Octopus Overlords

Saw this over at Qt3 the other day. I spent a while playing around with it yesterday and it's an amusing little game.

Eventually it'll be a bit of a cross between Spore (drag and drop rocket creation) combined with some of the management aspects of Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space. At the moment all you can really do is put together rockets and launch them, but that turns out to be surprisingly fun. If you are good, orbital mechanics work in the game and you can put a capsule into orbit, but the controls are all manual, so it's difficult to get your alignment just right.

http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/" target="_blank

My most successful design to date relies on about 9 solid rocket engines for the first stage to get me off the ground, then a liquid fuel stage with a double fuel tank, and finally a single fuel tank and liquid engine for orbital maneuvers. Also stability is a huge factor in rocket design so be sure to throw in a good number of SAS modules to stabilize your craft if they start oscillating badly after launch.

I tried to install this last night but my zip file was apparently corrupted. Downloading again now.

Good little time waster. I could see it being cool wit ha campaign and story like Buzz Aldrin. My first test of fins went badly. I launched and right away it started veering off course. I could not correct it at all. So I try to blow the engine off but instead my chute deploys. So now I'm doing donuts in the sky with my chute flapping around wildly. My boys are terrified, Im frantically trying to find a way to fix the situation. then BAM the motor rips off and goes flying off on it's own doing donuts all the way..ZOoooom Zooooom ZOOooooom. Needless to say that once on the ground the boys were speechless.

The very same setup though without fins took the guys to space. About 40k up. Smooth landing too. I did notice on the report that the booster encountered an error when it crashed into an unknown object on it's way down. Strange.

I got to the point where I have a very stable design that easily makes it into space, but actually getting into an actual orbit still eludes me. That part of the game isn't nearly as fun as trying to get off the ground.

loving it so far, if only I could get the stages to separate properly And the parachute to deploy! I've told the tutorial not to play and can't get it back now, so not sure if i'm missing a key to deploy the parachute

You need those rings between each section. Also make sure you have a chute module on top of your capsule. When ready to deploy..i pop mine at 1200 feet..takesa bit to open...just hit the space bar.

sweet got it, finally got the hang of keeping it upright

This game needs a jibjab mod to put caricatures of Pelosi, Obama, Palin and the like in the spacecraft.

Stefan Stirzaker wrote:sweet got it, finally got the hang of keeping it upright

What's the secret? I gave up after half a dozen tries.

Adding fins (or "wings") sure as heck doesn't help.

The two most important things are keeping designs symmetrical, and adding extra SAS modules to compensate a bit. You have to hold down F to activate SAS modules, but usually enough of those will keep a craft upright.

I keep seeing android phone commercials and they have this little green guy that looks very much like a Kerbal. So did Android steal the Kerbal?

Just wanted to turn people's eye back to Kerbal.

It's gotten some great updates.

Two moons in orbit....
not to mention.... an entire solar system (4 other planets - each with their own moons) to try and get to...

Oh, and the solar system is fully Persistent - so you can build a spacestation with parts from many launches, etc.

More bit-n-pieces to build with.
Make your own Kerbals

(costs money now)

Some of the guys over at Qt3 have been posting some great screenshots from the later versions:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk ... 66&page=11" target="_blank









Still no working economy, but they've added a ton of new stuff you can do.

How would this be for a smart 9-year-old who loves space? Are there options to make it kid-friendly?

Holman wrote:How would this be for a smart 9-year-old who loves space? Are there options to make it kid-friendly?

I checked it out and it's definitely not old-man friendly, so make of that what you will.

Those screens look pretty cool. I never managed to get a rocket into orbit in the old free version, but there wasn't any incentive to keep trying, either.

Holman wrote:How would this be for a smart 9-year-old who loves space? Are there options to make it kid-friendly?

With a couple youtube videos - he would have it it figured out, I think.

The demo looks nice, but is there a way NOT to have to control the craft? I do not think that real cosmo/astro/taikonauts do or even can control a rocket during its trip into orbit, and I do not find it fun at all.

I'm in great need of that too.

There is a mod (I'm trying to track it down)

MechJeb ...

This includes (or has) an Ascent Autopilot that is exactly what you are looking for.

Unagi wrote:MechJeb ...

That mod has totally changed the game for me.

In the past, I was able to pilot a ship and get it into an orbit - - when I was lucky. And that was about as good as I could get.

With MechJeb, as long as you build a rocket that can do it, this program will handle all of the Spacecraft Mission Design mathwork - and perform all the Delta-V burns, etc.

Build Rocket - Engage Autopilot on Launch Pad - Hit Space Bar to get it all rolling... Watch as it goes through your stages, does a Vertical Ascent, then does it's Gravity turn, and burns up Speed to produce a apoapsis... Coasts to Apoapsis, and make a small burn to circularize the orbit.

From there, there are options to try a transition to another body (like the Mun)....

Without my help, last night my 5 year old built a rocket and got it into a stable orbit. He's good for his age. I managed to build and auto-pilot my first ship that rrbited the Mun, and then I build a second that managed to crash land. My third is On Approach - and tonight I plan to try and land it with my son watching.

I downloaded the Kerbal demo over the weekend, and now my 3-year-old is completely obsessed with it. I'm pretty sure that he thinks the space bar is called that because it sends rockets into space.

OK, this game is great. I landed on the Mun last night, sort of! Established a stable orbit around Kerbal, went out to the moon, orbited there, started a gradual descent, got called away from the computer, came back to a very dead astronaut.

I would recommend the demo to anyone who might be even mildly interested. It includes well-done tutorials covering rocket construction, basic flight controls, orbiting 101, and flying to the Mun. And then you're set free to play in the sandbox. The demo is limited to Kerbal (i.e., Earth) and its moon, and you have access to fewer spaceship parts than the full game, but that's more than enough to keep anyone occupied for hours.

The learning curve can be a bit steep, but there are plenty of helping hands along the way. In addition to the basic in-game tutorials included in the demo, there's a ton of useful information online, including a thread at the official forums devoted entirely to tutorials. Last night I learned "asparagus" rocket staging, which made my Mun mission possible.

I am definitely going to buy Kerbal Space Program, but for now I'm having plenty of fun with the demo.

Will try this out with the kids over the weekend. Have to get the oldest up to speed to deliver on her promise to take me to the moon when she's 10. Does the demo work with an "easy" mod?

No idea.

In other news, I successfully landed on the Mun with astronaut Bill Kerman.



However, I was nearly out of fuel by that point. So Bill took the rocket up as far as he could, popped open the hatch, and used his jetpack to achieve orbit.



And that's where he'll die.

heh, no no - NEXT you need to get a mission to rescue him, and let him into a habitation capsule or something. He CAN be saved!

Unagi wrote:heh, no no - NEXT you need to get a mission to rescue him, and let him into a habitation capsule or something. He CAN be saved!

I'm using the demo, where the only inhabitable component is the one-man command module. So I think my rescue mission options (assuming I can get out to the moon and match Bill's orbit with enough fuel to get home) are:

1. Have him hold on to the outside ladder for the entire trip home, all the way through landing. Does this game model astronaut grip strength?

2. Somehow attach an extra, empty command module to the rocket for Bill to use as a "lifeboat." Not sure how I would do this using the limited parts in the demo -- maybe stick it onto the side with a radial decoupler?

Rescue accomplished! I sent a rocket with an extra command module into lunar orbit next to Bill, then used his jetpack to pilot him to the hatch.



Man, intercepting an orbiting object is HARD. I found a great YouTube tutorial that helped immensely.

Now, to get back to Kerbin. And to land successfully with only one parachute for two capsules.

AWS260 wrote:Now, to get back to Kerbin. And to land successfully with only one parachute for two capsules.

AWS260 wrote:

AWS260 wrote:Now, to get back to Kerbin. And to land successfully with only one parachute for two capsules.

Mission Accomplished!

A hero's burial.

What a cool little game. I spent a couple hours trying to get into a stable orbit. Finally got into one, but it was highly irregular and took me out past the moon and back.

Are there any tips to steering/navigating the space craft?

I might actually pony up the money for this one. Seems cool.

msduncan wrote:What a cool little game. I spent a couple hours trying to get into a stable orbit. Finally got into one, but it was highly irregular and took me out past the moon and back.

Are there any tips to steering/navigating the space craft?

I might actually pony up the money for this one. Seems cool.

1) Watch a lot of youtube videos

2) Be a rocket scientist

Managed to get my Kerbals into a stable circular orbit with almost a full tank of fuel to spare. I'm going to let them orbit for an hour or so, and then bring them back home.

Woot.

I hope the chute deploys.

It worked! I waited until the distant point on the orbit and did a burn that would take me down in a relatively flat area. Waited until 10,000 ft and detached fuel tanks and final stages. Deployed parachute at 5000 ft. Touchdown. Everyone survived.

Got about 10 full orbits in before I brought them home.

Well, I've done all that with the demo. I might as well reward the developers by giving them my 20+ bucks and get access to all the new content too.

After many failed attempts at the Mun I gave in and grabbed the MechJeb autopilot and it's been great. Takes some of the tedium out of the piloting aspects without making the game too easy. Plus once I saw how the autopilot did certain things it helped me figured out how to do it myself.

Here's the mod:
http://kerbalspaceport.com/mechjeb/" target="_blank

Basically it's just a few new parts for the game, but if you mount one of the included computers on your command pod you'll get a set of autopilot systems and commands over on the right side of the screen. It also needs a bit of power so you might need to add some extra batteries or solar panels.

Thanks to MechJeb I've managed landings on Mun and Minmus as well as getting a space station into a stable orbit.

If I can remember I'll try to post a link to the landing craft I designed. I set it up Apollo style with separate command and landing modules. Once in space or in orbit over the moon you can just separate the two craft, transfer over the landing crew, and they can land and come back up without all the extra weight of the command module. I stole a lot of the ideas from a ship one guy designed to land on Duna, but decided to design my own version of it from the ground up.

Forum Effect.

First rocket: Spun tight circles and crashed spectacularly.
Second rocket: Took off and reached 15,000m before arcing and heading back down into the ground at full speed.
Third rocket: Solid state boosters ripped my ill-placed wings off and sent me into an uncontrolled spin at 40,000m.
Fourth rocket: Realized that "parachute" wasn't part of the command module and that fuel tanks don't separate without a split point.
Fifth rocket: Straight up, flawless launch, got to about 90,000m and then fell back - landed with a chute and sat there.

1. Strand astronaut on the Mun when a struts break on landing.
2. Repeat with second astronaut.
3. Send specially designed 3-seat rescue lander to the Mun (in the demo, this means strapping three one-man capsules together).
4. Watch as specially designed 3-seat rescue lander waits too long to fire its descent engine and explodes on the Munar surface.
5. Send simpler 1-seat rescue lander to the Mun (it is covered in ladders for the stranded astronauts to hang on to during the trip home). Land safely 5 km from the strandees.
6. Move stranded astronaut over to rescue lander, using jetpack to make huge leaps across the surface.
7. Miscalculate and watch in horror as astronaut does jetpack-powered faceplant, killing him instantly.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 with second stranded astronaut.
9. Rescue attempt failed, leave Mun for Kerbin.
10. Realize that you don't quiiiiite have enough fuel to make it back. Leave your rescue craft and pilot in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin. Forever.