Xavven

Breaking Ground seems to have changed the level 2 VAB. Full action groups (including custom keys 1-10) appear enabled at level 2 instead of having to wait until level 3. Before this patch/DLC the level 2 VAB did not give custom buttons 1-10. It only gave you stage, brake, lights toggle, etc. Was this change intentional? If so, the building's description needs to be updated.

I see where you're coming from. I've had businesses ask me for my date of birth and social security number, and my first thought is "no freaking way you get to have that info!" Whenever Steam asks me for my birth date (because the content is not appropriate for children), I'm always gonna be a 119 year old man born on January 1st, 1900. Address is less of a problem for me if I'm buying someone on a credit card. I'm pretty much used to entering that info on Amazon or Newegg since they have to ship you stuff. KSP is an electronic download, so they don't really need it, but then again maybe they do in order to process your credit card. Honestly enough vendors have my home address that it's not a big secret at this point.

Thrustplates are nice, but I like MH for the 1.875m parts, especially the Bobcat engine. One of the best early game engines you unlock in career.

What are you guys doing on the forums!? Play the game! /signs out

The base game just went on 75% off on the steam store. Something is DEFINITELY happening IT'S HERE! BWAHAHAHAH! Buying it now!

Literally seconds to go

Nooooo! It's not on the steam store yet. That's 6 minutes less KSP I could be having!

Reaching hype-ervelocity now! I'm hitting refresh on the steam page! Yes, yes you're first! Congratulations!

Looks like the hype train is really going on in the announcement thread, though!

I'd say its hard to learn, very hard to master. When I first played a demo of it years ago, I had no concept of how rockets work or how orbiting works. I slapped some parts together and couldn't make orbit (I did the classic newbie "launch straight up to 100km, then try to burn horizontal" thing), so I thought "ok, well let me just add more fuel and more engines" without staging, and the rocket didn't go much further. It took some trial and error to figure out that a tiny rocket with a little fuel tank and a little engine can go as far as a heavy rocket with a lot of fuel and big engines, and that the concept behind that was a little something called delta-v. A couple hours later I made it to Mun orbit, told the friend who recommended KSP "ok, I beat the demo. I'm in Mun orbit" and he laughed and asked, "have you landed on it yet?" LAND on it? A few hours later I landed on it, and promptly tipped over. Even when you get the basics down, there are TONS of things to learn in the game. The learning curve doesn't stop for a long long time.

I'm jumping in headfirst. I took tomorrow off specifically for this release. 11 AM local time I'm gonna be starting a new career save. BRING IT ON!

Excellent! That's 11 AM my time. I'll have almost the whole day (edit) and a whole night's rest and breakfast.

I think I saw in a video someone mentioned Squad is working on adding a dedicated propeller part so we don't have to do it via rotor + lifting surfaces. Seems like it would be a very quick thing to whip up compared to the rest of this DLC. I mean, it's just an atmospheric engine that uses electricity instead of liquid fuel, tuned for slower airspeeds.

I also was not expecting a keyframe based editor. I thought we'd get a much more simplistic interface. This, however, is amazing! Squad, you guys went all out on this DLC! I expect this to be a game changer. ARRRGGGHHH is it tomorrow yet!?

Does your rocket bend at all when under acceleration? That could cause the CoM to veer off the thrust line.

2 days to go! Feels like the longest wait ever

That could work. I was thinking of using several rotational servos that mimic the way a human balances using joints in the pelvis. It's complicated and part of the reason why walking robots are hard to make in real life, too. I wouldn't mind a bit of simplification for KSP's purposes to be truthful.

I'm curious -- with bipedal walkers, you need to shift your center of gravity when you lift up one leg, and then shift it again when you plant it and lift your other leg. I'm not necessarily seeing that handled in this clip. Is it something we need to account for or does the game fudge it for us? In other words, if you just lift up one leg, you should fall over.

First off, I'm glad Yeet got his copy of KSP from his parents. Congrats, buddy! I hope you stay on the forums and show us what you build. Second, I don't know how many of you are parents on this forum. Not that your opinion isn't valid until you're a parent (I used to hate that condescending attitude from parents before I became one), but having a kid engaged a whole new level of protectiveness in my brain I never knew I had in me. I have a daughter. Loskene and Foxster pretty much nailed it here. If my daughter gets interested in something I'm unfamiliar with, I'm going to do my own research on it, and that is probably not going to include contacting a fan of that activity by phone, especially not one who offers to buy stuff for her. A personal conversation with a fan isn't going to tell me anything I can't find out in an internet search or YouTube video of said activity, and then I'm going to make my own decision over whether it's appropriate for my kid. I'm going to try to paint some imagery for you to help illustrate my point. Imagine you're standing in line at a McDonalds and you have your (hypothetical or real) child with you. You're buying an unhealthy lunch for her as it is, and on top of a hamburger and fries, she begs you for a McDonalds ice cream. You say no to the ice cream. A man behind you in line says, "oh, you really should buy that ice cream for your daughter! It's some of the best ice cream I've ever had. I like it more than Dairy Queen and it's even less fattening! Here's my personal cell phone number -- you can call me any time to talk about the nutritional facts. Here, tell you what, I'll buy an ice cream for her!" What's your reaction gonna be? Because mine is "who are you and why the heck are you talking to me about my parenting decisions? And no, I will not let you buy her anything." and I'm going to get as far away as possible from this creepy dude.

Yeaaahh!! PARTY!!! So far the hype has been spread out over the announcement thread, the Daily Kerbal updates, and the grand discussion thread. It hasn't been as concentrated as in the past, but when you stand back and take it all in, it's almost palpable!

That was my thought, too. I guess one is entitled to protest for whatever personal reasons one has. Is it cutting your nose off to spite your face? It depends on what you're boycotting and how much the principle matters to you, I suppose. I actually do refuse to eat at certain restaurants because I disagree with how they spend their profits, even though their food is amazing. It would be hypocritical of me to shoot down someone who boycotts KSP. As for me, and many others, I'm going to be enjoying the *&#(!@ out of this DLC. Six days to gooooOOOOooooo!!!

KSP is more of an educational game than a shallow game like, say, bejeweled or Klondike solitaire (not saying they're bad, just that you don't learn anything from them). I'd put KSP more on the same footing with an educational science lab toy, like this stuff: https://www.scientificsonline.com/shop/electric-kits?Page=1 Aerodynamics, orbital mechanics, and basic rocketry concepts are all present and you develop an understanding of them even if you're not intentionally studying them. True, it's to a fairly basic level, but it's still more than 99% of the population or even of what you'll learn in primary school. And it may inspire you to learn it more in depth.

HYPE INTENSIFIES!!!!! I'm pretty confident that Squad's goal of giving us "stuff to do once we land" will be successful with this DLC. Rovers were fun to take in the scenery but had limited usefulness except in specific cases. Now there's a more gameplay-centric reason to move around once you land, to find rock samples and to scan cryovolcanoes and such. I like that both manned (find and return rocks) and unmanned (rover arms) activities are covered here. I love the references to Curiosity, Spirit, and Opportunity in the rover arm models! As someone pointed out, the sizes are backwards, but that said, Opportunity holds the record for off-world miles driven and therefore deserves the highest honors IMHO. I remember the community suggesting impact experiments become a thing. Not that I or anybody here deserve credit for the idea, but I'm glad to see this finally implemented with the new seismometer. I actually love the idea of it only working when you crash something near it, as opposed to having it just sit there and measure moon-quakes -- that's what the old Double-C Seismic Accelerometer we already have is for. And of course, the robotics! I'm SOOOOO building a prop plane for Eve flight!

I've done a Jool 5, but I feel like my Eve return was more ambitious/difficult. I landed the return vehicle unmanned, and then dropped a Kerbal with a rover as close as I could to it. I ended up several kilometers away and drove the whole distance with a pitstop by a lake to get a water sample and science jr. + goo experiments from it. I just put a couple of albums on and listened to tunes while carefully navigating Eve's slopes at x3 phys warp (x4 would increase my chances of crashing my car).

Yeah, I mean, what is this, a cryovolcano for ants!?