So KSP is now on 0.21, which has given the game a pretty hefty overhaul and started to add some supporting features for career mode. It has been interesting to see this game develop from the very first beta, to steam early access etc. But that I really want to talk about it MechJeb, which has also received an update (2.0.9 - compatible with 0.21 of KSP) and is available on the Kerbal Space Port site. I have held off using this mod until now, mainly because I wanted to get the feeling of achievement of landing on the Mun by the very fun trial and error the game excels at. However, this is actually quite a complex game and getting consistently good orbits (as required for building space station and docking new modules) is a mission in itself and very time consuming unless your name is Scott Manley! Mech Jeb has not been taken down to a single external attachment and will cover all the important features for getting into orbit, getting to other planets and even landing if you like. This might sound a bit lazy or like cheating but if like me, the majority of your enjoyment comes from the design aspect, you will love this mod. You still have to design good rockets, so there is still much hilarity to be had with crashing, breaking up and generally exploding
There's also some changes to the stability controls that seem to make controlling your monstrosities a little less frustrating. Particularly for flying spaceplanes. For a somewhat casual player like myself (in the sense that I don't know much about spaceflight outside of playing KSP) MechJeb is a game-changer. It takes out so much of the busy work for things like launching stable rockets that you know you can get into orbit and have before, but don't necessarily want to sit through doing it again manually. Or the hassle of aligning orbits. And it's not perfect, the player still has to understand what they need to do in order to give MechJeb the right orders, or have a ship actually capable of performing the task. Overall well recommended mod to get more out of the game.
I'm so hooked on KSP right now. Last night managed to get 6 orange tanks into orbit (well, 7, but the middle one was for circularising my orbit) from a huge 36 engined (mainsails) monster. Yeah, that took me a while to get working.
Not sure how I didn't find this game sooner... But bought it a few days ago. Last night, decided to do a quick, to the moon and back. Was a little tired, and didn't listen to the voice in my head telling me not to land in the crater..... Lucky for me, I was able to kick loose the fuel tank that was opposite the one that broke loose. Making the ship symmetrical. And then I was able to make it home! (barely...)
I like the way you have constructed your lander/return rocket Personally, I have moved towards having stages for specific tasks, one to get into space, one to get into a stable orbit around kerbin and then another for interplanetary transfers and the final stage, a smaller lander to land on planets. Once the lander is done, back up to the transfer stage to dock and then back to kerbin I go. I will post some pictures when I get a moment to upload them
It sounds like how you deisgn your ships, is what I have been evolving towards as I play the game. After the screen shots I put up, I went back to the moon, er, mun. A bug/glitch ended up destroying a ship leaving only the crew pod, a solar panel, and luckly, a docking port(it was in orbit at the time). After that, i tried a different design, landed on the moon. but didn't have the fuel to get back up. Tried to get orbit anyway, ended up crash landing. stranded my guys there... So now I had three stranded in orbit, and three on the mun. Finally came up with a design like you said, get into orbit, transition to the moon, get into orbit there. detach, land, rescue, return to main ship. and back to the planet! Same thing with the one that was stuck in orbit. Except I just docked with it as it had a docking port still attached. Notice the two crew pods attached, this was the space rescue. Guess in hindsight. I could have sent an empty one, and had them space walk over. oh well! The was the ground rescue, The lander returned to the ship in orbit. after it's docked, I detach the engine/fuel tank as they are no longer needed. And this, is the last kerbonaut getting into the rescue ship. with the crashed pod in the background. You may also notice the legs are retracted. I broke one landing, gotta work on softer landings where i'm not moving sideways!!!
I'm still just firing guys off into space strapped to the end of a large rocket. they have the ability to fly around and do stuff, and can in theory land safely, but not with me as their pilot.
Nice, I like it a lot! There are several options now for sending un-manned rescue ships, in the form of the robotic control collars. The only un-manned rockets I currently use however are refuelling ships and ships that launch satellites Another rocket design choice I now use it something called asparagus staging, where effectively my rockets peel like an onion but specifically where by the outer tanks and rockets have cross feel lines into the centre tank, so that you get the full benefit of all rockets thrusting at the same time but when you "peel" those layers off, the central tank is still full. You seem to get a lot of Delta V that way as well as having lots of fuel for getting nice 100k circular orbits. A final major change I have adopted when using the large orange fuel tanks is using the 1-4 adapter, that allows me to attach 4 of the LV medium sized engines in the 200-215 thrust bracket. This gives less thrust than the large 1500 thrust main sail-engine but more (800-860) than the other 650 thrust main-sail engine and avoids the engine overheating problem of the largest engine. Again this also improved Delta V stats for the main stage. Incidentally, version 0.22 bring among other things, the sub-assembly loader, which is going to be very useful for making multi function ships, where you may have more than one command module, or where you need to alter the design significantly and you don't want to loose certain parts. I didn't get time last night to do any KSP or screen shotting but I will make an effort this week to sort some images. I have become re-inspired by your posts on KPS
I saw the cross feeding in a youtube video the other day. Currently i use it on the ship that I send to the moon as well(and when launching to orbit). The 4 drop tanks on the side, feed into a central tank. and because the engines are on supports that dont crossfeed, there is then a line that feeds into it. This way I can drop the 4 tanks when they become empty, losing the weight. If you split a tank and use the 4 of the LV medium sized engines, are you having problems getting into orbit with that? currently I use 32 main sail engines to get my mun ship up up and away. I end up with a bit of fuel left over, and have a main sail with 2 of the orange tanks full of fuel to send the lander towards the mun. And what mod is this robotic thing you speak of? This is the set up I have on my mun ship:
I do not understand how this game has escaped me for so long, but I recently found it and got the latest build (0.22). I am utterly amazed by this gem of a game! While I still haven't been able to get to the Mun - much less land on it - I am able to achieve stable orbits with the rockets I currently build. However, I am playing on career mode which makes it harder I suppose. Still, I burn too much fuel getting into orbit, and the lack of docking ports makes leaving Mun-injection stages parked in orbit unfeasible. Just need to grab some more science to get more good bits to build my rockets with as I'm currently mainly using SRBs to get to orbit. I haven't had this much fun with a game in a long time.
I notice 0.22 has resolved the worst of the terrible performace issued that were introduced in 0.21. Had made the game playable again. I look forward to performing acts of space science in the name of kerbal kind
Actually from what I have read the performance increase is *supposed* to come in the next update. whenever that will be! Currently trying a manned return trip to Eve...
My enjoyment of this is totally unhealthy - I'm absolutely loving it. I found it quite difficult to get into to start with, but an hour reading through the wiki and I'm sorted. I'm currently gearing up for a mission to orbit the mun in career mode. I'm not really sure if I have the right kit to do it. Already have 2 kerbals stranded in orbit, gonna wait to rescue them before I consider the jet pack trick I think. I am having issues with re-entry and recovering command pods - despite detaching from the main vessel so only the pod is remaining, often my parachute seems to break off before impact, and thus lots of bangs. Any ideas on where I'm going wrong?
Jebediah realised he was in a bit of a pickle, but enjoyed the honor of being the first Kerbal to land on the mün successfully ... (sort of). Then Bob stole his glory by successfully landing on Minmus (though he is a bit camera shy). We, the collective, are currently busy trying to mount a rescue mission to retrieve Jebediah's body (sadly he perished on the moon as the pod's energy reserves ran out. He died a hero to the collective!) to ensure a stately burial obviously, but also to secure the precious science stored in that pod.
Wait until you're about 800m above the surface before deploying to allow the command pod to slow down a bit on it's own. I don't actually just land a command pod as the best way to get science is to recover it rather than transmit it. I have a command pod, fuel tank, engine and a few science modules. I usually attach 2 extra parachutes to the fuel tank (I tried putting them all on the pod but that resulted in the rest of the lander falling off) and I usually have enough fuel to do a burn to slow down to under 100m/s before I open the chutes. Just done an unsucessful mun landing (I tried landing in the dark and only the pod managed to survive the landing) and a sucessful mun landing. I've tried going to Minmus but overshot when I was going a bit crazy with the warp so only did a flyby For anyone wanting the most fuel efficient way to get into orbit, google asparagus staging
every so often i come back to this for a bit, but i'm still just firing peeps off into space. i'm in career mode too, bit surprised i'm still allowed to be minister in charge of firing kerbals into space.
I haven't really seen any difference to deploying your parachute below 1,000 or above the atmosphere. I don't think I've ever seen the chute break off from the vessel. Quite enjoying career mode. I'm currently in the process of building a large unmanned space station (once I unlock a few more parts) that can move around the galaxy, transmit research data and act as a base for my other ships that need to do long distance trips. Happy to say ol' Jeb Kerman is still alive and doing well on Dres (unfortunately Bob Kerman didn't survive the trip), he's been there for a while now doing surface testing in the canyon and will be thinking about making a return trip once the station is up and running... if he can find his way back to the ship.
