Skalgrin

Thanks for reply. I gave it try and it stays! However I will use it for "stock" - I dont need to weld parts if mod provides - but for stock... damn, how could I live without it?

Hi, a quick question about UbioZur Welding Ltd. Continued. I never used this mod before, but I thought it could be helpful to maintain performance on bigger and/or rather part numerous, creations. Therefore as I was yesterday preparing fresh install and mods - I eagerly took it. But now after reading the "how to use" and few last pages of forum - I am puzzled. Thing is someone mentioned in U5 the welding is rather for structural strength improvement, part limit workaround and aesthetics, rather than for improving performance (which I believe is genuine benefit of this mod). For me only the performance is crucial (speaking of this mod) and if this would be true, I would likely drop this mod in current install as for structural strength I would go for KJR and that would be it. Does welding (still) have significant(-ish) positive impact on KSP performance in 1.3 64 bit? Thanks

I checked yesterday, and CKAN yet does not "know" of this mod being 1.3 compatible - can this be looked into? I know it ain't anything critical, but it helps to spread the mod...

Hello, great pack I have to say - thank you! I started to play it just yesterday (in stock settings on 1.2.2, but latest release for that version). However I found... not exactly bug, but something close to it. I took a "Sputnik 1" contract and made it up to 1k orbit (not first mission realy). Then I took "Sputnik 2" and "Vanguard 1". Then I realised I forgot to send "telemetry" data from my "Sputnik 1". So I went to map, switched to the satellite, sent the data and went back. Contracts were gone... after short investigation, they were not gone, but completed. To be sure that I found something "wrong" (not exactly, but somehow) - I did test it with "Explorer 1" - which even got completed via data from 1200 km above Kerbin, despite requiring "low orbit". Then I took "Explorer 6" and indeed it was completed upon switching to Sputnik 1 and resending telemetry. Obviously the contracts should require "new vessel", which they do not now. I am confident there is no reason to prevent exploitation (after all, this is optional pack), but rather to prevent accidental "completion" of the contracts as it happened to me in first time.It is nothing critical, but... I wanted to help :-) Cheers and keep the great work!

I "solved" it by moving into TAC Fuel Balancer. However, on stock install Jettison did work for me, therefore it is mod conflict, albeit I have not identified which one.

Hi, I have a theoretical question (or eventual request, but I kind of doubt that). I do like VDS Hullcam, but I am missing (nothing cricital, I am simply spoiled) a certain functionality. However I have no idea whether it is even possible to do in regards of how the engine, mod and game works. Even if it would be possible I understand it may be lightyears beyond scope of the mod, or simply too dificult to make. But here is the idea. If I describe something already existing - feel free to prove me foolish - I will be the happiest fool, because I would get my toy, which is my only intention :-) What I would desire is to set a chosen VDS camera on loaded (not necesarily active) vessel (or slightly less ideal on active-only atleast) to make a screenshot every X seconds/minutes and store it on HDD. The idea is to make recon vessel (rover, plane, satelite, weirdstuff). Basicly I would love to get to operational altitude/area and "activate" the camera autoscreenshots. In ideal scenario it would not display gui and not switch the player camera, optionaly within ist own gui element (aka FLIR targeting pods of BD armory). I am aware of possibility doing this via macro (set action group to activating camera, and make makro to "activate camera, deactivate gui, zoom, make screenshot and restore gui, restore camera" every time period) - but this is "hammering through", as it would mess with player camera on every "tick", and it would work only on active vessel. What I would like is to either be able to remain IVA (or simply outside VDS cam, [or on different camera of VDS]) whole time and return with recon photographies without getting epylelsy from constantly switching & reseting camera. In ideal scenario it would allow also to work on loaded-only vessels, which would make me able to e.g. make automated photographing of launches or takeoffs. Simply load main vessel, switch to "photo-vessel" activate camera, switch back to main vessel and do stuff. It would eventualy end after pre-set time, manualy or by putting the photo vessel "on rails". If this is impossible to achieve, just tell me and I will chew through the macro solution. If in theory this would be possible, I am willing to participate, despite I am mod&programming iliterate (the idea of solving this via macro on active vessel means lot of sweat and tears for me... my very first own macro would that be :-) ) I can either describe it more... understandably, test or even learn how to help more valuably. Thank you for any feedback, and once more - reject is valuable answer - I have simply no idea about moding or difficulty of my "request" (please consider it rather as a question only).

Finalist were chosen based mainly on a judgement of a "jury" of few Squad employees, it was mentioned in the rules. The likes were decisive when they were truly many or when the jury was unsure. I had personaly several entries, some of them 3+ likes and I did not get in the finale. However imho the jury did damn good job, the finalist entries are very good, superb to mines no matter how many likes they had. Do not be sad just because you are not in finale. It was already hinted more contests like that may happen in future. So, crack your fingers, polish your mouse and excercise your mind. We will show them next time... or not :-) The poll based only on likes would be easily exploitable (friends, multiple forum accounts), that is why Squad probably chose internal jury.

The Badie's thread was the correct one to post entries... But, the contest did close on Monday, finalist were already picked (sob!) and voting goes on since Tuesday... Therefore I would say somebody missed the opening hours.. Nevertheless, this should have been solved... I only hope submissions droped in here only (in time) got included. For future reference it would be great to avoid such confusing thread spliting. Anyhow, I only recommend to go to the finalist thread, read the posts there and vote... Those are realy, realy good - and that I say as contestant with multiple entries which not a single one got to finale. Those finalist entries are absolutely superb!

Phonecall "Yeah,can I speak with Wehrner? That would be great, thank you... Hello Mr. von Kerman - I have just seen the materials you provided me last week, and I must say, I am impressed. When do you think we may start preparations... say in three years? I would like to make it happen during my term. WHAT? Yeah I should have some time at the end of the month, I will say Liz to send you my schedule..." "But I see actualy quite a problem in your plans. You see, we cannot send some automaton in a rocket. No I do not care about details, we will not send an atuomatic probe, that is an order! I am absolutely serious about this Mr. von Kerman." "No... are you kidding me? Flies? No, press would not swallow that. Would they by so stupid, we could send dogs or trained monkey first. No, that is not a good idea. I was joking! What is wrong with you, have you been smelling that monopropelant stuff? It did not look healthy by the papers I red. We will send a Kerbal, you said you have a capsule almost ready..." "I can live with 2 month delay, but it must be a Kerbonaut... I see... No! It is final and if you are afraid, than make it safer, isn't it your job by the way?" "THAT is a good question actualy." "We need a face... photogenic material, huge smile, optimism. One of them? I do not know, they almost ruined the last campaign of mine. And people love them. they could die..." "On the other hand it is good idea. Take the guy what was his name... Jebediah. She will go later. OK, sounds like a plan." "And it is Mr. President to you!”

I noticed this being discussed here, red through and hopefuly understood. But I would rather clarify I got it right. The good'n'old LV-95-8 is now officialy gone(?) (kinda replaced with LV-95-6) and the "old" engine in the techtree is just a placeholder for not deleting craft upon load, which used old engine... Or? (I do not complain, fresh start of new career...)

Jeb and Val Kermans Those two were turning us crazy. Take this, we have a first day tradition for fresh cadets. We take them to our G-Trainer, the 3 axis rotation device. It is a training even late cadets fear. Not those two. Sittig there, grining like maniacs and actualy beting who can hold longer. Them, or the device. They were almost like a twins and almost oppossites in same time. Give an order to land to Jebediah... Everything will be by the book... but allways, some weird accident will happen and he will destroy the plane, while walking away untouched. Do the same with Valentina and every single thing will be wrong. Yet, she will land intact plane, despite the fact a second earlier it was upside down, out of fuel and heading away from runway. Or their night racing on runway. We would expell any other cadet, for just that, but we saw the true talent in those two. They can make anything flying take off and land. Our engineers made bets about it. But once we found them flying on an actual chairs from cantine, ductaped onto decomissioned anti-air missiles, it was brought to stop under the grounding threat. But most weird is their past prior joining the Space Program. You see, we have here all ex-military super cool aces, or experts in science and so on. The best Kerbin can offer. Jebediah Kerman was an accountant in his father's company. He had not even a driving licence. Valentina was a watchmaker's assistant, yes KerbinWatches... Do you remember the explosion there some years back? It was her. They fired her and she took first job advertising she met, joing the Space Program. Jebediah did not even apply, he was smuggled in by his friend who wanted to make fun of him. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note : Yes, it is related to my "From a diary of Jeremiah Kerman" seen above. It does not stop here, it was followed by a story how they married in orbit. It would be over 300 words limit + it is very poor and bad story even for my standards, so this croping actualy improved the text :-)

Wehrner von Kerman Wehrner felt pain on the chest, the stress was again taking its toll on him. Cold swet was pouring from his bald forehead and his glasses felt heavy. As he was about to lit another cigarrete, violent grumble in his stomach reminded him he (again) forgot about lunch. For Wehrner, this was the worst part of every mission. All he could do was listen to struggle of the crew up there and eventualy make notes to improve further missions. But he had no means of help for the brave Kerbalnauts actualy fightnig a problem. And there were allways a problems, attempting to kill the crew. When it was fault in design, he could atleast advice to engineers, trying to bypass faulty construction or missing part. Like when Bob Kerman was almost cooking alive, due to lack of radiators. Quick look at the veteran silently standing at wall. The burn marks where the suit melted on his face were still visible. But we brought him back.... We presented it as a succesfull rescue, but we actualy almost killed him. Cheers and weak applaus brought Wehrner back from memories. Overriding RCS was succesfull and Valentina is finaly able to reentry. About time, the girl was sitting in the coffin for three weeks already. And all because poorly made wiring, so a shortcut caused a near disaster. Instead of reentry burn a clean separation occured. He already felt his breathing easened. He made a mental note to himself to ask doc for stronger medications. With this mess around he cannot afford surgery. Not now, when they are so close. His wife told him once the space program will kill him. In days like this, he would agree with her. He was geting too old and too weak for this. Just one more mission...

From a diary of Jeremiah Kerman Once the famous panorama filled the window of our plane, I knew I will never forget that day. The buildings all young kerbals would love to work in one day. Then we left the plane and breeze from sea brought a hint of burned fuel smell. A perfect day. Then I spoted them. The heroes of whole Kerbalkind, Val and Jeb Kermans. Orange worn out suits, broad smiles and wild eyes. Me and my sister ran towards them holding the postcards, leaving our guide behind. They look suprised, sad and Valentina looked as she was about to cry. They did not sign the postcards we gave them, they gave us a book! Black limo stoped by. And Wehrner von Kerman almost jumped out of it. He was apparently excited, holding some papers. He showed Val and Jeb papers he was carrying, enthusiasticaly pointing upwards. To my suprise, both Jeb and Val started to refuse. Then Wehrner got angry. Screaming, Wehrner pointed in our direction. Jebediah's face turned hard and white. Valentina starts to cry. Wehrner asked something. Jebediah nods and holds crying Valentina. Wehrner, obviously pleased, walks away noding at our guard, who starts to take us away. In plane we opened the book and there was hand written messag with family photo. “For our kids, Mum and Dad” Soldier who brought us, saw our puzzled looks. Simple and sad nod was all we needed. Two days later, Jebediah Kerman died during experimental flight. Valentina Kerman asked for relieve from the Space Program. It was denied by Wehrner von Kerman personaly. She was declared M.I.A. after attempt to brake speed record at sea level, two weeks after her husbands funeral. Her body was never found. And so me and my sister truly became orphans. We will never forget! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edit 1 : Quite dark one, but it required only minor polishing and came here directly from my archive, fitting into 300 words (without title)... Edit 2 : Right after posting it hit me, for happy(ish) ending, replace last line with "The night emergency landing mother performed at our foster house was quite spectacular."

Log-entry 47A-1 : flight of C-6 “Whitegull” 4, rescue plane of mission 2 - 'Leave atmosphere' Cpt : Captain speaking. Engines are warmed up and in flight conditions, we are green to go. Confirm status! Eng : Ay, ay captain all instruments show nominal, we are go. Engineer go! S-1 : Spotter 1 - Go. S-2 : Spotter 2 - Code green here. Go! Cpt : This is flight 47A-1, captain Winfred Kerman speaking, we are go and asking for take off. KSC : KSC Tower, you are clear to take off... Climb to 5 000, and circle around until ordered otherwise. Mission control says you have 30 minutes. Cpt : We have 30 minutes, climb to 5 000 and park in circles. Callsign will be Whitegull. KSC : Correct. Nice flight Whitegull. Cpt : Whitgull confirms visual of liftoff, everything seems nominal, we will lose sight in clouds just about... now KSC : Noted. Turn to 270 and descent to 3 000, he should be coming back shortly. It will barely leave atmosphere. Cpt : Roger S-1 : Visual on reentry S-2 : Confirming visual, he is off the target. Eng : Something is wrong, he is way too fast. S-2 : No chute spoted, he is too fast. S-2 : Explosions... debris separation from reentry vessel. Eng : Oh dear! The second stage is not separated... S-1 : Impact... at 3 hours below. S-2 : Collision course! Cpt : Oh sh... brace. S-2 : OUCH! S-1 : Are you ok? S-2 : I guess, so... hey what was that? Eng : I... it was.... Mdc : Are you ok lad? Are you hurt? Eng : It was HIM! Cpt : WHAT? S-1 : Visual on chute... he is alive. Cpt : Say again? S-1 : I have visual on Jebediah Kerman on parachute, he is waving with his emergency HAM Eng : Turning radio on. Jeb : You pay tonight, I had to blew the hatch from that wreck of a rocket only to almost get killed by a blind pilot. Cpt : Roger sir!

The Kerbal Chronicles - The Awakening KSC Daily report : Quick news : We are glad to report three more possible landing areas for future mission were included into our candidate list. You can vote on our website. The pool of votes for winning site will participate in lotery. Winner of lotery will receive a miniature replica of the Mun lander. Jebediah Kerman accusation of stealing spaceplane prototype proved to be true. But because he managed to gather important data and bring the plane in one piece back to KSC, he won't be punished. Launchpad A1 is now repaired and ready for new missions. Story of the day: Tha AI project for our probes got sligthly out of hand in recent days. Yesterday, our tracking station received a strange transmission from Mun. Our engineers asked our automated rover to dump its memory into our server, to clear space for new data and to check the state of its memory banks. After geting very odd data from the KomNet network around Mun, for uknown reason being closest to joyful laughter, we received a big bulk of data. Frankly, we got more than what we asked for. Because our investigative group is still unsure how to deal with the situation, we decided to release the received report... "as is", also due to our 24h limit. *KomSAT A-var 056C : Transmission 05A-45 - relay from ground* ...Komcheck? Five-by five... OK. Go on kid, you are clear! *RVR B-var 14Dx : Transmission 05A-45 - memory dump to KSC* Life of a Rover I was born at KSC at planet Kerbin... There was plenty of fun with all those greeny engineers, trying to teach me to move properly. I was brand new, so my wheels lived their own separated lives. But with care and patience I learned how to drive in direction I was ordered. It was glorious day, everyone was happy and I blinked my headlight. Then I met a wise Kerbal of name I forgot, but he actually suggested I should be given proper photovoltaic panels, instead of those radiators. I was so happy, yet looking back I am jealous I was not given those mysterious RTGs, it would be cool (or hot?) to be able to drive in night further than several meters. But even then, night sleeping is a fix point in my life now. But I do not like shadows, they drain my energy, and I am afraid of getting stuck there forever. Anyhow, after a while I met my friend space crane, (I call him Krane) quite strong guy that one, he just grabbed me and brought me from one end of good old runway to another on our very first meeting. I even had a dream of him... I was picked up, and we flew quite quickly, quite high and went quite out fuel... The VAB building was just under us and getting so close, so fast... Luckily my personal alarm woke me up with the soft "eeeeefniiiiine" sound... I like it "eeeeefniiiiine"... sound giving me faith I will wake up after such bad dreams... Yet after some dreaming and some real testing which went well (in comparison to the nightmares), the big day came... We were strapped together with the buddy Krane, and we were sited up on top of frighteningly big rocket. Well, I won’t lie, if not the fairing would be putted over us, so I could not see what is around, I would not have the guts to fly it! Then there was lot of incredibly loud sound, lot of vibrations and I am not a rover if there wasn't a complete flip once... But then suddenly there was peaceful silence, even though I think the engine of second stage worked few times. But after just couple of hours, when I was just starting to get bored, the eggshell around us was gone and Krane woke up. It was probably the tremendous sight what woke him up... From my lessons I knew it is a Mun below us, his scarred face under my wheels and nice shiny blue Kerbin in unbelievable distance. I wanted to see more, but Krane was apparently sick of flying and insisted to going down... And so we went... Frankly, I thought it is another nightmare, we missed my other friend KomSat 1 just by hundreds meters on the way down, I barely managed to apologize to him. Well, he had partied here over Mun with his brothers (sometimes I think they are clones) for quite time, to allow us to talk to Kerbin, I mean me and Krane... Any way I am glad we did not hit him, as I doubt his brothers would let us talk to Kerbin, every time we are not sleeping... Yet, we raced towards the surface, and I was so scared I shut off my headlight. But Krane is ace, he knew he is more powerful here on Mun, and he laid me down so gently I noticed we are safe and down only when he separated and went to rest next to me. Best of the bests! On the other hand, since then he has refused to fly, and just lies there... Well, his call... and we still can chit-chat through the quartet on orbit, thank you KomSats! So I was at Mun! But I was so shaken from the flight down I again forgot how to drive... though few ensuring words from engineers on Kerbin and I brought myself up back to condition... It must be the lack of atmosphere, because I daydreamed... it was first time I had the “Weee nightmare”... I have them here and now from that day... It goes all the time in similar manner. I wake up, I start to drive, I go faster, and faster... then I jump over some terrain bump or Mun dust dune... and everybody goes "Weeeeeeeeeeeee....!!!" I scream in joy, engineers back at Kerbin scream in joy, Krane screams in joy, and I guess sometimes even KomSats join us in that mighty roar of excitement... But then I fall down, for a moment every one screams in terror and I always wake up with nice and ensuring "eeeeefniiiiine", just the very second I brake something upon landing... Worst nights are when the nightmares returns... But luckily, the sun allways finaly jumps over the horizon and lit the grey panorama around me with the sweet light. Well I am glad I am more cautious when I do not dream.... I drive carefully and slowly, yet for whole day. And day is long here on Mun, as well as night... But I sleep through the darkness every single time... But I know I will wake up every morning and remind myself of the task they gave me. Find it! Find the place...! That is my mission. I am an explorer, I did not came as tourist nor I am scientist - those will accompany me here along with some of my friends engineers and maby even Jebediah himself will stop by. Only thing I need to do, is to complete my mission. To find a strip of surface suitable for safe landing. Not only for Krane, Krane can land anywhere he is ordered, because he is the best. But also for tall ships of Kerbals, so they won’t fall over... I got few spots for them... Some with nice views, next to big crater, on the edge of the canyon or in the deep valley with mountains in sight... But still the perfect place where a proper stable outpost could be built, that I must yet to find... I am transmitting this upon charging my batteries for next day, so wish me luck and maby it will be today. And when I find it, I won't be alone anymore. Other rovers will come, shiny probes will come, Kerbals will come... and hopefuly I will meet Jebediah Kerman himself. So wish me luck, I am “R.A.T. Mk I-B”, the first rover of Kerbalkind on Mun! *Mun, somewhere in Midlands, 5th Mun-day since landing, 2 standard hours after sunrise* -END of TRANSMISSION- Emergency Engineer Group already found out all the unmanned automaton around Mun and Kerbin shows symptoms of above same behaviour, however our ground tests proved it is only side effect, we do keep full control over all our probes, and frankly they are more obedient than the kerbalnauts. On the other hand, further development of the AI was temporarily seized. The RAT mission at Mun will continue and landing site will be chosen for further missions. In future missions the AI will be loaded into separated module within probe, which we will be able to manualy override to shootdown in case of any emergency occuring, while we will keep rest of the probe working. Kerbin Defense Forces confirmed to us, they are able to eliminate all eventual threats from Kerbin orbit, and our technicians proved even in case of worst emergency the probes from Mun are unable to leave its sphere of influence. Furthermore the life span of their batteries limits their funcionality into few years only. Therefore all current automatons without the safety improvement are not a threat. As you can see, there is no need of panic. Actualy in contrary, speaking probe merchandise may hit your local store within next month, as another benefit from our Space Exploration Program. Half of the price of each probe will be used to further support the program. You can make pre-orders at our merchandise e-shop, or at your local retailer. Mun Program Report : As far as we know, the Mun program won't be further delayed. The launch of crewed Mun fly-by was is now set on next week, exact time will be specified as by weather forecast. The AtmoRecon satellite shows promising pictures, but he personaly thinks this may change, becuase his friend MagnetoSAT is picking up some odd numbers, which may or may not corelate with increased Kerbol activity. Our weather guys at KSC do not speak to the lady in charge of magnetosphere research (for further information, check our next issue, where we will bring extensive report from the Big KSC Party), so we are thankful for those insights from our satelite network. The crew will be picked as usual, by pulling straws the morning before launch. A special issue with further information about the breaktrough in AI development program will be released within next week. New batch of Mun photographies, taken both by the rover and our orbital assets, will be published at the end of month, as usual. So until next time, this is Skalgrin Kerman from The Kerbal Chronicles. EDIT : And because in honor of Kerbal thinking, I did not read the instructions (phew! those for nothin!) I indeed slightly overshot the word limit... by tiny... margin of almost 500%. Which kinda means this does not follow the rules... like at all. After several attempts to shorten the text into 300 word, I gave up. Thanks to MinimalMinmus for actualy including the hint of the world limit in post of his. True eye opener :-) So... let's put it this way, This is 300 words with safety amount of MOAR boosters and struts... So enjoy the "entry", and I will get myself busy with making something actualy within the limit...