Specialist290

The Greater Good! ...But seriously, it was quite amusing to see everyone's reactions.

Not a bad idea. I'll certainly bounce it off KospY and see what he thinks. While I'm at it, I might talk to Starwaster about adding support for caloric fluid to Deadly Reentry as well.

Banned for being insufficiently moderatorey in public.

Knew I was forgetting something! Thankfully we can probably integrate the four humours into the Alchemy system.

Moving this to Welcome Aboard, as messages announcing your arrival and / or return really belong there At any rate, glad to see another returning veteran!

I've never quite understood the mindset of those who've built the massive fanbase around the Vocaloid programs that treats them like actual pop idols themselves, but I've enjoyed a few songs other artists have created using them. If you consider that the human voice is itself something like an instrument, then it's really no different from using a synthesizer to replicate a piano or an organ. That said, it does make me wonder if we'll ever get to the point where we'll have "virtual celebrities" that can create content with no input from a human being whatsoever (beyond creating the original programs and instruments involved, of course). Certainly food for thought.

2 - i don't know which one's right, so i'll just do this

What, do you take me for someone who doesn't do their research? Thanks for the vote of confidence!

D'oh! I'll have to remember to add that to the final release.

So over the past few weeks, I've been brainstorming for a little project, and I think I finally have the concept nailed down enough to go public with it. Realism has been a topic of perennial interest to the Kerbal Space Program community, sparking many bright and ambitious mod-makers to create mods tailor-made to cater to the interests of like-minded players. Among the fruits of their labors have been such immediately-recognizable mods as Ferram Aerospace Research, Deadly Reentry, TAC Life Support, and many, many more. However, in the midst of all this emphasis on realism, one particular part of the fanbase -- and, in my opinion, a rather significant group -- has been entirely neglected. What is available to those intrepid souls who wish for less realism, whose preconceived notions of the structure and operation of the Universe run contrary to not only the plethora of realism mods available, but to the very structure of the stock game itself? To that end, I am unveiling the following project: The Speculative Physics Alternatives Modification A Bold New Direction in Realism Mods The goal of this project will be to apply the philosophy of the "realism mod" in a fresh, new, and exciting direction: A detailed, fully-realized model of the Kerbal universe as it would look with less realism. "But what does this mean to me, the player?" I hear you asking. Well, here's a list of some of our nifty new features: A Kerbocentric Universe! The first change is the most fundamental -- rather than the Sun, the planet of Kerbin will be restored to its proper place at the center of the universe. No more will you have to worry about silly "phase angles" in order to make interplanetary travel a reality! Kerbin is Flat! The other fundamental change to the location and nature of Kerbin. Rather than a sphere, the new Kerbin will be a flat disc, held up by four elephants mounted on the back of a turtle, which is itself mounted on the back of another turtle, etc. New procedural generation techniques will ensure that, for eager celestial explorers, it really is "turtles all the way down." New Orbital Mechanics: Deferents and Epicycles! Rather than simply leaving everything to the universal laws of gravitation - which result in unsightly and flawed elliptical orbits - we have elected to nest the planets within an intricate system of fixed aetheric spheres to ensure that the planets orbiting Kerbin all move in a complex interaction of perfect, aesthetically pleasing uniform circular motions. Every planet now occupies a fixed point within its own epicycle, a perfect sphere that rotates about a central point at a given rate; in turn, the epicycle itself is affixed to a larger sphere known as a deferent, which rotates around Kerbin at a constant rate. Nature Abhors a Vacuum! It's already been touched on somewhat, but this mod will introduce a new and unique element known as aether as a foundation for its unique mechanics. As mentioned above, aether is the foundational component which makes up the various epicycles and deferents to which the planets and their moons are fixed; while diffuse enough not to pose a serious navigational hazard, this aether will exert a uniform neutralizing effect on all inert bodies, meaning that any body that comes to rest within a particular sphere will eventually come to rest (relative to the epicycle or deferent within which it is contained) and rotate at a constant rate in a circle relative to the center of whatever sphere it is resting in. This means that now, all spacecraft will require sustained thrust to travel long distances over long periods of time, such as for interplanetary travel. On the other hand, it should make maintaining constellations of satellites much easier, as all craft in orbit will eventually reach an equilibrium state in a perfect circular orbit around a particular point if not otherwise acted upon. There is one major exception: The outer shell of the Kerbin system will not be composed of diffuse aether, but rather a solid crystalline structure that blocks out all light except at particular points (i.e. the stars). Explorers lucky enough to reach a star rather than crashing into this solid shell will find themselves in a new and exciting realm composed entirely of pure elemental fire. Kerbonaut Skill Levels and Phrenology! Finding the stock system of experience growth too slow and grindy for your liking? You'll be pleased to know that we plan on replacing this system entirely with one based on the principles of phrenology, where every skill is linked to a particular sector of the brain. Rather than spending hours grinding away your kerbonauts' experience with long and tedious missions, you can now quickly and efficiently by dropping them onto their heads at high speeds in order to stimulate the appropriate cranial regions. ISRU and the Philosopher's Stone! One of the problems with most models of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) such as those provided by Kethane and Karbonite is that they don't really add anything especially new to the game; instead, they mostly focus on providing support for existing spacecraft and infrastructure. With that in mind, our mod promises to integrate an exciting new feature to motivate the player by providing substantial new rewards for fully exploring the possibilities: Alchemy. Each planet will be associated with a particular rarefied pure elemental essence, which can be extracted and shipped back to Kerbin for analysis and distillation. Once a particular element's properties are known, it can be distilled into an elixir that provides a special buff when fed to a kerbonaut. The lowest-tier elixirs provide simple, basic buffs such as permanent speed increases, or "transmutation" (allowing them to passively generate a small yet constant amount of Funds for your space program); however, elixirs can be mixed to produce new recipes, which unlock new abilities such as telekinesis (think of what you could do with the benefits of the Kerbal Attachment System without actually needing all those winches and grapples!), clairvoyance (allowing your kerbonaut to conduct Crew Reports without ever leaving KSC), and the ability to propel oneself through space using only sheer mental willpower. Furthermore, unlocking the final elixir recipe allows you to view special endgame content prepared especially for this mod: Craft the Ultimate Elixir to transform one of your kerbonauts into a vessel for the Great Kraken, allowing him to break the bonds between reality and the Dreamlands and usher in a new era in which all of kerbalkind can revel in mad, unfettered, hedonistic debauchery! I can feel the lidless eyes of the denizens of the Great Abyss upon me, compelling me to awaken the Old Ones! Join us! Jooiin usss! Ia! Ia! Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh K'rk'en Pol wgah'nagl fhtagn (Note: Still taking suggestions for features!) (Concept art gallery in progress; watch this space!)

I believe Virtualgenius's post should answer your question adequately. As development and support for this mod has moved on to a new thread, I'll be closing this one as it no longer serves a real purpose beyond historical interest. Have a nice day

Welcome to the forums! I've taken the liberty of moving this over to our General Add-On Affairs board, since Support is mainly for getting technical assistance when something goes wrong. Hope you find what you're looking for!

You should be able to take the formatted image (i.e. the image link wrapped in IMG tags, as above) and wrap the whole within URL tags, with the tag pointing at the forum thread. This (minus the asterisks): Should give you:

Moving this over to Suggesstions and Development Discussion, as it sounds like it's proposing a change or addition to the game. Carry on

I suppose it's a little late to say "Welcome to the forums!", but glad to hear a little more about yourself. Hope you continue to enjoy the community here for a long time to come

Out of curiosity, has anyone done the math on this? I'd like to take a look if it's out there, if only to satisfy my own personal interest.

Welcome to the forums! As this sounds like it's a technical issue, I'm moving this over to our Support forums. Do you think you could provide a few extra details for us, as noted in our Support and Bug Report Thread? The more information you can provide us, the quicker we can get started on figuring out exactly what's going wrong. You may also find our thread for Known Issues and Self-Help to be useful. Hope you get your issues sorted out!

For my own part, I apologize; I've only had time to skim this lately, and I didn't want to comment until I'd had some time to actually give it my full attention. That said, hope Corbrett gets out of this alive. That was a nasty accident.

You might be interested in this report from a few users who did a collaborative simulation of a Mun mission entirely in real time a while back. (I wasn't one of them; I'm just sharing the album. They used to have a forum thread here as well, but I haven't been able to dig it up.)

That is indeed one scary reentry procedure! I'm glad it worked out in the end, but you're right -- definitely not something for the faint of heart. I'm going to bet that you had an awful lot of !!fun!! with that one

This looks like it's going to be a rather intriguing project. I like seeing worldbuilding going on, especially when it's clear that a lot of work and thought has gone into making everything fit together. Consider me subscribed

Well, this certainly looks ambitious. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress.

Interesting format for a mission report. I like the press releases and the concise style of the outline reports -- it invites the reader to fill in the details from their own imagination. Hoping to see more!

I'm afraid not. ElectricCharge is treated like any other resource; once it's been drained, it's gone unless something (like a solar panel, RTG, or certain types of active engines) is available to replenish it.

Moving this over to General Add-On Affairs I'm pretty much going to second MKS/OKS (which is also by RoverDude like Karbonite) and everything on jarmund's list (except Action Groups Extended, but only because I've never used it). Life support, reentry heat, and better aerodynamics all both make for a more realistic experience while providing interesting new challenges to overcome.