KSK

Happy Easter, or Spring Break as the case may be! Next chapter is up. Priorities "... and we'll be bringing you more on this story as it develops. It's ten o' clock and this is Capital Radio." Finally. Lodan switched off the radio, turned out the light and burrowed down under his bedcovers. Thirty seconds later he was fast asleep. He awoke to the sound of birdsong and leaves rustling outside his window. Sunlight stole around a gap in the curtains, casting a narrow white fan across the bed. Blinking muzzily, Lodan sat up and stared at his alarm clock in astonishment. Then he leapt out of bed and dashed for the moss room. The face peering back at him from the mirror was distinctly careworn around the edges with more new wrinkles around the eyes and corners of its mouth than he cared to contemplate. The eyes though, were brighter and more alert than they had been for weeks. They clouded over briefly, then stared back at him with new resolve. I'll brief Aldsen first thing. I owe him that much. Lodan scraped the last of the stubble off his chin. He briefly considered leaving his nascent moustache to grow out but eyed the grey-streaked bristle covering his upper lip and shook his head. More toothless old kermol than dignified leader. Two brisk strokes of his razor later it was gone. ------------- The shadow covering most of Aldsen's jaw was only marginally darker than the bags under his eyes. He tapped a button on his keyboard, freezing the scrolling text on his screen, then swivelled to face Lodan. “You always were a hopeless liar, Director," he said without rancour. “That line about following instructions without asking questions was just a little too casual to be true." Lodan froze. “You knew?" he asked quietly. “That you were hiding something? Yes - but I had no idea what." Aldsen scrubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and looked at Lodan wearily. “It was Capital News's little thunderbolt that you were carefully avoiding wasn't it? Please don't tell me it was anything worse." Lodan laughed humourlessly. “If you had anything worse in mind, I'd hate to hear about it," he said. He lifted a stack of computer printouts off the nearest chair and sat down. “So what brings you into the office this late in the evening?" “Figuring out a way to fill out the missing numbers on our map data," Aldsen replied, stifling a yawn. He waved at the gridded charts plastered across the walls of the main MIR laboratory. “Bottom right for current Kerm count, bottom left for additional supportable Kerm, I'm guessing?" “That was the eventual plan," Lodan said. He shook his head in disgust, “Once I was...." “Allowed to tell everyone by the Twelve?" said Aldsen calmly. He raised his eyebrows at the look on Lodan's face. “Hopeless liar, remember. Only the Council could get you to even try." Lodan opened his mouth, then closed it again, contenting himself with a terse nod. Kerm save me from logical subordinates. "So, what do you have for me?" he asked at last. In reply, Aldsen tapped another key, waited a moment and then turned his monitor round. Lodan didn't recognise the section of Kerbin filling most of the screen but the terrain was rugged with the edge of a mountain range in the top right corner and a ragged spear of foothills bisecting the rest of the map. Aldsen typed in a command and a contour plot rapidly overlaid the image. Fascinated, Lodan leaned forward, finger hovering over the screen as he traced out the curve of one hilltop. “Impressive. Are they to scale?" “They wouldn't be much help if they weren't," said Aldsen. “And to answer your next question - stereo imaging. Took a while to re-orient the satellite properly but once we had, we took a complete backsight image set. The maths isn't too bad - you just need a lot of computer time to extract the elevations - but good image alignment is challenging." “I can imagine," said Lodan. “Do you have elevation data for the whole map." “Not yet," said Aldsen. “Kolus is finished and we did get quite a lot of Firesvar done before Germore's probe arrived at Minmus. Since then we haven't had as much free machine time, although I believe Firesvar is almost finished now." “I think we're going to need more computers," muttered Lodan. Aldsen nodded. “That would be helpful. In the meantime." He tapped in another command. There was a noticeable pause and then clusters of grey dots started appearing over the map. Another pause and each dot expanded, their edges bulging or withdrawing amoeba-like, as they flowed around the contour lines. “We used a fairly arbitrary Grove size on the original mapping project,†said Aldsen. “It seemed like a reasonable short-cut at the time since we were primarily concerned with total numbers rather than area covered. I spent rather a lot of last night finding the proper size to use and calibrating the system to use that size. In the end it wasn't too bad - Groves are actually surprisingly regular." Lodan studied the map. “This valley here is almost all occupied but there's some space on the other side of that ridge. "He looked at Aldsen hopefully. “I don't suppose...?" Aldsen smiled faintly and tapped a key. Immediately, a sprinkling of green blobs spattered across the map, blocking out most of the remaining space. The computer beeped and flashed up a depressingly low number in the bottom left corner of the screen. Lodan looked at it thoughtfully. “You've set it up for zero overlap between Groves?" he said. “Yes," said Aldsen. “I assumed that any new Groves will be planted to avoid further Blight - and besides, it made the fitting algorithm a lot easier to write." “But one could set it up for a limited amount of overlap?" Aldsen looked shocked. “Yes - but the Blight!" “Not if the overlap zones were properly placed," said Lodan impatiently. “Put them along rivers, on rocky or low grade land. “ He poked a finger at the blank spaces around the green blobs. “We're wasting a lot of space here, which we can scarcely afford." Aldsen tipped his chair back as he considered the problem. “Difficult," he said at last. “Rivers wouldn't be too bad - we can do a feature recognition pass and extract those. I've already built in a contour density filter so picking out cliffs and suchlike is doable. Recognising soil types though." Aldsen looked dubious. “Not sure if that would work. Not reliably anyway. And then cooking up a best fit algorithm to glue it all together?" He shook his head. “Possible, Director but not probable I would say. And we could waste an awful lot of time trying to make it work." Lodan nodded. “Which we may not have. I think we're going to need a lot more computers and a lot more kerbals to use them." He straightened his shoulders.“Until then, the Minmus imaging program is officially on hold. All computing capacity in this lab - and any spare capacity outside the lab - will be allocated to completing the elevation map and populating it with correctly scaled Groves. From there, we'll do this the old-fashioned way." “How much time do we have?" said Aldsen quietly. “Nobody knows for sure," replied Lodan grimly. “The best guess we have from the Berelgan team is thirty-five to forty years, with new Seedings peaking at about twenty years from now." Aldsen's chair lurched forward with a crash. “Forty?!" he exclaimed. “And all the Kerm are going to be Seeding?" Lodan's eyes had lost their early morning shine. “Yes," he said, “Age doesn't seem to be a factor so far as we can tell from the Berelgan records. The Berelgan team are trying to find a way of close-planting new Kerm without triggering the Blight but until then we need to know how many new ones we can safely plant and where." He cocked an eyebrow at Aldsen. “No pressure of course." Aldsen swallowed hard. “And what happens if the Berelgan can't find a way?" he said. “Then it's Germore's turn," said Lodan. “And we'd better hope that our space program is up to the task of setting up another home on whichever planet she picks for us." -------- Gerselle watched the line of villagers wind its way up the path, a grim-faced Ferry in the lead, followed by Fredlorf and a host of angry looking kerbals behind him. She stood aside, unable to meet Ferry's eye, as they marched through her front door and through to the sleep room. The door crashed open. Startled, Jonton looked up, saw the expression on Ferry's face and hung his head. The leaves swaddling his kerbal body drooped in sympathy. Fredlorf was the first to speak, his voice laced with bitterness. "So yer not much of a hero after all, are yeh." It wasn't a question. Jonton shook his head mutely. "Sacrificin' yerself to save the village from the Blight that you started in the firs' place. That ain't heroism - that's payin' yer share." The villagers around him muttered in angry agreement. "No choice," murmured Jonton, "Couldn't leave the seed to die on stony ground." "Better if yeh had," retorted Fredlorf. "We'd have our best fields still and you wouldn't be strung up agains' that damn tree!" Shocked whispers broke the angry muttter. Ferry cleared his throat. "No need for that, Fred," he said. "What sort of Keeper would leave a Kerm to die?" He shook his head. "No - Jonton did right there - but why he didn't just plant that Kerm someplace else I'll never know." The bitterness crept back into his voice. "And why he couldn't tell his best friends the whole story? I'll never know that either." "Because he - we - had orders not to," said Gerselle quietly. "Orders?" scoffed Fredlorf, "Who'd be givin' yeh orders?" "Chief Ambassador Donman," replied Gerselle. "Representing all the Twelve Pillars." Ferry's jaw dropped. Fredlorf snorted. "Right. An' how did they get to hearin' about it?" The Kerm leaves rustled. "Because I told them," said Jonton evenly. "The Chief Ambassador was gracious enough to convey my request for Conclave to the Council." He looked sadly at Ferry. "Do you remember that conversation we had about memories? The one where I told you about sharing memories with the Kerm, Ferry - about being the Kerm?" Ferry nodded hesitantly. "I shared them with Chief Ambassador Donman too. I think the Council has been looking for an answer ever since." The village Archivist coughed. "An answer to what, Keeper?" he said. Jonton opened his mouth to speak but Gerselle interrupted him. "Why don't you just show them?" she said gently. "The same way you showed the Ambassador - and the same way you showed me." Jonton's leaves pricked up. " Why not?" he murmured. "I used to commune with many kerbals at a time after all." Gerselle nodded. "Somebody could use the leaf cluster over my bed and there are some low-lying clusters next door that could also be used. I think Ferry and Fred deserve to go first, but who else?" Jonton gave her a lopsided smile. "That's easy," he said. "Who better to put all this into context than an Archivist." Gerselle turned to Jerdin. "Would you be willing?" Jerdin blinked to clear his watering eyes. "I'm not sure what you mean, Gerselle," he said politely. "Willing to do what?" "To commune with Jonton," said Gerselle, "With Ferry and Fred." Jerdin's brow wrinkled. "I don't understand," he said. "Jonton is the Keeper surely - not the Kerm. And sharing a Kerm is...rather personal, is it not? In fact, is it even possible for a non-Keeper?" Gerselle looked at him sympathetically. "It is," she said, “Trust me, it's a very long story but Jonton is the best one to tell it... and show it... and make you feel it. She thought for a moment then smiled mischievously at Jerdin. "Besides, as an archivist and historian, wouldn't you like to be a part of something that no kerbal has experienced since before the Age of Madness?" Jerdin polished his lorgnettes on his sleeve. "The Age of Madness is a rather old-fashioned name," he noted. "Most of us refer to it as the Age of Myths, since the few remaining Records of that time are little more than a retelling of older myths and legends." He shrugged. "Although a few, otherwise quite respectable, historians have advanced the notion that some of the less fanciful remnants are the fragmented legal system of a long gone Empire." "That's closer than you might think," said Jonton quietly. "In many ways the Age of Madness is everything, Archivist - both the key to understanding our past and quite possibly the key to creating our future." "So what are we waitin' for?" said Fredlorf, rolling his eyes. "If Jonton's goin' ta show us something, lets get on with it." Gerselle plumped up the pillows on her bed and tapped the bedcovers. "Come and lie down then, Fred." She raised her eyebrows at his suddenly uncertain expression. "Oh, for Kerm's sake." Fredlorf flushed dark green and lay down on the bed, flinching as the Kerm leaves brushed his forehead. Gerselle studied him for a moment. "Lift your head up, Fred." Nervously, Fredlorf obeyed. Gerselle pulled a spare pillow out from under the bed and wedged it under his head. He lowered his head, eyes rolling back into their sockets as he tried to watch the leaves. "Are yeh sure about this, Gerselle? Thought this was only fer Keepers, like Jerdin was sayin'." "Not just for Keepers, Fred, " said Jonton. He looked at Jerdin. "That is a myth - but one that was spread for a very good reason. Just try and relax - I'll tell you when it's all about to start." Gerselle hauled a heap of spare bedcovers and pillows out of a cupboard. The now silent crowd parted before her as she made her way to the door, arms laden with quilts. Jerdin and Ferry followed her with the more curious villagers trailing along behind. In the living room, she piled up the covers in two rough pallets at the foot of the Kerm trunk. She placed a pillow under each leaf cluster and turned towards Jerdin and Ferry. "Please - pick a place to lie. It doesn't matter which, just so long as the leaves can rest against your head." She faced the group of kerbals behind them. "It'll take a while for Jonton .to explain everything. You're all very welcome to stay but there won't be very much for the rest of us to see." Nervously, Jerdin and Ferry took their places under the Kerm leaves, Jerdin twitching as their hairs tickled his scalp. "How long is this going to take, Gerselle? These things are making me itch." "Depends how long Jonton takes," replied Gerselle. "Two hours maybe?" She caught the look on Jerdin's face. "Don't worry, you won't notice the itch once the communion starts. I'll just let him know you're ready." Jonton tapped his fingers against his water bowl, one eye on the door, one eye on Fredlorf. He raised a eyebrow as Gerselle came into the room, dipping his head solemnly at her answering nod. He closed his eyes, reaching out, feeling for the kerbal flesh under his leaves. On the bed, Fredlorf shifted restlessly. "Sorry, Fred - I know it tickles but this won't take a minute. Just relax - I'm starting the communion now." One by one, three clusters of leaves dipped towards three waiting kerbal heads. A swift burst of flickering images filled each waiting mind, followed by a soft white light. Jonton's head snapped back as a storm of emotions cascaded through the mental link; unease feeding on nervousness, swelling into fear, teetering on the edge of panic. Fighting down his own rising panic, he did his best to project calm reassurance, confidence and stillness. Gradually the storm steadied, quivering like a wild animal poised between fight or flight. Can everybody hear me? Fredlorf's head jerked up. "How in the... Jonton?" It's me, Fred. No need to talk, just think of whatever you need to say. I don't quite know how this works with four - Ferry, Jerdin, can you hear us? The quivering, nascent panic began to recede. A growing wonder bloomed in Jonton's mind, spiralling upwards into delight as swiftly as the previous unease had spirallled downwards into panic. This is Ferry. I can hear you Jonton - and Fred too! Are you alright, Jerdin? Much more than alright, Ferry! This is... Kerm, I don't have the words for this. A ripple of relief and barely masked concern lapped over the three kerbals. Jonton sensed their reflected concern racing back towards him, magnified into a tidal wave of clumsily projected reassurance and joy. Woahhhh - steady everyone, steady! I'm fine, I'm fine! This is going to take some getting used to, I think. Right, pictures next. Let me know if you can see anything. The mental link fell silent. Jonton sensed eddies of expectation, then a surge of excitement followed by puzzlement. Ferry was the first to speak. I don't know about Fred or Jerdin but I can see a sapling and ... a kerbal I think. Not sure what else it could be but it's like no kerbal I've ever seen before. Currents of agreement and confusion lapped against Jonton's mind. Slowly he blew out a gusty sigh, running through his story in his mind whilst struggling not to broadcast his every thought to the others. Oh he's definitely a kerbal, Ferry. Jonton paused. One of my first kerbals in fact. Welcome to the Kerbin of your far distant ancestors. -------------- The last image of Barkton faded back into white light. Fredlorf sat up, blinking and rubbing his head. He stared at Jonton wordlessly. Footsteps echoed outside and Ferry and Jerdin appeared in the doorway, followed by Gerselle and the few villagers who had opted to wait. Silently, Ferry and Jerdin sat down on the bed beside Fredlorf, watching as everybody else filed in. "Looks like we've got some more buildin' work to do, Jonton." Fredlorf ran his fingers through his hair. "Providin' that you an Gerselle don' mind of course. If yeh can talk to three of us, reckon you could speak to as many as could fit around yer trunk. They'll be needing summat to lie on though, specially if we're goin' to be using those high-up leaves." The villagers standing against the wall looked confused but Gerselle just nodded. "Reckon you're right Fred." She smiled at her husband. "Better get used to telling that story, my love." Ferry raised .his head "Yes. Everyone is the village needs to see this." He lifted his hands helplessly. "Everyone on Kerbin needs to see this for that matter, although I have no idea how." "But what are we going to do, Jonton?" said Jerdin, wide-eyed. “The Blight, the Seeding... what are we going to do?!" Jonton stirred. "I've finally got half an idea about that," he said. Gerselle looked at him in surprise. "The easy half I would think but it's a start. Jerdin - I'm going to need a map that you don't mind me drawing on - plus one of your folding tables from the Records hall. Oh - and a pair of compasses. Jerdin nodded jerkily. "I'll be right back, Jonton." He jumped to his feet and dashed out of the room. One of the villagers chuckled to see the normally unflappable Archivist scuttling away like an overenthusiastic kerblet but his laughter petered out in the silence. He stared at Ferry and Fredlorf, both leaning against the wall, eyes distant and unfocused. "So what did you see?" he asked. "What was the big explanation, the long story?" Ferry looked at him blankly. Fredlorf shook his head. "Reckon Gerselle had that part right," he said quietly. "You'd need to ask Jonton - wouldn't sound right comin' from me and most of it's in the showing anyways. But if I told yeh it was the best thing in the world bein' used to show yeh the worst things in the world, that would start to get there." There was a long, awkward silence, punctuated by the rustle of ponchos and shuffling feet and the occasional cough. Then, the silence was broken by clattering and the rapid slap-slap-slap of sandalled feet. Jerdin burst into the room, robes flapping about his ankles, laden with map and table. Panting, he unfolded the table, unrolled the map over it and set both down within easy reach of Jonton. "Got...the rest... here too, Keeper." Jerdin fumbled in his pocket, nearly dropping the drawing instruments in his haste. "Think... that was everything?" Jonton studied the map for a moment. "That's perfect, Jerdin - thank you. If everyone could gather round?" He waited until all the villagers found a space around the map, before unfolding the compasses. "Right. As best I can tell, we planted Gerselle's Grove here." Jonton pointed at the map. "Her Kerm's territory extends to the sunfruit fields...here, so it's total range isn't far off this." He drew a circle on the map. "Now my territory covers the rest of our fields - obviously - but also the surrounding woodlands. There's no Grove yet on the other side of the woods but if there was, its Kerm's territory would cover this ground here." Jonton drew another circle on the map and looked up expectantly. Ferry saw it immediately. "What about the overlap? We don't want Blight in the woods." "Better the woods than the fields," answered Jonton, "but you're right - we don't want more Blight if we can help it - and I believe we can help it. As Capital News helpfully mentioned last night, Blight happens when two Kerm fight over territory. But this an-Kerm," he jabbed a thumb at his chest, "would prefer to retreat rather than fight! And if I can retreat before the new Grove is even planted, then there should never be a need to fight." "an-Kerm?" said Jerdin wonderingly. "Kerm-an are outside, or outwith, the Kerm, so an-Kerm are..." He laughed. "Very nice, Jonton. Inside the Kerm indeed!" Ferry's eyes lit up. "You can do that, Jonton?" "I think so," said Jonton. "It won't be easy but I think it's possible." Gerselle saw the brief flicker cross his face and eyed him narrowly. There's something you're not telling me here, Jonton Kermol. "It's a nice idea," she said aloud, "but even if it works, a single an-Kerm can't stop the Blight for all of Kerbin." Jonton dropped his gaze. "I know," he said softly. "That's the hard half that I haven't worked out yet." "It's a start though," said Fredlorf briskly, "an' startin's always the hardest part of anythin'. Though I'm wonderin' how yeh goin' to know how far to retreat, Jonton?" Jonton grinned. "That's the easiest part of it, Fred," he said. "Gerselle can tell you how." I can? Ohhh - of course. "Star poppies would be best," Gerselle answered. "Quick growing, easily visible to Kerm and kerbal alike, and they're pretty flowers for the kerblets to plant." Jonton drew a dotted line on the map alongside the second circle. "Poppies would work nicely," he agreed. "Plant small clumps of them along this line here and that will mark how far I need to retreat. Then I just need to do it." << Chapter 44: Chapter 46>>

Man, the Eds and Billy sure got a long way into the 'Not food' locker. I don't see Munbase fusion cuisine catching on though. Really enjoyed the last few chapters. Just hope it doesn't all turn out to be a bad dream caused by consumption of too much Mush.

Definitely. Being able to take advantage of 10-20 years experience in materials science, engineering of all kinds, and building spacecraft? Being able to design a new craft from scratch that isn't hobbled by the need to make half assed compromises to accommodate legacy equipment? Everything else being equal, designing from scratch is almost guaranteed to be cheaper I'd say. Witness all the redesigns, false starts and money spent on PowerPoint slides that we've seen thrown at the problem of reusing Shuttle hardware in a next generation launcher (Aries and then SLS).

Fruitcake alert sounding... Fruitcake warning siren has just exploded. This reminds me of those obnoxious adverts: "Unknown Mom invents faster than light drive. Rocket scientists hate her."

I think its a good idea having played with something similar in Kerbal Construction Time. It would also make Hard mode games more fun. Some of the game mechanics (especially rep) only really work if you assume no saving/reloading or reverting, but that can also be a real nuisance given the lack of stock design tools. I don't mind losing a crew due to a piloting error or losing funds because I mess up a parts test flight and need to repeat it. I do mind losing a crew because my spaceplane undercarriage wasn't correctly set up to the nearest fraction of a degree, or spending way more on a parts test contract than I'll get back from completing it because it takes me three attempts to get the design right.

Reminds me of an article where the author was getting all bent out of shape because he/she bought a jar of pickled onions, was horrified to find it contained acetic acid and wondered why all this 'artificial preservative' was needed for a simple jar of pickled onions. GMOs - depends what they're used for. I can understand the 'ick factor' associated with some GM crops, whether or not the 'ick' is rational or not. I also wonder if too many agricultural problems have become a nail to pound on with the high-tech GM hammer, when other approaches might work equally well. On the other hand I don't care in the slightest if the potato genes in a new variety of drought resistant potato (for example) have been put there by years of patient cross-breeding or by genetic manipulation.

But all things serve the Beam surely? Meh - there'll be water if God wills it.

Ahh - the legend of Randalthor Kerman unless I miss my guess. Do darker legends speak of Therin-Lews Kerman and his One Hundred Companions? I like it.

Nope. Your application should include at least one embodiment of that concept. In other words you need to describe at least one way of getting the concept to work and describe it in sufficient detail that a suitably skilled person could read the patent and also get it to work. The key words there are 'suitably skilled person'. In principle they're included so that your patent application can take some things as read and doesn't need to describe absolutely everything in mind-numbing detail (which is good because they're not exactly a riveting read at the best of times, and I say this as somebody who's worked with them for over 15 years). Unfortunately, how much you should take as read is a matter of interpretation. I've seen brick-thick chemical patents that reference Pauling's 'The Nature of the Chemical Bond' and at the other absurd extreme, I've seen patents that pretty much do just describe the concept. Sometimes that can be enough - if the invention really is coming up with the concept and the implementation (once the concept has been pointed out) is entirely obvious to the skilled reader, then the patent will be OK. That might sound a bit contradictory but how often have you looked at something and thought 'I can't believe nobody has done that before'? You can instantly see how it works but figuring out that it would work at all was the clever bit.

Edit: let's not get side-tracked, please.-- Vanamonde Some of your comments I happen to agree with. However, speculating on the eventual release price of KSP (and speculation is all it is) is pointless in the absence of any comment from Squad. I also believe the release price will strongly influence any reviews, so dire predictions of poor reviews are premature at best. On a similar note, comments such as " Focus on the product and not the money" are unfair and borderline insulting. Firstly they imply that Squad aren't already doing this, and secondly, whether the players like or it not, Squad have to focus on both. No point having 90% of a perfectly polished and bug free game that never gets released because the developers run out of cash. And 'perfectly polished' is always going to be an extremely subjective opinion in any case.

Found this very well-written thread on the Beginners forum which sums up the gameplay nicely IMO. It certainly sounds like the game for you from what you've said, but bear in mind that whilst the galaxy is realistic, the flight mechanics aren't. It's fighter planes at FTL speeds rather than orbital mechanics and worrying about delta-v budgets. Having played Elite 2 (which did use a full Newtonian flight model (not to mention KSP of course) I can honestly say that I like the E: D flight model. It's very well done for a 'fighter planes in space' model and it makes some parts of the game (particularly docking) a lot easier. Swooping in past a ringed gas giant, frameshift drive ticking over at a nice 0.8c, picking up a moon on the scanner, adding a dab of roll, pitching up, getting it in your sights and then backing off on the throttle - it does make for some surprisingly engaging flying. But realistic it aint.

Likewise! Although I was giggling at: And yeah, this bit, together with the very... stilted guard when Chadvey turned up, sums up my thoughts - and reasons for my last post :

Thanks both. Just skirted round the edge of this particular rabbit hole on Wikipedia, and yeah - I was forgetting that variation is the important thing in evolution and that variation can be caused by a number of processes, most notably, sexual recombination. +rep for both.

Low quality troll. 3/10 - would not read again. Is it some strange compulsion that you have to go wildly, pointlessly and unhelpfully off-topic on every Science forum thread that you post in?

It would be quite a trick to improve on the error correction systems that are already there. Wikipedia has a decent summary: Not bad for a collection of molecules bumping into each other. Mazon - genuine question here. What other processes drive evolution apart from mutation. I know there's some evidence to suggest that epigenetic changes can be heritable - is that what you were thinking about, or something else?

Uh-huh. Totally legit. Nothing suspicious going on here. No sirree.

Have a look at Final Frontier sometime - it does quite a lot of what you're looking for. I agree that it would be good to have something similar in stock though.

Well I learned something today. Thank you NoMrBond.

This. Exactly this.

This. Bring plants for the psychological benefits of having living things to care for. If you need a pet too, bring a Tamagotchi or a Nintendog.

It's back! And yay for the comment about long stories - I'll read as much Kold War as you write!

Sounds like Styrofoam to me but I could be wrong. I read the question as being about a two layered floor (concrete base, wood tile upper surface) resting on a base of styrofoam insulation. From there: 1. Calculate the weight of the floor given it's density and sufficient information to calculate the volume of concrete and wood tile. 2. Calculate the maximum weight (force) the base can withstand given how much pressure it can withstand. 3. Calculate the mass of extra furniture the floor can support (subtract result of 1) from result of 2) and convert weight to mass) Don't know if that helps?

Great idea but something I'd like to see done properly via an expansion or sequel. I'm not sure it would work so well just tacked on to the existing game mechanics.

I think you needed the height of the wood and concrete layers to calculate their mass for the first question. But I'm not sure why the height of styrolit was needed.

I wouldn't mind a set story but any set story loses its impact after you've played through it a couple of times. Totally agree with Tw1 - add some story elements and let the player use them as they see fit. In fact - what Tw1 said in general - I could get behind all of that.