Jump to content

KSP Weekly: The Alexandrian Astronomer


SQUAD

Recommended Posts

tumblr_inline_p5cinjcrT21rr2wit_540.png

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. Yesterday was International Women’s Day, so it’s a good time to honor the female scientists that had to endure enormous amounts of struggles, discrimination and lack of recognition for their amazing contributions in the name of science. We’ll focus on the life of Hypatia, one of the early example of a brilliant female historical figure that was mistreated by her contemporaries to say the least.

Hypatia was a Hellenistic Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt between 350 and 415 AD, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was the head of the Neoplatonic school at Alexandria, where she taught philosophy and astronomy. She is the first female scientist whose life is reasonably well recorded, although unfortunately none of her work survives today.

Hypatia was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and wise counselor. She is known to have constructed astrolabes and hydrometers, but did not invent either of these, which were both in use long before she was born. Towards the end of her life, Hypatia advised Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria, who was in the midst of a feud with Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria. Rumors spread accusing her of preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril and, in March 415 AD, she was murdered by a mob of Christian monks known as the Parabalani under the leadership of a lector named Peter.

Hypatia’s death shocked the empire and transformed her into a “martyr for philosophy”, leading future Neoplatonists such as Damascius to become increasingly fervent in their opposition to Christianity. During the Middle Ages, Hypatia was co-opted as a symbol of Christian virtue and scholars believe she was part of the basis for the legend of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. During the Age of Enlightenment, she became a symbol of opposition to Catholicism. In the nineteenth century, European literature, especially Charles Kingsley’s 1853 novel Hypatia, romanticized her as “the last of the Hellenes”. In the twentieth century, Hypatia was seen as an icon for women’s rights and a precursor to the feminist movement. Since the late twentieth century, some portrayals have associated Hypatia’s death with the burning of the Library of Alexandria, despite the historical fact that the library no longer existed during Hypatia’s lifetime.

Hypatia wouldn’t be the last brilliant female scientist to be under credited, judged and mistreated: Lise Meitner, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Rosalind Franklin, Emmy Noether, among many others, are just a few examples. Nowadays things have improved but sexism in STEM is still a major issue. Unfortunately, women are still perceived by some as less able when it comes to science and technology, and this perception has a real effect on their careers. This is absolute nonsense, our society needs to understand that we are holding back half of our population. Just imagine where could we be if everyone, regardless of their gender, race, or orientation were given the same opportunities and could contribute with their full potential.  

[Development news start here]

We are just a few days away from  Launch Day for Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion, and so the final adjustments and preparations are being performed. Lots of bug fixing and polishing has been part of the agenda, but also the task of letting players get familiar with the expansion and giving them the know-how to exploit the tools within the Mission Builder. For that we prepared these tutorial videos, narrated by Mr. Robbonaut himself, Game Designer of Making History. We invite you to check them out if you haven’t already:

How to Create with the Mission Builder

How to Share and Play with the Mission Builder

Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion, in good ol’ KSP fashion, will be mod-enabled. Creators will be able to list mods for players to use in their missions, and in the meantime we have got in contact with repositories of modifications and add-ons to be prepared and ready for Mission sharing since day one. Modding and sharing is a key aspect of KSP that we will continue to encourage and support. Below is a look at how you will choose which mods are incorporated into your Mission Builder creations.

tumblr_inline_p5ciu3sohZ1rr2wit_540.png

We also were delighted to see the first impressions of the expansion by some of our favorite content creators. We are very pleased to see how people are reacting to our work: from DasValdez’ reaction to the new part catalogue, Million_Light’s and EJ_SA’s amazing crafts, Matt Lowne’s creativity for mission making, the fair impressions of KSP legend, Scott Manley, among several others… just amazing.

Here are a few links to some of those great videos:

Scott Manley

Marcus House

Shadow Zone

Matt Lowne

Everyday Astronaut

TapeGaming

Also, want to see the official key-art for Making History Expansion? Check it out!

NtNQZ3WGih9P93ffRXoQIBB7-T2JyVE7LQOTsNhY

Finally we want to invite you to the comeback of KSPTV with our Making History release party starting on Monday 12th. Various streamers and content creators will join us in a streaming marathon leading up to a special event with very special guest host, interviews with the whole development, lots of insights, stories, and much more! We hope to see you there!

ENuULrKJVJHuSHkDGvVuRGOb1173J2kTDYmvsHcT

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!

*Information Source:

O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., “Hypatia of Alexandria”, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.

Donovan, Sandy (2008). Hypatia: Mathematician, Inventor, and Philosopher. Capstone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, genbrien said:

I guess it will please some septics that we'll ve able to use mods with the DLC

Skeptics aren't pleased when their predictions of doom are debunked....they have to come up with something else to be skeptical about now  :D 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am assuming the devs took the intelligent and logical route with Mission Builder and can be applied to career mode??

2 hours ago, Caelib said:

Any word on how veterans will receive their DLC?

Take Two is probably working 24/7 to find a way to make it not happen...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, EwingKang said:

Wow today's space history is pretty...historic :D

Feels like the release is a little bit rushed Personally I would wait for the 1.4.1 (or maybe 1.4.2!?) before I buy the MH pack.

 

3 minutes ago, klgraham1013 said:

1.4.1 is required for MH.

And, to clarify, both are coming this Tuesday. My guess is a 1.4.2 will be needed since I've been feeling like all of this has been rushed for a few weeks prior to release. It feels very much like Take-Two really wants to get this out the door before then end of their fiscal year (a not uncommon practice amongst big, publicly-traded publishers).

 

1 hour ago, Pixel Kola said:

I am assuming the devs took the intelligent and logical route with Mission Builder and can be applied to career mode??

It's easy to miss this info since the it's pretty spread out amongst many posts in many threads. The answer is: no. The mission builder and the missions themselves are a separate mode unrelated and not interacting with career mode in any way. Missions are essentially individual scenarios/challenges complete with a customizable scoring system not unlike the scenario mode you might find in an RTS, strategy, or management game. Stickied at the top of this Daily Kerbal section you can find two threads that explain how missions are built and shared in more detail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Mako said:

My guess is a 1.4.2 will be needed since I've been feeling like all of this has been rushed for a few weeks prior to release.

Like every post-beta KSP release, ever. I'll wait until the rush-job QA-fail bugs are hotfixed, as usual.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, steve_v said:

Like every post-beta KSP release, ever. I'll wait until the rush-job QA-fail bugs are hotfixed, as usual.

I can't say I blame you. To be honest, I downloaded but haven't ran 1.4 yet. After reading through through the 1.4 Grand Discussion thread I'm not in any hurry. Furthermore I'm expecting both 1.4.1 and Making History to both need some attention following Tuesday's release.

For all the resources that Take-Two is said to be able to provide none of it matters if they rush products out to cater more to shareholders than to customers. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it certainly feels this way to me. KSP may have started as an indie darling, but it's got major backing behind it now. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About those philosophers... they were not that smart, they didn't predict that slaves may rebel and murder their masters. Entire empire was shocked that slaves demand freedoms, that is in fact shocking.

More cool parts please, 1.4 had so little new parts :-(

 

Edited by Cassel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Farm Buyer said:

cool, not even a truncated single paragraph on the( still not fully functional, and out of date) Console version this week...

you guys keep up the good work communicating with ALL your customers over there... 

remember, at it's most basic level, the pc version is not functional from the amount of times players have been unable to start the game. So the KSP enhanced edition and PC bug levels/severity are equal. Oh, and by the way, since making history expansion is about to come out, it's time for the PC version to shine, not ours.

 

Edited by DunaManiac
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why wouldn't you use artwork actually from Making History on your official key-art?   Looks like you've used the ancient Learstar A1 stock craft from the main game, as well as the old helmets and I think those are the old suits too?

 

tumblr_inline_p5cimtPwI21rr2wit_540.png

Edited by klesh
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, klesh said:

Why wouldn't you use artwork actually from Making History on your official key-art?   Looks like you've used the ancient Learstar A1 stock craft from the main game, as well as the old helmets and I think those are the old suits too?

 

tumblr_inline_p5cimtPwI21rr2wit_540.png

Likely, too many work streams running in parallel - poorly managed dependencies regarding parts and arts.  Typical, nothing to see here.  Still the art isn't that bad.  This is the stuff most of us tend to overlook.  Its ok.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Mako said:

My guess is a 1.4.2 will be needed since I've been feeling like all of this has been rushed for a few weeks prior to release. It feels very much like Take-Two really wants to get this out the door before then end of their fiscal year (a not uncommon practice amongst big, publicly-traded publishers).

Every major release since (and including) 1.0 required at least one hotfix. 1.4.1 has already been announced, but since thats required for MH and needs to be released at the same time anyway, its questionable whether that will have many bugfixes. A 1.4.2 is very likely, but i don´t think its necessary because Take Two wanted 1.4 released before the end of their fiscal year (although that might have played a role). And to be honest, compared to some other releases, 1.4 doesn´t feel that bad to me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, rudi1291 said:

Every major release since (and including) 1.0 required at least one hotfix. 1.4.1 has already been announced, but since thats required for MH and needs to be released at the same time anyway, its questionable whether that will have many bugfixes. A 1.4.2 is very likely, but i don´t think its necessary because Take Two wanted 1.4 released before the end of their fiscal year (although that might have played a role). And to be honest, compared to some other releases, 1.4 doesn´t feel that bad to me

A fair point. AndAnd I've said in the past that 1.0 felt rushed and suspect it was due to needing to be out of early access to be able to move to consoles. There certainly seems to be a history of business decisions affecting the quality of releases.

A business is going to make business decisions; I'm not faulting anyone for that. I do, however, think it's a shame that making a few extra bucks is more important to some people than delivering a polished, professional product. I know there will always be bugs, but this time to really feels like this update, and subsequently the next update/Making History could have used just a few more weeks to really shine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...