The v17 patch is going to be adding in new planets and some other great stuff.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/...SP-0-17-Update

But I was browsing the official forum and found some spoilers for the new planets.

Original Teaser #1
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/575558/KSP/photo.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/575558/KSP/photo2.png


Original Teaser #1
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/575558/KSP/photo3.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/575558/KSP/photo4.png

Actual Screens of Testing
http://i.imgur.com/b1oHk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yTgom.png
http://i.imgur.com/XdqSp.jpg

updated color
http://i.imgur.com/APevv.png

Spoiler #3 (ringed planet?)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/575558/KSP/brokenphoto.jpg

Yes Murs (kerbal version of Mars,unoficial name) should be fantastic. When we get base building and docking it is going to awesome, especially when there is kerbal life support to consider.

I still need to get to mun first lol! i still have problems working out how to use mechjeb!

Mechjeb is for ladies! Real men brute force things!

Lol even with without I go in the opposite direction!

Lol

http://i.imgur.com/yel4k.jpg

Here is a shot of the new IVA interiors.

Just bought this the other day and I'm loving it so far. I only got to Mun once, and that was totally by accident. I was testing my 12-booster stack and just happened to end up running into the moon (well, really I just missed it... and my poor kerbals are still out there somewhere) by shear chance, which seems pretty improbable.

I take it I'm not actually supposed to figure out sling shots and so forth, a la:
http://gb.fotolibra.com/images/previews/49886-diagram-of-moonshot-illustration.jpeg

'Cause I ain't that smart.

Did the same slingshot but overshot it and ended up, somehow, on a similar Earth orbit around the Sun with no fuel left to get back. I had to give the official order for my brave Kerbal astronauts to drink the red Kool-aid for a "painless" death.

I've probably killed at least a hundred kerbals by now, half of them just blown to bits on the launchpad without even going anywhere.

Brave little guys, those kerbals. They ought to put a little kerbal memorial in future versions, inscribed with the names of the kerbals unlucky enough to be subject to my more drunken engineering efforts.

There is no place large enough to house that memorial....

I can't get enough of this right now.
I will admit that I am using Mechjeb,it's a great mod that eases mine (and the kerbals) pain somewhat.

Couple of Q's though.

Most of my previous attempts are orbiting Kerbin.Will they stay in orbit forever? The chances of hitting anything seem pretty remote but you never know.
Why am I struggling to orbit the Mun? Even with Mechjeb the best I have managed is a low pass and then off out into the unknown.
I always seem to run low on fuel.This is my biggest problem.I have so far not looked at (or copied) others designs,I prefer to experiment myself,but it is proving difficult.

There is no shame in using mechjeb and when docking is released it may become even more handy. With mechjeb you can add a lot or a little amount of automation. But you still have to build the rocket to do the job.

As for your questions, they are tough to answer.

As for colliding with other debris, i have not done that yet. I have had loads of debris in orbit, but not come close. However as a general rule for me, i try to create a rocket where i dump parts back into the atmosphere so as to try to no "litter" orbit.

I feel your pain with fuel. But when you crack that magic combo, it will be worth it. Just remember it will all change again on 0.17 as there is a little exploit in game that most people use without knowing. That has already been rectified and will cause a need for change in your designs on the next release.

Just keep experimenting. Its like a mini puzzle game where you have all these different pieces and you can use any or all of them to complete the puzzle.

But yeah, its a brilliant game which is only getting better

Thanks for the encouragement bogusheadbox

One of the funniest things I have done so far was a botched launch.(in fact 50% of launches must be botched).I got to a few thousand feet before it all broke up.
I managed to separate the command capsule and deploy the 'chute and I was just celebrating the survival of my 3 brave Kerbals as they were within a feet feet of safety when a chunk of debris came right down on top of them.I laughed so hard and then maybe cried a little.
Another 3 for the great graveyard in space

The debris stays in orbit forever. It goes on rails which means it's orbit wont deteriorate. It also can not crash into other debris but it can crash into you. I lost two rockets that way one was on a return trip from minmus lol.

I am not a huge fan of mechjeb and prefer to do it all by hand but if you feel you need it then I would not worry. Mechjeb wont do anything that your rocket couldnt do without it so it is not really cheating.

Its true the debris is on "rails" however, if you dump them and their orbit at the lowest point hits a set altitude in the atmosphere they should dissapear".

IIRC If the debris are in your line of site (or a certain distance from you), they will no longer be on rails and will be under full physical law.

I'm Heretic and this is my favourite thread in these forums.

Keep the stories and anecdotes coming, guys*. I'm almost laughing tears here.



(*Because I've bought it, but can only run it with 3 or so FPS on this laptop.)

I just had another look and it appears to have changed. As you said Master, debris seems to stay on rails now and not colide or get destroyed in atmosphere. I wonder if its an overlook as it was not like that previous versions.

I am having a bit of difficulty with the controls. I got out the trusty old MS Sidewinder Precision 2, but it's still pretty rough going. It would be nice if there was a fly-by-wire sort of control module you could attach that would allow you to hit a trim button or something that would attempt to maintain the craft's attitude in whatever position it was when you hit the button.

I thought that was how the Advanced SAS worked, and sometimes it sort of seems to, but more often then not it has its own ideas about what direction the craft should be pointing in. I could well just be doing something wrong though. I'm going to stay away from Mechjab for at least a while.

Anyways, when it's all said and done, and if they pull it off (which they seem to be doing so far), Kerbal Space Program could be an all-time classic. I'm surprised it took me so long to notice it (a user comment for an article about the Curiosity landing on some random website is what led me to go searching for it).

Aero,I was having similar issues and it was spoiling the game for me.I was only using the keyboard however.

Mechjeb can automate everything for you but you do have control over what it can do.Plus you can disengage it at any time if you want to go manual.

I also found that by watching what Mechjeb does,you can then attempt it in a full manual launch/orbit/landing yourself because to be quite honest I found the game a bit overwhelming at first.
Everything I did crashed and burned and as for getting into a stable orbit,well....

Aw, but I like my sims stupid difficult.

I'll check it out. I think my biggest issues actually stem from difficulties with the center of gravity in my designs which I understand 0.17 will provide visual cues to in the designer. The shuttle type fuselage, for example, if you stick an engine on the back of that it ends up well below the long axis so it always wants to pitch up when the engine is producing thrust, which makes flying it manually next to impossible.

My attempt to copy the space shuttle layout, piggybacking a large fuel tank with side mounted boosters, saw the spectacular end to a few brave kerbals. I realize now though, that the real shuttle fires all its engines from the start, whereas I was trying to start just on the boosters. It did some pretty cool loops above the launchpad, but didn't get very far. At least (for now) the launchpad itself is invincible.

Ah, the complexities of physics! I may have to pick up a copy of KSP - it sounds very Orbiter-lite, but all you folks are having such a good time with it...

The main engines are also gimballed in pitch and yaw to counter any undesired torque from aerodyanmics or the solid rocket boosters.

From http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts-mps.html#sts-mps

Yes Orbiter lite is a good way to describe it. I would say that it's not realy lite in such it has all the same physics as orbiter and is as complex as orbiter, just done in a cartooney way with a fictional solar system and easy to use interface. In fact, with eva's and building your own space craft, KSP has a lot more to offer in that respect. If you are not wanting to simulate an earth solar system environment excursion, then KSP should more than cover your space needs.


There is a selection of Gimbling and non gimbling engines in KSP. Choose wisely, with gimbling comes great responsability young padawan.

Give it a go Einstein, i will guarantee you will be hooked!

@ Aero - SAS modules have a TORQUE RATING - This is no longer depicted on the Advanced SAS module's description but you can see it on the smaller one which has a rating of 10. SO if you have a large constuction you may need more than one SAS module to help manouver under various conditions. Remeber that capsules have a small SAS in them already. also aerodynamically, some larger constructions unless very very stable will start to go out of control (AKA mach effects) if accelerated too much. Some of my larger ones start loosing control about 850 - 1000 vertical speed in the thicker air. They can exceed this in very thin air. (using vertical velocity here as a speed guage).

I only use keyboard for rockets and joystick for planes. FOr me, it just works out easier that way.

Im going to livesteam a lunch to the Mun in Kerbal Space Program in about 30 minutes.

http://www.twitch.tv/masterjts

Anyone is welcome to watch. I will leave the chat up so you can ask questions.

Ooooh very nice. I may have to get out of bed and watch this. Will you be on SimHQ TS?

It's possible to balance out your planes pretty well, you just have to figure out the center of lift and try to put the center of gravity close to that as possible. Usually you can sort of eyeball it and refine from there, but I'm looking forward to tools making it easier.

As for the shuttle fuselage, the engine mounting spot looks a bit low, but it's actually worked fine for me so far. All my issues have been when I moved the engine up.

Here's an example of a flyable space plane I've been working on (runway takeoff, climbs and flies like a plane until 10km, then hits the rockets). I like to use delta wings with a large center fuel tank, so that the CoL and CoG are both at near back of the plane (this also seems to help stability in the rocket phase). Canards and stubby wings at the front can help control and move the CoL forward a tad if you need it (helps control as you can think of it like pivoting the nose of the plane around the CoG at the back).

You also have to keep in mind fuel use changing your center of gravity if you want to fly up from a runway launch and then fly back down to landing (in the case of this plane, it's about 40 tons lighter when landing). So this design is nose heavy on launch, but balanced and easy to fly for landing. For a shuttle, you'll just want to balance the empty weight.

If you can get the balance down you can usually fly manually without too much trouble. Also if you hold alt while giving input, you can trim the plane. alt-x resets trim.



The big 1m tank puts most of the fuel weight in one easier to balance spot.

Wow, thats a great looking construction there !!!

If you keep up with the website Giant Bomb, you'll know that they have taken to doing demo videos of hardcore flight simulators like DCS: A-10C and Rise of Flight to hilariously predictable results in a recurring feature called "Flight Club." Anyways, they've decided to take a look at Kerbal Space Program and this is probably the hardest I've laughed since their Black Shark video:

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-kerbal-space-program/17-6420/

Here is an official list of the new planets for .17 and .18+

Well, with the fix to the <censored> bug coming in 0.17, we are going to need to build some very fuel efficient rockets. With introduction of further planets passed minmus, Docking surely can't be too far away as i can see a need growing for having a rendevouz fuel supply somewhere.

Can't wait, its going to be great.

They really should have put in docking BEFORE the other planets but they have a whole team now and they cant all be working on the code for docking lol. .17 is goin to be extremely hard to do with stock parts That should make it pretty fun though.

I can't say for sure. But i think they are trying to get IVA's down before docking (which makes a little sense). So IVA transfer between vehicles or stations will be good.

But that is only my guess.

Damn it Heretic,here are some more tales of woe.

I finally made it to the Mun (on 4 occasions) but due to a design error ( i.e the landing legs when extended didn't reach past the engine) it toppled over.Scratch 1 Kerbal.

On 2 others,due to the rough terrain and the fact I landed on a slope,they also started to tip over as soon as they landed.A quick lift-off saved the brave Kerbals on board but due to low fuel they are now doomed to travel in space for eternity.

Ah ha I thought! 'Where is it likely to be reasonably flat on the Mun?' At the bottom of a large crater!
*Note to self* The mechjeb auto pilot does not seem to calculate for landing in a hole.All I needed was a large spade and no-one will need ever know about this little mis-hap.

Landing does seem to be the hardest part. I waste 90% of my fuel just trying to get all movement to stop so I can land safely and then I land on a slope and kill them all anyways

Hahahaha! Brilliant!


#1 reminds me of this:
http://www.kerbalcomics.com/2012/06/22/episode-ten-stranded-squared/






Back in 0.9 or so, WobblyRockets had an ASAS module (looking like the, back then not implemented, RCS module) that worked so well that I adapted it for 0.14 (or so). However, it's gathering virtual dust along with my PC.
Anyway, it was perfect for this:
http://i51.tinypic.com/1042cyw.jpg

(This was before Mun though.)

Man, I loved doing Kerpollo 7 and Kerpollo Applications with it...

That's a nice looking rocket Heretic.
I know I've been playing this too much.As soon as your pic loaded I right clicked on the screen and tried to rotate it

Thanks. It performed really well to boot. With a bit of .ini tweaking, an Apollo mission profile would've been perfectly possible.

For anyone interested I posted up an AAR of my first Mun landing.
To infinity and beyond! Well,the Mun actually.

Well i have to say, the IVA's and extra planets are going to be great !

Next we will be needing Track-IR support!

Here is another dev screenshot. Not much new as we dont know if any of the extra parts are from a mod or if they will be stock. Really I only see one thing anyways and that is the part above the one man command module.

http://i.imgur.com/PUMna.jpg

The dev blogs are back. Here is one on IVAs and instruments.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/entry.php/5-C7-Dev-Blog-KSP-0-17-Now-with-Extra-Blog

Two more official pictures. The first shows... who knows but the second shows improved mun texture.

http://i.imgur.com/S4PPT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WrLbC.jpg

Edit: Third Pic
http://i.imgur.com/fv1zr.jpg

Edit: Fourth Pic
http://i.imgur.com/G43Fs.jpg

First pic of Duna

http://i.imgur.com/OQGCp.jpg

and a picture of the multi user stuff.

http://i.imgur.com/A7sAr.jpg

great pics.

That last one is interesting. I didn't know they were planning on a seperate game for career and sandbox modes. I was hoping it would all be a part of the same. We will have to wait and see.

Nice this is shaping up pretty decent

It is just a placeholder for now but that career tab/button should turn into a scenario button at some point. The idea is that you could have your sandbox or you could load up specific scenarios (custom made by the players) with ships and parts already on location in the system. In the dev blog thread this is a link to a nice blog post about it all.

I would still like to see a mode where you have to build your space program from humble beginnings, and a budget for R & D.

That is planned Rixrix. They were talking in a live chat a few weeks ago about it and they mentioned things like biding on contracts (for instance to get to the Mun for cheaper than xxx monies) and you would get money back by recovering your rocket parts and then a cash payout for completing the contract. That is supposed to be the main game mode once they move out of alpha.

That sounds exactly like what i am after. Happy days.

New trees
http://i.imgur.com/gJt3X.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/FDPHl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/v7tN5.jpg

New moon picture from Duna?
http://i.imgur.com/GkcKj.jpg

Nice!!!!

haha I wont be any good at getting anywhere on a budget!

Eclipse
http://i.imgur.com/CqpXH.jpg

Lander
http://i.imgur.com/IoDYA.jpg

IVA
http://i.imgur.com/xfFNB.jpg

Nice stuff Master.

This just keeps getting better and better.

A new pic using a bunch of mods
http://i.imgur.com/WP60v.jpg

and one showing of an ice moon.
http://i.imgur.com/rXVI1.jpg

Repost from another thread
http://i.imgur.com/ardaV.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/575558/KSP/soichart.png

Atomic Rocket Motor
http://i.imgur.com/lpRbr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uItCJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eNc3C.jpg

Looks like we will get a 17.1 sometime "soon"

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/entry.php/150-0-17-1-Revision-Update

That is great news. If only they can tackle the memory leak issue, that will be me happy as a pig in mud. Oh curse my old and decrepid computer.

Wait a minute you guys are able to control the rockets and planes with joysticks???? I have only been using keyboard commands since the demo version. I guess I need to dig a little deeper here.

yes, it has full joystick support and my x52 and saitek rudder pedals work well in game.

However, my preference still lies in keyboard for rockets and joystick planes.