purpleivan

A few more from LOST on Laythe.

Looking at your list @Kerbalstar it looks like there's plenty of planets to send some brave little explorers to, and then bring them back from. My suggestion would be to do a Jool X (as opposed to Jool 5 challenge) mission, with X (0 - 5) being the number of moons that you decide to send your crew down to. Even if all you do is orbit Jool waiting for a return window, it's the best place in the system to hang out in. If going down to the larger moons is pushing your designs limits, then you can always drop in on Bop or Pol for an easy to access surface location.

Chapter 13 – Field Trip “It’s all great surf, from here up to Magnus point” – Valentina Kerman “Hey kids, don’t forget your lunch box and make sure to hold your travel buddy’s hand” chuckled Val, delivering the latest in a long line of gags about their upcoming trip in the science vehicle. “If you get lost, find a grown up and...” began another Val zinger (in her mind at least). “Val... shut it, or you can walk to that Lifter of yours” snapped Bob, uttering more words than he’d done in the last two days. He might be in the depths of his own dark thoughts, but that didn’t stop the pilot’s juvenile taunts sinking through. Having run out of field trip related quips, Val decided to call it a day. For now at least. “Right Bob, see you inside” she said, heaving the hatch of the vehicle open and dropping down inside. Once inside Val made her way to the rear seat of the vehicle and strapped in, while Bob and Voyler dropped in one after the other, through the hatch. Bob made his way forward to the driving seat and Voyler took up the 2nd seat in the lab with Val. Once Bob had gone through the procedure to start up the science vehicle, it left the colony site at a steady pace to the North West towards the location of the Lifter. “Are we there yet” whined Val, in as childlike a voice as she could muster and pulled a wide grin at Voyler. This was followed by Voyler screeching “Booob... are we thar yet Booob” and breaking into a loud giggle. Val could tell that Voyler wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box, but they did at least share a sense of humour. “Bob... I’m tired, and I want a glass of water” Val hollered, continuing the childish goading of their driver. Bob turned in his seat to look back through the hatch from the driver’s cab, back into the lab, a deep scowl lining his face. “You want me to wreck this thing, just say the word... I’ll do it” he retorted, again more verbal than he’d been in weeks, but not in a way that made Val comfortable with continuing the game. “Booob, I wanna...” started Voyler, before Val landed a well aimed kraken plushy (one of Sindley’s collection) to her face. “Shhhh... cut it” Val demanded, making it clear that her partner in crime had to give up on the game too. The science vehicle trundled across the seemingly endless brown dust of Laythe’s surface. Another 10 minutes went by, followed by another, then another. Val had finally had enough. “Bob, seriously, can this thing go any faster... we’ve got the hook up and fuel transfer to do and at this rate we’re going to be heading back to camp in the dark” stated Val. No reply was forthcoming from their driver, so Val tried again. “Bob” she yelled. The vehicle suddenly lurched to one side, followed by a gut churning rocking motion, and Val wondered if Bob had been serious about wrecking this thing. “This is no hotrod, it’s built to protect the research gear, not racing” Bob finally yelled in reply. “No hotrod, you got that right” muttered Val before asking “do you have a rough time for us getting to the Lifter?” “We’re about ½ distance, so 30 minutes” Bob answered. 30 more minutes! Val could smell the geeky science in this thing. It smelt of lab equipment, chemicals and a lack of excitement. She need out and she needed it now. “I’m going up top to check... something” informed Val, before unbelting herself from her seat, jamming on her helmet, then climb up to and out of the hatch. She hauled herself out of the top of that school bus, with the joy of a 12th grader skipping gym class, something she’d never actually done, loving as she did, any kind of physical pursuit. The pilot in her wanted, no needed some excitement and judging by the rocking motion of the school bus, this could be just what the doctor ordered. Val jammed her boots under the ladder rungs that lined the top of the vehicle, stuck one arm out in front of her and the other behind, before crouching slightly. She closed her eyes and imagined she was surfing the big breakers that hit up the coast from the KSC. Suddenly without warning the wave she was riding felt like it slammed into rocks, as Bob hit the brakes. Her eyes jerked open and in front of her was the Lifter. She thought that they were about to smash straight into it, but as her vision cleared she realised that the vehicle was going “school bus fast”, rather than any real speed, and it slewed gently over to the side, parking few metres from the her baby. She hopped off the top of the vehicle and made a perfectly braced landing in the brown dirty beneath it, before racing over to the Lifter. Val remotely retracted the ladder attached to the base of the Lifter, to allow the lab access to the docking port. “Bob, I’ll make the port ready and you line yourself up” Val instructed, wanting to waste no time getting back in the air. She walked over to the docking port and adjusted the settings on the control panel next to it, setting it to “remote receive” before snapping panel cover shut. It seemed to her that Bob was taking forever to get the science vehicle lined up with the port, does he need half a planet run up to it, she thought to herself. “You having some problems there Bob, you’re backing way off for this?” she asked. “This things not built for maneuverability, plus it’s full of fuel for that ship of yours” Bob responded. The science vehicle finally stopped its retreat from the Lifter and started heading towards it, lining up with the docking port as it did so. Bob move the vehicle steadily forward, looking ahead through the main window towards the Lifter, as Val who stood by it, waved him in. He’d planned to use the docking assistance system for his approach to the docking port, but annoyingly it just displayed the message... VEHICLE NOT IN SPACE CALL TECH SUPPPORT 09 – 16 weekdays. As the science vehicle edged forward Bob wondered why anyone would trust him with this. He wasn’t much of a driver; he wasn’t much of anything anymore. He’d been a scientist once, but look at what that had caused, he shouldn’t be here, he should be back on Kerbin, where he deserved to be. “... OFF, BACK OFF” yelled Val over comms. “What? Bob mumbled “back of...” before a massive clang echoed through the vehicle as he and Voyler were thrown out of their seats. “Kraken’s teeth, what are you doing Bob!” Val shouted, before rushing to the docking port to see if it was damaged. Fortunately the long history of docking mishaps in the KSP had forced vessel designers to build them to be ready for pretty much any kind of approach speed. Resulting in them being almost indestructible. “Sorry Val, I er... I sneezed, it was a really big one and I was distracted for a moment” lied Bob, not wanting to discuss what had been in his thoughts a moment earlier. “Ok , ok, looks like there’s no damage, just bring it in nice an slow next time” replied Val, remembering how a really big sneeze had resulted in the loss of the first kerballed Mun mission. “Don’t worry about it, just focus” she continued. Bob stared intently out of the window and carefully lined up with the docking port again and very slowly moved forward. “3 metres” informed Val. “2 metres”. “1 metre” “Half metre” Finally there was a gentle thud as the two docking ports met, both Val and Bob waited for the familiar sound of capture latches ringing out, but none were to be heard. “You’re too low” yelled Val, seeing that the docking port of the science vehicle was a good 20cm below that of the Lifter. Bob thoughts suddenly drifted to the more profane kind as he thought about why that could be. “It’s the fuel” Bob exclaimed “the Lifter is empty and we’re half full”. Val was not impressed. Back on Kerbin some lazy engineer was not getting the business end her boot for not thinking about these vehicles needing to dock with different fuel levels. Ah well... just four more days and Tiddles’ll do the booting for me. “Bob... you’ve still got the landing pack engines attached, you can use those to lift that thing enough to dock” instructed Val, feeling a little smug at her ingenuity. That might work thought Bob, but there might not be enough thrust to actually lift the lab, just burn fuel trying. Ah well, not point in not trying. Bob armed the engines, switched the fuel flow before yelling “stand well back Val”. Val stepped back a few metres and Bob lit the engines, first at 25%, then raised the thrust until finally at 70% the vehicle started to lift up on its suspension. “Come on science boy... baby needs some fuel” muttered Val, willing Bob on in his effort to finally dock. Suddenly the capture latches rang out and the two vehicles rocked lightly, as the docking ports firmly attached. The landing engines on the Science Vehicle cut, and its front wheels dangled a few centimetres off the ground. “Nice flying there Bob, she’s attached” congratulated Val, “just start the fuel flowing and I’ll do the rest”. Sometime later the tanks of the Science Vehicle were empty and those of the Lifter half full... plenty to get it and its eager pilot into the air for a landing at the colony site. “Right back off nice and slow” instructed Val. What was she saying? “Put the pedal down Bob, like your life depends on it. I’ve got some flying to do and you don’t want to be in close when I lift off” Val continued, giving just the right degree of urgency. Bob wasn’t about to have another mishap due to not taking care with his driving, so the Science Vehicle continued its steady retreat. “Come on, come on, come on” Val muttered, almost able to feel the controls of a vehicle fit for a pilot in her hands again. Eventually the vehicle was far enough from the Lifter for Val to be confident that her departure wouldn’t result in a science flavoured barbeque. Well maybe a light toasting, but she had a ship to fly. Val raced to the foot of the ladder, clambered up it, and then used the exterior panel controls to retract it, before continuing up the hull mounted rungs towards the capsule. Each rung on the way felt like a week, as she climbed up the side the vehicle. “They should have installed a lift” she complained. Finally at the top she swung open the hatch and climbed inside. Once there with the hatch closed, Val pulled off her helmet and took a deep breath of pure pilot zone air. Immediately an acrid smell filled her nostrils, followed by the pungent aroma of something on the very rotten side of “no longer edible”. She’d forgotten that this had been her home for the trip from kerbin and had more than a little of a “lived in” smell to it. Rotten apple cores, urgh... sweaty socks, blurgh... oh no, oh no... rotten milk shake. She couldn’t bear it any longer and traded the “sweet” smell of pilot freedom, for the interior of her helmet, as she jammed it back over her head. Ok, she thought... urge to throw falling and urge to fly rising, so let’s get this bird in the air. Back in the Science vehicle Bob patiently awaited the announcement from Val that the Lifter was prepped for lift off and that she was starting the procedure for her departure, so he could back off to a safer distance. Suddenly the vehicle was rocked as if a giant baby had grabbed it like a rattle and started shaking it. Beyond the main window Bob saw the blinding flash of the F12 engine on the Lifter bust into life, as the vessel shot up into the sky. A blast of brown dust sprayed onto the windows of the vehicle, from the force of the Lifter’s engine, as its pilot use maximum thrust to climb into the air at great speed. “Damn pilots” Bob yelled as the Lifter rapidly rose before disappearing from view. Back in the lab section, Voyler was busy getting ready for her own departure, as she was tasked with bringing Rover 1 back to the colony site. She’d searched supply lockers for the tastiest looking snacks she could find, before heading for the ladder to the hatch. “Booob... I’m reeedy ta gaw now Booob. I see ya back at the cooolany” drawled Voyler. With no reply coming from the driver she assumed that all was good for her to leave the Science Vehicle and make her way to Rover 1, which secretly she’d been wanting a turn at driving since Val had turned up at the colony in Rover 2. She didn’t have the usual disdain for pilots that most engineers and scientists had, in fact she quite fancied herself at the controls of powerful machinery. Once out of the hatch Voyler lowered the ladder, made her way down it, then retracted it again. She starred for a moment at the rover parked about 50 metres away, before hurrying over to it. The engineer clambered up the suspension on its left side, then grabbed one of the recessed handholds on the cockpit section and hauled herself up to the canopy, before opening it and jumping inside. She looked across the instruments, many of which were superfluous, as the cockpit had been designed for aircraft. In the rush to prepare the LOST fleet for departure, it had been the only thing available at short notice for the driver’s section of the rovers. Voyler flicked the switches that brought the necessary systems to life, as well as arming missiles, retracting flaps and turning on jet engine reheat. This wasn’t a mistake that Voyler had made for once; she just wanted to play at being a hotshot pilot. With the rover ready to leave, she pushed the drive lever forward and swung the wheel sharply to the left, leaving the Science Vehicle and a spray of dust behind her. Finally alone at the Lifter landing site, Bob stared out across the brown expanse of the Laythe terrain. Maybe he shouldn’t go back, he could just stay here; have his own colony. But no, he had to go back, the rest of the science team had done no wrong and who was he to deprive them of their lab. Nobody, that’s who. He took a last look at the scorch mark that Val had made in her hasty departure, put the vehicle into drive and headed off in the direction of the colony. After 40 minutes of driving he’d come to an important conclusion... the Science Vehicle sucked as a means of transportation. The pilots gave the science team a hard time about it being a School Bus, but at least those could make their way up a slight slope without struggling. This mobile lab on the other hand was useless on all but flat terrain For that reason Bob had decided to avoid the steeper hills he’d encountered on the way to recover the Lifter and Rover 1, so was approaching the colony site from the North. Finally reaching the top of a long slope, Bob stopped the vehicle. He had a great view over the shallow valley that the colony was located in and could see the low sun reflecting off the solar panels of the Mining Vehicle. But more interesting was something in the distance that caught his eye. On the horizon, was a bright sparkle, probably a reflection of the sun that hung just above the horizon behind him. Bob made a note of the direction and apparent distance of the sparkle, and then headed down towards the colony.

A couple of images from the lastest chapter of LOST on Laythe.

It should be ok. You CPU is similar to mine (i5-3570k) in terms of performance and the graphics card is overkill in terms of KSP requirements, but useful for other games. Personally I'd be happier with 16GB Ram than 8 though. That allows me to run KSP plus some bits and pieces (browser, Photoshop etc.) in the background, with some overhead left over.

No... not much of a plane jockey. TUBM has flown a rescue mission to Duna.

Chapter 12 - Snappy Dresser “We’re going with sunflower for the pilots... nah, just kidding Jeb” – Hansword Kerman (KSP fashion department). “Urgh... yellow, you’re kidding me right” exclaimed Jeb, none too impressed with the sartorial sense of Gelsey’s suit. “Who cares what colour it is, I’m inside it, can’t see it, the suit's functioning correctly, so why would I care!” replied the scientist, wanting to get on with exploring their new home, rather than discussing their wardrobe sense. Since the full team had assembled, Jeb had been waiting for a good moment for an important announcement, and this felt like it. “Ok... everyone in the Hab, I’ve got an important announcement for you all” commanded Jeb on the team wide comms channel, before striding off towards their main living quarters. A few minutes later the full LOST team had assembled in the Hab, ready for what Jeb had to say. Some were curious what this important announcement could be, while others felt it was cutting into valuable work and/or nap time. “Ok, ok... looks like we’ve got almost everyone here, just Bob left... ah no, I see ya at the back there Bob” said Jeb, just about able to see the lead scientist, standing hunched over at the back of the group. “So I’ve got a couple of announcements I need to make before we get to work today. First up, we’ve got confirmation from KSC that The Box is arriving tomorrow evening, should be making entry about two hours before sunset, so I want to get the Lifter recovered before then” stated Jeb, before continuing with the main subject of the announcement. “If clothes maketh the kerbal, then right now we’re a pretty confused bunch of kerbals. We can’t tell who’s who, we’ve got engineers in green and red, scientist in blue and even... yellow” continued Jeb shuddering. He had little time for the colour yellow, unless it was in the form of Flamin’ Kamin’s super hot mustard. “So from today we will be wearing our new LOST team suits, which are colour coded, based on discipline. Scientist in blue, engineers in green and pilots in red” he said proudly; looking forward to the increased efficiency and pep that the spiffy new red suits would give his team of pilots. “What shade of blue are the scientist suits” enquired Sindley. “Well, a blue-ish shade of er...” said Jeb, trailing off, as he hadn’t actually looked at the new suits, so didn’t have a good answer to give. “Ok, I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see... it’ll be a surprise” replied Sindley, busy adjusting her hair into a more attractive style for a range of shades of blue. “Ok follow me everyone” Jeb instructed, before moving off towards Arm 2, squeezing past Gelsey, who was more interested in finishing off her breakfast than a new suit. Once in Arm 2, Jeb opened up a hatch in the floor to the storage locker that contained the collection of nine suits. “Ok everyone, gather round” said Jeb, then reached into the locker, grabbed a suit and shouted “scientist, size 1” before handing it to an eager Sindley. Jeb grabbed another, this time a red one “pilot, size 1” then handed it to Elson, who seemed surprising keen to try something new. Next was a green suit “engineer, size 1” shouted Jeb, followed by Bill pushing through the group to grab the new apparel. He was the lead engineer, so it only made sense for him to get his first. This continued until all the suits, all size 1 (all kerbals are size 1) had been handed out and now there was much activity in the crowded Hab Arm, as the team donned their new gear. After a couple of minutes the task of turning the team into a colour coordinated group of efficient colonists was complete. “Ok everyone outside” shouted Jeb and made his way towards the airlock. One by one the team made its way out onto the surface, and huddled in groups, admiring their new kit. Valentina and Bill looked at the back of Sindley’s suit, admiring the new look this would give the team. “Love that logo on the back” said Bill excitedly “reminds us of just where we are” he continued, looking at the letters L.O.S.T that were stamped into the helmet, which was framed by the bulk of Jool. The logo, stamped into the helmet, had reduced its structural strength of the rear by 40%, but the mission planners had decided it was important for the look of the new suits to make a real statement, and painted on logos were so last year. “Ok everyone, gather round” shouted Jeb over team wide comms. “Right, so we’re taking a team photo, I want you all to line up in front of that small mound of dirt there” instructed Jeb. The team shuffled off in various directions, each to one of the many small mounds of dirt that littered Laythe’s surface. “No, no... that mound there” exclaimed Jeb, frustrated at the team’s inability to clearly understand the mound he was now pointing at, was the one he had referred to. The team shuffled towards Jeb’s special mound of dirt, before forming up in a line. There was a shiny new blue suit, then a red, a glistening green, then another red. “No, no... not like that, group up by discipline. Pilots, then engineers and you scientists at the end there” the frustrated team leader instructed, determined that the arrangement have some kind of organisation to it. With the team finally arrayed in a satisfactory manner, Jeb tapped the timer shot button on the camera erected on a tripod in front of him, before running over to join the line up. He jostled his way in between Val and Elson, straightened himself up and smiled, waiting for the click of the camera over his comms. Two hours later, at the KSC, a proud and more than a little envious Gatler Kerman stared at the recently received photo he’d just affixed to the wall. Those shiny new suits, did look pretty good, and the wearers weren’t about to get incinerated by comet Tiddles. It joined other important images of the exploits of the KSP, on the walls of the most hallowed place in the complex... the staff canteen. There was the photo of the launch of the first kerballed spacecraft, next to that of its flaming wreckage. To it its left was the launch of the second kerballed craft, next to the one of its clearly relieved pilot, after making a safe landing. Other highlights of the program to be admired that day. The first sandwich to be consumed in orbit (before and after shots) The first near successful docking in orbit (missed by only 957km). The first fully successful docking in orbit (8th attempt). The mooning of the Mun and the Munnites (required a special “two helmet” design of suit and a belief in the the Mun being inhabited). The first kerbal to arrive on the Mun (still holds the record for the largest debris field). The first kerbal on Minmus, Dardew Kerman. The longest duration mission, Dardew Kerman (still there as far as anyone knows). First kerbal to set foot on Duna, Malon Kerman (subsequently lost on the return flight). The largest hoagie eaten while on an escape trajectory from Kerbin (also Malon Kerman). First kerbal to set foot on Ike, Jebediah Kerman. First interplanetary rescue mission, Jebediah Kerman (from Ike after his craft toppled over following landing, due to too many or too few rivets used in its construction). Yes... this new photo truly deserved its place on the walls that bore the record of the kerbalkinds space exploits. Too bad it was due to be obliterated in just under four days.

The Tinfoil Times Looks like my friend wiv the special antenna aint gonna be sending any more pics wats really goin on up in the space. I went round his place and the peeps with the power have got him. There was a note on his door sayin he moved to Alaska and his neighbor says he helped him put his stuff on a truck, but thats just what an agent would say. The guy was totally a MAN IN BLACK as well. He had black jeans black hair and a black T-shirt, well it was kinda blue and had this garfield picture on it. Anyway no more pics from the special antenna so I gotta get new ones from somewhere else. I got this from this website that says this guys was a secret astronut who flu round in secret space ships for the secret goverment. He says you can't put a price on the truth and his site only costs $9.95 a month so a bargain right! He says he got this pic from another guy hu uses his brain to think into govrment computers and then he makes what he sees on his computer. That sounds so cool its gotta be true right! Peace Peeps Windows cleaned, 5 bucks!

A few wintery ones from Britain.

Thanks for pointing to that... I guess it's back to no reflections in visors for me then.

I'm seeing the same issue as @alexuswith the real time reflections and in the image posted by @therealcrow999 here. Something wierd happening with the render of the cubemap. It's happening in the portion of it seen in the North South directions when standing on the surface. I'm using the 3.5 version of Texture Replacer, but not using the shader provided by @Gordon Dry because if I use that, the reflections disappear completely (see image below). I tried removing Scatterer (just because) and that fixed the original problem with the reflection, but added another. The new problem is that something (possibly the same dark "something" that appeared with Scatterer installed) is changing the shape of the horizon. In the image below the horizon should be flat, as our little volunteer here is looking out to sea, but there are two large "hills" on either side of him. Viewed from the side, with the kerbal still staring out to sea, there is a large dark region in the direction in which he is looking. As extra info, this is running on Win7 x64 on an Nvidia 670 GTX.

For me the big one would be the radar altitude (although Ap/Pe readout would be nice), which always seemed such a strange omission. If the stock game included the radar altitiude as well as the announced dV readout, then I'd be able to drop using KER. I know that mod's got a lot of other functionality, but for me those were the only two I used it for.

A few more from Norway.

So glad you noticed the terrible MMU joyride. It rarely gets mentioned by people picking holes in the movie, but for me it summed up its issues pretty well. 1. The movement seemed pretty unlikely (only possible with constant depletion of propellant). 2. No astronaut would ever do it... unless "stupid reckless joyride" was a part of the mission schedule.

I sent up a vaguely Skylab design of station (stock parts) a few months ago. Then I launched a crew to it in a Saturn 1-b type vehicle.

I'm an incorrect planner of missions and proud. If I can forget chutes, solar panels, heat shields (to name but a few), then the last thing those little green fellas need is me taking care of the catering.

How... violent impacts with planetary bodies that's how. The force of the impact blends the mushy, gooey genetic material that prior to the impact was the occupants of vehicle. This blended material is vacuumed out by the recovery team, and placed into plant pots out the back of the Astronaut Complex, where they eventually grow into full size, and space besuited kerbals. They are then given a shove in the direction of the rear door of the Astronaut Complex (they're a little dopey at this stage), given a 15 minute orientation lecture and have a copy of "Space for Dummies" jammed into their eager little gloved hands. After that they are placed on the roster and shoot some pool while waiting to be assigned.

Thanks... I'd not noticed the likes on the OP for a while so 116 was a bit of surprise to me too.

Maybe I've missed something specific to this forum, but the primary purpose of "report post" on most forums is the reporting of unsuitable content. Fortunately on this forum such content is extremely rare, so perhaps the negative connotations I have regarding of "report post", might be misplaced here. My comment wasn't meant as any kind of dig at the decision to use this, just extreme surprise, as I've been on this forum for 4 years and this was the first time I'd seen reference to the report post system being used to nominate threads. I understand that your post with the information about using this method for nominating threads of the month, highlights this mechanism. However as things stand, shortly after this thread becomes un-stickied (and replace by the one for January), it will drop down the list in the Announcements section, and the highlighting of that information will disappear. Would it be possible to put this information somewhere more long term and prominent, so that future threads of the month stand the best chance of a complete set of nominations. Again, this isn't meant as criticism, just a suggestion.

Took a trip to Minmus and back in a time of about 2 days 1 and 3/4 hours, for the SOS!!!! I HAVE BOB AND VALENTINA KERMAN STRANDED ON MINMUS challenge.

Ok I took a crack at this today and am posting a time of 2d 1h 44m 51s for the whole mission. The proof is a little complicated as the mission elapsed time in the HUD reset when the lander rendezvoused with the return ship in Minmus orbit. Here's the last image showing an elapsed time for the mission before rendezvous. It shows a time of 1d 0h 26m 12s, to add to that will be the time until rendezvous (15m 13s), plus say 5 minutes for docking (it was less, but 5m to be safe). This comes to a total of 1d 0h 46m 25s for time until the lander had docked with the return ship. The return time from then on was 0d 5h 58m 26s, giving a total time of 2d 1h 44m 51s. It wasn't the best time possible with this vehicle, as both for the transfer to Minmus and back to Kerbin, I did an almost full orbit before making my transfer burns. Better timing of things would probably have saved me enough to get the time down to about 2 days. One final caveat... the parts of Bob and Val were played by Madburry and Matgun. Here are a few pics from the mission. Go get 'em. Fat with fuel and waiting to go. The burn for Minmus. In Minmus orbit. Landed on Minmus. Docked with return ship (the 1st image after the HUD time reset). Forgot to transfer the crew from the lander to the return ship before dumping it, so got them across the old fashioned way. The burn home. Touchdown. The Imgur album for the mission is here.

I'd never have guessed that... it seems very counter intuitive, in that it's a mechanism associated with something highly negative (this thread has a serious issue that I need to report) used for something very positive (this thread is great, please make it thread of the month). If this is the system, I would seriously think about changing it... that or somehow heavily promoting its use for this purpose in the forum.

For me, let me see... It's when warping a vessel that's on an interplanetery flight, come out of warp only to find it has no power as it's got fixed angle solar panels that are aligned close enough to 90 degrees to the sun, that the probe core runs the juice dry. Ok... this only happens when I'm being a cheapskate and use 2 way symmetry to put the panels on, but still... anger.

I guess someone left the cooker on... well, all the cookers.

Here's a few of mine, from Norway and San Francisco.