7 BASIC TIPS & TRICKS to get better at building stuff in Kerbal Space Program (KSP Tutorial)

This is a mix of how-to handle the editor and a tutorial of sorts in KSP. I use all of these methods to build my creations from weird and whacky to small and efficient in Kerbal Space Program.
I hope this guide is of some help not only for beginners, but also for the more experienced players. Enjoy!

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"Invictus Outro" (c) The ShadowZone
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

🠴HELLO everybody and welcome to the ShadowZone🠶

Here you can find weird and funny videos about Kerbal Space Program and other video games. In general, if you like space, space ships, space stations or any space related video game, this channel is the right place to be!
I try to deliver you fascinating creations, tutorial and how-to videos about KSP and other video game content.
I also compose my own music from time to time.

Stay a while and join the shadowzone community by subscribing to my channel or following me on those social thingies up there.

[arifkramer]

One thing you could have mentioned (and maybe should've) is how holding down shift allows infinite offset to be applied to a part.

[jorge]

I've got about 200hours in KSP and even i found this pretty useful, thanks a lot ShadowZone, the controls in KSP is one of the things which throws me off so much when building since sometimes it's so infuriating and frustrating.
Have a nice day.

[jwhit]

DUDE, I've been playing this game since 2012, and you still provided me some EXTREMELY valuable information. THANK YOU!

[ryleighs]

I thought this was just going to be a refresher, but I had no idea about "F" for offsetting and rotating. Thank you!

[Banisher_of_Hope]

Another neat tip you didn't mention is that the reroot tool works for groups of parts that have been removed from you main ship in VAB or SPH. Just click the reroot tool icon, then instead of clicking on your main ship, click on one of the semi transparent part groups you have removed then click on the new root. This is really handy to "rotate" whole blocks of you ship to balance weights.

[EURIPODES]

I've had this game since 2012. I have hundreds of hours in this game. I have completed successful single mission landings with returns to all planets (except Jool) and grand tours. But sometimes I forget this stuff between breaks in playing. Thanks for sharing.

[mattsart]

Thanks! Helpful hints even for experienced players!

[swimmre]

Mr. Zone, I watched one of your videos and managed my first Mun Orbit and Mun Landing. You're awesome and keep doing what you do.

[Tuning]

Awesome. Have been onboard ever since 0.24, but I really never got realized that pressing F during translation / rotation tools would change orientation from global to local. That is a GREAT tip. Thank you!


Anyways, I wouldn't mind if any of you guys (you, Marcus, Matt, who-ever) would do a tutorial on the transfer window mod. I can work a bit with it, but I cannot loose the feeling that I am always loosing lots of dV when 'didging' it's read-out halfway and resorting to trial-and-error with the classical (or Precise Node) controls. Especially when trying to get a sub-optimal fast transfer.

[niteshmurti]

i got 400 hours under my belt, and i learnt so much from this video! especially the key bindings in vab and sph

[andreipendle]

This was a great video also for (somewhat) experienced builders, for sure. Especially the inspiring, and drool-worthy, builds you show!

[jocax]

I've been playing since 0.13 and I had no idea what 'f' did in the editor. This is going to change a significant portion of my designs, hopefully for the better. Thanks!

[Ghost_III.]

I stopped playing for like half a year bc i didnt know how to do this! Thank You SO SO MUCH!

[Enceos]

Editor Tricks not mentioned: 1) You can also use the reroot tool on subassemblies you’re about to place (the red transparent parts in the editor scene). Use the reroot tool on the part with which you want to attach that subassembly to your vessel. After rerooting attachment nodes will appear on that part.
2) Use Shift to detach individual parts or groups of parts from a subassembly.

[PhantomMods]

You missed one thing. DON’T DISTURB THE KRAKEN

[RCH]

wow, great video - nearly two years old and I still learned a ton!
I'd consider myself a relatively experienced player and knew of and totally use a lot of these tips but there were a LOT here I didn't know. Just getting back into the game for Breaking Ground after a long break and really took a lot away from this video -- thank you so much! +1 subscriber!

[algodude]

I have tried to figure out decrease radial symmetry for over a year and now you tell me! Thanks!

[imthedarknight-]

Dang the local/absolute mode thing is extremely helpful and so it switching to only attach to nodes.

[eshafto]

Thanks as always, that was very helpful. Next, could you share some of your process for creating your ships? Some go-to moves (like using solid boosters as structural elements), some thoughts on planning and managing the build, some general techniques you've learned to achieve specific effects, etc.? Heck, it would make a nice series: "Briefly believe you could one day build like ShadowZone" or some such.

[brillo]

Awsome! When I first heart about that game, I had no idea what is behind it. Seeing which vehicles are actually possible blows my mind.