starcaptain
-
Posts
149 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Developer Articles
KSP2 Release Notes
Bug Reports
Posts posted by starcaptain
-
-
Utility Helmets
Kerbal Helmets get the option to turn into ropes for attaching parts when on EVA. Rope latches to back of Kerbal's skull.
-
I followed them but they haven't made any new posts yet.
-
Trains have had plenty of kerbalisms before aircraft and rockets. I imagine every technology had its own ridiculous 'adolescent' phase, when practical solutions were extracted from the weeds of unweildly optimizations and impractical extremes.
In the 1940s, the Pennsylvania Railroad built the class S2, one of the more famous examples of steam turbine locomotives. It was powerful and fast, but only at its designed optimal speed. When starting or stopping it had unacceptably poor fuel efficiency. It also required a second turbine to reverse, that when not in use was just dead weight.
Or the AA-20 Andreev, the Soviet "improvement" on the successful Union Pacific -9000 family. Its driver set (14 wheels in all) was so long that it would destroy track couplings when it drove over them. So they ground off the flanges of the first and last axles (turning them into zero-force wheels on sharp turns). Its firebox was too small to heat the gigantic boiler, making it practically useless for its long-haul coal route. It was shown off at an expo in Moscow in 1935 then quietly put in a shed. It was finally scrapped in 1960.
Or if you want more driving wheels, you could go for the Virginian Triplex.
-
When it comes to the cosmetic appearance of things like vessels and bases, I think we're in store for more of the "making it up as you go from existing standardized parts" than it will be having some kind of custom shape and color editors. The game is primarily a physics sandbox, not a free-form modeller. Adding the cosmetic editing changes the scope of the whole editing side of the game dramatically.
Nate Simpson's said before that they want the game robust for modding, so I imagine cosmetics is going to be the bread and butter of many mods. Making your vessels like they belong in
- Lego Blacktron
- Spaceballs
- The Expanse
- Homeworld
- Iria: Zeifram
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Lazytown
etc. will most likely be the work of people with a hobby in mind and lots of free time, rather than things specifically enabled via paid staff.
-
God almighty this is the best thing that's happened to my sense of hype since KSP 0.13 included fun!
Immediate questions:
- Floats? / Flying boat hulls? (with respective costs to fuel economy, weight and boons to structure strength/armor)
-
I will want to build the following aircraft, please accommodate my whims:
- Dornier Do-X
- Savoia S.66
- The Tiger Moth from Laputa
- Flapters from Laputa
- Mehve from Nausicaa
- A functioning general computer when the inevitable logic gates analogue gets included (no matter what you call it - robotics update, honey blocks, wiregun, etc) - that also flies
- A washing machine so that Jim Lovell could land it
- P-1112 Aigaion flying carrier
-
I calculated that the average time between videos is 43 days. By this average, the next video could be extrapolated to be released on February 2nd.
-
Doped Magnetohydrodynamic Drive
Magneto-Hydrodynamic Drives (MHDs) are like magnetic rail guns except they use water as the conducting medium instead of a metal bullet, and the barrel thus becomes a thruster with no moving parts. The drawback is that water (even saltwater) is a rubbish conductor compared to metal, so their energy efficiency is terribad. Short of only making boats in lakes of mercury, something needs to improve the conductivity of the liquid to increase their thrust.
My idea is to dope the liquid stream of water with, say, iron particles, or magnesium. Iron and magnesium are great conductors. They would easily get pulled along the MHD thruster tube, and agitate the water as they travelled. The water would get pulled along with much greater efficiency and speed, increasing the thrust. I'm sure large shipping companies would be interested in energy-efficient and reliable power plants to replace the aging container fleets of the world.
The downsides would be the question of how to disperse adequate amounts of metal powder ahead of the thruster, and how to collect it from the thrust stream after it's been used. My first thought is permanent magnets, but those would get clogged quickly and need to be cleaned somehow. And a magnet-cleaner + powder spreader system might be more mechanically complex than the trouble is worth. I don't know.
Also, I suggest iron and magnesium because these elements are already very present in oceans as it is. So it wouldn't be a big deal if some of the powder escapes the propulsion system.
Self-Cleaning Carpet
Wouldn't that be awesome?
-
5 hours ago, kerbiloid said:
And opacity.
Nepal wants to into space.
-
2 hours ago, Brikoleur said:
I'm in the "no" camp. It's a qualified "no" though, this could work as an element in a more involved simulation. In isolation though it just adds micromanagement and busywork; I can't see how it would be fun.
As mentioned before, i think the best option would basically be other game modes via mods.
Tank modes, race modes, cooperative team deathmatch orbital volleyball modes, comet chess, etc
-
15 hours ago, K^2 said:
You know? If multiplayer is sufficiently robust, that could be a fun mod.
I know there's no real point, but it could be good for a few laughs.
Jeb was not the impostor. The vessel no longer has a pilot.
There is 1 impostor remaining.
-
Kerbals play Among Us when they're bored.
-
3 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:
. At UBC I was too busy enjoying the social life I never had before to get enough sleep to focus on class.
Cheers bruv, i went to BCIT School of Energy.
-
1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said:
Larf. Seriously though, engineers flexing on other disciplines is not a very forward-thinking attitude. Especially considering engineering is an inherently highly creative field that does well to enjoy and employ the boons from other bodies of knowledge, discovery and invention. And after all, all engineers are like pirates, when they're in school.
SpoilerThey all sail the high C's.
-
Name all the tasks in KSP... and your last location.
-
1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:
No, but getting a Ph.D. in history can be about as useful a a Ph.D. in basket weaving or underwater fire building...
Get yourself hired as a researcher and writer for one of those YouTube channels that takes history and condenses it into humorously animated 5 minute shorts.
Or maybe help me write my next novel.
-
13 hours ago, qzgy said:
Uni student, not aerospace engineering or engineering.
Well as long as you ain't getting a PhD in basket- weaving you're investing in yourself.
Also kudos to everyone who has important work helping us all live in a better world.
-
1 hour ago, YNM said:
Does this mean there're actually recent (by recent I mean under 200 yrs old) myths as well then ?
Yes! For one example:
The Kalevala is widely regarded as the mythology of the Finnish people. It was first published in 1835, and was an important work of literature in giving Finns a sense of cultural and eventually national identity, rather than just being a minority in a vast region that had long been tossed back and forth between the Swedes and the Rus. The contents of the Kalevala are a variety of poetic works woven together into a narrative. Each poem (canto) is derived from other poems that have been passed down from oral histories and tales, which varied from village to village. The author and historian, Elias Lönnrot, tried to unify all of them into one compilation that most Finns could agree was a good representation of their old tales, and keep it as a written record that would preserve those poems.The Kalevala has since become a seminal work in the study of Finnish culture, and many things mentioned in it are still retained with importance of national pride to this day. For example, the sampo, the kantele, and saunas. The Kalevala was a inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's "Middle Earth" Legendarium, with the character Väinämöinen being a direct inspiration for Tom Bombadil.
-
I'm a mechanical technologist but currently looking for work. The factory I worked for got hit hard by the covids, and I was laid off so I could recieve the Canadian Economic Recovery Benefit (CERB) while they reduced to a skeleton crew.
I'm not down about it though. It gave me time to reflect on what i wanted in life. I've since undertaken learning Fusion360, wrote a novel, and am figuring out how to build an accurate model planetarium that includes eccentricity and inclination.
-
It should be distinguished in such a thread that legends are not the same things as mythologies, and that "mythology" is actually a highly technical word in regards to history.
Mythology refers specifically to the group of narratives that fundamentally root a society's identity and general direction of their culture.
Something being mythical is not the same thing as being untrue or fiction; many myths are considered highly important by the adherents or those who identify with the story that the myth explains. There is some dispute as to where the lines are drawn between the study of mythology, the study of theology, and the study of folkloristics.
A very famous mythology is the story of Genesis in the Bible. The mythologies regarding things like The Great Flood, or the patriarch Abraham have great importance to many religious believers, independent of the literal veracity of the accounts. There are mythologies for every major world religion and most of the people groups of the world.
And flatout saying "myths are untrue", thems fighting words.
-
2 hours ago, Sky Kerman said:
w-wait.. Dres does exist?
Dres is a dead world. Long live Dres.
-
Interpersonal crew management sounds like good material for a mod. It's like part degredation; crew
degredationresource management is probably a bit complicated for the vanilla game, even as a difficulty option. -
What K^2 said. Coupled with this, in modernity gold has many practical uses due to its density, conductivity and very high ductility. This is why gold is valuable even today even through fractional reserve banking (and debt) have diminished its value sonewhat in relation to currency. Even though we use it less than we're used to for minting, it is still highly sought after in industry. Gold is somewhat difficult to compete with in this regard, compared to other elements. Nothing stands out immediately that could rival it unless one's civilization operated on very different bases for production and value.
Tungsten perhaps. It's very hard, a useful additive in many alloys to increase strength (and hardness, duh) and has an incredibly high melting point. Useful if your society exists at very high temperatures.
Or perhaps your society lives on the surface of a neutron star, and literally anything other than exotic forms of iron are ultra-rare.
-
Scrith is a fictional material from Larry Niven's Known Space series. It is relatively lightweight, but can block neutron radiation equivalent to roughly a lightyear-thickness of lead, and can block 40% of neutrinos.
-
13 hours ago, ffx said:
space pills
Well nothing's fundamentally wrong with space pills.
But building the game so that everyone's designs converge on that shape isn't as fun as not doing that.
Developer Insights #8 - What Does A Game Producer Do?
in Prelaunch KSP2 Discussion
Posted · Edited by starcaptain
Whenever I think of game producers, I think of a skit I saw, making fun of Valve in the early 2000s. The funny fellows in the video talked about how the producer is responsible for keeping a clear vision for what the game is supposed to be like, and keeping everyone focused on that. So logically, Gabe Newell inspired the physics team by throwing their poor ragdolling bodies around the office, and screaming "IT'S SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE THIS! IT'S SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE THIS!", laughing maniacally.
I guess we just have to take it on Mr. Robinson's good graces that he isn't inspiring the team too hard.