purpleivan

Bill takes a break from the argument over whether a TV show was better before or after star was hit by the Anchor Studios sign, in LOST on Laythe.

Chapter 5: The Green in the Black “A depressed cat... I mean, is that really entertainment” - Coslin Kerman Small things matter “Roger that Jeb, we see that as well” came the voice of the KSC’s communicator over the speakers of the mining ship’s command pod, somewhat quieter than normal. Jeb looked at the speakers a little smugly, each of which had a pair of socks stuffed into them. He was pleased with his resourcefulness in muffling the sound of the Gat’s overly loud voice. However this was tinged with guilt over sneaking them out of Voyler’s quarters, but his need for socks was greater; he had a ship to fly after all. What Gatler Kerman had seen was that the mining ship Jeb commanded had just passed through its closest point to Tylo, precisely on schedule. Another box that Jeb could mentally place a tick in. The F12 engines that all the LOST ships were equipped with had done a fine job in whisking Jeb and Voyler to the Jool system in a fraction of the time with normal ones. It wasn’t known exactly how these new engines provided the thrust that they did. They seemed to draw more energy from the fuel than it actually contained; something scientists not on the development team said was a bit of a problem. Those on the team that had developed them (more accurately found them in crates at the back of a storeroom, marked “Do not open until apocalypse”) said that was just old school thinking. To them science wasn’t about following rules, it was about breaking rules and hell raising. In particular breaking speed limits near the KSC in the sports cars that the huge bonuses the F-12’s “development” had brought them. In the end the official explanation was that the Kraken must have “fiddled with the stats”, but whatever the reason, they were taking the LOST team to Laythe in weeks rather than years. After swinging by Tylo, the turquoise orb that was Laythe steadily grew in the view from mining ship’s command pod. Having spent much of the trip in her quarters, Voyler joined Jeb in the command pod to get a good view of their approach.. “Sooo... we gonna be there on time” drawled Voyler in the distinct accent of the Northern reaches of Kerbin. “On time, but not the right orbit” grumbled Jeb. There had been an error in the measurement of Tylo’s mass resulting in slightly less affect on the ship’s trajectory than had been planned. “Aw nooo, but we’ll be ok like” enquired Voyler, wondering what the incorrect orbit might mean for the mission. “400 metres...” began Jeb before being cut off by his crewmate. “We gonna orbit at 400 metres, will we still be able ta land” enquired the engineer. “The orbit’s too high by 400 metres” answered Jeb, annoyed by the small error, but also more than a little disturbed that the engineer responsible getting them fuel once on Laythe, didn’t realise a 400 metre orbit would be more than a little catastrophic. “Awww... that be ok then” said Voyler, clearly relieved at the news. Arrival As the mining ship approached Laythe, Jool had the appearance of a great black disc, with Kerbol hanging just off its narrow limb. The sight would have been foreboding anywhere, at any time, but for two kerbals, venturing further than any previous mission, with their home planet about to be decimated; it was enough to send a shiver down their spines. Contrasted with Jool’s dark mass, the turquoise limb of Laythe was a welcome sight, one that grew rapidly by the minute. “Ok there Jeb, 30 seconds to LOI burn” said Gatler, his voice weaker than normal, due to the apocalypse partying having run out of the good stuff, leaving the KSC with just the pad crews’ “special brew”. Voyler glanced at the speakers the communicator’s voice came from and recognised the items stuffed into them. “Jeeeb, why are me socks shoved in...” she started. “Can’t talk... ship to fly, species to save” Jeb blurted out, partly due to his need to concentrate on his preparations for the burn, but mainly to avoid the sticky subject of sock theft. Jeb’s fingers danced over the console, making last minute adjustments to the burn, then moments later the F-12 engines burst into life, bring the mining ship into a circular orbit of their new home. Opinions and theories As the mining ship entered orbit around Laythe, the second vessel to enter the Jool system was making its way inward. The Hab would provide the main living space for the LOST team and by the standards of most kerbal craft was spacious. Space to live, space to play, space to slink away and sulk, or right now... space to argue. “Season 8 and you know it” shouted Coslin, one of the LOST team’s engineers. “No way, season 10” retorted Bill, a fellow engineer and seemingly a believer in the theory of everything is better in bigger numbers. “What” exclaimed Coslin, thumping the table, causing her to float up out of her seat “The mystery of the singing shoe... All’s well that ends ill... The saddest cat... THE SADDEST CAT... are you crazy”. “The saddest cat is one of best, you’re just to daft to understand it” replied Bill, annoyed that a fellow fan of “Kit Kerman, Space Detective” failed to appreciate the humour of one of his favourite episodes “The saddest cat”. “Everyone knows the show went downhill after Jolin got hit by that sign” insisted Coslin, referring to Jolin Kerman, the 3rd of 5 actors to play the title role in the show’s 12 season run. Jolin Kerman’s unexpected demise came when signing autographs at the gate of Anchor Studios; the makers of the show. The famous anchor fell from the sign over the gate, crushing the star and setting off yet another search for a good looking, but overweight actor (the portly director of the show refused to have anyone skinnier than him play the part) to fill the role. “Ok... let’s just ask Bob” suggested Bill; certain that a kerbal of his intellect couldn’t fail to see the many strengths of the show’s tenth season”. The pair glanced nervously at the door to Bob’s quarters, before concluding that a guy who’d locked himself away for almost the entire journey, probably wouldn’t be too pleased being asked to settle an argument, even one as important as this. Kit Kerman Space Detective had a rabid following of highly opinionated fans, who liked nothing more than to theorise about the “deeper meaning” of the show. Although it was a highly formulaic detective procedural, the series of strange accidents that befell its leading actor, as well as the sets being burnt down 3 times, and a string of truly appalling scripts, led some to believe that the show was cursed by the Kraken. Others theorised that the show was being conspired against by “those in the know” who they believed were trying to kill it off before it revealed a dark secret about the history of kerbalkind. Still others, identifying as the Brotherhood of Kalkan, held that the pattern of incidents that befell the show, when appropriately transformed using a form of mathematics no-one understood (or they possibly made up) predicted the date of the apocalypse. To them “The Saddest Cat” was a pivotal episode. Given that comet Tiddles was on route to its fiery encounter with Kerbin, interest in the Brotherhood had spiked recently. The argument raged over the coming hours, as the vessel raced through the system, en-route to Laythe. Solitude Bob Kerman gave a deep sigh as he exited the airlock of the Hab ship. After closing the hatch, he used his suits thrusters to manoeuvre to a couple hundred metres from the vessel, then rotated himself to face it. Beyond the Hab lay the great green bulk of Jool, finally being seen in its true colour, as the vessel made its way through the system. Over his suits' comms connection to the command pod, he could hear the argument between Bob, with his Brotherhood leanings and Coslin, a firm believer in “the curse” in the background. The mission’s lead scientist turned off the comms unit and finally floated in blessed silence. No more arguments no more noise, no sound at all... just my thoughts. No please... not my thoughts.

I just wish I'd hurry up and get to Laythe in LOST on Laythe. Like most of my writing, I started LOST on Laythe as a result of a half minute decision on a Saturday morning, about something to try out in KSP. In this case, sending some colony vehicles to Laythe. That balooned into... hey how about writing someting about the antics of those along for the ride... what about a backstory... etc. etc. Then imagination (shut up imagination... always getting me into trouble) came up with ideas that required time and effort to see through. This message brought to you by cocktails... the sugary alternative to real drinks.

Probably best to ask about the addon here.

I liked that one of the topics it covered was "boom".

Laythe is a nice place for a colony... ocean, atmosphere, big planet to look at etc. For a Jool transfer, I'd recommend this addon. As for whether to send everyone on one ship or several, I guess it depends on how confident you are in being able to land separate ships in the same location, or whether the are mobile once landed.

A couple more pics from LOST on Laythe, with the colony team heading off from Kerbin orbit.

Looks like Kervin isn't being occluded by the moon, i.e. that it's being drawn after the moon in the render, even though it's behind it.

It might be old, but it's a 551 page, pinned thread which gets multiple posts every day, I must have posted dozens there myself. If this thread had a title and description that made it clear that people should post just that one screenshot that they think is their very best, it could be a good alternative.

I think there's already a thread for this.

Chapter 4 - Moment of drama "Tension, it's all about tension" - Jebediah Kerman The Call All of Kerbin, well those who hadn’t fled for the hills, or were laid up due to apocalypse party incidents, listened to the voices of the LOST team and KSC communicator Gatler Kerman, with baited breathe. “Ok let’s do this” boomed Gatler, to the team in the KSC control room, as well as the waiting press, “let’s get these guys to Laythe”. “Mining?” shouted Gatler in the most dramatic voice he could muster “go or no go”. “Mining is go!” replied Jeb Kerman in a calm and much quieter voice. “Hab... go or no go” inquired Gatler of the next ship in the fleet. “Hab is go!” came the answer from Elson Kerman. “Lifter... go or no go?” Gatler asked, as he ticked the box next to the word “Hab” on his clipboard. “Lifter is go!” responded Valentina Kerman then muttering “let’s go already”. Gatler ticked the following box. “Science... go or no go?” Galter inquired of the of the last vessel on his list, his pen hovering over the final tick box. Silence met the communicator’s question, with just a little static. The communicator stared at his microphone for a moment before repeating the questions. “Science... go or no go?” and started to nervously his pen on the console. Still no reply from the fleet’s science craft, this was not going according to the carefully laid out plan. “Science... go or n...” started Gatler, before a voice came of the speakers at the KSC. “Science vessel is ready for departure Gat” confirmed Gelsey Kerman. Gatler shuffled his ample rear end in his chair, a little annoyed at the scientist’s failure to use the approved wording for her response, before replying “Roger that Gelsey”. "LOST IS GO!" thundered Gatler, ticking the last box on his clipboard with a flourish. Gelsey chuckled to herself, a sly grin crossing her face. “Why did you keep them waiting” asked Sindley Kerman, fellow scientist and Gelsey’s sole companion on the trip to Laythe. “Why not” replied Gelsey. “The first ship doesn’t leave for 2 hours... we don’t go until tomorrow. But pilots just have to have their moment don’t they.” Gelsey thought back to the 3 days spent in discussion and planning meetings for the “We are go” moment and the reams of documents that accompanied them. Some of these now lay in the trash can in her quarters back at the KSC, their title pages poking out of the top of it. Mission Plan (LOST): MPL-23-A Stage 18 Pre trans-Laythian burn (TLB) status check. ----------------- LOST Crew Discussion Document: CDD(LOST) 12. Proposal for inclusion of EDM (Exciting Departure Moment) in Mission Plan. Proposer: Valentina Kerman Seconder: Jebediah Kerman ----------------- LOST Crew Discussion Document: CDD(LOST) 26. “To go or not to go... that is the question”. Meeting to discuss suitable wording for EDM. ----------------- Briefing Document: EDM -4a Re: Communication of flight status prior to TLB. Amendment to Tension Building Pause (TBP) time, following “Go no go” requests. Departure The hours, minutes and finally seconds ticked by, and in turn each of the four craft in the LOST fleet ignited their engines and made their trans-Laythian burns. The first to leave was Valentina, whose favour buying at the KSC had got her to the front of the queue. Next was the Mining vessel, with Jeb at the controls, who chalked up yet another textbook departure for another world. A few minutes later, Elson Kerman started the engines that would propel the Hab towards his crews’ new home. A process that he’d reduced from a plethora of buttons presses and switch flicks, to a dab at a single button, followed by shorting a couple of wires under the console. Finally, almost a day after the other’s had departed, the science vessel, with Gelsey and Sindley aboard, received the signal from KSC ,that ignited the engines and sent them too on their way.

A mission that I often post about on the forums is that of the Eve Party Boat. A four kerbal Eve return mission I did back in the days of v0.24. Usually the threads I post in focus on large things in the game (biggest ship or most ridiculous undertaking etc.) but in this case it's about the small. Small as in the distance between Eve Party Boat lander and the unmanned rover that I'd used to scout a high plateau landing site, as well as a marker for my landing. It took a few used of F9 to get the monstrosity down on the plateau, but once the excitement and rocket exhaust had cleared, I was in for a little suprise. This is how far I'd landed from the rover. Jeb wanted to see if the gap between the two was big enough for him to squeeze through. The answer... no, not without going eau naturel.

Thanks.... I'll look into the info you provided.

Some more pics for my Apollo style flight to the Mun... this time bringing the guys home with the aid of the Textures Unlimited plugin.

Finally got around to doing to obligatory Apollo flight using Making History parts and grabbed some pics on the way to the Mun. and yes... the descent stage of the LEM is a bit porky.

I'm interested in creating PBR texture sets (possibly taking the Substance Painter route like @Jeorge) for some stock parts but I'm unclear as to how to go about this. I've checked through chunks of this thread, in particular the first and last few pages, but I'm not clear on what I need to add to my KSP enable me to provide a texture set for a stock part (or part that looks like stock) to TU to render. I've seen a couple of image and multiple mentions of the TU GUI and recoloring GUI (which might be my jumping off point), but I can't info on how to access them. So if someone with information on this could point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.

Depends on what you mean by cool things to do. How about these. Complete the Jool 5. A manned Eve return mission. Air drop a rocket to a some distant location on Kerbin and launch from there. Make mini planes or rovers. Visit all the anomaly sites and take vacation snaps of your visit.

15 degrees is still quite a bit off, unless the ship being docked is very small (e.g. a Mk1 pod, FL-T200 and a terrier at the back). The trick of disabling SAS would probably work with that kind of angle and that kind of craft, but for something larger, then the angle will need to be more accurate. The magnets are really just a fudge, to allow docking to be not too painful (i.e. requireing essentially perfect alignment to succeed) but they only provide a bit of assistence.

The forum seach, which used to work fine, hasn't returned useful results for me in several months. So I've been using Google instead in the period.

The latest posting to my wallpapers thread.

I actually find docking fun, rather than a chore and generally don't have any issues with it. If I do have problem, then it's usually because I've been impatient and not reduced my approach speed sufficiently, or rushed things in some other way. A few tips for a good docking. 1. Set up a good close renedezvous, at most 500m but prefereably quite a bit closer (mine are typically 100 - 200m). This is partly to avoid impatience when manouvering in to dock, that can raise it's ugly head if you're starting your approach from too far out. 2. Move in to about 20 - 50m (depending on the size of the craft involved) then reduce your velocity relative to the target to zero... it's best to know your way around the navball to do this. 3. Target the docking port on the other vehicle that you want to dock with and line you ship up with it. 4. Switch to the target craft and repeat step 3. for that vehicle, so it's lined up with your craft. 5. Step 4. will most likely have made the aim of your ship on the target a bit off when you rotated the target craft, so correct the aim of your ship at the docking port again. 6. Switch back and forth between your the two craft a couple of times to realign them, until the ports are looking straight at each other. 7. Hit the RCS to move your ship in towards the the target at a 0.5 - 2m/s until just a few metres from it, then reduce speed to under 0.5m/s, so you have time to correct last minute errors in alignment. 8. Dock. A couple of other ideas. If you are docking a small craft and you find that when the docking ports touch that the alignment is off, even quite a bit (say 10 - 20 degrees), then turn off SAS and you'll find that the docking port magnets pull the ships together more easily. Get a docking camera mod, e.g. this one... I've used them on and off and they provide a useful tool, while also giving the whole exercise a more cinematic feel.

Another pic today, titled "Duna for science"

You could go for form over function, and make something with an unusual design, such as my station KOSTAR. Assembled in Mun orbit, because why not. It came equiped with 4 mini landers, capable (just about) of making it to the Mun surface and back to dock with the station. The 4 arms of the station could also detach and return everyone to kerbin, landing (almost) in one piece.

In my early days (summer 2014) my designs tended to follow OTAT rules (Orange Tanks All the Time), with Jumbo 64's on pretty much anything I built. Those truncated hot dogs took me everywhere. With plenty of fuel stashed in Kerbin orbit to supply those journeys, in the same orange tanks. This culminated in the ultimate orangey beast, the Eve Party boat. This not only was one huge block of Jumbo 64's, but was also supplied and pushed to its destination by vehicles using them. In addition to OTAT there were also the the NBEF "(Never Bring Enough Fuel) rules to comply with in those early days. Again this meant some trust orange tanks being put to use, in this case to send much needed combustables to some hapless Kerbals, stranded somewhere in the system. After the orange tanks period came that of ITE (Ions To Everywhere) rules that saw them used to venture around the system, land on various moons (including Mun) as well as break some speed records of the time. This of course was in the heyday of SPE (Solar Power Everywhere) and IAF (Ion's Ain't Feeble).

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