Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[LoSboccacc]

So, come .23 you actually LOSE science for transmitting first?

no total science for any given location will be available, but after a while transmission won't recover anymore - you'll need to bring it back.

[Eric Blank]

That seems reasonable, I suppose. I like having a science lab to analyze the data before transmission, too. Hopefully that doesn't require kerbals present, or add too much mass...

Speaking of mass, my attempts to create a landing craft with the ability to recover and refine kethane hasn't been going well. Mostly because the launch vehicle flies apart and subsequently explodes. I blame the fact that my mission timer is ALWAYS yellow, signalling that I NEVER get good, honest physics calculations.

[Putnam]

There's a setting in the options that you can change so that it slows down when it can't do physics instead of just doing bad physics...

[IronTomato]

I was really bored, so I made a fighter jet, with missiles, capable of supersonic flight. And then I used it to shoot the VAB.

And I was even more bored so I put it on the Tube of You. If you wanna watch it in action, have a shameless plug:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_g_2wuRkjQ

[Ultimuh]

I was really bored, so I made a fighter jet, with missiles, capable of supersonic flight. And then I used it to shoot the VAB.

And I was even more bored so I put it on the Tube of You. If you wanna watch it in action, have a shameless plug:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_g_2wuRkjQ

Another Kerman bites the dust.

[Lightningfalcon]

An hour ago I decided to try making a plane that could deploy a kerbal onto any other part of Kerbin from high altitude.   After much explodign on the runway, including crashing into the runway lights, I eventually managed to take off.  Seeing how stable my plane was I decided to leave it on an upwards trajectory towards the north pole while I browsed the internet.  A while later I suddenly heard some sputtering noises, and quickly switched over to KSP.  My plane was at 13,000 meters and one of my engines just flamed out, putting me into an uncontrollable spiral.  I quickly deactivate both engines, and try to control my dive.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was originally going to hit those cliffs that are on my plane's right.  It took me that long to turn my fall into something controllable.   
 

Eventually I reached 11,000 feet and I decided to switch to the turbojet engine mounted in the center.  I separated the outer two engines and put the throttle to max. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Forgot to put wings on the main stage.  And unfortunately, there was too much atmosphere and I was going too fast to get poor Bob to the external command chair.   I also have no idea how to get kerbals to turn so they hit the ground head first.   

[Girlinhat]

Is that...  Is that a goddam bicycle jet?

Also, I think you went too big.  One of my most effective designs is a mere mk1->mk2 adapter (which has fuel in it) with a turbojet, some swept wings, and radial intakes.  Done right, max thrust will lift off from 20km/s, a single ASAS is able to flip the whole ship on rotation alone, a single radiothermal generator keeps it running, and when you get up towards about 20km you can cut down to something like 20% thrust and cruise through the thin atmosphere.

For planes, one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give is to make them small, and make a lot of wings.  An actually pretty effective design is something resembling a flying saucer - KSP doesn't care about the direction the wings are facing.

[Lightningfalcon]

I had another set of wheels on the delta wings, but they were on a radial decoupler.
Next version is going to have a lot less fuel.  I didn't even get through a third of the fuel.  I'm also probally going to replace the middle with liquid fuel and a nuclear engine and try to make a SSTO.   

[Sensei]

I have had no luck with external command chairs. I tried to make a plane that used a command chair only to lose control wildly- the kerbalnaut was throwing  the drag and center of mass way off.

I also tried to make a "space motorcycle" as the tip stage in a normal rocket, to test if it was just drag- since it was a tiny ship, it was even worse, and it spun wildly under any thrust. In fact as far as I could tell, Jebediah's head had as much mass as the entire craft. Since it was also too tiny for a reaction wheel, it had to be fully RCS steering which didn't help.

Anyway, to do that you would need to figure out what the center of mass is while you have a kerbal in the command seat. I might later try to guesstimate a craft that actually works. Does anyone know how much a kerbal weighs?

[Girlinhat]

Kerbals are the native denizens of the planet Kerbin, and the game analog for humankind. Kerbals appear to be bipedal. Mature kerbals stand roughly 0.75 meters in height, and mass approximately 90 kilograms.

Kerbal has a weight of .09 I believe.  With the command seat's weight of .05 your adjusted weight should be .14, I believe.  A Radioisotope generator weighs .08, so two could fairly counterbalance one kerbal on very small vessels.  A Delta Winglet also weighs .07 so two would balance, but cause such airflow differences that it wouldn't fly well.

[BFEL]

I have had no luck with external command chairs. I tried to make a plane that used a command chair only to lose control wildly- the kerbalnaut was throwing  the drag and center of mass way off.

I also tried to make a "space motorcycle" as the tip stage in a normal rocket, to test if it was just drag- since it was a tiny ship, it was even worse, and it spun wildly under any thrust. In fact as far as I could tell, Jebediah's head had as much mass as the entire craft. Since it was also too tiny for a reaction wheel, it had to be fully RCS steering which didn't help.

Anyway, to do that you would need to figure out what the center of mass is while you have a kerbal in the command seat. I might later try to guesstimate a craft that actually works. Does anyone know how much a kerbal weighs?

FTL Egg.
Look it up.

[alway]

So, it isn't actually accurate that other planets don't have biomes. There is separate stuff for land and oceans on eve (and probably elsewhere too?).

[Sensei]

So, it isn't actually accurate that other planets don't have biomes. There is separate stuff for land and oceans on eve (and probably elsewhere too?).

I believe more planetary biomes are planned to be added.

[WillowLuman]

I believe there's "space high over planet", "space just above planet", "surface of planet", and (where applicable), "atmosphere/upper atmosphere of planet" and "planet's water".

[MagmaMcFry]

No, those are the altitudes. A biome is the type of ground under your probe (highlands, shores, ocean etc...), and there is a separate science deposit for every possible combination of altitude and biome.