Jump to content

Eric S

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,589

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Eric S

    For Questions That Don't Merit Their Own Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted · Edited by Eric S
    clairification

    Right, the particles affect the other particles, he's saying that the entire mass of the planet has no effect on any part of the planet according to Newtonian gravitation as described in Principia.  Another reason that I think this is BS is that one of the masses Newton used in his experiment was grain (or was it rice?), and at that point, any "identity" would have to be strictly conceptual.  I can see what's wrong with that logic and I really doubt Newton wouldn't have seen it, but while I've read Principia, I haven't actually studied it in depth, so it's possible I missed something.

     

     

    For Questions That Don't Merit Their Own Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    I think someone is pulling my leg in a discussion on physics, and just wanted to get another opinion, if anyone cares to check my understanding.

    I've read Newton's Principia, and while I don't doubt that we've refined things since then, even disregarding relativity and QM. However, someone's insisting that according to Principia, a forming planet couldn't pull itself into a sphere because Newton's concepts at that time didn't allow a mass to affect itself.  He claimed something about Newtonian mass having the concept of identity.  I think that's BS since Newton himself said that all parts of the 'Earth are attracted to each other.

     

    So what's the next DLC going to be about?

    in KSP1 Suggestions & Development Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Kerbart said:

    A server-driven KSP multiplay environment can be the same thing. It's not about launching whackjob-style spacecraft. It's about cooperating with others, perhaps even competing with others in a team. It also doesn't have to be a single-world server as in World of Warcraft. Maybe you start a new game every month or so, as in Travian. Maybe there's a challenge that launches every week. The winner of the challenge will get some in-game currency (let's call it "space bucks"). A Jool challenge might run in normal time Tuesday to Sunday and will run for 6 hours on 1000× speed (or whatever it takes) on Mondays, automatically executing maneuvering nodes.

    Don't be boring and think of stock KSP when you think of multiplayer. Think of ways to make it possible. Think of opportunities it offers to monetize the game without antagonizing the players. That's what I would do, if I were Squad.

     

    You and I are thinking totally different things when it comes to multiplayer KSP.  I'm thinking personally run servers, you seem to be aiming towards persistent (or at least semi-persistent) centrally operated servers.  I'm just not interested in what you're pitching.  And for what it's worth, to me, KSP already isn't about launching whackjob-style craft.

    And yes, I get the idea that it would be about teamwork.  Get together with friends, plan and start a multi-craft mission to Duna (or Jool, or whatever), get the craft into a transfer orbit, then what, make an appointment with everyone to get back together in several months?  Or schedule it around "warp windows" like you mention?  I can see where getting rid of player-controlled warp might be necessary in shared persistent worlds that spanned more than one group of players, but as I said, not interested.  It would be a case of start something, and then go find something else to do until the game catches up.  Sorry, not living my life around a game.

    It really comes down to that.  The whole timewarp issue is a silly argument in the case of personally run servers, because in that case, warping is not the technical issue that is keeping us from having multiplayer.

    We could argue which method would be more in keeping of the spirit of KSP, but even that misses the point.  It comes down to which method would be more profitable for Take 2.  Speaking for myself, I wouldn't be interested in your idea, and while I'm not going to generalize that too far, you can probably guess that I don't think it would be the more popular implementation.  Which still kind of misses the point, as popular and profitable aren't tightly correlated.

    So what's the next DLC going to be about?

    in KSP1 Suggestions & Development Discussion

    Posted

    On 3/14/2018 at 4:57 PM, Kerbart said:

    Human ingenuity will take care of that. You can launch multiple craft. Clash of Clans has build times of 10 days or more yet it is one of the most popular mobile games; nobody complains it's boring. Besides, why would a one day trip be boring? :)

    Totally different type of game, so I don't think the comparison works.  The problem is that KSP is all about a few precisely timed moments.  It doesn't matter if you don't precisely time your presence for a building completion.  Turning up too late for a capture burn, on the other hand, is bad.  Turning up too late for an intercept maneuver, possibly worse.

    Second, KSP is more about that one mission than CoC is about that one building.  Saying you have to go do something else while your building completes is completely expected in that type of game.  In KSP, that isn't the expectation.

    Finally, yes, I've done other things while waiting for a ship to transfer to the Mun.  The problem is, the only thing that isn't mostly waiting for the right time to do something would be atmospheric flight or launching to orbit.  I'm not that interested in atmospheric flight, and launching non-stop just to have something to do would be intensely mind-numbing.

    Not saying that that kind of game mechanic can't work, just saying that it's not remotely appropriate to KSP.

    Discussion: what are the best ways to reduce launch cost?

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    On 2/5/2018 at 6:06 AM, Tex_NL said:

    Agreed, landing back on the runway/launchpad can be difficult. But stating it will never happen is complete and utter BS ! With a bit of practice and proper design you can land back on the runway/launchpad each and every time.

    I kind of have to agree that 75% recovery rate is pretty low.  I'm disappointed if I don't land close enough to get 97% recovery, and that's with rockets landed via parachute, not even spaceplanes.  Admittedly, I'm burning a lot of fuel so that's not 97% of the actual launch cost.

     

    [1.9.x] Textures Unlimited - PBR-Shader, Texture Set, and Model Loading API

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted

    12 minutes ago, stuChris said:

    i mean, i cant figure out how to get the mod to work in the first place :/ ive installed it like any other mod, but get no difference in-game (am i just an idiot and am missing something?)

     

    I think that's because this mod does nothing by itself, it just allows modders access to the ability.  You need a parts pack or MM patch that has parts or alters parts to use it.

     

    Barycenter

    in KSP1 Suggestions & Development Discussion

    Posted

    You have to be very careful with barycenters in KSP.  If you don't implement n-body physics, barycenters become insanely good spots for burns.  We're talking even without a burn, floating point errors push you to something somewhere beyond light speed.  This is because gravity approaches infinity as you get close to a point source of gravity, and if the barycenter isn't inside a planet, you can actually pass almost directly through it.

    However, someone had an idea for barycenters that overcame that years back, though it never came to fruition, so I suspect there was still something being overlooked.

    While I'd like to see this in KSP, I have to agree that it would be a lot of work for little payoff for normal players.

     

    Your craft nomenclature?

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    I'm not horribly consistent for most things.  I usually use a prefix for the range (LKO, HKO, Local, IP), then the purpose.  Crew Shuttles get a notation x[X] for crew capacity (x8, for example), and if there are DERP pods attached to the outside, A "Rescue x[X]".  Then there's Probe, Lander, CommSat, Lander or CommSat which can get suffixed by "x[X] Bus" if it's carrying more than one lander/commsat.

    Stations/motherships and craft assigned to them don't follow these conventions.  Stationary stations tend to get named after SF Authors, first mobile station gets named Wanderer, and I have yet to have a second.   Tourism Plus Hotels/Casinos get named "Hotel $$$" or "Casino $$$".

    Craft that exist solely to fulfill a contract are named "Contract Work [X]" starting at 1 and going up.

    When launching craft, I'll usually replace the range designation with the destination, so "Mun Crew Shuttle" for example.

    Jettisoning Fairings

    in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials

    Posted

    Depends on the payload.  If it's not too bad, I might drop the fairing between 40 and 50km.  There's a few craft I've launched with payloads consisting of so many tiny radially mounted parts that even dropping the fairing at 65km resulted in noticeable loss of momentum.  Think of a lander bus with nine landers, each lander consisting of 20-30 parts, for example.

    Life Support Mods

    in KSP1 Mods Discussions

    Posted

    I used to play with TAC, currently using USI.  I also used one that predates TAC, but it's been so long I can't remember the name.  I think it was the most common one prior to TAC becoming available.  Not that it matters, development on it stopped a long time ago.

    TAC is highly detailed, but I didn't really find that added anything beyond detail and a few options for corner cases.  On the other hand, it does nothing for living space, which USI does deal with, and that's an interesting mechanic for now.  I may reach the point that it doesn't add much, but I'm not there yet.

    At some point, I'm going to try Kerbalism, but I'm not in any rush to do so.

     

    Cheating Rules

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    I have no qualms with using the debug menu to test something.  I have on occasion used it to fix a bug if I couldn't get around it some other way.  Recently, otherwise stable craft jumping off the surface has been the main trigger for that one.

    Tunnels and Caves?

    in KSP1 Suggestions & Development Discussion

    Posted

    4 hours ago, regex said:

    That's how RSS did it. The frame of reference in Principia may make it appear similar but it is properly tilting the planets. They could not have achieved the 2017 eclipse with such precision when integrating within the game from 1951 without axial tilt.

    Ah, cool, sorry for getting the two confused.

     

    KSP Weekly: The night that turned into day

    in KSP1 The Daily Kerbal

    Posted

    1 hour ago, DMagic said:

    In any event, the solution to GC problems is in better code for stock (does stock KSP have much of a GC problem?) and non-garbage (:wink:) GUIs for mods. Nothing loads up the system with garbage faster than a moderately complex UI, particularly one with lots of separate text fields. There are certainly lots of other sources of garbage, but the UI is the only one that you can't really do anything to fix short of entirely replacing it with the new system.

    I actually agree completely on this point, and my ongui-must-die attitude contributes to most of my "I should write a mod mostly duplicating that mod some day" thoughts, with misc efficiency concerns second, and just wanting to change something coming in a remote third place.

    As I understand it, GC in newer versions of Mono is better, but not hugely so, more a matter of optimizations to the existing routines, so not anything revolutionary or astounding.  I expect writing code that minimizes the amount of garbage generated to be a much more significant factor even with the latest Unity.

    Mobile Version of KSP

    in KSP1 Suggestions & Development Discussion

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Deddly said:

    Are you sure? I've been looking for some benchmarks but can't find any direct comparison.

    The only direct comparison I've found suggesting anything like this, an iPhone (the 8, I think, might have been the X), was beating a low end laptop by about 10-20%.  Given that the same phone stomps all other phones by at least 30% in the same benchmark, I stand by my "too intense for most phones/tablets" opinion.  Even if you take the phones that it was only beating by 30%, you're talking very recent high end phones, so not a significant market share.

    You can't just compare clock frequencies and core counts, which is where I think a lot of this speculation is coming from.

    As for running windows on a Snapdragon, it's a specific snapdragon that has hardware support for the task, not a generic software emulator, and I haven't seen any benchmarks of said Snapdragon running Windows software.  So not proven practical, and again, not something that will provide significant market share at this time.

     

    Translating between KSP and IRL

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    Actually, as I understand it, kerbal engines are underpowered, it's the scale of the solar system that makes them feel overpowered.  RL rocket engines have higher TWRs, real life fuel tanks have a lower dry mass.  Of course, kerbal engines also have a lot of simplifications and abilities that real life engines tend not to have, like infinite restarts and infinite throttleability.

×
×
  • Create New...