Just made over 3000 science on a Probe mission to Eve. Accidentally de-orbited it but owing to Eve's thick atmosphere (and low gravity?) most of the probes science equipment and half the power sources sirvived. If that had been a successfull manned return mission, the science would have been 5 times an much I reckon. Eve is a beautiful planet by the way
This was a trip to Minmus: With this little guy. That I landed back on Kerbal, thanks to it's some 25 parachutes. and a bit of left over fuel.
So I finally got around to trying this game. Played the demo for about 45 minutes, and then bought the game. I must say I've never laughed so hard as some of "accidents" i had. The only thing is the tutorial was very sparse, so I have no idea what I'm actually doing, or why I would need a certain piece of equipment. So my question is this: is the learning curve high for this game? and do I need to read up a bunch of stuff off wikis before starting, or is the full game better at teaching the ropes than the demo? Thanks EDIT: ok, so I've read a tiny bit from the wikis, and curve is pretty high. Nothing too scary though. I think I'll just feel my way around the game at first and go from there. So scrap my previous question for this: Is the career mode better to start out with, or should I just sandbox from day 1?
There's some great videos on youtube by Scott Manley on beginner stuff. My question after buying the game is, what's the best way to get started with science points at the start of the campaign? I've done a low earth orbit and recover, and I've got a pod in high orbit with no fuel left that's very slowly coming lower, but Apops stil at 98k and perips at 65k so might never come down,
I would say yes, I played around with the full game a bit before career mode was released but nothing too much, didn't manage to achieve a decent orbit or anything like that. I would say career mode is a good start, one, it limits that parts you can use, in sandbox it can be a bit overwhelming when you begin with all the different things. For instance, when you first start, there's no separators, so the first few flights are just learning very basic construction and flight controls. As you progress, you start unlocking more things and you get introduced to parts in a more controlled manner. You also can only use the small diameter parts to begin with, I find these are actually easier to master to get to orbit and other stellar bodies as large diameter parts are just so damn heavy, it's easy to put too much on there. It's all about using the different biomes of kerbin, to name a few you have Shores Grassland Water Highland Mountain Desert Polar I think there's also badlands and tundra? Then you have the launch pad and landing strip and KSP. One good thing to do is go into orbit, and every time it looks like you're over a new type of scenery, get out and do a crew report and an EVA. You can have multiple EVAs stored so long as they're from different biomes. You can also take surface samples (including the launch pad and landing strip) so take a few samples (and do an EVA report) around KSP, and take a sample and EVA report every time you touch down somewhere on kerbin that's a new biome (I intentionally touched down on the north pole to get a sample. Also, when you unlock the mystery goo and materials bay, do the same thing in low orbits around kerbin. Once this is done, you should have plenty of science to build something capable of reaching the Mun (the mun also has loads of biomes)
Thanks for the advise Veles . As for the science points - I also noticed that the system tells the difference between ocean and lakes (fresh water I assume) as well as shoreline and deep ocean. There's also the beach, but that may be just desert. As for the goo. There is also a difference between upper atmosphere (says the goo is cold) and space (says the goo has formed a sphere). /2cents
Cheers for that. Yeah I've done a few samples (only about 3) and EVAs. But with the goo and the science jr, I don't seem to get all the science back. Especially the Science jr, I'm not sure if it's because I haven't safely landed a unit with the science jr module onboard or what. Although yesterday, I did a mun flyby, did some science jr on the way there and should have collected about 75 (maybe more) science from it. But when I landed back on Kerbin (possibly on it's side but not blown up) I didn't get any science from experiements.
I think there is, the best thing to look at is the title of the science report (i.e. Materials Study from X) as that tells you what biome you are in when you make the report. Here's a good link that tells you where you can use different units: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Science It's on the first table, so for the Goo Container, you have a new reading for each biome on kerbin when you have landed, and then you have one unique reading for each of lower and upper atmosphere, and low and high orbit. (If you look at EVA, as I was talking about before, in low orbit, you get a unique report depending on which biome you are over, but only one report for being in high orbit) Hope this helps, I've found science wasn't the easiest thing to figure out as there aren't really any in game guides on how the system works. Pre-patch 0.23 you needed to land the science module on kerbin to get the data (or transmit at the cost of losing lots of science). However, in the new patch you can do an EVA and retrieve the science from the module and take it back to your command pod (like you you store EVA reports) Be warned, in the new patch, once you've transmitted (or taken the data on an EVA), you can't use the science module again. Essentially it's now a one shot item (you can still reset the the module to take a new reading, but once you've retrieved the data, you can't use the module again).
That'll be it then. I'm just observing the instruments, then pressing "Keep data", then resetting the equipment and doing it at another point. Didn't realise I had to EVA and get the report then store it in the pod. Cheers. *EDIT* Just tried EVA'ing and trying to collect the data from the Science Jr, but I couldn't do anything with it, no interaction options. Landed the probe back down on Kerbin safely, but no science from the science jr collected.
I may have accidentally killed Jeb. Tried to launch a rescue for him, got him out of his pod but missed the pick up. He then fell back to Kerbin and missed the sea. And now, after landing on the mun, getting a soil sample, materials investigation, crew report and EVA report, which would have netted me a nice bunch of science, Bill was killed while trying to take off. Reports suggest that the lander may have fallen over on landing and couldn't obtain verticality on take off, thus causing it to explode. He will be remembered by the photo below, taken shortly before his fiery death.
Jeb/bill/bob always get resurrected. So you can learn new ways to kill them ..................... What was that MapSat-Duna, you have found something on duna? Jeb Go have a look. Jeb we said have a look not stand on it.......
Run the experiment, select to keep the data. eva, get the kerbal very close to the science jr. right click on it, select take data(or whatever it says) return to pod. For some reason I have a hard time getting data from the science jr. But other things like the goo, various science tools. you just need to be close enough to them.
Never managed to get anything from the science pod, doing exactly that. Seems to work if I just run experiment, keep data, but then don't reset it, then land and recover. Obviously it means I can only do one experiment per run but it's better than nothing at the moment. I'll try again to get the data at some point.
Unfortunately unless you have a science lab, once you've taken the data out of a module (either by transmitting it, or by collecting it using a kerbal on EVA) you can't reset it. Just had a go with the new science system and think it's much better now, just did my first trip to Duna, unfortunately it wasn't a return trip :S When I returned to KSC, I ended up having about 1100 science to spend so I've now got mainsail engines
Loving the new science (as i "hope" to design for return trips) which makes the sci habitat not needed First Moho (since update to 0.23) 1318.5 Sci
First trip to minmus, and I did it on the first attempt with no reverts, Successful return trip, netted me about 300 science. Weirdly it was Jeb on board and nothing went wrong! Probably do a few more and try and land in different areas, then probably move on to duna.
Mun is a good one to milk as it's quite quick to get to and has several biomes, as you're orbiting it, every large crater you see is it's own biome (plus there are a few more than that too).
Been playing a little today, for the first time since... a looong time, I like how they have added 3D-mouse support! I have a 3Dconnexion SpacePilot Pro (that is the name of the unit, I am NOT a PRO space pilot ) So trying to get enough science-points to research more.. what is the best way to get points?
Currently; Best way to get science is to take every single experiment you can to an area you've not been, especially a Kerbal, as the EVA report and surface samples are worth a fortune if you can tag an area of the Mun or Minimus you've not researched yet. The fun challenge is that you also have to get it all back. I've wound up using the Science Jr for hardware assisted braking too many times.
Latest mission to Eeloo 1980.5 sci although I did have to stop back at my mun station to refuel the return craft And Jeb did not crash anything!
