Socraticat

Thank you for the kind words! I like to think of Kerbals as metabolically immortal and constantly entertained by the mere thought of existence, with exploration and building as their preferred hobbies and second preferred deep thought. I feel bad whenever I leave one on a planet alone, but whenever I come back years later, they still smile... it's a bit unnerving, but to each their own. Absolutely. First are a couple of shots from the video. The "Lift" is built to lift anything that fits and balances between the two pylons. I think the rover weighs 1 ton? It was designed to be able to deliver a rover to Duna and return to Duna's orbit with only the Kerbals onboard. From a previous excursion to Duna (the monument mission) it was decided that Duna should be treated as "Pretending to have an atmosphere", therefore the lift was designed to land on a "very large moon". The great thing about this design is that on any smaller moon the rover and lift work in tandem as a really cool biome hopper, and the docking capabilities allow it to refuel with the interplanetary transport vessel waiting in orbit that holds a very large methalox reserve. This second shot is also from the video and gives a peek of the undercarriage. Blueprint view in the VAB was my best friend in lining everything up. I really enjoy that feature. The bottoms of the pylons are radial attach points, I think. Something from the prior launch system. It looks cleaner than the tank alone and may prove useful later down the line, so it stays. Undocking requires the use of the small reaction wheel installed with the docking port. There are three stabilizers alogether- 2 extra small stabilizers symmetrically opposed to the central small stabilizer. The small stabilizer is set to toggle on an action group and is manual only while the other two are set to SAS only. It's a great way to stabilize the rover for long journeys and I'm quite sure I can circumnavigate Ike at 10-15m/s with the design. The thrusters are required to redock on Duna. The tolerances for rolling over are just a little tight, and the gravity a bit too high. Commander Tedly and Professor Nedmin are discussing options on where to go next. Nedmin says North and wants to conserve fuel. Tedly wants to gas it up and go explore some Volcanoes. The rover is indifferent and HQ is on holiday for 48 hours, so It's a good thing they have a good spot for conversation.

Socraticatic Space Industries has a contract with Donuts, Coffee, and Gas Inc. to find wicked cool spots for gas stations, condos, and a chain of Coffee and Donut Shops. Commander Tedly was hired for his determination to further his career and his excellent piloting skills. Professor Nedmin was the only scientist that didn't currently have a cat to feed at home, and was therefore available for long trips. Before continuing on this journey the Duna Duo will need to fulfull contractual exploration milestones and boring S.O.P.s for location acquisition.

I tried a new video format. Posted it over in cinematics. More there if you want to hear me ramble about it: I'm working my way through a trip to Ike, Duna, and back to Kerbin, and this is just the first leg of the trip. I'll be posting more in a dedicated thread in Mission Reports as I go along. Here's the video:

I've been practicing Blender and gaming vids for a year now. Decided to throw my hat into the storytelling arena. My daughter thinks it's hilarious so I've already won. Now I just need to practice my wrting, audio capture, camera work, and voice acting... and audio mixing... In all seriousness, while I think it could be better, I really enjoyed making this and I'm proud of how it turned out. It reminds me of my first few orbits... could have been better, but fun nonetheless. It's funny how a year of learning a game could turn into a habit, or a practice. Imagine that- a game inspiring a way of life. It's poetic. Anyway, thanks for reading my soapbox speech. Here's my video. It started out as a mission report for a round trip to Duna and Ike. It turned into a Pilot episode themed around my excitement for Colonies: In the coming weeks I'll be posting this and more of the adventures of Professor Nedmin and Commander Tedly, whether you want it or not, lol. I'm too invested. Besides, the Duna landing and return to orbit is pretty cool. How can I have a Duna File without the rest of the trip to Duna? Lastly, I don't know who's really going to be annoyed by Ike being the dominant celestial in a Duna titled video. I'll save you some debate with some artistic interpretation- In order to see your house you have to go to your neighbor's yard; Your friends all have a different perspective on who you are; An impartial perspective requires an unbiased and impartial point of reference... You can't know Duna without becoming at least acquainted with Ike. Thanks for watching/reading! FLY SAFE! *I'd like to clarify that I've been sharing Kerbal videos for a year. I've been playing the game for 6 years now.

I'm going to need to get back to orbital construction now that I have hydrogen available. Billey here was limited to methalox only. Good thing he's a true believer... he's my first Kerbal sacrifice in the name of contract completion. Maybe a rescue mission is in order... There is a Monument in the vid, so beware:

I said I'd share this unique early tech tree payload delivery system, so here it is... And here's a gallery of some accomplishments. I have to say that the Community Fixes mod is a game changer. I feel like it allows me to focus on the game rather than frustration from orbit line bugs and the like...

Well, it's been a while since I last shared... I think I had been banging my head against some wrinkled wings or something, then something about orbit lines. I just felt defeated after everything leading up to "For Science!". I had to take time for perspective and a fresh take on what the team wanted to present. Since then, I feel like I've almost forgotten how to play. Perfect! Ready to go! So anyways, I start building... I really wanted to fly to Kapy Rock in a plane. I wanted to do it on a little biplane, but I settled for this contraption. After a load for a photo op I had these wings. Perfect! My mission to the Duna Monument was nearly successful, but suffered from lack of tech and build quality. I feel like if I had gone with a Biplane design as I had done before I may have succeeded. That or a larger wingspan in general. This was a bit small for a Duna plane. Worked well as a glider. Got atmo science, then got outta' atmo. Settled on stopping by Ike for meager science gains before heading back to Kerbin. This is where I learned that there are some workarounds for getting off of a body while maintaining orbit lines. I'll deal with it for now, but that's gotta be the number 1 bug now, right? Right?! I had about 600dv left in this glider that separates into a re-entry vessel with another 1200dv (ish). I'm proud of this return. It was my first return from Duna in KSP2. This is a little Minmus Elevator I'll probably share in a video later. It's delivering a Tier 2 Rover. The rover and lift are cool, but the delivery process is quite unique since I don't have medium or large payload options. It shouldn't work, and it does- technically- which is totally great. My "Super-Chonk" Vessel is at "Chonk-Site" on Minmus. It's somewhere between 15 and 25 tons short of satisfying the "Little-Chonker" mission. I think another "Super-Chonk" should satisfy the requirements, since it's only half-full. Bob took the rover to pick up bill. They're like Bert and Ernie, they just need to be together. And this is how we get that sweet tech to unlock a sweeter landing at the Monument. I really need the bigger parts for the interplanetary round trips.

I was super proud of this pumpkin. I'm tickled that it made this post! I've been taking in "For Science!" privately for my own enjoyment. I had to step back for a minute so I could get into it with fresh eyes. I had a lot of fun hyping KSP2 last year and I look forward to sharing all of the new fun I've had in the Tech Tree! Thanks to the KSP2 team for all of your efforts. And thanks for the mention!

I've been away for a month, then finally decided to spend some time in "For Science" since 0.2.1 came out. I reached tier 2 relatively quickly, but had to fight missing orbit lines to finish a mission to land on and return from Mun. I suddenly wasn't excited for another trip to Mun. So I went to Mission Control to collect Science! for "Mun or Bust". The following mission asked me to "land on the Mun for the first time" and I rolled my eyes. I get that it's the first mission to ask me to do it, but 2 things bug me here... 1. Why don't I get kudos from mission control when I, myself, took the initiative? As a player I feel like that initiative is devalued and suddenly I'd rather stick to Sandbox. All you gotta do is auto complete that mission and we're all square. 2. I suddenly feel like an "Employee" who's expected to play a particular way.... but I'm the one that started the space agency, so why aren't you taking my lead? I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I feel like mission control ought to follow me just as well as it asks to be followed. That's just how I feel. I think the writing is great and all, but between returning from Mun without orbit lines (I have footage if anyone wants to see that... I think) and not getting my Science/advancement for landing from mission control, who was supposedly with me the whole way (I mean c'mon... I got Science for an ground sample, but didn't get recognition for landing- anyone else run into this?) I lost interest in the pacing and the bugs seemed amplified since they took up a larger share of my playtime outside of clicking through mission briefs. Assuming I play at the pace I'm expected and don't try to overachieve maybe I'll be more satisfied... right? (This statement is what I wonder to myself, and I hate it). So I go to Sandbox. I made a tiny Island plane. "OneOscar" biplanes suffer from 2 major issues now. 1. Wings seem to be made of paper, so landings need to be more spot on- not really a problem for ace pilots. 2. Landing gear produce phantom forces, so precision landing is nigh impossible. On the plus side, they are very fast now. Unfortunately I'm still getting crumpled wings too. A reload usually rights this wrong, but I'm tired of seeing it from 0.1.0. I've made it a rule that if a plane loads in this condition, I'm required to try a stunt. Here is that run... FLY SAFE!

Second Take and done for the day. Everyone else is really into the game finally, so I think I'll just sit and watch for a while. It's good to see the hype train back on schedule. Just remember not to use the Swivel as a heat-shield.

My first-take today was not great. I'll stick it out and try to work around this- maybe it's because of the engine as a heat shield? I dunno... I'll stay terrestrial or munar. But really not a great first 20 minutes. I made sure to post in Bug Reports. You should too!!!

Glad to hear your having fun with your kid! That's the spirit of gaming I want to see for future gamers! Looking forward to the rest of the journey to 1.0! Thank you! Everyone!

Sleep now so you can have a KSP2 marathon of testing...

One more day until a big step towards 1.0!!!

I set up a Twitch account some time back and I've been prepping it for regular streaming. Last night I loaded in some of my favorite crafts before choosing one to go to Minmus. Here's the highlight reel: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2003167957 I'll be at it again tomorrow at 9pm if you feel like dropping by, or want to follow for when I start broadcasting "For Science!" next week!

I've been gone for a little while, but I'm gearing up for "For Science!", if not for the new features, then definitely for some of the bug fixes. Wow is that a great list of things to look forward to! I booted up the game for the first in a while today just to see if I still remembered the buttons. The picture below is taken just before realizing that my docking ports defaulted to crossfeed enabled, thus ending this trip for lack of final stage DV. But it didn't matter- the thought of v0.2 on the horizon is just like the warm sun keeping your back warm on a cold day...

1. Mining. I want a refueling station at every moon. 2. Fuel in Wings 3. Give numpad control instead of sliders in VAB. 4. HEX Codes for colors 5. EVA Ragdoll 6. Faster Rover wheels 7. Robotics 8. EVA Repair 9. Colonies. I want a VAB on every Celestial. 10. Create your own Kerbal sounds too cool.

So satisfying to watch that rover eat hills like snacks.

I have just encountered RCS thrusters being ineffective. Of the "Place Anywhere" kind. If I can recreate it I'll share the craft and save.

I've really been thinking about what does it for me, and it's all about the paint. I love coloring. I love coloring my builds. I also like adjusting the opacity and getting shiny colors. After some time it feels like such a little thing, but it so new and amazing.

I've seen a few bugs I reported on get fixed, others got buried (particularly the one about getting turned on the runway). I'm not even sure that one is in the KERB. I've also felt a bit discouraged from submitting new bug reports because progress on current bugs is so slow. Why should I submit a report for something that will get buried with other submissions? Are those still being looked at? I know asking for communication from the community is sort of a double edged sword lately, but I do agree with the sentiment that if there is more data needed for certain bugs, you should be soliciting the few players who are engaged to help you get that data. Maybe instead of asking the community at large, ask players to sign up to be part of a volunteer focus group- Like an on call list of players willing to simply play the game with the intent of recreating bugs for the purpose of identifying how to fix it. Why do I think this is going to help? I remember reading someone's comment about how they are not great at recreating bugs because they spend more time working on the game rather than playing. It's anecdotal, for sure, and maybe someone else remembers that post or comment, but the point remains that the players are REALLY good at finding bugs, lol. Asking a volunteer group would be a lot better than asking the community at large. I'd sign an NDA for that, and be willing to be paid Zero Dollars, if it meant the game could get to a higher quality sooner rather than later.

I really liked everyone's super stable medium wheels, so I went with medium wheels this time.

Happy Halloween!

Try it yourself and enter the Challenge! Option #1 https://kspbuilds.com/build/272414d4-738f-49ff-9540-195514 Option #2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/14IrDJhHsud2PE_OaF2WwQ7lsSWvLwCWG/view?usp=sharing

I'm not about to let a small thing like the Kraken ruin my fun. I called it the "space truck frame", then I put "Slamvan" on it, morphed it to the "Mail Truck", deviated to a lightweight flying option for a run to Laythe and now finally dropped the frame two clicks lower to become this. Dialed it in with friction set to 1 on front, 2 on rear. It was not easy. It was fun. You can drive it yourself ->here<- DRIVE SAFE!