Kerbal Space Program

Apollo · Post by **Apollo** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 5:01 pm

Picked this up the other day. Decided to set goals for my space program similar to those of NASA in the 60's:

1. Rocket into space
2. Satellite in orbit around Kerbin
3. Manned orbit of Kerbin
4. Satellite orbit of the Mun
5. Land probe on Mun
6. Manned orbit of Mun
7. Manned landing on Mun

etc, etc, etc.

What can I say other than I am having a blast!

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:59 am

Update on ISS Stirz. We have ironed out some teething troubles with the unmanned girder rockets, and now successfully delivering more trusses to the ISS and docking ports, each trip.

Latest shot is the delivery vehicle about to disengage from it's latest delivery and deorbit.

ISS by peldor_au, on Flickr

Thought I'd include my ships if anyone's interested in trying them out.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33434028/GirderDocki.craft" target="_blank
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33434028/Fuel%20Cargo.craft" target="_blank

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 10:02 am

Looking good. What mods are you using, if any?

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:44 pm

Thanks!

using MechJeb to get to orbit (usually pilot one or two to ensure stability then use mechjeb to get to orbit while I look at somthing else in other windows). Manually to rendevous, getting better at that, and then using ORDA for final docking. Still can't get my head around the RCS thrusters, usually end up spinning in a spiral when I go from normal propulsion to thrusters.

Need to work on my decoupling from the main ship. Last one I attached, made the whole boom arms shake , due to explosive decoupling. Any suggestions?

Teggy · Post by **Teggy** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:50 pm

I think I might give this to my Dad - he's never played a video game before but I think he would be really interested in this.

However, I want to wait for release. I looked on the web page and it says it's still in alpha - is there any idea when it will hit GA?

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 8:22 pm

Not sure when the release date is but ifyou buy it now, you get it at a discounted price as they'll up the price each release till it's full price.

"The demo version is free to download and play, and will remain so forever. During development, the game is available for purchase at a discounted price, which we will gradually increase up to its final retail price as the game nears completion. So by ordering early, you get the game for a lot less, and you'll get all future updates for free"

If you look at the list of features to be added (http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki ... d_features" target="_blank) you can see, quite a few of them are done, so full finished, maybe a year at a very very uninformed rough guess

Certainly doesn't feel like an alpha though.

grumpy · Post by **grumpy** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:34 am

I'm pleased with my intercept-fu. I have a fuel station orbiting the mun. I sent a fuel tender to it. As you can see in the photo below, I came to a stop 847 meters from the station, more-or-less directly from earth. As you can see, I do have orda, but really only for pointing at things, the zero motion thing, and docking attitude hold.

"More-or-less directly" meaning:

Transfer burn from earth.
Show up in munar SOI embarrassingly retrograde; perform a highly eccentric orbital insertion and plane correction for prograde.
Specify station as target, correct most of remaining planar error at planar intercept with station, and some other orbit tweaking for ~1km intercept.
Kill relative velocity on final approach, screenie is just after this.

The maneuver system they have is pretty good. Intuition helps, but you can play with it and see what you get.

(The engine is firing because my habit is to use the OS screenshot key, not the game's. The OS key involves <shift>.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 7:22 pm

Back from a week's vacation, time to get back into space! I'm following the lead shown by some folks in that I'm going to plan a phase by phase space program. I know the hardest part will be rendezvous and docking. I do seem to have trouble with it

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:52 pm

Kerbal Space Program

KSP 0.19 Released! Linux, Atmospheric FX, New Animations, Rover Wheels, Graphic Improvements & more Parts!

Woohooo!!!! New reentry fire and atmosphere fx lovely. Now to download it!

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:56 pm

Stefan Stirzaker wrote:Kerbal Space Program

KSP 0.19 Released! Linux, Atmospheric FX, New Animations, Rover Wheels, Graphic Improvements & more Parts!

Woohooo!!!! New reentry fire and atmosphere fx lovely. Now to download it!

Hmm, I'm wondering if I should keep my 0.18 version in a separate folder just in case the new version breaks something.

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 9:25 pm

Always possible, haven't heard about backwards compatibility with mods and stuff. Easy enough to do, just copy current folder to another location. Taking ages to patch to 0.19.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 9:29 pm

Stefan Stirzaker wrote:Always possible, haven't heard about backwards compatibility with mods and stuff. Easy enough to do, just copy current folder to another location. Taking ages to patch to 0.19.

I still haven't been able to sign into the store. I'm assuming that's where you are getting the update?

Never mind, I was finally able to log into the store and found the download link. Now downloading slowly as well.

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:06 am

So of course the first thing i did was rentry a vehicle. Love the new atmospherics

rentry by peldor_au, on Flickr

Tokek · Post by **Tokek** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:02 am

I still can't download the new version yet. I think their site is still getting hammered.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 11:45 am

Stefan Stirzaker wrote:So of course the first thing i did was rentry a vehicle. Love the new atmospherics

rentry by peldor_au, on Flickr

Coming in at that angle.... wouldn't that burn you to bits? I'm guessing only the graphics are in place and not the effects of reentry?

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 12:16 pm

I've tried last night and this morning to get this update. It's like the entire site is under a denial of service attack right now.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 12:22 pm

msduncan wrote:I've tried last night and this morning to get this update. It's like the entire site is under a denial of service attack right now.

I got it late last night. I installed it over my existing 0.18.4 version, although it took two tries. Be sure to back up your existing version before you do.

Apollo · Post by **Apollo** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:01 pm

If anyone can tell me how to update I will be eternally grateful. When I start the program it informs me that there is an update available and then takes me to the Kerbal Space store where my only option is to buy the program!

Help!

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:07 pm

Apollo wrote:If anyone can tell me how to update I will be eternally grateful. When I start the program it informs me that there is an update available and then takes me to the Kerbal Space store where my only option is to buy the program!

Help!

I think you go to the store and look under your profile. Scroll all the way to the bottom where it has a list of your purchased software. Click download link next to it and it will take you to the download page.

Apollo · Post by **Apollo** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:14 pm

Thanks MSD!

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:29 pm

Obligatory new re-entry effects screenshot

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:27 pm

I've decided to switch back to 0.18.4 because there are some problems with Mechjeb on the new version and I have to have it working for me

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:00 pm

And here's my obligatory re-entry screenshot.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:08 pm

Now they need for that effect to burn up your spacecraft unless you have a heat shield.

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Mon Mar 18, 2013 12:31 am

Think that's on the cards for future releases. I think they'd need to add a "hp" per material, max temperature etc. Seems to be on the build path. it certainly helps me now with aerobraking, just a visual representation. Haven't seen how it goes on other planets yet. I love the new rovers with the bungee cords ala curiousity.

Hrdina · Post by **Hrdina** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:48 am

I haven't yet started to use mods, and I've just been playing around using the demos that PebbleGarden posted on YouTube.

I have been able to get ships into a circular orbit, although not necessarily in the orbit I intended.

After a lot of pain, I finally managed to dock two orbiters together:

At this point, I plan to install 0.19 and start working on my own ships to build a program from the ground up. I really like the Phoenix from the tutorials, but I want to try some new things too.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:29 pm

Just saw this is on Steam now in their new Early Access section!

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:41 pm

Can I use my existing info to get it on Steam?

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:47 pm

IceBear wrote:Can I use my existing info to get it on Steam?

Not at the moment AFAIK, but I'm sure it's possible for the devs to give out keys to current owners.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 3:19 pm

More info on Steam availability. Love the little movie

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:41 pm

I think I would sure hate to use the Steam version with all those mods. Unless you can turn off Steam's auto updates somehow it seems like a lot of mods would break every time there's an big update. I dunno but maybe we'd have much better control over all that if we bought it directly from the dev.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:02 pm

ColdSteel wrote:I think I would sure hate to use the Steam version with all those mods. Unless you can turn off Steam's auto updates somehow it seems like a lot of mods would break every time there's an big update. I dunno but maybe we'd have much better control over all that if we bought it directly from the dev.

Steam looks at the base game files and updates those if needed, but leaves any extra mod files alone.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:19 pm

The fact that it's on Steam means that it will eventually be on sale for $10 or less, which is my no-questions-asked threshold.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 5:03 pm

First successful rover mission -- I landed an itty-bitty rover on the surface of Minmus, Kerbin's second moon.

Touched down, and about to disconnect the rover from the landing craft:

Phoning home:

Looking up at the Sun, with Kerbin and Mun above:

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 5:10 pm

AWS260 wrote:First successful rover mission -- I landed an itty-bitty rover on the surface of Minmus, Kerbin's second moon.

Congrats! I love that last photo, very well done.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:59 pm

I downloaded the demo today and have been playing around with designs trying to get my kerbonaut into a stable orbit and then return him safely. After several spectacular deaths, I created this 3 stage rocket which did the trick nicely.

The first stage is a solid rocket booster which gets me some initial height and velocity and then the second stage is liquid fuel and takes me most of the way to apoapsis. The last stage is for the orbital insertion burn and the deorbit burn coming home. Works nice and is really stable. I tried a tri-booster configuration for the bottom stage but it was really unstable until about half the fuel in it was gone. Kept causing damage to the rocket from all the shaking and wobbling on lift so I scrapped it for this design. Probably just as well as it subjected my poor kerbonaut to a max of 17g.

The new one has a max of a nice comfy 3.7g on lift.

Next I have to try to figure out something that will get me to the Mun and back. Nice game. It really does make you feel like you're part of an early space program.

I see they are planning on adding asteroids into the game at some point. It would be so cool to place one on a collision course and then mount an 'Armageddon' style mission to blow it up.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:02 pm

Rovers are great, but they sure could use parking brakes.

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:17 pm

Two from the forums. I must get the landrover onto a moon!

Hrdina · Post by **Hrdina** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 10:26 pm

Stefan Stirzaker wrote:

Now they just need to get flower decals on it, or a psychedelic paint job, and have it leave a trail of smoke behind as it moves.

Citizen · Post by **Citizen** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:45 pm

I downloaded the Steam demo, but it just gets like 5 erros and won't launch. Is this thing really worth $22?