Mr. Scruffy

I think i´d just freak out. Is that pic from celestia? If so, keep going outward, to the rim of the galaxy, till you see fewer and fewer stars, and then keep clicking out some more. If you dont freak out then, you probably dont get what i mean. If you do, that would be it / 100 or so. Personally, i think i´d opt for golfing on Mars, or maybe just throwing some rocks. Preferably on the ´face´, between the ´pyramids´. Seriously, i bet there is a billionaires´ amusement park up there already! EDIT: As someone already said: Pics of the places you suggest, from ground preferably, would be cool.

´This has actually been "somewhat" proven by using a situation where a ball is sent through a wormhole so that it time travels back and hits itself before it goes in the wormhole, causing a paradox.´ What if it became a matter of those probabilities in which state you´d find the ball after it had fallen back thorugh before it entered the hole? So: The ball falls into the hole, it bounces back on the other side, reenters the hole - and then what? It doesnt come back into our reality as a ball, it comes back as a probility wave. It might rematerilize in myriad of random ´creational´ events in a trillion different locations. The rule is: ´Dunno where and when it has to go? Split it up and throw a million dice´

Yeah, Vel, i dont see the issue with observed order of events either. Wouldnt breaking casuality and the paradox be caused by something that would bring back information about an event to the place where it takes place, before it happens? If that was possible, then, in the end, two events would have taken place at exactly the same spacetime. That would imply a multi-layered nature of it: At least one of the dimension would have to be two (or more) ´in disguise´. It´d be like savegames in video-games, beyond which you have already played. But, i´d know a type on universe, in which this would work. A totally deterministic one, in which ´free will´ is just an illusion: The Universe wouldnt have to go BSOD, if everything was happenening the way it must, anyways ; if spacetime is a static picture painted over god-knows-how-many dimensions. Time travel, then, even when going all SF-warp-drive, is a mere curve that the universe as a whole (seen over time) had always featured, has nothing decisive about it, and is just a looping upwards on an otherwise flat track. Philosophically speaking, this might be a struggle over wether what ever created the universe took all the freedom and thus allowed us unconcious time-travel, but not the ability to decide or change anything in its grand static picture, or wether there is freedom for us in it, and the ability choose your pens´ paths, but only one each and for all. Personally: I tend to believe in this determinstic version, and so tend to believe that free will might be a mere illusion, psycholigally somehow required to keep us scientients from going nuts. Which is the reason why i also tend to not implore too deep on the matter. I read Nietzsche - but only the first 100 pages or so. Then it went on my ´poison shelf´. He might be right - that´s why nobody should read what he wrote. BIG EDIT: Maybe the part of physics that we call ´quantum physics´, with all its probabilities and uncertainties is caused by the few (wholly deterministic) time-travels within the whole of spacetime and the in-reality also determinsitic causes for its phenomena hidden in the ´layers´ those travels cause (will have caused, will have had caused, did cause... - doesnt matter). So: Our 4D-universe didnt know probabilities and chance until something, someone, information or whatever travels back in time (as was bound to happen). From that time of destination on then, there is another layer ´close to´ the original one. Those two interfere in a seemingly random fashion (when seen from only one side). This happens a couple of times (still, when seen across all, predetermined to happen) and you end up with a universe which consists out of, say, 10 dimension, 6 of which are just tinily curled up and interfere with the rest only in a way which cannot be determined from yonder and seems random from ´the other side´. Then, Quantum Physics phenomena could not be predicted precily, because their cause is in the future. Schrödingers cat would have been put in the box by someone traveling backwards in time. The by-many postulated multiverse just diffuses to a probability field in our reality. Rambling on: Or maybe all this random stuff in physics is just proof that someone, sometime will have almost succeded in traveling backwards through time - the closest anyone ever got. The attempt was to initiate a negative-time phase-freeze that would allow the traveler to ´drop back´ in time. The calcs proofed wrong though, and the freeze didnt propagate into greater volumes. Instead, it stayed on tiny scales and propagated backwards through time agressively. And now, a billion years earlier, we got this mess we call quantum physics, dark matter and whatnot. (Pro-SF-authors: To the Helm!)

Plus: ´Thorium fuel cells´ is a tech in Master of Orion II.

Hmmm... it seems to also have something to do with info-density... I was just thinking: I could form a sentence with shadows and make that sentence scroll over a surface with >c. But by just having the (original cardbox-orwhatever) letters magnified, i dont get any additional info across (per time-unit). Hmmm. Probably the hardware running our universe can only cope with certain amount of info per (hyper-)volume of spacetime - or else the program hangs.

As a standard user with below-average information background i can clearly forsee the following sequence of expansion packs, after KSP will have been released as 1.0: - ´Next Generation´ - Sort of a super patch. Not much new content, but multithreading and better GPU utilization (DX11 and such). Will make the 1.0 version look sort of rediculous. - ´Deep Space´ - A pack of hand-designed solar systems to visit + a couple of new parts (esp. station related) to help you do this - ´Voyaging´ (alt:´Voyagers´) - Procedurally generated systems, in a quality close to hand-designed ones, comprise a whole galaxy for players to explore. A storyline taking the player ever further out. - ´(Early) Enterprises´ - Taking the player back to the beginnings of kerbal flight, this one isnt so much about space, but about flight pioneering (ca. 1900-1960, on earth). Challnges include things like cross-oceanic flights and such. I mean, it´s obvious, isnt it?

That´s what i thought. That´s just God trying to be funny, it seems. Since it also seems the first time He ever tried that, i´d say: ´Not bad... not bad at all...´ Or in a polythestic version: Maybe whitening and plugging flags on unpopulated worlds is the past time of the gods - sort of like bowling. And that´s why all sentient species have this urge to plant them. It´s all this universe is about, ultimately. Intelligence just serves to qualify as devine bowling-monkeys.

All these points may be valid - but still wouldnt stop a good salesman from selling the idea...

BTW, i think i can think of something that can be faster than light: Shadow. An object close to a light source and far from a projection plane, travelling way slower than c could have it shadow moving across the projection plane at a speed >c - or could it?

I appreciate your efforts and i think i learned something. Also, i dont wanna come off as someone stating that warp-drives and such were possible. But, i think i once saw on TV (and it seemed creditable - this wasnt some cheap station or entertainment show) that they did have a very shortrange but still instantanious transmission set up via ´tunneling´. As i understand it, that effect occurs when you force something through an ever narrowing tunnel, which it has to pass, but at some point cant anymore. At that point it ´jumps´ - instantaniously to a new location, which seems to be determined by a probability-curve favoring proximity. So, for long-range communication, the signal would rely heavily on relays, re-emitting to signal, as to not have it lose its strength. I think i have also read something like this in a computer magazine back in 1986, in an article discussing super-computers of the future. ...if that effect could be converted to bigger sized objects somehow, facilitating humans to travel faster than light, it would be sort of ironic, as you could not predict your location (with certainty and precision) after the flight. You (or someone else?) mentioned that the speed of light is sort of a misnomer and it should be called the speed causality instead. But maybe reality is shaped by more than a 4D-causaulity. I mean: If there really is no reason why a FTL-particle ends up in a specific location, if it cannot be predicted by any means within your spacetime - is its movement a matter of causuality?

Uh, yeah, never thought of that unique property of the shuttles. Makes a lot of sense. Just shooting down Sputnik XXVII would be sort of lame and not much better than pouting - but stealing the thing, picking it right from the skies and bringing it home for investigation and as trophy, now that´s sort of cunning and ´in your face´. Then put an US-flag on it and write in front of its name tag on the chassis: ´The probe formelly known as...´ and relaunch it.

Space-Camper in my head... moneywise seems plausible...

I think a belated medal of kerbality is in order.

Work on more humorous newspaper articles and spokeman-quotes and such and get squad to implement them in one form another. Since this thread really isnt about anything specific, i´ll just rant away a bit: I really think KSP should stay with the jibberish language (backward spanish?). It should feature cut-scenes. And a number of those should feature a particular spokeman, who needs to be modeled very well, in appearance, style, gesture and the way he spins things. Sort of clumsy on all four accounts, probably. Maybe he should smirk and squint whenever he´s telling a lie, like a certain president in the past (dont want to spur political debate here, but i swear i could tell everytime he did that), or raise both thumbs, like another. I dunno. Anyways: He´ll need subtitles for various occassions. Since he´ll be the guy having to sell the failures as ´unexpected outcomes of experiments, which ended up yielding far more knowledge than had previously been expected of them´, those occassions will mostly include bad stuff. So, bringing this post back to its beginning: Work on those subtitles. Edit: Ranting on: The main thing about that spokesperson is, that he needs to be very ´see-through´, with nervous ticks and behaviour-patterns that are very easy to pick up, while he himself sees himself as very cunning and the pinnacle of smooth-talk. The fun part is, that he does a great job, since the kerbals buy it... You need to work suspension here: Say, at you news-conference cut-scene, an unpleasent question comes up. Mr. Spokesman hestitates for a bit. Puts on a thoughtful face, as the camera starts to move close up. Then he starts to squint - camera keeps closing up, guy keeps squinting harder and harder - almost as if he was trying to hypnotize his audience with closed eyes. Since you have picked up by now, that he squints everytime he´s about to present more-than-questionable facts, you are really out on suspense by now: What sort of frog-prince is he gonna pull out of his hat now. And then comes the most obvious and blatant BS, that just makes you snort or giggle or rofl or whatever, followed by a second of silence... the audience is shown as it stands there, frozen, digesting what the spokesman said. And when they are done with that, all unisono, they start to cheer and jubilee, cause, hey, you heard it! It will make you think wether the subs are translated correctly or wether you just misread what the guy said - cause remember they are all talking jibberish - you only get to read subs. EDIT2: The kerbals need to be like sheldon cooper when he gets told that ´it isnt what it looks like.´

Hehehe. That´s something for the devs to consider. Allow the player to dedicate any designed contraption as ´honary salute´ and have it fire after a kerbal´s demise. For the ´lulz´, as they say.

At OP: I think that feeling is quite normal and common, just the impression triggering it seems to vary a bit from person to person. For me, it´s stars and vast empty spaces. For that reason, i can not make myself stay for long in programs like celestia (esp. when i keep going towards the edge of the milky way or zoom on to a star) and only had a brief look at space engine. And that´s just sitting in front of a screen. I would have never expected such a strong emotional reaction on my part due to this, had i not tried it. It really makes me wonder who had to bear more stress: The guys landing on the moon, or the ones staying in the orbiter, going around the ´dark´ side with no radio contact.

I said it before, i will say it again: They are all kermans. So what do you expect? (Being ´kerman´ myself, i may make this joke)

You can alter the size of the navball in the settings.

TNG was on TV after school for me, too, when i was in class ~8 to 10, maybe? Incidentally, Capt. Picard (Patrick Stewart) reminded me a lot of my english teacher (bold and all that - what i didnt know back then, the original voice of Stewart is not too remote from what my teacher´s was as well) and i went from D to A within half a year (test results: D,C,B,A - the obvious tendency got me a B for the semester). Captain, my Captain... ;D So, yeah, i loved TNG and would like to watch it again, though, i suppose it has aged quite a bit, by now. TOS is something that had already aged quite a lot by the time TNG aired. So i never took it seriously, really. Always thought of Kirk as some sort of gun slinging revolver hero from the wild west transplanted into future space (and i still think this must have been the basic idea behind the show - or what the producers made of it, anyways). DS9 annoyed me by its religious content to the point of quiting before it got cool (or so i heard). It was probably the most soap-operary as you had to follow the show to get what was going on. In that sense, it wasnt hard to get away from it: Miss half a season and you´ll be lost (pun intended). Voyager was too much ´whatever the challange, whatever the risk, we take it, and we will succeed´. Need a warpcoil? No problem, lure some bork (borg?) in and steal it from them. Easy... Janeway had a muntinious crew under her, and yet, whatever suicidal plan she came up with, everyone just clacked their heels. Heck, it even had the annoying alien, otherwise trademark of the Star Wars franchise - or at least that´s what Neelix was for me. And Chekoteh considers himself to be of native american origin? Okay, ST is about visions and stuff. It´s a society without money (or payment for crewmen at least). I can take that. But i find it very hard to believe, that someone in the 23rd (?) century will make a big thing out of his remote ´indian´ ancestry. ENT is the one going back, where it all belonged, to me. Taking the pioneering time into focus was an excellent choice over going further forward in a timeline, that VOY had basically spoiled beyond recovery and in which everything had become possible. The first two season were en par with TNG´s episodes´ average quality, but the series really took off in season 3 and 4 (esp. the former), telling a season-spaning story of mystery and unknown, featuring multiple conflicts, in- and outside the crew. Season 3 is the stuff, which will make you dig up your old copy of ´Starflight´ or ´Star Control II´, again, or send you frantically looking for anything more modern like that, for hours. ´The ancients´, the ´Ur-Quan masters´ and ´the sphere builders´ are from the some league of awesome space-opera. The movies: IV is the worst, VIII is the best. Havent seen XII, yet. About XI (´Star Trek´): I liked the action, the pacing, the visuals (the bridge looked just as outlandishly shiny and clean as in the dream i once had about ít). I didnt like the story. You know, how you can sort of link contemporary people on earth to star trak´s races, right? So, in ´Star Trek´ (XI), they made the vulcans the jews, and being german, i now always feel sort of guilty seeing vulcans. I dont like that at all. Aside of that, the vulcans have always been a defining thing of Star Trek, the ones that helped mankind along its first steps into deep space, and now they are sort of gone. I mean, that´s like uhem... well... uh... just Star Trek without vulcans (or a coca-cola logo that has neither white nor red in it). They were the one race, where almost all nerds would agree ´they are better than humans - not inherently but because they deserve it, in contrast to humans´. And they simply blew them away, made them failed victims, sort of. Bad ego? Cant they be something unhuman to look up to?

Yeah, i know, the similarities are only striking on first view and dont survive the second look. But anyways... hope you´ll all think of KSP now, when watching ze add, instead of :´OMG, how am i gonna make sure things stay this nice - who am i gonna make pay for any possible f-up that might happen?´. Though, the add does have something jeb-bish about it. I am still not convinced the person who contrived it, was not inspired by KSP (but Star Trek alone).

First off: I am not gonna name the company or link to the commercial in question. I guess that´s not really needed anyways, cause probably any german KSP-player who also happens to watch TV from time to time, will have noticed the Star-Trekie ship taking off from Laythe orbit (with Jool on the right and Kerbol in the upper left corner) in that particular TV-spot. Lawsuit? ;P

You can angle parts in 5° increments using the shift-key in the VAB, in stock KSP. With that, you can, for example, aim to 45° - but wont be able to change the angle once it´s on the pad.

Strange interpretation of language, there, imho. The planet is the point of reference, hence, by definition, standing still, while the smaller object is moving within that frame of reference, defined by the planet. Hence, to my understanding, the ship is indeed always the ´active´ part in the collision, if one insisted on making a difference between the two.

Well, they are all Kermans, after all, arent they? Kermans never change... ;P

A page ago, someone said that the devs should grow a thicker skin in regards to death theats and such as those wont get carried out anyways. I think, that regardless of the actual severity of the threat itself, a dev that reads such a reaction to the software he made, and potentially is accissible for free, can not really help but to linger into philosophical thoughts about what he´s actually doing to that person. I mean: Something is obviously going wrong, and devs probably starts to ponder his role in that. Even though it may entirely not be his fault. You set out to entertain people (and make some money with it) and end up as some sort of drug-dealer, who got someone so hooked up with his stuff, that he indulges in death-threats over perveived lack of quality of it?! Shouldnt these youngsters rather do something entirely different after all? Or is it too late? I can only imagine that this can be depressing. Trying to think of a name of some inventor with totally peacefully intentions inventing something that turned out to be a terrible weapon to put an -esque, behind it. So it´s not just about ´oh my god! The last nerf put me on 20 more teenie-deathlists all across five continents - i am a dead man´, but rather about ´what exactly am i doing?´. The dev may not actually consciously go through these thoughts, i´d imagine, but it just feels depressing, instead, i guess.