unrepentantAuthor

Next update due by the 22nd due to academic reasons. A new thread will be made with a new set of rules and better planning.

I'm considering restarting this with Construction Time mod to determine when I get new techs, a list of roles for people to fill, and a mission template to make all this more interaction-friendly. I have a few days away from my computer to think about this.

The CTD's seem to have subsided, for now. I present to you the first mission report. GASA Report 1: Project Cloudscraper Operational Year 1 Missions completed: Cloudscraper One, Cloudscraper Two, Cloudscraper Three. Milestones reached: First successful rocket-propelled spacecraft launch, atmospheric exit, kerbal in space, spacewalk, stable orbit around Kerbin, successful return of a kerbal from space Craft developed: GSR-1/Stirk, GSR-2/Starling, GSR-2b/Starling II Director roster change: +1: Unmanned Rocketry Administrator Nicho Kerman (Ordinary budget, five votes on probe missions.) Budget change: $10,000 -> $122,508 Astronaut debuts: Jebediah Kerman Project Cloudscraper, authorised by the UKN in 1954 and developed since then by our predecessor GACA, has now been turned over to us, as part of GACA's disestablishment. We are expected to show a strong series of prestige-worthy results ASAP, and to put an artificial satellite in orbit within a single month. It seems that GACA was a poorly run enterprise - it's a wonder that any of their personnel ever expected to get to space - but we have inherited most of their work. We have done our best to make do. The UKN have become impatient and cynical after a year of vague promises by GACA about the potential of their 'More Boosters' program, and we are entirely beholden to them, even flying their flag rather than one of our own. Therefore, we have had our staff working around the clock to turn what rocket technology we have into something useable. Funds are limited, after GACA spent their bloated budget on increasingly elaborate stacks of boosters, so we've had to ask for preliminary funding from the KWFRKS to support our efforts. Perhaps fortunately for us, GACA never bothered with enough transparency to earn even 'first rocket launched' so we've been able to snap up several world firsts and receive a meagre sum from the Society in return. Notably, GACA did not bother developing any unmanned rocketry capability, forcing us to launch our early rockets with kerbal pilots. Fortunately, we have sufficient volunteers and basic heat shielding and spaceworthiness technology. If nothing else, we certainly have a lot of rocket fuel lying around... As you are about to see, this was enough to stagger into a temporary orbit and meet our objective within the time limit. We've learnt a great deal from these two missions, in terms of engineering, technology and even administration. Hopefully, we can put the new equipment we're approving to good use and achieve something spectacular by the end of the decade. Mission 1: Cloudscraper One Craft: GSR-1/Stirk Crew: Jebediah Kerman Status: Successfully launched, surpassed 5000m and left the atmosphere, reaching a final altitude of 105,000m, before returning to KSC This was a test-flight of the first GASA-designed, purpose-built spacecraft to enter service: the Ground to Space Rocket 1; reporting name 'Stirk'. The Stirk is a simple design: a MkI pod fitted with twin antennae and a parachute, affixed to a squat liquid-fuel rocket. Heat shields requisitioned from GACA's old projects have been roughly fashioned into an elementary decoupler and a crude launch stabiliser. The Stirk is practically useless in the long term, but we should learn a great deal about elementary ballistics from the recovery of the craft and the pilot's notes. The pilot, Jebediah Kerman, is delighted to be the first kerbal in space, and has been awarded seven ribbons - though several were technicalities he insisted on for the sake of correctness. Or, perhaps, his own ego. In any case, Jebediah reports experiencing no ill effects, and is in fact eager to man another rocket ASAP. The mission was declared a success, and Jebediah was cleared to man the second mission. GSR-1/Stirk Specs $3,603 5.6 tons Extra-atmospheric capable Mission 2: Cloudscraper Two Craft: GSR-2/Starling Crew: Jebediah Kerman Status: Successfully achieved an unstable low altitude orbit before returning to Kerbin This was an attempt to radically refine and augment our existing design in order to brute-force a low orbit before the end of the month. The resulting 'Starling' craft has an extended fuel tank, and an entirely new first stage, consisting of five clustered solid-fuel boosters. This booster stage is intended to be recovered. The GSR-2 is twice the weight and twice the cost of the Stirk, but its reach is incomparable - and its successful orbit will grant us reprive from UKN budget-hawks. Jebediah was also able to give a detailed account of a brief spacewalk during the orbit. Unfortunately, the KWFRKS insist, somewhat fairly, that since the orbit wasn't stable and was not completed, it is not a 'true' orbit. GSR-2/Starling Specs $6,154 12.6 tons Unstable LKO capable Mission 3: Cloudscraper Three Craft: GSR-2b/Starling II Crew: Jebediah Kerman Status: Successfully achieved a stable low altitude orbit before returning to Kerbin The enhanced version of the Starling has nine clustered SRB's, extended outwards from the main body to reduce overheating risks. In addition, the fuel tank for the liquid engine has been further-extended. The ascent profile and SRB clustering have also been optimised to squeeze out the extra altitude necessary. The mission proceeded without hitch or fault, netting GASA the largest influx of cash yet from the KWFRKS. Cloudscraper has been deemed a successful project, and its missions are to be suspended, pending more research and orders from the agency's board of directors. Jebediah Kerman suffered a trivial injury in the after-party in the KSC astronaut complex, and has been removed from active service until he has recovered and been appropriately reprimanded. Nevertheless, GASA has now achieved a complete manned orbit of Kerbin. GSR-2/Starling Specs $8,953 15.9 tons Stable LKO capable Report summary: GASA has achieved a modest goal in remarkable time, and with very limited technology available. The research potential of the recovered spacecraft components and the numerous detailed observations made by premier pilot Jebediah Kerman should allow us to develop an enormous number of critical new components for rocket construction. We have also multiplied our meager original budget tenfold. Despite these significant advances, the agency has established a number of critical needs, including, but not limited to: unmanned probe capability, dedicated decouplers, fairing shrouds, specialised scientific instruments, the availability of power cells and/or power generation, attitude control mechanisms and improved rocketry components. It remains to be seen what the agency will be granted in the near term. A handful of contracts are available to us from third party agencies, generally either insignificant or unfeasible. It is the hope of the agency administration that the board of directors will issue bold new missions and commission next-generation spacecraft with all due haste. tl;dr: I had the devil's time making KSP run without crashing. Jeb made orbit with starting parts only. Give me access to new junk and a new mission based on the early space race milestones, please. Cheers!

My greatest apologies for the delay in updating. My copy of KSP repeatedly CTD'd me after I installed my admittedly absurd list of mods. However, I finally resolved the issue and identified a single offending mod that my game was apparently objecting to. Or, so I thought. The game CTD's at the slightest provocation, to the point of being absolutely unplayable. I'm going to cut out all superfluous mods and then see if the game becomes workable. If not, I'll abandon the project in frustration until further notice.

Excuse me, but this mod came bundled with one of the 60+ mods I installed recently, and I believe it was causing a reproducible CTD, though I have no idea why. I confess the issue may be a compatibility issue with one of my many mods, or possibly a failure to install correctly by myself. My copy of KSP repeatedly CTD'd upon interacting in any way with the research building, and after systematically removing and re-adding mods, narrowing down the range of folders containing the bug, I found that my game ran fine with every mod still installed except for crossfeed enabler. I thought I'd let you know - and if providing the crash log files is of use to you, I'd be happy to. Best regards!

This looks interesting - I'm a fan of alternate history, and this could turn out to be a spectacle indeed. Are we seeing a general Eurasian space race, then? Feel free to send a PM my way if you fancy discussing the ahistorical element of this!

I installed my absurdly large list of mods, and after reinstalling some that I failed to add correctly, learning that I should be using the new 64bit executable, and binning Near Future after the game stopped loading during that mod's folder, I finally have the game successfully running. However, it crashed the moment I entered the research building. I am frustrated, of course - I've been struggling with this for a while now - but I'm also befuddled. I do not have the first idea how to fix this problem. Should I upload the crash log files? Is it possible there's a disagreeable mod I could remove, and how would I determine that? Edit: fixed it! Edit-edit: Or not. Many a CTD plagues me today. Edit-edit-edit: I'VE GOT IT

Good day, gentlemen and gentlewomen! Welcome to the headquarters of the newly-founded GASA - the Global Aeronautics and Space Administration - operating under the aegis of the United Kerbin Nations. You are here today because you have chosen to participate in one of this world's greatest endeavours: the exploration of space by an international organisation. Whatever your backgrounds - industrialists, politicians, STEM advocates - you have taken a place on the GASA board of directors. It is your role to support and direct this fledgling space agency towards great feats of space travel and international prestige. Good luck, everyone. Welcome to the Interactive Space Agency! Here, you can command GASA in the role of one of its directors. Posters in this thread will instruct me, in the role of the engineers, researchers and mission personnel of the agency, to execute various missions and achieve whatever goals they take to be important. In essence, I will construct the craft and fly the missions, and you will give me new missions. In this way, I will be challenged to achieve set goals, and participants will get to push me around and see what happens. I'm an intelligent player who's accomplished complex missions in the past, but is rusty as hell after a leave of absence and this will be my first time using mods like NEAR and Deadly Reentry. I'm seeking a balance between game playability and realism, with a touch of Kerbal-style booster fetishism on the side. Background and a provisional mod list can be found here. The current rules are also provisional and subject to future refinement. Rules: (tl;dr found at the bottom) Game Format: As often as I can, I will write reports on the agency's successes, failures and frustrations. Between reports, directors may choose to make a new proposal, vote on an issue, or direct their resources. Anyone is welcome to offer suggestions, fiction, etc at any time. Roleplay is not permitted on the ksp forums, but as far as I am aware, narrative prose is welcomed, and fictionalised accounts contributing to the agency's story should take an appropriate form. If you want to become a director, either use the default setup or send me a pm about it. Directors: You are one of GASA's directors, with the ability to propose new missions, projects, and alterations of any kind. Each director has one vote (or more, if their background justifies it), which they can abstain from using or cast as a veto under certain circumstances. Directors may also contribute to the budget of various programs, or build their own funds for the future. A director may also have the ability to provide parts, resources and other assets. For example, a director might be a prominent industrialist in the field of aircraft development - in this case, they would have a greater wealth, and could conceivably offer construction contracts. Finances: I have elected to use the game's currency management and hack myself extra funds based on the meta contracts given to me by directors. Directors will by default enter play with $20,000 to spend and an income of $5,000 per in-game week. One can also have expenditures over time, such as maintenance costs. You may use your funds at your own discretion, but please keep your use of them reasonable. Science and Research: I would like very much to experience a progression through a tech tree. However, the science gathering system of the base game holds no appeal for me, and I have not found mods which sufficiently ameliorate its dire state. Therefore, unless someone suggests a good alternative, unlocking tech nodes will be based on fluff - essentially, I will receive access to a tech node when the directors deem it appropriate. Mission Guidelines: My desire is both to simulate a space program that develops through similar paths as its real life counterparts, and to push myself gradually to complete increasingly ambitious tasks. Balance reasonable goals and fun challenges! In due course, I welcome everything from Munar flybys and impactors to shuttle design and space stations, to Duna bases and Laythe jetplanes. Missions should be issued with brief, budget, goals, and any relevant information made clear and unambiguous. Remember that designing and testing a launch system can be a mission as much as making a Mun landing. tl;dr: give me various goals and parameters, I'll interpret them as best I can and show you the results. You get $20,000 plus $5,000 per in-game week to assign to mission budgets, and one vote. I get techs when you say so. The project has now begun, after the long an extremely arduous process of installing an enormous mod list and resolving the resultant CTD plague. Advisory comments on the running of this project are very welcome indeed. This post published at 2:30am UK time, and likely to be radically polished in the near future. Thank you for your interest! GASA assets: Funds: $122,608 Operational Spacecraft: GSR-2b/Starling II Directors: Nicholander, Unamanned Rocketry Administrator (five votes probe issues)

The graphical error was that the kethane grid was improperly aligned with Kerbin. I didn't have time to test, but I feared that this would be the case in-game too. I'll be examining v0.24.1 today and tomorrow, I expect, and establishing exactly what my plans are for this project. I won't be using 0.23, given that 64bit is now an option, thank goodness - but now I can only hope that all relevant mods are appropriately updated in short order. (I'm sure they will be.) I have scarce time on my hands at the moment due to a number of circumstances in my life. However, I intend to start this project within the week and to update it at least weekly until more time is available for games and such. To be specific, I have family obligations and a certain amount of missed uni work to complete by the 15th, after which I have very few real obstacles to running virtual space programs. Thank you for your interest and you tolerance of my failure to produce results in any reasonable timeframe after my initial post! With luck, I'll have the thread started within 24h.

Downloaded my absurd list of mods today. It was an arduous task, and I have no time to test everything out. However, it appears my computer doesn't complain terribly that I have them installed. It was a rush job while tired, so I think I made some installation mistakes - Toolbar accused me of installing it incorrectly, and there was a graphical error with Kerbin on the main menu. Nevertheless, these are promising signs, gentlemen. I know I can run some approximation of all the nonsense I want to run! Additionally, I have elected to use FAR. Gods help me.

I'm fairly busy tomorrow and I'm on holiday for two weeks starting Friday, but I'll see about putting that enormous list of mods into my game and seeing how it works. Perhaps I'll test out FAR - but it looks virtually impossible to design and fly planes in that damn mod. (And yet, my mind insists I give myself decent aerodynamics and suck it up...) I'm still thinking about how to run the meta element of the thread, with budgets and assignments and the like. Plus, looks like 0.24 might be out before I return, so depending on how that turns out (particularly with the budget feature...) I may wait a little longer for all those mods to become compatible or I may not bother with 0.24 for the time being. Uncertainty!

MechJeb reportedly calculates incorrectly when used with FAR, due to being based on the vanilla model. Some other mods apparently cause issues such as a game crash if you use certain parts. I haven't done my spree of download and installation yet, so I've not tested this myself.

I'm away for two weeks starting on the eleventh. I might get a post in before I leave, but no more than one or two missions in the game, I'm sure. I can fictionalise a bunch of abstracted 'failed launches' in those reports, which effectively allows me to wait for your alpha 3 with no particular obstacle or delay to my original plan. I'd like to discuss what comprises that version exactly, though.

Looks like a lot of things are incompatible with Ferram! Anyone fancy clearing up for me how 'worth it' Ferram is, and how it would change this game? Fair enough, Ippo. I've not seen any similar mods and I'd be delighted to have a failure system of some kind, but I'm considering the impact that part lifetime could have on a longterm project and feeling a bit uncertain.

True enough. This one probably belongs in fan-works due to its intended outcome more than anything, but I don't suppose I can move it myself. Not that it's of consequence - I'm probably going to force myself to decide on mods and rules before I get any more commentary in here, and start the actual thread in fanworks. Thanks for the clarification. In case anyone sees this before then, I'd be delighted to hear advice on running and regulating the whole budget/mission assignment component. Cheers.

That's a fantastic advertisement for Near future, Streetwind. I'm convinced enough! I like the sound of it better than Interstellar, certainly. I see the thread's been moved, and while the reasoning for it is obvious, I do feel contentious about it. How do I identify and contact the appropriate mod? Not that it's a significant issue!

I tend not to use them due to their ability to respawn. (Though I just learned that ability was removed recently, so perhaps that'll change.) I may start using them as permanent station or planetary base crew. I'm also convinced that Jeb was the first Kerbal in space. I certainly buy into the idea of Jebediah as a fearless, badass test pilot who can't get enough boosters, but the other two don't have enough of an identity in the community for me to care much about them. I kinda like the idea of the three as siblings, though.

Thanks to all of you! Pecan - I spotted your campaign earlier yesterday, and found it interesting. I think I may go investigate it at some point today. As for your advice, I'll be taking Ship Manifest and the NDAI, thank you for those. Final Frontier's name alludes to Star Trek, but it consists of a system that awards medals to Kerbals for their missions completed, not Enterprise parts or Starfleet logos. Your commentary on my 'uncertain' list is helpful and I'll bear it in mind - I think I may as well take the full set of 'hard mode' mods given the kind of campaign I'm aiming for. Lastly, your argument regarding the tech tree is essentially what I'd been feeling to begin with, but wasn't sure about committing to. This settles the issue - no in-game tech progression. Thanks again. Cantab - those are pretty excellent ideas for a campaign but they mesh poorly with the vision I had for this one. I appreciate the suggestion, but they'll be waiting for another day. robopilot99 - that actually looks pretty sweet, I might take it. Cheers.

I think that what KSP brings to the table is authentic enough spaceflight, but sufficient levity, that it becomes accessible to a wide crowd yet retains room for realism. It's the middle ground of spaceflight simulation that accommodates Apollo replicas and prohibitively unaerodynamic monstrosities alike. On the other hand, there's no real push from KSP to Orbiter, since the two games have no direct link, and I've seen Orbiter veterans claim that Orbiter was more of a stepping stone for KSP than the inverse. It's a truism that KSP has more space in which to learn why things happen in spaceflight than almost any other route to that knowledge. Perhaps that means KSP has 'surpassed' its intended role as a stepping stone. It certainly has an identity of its own that stands unsupported by other games.

The traditional hardmode, it seems. There are other life support choices, there's Dang It! and there's RealChutes, among other things. I'm ambitious, I guess. Thanks to both of you.

I put several space station modules into LKO, and used the new space launch system inspired parts for the first time.

I get impatient with long distance travel and super-heavy lifting craft, so I put on autopilot and turn my attention elsewhere. I almost always forget to add one thing to my craft, and it's usually solar panels and batteries. I have a problem with the community's problem with MechJeb, Kerbal diversity, and so on, because I feel detractors usually want other people to play a videogame the way they play it. Is that last one a sin, though? It's a confession, at least.

Actual thread now found here. Hallo there. Because of my KSP experience, I have been mulling over the idea of giving my in-game direction up to community input. I expect I'd thrive on tasks and goals assigned by others, and as a writer who liked to craft a narrative around their missions, I expect at least some other forumites would show an interest in this story of a growing space agency! The notion is that I'll build craft and fly missions based on assignments given by other people posting in the thread, and then report on those missions as if they were part of an actual ahistorical space race. I'll work on a budget external to the game itself, most likely. Not sure yet about a tech tree. I'll post mainly write-ups but I'll consider videos, I'm sure. I'm looking to work my way from basic missions to celestial bodies, to impressive orbital and planetary infrastructure, megacraft, working to restrictive specifications and other such things. Hopefully by the end I'll have built something memorably bizarre, created a narrative worth reading, and flown a return trip to Laythe with twenty tons of cargo aboard. Before I get going with such a thread, though, I want to prepare for it properly. The major thing I haven't decided on is a mod list. I'm delighted by the vast array of mods out there but with such a huge list of mods, I'm paralysed by indecision. So, I thought - why not ask the forum? I'm looking for a balance between gameplay and realism, and opportunities for narrative. Provisional Mod List: Features and Improvements: MechJeb NEAR Karbonite Infernal Robotics Final Frontier Deadly Reentry TAC Life Support TAC Fuel Balancer TAC Atomic Clock TAC Part Lister Kerbal Attachment System SCANsat RemoteTech 2 Enhanced Navball Navball Docking Alignment Indicator Alarm Clock Ship Manifest Chatterer RealChute SurfaceNodes Module Manager Mission Controller Extended Toolbar Action Group Manager Alternate Resource Panel Joint Reinforcement Dang It! EVA Parachutes Fine Print DebRefund PartCatalog ScienceAlert Parts: KW Rocketry B9 Aerospace Near Future (when it supports 64bit) RLA KSPX Bahamuto Dynamics Procedural Fairings FusTek Station Parts 6S Service Compartments Caterpillar Tracks Habitat Pack CELSS Greenhouse Eddie Low Profile Engines ALCOR Hooligan Labs USI Kolonization Systems Universal Storage Spaceplane Plus DMagic Orbital Science Panda Jager Laboratories Parts Pack Firespitter Bavarian Aerospace: Tubes THSS Graphical: Diverse Kerbal Heads J's Specialized Kerbal Suit Pack Active Texture Management RasterPropMonitor Environmental Visual Enhancements Mods I will not be using: Real Solar System Scaled-up Kerbol system Historical parts packs Mods attributable to other franchises (i.e. no star trek or star wars parts) Military or weapon mods of any kind - this is a civilian space agency! Significant setting changes. I might consider additional planets beyond Eeloo if there is sufficient demand. Any suggestions for how to run the actual thread are very much appreciated. I'm currently considering how best to facilitate members assigning missions and my budget. It works, in my head at least, by having each member who posts in that capacity be part of the agency's board of directors, with some funding they can offer. Members can propose a mission (put a kethane scanning satellite in a polar orbit) or project (replicate the Apollo Program!) and assign funding, or contribute their funding to an existing proposal. This way, the more call there is for me to complete a particular project, the easier it will be for me to do so, given the expanded budget. I've not yet determined if this will be the case or how the details would work, though! Here's hoping this interests people! Thanks for reading!

Hallo, forum! I'm unrepentantAuthor, real name Jack. I've been playing KSP on and off since v0.21 or v0.22 - I can't recall - and I've occasionally dipped into the online community here and elsewhere as a lurker. I started playing again the other day when I realised I was missing it, but I struggled to find a meaningful experience. I used to push myself to land on all the celestial bodies and conduct more efficient missions to them, but I think I just lose my sense of direction fast in sandboxes with so few innate goals - particularly as career mode in v0.23 is effectively over after an ambitious moon landing. After that, and watching YouTube videos of KSP creations I could not possibly hope to match, I became very briefly frustrated at my own lack of ability and direction - but then I resolved to improve. I wish to strive towards the proficiency demonstrated by these titans of Kerbal YouTube videos, and I thought that maybe, joining the forums would help push me towards that. I like a good community, too, despite being quite anxious about new people and large groups of them especially. It will be a pleasure to meet you all, I'm sure! Although I'm rusty, I've made a manned return trip to Eeloo before, barely, and I can just about manage rendezvous and docking. I pick up new skills fast if given decent guidance, and I love learning how to solve space engineering problems. I'm receptive towards mods and I believe MechJeb is a personal choice. I play the game to build stuff, mostly, so I allow myself its use, but fear not; I can fly almost anything I tell my autopilot to do. Spaceplanes fascinate and terrify me. I look forward to looking back on this post as a veteran who's set foot on Eve, borne by SSTO, and returned intact! A very good evening to you all~