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I was watching a random KSP video recently where the guy playing talked about trying not to exceed terminal velocity while in the lower atmosphere to conserve fuel. Is this a big drain on fuel? Am I, 200+ hours into this game, discovering this very basic fact about spaceflight for the first time?  I believe he mentioned staying under 200 or 400 m/s while in the light-blue part of atmo.
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Apr 22, 2014 15:45
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They're right. Any speed you get past terminal velocity is just speed for the sake of speed (and at the expense of delta-v you could have used later) while the atmosphere is having a braking effect on your craft. Keeping at/near terminal velocity on the way up is the most fuel-efficient way to launch, but going so fast as to trigger re-entry effects on your way out of the atmosphere has a certain  charm to it.
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Apr 22, 2014 15:53
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There used to be a chart showing 'at X height, you want roughly Y m/s' but I can't track it down now. All I remember is you want to be moving at about 100m/s at 1000 feet. If you are curious about it, I believe it's called the Goddard Problem.
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Apr 22, 2014 15:59
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Zhent posted:There used to be a chart showing 'at X height, you want roughly Y m/s' but I can't track it down now. All I remember is you want to be moving at about 100m/s at 1000 feet. from the KSP Kerbin wiki:  I will have to commit that to memory. I did sort of recognize that trying to go fast enough to be burning up while leaving the planet was probably a waste of fuel, but that didn't carry over to over-acceleration in general.
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Apr 22, 2014 16:08
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Samsquamsch posted:from the KSP Kerbin wiki: This was literally the first thing I looked up on the wiki when I first started playing. There was no map at the time, but matching to the table had a certain, infuriating but rewarding, charm to it.
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Apr 22, 2014 16:10
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You don't really need to commit it to memory, just use a rule of thumb of "250m/s at 10k" and adjust your throttle to smoothly hit that speed as you gain altitude.
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Apr 22, 2014 16:12
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Huh. I've just been strapping eight of the biggest solid fuel boosters I can find to my rocket and hitting 400-600 m/s by 10,000 metres. I'll have to give this 'fuel efficiency' thing a try.
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Apr 22, 2014 16:27
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potatocubed posted:Huh. I've just been strapping eight of the biggest solid fuel boosters I can find to my rocket and hitting 400-600 m/s by 10,000 metres. I'll have to give this 'fuel efficiency' thing a try. This is the proper way to play KSP so don't change a thing! If you don't get re-entry effects on launch your rocket isn't awesome enough.
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Apr 22, 2014 16:44
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So on my latest Mun trip, I put my lander inside the huge crater on the far side. I managed to touch down at the perfect spot at the perfect time to catch the sunrise coming up over the crater's outer rim. This is my favorite game, by far, and I don't see that changing any time soon. I can only imagine the beauty of watching the real sun rise on the real moon.
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Apr 22, 2014 17:09
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The Green Calx posted:I can only imagine the beauty of watching the real sun rise on the real moon. It probably looks great for about two seconds before your retinas burn out. 
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Apr 22, 2014 17:14
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xzzy posted:It probably looks great for about two seconds before your retinas burn out. What do you see? Kaneda! What do you see?
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Apr 22, 2014 20:32
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Mr. Wynand posted:Ok so apparently i DID manage to install the RealFuels configs wrong before. Now the engines actually use them and have different (indeed, much better) stats. But I no longer see the auto-fill button: Just to chip in: this happens if the config for that tank does not specify that it can take what your engine needs, if the config is wrong (typos happen) or the engine isn't attached (so it doesn't know what to offer a preload for).
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Apr 22, 2014 20:52
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Has anybody made a part yet that can spot and/or track asteroids from a spacecraft? Like, say I wanted to launch a space mission to detect asteroids, I could launch a satellite and place it between Eve and Kerbin's orbit to be able to see asteroids that would be coming from the day side of Kerbin.
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Apr 22, 2014 20:54
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Speaking of asteroids, is there any way to declutter the map view while you're on a mission? I know you can in the tracking station, I'd just really like to do it in mission view also.
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Apr 22, 2014 21:38
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  I did it! Easier than I thought it would be, since I was only moving around the class B, I don't think I'd be able to move a class C or larger successfully without some luck. I spent a while thinking of how to send up a double-clawed mechanism, moved my girder structure over, and now I'm in the mood to capture another asteroid to add to this thing. Hoping for the big science bucks. Strange thing happened, though, when I hitched the second asteroid to the claw. The camera stopped moving, said "Focus: Kerbin", aimed the same way, and my game crashed. I loaded up a quicksave and it did the same thing again, but without crashing, so I backed out to the space center and then back to the base and it was fine. Samsquamsch fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Apr 22, 2014 |
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Apr 22, 2014 21:38
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Instant Sunrise posted:Has anybody made a part yet that can spot and/or track asteroids from a spacecraft? I love the idea of having to build a minor infrastructure as you expand into the solar system. Just something simple like a Comsat in orbit around a body that you want to transmit data from or something. Anything that would compel me to use different style ships for different jobs other than "Lander that can hop and collect boatloads of science".
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Apr 22, 2014 21:41
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Is there a mod with good caterpillar tracks yet?
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Apr 22, 2014 21:44
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MrDorf posted:I love the idea of having to build a minor infrastructure as you expand into the solar system. Just something simple like a Comsat in orbit around a body that you want to transmit data from or something. Anything that would compel me to use different style ships for different jobs other than "Lander that can hop and collect boatloads of science". I'm currently using a mod that adds that functionality without going crazy with lines of sight and geostationary orbits like remote tech does. The one I'm using adds in communication ranges for the various transmitters but does it purely by distance. It also has basic relay support, so you can put a weak transmitter on your lander and have a stronger transmitter on something in orbit. It also increases or decreases the bandwidth of transmitters depending on how close you are to kerbin. I think it's a pretty good mod for basic communication infrastructure. I've seen Scott Manley using remote tech and fiddling with loads of stuff that doesn't seem all that fun, however realistic it might be. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/56440-0-23-5-AntennaRange-Enforce-and-Encourage-Antenna-Diversity
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Apr 22, 2014 21:55
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Mike-o posted:Speaking of asteroids, is there any way to declutter the map view while you're on a mission? I know you can in the tracking station, I'd just really like to do it in mission view also. Hover the mouse at the top centre of the screen, and a menu of things you can switch on and off should drop down.
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Apr 22, 2014 22:10
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potatocubed posted:Huh. I've just been strapping eight of the biggest solid fuel boosters I can find to my rocket and hitting 400-600 m/s by 10,000 metres. I'll have to give this 'fuel efficiency' thing a try.
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Apr 22, 2014 22:16
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potatocubed posted:Hover the mouse at the top centre of the screen, and a menu of things you can switch on and off should drop down. And don't forget try right-clicking on those icons. The map will show JUST the objects of the same type you right-clicked. It works in the tracking station too.
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Apr 22, 2014 22:17
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TescoBag posted:Is there a mod with good caterpillar tracks yet? Someone made what looks like a C&C Mammoth tank with them. Album here http://imgur.com/a/izQzu
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Apr 22, 2014 22:29
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TescoBag posted:Is there a mod with good caterpillar tracks yet?  ^It hasn't been updated for a while and has some bugs, but it seems to work with 23.5 at least.
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Apr 22, 2014 22:32
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Wanting to test my KSP engineering abilities, I decided to build my very own Kerbal space shuttle. So off to work I went, toiling away, until I had this: Early flight tests were very promising. I was amazed at how agile it actually was, and suprisingly easy to land as well.  Satisfied with it's performance, I took off the aerospikes and threw on the shuttle engines, and it was launch time.  Weee! The ascent through the atmosphere was easier than I thought it would be. Aside from some minor sideslipping, which was easily adjusted, it was a nice smooth ride up to LKO.  As we went further up, the big orange fuel tank naturally wanted to roll underneath the ship, so I let it.  After we stabilize our orbit at a nice and even 100k, we take a moment to admire the view. Bill seems very pleased.  A few system tests. Gotta make sure that cargo bay opens properly and whatnot.  Sending Bob out to check for damages, making sure no foam clipped our wings during ascent.  After we confirm there's no damage, Bob gets back in and our crew gets ready for re-entry. Learning from the last time I attempted a shuttle re-entry, and since I play with DRE, I know to keep my angle of attack around 45 degrees to bleed off as much speed as possible in the upper atmosphere.   It works! Only minor explosions, and we still have all the important stuff!  Oh crap. Damnit, Bill, you overshot KSC by.... well, a lot.  Somehow I have juuuust enough fuel to turn around and make it back to the mainland, but not enough to make it all the way to KSC. Therefore, a grasslands landing it is.  Seriously, I was REALLY low on fuel. Maybe I should have put a jet engine on this thing somewhere? Either way, too late now, as we are gliding gracefully down to the surface of the planet.  So far, so good  Err... uhhh...   Nailed it.  Mission accomplished! 
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Apr 22, 2014 22:44
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MedivalNerd released RPL 19a yesterday so I grabbed it and started a new GameData - RPL needs a serious amount of mods and you want to keep it separate from 'normal' KSP stuff (currently 54 folders in my RPL GameData). Sadly he'd rushed it out to keep the baying fans happy so it was a bit of a bug squash for a while and it has some conflicting configs. I went to launch my first rocket and found KSC was in Florida and my RT2 command centre somewhere in the Andes. Being British I'm allowed to be a Euro when it suits me and at 5 degrees north, French Guiana suited me  But there was no config for RSS to launch from there that I could find - one google and 3 hours of KSP restarts later I was in business. Until he releases a hotfix later in the week, RPL is just pottering around on Earth and low orbit but that's still plenty of fun. Someone made an Earth biome map for custom biomes and an 8k map of Earth which is simply stunning so I took some pretty pictures for you from my Vanguard 1 launch. 180km is the start of low space...  Once the hotfix is out and the documentation/install instructions are updated, give RPL a whirl if you're into realism.
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Apr 22, 2014 23:27
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Hey, Ratzap, I stole some time to do the Unity dance and do the PartTools thing. It seems to work and now has all these nice buttons for spawning stock resources like cockpit bits etc. in the window in the Unity editor. All I can say is "now what?". Just point me in the right direction and I'll get started making a "Hello, World!" part to see if it hates me. Sorry about being demanding but I've wanted to mod KSP for so drat long but info on getting started seems to be hard to find at best. I'm doing all this in Win8 for now. Once I get this sorted and know I can get things done, I'll tackle hard mode (Linux) to see how much can be done in it.
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Apr 22, 2014 23:58
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General_Failure posted:Hey, Ratzap, Excellent, I had hoped you'd got it going. I'll write you up an effort post for 'my first plugin' tomorrow - it's 1:30am here and I need some sleep.
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Apr 23, 2014 01:33
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Yes! I finally achieved orbit! In the dark night in North Kerbrea... A mighty and powerful rocket did launch, the will and thoughts of The People with it!  The Sun rises upon the Glory of The People and their Dear Leader, Kerb-Jong Un, son of Glorious Leader Kerb-Jong Il, and grandson of Dear Glorious Leader Kerb-Il Sung. The very face of our Dear Leader shines in the sun (except we executed the Photoshop guy so you can't actually see it because it is too brilliant and glorious!)  Yeah, it figures every rocket I name after the Redstone series (Kerbstone) goes nowhere, but when I make a crack about North Korea... Edit: do I get any science for putting a satellite into orbit? I just launched a Stayputnik on my KerbDong and put it into orbit. CovfefeCatCafe fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Apr 23, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 01:37
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YF19pilot posted:Edit: do I get any science for putting a satellite into orbit? I just launched a Stayputnik on my KerbDong and put it into orbit. The only way you get science from it is by recovering it, or slapping some experiments on it and transmitting/sending a kerbal up to grab the science.
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Apr 23, 2014 02:43
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Also, not to dissuade your awesome looking rocket, but that's about 100x bigger than you actually need to get into orbit. If you made it that big for fun, then awesome! If you're having trouble getting anything smaller into orbit then something is drastically wrong with either your game or your rocket design.
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Apr 23, 2014 02:51
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that design is hilariously awesome but you may want to try a gravity turn in there somewhere
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Apr 23, 2014 03:06
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shortspecialbus posted:Also, not to dissuade your awesome looking rocket, but that's about 100x bigger than you actually need to get into orbit. If you made it that big for fun, then awesome! If you're having trouble getting anything smaller into orbit then something is drastically wrong with either your game or your rocket design. Most definitely correct. If you took those radial engines off that center stack, you could probably achieve orbit with it alone. Maybe a few boosters to get you moving, because boosters are always awesome. nvm no cake fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Apr 23, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 03:07
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Samsquamsch posted:Fuel efficiency talk Icon Of Sin posted:Mention of terminal velocity Zhent posted:Mention of a chart Samsquamsch posted:Cool chart If you're using Kerbal Engineer, the flight engineer module's surface information screen (SUR or SRF) shows you your terminal velocity in real-time. No need to gently caress around with charts AND it should also work on other planets with an actual atmosphere, like Duna - which is when fuel efficiency REALLY starts to matter.
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Apr 23, 2014 04:12
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Or, if you have mechjeb installed, click "limit to terminal velocity" on ascent assistance.
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Apr 23, 2014 04:41
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Drake_263 posted:No need to gently caress around with charts AND it should also work on other planets with an actual atmosphere, like Duna - which is when fuel efficiency REALLY starts to matter. Yep, Duna: parachute assisted powered descent and re-ascent with the LV- e: Engine name. To clarify: Play the game how you like. I don't see a need for stock KSP to overwhelm new players with numbers and charts. Kids that sit in class planning out missions have access to the stats and can sperg out over numbers to their hearts content. Corky Romanovsky fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Apr 23, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 04:55
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Drake_263 posted:If you're using Kerbal Engineer, the flight engineer module's surface information screen (SUR or SRF) shows you your terminal velocity in real-time. No need to gently caress around with charts AND it should also work on other planets with an actual atmosphere, like Duna - which is when fuel efficiency REALLY starts to matter. Thanks, I had gotten so used to just looking at orbital/vessel info that I stopped looking at the other two tabs early on. Today I've just been running local missions and not really seeing the big benefits of maintaining terminal velocity. I'll explore it more tomorrow.
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Apr 23, 2014 06:47
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The behavior of planes with FAR seems slightly insane. I've got what seems like a pretty reasonable-looking one here, matched up center of mass with center of lift, and yet when I go to fly it it starts flipping upward on its own almost immediately, and it'll stall and start flipping end over end seemingly at random. Doesn't help that I can't make heads or tails of the design tool, I'm sure.
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Apr 23, 2014 06:56
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Strudel Man posted:The behavior of planes with FAR seems slightly insane. I've got what seems like a pretty reasonable-looking one here, matched up center of mass with center of lift, and yet when I go to fly it it starts flipping upward on its own almost immediately, and it'll stall and start flipping end over end seemingly at random. Have you attempted a nosecone instead of the intake on front, or a switch to the MK1 cockpit? You'll also probably have much better luck with canards than the tail fins in front of the wing.
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Apr 23, 2014 07:13
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Strudel Man posted:The behavior of planes with FAR seems slightly insane. I've got what seems like a pretty reasonable-looking one here, matched up center of mass with center of lift, and yet when I go to fly it it starts flipping upward on its own almost immediately, and it'll stall and start flipping end over end seemingly at random. Try adding some control surfaces to the wing trailing edges to move the CoL rearward and see if that stabilizes it. Don't even need to use them for maneuvering, you can tweak them to be off, just stick em on and see what happens.
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Apr 23, 2014 07:16
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Yeah, I've been fiddling. It looks like, rather countintuitively, I don't want to match up my centers - I got a much more stable configuration by shifting wings backwards significantly. How do you actually tweak control surfaces to be off? I saw some mention of that in the mod's description, picking what a control surface does, but didn't see any obvious way to do it. Though I'm not certain now that I actually tried right-clicking...
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Apr 23, 2014 07:26
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