Squadcast on June 16th

[AlphaMensae]

I'm not going to describe the entire Squadcast that aired on the 16th, just offer the link and a few comments:

Squadcast here

Roverdude joined NathanKell and Mu (KSP lead dev) for this squadcast, and much was said about the upcoming telemetry-antenna system in v1.2.  In short, it looks to be a mix of parts of Antenna Range and parts of Remote Tech, slotting somewhere in between them.  

A few notes (there's much more than this):

  > The whole system will be "on" by default, but it will be able to be turned off

  >  Kerbin will have a built-in Deep Space Network of ground stations, so you won't need to set it up yourself--unless you want to, as it can be set to "zero" so you can set up the antennas yourself.

 > Science will be able to be transmitted from surface rovers or landers to an orbiting craft.

 > There is going to be a Module GPS, intended mainly for satellites, providing a latitude and longitude readout, and perhaps biome as well.

In 1.1.3 news, NathanKell was running the latest build of 1.1.3 (the version number on the main menu screen confirmed it).  No crashes happened as he built a small rocket to head to Minmus. Orbits are indeed now rock-steady, no more decay of Ap and Pe.  Ghost-staging in space has been fixed, i.e. no more double-tapping the space bar to stage (better watch out for that, it might come as a rude surprise   ).  The monolith easter-eggs have been fully restored, including the one on Minmus, and are taller than before.

Check out the VOD for the full story

 

Edited June 17, 2016 by Laguna

[Ultimate Steve]

6 minutes ago, Laguna said:

The monolith easter-eggs have been fully restored

But that can only mean...

Spoiler

...Please?

Nice to hear that development is continuing at a steady pace. Keep up the good work! And Mu is the lead dev now? Cool!

 

 

[AlphaMensae]

Oh, there were requests from chat to have the magic boulder brought back.  I don't recall offhand whether the Squad crew answered it, might have missed the response, or they didn't see it...or were biting their tongues.

 

[Just Jim]

20 minutes ago, Laguna said:

 The monolith easter-eggs have been fully restored, including the one on Minmus, and are taller than before.

OMG.....  Thank you Squad!!!!!!

Edited June 17, 2016 by Just Jim

[Kerbart]

24 minutes ago, Laguna said:

(...)

In 1.1.3 news, NathanKell was running the latest build of 1.1.3 (the version number on the main menu screen confirmed it).  No crashes happened as he built a small rocket to head to Minmus. Orbits are indeed now rock-steady, no more decay of Ap and Pe.  

The way you write it suggests he built a rocket and put it into orbit.

Obviously these were imposters and not real Squad devs. If we've learned anything from past Squad casts we know that Squaddies can't put anything into orbit!

[AlphaMensae]

4 minutes ago, Kerbart said:

The way you write it suggests he built a rocket and put it into orbit.

Obviously these were imposters and not real Squad devs. If we've learned anything from past Squad casts we know that Squaddies can't put anything into orbit!

Yeah, it got into orbit...eventually after flipping out in several launch attempts.  And then the Gigantor solar panels on the payload kept getting broken off by the 1.25m fairing jettison.  Then he ran out of electricty when he reached Minmus and had to turn on Infinite Electricty (that was too funny).  So, not too far off from normal past behavior.

[beelzerob]

30 minutes ago, Laguna said:

 

 > There is going to be a Module GPS, intended mainly for satellites, providing a latitude and longitude readout, and perhaps biome as well.

Huh, missed that little piece of info when I listened last night.  I like the idea of new functional modules, but curious how that matters.  Did he give examples?  Seeing the biome is helpful, though mods have been doing that for me already.  What about lat/lon?  Would be interesting to get a rescue mission with just lat/lon and not an icon on the map....

[Kerbart]

2 minutes ago, Laguna said:

Yeah, it got into orbit...eventually after flipping out in several launch attempts.  And then the Gigantor solar panels on the payload kept getting broken off by the 1.25m fairing jettison.  Then he ran out of electricty when he reached Minmus and had to turn on Infinite Electricty (that was too funny).  So, not too far off from normal past behavior.

The fact alone that gigantors were used on a small spacecraft

It's all carefully orchestrated to prevent the userbase from feeling inferior to the devs!

[Superfluous J]

Thanks for the recap! TIL that there is/was a Minmus monolith.

And launching a rocket to a moon without any crashes in 1.1.2 isn't THAT rare...

Edited June 17, 2016 by 5thHorseman
Swypeo

[Spartwo]

But what about the munhole?

[LordFerret]

7 hours ago, Laguna said:

Orbits are indeed now rock-steady, no more decay of Ap and Pe.

Yay!

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Laguna said:

I'm not going to describe the entire Squadcast that aired on the 16th, just offer the link and a few comments:

Squadcast here

Roverdude joined NathanKell and Mu (KSP lead dev) for this squadcast,

 

Wait a minute. Mu is the man now? That's kind of a bid deal, I think so anyway. Congrats to Mu. Have I missed an announcement somewhere else?

[Alshain]

Thanks for the summary @Laguna (I really wish they would move these back to Friday so I could watch them)

[AlphaMensae]

1 hour ago, Otis said:

Wait a minute. Mu is the man now? That's kind of a bid deal, I think so anyway. Congrats to Mu. Have I missed an announcement somewhere else?

Yup, it was announced in one of the devnotes after Squad came back.  And I agree, while HarvesteR's leaving was sad news and a shock, I think KSP is in good hands.  That he takes part in the Squadcasts is already a big deal.

56 minutes ago, Alshain said:

Thanks for the summary @Laguna (I really wish they would move these back to Friday so I could watch them)

Somone else was doing summaries of the Squadcasts some time ago but stopped, and with all the issues of 1.1.2 plus 1.1.3 and 1.2 coming, I felt more attention needed to be drawn to them, so I might just do this regularly.  Not going to do a minute-by-minute breakdown, just provide the link and a few comments like I did here.

The Squadcasts are great, you get to hear straight from the devs and ask questions...and get to see NathanKell, lord of RSS and RO, fail at stock KSP.

 

[Alshain]

8 minutes ago, Laguna said:

Somone else was doing summaries of the Squadcasts some time ago but stopped, and with all the issues of 1.1.2 plus 1.1.3 and 1.2 coming, I felt more attention needed to be drawn to them, so I might just do this regularly.  Not going to do a minute-by-minute breakdown, just provide the link and a few comments like I did here.

The Squadcasts are great, you get to hear straight from the devs and ask questions...and get to see NathanKell, lord of RSS and RO, fail at stock KSP.

 

Yeah, I think it stopped when they moved to Thursdays.  A lot of people can't watch on Thursday night, the person doing the summary must have been the same way.  I used to watch MaxMaps every week, but I don't even know who has been doing them since he left.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Alshain

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Laguna said:

Yup, it was announced in one of the devnotes after Squad came back.  And I agree, while HarvesteR's leaving was sad news and a shock, I think KSP is in good hands.  That he takes part in the Squadcasts is already a big deal.

 

I just went back and read all the devnotes since May 30 again, I still don't see where it was announced that Mu was promoted to lead developer. Sorry, I just think that a promotion like this deserves more than a footnote type announcement buried in a post somewhere.

[pandaman]

I recall, a long time ago (in galaxy far fa.......), I think around the time of 1.0 release, it was mentioned in a devnote that Mu would be taking much more of a leading roll in development whilst HarvesteR looked more closely at (iirc) multiplayer.  So Mu taking the lead officially would be a natural progression.

Good Squadcast, thanks for the link @Laguna.

Edited June 20, 2016 by pandaman
replaced wrong word

[KerbMav]

On 17.6.2016 at 5:49 PM, Kerbart said:

The way you write it suggests he built a rocket and put it into orbit.

Obviously these were imposters and not real Squad devs. If we've learned anything from past Squad casts we know that Squaddies can't put anything into orbit!

The moment you realize that every mishap was carefully planned, designed and executed to keep up the pretense ...

[Wjolcz]

That's nice and all, but are they planning to do anything with the career mode? It would be nice to finally have a playable version with all of the systems being relevant, unlike it is now. Simple "contract tweaks" don't cut it anymore.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Veeltch

[theJesuit]

My pick is that if the monolith easter eggs have been sorted the devs noticed the community desire to add in an easter egg dedicated HarvestR, and 'cleaned up' the others.  Be nice if i could finally visit the magic boulder if that happens though.

Peace.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

On 20 June 2016 at 10:04 PM, Veeltch said:

That's nice and all, but are they planning to do anything with the career mode? It would be nice to finally have a playable version with all of the systems being relevant, unlike it is now. Simple "contract tweaks" don't cut it anymore.

I agree. Rather than random satellite orbit contracts, I'd like to see some proper career progression that includes utilisation of the new gameplay features.

My past few career modes ended up with me cheating past the grind and just going sandbox rogue.

[Wjolcz]

1 hour ago, T.A.P.O.R. said:

My past few career modes ended up with me cheating past the grind and just going sandbox rogue.

Same.

[beelzerob]

I think part of the tedium comes from the fact that you NEED money and science still, and the easiest way to get it is to do missions you're already proficient at.

I've thought it would be interesting if, once you've done a certain mission type enough times, then you could accept those missions and they would be flown for you.  Maybe like the space tourist missions.  You designate the craft to be flown (after you've proven it can do it) and the pilot, and after that, they'll just regularly be sent up on their own.  You'll have to have enough funds for fuel and the pilot available, but then it becomes steady income without you having to fly it yourself.  Almost like actually managing a space program.....

[NathanKell]

Now now, it's true I did flip out a couple of times, but I feel I redeemed myself by landing safely on my engine in pitch blackness.