🚀 The Kerbal Thread - Share Your Kerbal Creations
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I'm getting used to the new aerodynamics (put CoL behind CoM), but heat is the killer now.
This blew up a few seconds later. Debug menu shows part temperatures, but once it's this bright, you're usually beyond help. SSTOs will be difficult.
On the other hand, I do like that the LV-N doesn't consume oxidizer anymore. That makes a turbojet + LV-N plane attractive... assuming one could ever get it into orbit.
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Kerbal 1.0 is distinctly less fun than the betas.
Here's a somewhat kind of working space plane slightly.
Here's what's left of it after trying re-entry.
Also see that green text? The developers of Kerbal decided to bind F12 to a function, even though 95% of their customers are using Steam and Steam uses F12 to take screenshots. Idiots.
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The developers of Kerbal decided to bind F12 to a function, even though 95% of their customers are using Steam and Steam uses F12 to take screenshots.
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That reminds me of a bug I need to report. For some reason KSP no longer responds to Esc, but only when I have Photoshop open in the background. This was not an issue in the beta.
How do you even create a bug like that?
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I know of a better one: by default, Race 07 (which is available on Steam) binds F12 to… take screenshot
@abarker said:only when I have Photoshop open in the background
I…
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Kerbal devs, like all game devs, are fucking terrible at GUI.
It also ships with full analog controller support, but zero controller mappings. So you can't use your controller at all without doing like an hour of configuration.
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Wow I wasn't kidding. Kerbal is really unfun now. They just pissed all over it. Ugh.
You can't even make simple rockets work anymore without them randomly breaking up.
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I am so glad I got mine through the original store and never migrated to Steam; I can keep using the pre-fuckup version. =)
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Ok, well I can't say I like the new space plane physics but I do appreciate that you can create realistic (and landable/reusable) space shuttles now. Look at this bad boy.
(It can't brick-glide in like the real shuttle, but when I add 2 turbo-jets that gives it enough oomph to land just fine.)
Shuttle underside/engine nacelle:
I also appreciate more landing gear options, although there's still no Rockomax-sized jet engine or air intakes.
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Wow it's really awkward building/installing stuff in a cargo bay. They could use a VAB you could set to a particular cargo bay size with a docking port you build off it, and some kind of big red warning if your assembly is too large to fit.
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Let's launch a space station, REAL LIFE NASA STYLE!
First we load-up our cargo bay with our station:
Lift-off!
Sending a Kerbalnaut over to occupy the station:
Successful release from the cargo bay (it took some doing-- was jammed in there good!):
Docking to test shuttle RCS and top-off station's fuel (also realize I forgot to put a remote-control unit on the station... d'oh!):
View of Shuttle cockpit out station window:
Now the challenging part: getting the shuttle back down without disintegrating it. First, undock:
Do my deceleration burn:
Ditch the orbital unit (sorry for nighttime approach):
Attempt 1: intake overheated and blew. I know from past experience this thing can't survive a landing without about 1/3rd throttle on the turbojets, so... let's try again.
Attempt 2: Got 'er flying, have to do a steep re-entry so the more durable wing-tips take the brunt of the heat. Looks like she just came from Mun (stupid F12 bug ruined my screenshot with drag lines):
Per usual, my navigation sucks and I'm almost an ocean away from the space center runway:
This thing actually flies pretty damned well as a plane in its own right, suck it NASA shuttles:
After flying and scotch-drinking for like a fucking hour, approaching the runway:
Flying over the runway, the plan here is to get a decent distance and wait for dawn so I can hopefully land in daylight:
U-turn towards the runway:
Using all my flight sim skillz to line-up with the runway:
Gear down, final approach:
Any landing you can walk away from!
I came down way too hard, but look how well I lined-up the ship with the center of the runway. THAT'S WHAT COUNTS!
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In the interest of SCIENCE, I decided to test the upper limits of heating stock parts with this dangerously low reentry periapsis:
Ablation commence. I tried this earlier with a slightly higher periapsis and no heat shield, and it didn't burn up.
Neither did this one.
This is surprising. I have several possible theories:
- The LV-909 is heat shielded.
- Heat dissipation is better in the upper atmosphere, compared to our earlier tests with spaceplane ascent.
- Squad hates spaceplanes.
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Squad hates spaceplanes.
This one is DEFINITELY true.
Rockets are more difficult now, also. But as my shuttle stack shows, you can still put pretty hefty items into orbit without too much planning/effort in advance.
Also angle of descent matters MASSiVELY now. That shuttle burns-up its air intakes if I aim down 5 degrees, if I aim down 20 degrees none of the parts even get in the warning zone.
EDIT: BTW I just did a ground test (that shuttle can barely take-off under its own power, good enough to test with). It still lands just fine; the problem was last night I'd had too much scotch, hahaha.
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Next thing to try: Minmus mining!
If I did it right, this whole rig'll fit in my shuttle, which has enough orbital stage to make it to minmus and back.
Snug:
Ok now grocery shopping.
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Uh...
The fit was too tight.
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Moon mining stack all-in-one-- mineral exploration satellites, lander/rover with storage tank and drill.
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Lessons learned the hard way: orbital scanners are no good on ships/probes with no antenna. :(
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On the way to Mun...
Nice polar orbit, which the satellites apparently require?
First satellite deployed!
Satellite network... more than one doesn't seem to improve scan quality at all? Or something?
Landing the miner/rover:
Landed!
And DRILLING!
It is a little cool to be able to replenish your fuel tanks using just solar energy, but I'm not sure this is really practical-- unless for example Jool moons have a resource level orders of magnitude higher than Mun.
EDIT: then I tried to drive to an area with higher mineral density:
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Satellite network... more than one doesn't seem to improve scan quality at all? Or something?
Well, minerals don't move, and the point of a polar orbit is you see the entire surface eventually?
Though on the moon that takes a month.
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The game draws the mineral hot spots instantly when you activate it.
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Well, minerals don't move, and the point of a polar orbit is you see the entire surface eventually?
Though on the moon that takes a month.
The game draws the mineral hot spots instantly when you activate it.
I mean, it makes sense from a game play perspective, but I thought they were trying for a sense of realism.
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I mean, it makes sense from a game play perspective, but I thought they were trying for a sense of realism.
I was confused about that too. Carrying more than one survey satellite seems to be a complete waste. I was expecting it to "draw bands" as it orbited, like a real satellite would.
I'm also confused about the ground-based scanner which, in the description, says it increases the resolution of the orbital ones but-- uh-- it doesn't? Or am I missing something? Maybe it's just not implemented yet? All it seems to do is give a text read-out of the mineral % directly below your rover.
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I'm also confused about the ground-based scanner which, in the description, says it increases the resolution of the orbital ones but-- uh-- it doesn't? Or am I missing something? Maybe it's just not implemented yet? All it seems to do is give a text read-out of the mineral % directly below your rover.
Since I started my campaign over, I haven't made it that far yet, but from your description, I have a guess of the "best" way to use the two in tandem.
Using the mapping provided by the sat-scanner, you can identify a general area to target for drilling. Using a surface scanner on your mobile drilling rig you can then pinpoint the best location in your target area. Of course, this methodology would require a lot of driving around to find the ideal drilling location.
In short, it sounds like the surface scanners are a waste.
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Of course, this methodology would require a lot of driving around to find the ideal drilling location.
And it has to be driving because the maximum altitude for the surface scanner is 1000m, which is waaay too low for safe flying, even in low-G. EDIT: especially since the game still doesn't have a radar altimeter except in 1st person.
In short, it sounds like the surface scanners are a waste.
Yup.
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I was expecting it to "draw bands" as it orbited, like a real satellite would.
You're confusing this with ISA MapSat, a much better (though sadly deceased) mod.
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Doubtful. IIRC, @blakeyrat doesn't use mods.
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Oh, right. Carry on.
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Trying Kerbal career mode, it's... interesting.
Would anybody be interested if I streamed it?
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Do post links if you record it. I don't think the hours would work for me for live stream. Hell, I should have been asleep for hours now, but I can't sleep for some stupid reason...
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Trying Kerbal career mode, it's... interesting.
This thread's recent revival got me back into KSP. I'm actually stuck trying to achieve orbit. I have the necessary rockets, but not the necessary aerodynamic components to steer my rocket into orbit. I'm getting really good at flying straight up though.
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Yeah the new aerodynamics mean you have to do dumb launches, go straight up, then turn straight east at 50,000 or so. The crappiest launch for fuel economy.
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I wanted to try that but don't have the funds since I just upgraded the VAB and launch pad
. But if I can achieve orbit all my funding and science problems will be solved...for now.
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If you can get the tourist contracts and can hit 70,000 going straight up, you should be good to make some money.
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Yeah the new aerodynamics mean you have to do dumb launches, go straight up, then turn straight east at 50,000 or so. The crappiest launch for fuel economy.
Took me a few launches to figure out that was why my rockets were flipping end over end during the gravity turn.
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I have a couple tourist contract options, but they want me to fly over some specific part of Kerbin. I don't even bother with those until I have a decent airplane design.
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I have a couple tourist contract options, but they want me to fly over some specific part of Kerbin. I don't even bother with those until I have a decent airplane design.
Ouch. I haven't got those ones yet.
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It's ridiculous. Real life rockets with 4 small fins manage gravity turns just fine. The new aerodynamics code is not only less fun than before, its ridiculously broken.
View my stream to see how I had to add literally 36 fins to a simple rocket to get it to work reasonably. And it still wasn't able to gravity-turn.
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It's ridiculous. Real life rockets with 4 small fins manage gravity turns just fine. The new aerodynamics code is not only less fun than before, its ridiculously broken.
Before I gave up yesterday, I was trying to do something with a ton of LV-45's so I had thrust vectoring, but they were either too expensive or I just couldn't get enough lift using only entry-level liquid fuel rockets.
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From my experience, unless you have only ONE bell, rockets with thrust vectoring lead to feedback loops that'll get your entire rocket spazzing back and forth. I either disable vectoring on all the bells, or just enable it on the center one and disable it on the rest.
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i lost a couple of rockets to this.
also, SAS tends to get into an "always correcting" mode that destabilizes the ships on a minimal perturbation
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With the new aerodynamics I found that it's best to take it slow (around 200 - 300 m/s) for the first 10,000 m or so and then start gravity turning. Boosting to ridiculous speeds before getting out of the lower atmosphere is just asking for trouble. With careful throttling, I managed to get into orbit and later around Mun using just the basic liquid engines.
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With the new aerodynamics I found that it's best to take it slow (around 200 - 300 m/s) for the first 10,000 m or so and then start gravity turning.
Even then, I tend to loose control if I turn before 30km.
Boosting to ridiculous speeds before getting out of the lower atmosphere is just asking for trouble.
It's also a waste of ΔV.
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after a succesful minmus landing i finally got the science to buy that fine spaceplane parts.
so... it's time to build a jet fighter!
here's pilot valentina kerman with her beauty
Fire!!
i believe i never saw a kerbal so happy
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They made interplanetary flight a lot harder, but mainly because atomics now only take fuel (and not oxidizer) but still has the same consumption-- and the game designers apparently forgot that and don't have a single good large tank that stores only fuel and not fuel + ox. So basically, even if you're forward-thinking enough to remove all the oxidizer from your rocket, you still have half the range of pre-patch.
Feh.
Really really not digging 1.0.
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They made interplanetary flight a lot harder, but mainly because atomics now only take fuel (and not oxidizer) but still has the same consumption-- and the game designers apparently forgot that and don't have a single good large tank that stores only fuel and not fuel + ox. So basically, even if you're forward-thinking enough to remove all the oxidizer from your rocket, you still have half the range of pre-patch.
Have you tried the Mk3 liquid fuel fuselages? I'm still able to squeeze about 9km/s out of a single nuclear stage with those parts.
Really really not digging 1.0.
I am!
It's kind of a mixed bag overall. The science grind is harder, but some of the missions are interesting. ISRU is almost a good enough addition to make up for the loss of single-stage-to-Laythe spaceplanes, but I'm going to withhold judgment on that front until I've unlocked the whole tech tree and can start focusing on planes again. I've seen people make some significant progress in plane design on the KSP forums, so there may be hope yet.
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Mining is not fun. If I wanted space mining, I'd go play EVE.
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Really really not digging 1.0.
Me neither.
I finally made it to orbit, I had to start a new game because I simply did not have the parts on my last save. This new aerodynamic system is kind of ridiculous, as far as I can tell it's now virtually impossible to reach orbit using solid rocket boosters only (or I'm too stupid to figure it out). I had to use liquid fuel engines at low throttle to keep my speed down for for the ascent through the thickest parts of the atmosphere, then finally throttle up once it thins out. And of course liquid fuel rockets cost a lot more than SRBs, so no more cheap LKO missions.
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This new aerodynamic system is kind of ridiculous, as far as I can tell it's now virtually impossible to reach orbit using solid rocket boosters only (or I'm too stupid to figure it out).
Yet another way it's completely unrealistic. If "realism" is what they were even going for-- maybe they were going for "pissing off all the beta players".
