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purpleivan

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  1. All change... or, it's gonna have to move. Well, it the big five O and things are moving around on the leg map. As the current leg is not in the right side of the map, the zoomed in display has moved to the left side. Not important really, but it feels like progress. There's also a big change in the journey, as the direction is finally taking a definite turn to the North. For things to get moving though, more hardware had to be lobbed up into orbit. The SMIRF gun in polar orbit had run out of bullets, so a fresh one was sent up to provide more to rain down on the journey North. Once up there a SMIRF was immediately detached, as the orbital path took it over the Coastal Cruiser. The usual under burn for the re-entry, to roughly balance the extra drag that the SMIRF gets from tiny wobbles on descent. Here it comes... tiny wobbling away. The boat is just at the tip of that headland of ice. In the morning the crew got up nice and early and headed off towards their waiting fuel. Another day, another deck grabbing by a SMIRF. They headed off once again to the East. They didn't pass much of note, this probably being the most prominent feature. Bob couldn't even be bothered to give it a name (and he loves naming stuff). At nightfall the ice took on the look of a long wall of concrete. But in the morning it took on a much more... well... icy appearance. As the boat sped East something different appeared on the horizon that wasn't flat. That could only be one thing, the land at the Eastern end of the Antarctic ice. One they arrived at the sandy shore, Val took the boat in, so that Bob could take the rover out for a look around. Jeb and Val went out on deck to see them off and to make it clear that this needed to be a quick trip. No going off to hunt for mountains to climb. Bob was happy to be at the wheel once more, even if the terrain was a bit on the boring side. Very happy! 3km from the boat, the rover came to a stop on top of the highest point on the mounds of snow. There was higher terrain visible further inland, but Jeb had been clear about not going off adventuring, so he turned the rover back to wards the boat. Jeb was actually surprised how quickly Bob and Bill got back. With everyone back inside, Jeb took to the pilot seat and pulled the boat away from the Antarctic ice. There was almost a quarter of a tank of fuel left, so they knew they'd be able to put some distance betweent themselves and the ice. Now this makes a nce change... rolling hillsides and grassy islands. Definitely a change for the better. Yep... evern this tame landscape is a lot better to look at then than the endless white ice. With the fuel almost gone, Jeb pulls the boat over at a nice sandy shore. They've travelled 15 degrees North from where they left the ice, not a bad start, but a lots more heading in that direction to go. With the boat having left the Antarctic, the journey does feel like its turned a big corner and is somewhat in the home stretch. By my very rough estimate there's probably about 12 more legs to go.
  2. In their trip around the coastline of Kerbin, the crew of the Coastal Cruiser made it to the Antarctic. Val seemed particularly surprised that the big white wall was made out of ice. They went ashore to take a look around from the top of the wall. While there they grabbed a quick photo or two for the album. Then headed on along the long Anarctic coast... which apparently is a huge snow covered chess board.
  3. For the first time the Coastal Cruiser and its crew started a leg from the frozen wastes of the Antarctic. Fuel delivery was again using a SMIRF from polar orbit. Down there in that gap between the ice is the boat. At this latitude a lot of the time is spent at sunrise or sunset. Once the SMIRF had splashed down, about 5km from the boat, it headed off to get fresh fill of fuel. Jeb and Bill prised themselves out of the seats on the deck and wandered back inside. Hot chocolate (with a bag of marshmallows) were waiting when they got inside. Although they were undamaged by the chilly experience, both crew members swore not to do anything this stupid again. With the crew all inside once more, the boat headed East along the frozen coastline. Val made a slight detour to take a look at one of the small green islands near the polar ice cap. Yup, confirmed... it's green, time to get back to that black and white stuff now. The island is one of a chain that extends from Cape Cold (passed by on leg 40) just a short distance to the North. The coastal Cruiser travelling East/West went through there a few weeks ago. The sun's getting pretty low in the sky (even for down here) so the overnight stop isn't far away, but the tanks are almost half full, so plenty more travelling tomorrow. As dusk falls, the lights on the boat go on and travelling continues for another few minutes. Eventually the sea is fully black and Val pulls the boat over near this patch of ice, sticking out from the polar cap. Bob decides to call the patch of water on the far side Spoon Head bay. In the morning they head off again, straight into the dazzling sun. But they aren't heading along the coast, but instead to the North East, towards the location of a large ice island. Val's not certain why she's taking them there, she just seems driven to, as if urged on by someone whispering in her ear "go visit that island... go on, you know you want to." Eventually the inky black edge of the ice island comes into view. Val pulls the boat in at the Southern tip. Bob, eager to test his liquirice theory, heads out on deck. He walks to the edge of the port side, and steps on to the elevon at its rear. he leans forward gives it a sniff. It doesn't smell of much, but in this cold that's not unexpected. FInally he leans in close to it and sticks out his tongue. "Thnot thliquirishh." One Bob had been detached from the ice and brought inside, Val turned the boat to the South East and headed back towards the polar cap. Once again they headed long the coast... the unending whitish, blackish coast. When the fuel drops to 55 units, Val cuts the throttle and the boat coasts to a halt, to yet again wait for another fuel delivery. Just off the tip of this outcrop of ice. Somthing that occured to me recently was the effect this trip is having on my Imgur collection. This is what a normal Purpleivan's Imgur looks like. This is what Purpleivan's Imgur looks like on K.S.C.
  4. The crew of the Coastal Cruiser have made it all the way along the coast to the Antarctic.
  5. I don't see that the game is forcing players to play in a more serious way, by which I assume the OP means harder and more realistic. Here's how I see the current state of things. Texturing doesn't affect gameplay at all. Comnet can be disabled. The aerodynamics are more realistic but it's still possible to do all sorts of crazy stuff (e.g. half my returning re-entering vehicles still don't have heatshields). There's as much general crazy being done with the game as ever. Regarding the last point, here's some examples from the "What did you do in KSP today?" thread, from the last couple of weeks. I think the non serious side of things is alive and well in KSP.
  6. Deep Freeze... or, idiots doing idiot things. Expectations were high of making it to the Antarctic coast on this leg, so preparations were made for to journey into that cold region of Kerbin. The heating was cranked up to full, thermal undies fished out of equipment lockers and a large batch of hot toddies cooked up in the galley. On final ingredient, a tankload of fuel was despatched from orbit. After splashdown, the crew headed out to sea for their latest top up. After fuelling it didn't take long for the sun to set, so Val pulled the boat in to shore. After getting a few hot chocolates inside them, the crew headed out to sea and were soon headed dead South. As they headed deeper into the Southern waters, something slowly emerged from the haze on the distance horizon. Something white. Within a few minutes there drew alongside the massive white slab, the edge of a glacier between two green hills. Val maneuvered the boat in next to the giant slab of ice, so they could take a closer look. The whole crew got out on deck to check out this, their first encounter with the ice of the Antarctic. Rather than go explore the glacier, they decided to press on to the main body of it Strangely the area had trees growing there... must be a particularly hardy variety. A short time later and another, much larger mass of white came appeared over the horizon. This could only be the edge of the main expanse of the Antarctic ice. As the ice was an unscaleable wall of near vertical ice, Val moored the boat at its edge, the jumped in the rover with Bob. The whole crew went out on top of the ice wall to check out the view. Bob stayed inside the rover, while Val ventured outside to snap this picture of Jeb and Bill. After climbing back in the cab, Val grabbed this picture of her two crewmates from inside. She was glad to get back in the warm and decided to keep inside as much as possible for the rest of the trip along the Antarctic coast. The crew returned to the Coasal Cruiser and headed out East along the ice wall, this part of which Bob decided to call Checkerboard Cliffs. One thing that disappointed Bob was that the Antarctic was so flat. he'd imaginged huge ice mountains to scale in the rover. Inside in the heated cockpit, Val sipped on a nice warm cocoa, watching the ice wall pass by. Jeb and Bob meanwhile had a similar, though much colder view. A conversation back at the photo op on the ice wall had ended up with them daring each other to sit out on deck as they made their way along the Antarctic coast. "You feeling cold Bob?" "No... not a thing... you?" The crew continued on along the coast... the coast they'd imagined being a bit whiter than it actually was. Occasionally the wall of ice was totally black. As the sun set, Bill and Jeb were still out on deck. "Cccc....cccc..cccold yet?" "Nnn...nnn... nnnope." With nightfall came the usual stopping of the boat, but as the shoreline was just a huge wall of ice, there wasn't much point in mooring up to it. At sun up they found that they'd parked overnight next to this small island. The once more headed to the East, following the line of ice towards its far side. Bob has a theory that the black stuff in the ice wall is liquorice... when they next stop next to some he says he's going to give it a good lick to find out. Bill and Jeb have spent the whole night outside. Val's not concerned for their safety, but she does wonder if she's going to need some hot water and a crowbar to get them loose. As the sun heads towards the horizon, the boat rounds a tongue of ice at the edge of a fairly large bay, that extends some way towards the pole. As they round the tip of it, they find the far side is lined with the black material. From the viewpoint of the boat it looks like a monolith convention. The boat is almost out of fuel, so Val cuts the engines and coasts to a halt. They'll have to wait for another SMIRF to drop by before continuing on. Their latitude is a little over 78 degrees, so less than 12 degrees from the South pole. Surprise.
  7. Temptation temptation... or, no playtime for Bob. For the first time fuel was de-orbited for a nightime landing. Nothing too tricky with that, but it was a first for the trip. In the early morning the Coastal Cruiser headed out to meet their nocturnal traveller. Once parked in front of it, the SMIRF gave a quick burst of rocket thrust to get it clamped on to the boat. Minutes later they were on the move once more, heading South. When asked to suggest a name for this feature, Bob suggested the "TV Dinner Lakes". Possibly that says more about his diet than anything else. The smoother, rather bland coastline, became more wrinkly as they progressed South. Here the boat passed between the mainland and a large island. This was a wrinkle that needed to be checked out, as it's a hidden part of the coastline, so Val guided the boat in. Hey look, more mountains for Bob to drool over, but Jeb tells him that they don't have the time to be taking the rover out every day. Plus those peaks are quite a way inland. So Val swung the boat around to point out to sea and away from the mountains. By the time the tanks were half empty, it was late afternoon, so Val started looking out for a good spot for the overnight stop. This looks like it fits the bill. Val brought the boat to rest against a small patch of rock, sticking out of the sea at the entrance to the cove. Then they watched the sun set over the mountains to the West. The following morning thet took off to the South, but soon the coast turned to the West, as they entered a large bay. In this neck of the woods there seems to be no avoiding mountains. That might b because there's a lot of them around. Bob scribbles some ideas for this feature on some scraps of paper and throws them in his helmet. He reaches in and plucks out... Soggy Pyramid Hill. Not his best, but he's distracted by all the mountains they've been failing to stop for. 174 units of fuel remaining means that it will soon be time to stop the boat. As a rule of thumb it's being brought in to shore at 50-70 units now, to make the most of the fuel that's delivered, but leaving enough for a SMIRF rendezvous. Having reached the end of the bay, the Coastal Cruiser changes direction and is now heading ESE at a latitude of 68 degrees. They're now further South than they've been at any time on this journey. They're far enough South now that daytime aurora are visible, but it's also getting cold, even inside the boat, so Jeb turns up the cabin heaters. With a little under 60 units of fuel left, the boat comes to rest to wait for fuel. There's an air of excitement onboard as imagery from orbit of their location shows that big changes in the scenery will happen on the next leg. That white stuff at the top of the image is pack ice... they're just around the corner from the Antarctic coast.
  8. Lots happened yesterday in the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation. A SMIRF platform was launched into polar orbit. Bob and Val rode the boat out on deck... with a difference of opinion about the experience. Then the Coastal Cruiser took a detour up this river. To get to this mountain. So Bob and Val could take the rover up it. They couldn't make it to the top (long time since that's happened on this trip) though as the last kilometre or so is far too steep, so they had to call it quites at about 4km ASL. Then once the rover returned, the boat headed downstream to continue their round Kerbin trip.
  9. Some pics from today's adventures (up to leg 46 now) in the K.S.C. , the round the world trip but boat.
  10. Always get off the boat... or, have rover, will travel. With the Incline orbit SMIRF platform empty of refills for the boat, and the one in equatorial orbit not able to reach down to those latitudes, a new platform was launched. This one was put into a polar orbit, because... well, why not. A few orbits later a fresh tank of fuel lay waiting for the crew some 25km from their position. Val and Bob took to the lawn chairs on the deck, to get some fresh air in their lungs. Val appeared to enjoy the experience a little more however. SMIRFS... the silent prowlers of the sea. Bob tried not to think about the huge grabby thing that had just attached to the boat, a couple metres from his right ear. Refilled with fuel (and snacks... SMIRFS always carry snacks), they were one their way once more and Val seems to be really enjoying the outdoors life. The Coastal Cruiser ploughed westward... ... until the sun set. After an overnight stop, they continued their westward journey once more. A little while later, as the Mun sank below the horizon, something else crept over it. It was a pretty impressive range of mountains and Bob endlessly pestered Jeb to stop so he could take the rover up one. Patience Bob... there is a plan. That plan being to take this river up to the foot of a large mountain. The river was fairly short, so they had plent of fuel for the detour. The scenery around here is the most dramatic they've seen since leaving BBQ Bay. The mix of river and giant mountain certainly gives this area a little extra to pull in the tourists. Val started to bring the boat around the last bend in the river. The plan was to moor the boat at the very end, and have Bob take the rover inland from there. The source of the river is almost in sight and the banks draw closer together. It's a tight squeeze at the very end, so Jeb went out on deck to guide Val in. But the banks are just too steep to park the boat at and safely deploy the rover. So the head a short distance downstrea to a more friendly (if still steep) parking spot. It's late afternoon when Bob and Val head off, so no time to lose heading uphill. For the first time the going is steep from the moment they leave the boat and journeying up the base of the mountain used uses up precious time. Time they can ill afford, as the sun is heading down behind the mountains to the West. Soon their source of power is out of sight and they have to camp for the night. In the morning they have to wait longer than expected before getting moving again, as the steep sided mountains they are climbing are to the North and East, and they block the sun for some time. With juice in the batteries once more, they attack the slopes and are soon above the snow line. Much to Bob's annoyance, it's clear that they can't make it to the top in this rover... the last 1km or so of the mountain is far too step, so he settles for a crack at the ridge just up ahead. But the going is extremely steep, and after several cycles of creeping up, then recharging while sliding back, Bob admits defeat, with this being the highest the pair made it. Bob guided the rover down to less hazardous terrain, then stopped to admire the view. On the way back down to the Coastal Cruiser, Bob stops so Val can take a picture of him on top of his mountain climbing machine. Further down Bob returns the favour... perhaps next time he'll get her in focus instead of the rover. At last they make it back to the waiting boat. This is by far the steepest beach that they've had to deal with when getting back on to it. No need to worry though, Bob has done this so many time, he could do it with someone else's eyes shut. With the rover back on board, Jeb pulls away from the shore and heads downstream, past the peak that just couldn't be beat. As they head towards the open sea, Bob is sad to sea this mountain go, but he plans to come back here some time, in a more powerful rover. Out at sea once more, Jeb takes a look a the fuel gauge... 197 units remaining. Well that's enough to take them a little way down the coast, with some remaining for a fuel pick up the following day. As the sun sets, Jeb brings the boat into shore at a small stretch of sand, sticking out from a headland. As the rest of the crew get dinner prepared, Bob's busy with pen and paper, designing a bigger, badder rover.
  11. Keep watching the skies... or, our buddies in orbit. With near empty tanks the Coastal Cruiser wasn't going much further through the Sea of Smells, so the last of the SMIRFS in an inclined orbit was despatched for the surface. It was set to land a little off the coast of the boat's location. Down it came, finally making a splashdown about 12km from the boat. It comes in pretty fast, with the drogue chutes being released at about 3500m. Once in the water, the Coastal Cruiser headed out to sea to rendezvous with it. With the hook up done, Bob went out to inspect this latest member of the fleet of supply vehicles. It's been a while since he left the rover, so he takes the opportunity to give it a good stretch. So long SMIRF and thanks for the fuel. The refill took place in the late afternoon, so it wasn't long before the light began to dim. Yep... going to have to put in soon. With the boat safely moored, Bob takes to the roof of the rover in his full EVA suit. He's not worn it for a long time and wanted to make sure it still fits, as life on the boat has made for a growing waistline. He's hopeful of scaling a mountain soon that requires the suit, he recently heard rumours of one of his pals at the KSC making a rover climb to the top of Keverest and would have liked to have been there for that. With the morning sun comes another day of sailing the Sea of Smells. Val's still at the wheel, with Jeb riding shotgun and while he'd prefer to be piloting, it does give him time to look at the scenery. Unfortuantely the scenery is a bit monotonous on the shores of this sea though. Jen suggests that craters like this make the shores of the Sea of Smells look like a green version of the Mun... but with more water. They encounter a large "almost lake" close to the point of turning from a Northerly to a Westerly heading. It's going to be quite a detour, but they need to go in and take a look at it. Once inside they head towards the North shore of the almost lake. It takes a few minutes until they can clearly sea the North Shore, before swinging around and heading for the exit. They burst out onto the Sea of Smells and start heading North once more. It's sundown, but the boat is low on fuel anyway, so they head towards the North shore of a bay at the North end of the sea. As they approach the shore that will be their parking place for the night, they notice a point of light travelling fast across the sky... it's the MIRF orbital platform. It's some distance North of them as it's in an equatorial orbit, along with it's cousin SMIRF, which will rain fuel down on them tomorrow. After the spotting of MIRF, Bob and Val take their supper out on deck and watch the skies for other craft in orbit.
  12. I raced up a mountain in the Climbing Keverest challenge. From the beach to the summit of Kerbin's highest peak in 27 minutes. That's from this beach to the top of the greyish/whitish thing in the distance.
  13. I just took a modified version of the rover I climbed the mountains near Woomerang, in the KSC2 Mountain Rover Climb challenge last year, and I'm posting a time of 27 minutes exactly. This is where I started from. This is part way up. Finally the 6767m finish line. There's a considerably faster time in the rover, but I'd need some luck with the very bumpy surface up on top of the mountain. Once you get above the snow line, the terrain get's very angular, so I was nowhere near flat out up there, to avoid disasters. Here's the full set picture set for the trip.
  14. I think the in-game GUI is something in development, but not released yet.
  15. I've had a look at Kerverest (first time I've seen it up close I think) and started planning a route up it in the rover I used in the KSC2 challenge. I had a crack at the really steep slopes (70+ degrees) but even my little goat couldn't quite maintain grip going up them. So I'm planning on taking a slightly easier route in the initial attack on the mountain. There are now a handful of flags marking out the route I want to take and I'll probably take a proper timed run from the beach tomorow evening. Here's a few pics of todays adventures.
  16. Double or quits... or, Bob and Bill make a wager. With the mountain climb done, it was time to depart Lake Oooh What's That and head back to sea. It's a fine place for a visit and is probably worth a return visit someday, but there's a coastal cruise to get on with. The boat thundered down stream in the bright sunshine. The River Amazin, isn't that long, but it's quite dramatic looking. Gradually the distance between the two banks grew as the Coastal Cruiser got closer to the sea. At last they reached the mouth of the river, swung right and headed West once more. With the boat about halfway through the fuel, the mountains of Lake Oooh What's That came into view once more. The peak that Bob scaled isn't quite visible from sea level, but its taller neighbour is. As the sun sank into the Western sky, the soft holling hills became harsher and more moor like. With the sun about to set, Val grabbed some binoculars (and Jeb grabbed the wheel) to look ahead for a good spot for their overnight stop. with over 600 units of fuel left, there will be plenty of boating to do tomorrow before another SMIRF visit. Val decides on a small sand bank in the middle of a narrow passage, between the mainland and a small island. On go the lights and the karaoke machine... Bill's in the mood for a some thrash metal crooning. Bob checks out the map for to see where they are (the top area of sandy looking water) and decides on a name for the large island they've parked next to. Bunny Island. A little after sun up Val once again takes the controls and starts by quickly spinning the boat around, to point the right way for their departure. Unfortunately this results in a hot cup of coffee in Bob's lap. His suit protected him from the heat, but it was the last of his stash of "Punch of the Kraken" super strong blend, so this morning is going to be a drowsy one. As they motor past some rough terrain Bob suggests that it be called "Pothole Alley" as it's in the same state as the road he takes to work. So... are we feeling lucky, place your bets on whether there's a shortcut through this mishmash of islands and sand banks. If not, then most of the remaing fuel is going to be used driving around that big island, left of center of the pic below. Bill says no, but Bob is feeling optimistic and has a little wager with him. Well the truth is around that bend, will there be shallow but boat-able water, or instead an annoyingly small, but impassable sand bank. Stay tuned to find out... we'll have the answer right after the break. Welcome back. So Bob won the bet he had with Bill, as there's a narrow and very shallow passage through to what Bob's named the Sea of Smells. Why the Sea of Smells... well as per the bet, Bill's now locked in his cabin until they leave the sea, with only refried beans, tuna mayo and pickled eggs to eat. He's hoping for a quick journey. Well soon they're going to have to make a stop, they're donw to 134 units of fuel and they'll need some to go meet the SMIRF. Val put the boat into shore with 57 units left. Now for a little beach handball... don't know how that's gonna work with just three players, but they'll figure something out.
  17. I'll have to take a crack at this. Hopefully I've still got the rover I made for the KSC2 Mountain Buggy challenge.
  18. In the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation the crew went upstream from the coast. Then they needed fuel, so a SMIRF dropped by from orbit. While they admired the view. To top it off, Bob took the rover to the peak of one of the lakeside mountains, only to wish he was on top of its neighbour.
  19. My PC is nothing special, in fact I want to build a better one in the near future. CPU i5-3570K GPU 670GTX RAM 16GB I don't think KS3P made much of a hit on performance when I installed it. Not a noticable enough one anyway.
  20. Going all the way... or, don't give up your day job. Jeb had made the decision to call in a fuel drop at their current location, a the mouth of the river Amazin, before making their way up it. Given the amount of fuel and the unknown length of the river it seemed the smart thing to do. But that wasn't what Val wanted to hear, she'd heard tales of the great tidal surf on the river and was keen to try out the board she had stashed away for just this kind of situation. "Come on Jeb, we've got plenty of fuel, almost 200 units." "Maybe but if we run out on that river there's no way they're going to be able to make a fuel drop from orbit into it" "Come oooon, beck... beck... beck... be". "Is that supposed to be a chicken Val". "Maybe". "Impressions aren't your thing are they". Eventually after some goading, bad farm animal impressions and Val saying she'd get out and push if they ran out of fuel, Jeb decided they should take the boat up river. Val steered into the wide mouth of the river, but after a few minutes it narrowed, with high cliffs on either side of it. She ketp an eye out for that surf, but so far no sign of it. About halfway up the river the cliffs on the right side subsided, while those on the left grew much larger, as if making up for the loss. Bob's got a distress flare ready, just in case they run out of juice on the way to the lake. A nice purple one that he's been dying to try out since he say it was onboard. Two thirds of the way up river and there's just over half the fuel left, so it looks like Jeb was worries were unfounded, but he's still concerned about having enough to meet up with SMIRF. That is one sharp top cliff. Bob suggests it looks like someone cut through a huge chocolate cake, topped with peppermint icing. Jeb's still worrying about the fuel, if they run out here, they're really stuck. Perhaps one day someone would come along and find the remains of the abandonded boat, the spooky remains of a failed mission. But he needn't have worried, after weaving up the river for some time, the view of cliff walls ahead finally give wa. That gap has to be the lake. Indeed they are and with about 50 units of fuel left for the rendezvous with a SMIRF. Val's very disappointed that there's been no sign of the tidal wave along the river she was told of. "So who told you that there would be waves here?" "Charles Kerman, you know, that guy who test the new parachute designs from the top of the VAB". "Oooh, Chuck off Charley... didn't think he surfed". Val takes the boat a little way into the lake, then cuts the engines. They don't know exactly where the fuel will land, but no point in mooring up to the shore, as that's the least likely place for it to be dropped on. Here's the SMIRF target in all it's glory. It's flight path will take it roughly along the length of it, from top left to bottom right. The plan is for it to dropp in the middle of it somewhere. Bill asks Bob if he'd like to give the lake a name. "Let me think, maybe Lake, ooooh what's that" he exclaims, distracted by some peaks in the distance that come into view as Val swings the boat to a halt. "Lake... Ooooh... What's... That..." Bill slowly writes in the boat's log, making sure to get it right. It looks like a fine day to drop a fuel tank from orbit into a lake. Talking of which, he is said tank... ok, there's some gubbins as well as the fuel tanks, but they're just a means to an end. The end being that nice red cross... hopefully. As usual I am a little long, to account for instability on re-entry, with a braking burn planned to get closer to the boat, once most of the decent is done. In she comes, right on target for a landing in Lake Oooh What's That. Looks fairly close to where the Coastal Cruiser is, but it's a big lake, so this could be some distance away. A nice sunset chute deplyment, as SMIRF coasts down to the lake. 10.6km away from the boat is their fuel, wit 50 units on board that shouldn't be a problem. Some nighttime refuelling. In the morning the crew take the boat towards the mountains that give the lake it's name. Val brings the boat in to the shore and Bob and Bill head out towards the closest, but also the shortest of the two mountains. Bob guns the motors and the rover heads up the base of the mountain, which is conveniently placed right next to the lake. 1km up and 21km from SMIRF, out on the lake. There's some rugged cliffs ahead, but the going has been fairly easy so far. Bob stops the rover for a recharge and to grab a bite to eat. He could have sworn he brought a sandwich with him,but can't find it anywhere. Up over 2.5km now and Bob has the feeling that the squishy feeling under his backside, is his sandwich. He's particularly disappointed as he was really proud of this one, with sliced hotdogs, 3 types of cheese a thick layer of mayo and half a raddish (he's trying out a healthier diet). A couple of minutes later and their at the summit. At 3km it's one of the lowest peaks that Bob's beaten, but it does have a fine view from the top. In particular Bob like the view of the mountain that he wishes he climbed, but even he would have to admit that this rover probably isn't going to make it to the summit of that thing. Not with slopes that look like they're about 70-80 degrees. So with the only way to go being down, that's where Bob heads. It's a fun and fairly smooth ride down from the summit, with no really steep drops to spoil you day. The rover leaps from the edge of a ridge and goes airborne. Bill loses his lunch and Bob might have as well, except that he sat on it. FInally the pair make it back to the boat. Now to head to the galley for sandwich Mk 2.
  21. I think it's fairly lightweight performance wise. I'm also using Scatter and SVE. The last time I looked (a couple days ago) there wasn't an update of KS3P to go with the latest Scatterer. I tried the current KS3P and performance was really bad, so hoping of the new version to appear soon, especially as the new Scatterer has some nice stuff for water (shadows and refraction). There is a major rewrite of KS3P in the works that is supposed to have improved performance, as well as some new features, including in-game GUI for adjusting settings and Screen Space Ambient Occlusion.
  22. Truely Amazin... or, going all the way this time. Once more the help of an orbital pal was required to refill the Coastal Cruiser. The Fuel Depot is actually quite a lot of effort to use, just for 4-5 refuellings of the boat. So for now, Tanford and Dean will be hanging out with their planes, on the beaches of the southern seas, until they receive the call again. The SMIRF was brought down a little along the coastline (13.4km from the boat) so that some of the remaining fuel onboard could be used before topping up. It was actually a little closer than planned, so Val hit the throttles, exchanging fuel efficiency for fun, taking the boat up to a top speed of 65m/s. Topping up the new boat from the SMIRF is a good deal simpler than MIRF to the old boat design. Both have fewer fuel tanks, so less juggling of right click menus. On their way once more, Bill comments on the the terrain being a bit on the boring side. Not much in the way of cliffs, or other interesting things to break up the shallow shoreline. Well that's a mountain, happy Bill... go on, look happy... just the once. This was the back of the Bad Tooth Mountain range that they'd sailed past on the previous leg. It was a late start to the leg, as they had to wait for the orbit of SMIRF to come over their last parking place. So it wasn't long before the sun was setting. For a change, Val decided to put the boat in at an island just off the short of the mainland. Bob again claimed the island for all of Kerbin's Bob's, fashioning a flag out of an antenna and a pair of his underwear, that had his name tag sown into it That way anyone passing later would know who it belonged to. At sun up Jeb suggested the take a jog around the island to work off some of the "boat fat" that they'd been building up while on the voyage. The rest of the crew were still laughing at the idea by the time they'd finished breakfast (a large stack of waffles and syrup), and headed out to sea. Another mountain peaking over the horizon. It's a big one and Bob pestered Jeb for a chance to take a crack at it. Jeb told him that he had something better in mind. Something they'd only done once before. "I ate 23 doughnuts in 9 minutes" bragged Bill. "Better" replied Jeb. "I flew a plane around Kerbin that had one missing landing gear and was on fire" out bragged Val. "Even better" countered Jeb. "I threw up this one time and it was green" offered Bob. "Way better" said Jeb, more than a little disturbed by the last one, but also a little curious. "Were going to sail up a river" stated Jeb proudly, "this one... the Amazin". "and this time we'll go all the way to the lake at the end of it". But that's going to have to wait until leg 44. The boat might not make it all the way up the river with the fuel on board, so time to call in the SMIRFS again.
  23. Yep the depth of field is from KS3P. I actually thought about making a map with all of Bob's names for things, but I'll need to re-read through all the post to do that... I supposed I could seach for "Bob" to speed that up.
  24. I guess the guy on the Mun is just checking that all his parts are where they should be. Or he's thinking "look at the hands, never at the sky, look at the hands."
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