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

[Randox]

First, something everyone who plays should be reading: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/~kerbalsp/wiki/index.php?title=Key_Bindings

There are a lot of controls that I couldn't even find in the settings file (whatever its called), probably becuase it only lists ones you can change. Of note are alt-L to prevent accedental stage advancement, and I/J/K/L/H/N for transnational (instead of rotational) RCS control.

 

There are a number of mods here: http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.net/kerbal-space-program-mods

 

I have the Advanced decoupler (for looks), though there are actually 3 parts in it. I think the other two are the ones that messed up my game (at least its small engine). I have the full Lunar Lander parts mod. It has some small fuel tanks that hold less than anything stock, and are super light, but to compensate its small lander engines use almost twice the fuel per unit of thrust. I also have Nova Punch Remix, except I only pulled out the lander ASAS and small capsuel (which is the black one shows in the lander mod pic). If you pull out the whole mod though, it adds a ton of parts for making a rocket more like a real life Saturn V, where it gets wider and has these super huge fuel tanks.

 

So far I've been trying to focus on stuff that works with stock rockets. Might put the full Nova Punch back in though and actually play around with it a bit, or I'll pick something else similar with a few less parts (Nova has a LOT of parts).

 

For me, most of its observation. What you don't see are all my initial flights where I am totally clueless.

 

And if you want a circular orbit, open up the map and wait to be at either the Ap or Pe. A prograde burn raises the opposite point, a retro grade burn lowers it. That might be todays task for me, establishing as close to a perfect orbit as I can, leaving something behind in that orbit (which will probably mean using the RCS thrusters to move away so that my engine exhasut doesn't hit whatever I leave), and then try to bring another rocket up and ram it.

 

EDIT: I have made a rocket capable of putting a manned satellite into a slightly higher orbit than intended. Does not handle well until it gets to stage 2, but fortunately stage one only hits 20km anyway. Much smaller than my Thor and Mad Cat rockets. There will need to be a slight modification to stage 3 to give it an extra 2 rcs tanks and another half fuel tank for the main engine, since I anticipate a butt load of maneuvering. The Upsilon Alpha is sitting pretty in a nearly perfectly level 399km orbit, with only 1100m variance in orbital altitude. With about 1/5th of both the RCS and main fuel left, I believe it has enough fuel to de-orbit. There is no ejection engine, so if not, the poor crew is royally [bleep]ed. Even if I can't destroy the orbit though, I should be able to get it far enough into the atmosphere to put it in a degrading orbit.

 

I have never put so many SAS units into orbit before either, but I needed a lot of rotational power without resorting to the RCS system. Luckily, the lander mod has a very light weight 60% power SAS unit, of which I am carrying 8 on stage 3. Stage 2 has a conventional unit, and stage 1 is carrying 3 of them, off center to increase their leverage. Damn this game is awesome.

[Dizzle229]

Does the lag drive this thing to the point of near unplayability for anyone else?

[Randox]

Does the lag drive this thing to the point of near unplayability for anyone else?

No, but my computer isn't anyplace close to the recommended specs either. You might try turning down the graphical quality (do this from the main menu, more options).

 

And I also found this today. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=8021.0

 

I have yet to meet up with my satellite (didn't help that I lost control of stage one by setting that auto pilot to the wrong button). Even if you don't use the autopilot function, the data it provides on your orbit can be noce to have from both screens, rather than just the map.

[Albel]

FINALLY!!!

 

I achived orbit!!@!@ For some reason it provides me with so much joy.

 

Now, time to go to the moon and back:

[Randox]

I might be going to the moon again too. The autopilot should help wonders during landing, by making my lander controllable, and apparently I just suck at orbital rondevouz. It would be easier if I had a piece that would deorbit any stages I ejected though (I'd settle for self destruct). I am constrained by my unwillingness to clutter my orbit with more junk, which is limiting my options for orbital maneuvers. If I take more fuel, the extra weight causes me to require more fuel and so on. But with a self destruct, I could use rockets the size of my Thor model. With some extra SAS, they might be able to reach such and orbit, specially with, again, the new autopilot preventing it from spinning out of control when I turn SAS off (that's all that holds the thing up, and this might allow me to lean it). Something to avoid needing to use my final stage to finish the initial orbit. Might ask around their forums tomorrow and get some pointers.

 

To the Mun!

 

EDIT: That program has a lot of trouble tracking retro burn during approach for some reason. After 3 failed attempted to program it for strait up, I finally remembered (that's 90 pitch. 90 heading means sideways). I was able to track the retro spot manually well enough during the last 2km to pretty much put it strait down. I allowed autopilot to take over for the last 100m, and it really freed me up to keep the speed down around 5m/s.

 

I even have a picture:

 

I did however make what turned out to be a very fatal assumption. I believe when they made the accent and decent tanks, the idea was for the entire lander to take off, and launch the decent engine at height, since even though I was situated very nicely, I lacked the fuel required to break Mun orbit, and having left my RCS on the final non lander stage, there was nothing that could be done. It went up to almost 200km, and it came back down. Hard. All hands were lost in the first fatal mission (that I saved). The next rocket will be carrying 2 accent tanks, in the hopes that this will be enough to break Mun's gravity well. The part is going to be redesigned to triple its weight and volume, since that is what I estimate I will actually need.

 

Anyone using the stock half tank and small engine will probably be fine, especially if it only handles the last 2 or 3km. That engine uses half the gas as the ones I have, and the tank holds twice as much as my accent tank (so that's like almost 4x the fuel even after considering my second engine and tank for decent).

 

Also, since stage 3 handles most of the decent and braking thrust, I only eject it 1-2km up. I left the engine set to high, and it was still decelerating, which meant when I blew the separation joint I was still stuck to it. Had to flare the decent engine and then hit x really fast to cut it out, which shoved the 3rd stage a couple meters off my hull, and sent it off course (and out of my way). Was really fun considering I was only like 8 seconds away from starting to ascend, and of couse using my engine to knock it away lost me a lot of speed too. Glad to see I can still think fast though. I also learned I need a null stage so I can set the thrust for accent without turning the decent engine on.

[misterxman]

The stories you guys are posting are always interesting, everyone tackles similar challenges in different ways :)

 

The lag and VAB stage bugs are currently being fixed to be released in the end of the week I believe, so that will be good.

 

Here's a video I made a few weeks ago of a Mun rover:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn1DhtMsHKM

 

I'm planning to make a Rendez-vous tutorial video as well :P

 

The community always comes up with some great mods. I'm currently waiting for the new plug-in releases to build realistic space shuttles that interact realistically with the atmosphere.

[Randox]

I could really go for a rendezvous tutorial. The two things that are throwing me off are duplicating the orbital plane exactly (though if I don';t mess up, I think I can do this, seeing as I did it the first time). but the other is the transfer orbit. I don't know when to perform the transfer to meet up with my satellite. The closest I have gotten is 12.4km.

[Albel]

The stories you guys are posting are always interesting, everyone tackles similar challenges in different ways :)

 

The lag and VAB stage bugs are currently being fixed to be released in the end of the week I believe, so that will be good.

 

Here's a video I made a few weeks ago of a Mun rover:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn1DhtMsHKM

 

I'm planning to make a Rendez-vous tutorial video as well :P

 

The community always comes up with some great mods. I'm currently waiting for the new plug-in releases to build realistic space shuttles that interact realistically with the atmosphere.

:blink:

One day...I shall be able to do that I hope.

 

Amazing job :thumbup:

 

Anyway I could get the craft files for that?

 

EDIT:

Just tried to backwards engineer the rocket I saw on your video and I at least got a rocket to orbit again. I am slowly getting used to orbiting...now I guess I need a little more practice then it's on to the the mun.

[Dizzle229]

Still having massive lag issues, even at minimum settings. Sometimes it works fine at max, so it's not my computer.

I can't even narrow it down to a specific cause.

 

Edit: Will watch the vid later, seems interesting.

[Dizzle229]

Sorry to bump this after being the last post, but it seems there was an update. Any idea what it does? Doesn't seem to be any new content, and no bug fixes that I can see. Still lagging severely.

 

This was done in the free version just now, shattered my old height record of 3,000k.

 

[spoiler=Bleep Yeah]

 

 

 

Each Kerbal got their own postage stamp, but we didn't tell the public that they starved to death in the cold vastness of space.

[Resistance]

I haven't played for a long time, long before they introduced the docking stations and such. Anyway, I've found that its almost impossible to actually get to space without mods.

 

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?board=14.0

 

They add new, mostly balanced items.

[misterxman]

There was indeed a 0.14.1 update - you can check HarvesteR's update logs here:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?board=4.0

 

For anyone who wants a stock 0.14 Mun lander, here is one I made that you can download: http://www.mediafire.com/?7xy3f1exr7t9rkh

 

It's very fuel efficient, so you will not be close to running out of fuel in any of the stages. Just launch at full throttle and jettison the 2 sets of boosters as they run out of fuel to get yourself above 70 km, then burn to set yourself on an 80 x 80 km parking orbit around Kerbin. The main stage has plenty of fuel to burn to the moon, and the lander has plenty of fuel to insert itself into Mun orbit and land accurately on your target.

[Dizzle229]

DL'd the craft, going to try it in a bit.

 

What are the lowest possible settings? Everytime I adjust them, it works fine for a while, then starts lagging again.

[Randox]

I like the stock lander. Looks a bit heavy for the decent, but I do like it. I haven't been playing this much lately. Got a week long attention span for games, but I rotate through them.

[Albel]

I purchased this game yesterday. When I used my un-zipper to extract the file, it tells me that the header file is damaged. Any thoughts/suggestions?

[hide=The issue in question][/hide]

[misterxman]

Albel - I think what happened is that your download got cut-off so you didn't get the full zip file. The 0.14 game ZIP should be 177.8 MB, but it appears the server downloaded only 145 MB. This is a known issue and SQUAD is working on a better download server, but basically the only solution is to re-download the entire thing or download the 7 split ZIP files and extract them all in same place.

[Albel]

Finally got it to work. Pretty pumped to start playing again... :thumbup:

 

EDIT:

First orbit with the new game.

[hide=][/hide]

 

Next goal, to the mun and back... :mellow:

[misterxman]

New update coming out tomorrow:

 

Hi again,

 

I have news:

 

After a pretty long week of work, I think it's safe to say we are just about ready to release the 14.2 update. Barring any unforeseen problems, it should be going up tomorrow. :)

 

The terrain system is pretty much ready to go here. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but for now, it is quite presentable I think. Here are some screenshots:

 

 

Flying around KSC (Aircraft uses mod parts that are not included in the official release):

 

Much improved shorelines and transparent shallow water. Also, the KSC area is now blended smoothly with the terrain:

 

The Mun - The new texture generating tools make for an almost imperceptible transition between low and high-detail scenery:

 

 

 

That's about it for now really. :)

 

Cheers

 

Looks awesome.

[Albel]

Looks great!

 

I seem to be having an issue at the moment. All I want to do at the moment is to orbit the moon and come back. I seem to always miss the moon. I can almost get it...but I can never get an orbit. I almost get one, then I fall back to Kerbin :unsure:

[misterxman]

Looks great!

 

I seem to be having an issue at the moment. All I want to do at the moment is to orbit the moon and come back. I seem to always miss the moon. I can almost get it...but I can never get an orbit. I almost get one, then I fall back to Kerbin :unsure:

 

When your ship's orbit switches from Kerbin's to the Mun's, you have to burn your engine Retrograde (opposite your direction of motion) at the Periapsis (PE) until the "arc" around the moon bends into a semi-circular orbit around it. Basically, your goal is to "slow" your ship down when you are near the Mun so you don't overshoot it and remain in orbit around it.

 

[Albel]

Looks great!

 

I seem to be having an issue at the moment. All I want to do at the moment is to orbit the moon and come back. I seem to always miss the moon. I can almost get it...but I can never get an orbit. I almost get one, then I fall back to Kerbin :unsure:

 

When your ship's orbit switches from Kerbin's to the Mun's, you have to burn your engine Retrograde (opposite your direction of motion) at the Periapsis (PE) until the "arc" around the moon bends into a semi-circular orbit around it. Basically, your goal is to "slow" your ship down when you are near the Mun so you don't overshoot it and remain in orbit around it.

 

That makes since :wall:

 

Another question, when should I launch and make a run to the mun? Like where should the moon be relative to the earth when I launch?

[misterxman]

 

Looks great!

 

I seem to be having an issue at the moment. All I want to do at the moment is to orbit the moon and come back. I seem to always miss the moon. I can almost get it...but I can never get an orbit. I almost get one, then I fall back to Kerbin :unsure:

 

When your ship's orbit switches from Kerbin's to the Mun's, you have to burn your engine Retrograde (opposite your direction of motion) at the Periapsis (PE) until the "arc" around the moon bends into a semi-circular orbit around it. Basically, your goal is to "slow" your ship down when you are near the Mun so you don't overshoot it and remain in orbit around it.

 

That makes since :wall:

 

 

Another question, when should I launch and make a run to the mun? Like where should the moon be relative to the earth when I launch?

 

You can launch any time to get to the Mun :) The key is to set yourself in a circular "parking orbit" around Kerbin (80 km - 100 km) so your ship aligns itself until you reach the best point to burn for the Mun. From experience, the best time to burn for the Mun is to wait when it rises above Kerbin's horizon as you orbit east around Kerbin.

 

 

The end result is an orbit that has an Apoapsis that is around 45 degrees ahead of the Mun, but will align exactly with Mun's position.

[Albel]

I know about a parking orbit (yay for knowing something), however the next bit of info should be invaluable to me. I will try this over the weekend and post my results later :mrgreen:

 

Thank you so much :thumbup:

[Dizzle229]

[spoiler=Rant]GRAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH [bleep]ING LAG FIX THIS SHIT I PAID 15 DOLLARS FOR THIS PIECE OF SHIT AND I WANT TO USE IT FIX THIS STUPID GODDAM LAG THAT WAS MYSTERIOUSLY ABSENT IN THE DEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Seriously, the demo works perfectly, yet the main game lags to the point of unplayability, though it does sometimes decide to flip me off by running smoothly for a few minutes. Messing with the settings has no affect whatsoever. There HAS to be a fix for this...

[Randox]

I think I need to remake some of my rockets. Either the modded parts don't agree with the last update, or my something is wrong with the rocket as it is now refusing to leave the launchpad.