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[Aklyon]

I just realized that this is the QWOP of simulation games.

Its not that hard. We haven't had to try docking in orbit yet. Or dodging the space debris of previous flights. Or both at once.

[engy]

So I built a rocket with multiple capsules, gave them parachutes, and ejected them with the boosters they were on top of. Turns out that (a) their parachutes don't work, and (b) there are clones of the crew in each capsule!

Bob, Bill, and Jeb died so many times.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(Oh the kerbalanity)

You have to give parachutes the order to fire before you decouple them, otherwise they don't get the order.  So you have to fire parachutes, then decouple.  And it's sad the Pilot Cams are in the first Command Modual that hits the ground .

[Dsarker]

So I built a rocket with multiple capsules, gave them parachutes, and ejected them with the boosters they were on top of. Turns out that (a) their parachutes don't work, and (b) there are clones of the crew in each capsule!

Bob, Bill, and Jeb died so many times.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(Oh the kerbalanity)

You have to give parachutes the order to fire before you decouple them, otherwise they don't get the order.  So you have to fire parachutes, then decouple.  And it's sad the Pilot Cams are in the first Command Modual that hits the ground .

I believe that the parachutes also only work when the main command pod hits 300 or so metres above sea level.

[Rakonas]

So I built a rocket with multiple capsules, gave them parachutes, and ejected them with the boosters they were on top of. Turns out that (a) their parachutes don't work, and (b) there are clones of the crew in each capsule!

Bob, Bill, and Jeb died so many times.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(Oh the kerbalanity)

You have to give parachutes the order to fire before you decouple them, otherwise they don't get the order.  So you have to fire parachutes, then decouple.  And it's sad the Pilot Cams are in the first Command Modual that hits the ground .

I believe that the parachutes also only work when the main command pod hits 300 or so metres above sea level.

Nope, you can engage the parachutes very low to the ground, it's just that you're not going to survive if you're falling fast.

[Dsarker]

So I built a rocket with multiple capsules, gave them parachutes, and ejected them with the boosters they were on top of. Turns out that (a) their parachutes don't work, and (b) there are clones of the crew in each capsule!

Bob, Bill, and Jeb died so many times.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(Oh the kerbalanity)

You have to give parachutes the order to fire before you decouple them, otherwise they don't get the order.  So you have to fire parachutes, then decouple.  And it's sad the Pilot Cams are in the first Command Modual that hits the ground .

I believe that the parachutes also only work when the main command pod hits 300 or so metres above sea level.

Nope, you can engage the parachutes very low to the ground, it's just that you're not going to survive if you're falling fast.

No, what I meant was that the parachut only unfolds and switches to brake mode when the main command pod hits 300m or so.



In other news, an SAS unit slows acceleration by about 0.4 m/s^2.

An orange fuel tank (full) weighs about 6.6 SASs.

[Dsarker]

Okay, we have some interesting news. Thanks to Codecimal, we have confirmation that greater weight has less slowing effect on your ship, in diminishing returns.

Numbers crunched

240 m/s for one orange liquid fuel tank
175 m/s for two
135 m/s for three

This is all from a standing start, with ten seconds of acceleration.


However, with less starting weight, adding a weight has a GREATER effect. This confirms the theory of diminishing returns.

229 m/s for one tank, one SAS
168 m/s for two tanks one sas
131 m/s for three tanks one sas.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Is there a way to disable the automatic stage configuration? Or manually edit stages in some kind of external editor? Because when you have a rocket with 18 boosters that need to fire in batches of 6, you have to do a lot of drag'n'drop every time you alter the design.

[breadbocks]

Me and Dsark have been hurping and/or derping for the past bit.

Here is the raw data we collected. I'm sure someone with experience in physics or something could figure out the weights and thrusts from it.

[Jay]

As in, you checked that you didn't have the rockets activating in the same phase as you decoupled them?

They don't start up properly if you do that anyway.

[breadbocks]

SO ADORABLE!

From someone on the SA forum:

[Jay]

Okay, we have some interesting news. Thanks to Codecimal, we have confirmation that greater weight has less slowing effect on your ship, in diminishing returns.

Numbers crunched

240 m/s for one orange liquid fuel tank
175 m/s for two
135 m/s for three

This is all from a standing start, with ten seconds of acceleration.


However, with less starting weight, adding a weight has a GREATER effect. This confirms the theory of diminishing returns.

229 m/s for one tank, one SAS
168 m/s for two tanks one sas
131 m/s for three tanks one sas.

Hmm....
...Wait a minute.

However, with less starting weight, adding a weight has a GREATER effect. This confirms the theory of diminishing returns.

Last I checked, SAS modules don't weigh a negative amount.
Even better, those numbers have LESS change.

[Sordid]

Is there a way to disable the automatic stage configuration? Or manually edit stages in some kind of external editor? Because when you have a rocket with 18 boosters that need to fire in batches of 6, you have to do a lot of drag'n'drop every time you alter the design.

The .craft file can be manually edited in notepad, each component has a value specifying which stage it's in. To my knowledge, there's no 3rd party editor for these at the moment.

[Dsarker]

When did we say SAS weighed a negative amount?

[Jay]

When did we say SAS weighed a negative amount?

Looking back at it, the issue is actually that you have the numbers set up backwards.
As it stands, you're implying that "tank + SAS" weighs less than "tank".
I won't get into the full grammatical explanation of why that is the case, suffice to say it is.
You've tied the two sets of numbers to the wrong of the two sets of phrases.

...Getting back on topic here, has anybody been patient enough to complete more than one orbit in one run?
I haven't

[JacenHanLovesLegos]

A full vanilla design that works!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)