a Mars analog. It has a thin atmosphere that extends to around 35km. Duna has a moon that is between the size of Mun and Minmus that is called Ike. Ike has no atmosphere
Jool - Jool is a Jupiter analog. You cannot land on it and it's atmosphere extends to 132km. Jool has five moons - Laythe, Vall, Tylo, Bop and Pol. Laythe has a thick atmosphere and Kerbin-like gravity. It is a beautiful waterworld with many scattered archaepalegos. Vall is an ice world that is unremarkable. Tylo is a large planet with nearly the same gravity as Kerbin but has no atmosphere, so it is very difficult to land on. Bop is a captured asteroid much like Gilly. Pol is a new moon that is very rocky and is twice the size of Bop.
______________
I meant the two training scenarios you mentioned. Sorry for the confusion. IIRC, the first one will walk you through building a rocket and will teach you how to put it in orbit. The second one allows you to do a Mun landing. Both are extremely helpful and will teach you much of the basics.
(I'm really sorry about the confusion, I didn't mean to frustrate you)
There are a few things that could be going on here, so I will explain everything I think could be going on.
First off, all capsules have SAS built in. SAS uses gyroscopes or reaction wheels to put a torque on your spacecraft. This will stabilize the craft and keep it pointin in one direction when you hit T and you see the little SAS icon light up above the navball. If SAS is not lit up, this means you can freely manuever the craft and change it's orientation. When you are manuevering, instead of exerting torque to stabilize the craft, the SAS is exerting torque to move the craft. You do not need to place an SAS module as the capsule has it built in. You only need extra SAS modules if you have a very large craft.
ASAS is advanced SAS. It is not built into the capsules, so you will need to install a module with this. ASAS does not exert any kind of torque, instead, it controls the control surfaces like movable fins, the RCS system and the thrust vectoring of thrust vectorable rocket engines. If you turn on SAS by hitting T or F (F only turns on SAS as long as you press the button, T turns it on or off with one press), then the ASAS will use your fins, vectored nozzles or RCS thrusters to stabilize the craft. It will automatically control the fins and vectored nozzles (the nozzles will only do anything when you are burning your engine) but for it to control the RCS system, you have to turn on RCS by pressing R. A little indicator above the navball will show when they are activated. Make sure that you attach the ASAS module on the first segment below your capsule. If you put it on a lower segment that you jetison when it runs out of fuel, then you will lose ASAS functionality.
*There is not a separate indicator for ASAS. If you press T and the SAS indicator lights up, then ASAS is also on.
**RCS thrusters require RCS fuel tanks. They come in different sizes and they do not have to be attached to the RCS thrusters. If you have an RCS tank somewhere on your rocket, then you can attach RCS thrusters anywhere and they will work even if not connected to the RCS tank if it has fuel left in it.
***Turn off RCS during time warps if you leave SAS on during warps. If you don't, the SAS system will drain all of your RCS fuel during the time warp making unecessary corrections.
Both SAS and ASAS require electricity to run. During launch, the engines will provide the needed power to run it. However, when the engines are off, you lose power. To provide power, you have two options:
1) Solar pannels and batteries (make sure to deploy the panels after you are out of the atmosphere by right clicking them; you also have to install panels and batteries seperately, they are not a single unit)
2)Radioisotope Thermal Generator (RTG) - If you install this, you don't need other batteries or solar panels, as long as your power requirements are not greater than what it provides, though you can install multiple units.
If you have forgotten pannels, batteries or an RTG, then your A/SAS will not work and your mission will fail.
Also, if you press T and the SAS indicator above the navball doesn't light up and you have panels/RTG or are during the launch phase when the engines power the systems, then you might have a bugged game.
If you press T and the SAS indicator does light up and you still veer off wildly, then your rocket is unstable. Place fins on it, RCS thrusters and make sure it's balanced out (as in make sure the design is symmetrical and not wobbly [correct wobbliness with struts]). A thrust vectored engine will also help you out.
It is T. One further problem, you probably installed an SAS module under the capsule instead of an ASAS module. An SAS will not provide enough torque to stabilize most launching rockets. Swap out the SAS module with an ASAS module and it should work. Your design seems sound otherwise.
__________
Now that you have had time to play, does the PM I sent you about apopasis/peroapsis and prograde/retrograde make sense? If not, let me know and I'll throw up another tutorial with pictures.
Godspeed Warpus, may your Kerbals not die very frequently,
hobbsyoyo
hobbsyoyo
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2012
- Messages
- 26,575
I do want to do a grand tour, but first I want to send orbiter satellites to each of the planets and moons, then send a bigger probe out that can visit multiple planets.
Do you think an Ion engine is capable of getting a probe into an orbit?
The orange tanks are all completely full, I can't imagine draining them any time soon. I am not sure that I want to send the station to another planet (though it could, it has a poodle engine) because it's really useful as a fuel depot where it is at. I do need to send up a Xenon tanker to add to it, I forgot about that kind of fuel.
Oh I get what you're saying. Build another tanker and send it off to another planet using fuel from the station. Yeah, that's a great idea, I'll do that.
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
Here's my second space station!
There are two emergency capsules on either end, a general crew quarters in the middle of the two nodes, the longest module is the battery module to help power the science module that is docked with the solar panel array and not parallel with the rest of the modules. Eventually I'm going to put a better communications module on the other side of the science but there's some bad structural wiggling so I'm going to attempt to put in a structural strut between the two empty docking ports and hope that'll stabilize it better for when I start assembling an interstellar ship at the station.
There are two emergency capsules on either end, a general crew quarters in the middle of the two nodes, the longest module is the battery module to help power the science module that is docked with the solar panel array and not parallel with the rest of the modules. Eventually I'm going to put a better communications module on the other side of the science but there's some bad structural wiggling so I'm going to attempt to put in a structural strut between the two empty docking ports and hope that'll stabilize it better for when I start assembling an interstellar ship at the station.
