Tw1

Nope. I think that's cool idea. You could do a grand tour together! I'd enjoy the game more if they were there, and I'm a guy. I really don't see a solid argument why there should not be.

Ah. Well, that wasn't exactly clear.

Well done! I say do ALL the things! If you can do Mun, you can do Minmus! (note, only the one 'i'). Roving there is a little different, as you will find... Then Duna, but fixing up that station while you wait for a window...

I normally use protractor mod to read phase angles for me, but I actuality used my good old protractor the other day. Not for an interplanetary trip though, this was to help put a satellite in the correct angle relative to others.

Most of the time, you can't tell someone's orientation, or if they are trans, or whatever just by looking at them. Currently, there is nothing in the game that reveals anything about kerbals' lives outside of their participation in the space program. So I don't really think it would be much of an issue. The player can use their imagination. I suspect kerbalizer integration (which I think I heard was planned somewhere) will solve the hair issue. Maybe a female kerbal shouldn't be made until then. Maybe the female kerbals have the same standard crew cut. I don't think hair is that much of an issue, I'm sure people are used to the long haired girl trope, it's so common in real life. I reckon the female kerbal model should focus on the face. It's what we see of them mostly, anyway. The cliché game character large bust is definitely out, but I wouldn't mind the body to be subtlety more of a female figure. Some bustiness maybe, could just be a coincidence they evolved that way. As long as it's subtle, and generic, I don't think body shape would be much of a problem. They have such differing proportions to humans already.

Like I said before: Not going to repeat the whole thing, but basically, it's not about realism, it's about completeness. The hitchhiker can IVA technically wasn't a practical addition to the game. More stuff to load makes it fractionally slower, and you can't even control your spaceship from inside. But it was certainly fun to have. Female Kerbals will be something similar. While I can guess the kinds of things that you might mean, why would stuff like that end up being added to KSP? Just the girl kerbal. Nothing else needed.

That could be an interesting mechanism. As long as it is well implemented, and not too hard to unlock. It should be something you can test/develop alongside capsules for male kerbals, if they go with it.

This is true. It would end the discussion finally though. I wonder how much they'd actually have to do to add female kerbals. You'd need to decide what they will look like, though there are lots of good ideas here in the forums. Just altering the existing model might muck up the animations, and probably there will be some changes needed to make kerbal names link to specific models. I'm no expert on these things, but it doesn't sound like an overwhelming amount of time.

It is true, sexual dimorphism varies. An alien species would not necessary follow human norms, or even have similar biology to earth life. But my point is this: Kerbals are not a real species. They were created to be characters in a video game. They have two eyes, a head, on a neck above a body which has two arms out the side, and two legs sticking out the bottom with which they walk. They talk. They eat. They show emotion. The develop technology. Kerbals are based on humans. It is a game designed to be used by humans. That is the reason for the human bias. Giving non-human characters anthropomorphic features is one way to encourage humans connect to that character. If it had a race of realistic spiders instead of kerbals, the game would have quite the same appeal. So if kerbals have genders, it would make sense for them to follow human norms. Anything else would just be distracting, and wouldn't add much to the game, IMHO. Adding female kerbals to the game will add a sense of completeness. In the room I'm in, about half are boys, are half girls. In my Mun base, I only see male-looking faces. Something is missing there.

So, as those of you who read the weekly have seen, there will be further modifications to the space center in the next update. I considered changing the plans a little, and doing the final parts with the 0.22 version of the space center. As it is, there wouldn't be too much that needs to be retconed to make it work. But, as the story already was planned to accommodate some future changes, and I like the pics I took, I'm going to stay with the current plan. I will tweak things a bit in the existing parts though. I might cover them in a story I write after this one, maybe. There will be two more parts, part 2.2 and an epilogue, hopefully both will be done before 0.22 is out. Words are coming nicely.

I may do that, but depends on weather it is practical to create a career mode save from current my main save, with a bit of file editing. Also depends on how appealing tallying science points is. There's a lot I'd like to do in it before I let it be broken. Though there hasn't been much news on budget and coatings, money may not be in the next update.

Exactly. Currently, it feels like there's something missing when all the kerbals are boys. It seems sexest to be only putting male astronauts into space, even though they are green with cylindrical heads. I think the whole "are kerbals genderless" debate is one of those ones, that when it comes down to it, is pretty pointless. It's up to the makers of the game whether or not they are added. I don't see any good reason why they shouldn't be added. Besides, one of the good things about this game, is the way it teaches about space, and physics. There have been threads on this forum about its use in schools as an education tool. There are many programs around the world that aim to encourage more girls to take an interest in science. Like in real life, seeing/putting a girl kerbal on the Mun can give a subtle "I could do that" message a girl player, encouraging them to go into science, maybe making some amazing discoveries some day. Even if, for some odd reason, you don't want females in your crew, you could just not hire them. I don't think discrimination law covers employing characters in a computer game...

The Kerbals of Mun Prograde City were not completely happy with the satellite network delivered by KSC. Satellites tended to converge every few hours, and coverage was patchy. So they took it upon themselves to fix it. Here is city commander Dontop Kerman overseeing a launch. The first (ever) launch from the Munar Space Center was unsuccessful, but this one was. It has everything you would want in a rocket. SRBs, stages, a pointy-ish end, everything. Now, Mun Sat 5 and Mun Sat 6 orbit exactly opposite Mun Sat One and Mun Sat Two. (Name system difference deliberate.) Dontop Kerman. He has plans. Lots of plants. Then I drove him back to the habitation module, where he parked the rover like this.

This: From my railway mod WIP thread here on this forum.

Sure does! Four sunsets, and four sunrises a day. Kerbals are strange people, calling that a day...

Yep. This is about landing. I forgot infinigliders! I like infinigliders, so go for it, but I'll put infinigliders in another category.

I would like to announce the first candidate for the Kerbol system railway standard track. Basically, these are the dimensions my railways mod is going to use, probably. Still yet to be fully tested, but thought you guys'd like to know, in case you want tracks for docks, factory sidings, or someone wants to think about doing the second station. Technically, you can save about 0.55 meters of with on each side of the base, the bogie part will still fit, but there will be no room for kerbals to walk along the side.

One Bogie! The model at least. As you can see, still a WIP. It's about 3.5 meters wide, and long. With a a few structural panels on the side, you could make platforms for transporting planes or rovers. Track measurements! There should be just enough space beside the wheels for kerbals to walk about. May tweak a bit here and there, if there are problems when it comes time to test it on curves and inclines. Kinda gave up on the idea that it must fit stock wheels, they made it necessary for track to be big and unwieldy, bogies were hard to make and used a lot of parts. But you probably could if you really wanted to. Next time, I'm going to make the wheels work. Time to get some advice about wheel colliders, and suspension.

Higher class will out rank a higher number of loops. S1 is harder than B2, as doing more bronze class loops mainly means carrying more fuel, but an S1 loop takes a more capable plane and skillful pilot. But that's a good thing to raise, I'll add it to the OP. Yep. It must be a loop, not just a flip or tumble. Putting that in the OP. It'd be good to see the navball to check, but as loops will look cooler with the displays down, I'm not going to worry about that.

Stood underneath while the wheels were being retracted. Not his greatest moment.

Today, I actually managed to land on a runway. Not beside it. On it. +1 KSP skill. Managed to roll Shtuule into one of the hangars. There, it will join the lizards and bugs sheltering from the forecast rain, until it is time to use it again. My kerbals have forgot to take their helmets of. Then we watched a sunrise.

Exactly. I don't get the reactions these kinds of threads get. Some of it is sarcasm, but some, you can't tell. Don't you guys have friends, sisters, mothers, who are girls? No need to get all reaction-y every time you see a girl, in real life, that would just be weird.

Shuttle re-entering..... "You know what? If we fire up the main engines again, we could totally do a loop before landing." Speaking of which, there is now a challenge to do this.

Here's mine, to start us of. It's a shuttle type. Here we are in orbit- Coming down! And.. Loop the loop! And landed safe. This is a 1B entry. Bronze class, I used 60% thrust of that main engine to pull the loop of, and only did the one, as you see. Not at all a high score, so lets see what you can do!

Can your shuttle or SSTO do a loop-the-loop before landing from orbit? The son of the emperor of a small country near KSC has a small request. He wants to see space planes to a few loops before they land. Pretty reasonable don't you think? This is how it will work. Your plane can be an SSTO, or some sort of space shuttle, but it must be able to make orbit. It also needs to perform at least one loop before landing safely at either KSC, KSC2, Airstrip island, or another location you have installed, like Kerbin City. An entry needs the following: (pictures, or the one video.) -Proof your space plane got to orbit. -something showing that you landed it from that orbit. -The loop/s that you performed, as video or a gif, ideally. -Evidence the plane safely landed. There will be three rankings you can achieve. Gold Class: The space plane performed the loops without needing any engine assistance. Hard. Sliver Class: The space plane performed the loops with a small amount of assistance from the engines. Bronze Class: The space plane needed a heap of thrust in order to do a loop the loop. Easy mode. Scores on the leaderboard will be a combination of these classes, and the number of loops you perform. Higher class loops outrank multiple lower class loops. Flips don't count. It must be a proper loop, like in the diagram above. This is the most important part. Mods are fine, but no debug cheats. Now, lets see some loop-the-loops! Leaderboard. -TW1: Bronze, 1 loop.