Kerbal Space Program

[Thorgalaeg]

Cool Delta-v chart

Spoiler :

Useful! Now i only need to know how much Delta-v has my ship at any given moment. Is there a good way to know it? Mechjeb has it at the "vessel info" module but it it always says i have +3000 m/s even when my tanks are nearly empty. It apparently works better at the VAB.

 

[warpus]

Yeah, I've only ever noticed useful information like that come up in the VAB.

Interesting and elaborate operation you have going on there, btw. I sent a mission to Duna last night with a rather large lander that blew up on me in the atmosphere . It was supposed to be a science mission to a place where the ice cap meets the sands first with 15 scientists and a lab.. later downgraded to just 5. Both times, failures. Not frustrating, just ate up about 40% of my weekend! Damn...

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Well i said my platform landed without a problem but indeed it crashed like 3 times before i managed to put it safely on the ground (it seems Ike has stronger gravity than minmus so i had to use a couple of engines more to brake in time before touching), however i had the precaution of quicksaving before doing dangerous things. Call me cheater, but designing, launching, docking and doing all the trips means a lot of time and work to lose all in a big crash!

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yeah, I've only ever noticed useful information like that come up in the VAB.

Interesting and elaborate operation you have going on there, btw. I sent a mission to Duna last night with a rather large lander that blew up on me in the atmosphere . It was supposed to be a science mission to a place where the ice cap meets the sands first with 15 scientists and a lab.. later downgraded to just 5. Both times, failures. Not frustrating, just ate up about 40% of my weekend! Damn...

It sounds like you hit the thick atmosphere too fast or deployed your chutes too fast. For a big heavy lander, you are going to need a lot of thrust to slow down below 100m/s. If you deploy chutes going faster than that then your ship will explode itself.

Basically, you have to burn during the entire descent, even with a small capsule. With a big lander, you'll need to burn hard the whole way down.

 

[warpus]

Yeah, I think I must have gotten everything *just* right that first (or was it second?) mission to Duna where I seemed to have just enough fuel for every stage of the operation.. That happened without any real plan in terms of fuel amounts.. I got lucky and now I'm realizing how lucky I got

Then again, yeah, the lander was rather bulky.. I was going way too fast.

Missions take too long in this game. I just got into Medieval II: Total War (never played any of the total war games until now and I have 7 of them on steam) so I think I will be spending a bit less time in Kerbal. I don't know what needs changing, aside from the obvious like better/faster physics and a way to design different stages of your ship separately and then attach each stage individually (yeah, I know there is a mod for that, but), but each mission seriously takes like a full day for me, or evening. I love immersive games like this, but the "okay, let's figure out what I need to do to put *this* in orbit" that usually takes a couple hours is getting less and less enjoyable each time I do it. Then again, it is very satisfying once it actually works..

Still though, it's a huge investment of time for me, and these total war games look like something juuust up my alley. Obviously I've known of them, I just never tried them out until now. Anyway, I'll keep checking this subforum, I just might not play as much. I wonder when 0.19 comes out and what goodies might be included

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I hear you, I haven't played since I put up the Y-Wing. I just don't have the time and this game isn't something you can just turn on and spend 5 minutes on and then walk away. You have to give up an afternoon at a minimum. It doesn't help that there is no objective or rewards to achieve, so you have no incentive to NOT do a big complicated mission all at once instead of small steps.

And yes, having to rebuild your successful launchers every time is a time-sucking chore. And as far as mods go, I hope they start incorporating a lot more of them into the game because many of the really cool things I have seen on this thread are just impossible in the main game.

I really hope that they incorporate two major changes:
1)The game needs to be more forgiving in all respects
2)They need to add some sort of simulation function so you can test thinga before you fly them


All in all, I still love the game and wish I had more time to play it. I do hope they make some changes, but I try and avoid being to critical of the game, it is in alpha after all. Really, it is a positive sign that this many people are hooked into it what is essentially a half-working prototype.

 

[warpus]

hyperedit can be used to test out designs on other planets, but I haven't really used it. I have it installed but I'm thinking it might get too.. tempting to just start using it for missions.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Is that another mod? I just can't avoid them it seems

 

[trader/warrior]

Useful! Now i only need to know how much Delta-v has my ship at any given moment. Is there a good way to know it? Mechjeb has it at the "vessel info" module but it it always says i have +3000 m/s even when my tanks are nearly empty. It apparently works better at the VAB.

You might want to try the Kerbal Engineer Redux mod I think it does this, but I'm not sure. Otherwise it might satisfy your need for info a bit more, though it mostly displays similar stuff to mechjeb. I used this to prevent autopilot addiction .

 

[LamaGT]

It's like I forgot how to start up an orbit I'm trying to use the "burn at apoapsis" strategy and some variations of it, but usually I end up either with a very eccentric orbit, or i just get back into the atmosphere
It has happened with multiple rockets, though it's true that the payload of both of them is heavy. Now, I use a triple 1m rocket configuration, with about 2 tall tanks each. The fuel is enough, but the TWR is atrocious. Any advice for a good middle stage?


Earlier on I tried to build a space station to be put on geostationary orbit around Duna (Dunostationary? ), but I realized too late that using the hullmounted docking ports has the terrible side effect of not ensuring proper allignment on the right axis
Now I'm trying to send a simple nuclear powered rover, but I just can't send the second module with a mapping satellite

 

[Thorgalaeg]

You might want to try the Kerbal Engineer Redux mod I think it does this, but I'm not sure. Otherwise it might satisfy your need for info a bit more, though it mostly displays similar stuff to mechjeb. I used this to prevent autopilot addiction .

Hello, my name is thorgalaeg and I'm an autopilot addict. It is nice to do things myself the first time but then it becomes a burden. But mechjeb autopilot is mostly a waste, it only works to land on low gravity moons and launch very light and stable rockets, everything else i must do it myself. The Smart A.S.S on the other hand is really handy and i use it continuously.
I also just discovered this other mod called ORDA which has an apparently more advanced autopilot with a lot of misterious buttons, i only use it to maintain the correct attitude when docking, that really helps.

BTW the Kerbal Engineer Redux is just that i was looking for! TY.

About my next plans, i am flirting with ion engines now, in order to build a large ambitious starship to explore the whole solar system which will have all sort of gadgets and commodities and will not left you without fuel at any random point. Just downloaded a mod with a pretty big ion and some new kind of hybrid engine (it is called the ion pack mod) however it seems ion engines needs lots of electric power and also consumes xenon gas. Sadly i didnt add xenon gas tanks to my kethane platforms. It will also be equiped with a "lander" (sor of) which will have an inflatable ballon so it can float in the jool atm (from the Airships to Eve, Laythe, Duna, etc mod). So, many things to do but not time at all...

 

[Civ'ed]

So, exactly how does mechjeb work? I'm interested since i have my lovely issue with orbiting Kerbin (I'll just put it down to having an engineer who dropped out of astronomy, or at least is a bit hard hearing)

 

[Thorgalaeg]

It's like I forgot how to start up an orbit I'm trying to use the "burn at apoapsis" strategy and some variations of it, but usually I end up either with a very eccentric orbit, or i just get back into the atmosphere
It has happened with multiple rockets, though it's true that the payload of both of them is heavy. Now, I use a triple 1m rocket configuration, with about 2 tall tanks each. The fuel is enough, but the TWR is atrocious. Any advice for a good middle stage?

More powerful engines. Sometimes the mainsail is not enough. You could install more mainsails but there are better alternatives: Dont know exactly which mod it is, since i dowloaded and installed many things simultaneously but it could be the "KW mod" or something. It comes with some nice stuff. For me it was also a hard task to build my main launcher. Finally the winner design is this:

Spoiler :

It uses several short and powerfull stages with some large solid booster in the first one. Everything packed in six symetry around the payload, not under it. Max payload to LEO is around 150 tons. Very stable.

Ah, one thing more, to launch big wider rockets you need to get rid of the large red launch tower at the launching pad, of course there is a mod (i like mods) for it too, you can look for it some pages back in this very thread.

BTW here is a first attempt on my pure ion powered vessel:

Spoiler :

 

[Thorgalaeg]

So, exactly how does mechjeb work? I'm interested since i have my lovely issue with orbiting Kerbin (I'll just put it down to having an engineer who dropped out of astronomy, or at least is a bit hard hearing)

After you install the mod, you will find some new parts at the control category, place the mechjeb part which looks like a remote control transmitter somewhere in your ship and once in the launch plataform you will find mechjeb in the right border of the screen.

 

[trader/warrior]

I started on an ICBM game thread, but since I'm a space nut, I decided to start it off with a brief history of ICBM's and an overview of how they worked. That is taking much longer than expected and now it won't done today.

Not to be impatient or anything, but I WANNA ICBM THREAD.

 

[warpus]

Is that another mod? I just can't avoid them it seems

Yeah, it allows you to teleport whatever you want wherever in the solar system you want. It does a lot of other stuff like.. it allows you to replenish all of your fuel. It does a lot more, but I'm not really sure what... edit: what a ramble, but yeah, I've only used it twice and the first time my ship blew up

@Thorgalaeg what do you use smart A.S.S. for?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

For maneovering my ship naturally, i am too lazy to do it myself. Particullarly at a burn you can be sure it will be pointing to the correct direction without deviations so you can even use time warp (with alt+.,) which is fundamental for ion engines. The downside is it will use a lot of mopropellant.

 

[LamaGT]

More powerful engines. Sometimes the mainsail is not enough. You could install more mainsails but there are better alternatives: Dont know exactly which mod it is, since i dowloaded and installed many things simultaneously but it could be the "KW mod" or something. It comes with some nice stuff. For me it was also a hard task to build my main launcher. Finally the winner design is this:

Spoiler :

It uses several short and powerfull stages with some large solid booster in the first one. Everything packed in six symetry around the payload, not under it. Max payload to LEO is around 150 tons. Very stable.

Ah, one thing more, to launch big wider rockets you need to get rid of the large red launch tower at the launching pad, of course there is a mod (i like mods) for it too, you can look for it some pages back in this very thread.

BTW here is a first attempt on my pure ion powered vessel:

Spoiler :

Meh, I'd prefer doing it smaller and with stock parts, but thanks nevertheless.

Yeah, it allows you to teleport whatever you want wherever in the solar system you want. It does a lot of other stuff like.. it allows you to replenish all of your fuel. It does a lot more, but I'm not really sure what... edit: what a ramble, but yeah, I've only used it twice and the first time my ship blew up

@Thorgalaeg what do you use smart A.S.S. for?

I like it because it gives me precision, i can just write 70 on the surf tab and it will keep me at a 70° eastward course. Also moving it by hand is way too hard

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Not to be impatient or anything, but I WANNA ICBM THREAD.

Me too. I'm really sorry guys, the past two weeks have been insane.

 

[cardgame]

Right then. You all lose.


Link to video.


I lose too