Specialist290

Wow, I actually influenced someone's artistic vision with an off-the-cuff remark! That's one check mark for the bucket list. I'll probably have to revise the entry that says "Visit the USSR before I die," though.

Some mods like MechJeb, Kerbal Engineer Redux, and most of those in Romfarer's Lazor system also add extra GUI elements, too, so it could be one of those. Either that, or you've got a copy of the old (0.13.3) demo.

To clarify the original statement a little for the benefit of our non-American readership: "Because Russians don't vote in American presidential elections and thus can't be bribed with subsidies by the party in power."

So are we ever going to see Freya in an honest-it's-not-a-CF-105-the-rumors-that-one-prototype-escaped-destruction-are-totally-not-true-etc.?

Since this seems to be the new designated thread for random madness:

IIRC, the " + / - " coordinates on the kethane map translate to "north / south" or "east / west" (axis-dependent) in the ISA system. Otherwise, the numbers themselves are the same.

A few shots from my first landing back in 0.18.x (don't remember if it was .2 or .4 at the time): Didn't catch any from the return trip, unfortunately, so you'll have to take my word for it that Jebediah and Bill got back safely.

Not entirely sure if this is the right place to post this, but I figured I would, since this is the designer's thread. I'm having an issue with the Jool V fuel tanks and stock ladders. Whenever I try to climb down a series of ladders attached to the side of a Jool V large tank -- specifically, when going from the static rung ladders to the deployable folding ones -- my kerbalnauts keep getting killed. The flight log tells me that they're somehow crashing into the fuel tank whenever they try to go from one ladder to the other. Going from rungs on the 2m-3m adapter to a fold-out ladder on the fuel tank? *poof* From rungs to fold-out, both on the fuel tank? *poof* Letting go of the rungs, then trying to catch the ladder? When he reaches the top of the fold-out ladder, *poof* I've tried reproducing the issue on all-stock setups, but everything works without any problems on those. It seems to be isolated to the Jool V parts. Any help y'all could give me would be greatly appreciated EDIT: In case it helps, here's a pic of the craft in question, although the screenshot is from a version from before I added the ladders.

Unlikely, since he says he still has control over the rest of the ship after he separates the affected stage.

Alternatively, use more than one LV-N on your rig. It'll bring your total delta-v down just a little bit, but not quite as much as using a higher-thrust engine.

She's cute, but those irisless eyes keep making me think she's going to come after me with a knife.

So was mine, actually (The bit about writing the story, not the questions.) ...Although if I do write that story after all, do I have permission to use those lines you just posted? Some of them are just pure gold. As to the "writing without including the tedious aspects": I actually did address that (or thought I did). EDIT: Checking back, it looks like I only thought I did, so I'll do it now: You don't have to write like a travelogue and detail absolutely every single little happenstance. You can suggest the daily routine through establishing scenes by showing what the characters are doing, then "skip ahead" to the next interesting thing that happens. It's the same logic as to why movies show montages of clock hands spinning on walls and cameras of public places cranked to show things running at 100 times normal speed instead of actually forcing you to watch several hours or days of the characters in the drama doing nothing related to the plot at all. EDIT2: And also, for that matter, why KSP itself has Time Acceleration controls. The important thing, though, is that you focus the most attention on the things that are relevant to the plot. And while I'm editing this post for one reason, might as well address something else: @SecondGuessing: I hold a liberal arts degree myself (B.A. in History -- no specialty, my college wasn't large enough to really diversify), so I can appreciate where you're coming from. I'll try to take a different tack in light of that. Let's say one author writes a book -- in any genre -- where the characters were all cliched, one-dimensional stereotypes because the author couldn't be bothered to invest in characterization. Now let's say that another author writes another story, in the same genre and following the same broad outline, who writes relatable characters with complex motives and realistic interactions, to the point where you could genuinely imagine them as real people. Which book would you rather read? (EDIT2: Here's two concrete examples of what I'm talking about. Thanks again, TV Tropes!) The whole point of this discussion is along that same train of thought, only with regard to setting instead of characterization. I'm not saying the cookie-cutter stories are necessarily bad -- some of them can even be enjoyable, until you stop and think about them -- but I am saying that, generally, some respect for and attention to realism (in all aspects of a work, not just the scientific ones) is generally better.

I'm going to out myself as another player of Minecraft, although I'm not active in the community; I just play the game and occasionally join a few private servers associated with other websites I frequent. It's a fun way to kill some time and just do whatever. While I'm sure the Minecraft community has its own bad examples (as any game with a sizable fanbase is guaranteed to attract just by virtue of Sturgeon's Law), I'm not so sure that people in ours being so quick to judge makes our community look any better. That said, I don't think KSP should try to become the "next Minecraft" or the next anything else. The game has stood and will stand on its own terms.

I'd suggest getting your financial situation worked out before worrying about the game. If you're old enough to apply for a part-time job, I'd suggest looking for work in the local area. Keep track of your expenses, and think about what you really need and how you can take care of that before anything else. Set aside a little money for emergencies, and then a little more as "spending money," then maybe set aside a little bit of that towards your "KSP fund" and don't touch it unless your emergency money runs out. Once you have enough saved up, then buy the game. It's not going anywhere in the meantime. The fun part is, this little trick works for just about anything else as well.

It's just the nature of the Beast. No matter what subject you discuss, you'll always have those on one side saying "More realism means less fun!" and those on the other saying "More realism is fun!" I tend to fall towards the latter camp, but I'm willing to acknowledge that in some cases you can have something that's fun without being realistic, and in others you can have "Acceptable Breaks from Reality" for the sake of a good story. I just think the ideal situation is to be both fun and realistic. There are plenty of things in this world that are both realistic and not fun at all, which is why we have media in the first place.

Nicely done. I'm especially impressed with how you used in-game parts to model the alien ship.

Nicely done! Another one for the "Clever Ideas I Need to Copy Someday" pile.

As with all stories, it depends on how you spin it. Is the sextant-reading itself exciting? Not necessarily. But from a storytelling perspective, let's consider a few things: -- How does the character taking the readings go about it? Does he do it by-the-book, or does he ignore protocol and do it his own way? If he's challenged by someone else who thinks differently, how does he respond? -- Our minds tend to wander when we're doing mundane, routine tasks. What is he thinking about while he's taking the readings? What does that say about him as a character? -- Why is he specifically, and not some other character, taking the reading? Is he the most qualified to do it? If not, why him, and not someone else? -- What if he notices something that's different from what he's expecting? How does he react? What's the first thought that crosses his mind, given what he knows about his job? If he tells someone else, how do they react, both to the information and to the character for revealing it? -- What does everything the characters do say about who they are as people? Answering those questions, in any genre, is the bread-and-butter of storytelling. Attention to detail is ultimately in service to the plot itself, but ideally you want a good plot and well-researched details. You seem to be implying, if I'm interpreting your argument correctly, that it's impossible to have both at the same time. EDIT: Just to add one last point: I am in the course of reading stories taken from the nonfictional personal accounts of actual astronauts. There's plenty of stuff in that that makes for good stories -- John Glenn's account of his first space flight, the Soviets' first spacewalk, the Apollo 1 and Soyuz 1 disasters, Apollo 13 (I heard they made a movie about that one...), the Mir fire, and so on. Real life is about as "realistic" as you can get -- and it can get exciting at points, too.

Fair enough. Just thought I'd raise the point. Still a good story overall.

If you use Kerbal Engineer Redux's Flight Engineer mod, the Rendezvous tab allows you to target planets and moons from a dropdown menu. Of course, you have to have the Flight Engineer chip attached to your rocket to use it.

You say that as if you don't realize that people don't get worked up over inauthentic mechanics and actions in historical fiction as well: For instance, using weapons in a movie that are too old or too new for the setting, or having your "professional" army break out of a perfectly good formation to engage the barbarian warriors in single combat, then getting their fannies handed back to them for exactly the reason that the real army in history chose to use formation fighting in the first place. (I'm looking at you, Gladiator.) Again, it's possible to write both realistically and entertainingly -- I've even given recommendations.

The problem is that you're confusing "realism" with "banality." You can write realistic fiction without including every single day or explaining every single detail. Seriously, go read Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, or Isaac Asimov some day. They're all authors who made realistic and entertaining stories. EDIT: Also, seconding everything Nikolai just said. There's a difference between "writing that's informed by your research" and "bludgeoning your readers over the head with inane details." EDIT2: And now I'm half-tempted to actually turn that little summary into a full-fledged story itself, just to prove to you how wrong you are. I'm not promising anything, but it I do write it, it'll show up in the Fan Works section.

Nice to see this again! One thing that's been bugging me lately: Do you think you could add dialog tags so we can tell who's speaking what lines? It's sometimes hard to follow who's talking to whom without them.

I'm still partial to the "evil-clone-knife-fight" theory, myself. Then again, that's because I just invented it five minutes ago.

Destination Moon's a good one (although one I have yet to actually see). Helps that Robert A. Heinlein was a technical advisor; he never would have let the producers get away with cutting corners if he could help it. There's also Fritz Lang's Frau im Mond, which had Hermann Oberth's guidance and had one of the first multi-stage rockets in film. It's also the one that supposedly inspired von Braun to put those black and white checkers or stripes on every rocket he ever launched, including the Saturn V.