Thank you. :-D I flew all those attempts at the Mün yesterday and finally managed to get a large enough payload out to Münar orbit. I am, as you can understand, terribly excited to have a go at successfully landing and returning later tonight. We shall have to wait for the public report due out from the kerbal Collective some time during the next couple of days for confirmation.
I'm so gutted that I missed this on sale the other day on Steam... Really want to get into it but can't justify £20 on it at the minute...
I paid £17.99 for it as part of the early access program on steam and don't regret it one bit! I have no internet at home currently (due to a house move and a delay in BT sorting out the local lines) and have really enjoyed my time with KSP, without all the other games and their Multilayer distractions! Currently building a ship capable of carrying 3 Kerbals and a rover to Duna but the challenge is, what I want it to be a single launch! no in orbit building or refuelling!
Wow, that's quite a rocket, I think you might be having the problems I had when I started, I just kept adding more rockets on and things didn't really improve. My advice would be to lose the tri-coupler and large rocket. I've never found them to be effective and I've stuck with small sized stuff for now. Here's my Mun Lander. Bottom stage is 2 layers of asparagus staging, 2 tanks are drained at a time then jettisoned, when I get into orbit I usually have 3 rockets from the bottom stage still left. Mid stage is just a simple single liquid engine with 2 fuel tanks, I have made it to the Mun and had to dump this stage with nearly full fuel before in order to make my landing. In my latest version of this I've switched out the regular small sized liquid engine for the nuclear engine I've unlocked which is very fuel efficient in vacuum (but also very heavy)
My amateur advice would be to go more vertical and less horizontal with your designs. I try to shy away from doubling up on radial mounts, adds drag and typically stability issues. Although my last Mun landing attempt ended with a dead Kerbal so take this advice at your own risk! ...Okay so in truth it was my own fault. My nuclear engined Kerbin to Mun stage had plenty of unused fuel, so I was using it to assist my landing. Unfortunately, when I got close and needed to switch stages to get to the lander I forgot to cut throttle before decoupling! The previous stage kept thrusting into my lander and my attempts to clear it without detonating the remaining fuel took up so much time that I wasn't able to burn speed before hitting the surface. Made some tweaks to fuel levels on different stages, tonight will be the new version's test flight! Question: Why do you have two Science Jr.'s? It seems like the diminishing returns is universal so having more than one is unecessary, unless I'm missing something which is totally possible. You could put the Science Jr. in place of the fuel tank under the command pod, then place two of said fuel tanks where the Science Jr's currently are and remove the smaller tanks under them. Seat them lower so your landing gear is still in a good spot. You have the same total fuel, and save the weight of a Science Jr. You could probably also get away with just the parachute on the command pod as well, since you can empty your fuel landing on Kerbin.
I use them in different biomes when I make a trip, each time you use it in a new biome (e.g. high orbit over mun and from surface of polar crater) you get full points for both. It is diminishing returns the more trips I take to the same place as it's not really practical to make 2 landings on the same body, but it means even though I've only made one trip to Minmus so far, I've got lots of points from using it on the surface, and another whole lot of points for using the other one in orbit. Hoping tonight to launch my first working space station that will serve as a re-fueling point for my rockets once they reach orbit. I'm going to try for Duna Next unlock I'm going for on the tree is the Mainsail which might make large rockets more viable
Ah, I've just been repeatedly transmitting everything until I'm getting 1-2 science per. Transmitting reduces the science you get per use of each item, but allows you to get far more total science per trip since you can keep on using them and transmitting. Downside is you have to time your transmits around when you're boosting at the start, and put points into unlocking solar panels early on. And you waste some potential science for each biome, by an amount equal to the transmit efficiency for the given report, but that doesn't seem to be an issue.
Yeah I don't like transmitting data, unless it's a crew report of course as that's 100%, does mean I have to make more trips though
Münshot XII - Public mission report. Luke had finally got his ship into stable orbit around the Mün. Two orbits later a landing area was selected, and Luke was cleared to make his approach. Luke Kerman: "Roger that Control. I'm going in ... butt first!" Mission Control: "You are aware that this might get public broadcast, right?" A while later and Luke had successfully killed his horizontal speed, and he was now making steady progress towards the beckoning surface of the Mün with plenty of fuel in his tanks. The landing assist stage finally drained and got kicked loose; we're on lander boosters now. The mission is looking good, but again the terrain selected for landing seems a bit rough. Luke: "I'm at 6000 meters; the landing site looks a bit hilly..." Mission Control: "That's OK. Every successful return mission we've ever flown involved landing in hilly areas and there's no reason that should change today. You're good to go!" And sure enough; at 4694 meters up in the Münar highlands Luke gently landed his ship With plenty of fuel left in the tanks. Luke had set the ship Down, but there was no time to rest yet. After having a quick snack in the pod and preparing all the science-y gear, it was time to step outside, pose for the cameras, plant a flag and get a surface sample to bring back to the eggheads back at the Kerbal Institute of Science-y Science". Having completed his tasks at the surface, and after having a quick nap, Luke prepped his ship for the return trip. Before he knew it he was back in Münar orbit working to set a course to return home. Luke: "I've made it! Finally, I've made the Mün my bi***! Hang on ... I'm on fire!" Feeling somewhat exuberant after finally having flown a successful Münar Return mission, a second mission were immediately footed. The good (and aptly named) ship "Probing Duna" got hastily put together and launched, and just three UDEs (Unplanned Disassembly Events) later we had the good ship "Probing Duna II" in orbit. Now it was time for the mission planners and navigators to get busy plotting a course, and this time we are going to Duna to do some preliminary probing of her features. Then, one long burn later, we are on our way.
Definitely going to be buying this at Christmas, looks great fun. How much control do you have over stuff? Like the rocket or lander etc? Do you just plot the course and it does the rest? Suppose with launches you just hit fire and it goes, but do you have to pilot the lander down to the surface?
Full control, including plotting new orbits and performing the burns. full launch control, staging, atmospheric flight, landing etc.
You have full control over every aspect of the launch, landing, orbit, re-entry, docking and so on. You can tweak every little ounce of rotation, pitch, yaw and thrust through key presses. There are mods you can add to the sandbox mode to make a fairly accurate auto-pilot, but it's nowhere near as satisfying as completing a landing mission through manual controls.
Just completed my first minimus landing, total science about 450. Finally have the parts to build a space station now, and attempt some rescues of the 10 kerbals I have lost in space!!!
Haven't tried this one yet and looks pretty interesting to play with.. checking the game now and hopefully try my hands on it..
