Accelerando

Can't say anything for sure because I haven't played KSP more than sporadically this year, and haven't actually tested framerate or controlled for background programs much  but the game certainly feels slower on my 08 Macbook. Smoother, but slower.

It's terribly ironic how you are so content with shunting someone else's wishes for the game on the basis that they would like the game to meet those wishes, while you clearly have a such a wish of your own in that the simulation shouldn't change from what you deem "good enough".

While trying to write a character sheet for a game I wanted to know how to find how much energy a human being would use in order to carry a weight on, say, their back. Since there appears to be no work done if I regard the human as a solid mass, how can I calculate how much energy the muscles are spending to keep the body in this position? Google yielded no informative results.

It wouldn't be that difficult. There's a rudimentary plate tectonics-based map generator by Laurence Mann on Sourceforge, and a thread on Gamedev.net. Edit:

Yeah, we really should have some more clandestine way to keep in contact... Would you like to try some private forum?

BLOC was a politics game about being a little banana republic. Would you all like to meet up on Skype or Steam or something to that effect? We can see each others' messages quickly.

Aye, feeling like you have no patience for configuring KSP, reconfiguring, getting nothing done, your own frustration compounding on itself. Specially with mods. I quit a lot. Haven't played much. Alamo, it's not just if you've "just tried" deleting the mod in question or "just verified". Downloading and unpacking and installing a bunch of mods is time consuming, especially if it's something that fiddles with files in other mods or stock parts, especially if you're on an older computer like mine that takes 5 to 30 minutes to boot KSP sometimes. It's not that big a deal, but it is frustrating, so sometimes the best thing to do is just to quit.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=233343263

Build something pyramid-shaped to land on somewhere, a Laythe base! Wide base, low profile, keep stuff easily struttable.

That's beautiful.

Turn off crew respawn. Murder them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Lackner_HZ-1_Aerocycle I was reading that one thread in the spacecraft exchange.

Carbon! It's black gold.

Galacticraft is a great concept! Indeed, I hope they will make flying in space more interesting  given the way Space Stations and other worlds are handled as separate dimensions, it could have something like Starbound's planned space combat system, kinda?

Maneuver the city with sails, and fins, if it's possible for them to be light enough while catching enough wind and resisting the elements.

There's a flipside to that: unless this other interstellar species is the first in the Milky Way to have left their world in the 13 billion years since the formation of the Universe, which they could never truly verify, using a relativistic weapon is going to cause an enormous explosion that will be impossible to cover up to anyone else with an arsenal. Violent or not, they would be signing their own death warrants.

Nebulae Nuclear thermal or nuclear electric?

Gas envelope cells could be tethered together, with CNT or carbyne if that becomes available. In this way we could have a fairly lightweight support structure that keeps the cells together while allowing them to maintain distance enough that they could be serviced by maintenance airships, or some kind of cable-climber. Equipment, habitats, hang underneath the balloon web.

4ly would probably be around the edge of possibility for receiving undirected radio broadcasts from one system or other. Beyond that, radio signals fade into the cosmic background noise, as the signal spreads out and becomes more disparate due to inverse square law. That said, the more technologically capable society would be more likely to detect the lesser society first, partly because of better detection technology, partly because their transmissions would not be as powerful due to that detection technology. When the lesser society starts broadcasting around the globe, they will need to send more powerful signals to be received clearly, whereas the greater society will have the benefit of advances and infrastructure. Thus it would be likely that the capable society makes contact first. Fear vs acceptance will come down to culture and diplomacy, with violence and rejoicing coming much later if they come. Violence because sending weapons across the stars would be a major feat for either species if we're talking about a century of difference in human terms, rejoicing because sending any aid across the stars is going to be just as difficult, though rejoicing might be more likely if the local culture really likes the idea of aliens. And the less capable society is going to be more likely to feel fear, at first, due to the technology disparity. In the long run, I think violence is a less likely outcome than ambivalence or rejoicing. Developing technology for interstellar travel will probably obviate any need one side will have for the other's resources, simply because if you have the technology to either survive for centuries-long journeys without issue (generation ship) or send military hardware across the stars in enough time that the enemy won't be able to see it and then build their own defense fleet (torchships bordering on fantasy, or FTL travel) then you don't need anything physical that the enemy could provide. On the other hand, a war of ideologies is possible given a very imperialistic society on one side or both. Whether or not this would happen would depend on how quickly one side advances with respect to the other, since developing technology, building, and targeting relativistic weapons could allow the other side ample time to build their own, and with a 4ly information delay, there's no telling whether if you launch yours, you've just ensured your own destruction. Another possibility that could tie in with this is technology trade  for one, the two worlds could benefit from sharing scientific and engineering data. They could also choose to broadcast no technology-related information, to keep the other side from benefitting. What do you all think?

It's not that dark. It would indeed look badass.

Yes, a space program can have real meaning to a wizard. Why wouldn't it? The ability to cast spells with your fingers or by writing in ink on parchment paper or whatever doesn't have any impact on how useful it is to be able to tool around the stars, doesn't take away the experience of exploring a new world, or the benefit of being able to harvest from other worlds. Ultimately, it's another way to get there, do that... and might even be more interesting to explore the consequences.

It's interesting. I like the idea of a Victorian-era society branching in a different direction from that which it took in our own time, especially under a universe with different physical laws. I also like the idea of exploring a technological route alternate to our own, in itself. The most steampunkish thing I have ever read is Karl Schroeder's Virga series, specifically Queen of Candesce  which offers an intriguing hard SF take on steamy, dieselesque worldbuilding.

From my own experiments, you need your landing legs to clip into at least one active reaction wheel or have one in the vicinity of the legs if not touching them, ~1m away  in the latter case, a big structural part beneath the legs can be touching the legs instead. R-wheels provide the torque to jitter the spaceship around and generate forward motion. Largest and smallest landing legs can be used. Not sure about the mid-size, or rover parts/aircraft gear. I've been able to make assemblies that wobble a lot, but no linear motion.

Yes! Must save the little greenies!

I would like to see a carefully-crafted world, and characters, consistent at least to some degree. Well thought-out, realistically considered settings that fit their characters and vice-versa are, I find, much more interesting than following the same old SFnal tropes that have been rehashed fifteen billion times over the past 40 years. More rantingly, I would love to see a realistic SF story that has, ah, heart. Glory and terror and the troubles with going out and exploring the cosmos are nice themes, but I think they are a bit overrated as subjects of focus for sci-fi. Not everybody in a world will live in great glory or terror or experience the tribulations of being a pioneering explorer on some world virgin to the advances of humankind, nor are those the only stories that have the capacity to be interesting. Many people are just going to be living their lives out in a very different world from our own, however different the world is from ours because of technology and social forces of the setting. I would love to see some stories that tell the less overtly adventuresome side of the world of tomorrow, or an alien planet, or whatever, fleshing out the world.