Kerbal Space Program

[Forbiddenwar]

SPACE!
Final Frontier.

Kerbal Space Program (http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/)is a game in Alpha where you design space vehicles to attempt space exploration including landing on the moon and orbiting the nearest star (sometimes accidentally.)

Vids for those who haven't heard of it:
Kurt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuww0F1fXiM) from FLOB
Sips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3lgK2lMrUE) from Yogscast

I'm currently downloading it.

[warty goblin]

It's a lot of fun, so long as you don't mind a lot of failures. But then, that's sort of the entire charm.

[Forbiddenwar]

I've started this thread to steal
AHEM
learn from others. Tips Tricks?

[James the Dark]

If you want to get to the Mun, you're gonna need at least enough umph to set up a circular orbit at 150k.
Solid Boosters can get you off the ground, but it's liquid fuel boosters that'll get you up there.
Using lateral detatchers, you can chunk a bunch of liquid thrusters onto your Munshot capsule and chuck them when they run out. Once you get the hang of fuel lines, you can even have one fuel tank feeding three engines at once. That's a lot of thrust, and believe me, you're going to need it all.

[Forbiddenwar]

So far my problem is getting off the ground. the moon is far distant in my game.

For example it seems that no matter what key I press the nose of my ship flips and points straight to the ground. It's comical, but I'd like to learn how not to nuke the launch center.:smallbiggrin:

And yes, that is with the flight assistant on. And fins.

[James the Dark]

Three things that any ship needs.
SAS module. Keeps your ship from spinning.
Advanced SAS module. Keeps your ship from pitching and yawing.
The 't' key. Activates the above.

During the first roughly a minute, the ship should be on autopilot, and a good indicator of if your ship's going to be controlable at all is to turn on autopilot and look at how the pitch, yaw, and spin indicators are moving. If they can't stay even slightly toward the middle, don't even bother launching. Scrap, rebuild, and try to be symmetrical this time. Tubes arn't very stable, after all.

The best way to build an orbit once you're at 150k, oddly enough, is to thrust directly at the horizon as hard as you can as you approach the Apogee of your flight. Get some solid orbits under your belt, then you can try for the Mun.

Of course, the best I've ever managed to do was get my capsule to not explode on the Mun; no round-trips as yet.

[The_Final_Stand]

My expertise, if you can call it that, lies in placing my rocket in orbit, then coming back. Thus far, all Munar landings have succeeded, but only for values of such where there is a vast explosion on touchdown.

I fondly remember the time I got to actual Munar orbit. And then returned to Kerbal.

[Fri]

Man, I don't play this game but I love to watch people's video about this game. :smallbiggrin:

[RPharazon]

Protip: Get more parts from the KSP forums, "Projects and Releases" subforum. The vanilla parts are vastly underpowered to do round-trip Kerbal visits without making them into huge monstrosities.

Also, liquid boosters only really work past the atmosphere. That doesn't mean they're not decent within the atmosphere, but some good solid booster solutions are much better.

Don't skimp on SAS parts or structural struts, especially if you've got a huge rocket.

Learn how to use the spatial translation controls for the RCS (i,j,k,l,h,n). RCS is a rocketeer's best friend during the last phase of Munar landings.

Do orbital maneuvers in high (>200,000m) orbit, as it requires less energy to shift to a higher orbit from there (although I am a little foggy on that, since I haven't done orbital mechanics calculations since grade 11). Don't try setting up an orbit or trajectory to the Mun while you're still under 100,000m or even within the atmosphere. It's a waste of fuel.

Finally, use the Apollo mantra: Weight is fuel. Make your weight:fuel ratio was low as possible. Don't be afraid to abuse fuel lines or structural strengthening struts. They're negligible on weight, but they will be murder to your FPS after a while.

Aside from that, I'm eagerly looking forward to the 0.14 update. Not just for the new features (which are supposed to be worth that extra $7 from the get-go), but for the community's reaction to it. The community isn't the most friendly and amazing, but it's nice to watch them react over NovaSilisko's little projects. To me, he seems to be trying to usurp the devs' efforts in creating new parts, balance, and lore. To others, he's a welcome push to get the devs moving quickly.

[sentaku]

So I've noticed a problem with my rockets, during the second stage they have a tendency to tilt back towards the earth. If the ASAS/SAS is enabled the tilt takes a bit but if I disable it it falls right over.

[RPharazon]

So I've noticed a problem with my rockets, during the second stage they have a tendency to tilt back towards the earth. If the ASAS/SAS is enabled the tilt takes a bit but if I disable it it falls right over.

Your rocket is probably too long and unbalanced. Tighten up the symmetry, make it a bit shorter, add more powerful SAS modules everywhere (not just the top, but be sure not to interrupt fuel flow), and consider using and activating RCS+SAS (just press R as the SAS is active to turn it off and on) during those times.

[sentaku]

Your rocket is probably too long and unbalanced. Tighten up the symmetry, make it a bit shorter, add more powerful SAS modules everywhere (not just the top, but be sure not to interrupt fuel flow), and consider using and activating RCS+SAS (just press R as the SAS is active to turn it off and on) during those times.
Yea I am using the RCS. Here is what my current rocket it looks like

The first stage are the solid rockets, the second is the outer liquid rockets.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4791/screenshot0fz.png

[warty goblin]

Yea I am using the RCS. Here is what my current rocket it looks like

The first stage are the solid rockets, the second is the outer liquid rockets.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4791/screenshot0fz.png

Your boosters are waaaay too complicated. Just do one nice big stack that gets steadily wider as it goes down and calves off in stages as you burn out fuel. Also I find it is hard to have too many control surfaces and maneuvering thrusters.

[factotum]

I agree with warty_goblin. If all you want to do is get into orbit, then back down again, you can do it considerably less complicated than you're showing there. Don't forget that the more fuel tanks and rockets you add, the heavier the whole contraption is and the more thrust you need--keep it simple and you won't need 12 solid boosters just to get the thing off the ground!

[RPharazon]

Aha. I think the main problem is threefold:


Most importantly, your rocket is almost completely a three-lobed design, which ultimately gets unstable as you go, since physics calculations in the game are a tad bit over-optimized (albeit with good, FPS-saving reasons) and there will eventually come a point in your flight where two of the lobes will overpower the other one along an axis. Then the rocket goes into a spin.
Your rocket is too flexible and... immaterial? for the most part. Again, most of your rocket is three-lobed, which makes all the parts heavily dependent on that radial connection up top. Extra flexibility in that radial part, for any reason, will produce oscillations and imbalances, causing your rocket to tip over. Try to make it as rigid as possible, and try to make it more center-oriented. As in, make it a long tubular design with lobes on the sides, instead of just lobes.
Finally, your design might be too dependent on the stabilizing fins. Control surfaces of any kind either introduce oscillations (from SAS) or other weird aerodynamic properties (due to the simplified physics model). One of two things is happening: Either the fins are destabilizing the rocket from the get-go, or they are the only things stabilizing the rocket, leading to an uncontrollable rocket as the atmosphere falls away.

[Draconi Redfir]

i wanted to pre-order/donate this game origionally, but then for some reason it was asking for my shipping adress, so i just went with the downloadable game instead.

My current setup works fairly well, but i haven't been able to get into a real orbit as of yet, i almost did once, but something went horribly horribly wrong when i tried to use my RCS thrusters to extend it a bit.

worst part is probably the fact that i have no idea wich direction button makes me tilt wich way in orpit, there will be times when i press W to tilt myself one way, and wind up tilting in the opposite direction i was flying in.


Edit: And the problem of me spontainiously flying out of control when i'm trying to nudge myself in one direction slightly. Do i need an advanced SAS on each section?

edit 2: And we have orbit!
edit 3: Sucsessful landing after 1 hour 30 minutes!

[warty goblin]

Aha. I think the main problem is threefold:


Most importantly, your rocket is almost completely a three-lobed design, which ultimately gets unstable as you go, since physics calculations in the game are a tad bit over-optimized (albeit with good, FPS-saving reasons) and there will eventually come a point in your flight where two of the lobes will overpower the other one along an axis. Then the rocket goes into a spin.


Yeah, I've pretty much given up on triple symmetry, I find quad usually works quite well though.

[sentaku]

Your boosters are waaaay too complicated. Just do one nice big stack that gets steadily wider as it goes down and calves off in stages as you burn out fuel. Also I find it is hard to have too many control surfaces and maneuvering thrusters.


I agree with warty_goblin. If all you want to do is get into orbit, then back down again, you can do it considerably less complicated than you're showing there. Don't forget that the more fuel tanks and rockets you add, the heavier the whole contraption is and the more thrust you need--keep it simple and you won't need 12 solid boosters just to get the thing off the ground!

If I recall correctly it only takes the 3 outermost solid boosters to just get the
rocket rocket of the ground. The point of using 12 solid boosters is to go as fast and far as possible. Also note that they work fine, and the ship goes up straight during the first stage.

Using 24 boosters results in the ship exploding



Aha. I think the main problem is threefold:


Most importantly, your rocket is almost completely a three-lobed design, which ultimately gets unstable as you go, since physics calculations in the game are a tad bit over-optimized (albeit with good, FPS-saving reasons) and there will eventually come a point in your flight where two of the lobes will overpower the other one along an axis. Then the rocket goes into a spin.
Your rocket is too flexible and... immaterial? for the most part. Again, most of your rocket is three-lobed, which makes all the parts heavily dependent on that radial connection up top. Extra flexibility in that radial part, for any reason, will produce oscillations and imbalances, causing your rocket to tip over. Try to make it as rigid as possible, and try to make it more center-oriented. As in, make it a long tubular design with lobes on the sides, instead of just lobes.
Finally, your design might be too dependent on the stabilizing fins. Control surfaces of any kind either introduce oscillations (from SAS) or other weird aerodynamic properties (due to the simplified physics model). One of two things is happening: Either the fins are destabilizing the rocket from the get-go, or they are the only things stabilizing the rocket, leading to an uncontrollable rocket as the atmosphere falls away.


It would appear the three-lobed design was in fact the problem, as the four lobbed design managed to travel without problems despite being fairly wobbly and running out of RCS fuel. Sadly Bob, Jebediah, and Bill were killed when there capsule exploded upon impact with the earth. They will be replaced by Bill, Bob, and Jebediah.

[Draconi Redfir]

i am currently working on a total one-way-only space program, currently my set-up consists of my pilots capsule sitting on two SAS (one of each type) things and a RCS fuel tank, with four solid fuel boosters surrounding it. This is sitting atop another solid booster, with four solid boosters around that. This sits atop a copy of the above design, which sits atop a copy of the above, but with four additional boosters attached to the attachment boosters, which is sitting ontop of a copy of that, which is sitting ontop of four sets of three-rocket pillars. These however wobble around like crazy currently, so I’m going to attach them together, and the wings on the bottom do not work with the symmetry option, so i had to eyeball it, that part seems to work fairly well.

I did need to ditch the first (bottom) stage early though, as it's wobbly design was throwing the whole thing off it's "up" coarse.

I do have parachutes ontop of all the solid boosters, but they just seem to get incinerated when the boosters above them get activated anyways. might make the separation modules separate from the next stage activating again just so i can gain a little altitude with no fuel burning.

I have named the ship “Deathtrap”

A fitting name considering it blew up a minimum of eight times so far.

[Shovah]

Is accidentally orbiting the sun a common problem?

Seems to happen to me when I try.. anything.
The finer points of control escape me; lots of acceleration does not.

[Talesin]

I gave the demo of this game a go last night and I have to say it is really fun. Most of my rockets either exploded on the launch pad through some shoddy building on my part or the solid boosters overheated and blew up about half way up.

I spent most of the evening just building bigger and bigger rockets and then realising they were too heavy to get off the ground. Eventually I got one into space, with so so so many solid boosters it was quite a sight to see, and was able to get the liquid boosters to fire while out of the atmosphere. Didn't quite manage to orbit the planet but i think if I aimed the rocket better and didn't just blow all the fuel at once it would've worked.

Great game, i'm going to keep an eye here but i'll probably throw the cash down to preorder

[sentaku]

I've finally managed to get a complete orbit with Scotty Mk VII, however the crew needed to be beamed down.


I gave the demo of this game a go last night and I have to say it is really fun. Most of my rockets either exploded on the launch pad through some shoddy building on my part or the solid boosters overheated and blew up about half way up.


RCS Thrusters help prevent solid boosters from overheating.

[Talesin]

Are there major differences between the demo version on the website and the preorder version?