TheSoundOfTrees

After spending a few weeks trying to make KSP work again on my Linux running machine, I have to vent a little I was very excited when 1.1 downloaded. I had begun playing KSP again, after a few months doing other things. I knew I'd have to start over my Science campaign, and have to do it without mods for sometimes, but, well, it wasn't a problem. Update means better game, new interesting things to discover, and so on. Since then I haven't been playing. Too busy trying to make things work. I finally managed to have the game launch, and to have Kerbin stay visible, even if everything looks absolutely awful, textures are ugly as hell and objects big bloats of pixelly soup. I haven't tested anything else much - I can't bear the ugliness, especially compared to how beautiful it was a few weeks ago. I know, it's not very important, but it is for me. I won't be angry at the team, though. I know how difficult it is - I've been a game developer too. I think it would have been better to not release this update now, though. There are too many obvious problems, too many things were not ready. I know, there may be economical considerations - and in game making, money is often the "final boss". I am disappointed. I would have been happy to know before hand that the linux version was botched. I would have taken measures to keep everything clean from updates, and waited for an improved/debugged version. Like I am happy to wait for new versions of mods. Yes, I know , I should have backed up everything anyway. Maybe, albeit my canonical age, I am still too naive and trust too much developers. I have to learn what old KSP players learned before me : wait before updating Any way. I wish you a good rest. Don't rush things. Take the time you need to be effective, and then go back to work, don't rush things, and slowly make everything better. We will wait - that's how much we like KSP, when it is working. For me, I don't know if I will have the courage to roll back to the old KSP and start again or if I'll wait six more months before reconquering space (though crashing and not working as planned are very Kerbal things, aren't they ?) So don't worry, KSP team, you won't have any hate from me. Time for me to go back and seek solutions to the botched linux update... Just, before leaving : I'd like to thank all the great members of the community whose advices and discoveries helped me make the game work a little better. I'll build a settlement somewhere in your honour - when it will work .

I am just a new player, and play Science. My personal goal is to explore, i.e gain every science point I can find in the Kerbol system - or do things I think are "interesting" even if they give me nothing. So I create missions either with these direct goals, or for testing how to reach them - with an occasional engineering challenge. All this with the soft limitation that I always try to reach my goals without buying new tech, only spending my science points when I can't find a way to do it with what I have or become bored with trying. In other words, the tech tree is not a goal for me, but a tool. And I plan to add a whole bunch of new science or engineering mods to my game to give me more things to try to accomplish. "Try" because I fail a lot. I am currently thinking about building a research base on Kerbin's poles : totally useless. But trying to build a cargo plane will keep me occupied for some times

It was my B plan - I am even worse at piloting EVAs, last time Val nearly ended on her own orbit. And I didn't remember if the propellant was "in" the suit, or taken from the capsule reserves. I'll remember this next time, thanks for the tip.

I am neither a good engineer, nor a good pilot. But I am Zen. Today, while my Minmus mapping satellite was slowly reaching (1 day left ) his target, I decided to clean a few debris for the first time. It took me a few (read : lot) of try launches before I was able to build a rocket that would put the grabber module in orbit. Then it took a few (cf above) tries to manage to finally find a way to grab the first debris. Another was not very far away, and I had a free claw, so I went on my merry new encounter orbit. It's only when I was at 1 km from the target that I discovered that I had no electricity left, and the RCS tanks where empty. So, Jeb is in orbit. He has enough fuel to re-enter - but no way to orient the ship. A small thrust caused the ship to rotate wildly. I then began doing little "pushes" each time the retrograde marker appeared on the navball while I approached the apoapsis. Causing the rotation increase more and more. Finally all I managed was to get the periapsis down to 69.5 km. Three orbits and few more pushes later, Jeb and the ship are recovered, intact, with my first captured space debris. The minmus observer is still one hour from maneuver. There will be cake and apple juice at the space center tonight. Tomorrow will be "back to the drawing board" day.

Any of their music will do, but this one is very launchy. https://youtu.be/8P-j4zpCWTA

Well, last attempt at the docking tutorial was successful. Very long, but it worked. Funny thing is that, as with the mun tutorials, I only succeeded when I stopped following the tutorial and did things my way. Now, to build a grabber for cleaning all the debris as training, then put a permanent lab in orbit, then launch the Mun lab, then use the science I'll get to build a rover, then explore, then ...!

I haven't landed on the Mun yet. I want to learn to dock first. And, by Jebediah's NavBall, this training tutorial is driving me crazy. I give myself two more days before giving up with the tuto and, like I did with the mun tutorials, just do things my own way and prey for success... If it doesn't work, MechJeb will

I use MechJeb often. I also fly-by-hand a lot, but I prefer, most of the time, the precision of MechJeb. I use Kerbal Engineer all the time. I prefer to play, for now, in Science Mode, and only buy new science when I think I've done all I could with the one I have. Anyway, my goal while playing is to find the appropriate way to accomplish the missions I set myself too, and my take on it is more strategy than "simulator". It may be easy mode - but it's what I want from KSP. My (chosen) job is planning mission, and finding the best experts to help me : Jeb's job is flying the ship. Bob's job is telling me the science I need to know, and Bill is there to take care of the engineering. If I have the right mods

New player too. For me, KSP interests me for two things : first , it's SPACE - not Sci-Fi space, but our space, or near enough. Second, it satisfies my "open strategic planning" tastes : I can imagine a project - and then build it, stage it, accomplish it or fail to. I have no fondness for piloting. I am not especially interested in engineering. What I like is to choose the obstacles I want and then find a way to surmount them. I am very new to the game, but already know that I WILL install a lot of "diffculty mods" like life support and remote tech - just because I'll have to plan around them to reach my goals. I already have ScanSat because it gives me a good reason to launch satellites everywhere. That's what I seek in video games nowadays, and why I also play Dwarf Fortress, for instance. Though KSP took DF's place on the "can't stop playing" list. Edit : as for who I am. Currently jobless. Former psychology student and game designer.

I had two "incidents". Today : while trying to place a satellite in polar orbit, it suddenly exploded with no heat warning while getting out of time warp (250 km altitude). Damage report said that all the parts of the ship overheated. Launched the same ship, put it in orbit without using any warp, and watched it for a full orbit : according to Kerbal Engineer, no part went above 360°K. (Precision, see below : there was no service bay on this satellite) Last Week : I was using a subsonic plane, built with part from the 3 first levels of the tree, to convoy a capsule+science experiment and drop it in hard to reach biomes. I quicksaved before the drop. The ship was at 200 m/s or something like that, 5000m altitude. The drop was a failure, so I reloaded : just after the reload, all the the temperature gauges of the experiments in the capsule's service bay appear and begin to fill. Two seconds later, they explode. Reload : same thing. I immediately open the service bay, and wait. Explosion. Reload : same thing, but I open and immediately close the service bay : the gauges disappear, there is no explosion, I can finish the mission. Alas, I did not keep the save. I have tried to reproduce the two incidents, with no luck. I'll try to keep a save, next time. I suggest it may be a glitch in the calculations used for heat going from one part to another (is convection the word ?) when fast-computing heat at the end of a warp / a save load. I am too young to have known the Kraken, but it seems I have met his cousin the Dragon By the way : linux, x64, steam but launched from the directory.

Depends. Is it some new design or objective that needs testing, with high risks of explosions, death or non recoverable crew ? Or answer a scientific question like : what happens if I go on EVA while re-entering ? Then Jeb ! And Valentina takes command of tested, but difficult and important missions - the ones that need a competent commander who does not seek unnecessary risks.

Thanks, Claw !

Put my first satellite in orbit around Mun, a Scan Sat. It was my first trip outside of Kerbin's SOI, and a very stressful experience. Also, I used the long time of the trip to de-orbit a few debris with fuel left - explosions reduce my stress level.

I am a beginner too, here are my "helps to play" mods recommendations : I use [x] Science : it lists experiments you already did or not, lists everything you can experiment on with your ship right now, etc. No alerts, no automation, exactly what I was looking for. Kerbal Engineer is very, very useful when building, and the two HUDs give you a lot of useful informations. Keeping an eye on your orbits parameters when in flight view is incredibly useful. I have Mechjeb, but didn't test any of the planning features yet. But I did not try to reach the Mun yet. My other mods are either of the "enhancements for visuals/audio" kind, or of the "moar things to do" kind (ScanSat, for instance).

Half -rant begins : I did a few very basic low tech "up to low space, drop everything, science and back" today ( design : third booster, second fuel engine with second tank). 90% of the time the capsule + science crash on landing. I spent the day trying different orientations of the capsule (no fuel left) on reentry to try and slow it enough for having a chance to deploy the chutes before the crash... Any mistake in orientation and bye bye... I am patient. I love to experiment. But if I had wanted to deal with deadly re-entries, especially with basic rockets, I would have installed the mod... I am a beginner. In 1.0.2, launching a rocket and getting it back was not difficult : the difficulty was in having it do exactly what you wanted it to do. Now, the main difficulty seems to be the last minutes of the flight. I tested 1.0.2 for a few weeks before buying the game last week - I should have waited until I could test 1.0.4. I would suggest to make the parachutes more solid and resist up to 350 m/s. For beginners' sake. End of rant. Back to trying to land in one piece.

I am quite new to the game. For me, this patch just means that I have to restart my Science save and re-learn how things work now : more dangerous re-entry and descents even for basic level 1 rockets, different behaviour in the atmosphere ( for instance, one of my very basic rockets, who before always deviated a little to the west, now deviates a LOT to the east : free gravity turn ) , formerly safe designs becoming unsafe... I am not complaining : I like testing basic rockets, or I would not be playing Science. But other players may find this a little hard, especially just after a big sale. I wonder how my "homemade landing pad and science lab protector" will do now. Back to testing.

After more tests, it seems it is an issue with Steam : if I launch the game from the directory, the game doesn't crash when I select a parachute in VAB.

Relevant parts seem to be (I'll upload the files somewhere if needed) : player.log : NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object at ModuleParachute.SetConvectiveStats () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 at ModuleParachute.FixedUpdate () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 (Filename: Line: -1) in KSP.log, same thing except with less information. There is also the following in player.log, just after switching to the VAB : The referenced script on this Behaviour is missing! (Filename: Line: 1771) Not sure if it helps - will post links as soon as I understand how to upload and do it the player.log file

Probably related : Linux, Steam version. Selecting a parachute (any kind) in the VAB parts causes immediate crash to desktop (no crash.log generated, it seems)