stephensmat

Today's mission: A rescue from Moho. I landed there long ago, but I apparently miscalculated the DeltaV, and marooned my Kerbal. I sent a standard Digger/Refueller to Moho, but it was meant to launch and refuel in orbit. So eventually, I built a much larger Lander, and sent it, with an empty seat. The Refueller filled the tanks up once it arrived, and thus began the rescue. It took three tries to get a landing that precise, but I managed it. The original, smaller lander remains on Moho. The crew came across to board the Lander 2.0, and because I sent a scientist this time, I was able to transfer all the experiment data across. I have a station in orbit, already crunching the data. Side effect of the Rescue, my orbiting Lab now has two scientists in it.

There are three moments that leave you shaking in this game. Your first Orbit, your first successful mission (Usually the Mun and back, powered landing and return), and your first perfect docking manoeuvre. Almost everything in this game are variations on mastering those three skills.

"Lucy Is Here": Gain rare materials from Asteroid. "It's Full of Stars!": Examine an Anomaly with Rover Tools "Farmer in The Sky": Raise crops in a Colony. "Wait. I Think I Blinked.": Get a screenshot of Kerbin from the Mun.

One of my favorite childhood sci-fi novels was "Farmer in the Sky' by Robert Heinlein. I mention this, because I just landed on Laythe.

Today's Achievement: I landed a Science Base on Laythe. Took me a few tries to land on... well, land. Those islands aren't as big when you're coming down from orbit. I kept shorting the landing because of my heat shield. Finally, I cut the thing loose in high orbit, and came down without a HS. I had less than 200 Delta-V left in final approach, but it was enough to slow me down, and prevent overheating. Easier to stay in Retrograde position with the engines on anyway. It meant I was at the mercy of my parachutes to find a landing spot, but that was okay. Four landing legs at 9.2m/s. A bit jarring, but she held together. Not only that, it gave me my favorite shot of the game so far: I now have bases on three out of five Moons of Jool. Turns out I screwed up this one a bit with regards to the ladder. It'll reach the ground, but for some reason my Kerbalnaut can't haul herself up to the edge, and make her way to the next ladder. So if I step outside to plant a flag, I'll need cheats to get her back in. (I'm not a purist about using cheats, but I usually only employ them when I make a stupid mistake. My rule is: Anything I can fix with a minor tweak in the VAB isn't worth starting the mission again.)

When I sat down and learned this game, I started with Science Mode. Sandbox was too much too soon, and Career was hard to master. I bankrupted myself the first two times. Science mode gave me a progression where I could unlock parts, learn the differences, and save some 'early' ships. When I started Career again, I had low-tech craft to start with, and now my career save has thirty million in the bank and 86% reputation as I move to exploring Jool.

Gotta be honest, after playing KSP1, every step up to 'Colonies' would be enough for me. Interstellar would be interesting, but I'm not sure I'm that good a player.

I didn't even get serious about playing KSP1 until I saw that trailer. Don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I know I'll be pending the next hundred days trying to do things that might save me some space travel time. The PCGamer bit is going to release about 1am my time, but all I need to know for sure is the PC requirements. (I know, not likely to happen yet).

I can't believe it. The 'Heavy Booster' worked on a Jool flight twice. Is it possible my Jool 'Curse' has been broken? I build a base to a Contract specification, and sent it to Jool for a Vall intercept. And unlike my Pol Base, I got two 'braking orbits' instead of just one, so the Booster still had fuel when I arrived at Val. landing the thing was almost... easy. (Easy. For me. On a Jool Flight. What game am I even playing?!) So, now I have permanent Science Bases on Pol and Vall. I think this new configuration might just have broken my own personal Jool Curse. And best of all, the contract was worth 1.9 million. My last seven flights were just paid for, and then some. Oh, and I wanted to get a shot of Jool coming up over the Horizon, but it seems Vall is tide-locked, so it's almost directly overhead; all the time.

It should be either a Tech Progression or a 'Badge' system. A lot of games have tutorials when you have to hit a specific combo a number of times to pass, or finish a task in a certain amount of time. So you've reached orbit five times? Great. We'll handle that part for you from now on. The other X- Factor for eliminating the busywork? The new Colony system. Say you land somewhere, and the first thing you build is a landing pad; and then every flight comes back to that nice, secure landing site? So you set your supply runs to always land on the Bullseye? Sure. Because if you want a second landing site, or another colony in another place, you have to land it yourself. Keep being the bold explorer in a new place, let the next wave handle itself without you. To be honest, I kind of have that problem now. I send two craft to Jool on unrelated missions. I set my alarm clock, and the manouver nodes are close together. One make it perfectly, the other misses the mark...

Today's Achievement! I landed a base on Pol. Jool and associated Moons have been a nightmare for me. I've lost five Kerbals. Not marooned, lost. Crashed, miscalculated, etc. It's been a Bermuda Triangle for me. If you've been following my tales of Spaceflight, you'll know that I experimented with a new 'Plus Size' Refuel tank recently, and accidentally discovered a new Disposable Space Booster engine. This worked so well, that I added a Drill and mini-converter to it, and sent four more out into the System, to replace all my Digger/Fuelling tanks. The same design is being used as a booster, and a fuel tank. I now have Plus-Sized Fuelling Stations on Ike, Gilly, Mun and Minmus. It'll save me ever so much time on prepping for Return flights. So it was time to try this magic wand in the direction I've never had the slightest luck in. In truth, Jool is becoming a phobia for me by now. My Plus-Sized booster got me as far as a Jool Rendezvous before I cut it loose. My Base, free of the weight, suddenly had 4x the delta V that it did an instant before. Huzzah! But it still wasn't enough. I crashed three more times. I give Credit to this board, for teaching me about Gravity Assists for speeding up/slowing down. A close pass in front of Jool, into a close pass in front of Pol, got my base moving slow enough to get into orbit. Pol gravity is so low I was able to land on fumes. (On my ninth try, but who's counting?) (I add some rover wheels to all my small bases, because I inevitably land on the side of a hill. It helps get you somewhere better. I was sliding across the dirt at 4m/s for a while.) And it turns out I did miscalculate after all. Can't run the Research Lab non-stop. Power drops ever so slowly. I was one generator short. Given how tight the fuel numbers ran, I think it was worth it. I'll have to come back now and then to let the batteries recharge. (Power usage was the death of my second Jool expedition. It never occurred to me that solar power wouldn't work that far out. We live, we learn. BTW, is it possible to use RTG's for surface experiments to add power to your Base/Ship?) But you gotta love that view.

I've wanted Space Elevators included in KSP for years. I think it's believable with KSP2, for two reasons: 1) Interstellar flight. 2) Colonies and Orbital VAB. I could understand why they wouldn't have a Space Elevator in KSP1, because calculating the fuel usage and putting ships together in orbit for long flights is kind of the core mechanic. But in KSP2, they're moving that forward a step by having large assemblies in Space already. interstellar flight means they're looking past the 'Everything launched from Kerbin' stage. If we could build a colony that can get all this material, and all the fuel we need for a VAB, and yet still has a much lower gravity, then a Space Elevator is perfectly believable. At the very least, make it the supply line to an Orbital VAB. They've said that 'routine supply flights' will have an automated function, so that Players aren't stuck hand-holding every routine flight. What's the difference between orbital flights in the background to stock an Orbital VAB, and a Space Elevator?

My only wish for the console version: Full Keyboard and Mouse. Not partial. Total. My PC isn't half as good as the Playstation, and I'd rather devote only one of them to games.

"There's a tribe living down by a river, and in the river there are crocodiles. The tribe has one particular piece of wisdom passed down through the generations. It goes like this: if you happen to meet a crocodile, don't stick your head in its mouth. Every now and then, and who knows the reason, people ignore this advice, which is sad, because they die. But very stupid because they were warned. They had a choice. The moral of this story is this: You can't afford to be stupid. There are crocodiles." --Lynda Day; Press Gang. (A Piece of Life Wisdom I've never forgotten.)

The higher power machine isn't the problem, for me. It's the fact that KSP1's Console Version was impossible to control. Unless it has full K+M support, PC is going to be the only practical option, at least for me.

With all the breakdowns and conversation about KSP2, I haven't been back to KSP1 for a while. So. Today's mission: My ship, the SS Waterman, named after the character in the Ben Bova books, has made a few flights to Duna and back. I was able to use her for the flight to Eve as well. But I've never gone to Moho before. I updated the lander to something with a second seat, and a radiator, just in case (Moho is the closest I've been to the Star) and I started the task of refuelling her for her next flight. The usual supply flights refill about half of a booster, and I was getting annoyed at the repetition, so I invested a few hours into making the biggest fuel tank I could launch into orbit. I'm kicking myself that I didn't make one months ago. I was able to refill the whole thing in two flights. With the Waterman ready to go, I set about calculations for Moho, and quickly discovered the problem. Purely by chance, I had 15 days until the transit window... But the plane of Moho's orbit meant I had enough fuel to get her there, but not slow down enough for orbit. Now, historically, my ships have been mobile labs, churning out data for profit and such. So whenever I make a flight, the ship stays for a long haul. I send diggers/converters for refilling each craft for the return flight; and then leave the Diggers behind for the next flight that comes their way. I thus have Automated, Flight-Ready Ore Refineries on the Mun, Minmus, Gilly, Duna, and Ike. (Next mission, to see if my much larger 'Fuelling Station' can also be turned into a lander for Mining purposes.) Not enough Delta-V to get back? I can do that. Not enough to brake for orbit? Time for a redesign. I've been adding docking ports to my boosters since the Mun landings, hooking them together and using them as 'Drive Sections' for larger craft. So I thought I'd have to add a few more 'nacelles' to the ship... And that was when I found out, purely by accident, that I could attach docking ports to the nozzles of engines mid-flight. (Huzzah for Engineers. Never leave home without one.) So I improvised something I'd never done before, and gave my Drive Section its own Drive Section. Fortunately, I had just built the largest Fuel Tank I was capable of launching and manoeuvring. It took some fiddling with struts, 'Control From Here' and 'Disabling Cross-feeds', but I got it to work. The game is now loading slower than it ever has, which makes reloads agonising, but my 'single use Refuel tank' got me out of Kerbin's SOI entirely. When I detached the Tank, (and burned through the docking port on my regular engine's nozzle), the Waterman had enough juice to put herself in Moho orbit. So, I can tick 'Moho Orbit' off the list. Tricky 'catch' as the planets I've reached go. Now I have to do it again with a Mining Rig, for the landing, Flag Planting, and Return Flight.

I always use Mechjeb now. I managed docking twice, just to see that I could do it, and then I took the shortcut, because doing it manually was a chore. It had me pulling my hair out; and a game is meant to be fun. It felt less like cheating once I succeeded manually, but people are right about how it opens up the game in a major way. I'm hoping KSP2 has something like Mechjeb as an in-game option. Even as an optional difficult setting. I wouldn't mind if you had to unlock it, function by function. Do it twice, and the game will give you an auto-repeat.

When Spore came out, they had Procedural parts on EVERYTHING. But you make a creature with bigger teeth, or a sleeker design, it didn't make it faster or stronger. You make a vehicle which is basically a box with a hundred fast wheels all over it, and it was faster, despite the ludicrous design. This is because the stats of each creation was decided by the ratio of parts used. 'This' part had a higher attack value, so you use a dozen of them and click 'attack', and the hit counter responds accordingly. Easy to understand and exploit, and it made for some wildly creative inventions in the editors; but it was hardly realistic. I wonder if KSP2 will look for a realistic version. If so, the parts list could be significantly streamlined. "This is a level one Solar Panel. By surface area, it generates 'x' amount of power and 'y' amount of weight. Go ahead and make one as big as you want; the stats will adjust to match." It would work with Radiators, wings, and Fuel Tanks too.

I know I'm not the first one to post this, but honestly; it bears repeating. I had a lot of the same thoughts that I'm reading here in these recent pages. This video, from a commentator that's had a long history of interviewing the Devs, calmed a lot of the concerns for me. In particular, his point that the Roadmap isn't because they're not ready, but because they've made a lot of assumptions in the 'redesign', and getting player feedback is a major part of their design process. By releasing in EA, they've drafted all of us to be their beta testers, and now they can see where the priorities should be BEFORE they release. Better before than after. We're used to the rollout of an EA project being years, but in reality it could be a few months to get to 1.0.

I don't think it's a big secret that there'll be more DLC after 1.0 is finished. They could create a new system every so often, and keep this game going forever.

Career mode is essentially a guide for how to take the next 'small step'. Contracts get you to the next moon/planet. Tourist contracts to teach you how to improvise multiple missions, or build reusable craft. Costs are built in so you keep from over-designing early rockets. Science contracts show you how to maximize science output, or build craft that can visit several sites before splashdown. By the time you make it to Duna, the tech-tree is unlocked and the money comes rolling in from science points if nothing else. But in the early game, money holds you back a bit until you know what you're doing. A lot of things went on behind the scenes. The takeover for one, the staff split another, the Pandemic as well. I'm guessing there's more we never heard about. But we got here, is the point. Fail, Learn, Fail Better. If I could get that in Latin I'd print it on the side of every ship I build in KSP2.

I don't know much about game development, but other Early Access games that I've played have had 'groundwork' laid in smaller updates so that the foundations are there when they include new features. Maybe the 'engine' work is close to done, and the rest is beta testing and tweaking the variables. Early Access lets them conscript all of us for feedback.

I'll admit, Early Access is not what I wanted. But I can see the upsides. The one thing they talked about constantly in that video was community feedback. They had a top modder interviewed about joining the staff. They had the Dev's asking nicely for us to let them know where it's good. Redesigns around how to make it easier for Modders to Mod. They're definitely trying to bring the fans into the process here. It's... wildly inconvenient that it looks like Linux support won't be around until after 1.0; but that's an issue that affects me specifically, and not something to blame the game or devs for. I'm a little surprised that Science is apparently Phase 2, given what a huge part of the first game it was. But looking at the Vids, it's clearly not an expansion of the first game, but a complete rewrite. And as I recall,the first time I tried KSP1, it was just the VAB and a launchpad. (At least, that was as far as I could get until years later). We're going to have to learn how to play this thing all over again. Starting from the Launchpad makes sense. The colonies and other systems are what's new, so that's what we want to see most; but if we have to start over from scratch on everything; (how we design, how we read the map, how we do the math, how we control the craft are all said explicitly to be totally different) then best to start with a few pieces, and start adding more. I don't think any of us are going to fully grasp just how different an experience this will be from KSP1 until Feb-2023. If it's different enough, then it's absolutely the right release schedule.

And now I have to remind myself that I live in Australia, where it's Friday already. See you tomorrow. On the plus side, I was hoping for a release date.

I wanna hear about colonization. I LOVE those kinds of stories. Also, I hope they release the tutorials as a demo. It'd give everyone a quick answer on if their computers can play it, and it'd be a way to master the mechanics before the game comes out.