Slam_Jones

With Outer Planets Mod: Sarnus Stock: Jool (never felt like visiting Eeloo)

True, but I believe B9 requires FAR, which I personally do not prefer. It'd be nice if there were another option.

Flying Kerbals, interestingly, interview young introspective youths, usually every day. polengdc

1.) Equip wrench (put in Kerbals inventory, then click the button corresponding [1 if in slot 1, 2 if in slot 2...]. Make sure you can see the tool in your kerbals hand) 2.) Press and hold down 'G' 3.) Click on part, keep button held down. 4.) Drag it to your Kerbals inventory (Tab) 5.) Release Should do it! I can't remember 100% when you release 'G,' but a few tests and you should be able to figure it out Also, to attach: 1.) Make sure you have drill equipped 2.) Click and hold part you want to attach, drag to object you are attaching it to 3.) Hold 'H' (make sure the part turns blue) 4.) Click

Would it be possible it's just a very, very large planet that somehow didn't become a sun (if I remember correctly (which I may well not), a gas giant with enough mass will spontaneously begin a fission reaction, making it a star. Would this happen with an extremely large solid planet?), orbited by a smattering of moons? Something that size would easily attract a lot of bodies, even if only a small fraction remain in orbit. It's very exciting to think that it's a manufactured construct, but I wouldn't be so sure yet.

Is it possible to do procedural structural panels? Or is there a mod for that already? Just a flat, procedural panel, can adjust length, width, would be awesome. Swappable textures would be great. Another idea was swappable properties (basically, different materials... aluminum has certain weight/strength, which is different from say steel, etc. etc.) but that might not be possible. But otherwise, can it be done?

@Dodgey I have those same speakers

Sorry to be off-topic, but every time I see this thread, I can't help but think of how great the name "Will Skylon" would be for a sci-fi character

From where I'm standing, this is starting to look like a "who can handle the most parts" challenge. Not that anything's wrong with that, it's just not many people are into it. If you get WhackJob in here, though, then it's all over. That man will melt his CPU if he has to.

Well, when everyone you know from high school is posting pictures from Europe, you start wondering which wrong turn you took. Also, grew up in a rural area. Would love to live somewhere like it again. Sadly, there's even fewer jobs there than where I live now. Edit: Also, a few days rest is a vacation, isn't it? So a vacation after your vacation? Man I must really need a better job if most people can afford that

I really hope so. Being an avid D&D player, I know all about how pesky those dice can be I guess it's just that much less likely that maybe Microsoft missed a little memory issue or two in a program of... how many gB? In a product that's... how new? Significantly less than a year, right? Idk. The chances of it happening as such (and Win 10 not playing even the slightest role) is pretty low, as far as I can work out. Once again, the obligatory "correlation does not equal causation," but it's hard not to be suspicious at this point. The other HDD ran perfectly for nearly five years, and within 24 hours of Win 10, it dies? :| Not 100% convinced Win 10 isn't at least partially contributing to some issue here. Is it not possible that Win 7 would have handled these issues better, having been around and improved on for X years? Update: Luckily, I had 2 days left on factory warranty, so I'm sending it back in for a refund. Very unlikely to get a SeaGate HDD in the future!

So I've had my second HDD die (or otherwise become unusable) yesterday. Trying not to blame Windows 10, but c'mon. Two dead HDDs while running Win 10 for about two months, and zero running Win 7 for about 4 years. Oddly enough, this was a new HDD, ordered to replace the last one that, also oddly, died within 24 hours of installing Win 10. The new HDD lasted, I think 3 weeks or so before kicking the bucket. Obviously correlation does not equal causation, but... c'mon, really? I hadn't even come close to filling the drive yet. Is it possible that it got to a bad spot on the HDD and just got screwed up? Is it also possible that any potential flaws with the HDD would slip by unnoticed til this point? So... coincidence? I really really hope so, because I'm otherwise planning to buy an old copy of Win 7. I made a partial guess that it was just a faulty HDD, so instead of another Seagate I ordered a WD.

Oddly enough, this was a new HDD, ordered to replace the last one that, also oddly, died within 24 hours of installing Win 10. The new HDD lasted, I think 3 weeks or so before kicking the bucket. Obviously correlation does not equal causation, but... c'mon, really? I hadn't even come close to filling the drive yet. Is it possible that it got to a bad spot on the HDD and just got screwed up? Is it also possible that any potential flaws with the HDD would slip by unnoticed til this point? So... coincidence? I really really hope so, because I'm otherwise planning to buy an old copy of Win 7. Edit: Also, taking this to Computer Megathread.

LOL I haven't had a vacation in at least 5 years. And at the age where everyone says you should be exploring the world. But I guess the people telling me that don't have to worry about money ever? I don't know. Count your blessings, folks... I'd love for my biggest problem to be in the realm of "got back from vacation, still tired." (First world problem if I've ever seen one xD )

Had another hard drive fail today. It's rather odd that since Installing Win 10, I've lost two and never a single one before that...

Realistic isn't always fun. In this case, quite the opposite.

That thing looks AWESOME!! I wonder how it would fare on a road trip...

You should check out the rover from my circumnavigation (Link in sig) Edit: Also, plenty of others have done this as well. It's just not common at the moment because the wheel module is a bit... err... let's say wonky It's getting a big upgrade in the next update (or so they say) that should make everything nicer. But I've used alternatively-powered rovers with some frequency. My most recent one (intended for Duna) is actually propeller-powered, and can handle 30m/s with stability and... not exactly grace, but it works! I've also modified the cfg files for the stock wheels numerous times, to add power, stopping force, better crash tolerance, etc. etc. Pretty simple to do

No problem! I've actually really enjoyed it. You'll likely have to check the online resources a couple times to get everything figured out, but once you do it's pretty fun!

Found a game on Steam over the weekend somewhat similar to Astroneer, called Empyrion. It is (you guessed it!) an early access title. Having bought it for $20, I wasn't expecting much. What I found was a game with a rather steep learning curve (I skipped the tutorial and Sandbox modes and went straight for survival). I made at least half a dozen different save files trying to get going, and eventually did (on a file named "This_Time_For_Real"). Being an early access title, not everything is implemented, and in fact I had to go online a few times to figure out what should be basic issues. Such as, "how do I turn on the power at my base?" It doesn't tell you anywhere, but you press Y. It's absolutely not a KSP clone. Not even close. It is (like most games in the genre) much more similar to Minecraft than KSP (and perhaps a lot like Space Engineers... never played that one though.) Physics are crazy simplified, in that "orbit" is achieved by flying up really high (horizontal speed is not a factor), and you reach your top speed in a much more "arcade-y" manner than KSP. Supposedly once you are able to get into space, you can travel to other planets. I've only just gotten an orbit-capable ship built (after building a hover vessel to look for resources and a base for fun/production) so I haven't tested that part of it yet. Some of the physics stuff is more realistic, such as that in order to go a direction, you have to have a thruster facing that way. Found that out when I built a hovercraft that just wouldn't stop unless it ran into something. An extra three thrusters later (one pointing left, one pointing right, one pointing forward (for brakes)), I had it under control. As far as building going, it is (mostly) Minecraft-like. However, instead of the terrain being made up of blocks and whatnot, it's just a thin skin that can be deformed. This means you can burrow into the ground to mine resources, build bases, or whatever else you enjoy doing in a hole in the ground. Building vehicles (and bases) do you blocks, though. There are also hostile creatures populating the planets, from Dinosaurs to Aliens to Robotic Drones that try to attack you and your base. You can craft weapons to hunt and fight off hostiles with, both hand-held and vessel-mounted. One of the features I'm looking forward to testing the most, is building Capital Ships. These are Base-sized ships, which you can walk around in, fly to other worlds, etc etc. From what I've seen so far, part(& block) count doesn't affect CPU peformance nearly as much as KSP. Then again, there's a lot less going on. All in all, it's a surprisingly fun game. While I doubt KSP would ever, ever, become anything like this, it is nice to see other games stepping up to the plate and trying to combine space exploration with things to do there. Sure, at the moment, things to do is limited to shooting things, digging holes, and building stuff, but that's about 1000% more than you can do on a planet in KSP. Edit: I should also mention that you can find other Points of Interest, such as crashed capital ships, or Drone factories. Also, there are several different resources needed to build stuff. Because of this, the game splits the resources to different deposits, which are marked when you get close enough. This means that, believe it or not, there's actual incentive to explore the planet. If you run your closest Iron deposit completely out of ore (or if you need more Cobalt, or Copper, or Silicon, or...), you'll need to find another one. Some resources can only be found on certain planets, which again gives players reasons to explore. Not just to get there... but to actually do something there. Currently the planets are very small (can't say for certain, but it feels like about 10x smaller than Kerbal planets), and the poles are blocked, but the dev says he's working on expanding on those fronts. What's my point? I guess my point is that personally, KSP is getting dull fast (and I say that at 1,200+ hours spent on it). More stuff to do on planets is great, but I doubt that will ever really be in the scope of KSPs future. I guess the point really is, all good things come to an end, and so too shall KSP. I just hope another excellent studio is ready to step up and take the lead with these types of games. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

@Sharkman They're actually the stock ones, just Tweakscaled down to (I think) 50%. As per usual with Tweakscale, I think the ratios are a bit off, but it's really never been enough of an issue to bother me. Just means it takes longer to drill up the ore... but considering I'm not using any Life Support mods, time isn't an issue at all

Thanks! I know the post is a little messy right now, but I'll be trying to clean it up here soon

Started a thread for all my Duna Colony stuff. Yup.

After being urged by community members to make a thread, I finally sat myself down to write up a little thread regarding my attempts to Colonize Duna So far I've done two different types of colonizing. I've done a regular sandbox (quickloading and reverting available) as well as a "hardcore" sandbox "NO reverts or quickloads. If it broke, we fix it). The first one I worked on was the regular sandbox, so I'll start there. (Note that most of the text beyond here will be copied and pasted from posts made in the "What did you do in KSP today?" thread, with some formatting and such modified.) Also, I apologize if it's messy. I'll be trying to clean it up in the near future -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- First things first, a quick Mod List so you know what you're looking at! Thanks! The part pack with most of the cool-looking stuff (the biodomes, houses, Farm, etc.) come from Civilian Population mod. I should point out that while you can use the buildings to recruit kerbals, I chose to just use them to look pretty. I believe the corridors come from Stockalike Station Parts Expansion. They're built on-site by the D-9 Constructor, a VTOL mining craft that can build stuff. I usually scout for a new place using a tiny drone, and once I've found an open area with a slope of less than 3 degrees, then I bring in the D-9. The D-9 opens to cargo doors, mines some ore, and converts it into Rocket Parts. Since it can only store so much on-board, the first thing I always build is another external tank to hold rocket parts (the bigger or more complex the thing you're building, the more R Parts you need). I always paint them silver to identify easily. After that, it's just a matter of making sure you have enough room to hold all the parts you need, and then dig em up. Here's my full mod list, in case anyone is curious: - Civilian Population - ExtraPlanetary LaunchPads - ExtraPlanetary LaunchPads Simplifier (makes it easier to go from Ore -> Rocket Parts) - Firespitter - KAX (Kerbal Aircraft Expansion) - KAC - KER - KAS/KIS - KJR - Kerbal Stats - Infernal Robotics - New Future: - - Construction, Electrical, IVA props, Propulsion, Solar, Spacecraft Parts - Procedural Parts (plus two different texture packs) - Stockalike Station Parts Expansion - Take Command - Tweakscale -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- *Long-winded story warning* So, I've built what I'm calling "KSC3" and sent it to Duna. It includes drills, ISRU, a workshop, and an orbital construction dock, which means it can land, dig up some stuff, and build things out of that stuff. Here it is, in Duna sub-orbit, with the Heat Shield, "swallow-tail" airbrake module, and Nuclear-powered "StarDrive." After at least half a dozen shallow aerobraking manuevers, its apoapsis finally fell below 50km. Since it was no longer needed, we disconnected the StarDrive and let it burn up in the atmosphere. Airbrakes were deployed until it was safe to open the Drogue chutes, and then the rest of the chutes. As it descended, it was still a bit heavy, so we dropped the Heat Shield first, then the "swallow-tail" airbrake module. Once both were dropped, the base balanced and descended at about 14 m/s. It was still a bit faster than I hoped, and it hit the ground hard. Nothing exploded, but every single landing leg broke. Not a big problem, as Bill was more than capable of fixing em. Regardless, it was an exciting moment... all that hard work paid off! We were safely on Duna. (Note: this is the largest non-Munar base I landed safely) Once the dust had settled, we began mining and converting ore to rocket parts. The first on-site vessel was a propellor-driven plane, called the D-1 Duna Racer. (Note: This is the first thing I've ever built off-world ) Jeb took it out and checked out the local scenery. Not much to see, but it was still an interesting experience. Next, we built a small unmanned rover with a claw, capable of moving around otherwise stationary modules. We called it the "Lifter-Mover rover," because (you guessed it!) it lifts and moves modules. Once we had this ready, we built the solar tower. We actually had to build it twice... on the first attempt, the LM rover was knocked over by the tower, damaging both. With the old tower removed and the rover fixed, we built a new one (lucky they're light on Rocket Parts) and managed to shuffle it to its new position. With the new tower in place, we were able to ramp up production to higher levels, allowing both drills to be run at all times. We soon were able to produce a little Habitation Module, thus allowing the Kerbals to sleep somewhere other than the workshop. After that, we built a little 2-seat rover for the Kerbals to take a Sunday drive in. Most recently, we built the biggest off-world item yet: a 5-seat propellor-driven plane. I intend to use this to recover and transport inbound Kerbals (Kerbals themselves being the one thing I can't produce on-site). It needs more solar panels to run at 100% power (Currently I can run it at 60% power with consistent charge), but with KAS and my current facilities, this should be easy to achieve. Due to some lag, we ended up moving the two planes down the hill about 700 meters, which somehow lessens the lag to acceptable levels, and puts them on a flatter surface, potentially making take-off easier. Transport down and up the hill is provided by the rover. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- *The story continues* http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=2214338&viewfull=1#post2214338 While kicking rocks around and drifting the rover in the sand, the kerbals at Duna started to get a little bored, and called Mission Control for backup. Pretty soon, a shuttle was dispatched and routed towards Duna. Being significantly lighter than the base, it only performed one aerocapture before popping the chutes and setting down. As the recruits neared the surface, they realized the shuttle was still moving about 10m/s too fast. Thinking quickly, one of the pilots re-engaged the reaction wheels, flipped the shuttle retrograde, and fired the thruster. Luckily, it touched down smoothly, with no damage to the ship. After some calculations, the Kerbals at KSC3 got the heading to the shuttle, and sent Jeb out in the transport plane for the 400km round-trip journey. As he flew gracefully over the red sands, Jeb couldn't help but think how much easier it is to get around via planes as opposed to rovers. Rovers are fun, but they have the constant chance to lithobrake and explode. Planes only have two opportunities for that: take-off, and landing. (Took me about 20 mins to fly there and back... a rover would've taken a week, real-time) The new recruits made it back to the base safely, and got right to work on continuing expansion. While Mission Control on Kerbin was planning new buildings and modules for the base, the Kerbals were busy building an additional tank to store Rocket Parts, thus allowing even bigger construction. It was completed that night. With the storage for Rocket Parts more than doubled, we set out to build a more stable Lifter-Mover rover. The old one worked (sort of) for small modules, but was easily tipped over. Our solution? Bigger and wider. And, it's a LOT more stable. Here it is, lifting a several-ton Hab Mod as if it's made of Styrofoam. It also has a double-hinge in the middle (as opposed to the old single hinge) allowing it to basically fold itself in half. Also includes a Rotatron at the base, so a Module can be rotated and placed accurately without moving the rover. With the addition of the new Parts tank and another Hab Module, we decided to put up another solar tower as well. Despite being more stable, the new LM rover still managed to drop the tower incorrectly once... requiring us to build the tower again. The second time, we got it in place. Some time after this pic was taken, we realized Tieny (one of the brand-new pilots from Kerbin) had decided to take out the D-1 Racer. We're not sure how, or when, but at some point during her flight, both she and the plane disappeared. Dunatians? Kraken? Dust Storm? No one knows, but we mourn her loss nonetheless. (IRL: I think it spawned in below the surface or something... one minute it was there next to the big plane, the next it wasn't :\ ) -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Built a Mobile Constructor for my Duna colonization. Haven't had much time to build with it yet, but I did make this little outpost about 50km from KSC3. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Continuing with my Duna "Kolonization" (sort of). My first D-3 Cobnstructor ended up developing issues with building new vessels, possibly due to the incredibly abrasive Duna sand. We ended up modifying the design to reduce or eliminate the issues that had been bothering us so far. With a larger wing area, more solar panels, and more structurally sound design, the new D-3 should be able to get the job done as well as (if not better than) the model it's replacing. Once it was built at KSC3, Jeb hopped in and flew it to the landing site of the (soon-to-be) former D-3. Also, we performed a few tests to see the maximum operable ceiling for the D-3, it we were able to run smoothly up to 14km. The atmosphere starts to dissipate quickly beyond 10km, and while we may be able to get it higher, there seems to be no practical reason, other than incredibly long journeys. Original on the right, new version on the left Despite being newer, the D-3 still take considerably longer than KSC3 to build new vessels. While KSC3 can turn a pile of dirt into a plane within a few hours, it will take the crew of the D-3 about a week to accomplish the same task. Building a multi-vessel base often takes upwards of a month on-site. With the new Constructor built and tested, we set about building a few new outposts. The first was a simple civilian base with a relay station attached, about 70km from Burgstein (another outpost). After that, another outpost was built, again about 70km from the previous one. This outpost included a newly designed observation tower. Following in this vein, we are looking into other tall, asymmetric buildings in order to make everything look a little less boring. Finally, we turned northward and headed towards to polar ice caps, where we plan to build a massive research station. We're still going through logistics, but it will likely require the crew of the D-3 to build three(!) large tanks for Rocket Part storage at the site, before finally building the base itself. (For reference, every other base I've built so far needed no more than 1 tank). While the tower (above) looks tall, the main spire of the science base should be at least 2 - 3 times as tall. Also, while flying northwards, we realized several of the large wing-bound solar panels were broken. Apparently, they're not really designed to be walked on, or they crack like... like something that cracks far too easily. Another design feature to consider for future versions. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Broke ground on the largest project we've done on Duna yet: Duna City. It was intended to be the largest city on Duna, but we ran into some structural problems when testing it on Kerbin, and as such we had to reduce its size a bit. Since it was such a big project, we had to design a new workshop (to be built on-site, like the tanks) to speed up build time significantly. With the workshop, building the Farm dome and the Hab Arm (with all attached houses) only took about 3 days. Without, it would have taken months. Since it wasn't big enough yet, we next built a Biodome with a couple houses inside it. Once it was built, we sent Nelly in to walk around and make sure all was well. It was. Once we had the new Biodome in place, we started installing another little "neighborhood," which involves a large central stack of apartments, surrounded by smaller apartment buildings. At 200+ parts, the lag is starting to get a little much, so this may be the size limit for my current PC. I'm still thinking of other ways to have a city that can be described as both "sprawling" and "low-part-count." Maybe one day... Edit: Come to think of it, I think the 200+ part count also includes the D-3 Constructor plane (which accounts for likely almost half of that), so there may be hope after all! -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- A small "glider" built for personal transport on Duna. Hardly weighs more than a Kerbal. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Tried to make a chopper... But the propellor didn't work on Duna. So, I swapped it out with this dumb-looking one... -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- I got a similar idea yesterday, as well. After crashing the D-3Contructor, Mission Control on Kerbin decided to make some changes. Now, it's VTOL for all! The first contender was the D-4 Skimmer transport plane, which can now take-off and land with incredible precision. No more "finally coming to a stop 2km past the base," no sir! Uses two Infernal Robotics rototron, for the two propellors, and can acheive much higher speed than the last model. Here's some pics of the D-4, and the new D-9. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Temple of Kerpollo (not as big as I'd hoped, might do a Mk-2) Also, the Mk-1 capsule unintentionally looks like a Hollywood Native American, with headband, feather, and war paint. Didn't realize til I built it, but I kinda like it -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- More cities, you say? Why, yes, sir! We do have more cities! -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Yep! Let me dig them up real quick... I forget the exact stats, but I think it has a (stable) TWR of 2.0+, or up to 4.0 for emergencies (drains batteries VERY quickly at that pace), and I think weighs somewhere in the 30 ton range. Max crew of 8, without expanding. Building a Rocket Parts tank takes about 7 kerbin days (about 2.5 Duna days), and a workshop about 30 days. The workshop increases productivity (basically how much 1 kerbal can build in a day) by something like 10x. I'll put it this way: without the workshop, a Duna City would take about 180 days to build, with 8 kerbals. If I have a workshop (and put the kerbals in it), it drops to about 7 days. A MAJOR difference, if time is a factor. (The purple bit at the front is the "Orbital Construction Dock" piece, which is one of many parts that allow for on-site construction. It happened to be the lightest and easiest to place, so I've used it extensively Also, drill and ISRU stuff stored inside cargo bay, which opens downward). (Pics above) -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks! Here's a quick overview of the city-building process: First, send the flying ChapStick container to find a mostly flat spot This looks flat enough. Anything less that 3 degrees is acceptable, and less than 1 degree is basically perfect. Once it's confirmed to be a good site, we send in the Constructor (pictured is the old D-3, though now we use the D-9) The constructor doesn't have a lot of storage room for parts, so the first thing we build is extra storage Since we don't have the best building facilities on-board (all that stuff is heavy!) we next build a workshop. This allows the kerbals to build much more efficiently (and quicker!) After that, it's much easier to build a few more tanks. Once they're filled, we'll have enough parts to build the city. And lastly, the city itself. It's built as one vessel in the VAB on kerbin, then the blueprints are uploaded to the D-9. With the workshop, we were able to get this city up in about a week, Kerbin time. After that, it's done! More houses can be added if desired, but they'll be attached via KAS, and won't look as good as single-vessel ones. Not a big deal, though. Sometimes I'll detach the parts tanks and terminate them to clean the area up a bit. For Duna City, I left them in place. (for now) -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- The first ones are usually built from the cockpit. There's also a small workshop inside the cargo bay, but it's not much more efficient than the cockpit. That's why for a lot of the bigger projects (cities, etc.) I'll build an external workshop (you can see it in the pics in the post above). Basically, the productivity factor on the on-plane modules is about 0.4, while the actual workshop has a factor of 5.0 or something crazy. It takes a 180-day project down to 7-days or so. So, the first two things at a site will take about a month to build. After that, only about a week to finish everything else. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- Good question. Just got home, so gonna load up KSP and find out Edit: Looks like it doesn't have any productivity factor. The mod uses Module Manager to apply the module regarding productivity to certain parts, so maybe I can modify it to include to Mk3 Passenger part. Either way, the Workshop has a Productivity factor of 5, and room for up to 10 kerbals. That's a lot of work done very quickly Also, I noticed Pilots don't contribute any productivity for some reason, while Engineers do. Not sure about Scientists. Also not sure if it's a bug, or intentional. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- The engineers realized, after building the latest city, that they had somehow damaged the VTOL rotors on the D-9 Constructor beyond repair. Unfortunately, as they are a very integral system, a whole new D-9 was needed. A D-4 Skimmer was dispatched to the derelict D-9, and the crew transferred. The last one out of the D-9 shut down the propellers, closed the bay, shut off the lights, and wrote "CONDEMNED" in large friendly letters on the side of the cockpit. The engineers were taken back to KSC3, where they will help build the new D-9, and then continue the quest of colonization. -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- // // // // Thus concludes the "regular" Sandbox story so far. I might add more, but I'm honestly starting to run a little low on inspiration... plus I've been working on programming lately, and haven't had as much time. // // Anywho, what follow is the "hardcore" attempt at Duna Colonization. No reverts, no quicksaves. Just pure KSP chaos. // // // -------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================= -------------------------------------------------------------- STORY TIME! Today (yesterday, rather), I began a new Sandbox, with some different rules than usual. In this case: no revert, no quickload. The purpose was to begin a new Duna Colony, this time without any room for mistakes. If something breaks, it's broken. If we crash, we crash. Started by putting the ship in orbit (unmanned to begin with, as I didn't want a single accident to wipe out my favorite Kerbals). This is the Proliferater Mk-1, with its airbrake module (that makes it look a little like a pineapple), nuclear tug, and heatshield (and another pic of it in SPH). (I've also realized it looks like a nasal saline spray bottle... sorta ) Once it was safely in low orbit, we sent up a small shuttle to ferry the crew. There would be 8 kerbals total: the Big Four, plus four additional Engineers to help with construction. As the shuttle approached, Bill hopped out to link it up to the Proliferater. Once the crew was tranferred, he unhooked it and pushed it into a sub-orbital trajectory, away from the station. With the help of KER and KAC, I was able to get a Duna rendezvous pretty easily. One long burn on the LV-Ns took us out of Kerbin's SOI, and another carefully planned burn put us on a collision course. The Kerbals went into hibernation as the ship made it's year-long journey. Once in Duna's SOI, they awoke and made preperations to enter a stable orbit. Since they still had a tremendous amount of fuel remaining, they opted to skip the aerobrake and perform a brute force manuever. Nearing the periapsis, Jeb fired up the LV-Ns and blasted retrograde, eventually bringing the apoapsis to about 80km. Another burn brought the periapsis to a similar figure. Soon, it was time to de-orbit. Jeb fired up the LV-Ns for one last hurrah, burning off as much speed as possible while trying to maintain a good landing zone. The fuel spent, we dropped the booster and let it fall. With no (known) life on Duna yet, we weren't too worried about it breaking apart. We deployed the airbrakes, letting them slow us down. Jeb realized we were falling quicker than he had hoped. The plan was to make the final pass as horizontal as possible, to allow plenty of time to burn off speed. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen. The ship was headed at a 45 degree slope into the ground. Bill scrambled to make sure all the chutes were set to deploy as early as possible. After what seemed like far too long, the Drogue chutes popped out. Soon after, the regular chutes popped as well. We were now only 1km above the surface, but still moving much, much too quick. Jeb wanted to brop the airbrake module to lighten the ship, but Bill argued that the drag induced by it cancels out the extra weight. Jeb didn't know enough about it to argue, so he let it stay in place. The next part to drop would be the heat shield, which was at the very bottom of the craft. They figured that dropping the heat shield might mean that the smelter would hit the surface and get damaged, while keeping the heat shield on would potentially cushion the landing, possibly breaking the shield, but preserving the smelter. Between the two, the smelter was vastly more vital to the mission, so they decided to keep the shield on. The decision paid off. The Proliferater slammed into the ground at about 20m/s, shattering the heat shield into thousands of pieces. The force of the impact, combined with the slope of the terrain, tilted the Proliferater to the point where it fell. Thankfully, the airbrakes were depolyed, and absorbed the brunt of the impact. One of them shattered; the rest stood solid. It was messy, but they had arrived. When he got out to inspect the vessel, Bill suddenly realized (with a laugh) that the ship looked like a skinny, albino pineapple. (Not gonna lie, my heart was pounding pretty hard during the landing... very intense ) Despite being on its side, the Proliferater was still ready to rock. First, though, they would need to get it upright. Bill looked through the on-board supplies (included for scenarios quite similar to this) and decided to rig up a winch several few meters uphill, in order to lever the base to it's feet. He drilled a piling into the ground, then welded a few I-beams on top of it. After adding a few anomolies to allow him to climb it, he attached the winch at the top, along with a contol chair to operate it with. He grabbed the head of the winch, dragged it to the Proliferater, and attached it about midpoint on the nearest face. He returned to the chair and attempted to pull it upright. No success! Instead of pulling the base upright, the winch only succeeded in pulling down the makeshift tower. Bill managed to leap off while it was falling, and sustained only a few minor bruises. Discouraged but not quite done yet, he pulled apart the remains of the tower and set about making a more stable version. He decided to use two seperate concrete blocks (drilled securely to the ground) with a pipe connecting them. He also made the main tower a little shorter, and attached a girder to the Proliferater itself. Lastly, he also unattached the airbrake module, allowing the vessel to be a bit lighter and easier to manuever. He hooked up the winch, began retracting, and successfully got it upright. We were back in business! Since the base was now upright, Bill dis-assembled the winch tower and stowed it away in the storage compartment. Then, he climbed back into the base to deploy the solar panels. With this done, they were finally able to deploy the drills and start producing rocket parts. Soon, they had enough to build their first add-on: an extra parts tank. With the addition of the tank, the Kerbals are able to build bigger. Pleased with the progress, Bill decided to clean up the site a little bit, including removing the spent parachutes from the hull of the vessel. While trying to unstick a particularly sticky chute on the very top, Bill slipped and dropped his wrech, which, despite weighing nearly nothing, managed to rip one of the solar panels to shreds. Dismayed, Bill picked up his wrench, and quietly went back inside. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the Kerbals had a meeting and decided to launch Bill off the planet. When Bill protested, they decided instead to build a small "solar farm," which would be hooked up to the Proliferater. With the situation once again stable, they were able to produce yet another, larger, parts tank. Once it was built, they realized they didn't really like where it was sitting, so they asked Bill to rig up another winch tower and drag it into a better position. Eager to re-prove his worth, Bill worked quickly and had the task finished in no time. Next up, they built another storage container for tools, and then filled it up with important tools and such. After that, Bill went to the top of the tower and set up a girder with a few lights attached to it, allowing for better night-time operations. With all the (mostly) essential bits in place, the crew moved on to their favorite project yet: personal housing. After spening well over a year cramped into little compartments and modules, they were very excited to have some personal space. Each Kerbal was able to customize their room to a certain extent. Far too late in the building process, they realized the housing complex was (somhow) sitting partially on top of one of the parts containers. After plenty of finger-pointing (and no one figuring out who was really to blame), Bill decided to rig up another winch tower, and dragged the whole complex a few meters off, allowing it some breathing room. After this, he re-arranged the larger parts container so that it would act as something of a windshield for the homes. After it was settled, they realized the second solar panel on the Proliferator had broken off. This would've been a big problem, but they already had the Solar Farm in place, and plenty of battery left. And that's as far as I've gotten so far! Thanks for reading

Awesome journey Congrats on making it!