BLUESTREAK

Mobile launch pads, you say...? I'm listening...

Careful, lest thou wake the Whackjob...

Good looking mod - Would it be possible to turn the linear growth mechanism off as an option in the UI? I would like to use this mod, but I don't really like the linear growth mechanic, preferring to fly any civilian resupply missions myself, rather than having them automatically turn up! Puts me off a bit. Exponential growth I'm fine with, as that's a somewhat more... "natural" process, slower, and more manageable. On the exponential growth side, now female kerbals are a thing (which I don't think they were when this mod was first written), would it be possible to make the exponential growth mechanism a function of the male/female ratio, rather than them being weeds? Furthermore, on the exponential growth side of things, an idea for a game play mechanic would be to have a method of controlling exponential growth - have a button in the ship/station's root part which says "no more baby kerbals" which puts a reproduction ban in place, slowing (but not stopping) growth - accidents will happen, after all... (Originally posted in the last dev thread before the new one was generated for 1.3, reposted for visibility!)

Listening to disco Fixing probe antenna Digging up RTGs Launching rescue mission Fixing the hab Distilling hydrazine Slingshoting Growing potatoes Advocating space piracy Finding abandoned probes Rolling the rover over Cleaning solar panels Getting more tape Mutinying Losing unnecessary mass Checking we have ALL the crew this time Ignoring mission control Blowing the airlock Colonising Duna Still listening to disco ...there might be a theme here.

Would it be possible to turn the linear growth mechanism off as an option in the UI? I would like to use this mod, but I don't really like the linear growth mechanic, preferring to fly any civilian resupply missions myself, rather than having them automatically turn up! Puts me off a bit. Exponential growth I'm fine with, as that's a somewhat more... "natural" process, slower, and more manageable. On the exponential growth side, now female kerbals are a thing (which I don't think they were when this mod was first written), would it be possible to make the exponential growth mechanism a function of the male/female ratio, rather than them being weeds? Furthermore, on the exponential growth side of things, an idea for a game play mechanic would be to have a method of controlling exponential growth - have a button in the ship/station's root part which says "no more baby kerbals" which puts a reproduction ban in place, slowing (but not stopping) growth - accidents will happen, after all...

True, I was just wondering about compatibility - it would be a bit fourth - wall breaking to be wandering about your base and to suddenly disappear though the floor due to mod incompatibility. Well, floor breaking rather than wall breaking, but you get my point.

All of that! This is one of my favourite mods to watch the development of; it's fascinating to come back every few months and see how it's going. Internal science experiments would be cool too. One idea: having ground based "horizontal" versions of the hitchhiker and science labs, or mk3 versions, so you can build sprawling bases and walk around in them with everything correctly oriented for gravity, rather than towers. Mk1 aircraft fuselage without the chairs and tables to create narrow corridors or internal ladders. Aesthetic things like that. Awesome mod, keep up the good work (Also, generating artificial gravity through spinning the ship/station would be fantastic!) Edited for fat fingers.

Stacks of trial and error to begin with. Seriously, pushing random buttons to see what happened. ("Ah ha! Spacebar makes the launch clamps fall off!"). Trial and error to a first suborbital hop ("...should I be getting reentry effects on the way up?") and trial and error to first orbit. This was the point where the stupid space game I'd picked up for a distraction became a serious space game, and I picked up a textbook on orbital mechanics. Orbital rendezvous followed, and then munshots. Explosions followed. This was the point where I went online and signed up for a distance learning course in undergraduate maths and astrophysics. Mun landings followed. Several years later, degree nearly done, I have still not sent a Kerbal to Duna and returned him safely to Kerbin. I may have to study at postgraduate level for this...!

A two kerbal Gemini pod can't come soon enough, I'm just reaching that point in my current career game play through and it kills me every time to have to leap straight from Mercury to Apollo...! Will there be an appropriately scaled LES? Edited to add: keep up the good work, you folks rock

I have never visited Dres. But then again, neither has anybody else, ever, so I don't feel so bad.

Surface area the size of Africa, so it would require a megaproject unlike anything humanity has ever done to move that much regolith to the point it's visible to the naked eye. And, frankly, if you have that kind of advertising budget, there's better ways to spend it! Reminds me of the old joke - the head of NASA bursts into the Oval Office: "Mr President! The Soviets are painting the moon red!" "Really? That must be costing them trillions... Tell you what, let them." "Let them, Mr President...? I don't..." "Sure, let them. And once they're done, I want you to go up there with a billion cans of white paint and write 'Coca Cola' over it!"

Short answer: no. Long answer: yes, but only if you can draw about 5 petawatts of electricity to power 5 billion luxor spotlights (most powerful lamp on Earth, on top of the Luxor hotel, Las Vegas). 5 petawatts is about twice Earth's total power output, by the way - so the answer is still "no!" Source: xkcd what if, https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/

I was mid way though an awful breakup, during a very rough patch at work and I wanted something distract myself with. I'd been playing Faster Than Light (a lot, that game was nails) and steam recommended KSP to me. Not expecting much, I downloaded 0.18. After several hours, lots of explosions and grinning like an imbecile, I picked up a textbook or two... Long story short, I have a new job, a wife, I'm studying astrophysics and I have some 900 hours logged. Yeah, KSP worked for me

I do, but in a far more simple manner - I stick a flag near the astronaut complex saying something along the lines of "in memory of Jebidiah, killed on day 231 of the programme, whilst landing the XR-1 high speed research jet. Cause of accident was controlled flight into terrain". Something brief, saying who, when, and how, so I won't be so stupid next time!

Playing on a wheezing 7 year old laptop, works fine. Ish. I like the race idea - I'm going to have to challenge a friend or two over Skype, should be fun...

Cool concept - I like the LEO moss concept. What's the all-up payload mass of the orbiting system? If less than or equal to 4kg, these guys might be able to help: http://www.tranquilityaerospace.com/TranqWeb/DevonTwo.html Small Brit startup based in Oxfordshire with a reusable two stage rocket, capable of hefting a 4kg payload to LEO. Principally aimed at cubesats/microsats. Might be worth investigating, might not.

Bit of both, I say. Solving people's problems and designing more efficient ways of meeting mission parameters of client players sounds right up KAL's street. No task too big, no job too small, etc. We only have one self generated design task at the moment, but I think that if we start to show engineering excellence others will follow - requesting either vehicle design or solving problems. It's not either/or. I'd also state it's not just for RSP; the mods required depend on the requirements of the customer. Mod flexibility makes it more of an engineering challenge and prevents it all from getting stale.

If working on a project for RSS, yes. If not, no - it all depends on the needs of the project in question. To start the ball rolling, perhaps: One idea that I've been working on (and failing at) is the development of an autonomous ballistic missile which can hit a target on the island airfield with a CEP of, oooh, lets say 50m. I'm trying to make a V2 equivalent craft; a SRBM with early tech tree requirements. As I've failed dismally at every turn (I can easily make a rocket which can get to the island, but autonomously guiding to target - ah, that's the difficult bit!) I'm putting the idea out to tender. Specifications are: KAL Project 1: Mods used/ required: KOS, with code required to suit. Max Cost: 20,000 Kredits Max part count: 30 Delta V required: Sufficient to reach Island airfield with CEP of 50m; range and ability to hit targets on continental landmass across from booster bay with CEP of 100m. Operating environment: Kerbin sub-orbital Max height, length, mass, width: suitable for Tier one VAB/launchpad Crew: Nil. Sufficient to launch whatever that early sputnik equivalent probe core is (which we shall consider the "warhead"). No requirement to return parts, or payloads; just slam into the ground right next to the target fast enough to make a really cool explosion and destroy/damage the target vessel. Constraints on tech tree: Up to and including fairings ought to do it; anything more technologically advanced is out (remember! Early V2 equivalent!). Rough timescale required: Call it a week from date of this post. Extensions possible if no solution found. Any further explanatory details: As described above. V2 equivalent SRBM capable of hitting a targeted vessel on the island airfield with a CEP of 50m or a targeted vessel on the far continent with a CEP of 100m. The cheaper/lower part count/greater range the better. Final testing prior to acceptance into service with the Kerbal Armed Forces will involve a series of 10 launches; 50% or more of the rockets used must fall to within 50m of the target to ensure the system meets the stated specifications. As a first challenge/engineering problem, it shouldn't be too difficult, right? :S

It's very hard to put a definitive quantity on failure rates; I've not found a way to adjust the failure rate, but little failures happen often enough to warrant thinking about the possibility, but not often enough to rage quit. To me, this strikes an ideal balance, but others have complained about near constant failures whilst others complain about the mod doing very little. It's random and a balance; for me it's just right. I've only once had a main engine fail on liftoff (inducing a 50% drop in thrust and an unrecoverable yaw rate, hoo boy was that one fun!) - in short, this mod is great fun and ideal for making things more challenging

We also need criteria for any task or project - no good saying "design us a booster", we'd need to know how big, constraints, etc. to that end, I propose: Mods used/ required. Full list, and any sub requirements (code needed for KOS? Below a certain level of damage for KKS drop tests? Etc) Max Cost Max part count Delta V required (for boosters, etc) Operating environment (Duna v Mars? Mun or Tylo? Important to know) Max height, length, mass, width etc Crewed or uncrewed? How many crew? How long for, in the case of realism mods? constraints on tech tree - only using certain unlocked nodes? rough timescale required? (This will allow us to prioritise in the case of multiple tasks) Any further explanatory details (such as, "I'm designing a Duna mission, I need a rover which weighs less than 3.2 tonnes and can support 3 kerbals with a range of 100km on a single battery charge, plus a method for getting it onto the surface. Plz halp" etc any other ideas?

Naturally! I think that when it comes to mods, we should use the mods listed in the project in question. If it's supporting RSP, explicitly state so, and use the mods listed for that project otherwise what we're doing just won't work. Vanilla for everything else unless asked for (say, if someone comes to is with a different and specific problem), and provide links and craft files to everything so others can use it. Plus vids and pics in the OP, obviously!

Additionally, we need to keep people up to date in the OP - what we're working on, who's in, who's doing what, progress, members, etc - have lots of pretty pictures of stuff being tested and/or broken (KKS? Destruction effects?) and videos if someone's got the youtube skills which I utterly lack This would then allow us to post craft files for other people to use, although it does rule certain things out (automation, etc)

Personally, I quite like this list from @ZooNamedGames: Design an autonomous recoverable booster Design and test a large rover (probe) Design a probe which can dock to a target autonomously Perform a static test firing of our largest vehicle Design an air-launched space plane (something like this) Drop tests of a manned lunar landing vehicle Design and perform Approach and Landing Tests (ALTs) of a manned/unmanned reusable spaceplane vehicle (possibly the same one from bullet 5?) some of these - 1, 3 and 7 - will require KOS to work, although none of those are outside the realms of possibility. I quite like the sound of the drop tests and the autonomous booster myself! Some of these will be quick, easy wins - give us the craft files for the rocket or the lander and merely design a test rig around it. Easy-peasy. Design a vehicle or booster will be a bit more challenging. What are the specifications? Mods? RO/ RSS? Vanilla?

This is true, but I do like the idea and sentiment behind it - "I've got a problem, what's the solution?" - as an aspiring engineer, it sounds fun to me!

Yes please - what's the first problem?