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Post by yvain on Jun 4, 2014 10:08:55 GMT -5
They need to hurry up and finish this game; it is just too good! I stopped playing because I wanted to wait for the rest of the features to come out. Every time I see something posted about it, I get all excited and then disappointed I have to continue to wait.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 4, 2014 17:14:51 GMT -5
I've got a few games like that, Nether is another. .. Great game but not finished.
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 4, 2014 20:54:08 GMT -5
Oddly, I'm eager to play KSP when I'm at work and thinking about how I could use it in a program, but when I get home full of plans for ships and missions, I end up getting distracted and never get around to playing... I should buy a laptop and take it to work. I ran a sandbox game at high speed until an asteroid was naturally captured. Now I can try to rendezvous with it without the hassle of catching up with it or attaching an engine just yet.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 5, 2014 0:27:40 GMT -5
Well, I've successfully put a kethane scanner probe in orbit over the Mun, and thanks to waiting for Jeb's Minmus mission to get into Minmus' SOI, I now have most of the munar surface mapped.
I have sent Jeb on a mission to Minmus in order to collect more science so that I may research all the technologies that I will need to intercept and redirect the several asteroids on impact or near-impact trajectories with Kerbin. One of these asteroids will come within 15 kilometers of Kerbin's atmosphere. I sent Jeb on this mission because I didn't get enough science from my unmanned munar lander.
I have sent an unmanned lander to the Mun, which failed to return nearly as much science as I had hoped. Unfortunately, I forgot to put landing legs on this probe, and so I had to land it on its engine, and I managed to do so without it falling over. SAS for the win! Also, it turned out later that the probe in question happened to land on a kethane deposit, so I have a marker to help me work out my actual altitude when sending landers down there in the future. Call it a bank shot, if you will.
All in all, I've had a great day in KSP.
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 5, 2014 1:08:43 GMT -5
Never tried the mapping mod. What does it do for you?
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 5, 2014 21:54:44 GMT -5
It's not a mod, it's a part of the kethane mod. It's an overlay in the map view. The kethane mod is awesome.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 6, 2014 1:37:12 GMT -5
Sharps, you still using asparagus stage launch model? Or is there a more efficient way?
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 6, 2014 7:38:41 GMT -5
Asparagus IS pretty efficient. Just complicated. Here's an asteroid I rendezvoused with last night. Took a while to get the hang of approaching it with the RCS. It's already in (eccentric) natural orbit of Kerbin, so it should be a fairly easy target for modification when I want to try.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 11, 2014 0:07:36 GMT -5
So, I successfully landed Bob Kerman on the Mun in a modified Minmus lander (I put on more fuel tanks and finally got around to adding fuel lines to the external tanks). I also returned him safely to orbit, but he ran out of fuel before he could get into an aerocapture orbit.
So, Jebediah improvised a rescue mission, and is about three days away from his closest approach at ~2 km. Bob has maybe thirty or forty days worth of life support left, so I'm not too concerned.
In the meantime, I sent my kethane probe from munar orbit to Minmus orbit, and I probably have enough fuel to return to Kerbin. Of course, now I have the problem of multiple death rocks due to collide in thirty days or so, and I lack the technology to intercept and redirect them, unless the science that Bob brings back from the Mun is enough to unlock the grabber, and/or the KW ground pylon lets me grab things other than the ground.
Pics to follow.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 13, 2014 0:35:35 GMT -5
So, things didn't quite go according to plan, as usual. First, Jebediah screwed up on his rendezvous with the Mun lander, and only made it because I over-speced his rescue rocket. Thanks to the powers of Kerbal Attachment System, I was able to link the two spacecraft together with a fuel pipe, and use all of Jeb's monopropellant to bring the two down into an orbit that I thought wouldn't intersect with the Mun's sphere of influence, as well as drop their periapsis down to a reasonable ~300 km. Between them, they had 54 days of life support left, so I sent Bill up in a better rescue rocket that had fewer ground pylons and more monopropellant.
Funny story about Kerbal Space Program: It doesn't seem to like Kerbal Attachment System very much. There's a bug with the physics engine where when you attach two objects in space by a means other than docking, it will start to flail about uncontrollably if you disconnect and then reconnect. SAS doesn't help, and RCS only makes things worse. To make things more interesting, you can't time warp or switch to another ship because the game thinks that you're under acceleration. It took some drastic measures, but I was able to get all three of them back to Kerbin by separating the Mun lander and putting it into a higher orbit so that it wouldn't aerocapture on the first orbit, while the two rescue craft plunged into the atmosphere at 3 km/s, decoupling and firing their parachutes before they hit the water. Shortly thereafter (and by "shortly," I mean about a day later), I brought the Mun lander down safely in the desert. Mission accomplished.
Now, I'm working on a space station design that'll have more docking ports than I'll know what to do with, which will serve as a testbed for my interplanetary life support systems and eventually a fuel and supply post for spacecraft coming up from Kerbin. I'll also be working on a dedicated munar lander to get more science and eventually establish a permanent munbase to mine kethane at.
Also, it appears that two of the death rocks I've been tracking are going to come really close to Kerbin, but not actually hit. One looks like it'll even pass through the atmosphere on its way out. I really need to invent grabber technology so I can put some of these things into more permanent orbits so that I can do crazy things with giant space rocks.
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 13, 2014 10:53:45 GMT -5
Wait, if you're not docked, how can you disconnect and reconnect?
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 13, 2014 14:22:04 GMT -5
I wanna see the space station, never tried making one. I started a new game the other day and after 3 flights got to the mun... annoyed ive gone down the science route but the goo and science machine thing are one use only -.- annoooooyed.
I also cant be arsed to explore the whole of kerbin cause it takes time, boring boring time.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 13, 2014 23:55:13 GMT -5
Space station's not built yet, still working out the design details on the core module.
To answer your question, Jenburdoo, Kerbal Attachment System has parts like strut and fuel line end points that you can use to connect things together with. Basically, I maneuvered up close, canceled out my relative velocity, and flew a kerbal out to connect the fuel line. The only problem I have is the phantom torque problem, which I think is partly a reinforcement issue, combined with a descendant of the kraken rearing its head again. Nothing to worry about.
Also, Adkenpachi, try going to Minmus. It's easier to get to than the Mun, as long as you don't have trouble with inclination burns, and you can get a lot of science there.
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 14, 2014 0:01:01 GMT -5
Spent the evening playing with the Vostok recreation from the Wiki, and finally managed to nail down rendezvous and docking with MechJeb. Even built an Agena analogue to go with the improved "Vostok": I'm thinking of recreating the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs in KSP now that I think I can handle rendezvous. Alternatively, I'll use R&D to finally try for a flight to a planet other than Eve or Duna.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 14, 2014 2:57:46 GMT -5
Am I playing the game completely wrong? Hows it easier? You gotta go past the mun to get to it.
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 14, 2014 7:10:48 GMT -5
Adkenpachi, it's easier in the sense that you need less Delta-V (which translates to fuel and weight) to go from Kerbin to Minmus and back (including landing and relaunch) than to have the same mission profile for the Mun. It takes more in-game time and distance, yes, but you can use a lighter ship because Minmus is so much smaller than the Mun it takes much less energy to orbit it and land, and this more than makes up for the extra energy it will take to reach. Read a Delta-V map for details. Alternatively, you can use a Munship and have much more D-V left over for maneuvers.
As an example, the ship I designed to make multiple landings on Mun and Minmus can hop around -- land, then fly suborbitally to another biome and land. I was able to do that three times on Minmus and still have fuel to orbit and return. The exact same ship could only land twice on the Mun because of the Mun's significantly higher gravity. After the second, I really needed to change up the launch profile to make it back to Kerbin, hadn't enough fuel left to get into orbit.. Not to mention, as Minmus is farther away from Kerbin, you get more science for going there.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 14, 2014 14:55:53 GMT -5
Ah I see, I only enter got to the mun before, I'll try that next time I get on. .. could do with researching better engines
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 14, 2014 18:35:59 GMT -5
Testing the Wiki version of the Gemini. Gus and John Kerman in LKO: RCS seems to work okay for minor orbital maneuvers so far. Only enough batteries for a few orbits though, kinda like the real Gemini 3. Molly Kerman is about to set down.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 14, 2014 20:23:25 GMT -5
Bah, kerbals annoyed me tonight! Every ship I build for some reason turns slightly so I end up at 90° by 4000ft! And yes, SAS is turned on... theres no reason for it since the design is the same as countless others. I give up again for the night!
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Post by jenburdoo on Jun 14, 2014 22:07:32 GMT -5
Check the profile and symmetry. It's easy to miss something that will tilt your ship, and SAS can fight against your efforts to reright it.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 15, 2014 1:51:15 GMT -5
So, I have successfully sent up the first module of Kenmon Station, and have tested the ascent profile of the mk. 1 crew shuttle, which is a 7-kerbal capsule designed to fly personnel up to the space station. As it turns out, my new heavy lift vehicle is, as seems to be my custom, ridiculously overbuilt; the central stack was almost untouched after reaching a 120 km orbit. I'm currently using it as a refueling post, although there's not much traffic yet.
Also, I'm sending a probe to the Sun. It'll get to within 500 km of the Sunar surface and hopefully survive the trip.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 15, 2014 5:18:57 GMT -5
Everything's symmetrical, except the antenna which is the flat style one.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 15, 2014 16:37:57 GMT -5
Omfg this is making me so angry! Ive made a really basic rocket and when it gets to 3000ft it just flips over -.- I cant even get into fornicateing orbit! This has never happened... even with ridiculous rockets in the past ive had no problems
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 17, 2014 0:09:59 GMT -5
I suppose now would not be the best time to mention the success I've been having with my Minmus Explorer?
As for problems on my end, some of my spacecraft have had the annoying tendency to flip out and explode for no apparent reason, including the last module I tried docking to Kenmon Station. I think I will try breaking it into smaller modules and send them up individually on rockets that are not my ludicrously powerful heavy lift vehicle (which was somehow able to get my Minmus Explorer, a lander fully half the size of the launch stack itself, all the way to Minmus without a problem).
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jun 17, 2014 1:35:49 GMT -5
Maybe they changed the physics in the last few months? Anyway I figured it out, it was the lack of a reaction wheel and the solid fuel boosters were under everything rather than at the sides at the top. I got in to space but don't think I had enough to land on minmum and get back so I aimed for a slingshot around the mun, got in an orbit around the sun and did an EVA for 60odd science and researched my goo for another 80. That let me buy the remaining tier 2 researches
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