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Kerbal Space Program |OT| 1.2 Loud and Clear - Comm Networks, New Fuel Flow and More

MadYarpen

Member
After launch, how soon should you be turning and how flat should you be looking to get?, all the videos I watch seem to show them getting very flat quite quickly, this is probably where I am going wrong.

There is a good video about the gravity turn uploaded by scott manley. That's what I'd recommend.
 

MadYarpen

Member
I've watched his videos a ton of times, it's one thing watching someone doing it, it's another trying to do it yourself!

Well I rarely manage to do a proper gravity turn, but it should give you general idea about speed and angle you should reach at any height. That's something for a start;)
 

r1chard

Member
Yay, got Mun resupplied (with a snafu in the crew rotation return craft that ran out of power and had to be rescued by an automated battery-carrying probe from low Kerbin orbit) my Minmus research station staffed and with a lander. The science gonna start rolling in now!!

I've been mulling over playing with KSPSerialIO and some of these gadgets I have lying about too...
 

danthefan

Member
Managed to get nearly 1000 science from the Mun just now. Landed just beside the polar crater, did all my science, hopped into the polar crater, did it again, and then made my way home. In between the two my ship fell over on a mountain and destroyed my solar panels and one goo canister, but with RCS managed to get upright again. I'm ready to go to Duna now, have everything I need unlocked.

Well I need to build the ship etc but it will be done now.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
over 15hrs in, and I still haven't gotten into orbit!!

I’ve got over 120 hours played with KSP and I’ve still not been outside of Kerbin’s influence! Been to both moons of Kerbin but not to any other planets yet, I just have too much fun building rockets and experimenting and even doing missions and such. Duna is in my sights though, I’m slowly planning a trip there now. I’ve got over 11 million dollars saved up at mission control, that should fund my haphazard and disastrous space program for quite some time!

KSP is one of those games where I can just have a ton of fun goofing around.
 
After launch, how soon should you be turning and how flat should you be looking to get?, all the videos I watch seem to show them getting very flat quite quickly, this is probably where I am going wrong.

For me, I'm usually pointing to 45 degrees between 10km-15km, and sticking with that until that Apo hits 75k.
 

danthefan

Member
I'm having a lot of difficulty building any sort of rocket with more than about 9k dV. It just gets way too unwieldy, or adding more tanks kills my thrust-to-weight, or just seems to do nothing useful.

Asparagus staging - should I go with 4/6/8 tanks?
 
My launch profile tips

1. Turn SAS on
2. Launch and keep your acceleration just above 1 G. You want to keep it slow and steady in lower atmosphere.
3. When you are moving 50m.s or faster, pitch over your craft a little to the east (5 to 10 degrees. If doing a gravity turn, you would disabled SAS just after this point, but when learning, just leave SAS on the entire time.
4. Slowly continue to pitch east as your ascend. Around 10km, you should be almost to 45 degrees. Try to be at 45 by 15Km
5. Once around 40Km, atmosphere is thin enough where you can burn aggressively. If you have the thurst, you can pitch down to the horizon and start getting lots of horizontal speed. If you have moderate thrust, you have to pitch somewhere above the horizon. Keep looking at your Ap, you want to stay about 45 seconds away. If you get two 1 min away or above, use less throttle and make sure you are pitched right on the horizon. Less the 45 seconds, make sure you are full throttle, and if needed pitch up above the horizon to give some more vertical speed.

Going mostly vertical, and then coasting to Ap and burning prograde is not very efficient in 1.1 and above. You really want to build up that horizontal speed and start pushing out your Pe as you are still ascending through the atmosphere.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I’ve got over 120 hours played with KSP and I’ve still not been outside of Kerbin’s influence! Been to both moons of Kerbin but not to any other planets yet, I just have too much fun building rockets and experimenting and even doing missions and such. Duna is in my sights though, I’m slowly planning a trip there now. I’ve got over 11 million dollars saved up at mission control, that should fund my haphazard and disastrous space program for quite some time!

KSP is one of those games where I can just have a ton of fun goofing around.

Damn, go for Minmus at least. IMO it's way easier than the Mun. The gravity is so low that you can even crash onto the surface and it's like jumping in a bouncy castle.
 

r1chard

Member
Managed to get nearly 1000 science from the Mun just now. Landed just beside the polar crater, did all my science, hopped into the polar crater, did it again, and then made my way home. In between the two my ship fell over on a mountain and destroyed my solar panels and one goo canister, but with RCS managed to get upright again. I'm ready to go to Duna now, have everything I need unlocked.

Well I need to build the ship etc but it will be done now.

Yep, I need to run a biome scan of Mun and Minmus next so I can get that sweet multi-biome science.


(Or I could get someone's pre-scanned map, but where's the fun in that?)
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Damn, go for Minmus at least. IMO it's way easier than the Mun. The gravity is so low that you can even crash onto the surface and it's like jumping in a bouncy castle.

No, I said I'd been to both Mun and Minmus, many times, all over and around. It's time for me to make for Duna now. :)
 

Grinchy

Banned
No, I said I'd been to both Mun and Minmus, many times, all over and around. It's time for me to make for Duna now. :)

Oh, is Minmus a moon of kerbin? I had no idea. I thought it was its own planet. I'm going to weep for it and Pluto later.
 

Disxo

Member
I just figured out that all my saves have the same missions in common, did them unconciously.

First, probes on orbit
Then suborbilat manned flights and some orbits
After that do a race for mun
Probe Eve first, then Duna.
Visit some gas giants and Moons.
Put a badass space station around kerbin
Soon after that put some rovers in Duna...


And I always end all the saves there lmao.
Sounds familiar?
 
So I've been looking at this game for ages and it definitely seems like something I can dig into. However, I'm a little apprehensive to just jump in as I don't know what level of hand holding/difficulty curve to expect at first. Does the game assume you already have a general understanding of procedures and the like or does it give you a nice crash course?
 

danthefan

Member
So I've been looking at this game for ages and it definitely seems like something I can dig into. However, I'm a little apprehensive to just jump in as I don't know what level of hand holding/difficulty curve to expect at first. Does the game assume you already have a general understanding of procedures and the like or does it give you a nice crash course?

There's a tutorial to get you started. Then career mode starts with very easy missions and ramps up the difficulty as you complete those. You don't need to have any prior knowledge.
 

danowat

Banned
Managed to orbit (twice, more on this to follow).....

Got up, held a half decent orbit, started coming down, got to 1000m and noticed my chutes weren't working hit the sea and died.......uffff

Tried again, managed an orbital EVA, then tried to get back into the ship, everytime I hit grab my man would shoot off into space (is this a known issue?) managed to wrestle with the EVA controls (man they are bad) and every single time, boing, back into space, kept trying and finally I managed to do it.

I then notice that the UI has gone funny, all the information pullouts (notifications, help etc) were stuck, I also noticed all my staging had disappeared (this happened with the first orbit, but didn't notice till it was too late), so I managed to redo all the staging before re-entry, and got safely back down, FINALLY.

So the question is, are the EVA and staging issues a know problem or are they (another) console bugs
 

MadYarpen

Member
So I've been looking at this game for ages and it definitely seems like something I can dig into. However, I'm a little apprehensive to just jump in as I don't know what level of hand holding/difficulty curve to expect at first. Does the game assume you already have a general understanding of procedures and the like or does it give you a nice crash course?

Tutorials are made well, they let you start smoothly and don't take the challenge away from more difficult missions you will do later on. Jump in. Money well spent.

Managed to orbit (twice, more on this to follow).....

Got up, held a half decent orbit, started coming down, got to 1000m and noticed my chutes weren't working hit the sea and died.......uffff

Tried again, managed an orbital EVA, then tried to get back into the ship, everytime I hit grab my man would shoot off into space (is this a known issue?) managed to wrestle with the EVA controls (man they are bad) and every single time, boing, back into space, kept trying and finally I managed to do it.

I then notice that the UI has gone funny, all the information pullouts (notifications, help etc) were stuck, I also noticed all my staging had disappeared (this happened with the first orbit, but didn't notice till it was too late), so I managed to redo all the staging before re-entry, and got safely back down, FINALLY.

So the question is, are the EVA and staging issues a know problem or are they (another) console bugs

Looks like a console bug sadly. I never had a problem with this kind of thing.
 

r1chard

Member
Tried again, managed an orbital EVA, then tried to get back into the ship, everytime I hit grab my man would shoot off into space (is this a known issue?) managed to wrestle with the EVA controls (man they are bad) and every single time, boing, back into space, kept trying and finally I managed to do it.
I get that shooting away thing all the time on PC if the Kerbal isn't lined up pretty straight and flat with the ladder they're trying to grab. It's a pain in the ass, especially since reorienting Kerbals in EVA is also a pain in the ass - hitting space to "reorient attitude to camera by jet" (according to the keybindings wiki) has never worked for me...

Also just had one of my EVA'ing kerbals derp themselves into a lander leg, destroying it. Good thing I had a quicksave from very recently. Have to remember to quicksave before all planetary EVAs :/
 

danowat

Banned
I get that shooting away thing all the time on PC if the Kerbal isn't lined up pretty straight and flat with the ladder they're trying to grab. It's a pain in the ass, especially since reorienting Kerbals in EVA is also a pain in the ass - hitting space to "reorient attitude to camera by jet" (according to the keybindings wiki) has never worked for me...

That reorient control doesn't work on console either.

So you basically only have four directions of movement, and up and down, how on Kerbin are you supposed to rotate your Kerbal to the same plane as the ship if you aren't on it?
 

danthefan

Member
I've never had the shooting away problem. You weren't on time warp or something by accident were you?

On PC you can travel up, down, and then use WASD for all the directions. I find it fidgety but not buggy.
 

Crispy75

Member
That reorient control doesn't work on console either.

So you basically only have four directions of movement, and up and down, how on Kerbin are you supposed to rotate your Kerbal to the same plane as the ship if you aren't on it?

Aren't the controls camera-relative? You point the camera in the direction you want to thrust and then press forwards
 

danowat

Banned
I've never had the shooting away problem. You weren't on time warp or something by accident were you?

On PC you can travel up, down, and then use WASD for all the directions. I find it fidgety but not buggy.

Nope, no time warp, the Kerbin was not on the same plane as the ship, which could be the problem, but I can't see how you can rotate him to end up on the same plane as the ship when you only have 3 axis of movement, when you really need 4 axis of movement.

I wouldn't call the EVA controls fidgety, I'd have stronger words than that!

Aren't the controls camera-relative? You point the camera in the direction you want to thrust and then press forwards

You can change it to FPS mode, but you still only have 3 axis, no rotation
 

danthefan

Member
Nope, no time warp, the Kerbin was not on the same plane as the ship, which could be the problem, but I can't see how you can rotate him to end up on the same plane as the ship when you only have 3 axis of movement, when you really need 4 axis of movement.

I wouldn't call the EVA controls fidgety, I'd have stronger words than that!



You can change it to FPS mode, but you still only have 3 axis, no rotation

Q and E are used to yaw on PC, I'm sure there are similar controls for console? I haven't played on console but I can always get back to the ship when I EVA, yeah the controls are crap but I can do it.
 

danowat

Banned
Q and E are used to yaw on PC, I'm sure there are similar controls for console? I haven't played on console but I can always get back to the ship when I EVA, yeah the controls are crap but I can do it.

Ok, so a bit of goggling shows that rotate Kerbal in EVA is mapped to the D-pad on consoles, although I am fairly sure that the in game help didn't mention that, or I just missed it......

I'll try it out again.
 

vector824

Member
So I've been looking at this game for ages and it definitely seems like something I can dig into. However, I'm a little apprehensive to just jump in as I don't know what level of hand holding/difficulty curve to expect at first. Does the game assume you already have a general understanding of procedures and the like or does it give you a nice crash course?

There is little to no hand holding. Youtube was my go to for awhile. This game has a learning curve that's more like a wall at first. But my god is it fun to fail over and over. Start out in Science mode if you don't like the added stress of money but still want a goal, because sandbox can be overwhelming with all the part options. And download MechJeb once you get the hang of orbit and maneuver nodes.

I made this google doc awhile back with guides and links, should be helpful:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AmwGmJ5H-SzzNz44MzLxckGcKOrnOmq5tlNbtuOfQTo/edit?usp=sharing

Download RCS Build aid first, because it'll change your life.
 

r1chard

Member
Dammit, got a perfect launch of my Minmus station resupply ship (and a little biome scanning probe hitching a ride) and I decided to do a quick EVA science on the way and ... boom, EVA Kerbal Dupe Bug, reset back to launch, do not collect $200 dammit.
 

danthefan

Member
There is little to no hand holding. Youtube was my go to for awhile. This game has a learning curve that's more like a wall at first. But my god is it fun to fail over and over. Start out in Science mode if you don't like the added stress of money but still want a goal, because sandbox can be overwhelming with all the part options. And download MechJeb once you get the hang of orbit and maneuver nodes.

I made this google doc awhile back with guides and links, should be helpful:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AmwGmJ5H-SzzNz44MzLxckGcKOrnOmq5tlNbtuOfQTo/edit?usp=sharing

Download RCS Build aid first, because it'll change your life.

Career mode, unless you really ramp up the difficulty, doesn't really give many problems in terms of money imo.

Thanks for the Google doc, will take a look.
 

danthefan

Member
So... mobile processing units. Just sort of discovered what they can do and holy shit. I've gotten hundreds and hundreds of science from Duna and I haven't even landed yet (remains to be seen if I will succeed in that or not). It's going to be easy to finish off the tech tree surely.


Edit - YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS, landed on Duna in one piece. I definitely don't have enough dV to get home so I'll have to rescue my guys at some point but so good to get there. Now to send home a massive amount of science...
 

danowat

Banned
Holy shit, I managed to orbit, transition to Mun and do a flyby, and get back to Kerbin!.

No idea how I managed it, it wasn't pretty I was really tight on fuel, and my descent was more of a controlled crash, but I did it!
 

danthefan

Member
I had a mission to go grab something from up in orbit around Kerbin, I assumed this would be a ship of some sort I could get back down to earth... but no it's a heatshield. How the hell do I get this back down to the ground?
 

r1chard

Member
Ugh, something's going on with Contract Configurator - I keep getting CTDs and on restarting my contract list is empty (including record of contracts completed). Boo!

On the other hand, I'm thinking of creating my first mod soon (I'm ridiculously busy over the next couple of weeks). I wonder what y'all would think of a little device mod early on in the tech tree that was a light sensor you could surface-attach. It would detect whether the sun was visible (to any part of the attached craft) or not, and fire actions (including action groups, but most likely just the light toggle action) when sun visibility changed. I was also thinking of extending it to a second tier perhaps where there'd be some sort of "photon capture rate" experiment for Science. Basically though I want my base/station/craft lights to come on automatically when it gets dark :)

(I searched and searched, but I couldn't find any mod that did this thing, except kOS and that's overkill I think)
 

danowat

Banned
Just a quick query about some of the contracts, I have some ferry VIP contracts, and it says "complete passengers itinerary", I would have assumed that there itinerary would be listed somewhere, but I can't find it.
 

danthefan

Member
Just a quick query about some of the contracts, I have some ferry VIP contracts, and it says "complete passengers itinerary", I would have assumed that there itinerary would be listed somewhere, but I can't find it.

It should be in the contract text, something has gone wrong if it's not there. If you're early on they'll be things like get into sub orbital flight, get into orbit, orbit the Mun, land on the Mun, etc.
 

danowat

Banned
It should be in the contract text, something has gone wrong if it's not there. If you're early on they'll be things like get into sub orbital flight, get into orbit, orbit the Mun, land on the Mun, etc.

So there is nothing particular they want to see?, just a suborbital flight?, I assumed they wanted to go to specific places, or is the contract text about seeing the sights there for flavour?
 

danthefan

Member
So there is nothing particular they want to see?, just a suborbital flight?, I assumed they wanted to go to specific places, or is the contract text about seeing the sights there for flavour?

If the contract says just to go suborbital then that's it. Just get them above 70km or whatever the number is and you'll fulfill that requisite.
 
I played around with the PS4 port and .. ugh .. I would have hoped they had done more than just port the desktop app. The text is pretty damn small there is no point having a comfy couch if I have to get OFF it to read the tutorial blocks-o-text - which are really long.

Went through advanced construction and was putting the finishing touches of the advanced rocket for orbital flight and the rocket assembly building view hung after I rotated the entire rocket...

Its definitely still a PC, mouse and keyboard and 10 inches from the screen, game..
 

danowat

Banned
I played around with the PS4 port and .. ugh .. I would have hoped they had done more than just port the desktop app. The text is pretty damn small there is no point having a comfy couch if I have to get OFF it to read the tutorial blocks-o-text - which are really long.

I have to sit on the lounge floor directly infront of a 46" HDTV to be able to read much of the text!
 

r1chard

Member
743 hours in the game and I've just visited Eve for the first time (with a set of probes, one for orbital science of Eve, one for Gilly and one lander that's down on Eve's polar surface right now sucking up all the juicy science :) I'll be sending the same probe combo over to Duna + Ike when they're in a better transfer position...

Maybe one day I should visit Jool... ;-)
 

Grinchy

Banned
I played around with the PS4 port and .. ugh .. I would have hoped they had done more than just port the desktop app. The text is pretty damn small there is no point having a comfy couch if I have to get OFF it to read the tutorial blocks-o-text - which are really long.

Went through advanced construction and was putting the finishing touches of the advanced rocket for orbital flight and the rocket assembly building view hung after I rotated the entire rocket...

Its definitely still a PC, mouse and keyboard and 10 inches from the screen, game..

Oh wow, that's so lazy IMO. This is the reason I gave up trying to make a steam controller configuration for it. It was too annoying to play on my TV anyway, so there was no point in using a controller if I was just going to be at the desk.
 

danowat

Banned
Quick, potential dumb, question, if I revert flight to before launch, everything that happen prior to launch is wiped?, crash penalties etc?, time is just rewound?
 

danthefan

Member
Quick, potential dumb, question, if I revert flight to before launch, everything that happen prior to launch is wiped?, crash penalties etc?, time is just rewound?

Everything prior to launch stays the same.

If you revert flight you're just taken back to the launch pad or hangar for that flight.
 

danowat

Banned
Everything prior to launch stays the same.

If you revert flight you're just taken back to the launch pad or hangar for that flight.

Yeah, I meant everything after the launch is wiped!, I am about to take 3 passengers to Mun, I didn't want to potentially mess up my reputation by killing them and not being able to revert back to prior to launch without penalty!
 

danthefan

Member
Yeah, I meant everything after the launch is wiped!, I am about to take 3 passengers to Mun, I didn't want to potentially mess up my reputation by killing them and not being able to revert back to prior to launch without penalty!

If you revert they'll be back on the launch pad safe and sound with no penalty.

Be careful though, if you quick save and then load that quick save you lose the ability to revert.
 
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