Write your own science reports and see them in-game

[madsailor]

Calling all literary aficionados and fan-fic writers: there is an opportunity to add your own stories of Kerbal-kind with science reports!

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We have all read the science reports and wondered what the experience was REALLY like for the Kerbal sending it home. The wonder of standing on the surface of Laythe looking up at Jool and all of its moons. The curiosity of whether the Mystery Goo has frozen as you touch down on Eeloo. The excitement of telling the Kerbals back at KSC what the atmosphere is like on Duna.

There are 10 scientific instruments that can be used in-game on each of the 17 planetary bodies. And now with .90 and biomes you can be flying over the grasslands of Kerbin checking the thermometer, or perched on one of the ridges of Dres checking for seismic anomalies. The opportunities are vast, but the amount of content is daunting.

This is where you come in! Help us give Kerbal-kind a personality. This is the ultimate opportunity for fan-fic...you can see your creation played out in a thousand little stories IN THE GAME! Right now most of the planets/moons outside of Kerbins SOI have little content, so they are a blank slate to let your creativity loose on. And even inside Kerbins SOI you are very likely to see one of your own reports in-game.

How is this possible? Through a mod called Crowd Sourced Science which adds user created content to science reporting. Contributing is as easy as going to the Github Repository, clicking on the 'New issue' button, and filling in a new issue with the science report text, and where you want to include it. Ex:

Issue title: Awesome science report about Mystery Goo on Eeloo

Issue text: Please add "As the fine ice crystals kicked up by your landing on the surface slowly gather on the the top of the container, you gingerly tap at the Goo with your finger, expecting it to shatter at any moment" to planets/eeloo/glaciers/mysteryGoo.cfg.

If you wish to add more than one or two reports you can fork the repo, make your changes, and send a pull request. Details on how to do that can be found Here.

Note: If you don't already have a Github account you will need to create one to add issues. Don't worry, no spam and it's free (really, I mean it).

Now for the (not so) down side. Crowd Sourced Science releases are licensed under a CC-BY-NC-SA License. Any contributions you make will become part of CSS, so by contributing you agree to license your contribution as CCO. This is to prevent any copyright...issues.

Thanks, and have fun creating the Kerbal experience!

Edited January 18, 2015 by madsailor
Clarify Licensing

[harryyoung]

Nice post, madsailor. However there is one (not so) important error: The mod as a whole is CC-BY-NC-SA, however all entries have to be CC0.

[madsailor]

Nice post, madsailor. However there is one (not so) important error: The mod as a whole is CC-BY-NC-SA, however all entries have to be CC0.

OK. Finding CC links and editing now.

[Rolanvorxariat]

Hmm... I like the current jool orbit one. Don't change that. Ever.