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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 21, 2014 1:05:30 GMT -5
Recreated my Jool I rocket, a fairly simple rocket using some of the new larger pieces to launch a Rockomax and MkII capsule. It works perfectly; the first stage burns out exactly at the point the craft goes into transorbital coast before it circularizes around Kerbin, and what's left over has enough to reach the Mun and back.
OK, except for the fact I forgot batteries, so now Jeb, Bob and Bill are trapped in Munar orbit. I tried a rescue mission using an identical craft (unmanned, flown by remote)... but forgot to unman it, so will have to try again. This will be my first real rescue attempt of any kind, now that I've practiced rendezvous. The plan is to launch a similar ship into Munar orbit, rendezvous with Jeb and co., and have them jetpack over (another risky thing I've barely done. But it'll be worth it to pick up the rescue device for my ribbon strip.
The other option is to have the crew push the ship home with their jetpacks, but I can't imagine yet being able to aim, let along keep it that way while firing.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jul 16, 2014 0:02:49 GMT -5
So, it appears that KSP 0.24 is in beta testing, and from what I've seen, we will have a budget, missions, and prestige in career mode, and the Windows version will have official 64-bit support.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jul 16, 2014 3:12:57 GMT -5
Brilliant, I've been putting it off because I hate creative! Like minecraft or space engineers, I need a limit to feel the sense of achievement!
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Post by jenburdoo on Jul 17, 2014 21:50:06 GMT -5
.24 appears to be out! DLing now, but don't know how much time I'll have to play with it tonight.
Edit: Looks to be a little difficulty setting it up - had to "validate" the files on Steam, whatever that means, and am now moving my old mods around according to instructions from the KSP chatroom.
Further edit: Got it running. Contracts are interesting but complex - it looks like it could be hard to achieve some of them. For example, "test Mk16 parachute while passing between 13300 and 18700meters between 280 and 380m/s." How do you manage that? A lot are fairly simple, though -- break an altitude record, for example.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jul 19, 2014 1:28:02 GMT -5
Restarted my Commercial Space Program, and so far, I've tested maybe half a dozen parts, set the world record for altitude at 22 km (although I've sent kerbals up more than ten times higher than that when the records people weren't looking), proven to a company that a Kerbin day is, in fact, six hours long, rescued a kerbal stranded in orbit, and sent a probe into interplanetary space so I could test those decoupling manifolds. I'm going to attempt a Mun landing with the technology I have (no 2.5 m parts), and I'll have to test some new engines.
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Post by yvain on Jul 21, 2014 16:28:11 GMT -5
I just restarted KSP as well to try career mode. Things are definitely more hilarious as I make idiotic rockets to fulfill random contracts. If you stack them you can make serious Science and funds. One of mine involved adding some jet engines to the rocket that was already bloated and wobbly from other contract I was trying to complete. Once I fired up the jet engines they immediatly were ripped off the side of the rocket, however since they fired test complete. Working as intended according to Gene Kerman.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jul 22, 2014 1:00:07 GMT -5
My Mun rocket needed to test the new NASA liquid fuel boosters within a slim window that probably was the cause of the loss of my main engine and the bottom two fuel tanks. I still made it to the Mun, although my lander doesn't have enough fuel to get back into orbit, so I'll have to send a rescue mission that will involve KAS fuel pipes, kethane mining equipment, and maybe a half dozen radial parachutes. I've run into the peculiar problem where I can't open crew hatches from the outside, and because the science lab module doesn't have an IVA view, I can't get the crew out.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jul 26, 2014 2:29:18 GMT -5
So, the Munar Rescue happened. The bad news is that in the process, my rescue ship lost two engines and the kethane converter. The good news is that my Munar lander, "Li'l Man," managed to safely return Jebediah and all the science I gathered, although Bob and Bill weren't so lucky. Also, I have a new Munbase that used to be a kethane lander. Now, I just need to get the crew of rookies back to Kerbin before their 2,400+ Kerbin days of life support runs out. Who knows? Maybe Thombro Base will become a port of call on the Mun. It is conveniently located near a sizeable kethane patch.
Now, on to Minmus. I have a space station and lander design I'm tinkering with, as well as a new launch stack to test. You know you have a fuel consumption problem when your most efficient engine is a Mainsail.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jul 26, 2014 5:55:32 GMT -5
Is the kethane stuff still a mod? And is it finite meaning you can actually 'lose' kerbal by no longer being able to fuel missions?
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jul 26, 2014 11:29:10 GMT -5
You can still bring fuel up from Kerbin, but there's enough kethane around to keep you from running out, although it is possible.
You can find the Kethane mod in the KSP forums: if you're looking for a mod and you can't find it on Kerbal Spaceport, it'll probably be there.
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 12, 2014 14:32:11 GMT -5
Just landed a Kerbal on Minmus with a jetpack. Unfortunately, he's down to a quarter of his fuel. I'll have to send something to pick him up. It was surprisingly tricky to land without killing him or having him bounce. Edit: Carried out my first-ever successful rescue by building a similar ship (with space for one man rather than three) and retrieving poor Matlorf. Unfortunately, his shipmates, who you would think would be safer, died during Kerbin reentry after going home without him! www.dropbox.com/s/j396sa2xcmy66ig/Screenshot%202014-09-12%2022.51.00.png?dl=0It took some work getting back in because a solar panel blocked the hatch... Also built a six-piece microjet, based on a Scott Manley video... www.dropbox.com/s/vmn5zjnqjsbbkdg/Screenshot%202014-09-13%2000.29.18.png?dl=0... which was too freaking fast to land safely anyway. I tried flying it straight up and the speed by the time it flamed out got it to 57 kilometers. Not quite a space plane, but getting close! I still shouldn't have subjected poor Matlorf to that flight, though, as he'd been in space 83 days the first time. Having difficulty making the images appear here...?
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Post by Julian Sharps on Sept 14, 2014 20:50:14 GMT -5
So, my Minmus lander doesn't work because of fuel flow problems to the main engines. I'm sending a replacement up to Minmus (that has working engines), and a crew transfer vehicle that'll bring the science back once I've gotten around to doing it.
I also rescued another kerbal that someone else stranded in orbit. I have a feeling that at least one of the other companies out there are experimenting with teleporters.
The main reason why I haven't made much progress in this area is because I'm in the process of setting up a KSP Let's Play YouTube channel. Still working on ways of making my voiceovers not sound atrocious, and it looks like I'll have to register my screencapture software. Well, once I get things started, things should progress more quickly.
I've also set up some other saved games. In one of them, I'm trying to build a stock heavy-lift SSTO spaceplane. It has not been going well. In the other, I'm trying to land kerbals on every world in the game except for the Sun and Jool. I just stranded Bob, Jeb, and Bill in deep space on an attempt to get to Moho.
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 19, 2014 19:48:50 GMT -5
Built and launched my first, very small space station into Kerbisynchronous orbit. Also, launched a 5-piece airbreathing jet into space (apogee of 89 km). Attachments:
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 21, 2014 4:17:57 GMT -5
Landed on and returned from Gilly today -- in an AMU. Nervewracking but exhilarating. The ship on return from the surface.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Sept 21, 2014 17:39:22 GMT -5
Photos of the air breather in flight, please? As that's what I was dinking around with (along with massive rovers) when I last played Kerbal last year before "teh diabeetus" my interest is piqued and I'd like to see what you designed...
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 22, 2014 20:53:07 GMT -5
Four pieces, plus MechJeb. The highest I've gotten is 143km. Burn efficiently until 10km, then gun it until flameout. Once you fall back in, wait til you're almost down then gun the engine at full power again whilst pointing straight up so that you crash slowly enough for the cockpit to survive. That's the tricky part.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Sept 22, 2014 21:08:08 GMT -5
That's an interesting design concept... Thought about putting parachutes on it? That's how I used to land my AeroDerpy winged designs (which can be seen on page 1 of this thread). I'd take 'em up until flameout (with a JATO launch from SRBs) then use RCS to make a controlled descent until the engines could breath again, and then fly around Kerbin and explore. 'Twas great fun!
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 23, 2014 1:47:09 GMT -5
I've considered a 'chute, but it would overbalance the craft and reduce its range. Two wouldn't overbalance, but would reduce the range even further. I'd have to test it to see if it would still break 70km. I have successfully gotten the cockpit down safely (if not the rest of the ship), but it often tumbles once close to the ground. I'm not sure why, since I don't have FAR or other atmo mods.
Tonight I achieved escape velocity. The intention was to orbit Jool with a Stayputnik, but I missed the node and just burned everything off shortly after periapse. I tried speeding up time to see how far I could get but the screen went black. Still, that's another ribbon and a new device!
It looks like .25 is close to release.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Sept 23, 2014 9:24:59 GMT -5
I actually fired up Kerbal again last night (y'all reinspirated my butt) and played all night. Achieved the best in atmosphere speed yet with my Super AeroDerpy suborbital flyer design, of just under 900 m/s, and flew West across the ocean to one of Kerbin's other continents. The craft was glowing with friction fire the whole way. Sadly the screenshot I took got lost when the game crashed. I then futzed around trying to make a Mega AeroDerpy heavy suborbital flyer. Got as far as having two of the big external fuel tanks and two big SRBs to try and get it off the runway but then the game started crashing repeatedly, and I suspect I may have picked up some Malware when I deactivated my firewall to let the Kerbal updater do its thing, so I'm now running a scan...
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Sept 23, 2014 21:32:50 GMT -5
Got a screen cap of an Unmanned Super AeroDerpy blazing along in atmosphere at 1.2 km/s...
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 23, 2014 22:54:13 GMT -5
OK, I've played with the jet suborbiter and have gotten it to 166,500 meters and 1.4km/s at flame-out (which, with the ramjet intake, doesn't happen until over 31,000 meters). - It uses little fuel, so I used two of the toroidal tanks to save four-fifths of fuel-weight. If I use one, it might be even better, as it used only just over half the fuel. - I stayed at 100% power the whole way. Again, it uses very little fuel. - It has a single radial chute to keep the pilot alive. This knocks it only slightly off course, and I suspect causes less loss of altitude than two chutes to keep it at zero pitch would be. I'd use the little mk1 capsule chute if I could figure out how to mount it. Edit: Reduced the fuel and eked it out to 179,600 and 1.45km/s. I wonder what it could do in level flight! I'm thinking of posting this on the KSP challenge board, now - how high can you get using nothing but jet engines? One-Nine-Seven-Four, have you tried flying it higher (as in high enough that you're not getting the pressure slowing you down that creates the flames)? I should think you could go even faster.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Sept 24, 2014 15:00:53 GMT -5
I've boosted the initial models of the Super AeroDerpy all the way up to ramjet flame out and then let them tail slide/flat spin back until their was enough air to breath. This one is a modified design, with the Stayputnik and science stuff replacing the cockpit. I fly it somewhere interesting and then poop off the science package as a mini lander. The fire that one flew through ganked the probe package's landing legs, though, so it tumbled upon touchdown. More 'sperimentation is needed to optimize the probe delivery package. Although, I'd forgotten how fun the game is, having not played it in a year.
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Post by jenburdoo on Sept 24, 2014 21:28:17 GMT -5
Posted my spaceplane as a challenge on the KSP forums - get into space with airbreathing engines alone. The commenters immediately pointed out that you can spam air intakes to improve the engine, and even close them for use later AFTER you're in a place where there isn't any oxygen. (!) Now I'm wondering if it's possible to land on the Mun with them... Edit: Landed a Stayputnik on Dres. Two planets and five moons left to encounter. Further edit: Slammed a probe into Moho after I realized I had far too little dv to orbit it, much less land.
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Post by jenburdoo on Oct 5, 2014 20:35:10 GMT -5
Sent my first nuke-powered probe to Laythe. I still have enough range to try orbiting another Joolian moon, must decide quickly as .25 is coming up.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Oct 5, 2014 23:13:31 GMT -5
After I saw that you can actually blow up KSC on a per-building basis, I was sold on .25.
Anyway, some updating: So, the new Minmus lander didn't have enough delta-v to get to my Minmus space station. It is now sitting on a retrograde orbit relative to the station because I was an idiot and put it there. The crew transfer vehicle ran into a similar problem trying to rescue it, and ended up plowing into the surface of Minmus. There were no survivors, although the lander is still up there.
I've upgraded my Eve-1 medium launch vehicle to the Eve-1A, which replaces its seven Skippers with six Kerbodyne 1x2s and a Mainsail, and I added more space maneuver capability with some RCS on the central stack. I also have unlocked NASA's 3.75-meter parts, and intend to design a Jool-1 heavy launch vehicle when I have a need for one. Perhaps once I start assembling proper off-world bases...
I've been using the opportunity afforded me by all the Munar flag-planting missions to outline a landing zone near Thombro Base. Eventually, I swear I'll send a proper habitat module, but funds are tight at the moment, especially with the plans for a kethane mining operation on Minmus in the preparatory stage.
I've added a control module and a docking array to my Kerbin space station, although they are not in the final configuration as I want to put a 6-way adapter and the control module where the launch stage currently is (I've been keeping it as a fuel reserve). I should probably send up a crew bus to the station so I can take those rescue missions more easily.
I have a kethane scanner in close polar orbit over Minmus, and I've been picking out likely candidates for my Minbase. A better crew transfer vehicle (with a nuclear engine and more RCS fuel at the cost of a crew tank) is enroute, and had something of a bank shot when it comes to how it's getting to Minmus. I managed to get a gravity assist from the Mun which cut my delta-v requirement by half, although it did make what should be an 8-day trip more like 24. Incidentally, my crew transfer vehicle is still using its launch stage.
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