^that's awesome! how does it fly?

7/27/2013 9:34:54 AM

Oh, and Wyloch, here is your damn fuel depot This thing was a pain in the ass! Delivered to orbit: 5 full orange tanks, a large rcs tank, a large battery pack, 8 clampotron docking ports, and 2 clampotron sr docking ports.

I used a modified version of what the kids are calling "asparagus staging" and a shit ton of struts.

Total vehicle mass: 1435 tons
Total mass to orbit: 190 tons











[Edited on July 27, 2013 at 9:58 AM. Reason : ]

7/27/2013 9:54:16 AM

Your design is too sensible. Which probably accounts for your success. Great job.

As you can see I have a different style. Go big or go home. The Subtle Necessity flies very stable and very very fast. It will get white streaks (sound barrier) near ground level, and at 2000m up it will get orange flares.

7/27/2013 11:28:33 AM

that's awesome. my biggest weakness in this game is designing aircraft.

and yes, the design did end up being very utilitarian... it took me about 5 hours to get the design to work and that's where the design process ended up

here are a few of my initial designs...

7/27/2013 12:18:12 PM

I made a single stage to orbit vehicle that takes off vertically and lands on a runway like a plane. The K-33. This was fun to build and flies beautifully. I haven't gotten the landing down yet and i'll probably have to make a tweak or two, but here it is

7/28/2013 12:38:43 PM

Do you have "money" or "resources" in the game to spend on these things?

Or components to unlock?

Or is it truly just pure sandbox?

What's the biggest thing you or anybody else has actually launched? Does size/complexity guarantee launchpad explosions?

7/28/2013 3:19:26 PM

Quote :

"Do you have "money" or "resources" in the game to spend on these things? Or components to unlock? Or is it truly just pure sandbox? What's the biggest thing you or anybody else has actually launched? Does size/complexity guarantee launchpad explosions?"

Right now the game is pretty much all sandbox, but with the latest release the developers did some back end changes in preparation for "career mode" where the prices on the parts will actually mean something. The sandbox option will always be there too once career mode is active.

Right now you don't unlock any parts, but this is a very mod-friendly game and there are tons of mods out there that can add parts, alter the gameplay, and there is even a mod that gives you a "career mode" with a series of missions which pay certain rewards and you have to use your budget wisely to build them.

the biggest thing in one launch that I built was the fuel depot pictured above... I also put up a few rotating artificial gravity stations, but I have no idea what the mass on those were. And yes, the bigger and more complex you get, the more explosions usually happen. The biggest thing I have built in multiple launches was a ~800m "tower to nowhere" in orbit around kerbin (the main planet)... I was originally going to transport it to one of the super low gravity moons and use it as a "lookout tower" but the damn thing was so huge the lag on my computer was too much and I abandoned it.

7/28/2013 3:37:15 PM

What are the specs on your current computer to launch things like at the top of this page with no lag?

Or I assume no lag? Did it?

7/28/2013 3:44:28 PM

oh i made that stuff on my laptop... it's not that great but the lag wasn't bad at all for the big rocket.
1.9ghz AMD A8-4500M (the processor is usually the limiting factor in this game with all of the physics calculations.)
6 gigs ram

7/28/2013 3:51:01 PM

What purpose does a tower to nowhere / lookout tower serve?

What is the actual objective of this game? Are you trying to save these little creatures from something or..?.

7/28/2013 3:53:19 PM

well the moon i was going to put it on has super low gravity and i had a kethane mining operation it it's surface... ("kethane" is a natural resource that can be drilled for around the solar system and turned into fuel. this is my favorite mod.) Well, i wanted to build a tower so a ship could dock to it without landing on the moon to refuel (the fuel could be pumped from the bottom of the tower to the top). my real purpose to building it was to test the limits of what was feasible in the game (and i guess i found out that this wasn't, at least not on my computer)

and the premise it you are helping these little green guys get a space program working. i don't know if there is any more official backstory than that, but some people think they are in a cold war with the evil communist kerbals that have a rival space center on a different continent (it is jut an easter egg... it's not really functional)

[Edited on July 28, 2013 at 4:13 PM. Reason : ]

7/28/2013 4:12:23 PM

I found my old screenshot folder and here are the things i described earlier...

Kethane Mining Rig: (on the moon Gilly)


A couple of shots showing a close up and zoomed out shot of the completed tower.




And here is my latest artificial gravity station. I moved it to Geostationary orbit (Keostationary?) and spun it up and was able to drive the rovers around it... it was awesome.

7/28/2013 6:17:20 PM

holy shit at the size of that tower

7/29/2013 1:33:47 AM

http://xkcd.com/1244/

7/29/2013 8:07:38 AM

Quote :

"What is the actual objective of this game? Are you trying to save these little creatures from something or..?."

Pretty much just a creativity suite. A Career mode with missions and budgets is coming, but a lot of players (myself included) will probably ignore it. The game is still in Beta.

Quote :

"What are the specs on your current computer to launch things like at the top of this page with no lag?"

KSP is developed in Unity, and therefore suffers some unavoidable limitations. Will only use a single core, is a 32 bit program. And the development kit is so abstracted that the engine just naturally is not bleeding edge fast like, say, UDK would be.

I'm running 4.2GHz with 6 GB triple channel @ 1800 MHz. And I still get some stutter for ships above 500 parts.

7/29/2013 9:28:07 AM

3 hours later, I've almost got a ship into orbit. Holy shit is this one of the most frustrating/rewarding games ever. Question though, I've had 4 capsules land in the ocean. How does the game know the flight ended? Like when I crash a ship the trip summary thing comes up. There some key to hit to end a flight?

7/31/2013 11:45:50 PM

yeah... go to the tracking station in the space center, and you will have the option to either recover your flight (yay) or terminate your flight (kills all crew )

remember to hit "F1" to take lots of screenshots!

8/1/2013 7:15:42 AM

Does this game have money or credits or something like that?

And I'm skeptical of what it will let you do. Can I make a plane and then go fly it on the Venus-like planet?

8/1/2013 8:51:59 AM

again, it's all sandbox right now so the cost of the parts don't mean anything at the moment, but that's coming down the line.

You can definitely send space planes to other planets, but the jet engines won't work in an atmosphere that doesn't have oxygen so you would need to be rocket powered(or propeller which is available in a popular mod) . And the planets in the Kerbol system aren't perfect analogues for our planets... for example the second planet is "eve" and has a thick atmosphere with a purple hue.

info on the planets:
http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Main_Page

8/1/2013 10:56:11 AM

that tower looks sick as hell

8/1/2013 9:53:48 PM

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/kerbal-space-program-video-game-inspire-new-generation-astronauts

8/2/2013 1:38:27 PM

Do you just buy it and download it?

I saw something about Steam, but I don't use that and don't know much about it.

8/2/2013 2:41:10 PM

you can either use steam (I don't use steam) or download it and update it manually via their website (that's what I do... I store it in my dropbox folder so I can play the game on my laptop or desktop and not have to worry about transferring a save file or anything)

8/2/2013 4:16:45 PM

I was hoping this game would be less arcade than it is. Apparently it does not have accurate aero drag physics, so using nose cones actually slows the thing down due to added mass. I'm sure this is probably very complicated to add and requires lots of computing power though. I would also like to be able to set an automatic flight trajectory before launch. It's kind of ridiculous controlling a rocket with wasd. Fun at first, but eventually frustrating.

8/2/2013 4:20:54 PM

there are mods that address both of those...

the atmosphere physics aren't the greatest, but i think they have plans to refine them eventually, however Ferram Aerospace has a mod that makes the atmosphere physics much more realistic. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/20451-0-21-Ferram-Aerospace-Research-v0-9-5-5-Aerodynamics-Fixes-For-Planes-Rockets

as far as setting up your launch path beforehand... MechJeb (Mechanical Jeb... his brains were digitized and put in a pod!) is a very popular mod that can be used as an autopilot on varying levels, even to the point of setting up a launch profile and hitting "engage autopilot" and watching it go... or you can use it as guidance. I use it quite often, but mostly for giving me info on my flight stats, etc.
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/12384-PART-0-21-Anatid-Robotics-MuMech-MechJeb-Autopilot-v2-0-9

both of those are very popular and very good mods.

8/2/2013 4:38:10 PM

Great, thanks for the info!

[Edited on August 2, 2013 at 7:06 PM. Reason : I feel dumb for not searching for mods. I don't do much gaming anymore. ]

8/2/2013 7:00:12 PM

If you want something that's much more accurate in terms of physics and orbits, I can't recommend Orbiter enough.

8/3/2013 12:06:27 AM

8/4/2013 9:50:33 PM

that is remarkable!!! what kind of range did you get on that crossbow? what did you use to pull it back? the KAS mod?

8/5/2013 6:25:58 AM

you should put them together in a single gif

8/5/2013 8:26:27 AM

Oh, sorry, I should have mentioned those pictures aren't mine. I just saw them on reddit and reposted them here.

8/5/2013 10:56:16 PM

poor little abused aliens

8/6/2013 1:55:34 PM

I made a kerbal cannon that shot a kerbal by putting them in the business end of a mainsail engine. got pretty damn far on that one. (i've seen those all over the place though so i didn't take any screen shots that i can find)

8/6/2013 2:21:30 PM

I think my current laptop isn't good enough to run this game like it was intended. A lot of minor stuff I screw up just because the pc cant keep up with the software. IE when setting an orbit maneuver. Good thing is I'm getting a new ass-kicking laptop soon, so I can post some more interesting shots outside of the crap you would expect a noob to pull off.

8/6/2013 10:51:14 PM

there are settings you can tweak to make the game run smoother on your system.


anyway, back to playing. Reddit does a weekly challenge that up until now I have not participated in, but I'm about to tackle the "Apollo Challenge"...
http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1k410z/weekly_challenge_apollo_style/

I started it last night but then my daughter came over and we were playing and she hit a few keys on my keyboard as i was approaching the Mun, so I actually had to do an Apollo 13-style burn with my lander to get back to Kerbin. I'll try to finish the mission and post pictures here in a little while.

8/13/2013 2:08:03 PM

I built my rocket as functionally similar to the Saturn 5 stack as possible with stock parts.
First Stage: 5 mainsails (filling in for 5 F-1 engines on the real thing)
Second Stage: 5 skippers (for the 5 J2 engines)
Third Stage: 1 skipper (for the 1 J2) - This stage lifted the crew module and lander into orbit and performed the "transmunar injection" burn.

The command/service module then rotated and docked with the 2 person lander. The Third stage was then discarded while on a munar-impact path.

The lander had a descent stage (that was left on the Mun) and ascent stage. It also had a two part rover that Jeb assembled on the Mun (similar to how the real lunar rover had to be unfolded on the moon)












Here is a link to the album:
http://imgur.com/a/Sa2F5

[Edited on August 13, 2013 at 11:18 PM. Reason : ]

8/13/2013 11:01:34 PM

let me just add... this mission is a really good way to refine some skills and put them all together into one mission if you have started getting into the game. (there are no stipulations in this mission about rocket style... just that you have to have a separate 2-kerbal lander that rendezvous and re-docks with your command module and the other kerbalnaut left in Munar orbit)

[Edited on August 15, 2013 at 7:01 PM. Reason : ]

8/15/2013 7:00:59 PM

Latest project was a "Floating Kethane Rig"

8/27/2013 9:42:27 PM

Of course, didnt have enough fuel to escape mun's gravity and Jeb pretty much lived the dream, crashing into the surface of the mun. RIP Jeb

9/8/2013 3:05:28 PM

awesome! I think the first successful Mun landing is a major milestone for every Kerbal player! Looks like a very solid lander design too!

9/8/2013 5:41:40 PM

So I still haven't taken the time to play this game properly, but this weekend I heard about a game for iOS, Android and PC called Simple Rockets that is basically a simple 2D version of KSP that plays on your phone/tablet.

It's really fun, and I think the best part is it's a great introduction to KSP, as it is easy enough to jump right into (whereas I don't feel like KSP necessarily is) and it still has things like planning orbiting routes to slingshot to the moon and stuff like that that seems to transfer over to KSP rather well. It's kind of like the starter kit for KSP. Anyway, it's only $.99 (at least on iOS anyway) and it's probably worth picking up if you're even remotely interested in KSP.

9/8/2013 6:31:38 PM

randomly popped up in my Youtube feed

thought it may be impressive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQpStWNs4hw

9/9/2013 5:14:35 PM

http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/?%2Fsale

Another sale on Kerbal Space Program! I'm not much of a video game player but this is an awesome game and you will enjoy it if any of the following apply:

-you enjoy space stuff in general
-you enjoyed building stuff out of legos, construx, etc as a kid (or adult?)
-you enjoy a challenge
-you like to see stuff blow up (because your stuff WILL blow up!)

9/14/2013 3:16:55 PM

a new project i've been messing around with... creating an artificial "Kessler Syndrome" in which there is so much debris in orbit it make spaceflight extra hazardous and likely that any new ships run the risk of becoming even more debris.

I have made a series of vessels called "Kessler Bombs" to intentionally spread debris around the planet.

9/15/2013 2:27:00 PM

But won't they all stay within a narrow orbital band?

Even the asteroid belt has this kind of clustering, which is how we define "families" of asteroids.
They've had millions of years to fly apart, but their basic orbital parameters are all still pretty close.

9/15/2013 3:19:30 PM

yes.

This is just a typical launch. I've launched around 13 so far in various orbits (each with their own names so I can track my "debris families"), but mostly focusing on the 100 km equatorial region. (and these i've launched retrograde)

I also have a few in polar orbits.

But also the force of the spin I put on the ship along with the decouplers is strong enough to spread out a debris field more than you might think.

I have so much debris in orbit now it is causing my KSP game to lag like crazy. Once my current launch is finished I'll post a screenshot of my current debris field.


[Edited on September 15, 2013 at 3:42 PM. Reason : ]

9/15/2013 3:38:10 PM

9/15/2013 5:02:52 PM

http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1mru5g/kessler_bomb/

here's the reddit thread about the Kessler Bomb.

9/21/2013 10:52:31 AM

Did anyone else ever have a problem getting the navball to show up in map view? When I click the arrow at the bottom to display it nothing happens. It won't come up. it was working when I first started playing but now it does not. This is a big problem when I am trying to establish an orbit. I tried restarting the game and my computer and it still does it. Any ideas?

10/18/2013 10:51:23 PM

haven't had that problem... have you updated to the latest version? (.22 just came out)

OH now there is the beginnings of a career mode... you start with the most basic parts and have to "do science" to earn more tech from the tech tree

10/18/2013 10:59:28 PM