autumnalequinox

There we go! I think that's it. Thank you so much. I just KNEW it was based on some concept that was at least conceptualized. The time frame fits and so does the design (excluding the huge SPS-style engine bell on the SImpsons version). That so seems like a Simpsons thing. I'm going with this. Especially being how the ship itself was a disaster in the episode. (although this was mostly Homer's fault, excluding a fragile airlock handle) I was impressed by how the show made a point of saying that having an unsealed airlock would result in destruction on re-entry. Alot of people wouldn't think of that (most think re-entry is friction based and common sense says "how could a side door far from the belly cause problems?"). But that plasma sheath would have penetrated the door quickly and torn the spacecraft apart.

Love it. So epic. I want something like this so bad. After I get the hang of running a Fort (I play on easy easy mode right now) I want to generate some challenges for myself. This is why I love the game. I read Dwarf Fortress stories (starting with the legendary Boatmurdered) long before I learned to play. More Stories!!!!!!

So I needed a break from my career in KSP to avoid total burnout (about 2 months straight with only some 7 days to die to break it up). So I decided to give Dwarf Fortress another shot. Years ago I tried to get into it (using the Starter Pack) and the UI and complexity scared me off. So this time I made a few fortresses (tossing them out after not "liking the design") and walked through the tutorials step by step. And then, bam, after a good couple of nights I "got it". Now I can navigate the horrible UI like no tomarrow and understand the mechanics of the "hardest game ever made". The complexity is interesting and it makes a good, challenging management/colony sim. I will say it took me far less time to figure out then KSP (I spent months mastering). What's also funny as when I was in high school I used to make games like it in VBasic. I made a few castle/fiefdom management sims with terrible graphics and tons of calculations and behaviors running under the hood (a battle could involve hundreds but I would calculate every single interaction). My teacher was impressed when I opened all the calcs up to her and showed her what was basically a tech-demo (needless to say I got an A+). So the game warms my child heart a bit. So far I haven't seen any true craziness go down but I'm focusing on a very militant fort so hopefully another were-iguana won't eat my cattle. Anybody else play this esoteric little game alongside KSP? I decided I spend enough time at these forums and don't want to get sucked into the Bay12 forums as well hehe. Besides, as awesome as it is, it's not as all-encompassing as KSP can be. I have worried the game has caused me to "flip" my interests back into Fantasy and away from Sci-Fi/future tech but I do still here my career game calling. So I may go back after I watch this fort burn/go crazy/devour itself.

Yeah it's weird right?! I really wonder why they did that. Challenger happened long ago (as far as news cycles are concerned), and Columbia hadn't happened yet. It's like one of the writers had some awesome concept for a hybrid spacecraft and just wanted it on screen. I've dug and dug and can't find where it came from. I mean the episode basically made fun of NASA, but had Buzz Aldrin on as a guest (who enjoyed himself apparently). So he was in on it to some degree (after reading a behind the scenes). And it's especially weird that it's called "Corvair" which is not a silly name or anything. Actually it's a cool name I may use myself. And the ship's name isn't Corvair, it's referred to as the "Corvair spacecraft". I also can't find any concepts NASA had for anything like this at the time. Besides the Dyna soar and the resemblance to the SLS (which I don't think was even in anyone's imagination at that point). Maybe they had a NASA consultant who wanted his stuff shown for fun? Who knows. Maybe Jeb was the consultant.

I've been watching re-runs of the Simpsons, you know, reliving my youth. After re-watching "Deep Space Homer" I noticed they use a weird space plane called "Corvair". I'm not sure what it's based on but it launches like the X-37 was supposed to, strapped onto what looks like a modified Saturn-V with 4 SRBs. I know it's just a cartoon but it had Buzz Aldrin as a guest and there are were some die hard science geeks running the show back then. Basically, it's not a standard "silly" launch system so much as something plausible and near-future sci-fi. So any ideas what it could be based on? Scroll down for images of the space craft on the launcher. Mostly I wonder if NASA ever had a concept for this system or if it's just entirely imaginative. There's something awesome about the idea of an early shuttle concept that launches on top of a 2 stage Saturn-II with 4 boosters (seems like overkill :D)

<3 the new field visuals. I just realized how beautifully Kerbalism pairs with Orbital Decay. You can't "cheat" orbital decay anymore by simply putting stations/craft in high orbits to preserve station keeping fuel. Either you brave radioactive death or deal with steadily decreasing fuel or orbit. Just like real life!

When using the realism profile combined with modular fuel tanks/real fuels I noticed in the VAB my water supply was listed as "perpetual" likely due to the filtration material (I am at 2nd level filtration/scrub tech) However, once in orbit, it went down to 3.5 days and the filtration material was being used up rapidly. Of course with RF I have to manually set each pod's life support resource supply based on total available volume. I never put in space for WasteWater. Is it necessary to have this? Could that be causing my problem? I noticed it in the Realism profile config.

I already did that on another site when I first saw it. I literally got lost watching the intricate flow of hot gases. If you overlayed a soft-spoken woman going on about technical details of the SRB I would be in ASMR sleepytime heaven.

I'm about to move out of my isolated, mountain-side home overlooking the Blue Ridge to a crowded little suburb so I'm going to try to check this out (assuming no clouds). We have high pressure dominating right now but too early to tell if it holds (especially with this humidity)

Yet another thing Back to the Future 2 accidentally predicted! I remember Doc Brown specifically getting a blood transfusion to knock off 20 years.

Ooo I may have to switch to this because I just have the bare-bones 3 stations that somebody dropped for me. I use Orbital Decay/Kerbalism as well so it's been hell keeping even a basic equatorial com network up (they degrade fast in Kerbalism especially early on). I'll see if my (very stable, very backed-up) save can handle it, if not I'll file this away for my next career.

I think a few changes need to be made as well. That I'm in the dark about. Something changed about the way KSP handles time warping from 1.1.2 to 1.1.3 that basically nuked any mods that call on it. I know alot of mods were simply recompiled and worked. I don't have Unity so I can't be sure. (I haven't done serious coding in years and mostly I play with C++ so I'm probably the worst person to ask). I think magico lost a mobo on his moddin' PC that's why BROKE has been in stasis for awhile. Not sure how many follow this thread but if anyone could get it working again it would be sweeeeeeeet..

Yeah BROKE needs a recompile. It's having issues with the new time warp system.

Little update: So a combination of Memgraph and errors with large (100+) file transfers helped finally identify my memory problem. Turned out one of my ram slot pins came bent. It dropped the RAM bandwidth when under high load, which only happened when Memgraph was working along with KSP (and the aforementioned file transfers). No other diagnostics besides my eyeballs and a flashlight revealed this (including memtest). So awesome! I moved the memory to good slots and everything is stable now.

Alright! Trying it out now. I'm digging the space for notes. Also, it has alot of potential! (So many interesting menus with such possibilities). I would love to be able to use the scheduling tab to set up a flight line (something simple perhaps preventing Kerbals from doing back to back flights). Perhaps a stand-down time after missions? And the medical tab could totally integrated with LS mods such as Kerbalism and USI-LS to allow penalties to be created when Kerbals exceed hab time/homesickness (USI) or go crazy (Kerbalism). This could be what finally adds an "RPG" mode to KSP, which is something I've been dreaming of for sooooooo long. One question: Could there conceivably be any game impact from changing a Kerbal's last name? Like even a worse case scenerio? Sometimes I get bored with "Kerman" and want to spice things up with an assortment of "Ker-something" family names.

How difficult is it to add pressure fed characteristic to engines? Can I just take a look at my copy of RO/RF configs or is there more to it? I have a few in mind in my own game (notably a few SPS engines, maybe the "puff" and a few small engines). I use procedural tanks exclusively.

Oh yes I always run career like this. I've found a system that keeps the money perfectly tight and only allows for a few failures before major redesign is needed. To keep things more science focused I also use Science Funding with a small bonus per science brought back (it excludes labs for good reason, which gives you a good trade-off). I've also banned myself/disabled reverting/quickloading except in the case of bugs. My career has been progressing very realistically. Especially with the radiation belt. It gives another solid reason to use probes first (ETT has a manned-after-probes system) and the major bottlenecks Kerbalism provides for long-duration spaceflight (in addition to using Kscalex64 which keeps payloads small). I think I've finally tuned the progression down almost perfectly. And with KCT you get some science for building new designs (less for repeats) and that keeps the game from grinding to a halt. Basically it turns into a delicate balancing act between science and funds. Failure is punished but there is no point where you can get "stuck". Experimentation is rewarded eventually, as well as bold attempts to wrestle some science even if risky (I saved my cash/sci strapped program by launching a battery/capacitor laden probe with magnetometers and radiation sensors through the belt, even though it never made orbit). I'm really digging this combo I may have to make a post about my mod configuration/settings/personal configs for anyone that wants them. It's literally taken me months and dozens of careers to achieve this balance.

I think I'm running "realism" mode. That what you're talking about? Or is there a level even harder? I also use Mechjeb for maneuver nodes and some ascent guidance since I have RO physics configs with FAR, etc. Still working with crazy tight payload margins and having to make decisions down to the kilogram.

This mod is just...wow. Almost another gameplay mode. It's got tasty bits of many mods, both current and long abandoned, mixed into a delightful entree all it's own. I've found it a great complement to 6.4 scale Kerbol combined with Stockalike Real fuels and the engineering tech tree. It plays alot like RP-0, only in the Kerbal world vs. Earth. Seriously, try this combination (along with favorite part packs and anything else to up the realism level). It's a great intro to RO (if one wishes to push it further) or the best way to get stock-alike realism (and still the ability to enjoy highly futuristic mods). It's definitely found a niche. I think this will be my go-to for "mission-centric progressive" career games while USI-LS will be good for "late game colonization" careers.

My computer desk is too small and the airflow sucks for this big tower I have now so it has to sit beside it. With a file cabinet a foot above it and my desk's upper shelf within reach it becomes a perfect step for them. One even likes to dig her claws into the grate to stretch! Auugh. But speaking of cats inside cases: When I was doing this build I tried my best to keep them out of my work room. Once I accidentally left the door open and here comes one of my biggest cats and I literally catch her as she is leaping straight into the open case full of recently installed hardware. She went straight for it. I can only imagine the devastation that would have been wrought. The same one has already chewed all the insulation over the hot water heater pipes. She's a weirdo.

It seems Memgraph was able to inadvertently help reveal a problem in one of my new memory modules (or possibly one of my RAM slots). Interesting side effect of this cool little program. Short Story: Was getting 214 errors in the VAB when memory spikes happened. This resulted in BSOD. Nothing else could trigger this crash (as none of my others games utilize much RAM at all) Thought it was a cooling issue that I fixed but they persisted. After removing the new modules no more BSODs. Memtest failed to find any errors, same with Windows mem checker. I figure it's due to the heap I gave it forced utilization of one of the bad modules (I had 8 and upgraded to 16). Not sure, however, but it's a good theory. Now it's time to find out which module went bad or if it is one of the slots.

So after installing a new R9 380x 4 gig (a big upgrade from my old R7 200 2 gig) and 8 more gigs of RAM I started running into crashes (mostly from heavily modded KSP). It's funny, since I always noticed my HWMonitor temps were a bit too hot under idle since I put this rig together. Then things got hotter, but not dangerously so. The real problems came after new hardware. At first I blame the hardware. Then reinstall drivers, run monitors, other cleanup. Still there is this mysterious rattle and the top of my case getting waaaay too hot. So hot my cats like to sit on it. I always feared one cat would decide she liked this nice warm toilet seat and just let go. Something was not right. I researched and researched. I had installed my EVO 212 case fan backwards. I literally had it blowing hot, CPU air directly into the center of my case where it was playfully whisked over my memory sticks (yum!) and injected directly into my GPU by my helpful intake fan. Nothing like searing hot air right into the middle of the case. It's what GPUs CRAVE! So a 10 second fix later and everything is faster, cooler, and more stable. All because of a random forum post showing the correct placement of the fan (thank you unhelpful install guide that came with it). I'm so happy I didn't incinerate my new memory sticks or my brand new GPU. The top of my case is icy cold, making it an unhappy place for kitty-butts and I am rewarded with a constant stream of cold air on my bare leg. So remember kids always install your hardware in the correct direction!

Just installed another 8 gigs of RAM that came in the mail. ::grin:: Let's see how much padding I can do.

Here's a config for Kerbalism's modules. Just create it in the ETT folder for now. ShotgunNinja is going to include it with the next release: //ETT Compatability by autumnalequinox @ScrubberEfficiency { @tech0 = spaceExploration @tech1 = simpleCommandModules @tech2 = spaceStations @tech3 = shortTermHabitation } @ManufacturingQuality { @tech0 = engineering101 @tech1 = experimentalScience @tech2 = scienceTech @tech3 = advScienceTech } @SignalProcessing { @tech0 = electronics @tech1 = mechatronics @tech2 = automation }

Yay thanks it worked! Confirmed with testing.