I just started playing it a few weeks ago. Very addictive.
My latest accomplishment was docking two small capsules in orbit around Kerbal. Now I’m working on developing a reliable heavy lifter so I can get a space station and a Mun landing.
I’m content with trying different designs and seeing how high they can get. Never had the funds to do this with Estes.
ETA: how do I set the fuel tanks to be used in stages rather than dumping everything into the main motor?
I’ve seen people get to the moon using the “asparagus” system (not me though. I blame those damned Kerbal scientists! Wouldn’t know a tertiary aft manifold from a box of stembolts. Self-sealing or not).
So, you have a central tank, and an even number of tanks surrounding that central one. You want to place some type of decoupler between the main tank and the auxilliary ones, of course. Start with any of the auxiliari tanks and connect it to an adjacent tank with a fuel hose. Then connect that one to the next, and so on until you reach half the number of auxilliary tanks (if you have 6, then stop at number 3). Now connect that tank to the central tank via the fuel hose. Repeat the same process with the other tanks, but make sure you are mirroring what you did before. This way, when you jettison the tanks you’ll be throwing down two at a time both on opposite sides of your rocket.
Now add the engines on the bottom of all your tanks, and just set up your stages so that all the engines are first, then at stage two you are decoupling the first two auxilliary tanks, followed by stage 3, where you decouple the next two in the sequence, and so on.
While you’re flying just make sure you keep an eye on your fuel gauges. Every time two of the auxilliary tanks go dry, hit the space bar to send those two tanks away, the rest should have full tanks now, and since there’s less atmosphere ot contend with, you should be in good shape.
I want to build a multi-stage like the Saturn V but the launch stage uses all the fuel and nothing is left for the other stages.
You can use decouplers between stages, as well as place engines between them too.
So stack tank 1, place engine underneath, place decoupler, place tank 2, place engine underneath, place decoupler, place tank 3, etc, etc. In this configuration they won’t syphon fuel from stages above them.
That’s what I’ve been doing but the engines for the other stages only emit a puff of smoke after the launch engine burns for a long time.
After you stage and nothing happens, if you right click on the top tank does it show that it’s empty? If your setup is simply capsule, fuel tank, engine, stack decoupler, fuel tank, engine, I can’t think of a scenario where it would be.
OK, the tanks have fuel but the engines aren’t firing for some reason.
Look at the staging queue – the sequence of things that happen when you press the space bar. Is it possible that you have the decoupler and the ignition of the next stage in separate boxes? If so you’ll need to press the space bar again after the decoupler fires to start the engine.
I do that but all I get is a puff of smoke.
Are you throttling up? If your first stage is a solid rocket, it doesn’t use the throttle, it just burns at full thrust until it’s done. Then when you stage to your liquid rocket your throttle will still be at zero and nothing will happen. I’ve done that a few times.
Also, if you’ve used jet fuel instead of liquid rocket fuel for the upper stage you’ll get the symptoms you describe.
Aha! That must be it.
Last night I finally got a reliable heavy lift rocket working. It was six large mainsail engines in an asparagus formation with the payload nestled in the center. I managed to launch a full orange fuel tank into a perfect 100k orbit.
It turns out that proper bracing is really important with larger rockets. If your engines are wobbling then you can’t hold a steady course even with SAS.
Next, a space station … then on to the Mun!
I made it to the mun last night, but I didn’t have enough fuel for a landing. Ended up smashing into it 
I want to provide a refueling station around both Kerbin and the Mun, but tit;s not clear exactly how to accomplish this. I wish the flavor text for the various parts was set aside, and some plain English description of the part’s purpose was the first thing you saw. I’m not sure if I need a docking port, if there is some sort of refueling port, etc, etc.
Anyone managed to get a working refueling space station running?
For a refueling station, the minimum you need is a tank of fuel with a docking port connected to it. The port doesn’t need to be directly connected to the tank, though (your station could be a tank connected to a lander can with the port connected to the top of the can, for example). To refuel, you dock your ship to the station, select the station’s tank and your ship’s tank while holding either crtl or alt, and click the dialog that comes up to transfer fuel.
But if you’ve never done docking before, you’ll find it much easier to focus on efficiency than refueling. It eventually gets to be trivial to land fairly large craft on the mun with plenty of fuel left to return. I can get to and land on Duna without refueling, though do need some fuel in orbit if I’m planning to return.
Finally am giving this a try. Hooked! What fun! [del]Die, Kerbals, die![/del] I mean, great job, astronauts! Every step is a step closer to the moon!
Game is $15 on steam this weekend. Since they say they’re going to use a minecraft model, it’s not likely to be cheaper than that anytime soon.
Recent accomplishments of which I am inordinately proud : multiple Mün landings, some with Kerbals who survived the return to Kermin, probes in orbit around Minmus, Eve, Duna, Jool, and Kermin, a rover on Eve, and successful sub-orbital space planes.
TBD: a Kerbaled Duna landing and return, an orbital space plane, a successful orbital rendezvous.
Wwheeeeeee!
So I finally designed a reliable vehicle and I get my crew of 3 up into a nice circular orbit 150km above earth. I have plenty of fuel left to maneuver or deorbit them. I get up to grab a drink and I grab my joystick to move it, except in the process I grabbed the trigger which was set to activate the next stage. That stage was to eject the last engine. Now my Kerbals are circling the Earth with no way to de-orbit. Always something.