Kerbal Space Program

Big Phoenix · Jan 21, 2013

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Why arent you playing this yet? Build your own space rocket(and planes) and try to do everything form just getting it to launch and into space, rendezvousing spacecraft in orbit, to landing on the moon and coming back. Game is pretty much one big sandbox atm(in alpha/beta stage so lots not implemented) just build whatever you want and see if it works.

Heres more or less a lab I built and landed on the moon with 2 little rovers;

Good video of a guy going to mars and back;

Tuco · Jan 22, 2013

I heard about this game but never played it, I'll be sure to check it out.

McCheese · Jan 22, 2013

Check our Robbaz's "Viking Space Program" videos for this game on youtube. They're absolutely hilarious.

Tuco · Jan 31, 2013

Well I officially suck at this game.

I wish Spore was like this.

Agraza · Jan 31, 2013

I am so very bad at this. I've yet to leave the atmosphere. I ran out of fuel I guess, but when I added more fuel dealies, I went really slow and started this odd wobbling in flight. As I applied more power, the bottom popped off and I fell down.

I've been going without parachutes because for some reason anytime I add one they deploy the moment I launch, which is counterproductive.

Silence_sl · Jan 31, 2013

Agraza_sl said:
I am so very bad at this. I've yet to leave the atmosphere. I ran out of fuel I guess, but when I added more fuel dealies, I went really slow and started this odd wobbling in flight. As I applied more power, the bottom popped off and I fell down.

I've been going without parachutes because for some reason anytime I add one they deploy the moment I launch, which is counterproductive.

You need to have lots of fuel, those balancer things, and more external engines. Also, those separation things between each stage. Spacebar separates the stages/lights engines/deploys chutes.

Araxen · Feb 18, 2013

This guy has a lot of time on his hands but it really shows off how awesome this game is.

schnarkie_sl · Feb 18, 2013

I made it to space on my very first attempt and haven't made it since.

I guess I get more enjoyment out of making the biggest rocket which ends up exploding shortly after take off.

I'll have to check out some of the youtube videos.

Plaid_sl · Feb 18, 2013

I had to watch some videos before I could make it into orbit. There are a lot of neat mods. Check those out too.

Big Phoenix · Feb 18, 2013

Good beginner tips;

1. Keep it as simple as possible. The bigger and more complicated your rocket gets the faster it blows up.
2. Always make sure your Center of Thrust is directly inline with Center of Mass when building a rocket.
3. Strut the hell out of everything when you do make bigger rockets. Game is a little stupid and parts love to wobble unfortunately
4. Make sure everything is staged right before launching. Nothing worse than getting into orbit and having something decouple instead of firing engines.

I've been going without parachutes because for some reason anytime I add one they deploy the moment I launch, which is counterproductive.

You need to have them staged properly. If you look at the bottom left of the screen it will show you the stages of your rockets, obviously you want parachutes to be the last stage. Parachutes are identified by a P icon in the list so you can easily move it around however you need to. You can change it in the VAB or in the middle of a flight if need be.

Zhaun_sl · Feb 18, 2013

This sounds cool just because I would like to see if a space plane thing actuall works to get out of the atmosphere in any reasonable way.

It doesnt let you shoot shit into space with railgun or anything?

Big Phoenix · Feb 18, 2013

Yeah they work just fine, theyre called Single Stage To Orbits(SSTOs). Those are pretty hard to construct though, as you must take into account center of mass, thrust, and lift all while making sure its balanced at all stages of flight from lift off to orbit.

No railgun stuff.

Zhaun_sl · Feb 19, 2013

This is addictive. Even more so due to adorable astronaut people.

Zhaun_sl · Feb 19, 2013

Only playing the demo, but it seems like any time I do more than two stages with one solid rocket each everything goes to shit. Things explode, it doesn't go straight, I can't get liquid engines to even start.

I got a basic 2-stage solid fuel rocket with a few winglets and a SAS thing about 200km up and landed him safely with a chute. Since then I have littered the planet with adorable little astronaut corpses.

Big Phoenix · Feb 20, 2013

To get into orbit you need a minimum altitude of 75km, as any lower and atmospheric drag will deorbit you. What I usually do is once I reach 500m/s velocity I will roll my rocket east to about 20 degrees and let it continue burning at that heading until I have a circular orbit around 100km.

Are your engines over heating? Usually you want to use the solid rockets as boosters strapped to the side of your rocket(but not too many too close since they will overheat and cause your rocket to explode) instead of as the main engine for a stage. Also you might have too much thrust which also causes rockets to blow up or go crazy.

Game is well worth the money and then some. Newer versions add so much more to the game and maker it easier compared to earlier versions. There are also tons and tons of mods which greatly expand the game as well.

Zhaun_sl · Feb 20, 2013

Well I figured out I could steer (derp) and I had to manually turn on this autopilot I've been installing in every rocket since day 1.

This solved a lot of issues.

I then strapped 6 solid fuel rockets together as my first stage and after an intitial miscalculation and and spectacular explosion, they worked, running out of fuel just seconds before overheating and exploding (probably not the best thing to rely on), combined with 4 more stages of single engine solid fuel rockets I have managed to blow my poor guy into space. He is now well past 200km and still going with no real way to go home.

Few problems I am having:

Plain old parachute doesn't seem to be helping much falling from 100's of kilometers, and getting my guys to ground safe is rare.

I can't get liquid fuel engines to work. Even the example rockets the have to load up, the engines don't set off. I don't get it.

Doesn't seem like I can get extra fuel on solid fuel rockets to work either.

I'm litereally dealing with like 50's era stuff considering everything I can't get to work right, so I'm pretty happy I've gotten as far as I have lol.

edit: Pour one out for Astronaut Ordorf Kerman, who was shot out into space until he fell into solar orbit... where he stayed until he starved to death or ran out of oxygen or some other terrible, terrible fate.

Big Phoenix · Feb 20, 2013

Are you using the right size parachute? One is designed for the 3 person capsule and the other for the 1. Also they dont deploy right away nor do you need to deploy them right away. Even if you start falling at 50km and falling at 200-300m/s it doesnt really matter as you will slow down to around 100m/s at around 2-3km which is where you deploy the parachutes.

You probably arent increasing the throttle. Fuel engines are adjustable while solid rockets burn at 100% power until they run out. Shift is the default increase and ctrl the default decrease and Z instantly sets throttle to 0%.

Cant put extra fuel on the solid rockets, only thing you can do is add more but that runs into the problem of over heating.

Borzak · Feb 20, 2013

If you are just orbiting you don't need to mess with solid rocket boosters. I just use liquid fuel rockets, seems to go easier and you can throttle back if needed. You can also leave your last stage attaached late and use your rocket to slow you down.

Once you separate a stage you need to throttle your engine up. SHIFT is more power and CTRL is less, there's a little guage on the left of the gyro to show you what % your engine is set at. Throttle up before you hit the spacebar to launch as well if you are using a rocket engine in your first stage.

There are sites with calculators and add ons you can use to help you do the math to get to other plantes, and back again.

Borzak · Feb 20, 2013

Big Phoenix · Feb 20, 2013

lol, you can spend hours playing the game and realize all you have done is design a rocket and havent even tried launching.

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