GarrisonChisholm

Just remember, henceforward, if I *ever* like your posts, it is because I am hearing them in Ahnold's voice. :] (...unless you say something of divine brilliance or wit, in which case it is for that reason first, & *then* because I hear it in Arnold's voice)

My friend (dude!), you're calling that crap, but I actually *like* your usage of fairings! I have always felt married to capsule diameter, and so my orbiters always end up looking like Apollo, even if I don't need anywhere near that much fuel or engine. The next game I start, I think I will remember this look for my early attempts!

Kerbal physics are amazing. Their mass is a constant but their momentum fluctuates as a property of time and your desire for order... *nods sagely*

I can't tell you how delighted I am to find someone else as enthused about these prospects as I. I will always support art for art's sake, and while none of us can raise a candle to Nassault's work https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiO687O15nOAhUj_4MKHXWqBuUQtwIIKDAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEgIVnvunLuQ&usg=AFQjCNH6rbTp8bwfvIzzbauzooWzXdvqmw&bvm=bv.128617741,d.amc I appreciate your contribution indeed. - And yours is far better than I could manage!

I (and others I'm sure!) appreciate your enthusiastic support, but however "easy" it may be from the Developers side of things, it is not easy from the Modders side. I originally thought it would be as easy as identifying the sections which describe the limits of the different levels of biome altitude over Kerbol and to simply "drop in" new sections with their altitudes. Well, it alas is not that simple. Thanks to @Felbourn, we know what the section of code reads as, but where-as I wish it were as easy to do the below; public class CelestialBodyScienceParams { public float flyingAltitudeThreshold; public float FlyingHighDataValue; public float FlyingLowDataValue; public float InSpaceHighDataValue; public float InSpaceLowDataValue; PUBLIC FLOAT KUIPERBELTVALUE; PUBLIC FLOAT HELIOPAUSEVALUE; PUBLIC FLOAT INTERSTELLARSPACEVALUE; public float LandedDataValue; public float RecoveryValue; public float spaceAltitudeThreshold; public float SplashedDataValue; public CelestialBodyScienceParams(); } It alas is not. The Program itself does not know how to carve "additional spaces" above objects in space, at least so far as I have been given to understand it. I wish it were as easy as defining regions and dropping in distance values, but as of this moment I think we are awaiting a bolt of inspiration. :\

I agree, I have been pining for such a thing for since my first successful Mun landing caused me to look beyond, but it will require someone with an art or craft which I do not here possess. ...or to say the same without Tolkien trolling, I can be as eager as I'd like, but I know this task is beyond my skills. I can't *imagine* the prolonged diligence it has taken to create OPM, or many of the other fabulous mods that are out there. It will take either a moment of brilliance upon the part of a few, or the prolonged interest on the part of many to bring this to fruition. Maybe I can start by coming up with a Distant Solar Science badge, which folks could tag as silent support for the concept, whether the end result arises from my own particular fall of dominoes or another. I have thought about this as well, and this is almost necessary for the mod to be worthwhile, as if you are sending a multi-hundred year mission out (best case scenario), you would want to throw it as soon as reasonably possible so-as to have it bear fruit before your career became too stale. Also, I find that if I want the stock tech tree to last 40 years (as I feel is proper) I will need to make due with only 10% science awards, which would prolong overlong the acquisition of RTGs.

So, as a faintly interesting follow-up to these discussions, my first launch aimed at an extra-Kerbol target bore fruit, and I have a probe en-route with an actual intercept of Valentine, 9.5 trillion km distant! At 15.5 km/sec, Valentine SOI is only 50,000 years away. So! Let's see!; At x7 Warp PC manages 2 days/sec 1 Kerbin year in 213 seconds So, 50,000 years will only take... (math) ... about 4 months of PC time. -.- *looks up Better Time Warp, and vows to learn more from @Archgeek...*

Felbourn You gotta have more lights! Members 780 1090 posts Posted 17 hours ago · Report post This can be done but you'd need to create a special plugin for it. The game defaults to fixed altitudes for biomes: public class CelestialBodyScienceParams { public float flyingAltitudeThreshold; public float FlyingHighDataValue; public float FlyingLowDataValue; public float InSpaceHighDataValue; public float InSpaceLowDataValue; public float LandedDataValue; public float RecoveryValue; public float spaceAltitudeThreshold; public float SplashedDataValue; public CelestialBodyScienceParams(); } A fantastic insight- thank you Felbourn!! Maybe this will be our key, and someone more learned than I can put it to use.

Wow, thank you for this insight! I hope this provides someone the key to unlocking an additional 2 high-space biomes for Kerbol!!

Last night my first probe arrived at Neidon, and with only ~120 m/sec on board for maneuvering it was a fly-by only. I originally had a close 600km route planned, but on entering its SOI I played with numbers and found I could manage a fly-by of Thatmo. I decided that was of higher investigative value, and so trimmed the sails. Furthermore, since I only have one Materials Bay, why not dip slightly into Thatmo's thin atmosphere? The gang back at mission control would love those readings, even if the trajectory crew started sweating in their seats; but a measly 400 meters couldn't hurt, right? So, we approach the que-ball white gleam that is Thatmo, sending back high altitude science. The approach continues, with- what's this? Only 20 minutes to periapse? My, but 4.5 km/sec really is cooking-along, eh? So! We approach, interface, Yea sci- wait it's red Heat Indicators <boom!>. The probe rises back out of the atmosphere, its precious high altitude atmospheric science safely on board! So, what exploded? Why... ...only the, RTG. ...and the antenna. So, the probe dutifully completes its programmed rotation (yes, I do this), coming out of occultation and pointing at Kerbin, ...never to be heard from again, its batteries slowly draining away to nothing as it heads towards interstellar space. Alas!

You know, I have to say that if I could buy yours or Cat's episodes as a comic in the store with glossy pictures, I'd gladly pay $5 a pop. I love the conversation getting inside the workings of the program, and the rationale for certain missions and decisions. Bravo! You know though, it would be cool to see your mutual level of detail invoked every now and then in a build, going through things in the VAB and evaluating pros-and-cons of different design decisions. That kind of revealed, internal discussion would be cool. ^.^ Or to have your "spies" evaluate a design of the other party... (apologies for being away so long and failing to support your creative efforts!)

...after he cools down enough to transport & discipline...

How did that not tip over?... O.O

This is Exactly the way I have played, and for the same reasons. Also fortunately, my glitches are rare enough (1 per 8 years of game time roughly) that a probe blowing up just by switching to it is just a "mission fatal anomaly". And when I am too lazy to "simulate a new launch", and it fails to make orbit for a stupid reason, its on me. And when I am in the middle of a long nuke-engine burn and Mission Control falls asleep? ...well, mission control has a "process review", and we watch that probe go wizzing by Sarnus beyond imaging range. - and I Certainly don't then admit such a thing on the Forums, gracious me...

I tend to simply bear the cost of expensive Kerbalnauts. I can rescue, and proved that I could (how could I not rescue such cool names as Ordred and Mind, plus my daughter's name Nina?), but I tend to not do that because I can't justify the exercise in my world-canon. So, all these private companies are just endlessly and recklessly hucking poor souls into LKO? On a weekly basis? Unsuccessfully, and fearlessly? Where do they come from? What happens to the successful launches? Why do they do it? I just can't get my brain around it to accept it, so I ignore them. I'd remove Rescue contracts entirely if I could. I bet there's a way how, but I'm sure I'd screw it up.

...This disappoints Zur Proletariat. Here you have magnificent opportunity to prove Ussari superiority, and instead you invoke witchcraft to alter reality. tsk-tsk. ( ... use retro rocket insanity. defeat Eve! )

I use KAC, but never thought of using it *this* way. So, if the "stage" burn is 90 minutes, I'd have to figure out how long it takes my PC to run 90 minutes (at X3 Physics warp (x4 makes badness happen), best guess would be 2 hours for a 90 minute burn), then I could not pay attention for a while. Ok, I'll give that a try. And, you know I think I was. I matched planes, then tried to push the Ap of my orbit to the target's asc/decending node, which I guess is technially a transfer. The way I ended up getting my intercept was (after an hour of faffing) "guessing" where End would be, and then just increasing my acceleration vector to draw it nearer, which I think is the second way you mentioned. Then, getting my "accidental" intercept, I micro-massaged it to "full speed" on the current stage. Next time I try this I'll do it your way, by just throwing out a high speed pass and then drawing the node retrograde to get the intercept. :] That of course implies a high degree of confidence in where the target will be, and I find that far distant targets don't always support orbit elipses.

Well, I attempted my first high-speed ion craft, but I ended up saving all the ion power for deceleration at journey's end because it was so difficult! I sent a probe with 25k+ dV of ion power to GregroxMun's END, orbiting at 3.5 billion km. Using the Kerbin Escape stage and the nuclear Boost Stage I got its speed up to a meager 16.5km sec, but due to the difficulty of the intercept elected to be satisfied with a 31 year intercept, and I'll just try to go into orbit rather than only fly-by. The effort has informed me of a couple difficulties however. Firstly, my design (contrary to yours) was horizontally staged, and I encountered a gross oscillation at anything beyond low thrust with the Escape stage. Secondly, ... is the time. I can talk about wanting a 100,000 m/sec probe, but that is a Lot of hobby time spent watching fuel tanks empty for accurate staging purposes. I only burned a nuke last night and I spent over 3 hours on 2 burns- amounting to only about 3km/sec, as more than half the dV in my nuke stage was directed in a Normal or Radial direction so-as to maintain my velocity on my correct intercept. Lastly, If I successfully plot an intercept of Valentine, as 9.5 Trillion km, "node-massaging" the intercept to maintain the contact but add velocity would be Hellacious! "30m/sec Prograde, now 40m/sec Radial, now another 30 Pro- oops too far,..." ...there are a lot more issues than "just" engineering in this endeavor!

All good! It works. But *man* is that a hard solution. It took me about an hour, but I (accidently) stumbled across an intercept and I felt like by lure had just bobbed! With much caressing, I now have (in my OPM system) a 31 year intercept at ~ 16.5km/sec, and down to only 3,000km Peri! ...well, *i* am tickled anyway. Thank you *very* much for making this Gregrox!

I didn't find one. I thought the memory and threading improvements might be my ticket to Manley cinematic quality, but 1.1.2 was about twice as slow as 1.0.2, so I had to get ride of Eve/Scatterer. I don't believe there are any "smart" fixes for this issue; if we want YouTuber quality planets, I think we'll just need beefier machines. "Dear Santa..."

Well, I've shed a lot of mental blood and tears over it, so am perhaps overly sensitive. I will leave the matter be, and quite gracious of you for offering an apology which, in retrospect, I feel embarrassed to accept. Suffice to say, I look forward to wheel improvements in future releases.

I'm sorry, but this absolutely makes me upset. I designed Beautiful (to me), cool, capable aircraft before 1.1, and after 1.1 they veer and crash as soon as they exceed 35m/sec. I have had solid, well intentioned coaching from experts on these forums (which I will not quote at the moment because I feel it would be unfair to drag them into a dispute), and the Only way my aircraft leave the runway is mounting sounding rockets at a 45 degree angle to the fuselage to lift them clear of the runway before the nose starts to veer. Well designed planes do Not automatically work in 1.1 +. For the record, I feel it is unfortunate, but I have found plenty of ways to enjoy the game as-is; I am not "upset" at Squad, I am miffed in the implication that if the craft does not fly it is not well designed.

Huh, ... my office operates this way...

I will agree with this by adding that if Squad turned out the lights tonight I would still be playing this game 10 years on. When I think back to what I wanted to be able to do in a game 20 years ago, this creation is nigh Providential.