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[sneakey pete]

1. Have a RCS fuel tank and plonk the thrusters wherever on your rocket. They don't even need to be symmetrical or in the same place, they'll automatically figure out the correct amount of thrust to apply!
2. Hit R to toggle them on. Then they'll boost your movement using the WSADQE keys, and you can also thrust and translate with them using the IJKLHN keys. If you have advanced SAS on your rocket, it will use the RCS itself if it is also toggled on to maintain your heading. (aSAS will also use the winglets and gimbaled engines to do this aswell)
3. M for map, as said
4. if your using 13.1, drag from the tank you want to draw fuel from to the tank stack you want to give fuel too. if using 13.0,its back to front.
edit: also, connect at the bottom of your stacks, fuel won't drain from below a connector, it seems (or connect partway up if that's the effect you desire)

[Mormota]

Is there a way to make fuel tanks that I can jettison without jettisoning the engines using them? I was thinking of using radial decouplers and fuel pipes, but the engines always start draining fuel from the tank above them, and I have no idea how to do the staging right so while the engine stage is still going, the fuel tank can be detached.

...Wait. I can put the tank's decouplers in a stage above the engine, and the engine's decouplers' above that, but it still doesn't solve the problem of just which fuel tank is used first! And I probably won't be able to control thrust after doing this.

[sneakey pete]

If you zoom in close you can see arrows on the fuel lines make sure its pointing the correct direction. But yeah, staging should just go, engines, radial decouplers for the tanks, then decouplers for the next stage etc.

Fuel lines should be at the bottom of the radial tanks stacks too.

[Orangebottle]

A solar orbit that intersects planet Kerbin's orbit is not a good idea.

[Simmura McCrea]

Sure it is. How else do you get back?

[olemars]

I think it's a splendid idea.

Managed to land crash on the Mun for the first time today. Not that difficult as it turns out. I guess the next goal will have to be entering a munarorbit and then successfully return to Kerbin.

[Mormota]

If you zoom in close you can see arrows on the fuel lines make sure its pointing the correct direction. But yeah, staging should just go, engines, radial decouplers for the tanks, then decouplers for the next stage etc.

I know that's what decides which direction the fuel goes in, but how do I set the order in which fuel tanks are used?

Fuel lines should be at the bottom of the radial tanks stacks too.

Call me stupid but I have no idea what you mean.

[sneakey pete]

That's how you determine which are used first. If you have, say, a stack of 3 fuel tanks, with radially attached 3 stacks of 3 fuel tanks, if you put a fuel line facing in from the top of the radial fuel tanks, first the top 3 (one on each stack) radial tanks will be used, then the centre tank will be used. If you attach from the bottom of the radial tank stacks, it will use all of them before it uses the center tanks.

That's probably confusing as all hell, my real suggestion is to make a smallish rocket and just test it out

In semi related news, my mega rocket has been even more expanded, however as soon as i put wings on it, it decides to just rapidly lean to the left and crash into the ground. When under the control of SAS or not. Annoying, as without the winglets being present it just goes straight up (for a time at least). May end up just changing one of the sets of engines to gimballing.

edit edit: replaced 8 of the 40 first stage engines with gimballing ones. The thrust will be missed... but its better than faceplanting into the ground at 300km/h

Not that it matters. the first stage gets it to 40000m anyway, would have needed gimballing engines no matter what, as there's no atmosphere up there.

[Mormota]

I made a huge ass rocket with 3 triple-stacks hanging at the very end, it's wobbling very funnily.

[sneakey pete]

Needs more struts, really.

edit: presenting, the craziest rocket i've ever built!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With a massive first stage of 160 fuel tanks and 40 engines, the rocket gets to over 40km straight up before the fuel is depleted. The outer 32 tanks of the 64 tank second stage then power the rocket into a low kerbal orbit, leaving the remaining 32 tanks and 8 engines of the second stage almost full. mounted on top is 16 more tanks, an engine and a SAS module. All in all, a lot of delta-v

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh yeah, as you can see there, the dam thing's got so many parts it blanks out part of the altitude gauge, in 13.0 at least. I'm about to test it in 13.1 and see if anything changes.

[Orangebottle]

Spoiler: quote from a few pages back (click to show/hide)

I like how this community doesn't shrink from providing a Step by Step Guide to Visual Stellar Navigation: How to Reach the Moon Without a Calculator.

It's spelled Mün, silly.

[olemars]

I've not seen it spelled Mün anywhere (including ingame, where it's spelled Mun). I demand a Word of God as proof that this is how it is supposed to be spelled.

[Peewee]

I demand a Word of God as proof that [Mün] is how it is supposed to be spelled.

Can't find any.
Links to HarvesteR referring to it as the Mun:
http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=3150.msg32187#msg32187
http://kerbalspace.tumblr.com/post/12648912860/the-mun-and-some-other-stuff-the-0-12-update-is
http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=4034.msg45319#msg45319

[Mormota]

Needs more struts, really.

Whenever I use struts, my rocket gets too heavy to even lift off without using like half the fuel of the first stage.

edit: presenting, the craziest rocket i've ever built!

Not crazy enough, you need boosters.

Edit: Yay, achieved my first orbit around Kerbin, with an apoapsis of 160k and a periapsis of 88k. But I only have a bit of fuel left. I really hope that will be enough to bring me down. For a Hohmann transfer, I'd brake in the apoapsis, right?

Second edit: Indeed I'd do that. T+1:07:08, landed 173 meters above sea level after completing one orbital period above Kerbin. Next mission: Enter orbit around the Mün, then return safely to Kerbin.

[kcwong]

I just tried 13.1 and found the symmetry tool is very broken... fuel lines act funny, and fuel tanks are not connected.