Kerbal Space Program

[Exorcet]

Gonna have to watch this in a few minutes.... (holy crap it's 2 hours long though)

Yeah, it didn't help that I was chatting with people while recording. There's also a pause for a couple of minutes somewhere in the middle. I did finally figure out how to get OBS to record without streaming though, so maybe I can condense things from now on. Not that I put up videos regularly.

I've been thinking about this game a lot recently. I want to get back into it, but I'm waiting to install my SSD, and after that I'm going to compile all my addons I have on a list to redownload them again into whatever the latest version is.

Yeah, that's the downside with add ons. I've restarted KSP a few times because I didn't want to bother picking up where I left off, but I never got all that far, mostly just putting landers on all the planets.

I also have a moon base completely assembled, however it's on Kerbin, and not the Mun, so I'll have to draw everything down and re-create those (I'm going to completely uninstall KSP and reinstall it for a fresh start).

You should be able to pull ships out of the save file and transfer them. They may not all work in updated versions though.

I also have a few space stations zooming around, from 100k km to 350k km, so not sure when I'll make those again. I'd like to have just one, and it be a massive one for refueling and what not to the mun. I started work on the ISS but parts wouldn't connect together too well in .25, so I started making a replica base out of KSP parts and was planning on blowing up the old one, or bringing it back in a tow vessel...

Orbit space can be an issue yeah, I just put things at 70-100 km and it's getting kind of crowded there. I can see things fly by when I'm ascending.

So we'll see... Sometime by the end of January I hope to have all progress finished. I hope this SSD (never owned one before) will also boost the initial game load time from 3 minutes to about a few seconds..

My new computer has a Samsung 850 Evo, loads KSP much faster than the old HDD. You'll see a definite improvement. Same with DCS. I do have it pretty empty though, right now only the OS (Win 7), DCS 2, and KSP are on the SSD.

 

[Swagger897]

You should be able to pull ships out of the save file and transfer them. They may not all work in updated versions though.

That's my fear, which is why on some I'll modify to make better use of their designs. I think for some of them I had too many solar panels, some were not high enough to allow the rover to move them around and what not... I wish I had some way of recording to show you guys what it looks like.

The best way to describe it is a walking moon base, except that the rovers are like flat bed trucks with a docking port to move individual pieces around. All the pieces stand up on landing gear, so when I want to move them around, I drive the flat bed under a docking port, drop the landing gear on that to give me a push up, and then drop the landing gear on everything to drop back down. Much better than using wheels in case one breaks, but the pieces have to be small (which is what I also plan on modifying. some of the tubes are way too long) otherwise they wobble too much and the docking port gets messed up badly.

Orbit space can be an issue yeah, I just put things at 70-100 km and it's getting kind of crowded there. I can see things fly by when I'm ascending.

Yeah, that's my deal.... Everything goes the same path at a level with the rest of them, so they can't collide with each other, but they have gotten close before when I try moon missions...

My new computer has a Samsung 850 Evo, loads KSP much faster than the old HDD. You'll see a definite improvement. Same with DCS. I do have it pretty empty though, right now only the OS (Win 7), DCS 2, and KSP are on the SSD.

Sweet, that's what I bought cyber monday, the 500 gig.. Still gotta buy the cable for it, but thanks for that.

 

[Swagger897]

New beginnings:

Alright... I decided to do a clean out, and by that I mean uninstall and reinstall KSP, to finally get back into the swing of things. The old space station was appalling, seeing it was only an unfinished ISS mock up. This will have everything. Fuel, RCS, electric, crew rest, ports galore, supremo space station. Next up will be a few structural pieces to give me some space. After that, hopefully a fuel depot.

In the last KSP I had, I had too many things going on. An incomplete ISS, attempting to build a moon base, and mods cluddering everything. This will focus on the space station, then going to the moon to make a space station. After that, I'll make a station just out side of the moons rotation for deep planetary travel. Once I get that done... Then we'll start to tinker with bases.. I've never been to other planets with a kerbal, but I've set a few satellites out.

 

[Darla Starch]

I'm still at the "try to bring your Kerbals back from Kerbin orbit" safely phase.

 

[Swagger897]

pssshhh.... That's easy.. What's hard is when you forget to add parachutes to the capsules. That's where you go "Okay... Time to make something else to go up there and save them."

And then you forget to limit the crew, so now you have the original asset, then another asset which has to come back down, and then you need to do it all over again...


yes, this has happened to me before..

 

[TenEightyOne]

I'm still at the "try to bring your Kerbals back from Kerbin orbit" safely phase.

One. One Kerbal recovered. The "very dead" count... lots

 

[Swagger897]

With the new update however it is a hell of a lot easier to meet up with them in orbit. However, equally so, the new update and its thermodynamics is a pain in the arse to work with.. Heatshields are mandatory.

 

[Carlos]

http://m.9gag.com/gag/aeGdz4p

 

[Swagger897]

lol... I might tinker with this again soon sometime... need to balance my classwork.

 

[Swagger897]

http://m.9gag.com/gag/aeGdz4p

lol, here I am back at school and I couldn't quite remember that link. Apparently, it consists of pornography...

Anyways.. Tried to send up my fuel storage and got amazingly close, but sadly I'm going to have to get mechjeb again for docking, as I was getting within 3 meters and then it would rotate on me...

Maybe pictures later tomorrow, FS9 is hogging the computer right now.

 

[Exorcet]

I haven't really been using heatshields for Kerbin reentry from orbit or the Mun. Fuel tanks usually do the job well enough as do capsules. Engines tend to survive too, but they aren't usually needed when you're returning so losing them isn't a big deal.

With the new update however it is a hell of a lot easier to meet up with them in orbit. However, equally so, the new update and its thermodynamics is a pain in the arse to work with.. Heatshields are mandatory.

You might be coming in at the wrong angle, depending on what parts you're using. I haven't really had to use heatshields within the Kerbin system. A bad return from the Mun has cost me landing legs, but that's about it. I think I did an unplanned aerobrake at Eve with solar panels without losing them, but that was a while ago and may have been in an older patch.

I need to do more reentry testing myself though. I haven't got much done in 1.0.5 compared to old patches. I've heard that Jool can be a challenge to brake in, and I've never properly explored its moons. On the other hand I really want 1.1's fixed fairing drag. That bug can be annoying.

 

[Swagger897]

Well I need to add my port hub, so I use the six-sided cube and and the docking stations all over it. I didn't want this to be the other side of the station, as I want to really expand over the last one, so I tried coming in on the side, and see if I could push it into it... Well, that only went so well until I overshot it, but I know mechjeb will fix it.


Hard to visualize probably what it looks like, but due time, due time..

 

[CSMDuty11]

So, uh, if you decided to actually build actual cars(Yeah, cars, not rovers) along with rockets and planes and all that jazz(All one of you. Who may or may not be me...) You probably won't be too excited to hear that the new update causes rover wheels to not works if something is deemed by the game close enough to "Block" them. Like, uh.... ...The body of the car itself.
You'll probably want to extend the wheels a bit on your favourite vehicles and give it a widebody of upside-down solar panels that aren't close enough to the wheels to be considered as "blocking them".

Spoiler: Example

To demonstrate my point, here is a picture long ago before the update, showcasing your everyday muscle car:

And here is a screenshot after the update, of your everyday muscle car... ...But on life support!

 

[Swagger897]

So, uh, if you decided to actually build actual cars along with rockets and planes and all that jazz(All one of you. Who may or may not be me...) You probably won't be too excited to hear that the new update causes rover wheels to not works if something is deemed by the game close enough to "Block" them. Like, uh.... ...The body of the car itself.
You'll probably want to extend the wheels a bit on your favourite vehicles and give it a widebody of upside-down solar panels that aren't close enough to the wheels to be considered as "blocking them".

Spoiler: Example

To demonstrate my point, here is a picture long ago before the update, showcasing your everyday muscle car:

And here is a screenshot after the update, of your everyday muscle car... ...But on life support!

huh.... I wonder if that means testing out rovers on Kerbin will no longer work...

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

So, uh, if you decided to actually build actual cars along with rockets and planes and all that jazz(All one of you. Who may or may not be me...) You probably won't be too excited to hear that the new update causes rover wheels to not works if something is deemed by the game close enough to "Block" them. Like, uh.... ...The body of the car itself.
You'll probably want to extend the wheels a bit on your favourite vehicles and give it a widebody of upside-down solar panels that aren't close enough to the wheels to be considered as "blocking them".

Spoiler: Example

To demonstrate my point, here is a picture long ago before the update, showcasing your everyday muscle car:

And here is a screenshot after the update, of your everyday muscle car... ...But on life support!

No wonder, you're not even building a legit rover, you're building mad max rovers. I guess they're trying to stop this sort of thing?

 

[R5]

So Scott Manley was streaming the PS4 version:

 

[CSMDuty11]

So 1.2 just got released, and yeah, it changed up probes a fair amount, but i find that to not be that important about the update.
The real important bit is rover wheels no longer being blocked by "car" bodywork.
Naturally, after learning this, i redesigned the "life-support" variant of the Muscle Car.
Because it still needs it due to the speed being quite slow with the thin rover wheels and attempting to shed some weight would be too simple.

I call it the Circuit Spec.
Though, there was one thing vehicle i didn't actually expect to work again.

Spoiler

And said vehicle is an Absurd Hovering Humvee. Of the Future!
...Or the HMMHV, whichever is more inconvenient to type/say in a given situation

 

[eran0004]

Just downloaded the demo. No casualties yet, but it took about a dozen attempts before I figured out how to make it into orbit! Bill Kerman is currently on his first lap around the planet. Planning on doing an EVA when he gets back into daylight.

It runs well on my laptop, I was afraid that it would require better hardware.

Spoiler: First orbit flight

Bill's EVA (which nearly ended in disaster when Bill fell off the ladder and hadn't read the manual for how to operate the jetpack).


The Orion II spacecraft retrograding in orbit. I brought way too much mono-propellant and too many solar panels on this mission, but I didn't want to risk running out of energy on my first orbital flight.


To infinity - and beyond! (Well, perhaps not on this particular mission...)


Re-entry. I had plenty of fuel left in the orbiter stage, so I performed one last burn at 30,000 meters to slow down and reduce the stress on the command module during re-entry.


Parachute deployed. Bill returned safely to Earth. Mission duration: 1 hour and 3 minutes.

 

[Swagger897]

Just downloaded the demo. No casualties yet, but it took about a dozen attempts before I figured out how to make it into orbit! Bill Kerman is currently on his first lap around the planet. Planning on doing an EVA when he gets back into daylight.

It runs well on my laptop, I was afraid that it would require better hardware.

Spoiler: First orbit flight

View attachment 647736
Bill's EVA (which nearly ended in disaster when Bill fell off the ladder and hadn't read the manual for how to operate the jetpack).

View attachment 647737
The Orion II spacecraft retrograding in orbit. I brought way too much mono-propellant and too many solar panels on this mission, but I didn't want to risk running out of energy on my first orbital flight.

View attachment 647738
To infinity - and beyond! (Well, perhaps not on this particular mission...)

View attachment 647739
Re-entry. I had plenty of fuel left in the orbiter stage, so I performed one last burn at 30,000 meters to slow down and reduce the stress on the command module during re-entry.

View attachment 647740
Parachute deployed. Bill returned safely to Earth. Mission duration: 1 hour and 3 minutes.

Only until you start making extremely large crafts will you have some trouble (at least near Kerbin).


Trying to piece together space stations though is some of the best stuff to do in the game.

 

[eran0004]

Only until you start making extremely large crafts will you have some trouble (at least near Kerbin).


Trying to piece together space stations though is some of the best stuff to do in the game.

My first mistakes were:

• Launching without stability assist
• Adding fins to the rocket (made it unstable)
• Going too fast too soon (overheating)
• Going too fast too soon (burning too much fuel on overcoming the drag)
• Turning too much too soon
• Turning in the wrong direction
• Incorrect staging

So it took some time to learn about each of these mistakes.

I'll definitely make some space stations!

 

[Swagger897]

My first mistakes were:

• Launching without stability assist
• Adding fins to the rocket (made it unstable)
• Going too fast too soon (overheating)
• Going too fast too soon (burning too much fuel on overcoming the drag)
• Turning too much too soon
• Turning in the wrong direction
• Incorrect staging

So it took some time to learn about each of these mistakes.

I'll definitely make some space stations!

There are also plenty of people on YouTube that make tons of videos for some of the most awesome stuff in the game. Scott Manely is one of the more friendly ones that's extremely helpful.

There's a saying that "if it worked in KSP, then it must work."

 

[eran0004]

Going for my first slingshot around the Mun right now. Periaps is 1300 k so it's not a very close encounter. Still, pretty good since I only aimed for it because I happened to reach orbit with a little extra fuel. Since my orbit is highly eccentric I'm just going to need a small puff to get back to Kerbin. Might enter the atmosphere at ludicrous speed though, we'll see when I get there.

Spoiler: Screenshots

Re-entry into the twilight zone


Tatooine?

'
Jebediah on his improvised trajectory towards the Mun.


Launched the first part of a space station. Quite pleased with the shape of this orbit. The two eccentric orbits are Jebediah's Mun slingshot and a probe that will use the Mun as a slingshot to get into the central parts of the solar system.


Jebediah's view of the Mun at periapsis.


A closer view of the space station. Valentina brought the power module (left) and then parked the tug at one of the side ports and transferred to become the first crew member of the station. The rendezvous was pretty nice, made a shallow approach which consumed almost no fuel at all and by the time I had matched the speed the station was only 100 meters away.

 

[Darla Starch]

A couple months old, but still one of my better moments. Perfect moment to play Kenny Loggins.

 

[eran0004]

Note to self: Switch off the rocket engines of the space station when you don't intend to use them. Nearly had a catastrophic re-entry of the whole thing after firing the engines by mistake.

 

[eran0004]

Got into the plane business. Below is my experimental X-01, after making it to the north pole on its maiden voyage and with plenty of fuel to spare.

A better view of the design. The outer ailerons are for roll, while the inner are flaps.

 

[eran0004]

I made a helicopter thingy! Only, with jet engines instead of a rotor. It works, but at high speeds it starts wobbling. Since the jet engines have a bit of lag, it's pretty hard to land it as well.

 

[eran0004]

New helicopter design. This one looks (and operates) more like a normal helicopter. It's actually very nice to fly, although it would be even better if I could lift the center of thrust a bit more (it would be self-balancing then). Landing is still a bit tricky, due to the jet engine lag, but I equipped it with some thrusters to get a little extra lift when needed.
I also think that an extra pair of engines is needed, as I have to operate it at about 95% throttle to make it fly, so it takes a long time to slow down the descent.

 

[eran0004]

My best aircraft design yet. A triple engine single seater, with big flaps and air brakes for STOL capability (take off speed is about 60 m/s). It is very steady in the air and it's a joy to fly even without a joystick. It will easily reach a cruising altitude of 10 kilometers and a top speed of about 290 m/s. Here I sent it on a mission to measure radiation levels around some debris from an earlier experimental flight, where I had to ditch a nuclear powered aircraft in the ocean.

Edit: KERS (Kerbal Emergency Recovery System (a.k.a. parachutes)) test. Great success!

 

[Swagger897]

Trying to make a space submarine is a harder task than what it should be...

 

[eran0004]

I made a nuclear powered roadster! 1400 kg, top speed 110 km/h