Hullooooo, It's Scott Manley!
December 9, 2014 12:30 AM Subscribe
Space enthusiast, astrophysicist, programmer, and retired club DJ, Scott Manley, a Scotsman living in San Francisco, is one of a great number of "Let's Play" youtube video creators. Among the players of Kerbal Space Program, however, he's somewhere between rockstar and deity. Now, he is on the cusp of a new level of achievement: Faster Than Light.
Playing the game on his basement computer, Manley is the source of numerous tutorials and gameplay guides for KSP, and a fount of information about spaceflight history and current events, casually added to his narration. In addition to being the Instructor-in-Chief, Manley also has several additional series including a 100% reusable space program, reddit challenges (for which, by the assent of reddit moderators, there are 3 levels of difficulty, in ascending order: Easy Mode, Hard Mode, Scott Manley Mode), and his magnum opus, now in 95 roughly-20-minute episodes (about 32 hours): Interstellar Quest.
This series, originally called "Warp Drive or Bust!," adds a laundry list of mods to the stock game which enhance the challenge of the game: life support and (deadly) reentry heat effects are modded in, as well as communications headaches, in-space construction, enhanced-difficulty aerodynamics, and improved visuals.
But they all take a back seat to the showpiece Interstellar Mod, which adds an all new tech-tree to the game's career mode, including parts for experimental and speculative technologies: microwave broadcast power, plasma engines, antimatter power and, ultimately, the faster-than-light Alcubierre Drive, a theoretical spacewarp drive that stretches space behind the ship while contracting space in front, allowing it to move faster than light without breaking the local speed of light.
Manley set a few rules in the first episode: Kerbals that die stay dead; no restoring from savegame or quicksave except in the event of a serious game glitch; no fewer than 7 in-game days between flights; and no debris may be deliberately left in orbit where it becomes a hazard. An implicit rule also demands that all ships must be named after something that relates to Sean Connery.
With the return of the John Patrick Mason, a fusion-powered spaceplane that flew to planet Eve, the game's Venus analogue, Manley has accumulated enough of the science resource to unlock the top leaf on the tech tree, "Ultra High Energy Physics," which means the 96th episode should feature the maiden voyage of a ship with an antimatter-powered warp drive.
He's Scott Manley; Fly Safe!
Previously in the Blue:
A father and son walk into a spaceplane hangar...
Asteroid Discovery - 1980-2012
Playing the game on his basement computer, Manley is the source of numerous tutorials and gameplay guides for KSP, and a fount of information about spaceflight history and current events, casually added to his narration. In addition to being the Instructor-in-Chief, Manley also has several additional series including a 100% reusable space program, reddit challenges (for which, by the assent of reddit moderators, there are 3 levels of difficulty, in ascending order: Easy Mode, Hard Mode, Scott Manley Mode), and his magnum opus, now in 95 roughly-20-minute episodes (about 32 hours): Interstellar Quest.
This series, originally called "Warp Drive or Bust!," adds a laundry list of mods to the stock game which enhance the challenge of the game: life support and (deadly) reentry heat effects are modded in, as well as communications headaches, in-space construction, enhanced-difficulty aerodynamics, and improved visuals.
But they all take a back seat to the showpiece Interstellar Mod, which adds an all new tech-tree to the game's career mode, including parts for experimental and speculative technologies: microwave broadcast power, plasma engines, antimatter power and, ultimately, the faster-than-light Alcubierre Drive, a theoretical spacewarp drive that stretches space behind the ship while contracting space in front, allowing it to move faster than light without breaking the local speed of light.
Manley set a few rules in the first episode: Kerbals that die stay dead; no restoring from savegame or quicksave except in the event of a serious game glitch; no fewer than 7 in-game days between flights; and no debris may be deliberately left in orbit where it becomes a hazard. An implicit rule also demands that all ships must be named after something that relates to Sean Connery.
With the return of the John Patrick Mason, a fusion-powered spaceplane that flew to planet Eve, the game's Venus analogue, Manley has accumulated enough of the science resource to unlock the top leaf on the tech tree, "Ultra High Energy Physics," which means the 96th episode should feature the maiden voyage of a ship with an antimatter-powered warp drive.
He's Scott Manley; Fly Safe!
Previously in the Blue:
A father and son walk into a spaceplane hangar...
Asteroid Discovery - 1980-2012
One of Manley's videos helped me rescue Thombles Kerman from orbit.
posted by dirigibleman at 12:52 AM on December 9, 2014
posted by dirigibleman at 12:52 AM on December 9, 2014
> Space enthusiast, astrophysicist, programmer, and retired club DJ, Scott Manley, a Scotsman living in San Francisco, is [...] somewhere between rockstar and deity.
Is he also a neurosurgeon? Does he drive a jet powered pickup truck? Just curious.
posted by ardgedee at 4:37 AM on December 9, 2014 [18 favorites]
Is he also a neurosurgeon? Does he drive a jet powered pickup truck? Just curious.
posted by ardgedee at 4:37 AM on December 9, 2014 [18 favorites]
He kind of got out of the communications restrictions because the Remotetech2 mod had a game destroying bug for about 70% of the time Interstellar Quest has been running (it's fixed now for the newest version 0.25).
I bet the next couple episodes will be dedicated to the lives of Sonzen and Durdoss Kerman, those brave Kerbalnaugts who lost their lives in a freak landing accident but died as martyrs to the cause of the warp drive, as well as designing and testing the warp ship. My bet is Manley wants to save the actual warp flight for #100.
And if you're checking back in on KSP after some time away, you really need to try Roverdude's suite of spacestation/colony mods.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:06 AM on December 9, 2014
I bet the next couple episodes will be dedicated to the lives of Sonzen and Durdoss Kerman, those brave Kerbalnaugts who lost their lives in a freak landing accident but died as martyrs to the cause of the warp drive, as well as designing and testing the warp ship. My bet is Manley wants to save the actual warp flight for #100.
And if you're checking back in on KSP after some time away, you really need to try Roverdude's suite of spacestation/colony mods.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:06 AM on December 9, 2014
I can't wait to see what the implications of interstellar travel are. Especially how the game or mod handles exoplanets. Given how entertaining episode 95 is, I might have to go back and watch the whole thing.
Something else that's easy to overlook is Manley has produced roughly the kind of content that in television would lead to a syndication deal. Presumably as a one-man operation. Plus I see he has other "shows." It's impressive.
P.S. Nice post, Sunburnt.
posted by ob1quixote at 5:16 AM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Something else that's easy to overlook is Manley has produced roughly the kind of content that in television would lead to a syndication deal. Presumably as a one-man operation. Plus I see he has other "shows." It's impressive.
P.S. Nice post, Sunburnt.
posted by ob1quixote at 5:16 AM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Scott Manley is Kerbal Space Program.
I'm going through career mode the hard way, and I'm also trying to hold to certain rules of continuity. I'll reset a flight that goes bonkers due to a flawed design, but I don't reload from a save.
So my Jeb is currently out of gas, trapped in an orbit with a periapsis of 2 million meters and an apoapsis beyond the Mun. I have no choice but to commit the full resources of Kerbin to the scientific research necessary to develop and build a vehicle capable of rescuing our badS national hero.
(Jeb had just made the first Kerbal landing on the Mun. He EVAed but he didn't walk on the surface because somebody forgot to install a ladder on the lander.)
posted by rlk at 5:33 AM on December 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm going through career mode the hard way, and I'm also trying to hold to certain rules of continuity. I'll reset a flight that goes bonkers due to a flawed design, but I don't reload from a save.
So my Jeb is currently out of gas, trapped in an orbit with a periapsis of 2 million meters and an apoapsis beyond the Mun. I have no choice but to commit the full resources of Kerbin to the scientific research necessary to develop and build a vehicle capable of rescuing our badS national hero.
(Jeb had just made the first Kerbal landing on the Mun. He EVAed but he didn't walk on the surface because somebody forgot to install a ladder on the lander.)
posted by rlk at 5:33 AM on December 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
Scott Manley taught me everything I know.
I finally just made it back from the surface of another planet, Duna. I've been trying to make a successful two way trip to Eve for a while now, but it is proving quite difficult. I originally sent a Kerbal on a one-way trip there and then I sent another one to rescue him... Now there are two Kerbals stranded on Eve.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 5:39 AM on December 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
I finally just made it back from the surface of another planet, Duna. I've been trying to make a successful two way trip to Eve for a while now, but it is proving quite difficult. I originally sent a Kerbal on a one-way trip there and then I sent another one to rescue him... Now there are two Kerbals stranded on Eve.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 5:39 AM on December 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
You don't need ladders in the Mun. Use your kerbonaut rcs.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 5:44 AM on December 9, 2014
posted by CautionToTheWind at 5:44 AM on December 9, 2014
I originally sent a Kerbal on a one-way trip there and then I sent another one to rescue him... Now there are two Kerbals stranded on Eve.
Scroll back and watch Manley do it, a spaceplane really makes it easier, although full disclosure, the only way Ive been able to manage an Eve liftoff is using the comically overpowered KSPI fusion drive or Roverdude's equivalent Karbodium fusion drive. Trying to do it using stock parts is crazytalk.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:46 AM on December 9, 2014
Scroll back and watch Manley do it, a spaceplane really makes it easier, although full disclosure, the only way Ive been able to manage an Eve liftoff is using the comically overpowered KSPI fusion drive or Roverdude's equivalent Karbodium fusion drive. Trying to do it using stock parts is crazytalk.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:46 AM on December 9, 2014
ob1quixote: "Given how entertaining episode 95 is, I might have to go back and watch the whole thing.""Entertaining"??? Dude, those guys ended up splattered all over the cockpit! #neverforget #justiceforderdosandsonzon
posted by brokkr at 6:22 AM on December 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
a periapsis of 2 million meters and an apoapsis
Do KSP players just keep using the generic terms instead of perikerbin, apokerbin, perimun, apomun, etc...?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:26 AM on December 9, 2014
Do KSP players just keep using the generic terms instead of perikerbin, apokerbin, perimun, apomun, etc...?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:26 AM on December 9, 2014
Love this guy. His EVE tutorials were crucial to my enjoyment of that game.
posted by GrapeApiary at 7:38 AM on December 9, 2014
posted by GrapeApiary at 7:38 AM on December 9, 2014
Do KSP players just keep using the generic terms instead of perikerbin, apokerbin, perimun, apomun, etc...?
Mostly. A few more specific terms have taken hold -- for example, you'll hear about a "Trans-Munar injection" maneuver now and then -- but it's mostly the generic ones.
posted by Zonker at 7:43 AM on December 9, 2014
Mostly. A few more specific terms have taken hold -- for example, you'll hear about a "Trans-Munar injection" maneuver now and then -- but it's mostly the generic ones.
posted by Zonker at 7:43 AM on December 9, 2014
I would posit that "trans-Munar" only gets used because it puns cleanly on trans-lunar. Perikerbin, etc. are too cumbersome to take hold. Anyway, apoapsis/periapsis are generic and don't refer to specific bodies (never really seen anyone refer to perihelion/aphelion in KSP forums).
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:12 AM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:12 AM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
> the only way Ive been able to manage an Eve liftoff is using the comically overpowered KSPI fusion drive or Roverdude's equivalent Karbodium fusion drive. Trying to do it using stock parts is crazytalk.
Youtube is full of stock takeoffs from Eve, most of which terrify me due to the lack of command pod, and often requiring a final seat-of-the-pants thrust into orbit using the kerbals EVA suit jets, and thus no instruments except for the map screen.
Manley's own Eve or Bust series uses a balloon mod for exploring Eve, but a stock (I'm pretty sure) rocket for returning to orbit, and still features suited kerbals on the leading edge of the spaceship, but at least it has the deltaV for a true orbit, since all 4 of his kerbalnauts (I know, 4! It's like he's taunting us) can't thrust in EVA independently at the same time.
Speaking of seat-of-the-pants, there's one player, Seat Of The Pants Industries, who makes us all look like rank amateurs with these teeny-tiny ships, and did a single-ship Eve return mission ...in under 12 tons of ship. SOTPI really knows how to drop the mic.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:49 AM on December 9, 2014
Youtube is full of stock takeoffs from Eve, most of which terrify me due to the lack of command pod, and often requiring a final seat-of-the-pants thrust into orbit using the kerbals EVA suit jets, and thus no instruments except for the map screen.
Manley's own Eve or Bust series uses a balloon mod for exploring Eve, but a stock (I'm pretty sure) rocket for returning to orbit, and still features suited kerbals on the leading edge of the spaceship, but at least it has the deltaV for a true orbit, since all 4 of his kerbalnauts (I know, 4! It's like he's taunting us) can't thrust in EVA independently at the same time.
Speaking of seat-of-the-pants, there's one player, Seat Of The Pants Industries, who makes us all look like rank amateurs with these teeny-tiny ships, and did a single-ship Eve return mission ...in under 12 tons of ship. SOTPI really knows how to drop the mic.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:49 AM on December 9, 2014
He EVAed but he didn't walk on the surface because somebody forgot to install a ladder on the lander.
Need a checklist for the VAB. I've had a dozen probes make a perfect launch and transfer orbit insertion burn, then go stone dead because Eriko Kerman forgot to put a F*^#!@G solar panel or RTG on the damn thing.
Make sure you have ladders, landing gear, antennas, power, and MOAR BOO...I mean enough ΔV, because nothing looks quite as bad as almost enough ΔV to make orbit.
And while you don't need them quite like you used to before 0.25, when you have MOAR BOOSTER, you need MOAR STRUTS.
posted by eriko at 8:58 AM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Need a checklist for the VAB. I've had a dozen probes make a perfect launch and transfer orbit insertion burn, then go stone dead because Eriko Kerman forgot to put a F*^#!@G solar panel or RTG on the damn thing.
Make sure you have ladders, landing gear, antennas, power, and MOAR BOO...I mean enough ΔV, because nothing looks quite as bad as almost enough ΔV to make orbit.
And while you don't need them quite like you used to before 0.25, when you have MOAR BOOSTER, you need MOAR STRUTS.
posted by eriko at 8:58 AM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
A few more specific terms have taken hold -- for example, you'll hear about a "Trans-Munar injection" maneuver now and then -- but it's mostly the generic ones.
Mainly because in map view, they're labeled as periapsis and apoapsis, no matter what.
And it wouldn't be called perikerbin. The problem is we don't know the Kerbal equivalent of Greek and Latin. Remember it's not periearth, it's perigee.
posted by eriko at 9:06 AM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Mainly because in map view, they're labeled as periapsis and apoapsis, no matter what.
And it wouldn't be called perikerbin. The problem is we don't know the Kerbal equivalent of Greek and Latin. Remember it's not periearth, it's perigee.
posted by eriko at 9:06 AM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Not to be a fragile flower, but I was sort of jarred by the whimsical animation of the exploding space shuttle in the "about" video on the Kerbal home page. I was living in the Marshall Islands and twenty years old when it happened, and didn't even hear about it until days later, but it still left its mark I guess.
posted by mecran01 at 9:21 AM on December 9, 2014
posted by mecran01 at 9:21 AM on December 9, 2014
SOTPI really knows how to drop the mic.
Right, it's POSSIBLE, and seat of the pants is a whole other level. I like my missions more of the single craft variety even if it requires mods. A massive multi-stage lander, multi-launch fuel positioning, or insanely perfect line of sight flying is something Id rather enjoy someone else doing on youtube than try to replicate myself.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:21 AM on December 9, 2014
Right, it's POSSIBLE, and seat of the pants is a whole other level. I like my missions more of the single craft variety even if it requires mods. A massive multi-stage lander, multi-launch fuel positioning, or insanely perfect line of sight flying is something Id rather enjoy someone else doing on youtube than try to replicate myself.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:21 AM on December 9, 2014
Speaking of seat-of-the-pants, there's one player, Seat Of The Pants Industries, who makes us all look like rank amateurs with these teeny-tiny ships, and did a single-ship Eve return mission ...in under 12 tons of ship.
That is really neat, but it bothers me that Squad have put all of this work into the "career" mode without even putting in something basic like re-entry burn (yeah, mods, still).
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 9:23 AM on December 9, 2014
That is really neat, but it bothers me that Squad have put all of this work into the "career" mode without even putting in something basic like re-entry burn (yeah, mods, still).
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 9:23 AM on December 9, 2014
Not to be a fragile flower, but I was sort of jarred by the whimsical animation of the exploding space shuttle in the "about" video on the Kerbal home page.
Then you really don't want to read the KSP Forum thread titled You Will Not Go To Space Today. (Link goes to last page -- of 160. Lots of things don't go to space every day in KSP.)
And if you really want to see KSP done either very right or very wrong, look up the user "whackjob" on the forums.
posted by eriko at 10:33 AM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Then you really don't want to read the KSP Forum thread titled You Will Not Go To Space Today. (Link goes to last page -- of 160. Lots of things don't go to space every day in KSP.)
And if you really want to see KSP done either very right or very wrong, look up the user "whackjob" on the forums.
posted by eriko at 10:33 AM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
An implicit rule also demands that all ships must be named after something that relates to Sean Connery.
*breaks a bottle of fine Kerbal sherry against the gleaming hull of the K.S.S. YOUR MOTHER TREBEK*
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:28 PM on December 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
*breaks a bottle of fine Kerbal sherry against the gleaming hull of the K.S.S. YOUR MOTHER TREBEK*
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:28 PM on December 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
And if you really want to see KSP done either very right or very wrong, look up the user "whackjob" on the forums.
I see him as /u/Whackjob-KSP on reddit, where he is the polar opposite of the aforementioned Seat of the Pants Industries. Where SOTPI goes small, Whackjob goes... erm, what's bigger than ginormous?
posted by Sunburnt at 3:30 PM on December 9, 2014
I see him as /u/Whackjob-KSP on reddit, where he is the polar opposite of the aforementioned Seat of the Pants Industries. Where SOTPI goes small, Whackjob goes... erm, what's bigger than ginormous?
posted by Sunburnt at 3:30 PM on December 9, 2014
For me the ultimate Kerbal done so wrong that it's right are Danny's videos. Danny finds every possible game breaking bug or quirk of the engine and exploits it to maximum hilarity all set to Kevin McLeod's music.
I have no idea how Scott continues to turn out so much quality content week after week. The guy has a day job, a wife and kids, multiple hobbies yet still manages to produce at least 10 hours of edited-down footage a week. It's crazy.
posted by nathan_teske at 4:41 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
I have no idea how Scott continues to turn out so much quality content week after week. The guy has a day job, a wife and kids, multiple hobbies yet still manages to produce at least 10 hours of edited-down footage a week. It's crazy.
posted by nathan_teske at 4:41 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Figured I'd post this here since it seems relevant, but it looks like some big changes and new features are incoming: Forum Post
posted by A Bad Catholic at 6:27 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by A Bad Catholic at 6:27 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Are they just never planning on adding reentry burn? Is it just that it would make it too hard? As it is, aerobraking mostly just feels like cheating, and I'm qualified to judge if the mod gets it "right".
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:56 PM on December 9, 2014
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 8:56 PM on December 9, 2014
A question for all of our resident kerbalers:
What's the best way to get into it? I like computer games and I've got a physics degree, so I always think it looks right up my alley. However, when I tried messing around for a bit with it (this was a year or two ago), I couldn't get it to click. Can any of you point me in the right direction?
posted by Ned G at 3:45 AM on December 10, 2014
What's the best way to get into it? I like computer games and I've got a physics degree, so I always think it looks right up my alley. However, when I tried messing around for a bit with it (this was a year or two ago), I couldn't get it to click. Can any of you point me in the right direction?
posted by Ned G at 3:45 AM on December 10, 2014
Are they just never planning on adding reentry burn? Is it just that it would make it too hard?
They do plan to, but I think it'll be part of the "hard-easy" mode switch they've just implemented. If they can make the jump to the 64bit Unity Engine, it'll become much easier. I know that atmospheric physics as a whole is high up on the revamp list.
There is the "Deadly Reentry" mod that gives you just this. I suspect the reason Squad hasn't brought that mod directly into the game is that with the forthcoming atmospheric physics revamp, it would need to change anyway.
As it is, aerobraking mostly just feels like cheating, and I'm qualified to judge if the mod gets it "right".
Aerobraking, in and of itself, is most definitely not cheating. We simple could not have reached the moon in 1969 if we had to carry up the nearly 13km/sec of ΔV you would need to enter LEO from the lunar transfer orbit, then null that orbital velocity. Many martian probes have areobraked into Mars orbits after transfer*, and of course, all of the Mars Landers have used areobraking to shed most of the orbital velocity before landing.
Aerobraking your entire lander, legs and all, to Kerbin landing? Yeah, that's over the top.
You can play in "real" mode by simply making sure that there's a decoupler between your capsule and the rest of the spacecraft and firing it before you fire the parachutes. The trick here is to remember that you have to transfer the science off your experiments before you do so, or you lose what you didn't transmit.***
However, when I tried messing around for a bit with it (this was a year or two ago), I couldn't get it to click.
It's a much more mature, and much more stable, game now, which is why the current alpha (0.25) is the last and the next rev will be the first beta (0.90. Beta Than Evar!) The forums have a lovely page called The Drawing Board: A library of tutorials and other useful information covering everything from "how to take off without all the explody" to launch window planners to figure out when the next transfer window to Jool is open. To come back to the FPP, the first tutorial link is to Scott Manley's tutorial videos. Of course.
You can start career (where you have science and money to deal with) science (where you have infinite money but still need to learn the tech) or just sandbox. I'd do sandbox first, figure out how to reach LKO, how the maneuver nodes work, how to rendezvous, and how to get to transfer orbits.
KSP gives you a training body for that -- Mun. Launch into a 100km circular orbit along the equator. Point the ship prograde and watch. When you see Munrise, burn about 830m/sec prograde, and you'll intercept the moon. Mun, happily enough, is in a circular orbit at 0° inclination, and since KSC is on the equator, it's trivial to match the inclination and make an intercept right away.
Really, for the difficulty of getting from LEO to the Moon, you really want to try to reach Minimus, which is further out (just 30m/sec from Kerbin Escape) and you'll have an inclination change to deal with -- oh, and occasionally, you'll find Mun is in the way of a transfer orbit. This comes up in Duna transfers as well, when your ideal window turns out to need closer to 5km/sec, because you literally have to avoid Mun, and Duna's orbital inclination is almost identical to Mun's (0.06° vs. 0.)
You do need enough computer, in particular, you do need enough GPU. My 24" Late 2009 iMac simply didn't have the graphics muscle to get beyond about 1FPS when launching, though they have optimized a number of things since then. My 27" Late 2013 iMac has no problems running KSP at all, nor does my 13" Retina MacBook Pro, but the fan really spins up on the MBP when I'm running KSP.
* And famously, at least one burned up and another fatally lithobraked.. Never said this was easy! ?**
** The funny thing? Lithoblraking is fundamentally how Spirit and Opportunity successfully landed. NASA took a bad joke and made it into an actual safe landing method.
*** Oh, and another round of applause for that f#)&@(d Eriko Kerman for forgetting to put an antenna on that Eeloo probe, which, of course, has no chance of making a return to Kerbin, which meant all that lovely science stayed in orbit around Eeloo.
posted by eriko at 6:23 AM on December 10, 2014 [4 favorites]
They do plan to, but I think it'll be part of the "hard-easy" mode switch they've just implemented. If they can make the jump to the 64bit Unity Engine, it'll become much easier. I know that atmospheric physics as a whole is high up on the revamp list.
There is the "Deadly Reentry" mod that gives you just this. I suspect the reason Squad hasn't brought that mod directly into the game is that with the forthcoming atmospheric physics revamp, it would need to change anyway.
As it is, aerobraking mostly just feels like cheating, and I'm qualified to judge if the mod gets it "right".
Aerobraking, in and of itself, is most definitely not cheating. We simple could not have reached the moon in 1969 if we had to carry up the nearly 13km/sec of ΔV you would need to enter LEO from the lunar transfer orbit, then null that orbital velocity. Many martian probes have areobraked into Mars orbits after transfer*, and of course, all of the Mars Landers have used areobraking to shed most of the orbital velocity before landing.
Aerobraking your entire lander, legs and all, to Kerbin landing? Yeah, that's over the top.
You can play in "real" mode by simply making sure that there's a decoupler between your capsule and the rest of the spacecraft and firing it before you fire the parachutes. The trick here is to remember that you have to transfer the science off your experiments before you do so, or you lose what you didn't transmit.***
However, when I tried messing around for a bit with it (this was a year or two ago), I couldn't get it to click.
It's a much more mature, and much more stable, game now, which is why the current alpha (0.25) is the last and the next rev will be the first beta (0.90. Beta Than Evar!) The forums have a lovely page called The Drawing Board: A library of tutorials and other useful information covering everything from "how to take off without all the explody" to launch window planners to figure out when the next transfer window to Jool is open. To come back to the FPP, the first tutorial link is to Scott Manley's tutorial videos. Of course.
You can start career (where you have science and money to deal with) science (where you have infinite money but still need to learn the tech) or just sandbox. I'd do sandbox first, figure out how to reach LKO, how the maneuver nodes work, how to rendezvous, and how to get to transfer orbits.
KSP gives you a training body for that -- Mun. Launch into a 100km circular orbit along the equator. Point the ship prograde and watch. When you see Munrise, burn about 830m/sec prograde, and you'll intercept the moon. Mun, happily enough, is in a circular orbit at 0° inclination, and since KSC is on the equator, it's trivial to match the inclination and make an intercept right away.
Really, for the difficulty of getting from LEO to the Moon, you really want to try to reach Minimus, which is further out (just 30m/sec from Kerbin Escape) and you'll have an inclination change to deal with -- oh, and occasionally, you'll find Mun is in the way of a transfer orbit. This comes up in Duna transfers as well, when your ideal window turns out to need closer to 5km/sec, because you literally have to avoid Mun, and Duna's orbital inclination is almost identical to Mun's (0.06° vs. 0.)
You do need enough computer, in particular, you do need enough GPU. My 24" Late 2009 iMac simply didn't have the graphics muscle to get beyond about 1FPS when launching, though they have optimized a number of things since then. My 27" Late 2013 iMac has no problems running KSP at all, nor does my 13" Retina MacBook Pro, but the fan really spins up on the MBP when I'm running KSP.
* And famously, at least one burned up and another fatally lithobraked.. Never said this was easy! ?**
** The funny thing? Lithoblraking is fundamentally how Spirit and Opportunity successfully landed. NASA took a bad joke and made it into an actual safe landing method.
*** Oh, and another round of applause for that f#)&@(d Eriko Kerman for forgetting to put an antenna on that Eeloo probe, which, of course, has no chance of making a return to Kerbin, which meant all that lovely science stayed in orbit around Eeloo.
posted by eriko at 6:23 AM on December 10, 2014 [4 favorites]
Yeah, I know aerobraking is a real thing, and I'm NOT qualified to judge the mod, which is what I meant to say until I dropped a word making it sound like I'm an expert.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 7:10 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 7:10 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
You're a Steely-eyed Missile Man, so it's well possible you're an expert on aerobraking.
> You do need enough computer, in particular, you do need enough GPU.
And preferably a 64-bit OS in the case of Windows players, because 32-bit has a memory limitation that can cause slowdown. However, you don't need a great GPU for the game, just a pretty-good GPU, unless you start adding the beauty mods which have high-res textures, or things like the mod that add clouds to the bodies with atmospheres (and a few others, such as a menthol-green vapor over Minmus).
posted by Sunburnt at 7:19 AM on December 10, 2014
> You do need enough computer, in particular, you do need enough GPU.
And preferably a 64-bit OS in the case of Windows players, because 32-bit has a memory limitation that can cause slowdown. However, you don't need a great GPU for the game, just a pretty-good GPU, unless you start adding the beauty mods which have high-res textures, or things like the mod that add clouds to the bodies with atmospheres (and a few others, such as a menthol-green vapor over Minmus).
posted by Sunburnt at 7:19 AM on December 10, 2014
And preferably a 64-bit OS in the case of Windows players, because 32-bit has a memory limitation that can cause slowdown.
The 64-bit Windows client is pretty flakey right now. For some people it runs flawless, others it doesn't even load. My understanding is that most of these issues are issue in Unity, not in Squad's code, so we're probably not going to see major improvements until they switch over to Unity 5.0.
posted by nathan_teske at 9:16 AM on December 10, 2014
The 64-bit Windows client is pretty flakey right now. For some people it runs flawless, others it doesn't even load. My understanding is that most of these issues are issue in Unity, not in Squad's code, so we're probably not going to see major improvements until they switch over to Unity 5.0.
posted by nathan_teske at 9:16 AM on December 10, 2014
My understanding is that most of these issues are issue in Unity, not in Squad's code, so we're probably not going to see major improvements until they switch over to Unity 5.0.
Yeah, and there are issues with that switchover as well. The last SquadCast mentions this: "Unity 4.6.1 is available, but isn't much better and won't be until Unity 5 comes out. However, 0.90.0 will most likely still be released built with 4.5.5 on all platforms. Upgrading is planned for later, though.
"
Unclear if upgrading means to 4.6.1 or 5.X, but my guess is 5.X. I suspect, though, that there's only a 50-50 chance of Unity 5 in the actual release. It really depends on how well both the Unity 5 and KSP beta track go.
posted by eriko at 9:41 AM on December 10, 2014
Yeah, and there are issues with that switchover as well. The last SquadCast mentions this: "Unity 4.6.1 is available, but isn't much better and won't be until Unity 5 comes out. However, 0.90.0 will most likely still be released built with 4.5.5 on all platforms. Upgrading is planned for later, though.
"
Unclear if upgrading means to 4.6.1 or 5.X, but my guess is 5.X. I suspect, though, that there's only a 50-50 chance of Unity 5 in the actual release. It really depends on how well both the Unity 5 and KSP beta track go.
posted by eriko at 9:41 AM on December 10, 2014
Stable 64-bit would be a dream come true, my 60-ish mod install is at the point where I have to constantly keep an eye on the RAM usage to avoid a fatal crash over 4gb.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:31 PM on December 10, 2014
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:31 PM on December 10, 2014
Hopefully you have Kerbal Alarm Clock which, apart from being the best time-keeping mod in the game, also makes frequent backups of your persistent.sfs file when to switching ships, because that is one small crack through which the Kraken enters the Kerbal Universe. Getting a corrupt persistent file is a heartbreaker.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:01 PM on December 10, 2014
posted by Sunburnt at 8:01 PM on December 10, 2014
Getting a corrupt persistent file is a heartbreaker.
Even more so than missing your target orbit intercept burn. Seriously, Kerbal Alarm Clock and and Kerbal Engineer Redux are *must* have mods -- KER means you *know* what ΔV you have without having to do a great deal of math, never mind that figuring out the exact mass you're flying.
Mechjeb is fun in some ways and anti-fun in others, so I can take it or leave it -- I use it at times, and just fly like a Jeb the rest. But KER and Kerbal Alarm Clock should be part of the game. Don't leave Kerbin without them.
KAC: When you absolutely, positively, need to burn on time.
posted by eriko at 5:18 AM on December 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
Even more so than missing your target orbit intercept burn. Seriously, Kerbal Alarm Clock and and Kerbal Engineer Redux are *must* have mods -- KER means you *know* what ΔV you have without having to do a great deal of math, never mind that figuring out the exact mass you're flying.
Mechjeb is fun in some ways and anti-fun in others, so I can take it or leave it -- I use it at times, and just fly like a Jeb the rest. But KER and Kerbal Alarm Clock should be part of the game. Don't leave Kerbin without them.
KAC: When you absolutely, positively, need to burn on time.
posted by eriko at 5:18 AM on December 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
Ned G, what worked for me was starting in Science Mode. When I tried to do sandbox, all the parts just confused me. When you do Science or Career Mode, you are forced to make simple rockets, so it's much easier to figure out how they go together.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 6:06 PM on December 11, 2014
posted by A Bad Catholic at 6:06 PM on December 11, 2014
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posted by Sebmojo at 12:37 AM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]