Topic: Kerbal Space Program

[Sordid]

Ever wanted to one-up NASA? Prove to them how bad their rocket designs were? Make spectacular oversized fireworks? Or just blast a trio of hapless astronauts into deep space? Ever thought, how hard can it be? Well, now you can find out, with...

KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM

KSP is a game about making your own space program. You're set loose upon a space center complete with a vehicle assembly building and a launch pad, a bin full of rocket parts, ground personnel composed entirely of yes-men who build and wheel onto the launch pad anything you design no matter how crazy it is, and some astronauts to die in crew your creations. You can build anything from simple rockets to intricate multi-stage launch vehicles.

Since the game is still in development, there are only a handful of parts and no objective other than what you set for yourself. Even in this state, though, it is incredibly fun and addictive. You may have heard of Orbiter, a spaceflight simulator. This is nothing like that; as another forumite put it elsewhere, the difference between Obiter and KPS is like the difference between making to-scale miniatures for architectural design and playing with LEGOs, only the LEGOs have rocket fuel. Still, it is highly recommended to pay attention to the tutorials.

Website: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/LIv47m6kjjY" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/LIv47m6kjjY</a>

Edit: Update!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/B2WwO6e7peE" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/B2WwO6e7peE</a>

[On Fire For Christ]

I've been playing this game.  It's pretty fun but obviously needs a lot of work.  I have just managed to get a rocket up to an altitude beyond 1.1 million metres, but I don't think I have enough lateral speed to get into orbit, the current time of this flight is 21 minutes.  Now I'm still climbing at 500m/s, but decelerating, the next version of this game definitely needs a way to speed up time. 
It also seems to have planned a money system, that is not in effect yet, this would be good to get more of a learning curve, and reward achievements. 
I find it pretty hard to steer a rocket that can roll, it often becomes hard to tell which way is "up", Some kind of distinguishing features on the rocket parts would help
More parts and a way to place the wings/fins more precisely would also be good.

[jaypee]

Holy crap, this is cool. I'm going to have to check this out once I have some free time.

[Sordid]

I don't think I have enough lateral speed to get into orbit, the current time of this flight is 21 minutes.

Useful info, so you don't have to try and park your ship into orbit by just eyeballing it:
Planet is only 600 km in diameter, atmospheric effects are negligible above 40 km. Orbital velocity at 100 km altitude is 2245 m/s.

[On Fire For Christ]

is there any way to tell if you've achieved orbit?  other than just waiting

[Sordid]

is there any way to tell if you've achieved orbit?  other than just waiting

Not really. You can make an educated guess based on your speed and direction of travel, but that's about it. Future versions should have more instrumentation to help with orbital maneuvers. For the moment you're just going to have to eyeball it.

[On Fire For Christ]

ok last question.  How do you know what your ground speed is?  I was at 100k meters going about 2250m/s, but I dunno how you work out how much of that is a vertical component.  Basically I was going the right speed, but most of that speed was heading downwards.

Edit: just got an orbit going, got down to 48k and altitude started climbing again.  Not sure how stable this orbit will be though.

It's made 3 orbits now, seems to be very stable, perigee of about 45000m and 2500m/s, apogee is about 375000m and 1700m/s, orbiting for 1 hour 45 minutes.  I think i have this game pretty much beat.

[Sordid]

ok last question.  How do you know what your ground speed is?  I was at 100k meters going about 2250m/s, but I dunno how you work out how much of that is a vertical component.  Basically I was going the right speed, but most of that speed was heading downwards.

You have a variometer at the top of the screen, that can give you an idea of how much of your total speed is the vertical component.

[On Fire For Christ]

there's a new version out.  I haven't read the changelog, but some of the rocket design problems I was complaining about have been addressed.

[PANTS!]

[Sordid]

New version is out. It's got a new terrain engine, joystick support, lots of improvements all around. Still an 'experimental' release, but quite playable even in its current state. Go grab it!

[Rocket Man]

My friend and I got into a competition on who could get a rocket the highest. I think I won by building a rocket that can get to 4,200,000+ Meters.

[Sordid]

Well once you hit escpape velocity it's just a question of patience, isn't it.

[Stargrave]

i downloaded this at midnight last night and played till 3. when i woke up i played till i had to goto work. when i was on my lunch break i came home and played it till i had to go back. i am now currently playing it and have been since i got home.

[Obvious Reasons]

I think this thread deserves a bump now that a pretty significant update has been released.

The most interesting features:
* Time compression
Starting from 2x compression while you are in the atmosphere and increasing the further you get from Kearth, up to 10000x compression when you're over 1200 km away.

* The Orbital Map View
A map that gives a projection of your current flight path. It even marks the apoapsis and periapsis along it, so now it's humanly (kerbally?) possible to make beautiful round orbits. Doesn't take the atmospheric drag into account, so flight paths within the atmosphere are not accurate. Still gives a good estimate for re-entry etc.

* RCS (Reaction Control System) Modules
Small thrusters attached to the sides of your ship so you can make small corrections and maneuvers. (A youtube video demonstration by someone. Note the RCS forward and backward thrust keys, H and N by default).


I thought to myself, with these features in place, the next logical step would be to add another stellar body to the game. And indeed, the next update will include the Mun!