Kerbal Space Program

[Orion]

Why don't you start the career mode? It basically tells you what to do and is easy to follow.

Could be part of the problem, actually. Career mode gives you very limited parts early on, and that makes the simplest of things more difficult. You can also dig yourself into a hole and "lose" the game if you don't know what to do. I'd recommend playing around in sandbox mode to figure out how to do basic things, like building a rocket capable of orbiting Kerbin, then adapting/remaking it to be capable of transferring to Mun. Doing those things without any limitations put on you will teach a player enough about how the physics work to be able to problem-solve in career mode, without the looming threat of bankruptcy. I wouldn't dump a new player straight into career mode and expect them to progress very far.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Personally, I completely and utterly disagree with Orion's suggestion, but I also played the game before it even had a single moon, so I might not be entirely reliable. I do hope you are playing on the easiest difficulty, however.
Good times.

**** this game.

Good. Good.

I'm 10 hours in and I'm barely out of the noob phase.

Oh, my sweet summer child...etc etc etc.

...juuust kididng, you just suck. I mean, it's not like it's rocket science, or anything! What kind of a dirt-sniffing, crayon-munching moron doesn't understand orbital mechanics after 10 hours of simple experimentation!?



Anyhow, I lightened an aerospace engineer's* Eve-bound three-probe arrangement by 600%, I'm sure some providing some imagery of your semi-controlled explosive contraptions could result in them flying a bit more...straight...and sideways, because that's where most of your orbit is.
*Kinda, and yes, that literally happened today.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

Why don't you start the career mode? It basically tells you what to do and is easy to follow.

Could be part of the problem, actually. Career mode gives you very limited parts early on, and that makes the simplest of things more difficult. You can also dig yourself into a hole and "lose" the game if you don't know what to do. I'd recommend playing around in sandbox mode to figure out how to do basic things, like building a rocket capable of orbiting Kerbin, then adapting/remaking it to be capable of transferring to Mun. Doing those things without any limitations put on you will teach a player enough about how the physics work to be able to problem-solve in career mode, without the looming threat of bankruptcy. I wouldn't dump a new player straight into career mode and expect them to progress very far.

Perhaps you're right. A few of my friends jumped in to the career mode and found it easy to get into orbit. Each to their own, though. Sandbox was the way I learnt after just pissing around. Trial and error.

 

[Orion]

Personally, I completely and utterly disagree with Orion's suggestion, but I also played the game before it even had a single moon, so I might not be entirely reliable. I do hope you are playing on the easiest difficulty, however.

Whatever floats your boat. You and I both learned in sandbox. Maybe your experience wasn't as good as mine.

Just like Densetsu, I learned in sandbox through trial and error. I also watched some of Scott Manley's videos about designing and launching space planes.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

I started playing KSP just when this thread was first created. Rebel just needs to play the game more, 10 hours is not really that much. If he keeps playing regularly he'll get the hang of it.

Still, I don't understand how he's failing so badly. If he just follows a tutorial video he'll get into orbit. You can even orbit Kerbin with a tiny one stage rocket!

Even a super simple method works. Go straight up to 70,000km and then turn the rocket to face Kerbins horizon. Keep burning until you are in orbit. It works every time if you follow the map screen closely. Granted, it will probably be an elliptical orbit if you don't make the correct adjustments, but whatever. Hey presto, you're in orbit!

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Because my rocket always go straight up, i can't have it go a bit to the side to reach a decent circle when i get to orbit.

I'd say the second one is exactly what he's doing. It also takes more rocket to do. Aand enough control authority not to fall flat on your face before you do a half-turn.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

Does Rebel use SAS and the other control modules? They help quite a lot.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

No amount of SAS will help you when the game notices your centre of mass is behind your centre of pressure.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

I imagine Rebel does this.

 

[Somewhatpro]

I am currently focusing on high payload in atmosphere planes like cargo jets.
I landed on the spooky airfield hard and lost four kerbals trying to rescue him. (I found out the wing connections were flimsy and snapped when put under stress.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Okay, so, for the first time ever, I caught myself an asteroid...

Spoiler: ...and its about ten times as large as I had expected it to be, due to some minor oversight.

Luckily, 37m of Δv was enough to slow it down enough to not escape, and push its apoapse down far enough to easily detach the tug, because...the ruddy thing wanted to warp back the **** out with the ship attached. 

 

[BenKenobi]

Is there anyone still playing it who could point me towards some essential mods? I have reinstalled the PC and am starting anew and have no idea what mods I had installed. It was also several versions back.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

I posted a list but I'd say the best way would be to sort the mods by popularity and go through them. The mod repositories are fairly easy to scope out these days. Back in ye olde 2011 it was always through the forums.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

"Essentials," not necessarily the same ones, but just the basic principle of the stuff:

-Kerbal Engineer. That one, because there's only it and there's little point fiddling in the dark once you know the concepts.
-Alarm Clock. There's probably more, but you only need one anyhow.
-Build aids, particularly, RCS, since it's pretty handy and also works for general aircraft, maybe also an extension of VAB features.

There's also a mod that lets you close a part branch into a loop nowadays. Haven't tested it yet.


I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but I'm tired and pissed off and likely incapable of falling asleep for at least another 3 hours, so feh.

 

[Wellenbrecher]

To add to Hyp's three:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/107661-ksp-122-x-science-ksp-science-report-and-checklist-v56/

Wouldn't ever want to play without it. Biomes can be so fiddly at times and being able to easily search for what you have and haven't done yet is also really handy.

 

[BenKenobi]

What is this reentry heat thing?  I literally can't even. Well, can't hit the Kerbin back without either slowing by retrograde burn or by 10+ light aerobrake flybys. Not to mention all that sweet science that gets destroyed by heat. I want my easy mode back!!! 

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Where are you coming back from?
In any case, one heatshield facing directly towards the atmosphere should be enough for most returns, and a Mk.I capsule should be capable of returning from LKO unshielded.

 

[BenKenobi]

I honestly cannot remember. Should be before 1.0 though.

I am enraged that I have lost more than 180 points of science because the science equipment glued to my Mk.1 capsule (as ****ing always!!!  ) did not like the heat and decided to abandon me mid-flight. I was kind of also hoping that my chute will burn, but luckily it hasn't. Lastly, I will not even mention how this happened on 3rd save because the Mk.1 capsule itself exploded on "straight from Mun to atmosphere" approach two times before I started to slowly break by surfing on the upper parts of the atmosphere a few times to slow down.

 

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

You can reduce or turn off reentry heat if you think it's too much.

Heatshields are good. Taking science out of the experiments and storing it in the capsule is good.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

...Lastly, I will not even mention how this happened on 3rd save because the Mk.1 capsule itself exploded on "straight from Mun to atmosphere"...

Yeah, no, if you don't pack a heatshield, that one is completely on you. Doesn't have to be more than 50% ablative material on it, but don't expect to plunge into an atmosphere at over 4 kilometres per second and not have things get slightly toasty.

Also, put the ****ing science back in the capsule, Wernher! There's no reason to be coming back with the entire service module still strapped to your ass. (Instrumentation should be small enough to be occluded by the capsule itself.)