Tw1

Ah, that makes sense. No issue there, then. I like the idea of both dust clouds and white ones on Duna. My first mission there involved driving a long way away from the landing site. My lander had to be nice and stable "because of dust storms".

Yep, I know, I was just looking at ways to save a little memory, one less texture, means a little more memory for loading spacecraft. I'm keeping them while, as the photos I see of Mars show while clouds.

Looking through the cloud textures, wondering if there was anything that could be removed, and covered with one of the other textures, but there doesn't seem to be. Unless something clever was done with the Kerbin 2 texture, it could be stretched and tilled somehow to make patchy clouds on Duna. Maybe. One thing though, the cloud textures in the latest one seem to have grown 6-fold in file size. Something to do with conversion to TGA? Anyway, I'll be running the last one, until issues have been sorted.

I don't think it would be that hard, the game already tracks when you do a flyby, orbit, or landing. There's the science point system, and hopefully some day, there will be more sorts of data that can be brought back, and archived. Then there's also the number of kerbals killed. Combining that gives some simple measures to determine the space programs base* funding level. *As in, rather than X$$ earned per thing, X$$ per year. The main differences between the two types seems to be whether you, or the computer chooses the things to do, and whether there are locked in goals before you launch. The mechanisms used to measure success should work with either. I'm not opposed to contracts, but I really feel they should things that you could tack on to other missions, rather than things that you have to do on their own. For example, Science requests could be nice and simple. If you're sending a probe to Duna anyway, and some scientist is politely asking for data from Ike, you could make some modifications and do a flyby. Then, with a few clicks back on Kerbin, you can send the data to him/her for appraisal. Then, you get a little boost to your funds from their organisation. Payload delivery could be fun, but it really only makes sense for things within the kerbin planetary system. Why would commercial interests have a use for something near Duna? Most tasks relevant to the other planets would be more likely fall into the science category, apart from perhaps setting up remote science equipment for long term use. Perhaps part of the mission could involve designing the satellite for approval- personally, I imagine KSC as the only institution on Kerbin that actually builds space things. Space tourism could also work pretty simply. If you agree to take someone somewhere, they could just appear in the crewlist. They might have a slightly different icon, and a little info to remind you that they are a paying passenger, and not part of your crew. Then it's simple, include him in the next trip to that location, return him, and get paid. If you don't get him to the desired destination, he will be annoyed. Bad problems for you if you kill him. Space tourism could be great fun. If you have stations or bases, they could be requested destinations, as well as the planets and moons. Alternately, they could request to be as far away from any establishments as possible. Or want to stay on the base/station long term. Requests/contracts would work best if they were relevant to where your space program is up to, this would add a lot to immersion. If you've only done a few flights to the Mun, then there wouldn't be many wanting to trust you to take then to the Joolian moons.** You'll get more Mun science requests, and maybe a few requests to put things in orbit. But, if you have bases and stations throughout the Kerbol system, and a very good track record when it comes to getting home safely, you would have a lot more scientists and tourists wanting to go to distant places. For choosing contracts, some types of missions would need to be accepted before you can do them, -payload and tourist. Others could just be there, waiting for you to fulfil certain criteria- science, sample request, etc. (You can always give them the dust you collected last time, but a tourist needs to be there before launch.) There would also need to be a button for clearing away contracts you don't want. Tasks like this could either be done as missions of their own, or as aspects of missions you are already planing. They'd interact with things you've done on your own, validating them. They could be semi-randomly generated, combined for complexity, and shouldn't run out. And, they don't push the payer down any set path, but add extra things the player can choose to do. Now, if career mode was set up with contracts like that, that would be a game worth playing! **Yeah, I know kerbals are desperate to explore space. But those ones have probably already signed up to be crew.

Last night, the Kethane equipment arrived. First, a Kethane transporting vehicle, I'm calling Kethtruck. Touched down a little to the north of the Minmus Tower. Small problem: Welcome to Minmus, where wheels hardly work. It crawls along only a little faster than a kerbal can walk. Fortunately, its primary means of getting around is with its vertical thrusters. Here, wheels are more for fine positioning. But there also was a large problem. Every time I re loaded the vehicle would jump up 10 meters into the sky, with all its wheels broken. Sometimes it drifted a bit too. Problem. To fix this problem, I had Danble Kerman pull grab some spare* landing legs, and install them on the rover. I also pulled some spare solar panels of the tower, and put them on the roof of the vehicle, as it was using its RTG power too rapidly. This fixed the issue, something must've been wrong with the ground contact. *I say spare, but truth is, I hyperedited these in. If the game gives unfair errors, I let myself cheat a bit to fix them. Next, the Kethane converter. Mechjeb was supposed to handle the last bit of the landing, and get it right over a pre placed marker, but it failed me, I did that bit manually. It touched down next to the tower, while neither of my Kerbals on site were looking. I bet they got a surprise when they finally turned around. When the finally noticed it, they got straight to work, connecting it up to the Tower's tanks, and moving parts about. Engineering had forgotten to launch the Kethtruck with winches attached, so Danble moved over the spares from the converter. Next object to enter Minmus's SOI was the Kethane drill itself, with the scanner. I put in in a slightly inclined orbit to scan regions around the Base. The results were very good. In fact, a little too good. Kethane, kethane everywhere! All over the base, and I wanted to use my flying rover... I landed the drill a little to the north of the tower. This will keep the dust away... Did a test drill and it worked! The Minmus Institute will have a good supply of fuel. Meanwhile, in LKO: I launched a version of this shuttle to serve as a return vehicle in the event of an emergency, but somehow, that one vanished. This base has a big budget, so I launched another. It has 16 seats in the cargo hold, as well as the three in the cockpit. Should be enough. On Minmus, Anlin took the Kethtruck for a fly. Landing at 15m/s, Anlin pulled the rover into a sliding stop. You daredevil Anlin. Unfortunately, when Anlin went to plant the flag, a KSC logo, rather than that of the M.I.S.S.S. popped out. This was unacceptable. She quickly uprooted that flag, plugged the rover into the drill, then flew of to the main module to collect an edition of the proper flag. She'd have to have a look at the tower's dispenser later. Lastly, Danble noticed that the converter still had its rockets on, and they were cluttering the place up. He drained the fuel into the tower, Then let them go.

As my first mission in version 0.21, it was infact Jeb, Bill and Bob who marked out the sites for my Mun base. They are currently in a hab module, preparing to board Starbug 7 to go look at some interesting features, so maybe I will include some bits about the exploration of the craters. But mostly, the next story will be about a brave kerbal on an expedition to explore Eve's islands, and oceans. I'll name it something appropriate, and get it up in a while. But first, let the credits roll for the last story: Jebediah Kerman As himself, and as King Kerman LXIX. Bob Kerman As himself. Bill Kerman As himself Gene Kerman. As himself Other Veteran astronauts, and KSC staff: Memly Kerman Milly Kerman Duney Kerman Chad Kerman Jack Kerman Special mention for the KSC ground crew, and the engineer who posed for Wernher von Kerman, who was ill during the photography period. Extras: Camly Kerman, Edny Kerman, Gregmon Kerman, Gussel Kerman, Hernard Kerman, Jerbas Kerman, Lentop Kerman, Lodlas Kerman, Milgas Kerman, Nedford Kerman, Nedmal Kerman, Nelski Kerman, Philgrad Kerman, Ronlan Kerman, Tomely Kerman, and Thompgard Kerman. Written by TW1, based on real(ish) events.

I am one of those players who feel making it all about set missions would ruin the game. I like that there is no navi type thing bothering me- "hey, listen, you should go to Jool and unlock cool stuff" "No knavi, I'm building my Mun station. Be quiet." I'd prefer to be given a certain budget per year, which grows as your space operations become more extensive, as long as you show you can reliably perform research, and achieve feats like landing on new planets. It will fall, as you fail to return kerbals safely. Like in simcity- no objectives, the challenge is to build a healthy, running city. I want to build a healthy, running space program. Missions, like take Herp Derp Kerman to the Mun could be a way to supplement your income, but I'd rather find mission planning tools, when I go to mission control, than Knavi Kerman telling me what to do.

Finally saw it, and it was awesome. I was surprised how much they used colliding into things as a means to stop themselves-not sure if that was realistic. But then, there were a number of little inaccuracies. But, putting those aside, it was fantastic, especially the scenes where she was climbing over the space station. They made it clear just how hard it is to move about in "zero gravity". Every Kerbal we launch comes with a (currently) free 500m/s of delta V. without that, any time an astronaut leaves the station could be a disaster. They also very tough- they'll jump of a building, then bounce. They don't have to worry about reentry heat, or running out of oxygen. This move reminds you just how hard doing things in space really is. Kudos to all real life astronauts out there.

Agreed. Also, this doesn't seem to be posted yet, so here: It was shown off along with the planets mod. Another video using it! Also, it seems to be the old version of the detail texture in the download. The latest one is here, but it will need to be converted. https://www.dropbox.com/s/xiq2kdoasa0sm9w/detail.png

What you want to do, is come in mostly horizontal, then once you are slow enough, hover about for a bit before piking a final spot to land. I typically do a burn about 1/2 to 1/4 of an orbit before I pass over the landing spot, putting my ship on a suborbital trajectory which ends a bit further than the intended landing area. Then, a second, much larger burn is made to kill the horizontal velocity, before vertical touch down. This video (not mine) demonstrates efficient low TWR landing on the Mun. Note that this is an older edition of Mun, and you probably should be careful to orbit higher than the ridges.

Not sure about extending the atmosphere... It's so big relative to the planet, it would just look odd. One other idea though- the Mun is currently a dull orb in the sky. Earth's Moon is all shiny. Perhaps fixing this could be a a thing for this mod? Also, currently, city light colour is determined by the main texture. If it could be tweked, so that is more 60-40, or 70-30 (with main texture still dominant) I could add some variance in the roads and lights, and make things look a little awesomer.

It brakes the save, it does, it slows it down to a standstill. This is known as the pre update pause. Though, in all seriousness, I'd rather this one didn't break saves. But, worst comes to worst, I've got craft files, and I've got hyperedit.

From the looks of things, someone made one a long time ago.. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/19944-Red-dwarf-Beta-3-2-1-BIG-RED-DWARF-1-1-holds-two-starbugs%21-working-06-10-12 Not the greatest model in the world, but definitelly points for effort.

Nothing too spectacular, landed a Starbug on the Mun, at my Prograde Base's landing area. This one is equipped with a tiny rover to help explore. Making tiny rovers is more tricky than it first seems, especially when they need to fit beneath another spacecraft, and be re-dockable. But I'm sure the "Shortboard" rover will be very useful. The Starbugs stationed at Minmus got an upgrade. They were lacking powerful landing lights, bottom docking ports, and a few other features that the newer ones had. All fixable with KAS. I also fixed the RCS port which had been installed crooked. Danbro was pleased with his work. The shadow angles at dawn here are awesome.

They're expensive though, especially if you pass up the colour sandstone, and go for the premium silver, or gold plated brass....

Yep! One 30cm tall, helmetless kerbal, with a big happy grin would be awesome. He can sit with my other soft toys (some of them are 20 years old, and still healthy) as I send his virtual self to his doom/destiny.

This is great, will be reading if you decide to write more. My favourite bit: Ha ha!

I like your interpretation of the female kerbal. Yeah, KAS is the one mod out there that I'd say could become stock. It's very well made, looks the part, and works well.

If you do get the full version, you will have access to the wonderful world of mods! Download, and place them into the right files, to enhance your game. The ones here : City lights and Clouds by rbray89, with contribution of several others. And for the suits: Universe Replacer, by Tingle, but you have to look through the thread a bit to get to where people have posted suit textures. Try about 50 pages in, or use the thread search tool. Very true. Though there is one thread dedicated entirely to fails.. I decided not to post the versions of my rescue package that didn't make it off the launchpad, or the times I tried to launch Milly's ship without re-angling it, causing the pod to break of, or worse. You can see the version of the rescue package which got to the Mun, but had its magnet break of on landing in to the far right of the second last picture... Each success is build on many failures. A bit like life sometimes.

Band for..seriously, where did you find that avatar? Don't ever change it though, it's so unique. P.S. What do you call a group of moderators? A band!

That is brilliant. (Exept that last line doesn't flow so well.) Guess what's going to be stuck in my head until I get to sleep now...

Looks good! Parts within the same ship don't collide with each other right? I can probably still launch this. ....but the truss structures I used instead to launch claps, once decoupled, would.

Best compliment ever! Thanks! Today, I spend a while carefully finishing my story about the rebuilding of the space center. And you should all go read it so I get return on emotional investment... In KSP, I had quite the munar adventure. Launched an improved rocket after the discovery of fuel pipes. Still no struts. Looks like the landing is slightly flawed though... Milly Kerman went down into the Twin craters do some science, but ran out of pack fuel half way back. Had to walk. Here she is after scaling that cliff, by jumping many times. I had to recover all my science somehow, but the lander wouldn't right itself. I needed a solution: we developed a special magnet part. This would've been simpler if I'd thought to use those rover wheels I unlocked earlier.. After much trying it worked. I flipped the ship into a more usable angle and fired the engine. Homeward bound. Though something's up with the water today...

Are you sure you want it?

The one planet I really want is something at Kerbin's L3 point. You'd never spot it without extra kerbinar telescopes. And it wouldn't be your average trajectory to get there. No transfer windows, it would make a great place to build a base.