The Kerbal Space Program Thread

nats

Banned
nats
Heres something that might be of interest to space sim fans here and certainly a game that could keep you going till 2014 - Kerbal Space Program. It's a funny looking game with cute characters but behind that is a reasonably complex space program simulation.

At the moment it's sandbox type game in which you get to build rockets, spaceplanes, rovers satellites, etc and then hopefully get them into orbit (which is difficult enough in itself). Then you can visit and land on other planets and set down rovers etc.

Its still in alpha stage but there are precious few bugs (no game breaking ones) and lots and lots still planned to be added such as resources, astronaut training, finances and space program management. The presnt game is enough to keep you happily engaged for months and months. Its already the highest played game on my Steam list (you can buy it from their store you dont have to get it on Steam).

I have to say its the best game I have played for ten years and the best £18 I have ever spent. There is a demo here:

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/download.php

...which is honestly one of the best demos I have ever played - you can use the demo on its own to get to the moon and land, and that will take you a couple of weeks of play to do.

Anyway I cant recommend it highly enough, its a superb game along the lines of the great classic PC games of all time. Take a look if you even have a passing interest in Nasa and space travel.
 

Patupi

Patupi
Yep, and I'm addicted to it at present!

It was a shame to learn it doesn't have true 3body physics for the gravity modelling, but the somewhat simple system they do use is very good. Doesn't allow for stable Lagrange points (other than L3, L4 and L5 that are in the same orbit as the body) but seeing a ship push around a solar system, slingshot around planets and... make the inevitable crash landing is very cool.

As Kerbals say... we need MORE BOOSTERS!
 

insanephoton

insanephoton
I agree it's a lot of fun, and I've finally built a reliable rocket after many failures. So far I've managed to get one kerbal stuck in a very stable orbit and another kerbal on escape velocity... unfortunately he went EVA and has got separated from his ship.

I found the planes harder to get to work than rockets, but I have now built one that works reasonably well.
 

Patupi

Patupi
Yep, definitely some bugs, for instance all components have drag, but one component doesn't 'shield' another behind it from airflow, so ALL components contribute to drag no matter the form. Since things things need to be bolted together with struts to keep things stable, and bolting along the length of multiple sections is tricky without sticking fairings and winglets from the hull, it ends up with a... well, side ways rocket often. IE a main body with lots of secondary fuel tanks and boosters bolted on the side... and then on the side of that... and on that. I've had rockets that were twice as wide as they were tall! Try a tall rocket without struts and you're about 50% likely to get a 'rubber rocket' that wobbles like mad as it launches. Fun to watch... until it fall apart... Oh, I guess that's fun to watch too :)
 

nats

Banned
nats
Patupi said:
Yep, definitely some bugs, for instance all components have drag, but one component doesn't 'shield' another behind it from airflow, so ALL components contribute to drag no matter the form. Since things things need to be bolted together with struts to keep things stable, and bolting along the length of multiple sections is tricky without sticking fairings and winglets from the hull, it ends up with a... well, side ways rocket often. IE a main body with lots of secondary fuel tanks and boosters bolted on the side... and then on the side of that... and on that. I've had rockets that were twice as wide as they were tall! Try a tall rocket without struts and you're about 50% likely to get a 'rubber rocket' that wobbles like mad as it launches. Fun to watch... until it fall apart... Oh, I guess that's fun to watch too :)
Click to expand...

I havent played it enough to find these - still messing about with small rockets to the Mun etc. I wouldnt say these are real bugs anyway - more game design issues still to be worked on considering its still in alpha. I havent found any game breaking bugs yet - its remarkably stable for me considering its an early build. The most annoying issue the game has for me is the difficulty of attaching boosters and large tanks onto the radial manifolds, but thats about it for me. And that one has a work around if you do one first then pick it up by the manifold to repeat it around the ship.

Either way its great fun for me, best game on Steam I have and most played. And after three weeks I am still staying up till 2am playing it avidly. Cant wait till they add resources and base management. I am still struggling to land on the moon - its definitely a tricky game to play but great great fun. I have always been a NASA fan and this is the closest you can get to managing your own space program. So glad to see this being developed and very glad to see how its being carried out as well - very professionally and always with the gameplay in mind.
 
Last edited:

Alien

Alien
You're a bit late to the party, Pyskokow ...
They've been talking about it on the Egosoft Off Topic forum for nearly two years link
 

nats

Banned
nats
I really recommend this game for anyone with an interest in NASA and space sims. I am now up to 120 hours play time, my most played game on Steam by a long shot and still no where near bored - still playing it till 1 - 2am in the morning!

Ive just competed my first landing on Minmus with a rover, where the gravity is so low you can do amazing jumps off the mountain tops!

Now ready to start on my first space station and possibly a mission to Duna which looks suspiciously like Mars. The Mun has been the most difficult so far - crashed so many times trying to land there.

Its a very addictive game and lots of replay value. Cant wait till they start introducing resources with the next patch and then career mode after that.

Any devs producing this kind of high quality space game with so much gameplay and lovely little touches, especially when its still formally in alpha, deserve to be rewarded with lots of sales.
 

nats

Banned
nats
archamedes said:
er no. Looks like something pixar couldn't be bothered to make
Click to expand...

The Kerbals do look a bit daft but they are part of the fun of the game, because they keep getting blown up.

But there is a lot of serious mechanics under the hood. The mechanics are simplified at the moment - drag and aerodynamics not being quite right yet, but its still a massive challenge even getting into orbit with your own designed rocket. The simplified aerodynamics mean at the moment you can get some almighty rovers onto other planets though I dont think it will stay like that for long.

There is great demo you can try (you can even get to the moon in the demo - but it will take you a week or more of trying) and I certainly would recommend everyone here trying it.
 
Last edited:

Hamerstein

Hamerstein
nats said:
The Kerbals do look a bit daft but they are part of the fun of the game, because they keep getting blown up.

But there is a lot of serious mechanics under the hood. The mechanics are simplified at the moment - drag and aerodynamics not being quite right yet, but its still a massive challenge even getting into orbit with your own designed rocket. The simplified aerodynamics mean at the moment you can get some almighty rovers onto other planets though I dont think it will stay like that for long.

There is great demo you can try (you can even get to the moon in the demo - but it will take you a week or more of trying) and I certainly would recommend everyone here trying it.
Click to expand...

This game is amazing, ok the Kerbals look like the long lost brothers of Despicable Me's minions but the game itself is fantastic. Been playing over the weekend, took me a while to figure out how to achieve stable orbits with minimal fuel usage.

I finally managed to make a Mun landing, unfortunately my brave Kerbal is stuck there as I didn't have the fuel to get him home again, I've got deep space probes (yes I did honestly mean for that sling shot to do that...really!) and a poor Kerbal in a 1.5million km orbit around the Sun (when Mun shots go bad!)

My only gripe is how massive you have to make rockets to get anywhere. I tried to make an Apollo rocket and barely made it to orbit! Either I'm doing something wrong or NASA are a lot cleverer than I thought they were (50p on which is the truth :D).

Currently working on a Lunar lander that I can dock with an orbital (working on a decent design for that too) and then building a rocket that can actually get that much hardware into space!

I have no idea how I'm going to get a Kerbal to another planet yet.

It's got me hooked though...hmm I wonder if I send a screenie to NASA if they'll send me a mission patch?...no? ;)
 

Slopey

Volunteer Moderator
Slopey
KSP is awesome. Have only had time to get into it seriously this last week.

Landed on Minimus, but didn't take enough fuel to get back, so had to build a rescue craft with two pods to go and pick up Bill Kerbal, which was a great mission. Followed that up with a Mun landing - quite easy after the rescue mission to Minimus, and now building my space station (which will form the fueling station for deep space trips).

On-orbit docking maneuvers are *hard*. :)

Brilliant game however - a total time sink. Once they add career mode, I'll be in it solidly until ED!
 

nats

Banned
nats
Hamerstein said:
My only gripe is how massive you have to make rockets to get anywhere. I tried to make an Apollo rocket and barely made it to orbit! Either I'm doing something wrong or NASA are a lot cleverer than I thought they were (50p on which is the truth :D).
Click to expand...

Yeah its because drag isnt simulated properly yet - tanks behind other tanks all add to drag the way they wouldnt in real life. So it actually makes it easier to do a wide rocket than a tall one unlike reality. But they will no doubt sort that.

For the moment though you cant beat 'asparagus staging' to efficiently get into orbit with big rockets. You need to use liquid fuel tanks as boosters not solid rockets, and you link them in such a way that the fuel is flowing from the first to the second and so on so as they are jettisoned your rocket is getting lighter whilst having less engine power but still lots of fuel - but the atmosphere is also getting thinner as you get higher so you have the thrust to get off the ground but the fuel to keep going longer. Look for it on google.

To find out how much fuel you need to get anywhere you really need the Engineer Redux mod which tells you what your DeltaV and TWR (thrust to weight) ratio is for each stage and the total for your rocket. Then you use the DeltaV map to plan your fuel for the journey (I usually add 1000 on top of these figures as I am very inefficient):

http://www.skyrender.net/lp/ksp/system_map.png

Make sure you always have at least 1.4 TWR for launch, which is the power of your engines, anything less wont get you off the ground fast enough. Also ensure you have a TWR of around 2, preferably 3 or 4, for in space engine stages unless you want to be waiting for ages to carry out each burn.

And my last hint is that if you aerobrake when you come back to Kerbin you can reenter the atmophere with no fuel use at all. Plan to go skim around the atmosphere at around 30km, rather than hit the planet directly. It may take you two goes around but you can get back safely to ground with no fuel use. And when they introduce damage due to excess heat of reentry this will be the way to do it!

Its a detailed game, but flaming addictive, and you learn loads about space travel and rocket design into the bargain. I am loving it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom