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Windows Kerbal Space Program

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by Zinfandel, 13 Jul 2011.

  1. .//TuNdRa

    .//TuNdRa Resident Bulldozer Guru

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    Ever had those days where you just want to punch physics in the junk as hard as you possibly can?

    [​IMG]

    Ironically; that actually flies better than just about anything else I've built thus far.
     
  2. adrock

    adrock Caninus Nervous Rex

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    So, maybe i'm going nuts or something, but...

    I started playing KSP again over the weekend. between a stinking cold and having a house guest who's pretty keen on space, we sat and spent a long time trying to get stable orbiters in career mode.

    Now, i remember the first time i gave KSP a go i needed to add an SAS module to enable SAS, i always had it attached to the command pod or cockpit just above their decoupler. So, not finding this in the list I assumed i'd need to research it and kept trying to get science.

    Turned out, after several prototypes (mk 1 through 9, plus revision on 3, 5, and 6 (several of which were designed with infinite fuel in mind so i could get used to adjusting orbits), that SAS is included by default in all the cockpit modules.

    Am I going nuts, was this always the case? On the one hand, it suddenly got much easier and i'm pretty close now to getting to the moon (my friend crashed into it). Also, it turns out despite really heavy spin, I can get into orbit with two stages without SAS (where stage 1 is solid fuel boosters to ~8,000m). It's not a pretty orbit, but i can get up there and de-orbit and land safely without SAS.

    Any tips for getting to Mun? I also read this thread last ngiht and saw the stuff on taking soil samples and doing EVAs and getting reports, so I'm going to re-fly a lot of my older designs tonight to get all the tasty science.

    A time acceleration incident has resulted in one of the mk6's leaving the solar system. it's a long way out, but i've managed to cut it's speed from 16000ms-1 to 13000. The end goal is to rescue jebediah so he can be the Kerbin equivalent of buck rogers.
     
  3. DeckerdBR

    DeckerdBR Minimodder

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    All command modules include some SAS, however, the level of control they offer is more geared to small landers. You still need in-line stabilisers and advanced SAS modules for helping to keep control of larger rockets. My personal rule is to use in-line stabilisers on SRBs and advanced SAS for rocket core and liquid boosters that I use to get into orbit.

    Keep the lander small, the Mun has a surprising amount of gravity and without atmosphere, there is no air braking to help kill your velocity. I also find, that doing a retrograde burn to lower my orbit and slow me down before actually making the decent is helpful.

    It's easier to Land on Duna than it is the Mun, she is a cruel mistress! :)
     
  4. adrock

    adrock Caninus Nervous Rex

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    i did have a nice lander, but i attached the parachutes too low, so when i came down it flipped upside down.

    it did survive unscathed though, i've since moved the chutes to above the COG.

    The difference i got in enabling SAS just to keep basic rockets stable was huge. I no longer have to hold Q or E to cancel spin while using any 2 of WASD to maintain heading. hell, even my initial 'examine goo at high altitude' craft can make orbit with it turned on and it was never intended to do anything other than fly straight up and fall back down.
     
  5. .//TuNdRa

    .//TuNdRa Resident Bulldozer Guru

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    One of the more recent updates (I can't remember which one, though) Changed SAS mechanics so it was a bit more intelligent and stable, that's probably part of the reason you're finding it easier. Does mean I can't find a difference between normal SAS and ASAS now, but that's a small price to pay.

    Only thing I advise watching out for is the Science Jr. unit; it seems to be attached with aging double-sided sticky tape, so any sudden jerks can cause it to seperate from whatever it's attached to, I can't say how many times I've returned a Mun or Minimus mission and deployed chutes in Atmo, only to watch the Jr. Cannon into the ground as the force of the chutes deploying fully rips it off the craft, leaving me with only Goo Canisters, crew samples and reports for science.

    As for science runs; If you're finding the Mun a pain in the arse because your engines aren't powerful enough on the design; Try Minimus. The fuel requirement is more or less the same, but Minimus absolutely tiny gravity field lets you basically just lay an entire rocket down on the surface if you need to, it's also pretty good for science if you're still looking, moreso in .23 now that there's multiple Biomes on the little rock.
     
  6. adrock

    adrock Caninus Nervous Rex

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    i've a design which i'm pretty certain can get into orbit for either, going to attach my lander and see if i can go there and back without landing and what fuel i have left. no fuel lines yet so asparagus staging is a no go. Sorely tempted to try and go from kerbin orbit to mun orbit to minimus, land, then straight back to kerbin. plenty of science potential if i can pull it off.

    I don't have access to the science jr :) just goo pods for me. once i do, would it potentially help to attach it separately with it's own decoupler and chutes, or will it just count as debris then?
     
  7. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    What I do to keep my science jr intact is have landing struts on the returning lander, and try to land it on solid ground on kerbin. In the sea, I've found it just decouples from the command pod along with everything else.
     
  8. aramil

    aramil One does not simply upgrade Forums

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    As above either bring it back to Kerbin with a controlled decent on a return lander, or go EVA collect the data and store it in the command module (then you can disguard the sci module).

    Have to agree that water and Kerbal space bonding tape does not agree with each other.....
     
  9. adrock

    adrock Caninus Nervous Rex

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    cheers guys, good things to look out for :) and all will be useful in my quest to get Jebediah back in less than 300-350 years (somewhere between buck rogers and duck dodgers).
     
  10. adrock

    adrock Caninus Nervous Rex

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    I made it to Mun orbit and back. it was a bit touch and go, my orbit went way out of alignment but my first pass dropped me in just ahead of the mun so i burned back and ended up in a long wonky ellipse orbit. my ap was way out towards kerbin though, and i hardly used any fuel getting back.

    tonight i will try to land, although i've only successfully landed my lander once on kerbin, with parachutes, so it may need a redesign (it also makes me top heavy and my second stage handles like crap).
     
  11. aramil

    aramil One does not simply upgrade Forums

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    A bit of practice will get those more circular. (Do you use maneuvers in map view?)

    And returning from the mun takes very little fuel just a deorbit towards kerbin and you will fall in to its gravity well.

    Good luck for the mission :thumbup:

    As long as you remove all your travelling speed over your target and let gravity do the rest (ie drop straight down) it should be easy.

    Do you have inline sas on your stages? I know that the first landings/flights can be a little unstable until you research more/better parts (all part of the fun landing, what is a firework, on the mun).
     
  12. adrock

    adrock Caninus Nervous Rex

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    Of course i don't use maneuvers in map mode, i only discovered automated attitude control two days ago! If it isn't me doing everything then i can't really claim i've been to the Mun. I have largely got them equatorial, the first moon shot something wasn't aligned right and stage 2 actually did a loop-the-loop on it's way to 70k. by the time i got it stable i didn't want to faff and correct my orbit as i figured it'd use more fuel doing it there (30k altitude) than doing it after i'd left the atmosphere.

    The re-design is probably going to reduce the top stage in mass (maybe remove landing gear and engine+tank for now) so it'll handle better, then i can try and repeat using planning in place of luck.

    haven't researched sas yet, i need to land in more biomes on kerbin to get some more science i think, i might need to design some kind of basic sub-orbital hopper to jump to different places, my current method involves getting my 2 stage orbiter into orbit, then de-orbiting. as they tend to be in a low orbit i struggle to accurately pick a landing site.
     
  13. legoman

    legoman breaker of things

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    Not sure if its just my own stupidity but i cannot get to Mun, i managed one but couldnt slow my decent (1000+ M/S) so crashed nicely. Any ideas on what i can do? I have a lander which will do the job ive done some dummy runs on Kerbin but i either miss Mun totally or end up trying to chase it around which usually ends badly.
     
  14. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Watch the Scott Manley video on youtube of getting to the mun, or the minmus one, it's the same principle.

    But basically.

    Get into orbit around kerbin, set mun as target, create a maneuver node, drag out the so the orbit just touches the muns orbit path, then twizzle the node around your orbit until you get a mun intercept. Tweak it till your happy, then burn to the mun, then orbit the mun and circulize. Choose Landing spot, place a maneuver node roughly 180 degrees from your landing sit and drop the orbit down till it's around your landing spot.
    Then burn on that node to start bringing you down. When ready kill lateral velocity by retro-burning. Then just let the lander fall to the mun, making sure to keep retro burning to keep your speed from getting too high, land at <10ms.
     
  15. aramil

    aramil One does not simply upgrade Forums

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    Last edited: 31 Dec 2013
  16. Draksis

    Draksis What's a Dremel?

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    So I was wondering if anyone is still playing this? I've been playing it here and there (hit a bit of brick wall in design), but more messing about than actually achieving goals.

    Any news on future updates? I've looked around a bit, but I hear the developers don't like to officially post dates for patches.
     
  17. aramil

    aramil One does not simply upgrade Forums

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    Yeah just doing a grand tour & deep space mission.

    Yeah they generally give a date when it is almost ready. But we have just had Two quick updates over xmas. So I would expect a little time until the next. (Keep your eye on the ksp forum).

    Career mode helps focus on science and more progressive play and design.
     
  18. chrisb2e9

    chrisb2e9 Dont do that...

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    I still play it a lot. Have over 400 hours put into the game now.
    Played with quite a few mods. Kethane the most recent one. Find it a bit like cheating though. Game is a lot harder if you can't refuel at your destination.

    Might be an update in February. And if not, March likely.

    Until then, i'll just keep playing around.

    I made a carpet bomber a few days ago. Lots of small fuel tanks, and seperators all chained together and set to release in the same stage. I enjoy blowing up KSP command.

    Making missiles can be fun too but I find them hard to control. I need to try the lazor mod...
     
  19. Journeyer

    Journeyer Minimodder

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    I'm still playing this game a lot, and I am preparing another post detailing the endeavours of my Kerbal Collective as we speak. As for mods there are some that I definitely consider "cheaty" (the FTL mod comes to mind), but I wouldn't count Kethane among them (possibly mostly because I have just started messing with it myself) as Squad has put resources on ice for the time being. Being able to mine local resources makes a lot of sense, particularly when considering colonising the solar system proper. I also use the fairings mod because fairings.

    I do that too, though in my case it's more of a consequence rather than a planned event...
     
    Last edited: 31 Jan 2014
  20. Voluntary_Pariah

    Voluntary_Pariah a Real Man™

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    I had a moment of clarity yesterday, while I was downloading an ebook about the maths of orbital mechanics and ordering a new high end gaming rig, that I may have got a little bit too into Kerbal space program...
     

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