softweir

When something goes wrong in KSP, it goes wrong because I got something wrong. (Bugs excepted!) Either I didn't understand something, or I miscalculated, or I fluffed a manual operation. There are no random number generators making it easier or harder, no other players playing silly burgers, and no arbitrary and fiendish puzzles that demand I remember some chalked graffito from three levels back that was supposed to give me the clue. It's just me against physics!

OMG, they boast you can run the original Apollo navigation software in emulation! That out-geeks even Orbiter! Incidentally, this really ought to be in The Junkyard, not General. Over it goes!

Since the game is still in alpha development, there will always be the chance that the next update will break savegames. However, if you buy from the KSP store rather than Steam then it is possible to retain old versions, and when an update comes along you can copy the latest version and update the copy. As other people have said, it is quite common for people to junk old savegames and start over with new strategies, using new parts and game mechanics. I rarely bother to keep savegames after updates as I am usually too busy trying out the new stuff. A warning: while you can carry old ships over, this may not apply if they depend on third-party mods as those quite often break or need changing when updates come out. Do buy this: if you keep waiting for "the next update" then you will be waiting forevger, and you will miss the Steam sale currently on.

Turn on your webcam and set it to record - I think I'd like to see your reaction when you do so! There isn't an option in the Settings to disable the confirm dialog is there? I don't remember ever seeing one...

I don't know about other people (I was only seven at the time) but it caused me to feel an intense, silent excitement. I didn't talk about it that I remember, but I did watch avidly.

I saw it on the Egosoft forums and started playing in July 2011, long before there was such a thing as a demo (or maybe when it was ALL demo?) and bought it as soon as it became available. Lotsa fun!

The player has to ride with every launch, whether he controls the rocket/spaceplane or uses MechJeb or other autopilot. If each and every launch took 15 minutes then the game would become a lot more frustrating, and I suspect the planned Career Mode would grind to a halt! KSP needs to have the shorter launch times, and the only simulator-friendly way is to have smaller planets. Incidentally, many shots of the ISS are taken from some distance using telephoto lenses, which is a photography practice which tends to exaggerate the size of background objects - in this case, the Earth. Earth looks less impressive in photos taken from the ISS using wider-angle lenses.

There is already a thread for this in the proper place - The Junkyard.

I found two that are near KSC by driving an early, rocket-propelled rover around. I also found a Mun-arch on the Mun by looking down from very low orbit, though it took a very long time to land a ship anywhere near it! Later on I used ISA MapSat to scan for the others, and the Muon detector to get close to them. Much less work!

"Experimentals" means the Volunteer Guinea-Pig Testers will get to look for bugs the developers missed. The length of this phase is variable, and depends on how many bugs are found and how tough it is to fix them.

Very nice! I'm going to have fun trying that out. A suggestion: perhaps you could move the source .cs file out to the upper level of the .zip file so it doesn't get copied into user's installations? That would also make it more obvious, and avoid people thinking you were withholding the source. Thanks for this, it looks great!

You should be able to see a right-hand-side side-bar on the front page of the forum. At the top are various articles such as KSP Weekly, below that is a list of recent blogs. Keep an eye on those! if you can't see the side-bar then you may have turned it off at some stage. turn it back on by clicking on the double-chevron button on the right-hand edge, near the top.

I agree the chances are small, but they are never zero, and it is worth applying a bit of hope-dampening to a thread to reduce the punters' disappointment in the event something should go wrong. Things *DO* go wrong! I have no particular reason to believe the mentioned features will drop out, but it is always safest to avoid getting too excited about things at this early stage. As for videos: it is very easy to create a video of that sort without extensive testing. How well does it work while docking - do the two ship go insane and smash each other to bits at the first bump? How well does it work when the player switches away from and back to a ship with SAS - does the ship go totally insane and fall apart? If a large impulse such as imbalanced engines occurs, does the SAS cause the game to crash? That sort of bug can be seriously game-breaking while at the same time slipping through the superficial testing evidenced by the video. I would assume and expect C7 *DID* that sort of test! All I am saying is that a video is no *PROOF* he did, and doesn't count as irrefutable confirmation that a feature will make the release.

Squad are also hoping to put in the new and improved SAS which will go a very long way to improving the stability of craft and reducing RCS fuel consumption, and will also improve player control over craft. Read C7's Blog entry on SAS for more info.

NONE of these are confirmed! Any number of these aforementioned features might be pulled because the devs discover they are hopelessly broken, quite possibly right at the last moment before release. They are being worked on and it is intended and hoped that they will appear, but "intended" and "hoped" are not the same as "promised", still less are they the same as "confirmed". @ O.P.: Nothing has been confirmed. As KasperVid said a lot higher up, confirmation only happens at the point of release. What you see in the release announcement is the first solid confirmation anybody gets. EDIT: A thought: It is unlikely, but it has been known in the industry for broken features to be removed by an emergency patch. So even the release notes can't be read as confirmation, 'cos that lovely feature you were hoping for might be snatched away from your grasping paws before you have barely had time to discover for yourself how broken it was!

Don't take that comment too much to heart. I'm afraid you rather invited the "elitism" accusation when you used the phrase "noob storm". The rest of your Original Post was good and helpful (though on the pessimistic side) but one ill-judged phrase negated much of that. One has to be careful about that sort of thing!

They do absorb shocks to some extent, and they are tougher than many other rocket parts so won't break quite so easily!

Furthermore, stuff like this isn't about KSP the game, it is about real-world science and belongs in The Science Labs. Locking this one.

Ion drive wouldn't work. To achieve enough thrust that we cold measure the change of orbit, the drive would have to use many times more electrical energy than we generate. Even then, the Earth's atmosphere would slow the ions down and the magnetosphere would bend the beam round so it was absorbed by the Van Allen belt, and there would be zero net thrust. On their way, the high-energy ions would cause massive atmospheric ionisation and generate huge amounts of ozone, and would be an environmental catastrophe. Also, the ion engine would only be pointing in the "right" direction for a few minutes each day.

To get back On Topic: Long before any shuttles were launched, NASA tested their flight and landing characteristics by launching Enterprise from the back of a 747. It may be that which the O.P. read about

To add to what Sirrobert said, the "tearing" in stretched muscles is often because muscle fibres are not of even length, and those which are shorter can become overextended and damaged during an excessive stretch. The fix is to stretch the muscle under moderate load a few times a day, then increase the load and the extent of the stretch - this stimulates the shorter fibres to extend without doing undue damage.

You do know the ISA maps can be copied from one installation to another?

This isn't about KSP, so is best in Junkyard. Over it goes!

^ ^ Indeed. I think this one can be allowed a merciful death.

Slight exaggeration there -RanZ-, but a few people have seen this news and created their own threads! The proper place for threads like this is in the Science Labs, and the current thread for this item is HERE.