grawl

I was touring with my band the past 7 years. It did not end well. Right now I'm making a lot of excel files at my job. I'm also studying computer engineering in late courses, after my work, to get a diploma and a better job .

Hello everybody ! I'm developping a small smartphone 2D game for my end of year project, and I'm blocked because of my little maths knowledge. I knew I should have been more present in physics class... So, here are my problems : I've got a star with mass and a "circle" of influence (we're talking 2D here ), defined as the center (x=0, y=0). I've got several objects with mass, coordinates (Xo,Yo) and a speed vector defined by its coordinates (Xv,Yv). 1. Is it possible for the objects to achieve stable orbit around the star ? Or will I need to tweak reality a bit ? 2. What is the way to calculate the new coordinates of the object's vector once it is inside the star circle of influence ? I figured here was the best place to ask Thank you for your answers, I'm looking forward to them. PS: Also, if anyone got any idea about a possible gameplay and a way to use the phone captors (accelerometer, inclinometer, screen touch, etc), I'm all ears. I've already planned to implement some kind of solar storm shot by the player to "eat" the objects it crosses and make your star bigger

Mounting KSP on a RAM drive before playing is also an effective way of optimising the game's loading times.

Definitely clouds at first. They'd add a new artistic dimension to the game ! Imagine the possibilities with a nice clouds system, dynamic gas giants ! Hurricanes watchable from space ! **Ok, I need to calm down now ** ... Then maybe some patches of light around KSC, KSC2 and a few more small locations to discover. Remember KSP is a game about launching things away from Kerbin, so I don't think too much effort should be put into ground details.

Thanks for the quick answer, I'm looking forward to read the next ones!

Hello czokletmuss! I enjoy your stories very much ! I remember you telling us, just before the forum drop, that you already did a fair amount of space travelling and that a lot of new chapters would come as soon as the forums are back (famous last words lol). How are you doing with the writing? Any expected release date for a new chapter? I see the current ones more as an introduction, I can't wait to read some proper space-traveller Jeb Keep it up!

Cool vids ! My favorite part is in the last one, around 2:30, when the cam turns around the decoupled ship, very good epic cam moves !!

Very good one indeed ! I love the part where the computer doesn't get what Jeb says

Pedonymous Wow...just . . . wow... ... You paid for the game as it is. Not for info about future updates Anyway, so you imply that the influence Squad might be taking in the KSP dev process (what more normal, as KSP is very close to a "store shelves" release) is somewhat linked to the DoS attack that crushed the forum ? 8o

First the parachute(s) ! Then I build the whole lander/probe, then the launcher around it. I try to make them as simple and reliable as possible, because my laptop is not powerfull and will lag as soon as there are too many stuts and/or motors (these 2 usually go together). I avoid boosters at all costs ! They make the game lag even more (I know I'm missing something here guys, I know... ) I make an 'apsaragus' (?) desing. All the motors fire together, but only the fuel tanks from the next stage to be decoupled are consuming fuel. Decoupling stuff can be accomplished in an even-more awesome way as well with the new little boosters. It can be quite hairy though.

You mean these rules ? http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15254-Forum-Rules I fail to see a part about necrobump. I consider necrobumping a thread is not a bad thing, because sometimes it is just better than creating a whole new thread on the same subject, and it allows new people to see some content they might have never seen. Maybe the necrobump would motivate the modmaker to continue his work cya

A flight planner would really be neat. But I can't see any way of integrating it and keeping it simple. Any ideas? I'd like to see some "orbital tools" in the map, like a protractor for example. I can't put my hand on the one I got buried in my old school stuff Added to the resource put online by Olex (http://ksp.olex.biz/) it would be enough.

Great work ! I love the small 'bee' I think they are on a well deserved vacation after 0.16 release !

Yep, if you are in the day side of Minmus, or Mun, or Kerbin (eath), it will be, like in reality, 'day', and you will see no stars, as the light from Kerbol (sun) is so astonishingly more powerful than the light from the stars (it is really closer) it will hide it. Put time warp at max and wait for Minmus to perform half of its orbit, so that you are on the opposite side from Kerbol, and you will see some (textured) stars.

I\'ve got a GamePort MS Sidewinder Pro, and it is not working well with KSP My Saitek X45 works really well, with all controls mappable on the stick. :-* I think it\'s a bit of overkill for KSP though ;P, the keyboard is alright to control the ships. I think, as other members here have a USB Sidewinder working well, that my problem is coming from me having the Game Port version, using the adapter provided by MS to connect to an USB port. Or it may be a problem with Vista. I am going to try as soon as I can KSP and the Sidewinder on a Win7 install and get back with results.

One of the guys wasn\'t really paying attention to the big picture =P

can you expand a bit more? There is no 'Best Sim Evah', it\'s all relative to what you\'re searching for. :-* (endless debate in the sim community I reckon) Warthog is really good if you like to think that you control a \'real\' modern jet (mostly learning the whole manual and then push the appropriate buttons in time). I\'ve totally forgot about B17! It kinda looks old now, but I still really like the way they modelled the B17, even with 8bit textures you\'re feeling the rugginess and hugeness (yeah i just made up these words ;P) of the structure and you really feel like you are actually in it, poor vulnerable machinegunner :\'( The part where you are bomber commander assigning missions to the squadron is quite fun too. We forgot one of the oldies, BobII Wings of Victory. It simulates really well the environment of the Battle of Britain (radars, huge formations, etc). One more serie of simulators is the new TK/Thirdwire (former dev of European Air War if I\'m right) baby, Strike Fighters ! You get to pilot a whole bunch of planes from Skyhawk to Phantom to Mig21 and so on... It has the advantage to run on not powerful computers. The flying models are a bit dated. A good bargain though, as it is really fun to fly! Happy flying ! Cheers ! PS:Wasteland, anyway you\'d be related to the Wasteland in banana forum? (codename ;D , if you don\'t get it it\'s not you sorry :-[)

I\'d suggest Rise of Flight, it\'s a mil sim about the WW1, the graphics are neat and it runs quite well. You can\'t go wrong with this one as it is free to play with 3 or 4 basic planes. Then if you like it you can buy a lot of new planes and accessories (hand gun! scarf! and a lot of other really essential things ;D lol ) The flight physics and the engine management are quite realistic. You\'ll feel your biplane crushing under the Gs the wind flowing, nothing like FSX on-rails feeling ! FSX will give you some more \'\'living world around me\'\' immersion though if you get a few add ons. If you don\'t mind somewhat aged graphics, Il2 is the reference in the WW2 category. And it goes beyond this, with add ons you have from spanish civil war (1936) to Korea (1951) and even beyond. If you are looking for a REALLY close to reality simulation of how to make a plane work, I cannot not ( =P) advice you to get FSX and one of the A2A add ons. And then, the last concurrent, DCS, have a nice modelisation of modern electromagnetic environment during a war. And a few planes well detailed (A10, the Ka50 chopper and the P51. A MiG21 is coming soon). It can get really complicated, as all the weapons and HUD modes are like the real ones (or close enough). So you need to eat all the doc before even taking of I think I\'ve made all of them. I\'m personally a huge fan of Il2, and hope the dev team will cope with their current challenges. If they do alright, a successor to Il2 will arise ! (the supposed successor, Cliffs of Dover, is actually in a \'\'we released an alpha product, but nobody must know, shhh : \'\' One last i just remembered, there is a nice glider simulation called Condor that has really realistic thermal effects.

So, did any of you saw the aurora?

you just have to follow the yellowPURPLE (what was I thinking? ???) markers. You will cross an ocean, then a lot of land, and then finally you\'ll get there in the mountains. You can judge the distance from KSC2 by looking at how many degrees under the ground is KSC2 icon on the navball.

My most common mistake is forgetting to make a proper staging. It generally ends up in boosters decoupling while not empty yet, or the lander decoupling instead of the 1st stage. Another quite disappointing mistake is forgetting the chute and realizing it while reentry lol

We also need to know what version of KSP you are running. Demo version (0.13) or last alpha (0.15) ? I\'ve personnaly got a pretty crappy machine lol : - Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 @ 2GHz - 3Gb DRAM - GeForce 9650mGT 1Gb - Windows Vista - All that stacked in a rusty old Asus X72 laptop with funky cracks in the screen ??? ;P :-[ For 0.13, the best solution for me was to delete the persistence file (so i guess you\'re probably on 0.13 if this solved your issues). The problem with the file was resolved in later versions. I do not experience it anymore. think the bottleneck was my CPU at the time, as RAM or GPU weren\'t that much used. But, due to the new terrain engine, it seems to be both my RAM and the vid card are much more used!! KSP eats quickly around 1.4-1.8Gb in RAM, liftoffs are laggier than ever and I can really feel the bump in the FPS when I decouple that huge first stage. It might be time to start to save for a new comp\' heh : But it gets better when I put everything on low and playing in 1024*768 (still nice to the eye =P). I think i\'v seen some config mods that allow you to get even less details (I don\'t know if it works though)

That looks like a treat for Jeb (evil laugh) :-X How does it handle in space though?

Thanks ! The trick resides in measuring the exact weight of the shuttle, and then build a counterweight the same weight for the other side of the big booster. If you feel lucky you can put the counterweight farther from the booster than the shuttle, so it will need less weight or closer, but it will need more (levers theory). I admit I\'ve chosen the easy solution by putting it at exactly the same distance as the shuttle, so no calculations to do ! Then you can put everything you want in the middle it will be always balanced. Only case it can screw up is if you activate RCS, if you use it and you start using RCS fuel from the Shuttle, she will get lighter and will not be anymore balanced right by the counterweight (that means you will soon go upside down in an uncontrollable manner ???).

Well, I finally came with a working design. Let me present you The Orbiter 3 FEA (Finely Enhanced Aeroplane... or whatever you want =P) An all stock Space Shuttle that looks a bit like a Space Shuttle ! It is actually able to put sattelites on geostationnary orbit, and can (virtually) orbit around any point in kerbin, maybe even farther. User Manual : - Go on the pad with the Orbiter 3 FEA - Gear Up ! (G) -SAS ON ! (T) - Full Throttle ! (Maj) - Liftoff !! (Press Space) - Don\'t let Jeb touch anything. Really, anything but F7 or F8 - When around 12-15000m start to pull a bit. - Continue to pull. Separate from the 2 boosters when they get empy (press space again). Close to orbit - Your apoapsis should now be around 70 000m and you should be not too far from it. - Adjust your trajectory so that your periapsis is always in front of you. I mean put your nose above the velocity vector if apoapsis is getting close dangerously fast, or start to center your nose with the velocity vector (the yellow bracketed circle with no cross in it) if you see it getting away. All this is done in map view. - You should now be in orbit ! - And with plenty of fuel ??? Yeah ! ;P - Do all the orbital manoeuvers you want with the rest of the fuel (usually around 2 tanks/engine). - When it\'s empty, jettison it (press space again) - You are now on your desired orbit with the Space Shuttle FEA !!! (yeah ! 8) ) Now to focus a bit on the Shuttle itself. I\'ve put some small modifications to it. Only one small motor instead of 2, so it is \'a bit\' underpowered. All manoeuvers need to be planned carefully because hurry is not a word with this Shuttle. But it is now controllable in space. And gets one more RCS tank to RdV with. Here are the directions : - You should be in orbit before doing what will follow. - Disengage the autopilot (T) if on. - Trim the elevator full down (press alt+z a long time). - The Shuttle will start to spin, don\'t worry, when done with the trim engage the autopilot (T). - It should stabilize you a bit and then you can orient the Shuttle in the way you want. - Engage RCS ® - 3/4 Throttle you shall not pass ! :-X - If you do not wish to use the precious RCS fuel to stabilize the craft, be aware to not go over half throttle. - You could always take over these limits, but know that me and my team of Kerbals are not responsible for any heroic attempt that has gone wrong - And now it\'s up to you to go back to KSC runway =P Quite useful cam for landing - Gear down ! (G) - Land smoothly. - Engage the parachute (press space). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I\'ve added a few cams to see the launch \'from the center\'. I guess now we could have a challenge \'RDV with this craft and a Space Station | Tiny Sattelite\' that would not be that easy, even with mechjeb. So, waddya think of it? 8) The craft file is down there