KSK

To use the forum idiom - moar? I love your scenes. The dialogue is spot on, there's a real sense of time and place and, as with all your writing, an artfully sketched out backdrop that really conveys the sense of a whole world out there beyond that immediate scene just waiting to be revealed. I know all too well that writing can be a real time commitment but if you ever decided to try anything longer (perhaps you already have?) then point me at it! You write stuff I would pay to read.

It's a good question and one that's still hotly debated in the kerbal scientific literature. Kerm Groves (that is, sentient beings arising from the neurological merging of multiple Kerm trees) are indeed very old and date back at least as far as kerbal prehistory. Logic dictates that the indiviudual Kerm trees must be even older as a species and on that much there is consensus. On the evolutionary origins of the kerbals themselves, there is much less consensus and likewise on the evolutionary history of the Kerm. Fossilised Kerm leaves have been discovered but key parts of the Kerm, such as the interfacing leaf hairs and the subterranean nerve balls don't survive fossilisation. Or at least, no fossil record has been found to date. One school of thought holds that the kerbals were originally a sessile Kerm symbiont that evolved motility. Some radical thinkers even postulate that kerbals were originally dwarf Kerm that were ensnared by their larger parents. Supporters of that theory point to the unusually diverse nature of kerbal biochemistry compared to many other lifeforms on Kerbin. Carbohydrate chemistry (glycoproteins and various other saccharide polymers) play a much greater role in kerbal cell biology, than in other species (and certainly when compared to Terran biochemistry). The modern day neural interface between Kerm and kerbal is thought to be an evolutionary development of a posited subterranean nerve and fibre network between Kerm and symbiont, which has also been co-opted by the modern system of clonally propagated sets of Kerm trees. Opponents point out that kerbals are unusual but by no means unique. Other species are clearly related, for example the four-legged, two armed luffa. [Aside, Terran geneticists would clearly recognise this as a homeobox mutation - somewhere in their evolutionary history, the lower torso and limbs of the luffa body plan were duplicated resulting in a pelvic girdle that is essentially two kerbal pelvises fused together.] A competing theory posits that early Kerm were carnivorous and that the leaf-hair neural interface evolved as a way of immobilising their prey which was then consumed by their vines - which have since evolved into the modern day healing vines. Proponents of this theory hold that the relatively unusual kerbal biochemistry was the serendipitous key to them becoming symbionts/servants of the Kerm rather than prey. So there you go.

I feel smarter having read that! Really interesting stuff - thanks for teaching me something new today.

Nah - it's only cheating if you clip a bunch of them into each other to get around the pitiful thrust.

We already got it in KSP. Strap an LV-1 on the back of your ship, dial the thrust limiter way back and switch on infinite fuel. I suppose purists could request a mod to remove the exhaust plume.

On a related note - and this is probably highly dependent on how you write - if you do want to write on a particular day but you're just beating your head against the page trying to make the words happen, try skipping ahead a chapter or two. Stories are usually best read from beginning to end (in that order ) but nothing says they have to be written that way too. I've found that to be a useful trick on a couple of occasions when writing First Flight - and umm, to the poor patient souls waiting for the next chapter - the good news is that the final chapter is flowing well and shaping up nicely. Unlike the next chronological chapter, the writing of which is currently much like dragging a dead horse through soft sand.

It's not terribly helpful I'm afraid but I'd say - write something that you'd want to read. I've seen all sorts of stories get a readership here, so the chances are pretty good that other folks would also want to read that too. And if you're writing for yourself you'll find it much easier to keep writing. Also - personal opinion here - but writing stories about Career games is hard simply because most of your readers have probably also played at least one such game themselves. Thus they'll already have a good idea where your story is going - or they'll think they will - before they even start. So you'll need add a twist somewhere. Doesn't need to be a big one, just something to surprise your readers and make your story a little bit different to the Career games they've already played. Check out the Fanworks Library (pinned thread) for some examples of what other writers have done if you need a bit of inspiration. Above all - good luck and enjoy yourself!

It loads but performance seems to have taken a hit (low fps again in VAB and Spaceplane Hangar even with ground crew turned off) and lets give a big hand for the Return of the Incredible Donut Turning Aircraft. And for the Incredible Exploding Wheels. As soon as I rotate for take-off (assuming I can keep the bird driving straight until then), the undercarriage blows up, which tends to put a crimp in your pilot's day. Message in the log - "undercarriage part exploded due to collision with terrain" or words to that effect. Meh.

They evolved together but to begin with the kerbals were just aggressive seed carriers for the Kerm, more slaves than symbiotes. The symbiosis came later after prehistoric kerbals discovered that planting Kerm cuttings made smarter Kerm that they could communicate with (after a fashion) and persuade to use their ecological control abilities (evolved for fighting off other Kerm) to help with kerbal agriculture.

Well that was a mild disappointment. The 'update' button on the KSP launcher is nothing of the sort, merely a link to an instructions page on the KSP website. Which directs me to a nice list of patches for the last three versions of KSP - but they're all for Windows. Not an OS X patch in sight. I get that Mac gamers are something of a minority (hence the mild disappointment) but really? Oh well - time to download my 800Mb 'patch'. Appreciate the bugfixes anyway.

Thanks! And thanks for stopping by to say so. Next chapter is finally underway and I managed to set down a pretty solid chunk of text today.

Agreed on both counts. I liked the description of the junkyard too with all its heavy machinery - it sounded like the kind of place you could actually make something in! And yeah - more of this Jeb please!

You're more than welcome! And my job is done! Although I certainly hope that a few more folks follow Aku's lead.

Ahhh, sounds like RT5 levels of paperwork. From @JakeGrey's story of the The Next Frontier: "Since a couple of people have been asking, the stuff that got spilled? Chlorine trifloride, which we use for recycling the cores of the LV-Ns and never, ever under any circumstances load onboard a rocket. That is not an optical illusion, the sand someone threw over the spill really did catch fire. We did look into the stuff as a propellant once, just after we got federalised into the KSA; I think the details are still classified, but suffice it to say that the stuff was responsible for some of the Propellant Research Complex's more memorable explosions before we gave up on it as too damn dangerous. And no, I don't know what it was doing in VAB 4 either, but I don't envy whoever put it there when Gene gets his hands on them. I don't think I generated that much paperwork after the RT-5 Incident!" Comments: July 21st, 22:47 Not quite, but it was a close-run thing. I'm still mad at you. - Gene July 21st, 22:50 The owner of that yacht was looking for a good tax write-off anyway, we found Bob in the end, the trailer really wasn't all that badly damaged and I bought you another car with my own money. Will you let it go already? - Jeb

And guaranteed - no yaks! Hopefully.

Sooo - you sold out Val then? Just kidding - congratulations on the sale! Hope the paperwork and the move go smoothly!

I don't think it's a dumb idea because conceptually it should work. What you've got is basically a space-going MALDI (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation) injector feeding into a linear accelerator. How well it would work and how it would compare to other ion drives though, I don't know. I suspect that for any spacecraft bigger than a satellite you'll be faced with the usual problem of finding a suitable power supply.

And so it begins.... And this made me laugh - nicely done!

Hey folks, Just a quick update since I haven't posted any new material for a while. That geek week I was talking about...morphed into two crazy long weeks at work. As in 'where the flarp did October go?' and 'why do I still have to do all the things?' and 'boy I haven't seen the bottom of my inbox in months?' So yeah, not the greatest way to get any writing done, particularly when I'm not entirely sure how to get the next couple of chapters going. I know the major plot points I need to include but figuring out what goes around them is proving to be a head-scratcher. However, next week I have a blessed five days of leave. I plan to use them well. Don't want to jinx myself by promising you all anything new to read at the end of it but I'll definitely be looking to write myself out of this rut I'm in! In the meantime, there's a couple of new volumes in the fan works library for your perusal - assuming you haven't done so already. First up is @peadar1987's Storm Clouds. A word of warning - if you're the kind of person who waits for the whole trilogy to come out before diving into Book 1, then this might not be for you. Wee small matters like a PhD thesis to write up won't leave Peadar a lot of time for more creative writing over the next few months but the story so far is shaping up into an intriguing political thriller with some lovely world-building to boot. We're promised actual rockets at some point but I can honestly say I'm not missing them! Next is @Kalidor's From Kerbin to the Mün. I have to confess that I wasn't sure what to make of the title - after all, as somebody else once said about another story on these forums "It's probably fair to say that Kerbals going to the Mün has been done to death." Figured I might as well take a peek anyway and man am I glad I did. The setting is familiar but the writing is a joy and from the foreword (written by a very familiar character ) it looks like we have much to look forward to. A happy reminder that even now, this forum can throw up some real gems.

This is great! I think we've seen the setup somewhere before but it's extremely well written, I like the way it's presented from the POV of a military officer on the losing side and I really like the detailed backstory, reasons for the war and the immediate ramifications of the war ending. Very much looking forward to seeing how this develops - from Jeb's prologue it looks like we've got much to look forward to! Edit: Followed.

It sure is - been there, done that. Full time job during the day, writing up my thesis in the evenings and at weekends. Not something I'd care to go back to doing. No need to apologise - we'll be here whenever you can find some spare time to move the story on! And speaking of which - I liked the interlude and character backgrounds!

I like this idea. You would need a couple of versions of the 'launch' cut scene too though, to at least somewhat reflect your technological progress. A big Apollo style mobile launch platform would look rather ridiculous with a tiny Flea+capsule rocket perched on top of it. Much like Science mode always looks faintly ridiculous to start with, when you're launching suborbital bottle rockets from a massive state-of-the-art Space Centre. I'd be generally in favour of short cut-scenes, in the same way that I like the wonder building cut scenes in the Civilization games. Do I watch them every game? No. But neither do I automatically click through them every time. It depends what mood I'm in. To my mind cut scenes would add some badly needed polish to KSP although there are other things that could be prioritized first. The much ballyhooed rocket part overhaul for one. Contract descriptions that aren't an indecipherable mess for a second. Coherent flavour text for the tech tree nodes for a third. At the moment we get a mishmash of lolkerbal text, fairly serious text (see the Kerbodyne rocket engines for example) and frankly stupid text (even for a lighthearted game). Shy fuel tanks that explode when teased? Sensors powered by black magic? Seriously?

I'm not exactly sure how it works myself but from watching how my Munar satellites behave, I'm wondering if the Communotron will attempt to make a direct connection to Kerbin first and only use the relay if a direct connection isn't possible?

Interesting - thanks for posting.

Well dang. I nearly did my PhD. in Prof Stoddart's lab, working on that kind of stuff. Good to see it getting a Nobel!