KSP

Just started playing this game. Should I play career or science? I tried career, but I wasn't a fan of how contracts worked. However, Science also seems a bit barebones, so I'm torn.

Science mode. Career mode just adds a lot of tedious bullshit. Stuff like astronaut experience is alright, but the contracts and facility upgrades are just there to provide a barrier to progression that you have to grind to get around.

That's what I figured. The contracts also seemed a bit bullshit in how long the offer lasted. I would think a company would be willing to wait more than a business week to find out if their expensive part actually worked.

Not to mention several contracts are just fucking impossible to do. I've had contracts tell me to test a weak ass jet engine 30,000 meters up, above the atmosphere. And in order to test it, you have to activate the part. So if you have to test an engine, and its already activated when you reach the target height, it doesn't fucking count. Having the contracts that you HAVE to grind to progress be procedurally generated to such a fucking crazy degree is stupid.

The biggest problem is that the game doesn't give you all the information you need. Getting to the mun and minmus is easy as shit, but every other planet? You're flying completely blind unless you look up what position the planets need to be in and your escape trajectory.

You can do it by trail and error by fucking with the maneuvering tool on the map screen, but you can potentially fuck with that for hours until you finally find exactly the right combination.

How much information is it reasonable to expect them to give though? The part specific to the game, the data on the various bodies, is given in the map mode. The rest is mostly application of real-world physics that can be easily looked up.
Besides, the margins aren't that small. I've gotten to Eeloo via Jool with neither math nor third-party encounter tools.

Once you get better at orbital rendezvous and docking, going interplanetary isn't so hard as long as you bring enough fuel. Of course the game doesn't tell you how to rendezvous, either, so you have to look that shit up on the internet.

They have added a kind of Civilopedia-esque tutorial thing lately, but it fucking sucks and doesn't tell you shit. I had no idea what radiators did,for instance, until I sent a mining ship to the Mun and it fucking exploded due to excess heat.

You make a rocket that sends a mini rocket to 30,000 meters and activate the engine there

it's not meant for you to use the test engine as the only engine in the rocket

I'd like a protractor and a short tutorial on how to get to duna or eve for instance.

I did that and it didn't work because the jet engine just doesn't activate that high up, even with intake spam.

contracts were part of the "fuck it going straight to 1.0 actual progress be damned" update. worthless


step 1: download mechjeb

Interplanetary travel is really no different than going to Mun/Minmus, other than the technical requirements. Once you escape from Kerbin orbit just do a rendezvous with a planet like you'd do with anything else.

Now doing it optimally and not having to wait in space for a year…

Career is fine but install contract mod so you can remove contracts that you hate (part test…sigh), and give yourself at least a mil starting cash for building upgrades.
Generally, if you want to have more fun, download CKAN and get some essential mods.

Thing that sucks is I had to go back to an earlier version because both newer versions just crash randomly all the time for no apparent reason

Mods, mods, mods. I have so much that I forget which one does it, but I thing Engineering will give you all orbital info you need to calculate the optimal trajectory ( or use mechjeb if you don't want to do it manually…). But really the game isn't about being very precise, You can easily get to any planet the same way you get to Mun if you bring enough fuel. Sure, you might have to wait a year or two in space, but still.

would you fug, Holla Forums?

how is it that its harder to make a shuttle than it is to make an ssto?

I think if its you're first time then science but i've been playing career for a while now and I like it. The worst things about career is the slow start and the bullshit contracts but it starts to get more interesting once you've unlocked half of the tech tree. I found it sometimes gives you interesting stuff that I would have never don't on my own. like a fly by of all the jool moons with on ship. no real reason to do normal but because of the contract I had a go. plus once you've got probes around every moon and planet you can rake in the dosh from those silly "science from orbit of X" contracts, so its really no different than science mode towards the end.

yeah im finding that at the moment. every time I try reentry i get a pc crash.

Career is when you enjoy grinding, doing everything fast and having your genius artistic installations slash marvels of technology left incomplete due to budget reasons.

Science mode is when you don't want to deal with that shit but want to start from basics.

Sandbox is if you hate any form of progression/advancement but are not easily overwhelmed by great options.

Career is good with the custom difficulty options. Just set science and money rewards at 2X or higher. Then you still get the nice progression experience without having to deal with any bullshit grinding.

Stop. Its for your own good. Its a "le shitty on purpose physics streamer/youtuber bait shovel ware" pile of shit.

Maybe it's just not for you. It's a very fun game, and there are mods out there to improve the physics if they bother you. The flight physics in an atmosphere in particular are much improved with mods.

Shovelware is not a term that applies to this game, user.

is not an argument, its literally shovel ware isn't it completely abandon by the devs while its still in early access or whatever?

Also the claim that "something is not for you" is not an argument either. Some people like literally eating shit or getting fucked in the ass just cause I don't like something doesn't mean its suddenly not bad.

Neither is it bad just cuz you don't like it. Some people don't like some games, nothing wrong with that.

Shovelware refers to games pumped out for movies, or kids. Generally bland, simple games to pad out a console's game roster. KSP doesn't fit any of those.

I get the impression you don't like this game because too many dipshit youtubers have made it their bread and butter.

You don't have to watch those videos, user.

its dark souls syndrome. decent game. cancerous fan base. therefore if you like the game you must be a part of that cancerous fan base, even if you're not. kerbal is youtube and reddit bate but it is possible to play it and not talk to yourself while on a webcam.

Play sandbox until you can land on Duna and return, at that point you will know if you prefer science or career and you will actually be able to play the game instead of placing limitations on yourself before you can even get to the mun.

after you git gud I can't recommend "realism overhaul" and "real progression zero" enough

Kerbals are too small to fug.

i never managed to dock stuff in order to make a station, is a tutorial for out there for that including a interface explanation?

What have you done? If you can get planetary transfers docking is easy to explain.

cant even manage to do that easily

This is pretty old and his designs probably don't work after all the patches but it covers the basics very well.

i find very difficult to align the ship in a precise direction whit the keyboard, i havent investigated if there is an automated way to do that, not something like mechjeb, just some tool that alings the ship to certain cordinate

The best way of doing that is "SAS" which is a stability assist toggled with "T" and intermediately switched with "F".
Using this you can get yourself pointed roughly where you want then hit T, it will slowly move around a little but if you tap F as it points at exactly where you want this basically re-targets the SAS and makes it lock to the direction you were facing when you hit F.
Orbital procession is another factor but I won't go into that here, rest assured if you spend 20 minuted on youtube you will find some great tutorials.
I really like the Scott Manly videos as he starts with the basics and goes all the way though to very complex maneuvers that they use in reality

Yes.

...

Who here can plot a direct course from Kerbin to Laythe without first orbiting Jool? Using intermediate planetary bodies as waypoints for plotting a multi-leg trip is for scrublords.
Also if you use mechpleb instead of holding a compass up to your screen and squinting, you need to go back.

Is Jool aerobrake -> Tylo gravity assist -> Laythe aerocapture acceptable? I technically entered a closed orbit of Jool after leaving Tylo, but only briefly. Certainly not a full revolution.

every time I try that I blow up. I try and use Tylo gravity assists as much as passable tho.

Oh, I don't know with current aerodynamics. I haven't really played in several versions.

Hell, I haven't been to Moho since they took away the atmosphere. Aerobraking there was definitely not going to happen, no matter what aerodynamic model you use.

yeah even with the new 10m inflatable heat shield jool will fuck your shit up. Orbital transfer speeds are too fast and jools atmosphere is too thick.

Suddenly a great space sim is a great fighter sim too. What other game would allow you to build your own fighter jet? Plus if you want extra realism you can install FAR.

If you want a realistic space sim, there's Orbiter, but you have to have autism on a scale unknown to human science to actually play it because it's a real fucking space flight sim. As in, you have have to have a fucking PHD in astrophysics to do anything, or, be extremely autistic

is unsubstantiated and cannot be refuted outside a simple "that is not the case", no argument was made and therefore no argument can be made against it
Provide a structured and evidenced argument if you want a structured and evidenced retort.
You're sitting atop your high horse proudly, flinging shit about, while also whining if anyone so much as touches a turd. It's depressing

I though kermans were asexual, as in no sexes or something like that.

From what I heard a couple years ago, could be wrong.

Good thing I have a micro fetish

They were.

But then Squad decided that wasn't inclusive enough and that the game needed more diversity. :^)

I seem to be having trouble landing safely after getting out of atmosphere. Any tips?

shallower decent path and/or more heat shields

Center of mass as close to the heat-shield as possible, if you still tumble add RCS / more reaction wheels.
Parachute landings are much easier than powered landings as you don't need to worry about overheating engines.

Now it just needs some cultural enrichment.

This isn't exactly true, they were one of the first games to get thousands of SJWs telling them they needed to add women, they didn't do it just because.
giving in doesn't make it any better

Well, I'm early into a science campaign, so I don't have many parts with which to choose from. I'm trying to escape atmosphere to get more science, but all the rockets I'm building are either not powerful enough, or they don't turn enough to get a shallow escape and re-entry.

Additionally, any mods that are okay for a first time playthrough?

HURRRRRRR FEMINISM happened.

Well, I basically can't play at all without the information from the Engineer mod. All of my designs and flight profiles depend on it. Not sure how much it would help someone new.

As for the rocket, pic related worked fine for me. I started a brand new save and built it only with parts unlocked before leaving the lower atmosphere.
Launch profile looked something like this:

This should get your apogee into space. You can fire the decoupler once your fuel is exhausted. Once in space, do your various experiments. Then EVA and collect all of them, plus the EVA experiments themselves, and bring them back inside the capsule. It's safer to have them there, plus it allows you to take a capsule crew report multiple times and keep them all.
Once that's done, move to reentry attitude. Make sure to keep the heat shield down; it will try to flip nose-first, but don't let it. With help from the SAS you should be able to keep it steady. Extend the legs once the orange reentry effects dissipate (I added them before remembering it would be a water landing, but they do help as a minor airbrake I suppose). Deploy parachutes as soon as you can without them being torn off. That trajectory should be shallow enough to bleed off excess speed, and allow you to deploy chutes a couple kilometers up, but keep an eye on it.

*If you end up installing Engineer, keep the thrust-weight ratio around 2.

Felt pretty good man.

career mode.
That is, unless you're a SCRUB.

you can still do what you want you just have a budget to do it. Leads to some amount of difficulty and planning.

...

Career mode is pretty easy once you understand what you're doing. Most, if not all contracts can easily be done on the advance alone, leaving the payment as pure profit. by the time I'd gotten a mission to minmus i was 1mil in the bank.

kerbal engineer redux or whatever, just for dv and "distance from surface" reading. Its also pretty useful for suicide burns times.
any of the visual pack to make the game look better.
I'd avoid mech jeb because it basically plays the game * for you. and also any of the orbital planners for the same reason.
I played mod less until I'd finished the tech tree. it was pretty entertaining to not really know how much fuel I'd need and worry when it started to get low.

*Big guy

You mean Kerbal Engineer Redux? I'll try that.

So, do you guys into interstellar mod pack?

Nope, what does it do? I'm obsessed with Real Progression Zero right now.

Fusion engines, power genorators, antimatter reactors, alcubiere warp drives, thermal management, Resistojet RCS (300-400isp for monopropellant, yes please), plasma thrusters, arcjet thrusters, Nuclear thermal TURBINES son, DT-Vista engine, Magnetic Nozzles for fusion or amat thrust, etc…

Great shit.

Pic from above was a sort of testbed for a few different systems, designed to be a SST-Eve lander with ISRU capabilities, if you check the mission time, you will see that it only took me 13 days to achieve Eve orbit, and most of that was matching orbits.

Here's a single stage to anywhere probe design I made, refueling at minimus after Kerbin ascent. Delta-V capacity is something like 10km/s

Well, turns out I had to go a bit further than just out of atmosphere to get a decent amount of research points, but I managed it after modifying your design a bit and failing a lot of launches. Plus I think I learned a bit about rocket design. Thanks.

Biggest thing I found to escape the atmosphere, enter orbit and reach other planets was this:

You can put stack separators UNDER your rockets! I thought I had to expand outwards for each individual rocket stage and it worked okay but no, you can STACK rocket stages!

Worst part of career is the grind. I ended up having to run two or three tourist missions to orbit or Minmus between each real mission so I could afford shit. Don't mind running a tourist mission here and there, but grinding them sucked ass. Same thing every time.

i THINK YOU SHOULD PLAY A GAME CALLED

DIE

You evil nazi fuck. Play a good game

Interesting but not really my thing, I prefer the challenge of needing 9km/s just to get to LEO.

Ya, the legendary discintigrating totem pole to the stars…

Just make sure you get the order of your staging right, or your rocket will explode.

best contracts for ez muny.
if you've already got a probe there its free money
so cheap to get a probe to kerbin orbit
just go up fast, don't even have to aim or gravity turn, normally really height profit as well

Not only does the building tutorial teach you this, but this is literally how rockets work in real life.

Good luck doing that with stock parts, or on a spaceplane…

Fuel ratio would have to be so high, the only crew you could ship up with it would be bacteria, and not a lot of them either.

Yeah, I fucked that one up a few times.


I really enjoyed designing and launching satellites, but it sucked trying to get them into exact orbits.


There's a building tutorial? That would have helped a lot.

It can't be done with stock parts as empty tanks way much more than they do in reality.

Am I missing something? It seems like I need to get above 250,000 meters to get any significant amount of research points, but I don't seem to have the equipment to survive re-entry from that height, even at incredibly shallow angles. Is there some way to do science that I just don't know about?

Nevermind, figured it out. Trick was to use boosters to save fuel to slow myself down after entering atmosphere.

it's on the main menu…

just use drag chutes.