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KSP Weekly: A Brief History about Stephen

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SQUAD

SQUAD

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Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. One of the greatest minds of our time has passed away this week. A man that inspired us through his hardships, endurance and brilliance. We are talking about Stephen Hawking of course. Born on January 8th 1942 in Oxford, England, curiously enough, on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death. He was a scientist, professor and author who performed groundbreaking work in physics and cosmology, and whose books helped to make science accessible to everyone. At age 21, while studying cosmology at the University of Cambridge, he was diagnosed with a rare early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or “ALS” and Lou Gehrig’s disease), that gradually paralyzed him over the decades. Even after the loss of his speech, he was still able to communicate through a speech-generating device, initially through use of a hand-held switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. His will to live surpassed all medical expectations, he did not only reach old age, but he managed to have a rich life filled with accomplishments.

His scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Hawking also became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009 and achieved commercial success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general. His book, A Brief History of Time, appeared on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

He was never bound to his physical limitations either and in late 2006, Hawking revealed in a BBC interview that one of his greatest unfulfilled desires was to travel to space; on hearing this, Richard Branson offered a free flight into space with Virgin Galactic, which Hawking immediately accepted. Besides personal ambition, he was motivated by the desire to increase public interest in spaceflight and to show the potential of people with disabilities. On 26 April 2007, Hawking flew aboard a specially-modified Boeing 727-200 jet operated by Zero-G Corp. off the coast of Florida to experience weightlessness. Fears the maneuvers would cause him undue discomfort proved groundless, and the flight was extended to eight parabolic arcs. It was described as a successful test to see if he could withstand the g-forces involved in space flight. “It was amazing” Hawking told the press afterward, adding that he considered it a first step. “Space, here I come.” At the time, the date of Hawking’s trip to space was projected to be as early as 2009, but unfortunately commercial flights to space did not commence before his death.

In 2006 Hawking posed an open question on the Internet: “In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?”, later clarifying: “I don’t know the answer. That is why I asked the question, to get people to think about it, and to be aware of the dangers we now face.” We can’t make him justice, this man was amazing, with an impeccable moral compass, as well as a passion for life and science like no other. Even in death you inspire all human and Kerbalkind, Stephen. Godspeed Professor.

[Development news start here]

Despite the sad news about the passing of Prof. Hawking, here at the KSP HQ, we are incredibly happy and proud of what we have accomplished with Kerbal Space Program: Making History Expansion, which was successfully launched this past Tuesday. After so much work, it is just amazing to see such a project come into fruition, especially seeing the fantastic response of our fans. We’ve been through hard times these past two years, but we never stopped believing in KSP and in our capabilities as a team.

We want to thank everyone who has supported us and who have been providing us with feedback, suggestions and inspiration on this journey. We are committed to continue doing our best alongside our partners at Private Division to make Kerbal Space Program the best game it can be.

Now that the expansion and 1.4 update are out, we are focusing on compiling all the feedback we can get, as well as working hard on finding solutions to fix the pesky bugs that have popped up. And we continue to work on fixes for the Enhanced Edition on consoles as well.

Our entire team is very proud of the expansion, and wanted to share some words with the community:

Nestor Gomez, Producer

I am very proud of the team. Since conception to release they’ve all made a great job putting our first expansion in the (virtual) shelves. We are not done with Making History as we still continue working on the support but it’s a great milestone for us. Expansions are a key part of the plan to continue growing KSP for more time and we are very glad a lot of users are enjoying it so far. I am also very excited to see what kind of creative missions the players put together with the Mission Builder and how the modders will extend it for the years to come.

Robert Shaer aka. Robbonaut, Game Designer

Well there we are - the dust has more or less settled on a brilliant and successful launch. I think I can speak for the others when I say we as a team are extremely grateful at how the expansion has been received by you, our community. But rest assured the work continues - we will try our best to squash as many bugs as we can and we are constantly looking and listening to your comments and feedback. I personally have loved working on such a globally popular title and seeing the love you guys have for it adds extra fuel to my fire to make sure we can produce the best game possible for us all to enjoy.

We set out to create something that meant you, our players, could create your own missions, share them with each other, and delight in what other creators have managed to build. I think we’ve managed that - but it in no way means we can (or will) sit back and crack open a beer. The work doesn’t and won’t stop… we carry on and improve what we’ve put in your hands, and we keep going until the Universe can’t handle how much awesomeness we are putting into the game.

Thanks all for purchasing, playing, or just taking an interest. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what amazing missions you guys manage to build.

Cheers!

Rob

Bruce Ewing aka. Bewing, QA Staff

The Democratization of Forum Challenges. Now you don’t need to take screenshots of each step to prove what you did … or leave a trail of flags. The creation of these challenges also gets standardized, and there will probably be a large number of them posted online for the taking. But keep in mind that they are supposed to be challenges, so they are supposed to be hard and tricky and to make you think.

Fernanda Díaz, Assistant Producer

Being part of the KSP team has been an amazing experience, full of challenges, fun and great ideas. I still remember when this expansion was just in our minds in a really long, LONG meeting, so to be able to see it completed fills me with pride and happiness. Can´t wait for what the KSP community will craft and I´m really excited for the mods to come.

David Tregoning aka TriggerAu, Game Developer

Just wanted to say how much of an honor and pleasure it is to be involved in bringing you some new (and I hope exciting) content and features in KSP. It’s been good to see people getting in to the new stuff in 1.4 and in the Making History Expansion. But, it’s been great to read all the feedback - both good and bad - that helps me understand how you all play KSP and what you like (or would like to see).  Thank you, sooooo much, for being an involved and communicative community. I feel really blessed to be part of this family and I hope you enjoy KSP and Making History as much as I know we all do.

Steve Diver aka Squelch, QA Manager

We have always loved the way the community sets challenges for each other, and Making History is now the perfect vehicle to not only re-enact real and sci-fi situations for personal use, but also to share and challenge your friends. We know just how creative the community is with building vessels and using - or abusing - parts in ways they were never intended, so the Mission Builder has been created in the same vein. The same open ended sandbox has now been given limits, and those limits are bounded only by your imagination. This time with the ability to play through the same scenario again, and with the option to share. I hope you enjoy what for us has been an incredibly arduous, but fun, journey during development and testing, and I look forward to seeing - and playing - those missions and craft that I know will amaze.

Rodrigo Fernandez aka. Roy, Game Developer

Very excited to open up so many creation possibilities for the KSP community with the Mission Builder.

We are eager to hearing your feedback and see your missions to keep improving this new chapter in the game.

Julio Zabre, Game Developer

(intense typing..)

Being part in the development of KSP first DLC has been an awesome experience, seen how all our efforts and ideas slowly became reality I cannot wait to see what the community will do with the new tools they have to play.

Marco Salcedo aka Samssonart, Game Developer / Tech Support

When I thought about what the first DLC for KSP would be……I don’t think a Mission Builder would have even been on my list. But it just makes sense when you see it finished. KSP has always been a lot about sharing creativity. Maybe you are very knowledgeable about space and can come up with really cool missions, and it would be wasteful not share them. Maybe you’re not much of a creator, but appreciate content generated by your fellow players (hey, if you like it better than what we do, it’s okay, no hard feelings :p). Making History is a celebration of that, KSP players sharing their passion and creativity in ways that weren’t possible before.

I’m really excited to see all the cool missions that will come from you guys, there are endless possibilities, and when you throw mods into the mix, it broadens even more. Now, stop reading my prattle and have fun!

Andrea Cataño aka Badie, Community Manager

I’m very proud of the team, the effort and love everyone put into this project. Now, we are excited to see what the community will create with Making History! Thanks for your support and for being such an amazing community.

Jamie Leighton aka JPLrepo, Game Developer

I am proud to be part of the team to bring you the first expansion for KSP - Making History. I hope the community gets as much enjoyment out of playing it as it’s been bringing it to you. Now that it’s in your hands and we can see how much people are enjoying it as well as all your great constructive feedback. We can improve and take on board all of it.  I look forward to bringing you more updates and content into the future so we can all continue to build and play this great game.

Pablo Ollervides, Artist

I’m very proud and thankful for being part of this amazing team, learned a lot during this milestone and hope everybody enjoys this expansion as much as I did working on it.

Leticia Mercado, Art Director

This has been such an interesting ride. From its conception trough development, Making History was about opening the hood so that everyone interested could build all the wild things I know we’ll start seeing. This community’s creativity never ceases to amaze us,  the attention to detail, the joy you bring to each other through your shared love for space exploration (and explosions). And hey, I’m sure extra parts are always welcome as well!

Marc Gale aka Technicalfool, QA Staff

It’s great to see the hard work of everyone involved finally coming together in the first expansion pack released for KSP. I’m proud to have been a small part of it, and I hope the KSP community can grab what we’ve done and take it to the next level of awesome.

John DelValle, Game Developer

When I first started working on the mission nodes I didn’t realize the HUGE impact it might really have for KSP as it enables players not only to create their own space missions, but also get to experience missions from new people or amazing experts in the game and space as Scott Manley.

Learning and experiencing stuff done by someone else is very enriching in so many ways.

I love working with this team so much, and I am reading many comments specially from KSP youtube videos in order to bring more to the table by knowing their emotions and thoughts.

Bjorn Askew aka. BJ, Game Developer

It’s been pretty crazy getting the expansion out. We spent a lot of time bickering about how to make the mission system something that we’d enjoy playing and something that KSP fans would enjoy as well. We spent a lot more time making (and breaking) and remaking (and breaking) and remaking the mission builder. We kept on putting in game features until we ran out of time, then we stuffed in a few more. Now our craft has to roll out of the hangar doors and, although we’re watching anxiously like overprotective engineers, we can’t wait to see what the players and modders do with it. High fives to all the brilliant people on the team who put in so much work to get this out and a tip of the hat to the community for making all the hard graft worth it all!

In case you missed out, we prepared these tutorial videos for 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

We also invite you to check out Cinematic Trailer for Making History Expansion, one of favorite shorts about the Kerbal adventures.

Finally we want to let you know that you can share your creations on Curse, KerbalX, and/or the KSP Forum.

Start sharing, playing and making history!

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:  

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StrandedonEarth

StrandedonEarth

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[snip]

Hmm, I didn't see a blurb there from @RoverDude, unless he's one of those names without an 'aka' attached.

As for MH, I was all for buying it, but in light of recent events, I'm going to wait awhile. The prevailing opinion is that MH was pushed out the door so it could boost T2's bottom line before the end of the fiscal year. No mention was made of it going through QA like every other update including the EE. Some bug-squashing, sure, but no dedicated time strictly in QA, and no pre-release like recent major updates to really shake the bugs into the light. T2 would have been better served to take the time to at least sit the 'finished' product in QA for a couple of weeks and let MH get the next fiscal year off to a strong start with good press, instead of rushing it out  and then getting reports of bugs all over the place. which only deters people from buying it.

So I'll wait. I'm not going to help boost T2's bottom line this year, even though my :funds:15 is just a drop in an Orange Jumbo to them. The fringe benefit of that is that most mods should be updated by the time I decide to buy, and I can happily play my 1.3.1 career until then.

While I may eventually try some some challenge missions, I feel no urge to build any missions of my own after the recent "what's yours is ours" EULA that Take Two is forcing on us kerbonauts. Sorry, but what's mine is already my wife's. For the same reason, I have no desire to make any more Kerbal Music Videos (not that the ones I've made have been smash hits, aside from maybe  "Destroy KSC / Highway to Hell"), even though I've had some  new and old ideas kicking around in my head.

So I'll eventually buy it for the parts (I personally don't care much for part mods, but that's me), but not anytime soon.

For the most part, I've historically given Squad the benefit of the doubt, that they do the best they can within the constraints they work under. I may grumble now and then and I may not leap to their defense all the time, but I don't break out the torches and pitchforks either. I want to think that MH would not be out yet if not for instructions from T2. But someone at Squad needs to stand up to T2 and talk them out of 'go fever,' because this strongly reminds me of the SRB engineers being overridden when they didn't want to launch Challenger in freezing weather.

RIP, Professor Hawking. I hope you are now playing among the stars

Edited by Vanamonde
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nightingale

nightingale

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14 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Hmm, I didn't see a blurb there from @RoverDude, unless he's one of those names without an 'aka' attached.

Having been on the team I can guess at exactly how this happened.  It starts with Nestor asking everyone to fill out their blurb a week in advance, and ends up with everyone scrambling to fill it in on the last five minutes.  And this isn't meant as a knock against anyone on the team, it's just human nature (and in you guilty of this).

Or we can do the normal forum thing and start throwing out conspiracy theories. :cool:

Anyway, congrats to all of you on the team for making it through this milestone!

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Just Jim

Just Jim

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11 minutes ago, nightingale said:

It starts with Nestor asking everyone to fill out their blurb a week in advance, and ends up with everyone scrambling to fill it in on the last five minutes.  And this isn't meant as a knock against anyone on the team, it's just human nature (and in you guilty of this).

Oh, I can SOOOO see this happening... the poor @SQUAD  staff is scrambling to get a million things done at the last minute, and suddenly someone remembers the blurb... and they all do a mad dash to fill it out fast, then get right back to work... :confused:

 

Edited by Just Jim
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RoverDude

RoverDude

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37 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Hmm, I didn't see a blurb there from @RoverDude, unless he's one of those names without an 'aka' attached.

When the call went out for this, I was loading out for a gig in Brooklyn (packed house by the way - good times had by all), followed by a very long trip home in the wee hours of the morning, and a lot of sleep.  By the time I got the notice it was too late :D 

And I hope you folks have as much fun playing with all of the new toys as I had making them :)   

Edited by RoverDude
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StrandedonEarth

StrandedonEarth

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1 minute ago, RoverDude said:

When the call went out for this, I was loading out for a gig in Brooklyn (packed house by the way - good times had by all), followed by a very long trip home in the wee hours of the morning, and a lot of sleep.  By the time I got the notice it was too late :D 

Ah well, you're excused then, if you're providing yet more entertainment for the masses, albeit in a different form. What (instrument and/or style) do you play?

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Opus_723

Opus_723

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I'm waiting for a round of bugfixes before I buy, but I always do that. No big deal.

Congratulations on the release, and I hope the more mean-spirited griping doesn't get you down. It's a great game, and you should all be proud of it.

In the meantime, I have a glorious mission percolating in the back of my mind. Mostly involving  fire.

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RoverDude

RoverDude

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1 minute ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Ah well, you're excused then, if you're providing yet more entertainment for the masses, albeit in a different form. What (instrument and/or style) do you play?

Bass, in an indie rock band.  We mostly play Manhattan/Brooklyn, but have the occasional gig up north (heading to Cambridge, MA next month).   So a fairly crazy post-release week for me, between rehearsal and show :)

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KraterKreator

KraterKreator

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Congrats on the release of 1.4.1 and Making History! I always like to play stock before stacking up the mods. 1.4 runs a smooth and silky. I like that a lot of the UI details were cleaned up. Mouse click and drag response is rock solid and no glitches in flight.

Now to download all the mods and heat up the processor.

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klesh

klesh

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34 minutes ago, RoverDude said:

Bass, in an indie rock band.  We mostly play Manhattan/Brooklyn, but have the occasional gig up north (heading to Cambridge, MA next month).   So a fairly crazy post-release week for me, between rehearsal and show :)

Where and when in Cambridge?

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James M

James M

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Second week without any news at all on what theyre planning on doing with the console version. Not suprised at this point. Itll probably be another year (or two) before anything changes and I can play it again. Its a shame. I really wanted to finally land on Duna... 

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Macky03

Macky03

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1 hour ago, James M said:

Second week without any news at all on what theyre planning on doing with the console version. Not suprised at this point. Itll probably be another year (or two) before anything changes and I can play it again. Its a shame. I really wanted to finally land on Duna... 

 

10 hours ago, SQUAD said:
 

Now that the expansion and 1.4 update are out, we are focusing on compiling all the feedback we can get, as well as working hard on finding solutions to fix the pesky bugs that have popped up. And we continue to work on fixes for the Enhanced Edition on consoles as well.

 

 

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