Kerbal Space Program

[potatojohn]

Behold the apex of Kerbal rocket engineering: The Swift Penetrator 3, a super-efficient 38.5t (12t orbit) rocket.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Picked this up since they're apparently going to raise the price when 0.18 hits and it's probably worth the jewgold despite not being on Steam.
The bits I've seen for 0.18 look pretty damn cool though.

 

[Hellraiser]

Yeah, this is definitely worth the 60 kilograms of potato (more or less) in money. They announced they'll raise the price to 22 Kwabucks IIRC.

BTW apparently during the kerbalkcon live stream they've shown a WIP of planetary resource map, you know, for mining planets and moons. Also a drill model being worked on.

Oh and the WIP second saturn-like gas giant plus moons.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I am so goddamn awful at this. I still haven't managed a stable orbit for a space station core. I'm too lazy to do any actual rocket science so I just throw science at the wall and see what sticks. I managed a single really shitty orbit but it got low enough that the atmosphere gave it drag and pulled it down.

Maybe I could concentrate on the basics first, like orbiting a capsule and landing on the Mun instead of obsessing on heavy goddamn space station core. Also kinda wish you could automate the flying more so you could play with rocket toy box and see what happens in a more hands-off way.

 

[potatojohn]

1. Install mechjeb
2. Build ship
3. Check vessel information. Does it have more than 4.5km/s delta-v? If not, it won't get into orbit. Goto 2.
4. Fly

 

[Ulminati]

Also make sure it has a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.6-2 for the atmospheric stages, or you will waste too much deltav fighting gravity

But yes, get mechjeb Multi-headed Cow. It even comes with a popamole autopilot

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Mods you say? I'll take a peek.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/45540856025/0-19-out-you-betcha

0.19's out.

Atmospheric effects!
Better face animations!
More parts!

 

[Hellraiser]

Shit its out already? I expected next week, guess the driver's seat ain't done yet in that case. Cockpit-less rovers/gliders will have to wait then (as will ejection seats). Oh well, at least we have rover wheels.

Time to make that giant crane for assembling surface base modules I wanted to do with those new parts and tank wheels with the KAS mod for the actual winch part. Hopefully the update doesn't break mods as it doesn't change the plugin/part code.

 

[potatojohn]

Now with a Linux version.

Now if they just open source it I would be obliged to buy it

 

[Hellraiser]

Deorbiting a rover using a skycrane. Was testing if I got the "docking port as hook" thing right as the KAS mod is somewhat counterintuitive in how to make a docking port attached to a winch work correctly (you need to undock the ports preferably in orbit and re-dock them with the cable extended).

The effect looks a lot better in motion. Cosmetic for the time being but it's pretty clear this thing would burn up and disintegrate. The cable isn't a physical object with a collision mesh so it doesn't generate the trail like proper parts do.

Time to send that thing to the Mun.

 

[Kirtai]

Seems their website has fallen on its face.

 

[Hellraiser]

Seems their website has fallen on its face.

Too many people downloading the update. It works now though.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200

Q: If I’ve already bought the game on the KSPStore, can I switch over to Steam?
A: The answer to that is Yes, but not right now. We are going to set up a system on our store where you’ll be able to get a Steam key for KSP provided you already have purchased the game. However, we are still working on the exact details of this feature, so it’ll likely be a while until that’s set up. We’ll of course let you know when that becomes available.

 

[Ulminati]

Soon, Cow-chan will know the majesty of Kerbals in space too!

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Soon, Cow-chan will know the majesty of Kerbals in space too!

Oh, I already do! That's why I specifically quoted the part about previous owners getting Steam keys!

KSP was one of the rare non-Steam games I bought!

Edit: KSP is already #6 on the Steam sales charts.

 

[Hellraiser]

Well at least that will partially solve the issue of the website getting murdered whenever an update comes out.

 

[potatojohn]

 

[Hellraiser]

Kerbin's outer surface layer is 16,3% Kerbon, the more you know. Well at least until they change it again. But it looks like they want to implement both off-world spacecraft construction out of raw materials and fuel processing in the mining and resource update and not just the fuel part.

 

[Hellraiser]

In case any of you were interested in buying this, due to some "drama" (two topics where outside of the OP nobody was outraged or complaining, maybe somebody whined on some cesspool like reddit I guess) the devs decided that anyone who bought the game before the end of this month will get any post-release paid expansion packs (proper good old expansions not dlc popamole which the devs are against) for free.

Basically the devs said in the past that anyone who buys it as it is in development will get content updates for free. Sane people understood that as getting updates until the game is done, as at some point the devs will need to get a new source of cash so they'll make a sequel or an expansion (or go work on something else). When the devs said that officially along with that some features were more of an expansion pack material, like proper colonies rather than simple surface bases for refueling/science, probably with terraforming and what not, which they rather put in an expansion and work on the core of the game first rather than add more endgame content, some people didn't like the news. They roughly said they want the game done by the end of next year with luck. Cue minor whining so they decided to appease it as mentioned above.

 

[Ulminati]

I have no problem whatsoever with this arrangement

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Same, though it is a bit silly. Also not sure they can do that for people who bought Steam copies, since I think Steam can differentiate between preorders and regular but possibly not different degrees of preordering.

Hopefully I'll still get everything since I ordered through the kerbal store and set my copy to Steam. Hopefully.

 

[Hellraiser]

Steam does record the date of purchase, it would be silly if it didn't especially when you pay with a credit/debit card.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Steam does record the date of purchase, it would be silly if it didn't especially when you pay with a credit/debit card.

Steam records it, but I'm not sure developers get it/can use it (They'll know that they sold however many copies per hour but I'm almost positive they don't get information beyond that, such as specifically WHO bought it (Reason I think this was from some crap I read from some developer a while ago. A vague source since I have no idea where or what it was to dig up an actual link)). Could be that information is just there in case of legal issues, so Valve reps can check stuff by hand but automated systems don't use it.

I could be completely wrong though. Plus it's not like KSP is going to be "Finished" and releasing expansions any time soon (I assume) so it's kind of a moot point.

 

[Ulminati]

Working on my Manley Mode mission to the Mun.
Manley Mode - for those who don't know - means flying the entire mission using only the instruments inside the cockpit. No mechjeb, no maneuvre nodes, no map view to check what your orbit is like. I'm using the Mk1 cockpit since the windows on the capsules are tiny and the Landercan is missing half the instrumentation.

This means you need to know exactly where you're going to end up when you're at a given altitude at a given speed. Also, the altimeter wraps around every 100km, making it more or less useless once you leave Kerbin. (Until then, you just have to remember how many times it's wrapped around). At this point, I can get into a (somewhat) circular orbit every time.

Disregard the Mechjeb tab. I had it installed for the first test run to get an idea of what orbital velocity I needed to get a mun transfer and forgot to remove it afterwards.

The injection burn to the Mun is a bit tricky, but I've gotten to a point where I can get an encounter around 66% of the time. The correct time to schedule the injection burn from an equatorial orbit seems to be just after the moon rises over the horizon. After that, you have to decelerate to get a capture. I've managed that once so far. The main problem is that since you've travelled thousands of kilometers under time warp and switched sphere of influence, the altimeter is not at all useful. Basically what I've been doing is made sure my prograde vector was above the horizon during the approach, then burning retrograde once the vertical speed indicator approached zero. This gets me into a (highly eccentric) orbit from which landing is possible.

That's as far as I've gotten so far, since my one landing attempt I accidentally messed up on the reading on the altimeter and thought I was 10km up when in fact I was 1. Hard splashdown followed shortly thereafter.