stephensmat

I haven't added to this thread for a while. With the New Year, I started a new Game. I elected to use @Neartea's suite of 'Future' tech as my Mods, as well as Outer Planets, and GlobalConstruction. (Not counting Mechjeb and assorted Graphics mods.) First task was to unlock the science lab, and let me 'farm' science points, for unlocking the Tech Tree. One of Neartea's collection is a revamp of the tech tree that includes For me, the great flaw of KSP1 has been that you essentially start over every mission at Kerbin. So when I started this game, my main priority was to set up a Global Construction base on Minmus. This let me harvest ore, which I turned into fuel and parts. I based my 'strategy' on Daniel Suarez's 'Delta-V' series. It's my first time using one of the 'Far Future Technologies' engines. But I built it as a drive section. It can keep running the loop between Jool and Kerbin, while I put a new 'craft' on the front of it.

Author's Note: I haven't added to this Forum for a while. With the New Year, I started a new Game. I elected to use @Neartea's suite of 'Future' tech as my 2025 Mods, as well as Outer Planets, and GlobalConstruction. (Not counting Mechjeb and assorted Graphics mods.) So, here’s my ‘Mission Report’ of what I’ve been up to for the last month. The story, and the ‘plan’ was inspired by the Delta-V series by Daniel Suarez. *** "Good morning, Gentlemen. Excuse me for not answering the door personally, but you didn’t really knock before breaking it down. My hands are up, don’t shoot! Don’t worry, I’ll talk. In fact, I’ve wanted to tell you all this for some time. “I’m glad to see we have representatives of all the world’s top legal firms here too, and if you’ll all stop screaming and throwing things for just a few moments, I’d like to tell you what happened. I see the police cams are already pointed at me, and I’m just going to turn on my own recorder, at the advice of my counsel. “Ahem. This is my testimonial, before my arrest. And also a debriefing on Project Midway. “Werner von Kerbin can tell you that there’s a long, proud history of spaceflight around here at the KSC. Lining the halls are photos of the smart, somewhat talented Kerbals that figured out how to get Jeb on the Mun. In the break room, you’ll find photos of the smarter, more talented Kerbals that got Val up there to bring him home again. “But unlike the famous Mun Landings of the past, the current Director can’t ‘sell’ interplanetary travel, for the simple reason that people are stupid, and have the attention spans of goldfish. Gravity assists for remote controlled probes might save fuel and money, but it doesn’t impress anyone, and it takes years and years. By the time you get back a photo of Duna, cameras have evolved dramatically, and the camera we launched ten years ago takes lousy shots in comparison. Any politician who approves the funding will be out of office, before they can take credit for the success. “Nevertheless, The Agency has invested millions of dollars in taxpayer money in the same brilliant Kerbals with the very same slide rules that they used years ago, just as our fathers and their fathers have done. “Which is why we’ve gotten nowhere in thirty years, and the accountants are running the Agency, without any actual spaceflight being done. “I know, I know, but if you’ll just stop waving that gun at me, senator; I promise I’m getting to the point. Officer, you wanna take that off him before he hurts someone? Ow! Ow! Okay, I’m cooperating! “Anyway, I was tasked with figuring out how to get versatile, deep space missions going, properly extending our presence out into the Kerbol System. It was a job that nobody wanted to be responsible for,and I raised my hand without actually hearing the assignment. Nonetheless, I persisted. “To make this work, our first step was to install an operational base on Minmu- Wow. You just went straight to laughing at me, didn’t ya? It’s almost like you aren’t here to arrest me for doing exactly this. “Look, it was clear that to build a versatile, reusable, long-term spacecraft, we’d have to invest a lot into making it happen. We needed Space Infrastructure to have a Space Industry. The Agency assured me that money was no object. “Unless, of course, I wanted to spend any, in which case I was on my own. “So, I went independent, and started collecting funding while I was ‘off the clock’. But you know what? It turns out there are plenty of people who would love to see spaceflight happen. They all held bake sales, and yard sales. One little girl donated her pet hamster. That hamster turned the first power turbine on our orbital probe. He even survived reentry, and went right back to work when we put him on a new wheel. That little guy was a real trooper. “Sorry, not the point. Feast your eyes… on the proof! “Now, if you’ll all calm down for a moment, I’ll answer the loudest question: How did we mount a fully fledged Base on top of a rocket without you all finding out about it and charging appropriate launch fees? “Well, the answer was: We launched a DIY kit. Took every cent my Kickstarter had scraped together, but we got it to Minmus. And since it was already in pre-cut, but disassembled pieces, we figured it could land… with some enthusiasm. It wasn’t going to be any more dismantled. “Hm? Oh. An excellent question: Where did we get a Kerbalnaut to assemble the parts? Well, we hired a guy, and got him to book a seat on one of those tourism flights to low Minmus Orbit. Since Tourists aren’t allowed to leave the capsules or spaceplanes, or whatever you launch them in, you never bothered to take a headcount when you got back to Kerbin. Minmus’ gravity is so low, he could land soft with a standard issue jetpack. Nobody complained that he was missing, so the Tourism Board figured it was a typo. “Crazy, you say? I guess it is. But really, DIY is just time consuming. I'm Told that all those tabs and slots are a real pain when wearing a spacesuit. What? Oh sure, he had time. You never noticed how long Kerbals can sit around in a spacesuit without needing to refill their air or water? He got it done, eventually. “In the picture, you’ll also see one or two of our nameless Digger Drones. Oh, put the subpoena away, sir. It’s legitimate salvage. “The Drones were there long before the Base was set up, harvesting material. It was part of a third-party mission from the early days, to see if Minmus could be mined for useful ore. The Company that hired us to do it went bankrupt soon after it landed. Apparently, the rubber band finally broke after the ore was harvested. Enough ore for us to complete construction early and make repairs to the mining equipment. It continued mining for Morra Base*. “Morra Base? Well, we built it. We get to name it. “You’re wondering how I could fund a space program without any crumbs from millionaires and politicians like you. Well, I can’t. But it turns out, I don’t have to. More stuff gets invented in college dorm rooms and people’s garages than any government-funded laboratory. All the equipment, like Mystery Goo, and air pressure monitors can be bought in any lab, or dive shops. Thermometers are available anywhere. You just gotta know where to transmit the data to. Geeks are really eager to solve problems, whether they get stock options or not. “Anyway. Step One was completed. We were harvesting materials, at no cost to the Agency, or the Taxpayer. Step Two was to make Space Construction more practical. Now, there have been plans for this all along, of course. It’s an open secret that the only trick to spaceflight is getting off the ground and missing it when you fall back down. Once you’re free of Kerbin’s Gravity and Atmosphere, it’s all pretty much downhill. “Thanks to our interns being handy with the keys to the patent office, we got the plans for an orbital Construction platform at a… discounted rate. Yes, officer, I know that could be considered a confession, but unfortunately someone spilled a cup of coffee on the patent we borrowed, so we can’t be sure which company should be offended. If any of you wanna sue me, you’ll have to fight it out to see who has the right to go first. “Anyway, Morra Base kept mining, processing, and machining parts. With Minmus’ low gravity, it was easy to get it all into Minmus Orbit. With a workshop on the other end, it turned out to be more efficient for a small, single use booster to drop off the cargo, and then process the whole craft back into raw materials. “Utopia Planitia* was opened for business without a dollar being spent on Kerbin. Flights of the Diggers send up ore, fuel, oxidizers, and machined parts for space construction at regular intervals. “The first practical application was to launch probes towards Jool, for television picture purposes. When our crews finally get there, we want to film their arrival. The SS Bowman* is already on the way back. We assembled it out of the Boosters we built for our supply flights. “I know, it’s not pretty. It’s just a Science Lab with all the instruments we could strap onto it, making a flyby of Jool and a few of her moons. The science was invaluable, and several universities were happy to take our data ‘under the table’, and provide us with some simulations and field tests of experimental components. With our setup on Minmus, we could produce anything they could design. “Hm? Who was first? I’d prefer not to say. We launched a crew of three Kerbals, and now there are two. There was one murder, and one wedding sometime during the flight. “It became clear that we’d need to mine specific resources for an interplanetary drive. Resources that weren’t available on Minmus. So we printed another DIY kit, and transferred it to the Mun. “Newhart Base* was opened for business soon after, and is now harvesting HE3 around the clock, for power generation, and ship fuelling. I can see the lawyers for the Energy Companies positively salivating, so let me assure you that yes, we’re willing to make Helium3 available to you for fusion generators. We can make the world emissions free with a few more Bases like Newhart. “Hm? Oh no, I could never do all this work remotely. Admittedly, I did try, but at some point, you’ve gotta send something larger than a hamster. “Turns out that abandoning the planet doesn’t just appeal to billionaires anymore. All those brilliant people in their garages, doing the math and designing the experiments and Printers on the backs of snack-packs and napkins were ready to make a living at it. So they bought their ‘ticket’ too. “What’s that, Congressman? Yes. I’m afraid that the Space Tourism company paying kickbacks into your election fund was our patsy in this. They went bust when a tourist flight full of paying customers went ‘RUD’. In actual fact, they didn’t explode. They used their re-entry fuel to transfer to Minmus. We had machined a probe booster to intercept, and push them into the right orbit for docking with our Space Station. The pilot of your Tourist Flight was quite put out when he discovered he was the only one on board who wasn’t ‘in on the gag’, but given the pittance he was being paid, he was easy to recruit. “Somewhere around here our Jool probes arrived at their destination, and started taking stock of what her moons had to offer our independent Space Program. “Above is the first decent photo taken of Jool from Laythe orbit. I’ve already taken the liberty of sending copies of this picture to various news outlets. I thought ‘Jool-Rise’ was an appropriate name, but annoyingly, they all responded with the same answer: They think it’s something I faked, which is ever-so-slightly galling. “Still, with the Shipyard fully staffed, we moved to Phase Three: The Fresnel Drive. “We’ve sent our scopes into the area around Mun and Minmus, looking for a suitably convenient source of LqdDeuterium, and as yet we’ve found none. Which means it was time to call on the resources of Kerbin for the first time since those tourist flights. We could either spend ten years refining something to make a less-efficient fuel, or we could just hire the Agency to put a fuel tank in orbit. Ship to Ship fuel transfer is surprisingly doable, once you have everything you need in-situ. “Of course, this launch was much harder to cover up, and if I’m not mistaken, that was how you all found out about this whole thing. “Oh, stop with the pointing fingers already! You know what? We would have loved to do this the ‘right’ way, with permits and inspections, and interviews, but when we mocked it up in our VAB simulations, the cost blew out to over eight million dollars in funds, just for the Drive Section; let alone launch equipment. Given what you people pay the KSC for ‘successful’ missions, and what it costs to start every mission over from Mission Control, that just wasn’t going to happen unless we built it in space, from resources we harvested ourselves. Don’t blame us if you haven’t bothered to put a tax on the use of Mun Stones. “This is our documentation of the first ‘test’ of the heat transfer systems on the ‘Drive Section’. Outrageously large solar panels provide more than enough juice to keep the fuel tank chilled, and the fuel from boiling off; at least at this range to the Sun. We won’t know for sure if it can still do so while Orbiting Jool, but there’s a backup Reactor included, just in case. Thankfully, the Radiator test worked. That means we can mount almost anything on the front of it and send it out into the System. “Why yes, Professor; it is your design. We didn’t think you’d mind. You’ve been fired from the Agency, and at least three different Private Space Firms for saying it was possible at all. Turns out it was just… slow. The TWR is 0.02 when it’s pushing a whole shipyard. “What’s that? Ah yes, the finished product. I may have fibbed a little on how close it was to completion when you started throwing those injunctions at me. The thing made Holman transfer for Jool three days ago. The burn took hours to complete, but the drive is so efficient that it’s still got the majority of fuel left. “If you think it looks like a repeat of the ‘Shipyard’ design, then you’d be right. Our ultimate goal was to have the shipyard in Jool orbit, creating reusable craft that can harvest the moons of Jool for resources. Fortunately the crews of Morra and Newhart Base are all safely aboard the SS Bova*, already skilled and experienced in such techniques. “What’s that? Well, like I told you all at the start, I’m not just explaining myself, I’m giving you a debriefing. See, we’ve got a working shipyard on the way to Jool, and the only drive that can make the flight is going with it. The planets and asteroids out there have everything we need from now on. The System now has two space programs. One here on Kerbin, another out at Jool. The Midway point in the System. “Yes, yes. You can arrest me now. I’m the only member of the Project still in your jurisdiction, after all... If my people out there care enough to try and free me, I’m sure it’ll be an interesting negotiation. You should see some of the diamonds we’re pulling out of asteroids. Some of them are bigger than this table. “I’m sure there are at least a few members of the press watching all this on the web conference I started when representatives of the law enforcement community marched past my assistant. “If the Bova crew make contact regarding my status, bidding for the first Deep Space Diamond will start at half a million. If not, they’re done with us, and are sure to machine those asteroid diamonds into something useful. Even if you spent the money and made another Fresnel Drive right now, it’ll take years for you to get out there after them. “Good luck.” *** * Footnotes: 1) Morra Base. Named for the Lunar outpost in Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez. 2) Utopia Planitia. The Star Trek- TNG Shipyard where the Enterprise-D was Built. 3) Newhart Base. Named for Bob Newhart. ‘For All Mankind’ fans will know why I’d name a Mun Base that. “Hi Bob!” 4) SS Bowman. For David Bowman, Commander of the first Jupiter flight in Arthur C Clarke’s famous ‘2001’. (In truth, that pic is from a totally different game I ran years ago , but I wanted to build up the story I was spinning here.) 5) SS Bova. For Ben Bova, who wrote the ‘Grand Tour’ series, starring every planet in the Solar System. This was meant to be an interplanetary drive, so all planets are up for grabs.

I used KSS2 for about an hour. It made shifting between ships incredibly laggy, the game crashed once or twice. Never figured out why. I play on linux, so I figured maybe something wasn't set up right. I never really looked into it, because Interstellar is a 'long shot' for me.

Here's the one I use:

I'm not ashamed to say that Mechjeb is a necessity for me. But that doesn't help so much with gravity assists. Especially when travelling between planets. Is there a mod that accounts for this? Something that can give you trajectories with minimal Delta-V, or let you select gravity assists for speeding up or slowing down on your way to somewhere?

The new owners will make a decent game, the question is: Which one do they wanna make? They're buying the studio, so they have a few options. KSP worked because the devs loved their creation. You can't just replace them with 'anyone' and assume the same result. That's why everyone was so excited to see who had joined KSA.

On Eve, I once landed in the oceans. I ended up using the aerobrake shield as the landing gear, keeping my Lander from sinking. I can't help bit wonder if a large heat shield might work the same way on a lava lake.

https://github.com/StarCrusher96/Kerbal-Star-Systems-2/blob/main/README.md

So, I was looking forward to Galaxies Unbound, but apparently it's down for re-development. Then they announced that GU would be tied in To Kerbal Star Systems 2, so I started looking into downloading and installing that Mod. Then the instructions for KSS2 told me that Parallax1 is not supported, so I would need to install Parallax2. So I came here and found that it's also down for Re-development. (Sigh)

If it happens by New years, I'm going to settle on my permanent mods list and start a new game.

UPDATE: I just tried a full reinstall, and copied all the mods out of/back into the gamedata folder. I have the Kerbal portraits back, but not the Commnet. The only recent updates to the mods have been via CKAN, but this did happen very recently after. These are the Mods I'm currently running. A newly created sandbox game, and an older (abandoned) game both have the Comms working normally, so I'm quite sure it's a setting I've screwed up. Anyone have any ideas?

I've restarted the game, and the computer. I just tested the probe controls. They were locked, until I went into the F12 menu and 'cleared input locks'. (These are probes with high-end Probe Cores) In the Tracking Station, the 'Network' is set to visible, there's just nothing there. I'm sure it's something I screwed up with a menu option, or by updating a Mod, but this has never happened before. EDIT: Also, the 'Portraits' of the crew appear to have vanished too. The Ships/Bases are still inhabited, and I can Transfer/EVA them, but the pics in the lower right hand side of the screen aren't there anymore either.

Not sure what happened. All my CommNet connections appear to have vanished. Short range, longer range, big antennas, small antennas... They're all flights in progress. They've been working all this time. It's not orbital alignment or anything, because it's all of them. In the tracking Station, the 'green lines' are all blank now, and I can't transmit science data. Any ideas?