Kerbal Space Program

[dortmunder]

I picked this up last week, and I'm freakin addicted to it.

It's one of those "still in development" games, but I haven't run into many bugs. And the modding community is great. There's so many mods already to keep you busy long after you're bored of the base game.

I'm currently trying to build a Mun(moon) Base where I can mine for Kethane(converts to all types of fuel for perpulsion). That's just one of the mods available, the devs have said they are adding in their own resource/mining system as well.

There's a high learning curve, but once you have the basics down the rest will fall into place. One of the mods called MechJeb, what I would somewhat consider cheating, lets you plug numbers or select things in an interface, and the mod automates stuff for you. Like launching into a circular orbit of say, 150km. But it's useful for some people who just can't dock a craft(it's hard).

I've built a small orbital fuelling station, and have most of the stuff built to make my Mun Base. I just need to get it all into orbit, attach it to my module for transport, then attach some sort of rocket system to that and get it into orbit around the Mun. The big thing I am worried about is actually landing my pieces. I'm 100% sure it's not going to go as planned, lol.

This guy has a pretty amazing series of videos, as do others out there. It shows some of the more complicated gameplay, if anyone is interested.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiolJWWes-I

I highly recommend this game if you're into Sim type games, or into any sort of space exploration. There's a large solar system to explore, a bunch of planets with their own moons etc. And I'm sure they are going to be adding a lot more.

[Regolyth]

That looks really cool. If I get time, I'll try it out.

[Morreion]

That is interesting! I like all of these indie game attempts. The big studios usually water games down or try to appeal to everyone, which is weak.

[Loendal]

Grabbing the Demo now.. Shooting little green men into the sky with enough explosive force on their butts to destroy a small city is always fun!

[dortmunder]

You can make some pretty elaborate rockets.

For instance, you can use fuel lines to feed one way in a direction, and have decouplers set to blow those tanks off once you empty them. So as you go up, you get lighter and lighter, but all your fuel is being pumped into a main tank. So you eventually dump everything except the main tank as you ascend.

[Loendal]

I've been able to get into orbit a couple times, but never managed a stable circular orbit yet. I can't seem to get enough oomph to get out into orbit and still have enough fuel left to maneuver into a stable circle. I'm getting closer though It doesn't run really smoothly on my laptop, and I don't have access to my home pc for now. Still fun though

[dortmunder]

You want to burn either on your periapsis or apoapsis to get the best results changing your orbit.

Try turning 45 degrees at about 10,000m, then cut engine power when you're about halfway though the dark blue atmosphere gauge at the top.

Then open your map and when you're almost at your apoapsis, start burning again.

You can also click along your blue line and set up maneuvers, then drag the icons around to set up a guide target. It will tell you how much you need to burn while pointing at the blue target to get that result

[Loendal]

Shortly after I posted up, I got someone into a steady orbit... With one ITTY BITTY lil problem... I can't get him back down again. He has no thrust, and his parachute won't deploy. He's stuck in an orbit that goes from 124km to 43km

[dortmunder]

I think anything lower than 75km above Kerbin is a decaying orbit, he should re-enter eventually.

Or you can just end the mission

[Loendal]

Yea, but where's the fun in just ENDING his mission... He can float around up there for ages What seems to be happening is as he whips around at 43k, he starts picking up speed again and it snaps him up to the 124k. He doesn't ever get the chance to decay because of that whip factor.

In other news, I've finally gotten the hang of getting into Orbit. Once you get up there it's ALOT easier to shift and move yourself outward. Small thrusts of 2 to 10 seconds kept getting me further and further out. Eventually, I encountered the Mun! Settled into an orbit around it and had enough fuel (I thought) to at least land on the planet, though I know I would never leave again. However, when I tried to deploy my chute and come down softly, it didn't deploy at all and I wound up smashing into the surface with a bang, I'm guessing there's some trick I'm missing with landing on other planetary bodies, but hey, at least I can say I got there