Hotaru

Right now I have: KSP 072 (just for fun) KSP 090 (my old main install from 0.90) KSP 090 Alt (different set of mods) KSP 090 Linux (experimented with for a while, ended up using 64-bit Windows workaround instead for performance reasons) KSP 102 x64 (mostly stock parts but a lot of other mods; my current career mode is in this one) KSP 104 x64 (where I go to play sandbox and try out part mods waiting for 1.1) KSP 104 x64 64K (same as above but with 64K installed) And a stock install in OS X as well, which I don't use much. Will probably end up making more duplicates with different mod configurations once 1.1 comes out.

FRAPS. That gif has been converted from .avi to .mp4, then trimmed to length (original included 2+ minutes of the capsule rolling around), then converted to .gif online, then scaled down in GIMP, then uploaded to Imgur which did something to it, hence the cheesy quality. Could probably have made it less purple but didn't feel like messing about in GIMP all night. It actually looked pretty good to start with, but on the other hand it's down from 1.13 GB to 14.4 MB.

Working on career mode again. Added another set of modules to the Kerbin fuel depot. (This is the part where I wish I was playing with larger part mods. Even the big Kerbodyne tanks aren't really big enough.) In addition to the depot and an Aqualung tanker, the fourth LFO module is in the background still attached to its reusable booster, and the rocket that launched the third module is visible in the distance as well, waiting to be deorbited. Launched Jebediah, Natazie, and Hercas aboard the Pequod into an 81-degree inclination on my first mission to an asteroid. Approaching the asteroid (a class-C), which had conveniently already been captured into Kerbin orbit, presumably by a fortuitous Mun or Minmus encounter. It was supposed to harpoon the asteroid (hence the name) but the harpoons didn't fire properly, so Hercas, the engineer, had to go outside and bolt the asteroid to the ship with KAS pipes. The idea was to avoid using the (notoriously glitchy) claw, but it ended up being a lot of extra trouble, so I'll probably refit the Pequod with a claw for its next mission. The asteroid was sucessfully maneuvered into a 100-kilometer equatorial orbit, although since the Pequod already stripped it of ore it's not much use there. It's down to about 6 tons so I may send up a deorbit stage and try to land it.

Cool! I like the idea of the series and of a mythology to explain the alternate system. I was glad I read the story first and then went back and read your explanation, so I got to guess at what "it" was and that the rearrangement of the system was referring to something like New Horizons or Alternis Kerbol (both of which I really ought to try out one of these days). I did wonder who the "harvesters" were (I mean, I got the reference but I wondered who they were "in-universe") and why the first appearance of the Kerbals took the form of something like a meteor, asteroid, or a reentering spacecraft. I hope you do find the time to make the series, I look forward to reading it if/when you do!

Well, bear in mind that that was a direct-ascent mission, and not a very efficient one at that--the lander had so much excess delta-v, the original mission plan was for it to land on both the Mun and Minmus before returning to Kerbin for a rendezvous with a space station (the lander was never intended to land back on Kerbin, it was meant to be refueled and reused--hence no parachute or heat shield). The result was a rocket about the size of a real-life Saturn V (90 meters tall, 5000 tons on the pad, 100 tons to LKO). An Apollo-style munar orbit rendezvous mission could probably put two Kerbals on the Mun in 64K with a rocket about half that size, not a problem with 5m modded parts (i.e. KW) and still perfectly doable with stock parts if you don't mind a high part count.

Put my first Kerbals on the Mun in 64K! The launch vehicle (found a good use for those SpaceY 7.5-meter Emu engines). Surprisingly, it worked very smoothly and put the 100-ton lander in a 170x170km orbit on the first try. Direct ascent, single-stage, three-Kerbal nuclear lander--none of this "munar orbit rendezvous" or "efficient design" silliness. TWR is about 0.5 on Kerbin but a reasonably comfortable 3 on the Mun, and it has about 12,000 m/sec of delta-v. No reaction wheels--I'm trying to get out of the habit of relying on them constantly. Attitude control is via RCS and (while under power) gimballing the main engine only. It's pretty sluggish but it does work. (Most of the time.) Valentina, Hayna, and Hayenna--about to become the first Kerbals on the 64K Mun! Is this a bad time to mention that every single one of Val's missions in this save has ended in an abort? Success! I didn't say anything about getting them BACK from the Mun, did I?

Trying to orbit my first space station in 64K. Science-Dragon I: payload fairing failure. Science-Dragon II: Staging failure. Science-Dragon III: Same staging failure as Science-Dragon II. Science-Dragon IV made orbit and received its first crew (on the second attempt, after a launch abort due to another staging failure). Most of the problems have actually been more the result of my attempts to automate the staging sequence than anything to do with 64K. Still, glad this isn't career mode.

After repeated attempts, managed to orbit a space station in 64K and send up its first two-Kerbal crew.

I don't think cyclers are meant to save delta-v per se, it's more like they allow you to have a big, comfortable ship for the interplanetary transfer while only having to launch a small shuttle craft to get to it--which translates to a smaller launch vehicle, less on-orbit assembly, etc. per transfer, once the cycler is set up. Also, cool video! I did not fall asleep.

I like the looks of it! Will install & maybe give it a visit over the weekend. Does it have an oxygen (i. e. jet-friendly) atmosphere?

I tend to put a pair (or several pairs) on each booster, near the top on either side, angled outward (and sometimes forward) so as not to strike the core--like this: I used to put them on the nose cone facing up, but they did tend to damage the core that way; saw this alternate arrangement on the forums somewhere. Works very smoothly and no chance of heating/damage to the core.

Continuing to try out 64K. After a second successful orbital flight, Dragon's Dove IV sends Higela Kerman on a circum-Munar free-return trajectory. Booster separation (surprised how smoothly it worked first try). Really liking how 64K launch vehicles actually look big enough to do the things they're supposed to be doing. This thing had two core stages, two sets of asparagus boosters, plus the service module and retro-rockets. 258 tons, 30 meters high, 115,000 space bucks, and all it did was send one Kerbal on a free-return (and it just barely had enough delta-v to do that). Higela Kerman--[my] first Kerbal to see the far side of the 64K Mun! Also the first to reenter at 8 km/sec (which, to my surprise, went smoothly). After a couple of test flights of varying degrees of success, Silent Pioneer III and Silent Pioneer V completed my first rendezvous and docking (IV was a pad abort). It's actually a bit easier in 64K because the orbit is larger, so there's less drift. Also tried using a new docking technique: Persistent Rotation keeping one ship aligned prograde and the other retrograde (instead of MechJeb/SAS having each target the other). Worked great. Didn't feel like setting up a proper satellite network so I sent up this Kessler bomb comsat constellation. 8 grapefruit comsats on one launch vehicle--the idea is they'll eventually drift apart into separate orbits, providing pretty good coverage.

My understanding is that physics-delta per frame causes the game to prefer to run in slow motion, smoothly, rather than in real-time but at poor frame rate. I believe what italters is the ratio between physics frames (the game calculating what's actually going on) and graphics frames (the game drawing it to the screen). When working in Unity physics calculations often have to be multiplied by something called time.deltaTime, which synchronizes them to the frame rate--so your physics-governed bullet is launched at 500 meters per second instead of 500 meters per frame. What I see in practice in KSP is that if I increase max physics-delta, the game runs faster and choppier--which doesn't affect the performance of craft but does make Kraken attacks much more likely.

...

Experimenting with mods in 1.0.4, made my first orbit in 64K! A first try with Val came up short (trajectory was too low, aborted at about 3,000 m/s and 70 km), so Dragon's Dove II was launched with Jeb aboard for a second attempt. "Godspeed, Jebediah Kerman!" Boosters gone. Second stage is cryogenic to save some weight. Third stage/service module. Orbit achieved! 170x170 km with about 50 m/s left in the service module, plus 100 in the retro-rockets. Retro fire. (The retro-rockets double as a launch escape system, hence the lack of an escape tower. The same system was in fact used to abort the previous launch.) Reentry at 6 km/sec. Splashdown. The extra force from jettisoning the service module caused the landing to be about 100 km long, but other than that a successful mission! It was a very satisfying flight, I haven't been so pleased with myself just for making orbit since the demo. Giving some serious thought to trying a 64K career mode once I've finished tying up the loose ends in my old 1.0.2 save.

Me, I like the model just fine but I have to agree with others about the color. I don't dislike it (actually I think it looks kind of cool) but it doesn't fit well with other stock parts, including the other new antennas. It's actually not the dark gray that bothers me so much as the red trim, there aren't any other stock parts that look like that. I'd say black or white trim would make it fit a bit better, or just make the whole thing white/light gray like the others. A little off-topic, but one thing I'd really love to see, honestly, is a rework of the Communotron 88-88 (the big folding one), I've never liked the look of that one. I'd love to see a more realistic depiction of a TDRS or Galileo type folding dish, folding into a tube about the same length as the dish's radius rather than semi-magically contracting into a tiny little box. (That might actually be a good mod project to have a try at making myself, come to think of it. Wouldn't take too long.)

With the Minmus mining operation now supplying fuel to LKO, shuttle Belatrix deployed an asteroid scanner in LKO, then went to the Mun to rescue a stranded Kerbonaut, who turned out to be stranded in... ...a probe core. Not sure how that happened, but the core and the Kerbal were bolted into the payload bay and safely recovered. In the meantime, after an initial setback, the new Super Aqualung tanker ship was successfully launched. Booster separation went entirely to plan... ...but it made orbit anyway and rendezvoused with the refueling depot in LKO on the way to Minmus.

Results of my first attempt to send up the prototype Super Aqualung heavy tanker. It even managed to get the SPH!

KSP is one of only about a half-dozen games that I really feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of. (Skyrim, X-Plane, Mass Effect, X-COM, and--though it pains me to admit it--GTA IV being a few of the others.) I actually ended up paying for it twice, once on Steam and once not, which I'd never have dreamed of doing for a game from a major developer, but even at $80 that's still a great value in terms of the amount of hours I've put into the game. I'm still annoyed about the 1.0 business (be fair, KSP 1.0 was a lot closer to "finished" than Skyrim 1.0! Or even Skyrim now, really.) and I'm not crazy the fact that the game requires mods to make it enjoyable--there are two or three without which I get bored/frustrated almost immediately--but all things considered KSP is one of the best entertainment purchases I've ever made. Between that and the fact that it comes from a small developer--I'll cut Squad a lot more slack than I'd cut Rockstar, BioWare, or Bethesda--it wouldn't occur to me to complain I paid too much for it.

So here's my question: has anybody had a save with predominantly or exclusively male rescuees?

I agree with the suggestion of Kerbal Construction Time, in fact I use it with the build-time multiplier set to 5 or 10 so new large ships frequently take the better part of a year to construct. The result is a lot of warping at KSC waiting for the next ship to be ready, transfer windows coming up more often (in real-time terms), and a space program that has better pacing and a more realistic, historical feel to it (no more landing on the Mun within a week of the first flight). My current career save is in its seventh Kerbin year, so even the slowest transfer windows (Eve and Duna) have come and gone several times.

That went well.

Still working on my 1.0.2 career, thinking I'll hold out for 1.1 before I start over at this point. Finally making my first try at ISRU on Minmus. I don't really need a refinery there, it's more of a pilot program to test out the technology for use on other planets. Three launches--drilling rig/refinery, reusable landing stage, and Aqualung tanker doubling as a transfer stage--put the ship in orbit with a fourth bringing up the two-Kerbal crew. Eight days later, the stack arrives at Minmus for a rendezvous with Bass Station, only to find that Bass Station has completely and utterly vanished. No debris, no nothing, just gone. (Theories among the scientists back at KSC include the station falling into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, being nudged into an impact trajectory by a space Kraken, and never having been there in the first place due to a time-travel paradox.) Whatever the reason, the two scientists stationed there, Julina and Sidrie, were the first casualties since the start of the space program. Anyway, the ship (which somehow never got a name) separated from the Aqualung and the landing stage carried it down to the surface... ...where a problem was uncovered. In one possible future the whole thing tipped over and exploded when the drills deployed, but that save got corrupted (while I was halfway through using KAS to piece together a self-rescue vehicle from the debris, no less) so I unintentionally got a second chance. Sheprod, the pilot, managed to use SAS to balance the ship on its drills while Madra, the engineer, went outside to re-engineer the landing gear. With the problem corrected, the rig is now operational, awaiting the arrival of the first tanker ship from Kerbin. More importantly, the technology has been proven and plans are being made to send similar rigs to Ike and the Jool system.