Are you struggling with the game? These simple mods will help.

[AverageDan]

This started out as a comment to someone else so you may see it look similar elsewhere but i thought i may as well post this for everyone as i'm seeing a lot of people not even being able to get into orbit or to the Mun and that's just crazy so lets get you out exploring!

Step 1 - Google and download CKAN for KSP2, this is a mod archive you can use to download mods.

Step 2 - Use it to install "K2-D2", "Maneuver Node Controller" and "Flight Plan" this makes it much much easier to get precision over the Mk 1 Eyeball technique.

Highly recommend using all 3 for flying, with these you never have to manually fly again unless you really want to. This would basically give you the same flight functionality as "MechJeb" did for KSP1, just in 3 mods instead of 1.

- To Orbit! -

Step 1 (In-Game) - You would launch with "K2-D2", i recommend setting the "lift" values at 100 km altitude, 3 km fr 90°, 30 km for 45° and 100 km for 5°, hit the Start button and then the Vanilla "GO" button, this will launch your rocket for you and it will reach an altitude of 100 km without you needing to do anything. (Provided you build the rocket capable of reaching it)

Step 2 - When your AP (not your altitude) reaches 100 km the burn will stop, at this point open "Flight Plan" and choose "Circularise" and then hit the "make node" button, this will create the perfect node at your AP to give you a circular orbit of 100 km. (there will be some margin for error but usually within 1 km difference)

Step 3 - Use the little robot icon in the bottom right corner of "Flight Plan" to pass the node to K2-D2, it will position the vessel to the correct position and it will then auto time warp to just before the node (you can Disable the auto time warp in the settings), when it arrives at the node the burn will start and end automatically.

Congratulations you are now in orbit! - You will need around 4k+ dV for this ascent profile so bare that in mind for the build, regardless of mass, as long as you have this dV, this 3, 30, 100 profile will get you into a 100 km circular orbit, it is not the most efficient, but it is my general purpose profile for a launch unless i need something more specific.

- To the Mun! -

For this stage we are going to assume we are planning to fly around the Mun and come back without landing (This is one of the early missions) for this stage we are going to need around 2.5k dV for safety, you will only use around 1.8-2k but we will allow for extra fuel.

Step 1 - Assuming you are in orbit at 100 km use "Flight Plan" and select the planet symbol at the top, choose "Mun", a new list of options will appear, choose "Hohmann Transfer", it will automatically choose the optimum time (the least amount of fuel), select "create node", the node will be created, now pass it off to K2 and wait for the node.

Step 2 - When the burn is complete you will notice you are on a course to impact with the Mun, manually create a node around halfway between you and the Mun and open "Maneuver Node Controller" set the "small and large steps" to whatever you want i prefer 1 and 10, alter your "pro-grade" using the "small step" icon until you see the course line go in front or behind the Mun, whichever you prefer, MNC will also show you the altitude of the "Mun Flyby" in the bottom of the window, this will be your future orbit altitude, when you are happy with that, pass the node to K2 and wait for it to complete.

Step 3 - When you enter the Mun's SOI you use "Flight Plan" to create the "circularise" node as we did with our initial Kerbin orbit, make sure you have "Mun" selected at the top of the window, pass the node to K2 and wait for it to complete.

You should now be in a circular orbit around the Mun at whatever altitude the "Mun Flyby" was at on the previous node. (For the mission you will have to set the values it tells you)

Step 4 - If you now open "Flight Plan" and select the planet icon at the top you should now see a "Return from Moon" option, select this at whatever altitude you would like at the closest point above Kerbin, the default 100 km will be fine, you can lower this if you feel like you wont have enough fuel to de-orbit, Simpy select "Return from Moon" and press "make node", pass the node to K2 and wait for it to complete.

Step 5 - You should have enough fuel at this point to circularise your orbit around Kerbin so open "Flight plan" and select "Kerbin" at the top of the window, select "circularise" press "make node" then pass the node to K2 and wait for it to complete.

You should now again be in a circular 100 km orbit around Kerbin, and you did it all from liftoff without having to manually fly anything, now simply de-orbit and crash safely :D


- What Next? -

Well there is way more functionality to these mods, for instance K2-D2 can also land and dock for you and MNC shines here as you can also alter nodes while the game is paused which is super helpful for landing exactly where you want to!

Maneuver Node Controller can also be used to launch multiple payloads over multiple orbits which is perfect for a Comm Network as it can perfectly space each satellite between each other with a few clicks. it can also alter nodes while the game is paused, simply create the node, pause the game and open the MNC window.

The process to the Mun above can be applied to any celestial body provided you have enough dV to get to them.

CKAN will automatically download and install everything you need, including required mods for these ones to work and will check for updates every-time you launch it, you can also view all compatible mods with the current patch and there's some really good ones to choose from.

I would also recommend, Alarm Clock, Micro Engineer, Kerbal Headlamp, Life Support Systems and Science Arkive.

It may take you a few flights to get used to these mods but it makes everything so much easier.

- Notes and limitations -

K2-D2 can't rotate the rocket on launch, either rotate it in the VAB to face East or rotate the rocket yourself after launch but before K2 begins the gravity turn.

I would also suggest going into it's own settings and disabling K2's auto time warp on nodes and do it manually, i find it easier personally as sometimes you can forget and hit "run" for the node and its suddenly 3 days later.. :)

Maneuver Node Controller will not show the projected changes in Delta V while the game is paused but will update when you un-pause.

If you add multiple nodes it will only show you Delta-V readings for the next node in the chain, i assume this is because the game limits you to 1 node at a time, this means you can plan multiple nodes with MNC but each node will calculate based on your current mass and won't take into account any changes along the route, because of this i personally only plan 1-2 nodes at a time for each vessel.

DON'T launch the game with CKAN, it will work but for some reason right now Steam doesn't know KSP2 is running so it wont count time played, just noticed my last few days played haven't counted. :D

[spliff]

really good tips, though i'd recommend to fly-by-hand for the first 100 hours. it's a big part of the "kerbal" fun to make mistakes and try to correct wonky ascents/descents/orbits/maneuvers/slingshots/aerobrakings/younameit.. just like building all your rockets from scratch without any help from other people.

[TomKerbal]

Great, thank you !

[bongokat]

I can fly by hand but I use k2-d2 for the burn maneuvers because it is very accurate

[AverageDan]

Originally posted by spliff:

really good tips, though i'd recommend to fly-by-hand for the first 100 hours. it's a big part of the "kerbal" fun to make mistakes and try to correct wonky ascents/descents/orbits/maneuvers/slingshots/aerobrakings/younameit.. just like building all your rockets from scratch without any help from other people.

oh yeah i absolutely agree on everything, when it comes to space planes or just planes in general i always fly manually, maybe with an altitude hold using k2 if i need to AFK but that's about it.

i feel like the tutorials were far better in KSP1 and if the vanilla game here did a better job of showing you the numbers in real time when you edit a node it would make it much easier for newcomers to the series.

[[BLK] Telu]

Great job on that list. Well done.

[barnes.dg]

Very helpful. Thanks so much!

[Elemental]

Really appreciate this, but I can not get this to work. I have downloaded ckan and installed mods on it. When I hit play and look for the mods in the game they are just not showing up. Having trouble figuring out if I am missing a step somewhere.

Edit: Figured it out and leaving for others. I was running the game through CKAN and it could not see the mods, but when I run it directly it seems to work.

[Burntout]

Has anyone tried the KSP1 mod on Steam yet? It seems like it has been up and running....