IncompetentSpacer

It is late 1955 and first orbit in my latest RP-1 career has been achieved. I find the early phase of the RP-1 to be the most interesting when you are limited by technology but this part goes much faster now since I reuse the design ideas from previous playthroughs. Anyways, the rocket I used to achieve orbit is bit on the heavy side with capability to place 1000 kg (ca. 2000 pounds) cargo in orbit. This is sort of modified historic R7 configuration with two liquid boosters RD-107 boosters and RD-108 engine in sustainer section. Took some nice pictures but putting them in spoilers. I don't like how the cloud cover is rendered below certain altitude but it is what it is.

Continuing my latest attempt on RP-1 career, had two gaming sessions today but completed only one mission, due to engine explosion during the first attempt - few seconds after the image was taken. The mission was to launch a bio sample and 75 units of sounding equipment over 150 km. Since I am bit low on science points I expanded this to a mission with two bio samples (different types) and setting the target to 999 km of height. The equipment used was upgraded post-war era rocket parts - RD-103 and Isayev rocket engine U-1250/2000, all of them being designed in late 1940s. Also the second attempt was only partial success - achieving the primary mission but failing partially at secondary target (gathering of science): First main RD-103 engine lost power and then U-2000 engine on the last stage failed to ignite, shortening the time for science gathering. I have committed building of another launch complex - capable of 200t heavy rocket launches. While first orbit can be achieved with far lighter rockets in RP-1 (see Juno I) , the goal is to have a design which I can use bit longer than just couple of missions, especially as one of the missions in the current project is to launch a 1000 kg satellite.

4500 km downrange contract completed and with that the very first project in my RP-1 career (started here) - "Early rocket development". The funny thing is that I could have completed this contract waay earlier if I have not made the mistake with fitting the rocket with high pressure fuel tanks which RD-100 series of engines do not need. By changing type of fuel tank, I went from 7450 dV to 8800+ dV. Yeah, I know - bit odd to add Soviet project managers to organization while using NASA insignia. Story continues here.

Restarted for 3rd (or was it 4th?) time my RP-1 career in KSP1. The difference compared to prior versions of the RP-1 mod is that career mode is drastically changed with it being bit more alike the one you can find in BARIS. My first rocket, intended for breaching Karman line is perhaps bit too heavy and I have wasted many months extra and LOT of money (almost all of it) in order to build an Launch Complex which can build the rocket. I am hoping to regain the lost time with higher flexibility of the design and having an LC which can be reused. . Campaign continues in the next post here...

Agree on all parts and especially the last sentence. I liked it precisely because it is a interview that is interesting for those who wonder about process behind game design and not your run of the mill youtuber game channel content creator typical interview. Kudos (and I am not a uncritical fan of him so this does not come lightly) to Nate for taking the time to speak with the kid.

I think we both wish for success of this project. I am merely basing myself on my experience, working on various levels of the organization, from successful projects vs the ones that failed . Not sure that this falls under IS-Ought problem in this context but OK.

As someone who has been parts of over dozen successful software "launches" and even more importantly few failed ones - you do your damnedest to avoid launching on a Friday. And management and all parts of organization dealing with communication never "sleep" before or during initial week post launch* regardless days of the week. During last launch I was awake 36 hours straight, emptied a fridge of red bull and went temporarily blind afterwords for couple of days due to eyes drying out (I am no longer in my 20s so this ordeal was difficult for me). Of course gaming industry is very different and there is limit on how much you can compare different industries in different countries. But anyway - I don't think devs can improve massively the game in couple of days so no point of trying but customer communication part of the org? Yeah, I expect them to be active 24/7. BTW, liked your SWOT analyses in the thread you posted (although I do not agree with all parts of the approach but that is neither here or there). *Because if you "sleep", you do not own the narrative and people fill in the gaps in info with their own imagination.

From Rock Paper Shotgun: Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/kerbal-space-program-2-early-access-review It goes without saying that devs need to do some damage control ASAP...

Plenty early access games out there have excellent ratings despite their early access state* and we have had early access games for over 10 years now so I find the claim that people rating KSP2 badly because they "don't know what early access is" a somewhat weird claim to make. *Including KSP1 when it entered early access status on steam back in 2013 - a time when very few early games were present on Steam.

Exited for many things but what really impressed me so far is sound effects in the game. I know nobody will focus on these sort of thing but the sound is the one that sets the mood for the game. PS: I never win these sort of thing but want to give shoutout to the guy recording the rocket sounds.

I wish this too but THAT will take time...

I have taken a short break in KSP long time now due to IRL obligations but today I managed to get an hour to do a mission in my RP-1 career. This is just a long duration mission, allowing me to harvest last bit of science from low earth orbit but also injects 600 000 credits into the budget. I have forgotten to take screenshots of the rocket launch which showcased some of the graphic mods from their best side so I only got an image of Gemini capsule orbiting to show. https://imgur.com/5JBYxkR Also KSP 2 needs really to rethink how maneuvering (setting up maneuvering node, intercepting an object etc...) is being implemented. At same time as the mission above I have running mission to land probe on Mars. Setting up mid course correction to intercept mars SOI because initial intercept disappeared after reload, took loooong time.

Today was string of failures and one success . My moon orbiting mission is probably delayed over 300 days or thereabout (and therefore my moon landing mission) due to two failures : In the first launch RD-108 sustainer engine failed to ignite, which meant almost 60 days delay while rocket was rolled back and rolled out again and reserve crew ready trained (In RP-1, you need to train your crew for each mission). Then in the second attempt one of the RD-107 boosters failed catastrophically, careening the rocket of course and disintegrating entire rocket in process when I tried to ditch the boosters prematurely. Kerbals survived, landing safely at Arabian Peninsula so there is that at least.. Moon lander mission was a partial success, since it fulfilled the contract but landed in a already known biome (because apparently flat area of few sqm in middle of Moon highlands is counted as Midlands biome) so no science gain there. I was never tempted to do save scumming as I was then . Meanwhile Venus Voyager reached the Venus SOI and therefore Venus flyby mission objective was fulfilled. By going back to Space Center and accepting Venus Orbit contract and firing remaining fuel at PE, I finished that contract too. Venus atmosphere from orbit, as seen on the image below is boring as hell, so only one picture from that mission.

Today my Mars flyby probe arrived in Mars SOI after 9 months of travel. As final stage, responsible for science gathering and midcourse corrections, I reused the Moon Lander probe I used earlier that year for the exploration of the moon. I almost had the opportunity to gather science from Phobos but however much I fiddled with maneuver nodes, I could not achieve intercept. So I decided to dip into mars atmosphere in order to gather as much science as possible: Unfortunately, I got too greedy and dropped too low, below 80 km of attitude, enough for my high speed to generate friction with thin mars atmosphere and overheat the structure of the probe. At same time planet blocked the "line of sight" for the onboard antenna with Earth ground stations, meaning that data transfer was interrupted before all data could be transferred. Still I managed to get 20-ish science from the atmosphere and perhaps 140-150 science(not counting the Sun SOI science while traveling to Mars) in total from the Mars so definitely a "Mariner 4" aka "Mars Flyby" contract was a resounding success.

Used for first time a Gemini capsule today, mounted on a R-7 style rocket. The contract was to preform EVA and report the findings from low orbit. For our Kerbals it was chance to test the new EVA pack which would be useful for the intended homemade solution for landing on the moon, using the Gemini capsule and garage made lander. The image from above reminds me of certain smiling man meme. Maybe our astronaut is thinking that the capsule was never tested. Or for that matter the EVE pack she is using. Or that the capsule is nearing the Allen belts. Luckily everything went well and the new Gemini capsule is proving much more safer than the Mercury which already has claimed two Kerbal lives.