wossname

I like the simple fact that to go to space you just hit the Space bar. There's something deeply satisfying about that.

What's the name of that mod that lets you use the "plant flag" menu item to tweet the contents of your flag text?

Xeno's paradox springs to mind when thinking about this mining issue.

A good example of the Kerbal fiction genre. A quick pace, light humour throughout, realistic technical nuances here and there. Nice dramatic ending. There are a few things that could be improved but as you asked us not to mention them, I won't. After all it's your project This is 10x better than anything I ever did in English class. Your work shows enthusiasm, mine never did. Good stuff.

You have earned 1.6 science points.

It's threads like this that make me feel really old. Damn kids.

I prefer to launch rockets from the roof of the temple that I built atop the mountainous heap of the skulls of my enemies. The vanquished can watch my glorious ascent and ponder their failings for all eternity. Plus we have soft drinks and sandwiches during the countdown. Ample parking just off the main street. Please book in advance to avoid being added to the heap.

It should be written in Ada and playable only on a Trident submarine's mainframe. Oh wait, they already did that, in the 80's

KSP, dunno, probably 1500 hours. Started playing it a little over a year ago. Oblivion -- I have absolutely no idea, been playing it a lot on and off for 8 years, it's my favourite game outside of KSP. If I had to guess I'd say probably 8000+ hours. It's an illness. Probably got a couple thousand hours on Skyrim too.

Dreamed that I took off from KSP and circularised as normal. Went to the map screen and saw an extra moon of Kerbin just inside Minmus. A moment later I was landing on it and then the rest of the dream was a pretty awesome Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion game session. It was one of those funny dreams where even the most insane context-change makes perfect sense. I got lost in a catacomb and ended up confused because I couldn't buy radial decouplers from the bartender at the Bloated Float. Then someone gave me a tape recorder and a roll of paper without saying why and then I woke up. When I work out how, I'll upload this dream to GitHub or something because it was pretty awesome. So sleepy.

Me too. Although I do pronounce "Pol" as "IMHOTEP!!! Chancellor of the King of Egypt, Doctor, First in line after the King of Upper Egypt, Administrator of the Great Palace, Hereditary nobleman, High Priest of Heliopolis, Builder, Chief Carpenter, Chief Sculptor, and Maker of Vases in Chief." So perhaps I'm not the best judge. The vases are pretty great though.

Ahh, much better. I'm really looking forward to reading this on my Kindle while I'm miles away from an interwebs. Thanks again for translating this into a Kindle friendly format

Since they are plants, neither. Unless you can bend the definition of "blood" to encompass chlorophyll, which is green. Kerbals may in fact be a herb, like bananas, which are a kind of fish, which is why bananas live up trees. Although I cannot explain the fact that they have teeth. Kerbals, not bananas, that is. Hmm, do bananas have teeth? Coconuts have eyes and sound like horses. WHY IS BIOLOGY SO HARD?!?!?!

Hmm, those PDF file links don't seem to work as I would expect. My browser just fails to download anything and shows an empty page. Are those files made public?

Since I'm a bit slow on the up-take, it just dawned on me that the "test X while splashed down at Kerbin" contracts now seem to be absent from the contracts list. I used to love doing these -- why don't they appear any more? Is there a mod that brings them back?

Fantastic! I'll check it out this evening and let you know how I get on. Thanks for doing this.

By your argument, people can only learn if they pay someone else to teach them. This is only true for those with more money than sense. "Capacity for learning" is applicable in ANY given situation. A person observing some unfamiliar phenomenon for the first time will naturally absorb some insight from it and be able to make connections to other experiences they have had. Skillful learners will be able to make predictions on what might happen next based on earlier or new judgments. Some of this is innate and may not be something that is inherently learnable.

I have Jeb, Bill and Bob all stranded on Laythe without fuel or antennas with 1500 science points in their capsule. I have literally no clue how to get them back. Perhaps a big space plane with orbiting support station... but I have 25 science in the bank and no turbojet engines. The moral of my tale of woe is to take it slowly, make small steps to advance your space race and you'll not end up like me -- completely stuck Even long(ish) time players can tie themselves up in knots. Well done on returning from the Mun, that is probably the biggest achievement for a new player. I recommend trying an orbital rendezvous and docking in orbit around Kerbin. If you can understand this then you'll have a HUGE advantage for planning future missions. To test your new skills, try reproducing the Apollo 11 mission by following the original mission plan. Do you listen to the Kerbal Podcast? http://kerbalpodcast.libsyn.com/ It's a fun listen if you're in the mood for some light, informal KSP chatter. I recommend going back to episode 1 and listening to them in order.

We had every faith in our three brave pilots (ignore the thing about the will & testament, we were just joking, hmm). Bill managed to build a high gain antenna from a tin of leek soup and half of a Laythian Anchovy (he didn't want to eat the rest of it). Very resourceful. He sent us back this lovely picture of their predicament... http://imgur.com/6DzEyk3 They have over 1500 science points (estimated) on board so I can't really leave them there. I guess they will have to be rescued by a girl.

I'm a software / electronics engineer of many years. I was born into the Atari ST generation and was I heavily influenced by games like Frontier (Elite 2) and by toys such as lego and meccano. I think I play KSP so much (I can't remember what sunlight looks like) because it appeals to the part of me that loves exploring places I'll never get to physically go to, and also building working machines that solve some obscure and generally very difficult technical problems. KSP is intellectual escapism of the highest order. Plus you learn such a lot about physics and the real universe since you have to look up stuff like "periapsis" and "oberth" and "lithobraking" - which can lead to long happy hours hopping from one wiki page to another. KSP appeals to clever people - I'd bet the average IQ on KSP forums is surprisingly higher than that of humanity as a whole.

Hmm, I wonder if being "Dragonborn" is Skyrim's equivalent of the BadS flag in KSP. Contract: Return science data from High Hrothgar.

They get funnier the more you see.

Maybe Bob will be able to rig-up a longwave transmitter out of curry dishes and one of the goo canisters. Then he can send back a photo or two. I also learned that Laythe is tidally locked to Jool, when I time warped to wait for the sun to come around, Jool just stays there peeking over the horizon. Never knew that.

I'm happy to report that Jeb, Bill and Bob all arrived at the unplanned destination of Laythe in one piece. Much science was gathered along the way and we have literally days worth of food left. Jeb seems upbeat about their situation but Bill and Bob seem somewhat subdued and panicked (respectively) regarding the way that the antenna fell off during atmospheric descent. The science bay also disintegrated along with the antenna while INSIDE the service bay. The service bay remains entirely undamaged. One is left to conclude that the service bays do not adhere to the previously accepted laws of physics. Alas (again) we are unable to articulate this back to CAPCOM because the aforementioned antenna has fallen off. <This recording ends with the last will and testaments of three brave kerbonauts, omitted here for reasons of privacy and respect for the doomed>

I'm an engineer by trade (electronic and mechanical and software) and I appreciate just how much thought and time and effort and attention to detail goes into a project like this. The quality of this build is absolutely tremendous. I'm genuinely in awe of your skills and motivation. I tend to do most (75%) of my engineering in the digital domain and have less experience in physically making large and complex assemblies like this. The prospect of undertaking carpentry fills me with dread. Wood is an evil and uncooperative medium in my hands. Do you work in the movie industry? This wouldn't be out of place on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Fantastic work.