Keep an eye on the VS (vertical speed) — if it is negative, you are descending, If it's a big negative number, hope your airbags are in good shape! if it is positive, you are climbing. If it's a big positive number, get ready to say hello to space travel.

To climb, make sure  your velocity vector is above the horizon (0 degrees on your pitch ladder). Your nose may be pointed above the horizon, but if your velocity vector points below it, your VS will be negative, you will be descending.

Alright I've been testing this out, trying to keep from either flying into space or crash into the ground.  I see that taking off like an airplane that takes off can be simulated (same with landings.) Is there a way to keep VS glued to 0.00?  Hold altitude doesn't do it, and like you, I'm not a big fan of hold altitude because it limits my movements, I like manual course correction.
I do try to keep my velocity vector up (this necessitates turning off hold altitude) but it seems to sneak below the horizon sometimes anyway, and if I speed up a lot (past 50 on main engines, it whisks me off into space, hence why I was asking about a way to keep VS at 0.00).  Like right now I have my main engines set to 100 and my VS is -0.14 while my speed is 2.01 m/sec.  I guess this is that traveling along the ground bug?  Makes it move like a ground vehicle lol.

Keep an eye on the VS (vertical speed) — if it is negative, you are descending, If it's a big negative number, hope your airbags are in good shape! if it is positive, you are climbing. If it's a big positive number, get ready to say hello to space travel.

To climb, make sure  your velocity vector is above the horizon (0 degrees on your pitch ladder). Your nose may be pointed above the horizon, but if your velocity vector points below it, your VS will be negative, you will be descending.

This. One of the greatest things a pilot has is situational awareness I.E. being able to tell that you're starting to fall backwards, or that you're about to crash. It's easy to crash because you weren't familiar with how your HUD elements react to different situations - for instance, falling backwards.

Yes, this is a lot of fun to learn.  I posted the above screen shot to demonstrate that ground vehicle bug you mentioned earlier.  So now I'm moving the velocity vector up and here is what happens.
PS being a weather buff I was looking at air density and air pressure to see how fast I was descending or ascending, but this is more intuitive.
Okay so now I used the num keypad to raise the marker above the horizon and also cut back on the speed because I saw it was accelerating too quickly (VS was well over 100 m/sec) and my altitude was over 10 km in a matter of seconds.  I noticed I had to move my engine speed up and down quite a bit before getting it to level off at 20.  10 was making it fall very quickly and 30 was making it rise very quickly, but it took a while to settle on 20 because VS takes awhile to respond to the change.  But then after awhile 20 caused me to drop a bit so I went back to 30 to increase the VS or at least make it stabilize.  Even that caused a drop after awhile so I then increased it to 40.  What makes an engine speed of 20 to cause a rise at one point in time but a fall at another point in time?
Now I'm all the way at engine speed of 60 to keep it level.  And all of a sudden even that wasn't enough so I had to pull the marker even higher and then cut back in speed to 20 to compensate.  And then to 10.  And now down to 2.
How close to 0 do I want VS to be?


But even after all that I had to level horizon and cut engines to 0 and VS still keeps rapidly rising:

So I pulled the marker down after turning off hold altitude (which obviously wasn't working since I was on a fast rise) hoping to stop the steep rise but it still continues.

Do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall from here?

Practice, practice, practice...



I know you like flying that ship with the cockpit, but I suggest you start with a different ship, with less powerful engines. That will give you more fine control. Either that, or edit the .sss file to change engine thrust. (If you extract the .sss file from a .pak file, you can edit and save (plain text file) and S.E. will use the newer file, but the original file will still be in the .pak file so you will not lose it. Just delete the modified .sss file if you don't like it (or mess it up) and S.E. will revert to the original file.)

Thrust setting alone does not determine speed or orientation. I see in the last two screenshots you are already travelling at over 9km/s. That is orbital velocity territory. Maybe even escape velocity territory. :o

Thrust will determine acceleration. And guess what? Acceleration is change in velocity. Keep your thrust and acceleration within reasonable limits, and your velocity will not get out of hand too quickly.

Do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall from here?

Practice, practice, practice...



I know you like flying that ship with the cockpit, but I suggest you start with a different ship, with less powerful engines. That will give you more fine control. Either that, or edit the .sss file to change engine thrust. (If you extract the .sss file from a .pak file, you can edit and save (plain text file) and S.E. will use the newer file, but the original file will still be in the .pak file so you will not lose it. Just delete the modified .sss file if you don't like it (or mess it up) and S.E. will revert to the original file.)

Thrust setting alone does not determine speed or orientation. I see in the last two screenshots you are already travelling at over 9km/s. That is orbital velocity territory. Maybe even escape velocity territory. :o

Thrust will determine acceleration. And guess what? Acceleration is change in velocity. Keep your thrust and acceleration within reasonable limits, and your velocity will not get out of hand too quickly.

Yes, practice is what I'm trying to do fellow Alex   I had a feeling the ship might be the problem!  So I guess warp 11-12 ships, even if I do not use warp, are still too much.
I'm going to try that modified Skylone ship which has a more modest engine.  But if I do modify this ship, is it the same process that was used to modify the Skylone ship and put the modified .sss folder into the same default folder I put that file in?
By the way do you have a recommendation of a ship that has a lot of different camera views?
Yes, I tried my best to keep the speed down but even cutting engine power doesn't keep it from going higher and higher.  The crazy thing is just before that happened the same speed was about to make me crash into the ground lol.  That's why I was asking why the same thrust applied on the same planet can sometimes cause a crash and other times cause the speed to accelerate enough to make me fly off into space.  Is there any other way to control thrust and acceleration besides the Main engines slider I have been using?  Maybe for more fine control over the process?  And when I use the mouse wheel to control the Main engines slider I see it controls it in increments of 2, is there a way for me to modify a file to get the mouse wheel to control it in increments of 1?  It would be nice to have finer controls.
By the way when I leave my computer and turn it off and the next day I try to go to the same location using the saved locations list and GoTo from the lower left panel, instead of taking me to the surface of the planet I end up in a spaceship in the middle of space.  Is this because my ship from the other day has traveled to this location?  I find that to actually get back to the surface location I have to have a saved location without a ship in it.  Sometimes even that gets me to a surface location (flat in my case) that looks a lot different from the original location I was in (mountainous in that case.)

I'm going to try that modified Skylone ship which has a more modest engine.

I'd suggest starting with a ship like the Explorer-2a, one of SE's default ships, and docking a smaller ship to it, like the default Skylone. Learning to pilot modest ships of varying scales and capabilities while having to dock them to take them across long distances will provide a great exercise and force you to overcome challenges you're otherwise avoiding by picking overpowered ships.

I'm going to try that modified Skylone ship which has a more modest engine.

I'd suggest starting with a ship like the Explorer-2a, one of SE's default ships, and docking a smaller ship to it, like the default Skylone. Learning to pilot modest ships of varying scales and capabilities while having to dock them to take them across long distances will provide a great exercise and force you to overcome challenges you're otherwise avoiding by picking overpowered ships.

Sounds like a good idea!  I was actually just looking at that ship, funnily enough.  I still have to learn how to dock too.  I want to find out how different it is manuevering different kinds of ships as well as the different control layouts.  A couple of the other default ships I wanted to ask about are the Asterisk, Fire Dragonfly, and SS Science.  Do you think I should try them all out or stick with the Explorer 2A for now?

Sounds like a good idea!  I was actually just looking at that ship, funnily enough.  I still have to learn how to dock too.  I want to find out how different it is manuevering different kinds of ships as well as the different control layouts.  A couple of the other default ships I wanted to ask about are the Asterisk, Fire Dragonfly, and SS Science.  Do you think I should try them all out or stick with the Explorer 2A for now?

I'd stick with the Explorer. It's a fair and balanced ship. You'll need the Skylone to realistically land on celestial bodies - interstellar ships are just interstellar ships and weren't built for getting close to planets.

I do suggest getting a grip of the context based controls. Target in warp mode points you in the direction where your warp bubble hits 100% efficiency whereas prograde and retrograde point you in the directions required to get the efficient warp vector over the target and match velocity automatically sets you up for warp at which point you can engage warp yourself.

In orbit mode, controls act more intuitively. Target faces you to your target and prograde/retrograde represent your direction of travel relative to the reference body e.g. Earth.

In docking mode, sync velocity does what it says on the tin and syncs your velocity with the target vessel.

Overall, just experiment and see what everything does.

Sounds like a good idea!  I was actually just looking at that ship, funnily enough.  I still have to learn how to dock too.  I want to find out how different it is manuevering different kinds of ships as well as the different control layouts.  A couple of the other default ships I wanted to ask about are the Asterisk, Fire Dragonfly, and SS Science.  Do you think I should try them all out or stick with the Explorer 2A for now?

I'd stick with the Explorer. It's a fair and balanced ship. You'll need the Skylone to realistically land on celestial bodies - interstellar ships are just interstellar ships and weren't built for getting close to planets.

I do suggest getting a grip of the context based controls. Target in warp mode points you in the direction where your warp bubble hits 100% efficiency whereas prograde and retrograde point you in the directions required to get the efficient warp vector over the target and match velocity automatically sets you up for warp at which point you can engage warp yourself.

In orbit mode, controls act more intuitively. Target faces you to your target and prograde/retrograde represent your direction of travel relative to the reference body e.g. Earth.

In docking mode, sync velocity does what it says on the tin and syncs your velocity with the target vessel.

Overall, just experiment and see what everything does.

Thanks, I just started with that using the Explorer ship.  A lot of it is very intuitive (although I still have the manual open on the other monitor in case I get confused by something.)  I like the images on the controls as it helps me visualize what the ship does in each position and vector.  It's better experimenting in space rather than doing it on the fly while in the atmosphere of a planet when one is apt to crash into something by doing the wrong thing lol.
After getting the hang of the context controls, I think I should start by trying to dock?  It's probably the most useful ability because it enables one to have a starship and planet ship in one package.
edit- you mentioned match velocity and I was looking for the button which does that, is that on the top row of the ship control panel?  Or the bottom row?

Never mind the Skylone, try the default Shuttle.

No cockpit views, but press F2, add your own cameras. (Or is that shift-F2? I think it's shift-F2.)

A little something I've played around with:

A large ship, like the Star Wars Executor. Add docks for a planet ship or two. As well as shuttles.

Use the Executor to fly to a system. Undock the planet ship, fly in formation with the Executor, undock a Shuttle, fly to and dock with the planet ship, fly the planet ship to a planet or moon (warp drive: the planet ship has warp drive, but much lower speed/capability than the Executor).

Then, of course, fly the Shuttle down to the surface. (After putting the planetship into a stable orbit first — that should go without saying.)

And then reverse the process, and head off to a new star system.

I guess I make up my own games.

Never mind the Skylone, try the default Shuttle.

No cockpit views, but press F2, add your own cameras. (Or is that shift-F2? I think it's shift-F2.)

scr05100.jpg

Wait I can add my own cameras?!  How does one do that?  Can I put one inside the ship and make it look outside a window? and can cameras be added in this way to any ship?

Question, so let's say I undo hold altitude and change my altitude to + 3 degrees?  How do I set this new mark as 0 and activate hold altitude to hold me at this new level?

A little something I've played around with:

A large ship, like the Star Wars Executor. Add docks for a planet ship or two. As well as shuttles.

Use the Executor to fly to a system. Undock the planet ship, fly in formation with the Executor, undock a Shuttle, fly to and dock with the planet ship, fly the planet ship to a planet or moon (warp drive: the planet ship has warp drive, but much lower speed/capability than the Executor).

Then, of course, fly the Shuttle down to the surface. (After putting the planetship into a stable orbit first — that should go without saying.)

And then reverse the process, and head off to a new star system.

I guess I make up my own games.

haha that sounds fun- is the Executor a star ship?
how does one make their own docks?  and which planet ships have warp drive?  The SpaceX one I looked at did not lol.
These ships all look so detailed, I wonder why organizations like NASA and ESA don't consider these designs and build them?!
Or maybe we need private people to do it, since public organizations seem to lack funds?

Wait I can add my own cameras?!  How does one do that?  Can I put one inside the ship and make it look outside a window? and can cameras be added in this way to any ship?

With a ship active, press Shift-F2.  If the ship has no interior modeled, it won't make a cockpit for you. But you can put a camera anywhere you want. (Up to a maximum of eight cameras per ship, I do believe.)

Question, so let's say I undo hold altitude and change my altitude to + 3 degrees?  How do I set this new mark as 0 and activate hold altitude to hold me at this new level?

I don't think you can. Autopilots are very rudimentary at this stage. If you turn on altitude hold, SE will use hover jets as the primary means of keeping VS close to zero. If you are moving through the atmosphere, you may be generating lift. SE will take this into account and throttle back the hover jets to compensate.

You can try using kill rotation to hold a pitch attitude, but if you have any appreciable speed (high dynamic pressure), your ship will weather-vane, and try and keep the nose pointed in the direction of travel.

Wait I can add my own cameras?!  How does one do that?  Can I put one inside the ship and make it look outside a window? and can cameras be added in this way to any ship?

With a ship active, press Shift-F2.  If the ship has no interior modeled, it won't make a cockpit for you. But you can put a camera anywhere you want. (Up to a maximum of eight cameras per ship, I do believe.)

Question, so let's say I undo hold altitude and change my altitude to + 3 degrees?  How do I set this new mark as 0 and activate hold altitude to hold me at this new level?

I don't think you can. Autopilots are very rudimentary at this stage. If you turn on altitude hold, SE will use hover jets as the primary means of keeping VS close to zero. If you are moving through the atmosphere, you may be generating lift. SE will take this into account and throttle back the hover jets to compensate.

You can try using kill rotation to hold a pitch attitude, but if you have any appreciable speed (high dynamic pressure), your ship will weather-vane, and try and keep the nose pointed in the direction of travel.

Well, the Skylone ship does have an interior camera but there are no windows lol.  I suppose there is no way to add one at the front of the ship to see outside? Is kill rotation activated by pressing the End key?