KSP 64-bit V 1.3 walkthrough

Well, since all of my old KSP screenshots are dead in my last set of walk-throughs, I thought I'd start over. There'll be a bit of a learning curve for me, since things are likely to be different between my last playthrough (v1.1) and this one (v1.3). I'll attach all the screenshots via the upload files function, so they'll survive any cleaning urges I get ;)

For the purposes of this walkthrough, I'll consider the game "complete" once I max out the tech tree. In the process, we'll visit the Mun and Minmus, and probably visit a couple planets. We may or may not capture an asteroid.

I am using stock KSP 1.3, with Mechjeb. I'll make special note when I'm using MechJeb in my episodes.

Episode 1

(spoilering mission reports to keep the screen from being so cluttered.)
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So here we are. I'm starting a new game on Normal difficulty. "Easy" would make the walk-through go much quicker, as you start with more cash and earn more science and money for each mission.

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The first thing to do is visit Mission Control.Take the "Gather scientific data from Kerbin" and "Launch our first vessel" missions. Without upgrading, the most you can take is 2, and these are the easiest to complete at this point.

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Enter the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB from now on) and grab a pod and stick two Mystery Goo tanks on it. Launch it.

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Collect Mystery Goo by right clicking each tank (I forgot and only did once, losing me a point of science). There are diminishing returns, so you get the most science the first time around. After 3 times, it's pointless. You can get science from each "biome" (ground, water, sky, space, desert, grassland, etc). There are a ton of biomes on the Mun and Minmus (basically each large crater having their own biome). We'll get the bulk of our science there.

Also, right click the pod and do a "crew report."

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Then, EVA your kerbal, and get an EVAreport. Right click the pod to "store experiments" and then jump your kerbal in the air and get an EVA report before he hits the ground. This counts as a "flying above" biome, which is a cheesy way to get two EVA reports right off the bat.

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Recover your ship when done.

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We've completed a mission, and earned some science. You should have 15. I have 14 because of only doing one Mystery Goo. Go to the Science center.

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Buy the first two branches of science in the tree. You'll spend 10 science and have 5 left over. Go back to Mission Control.

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Take "Escape the Atmosphere". We can do that with our very first rocket. Go back to the VAB.

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Add a coupler, a booster, and some fins to your ship. This will get us well out of the atmosphere if we go straight up. Put the rocket on the launch pad, hit "T" to turn on stability assist (to help keep you going straight) and launch.

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Collect Mystery Goo and a Crew Report when you're below 20,000 meters. Then collect another Mystery Goo at over 20,000 meters. You can't collect more Crew Reports because we can't EVA and clear out the science.

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When your booster runs out of fuel, hit "M" to see how high you're going to go. We're going to hit about 85K meters. The atmo ends at 70K meters, so we'll accomplish our mission.

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Wait to decouple your booster until you're almost out of atmo. If you do it when your altimeter is in the "blue" zone, your pod will flip upside down and aerobrake you, and you won't escape atmosphere. If you forgot to put a coupler on this thing to get rid of the engine and fins, you'll fall really aerodynamically to the earth, and won't slow down enough to deploy chutes. Bye bye Jeb :)

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Once you hit atmo, you should aerobrake until your're going under 300m/s and your parachutes are no longer red on the staging bar. This'll happen at about 10,000 meters. Deploy chutes and drift back to earth. Once there, do some EVA (on earth and in air as before) and a crew report. Recover your ship.

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64 science! $240,000. A good start.
 
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Dave

Staff member
YOu should make a YouTube tutorial and monetize it. That way you could make a random $1.80 like Gas does every so often.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
YOu should make a YouTube tutorial and monetize it. That way you could make a random $1.80 like Gas does every so often.
Still pullin down $11/mo, bay-bee! $1300 to date! Beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day.

Problem is, I got in on SE on the ground floor, when nobody else was making tutorials.

Tin'd have to go up against the likes of Scott Manley, who has already cornered the market.
 
Still pullin down $11/mo, bay-bee! $1300 to date! Beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day.

Problem is, I got in on SE on the ground floor, when nobody else was making tutorials.

Tin'd have to go up against the likes of Scott Manley, who has already cornered the market.
GB's right. There are a few guys out there (like Manley) who produce kick-ass videos and stuff. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to differentiate myself in that space.

That said, I do know the game pretty well, and am happy to provide these runthroughs for others who are just interested in how to get to the endgame.
 
Episode 2
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Let's spend some of that hard earned science! Go to the science center. You should have enough points to buy all of the next tier of technology.

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Next, let's upgrade mission control. It's $75K, but will allow us to take up to 7 missions on at once. After you've done that, let's see what they have to offer :)

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This is where your game and mine will differ, because these missions are randomly generated. As a general rule, in the early game I take every "test XXX at the launch site" mission, because they're free cash and science, basically. But they have very small returns, so I don't bother in the mid-to-late game.

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In my list, I have tests for a decoupler and a heat shield on the launch pad, so I take them. We need to recover some of that 75K we just spent, so I also take the VIP mission for a single tourist. While I'm at it, I pick up "orbit kerbin" since we're going to be doing that soon anyway. But we need to update our launch pad and stuff first, so we need money. That's where the lucrative VIP missions come in.

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Here's an example of a mission I almost never take: "test a part in flight." I find them a big pain in the ass. Look at the requirements: you have to be a certain height, at a certain speed. They provide good money, though, so if you are good at making planes, these are well worth taking for the cash. And there are generally a lot more of these than "test part at the launch pad." But I'm not good at planes, and I can get by without them.

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So, lets get that tourist up in to space! We only have one-man pods, so we need to double stack them. This makes the entire thing much heavier, so I swap out the booster with the larger one we just unlocked, as well as some better fins. I also throw 3 drogue parachutes on the top pod. These will help slow us down enough for the main chute to keep us alive. Don't forget to add the tourist to the crew roster, or you'll be sending up an empty pod!

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And away we go. I've hit "T" to turn on stability assist, and as before, I'm going to go straight up until the booster runs out of juice. Notice in my staging bar I have the drogue chutes separate from the main chute. We'll be able to deploy them earlier (and in fact, we'll have to) to slow us down before we open the main chute.

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After the booster is out of juice, I take a quick peek at our apoapsis: 150K or so. Perfect.

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Don't forget to pick up a crew report from the upper atmosphere. We don't have this one yet, and those 4.5 science points matter at this stage.

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As before, dump your booster and fins once you're out of the atmosphere.


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I keep stability assist on as I fall, to make sure I stay ass-down for air braking.

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Pop your drogue chutes as soon as they're not in the danger zone. You'll be a lot closer to the earth this time around. Don't panic. They'll slow you pretty quickly so that you can get your main chute open before you hit the ground.

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Pop the main chute a couple of seconds later when you can.

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The landing was a little bumpy (8.1m/s) but the pods are tough enough to take a landing of up to 10m/s, so we're good. Recover the ship.

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Not much science earned. Not nearly enough to buy any next-tier technologies. But we earned 40K of our money back. Lets take on those two "on the launch pad" missions.

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Stack a pod with a heat shield and 2 decouplers (or whatever parts you end up with in your play through). I use 2, because they fly off with some force, and I don't want Newton throwing my pod across the launch site and possibly destroying it.

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For most parts, you right click the part and choose "Run Test" to complete the mission. But for decouplers, you have to stage them with the space bar. Manually decoupling them with a right-click does not satisfy the mission.

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Recover your vessel and bask in the 7K kerbucks you earned for doing practically nothing.

I've added the Episode 2 rocket .craft file I used for the tourist run.

You'll have to take the .txt off the end to use it, but the board doesn't allow me to upload files with a .craft extension.
 

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Episode 3
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If we're going to get into orbit, we're going to need a better launchpad. So, let's upgrade it now.

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I've taken another VIP mission and still have the Orbit Kerbin mission. I don't see any other available missions that I want to take. If we're going to orbit, we're also going to need some better gear. Let's farm some science. I've added two Pressmat Barometers, and goo containers my VIP rocket. That way, I can farm some science while getting the VIP reward.

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Grabbing some low-biome science. Not shown: Getting the "free" science on the launch pad and immediately recovering the vessel for 100% cash recovery. The next couple of shots show me grabbing science in all of the biomes that I've missed so far.

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Not too much to say here. It's basically a repeat of my last VIP mission, only with more science.

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Not bad! 56 science will let me buy one tier-three spot on the tree.

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So, we'll take Basic Science. If we get out into space, we'll need some batteries to keep us from becoming dead in space once we hit orbit. But we'll also need better rockets, so let's farm some more science.

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We have just unlocked the Materials Study module. Throw three of them on a pod, and gather all of the science you can from the launchpad.

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Screen shot showing the diminishing returns.

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No VIP missions to take, so I guess I'll have to make a science-farming vessel from scratch.

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One Materials study, 2 thermometers and 2 barometers. We've already gathered most of the goo research we can reach at this point. Notice that I'm limiting the fuel in that big rocket. If I don't, I'll shoot up to about 500K meters, and the atmosphere in 1.3 is unforgiving. Even with a heat shield, I'll go up in smoke if I come in straight down from that height. As before, the next few shots show me collecting science at various biomes.

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Close the material bay doors before you get too deep in atmosphere. It matters in this version, and drag can make you tumble.

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Coming in hot. Jeb seems to love it.

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Standard landing at approx 8m/s.

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58 science. I can grab another leaf on the tier-3 tree. I choose "Advanced Rocketry".

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We're still going to have a hard time getting into orbit. Our best rockets for getting us there at this point are solid boosters. And those don't have gimbals so we can't steer them. So, next episode, I'm going to have to design a rocket that can go into deep space (above 250k) into the "high above kerbin" biome for my last bit of science. But I should earn enough from that to buy the next set of wings (at 45 science) that have steering flaps. That should let me build an orbit-capable rocket.
 

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Episode 4
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So, here we are. $167K and 13.5 science.

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We need to upgrade our VAB. The 30 part limitation sucks. The problem: It costs $225K. The solution: A ton of VIP missions. They only take a couple minutes to do, and they earn between 5K and 11K profit to throw a tourist into space and let him drop back down again safely.

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So, I dust off the VIP tourist mobile from Episode 2, and make a minor modification: I remove one of the drag chutes. That'll let me earn an extra $250ish per mission, which adds up when you're doing a half-dozen of them or so. (Craft file attached as Episode 4. craft)

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The 2 drag chutes are enough. Not shown: 7 launches just like the VIP launch in Episode 2.

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Now we have enough dough to upgrade our VAB.

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Now we can make ships with 255 parts, and we have access to basic action groups. This will make life considerably easier.

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While I was farting around, a couple more VIP missions came around. In addition to the money, VIP missions are good reputation earners (the points with the gold star symbol beside them). Higher reputation means better and higher-paying missions.

I take them and complete them, leaving me around $50K. We really should spend some of that money to make a high-orbit (over 250K meters) rocket to grab some of that sweet science. The high-orbit biome provides a lot of science points, and it's well worth fetching. The problem: If I go straight up and come straight down, I'll punch through the thin upper atmosphere in seconds, and then explode in a fireball of death when I hit the thicker lower atmosphere. So, it's time to build a high-orbit science vehicle.

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Here she is. Since I can use more than 30 parts, I've taken the luxury of adding some nose cones for aerodynamics. I've got a materials bay, thermometer and barometer. I would've added goo, but they stick out, and I was afraid that the heat of re-entry would destroy them anyway. In this screenshot you'll also see me adding all the science to one action group--the gears. We have no landing gear, so I'm re-purposing that hotkey for science gathering. In addition to the 4 heavy lifter boosters I'm using to get into high-orbit, I've added the largest gas tank I have along with a terrier rocket to slow down my re-entry. Terriers aren't great at massive thrust, but they're fuel-sipping devices. I'll get a lot more overall delta-v out of it than a more powerful rocket.

Attached as Episode 4b.craft.

I've temporarily added a MechJeb module to the ship to keep track of part counts and keep an eye on my delta-v. Looks like I have plenty.

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It sure does move fast :) The following shots show me grabbing science at the high-orbit biome.

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37 science just for the materials study! Definitely worth spending the cash to get up here. I think we're past the point where I have to show you pictures of all my science experiments. In the future, I'll just tell you about them rather than clutter up the page with pics of them.

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I go all the way up (nearly 600K meters) and then let myself fall back to earth. At around 275K I start slowing down, angled a bit so that I can push my trajectory into the ocean and not in the mountain range (which is where I'd naturally end up).

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This looked better on my screen. I could actually see that I'd land just on the edge of the ocean. I'll try to keep my missions to daylight hours from now on.

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After you slow enough to deploy chutes, jettison your heat shield. That extra weight could mean the difference between life and death.

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After you land, don't forget to grab some "from water" eva science and crew reports. Quicksave first (f5). Sometimes, the game won't let you get back into your ship once you climb out, and that sucks. Though, if that happens, you can recover your kerbonaut and your ship separately.

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108 science. Sweet Jeb, that's nice.

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Take Flight Control. It has a couple of winglets with flaps. Not as nice as the 4th tier aerodynamics, but it also gives you an SAS module. That'll come in handy. Take General Construction, too. Struts will help stabilize the bigger rockets we're about to build.

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Ending with $43K, 18 science, and with a good chunk of the early science tree filled out. Not bad for a day's work--In "game time" we've only been in business for about 1 day and 2 hours. Our first Duna window doesn't come by for another 40 days or so.
 

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Episode 5
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We're starting day 2 with $43K and 18.3 science. I have 3 missions sitting in my to-do list: Orbit Kerbin and 2 VIP missions (total 3 tourists). Let's tackle the orbital mission first.

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Our last ship is actually almost sufficient for the task. I throw some struts on the lower four boosters. This will keep them from flaring out slightly when they're firing, which makes the ship hard to control. I also throw four fins on them that have control surfaces, so that I can actually attempt to steer this beast. Steering solid fuel boosters is a pain, but I can scratch an orbit out of this one. (Episode 5.craft)

I've temporarily added a mechjeb module, so you can see the stats, but I take it off before launch and orbit this pregnant yak manually. Once you've seen me do it once, to prove I can, I'll likely use mechjeb for launches in the future just to simplify matters.

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I start trying to pitch over around 4000 meters, but I can't tilt it very fast, or it'll start flipping and Jeb will die a horrible death. Turning toward 90 degrees between 4K and 6K meters is part of what's known as a "gravity turn." This is part of a fuel saving strategy--letting Kerbin help steer the ship with gravity (as opposed to flying straight up and then turning and circularizing an orbit) saves a couple thousand delta-v in steering maneuver fuel.

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I don't get pitched all the way over until I'm almost out of atmosphere. By now, my apoapsis is about 500K meters, well above my desired 100K orbit. But it's not easy to control that when using solid fuel boosters to get out of atmo.

Let's talk about terms for a second: Apoapsis is the highest part of an orbit (furthest away from the planet). Periapsis is the lowest point. When your apoapsis and periapsis are the same, you have a circular orbit. When they're different, you have an elliptic orbit. I will have an elliptic orbit, because there's no point at circularizing at 500K, and I don't have the fuel to do it anyway.

Prograde means "facing the direction you're already going" and retrograde means "facing away from the direction you're going". Burning your engines prograde will increase your orbit. Burning retrograde will decrease it, generally speaking.

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I warp until I'm close to my apoapsis (though I could be closer) and start burning prograde to raise my periapsis until it's over 70K (the height of kerbin's atmosphere). At that point, I'm considered "in orbit", and I'll stay there until I bring myself back down. KSP is not super complicated in orbital mechanics, and your orbit won't degrade.

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Mission complete! Time to come home.

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The best time to make orbital maneuvers to change the apoapsis or periapsis is when you're the opposite side. So, since I'm already near the apoapsis, I turn retrograde and burn until my periapsis is about 57K meters. This will keep me in the thin upper atmosphere so that drag will lower my apoapsis, and I won't have to spend fuel. The downside: I'll have to make a lot of orbits before I slow down enough for the amosphere to catch me. But it's necessary. I only have 25% of my fuel left, and I want to use it to slow me down even more once I hit the thick atmosphere and heat becomes a worry.

While I'm doing all of those orbits, I catch some science that I've missed: Material study and amospheric pressure scan in space near kerbin, and a temperature scan from the upper atmosphere (when I dip into it)

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While I'm spinning around and slowly decreasing my speed/apoapsis, I notice this little set of icons at the top of the screen, where it says "Signal Strength: 100%". This is totally new to me. I'll have to do some reading up on it soon to see what the hell it means.

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It takes thirteen orbits before I aerobrake enough to be captured by the atmosphere.

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I point myself retrograde, and when the heat effects get really exciting, I burn the last of my fuel at around 40K meters to slow down even further.

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After the fuel is gone, I jettison the dead weight and let my heat shield take the brunt of the punishment. The shield also acts as a really good air brake, so I start slowing even faster.

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I'm able to pop my drag chutes at 17K meters. Unlike my straight up/straight down VIP missions, It'll take a bit of time before they slow me enough to let me pop my main chute.

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Which I'm able to do at 9K meters. I know it's hard to see, because I'm on the dark side of the planet, but it looks like I'm going to be landing by a little lake. How nice :)

I land safely, and happen to be on the grasslands biome, so I grab an atmospheric pressure scan (since I don't have one from the grasslands yet)

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Mission complete. 96.5 science, $170K.

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I slightly modify my episode 3 VIP rocket, replacing the second command pod with a 2-man crew pod and a heat shield (Episode 5b.craft) This lets me take twice as many tourists up for almost the same cost, increasing my profits and reducing the number of launches I have to do. Bonus: It makes my rocket look like a real rocket. After all 3 tourists are satisfied, I'm left with $203K.

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I have enough science to grab one tier-5 technology (at 90 science). I need bigger fuel tanks, and fuel lines will help me build asparagus lifters if I need them. So I grab Fuel Systems. I'll explain asparagus staging in a future episode.

Since I don't plan on building any space planes if I can avoid it, I won't bother spending science on the next tier of wings unless I absolutely have to. If you're here hoping to see some awesome space planes, you're in the wrong walk-through ;)

It's a good start to day 2.
 

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Did some research on that "signal strength" set of icons today. Evidently it's a fairly new feature: CommNet

CommNet is a relay and control communication system implemented first in KSP 1.2 pre-release. Probes now have limited altitude and thrust control if they are not linked back to Kerbin or a control point via a relay antenna. [1] Antennae have limited range from which control and transmission of science data is possible.
This kind of thing has been available as a mod in prior versions, and it looks like they rolled similar functionality into the base game. In the past, I've sent unmanned probes to the outer planets. Now, it looks like it won't be possible to do the same kind of thing without some kind of supporting communications infrastructure.

Getting probes to deep space just got complicated.
 
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Episode 6
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Here we are, $203K and no science to speak of. If we want to do more than create shitty eccentric orbits, we need to upgrade our tracking station. This will let us set maneuver nodes, which are the key to everything in this game. It'll cost $150K, which we have. It won't leave us much left over, but that's fine. I grab a few VIP missions and run them, so I'm not totally broke.

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Looking at Mission Control, there's a couple of more VIP missions, so I take them. There's a "gather science from orbit of Kerbin". Since we're going to go back into space anyway, that's like free money. So I take it. And "Explore the Mun." OOooooOO. This is a simple Mun flyby with some science. Doable at our current tech level. I take them and leave the rest.

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Astronaut complex could use updating too. I can afford it, so I do it. This will let us grab more science by off-kerbin EVAs.

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Here's a neat trick: If you already have a suitable rocket, and don't need to build one, you can click once on the launchpad and it'll open up this window. You can select your rocket and your crew, and just launch straight from there. I select our standard VIP suborbital rocket, and complete the 2 VIP missions in one launch, leaving me $65K.

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We're going to build a new rocket to fly by the mun. I'm going to experiment with the small service bay. We can throw a bunch of experiments and batteries in here, and they won't affect our aerodynamics. So, I do so, and set all of the experiements to the "gear" hotkey. I thow a science jr. on beneath it. If we're going to go by the Mun, I want as much science as I can earn.

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All told, this is a pretty little rocket. Notice that I put drag chutes on the science jr. This was a mistake that I don't realize until later. I will be using mechjeb for this flight to get to orbit, but not to get to the mun. But how are we going to get there? This rocket doesn't have the juice.

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So, I stick some big tanks and boosters on it. This is not the most aerodynamic contraption, but I don't have big engines yet to make a proper rocket. Noticed my thrust-to-weight ratio? It sucks. I'm going to have to baby this thing into space, mechjeb or no.

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But it does fly :) I can't use Mechjeb's standard orbital ascent profile. I don't have the TWR. I have to start my gravity turn closer to 22000 meters. Luckily, I have enough fuel for such a waste.

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Once I'm in orbit, I notice I have about half as much fuel as I need in the outer tanks to get to the Mun, which will leave me plenty enough to circularize my orbit there before returning home. I hope that I get an "orbit the mun" mission on the way, for free money and science (since I'm going to do it anyway). I spend about 10 minutes hanging on the outisde of the ship in EVA doing EVA reports and storing them in the command pod. At 100K orbit, you can pick up eva reports above all the kerbin biomes (grasslands, shores, ocean, highlands, mountains, deserts, etc). They're only about 9 points each, but they add up if you do a bunch of them. After that, it's time to get on with the mission.

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If you want to hit the Mun and not use mechjeb, make a maneuver node, and increase the prograde value until the apoapsis of the maneuver is right on the Mun's orbit. Then drag the node around until you get an intersection, as in the screenshot. That's how I made this particular maneuver node. Or, you can get mechjeb to do it. But there's no point in Mun missions. If you don't want to futz around with maneuver nodes, you can just warp utnil the Mun comes over the horizon and thrust prograde until you intersect it. That's the old school way before nodes were introduced, but it doesn't work with any of the other celestial bodies.

I make my maneuver, and then warp until I hit the Mun's sphere of influence. I have 2 hours before I have to circularize my orbit, so I keep hopping back to Mission Control in hopes that an "orbit the mun" mission comes up. But it never does. So I circularize into an eccentric orbit of 99K apoapsis and 40K periapsis. This will let me collect "high above mun" and "near mun" science in a single launch.

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Obligatory orbital shot.

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After collecting all the science I can, I need to get it off of the experiment pods and into the command module, since I plan on ejecting all of that stuff once I reach home. That means opening the cargo pod, EVAing out, and grabbing all the science off of the modules by hand.

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Time to come home. I make a rough maneuver node to escape the Mun's gravity, and then use Mechjeb's maneuver node editor to modify it. The little handles for flying prograde, retrograde, etc, are very imprecise, and I want to come back home at close 100K. Note that I still have over 2000 fuel. I won't need to be air braking..I have enough fuel to make a circular orbit when I get home and then land.

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I get home, circularize my orbit, and then set up a maneuver node for landing. I always land by hand, because it's super easy. I like MechJeb's predictive landing feature, but it's never super accurate because it doesn't account for the fact that I use fuel to slow my descent while I'm in atmo. One thing I don't notice though: I'm out of power. The little terrier rocket I have on the ship has no alternator. I haven't been regenerating power when firing the engines. I can't turn. My maneuver node is useless. Now i'm scared. :)

Luckily, as you can see in the screen shot, I'm already almost perfectly facing retrograde, so I fire my engines until my orbit falls within the ocean. If I were facing prograde, I'd have just orbited until I was facing the other direction. Once I'm falling to my doom, I jettison my uselesss mass of fuel and let the Kerbal gods decide my fate.

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Luckily, the gods are smiling, and I flip around to face the correct direction due to atmospheric drag. The heat shield does an admirable job of slowing me down...but it is just now that I notice I have no drag chutes. Oh no! I put them on the science jr. instead of my command module, and now they're gone.

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But look at that. I don't even need them. That heat shield rocks.

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I'm able to pop my main chute at 10,000 meters, and land in the desert. You bet that I got out and collected some more science. Planted a flag, too, since the upgraded astronaut complex allows it. Planting flags in new biomes gives a bit of experience. Different professions get different perks the higher their experience level.

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Back home, 366 science and half a million kerbucks. Wow! I hit the science center and take Heavy Rocketry, Electrics (I need those solar panels, yo!), Landing, and Advanced Flight Control. I notice that they must've changed something on exactly how/when you get your mission rewards, because I notice I have $625K when I get here, which is just a wee bit more than was reported when I recovered my vessel. Strange. I'll have to watch it more closely next flight.
 

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Episode 7

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We start this episode with $625K and 7 points of science.

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I grab a couple of missions: Explore the Mun, and Rescue Madgan. The Mun exploration requires touching down on the surface, EVAing a kerbal out, and getting home. We have all the science we need to accomplish that goal. The rescue missions are always nice when they're in low orbit (meaning 100K standard Kerbin orbit)--hiring astronauts costs money. Rescuing them adds them to our space program, and they *pay* us for it! I need at least two scientists soon (for the space lab), and I already have one. I'm hoping Madgan helps me fill out the roster.

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Our Episode 6 ship isn't quite up to the task, but it makes a good starting point. I grab it, rip off all the outer bits, and refactor it. This will be our landing vessel. See that tiny square-shape thing I have strutted into the middle? That's new to me. It's an "experiment storage unit", and it can suck all of the experimental data into it from all the various parts of the ship. This will make collecting all my science into the command pod considerably easier. But it's a crappy shape and size, so I stick it there just above my fuel tank and strut it into place to keep it stable.

This new ship has everything we need for a few biome hops on the Mun: science modules, batteries, 3000 delta-v in fuel, and solar panels. Now, I just need to put some bigger tanks and rokets beneath it to get it into orbit.

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So, I add them, and add some fuel lines to make my Munar lander more efficient. But the damn thing is too heavy by .7 tons. I can't really thing of any one I would want to take off (though I could probably get by with the command pod's internal 50-unit battery store), so instead, I decide to spend the $282K to upgrade the launchpad. Between the $625K I started with and the $25K in advances I got for my missions, I have plenty of dough.

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I let Mechjeb take me up to a 100K orbit, and I still got 73 dv of fuel in the launch tanks. You better believe those aren't going to waste. I'm going to use every dv of fuel I have on this mission.

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I queue up a maneuver node to the Mun, and begin my burn. Sure, I have to drop off the big tanks almost immediately, but every little bit of thrust helps.

Along the way, I make sure and grab any science I've missed so far out here in space and suck it into the experiment container.

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When I get to the Mun's Sphere of Influence (SOI), I let Mechjeb queue up a circularization burn. This is easy enough to do on your own by clicking the periasis, setting a maneuver node, and dragging the retograde bar until it's circular. But I hate the imprecision of those drag bars, as I've noted before. Mechjeb's circular orbits are pretty dang circular. ;)

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Once I'm circularized, I set up a nice landing zone in a crater using Mechjeb. I'll manually land some craft later when I'm on some of the outer planets/moons. Some of those are too funky for Mechjeb to handle, so you have to do them by hand. So that's when you'll get to see me work the magic of suicide burns.

Note that the orbital map here rougly corresponds to what you'll experience when you actually get close to the surface. A clear spot here on the map usually means a clear spot on the ground. But microcraters and slopes aren't really well-represented at this level. Luckily, I've done this enough to know where the safe landing zones are.

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Mechjeb brings me in nice and gently. The rockets can easily take the .5m/s bump, and my vechile is wide enough to not tip over, so no landing gear is needed here.

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Once I've gathered all the science I need from this area, I suck it into the experiment container by right clicking and choosing "collect all". This is very handy. I used to have to eva after every landing and fly around to each module to collect the science. Speaking of EVA...

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I fly out and plant a flag and collect some science. Flags are good experience, and the science is worth the trip. But what I really want are surface samples.

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So I pop back over to the space center and upgrade my R&D department. $451K? Ouch! Luckily, I have it.

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And look at that sweet science. 120 points for each surface sample I get from the mun!

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Once I'm done, I pick a new landing zone via mechjeb's landing guidance, hit "z" to fire my rockets at maximum thrust, and manually point myself in the general direction. Once my trajectory is fairly close to the landing zone, I hit "land at target" and let Mechjeb take over.

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Wash-rinse-repeat: Gather science, plant a flag at the Twin Craters, suck all the science into the experiment container. I notice that I only have 1794 dv of fuel left. I've been hauling around empty tanks because that's where my science modules are, so that number isn't even accurate. It assumes that I jettison the dead weight, which I haven't. So, I don't really have enough fuel to hit a 3rd biome. That's ok, though. All of my non-reusable modules (goo and materials) are used up anyway, so it's time to go home.

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I hit "z" to take off, pop the empty outer tanks, and let Mechjeb take me up to a 50K orbit. Because I'm not taking off near the equator, I end up with a 25-degree inclined orbit. This will complicate our return to Kerbin, but I honestly don't have the fuel to improve the situation.

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Once I'm in orbit, I eva out and grab all of the science from that container. The container will be jettisoned with my rocket when I get back to kerbin, so I need all that science in the command module.

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I let mechjeb calcuate a return trajctory (which it's terrible at), and I improve it as much as I can with the node editor, but my current inclined orbit only lets me improve it from "really shitty" to "slighly less shitty".

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Once I'm out of the Mun's SOI, I make a full orbit until I'm back at the apoapsis. Here, I spend a little fuel to reduce my periapsis to 55K, inside kerbin's atmosphere for aerobraking. I only have 640 dv left of fuel, so I can't be wasteful.

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I hit atmo pertty hard, and start seeing over-heating warning bars across my ship. I burn off 340 dv wroth of fuel to slow things down a bit, and don't overhead and die. That has the added benefit of lowering my apoapsis so much that it'll only take a half-dozen trips to air brake enough for landing. I only have 300 dv worth of fuel left.

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Once I'm captured by Kerbin's atmosphere, I burn off the rest of my fuel to ensure that I land in the water, and then eject my now-useless rocket.

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The heat shields work pretty good in v1.3, and they take care of me for the rest of my ride. I'm able to pop my chutes at around 10K meters, and make a nice soft water landing. I get out and take a surface sample, which is dumb, but brings home 12 more science.

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After the mission rewards and "world milestone" rewards, I'm back at $535K in money, and 850 science. Nice! I'll decide what to spend those points and money on in the next episode. Rescuing Madgan can wait. The mission doesn't expire for five years, and we're only on day 2 of our walkthrough. This episode was busy enough as it is without adding a vessel rendezvous to the mix.

So, here's a question: Would you guys be interested in me making a short video or gif showing how to drag the maneuver nodes around for a Mun instersection? Or have I gven enough information in the last couple of episodes for you to figure it out?
 

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Episode 7b

I made a quick recording. My webcam crashed shortly after launch and I didn't realize it, but I have the whole KSP work captured. At least my face wasn't too dumb looking when it froze. It was about 250 megs of video, so I'm having to host it on youtube.

It's not my best flying, but you'll get the idea :) I'll try to make another one later with my full commentary and swap it out. I swap screens a lot when doing this stuff by hand, and without my commentary, you may not have a full understanding of why and what I'm looking at.

I wasn't as efficient as mechjeb (and I never will be), but I got into a circular orbit and then plotted and executed a maneuver node to the mun.


 
Episode 8

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We start this episode with 850 science and $663K in funds. It's the fourth of July, and I've taken a half day off of work. So we get an early afternoon run. Whee!

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I have accepted four missions: Explore Kerbin (which is seriously misnamed), Plant Flag on the Mun, Rescue Madgan from LKO and Rescue Alby from a Munar orbit.
"Explore Kerbin" is really a "rendezvous two ships in orbit" mission, which we have to do to rescue Madgan, so we'll satisfy both missions in a single flight.

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So, I begin making this rocket to get up to 250K in orbit with enough fuel left over to perform rendezvous maneuvers. These new huge solid boosters will help do the trick, but there's one problem. As they run out of fuel, their thrust-to-weight ratio gets a bit extreme (close to 5+) causing my rocket to flip all over the place when they drop off while I'm still well in atmosphere. So I engineer a decent solution: I only run two of them at a time...when the first two drop off, the 2nd set fires up to get me the rest of the way unto the upper atmosphere.

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Add a couple smaller boosters just to get me off the launch pad, some wings to keep things stable, and an SAS module, and we're good to go. I haven't researched the bigger SAS yet, so I have that itty-bitty part wedged between the big tank and the rockomax decoupler, and stabilized with struts. Everywhere is stabalized with struts. Us KSP guys like to call those struts "space tape"..you just put them everywhere you want to keep stable.

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It flies! And the wings keep things from flipping over while I'm still in thick atmosphere. I'm letting MechJeb take me up into orbit on this one (and probably will for all future launches unless I build something stupid that MechJeb can't fly. That's a distinct possibility down the road.)

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The 2nd set of solid boosters pop off in high atmosphere, and I let my Skipper engine and big fuel tank take me the rest of the way.

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Once I'm in a circular orbit, I have to figure out how to rendezvous with Madgan's part (shown with the white orbit). I could let MechJeb do this. It has a rendezvous autopilot. But I'm going to follow my rule, do it by hand this first time.

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Since Madgan's at a lower orbit, she's moving faster than I am. So I time warp until the ship is just behind me and catching up. This is the best time to make a transfer maneuver when you're in a higher orbit than your target.

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I drop a maneuver node and bring my apoapsis down so that it's touching Madgan's orbit, and I click on Madgan's ship and "set as target".

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Now that I have a target, I get those nifty intersection triangles that tell me when I'm going to be close and what the distance and relative speeds will be. This is pretty crappy, but I can adjust it by moving the maneuver node around a bit.

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After a bit of adjustment, I get us within 1000 meters, and a relative speed difference of 116.7m/s. That means it'll only take about 117m/s of delta-v to match velocities. Well within budget.

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I let mechjeb control the actual thrust while executing the maneuver. If you wanted to do it by hand, you'd want to time it so that about half of your thrust time is before the node demarcation, and half is after.

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Once the maneuver is complete, I see that I still have good placement on the rendezvous. Now I have to set up a node to match speeds at our closest approach, so we don't go whizzing by the ship at 120-ish m/s. To do that, click as close as you can between those two orange triangles and add a maneuver.

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Use the maneuver handles to make the orbits match as closely as possible. MechJeb's maneuver planner window is still up, but I hope it's obvious that I'm not using it here.

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KSP tells me that after my speed-matching maneuver, we'll still be 1000 meters apart, with a relative speed of 2.1 m/s. That's perfect. I won't have to get any closer than that--I can EVA between ships at that distance, and the two ships' relative velocity gives me plenty of time to do it.

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Again, I let mechjeb do the actual trusting. But my manual nodes are spot-on. That green square in the screenshot is Madgan's capsule at 3.4km and approaching. I actually think I used less fuel than if I let mechjeb auto-rendezvous--it would have wanted to spend fuel matching planes and getting my ship into a perfect orbit for a hohmann transfer, and that just really isn't necessary for these LKO rescue missions.

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The maneuver burn completes with the capsule at 927m. We're drifting closer, but it's so slow it doesn't matter. I'll get Madgan into my ship before we risk any collisions.

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Hitting ] (right square bracket) switches focus to Madgan's ship, and I quickly EVA, turn on RCS, and begin flying Madgan through space toward my rescue ship.

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When you get close, double-click on the rescue ship so you can see the relative velocity just above the navigation ball. You want to come in at a smooth 3-5m/s, so you don't go whizzing by or slamming into the ship and making it tumble out of control.

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Madgan successfully grabs the empty lander can door and lets herself inside. Unfortunately, she's an engineer and not a scientist. But I'll find a use for her...welcome to the team!

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Immediately after rescuing Madgan, I give a burst of thrust to increase my apoapsis and circularize about 20km above Madgan's derelict pod. I don't want to risk any collisions with it while I make my landing preparations.

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Once that's done, I see that I can make a sweet ocean landing if I begin burning retrograde immediately, so I do so.

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I use up all of my remaining fuel slowing down in the upper atmosphere. I had so much left that I was able to release my drag chutes at 20K up. I release the two remaining chutes shortly thereafter and released my heat shield.

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After recovery, I have a new team member, 861 science (I earned a bit for my "first rendezvous"), and $767K in funds. Let's spend some of that science, so our next Mun mission is easier.
I buy Heavier Rocketry, Adv Fuel Systems, Large Volume Containment, Specialized Control, and Aviation

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I have maybe a third of the tech tree filled out by the time I'm done.
 

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Episode 9

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We start this episode with 36 science and $847K in funds.

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I go through the episode list and take what looks interesting. I'll drop that flag on the Mun and rescue those two poor stranded kerbals in one fell swoop, now that I have the technology to do it.

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So, here's the ship I came up with. It's a fairly standard "tourister" on the top end: One pod for the pilot, one passenger compartment for the rescue missions. I've added some legs for landing on the Mun, a SAS module to help turn this unweildy beast in space, and a payload bay with some science, batteries, and mechjeb. I also have a couple active cooling pods, which I've never used before. I'm hoping that they'll let me cool down the ship during aerobraking, and not snap off like twigs in the slightest atmo, like solar panels are wont to do.

Underneath are some big orange tanks, and two different kinds of rockets. All three will fire at the same time. The outer rockets will act as boosters, but also feed fuel to the middle tank to keep it full. That way, when the outer rockets fall off (in high kerbin atmo), I'll have a full orange tank to complete all the rescue missions with. Between the SAS and the bigger wings, this thing should fly smooth as silk during takeoff.

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And it does. I let Mechjeb take me up into orbit at 150km (so that I don't have to orbit a million times to line up for a good transfer--also known as "phasing orbits"), and this is the best-flying thing I've made this run-through.

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As soon as I'm up in orbit, I switch to map view and select Duming's vessel as my target. Since I've made a rendezvous video already showing how to do it manually, I'll let mechjeb handle these.

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Mechjeb spends a few dv matching planes.

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And then it does the same basic transfer I did in the video.

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Once that's done, it sets up a node to match speeds. At this point, I'm further away than the 250km target distance I set in the autopilot, but I'm close enough for government work, so I abort the auto-pilot to fly kerbals around in space.

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I hit the ] (bracket) key to switch to Duming's ship, EVA him, and fly him over to my rescue vessel.

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There's only one door on the vessel, so I have to get Jeb out so that Duming can get in. I call this the EVA dance.

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Once Duming's in the command pod, I right click it, choose "transfer crew" and move him to the passenger compartment via internal walkways (or somesuch). I then fly Jeb back to the pod door and get him safely inside.

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I still have 2275dv in my big lift vehicle, and 2271 in my mun lander, so the remainder of the mission looks pretty good. I have fuel to spare. I let Mechjeb set me up a maneuver node to the Mun, but it always sucks at it, so I pull out the Node Editor to push the values a bit to give me a 140-ish km orbit.

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Once I get there, I start to circularize at the 138K periapsis when I realize: I'm orbiting the wrong direction! I'll have to flip a u-turn after circularizing if I'm going to rendezvous with the stranded kerbal, so I immediately change my plans.

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Inclination changes are always cheaper the further you are from a gravity well, so I'll just circularize right here, 1.1 million meters up.

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Mechjeb's going to take 437 dv to turn myself around. You could do this manually with maneuver nodes, but it wouldn't be as pretty, or as fuel efficient.

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Once I've done that, I rendezvous with the ship, same as before. Mechjeb gets me within about 500 meters before I abort the autopilot, switch to Alby's derelict, and do the EVA dance to get all of my kerbals back in the ship.

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I still have 300dv worth of fuel in the orange tank, but that's not enough to land with. I could use it to help me land, but dropping parts in the middle of landing really screws with Mechjeb. And I have enough fuel to spare, so I decouple the lifter stage and will use my smaller payload vehicle to perform the rest of the mission.

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I set Mechjeb to land me in the East Crater. I've been here before, so I won't get much science. But it's the best equatorial place for me to land, and I don't have a ton of fuel to waste, so that's where I'm heading.

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I've cropped and zoomed this pic for you to see it, but it's still kind of dark. We're coming down very close to the Munar Arch, one of the many KSP easter eggs. These kinds of neat things are scattered all around the solar system for you to find.

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I set down nice and easy, take Jeb out for a walk, plant a flag, collect what meager science I can, and blast back up to a 50K orbit.

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I let Mechjeb plot a course home, but as always, it sucks at it, so I tweak the node a bit.

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I come in at a 50K periapsis, which is kind of low, fast, and hot. But the cooling keeps things from overheating and exploding, and happily, they don't snap off. They also provide a ton of extra drag. This lets me get away with 4 aerobraking orbits, instead of the normal 13-15 I have to do before I get captured by the atmo. Nice. They never get above 85% of their capacity, and they don't actually snap off until I'm landing and I'm down to 34km altitutde.

Once they snap off, I immediately burn what remaining fuel I have to slow even further, and then jettison my rockets. But then disaster strikes...

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I flip around nose first! Now I'm all aerodynamically shaped, and have no hope of my heat sink acting as a good aerobrake. The only thing I can do is use the weak SAS in the command pod to try to tumble around in atmospher and create drag. I don't have enough control to flip myself back around the right way. Things are looking dicey...

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I don't actually slow enough to deploy my drag chutes until I'm 2750 meters above the ground. That's close! But the drag chutes do their job, and slow me enough for the main chute to be deployed. I land on Kerbin's "shores" biome, which I haven't collected any science at yet, so I do a crew report, thermometer reading, and barometer scan once I land.

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I end the flight with nearly 1.2 million kerbucks and 91 science.

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I have a tourist mission that takes 2 tourists who both want a Munar Orbit. So, rather than ending here, I load the ship back up with tourists for another launch. Because I'm not rescuing anyone, and I'm not burning fuel landing on the Mun and taking off again, I should have enough dv to prevent the near death experience that Jeb just had.

I take off, fly to the Mun, orbit, and come back, same as I just did. But a whole lot faster because I'm not dicking around with rescues and the like. I am able to get back and re-circularize around Kerbin all on my big orange tank, leaving about 300dv in the orange tank and 2200dv in the smaller vehicle to better control my landing.

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This time landing is a cakewalk, and I'm able to slow my speed to about 100m/s about 20K up in the atmosphere and pop my chutes. Easy peasey.

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After the tourists disembark, I'm left with 1.28 million kerbucks and 94 science. Next episode: To Minmus!
 

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Episode 10


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We start this episode with 94 science and $1.3M in funds.

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Since we have more than 90 science, I can research Space Exploration for the lander can. You'll see why in a second.

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Not too many interesting missions. I promised you Minus last episode, so that's what we're doing. We'll also knock out the "Science Data from Space around Kerbin" mission. Since we'll be around Kerbin anyway, this will be a freebie, even if we don't get any actual science points for it.

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First time looking at our astronaut roster. Since we haven't rescued another scientist yet, I'll go ahead and hire one. Even though it costs me $100K to do it. I'll make my money back on the Minmus trip. We need 2 of them to take advantage of the spacelab that I'm going to be building soon.

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Our episode 10 rocket. I've decided to use my EP-9 rocket as a base to work from, since it was so stable to launch. I've replaced the upper module with something a little more bulky. I've added the lander can, a larger fuel tank, and a poodle rocket. I've also given myself a little more battery power. But, otherwise, things are mostly the same. I did add some more parachutes, since the re-entry module is about 3 tons.

I load up the craft with Jeb as my pilot of choice, and my two scientists. Flying to Minmus and planting a flag will give everyone enough experience to get to level 2. I add a spare pilot and an engineer for kicks, since I have the room.

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Obligatory launch shot. She's a pretty little thing. I should've added some aerodynamic domes onto the two side boosters to save myself a few DV, but it's not worth worrying about. I'll probably add them in the next episode.

Once I get up into orbit, I take a crew report around Kerbin. No science, but it will satisfy my science data mission when I get back. I have 950 dv left in the launch vehicle, which should get me to Minmus pretty easily.

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So, lets set up some manual maneuver nodes to get to Minmus, rather than letting MechJeb do it for us. This is a little tricker than the Mun, because Minmus is on an eccentric, inclined orbit.

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So, first, set up a maneuver node to push your craft out to Minmus' orbit distance. Then set up another one, about half-way there, to push your orbit up or down until the apoapsis is pretty much touching the orbit path. Leave the 2nd node alone, and drag the first one around until you get those "close approach" triangles. Get them as close as you can to an intersection. I'm not very close here, but it's good enough for government work.

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Now, edit your 2nd node (the adjustment node halfway to Minmus), and move it around so that you actually end up with a real intersection. This isn't the most perfect Minmus shot, but it's only costing me about 970 DV between both nodes, which is nearly as good as MechJeb would do for me.

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Once both nodes are complete, I see that I'm coming in far away (half a million clicks) and below Minmus. I don't want a polar orbit, because that'd be a big pain in the ass. So, I set up another adjustment node, a little bit further along my flight path. I push the node handles (pro-/retro-grade, normal/anti-normal etc) until I'm coming in at a more equatorial path, and at 117K altitude. Much better.

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This is my flight path after all of the fiddling around. Very nice, standard insertion. Once I enter Minmus' SOI, I have maybe 3 hours before I have to do a circularizing burn, so I flip back to the space station to see if I can pick up any more Minmus missions. You know, orbit, take surface samples, whatever--you know, since I'm here anyway. No such luck. But I do grab some science while I'm up here, and eva out to clean out all of the science modules so I can do it again on the surface. Then, I circularize at periapsis, with 3000 dv worth of fuel left. More than I need.

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So, I promised you early on that I was going to land manually, and so I shall. A "suicide burn" landing is the easiest to accomplish, but not the most fuel efficient. But I have fuel to spare.

First, set up a maneuver node above where you want to land.

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Pull the retograde handle until your "new orbit" orange becomes an up-and-down straight line to the surface. We're gonna kill all of our orbital velocity and fall straight down. Warp until you're maybe 10 minutes away from the maneuver. Minmus will have spun underneath you, so just drag the maneuver node so that you're back to landing in your preferred location. Be aware that the moon will still keep spinning as you fall, so you'll probably need to over-correct here.

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Execute the maneuver. And then just fall. Our pilot is level 1, which allows me to turn on pilot assist ("t"). I do so, and point my nose straight up. With pilot assist, it'll stay there.

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As you fall, periodically turn on the engines to bleed off some speed. You could wait until you were really close, but unless you judge your TWR and DV correctly, you risk slamming into the surface and dying. So I like to keep things slow and manageable, even if it does make landing take longer. When you're something like 2-5K above the surface, don't forget to extend your landing gear.

Keep dropping and then slowing until you're very close to the surface.

Note: Always quicksave after a successful maneuver. While I was doing this landing, my wife called me into another room for something, I paused the game to go talk to her. When I came back, I realized that I hadn't paused, and all of my kerbals were dead. Luckily, I had a quick-save just before I started dropping, so I was able to reload and continue on. I should also note that this is the first time in the last 9 episodes that I've had to revert back to a save point. :D

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Sorry about the dark pic. The sun set while I was landing. Here I am, 300 meters above the surface and falling at 3.3 m/s. I have my engines on just enough to slow me about .1 m/s every 10 seconds or so. That way, I'll never speed back up above this speed, and I'll make a nice gentle touchdown. Just be prepared to kill your engines as soon as you hit the surface, so you don't accidentally start flying back up! Leave stability assist on. That will help keep the rocket from flipping over, just in case you landed with a little bit of angular velocity.

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Here we are after a perfect landing. I time-warped after landing so that we could have a daylight shot.

After landing, I get Jeb out, do science, plant a flag, and then blast off back into orbit. Then I set up the maneuver home, which I let MechJeb handle for me.

Once I'm back in Kerbin's SOI, I bleed off about 1000 dv to circularize without aerobraking. I have the fuel to spare, and I hate spending a half-hour at this stage, if I can avoid it. I'm left with 910 dv left.

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Here I am, setting up a manual landing maneuver. Notice how the orange line says I'll land in the desert there? Not after I spend that 910 to slow down even further once I hit atmo. This little section of Kerbin is my favorite place to land, because I have a great big ocean to catch me, and I don't have to be super precise about my landing maneuver.

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I bleed off the last of my speed, jettison the rocket stage, and let the atmo and my heat shield slow me down. I'm able to deploy drag chutes at 16K meters, and my main chutes at 12K.

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Ocean landing successful. I returned with all of my crew at level 2, 557 science, and $1.8 million in cash.
 

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Episode 11

I'm going to be building a spacelab soon. Due to the new CommNet features, I'll need to add some communications sattelites in space to help relay the data. If you look back at my previous mission screen shots, you'll see that my comms connections are poor around the Mun and Minmus. I'll also need to upgrade my tracking station to max, to increase the satellite dish power. All of this takes money. So, let's get to earning that dough!

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We start this episode with 557 science and $1.8M in funds.

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First, I upgrade my mission control building to max (costing me $282K). I'll want to take more than 7 missions at a time, now, so I can knock out as many in one trip as I can. There happens to be a ton rescue missions. These are worth decent money, but also worth good prestige. Better reputation means better missions. So I grab them all. I also grab an "Explore Minmus" mission that we'll tackle later, and a science data mission from Munar orbit. Since we're going to the Mun anyway, I grab that one, too.

I'm already almost full up on astronauts. So I also upgrade the astronaut complex at another $282K. Down a bit over half a million now. I thought I said I was going to be *making* money? hah.

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So, let's spend some of that science. I take Aerodynamics, for the better wings, Advanced Exploration for the space lab, and Precision Engineering for the starter relay sattelite dish. After I'm done, the tech tree looks about half-way filled.

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My Episode 11 craft is the exact same as the episode 10 craft, with a couple of extra fuel tanks strapped onto the first stage. I want to try to rescue all 8 kerbals from around the Mun, and I want to make sure I have plenty of fuel for all of those orbital maneuvers. After I take this screen shot, I decide to ditch the lander legs to save another $2000 or so on the launch. I figure I won't have the fuel to do all of that rescuing *and* land on the Mun to complete that mission, too.

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Obligatory launch pad shot. As you can see, Jeb is all alone. The lander can will be full of rescued kerbals by the time I'm done.

I shoot off into orbit, and start heading toward the Mun.

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Look at all those guys I gotta save! It looks like 2 kerbals are in low munar orbit (around 13K altitude), one is way far out, and one's in between on an inclined orbit. So I decide on my game plan. For rendezvous, it's actually better to go in and out rather than tackle things linearly. Because of orbital mechanics, you have to change altitude to change relative velocities. So rather than waste fuel making "phasing orbits", I'll just bounce in and out and use one rescue's rendezvous orbit to be the phasing orbit for the next.

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So, I tackle Mirigh first. I'm already far enough away that it only takes a half-orbit for me to be in the right position to transfer down and grab her. Because the lander can has an external door, I don't even have to do the EVA dance. While I'm at it, I do a crew report to satisfy the "Gather data" mission, and do an EVA report with Mirigh as she flies to the rescue ship. This low, I actually get some EVA science from "space just above midlands". 24 science I didn't plan on. Sweet :)

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Next, Nelzor. He's the furthest kerbal out, so again, it only takes a half-orbit to be in the right position for the transfer. I still have 624 dv fuel in the orange tanks, and I plan on using it as long as I can. Nelzor's extraction goes without a hitch.

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Gilhat is next. He's on an inclined orbit, an extra fuel expenditure. But one of the reasons I tackled him after Nelzor is because inclination shifts are cheap this far out from the gravity well. It'll take less than 150 to get into position. After that, retreiving Gilhat is a standard procedure.

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After I extract Gilhat, I return my inclination to 0, and recircularize. I only have about 50 dv worth of fuel left in the orange tank, so I bid it adieu before going on to rescue Siglong. Sigling's also in low munar orbit, so it's a piece of cake to pick him up.

I'm really regretting dropping those legs, now. I have plenty of fuel (3100dv worth!) to land on the Mun, collect some science, and return home. But I don't have any landing legs, and balancing on a Poodle engine is a recipe for disaster. So I sigh, and come on home. I don't bother taking screen shots of this. You've seen it enough ;)

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I didn't take many screen shots this episode, because you guys have seen most of what I've done before. I mostly just wanted to highlight my rescue plan for grabbing all four kerbals wasting as little fuel as possible.

Mission end: 174 science, $2.14M in cash. I definitely made up for the half-million in expenditures at the beginning of the episode. But, it's not enough. I'll have to make a bit more cash before I have enough to upgrade the tracking station.
 

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Episode 12

I actually finished episode 11 on Thursday, but didn't get around to posting it until just now.

I figured out the problem with my webcam in my last video: I'd had it for years, and after countless times rolling the cable up to store the cam, and then unwinding it, I got a short in the cable. So, I ordered a new web cam, which arrived this morning. So, I thought I'd run some more money missions and record them, so you guys can see how I work. You get two episodes in one day! :D

Fair warning: I'm not photogenic. I'm wearing an ironic "mortal kombat" sleeveless shirt because my wife had agreed to start learning kung fu this weekend, and I don't have a big and exciting presentation voice like Scott Manley or Gas Bandit. So I hope I'm not too dull or dry in my videos. This episode is broken into two parts, because my wife came in and interrupted me halfway through. I thought she went to go take a nap, but she didn't...so I stopped in the middle to so she could have her first-ever kung fu class ;)



 
I know I'm kind of shit at it, but I have a question:
Do you guys prefer the screenshots or the videos?

I personally hate game videos, because it takes an hour for me to watch something that I could read about in five minutes. But I understand I may not be the norm, given the popularity of game videos.

I don't mind doing the videos, but I'm not in love with doing them either. I'll do whichever one you guys prefer.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I know I'm kind of shit at it, but I have a question:
Do you guys prefer the screenshots or the videos?

I personally hate game videos, because it takes an hour for me to watch something that I could read about in five minutes. But I understand I may not be the norm, given the popularity of game videos.

I don't mind doing the videos, but I'm not in love with doing them either. I'll do whichever one you guys prefer.
A "hybrid" format might be worth trying... that is, only taking videos where motion is required. IE, when explaining how to set up certain maneuvers, or doing a manual landing, or whatnot. But for simply showing "this is the next rocket I designed and built" a screenshot may suffice.

Unless, of course, you ARE trying to build a youtube following, in which case you'll have to video everything :p

One thing that might be handy for a hybrid format (I used this myself a lot for Darkest Dungeon) is to use Twitch to stream everything, then going back afterwards to make "highlight" clips from the long broadcast (which takes mere seconds and is done on the twitch website so there's no uploading involved), and then using the highlights as visual aids in your post, with the understanding that if people want to watch the whole thing, your twitch will keep the video for 2 weeks (highlights never expire).

Of course, if you have under 5mbit up, that could be problematic, quality-wise.
 
A "hybrid" format might be worth trying... that is, only taking videos where motion is required. IE, when explaining how to set up certain maneuvers, or doing a manual landing, or whatnot. But for simply showing "this is the next rocket I designed and built" a screenshot may suffice.

Unless, of course, you ARE trying to build a youtube following, in which case you'll have to video everything :p

One thing that might be handy for a hybrid format (I used this myself a lot for Darkest Dungeon) is to use Twitch to stream everything, then going back afterwards to make "highlight" clips from the long broadcast (which takes mere seconds and is done on the twitch website so there's no uploading involved), and then using the highlights as visual aids in your post, with the understanding that if people want to watch the whole thing, your twitch will keep the video for 2 weeks (highlights never expire).

Of course, if you have under 5mbit up, that could be problematic, quality-wise.
Hybrid sounds like a good idea. I've experimented with making a gif a couple episodes ago, and I liked how it turned out.

As for building a following, I could give a crap :) I'm doing this for you guys.

As for speed, I've got 12 up and 200 down, so I'll probably be ok.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Then I definitely recommend going the making-highlights-from-twitch-streams route. It's fast and easy, and uses no hard drive space.
 
I set up a twitch account this morning, set up my OBS to steam to it, and streamed a short mission.
I musta done something wrong, because I couldn't see the video after the fact to make highlights. Granted, I only spent 5 minutes on looking at how to do it, since I was in a time crunch before work. I did take screen shots, so expect a very short Episode 13 tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime I'll continue looking at how to make twitch work for me :)
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I set up a twitch account this morning, set up my OBS to steam to it, and streamed a short mission.
I musta done something wrong, because I couldn't see the video after the fact to make highlights. Granted, I only spent 5 minutes on looking at how to do it, since I was in a time crunch before work. I did take screen shots, so expect a very short Episode 13 tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime I'll continue looking at how to make twitch work for me :)
It doesn't DEFAULT to archiving your broadcasts, I guess I should have pointed that out >_< That's an option you gotta turn on.
 
Episode 13

Extremely short episode. I was experimenting with Twitch recording and didn't flag the setting that archives video. Nothing really new here anyway.

I think I have Twitch figured out, so Episode 14 will hopefully be a bit more media-rich.

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Looking in Mission Control, there's an Explore Duna mission, so I take it (along with the corresponding advance). I have a couple of Mun missions here, so I'm going to do those. I'm going to strand Jeb on the Mun in the process. He'll sit there for a while, performing any science gathering or flag planting Munar missions I run across. That way, I get the money for free, since I won't have to build a new rocket.

I have 595 science and $2.76M in funds.

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So, let's spend some of that science! I take Advanced Construction, Miniaturization, Specialized Construction, Advanced Aerodynamics, and Propulsion Systems. I don't really need any of the parts these nodes offer me, but I need to take them to open up the higher tech. The tech tree's more than half-way completed.

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I take the episode 12 craft, throw on an antenna, and head to the Mun. I decide to land in the Southwest Crater since there'll be fresh science there--even if I don't get as much for transmitting it as I do for bringing it home.

I land, do some science to complete one mission, plant a flag to complete another, and then return to the tracking station with the full intention of leaving Jeb there for a while until I get unmanned probes up and running. He has enough fuel to return home, so I don't have to worry about it when it's finally time to return him to Kerbin.

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End of mission: $2.81M in cash, and 166.9 science.
 

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Episode 14

Been busy lately, so this is a quick episode. But there are video highlights :)

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We start this episode with 166 science and $2.8M in funds.

Because I want to start making my communications satellite network, I need to upgrade my tracking station. That costs $568K. This increases the power of the satellite communications from Kerbin. I also upgrade the R&D complex to max. That cost $1.6M. I'm down to $566K.

So, I need to build up some more cash to afford the satellites I'm about to put in orbit. I'm going to have to put dozens of them in orbit around Kerbin, Minmus and the Mun to complete my comm network if I have any hope of sending an unmanned probe to Duna.

Luckily, there's a tourist mission--5 tourists, some want to go to the Mun and some want to go to Minmus. And it pays really well. So we'll do that one. I can complete that in two launches and it will bring in a lot of money. I already have a "plant flag on minmus" mission that we'll take care of during these runs, as well. I will be using the Episode 13 craft, but I will relink it here as "Episode 14.craft".

First flight--Four of the tourists want to do something around Kerbin and/or the Mun: Some want to orbit, some want to fly by, some want to land. So I load those four guys up to make a Mun landing.


Here I highlight the difference between making a manual node to get to the Mun and making a Mechjeb node. Either one will require refinement once you set them.


Coming in for a landing. I make sure I land in a spot that I haven't explored before so I can pick up some science while I'm on the mission. While I'm there, I jump out, plant a flag and collect some surface samples.


On the way back, I check out my CommNet connections, to show why the commsat network will be needed.

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Back from the first flight, I have $866K and 459.7 science. I still have the Minmus flight to complete to close out the mission. So, I take the same rocket and load up the tourist that want to see Minmus. There's only 2 of them, so I fill the extra space with a pilot and engineer from my roster so that they can get some XP for the trip.

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I head out to Minmus, which you've seen me do before :)

I land, plant a flag, do science, and return home.


Picking a landing site in the ocean, and setting a manual maneuver node.


Landing from upper atmo to the ocean.

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$1.2M in funds, 857 science after both trips. I've almost made the money back that I spent upgrading my buildings. And I have plenty to start making my commsat network, so I'll start on that next episode.
 

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