Mister Dilsby

Caught up-- love the "Kaptain Kerman" stuff, and the many many puns. And oh no, IKBM,s stop the madness before it's too late! Hopefully they will find their way to glasknost and kerbpollo-koyuz détente!

The KSS Intrepid is ready for launch! 2600 tons on the pad. Note that there are still several components (engineering section, several probes, a 75 ton mining lander and an SSTO plane--all carried internally) to be added once it reaches orbit. I estimate the fueled ship ready to depart for Jool will mass 1200 tons and be about 600 parts.

Hopefully we can avoid the 'flipping' part The uniforms are based on the Star Trek TOS collection by @GregroxMun. I changed it from a V-neck to double-breasted closure with piping, went with TNG-style rank pips, added the sleeve braids and the Kerbfleet roundel. Am actually pretty pleased with the design--you'll be able to tell the different branches of service by color, and even if you can't see the rank pips you should have a pretty good idea who's who from a distance based on the sleeve braid: enzins have none, looties (and junior looties) have one stripe, looty comders and up have two. Captin Val gets some additional details and doo-dads as well. It might interest you to know that I run a sort of 'KAC' in my head for subplots and the like. Every so often I think "they haven't heard about this in a while" or "so-and-so hasn't had any good lines in three pages" and so I make sure to execute the proper literary maneuver node, as it were. The Forum comments (both in mentioning something, and especially when no one talks about a particular something for a while) are great reminders. I think it would be a lot harder to keep track of all this stuff if I didn't have you fine people along for the journey You know, I thought that was just lens angle at first, but you're right--Bill, what have you done? And hey, does this advanced control of gravity mean the crew will be able to stand up on the bridge while the ship is thrusting? That'd be awesome! Inertial dampers FTW! Actually I had to go pick up Kuzz Jr. from marching band practice so I am just now pouring a glass myself. Vive la science! *clink*

...well, there's ready and there's ready. I'm confident enough in the recent tests to post these pages, but we are probably still a few days from T Z SPACEBAR Appreciate everyone's patience--we'll try to make it worth the wait! Oh, regarding @Aperture Science's suggestion of a welding mod--yeah, it's tempting, but I am going to go without that or KJR etc.. Part of the challenge for me is making this happen with stock parts except for "added degree of difficulty" stuff like life support, and "looks wicked cool" stuff like the crew quarters and bridge viewscreen. In any case, liftoff part count will be under 500. With all the landers docked I think I'll still be under 600, which I understand is significantly less than some Saturn V replicas Anyway, it'll be a great slideshow!

That's Kerbal Animation Suite. It's how @Parkaboy and I do custom poses

Well, the new Qhammer is shorter, lighter, and I think better-looking! It's now a three passenger vehicle which is really all i need (Pilot, science, engineer for mining) It's in the Q-pod and Val is in the simulator First try was... spectacularly unsuccessful. Looks like I will need a couple of engines on Intrepid's belly to supplement the Qhammer's -- not for the thrust, for the balance. Am very confident it will work! Am now thinking, for the first time in a long time, of exactly how to lay out the pages

I am! It's slow and a little wonky, but much better than launching a 2600 ton ship for real! You know what else it was really useful for finding out today? Well, I'm not going to tell you. But it begins with "Q" and it doesn't fit in the ventral cargo bay because somebody misjudged the position of the lower space door assembly.

Yes! That was indeed my day yesterday. 20 minutes, no space. 20 minutes, no space. I really appreciate that, thank you In other news, though... I think we have a winner Still need to test the "land on Minmus with Quadhammer in the belly" but so far things look very promising. PSA: If you've made a hangar deck out of an "unholy assembly of cargo bays", it really helps to close them for launch--and by that I mean "closed the way the physics engine understands closed", not "looks closed but is actually half-open"

Bit of a frustrating day today; booster no longer boosts Intrepid to orbit after 'final' design work. Can't post pictures because I don't want to spoil the real launch, and not going to give details of the attempts because I don't want "help". But never fear, Bill and I will solve this, and the launch will be spectacular!

Big relief, for me. This update is likely going to hit right in the middle of an ambitious Jool mission for me, and I was worried maybe I should delay the launch even further to make sure I would have comm sats in place etc.

BWahahahaaaa! Thanks @Angel-125! Looks like there's just one more part to install, and THEN the bridge will be complete

The 32nd of "when it's done and tested" But unless I've forgotten something (and I almost certainly have!) I just put the last strut on the core ship. Next step is to take out the "assemble in orbit" components, and then I can do a simulated launch. The only major untested bit (and this is really major) is to confirm I can do a belly landing using Quadhammer's engines. ETA: Not going to do a full Bill update today, but here's the front end with all the probes loaded. That's a pair of "Jooldiver" expendable probes in Q-pod (center) and two each Scansat probes in L and R pod. Yes, I realize those look an awful lot like anti-ship missiles. I have no other comment about that at this time

Exactly. And that's why no one can give you the 'formula' for a page layout. Here's an exercise--you might even call it a challenge! Let's see how different artists approach the same page layout problem...what if we start with Jeb and a craft consisting of (from top to bottom) a Mk16 parachute, a Mk1 capsule, a decoupler, an FL-400 fuel tank and a T-30 engine. Tell the story of his suborbital flight, without words. There are no points, there are no winners. Just post your version of the story here for open discussion. I can't do mine right now because I've been working on the Intrepid for the last two hours and am thoroughly burnt out, but I promise that as challenge OP I will certainly make an entry.

For an example of a similar, properly specified challenge that the OP actually deigned to attempt, please see The Ultimate Challenge.

It's going to vary depending on where both planets are in their orbits. If you have something in Kerbin SOI you could target an object around Jool, and get the current distance. One light-second is approximately 300,000km.

No change required! The action group turns on a red-colored light in the bridge, which reminds me I need to make WHOOOOP! WHOOOOP! sound effects

Have enough images, but not too many. Make the portraits big enough, but not too big. Make dialogue long enough, but not too long. Have subplots, but not too many. Foreshadow, but not too much. There aren't actually any rules, Blue, or at least none that are always true for every story and author. Look at comics you like by different writers and artists. See what they do. Know that styles differ, especially among the masters--a Kirby page looks nothing like a Miller page but they're both very, very good. Figure out for yourself what makes good comics good. Do those things that you like, and can execute well. Make art that you want to look at, and the rest can all hang

Shylock Kerman: "Hath not a Kerbal ears?" Salarino Keman: "Um... no?" Shylock Kerman: "Oh! Never mind then."

How fitting! Command Pilot John, Science Officer Paul, Engineer George, and... whatever the heck Ringo is.

Really glad to see you still putting these out and trying to make them better. A few general comments: Make it visually simple. Readers have short attention spans, and we're all competing for the same eyeballs here on the Forum whether we mean to or not. Keeping it simple makes it easier for readers to digest your stories. As an exercise, look at how many different images are on one of my pages, or @Parkaboy's, or other comics here, or any "real" comic or webcomic. Also look at how good comics split the images with panel borders, and how they signal the importance of different images using size and other effects. It's about guiding the reader's eye. I think sometimes there's a lot going on in your pages, a lot of similar images that aren't arranged for my eye to follow, and there's a lot of dialogue to get through. Make the plot simple. I sometimes lose track of just what your kerbs are trying to do; part of it might be the amount of dialogue, part of it might be that you've changed direction a couple of times. It's that attention span thing again. Anything complicated has to be reinforced with constant repetition to lock it into reader's minds... which leads to: Be consistent. I know you want feedback, and you want lots of people to like your comic. But you have to resist the urge to change things around all the time to answer feedback or get more readers. Readers don't follow a comic because you ask them to. You don't get a high number of page views by talking about how many page views you have. You get readers and keep them when your comic becomes a familiar place for them. Again it's all about attention span. Following on to that last bullet, be patient. Nobody can tell you how to make your comic successful. You have to try things out and see how people react--and i don't mean by getting direct feedback and writing notes from someone every time you post, I mean seeing how readers respond naturally to the work, without being prompted. (though I don't mind doing it, it's why I made this thread ) I know it's frustrating when no one replies right away--that's going to happen sometimes. It's why you write for yourself. If you write something you would want to read, odds are there are others out there who will like reading it as much as you do.

Good start, and a neat little biplane! Also: Okayhoma

I'd expect that one of every 27 career saves would get 3 engineers in a row. Another one in 27 would get three pilots. One in eight would get three males, one in eight would get three females. If you consistently get three of anything in a row in all your games, might I recommend a trip to Las Vegas or Atlantic City?

Good points, thanks--yeah I may put the mittens back on, you're right they should have fingers. I guess it's one of those things where you have to decide which is worse Appreciate your help on the NRM--will send you textures once they're somewhat final! Air Service is indeed pilots only. I might keep them grey, or I might try to do something with yellow+brown, evoking a leather jacket if I can. Was thinking of putting their ranks on the left breast (<--here I mean the proper term for the upper forward part of the male or female torso. Let's see what the Forum thinks of that word ) and using the USAF model (i.e. silver oak cluster for Lt. Kernel Jeb, two silver bars for Kapt. Tedus) rather than pips. Nice thing about suit textures is I can always change them after launch. Maybe Bob has a tailor shop somewhere in the science labs... yeah, Bob would be the tailor. Who else? Better idea than just the Bill Space Program flag--thanks!

Tried that--the problem is the model underneath the texture doesn't go away. If the collar is transparent, you just see a black collar shape. Went through that when I put a Mort skin in the trial scenes Possibly! I'll try something like that, the problem is that when you put something over a large area it tends to distort. Hopefully the distinctive dialogue will continue to differentiate, even if the uniforms don't.

I appreciate your faith in me! I can't promise the launcher will look good. I can promise there are enough Mammoths in it to make Mort weep Here's what I'm working on this morning while Kuzz Jr. builds a North Pole base using the new K&K parts... uniforms! I'm still not exactly sure I'm going to do this, but if I do it might look something like this: That's Bob, of course, a Looty Comder in the Science Corps. The suit is based on @GregroxMun's excellent ST-TOS suit pack. Sleeves map really strangely on this model, so I removed the rank braid and went with Next Generation style pips. Took the gloves "off" by making them skin color. Also replaced the Starfleet insignia with a new design Kerbfleet roundel that evokes its shape a bit I really wish I could get rid of that helmet collar, I'd make this a polo shirt or something. Suggestions invited for making this look a little better, and also for making it clearer who's who from a distance. I can't make the rank pips much bigger without them looking ridiculous, and the sleeves are kind of a no-kerbs-land. Also, orange clashes with all the Service Branch colors so veterans are going to lose that...don't worry though, this is just the uniform they wear around the bridge and the habs. Anyone in a lander will have to wear a proper flight suit for safety, and Bob's would still be orange in that case. EVA suits will be standard except I'm adding Gregrox's color-coded helmets. Now this is a Fleet Service uniform, of course--Jeb wouldn't be caught dead in one! So I'm thinking the Air Service guys might never actually take off their flight suits. I mean, ever. If i do make a custom for Jeb and Tedus I probably want it to look more Galactica than Trek anyway--but I don't really have the skills for that.