auto orbit?

[BCGaming05]

is there something i can unlock that has a auto orbit auto pilot or a put me into orbit button im not a rocket scientist or astronaut or good at math at all. why does this game expect us to be? or at least something that tells me when to cut off engines and directs me in the angle of attack i need to be in. im not gonna remember the tutorial. kinda hurts the replay value i go a week without playing and i jump on and have absolutely no idea what im doing.

[toinkertoy]

Not really an auto-orbit game! It's not all that difficult though (you can even use the burn nodes after launch once the rocket is at apogee to insert into orbit) even if your launches aren't perfect the game is pretty forgiving.

if you can figure out the details how to design rockets and payloads, you can prolly figure out enough to launch a rocket into an acceptable trajectory where you can then use the burn nodes to insert into orbit. If you can't figure out either, then you're prolly gonna be stuck to just downloading shared craft with auto-launch/orbit vizzy programs.

Those are your options really....

[BCGaming05]

thank you. so the answer is yes you need to be a rocket scientist lol i was in air force jrotc in highschool learned how to navigate aircraft without gps by doing complex algebra and had to learn how trajectories work by using trigonometry, calculus and some old weird navigation contractor thing. learned about thrust trajectories and all kinds of sh!t, helped start up a rocketry club but this game is more complicated than that was lol

[toinkertoy]

Originally posted by BCGaming05:

thank you. so the answer is yes you need to be a rocket scientist

Answer is No! I've not done any complex math of any kind playing this game. It does help to have basic understanding (an interest) in orbital mechanics but a graduate degree is not required by any means.

Sounds more like you may not have any interest in learning those things which then makes something, like this game, not fun but instead frustrating and more like work then enjoyment. But that's perfectly ok too. Not everyone is going to have that level of interests in rocketry details to play this game. There are other spaceflight games out there to suit that crowd as well.

[mreed2]

How to get to orbit:

1. Make sure all of your stages have a TWR 1.5 - 2.5.
   
2. Climb to 5000 feet.
   
3. Change pitch to 60 degrees.
   
4. Wait until he green arrow (surface prograde) aligns with the white arrow.
   
5. Switch to "Prograde Lock" mode (click on the green arrow)
   
6. Wait until aposisis is 100 km or greater.
   
7. Shutdown engines.
   
8. While waiting, and after altitude > 80 km, set pitch to 1 degree.
   
9. wait until time to aposisis = 30 seconds.
   
10. If time to aposisis is getting smaller, pitch up. If it increases above 2 minutes, turn the engines off and wait until it reaches 30 seconds.
    
11. Continue until periapsis is greater than 80 km.

No rocket science required.

Notes

• If TWR is high, a lower initial pitch angle may work better.
  
• Rather than turning the engines off and waiting for time to aposisis to decrease you can throttle down.
  
• This won't work if you run out of fuel before reaching orbit. Delta-V measures how much practical fuel your rocket has, and you'll need 5,000 m/s to reach orbit.

If you aren't interested in learning what TWR or Delta-V means, then... this isn't the game for you. It is simulating rocket science, after all.

[Blueberry Muffins!]

"Go sideways really really fast."

"No hitting solid objects like people or buildings or rocks."

"Don't burn up".

"Save some fuel to go faster at the top of your ascent too."

That's about all the rocket science you really need to reach orbit.

[BCGaming05]

yeah ive got getting into orbit down but its the getting the exact apoapsis and proapsis thing that i find pretty much impossible to dial in. thats where some sort of on board chip that tells me when to turn or turn off engines would make since being that most modern rockets and shuttles have exactly that built in.

[BCGaming05]

Originally posted by mreed2:

How to get to orbit:

1. Make sure all of your stages have a TWR 1.5 - 2.5.
   
2. Climb to 5000 feet.
   
3. Change pitch to 60 degrees.
   
4. Wait until he green arrow (surface prograde) aligns with the white arrow.
   
5. Switch to "Prograde Lock" mode (click on the green arrow)
   
6. Wait until aposisis is 100 km or greater.
   
7. Shutdown engines.
   
8. While waiting, and after altitude > 80 km, set pitch to 1 degree.
   
9. wait until time to aposisis = 30 seconds.
   
10. If time to aposisis is getting smaller, pitch up. If it increases above 2 minutes, turn the engines off and wait until it reaches 30 seconds.
    
11. Continue until periapsis is greater than 80 km.

No rocket science required.

Notes

• If TWR is high, a lower initial pitch angle may work better.
  
• Rather than turning the engines off and waiting for time to aposisis to decrease you can throttle down.
  
• This won't work if you run out of fuel before reaching orbit. Delta-V measures how much practical fuel your rocket has, and you'll need 5,000 m/s to reach orbit.

If you aren't interested in learning what TWR or Delta-V means, then... this isn't the game for you. It is simulating rocket science, after all.

thanks for the detailed instructions. ive got basic orbit down. but i honestly need to have the definition of each of the words on my other monitor when playing this game because even though i have an idea what prograde is in the game but i honestly dont have a clue what it means lol. the tutorial didnt really cover that. im not meaning to sound whiny but the game expects you to learn from one try and your on your own which hurts the games replay ability. this game reminds me of space flight simulator i use to get so angry because it doesnt tell you how to get into orbit or anything it just expects you to know rocketry navigation lol

[toinkertoy]

Originally posted by BCGaming05:

thats where some sort of on board chip that tells me when to turn or turn off engines would make since being that most modern rockets and shuttles have exactly that built in.

sounds like what the burn nodes do basically! I use them religiously.

[toinkertoy]

It’s not whiny, this game doesn’t really teach. It could do a lot better with more tutorials, guides, etc. it kind of expects you have that knowledge already or have played other similar games!

[mreed2]

Getting an exact aposisis / periaspis while flying to orbit manually is indeed very difficult. Thankfully, thus isn't required. Aposisis and periaspis can be adjusted with very high levels of control after you reach orbit.

To increase aposisis, thrust prograde when near periapsis. To increase periaspis, thrust prograde when near aposisis. To reduce aposisis, thrust retrograde at periaspis. To reduce aposisis, thrust retrograde at periaspis.

Notes:

• Close means "within 30 seconds"
  
• If you increase your periapsis above your aposisis it will change to an aposisis.
  
• If you reduce your aposisis below your periaspis the it will change to an periaspis.
  
• As long as you don't burn retrograde, there is zero extra delta-v cost associated with raising your apoapsis or periaspis during your initial launch to orbit or afterwards. If you need to burn retrograde then there is a small penalty (< 100 m/s).
  
• For fine control, you should make your burns at a low throttle setting (1-5%). If necessary, you can de-rate an engine while in flight by left clicking on it an setting the "Maximum Throttle" down to 50% to further refine your control, although this is rarely necessary.

[mreed2]

Answering your other post:

Prograde is the direction your craft is traveling. If you thrust in this direction your craft goes faster in the same direction it is already traveling.

Retrograde is the opposite direction as prograde. If you thrust in this direction your craft travels slower in the same direction.

Normal is 90 degrees offset from the prograde direction and the direction gravity is pulling on the craft. If you thrust in this direction, the direction the craft is traveling changes but the speed remains constant.

Antinormal is the opposite of normal. Thrusting in this direction also changes the direction your craft travels without changing the speed.

Radial-in points straight down at the planet and radial out points away from the planet. You shouldn't thrust in either of these directions under normal circumstances. If you do, it will adjust your time to aposisis and time to periaspis in a very, very inefficient way.

Prograde and retrograde velocities come in two flavors: "Surface" and "Orbital". Surface velocity measures the speed and direction of the craft relative to the spot on the surface directly underneath, while orbital velocity is measured relative to the center of the planet. Put another way, surface velocity is orbital velocity minus the rotation of the planet.

[kananesgi]

Depending on how "standard" your rocket designs are, you could try using the program in this rocket:

https://www.simplerockets.com/c/95H1ap/Kell-Auto-Launch-v1-1

It worked for most of my designs, with just a little minor tweaks, until I decided to come up with my own launch program. I've got one that works fairly well now myself, though it's probably not the most flexible or efficient. My launch script is much simpler than the Kell program is.

[BCGaming05]

one of the main problems im having is getting the exact apiopsis and the other thing i get one on par perfect cut my enines for a bit like im supposed to turn them back on to get going in that direction and boom i start losing altitude and no matter what at that point i crash no matter how much thrust i use to go 90 degrees. why it seems around 141 apaopsis is crazy hard. theres a threshold there that your either leaving orbit and can do what ever you want or your crashing no matter the engine size, fuel and thrust kinda crazy. dont real spacecraft have onbouard navigation computers to atleast tell pilots where to go. instead of this let me spend 10 hours of trial and error B.S.

[toinkertoy]

You're not using full thrust are you??? NOOOO

[kananesgi]

Originally posted by BCGaming05:

one of the main problems im having is getting the exact apiopsis and the other thing i get one on par perfect cut my enines for a bit like im supposed to turn them back on to get going in that direction and boom i start losing altitude and no matter what at that point i crash no matter how much thrust i use to go 90 degrees. why it seems around 141 apaopsis is crazy hard. theres a threshold there that your either leaving orbit and can do what ever you want or your crashing no matter the engine size, fuel and thrust kinda crazy. dont real spacecraft have onbouard navigation computers to atleast tell pilots where to go. instead of this let me spend 10 hours of trial and error B.S.

Ok, when you get the Ap where you want, say 100km, and cut your engines. Your next step is to pitch your rocket to 0 or 1 degree (once your above about 70km or so, lower and the air resistance will potentially cause problems). You then want to burn a bit before you reach Ap (meaning wait until just a little bit before Ap to burn). Don't wait too late, and the exact timing can be a bit of trial and error. The more powerful your rocket is (higher the TWR - Thrust-to-Weight Ratio), the closer to Ap you'll want to burn. Try starting around 30 seconds from Ap. If your Ap starts to really run away (longer and longer, higher and higher, STOP you engines and wait until your closer to Ap again. That's how you keep your Ap from getting too high.

[EDIT] Ap = Apoapsis, highest point of orbit. Pe = Periapsis, lowest point of orbit. The closer these are to each other, the more circular your orbit is. Eccentricity is the term for that, the more eccentric the orbit, the more elliptical it is, which means the Ap and Pe will be wildly different. A perfectly circular orbit will have and eccentricity of 0.00.