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[Steam] Kerbal Space Program - Update 0.22: Career Mode!


misterxman

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So I got 0.16 working. Remade my old rocket, mostly, and took it to the Mun. It tipped over on the landing, stranding my Kerbal. So I made a rocket using the new, bigger, parts. I think it could use some serious slimming down, but after finally attaching enough struts and realizing that I need to modulate the throttle a bit, I got it to fly without destroying the separation ring (which causes the bottom of the rocket to fly through the top sections). It's a barge to control, and it only barely gets into orbit without falling apart, but by making one seat available I was able to get it to the Mun and land it 4km away from my stranded capsule in what I can only describe as the most white knuckle landing I have ever performed where everyone didn't die, complements of time warping too far at one point. This was after the previous lander crashed because the one landing engine really wasn't powerful enough, so I strapped on two of the side ones.

 

Flew home, and getting onto a landing trajectory used up most of my fuel. I wanted to hit land, but I didn't think I had enough fuel to correct myself, and I certainly didn't have enough for that and a powered landing (which is required because I am landing the entire lander assembly , not just a capsule). I forgot to orient for the approach, so I got stuck nose forward, and so deployed the parachute at 3km up and prayed that it would be enough to turn me around so I could fire the engines before it opened at 500m, or I knew the chute would just get ripped off. It managed to turn me around just in time to get the engines at full throttle, which was good because I still lost the chute, but I didn't realize that at first and so shut the engines off. Then in a panic I turned them back on and tried to get the rocket point the right way. The extra engines saved everyone's lives for a second time (would have been a repeat of the Mun crash, since I made the same mistake twice) by getting the vehicle slow enough that the pod didn't explode on impact with the ocean, though everything else was lost. Also, good thing I never made it to land, since I still impacted way to fast for a hard landing, even if it had been without any lateral velocity.

 

Fun times. Now I need to launch it up again and try landing it, and see if it actually can perform a re-entry backwards or if I need to add another separation ring. I hope it just means I can't EVA during a landing anymore (because that's what allowed it to flip over).

 

 

Did some tests, and I should never be aiming for land with that particular lander design. If it doesn't get under ~75 m/s before 500m, it has no chute and it's not going to be going even close to slow enough to land. The parachute works fine to keep it pointed the right way though at least, and will deploy high enough that the engines should be able to do their jobs, if there is enough fuel. In all honesty, after taking off from the Mun, I doubt it would have enough fuel to make it. Perhaps if I only use the small engine on the Mun and have the extras activate with the chute (that would be one scary landing, but it can do it) the better efficiency might make everything possible, but I doubt it.

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So apparently that rescue was nothing at all. Today I performed a rondevouz, or tried to rather. While trying to get my small pod (riding on a small engine and outfitted with RCS) to meet up with the big one (my big lander, which has no RCS and isn't spectacularly maneuverable), I accidently jesesoned my small capsule from the engine. Stranding it roughly half a klck from the large one, where the crew swap was supposed to happen. Of course this also means the small pod can't de-orbit, and it's not in a perfectly circular orbit, so the chance of ever getting another vessal close were not good. So I switched over to the big pod, and with some very very careful controlled bursts from it's engines, was able to, over the next 5 minutes or so, get it to close in to about 200m and hold position, then EVA'd the kerbal out of the doomed capsule and make a run for it's larger brother. After that I extended one of the ladders so he had a nice perch to hold on. Was going to be a fun ride.

 

The next 5-10 minutes were spent setting the engines and then controlling the kerbal so he wouldn't slide off the ladder (did that once, and that was probably the hardest EVA I have performed trying to get back on to a capsule rapidly losing any sembalence of stability as it hit the atmosphere). I was able to slow it down, but I was late deploying the chute (noticed when the capsule suddenly snapped around to point forward). Got the chute out and the capsule pointed the right way again without tossing my passenger off. I then spent nearly all the fuel on board getting the capsule going really slow before the chute actually opened, since my normal open speed would have proven fatal for the dude on the ladder. A side effect of going so slow is the when the chute opens, it doesn't pull up very hard which makes the capsule rediculously unstables, so we spent the next 300m spinning and tossing until I shut the engines off, which quickly resolved the problem. After that, the last fumes in the tank were used to keep the speed down, for a reasonably gentle splash down, which only destroyed most of the ship, but my passenger survived.

 

screenshot19l.png

Kerbal leaving the small pod, with the large one in the distance.

 

screenshot21xg.png

The landed pod, floating with the remaining pieces that survived the water landing.

 

And I never though to take a picture of the ride down, but here is a picture of an identical lander to the one that made the impromptu rescue.

screenshot22e.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice stories Randox, it's impressive to land such a big lander back from orbit intact. I have yet to do so.

 

Semi-related, Curiosity rover landed on Mars!

 

Semi-related because Mars will soon join us in KSP..

 

kerbalmars1.png

 

roverksp1.png

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Heh, I sort of want a skycrane now, though I'm not sure how the controls would work (can't control something without a command pod without using mechjeb, whihc I have stopped using now, and I think for good. It was causing me to lose skill). I also think I found some beefed up seperation rings, so I should be able to make my big rocket look nicer, rather than looking like something that will fall apart during launch (because it will).

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  • 1 month later...

So I finally found the second space centre (thanks youtube!), and promptly decided to go there. Problem is I have one plane that can actually fly (it makes up for it by being capable of performing stunts and generally being the most easy thing to fly ever). Unfortunately it is not capable of flying nearly that far, and I forget how I gave it drop tanks in the past (which would still only get it halfway, probably). So I built a stripped down version that is short a few fuel tanks, and an engine so that I could strap it on a rocket and going so far as to weigh it down with 2 of its 3 original RCS fuel tanks, and promptly not giving it any RCS thrusters (so you can tell this was a well thought out design that was rigorusly tested from the space plane hanger, and not something I had the kerbal engineers slap together in 5 minutes). I then put an equal amount of effort into building a rocket to get it into orbit. A mighty rocket! A rocket capable of lifting the still fairly significant weight of a stripped down space plane. The second stage was the 'star drive", consisting of 5 standard fuel tanks and a standard rocket engine.

 

Predictably, the rocket I threw together in 10 minutes was a bit underwhelming. So underwhelming that the original launch was scrapped to that the space plane could be reinforced so that it didn't flap its wings like a bird during launch, throwing the rocket around, and so that 3 large solid boosters could be added to give it a lift (because it was slow to take off). Once all that was cleared up, the rocket failed to achive orbit quite spectacularly. There might have been a way to get more distance out of it, but the plane was simply too heavy for the star drive stage to handle, and the first stage was not really large enough. I was able to get about halfway there, anf figured that was good enough and was off. Maybe 60-90km out, I realized I was't going to make it, and resorted to using the fuel bug which makes engines ridiculously efficient as the thrust goes down. I brought the thrust down to about 10% (which actually would have made the more efficient even without the bug). As low as I could go and keep the engines running. As I limped over the mountain wall to the second KSC, with a grand total of 4L of jet fuel left , I cut power and went for a glide, with a small engine burst to complete the landing.

 

Apparently the second KSC is actually a floating hologram. It's not solid at all as I wound out when I tried to park on the rocket launch platform since the runway is missing. In an attempt to park, I folded the landing gear up, which was a mistake. Probably wouldn't have drifted away if I hadn't done that. It lost an engine when it took off down the slope, but that doesn't matter because the fuel tanks are bone dry.

 

Now my time until 0.17 will probably be occupied trying to create an ultra light 2m style rocket, capable of getting into orbit and then coming back down in a targeted manner (will need to be able to de-orbit twice), and then building a larger rocket that can get that whole thing into orbit. I will then send a large command pod up into space, and land the smaller rocket in the second KSC where I will retrieve Jebediah, and then fly him back to the real KSC. At least the second KSC will keep him company in the mean time, since after I design my light rocket, I will need to learn how to perform a very precise landing. I'll have a landing zone with about a 150m radius to deal with, unless I want to walk really far. That or I will have to build a 3 man capable rover, and fly that over, so that I can transport jeb to the landed rocket, and then load the rover driver and Jeb into the rocket and take the trio home (tjhat rocket will have a pilot too of course). This might take a while, but it will be fun.

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They really need to work on releasing things. I never got the new patcher, and the servers are probably down anyway so I can't update the game. Currently trying to see if I can log into the store to grab a full install or not (though if they do what they did last time, it wont be in the store anyway, though that 0.16 might have the newest patcher). At least they didn't release on Friday again. What a shit show that was. I can also understand some reluctance to beef up the servers, since they only have high demand for a day every couple months. Still, I hope its not something they feel they can get away with once they get to beta.

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Managed to get a download in, though I think it's glitched (no Bill, Jeb, and Bob crew). After a number of attempts, I finally managed to get a ship into a 100km orbit around Duna, though he probably can't come back.

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Get back here so I can rub your butt.

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I have the game, but I haven't even gotten to installing it yet. I had the same problem during the last release. My interest in this game comes and goes, and right now my focus is FTL. I'd like to get to this next weekend though.

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  • 1 month later...

Starting to get back into this game after a bit of a break. I am trying to construct a ship to go to jool, and hopefully it's next version will be able to make it back, but I don't think this one will have that capacity. Think I'll give it landing legs, and it can try to land on one of the moons.

 

The main stage (covers ascent and original orbit, and might be able to cover some of the leaving Kerbin SOI) is 3 tanks high asparagus setup on the 2m parts (one center, 6 radial stacks). Next up is 3 2 tank stacks of 1m parts, with 3 nuclear engines, topped off by a full 1m tank with a small engine. The command pod has 3 ejector engines for emergencies.

genesismk1.png

 

I've been having some trouble getting the radial stacks to drop without hitting the craft. Specifically a couple are prone to hitting an engine as they leave, and naturally the rocket can't fly without symmetrical thrust. I have added ejector engines (4 per stack) to the first two radial pairs to disengage, and for the most part that worked. It got me into orbit, where my remaining main engine promptly tried to snap my rocket in half by bending it, and I have now added extra bracing which might allow it to withstand it's own engine at maximum thrust. On the way up to test my bracing, all is going well. The first pair jetession without a hitch and all is well.

 

Next up is the loss of the second pair of radial stacks, which are ditched shortly before the roll over to enter orbit. This time, the stacks did not separate properly. It almost looked like one or more ejectors failed. One of the 3 remaining main engines is taken out by the departing stack, causing the rocket to start to tilt, and I immediately cut engine power to avoid an uncontrolled spin. Well, cutting the engines so quickly was nearly a fatal mistake. I was so fast that the ejected stacks and my rocket we're moving at pretty much the exact same vertical speed, which means I now have a rocket still at full length, with 2 very large objects drifting right beside it. Without engines, I can't escape.

 

I also admit I kind of froze up in awe of what was happening. This situation is the sort of thing I added the espape rockets for, though I will admit it takes a while to fire them since we don't have the escape feature yet (they have talked about adding an ability to skip to the last stage/an escape stage for emergencies). However, in the end we only came within 7m of dying (guistimate of distance between tricouper and command pod), and that's called awesome.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Oh my, and I've not even gotten to another planet yet (made a few tries). I think I am going back to mechjeb to handle the more tedious parts of flying, which might solve my aiming trouble. Also, perhaps mechjeb will teach me planet transfers (though I think I know the theory, I just can't aim worth a damn).

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  • 3 months later...

Lots of updates!

 

Update 0.19 came out, bringing us Re-entry effects and rover parts, so now we can make some crazy wheeled contraptions:

 

screenshot93p.png

 

 

 

 

And burn them all up in the atmosphere:

 

screenshot68k.png

 

 

Also, the game is on STEAM! This will make it easier to keep up with the game updates:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

 

Hope you all get to try this game out, it keeps getting more fun the more the devs add to it :)

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Time to get back into this game. So far, I have crashed a spiritual recreation of what was once my main rocket, and which just about all the rockets I use are still roughly based on, though they are far superior. The "Thor" class will probably be making a return as Orbital heavy lifter ships. This new spiritual recreation of the old Mk III can actually do something the old ones never did, which is achieve a low orbit. I included a later design improvement of gimbaled engines in the center. It's still dangerous as balls to rollover at the normal point (14km), but a low quality roll can be done from about 16km (it is slow to roll without crashing, so it likes to end up at 100km which is actually a bit high.

 

This was succeded by the Loki class, which replaced the booster mentality with asparagus staging. While they are a lot more efficient, they have less lifting capacity because they quickly lose engines at the start. Because the Thors can actually lift substantially more weight, they are going to see a comeback as orbital cargo haulers I think. They aren't going to be the Thors of old, but I wanted ships to fly under that name again, and this would be keeping to the original design ideals.

 

I have plans to run through a new space program to get my skills back, and then start sending ships to Duna and Jool. I also came up with an idea to send multiple ships at once without stress (so I could send a ship with a tanker all in one go), which is to simply tie them together in a symmetrical fashion. Building an orbital tug to arrange connection pieces wouldn't be an issue, and I figure if the ships are of similar mass (or rather TWR) they wont rip apart during acceleration, though I worry that bringing them through an aero brake like that will probably end in a spectaular disaster when a ship inevitably crashing into another one while in atmo, resulting in awesome. Of course I'll have to try it.

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Got the game last week. Everything has been going swimmingly, until I needed to get some solar panels up in orbit for my space station. Now it seems that nothing will get it into orbit. It's not heavy or anything, just a small structure with solar panels and a dock attached to it.

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Nine naked men is a technological achievement. Quote of 2013.

 

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Inspired by Scott Manleys sky crane, where he rescues a stranded mining rig off the moon so it can be outfitted with a new part (the original fuel lines were done incorrectly), in which a special ship hovers and grapples the miner before flying off with it, I have constructed a prototype VTOL craft, which is more or less just a really weird helicopter. Wings are for wimps. At maximum thrust with the props at max pitch, it will achieve just over 2.6 g's about half a second after liftoff, and I tested it by carrying a previous version. While it did a fair bit of damage dropping it again (mostly because I was unable to steady the craft and steady the vertical velocity at the same time, so I released while dragging it a bit) a rudimentary RCS system proved to be able to counter balance errors (the rear has a bit more lift, and it will tend to nose dive while carrying load).

 

It was a nail bitter of a ride. At one point I nearly crashed trying to turn, as carrying a ship that weighed almost as much as I did meant I didn't have a lot of thrust to spare, and I spent to long in a tilt and came down very fast. I might try to build a full helicopter version as well, since I now have the parts, and I can also build a larger version of this with stronger VTOL engines.

 

I didn't think I could actually get this to work because of the balance issue, but here I am, giving rational thought the bird:

 

screenshot15oo.png

Take this sanity!

 

The only problem is the weight of the RCS system, which means that instead of taking off at 66% in hover mode, it's closer to about 90%. This would have gone badly if the crashed plane had also had RCS. It could still carry it, but not the way I am turning in this picture. Might use lighter RCS tanks.

 

Still, in level flight in cargo mode, with the engines tilted up 10 or 20 degrees (to avoid being nose down) it will do over 150 m/s at 2-3km. It can't keep pace with a jet craft, but it's not *that* much slower. There are also larger engines I could use rather at 150 thrust each, rather than the 45 thrust versions I am using here. Just in case I wanted to lift and entire small rocket I guess.

 

I also have a conventional propeller plane knocking around, inspired again by Scott Manley who created a solar plane which could fly forever by keeping up with the sun (why I downloaded the firespitter mod the VTOL is made from actually). Mine can't do that, but it runs 3 gas propeller engines which are pretty low fuel consumption, and two electric versions which in direct sunlight can go full power without losing charge (without sun that would use probably more than 60/s). The original design was just one gas engine to keep the plane in the air when the electrics were charging, and it would probably have substantially improved range, but the bigger one can do 120-140 with all engines going fairly hard as opposed to about 90, and the electrics can still keep it in the air without the gas engines (and for a long time with enough sun). I'd fly it around kerbin perhaps, but it's very slow and it would take many many hours. I'll probably build a hybrid idea into a substantially smaller plane to see if I can get better fuel economy without sacrificing speed.

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Good news everyone, you can now get a Steam key if you purchased the game before it came out on Steam. It prevents you from downloading it from from the store any more, but you don't need Steam running to play KSP. Yes, a Steam game 100% DRM free. So basically Steam is only there to lessen the server load.

 

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entry.php/611-Optional-Steam-Transfer

 

On to more important news, I've had to make it a habit of covering things in OX-STAT Photovoltaic Panels, because I keep forgetting to extend my other ones in orbit and lose control of things. If it wasn't for the fact that ending the flight removes everything from the previous flight, the amount of debris in Kerbin's orbit would be enough to block out the sun.

Steam | PM me for BBM PIN

 

Nine naked men is a technological achievement. Quote of 2013.

 

PCGamingWiki - Let's fix PC gaming!

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That should be a god send the next time they update the game. The KSP servers always melt to some degree, which is somewhat understandable but still very annoying.

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Thinking on it, I might stick to downloading it from the website, since I update at uni and I can't lug my desktop there to update it.

Steam | PM me for BBM PIN

 

Nine naked men is a technological achievement. Quote of 2013.

 

PCGamingWiki - Let's fix PC gaming!

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I love xenon fuel. Sure, it only works on one side of a planet's orbit, but hnnng it's so efficient. I'm bringing it up to my space station, which I'm naming Stellar Patrolling And Control Entity. Or SPACE.

Steam | PM me for BBM PIN

 

Nine naked men is a technological achievement. Quote of 2013.

 

PCGamingWiki - Let's fix PC gaming!

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I'm still trying to think of a practical way to use the largest wheels... Those things are ginormous and awesome!

 

Have you met my rover yet? It's still in development.

 

screenshot20

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