January 12, 2014

KSP WTF?

I appear to have lost the ability to make something that can go to space.  I can't understand why.  Even the successful Mun Launcher I fails to reach orbit.  I'm surely just doing something wrong, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it is.

It's frustrating, but also exciting... once I figure out my problem, it'll be all "clear skies and hot jets!"

Or maybe I should say "if".  If I figure out my problem.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:10 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Is your problem a "ship falls apart", "I can't keep the pointy end pointed at space", or "ship runs out of fuel" problem?  I've found a few times that a ship design that was stable once isn't always stable the next time I l load it onto the pad.
Running in career mode has been very good for my piloting skills, as I do lots of flights with progressively more powerful and complex ships.  It hasn't been so good for my ship designing skills, as the answer at low level is not usually the efficient or elegant answer.
I've been watching videos by HOCGaming and Scott Manning, both of which have done good things for my ship building and piloting skills.

Posted by: David at January 13, 2014 12:29 AM (da+4f)

2 I've only played in campaign mode, and I don't have the parts for a Mun lander yet... but I've got a pretty nice design that can brute-force Jebediah pretty much anywhere in the system, and occasionally get him home okay!

I found that the fuel crossfeed tool is incredibly useful - I can rig the tanks to empty out in pairs and jettison them when they run empty. Lets me put a decent second stage into orbit, enough fuel to run a Minmus intercept and get home with more than 500 units of fuel left in the can. Probably I could settle for less fuel and more payload, at the moment it's just a science pod with a pilot and a couple solar panels... just the thing for phoning those reports home until you suck all the science points out of a mission, though.

Posted by: Avatar at January 14, 2014 07:39 PM (zJsIy)

3 Avatar, if you're getting to orbit with your second stage, you're doing things right.  Of course, that's with a pretty loose definition if you're dropping tanks on the way.  A ring of external tanks that feed in a spiral to the center and drop as they empty out is called "asparagus staging" and it's pretty much the win button in KSP.
It's pretty amazing what you can do with the basics in career mode, I've seen videos of campaign mode where first flight is sub-orbital, second is orbit, third is a round trip to the Mun, and the fourth was a round trip to Duna.  I wasn't anywhere near that quick, but I was trying to be methodical and extract all the easy science at each point along the way.  I try and run three or even four copies of each instrument available so I can suck all the points out of each point I hit on a given mission, and not have to go back to that spot.

Posted by: David at January 14, 2014 08:18 PM (da+4f)

4 I just run one of each and transmit the results, then juice back up and do it again. Doesn't take a lot of power, a modest ring of single solar panels keeps me juiced up. Haven't tried deploying a big array yet, but I don't really have any need for that much power. Maybe once I'm out in the great dark?

Haven't been playing recently, it's been Fallout NV, SC2, and moving to Hawaii. (My car got here, yay~)

Posted by: Avatar at January 14, 2014 09:26 PM (zJsIy)

5
... it's been Fallout NV, SC2, and moving to Hawaii. 


How is Moving to Hawaii? I hear its second life aspects are excellent, but that combat is unpleasant when it happens. It also is a bit pricey for me ATM.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at January 14, 2014 10:49 PM (DnAJl)

6 Yeah, they removed some elements from the previous game, Job in Dallas. The weather system is completely revamped and much less annoying, but at the same time, they've taken most of the guns out as well. And the amount of grinding is pretty similar.

The fiancee minigames are worth it on their own, of course.

Posted by: Avatar at January 15, 2014 01:42 PM (IopVv)

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