Flight planing career mode

[Ongen]

So i started a new career mode, and built mission control lvl 2 to unlock flight planing.
But i cant seem to find flight planing anywhere ?
Could anyone give me a few hints on how / where to plan my flight ? at the moment im just fooling around at kerbin to build resource points e.t.c so im trying to plan to land on diffrent areas to gather reports, but its a pain in the arse without being able to plan where to land.

[George Kerman]

You got it all wrong homie. That "flight planning" thing refers to planning maneuvers which is useful when you are in space, not in the atmosphere. Once you are in orbit or reached space, you can click on your trajectory and then click on add maneuver. That maneuver adding mechanism is what's called "flight planning".

[Ongen]

ahh damn, yeah i used to do that ages ago (havnt played for awhile).
but aint there any ways to plan where to land e.t.c on kerbin ? i have some missions i have to pass this and this area in 16700m e.t.c and collect a sample but how do i even know where that area is if i cant plan it :S

[George Kerman]

Well, you go to the map (press m). Click on the waypoint, there must be an icon on the map (notepad, thermometer, whatever). Then click on activate navigation. You will see that icon on your navball somewhere. If your prograde vector is aligned to that icon, you are going towards it.

Even without that, when you look on the map, you should already notice the general direction towards your target from where you are(east, west, north, south or a combination of 'em).

About landing from orbit:
a) for atmospheric bodies, there are some mods that predict the drag and where you will probably land. Other than that, experience and approximations
b) for non-atmospheric bodies,like the Mun, it's a WYSIWYG type of thing (what you see is what you get). Where the trajectory points that you will go, that's where you will go (and land).

[Chibbity]

Keep in mind that Mission Control level 2 isn't enough to actually get you "Flight Planning" on it's own and you'll have to upgrade the Tracking station to level 2 as well.

As far as landings on Kerbin go, Waypoint Manager is a great mod that I highly recommend. With it, you can make custom waypoints (actual floating graphical icons that aren't just on the navball) anywhere you want that you can follow to wherever it is you want to go. https://github.com/jrossignol/WaypointManager/releases/tag/2.6.2

[Ongen]

Thanks guys, i used to play this like half a year ago and was getting into it then. (Managed to ship people to mun (didnt say i managed to get em back, but hey atleast they left kerbin! ;P)
But i guess staying away for that long takes its toll, i definitly got to figure this stuff out again :)

I was able to mark the location of the task before launch at the map, thanks for the tip :) Now the problem is just getting over there without any electrics for stability! ;P

BTW i see theres TONS of mods for this game since last time i played it, i saw they had these KIS / KAS mods everyone recommends.
But would you guys recommend waiting with these mods until i got the hang of the basics again ? Cause im struggling to be honest hehe ;)
Im just thinking these mods might make the game even more "advanced" then as it is at the moment ?

[Joschi]

I definitely recommend sticking to vanilla until you can get to the mun, land on the mun and return safely with ease. Also making rondevouz and docking should be sth that is easily achived. One mod you might want to consider until then is KER (Kerbal Engineer Redux) which tells you the amount of dV and TWR your rocket has on each stage resulting in a lot less F5/F9 ;-)

Most mods make the game more complex and the learning curve even steeper.

[Ongen]

Yeah i just stuck to the vanilla for now, have been doing tutorials again. Either this game has changed some since last time i played or iwe gotten dumb XD
But finally starting to get stuff working! Earning money and res points :)
So thanks guys for the tips! :)

Im gonna give the mods a try after iwe been able to get to and back from the mun, but atleast its going pretty decent now, plenty of fuel to get back down after orbit around kerbal e.t.c so things are going the right way ;P

By the way, do you guys put parachutes on the solid boosters e.t.c to be able to gather the debris afterwards or is that a waste of time ? I saw you get refunded for every debris you can bring back ? But it seems like im earning more money then im loosing at the moment so i havnt really bothered doing that.

[JtBryant]

Originally posted by Pekkaen:

...By the way, do you guys put parachutes on the solid boosters...

Unless you have the mod Stage Recovery,[forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com] no.

[Ongen]

Originally posted by JtBryant:

Originally posted by Pekkaen:

...By the way, do you guys put parachutes on the solid boosters...

Unless you have the mod Stage Recovery,[forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com] no.

Ahh ok, i tried doing it to some (before restarting) i could recover the debris from tracking center but it didnt say if i got refunded for the parts or anything. But thanks again :)