KSK

Well frankly the community can suck it up. No money in - no Squad produced KSP content out. Isn't it lovely to be so generous with other people's time and money. But provided the community gets a continued supply of free stuff - who cares right? Besides Squad are not a game publisher. They got lucky with KSP - there's absolutely no guarantee that a future Squad released game would be a success, even assuming they were minded to develop one.

Well we can hope. In the meantime - wanna buy this bridge?

Well in that case we'll just have to rock the snackbar...

But that's when it goes critical! Oh - we've got moderators buried in the hype pile. Never mind.

Upgradeable parts and rocket part revamp is my guess. The code for upgradeable parts is already in the game (I believe) and Porkjet left a rather nice roadmap for upgrading the remaining engines. It would make sense (to me), to finish both of those up. After that I suspect we're into expansion pack territory - with no justification for that other than gut feel.

Never tell me the odds...

I don't know if you'd call it recent any more but I'm still working on my KSP book - link in my signature if anyone is interested. Actually, looking at the word count I'm well into the second book. The story takes the 'parts found by the side of the road' meme reasonably seriously - kerballed spaceflight starts an amateur enthusiast affair - kind of a cross between the British Interplanetary Society and Copenhagen Suborbitals. The story traces the development of the KSP from those humble origins and also explores the historical and cultural background to the kerbals themselves. Eventually of course, the two collide...

The very same CERN. Some days I really love my job... I shall see what I can do about kerbalised adaptations - certainly Hadfield Kerman sounds suitably kerbal! Although Bob has already been tapped for orbital guitar duties - in 'Project Eve' if memory serves, or a chapter close to it. .

My pleasure - glad it helped!

I've got a couple of ideas for novels to work on once I've finished up my KSP fanfic. Nothing I can really link to as yet though.

Yeah, poor Jeb's not been having a great time of things lately. More on this to come, although folks may be able to piece together some of the reasons for his current state of mind. And yes - totally busted on "a little more light went out of the world". Hope you don't mind me borrowing - it just seemed so entirely appropriate for that scene, literally and metaphorically. On a lighter note, the coming week should be a good one for writing, plus it's also going to be wonderfully geeky! I've got a work event at CERN tomorrow, so there'll be much time to spare over the next couple of days, sitting around in airplanes, airports and hotel rooms. Then I have an evening event in Glasgow on Wednesday, after-dinner speech from one Chris Hadfield, followed by an evening out in Edinburgh next Monday for an evening with Tim Peake and Tim Kopra. Soooo - plenty of real life space stories to inspire my fictional space story! Also, I allegedly have a four day weekend starting on Friday, although I suspect that Friday might need to be a working from home day instead. Still - long weekends are also good for writing.

So we've been out of the frying pan (but onto the pyre) and now explosions in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are. Check the storage lockers Val - there's gotta be some meatloaf in there somewhere! On a serious note - great chapter. Very atmospheric and as a lighter moment, I did like the idea of some crazed (and possibly hunchbacked) construction engineer sending his, no doubt extremely heavy, copy of the Regulations on a one-way trip to the Mün just to be rid of the flarping thing.

Next chapter is up. Fair warning - it's short and not particularly sweet... Crossroads The Spirit of Kolus touched down on the main runway at Barkton airport. It had barely pulled onto the nearest taxiway before the whup-whup-whup of descending rotor blades sounded loudly overhead. The helicopter set down just long enough to pick up its two passengers before taking off into the pre-dawn sky, the first tinges of colour appearing on the horizon behind it… Pioneer 6 stood on its launchpad, cradled within its gantries, caught in the light of Kerbol’s first rays. At the appointed hour, six rocket engines roared into life, carrying three kerbonauts skywards on the first stage of their Munar voyage. Behind them the jubilant crowds watched them through the rapidly dissipating early morning mists… The orders came through. Diesel engines rumbled into life as the convoy began to move. They crossed the border under the noonday sun, heading south through the mountains. By the time the trucks stopped again, the setting sun was throwing long, irregular shadows from their armoured flanks and in the distance, casting a deep pool of shade from the fortifications straddling the narrow pass… Frantic radio messages criss-crossed the globe from the Spirit of Kolus, their pleas to speak to the other ten Pillars of Kerbin falling on the professionally deaf ears of aides and adjutants. Then, at the close of day, a single, short message flashed eastward. The rockets tore through the evening sky, streaks of fire blooming into thunderous detonations that hurled broken blocks and broken bodies effortlessly aside. -------- “…rocket attack on Wakiran border positions. Numbers of dead and injured unknown at this time but feared to be high with survivors reporting that Ambassador Jerfun was amongst the casualties. Jerfun - the kerbal responsible for bringing the Kerm crisis into the public eye - now amongst the first victims of its latest, and most severe, escalation...” The luminescent dials of a bedside radio set lit the musty room with a feeble glow. The room’s occupant rolled over, buried its face against the wall and pulled the bedcovers over its head. A hand reached out, snapped a switch, and a little more light went out of the world. -------- “Flight, Bob. How do you read, Bob?” “Scratchy but audible, Flight. Not bad, all things considered.” Bob took another bite of ration cube. “You’re working late, Gene. I thought Jeb was taking the night shifts?” “Lucan found a message on the console this afternoon. Jeb’s not feeling too good - asked to be excused from his shift. Not a problem - I wanted to do an operational assessment on the relay sats anyway.” “Makes sense, Flight. I’ve got time before bed - you want to start by checking the command loop?” “Copy that, Bob.” Geneney flipped a switch, jotted down a note in his flight log and then pressed a recessed button, held it down and pressed the button next to it. A light winked out on his console. “Flight recorder off, private channel opened - please confirm.” “Confirmed, Flight.” Bob waited for a moment. “Okay, Gene, what’s happening down there? If Jeb had two busted legs he’d get someone to wheel him in behind that console.” Geneney’s reply was muted. “Wish I knew, Bob and it’s the note that worries me most…” Bob completed his thought. “Yep - definitely not Jeb’s style.” “No. I think I’ll go and find him tomorrow morning, see if anything’s up.” Bob fell silent for a moment. “That’d make me feel better too, Gene - thanks. Tell him the crew were asking after him.” “Yeah… yeah I will do.” Geneney pressed a button and waited for the console light to come back on before adjusting his headset. “Command loop checks out, Bob. Telemetry links look good - Lucan can run you through the formal tests on his next shift.” “Sure thing, Flight. If Luco could wait till after breakfast that’d be nominal. How’re things over on your side of the Mün anyway?” Geneney chuckled softly. “Ribory’s sound asleep. Chad was too excited to get his head down so the science teams at Alpha and Foxham set up an extra session for him to run through the day’s results. They’re just finishing up now. A good day all in all, even if most of it’s geology to me.” “I know that feeling, Flight - on both counts. Not quite what I meant though.” “No,” Geneney said resignedly, “I thought it wasn’t.” He fidgeted with the lead on his headset. “No news on that front, Bob, probably because any news team with a gram of sense is getting out of the war zone as fast as they can. Lodan’s been in meetings with the President and Chief Ambassador all day, so at least Starseed still seems to be on the priority list.” “War zone,” Bob repeated. “We should send the Firesvarn Pillars out here, Gene - give them the view from four hundred thousand kilometres and let them see what they’re really fighting over.” “It’s a tempting thought,” Geneney agreed. “Anyhow, that’s Chad finished and according to my flight schedule, it’s time you were heading under the couches yourself. We’ve got the ship, Bob - sleep tight and don’t let the kraken bite.” “See you in the morning, Dad.” Bob said dryly. “Six, signing off for the night.” -------- The warehouse stairs creaked underfoot, the aroma of old take-out food hanging in the air as Geneney climbed the stairs to Jeb’s room. He put his ear against the closed door, listening hard for a moment before reluctantly knocking. “Are you in there, Jeb?” For a long minute there was silence and then, much to his relief, he heard a muffled grunt from inside. “Okay if I come in?” A second grunt percolated through the door, which Geneney chose to interpret as a yes. He turned the handle and gingerly opened the door, only for the smell of stale food to hit him in the face, mingled with a changing room miasma of rancid sweat and old socks. Hastily he closed the door, the click of the latch eliciting a third grunt from the shapeless heap stirring on the bed. Geneney surveyed the unwashed dishes stacked up in the sink and the pile of discarded clothes in one corner of the room. “Long night, Jeb? ” he said conversationally, “I don’t reckon I’ve seen your room like this since the good old Institute days.” Jeb’s head emerged from under the bedcovers. Geneney kept his expression carefully neutral at the sight of his friends unkempt, greasy hair and the dark green bags under his eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?” he added gently, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Jeb shook his head. “Nothing to talk about,” he said. “Just another long week at the office, that’s all. Haven’t had time for much else.” Geneney nodded. “Gloomy in here,” he said. “Mind if I open the drapes?” Jeb shrugged. “Sure.” Geneney crossed the room, pulled back the blinds and opened the window a notch. The warm air from outside wafted in, cutting cleanly through the fug and stirring up ripples on the fetid grey water lurking around the dishes in the sink. He eyed the collection of beer bottles leaning against the draining board. Okay, forget about going to Jorfurts. “Well that settles it,” he said briskly, “I need a coffee, you look like you could use one too and I’d hate to disrupt whatever experiment you’ve got growing in here. No point heading over to the VAB, Derny’ll be run off his feet.” Geneney turned to look at Jeb. “My place will be a bit quieter and I’ve even got some anise in the back of the cupboard somewhere.” Despite himself, Jeb smiled. “It’s good of you Genie but there’s no need. I’m fine - it’s been a long week is all.” He gestured around at the cluttered room. “I should get up, clear some of this junk away, get back to work. Prospector 1 isn’t gonna launch itself.” “And all of that,” said Geneney firmly, “will look a whole lot easier after a walk to clear your head, lunch that doesn’t come in a kebab box, and a hot coffee to wash the last of the cobwebs out of that skull of yours.” Jeb held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. But you’d better be right about that anise.” He climbed out of bed, revealing a pair of creased and travel worn undershorts and went through to his moss room, closing the door behind him. Geneney waited for a second then retrieved a bin bag from under the sink and began gathering up the worst of the detritus. He rinsed out the empty bottles, dumped them into a recycling bag and was about to start on the washing up when he heard the moss room door opening behind him. “I’m fine, Gene. I told you I’d clear this up myself.” Geneney turned around to face a damp and considerably fresher Jeb. “I know you did,” he said equably. “Just thought I’d make myself useful whilst I was waiting.” Jeb eyed him suspiciously for a moment, then began rummaging around in his wardrobe. “Well in that case, if you could leave them outside the door. I’ll dump them when I get back.” He emerged, pulling a clean shirt over his head. “You know?” he said in a muffled voice, “I think you’re right about that coffee.” << Chapter 69: Chapter 71>>

What made you interested in KSP? I've always been a fan of spaceflight, particularly the 'golden age' of crewed spaceflight from Vostok and Mercury to Apollo and Soyuz. I also like Lego. KSP was a bit of a no-brainer really. What is most rewarding about playing KSP? Learning to play it was the most rewarding part. Figuring out the various steps in the game: how to get to orbit, how to get to the Mün, how to rendezvous and dock, transfer windows and getting to the other planets. Even today though, I'll get a lift from a Mün landing. Trans-Munar injection, orbit insertion, powered descent, all those Apollo era maneuvres. Then that one small step onto the Munar surface - it doesn't matter how many of those I've done with who knows how many kerbals. It never gets old for me. How has the community of KSP affected you? Positively. It has it's quirky moments but on the whole, the KSP community has managed to avoid becoming the frothing pit of bile that many other gaming forums seem to turn into. Mostly though its affected me creatively, by inspiring me to start writing (which is not something I ever saw myself doing) and providing an unending source of encouragement and support for that writing. It's no exaggeration to say that I've spent far more time writing about kerbals than I have playing KSP and it's been by far the greatest thing (literally life changing) that I've gained from KSP and the KSP community. What have you learned from playing KSP? Enough orbital mechanics that I can really appreciate the finer details of historical or modern day space missions. I can read about a satellite launch and I know what an orbit raising burn is, or why you would choose a supersynchronous transfer because I have a mental picture of what's going on from playing KSP! What would you tell players just getting involved into this community? Keep calm and use the forum search! It's always been a great community for providing helpful, non-judgemental answers to KSP questions but having a quick look first to check if the answer you need is already out there is always appreciated. What is your goal in playing KSP To build a Duna base and supporting infrastructure. Either based on the SpaceX model, or my own one that I'm sketching out for First Flight, which is more akin to the model presented in The Martian. How does KSP play a role in your personal and professional life? It plays no part in my professional life but a very large part in my personal life, mainly because of this writing hobby that it inspired! What is your past in gaming? I've been a computer gamer mainly, rather than a console gamer, although I did have a Sega MegaDrive for a while (that's a Genesis to all the US folks out there ). The very first game I played was Jet Set Willy, on the ZX Spectrum. I remember being thoroughly hooked on Elite (on my mate's BBC Micro and later on my Spectrum) and Driller. Memorable PC gaming experiences include Civilisation (the original), SimCity 2000, the first Command and Conquer game, Baldur's Gate. World of Warcraft. Looking forward to Civ VI when it releases (not long to go now!) I'm not a big 1st person shooter fan but otherwise I'm pretty genre agnostic. The game I'm playing most at the moment is a wee web-based freemium city-builder game called Elvenar. It's not remotely challenging but it's kinda pretty and relaxing. Quite looking forward to 'Loud and Clear' after an extended leave of absence from actually playing KSP. What is your past in rocketry/airplanes if any? A couple of flying lessons. I'd like to get my PPL one day, probably when once I retire! Not enough hours in the week at the moment. Estimated time invested into KSP? <Out of cheese error>. <Redo from start> In other words - I have no idea, other than 'lots'.

Ohhh I'm greener than a kerbal right now - the Air and Space museum is awesome. I remember apologising a lot when I was there - to all the people I managed to bump into whilst trying to look at everything at once. Kid in a candy store wasn't the half of it!

Okay then, here we go. There were a couple of places, especially the opening paragraph where you put in a lot of detail (especially numberse) that wasn't really doing much. It didn't seem to be adding to the scene you were describing, or setting up a plot point for later. It's something I know I used to do - and probably still do in places. For example, the Moho 3 mission from First Flight. ----------- “Copy, Gene. Roll thrusters performing nominally and I'm seeing zero offset rates on pitch and yaw. Cancelling roll now!" Wilford fired the anticlockwise roll thrusters, watching the navball and rate indicators closely. As the direction indicator showed him returning to level flight he deftly applied a tiny burst of additional thrust and released the controls. ------------ Who the heck actually cares that Wilford fired the anti-clockwise roll thrusters? I know I don't - and I wrote it. Just 'roll thrusters' would be enough and given that we already know that Wilford was cancelling his roll out, I could probably get away with 'Wilford fired his thrusters...' Likewise with your opening paragraph: The ship had been floating in darkness for 300 years, slowly rotating to generate artificial gravity. There were no signs of life. The planet loomed closer and closer, until a bright flash of light enveloped the ship as it hit the atmosphere. A shock cone developed around it and flames enveloped the heat shield as it decelerated from its interstellar speeds. This went on for five minutes. Then two days passed. Than it happened again. One day passed. Again. 2 hours. Again. Finally, it was done. The orbit was now at 400 kilometres above the surface. It would orbit every hour now. The star, Corbo, would rise and set 20 times a day. Personal opinion - I would either build up this paragraph to add drama or, if you want this to be a routine aerocapture, then trim some of the description. Depends how high tech the ship is (only you know that) and whether the aerocapture would actually be routine. At the least, I think you could probably drop the shock cone and the fact that the ship is orbiting every hour now without losing much. The ship had been floating in darkness for 300 years, slowly rotating to generate artificial gravity. There were no signs of life. The planet loomed closer and closer, until a bright flash of light enveloped the ship as it hit the atmosphere. Flames enveloped the heat shield as the ship decelerated from its interstellar speeds. Two days passed. Then another. Finally, it was done. The ship orbited at 400 kilometres above the surface, racing from sunrise to sunset 20 times a day. Something like that anyway. You'll probably have your own (better) ideas for editing. In general look out for places where stuff happens, followed by more stuff, followed by a bit more stuff, then yet more stuff, followed by the actually important thing that you were leading up to. Remember - a story's strength should flow from the... Ahh - that's Jedi. Never mind. Next up - show don't tell. It's a hoary old cliche but it's still something to be wary of. For example: Orbital EVA Specialist Yakovlev pulled himself out of the hatch. His backup, Planetary EVA Specialist Kurisu, waited just inside the hatch. He pushed off into nothing, the ship on one side and the green and pink expanse of Arcadia on the other. He noticed that the atmosphere was orange. That’s odd. It was green in the simulations. There are green clouds, but they aren’t too prominent. He was incredibly good at what he did. As a quick aside, I really liked that throway comment 'that's odd - it was green in the simulations.' Lovely bit of incidental description combined with a sense of the unknown. Despite all his preparation and training, Yakovlev was not expecting an orange atmosphere. You could probably rework the next sentence a little to make that part of Yakovlev's observations too: "He noticed that the atmosphere was orange. That’s odd. It was green in the simulations. Clouds are green though. Not too prominent either. Wonder what they're made of." And that's one example of 'show don't tell'. Show us the scene through one of your character's eyes rather than breaking off to tell us about it. Be careful though - it's easy to overdo this and end up with great blocks of interior monologue. And yeah - I've done that before as well. Why do you ask? More importantly though - that last sentence! How do we know that Yavkovlev was incredibly good at what he did? We don't really - we're just taking your word for it because you've told us. It's not easy but it would be a lot more effective if you can show us that competence by the way he handles himself on EVA. As @Kuzzter said (possibly in this thread) about a different story - you shouldn't need to tell the reader that Jeb was an ace pilot - it should be obvious from the way he flies his plane. So, in summary. Show don't tell and beware excess description. A bit of polishing and editing with those points in mind and that story could really shine, I reckon. Hope this helped a bit without being too patronising along the way!

Reposting this joke here since I figured a bunch of writers might appreciate it. I got a new thesaurus the other day. I returned it because it was useless. And not only that - but it was useless.

Actually Chadvey is one of my favourite characters. At least part of that is because of the accent!

Heh - I live in Scotland. Just threw the New Washington thing in at random as an example of building atmosphere with those little date stamps. Will post the comments as promised when I get a moment tomorrow. Right now it's midnight, I've been at a conference all day, complete with late running conference dinner and I'm bushed. G'night folks.

First off - thanks for the earworm! I now have 'In the Halls of the Mountain Kings' playing in my head. The story is really ramping up! Lots of depth developing and I really like the word-pictures you're putting in of the various states and kingdoms. Short but vivid and very effective.

Yup. Even something simple, like adding section breaks would help. Like this: ---------- And then start on the next section. Useful when you're jumping around between settings. Or you could be a bit more explicit about it and put a date and location stamp at the start of each setting change. Something like this maybe: ...She was going to have to eyeball this, and she only got one shot. She didn’t have a maneuvering unit like him, so if she missed, she would be stuck drifting like him. She lined up, compensated for his motion, and pushed off. ------ New Washington, US Separatist Zone, 2344 AD James and Jasmine wandered down the street. It was raining... Good start with the story though! I do have some criticisms (hopefully constructive ones!) and comments if you want them?

Not sure if this is just sub-standard trolling or what, but you really should read your own links. As the saying goes - correlation does not prove causation. Which proved to be the case here. Results Vegetarians displayed elevated prevalence rates for depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders. Due to the matching procedure, the findings cannot be explained by socio-demographic characteristics of vegetarians (e.g. higher rates of females, predominant residency in urban areas, high proportion of singles). The analysis of the respective ages at adoption of a vegetarian diet and onset of a mental disorder showed that the adoption of the vegetarian diet tends to follow the onset of mental disorders. Conclusions In Western cultures vegetarian diet is associated with an elevated risk of mental disorders. However, there was no evidence for a causal role of vegetarian diet in the etiology of mental disorders. And exaggerating anxiety and/or depressive disorders into strange mental health disorders associated with delusional or psychotic behaviour is frankly offensive - but we're getting off topic again.

India begs to differ. According to this website anyway. Granted, it's quite old and it would be interesting to see a more up to date version. Site created by National Geographic using stats from FAOSTAT so it should be pretty unbiased. Just for interest, taking numbers off the site, average daily caloric intake for India is 2458 calories, of which 29 are derived from meat and a further 182 from dairy and eggs. Of those 182, 9 are from eggs, 124 from milk and 65 from animal fats. Animal fats can be replaced by vegetable fats plus appropriate supplements. Milk and eggs can be dehydrated and sent from Earth. Those 29 calories worth of meat could, I suspect be substituted for other vegetable protein sources, or if you really need meat, sent from Earth as luxury items. I see no reason why real Mars colony plans need to account for raising and harvesting meat. It'll no doubt happen eventually but by that time it'll be a nice problem to have because it'll imply that we've solved most of the other, far more pressing, problems associated with living on Mars.

I remember this discussion, or a very similar one, from years ago. If I remember correctly, my view at the time was that KSP is all about the journey. The flags and footprints if you will. In @eloquentJane's words doing incredible things for the sake of having done them. I would love to see a game of the kind you suggest. The kerbals becoming a multi-planetary, space-faring civilization and you, the player, guiding them on their way to that. However, I'd like to see it done properly, as a paid for expansion or possibly even as KSP2, so that Squad get the funding and resources they need to do it justice. In the meantime, I agree with the OP, that a little more depth to career mode would be good. That doesn't necessarily mean massive changes, or story-telling or anything like that, just taking the freeform, flags and footprints game that we have and expanding it. In particular, I have three things in mind, two of which are shamelessly borrowed from other forum-goers and one of which is a mod. 1. Randomized solar systems. See almost anything that @tater has written on the topic for practical suggestions but the upshot of all of them is much the same. KSP is a game about discovery - so give us something to discover. Make it different for each game. And don't spoiler it in the Map Screen, so that we actually have to go see what's out there, where no kerbal has gone before. 2. A planetarium, I forget who suggested this and I apologize for that because this idea is both golden and very simple. Have a planetarium (or mission planning) building. It's similar to the Map Screen but it lets you wind time back and forward without it having any effect on the outside world. A visual transfer window finder if you like. I love this idea because it takes the Map Screen approach to plotting trajectories around Kerbin's SOI (which I still think is one of the stand-out features of KSP - turning orbital mechanics into an easily visualized thing), and extends it to interplanetary journeys. 3. Kerbal Construction Time. Make it stock. Instant space program management. For added spice, make life support stock too. 1+2 play very well together, do very little to change current gameplay mechanics and turn KSP into a real space exploration game. I'm guessing 3 would be less popular. It turns the game into much more of a management sim / tycoon game which (last time I tried it) I really enjoyed and I think adds a lot of depth to career mode. Others may beg to differ of course.

Calling a fish a wombat does not necessarily make it so. I had a game on my ZX Spectrum called (I kid you not). Ninja Scooter Simulator. It had very very little to do with either ninjas or simulations. Edit: Thought experiment for Alshain. I've written a game. You, the player, start out on a plain which stretches out around you as far as the eye can see (or your graphics card can handle). In front of you are three things: 1. A block vending machine. It has a slot for inserting coins and a huge array of blocks for vending. Red blocks, green blocks, wooden blocks, glass blocks, square blocks, even round blocks (in your face Minecraft). 2. A piece of paper and a pencil. The paper has three mazes drawn on it. One of them looks pretty easy, one of them looks hard, one of them looks something in between. At the top of the paper is written "Solve a Maze and Win a Prize." The player can use the pencil to solve one of the mazes. If the player correctly solves a maze, a coin appears, the maze disappears and is replaced by a new one. The player can now use the coin to purchase a block. The player can purchase many blocks in fact, and use them to build things. So. I've written a never-ending sandbox game. The player completes objectives for currency and is able to build things. The game has a primary objective (solve a maze and win a prize) and can continue forever once that objective is met. The game is player driven rather than story driven. Have I written a tycoon game? If not, why not?