Anyone playing this? It's stupidly addicting.

Right now I'm still trying to learn how to accomplish a rendevous.

It's on my wishlist, but I have precisely $0.00 worth of disposable income right now.

Someone bought it for me a short time ago. My most recent accomplishment was, after three days of trial and failure and quickloading, and delivering more fuel and monopropellant, unsuccessfully crashing* Bill, Bob and Jebediah, and four other Kerbals, onto the Mun, along with most of a massive six-wheeled rover the size of a large American recreational vehicle.


*An unsuccessful crash is a crash-landing wherein the principal components of the lander remain intact and functional. It came to a rest on its side, but I was able to right it using what remained of the descent stage. Most of it was intact, unfortunately the RCS tanks on the sides were broken off in the crash.


This is the photograph taken of the landing. To the left of the picture you see what remains of the top of the descent stage, which was intended to land upright with the rover below it, then detach and blast up and away on some SRBs. The thing to the right was the lower descent stage, intended to provide some extra thrust for stabalizing the lander on its way down, then being jettisoned when its tanks were dry. Unfortunately, things didn't go to plan, I had to bring it all down coupled to the Rockomax BIG transfer stage because the rockets on both halves of the ascent stage simply had insufficient fuel and thrust to decelerate the damn thing, and when I made the landing using the Mainsail, I had to jettison that stage. Unfortunately, things went wonk, it unbalanced, rolled across the terrain, smashing bits off, and finally came to a halt mostly intact and on its side.

If that's an unsuccessful crash, what constitutes a "successful" crash?

Impacting at sufficient velocity to smash your payload and/or your command module and/or basically render your Kerbs into a schmear the consistency of cream cheese and lox.

This is obviously some strange new usage of the word "successful" of which I was not previously aware.

I managed to break my Kerbal system....

I created a rover in the aircraft assembly hanger. I drove it up on the landing pad and then EVA'd all three kerbalnauts on the landing pad. I was experimenting to see if the kerbnauts could stand underneath a launching rocket and whether they would survive. I find out the launch pad would not accept a rocket flight while the kerbnauts were on the pad. So I took one of the kerbnauts and had him jump off the pad at the max time acceleration possible while on the ground. He disappeared so I canceled the flight.

When I went into the space center I couldn't see my solar system. I could see all the objects listed. I selected one of my space station cores (which I have yet to rendevous with) and the planet Kerbal was screwed up. Really screwed up. I'm talking landmass was entirely invisible and water didn't look right either. So I went back to the space center and looked at my 2 remaining kerbnauts and the rover. All three were on "trajectory out of the solar system". I peeked in on the kerbnauts, I couldn't even see a sign of the sun. I suspect they were either launched at FTL speeds out of the system or were stuck on the inside of the sun.

Either way, I wasn't able to actually cancel the flight like you can with other flights in progress. Fortunately, I was able to save file edit and forcibly remove those objects which restored everything back to normal.


My second bizarre even is related to the inherent structural weakness between parts. I was in my solar probe, which is orbiting the sun at ~3,600,000m altitude. I pitched my probe into a head over heels spin then cranked the speed up. My engine separated and went off into space. I aborted that flight since I was actually trying to get that to orbit as low as possible around the sun.

I have 4 space station cores at various altitudes (to practice rendevous). Two in low orbit (100km and 110km) then one at geosynchronous orbit (~4008km) and then another one around 8000km between the geo sync station and the Mun.

Are Munbases possible, or is it just space stations?

In theory, you can make a Munbase. I don't think you would be able to assemble it on the ground, unless it was a massive structure made of multiple rovers.

I suspect the best way to make a Munbase would be to assemble it in orbit around the moon and then land it.

Right now I've been playing with infinite fuel/rcs/eva while I keep trying to rendevous. I'm not concerned with fuel usage in this task.

There are some linguistic contortions necessary to explain the events surrounding Jebediah and crew coming to rest in one piece on the Mun.

It sure wasn't a successful landing, that's for damn sure.
It wasn't an unsuccessful landing, because that would mean they were still flying.
It wasn't a complete, successful crash, either, because they and the rover were in one piece, just on their sides and with some bits and bobs having fallen off.

Hence, an unsuccessful crash.

Once you've hit ground, you've landed. If they never touched down and were still flying it wouldn't be an unsuccessful landing. It would be a landing followed by an immediate take off.

This is definitely an unsuccessful landing. I would say there a number of criteria for defining a successful landing and failing to meet any one of those criteria would make it unsuccessful.

The landing craft lands intact and is capable of ascent.
The cargo of the landing craft is intact and functional.
The passengers of the landing craft are intact and functional.

Utterly addicted here, after an impulse steam buy!

Landed on the mun last night, unfortunately jebediah is left without fuel for a return home, so other than a half eaten jam sandwhich and a slightly used copy of kerbonauts monthly playkerb edition. He is screwed til i get a rescue going.

Chances of me landing in the exact same place? Verrrrry slim . Poor jeb

Aside from trying to figure out how to perform rendevous, I've been using my launch pad for far more useful tasks..... launching ICBMs.

Mach_Ten: My advice is to get MechJeb 2. It's still in beta, so you have to get it on the forums rather than from Kerbal Spaceport, but it's so, sooooooo worth it.

With MJ2, and a good lander design, you should be able to get a rescue mission within range of Jebediah, even if he has to hoof it. Alternatively, if you use the full Lazors mod, you can use Engineering Lazors to transfer more liquid fuel and oxidizer to his ship.

I second this. MechJeb is what I've been using to get my rockets to ascend to orbits for rendevous. It's also fantastic for gettings your circular orbits are practically precise altitudes.



You can also quantum teleport him back to Kerbal by ending the flight. The other option is Alt+F12 (I think, may be Alt+F10) which enables the debug window which lets you toggle infinite fuel, infinite RCS, infinite EVA, and unbreakable joints among a few other things. I've had fuel/rcs/eva on infinite while trying to do these damn rendevous. I want to figure it out, not worrying about fuel usage while trying to figure it out.

No no no, this has become full on Thunderbirds Are Go! Im building orbital refueling stations and a complex system of recovery, all done manually. Its the challenge now! Not going for haxxoring it.

Asparagus... ! Its a word to learn

Also if using orange tanks the put a smaller tank between it and the mainsail to avoid overheating.

The degree to which I crave this game increases logarithmically with each post... YET. I. HAVE. NO. MONEY.

MechJeb 2 isn't hacking, it's recieving the benefit of a good autopilot - which is something that if you ask the fine folk at NASA today, they wouldn't even conceive of launching any sort of space mission without.

My experiments with rockets that launch rockets hasn't been faring too well. I've attempted this by building a verticle stack around which other detachable rockets are mounted. The most frequent problem I've run into is when detaching more than 1 rocket often times ends up with the rockets colliding.

On the other hand, I've launched large rockets that whip about in the air like a flexible straw..... and achieved orbit.

was talking more around LAZORZ ... while while I really love the name and general usage, I will not "Beam Fuel" or teleport my minions back to base

there is a matter of professional pride involved here,

launched "Orbital One" into Kermin orbit last night, this is the core satellite with docking connectors all over it for
building the "Kermin Space Station" refueling and orbital launch platform

this is getting GOOD !

only detach when fuel is expended, this should avoid colision, or, use TT-70 Radial Decoupler

use struts to strengthen "Whip Like" rockets to reduce lag and make steering easier with ASAS. (Struts decouple if the stack is launched, they don't hang on)

I'll upload some pics later, but my satellite launch rig has NINE mainsails in asparagus staging until only one remains mostly full at orbit.

I know all of this. It was whipping after I used struts. Before I was using struts various areas would break their coupling and so I lost connection to the main rocket engine which ended up in an unguided ballistic trajectory.

I think you misunderstand my goal. I was attempting to launch unguided rockets from my guided rocket, thus I want them to have fuel when I decouple.

ahhh gotcha

All I can envisage would be a probe brain in the "Dumb" missile that you activate and the slowly accelerate after decoupling, but I think that defeats your objective of dumb missiles.

maybe you could design a launch tube ? from chassis parts ?to guide the rocket and keep it from colliding with your rocket

Hmmm ... I think I have it

your missiles need to use Solid fuel (they cannot be fuel adjusted)

and your Rocket needs the tiny version boosters in a reverse position to counter the pre detachment forces,

missile goes forward ,, rocket shoots back into a wider orbit

Stack the missiles you want to go flying away on top of the main rocket, preferably with something ablative between them and the next missile.

Only works if you want to launch one rocket at once. My goal is to do a simultaneous launch.

Well then, strap the SRBs you want to go flying off into the sunset around the top of the rocket.

I think I might had found the cause of my colliding rockets. It has to do with the jetison. The rockets are probably not attached so that weight is equally balanced. This probably causing (in the case of all my collisions) the rockets to be kicked out further than the top, which leads them to their collision course.

So, it turns out there's a demo. My little Kerbonauts' facial expressions during launch are priceless. Took me a few tries, but I actually made orbital altitude with the demo parts; nine SRBs in three stages, then a liquid-fueled stage. Didn't quite make orbit, though I did come down almost three thousand miles from where I started, and Jeb even survived thanks to a parachute.

All kerbnauts have a bravery score. I discovered this while save file editting to restore my system back to normal. Jebediah has a really high bravery score. He's always grinning like an idiot. The kerbnaut that have looks of fear and horror also have lower bravery scores.

Then my rockets must be scary as fuck, because even Jeb had that "OHMYGODIMGONNADIEIMGONNADIEIMGONNADIE" expression.

It's not easy to make Jebediah Kerman lose his shit.

I mean, I've done it, but I had to drop him and a truck full of Kerbs onto the Mun in an uncontrolled roll from way the hell too fast to do it.

So would you classify that as a "successful" or "unsuccessful" crash?

Depends on whether Jebediah was losing his shit when the vehicle made contact with a gravitational body, and whether there was destruction involved in the contact. Floppy dildo rockets can scare the living daylights out of any Kerbal, even Jebediah, given sufficient oscillation, but that doesn't mean it's a crash of any sort.

My sides...

Also, great name for a band.

Floppy dildo rocket are really easy to make.

yeah no kidding, and they have a tendency to transform into premature asplodey messes at a moments notice,

there's so much of that junk floating in my orbit, I've been forced to abandon my saves rather than risk constant Drek turbine interface

There's an option in the settings menu for how much persistent debris. Default is 250 but you can lower it to zero.

Gods dammit but getting into an orbit to dock with a vessel is HARD !

Yay! My first complete mission! Launch, orbit, splashdown, Johnnick lives!

Having a bit of the Kessler Syndrome, eh?

The solution is LAZORS! You can target any piece of debris (Or really, anything, but you do NOT want to do this with a manned ship,) and press the S-D button to make it auto-asplodie. Or you can take the Sunbeam Lazor up into the sky and do it the harder way.



And the solution to that is MechJeb 2. "Rendevous Guidance" is what you want, along with "Ascent Guidance" to put you in the right ballpark of the thing you want to orbit with. Get yourself roughly 15% lower an orbit with ascent guidance and use rendevous guidance's buttons - first establish your phasing orbit (maybe a few times if the first time isn't circular enough,) intercept the target with a Hohmann Transfer to its orbit, match velocity at closest approach, and you should be in the ballpark.

You want to use the ascent module to ascend the rocket to an orbit that is just below the target. Then you launch without attempting the rendevous.

Once the launch and circularizatoin burn are complete, you cancel the flight and relaunch selecting the rendevous target. It has reliably landed me with 1km of the target. Now, I still don't understand Scott Manley's description on how to rendevous. It always seems like when I do my low thrust burn to move up to it, I over shoot, undershoot, or whatever and completely screw up my orbit.

I bought the game. My first attempt at manned spaceflight with the full version, Kerbiter 1, suffered a main engine explosion shortly after jettisoning the SRBs. Fortunately, the command module was undamaged, and Jebediah Kerman returned safely to the surface about 62km from the Space Center.

Kerbiter 2 was much more successful. Jeb made three or four complete orbits, and returned safely. I meant for him to splash down in the ocean east of the Space Center, but I underestimated how much aerobraking would affect my velocity. The command module fell well short of its mark, splashing down a significant distance west of the Space Center. Still, Jeb lived, so I'm counting the mission as a success. The one other blemish on the mission is the still-unexplained disappearance of three of Kerbiter 2's four RCS thruster blocks. I still had attitude control with one block, but it's still worrying.

I'm torn between trying for a Mun shot for my next mission, or experimenting with spaceplanes to see if I can get an SSTO.

Tanegar: Are you using MechJeb 2?

Also, I'd advise using probe bodies to test your lift vehicles before you strap a Kerbal to the top of it.


This will help. It's Scott Manley's (The Manliest Scott's) list of essential KSP mods, along with download links - though again, I stress that MechJeb 2 is superior in all respects to the MechJeb linked, despite being in beta. Google "MechJeb 2" to find it on the forums.

You would deny them their proudest moments of glory ? Why not just use kittens or monkeys?
You foul denier of kerbal victory

I have, as yet, downloaded no mods. That's right, I went to space and came back again with the stock game, like a boss.

That said, I probably will download some mods.

Getting to orbit, orbiting, and splash down isn't hard. What's hard is getting with in a degree or two of the orbital inclination you want so that you're not wasting fuel adjusting your inclination.

I've only ended up in a badly inclined orbit once, and that was because I wasn't paying attention to my orientation when I started my orbital burn.

Welp, my first attempt to send an orbiter to Mun... fell a little bit short. Like, into the ocean. Not enough fuel or power in the second stage. I'm thinking three stages for Munar 2. But hey, still no casualties!

In other news, am I alone in having ridiculous difficulty building an airworthy spaceplane? Everything I try goes wildly out of control as soon as it leaves the ground. Old-school aircraft designers had a saying: "If it looks right, it'll fly right." That doesn't seem to hold true on Kerbin.

Old-School aircraft design also used props. A great number of aerodynamic sins find absolution by having a prop simply spin faster to put more airflow over the wings, thus increasing lift.

This isn't modeled in KSP, even if you get the prop plane mods. Also, KSP is basically a rocketry physics toy, with mediocre aerodynamics at best.


Also, if you tried a Mun shot, you should be really, really glad your Kerbs made it back to Kerbal at all! Fucking up a Mun shot can go horribly, horribly awry! Did you attempt a Hohmann transfer, or just point straight at the Mun and apply thrust?