totm nov 2021 Threads of the month: November 2021

[adsii1970]

The KSP forum moderator's team presents the
Threads of the Month
November 2021 Edition

Hello and greetings to all!

As of today, there are only 61 days left of 2021 - this means it will be 2022 before we know it! It's amazing how fast this year has flown by.  It seems just a few days ago I was sharing the basic artwork with the moderation team of the TOTM for 2021. We are at the time of year, in the Northern Hemisphere, where our days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. I love fall and winter  - and one of the reasons is the cold night air is perfect for stargazing! Soon, as November fades into December, it will be time to break out my star charts and telescope and to head outside, to a dark area where I can begin to teach my youngest daughter the true beauty of backyard astronomy. There's something about seeing Saturn through a telescope - with your own eyes - that changes your view of the cosmos around you. Or at least it did for me. 

To continue a thing I started in May (2021) about the forum and new members as a way to answer the fears some folks had about the forum dying. In September, there were 367 new forum accounts created (an increase of 18 over September).  Of those, 152 have actively posted content (defined as having at least one post). This means that roughly 41.4% of the new user accounts are actively participating on the forum (while the number of new accounts is up, the number of new accounts that can be defined as active is down). If you're interested in seeing the new members to our forum, you can click here!

Now, without further delay, I present to you the threads of the month for November:

General community threads of the month:
This category features a thread that adds to the community and doesn't fit in the game support/game mod categories. This month, we have two threads which have earned the recognition for TOTM for this category!

In this thread, @Spacescifi wanted to create a thread where he passed on advice, from life experiences learned, to our younger forum members. Soon, the spirit of the thread spread and many of you, myself and other members of the moderation team included, have added our observations. Life is hard and it certainly doesn't come with an instruction book, tutorials, or even a handy FAQ sheet to consult when things get tough. But this thread has shown that there are a lot of us out there willing to give good advice (and some a more cynical outlook on life) if you're willing to ask. Who knows, maybe you're one of our seasoned forum members or even a younger one who has experienced one of those "and life happened^TM" moments and want to share your experiences and advice - then this is the thread for you!

In the second thread for this category, @king of nowhere asks a question many of us have wondered about a great many things - why does ____ have to be so complex? But in this particular version of the question, the focus is rocket engines. As a frequent visitor to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and the John C. Stennis Space Center, I, too, have pondered this question. Now don't get me wrong, a lot of you have responded with graphs and schematics to explain the complexities of rocket engines. And yes, those things do make sense. But they are extremely complex pieces of engineering! They are a far cry from those model rocket engines we played with as kids (and some of us still do!). So, if you're interested in how rocket engines work or you just want to read some really good discussion on the principles that govern real space flight (not the stuff you see in most science fiction television shows and movies), then this thread might be of interest to you!

Game Support/Game Mod of the Month:

This category features a mod (or mods) which adds to the quality of life game play of Kerbal Space Program. This month, we have one thread in this category:

Distant Object Enhancement has been a longtime favorite mod by many in the KSP community for years. In the early years, when it was first introduced by @Rubber Ducky, the mod did something that many of us wanted - a way to see planets, moons, and our spacecraft at a distance. Over the years, features were added. @Rubber Ducky 's first major update to the mod allowed the user to hover the mouse cursor over the distant light shining in the darkness of space - and instantly see it's name appear! For those of us who have used the mod, we all remember that moment when we realized that that dot in the nighttime Kerbin sky was actually Duna - and not just a dot on the skybox!

Thanks to @Lisias, that mod is now alive again for the current version of Kerbal Space Program! We have a great group of programmers who have adopted many of the older and well-loved mods and continue to maintain and develop them. If you're looking for a mod that adds a lot to the game, download this mod and give it a try!

Forum Member Created Challenges and Missions:  

This is a new category we are adding to the Threads of the Month. For the past few years, we have seen a lot of really good missions and challenges threads created that expand our fun with the game and presses our skills, creativity, and sometimes, luck, beyond what we get accustomed to. Let's face it, we all have our go-to design basics, our go-to Kermen, and even our go-to vehicles we like to use. So sometimes a good challenge can cause us to think of another way to achieve our goals.

Remember the original Caveman Challenge thread? It's hard to believe that the original Caveman Challenge, introduced by @GoSlash27 in July of 2015, has now been re-released four more times. Now, we have even more versions - and this one is a unique one - a Caveman Style challenge - but on EVE!

So, if you are looking for something to do for the next few hours (or as I do, for the next few days), then this is the challenge and thread you need to visit! And as always, and most important, have fun doing it!

Fan-fiction, Mission Reports, and Kerbal Space Program-inspired Creative Thread of the Month:
This category features a thread (or threads) which while is not directly Kerbal Space Program related, may be a creative work, fan-fiction, or other presentation which is related to the game. For this month, we have one thread in this category.

In this thread, @D0m1nu2 takes a real-life series of NASA missions based on Skylab and has created a variation of of it in a RSS (modded) version of Kerbal Space Program. It's always interesting to see what forum members do when their love of space exploration and interests in then history of the world's real-life space programs and the love of Kerbal Space Program come together. 

In the introduction to this neat mission report, @D0m1nu2 says:

Quote

This Space Station was inspired by Kevin Gustafson's series about International Skylab. After seeing it I decied to create my own version of IS. It will not be exact copy of IS but there will be some similar things to IS. I really like to recreate space stations in KSP, before IML built whole Mir station and currently I'm recreating all ISS missions like in real life, I already got to the end of 2016 but now I'm taking break from ISS recreation.

 So, if you're looking for some inspiration, looking for some good screen shots, or maybe a combination of the two, visit this thread. I am sure you will not be disappointed!

Honorable mention:

Each month we get so many good nominations to choose from. Sometimes it's a challenge to choose which threads are going to receive the honor of being the Thread of the Month. But because not every thread nominated each month can be selected, there are always those that become honorable mentions. The honorable mention for November 2021 is:

• Hallowe'en (HWLN) Hallowe'en themed parts pack for KSP by @zer0Kerbal

The honorable mention for November may not have made the Thread of The Month this month, but if you think they might be worthy of another opportunity, please renominate it!

Congratulations to all the winners of the Thread of the Month for November! We'd like to thank @Spaceman.Spiff, @Kerbal Productions, @Superfluous J, @zer0Kerbal, and the members of the moderation team who nominated this month's contenders. Thank you so much for helping us identify noteworthy threads for this month!

And this month, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to @UomoCapra for allowing me to serve as a member of the KSP moderation team and for the other endeavors he has given me an opportunity to be involved. Oh, and since I was asked to ping the community manager in the TOTMs... (this began in October, @St4rdust, you've been pinged!) 

TO NOMINATE  A THREAD FOR CONSIDERATION: If you find a thread you feel should be considered for next month's thread of the month, then use the "report comment" feature (the three dots on the upper right corner of the comment box) to report the comment. Please put in the text field of the report post "Nomination for thread of the month" and we will do the rest! You can always nominate more than one thread, too.

In case you missed October's threads of the month, you can click here.

[Admiral Fluffy]

Congradulations to the winners!

First lets goo!

[Just Jim]

Congrats everyone!   

[Kerbal Productions]

@Interplanet Janetwe didn't win once more

But, no worries, we'll get it next month and I'll knock off the person who managed to get the TOTM...
 

Spoiler

...even if he's Mr. Perfect Every Time, Mr. Never was Wrong, Mr. KSP on his Right Hand, Mr. Intensively Perfect to the Last Pixel, Mr. Great God of KSP, Mr. Have the Whole Community in His Hands, Mr. Criticize Idiots, and lastly, Mr. Know-it-all!

I shouldn't drop names, though. His reputation will be ruined if I do so.

But congrats to the thread winners! Best of luck on December!

Edited November 2, 2021 by Kerbal Productions
month, not year

[zer0Kerbal]

congratulations and keep up the excellent flying!

[D0m1nu2]

I would like to thank a lot for choosing me as fan fiction report of November, when I started my series I didn't expect this to happend in any dream :D.
Once more Thanks! I will do as much as I can to keep the good quality of my IML reports.

[Caerfinon]

16 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

For many of us who play Kerbal Space Program, one of the things that's missing are ocean going vessels. Since the earliest days of KSP, we've created all kinds of craft - from stock craft to those with mods - to fulfill our needs to explore the briny depths of Kerbin. In this mod by @Caerfinon, a new era of maritime exploration and service has been added to the game - contracts! 

So, if you need some encouragement to explore the oceans of Kerbin, here's a mod for you!

Possibly an artifact from last months post... not that I mind the attention, but @Lisias's excellent work should stand in the spotlight alone. 

[Lisias]

8 minutes ago, Caerfinon said:

Possibly an artifact from last months post... not that I mind the attention, but @Lisias's excellent work should stand in the spotlight alone. 

Humm… Since we are here… I need to do some testing on DOE about subaquatic vessels, I completely missed that...

Spoiler

https://github.com/net-lisias-ksp/DistantObject/issues/13

 

[adsii1970]

1 hour ago, Caerfinon said:

Possibly an artifact from last months post... not that I mind the attention, but @Lisias's excellent work should stand in the spotlight alone. 

Yeah, that's my bad. Ever look over something so much you miss the obvious? Yeah, that was me last night...

 

1 hour ago, Lisias said:

Humm… Since we are here… I need to do some testing on DOE about subaquatic vessels, I completely missed that...

Yeah, that's what it was... I was dropping a subconscious hint.

[Guest The Doodling Astronaut]

Congrats to everyone

[ColdJ]

Congratulations to all the winners.

Didn't I congratulate Octobers winners yesterday? Where did that month go?

[adsii1970]

32 minutes ago, ColdJ said:

Didn't I congratulate Octobers winners yesterday? Where did that month go?

Ha. I said the same thing as I was working on TOTM yesterday. I literally forgot it was November 1st until nearly noon local time!

 

[Spacescifi]

Did not expect this at all but thanks! Added some info about brushing teeth correctly, most of which I just learned today.

[Lisias]

8 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Congratulations to all the winners.

Didn't I congratulate Octobers winners yesterday? Where did that month go?

I don't know yours, but mine left a note on the refrigerator saying it's leaving me and I never heard of it again…  

[Lisias]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:41 PM, Lisias said:

I don't know yours, but mine left a note on the refrigerator saying it's leaving me and I never heard of it again…  

Damn, found a note from November on my fridge too!!