KSP 1.2.2 - First Mün Visitor Bags 1000 Science! [Let's Play Condensed]
103...And with only minor hiccups along the way, ha! ;-) I've been really getting into Kerbal Space Program recently, although I'm late to the game and inexperienced. Consequently, this is no tutorial. It's just some fun I had on my first ever crewed Mun mission. Quite a magical feeling to finally get there, after all the building, testing and careful orbital adjustments. :-)
I meant to just make a quick Gif to share on Reddit, but even this super-cut of the 2 hour expedition was a minute or two too long, so it became this tiny highlights video instead. Apologies for the black side-bars - I have a 16:10 aspect monitor and didn't initially plan to publish any of this to YouTube.
+ Game Mini-Review:
For those yet to play Kerbal Space Program, I hope this is an OK taster of what this brilliant build-then-pilot, guided sandbox game has to offer. A small appetiser at best; the video was definitely on the brief side! I've not covered the awesome aeroplane aspect and 'terrestrial' exploration at all, which I've had a lot of fun with too! I have a long way to go (literally) in exploring everything on offer.
I was actually surprised at how approachable the game is: no need to do any real maths, just slot bits together and see how it goes. The brilliant tutorials cover most of the counter-intuitive aspects and are probably worth buying the game for alone (in my opinion).
+ This Mun Mission:
The big issue I had, in the middle section of the video, was having landed directly on a perfectly evil slope, where upon sliding, my kerbal couldn't gain any traction to walk, but wasn't classed as airborne either, so I couldn't activate their RCS jetpack... Took a frustrating 10 minutes or so to get back aboard the lander, finally!
On the return trip, I also fast forwarded accidentally straight into Kerbin's atmosphere, without having disconnected the little rocket stacks. Hence the explosions there. Thankfully they just split off when the connector ring blew, without causing any damage. (Phew.)
I took a scientist, so I could reset the bulky materials bay (and goo) experiments. Hence why loose line of sight comms to Kerbin was a temporary issue - my 'Probodobodyne' control module went dead until deploying the big antenna, to connect with my relay in Mun orbit.
I managed to land 3 times, in 2 different biomes, falling just short of the 3rd, having run out of fuel (a lighter return pod would have been handy...). I was also able to gleen a bunch of different biome research and EVA reports while just flying over various areas on the way in and out.
With my vehicle design, I'm aware I massively over-provisioned fuel tanks for the pod's return trip. I'd based the fuel to mass ratio very loosely on the tutorial's Mun lander (then added a bunch more for safety). My follow-up mission had half the amount and still made it home, easily. It also netted over 2000 science, with the gravioli detector and seismometer on board too. My first Minmus trip was then even more fruitful!, I now have a stockpile of science (and money) and am wishing I'd started playing on a higher difficulty than 'normal' (for the most part).
I've been trying to explore the lower tech design possibilities before simply strapping on bigger, better rockets, tanks, engines, etc. Also, I've only just started learning about 'asparagus staging' and trying to figure out if there's a significantly more efficient launch profile. Very interesting and fun, with a lot to say about real world rocketry. It's boosted my appreciation for Elon Musk's ambitions. ;-)
+ Credits:
All music from the official game soundtrack by Kevin MacLeod:
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/most/kerbalspaceprogram.php
- Arcadia Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
- Brittle Rille Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
- Dreamy Flashback Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
- Frost Waltz Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sneaky Adventure Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Other Videos By ZeroGravitas
Other Statistics
Kerbal Space Program Statistics For ZeroGravitas
ZeroGravitas presently has 61,818 views for Kerbal Space Program across 2 videos, with his channel publishing less than an hour of Kerbal Space Program content. This is 4.27% of the total watchable video on ZeroGravitas's YouTube channel.