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[BigD145]

I was under the impression that MechJeb wasn't actually that good at launches and a person being careful on the controls could do better. I remember someone saying something to that effect.

It's better than a new or inexperienced player. It's quite wasteful at docking. It's not patient enough at rendezvous. It's perfectly fine for transits between bodies.

Minmus is truly easy mode for science. I just got 7 of the 9 biomes

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

4000 science, not counting the eva's I sent over radio, but counting a little tundra. Kerbal, pod, temp, gravioli, seismic, science pod, and goo.

with the craft last page and doing the same thing; rescuing orbiting kerbal to do the footwork. I could have gotten 8 if I had not missed the lesser flats. Possibly all 9 if I had put tiny legs on and ditched the four side engine/tanks when needed. Just come in polar and work your way down to the nearest biome.

[Putnam]

Can anyone tell me an easy way of creating a 'space station' (or satellite) and establishing an orbit?

No matter what I try for the latter, I always end up overshooting by quite some way and then finding it impossible to get it sorted; before getting bored and just re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down.

Most basic way to get things to orbit: Fire straight up until you reach about 10 to 20 thousand meters, this should put your apoapsis somewhere around 70000, this is the minimum for orbiting. Once you hit a good apoapsis, keep turning right until your navball is on the line in between the blue and orange parts. Then fire engines until orbiting.

Just start with that and refine as you get better at it, and you should be good.

That may be the most basic, but it's also the hardest.

[puke]

That may be the most basic, but it's also the hardest.

As for getting to orbit, there are a couple of things that were "ah-ha" moments for me.  One, is that the directions on the wiki for a gravity turn are all cocked up.

Well, not that the instructions are bad per-say, but that they dont match your nav-ball unless you rotate your cockpit during vehicle construction.

It says to "press D" to turn East.  I dont know what game everyone else is playing, but every rocket I ever launch (unless I change the default orientation) is oriented with the red "north" line pointing towards the camera and East being to the Left so that pressing "D" will angle you Westward.

So, I guess if you assume that the sun rises in the "east", then the problem is that the default compass is backwards and that you want to turn East over the ocean and towards the sunrise, but it will say West on the navball if you installed your capsule the default way.

And if you turn the wrong way (over land) then you have to overcome the rotation of the planet before getting into orbit.  Which isnt really that big of a deal.

...Okay, here is the bigger deal:  Less is More.  The mantra of KSP is always something like "moar boosters moar thrust moar boom!" but this isnt actually that great.  I was always trying to get into orbit with more boosters, bigger engines, more thrust, bigger pancakes...

Really, career mode is the best thing that happened to me.  It forced me to design rockets with simple entery level parts, and I finally got into orbit.  As I unlocked more parts with science, my rockets started getting worse and I eventually had to go back to basics and strip them down again.

So, if there is one takeaway here its this:  Less is more.

[Putnam]

I'm not sure how your rockets are oriented, but yeah, 090 is east, which is "D" for default rocket orientation.

[puke]

I'm not sure how your rockets are oriented, but yeah, 090 is east, which is "D" for default rocket orientation.

It is.. D is towards the Sunrise and over the ocean and all that.  But there is clearly an orange line labled N that by default points SOUTH, so if you're trying to find East on the Navball, you'll be looking at 270 degrees and end up headed West.

And if you rotate your capsule at construction so that N points North (which you can do, compasses are weirdly relative to construction and not to the planet) pressing D will still send you the same way (over the ocean), but now it will be towards the 270 line and not the 90 line.

so WASD seem to always be oriented to N,W,S,E, but your navball will say different things and defaults to being completely inverted.

[Graknorke]

I'm not sure how your rockets are oriented, but yeah, 090 is east, which is "D" for default rocket orientation.

It is.. D is towards the Sunrise and over the ocean and all that.  But there is clearly an orange line labled N that by default points SOUTH, so if you're trying to find East on the Navball, you'll be looking at 270 degrees and end up headed West.

And if you rotate your capsule at construction so that N points North (which you can do, compasses are weirdly relative to construction and not to the planet) pressing D will still send you the same way (over the ocean), but now it will be towards the 270 line and not the 90 line.

so WASD seem to always be oriented to N,W,S,E, but your navball will say different things and defaults to being completely inverted.

No, something is way wrong with either your install or your comprehension of the navball. I'm leaning towards the latter because that would be a weirdly specific bug.

[gomez]

I'm not sure how your rockets are oriented, but yeah, 090 is east, which is "D" for default rocket orientation.

It is.. D is towards the Sunrise and over the ocean and all that.  But there is clearly an orange line labled N that by default points SOUTH, so if you're trying to find East on the Navball, you'll be looking at 270 degrees and end up headed West.

And if you rotate your capsule at construction so that N points North (which you can do, compasses are weirdly relative to construction and not to the planet) pressing D will still send you the same way (over the ocean), but now it will be towards the 270 line and not the 90 line.

so WASD seem to always be oriented to N,W,S,E, but your navball will say different things and defaults to being completely inverted.

No, something is way wrong with either your install or your comprehension of the navball. I'm leaning towards the latter because that would be a weirdly specific bug.

I think the Navball has pitch angle numbers on there as well, that may be the source of his confusion, because as everyone else says the navball definetly works as intended.

[alway]

Yeah, unless he's somehow got his spacecraft's controlling part flipped around backwards or something.

But anyway, navball is pretty much the closest thing KSP has to a deity. Learn how it works and everything else will just work itself out.

[Putnam]

I'm not sure how your rockets are oriented, but yeah, 090 is east, which is "D" for default rocket orientation.

It is.. D is towards the Sunrise and over the ocean and all that.  But there is clearly an orange line labled N that by default points SOUTH, so if you're trying to find East on the Navball, you'll be looking at 270 degrees and end up headed West.

And if you rotate your capsule at construction so that N points North (which you can do, compasses are weirdly relative to construction and not to the planet) pressing D will still send you the same way (over the ocean), but now it will be towards the 270 line and not the 90 line.

so WASD seem to always be oriented to N,W,S,E, but your navball will say different things and defaults to being completely inverted.

If you hold W, you'll go north on the navball, which is straight forward from the default viewpoint. D goes east, which is straight to the right and 090. So... what?

[Aseaheru]

If it is not enjoyed, turn the rocket 90 degrees to the left in the VAB.

[puke]

No, something is way wrong with either your install or your comprehension of the navball. I'm leaning towards the latter because that would be a weirdly specific bug.

Clearly I'm comprehending something wrong, but try this out and see what you think:

Go into the VAB and select a MkI Command Pod.  Move it out to the launch pad with nothing under it, so it just sits there.

Notice that your view is looking north, with the flagpole just to the left  of center, and the ocean off to the right.

Notice how pressing D tips the pod to the right, to the east.  right along the 90 line of the navball.

Notice how the Navball has a bright orange line labled N which points towards you.  Notice how the 90 line is to the right of the N line.  this is WEST on the navball.  Relative to the line labled N, the 90 mark is due West.

if that orange line was pointing UP (like on a traditional compass) east would be right and West would be left and South would be down.  But since the N line is pointing DOWN, East is to the LEFT.

But clearly, pressing D tips you towards the ocean, towards the East.  Which is inverted from what the navball says.

Now, go back to the VAB and take the command pod and rotate it 180 degrees so that is facing the other way by picking it up and pressing Q twice.  Take the reoriented pod back to the pad.

Now the orange line conveniently points up, which is aligned with your view looking north.  Pressing D tips you to the 270 line, which is clearly East on the ball.  However, your nose tips to the Left of the screen, away from the water, which is West.

Now that you know what I'm looking at, please tell me how I'm doing it wrong.

[alway]

Your capsule is upside-down by facing upwards. Typical left/right designations are flipped, since you're looking at N/W/S/E from below, rather than the usual above (as you would when looking at a map). Thus, east is right. Basically, it's what would happen if you took a transparent map and flipped it upside down, to view it from the bottom.

[nogoodnames]

Remember that the navball is oriented to the pilot's (or probe/docking ring's) perspective, not the camera's.

[gomez]

I see other people beat me to it whilst I was researching this but the Navball is upside down because your Kerbal is lying on his back on the launch pad , however the navball has the numbers in the correct place.

This link [url][ http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82655-Navball-question /url] clarifies further.

[Putnam]

No, something is way wrong with either your install or your comprehension of the navball. I'm leaning towards the latter because that would be a weirdly specific bug.

Clearly I'm comprehending something wrong, but try this out and see what you think:

Go into the VAB and select a MkI Command Pod.  Move it out to the launch pad with nothing under it, so it just sits there.

Notice that your view is looking north, with the flagpole just to the left  of center, and the ocean off to the right.

Notice how pressing D tips the pod to the right, to the east.  right along the 90 line of the navball.

Notice how the Navball has a bright orange line labled N which points towards you.  Notice how the 90 line is to the right of the N line.  this is WEST on the navball.  Relative to the line labled N, the 90 mark is due West.

if that orange line was pointing UP (like on a traditional compass) east would be right and West would be left and South would be down.  But since the N line is pointing DOWN, East is to the LEFT.

But clearly, pressing D tips you towards the ocean, towards the East.  Which is inverted from what the navball says.

Now, go back to the VAB and take the command pod and rotate it 180 degrees so that is facing the other way by picking it up and pressing Q twice.  Take the reoriented pod back to the pad.

Now the orange line conveniently points up, which is aligned with your view looking north.  Pressing D tips you to the 270 line, which is clearly East on the ball.  However, your nose tips to the Left of the screen, away from the water, which is West.

Now that you know what I'm looking at, please tell me how I'm doing it wrong.

Try pressing W and see which direction the ship goes and which direction the navball goes.

Now that you know what I'm looking at, please tell me how I'm doing it wrong.