Tutorial:Basic Rocket Design

I find that most tutorials really overcomplicate things. Or it might just be my aspergers, I have no way of telling.

Bare Essentials

Unless you are an expert at THE GAME, you will need to do this. For a beginner, I would recommend using the one-manned pod. It is smaller and you can fit the simpler parts to it. (If you are in the demo, don't worry about that.) On the top of your Command Pod, put a parachute. At the bottom, a decoupler. Did you catch that? That was important.

Symmetry

On the top left portion of your screen, you may see a circular gauge-like thing with a dot in the middle. If not, keep looking. That is the symmetry feature. If you click on it, you will see it change. This new pattern represents 2 things. Try placing down a part on the side of your ship. On the other side of your ship, there will be a duplicate of that piece! If you click it again, you can have 3 parts, 4, 6, and then 8. Your rocket MUST be perfectly symmetrical, or else it will explode in your face on the launchpad. In other words, the game is more fun without symmetry.

Liquids And Solids

There are two types of people in the world. Those who use liquid engines for most tasks, and those who are new to KSP. So, in short, Liquid fuel engines are your run-of-the-mill rockets, and Solid Rocket Boosters, or SRBs, are best for launching your rocket. Once an SRB has been fired, you cannot control it. This makes it best for your first, launching stage. Liquid Fuel Engines are, as stated earlier, your run-of-the-mill rockets, and can be controlled with the thrust gauge.

SAS

One of the most important aspects of KSP is the SAS. SAS is designed to help stabilize your ship. It is best to use one advanced SAS, and turn it on by pressing T. if that doesn't work, than add either a few normal SAS units, or replace one or two of your liquid engines With a thrust vectoring liquid engine. You can tell if an engine is thrust vectoring by mousing over it and looking at its menu.

RCS and Vectoring Engines

RCS and Vectoring Engines both do the same basic thing. They help you control your rocket. RCS is strange In that, as well as requiring its special mini fuel tanks, It can be placed anywhere. By that, I mean it doesn't need to be placed on the fuel tanks. To enable RCS, press R. It will now automatically activate to help you move your ship faster. Vectoring engines do the same, but require to be firing instead of a toggle.

Tips n' tricks

Those couplers that let you split your rocket into three sections are couplers, not decouplers. You need to put a decoupler at the top of them. If you have the full game, pressing caps lock will change the controls a bit. Sometimes this can give you an advantage. Also requiring the full game is trimming. This is mostly for spaceplanes, but just for the record, if you hold ALT and steer your ship, the game will automatically continue to steer your ship that way. this is for a problem with spaceplanes, but you should know just in case. Also, moving back to the demo, Right clicking on the symmetry feature will lower the amount of things. Also in the demo, One thing you should never do, no matter what, is have your RCS and SAS on at the same time. Well, as long as that is an Advanced SAS, or ASAS.

EVAs!

It is version 16, and we have EVA's! If you mouse over one of your crew members, an "EVA" Option comes up. click that and you can walk around! You can move with WASD, and You can activate a jet pack by pressing R, and then Shift to go up and Ctrl to go down. You can also hold shift to run, But only on Kerbin. You also have limited fuel, which refills when you go into your command pod.