swankidelic

I'm just now catching up with this episode. Jason Schreier's article says that Take Two successfully poached @Nate Simpson from Star Theory. Take Two also ponied up the money to get the KSP brand from SQUAD, right? So if Nate's post is to be believed, KSP2 is still in development, just not under Star Theory, but under Take Two's studio Intercept Games. I feel bad casting aspersions on Nate's post when he effuses such enthusiasm, but talk is cheap. No one's motives are particularly clear (except pursuing bigger paychecks and dividends, natch). And in the end, what strategy/sim gamers want is very divergent from what large publishers like Take Two want. My cynicism outweighs my excitement for KSP2 now. It's easy to fear disappointment when big money shenanigans like this transpire, so I'm just gonna write it off. If reviews are not terrible, I'll probably buy KSP2; otherwise, the KSP brand is yet another victim of the corporate machine. More blood for the blood god, another franchise for the franchise throne.

If they can do Lagrangian points with patched conics, I won't lament the absence of N-body physics. Really, that's what it comes down to.

Regarding the color of radiators, people mentioned the KSPI radiators but no one mentioned the nuances of those parts. I think they're really cool (har har) and seem to make a lot of sense. They do the perpendicular-sun-tracking thing, to utilize both sides of each panel. When you see the panels while in an umbra, you also see the glowing heat pipes. I'm guessing the heat pipes are made of oxidized copper or anodized aluminum because of they're good at both radiating and conducting. For the purposes of texturing, the rest of the color of the radiator may not actually matter much, since we're mostly concerned with non-visible radiation. The ISS, though, uses ammonia as coolant throughout the station modules as well as the radiators. You can't really see the ammonia channels, though, maybe the radiator panels are aluminum or something? I'm not sure if the coloring is deliberate or coincidental. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:STS-134_EVA4_view_to_the_Russian_Orbital_Segment.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EATCS.png - - - Updated - - - This discussion also makes me think of the effectiveness of inline, stack-mounted radiators. It would be neat if their effectiveness changed when they're in an umbra, or even when they're tilted closer to perpendicular to the sun. When they're in sunlight, obviously one side wouldn't be able to radiate anything, but since the game is tracking heat on a per-part basis, the end result would be, ok radiation in the sun, better radiation in the shade.

Bump! I'd like to see this in 1.0 as well. Really great in a suite of mods that focus on the "program" part of the space program.