KSK

Sure you can. Just set your tendering requirements such that your launch vehicle, for example, must use five segment SRB's of a type and specification that - entirely coincidentally - only a single company manufacture. Snark aside, from my extremely limited knowledge of government procurement, I'm prepared to believe that you're technically correct. However there also seem to be no shortage of ways to make sure that government funds get spent on contracts with the 'right' companies anyway.

The mass-acceleration product is strong with you, young kerbal - but you are not a Jedi yet. Aaaand it appears that the autocorrect on my phone now recognises 'kerbal' as a legitimate word. # no I don't come here often - why would you think that.

Nimble target, relatively cumbersome weapons platform and trying to hit the pilot that made Donald puke? Also, judging the by filed down teeth, it's a good thing that gunship wasn't powered by a piston engine - because that pilot was definitely not firing on all eight cylinders! Duh-duh-duh duh dun. Duh-duh-duh duh dun. For those that inexplicably fail to recognize my masterful transliteration (/s), that's the Terminator theme which was running through my head at the end. The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire... I hope not...

Addendum to historical note. But it sounds like it should be which is how fighter pilots like it. Pulse thumping chapter and I just bet it was 'technically challenging' to write. Describing a long chase without getting repetitive (which you weren't)... yeah that's a real trick. And nuclear powered VTOL gunships?! Somebody really wants to get hold of Anna - and apparently has zero scruples about such trivialities as 'collateral damage', or 'use of ludicrous overkill.'

Kerbulan poetry. Beats the mulch out of Vogon poetry. And yeah - it'll be Cheese next for Melgee and Kurt!

Likewise, chapter titles aren't usually too much of a problem for me. Quite often, a title and a handful of bullet points is all I'll have of a chapter before sitting down to actually write it. I also tend to scribble down ideas (including titles) as and when they occur so, for example, I already know what the final chapter and epilogue for First Flight will be called. For what it's worth, some inspirations for chapter titles have been: Music and song titles: Echoes of Time was inspired by M83s 'Echoes of Mine' Attempts (probably failed ones ) at misdirection: One Small Step was indeed about a giant leap for Kerbalkind - but nothing to do with the impending Mun landing. Quotes and snippets from other works. According to Gene Krantz's Failure is not an Option, so far as the flight controllers were concerned, Apollo 8 was the big flight - the one for the ages - and not Apollo 11. A Voyage for the Ages seemed like a splendid title for the first chapter of my Apollo 8 equivalent flight. The Days the World Stood Still, is a fairly obvious lift too.

Yeah - got to be careful of loose cannons... I'll show myself out.

I'd be up for that if folks didn't mind me cribbing chunks of my fanfic and reposting them in a different thread. And yeah, that Eve example sounds like classic Fan Dumb.

Yeah me too. It's the one scene that felt badly out of place. I get why it was in there, as a clear cut signal that Anakin Has Turned to the Dark Side, but it was a lazy way of doing it.

Yeah - it's the first game that's really motivated me to put pen to paper. As a writer, I think I get the best of both worlds with KSP - it's a mostly blank canvas with enough detail (a scattering of names, the kerbals themselves and a handful of memes if you need them) to quickly establish a recognizable setting for your story. I take @Curveball Anders point about an 'official' backstory but I actually think that Novasilsko's story would work quite well because it really just tops-and-tails the current setting without placing any extra restrictions on it. (Quite the opposite in fact, the Progenitors - for want of a better name - could make for an interesting source of fanfic material in their own right). Instead it provides a distant prequel (somebody else created the kerbals) and one possible present-day story arc (kerbals discovering their origins) and that's it. It says nothing about how a species that began as a failed experiment evolved to become a spacefaring civilization. It doesn't tell us anything more about that species than the stuff we already know from the game. And it doesn't seem to preclude any other stories set in the Kerbol system. I'm actually struggling to think of a fanfic (in whatever format) that wouldn't work OK with Nova's story. Certainly my own one wouldn't be affected. A Quest for the Monoliths (going to other worlds for Science!) sounds like something that Kerbfleet would get up to, amongst its many other adventures. And all the extra-Kerbolar entities hinted at in other stories could easily be accommodated.

Hmm, put like that, Thompberry reminds me a little of Vader (except that brain-inna-jar is much more retro-cool than an ugly black mask ). The first time I watched Revenge of the Sith, I kinda felt sorry for Anakin. For the most part he was doing the wrong things for the right reason, driven by fear of a future without Padme. The second time through, I needed a side of mustard to go with the ham but that's another matter. Anyhow, the novel Dark Lord was quite an interesting look at the early days of Anakin/Vader and for the most part, it was the suit that drove him over the edge. Which figures - stuck in a black armour case, completely dependent on it for everything, including all the messy aspects of being a living being, unable to see, hear or breathe without assistance. Not to mention putting up with bits of dead flesh falling off you on a regular basis and having to be cleaned out. Not sure which is worse - suit or jar. Either way, it's no surprise that the being inhabiting either of them went to the dark.

I'm sure the sentiment is appreciated but... Moar looks unlikely to happen for a bit.

One of life's great stresses combined with a technically demanding chapter. Definitely sounds like that one will need to ferment for a while. But, like a pickled mosquito head, it will no doubt surprise, then tingle, then delight. And I never yet heard of no pickled mosquito head that wouldn't improve if you left it a bit longer in the jar. Take all the time you need and best of luck with the house buying! We'll still be here when you get back.

Only Squad know for sure but here's my version for whatever it's worth. In a very real sense, my kerbals have walked amongst their gods (although they're no longer referred to as such) since prehistoric times. They have no need to turn to the skies in search of deities.

Both of those would get my vote too. "Packing for Mars" could easily be re-titled 'everything you didn't know about human spaceflight and were afraid to ask'.

"We choose to land in this place. We hope to land in this decade without exploding, not because that is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal is a waste of our energies and skills, because that runway is one that we can't be bothered to fix, one we are willing to postpone, and one which we intend to ignore..." Edit: Back on topic, I don't really see any reason for this suggestion other than to add a bit of Nintendo difficulty to the game. Feel free to use the runway as you see fit but does it really matter that much if other players don't play by your exact rules?

Nah - I prefer a little precision marksmanship, Boromir style. The link isn't remotely forum friendly due to much bad language, but a search for 'boromir' and 'catapult' will do the trick if you're curious and haven't already seen it.

Well the good business reasons I had in mind were along the lines of 'we do it this way because otherwise we go broke'. I'm aware (or can imagine) all the points you raise and am very much aware that all that testing takes time and money. But we've also seen that Squad are in this for the long haul and that they do, in time, fix the bugs, change things in response to feedback etc. So they're obviously finding the resources from somewhere. But the consistently overoptimistic deadlines do get tiring. It suggests that some part of the pipeline isn't working and that somebody somewhere has a consistently wrong understanding of how much can be done in a given amount of time. It also suggests that lessons either are not being, or cannot be, learned, which is depressing whichever way you look at it. Let me also be quite clear - I'm also well aware that none of the above may be Squad's fault at all. They undoubtedly have external pressures and deadlines they have to meet. In which case I feel for them - they can't talk about all that internal stuff and yet they end up carrying the can when things go wrong.

Blaming the victim is rarely an acceptable response either, even if you feel the 'victim' has an exaggerated grievance. And actually I can't agree with your post at all. Load/save functionality is basic stuff for almost any modern game. It should just work and I don't think anybody would expect it not to work regardless of what research they might have done. It actually baffles me how something so basic managed to slip through multiple layers of accreditation and supposed quality control. For the record, I have no skin in this game since I don't own a console and have no intention of owning one. Again it's a matter of degree. This isn't an 'OMG, I can't believe Squad have painted the Round8 the wrong shade of gold - AND MY WORLD IS RUINED' thread. This is a legitimate (and actually reasonably civil) complaint about basic stuff (for any game, not just KSP) not working. And frankly, I'm not entirely surprised when people grumble about the game being rushed any more. Release-early-then-patch has been the consistent pattern for the last several updates. There may well be very good business reasons why things need to be that way but it doesn't stop it from being true.

No - I can't think of any better sci-fi references. Dragon's Blood (Todd McCaffrey) gets close, albeit with a fictional genetic code, but that was published in 2005.

OK, found it.

Sure. I'll dig out my copy and see what I can find. It was kind of a side plot so I'm not terribly surprised that it wasn't on Wikipedia. In the meantime you might have some luck searching for Egan plus junk plus DNA.

Hi KerikBalm, Not sure if you were looking for pre 2006 references in the scientific literature but if you'll settle for a sci-fi reference, it's mentioned (in a re-encoded human context) on Greg Egan's 'Distress' - published in 1996.

Great stuff - bring on the A2!

For the stock game there's no real reason to from a gameplay perspective, because there are no game mechanics that would be affected. An interaction chamber, Hitchhiker module or four Mk1 capsules stacked end to end, would all work equally as well as each other for transporting four kerbals. However, I completely agree that a) a revamped IVA view for the Hitchhiker and b) more varied parts for accommodating kerbals would be good things to have.