KSP Weekly: Docking for peace

[SQUAD]

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. 42 years ago, something incredible happened. It was the early 1970s and the US and the USSR were in the midst of the Cold War. Tensions were high between the two superpowers at the time: the United States was engaged in the Vietnam War and the memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis was still fresh. The real threat of a full-scale nuclear war was however deeply feared by both sides and after what seemed to be a perpetual struggle there was a change in the approach both sides had in the conflict as the two nations started to pursue a détente policy. With the close of the Vietnam War in 1975, relations between the United States and the USSR began to improve, as did the prognosis for a potential cooperative space mission. This is how the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project came into existence. The ASTP was made possible by the thaw in these relations, and the project itself endeavored to amplify and solidify the improving relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. It involved the docking of an Apollo Command/Service Module with the Soviet Soyuz 19. This mission ceremoniously marked the end of the Space Race, paved the way to the end of the conflict between the two nations, and the beginning of an age of international cooperation between NASA, the Soviet Space Program - its successor, Roscosmos - and other space agencies. We like to believe that all conflicts can be solved when there’s the will to do so, and usually all parties want peace. What is certain is that there’s always much more to be gained when nations cooperate than when they compete against each other. Luckily the Kerbalkind does not have to deal with such human problems. But you want to hear about KSP development , so without further ado, let’s begin.

The 1.3.1 update is coming along nicely with more work on various bugs for the release. For instance, we tweaked the Sun shadows in the KSC scene that were still flickering at certain angles for certain graphics cards. We also worked on a fix to vessel ground collision detection when they come off rails that also included recovery parts (for recovery contracts) and when the player changes their terrain detail levels in game which could cause vessels on the ground to explode, or appear underground or appear above the ground. Additionally we fixed other bugs from QA for Localization and while the devs have been working on those fixes, the QA team have been looking deeper into the tutorials and scenarios to make sure that all portions are correctly translated. We feel it is imperative that new, non English speakers experience the game without obstacles. We’ve also been making sure that they function correctly for everyone. The testers have been using any time left to go through the bugtracker and check old ready-to-test issues.

Console work is also continuing. The external QA team has finished the first of several testing rounds and were able to identify a few issues that are being confirmed by our team and later will be fixed by our friends at Blitworks.

In other news, the work on the design for the Making History Expansion continues. The devs are  working on features including a graphical display for the creator to select vessel parts in various situations and another to set up the available crew in a mission and assign crew members to their vessels. There’s also been work on  integrating more of the component pieces in the Mission Builder and making improvements in the functionality and design as we do that. One of the components that was integrated this week are the logic nodes, which help the creator define paths for the player through their mission.

Additionally, the dev team has been working on Vessel Positioning on a Celestial Body. This has been tricky with all the different scales of the various celestial bodies and we have to make sure that the feel and precision are just right, since it will be used very often when creating missions.

On an artistic level, the team finished with the Vostok 1-inspired IVA and began modeling a new EVA chute. To give you a glimpse of the new IVAs the team is making, check out the American-inspired Lunar Excursion Module’s IVA . Additionally, the artists have been producing some more wireframes for how the mission creator will manage vessels for a mission; tweaking them in a combined effort between the Design and Development teams. The UI got some attention, too; this time around the team worked on some buttons and icons for the orbital gizmo.

As new parts get produced, the QA team gets immediately busy with its testing and providing input to the rest of the team by building full crafts to identify balance issues. They’ve took their first look at the Mission Builder to check the initial mission mechanics and while there are still some teething problems, as it is to be expected with these early versions, the package is looking great and they are eager to get stuck into testing it fully.

Finally, we remind you that you still have another week to participate in our latest KSP Challenge - Landing on Duna!  So go check it out and share your creations!

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

Very nice IVA for the LEM!

[CoreI]

Got here right in time!

That LEM IVA looks pretty good! I'm glad to hear development is progressing nicely. It's good to hear that the flickering shadows are being fixed.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

Nice sunroof on the LEM. 

[regex]

The LM IVA looks great, and just as useless as every other IVA in the game. Nice work.

[klgraham1013]

For the past few weeks, I've had this sense of deja vu while reading the devnotes.

[Rodhern]

6 minutes ago, klgraham1013 said:

For the past few weeks, I've had this sense of deja vu while reading the devnotes.

Me too, and I much prefer it that way over the vague weeklies that was the fashion at one time.

[Kerbuvim]

16 minutes ago, Rodhern said:

.

 

16 minutes ago, Rodhern said:

Me too, and I much prefer it that way over the vague weeklies that was the fashion at one time.

It seems that these weeklies are written by a robot chaotically rearranging the same words in different orders.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Kerbuvim

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

22 minutes ago, Kerbuvim said:

 

It seems that these weeklies are written by a robot chaotically rearranging the same words in different orders.

I'm certainly no programmer, so I can't say for sure (and I definitely get where you're comin' from), but how much can there be to tell from one week to the next? Ask me what I did at work this week and I'll respond (probably in a less-than-polite manner), "same crap I did last week".

That's why I look forward to the pics. At least they speak for themselves.

[Ten Key]

2 hours ago, SQUAD said:

To give you a glimpse of the new IVAs the team is making, check the Lunar Excursion Module’s IVA.

I like to fly IVA. For a lander, I'd like to see the NAVball, vertical speed indicator and radar altimeter front and center. Having some sort of usable window is important too. That IVA doesn't necessarily look bad, but from a usability standpoint it's pretty much "tear out and replace". 

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

I'd like for the view to be that of the actual astronauts" in the real LEM or at least similar, but I still like the current one, the reason I read these posts is to look at the images of the fancy new parts

[Wallygator]

It seems that here is likely a great deal of work going on, but the 'generalistic' and seemingly repetitive style of recent dev notes does not convey much sense of the work.

Excellent taster of potential IVA views - thats pretty cool. However, based on the snapshot provided, I find it hard to conceptualise the actual Kerbal pilot view point looking through the window - in other words, a 'eye socket' functional view that will support a dynamic FPV IVA landing experience.  A bit more detail would be appreciated.

[Just Jim]

Loving the little LEM!!  

 

[KraterKreator]

That little LEM is sweet! Keep up the good work, Squad. Version 1.3.0 is silky smooth, but I can't wait for the bug fixes in 1.3.1.

[Sirad]

3 hours ago, Wallygator said:

It seems that here is likely a great deal of work going on, but the 'generalistic' and seemingly repetitive style of recent dev notes does not convey much sense of the work.

Excellent taster of potential IVA views - thats pretty cool. However, based on the snapshot provided, I find it hard to conceptualise the actual Kerbal pilot view point looking through the window - in other words, a 'eye socket' functional view that will support a dynamic FPV IVA landing experience.  A bit more detail would be appreciated.

Good point. seems like this minor detail just fell under the table while.... Oh this is really a minor detail.

[laughs out]

Design a apollo-looking lander and really no iva view to landing site from inside the apollo lander ?

[laughs out again]

Edited July 22, 2017 by Sirad

[klesh]

For a paid DLC, I would expect there to be no seats in the LEM. This is a historical recreation and if that means you have to make a new, special way for kerbals to be standing in IVA then you really should.  Otherwise it just looks like a mod one can get for free.  

 

16 hours ago, Wallygator said:

Excellent taster of potential IVA views - thats pretty cool. However, based on the snapshot provided, I find it hard to conceptualise the actual Kerbal pilot view point looking through the window - in other words, a 'eye socket' functional view that will support a dynamic FPV IVA landing experience.  A bit more detail would be appreciated.

 

 

Presumably you click the window with your mouse cursor (like the other IVA's ingame) and are presented the type of view you're looking for.

Edited July 22, 2017 by klesh

[Kosmonaut]

The LEM has got a nice EVA, I'm just not a fan of the Kerbals sitting down- I know it's the model that you can just put in, and it makes it a lot easier, but the Apollo landing crews did stand up.

[passinglurker]

Given the limits imposed by kerbal anatomy the general uselessness of IVA's, and all the other things I'm holding the art up to as paid content already I'm not gonna lose sleep over whether kerbals are using chairs or at least I would understand the technical barrier to this (great touch to add though if you can avoid the heads clipping through the roof). I do hope they bump up the texel density of the egress hatch though the fuzziness against the rest interior is a little jarring hopefully they find time to make a more detailed hatch prop for the final version as IVA's are good for nothing but being stared at, but I understand if they just need a stand in at this early phase.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

4 hours ago, Kosmonaut said:

The LEM has got a nice EVA, I'm just not a fan of the Kerbals sitting down- I know it's the model that you can just put in, and it makes it a lot easier, but the Apollo landing crews did stand up.

Have you seen the way Kerbal's fly? You actually want them to try to stand up during a landing? 

[Mikki]

Regarding many people having allready summerbreak from work i`m happy to see some nice parts at all...
TT can be happy to have such a nice studio in its pocket (regarding all the questionable products they allready own)

Kerbal LM looks excellent in my opinion...

[Stevie_D]

Considering the size constraints imposed by the kerbal dimensions (not only their bodies, but the 1.25m size for the basic landers/starting game equipment) i think the guys at Squad have done a great job on these lander parts. It isn't easy to get the apollo stuff miniturized to that size, and fit more than one kerbal inside. So hats off to them. I cant wait to see more.

[Wallygator]

On 22/07/2017 at 5:23 PM, klesh said:

Presumably you click the window with your mouse cursor (like the other IVA's ingame) and are presented the type of view you're looking for.

I think this a wrong presumption. Clicking on a window, getting telescopic eye view, does not deal with a situation wherein the window is not positioned correctly in the first place. Also, KSP has no idea what view I'm looking for - no one asked

 

[Scientia1423]

Nice.

[qzgy]

IVA is interesting. Not a fan of the IMO slightly excessive paneling on the sides and kinda large rivets.

[StrandedonEarth]

Speaking of the ASTP, I saw the Apollo capsule from that mission last month at the California Science Center in LA. They're crazy-serious about not touching the hardware with that clear plastic shell. And yes, that's a kerbal T-shirt I'm wearing.

Nice LM IVA

Edited July 23, 2017 by StrandedonEarth