How is the rocket torquing? It looks almost entirely symmetrical?
Edit: the tool is set to translation. You want a big arrow and zero rotation for translation, don’t you?
I’m not sure lol. I keep confusing myself. There is a big red arrow and a big green arrow along with the red circle.
As explained on this tutorial linked from the mod’s thread, when in translation mode you want the red arrow/circle to disappear and for the green arrow to go in the direction you press (hijkln).
You appear to be trying to optimise your ability to rotate whilst using the tool in translation mode!
Switch to rotation by clicking the “translation” in the tool’s window.
Funny thing is - I’m sure this was a big part of what was making docking so difficult as when I would translate left or right I would also rotate. Hopefully I can fix this on some of these oddball shaped ships.
BTW - When I think I am perfectly lined up and hit the docking port, I would say 80% of the time it doesn’t dock lock. Do you need to be going a certain speed for it to connect? Is that normal?
I usually come to an almost all-stop and let the dock magnets pull it together.
Unpopular opinion:. This game is terrible. It’s directionless, the UI is terrible, and without going online and reading a bunch of tutorials it’s incredibly hard to build a rocket. At the very least they should have easily accessible templates. A narrative mission or story would be better.
I own it on Steam and Xbox and can’t be bothered. And I’m a huge space nerd so I should be the target market.
It feels like the Mount and Blade/Arma of sims.
Again, unpopular opinion but my two cents. I wish there was an accessible and fun rocketry game but this isn’t it.
I agree that it’s directionless and that the UI is terrible!
However I disagree that you need to go online and read tutorials. The game is set up to be experimented with, i.e. try something and if it doesn’t work, try something else. Unfortunately I don’t think that “style” of play is communicated well enough, so people expect things to work first time.
Infact I think the career mode stuff being the “default” actively works against that idea, which was present in earlier versions of KSP :(
I think the “Science” mode is best as you start with only a few bits, and there’s only so many ways you can arrange them to create a rocket and get into space.
However even Science mode works against itself: it gives you science for doing pointless things, like walking around on the launch pad, whereas it should be giving you science for performing achievements, e.g. height, orbit, etc.
The tutorials included with the game actually do a pretty good job of teaching the basics.
I agree that the career mode is a bit of a boondoggle. I actually liked the game more when it was just a sandbox, and Sandbox mode may still be the best way to enjoy it. And yeah, it’s directionless, but so are countless other sims. You make your own directions.
The Making History DLC does include a whole series of missions, and there are some pretty high quality user-created mission packs that have a continuous narrative. BUT, none of these missions are trivial. They all require a pretty thorough familiarity with the game’s systems.
Disagree here. The UI is complex, but is able to present a lot of information pretty cleanly, and provide a fairly consistent way of interacting with all of the game’s systems. I think that the current iteration of the UI is actually pretty elegant.
KSP certainly isn’t for everyone. I think you have to be ready to geek out on rocketry and orbital mechanics and really relish the steep learning curve. But I get wanting to just enjoy something and continuing to bounce off of it. I’ve tried to get into Dwarf Fortress several times.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cute game with lots of potential, and I don’t hate it. It’s just hard to get into. I started it up with my 5 year old thinking we could explore rocketry together and it was a bit frustrating, but hey, it’s rocket science, yo.
Yeah, I can definitely see that. It’s not something you can play casually, and it unfortunately doesn’t have a stripped down “just launch a rocket” mode. With your 5 y/o, you might consider checking out the mobile game SimpleRockets, which is realistic rocketry like KSP, but is a simple 2D presentation that’s much easier to get into.
You can get SimpleRockets on Steam:
It’s practically identical to the original Android game.
There’s also Simple Rockets 2, which has gone 3d:
@jpinard, major grats on your first successful dock! For me, that first successful dock was one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had gaming. I still get a kick out of docking in KSP.
Also, this is going to sound silly, but I like the cozy feeling I get when I dock one manned ship with another, like I’m expanding a family home. I’m not explaining it well, lol.
And finally, docking really opens up options for creating your KSP empire. Now you can have refueling stations and space stations everywhere. OK, I wish there were more to do on space stations, but building a big ol’ space station (by docking new parts to it) is incredibly satisfying. Until it gets too big and starts to lag, heh.
Funny thing now that I’ve come such a long ways… I’m going to restart. Gonna do the Probes Plus, and add some kind of mod that adds more mission variety, and extra planets and solar systems too. But I’ll keep this save as a backup.
The big thing I want to add because I feel like it’s missing that “oomph” factor is the need for life support. Not sure which one. There is Snacks, USI, TAC Life Support, and Kerbalism (which is potentially way too much)
I like Station Science to give some heft to space stations.
I might someday try Snacks or something (it’s cool that you can use a mining base to generate food, too), but I find the Kerbals’ lack of life support needs amusing.
@jpinard I’ve tried all of these, and they all fit a different gamer and full fill different needs. The problem I usually have with life support is they all basically add one thing to spacecraft, and that is weight. Outside of that the game play mechanics added aren’t often very engaging(Snacks), or if they are, they are overly complicated(USI). Kerbalism is actually very cool, but it rewrites a lot of the basic gameloop stuff and so is not compatible with a ton of other things.
I might suggest one that I tried recently that had a different approach to keeping your Kerbals allive called Kerbal Health. I like this one because it uses built in parts in KSP to deal with more then just adding food and oxygen to your vessel. It also adds astronaut rotations, living space, and some other factors. I thought it was pretty fun.
USI to be fair also adds the idea of habitation space which is similar. The reason I don’t use USI though is because the companion mods that go with it to make things self sustaining can get really REALLY complicated.
Cool I may go that route. Thanks!
I’ve been using Snacks in my current career. The most recent version includes Air and Stress as well as food. I find that they work best when you forget them: when you have to figure out how to abort or speed up a mission or mount a quick rescue to keep your kerbals alive.
Yea, see that’s the thing. No worries or concerns over how long missions last, and having kerbals on a station for years with no resupply, just feels so boring. I always reload after a mess up so this will introduce some fun tension to the game (outside of docking).
My stations usually start with a science module and solar panels, and then I add a large fuel tank in a later flight. In the mid-game, I dock there on the way in and out of Kerbin orbit.
Outgoing, it means I only need to carry the amount of fuel needed to reach the station, and then I can refuel from orbit before dealing with transits and landings. Incoming, I can drop off science for that orbital research modifier, and if I have leftover fuel (e.g. whatever extra safety margin I was carrying) I can return it to the reservoir.
So yes, once I have the tech, I always attach docking ports to everything I launch.