Required Mods: Zilch, 0, Nada, (Mobile Fans Rejoice!)
Intended for use with Real Solar System Kick the throttle down to about 50% after your apoapsis reaches 70km and it should work ok for Droo. A Droo specific model coming soon
A continuation of the GTO - Get To Orbit Project, this update includes:
An Improved Virtual Flight Instructor using a Vizzy Script algorithm that has over a 99% accuracy, and hopefully no confusion!
Now you not only have a craft capapble of achieving orbit, but you also have a "virtual instructor" of sorts in the back seat guiding you through your entire launch all the way to a SUCCESSFUL orbit!
Recomended prerequisites/knowledge:
-Understand the basic interface
-How to start a new game / load a game with "Real Solar System", as this is too much rocket for Droo
-How to load and start the game with a rocket in a "Ready to launch" state
-How to use the navigation controls for pitch
-How to use the action groups
-How to read the Flight Window
-How to Open the Nav Sphere Panel
-How to advance staging
-How to "Lock" your heading
-Prograde & Retrograde - definition & most common use
I've tried to account for the most common errors with launching new players can make, but there are still some extreme things that can go wrong, so all situations may not be correctable or accounted for. I did however "Launch & Text" using computer & phone while at 30km altitude and rising. It ended with an ugly orbit, but still an orbit... I've also done about 20 test launches in a row without failure, even while working out bugs and refining the algorithm.
Disclaimer:
The guidace provided is not the exact way or the only right way to do it, but it's fairly close. Realistically, you don't want max throttle, but more variable because of atmospheric drag and heat management, and you don't want to "Immediately Pitch to.." anything, rather be more gradual. This way is provided to get this craft, and you into orbit, and the craft was designed to handle it. There are other things to manage and consider for a "recommanded" way of doing a launch, but it has been set up and crafted in a way to simplify the process as much as possible. You still do everything but manage throttle (it's accounted for) and stop the engine once you reach orbit. Focus is on pitch control, apoapsis maintenance during acceleration, and vertical speed in relation to building a periapsis that wont kill us. There's already enough going on with these three alone, and creating an orbit with the various angles, pitches, altitudes and so on is a lesson in itself, so I tried to stay with that focus. We'll add throttle control with launching in a future lesson.
Which brings me to:
This script is not fully finished, but does come to a conclusion once a successful orbit is achieved. There is a lesson at the end explaining what to do to get back into the atmosphere and land, but ends before guiding you through it. This developer is tired for now from the 20+ hours making the script. A full version is coming soon!
The script version will NOT confuse you by giving you the wrong information at the wrong time, (almost) ever! I've done what I know to trigger each possible guided direction, and each time came out very well. Now the script is refined, just follow the direction close enough, and you can consistently get a sucessful orbit with the apoapsis and periapsis within about 40-50 km of each other. I have come out less than 10 km difference often all the way down to a 2 km difference, so the script is capable of success at a near eccentric orbit if guidance is followed well enough. It also very commonly ends around 2450 - 2497 delta V, unless something went really wrong then we still have about 1900 m/s left usually.
The Virtual Instructor is not just a vizzy script, it's my first vizzy script, so don't be too harsh with a bug! I feel I have done well to account for everything down to falling half asleep while only following just the text instruction, and still made it quite well! Seriously though, do please let me know what you find if something goes funny (pause it and take a screenshot if you can). I want to make it so that all players can at least reach a basic orbit, because blowing up on Earth 100 km from the launch pad is just boring after the 58th time, and we all can't be physics majors to play a game....
What's been done since V2 for this version?
-Skip functionality through the introduction improved to work at any point (should you fail or just relaunch it and don't need to read it again)
-Updated the prelaunch instructions to match adjustments to the flight angles, which were made for a more manageable, and easier to follow guidance.
-Count down in the beginning, with some animated text
-Algorithm awareness detection - knows exactly what the situation is, and gives you the right guidance to fix it, at the right time, every time!
-Adapts with your apoapsis, it knows when its ahead of you, coming closer, right in front of you, and if you just passed it (Whoops! No, not in all cases, which it will let you know, plus how to stay put if its good!) as well as if you got here nominaly (the intended way) or if you shot up way too fast (that's an oops alright, but not a guaranteed catastrophe, the script will give you the fix if it happens)
-A few "Out of fuel!" reminders just in case, because during testing and staging at the same points roughly each time, I was too focused on text and forgot to stage 🤦🏼??? I don't want you to think you made it when really you just ran out of fuel and need to advance the stage (doh!)...
Points of interest:
-There is no "Timing", only "situations" and "what to do about it", so if you don't launch at "0", the instructor will wait. It can handle launching a little early, but until the end of the countdown, the script will be stuck doing the intro until it gets done with that. Skip it, and wait until you get the "T-5" at least before you hit the button to go if you've been multiple times. Otherwise it's best to wait for 0 and then stage up to stage 1 so you don't miss any of the instruction or guidance. Until "T-0" there is no awareness, only intro.
-If at any point you don't have instruction on screen, and you are not in orbit, with engines going for a bit still, & you are not paused more than 6 seconds, just restart. I've stripped the script down to the least amount of framework so it will run fast and consistent, but it can still just stop for no reason, or most likely something unexpected is going on, grab a screen for me?
-Sometimes changing from stage 1 to stage 2, the top booster engine gets stuck, whichever one is most pointed to space, I can't fix that, it's a game bug, just restart & next go try not to be in motion changing pitch next time, as the ejectors don't quite push hard enough. It's the ejector half on the tank that's somehow getting stuck to the engine like a magnet, and it makes the craft spin uncontrolably, with throttle having no response or power, and the booster never lets go once it sticks. 50/50 on it sticking or bouncing off, so try to stay straight when you get low on the first stage (it's right around when the apoapsis hits about 70km when fuel gets low)
TLDR:
It'll tell you every step of the way what to do to get yourself into something that can classify as an orbit, & if for some reason you don't make it and go Boom! Whoosh! & then Poof! (In that order), just restart and try again. Eventually, You WILL MAKE IT!
GENERAL INFO
- Predecessor: GTO - Get To Orbit V 2 With Virtual Instructor Included - uM
- Successors 1 craft(s)
- Created On: Windows
- Game Version: 0.9.802.0
- Price: $82,881k
- Number of Parts: 34
- Dimensions: 58 m x 12 m x 12 m
PERFORMANCE
- Total Delta V: 11.2km/s
- Total Thrust: 22.3MN
- Engines: 6
- Wet Mass: 1E+6kg
- Dry Mass: 82,449kg
STAGES
Stage | Engines | Delta V | Thrust | Burn | Mass |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4 | 3.7km/s | 18.7MN | 1.9m | 1E+6kg |
2 | 1 | 4.3km/s | 3.2MN | 2.8m | 2.38E+5kg |
3 | 1 | 3.2km/s | 348kN | 3.9m | 44,859kg |
11 Comments
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1,182 MechanizedBlackSheep
Future plans:
-Finish out the sequence to complete a fully guided "round trip" flight back to the ground.
-Finally make a proper launch pad for the craft
-Create a version tuned for the base game system
-Refine the script further by adding throttle calculation, and a little better guidance on the way up (have to calculate PCI vectors), to get a smoother control pattern and more realistic launch
-Finally refine the script even further into being adaptable to more than just this particular rocket, so the script can be used for your own custom built rockets and get some help getting those up in the air too! Still in the beta version with this rocket but will be its own project later down the road 👍 -
1,182 MechanizedBlackSheep
@ColdAerospace & @FriendlyFin , newest and Full complete flight version is finally finished! I put it as the link in the top pinned comment 👍 Vanilla Juno System approved 😊
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1,182 MechanizedBlackSheep
🤷♂️ just going to leave it be, launching on Droo I've found a few more little bugs and in the process I'm updating a few more things, like the immediate pitch to thing. That's just making a bad habit that'll be annoying later when air density keeps flipping the rocket out of control if not a very streamlined one 😂 So the new updates will of course spawn a new version and I'll k.i.s.s(keep it short stupid) on that one lol.
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1,182 MechanizedBlackSheep
@FriendlyFin Umm yeah.... about double the rocket needed 🙈 it'll work but apoapsis constantly is high once you break atmosphere and doesn't like coming down, so I'll have to make a base game system model version. Left with 6.3k delta V and didn't even get halfway through second stage 😂
The script does work quite well, and I don't have anything that's rocket dependant, just need a throttle management set up 🤔 so I'm wondering if it's capable of working for any rocket at this point? I'll give it a test
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1,182 MechanizedBlackSheep
@FriendlyFin IDK, I'll have to try it in the base game system, but no doubt it's over kill. Earth is just so large in diameter it takes about 7850 m/s in craft speed just for a stable orbit, so it's not so much getting up its getting fast enough 😂 I'll update this description here soon, was tired when I put it up 🙈
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9,475 RudimentaryCheezit
😆
however the rocket looks really big so i think getting to even T.T. would be a breeze
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1,182 MechanizedBlackSheep
@FriendlyFin
😂, If the rocket doesn't get you up there, the description will 🙈 -
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Latest completely vanilla new install certified version with Launchpad and plenty of other goodies is here: 