purpleivan

A couple of images from the latest chapter of LOST on Laythe

Chapter 11 - Static “Keep it coming... hot and black, I got work to do” – Tramley Kerman (software engineer) “Repeat KSC?” requested Valentina, not quite making out the communication from Kerbin, over a burst of static. “We confirm distance to the colony site at 17.6km” boomed Gatler Kerman, reminding Valentina of the scale of her disappointment. “Roger that KSC, I guess I’ve got some driving ahead of me” Val replied, wishing that the she was due a shorter trip. But at least she’d get to try out one those sleek rovers, slung on the side of the Lifter. “Ok, I’ll begin prep for EVA and resume comms at the hatch” informed Val, before tapping the small button on her headset, to break off communication. Minutes later Valentina stood at the hatch with her hand on the main release lever, ready to swing it open, and after a moment of reflection said “KSC... I’m at the hatch, opening now”. Something came over Val’s headset, but was blotted out in her mind by the sight of the world that stretched out before her. It was surely the same as that which she’s seen from the cockpit of the Lifter, but now she was about to step outside for the first time in weeks. Before the mission to Laythe, Val had only landed on the Mun and Minmus. Jeb and a handful of other kerbals made it to Duna, Ike and Gilly, but this would be her first time descending to a surface beyond Kerbin’s backyard. At least Jeb hadn’t been the first to make it to Duna she thought, that record belonged to Malon Kerman and he’d made it there years before Jeb got some red dust on his boots. Shame he was lost on the return trip though, but space travel can be a tricky business. “Valentina, please respond” requested the loud voice in her ear. “Err... sorry, please repeat KSC” she responded. “Does the ladder look in good shape” enquired Gatler, wondering if it had incurred any damage during the fiery entry. Val grasped the hatch frame in her left hand and leaned out to take a look down the ladder towards the brown surface. “Looks good, no apparent damage”. “Roger that Val, then proceed to the surface” instructed the KSC communicator Val turned her back to the hatch and took hold of the handle at the base of the hatch frame, then tentatively swung a boot out into the void between her and the surface. It wasn’t that she was nervous of the descent, but she really didn’t want to take a tumble and have that 17.6km trip with a sore head. Her boot hit the reassuring solidity of a ladder rung, then she grabbed the base of the hatch frame with her free hand and leaned back, before taking a step down the ladder. Halfway down the side of the vehicle Val paused in her descent. “KSC, I’m at the panel and ready for release procedure” Val informed. She reached for a small panel cut into the side of the hull, before using the small “press’n’turn” release catch that was so common on Kerbal craft. The panel popped open enough for her to flip it fully open with a flick of her thumb. “Ok Val, proceed with opening the panel” Gatler instructed. Way ahead of you, Valentina thought before saying “Panel is now open, ready for release”. She then pressed a pair of buttons simultaneously, triggering a small green light to illuminate, then a third button marked “Rover Release”. The two rovers that were mounted to the Lifter either side of her, gently slid down the side of the vehicle. “Hmm... something’s not right” Val thought, “shouldn’t there have been a...” She was suddenly cut off by the sound of Gat informing her “Don’t forget the design change that the safety team wanted, you need to press the Arm button before Release to fire the...” “Explosive bolts... oh krak” exclaimed Val, remembering the last minute change in the release procedure, to give 2 points of commit before firing the bolts that would push the rovers away from the hull. Krak indeed. As the two rovers raced towards the ground, propelled by good old gravity, bu unaided by the explosive force that would have pushed them away from the Lifter, a loud scrapping sound made its way through the vehicle, up Val’s arms and into her skull. A moment later the scrapping stopped, as the pair of rovers cleared the hull, before a loud metallic crash, as the they made friends with the landing gear. Close friends. Val started descending the ladder as fast as she could. “Can you confirm rover release and deployment Val” came Gatler’s loud voice, making for an uncomfortable fit alongside the panic it was sharing space with inside her head. “Misfire, misfire” shouted Valentina, as she neared the bottom of the ladder, deciding to jump down and miss out on the remaining few rungs. Her boots hit the ground, but not as hard as she was expecting, due to the slightly lower gravity than Kerbin. She turned and ran towards one of the rovers. It was a worrying sight. The explosive bolts that should have given the rovers a hefty push away from the Lifter as they fell (if Val had armed them first), had fallen with them and had struck the landing gear. These were now combusting at a more leisurely rate than planned. It was less like an explosion and more like a small rocket motor, one which was attempting to push the rover away from the Lifter That rover being held in place by its brakes. The plume of gas and sparks from that small rocket was dangerously close to the landing gear. Val’s impulsiveness in her release of the rovers had got her into a bit of a pickle, but her quick thinking was going to get her out of it. She remembered that there was a brake release lever on each of the rover’s four wheels, to allow moving it without having to enter the vehicle. She raced around the rover, disabling the brakes on three of the wheels, and then ducked underneath it to get at the fourth on the far side. She reached up to give the release lever a yank, then dropped to the ground as flat as she could in her bulky suit. The rover moved away from the landing leg pushed by the motor that threatened to melt it. Val stared up at the underside of the rover, as it slid past overhead. Her eye’s caught sight of a marking on one of the various panels on it. There were a few words, but the word “Safety” caught her eye. Yep she though... next time think “safety”. After a few seconds the rear end of the rover passed over the top of Val, leaving her a clear view of the sky. She caught site of something to her left and turned her head to look. It was the vast bulk of Jool hanging in the sky. “Well hello there Jool” she said to herself and gave a wink... “Oh krak!” she exclaimed, suddenly remembering that there was still another rover to deal with. Valentina took off as fast as here boots would carry her to the other side of the Lifter. On arriving there she found that the explosive bolts on the other rover were doing the same fiery display that threatened to damage one of the landing legs. Again she raced around, disabling rover brakes, but for the last one, rather than disable it from underneath; she pulled herself to her feet, pulled the lever and grabbed hold of the suspension mounting in front of her. The rover headed away under the power of the slowly exploding bolt and Val went with it, hanging on to the back of it, as she had the overcrowded buses, where she grew up. There weren’t many people were she was from, but when there’s only one bus a day, it gets pretty busy. After a few seconds the bolt burnt out and the rover started to slow. Val reached down and yanked on the lever to re-enable the brake, and the vehicle lurched violently round to the side, throwing Val off in the process, before coming to a halt. Just like that old bus. Sometime later Valentina stood near the Lifter, admiring the pair of rovers that she’d corralled after their unplanned excursion. But there was work left to do before she could head off for the Colony site. First, Gatler had informed her that the science team wanted her to take a surface sample. She reached for the small touchscreen on her right arm with her left glove and tapped the text on it “Take Surface Sample”. This opened a small hole in the bottom of her boot into which the suit drew a small amount of the soil beneath it. That little sampler was a fantastic invention and avoided a lot of unnecessary bending. After that she had to return to the Lifter to remove the final part of the equipment that had been attached to its exterior for the journey to laythe. This equipment was the aero mast that was attached to the nosecone of the Lifter. This had allowed the vehicle to be controlled while sheltering behind its heat shield during the descent to the surface. Val was now sat at the controls in the cockpit, with her hand hovering over the Release Aero Package button, but before pressing it, wanted a little chat with the Gatler. “KSC can you confirm that aero package release procedure” she requested. After a shot pause Gatler’s voice came over the speakers “errr... press button marked Release Aero Package” before continuing “everything alright up there Val”. Valentina stabbed at the button and a satisfying jolt, followed by a bright glare emitted from above her. “Everything’s fine here KSC”. The aero package flew up and over to the side of the lifter, carried safely away from it by a small solid rocket motor. It crashed into the surface, flipped around a couple of times, before coming to rest on the surface. With that last major task completed, Val took care of some housekeeping tasks on the Lifter, preparing it for her absence during her trip to the colony site. “KSC all systems made safe, master switches are off. Will now make way to Rover 2 and head for colony site” informed Val. “Roger that Val, have a good trip” replied Gatler. A few minutes later Valentina was in the driving seat of Rover 2, heading away from the Lifter and Rover 1. She had briefly tested one of the rovers on Kerbin and it seemed like a decent, if slow to accelerate ride. But now, zipping across the dunes of Laythe, with Jool visible out of the left side of the cockpit, it felt like it was where it truly belonged. It was engineered to be capable of 35m/s, but had an advised max driving speed of 25. After her near disaster earlier, Val decided to play it safe and keep at around 30. Communication between the colony and her had been out for the entire time she’d been on the surface; due to a software upgrade to while she was in orbit, knocking out short range comms. On the one hand this meant that she hadn’t had to go through some annoying “welcome to Laythe” speech from Jeb, but on the other she was really looking forward to speaking to someone other than Gatler. Back at the KSC a young software engineer, barely old enough to remember the first landing on Duna, worked through the night on a fix to the comms problem. The engineer coded, drank coffee, tested, drank coffee, tested some more... and drank more coffee. The real stuff of course, this was not a decaf situation. By 8:00am the lone engineer, drenched in sweat, partly from the pressure he was under to make the fix, but also the copious amounts of caffeine in his system, shakily hit the “submit” button, followed by “deploy”. Moments later Gatler grabbed his microphone with a flourish that came from a kerbal who for the first time in weeks did not have a hangover; the pad crew’s special brew having run dry 20 hours ago. “Ok there Val, we’ve got that update we’ve be promising ya. We’re ready our end, so just put your comms into Data Receive Mode 2” informed the communicator, eager to get communication up and running between all the vehicle of the LOST mission. “Roger that KSC” replied Val “comms set to Data Receive Mode 2”. Val waited, then waited some more, then finally the status light on the comms board marked “Local” lit up. At that moment a buzz of voices overlapping one another screeched through the speakers of the rover. “... up any prune juice you can find at the store, and I’ll ferment it”. “Hey the Kraken has good things planned for you, now if I can just get your credit card number...” “No... it’s your pet, no way I’m going out looking for it in this weather”. “The market’s down now, but that’s the perfect time to buy big and clean out the suckers”. “... no way... he did, oh sweet, when Jerman see’s it he’ll pop an artery”. “My name’s Simley and I’m calling to offer you a great deal on facial cleansers; everyone wants that clean green glow when they meet the Kraken” “... cancelled it, she said it was too long term. I mean it’s only 18 months and... what... what news?” “No sir, you can’t collect on your life insurance before the comet hits...” Somehow, between the reporting authority that took receipt of the request for the fix, the management team assigning the task, the oversight committee responsible for all the “oversightering”, the steering committee that decided the spelling of tasks, and the software engineer actually assigned the task of making the fix... (draw breath)... the definition of local changed, from the surface of Laythe to somewhere much closer... the cell tower on the VAB roof. Val shouted into her microphone trying to find out what had happened. “KSC, KSC, do you read?... I have major interference on comms, repeat interference on comms”. Meanwhile the noise continued. “... broke her leg, how... oh that’ll do it”. “...all ten season, I got 6 days, gonna watch em’ all... even got this drinking game planned for the Saddest Cat, every time Kit says...” “KSC... do you read, I can’t take much more of this” screamed Val. Suddenly the din ceased, it was if the universe had suddenly taken a vow of silence, plus another to be a lot less annoying. “That better Val” enquired Gatler, his booming voice a welcome sound. “Much... what happened, there was this huge amount of...” began Val. “We could hear the phone chatter through you comms back to us... put two and two together, sent someone up on the roof with an axe, seems to have fixed it” explained the communicator. “Thanks... silence isn’t so bad after all I guess” replied Val, thinking that she’d swap conversation with the colony for not having her ears melted by that racket any day. “Well, I got more good news for ya... looks like you got our local comms on top of yours, so you should be able to talk to the colony now” informed Gat. Val was about to thank Gatler again, when Jebs voice came over the speakers. “Welcome to Laythe Val... better late than never huh”. It had been 3 minutes since Jeb’s voice had come over the comms and Val still hadn’t answered. She could now see the vehicles that made up the colony on the horizon, and she was seriously thinking about turning around and heading back to the lifter. Ok, there was very little food there, or water, or air... so she’d be dead soon, but at least she wouldn’t have to see Jeb’s smug face... that had to be a tick in the pro column. “Val, can you hear me, I think I can see you approaching from the West”. Still Val couldn’t speak. Mybe she thought... no, that wasn’t legal, and probably broke the laws of physics. He just had to give that smug little speech. “Gat, do you have comms with Val, I’m really concerned now... I think I can see the rover out to the West, but she may be incapacitated, I’m thinking of heading out on foot to see if she’s ok”. Oh sure... Val thought, he’s going to be the hero now, come out and rescue me, fat chance. “Jeb, this is Val... had some issues with the comms, think it was due to the update. No need to head out, I’ll be at the colony in 2 minutes” said Val, finally breaking her silence. “Ok there, Val... you had us all worried here, you take care of yourself, we’re all looking forward to you getting here.” Jeb replied. As she drive towards the colony Val had an uncomfortable feeling that she wasn’t used to... no, couldn’t be. Shame was for other people. On arriving at the colony Val parked Rover 2 close to the Hab module, shut down the rover’s systems. Valentina stared out at the cluster of vehicles. They looked like an odd assortment of things to contain a species last hope for survival, but this would be her home from now on. The pilot put on their helmet, gloves and gulped down what was left of a large doughnut that sat on the console... not necessarily in that order. Val turned to her left, flipped the release catches of the hatch, grabbed the main release lever, and swung the hatch open. She climbed out and onto the small platform above the front left wheel assembly and smiled. She was really looking forward to having a conversation with someone using an indoors voice, even if it was a smug senior pilot.

I see your Jonny Quest and raise you one Action Johnny

I was actually looking forward to it, but was severely disappointed. @kerbiloid got it right when he said "typical suburban melodrama"... life is tough when you a hotshot astronaut, single parent with a troubled teen at home. Even removing all the melodrama, the space program part of the series is very weak, and suffers from the "star of the show solves all the problems" syndrome, with little sense of the massive teams that would be behind them. It also feels like a promo by Sean Penn's agent at times... "yeah he's getting on a bit, but he still works out".

The need for 3rd party engines such as Unity and Unreal are just an outcome of the rising complexity and therefore cost, of games development. Until the studio I'm at (very small team) moved over to Unreal recently, I'd only ever used in house engines. These had some benefits for sure, but in the end unless you have the resources to throw a lot of people at developing, maintaining and upgrading your tech, then it's impossible to compete with the 3rd party offerings. There's just some much that's needed. Rendering, physics, level editing, object set up, animation, art source import, particle system, screenspace effects system, scripting system, revision control integration. That's not including audio, or the issues of multi platform support.

DJ Shadow - live in Glasgow DNB and Hip Hop sections. DJ Shadow - gdmfsob from Private Repress. Jerry Goldsmith - Capricon 1 Suite.

TV sci-fi: Space 1999 on Saturday mornings. Cringable now, but at the time... and Quatermass (ITV), post apocalypse with hippies, stone circles and hungry unseen aliens. Non sci-fi TV: Edge of Darkness (BBC from the 80's... not to be confused with that GIbson tripe), The New Statesman (comedy) and Horizon (BBC2 science series) until the late 90's after which is wasn't itself... oh and Connections with James Burke (the first series was the best, especially this bit awesome of timing). Games: Pretty much anything by Ultimate for the Spectrum (e.g. JetPac), Mario Kart on the SNES and the early WWII based Call of Duty series. Movies: Close Encounters (for that warm fuzzy late 70's feel... with aliens), Raise the Titanic (ok... maybe just the bits with raising the ship and the music that goes with it) and Ice Station Zebra.

Mine too... I've not re-read the archive. I started reading it in 2003 and went through from the begining, but re-reading is something I should definitely do. I wish that there was more of Super Stupor though.

Me... well I've been Purpleivan since the mid 90's

There's userfriendly a decent IT themed webcomic that dates from 1997 and is still running. Not as old, but one of my favourites is somethingpositive that started in 2001 and is still going strong.

:Hail(storm of) probe(s): Just played the video in the post above, and mine looks more like minor hail shower of probes by comparison.

Fido? I did... actually I put a few dollars into the crowd funding for it. It was ok given it's miniscule budget, and had a good premise, but really needed a bit more money to make it work.

I played WOT quite a bit about 5 years ago, before getting into KSP. I was an ok player, but never played any clan battles, because when I started playing I went to the .com rather than the .eu portal (which I didn't know existed) when I installed the game. So unknown to me, I'd locked myself into playing on the US servers, which meant I was a few hours adrift from clans I might have joined. I like the game (a bit too much actually), especially my little M36 Jackson which I had a good win ratio using. In the end though I found myself getting a bit too angry with some of the stupid nonsense people got up to in random games, as well as my tier 8 tanks feeling a chore to play, after their teir 6 and 7 brethren being more fun. So in the end I gave up that little obsession and a while later started playing this little game called Kerbal Space Programe, which put the minor obsession with WOT into some perspective.

Let's see, let's see... where's those folders. Ah, here they are. 07/03/2018 Kerbal Space Program My current gameplay folder (v1.4.5) 16/10/2016 Kerbal Space Program - black sky Has an almost (but not quite) black skybox, to make it easier to cutout vehicles etc. for photoshopping. 07/03/2018 Kerbal Space Program - modding The one I used to test out my "Honest Purple's Land O'Junk" parts mod. 26/10/2017 Kerbal Space Program 1.3.1 The build which I use for my LOST on Laythe story images. 25/06/2017 Kerbal Space Program story A build with a bunch of parts mods in it to create vehicles for a story that I've been planning to write for a while.

The purpose was to use up the parts left in the box when you finished building something.

Kerbals will grab anything if it's not nailed down... never know what it'll come in handy.

This morning this reporter was abducted while on the way to work. A bag was put over his head and he was thrown into what was most likely the trunk of a car. On being removed from the assumed trunk the hood was removed, and this reporter found himself in what appeared to be a small shoe store. His abductor dressed in a green and blue pinstripe suit, red patent leather shoes and a Richard Nixon mask; handed him a beige envelope. The Nixon mask wearer then threw the bag back on, bunded this reporter into the same assumed trunk, or one of similar size and shape. Minutes later he was unbundled and told to remove the mask after a count of 30 seconds. Fearful of angering some Nixon mask wearing cabal, the reporter obeyed the instructions and on removing the bag, found himself at the entrance to his place of work. Inside the envelope was a single photograph and a piece of paper containing the transcript of a debriefing of one of the Apollo astronauts. The transcript described events on the moon that have until today, not been made public knowledge. Ed was using the TV camera with Mission Control telling him what they wanted him to focus on, while I was working on a panorama with the Hasselblad. I'm working on the 12 o'clock sector when I swing round to side of the LEM and I see one of them creatures. It was the first time we'd come across them and this little guy is about 20 feet in front of me, standing by the flag. It just stares up at it at for a while, then it reaches out and grabs hold of it with its right hand and start yanking on it. I'm guessing these creatures ain't exactly strong, because this one's pulling away at it like crazy, but the thing ain't budging. I got a shot of it as it's yanking at the pole, then I moved towards it, hoping to scare it off. Well it's just then that all that yanking pays off for the little guy, and the flag comes outta the ground. That thing looks straight at me... big grin on it's face, tucks the flag and pole under it's arm and fires up some kinda rocket pack. Well that thing's heading up and away from me, down sun and I'm doing the best I can to keep up on the ground, but it's moving away pretty fast. After about 15, 20 seconds that rocket pack must have malfunctioned, and that little guy starts spinning and tumbling, no way it was gonna keep in flight like that. In the end the creature hits the ground going at a fair lick and kicks up a big plume of dust. I was expecting to see the little guy's suit all ripped up from the impact, but when the dust starts to clear, the thing just hops back up on its feet like nothing happened. It must have lost grip of the flag a bit short of where they came to a stop, and it's on the ground about midway between the two of us. It turned round and took a look at the flag, then at me and back at the flag again. I guess it thought better of trying to make off with it a second time, because it turned and started running again across the surface, going up sun. That little guy could move at a fair lick on foot, so there wasn't much point in trying to catch it, plus we had a lot of scheduled work to do. So I went over to the flag, picked it up and returned to the landing site to put it back where it belonged.

I need to make more of lots of stuff (LOST on Laythe chapters, Tinfoil Times images, More Wallpapers, plus other stuff kicking around in my head)... and now I'm getting distracted by new stuff, like my first parts mod. I will make more of these images... errr, I mean have them handed to me under a table, by some guy in a trenchcoat. I've got half a dozen games sitting around waiting to be installed too, never seem to get the time for them. Must get around to acquiring some clones.

I completely missed that your post wasn't the first, I think I saw it at the top of the page along with it being a question and just assummed it was. If you don't want to divert the thread a bit, then you could post a question here. https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/forum/16-gameplay-questions-and-tutorials/

Hi @Jawhnny and welcome to the forum. If you can, post a picture of the rocket that you're launching to try and make orbit. A picture will allow advice on what could be improved to be more specific, rather than generalised, do this/don't do that type of stuff. A lot of people on the forum us Imgur as a host for posting pictures.

I've got 1563 hours logged in Steam, but I stopped using that to launch the game about 3 years ago (bought it 4 years ago). I don't play the game as much as I did in the 1st year, but I'd guess I've got around 3000 hours in the game by now. I know others have played longer than that, but it's kind of crazy that I've probably played for the equivelent of 8 hours per day, 5 days a week, for 18 months.

It sounds like you're asking people to post everything that goes into the KSP Fan Works forum, into this one thread. I think you need to make a more specific suggestion for content and one that doesn't duplicate an existing thread, or forum subsection.

Yesterday I released my first parts mod; a small collection of junkyard parts (Honest Purple's Land O' Junk) that enables you to put together things like this. I'll be adding more to the pack over time.

A couple of pics of some recent mountain climbing exploits.

That looks a fun parts pack, I'd not seen it before, but I can see the connection.